Is it information(s) yet?

Posted by on February 9, 2012 No comments

Geoffrey Nunberg is giving the keynote at the iConf 2012 conference in Toronto and is offering a superb historical and linguistic overview of the term ‘information’.  Who knew that the data-information-wisdom progression was such an old saw, to use his …

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The true cost of knowledge: Elsevier boycott grows

Posted by on February 1, 2012 No comments

A campaign organized under The Cost of Knowledge banner has thousands of scholars agreeing to boycott Elsevier publications by refusing to submit or to review articles for any of their journals. Since Jan 21, when Tim Gowers at Cambridge University …

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Accreditation and lip service

Posted by on January 27, 2012 No comments

“In the drive of an occupation toward professional status a substantial amount of attention is devoted to education and the establishment of professional schools, and accrediting bodies are created to watch over standards of educational performance. Too frequently these standards …

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ALISE 2012 done and dusted

Posted by on January 23, 2012 No comments

I spent the week in Dallas at the ALISE conference which I co-chaired with the irrepressible Toni Carbo this year. Despite what people might tell you, chairing takes its toll but I was pleased with the results. I led the portfolio …

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Aesthetics no match for logistics: experiencing a phone as a system

Posted by on November 18, 2011 No comments

Hard to know if Steve Jobs ever experienced customer service from AT&T but if he did, one imagines he got more out of them than the rest of us. In trying to activate my new iPhone 4s I received the …

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Ninja librarians own the intelligence world

Posted by on November 9, 2011 No comments

NPR ran a piece this week with Kimberly Dozier, intelligence correspondent for the AP,  talking about the use of social media to gather open source information for intelligence. As Dozier notes, most of these professionals have ‘masters of librarian science’ …

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Employment prospects by major

Posted by on November 9, 2011 No comments

The Wall St Journal published a new analysis of employment rates, median salaries and popularity of multiple majors which makes for interesting reading. If you want the best pay, try Petroleum Engineering. If you want to ensure you get a …

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Melting those metatheoretical boundaries

Posted by on November 3, 2011 No comments

I enjoyed participating in the Metatheoretical Snowmen panel at ASIST 2011 in New Orleans organized excellently by Jenna Hartel. My role was to listen to the five minute presentations of others and then to react. The basic idea is that …

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New book series on Information

Posted by on September 16, 2011 No comments

It’s been a busy summer requiring lots of work other than blogging (!) but I am pleased to announce that I’ve reached an agreement with UT Press to edit a new book series on Information. Here’s the official blurb, I’ll …

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An information-reich account of the current economy

Posted by on June 17, 2011 3 comments

The economy in 2 mins and a few diagrams   Richard Reich connects the dots. The argument is persuasive but it’s the calm simplicity of the delivery that attracts here, the simple marriage of clear language and enhancing figures. It …

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