DAN HICKEY

My colleague Jaron turned me on to Columbia’s idea...

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:35:38 -0400

My colleague Jaron turned me on to Columbia’s idea crowdsourcing tool: What to Fix (WTF) Columbia. Name jokes aside, It’s a novel implementation of a product offered by a company called IdeaScale. (People in the tech world will immediately recognize it as similar to feature request software like Dropbox’s Votebox.) Basically, the Columbia community can vote ideas generated by their members up or down, like Reddit. Some participants just raise issues, others offer solutions.

Columbia doesn’t appear to have a “campaign” (tag) for libraries, but a quick search shows that this hasn’t stopped patrons from submitting library-centric suggestions under other tags. I don’t think it would make much sense for a library-only implementation, but as a total quality management-esque push across a university I think library participation is great!

Why do I think this is so brilliant?

It’s public.
It encourages consensus based on merit.
It holds us accountable to our user communities.
It’s the suggestion box for the 21st century.

It would be fascinating to know if this particular effort will be a success.

"Privacy Breach on Bloomberg’s Data Terminals"

Sat, 11 May 2013 08:57:00 -0400

“A shudder went through Wall Street on Friday after the revelation that Bloomberg News reporters had extracted subscribers’ private information through the company’s ubiquitous data terminals to break news. […]

Bloomberg said the functions that allowed journalists to monitor subscribers were a mistake and were promptly disabled after Goldman Sachs complained that a Bloomberg reporter had, while inquiring about a partner’s employment status, pointed out that the partner had not logged onto his Bloomberg terminal lately.”

Scandal!

Read the rest at New York Times.

Cornell’s Department of Psychology has a collection of...

Tue, 07 May 2013 16:11:00 -0400

Cornell’s Department of Psychology has a collection of human brains and the name, quite simply, slays me: The Wilder Brain Collection. Not only is it wild, but it brings to mind Young Frankenstein’s Gene Wilder and the brain hijinks in that film. The brains above are on display in Uris Hall, on the second floor.

Whose brains are in the collection? Well…

The brain collection houses the brain of John Rulloff, a notorious murderer born in 1819 and the namesake of Rulloff’s bar and grill in Collegetown, as well as the brain of Burt Wilder, the originator of the collection.

The collection also serves as a repository for the remains of the famous Cornell pumpkin, although it’s no longer alongside Rulloff’s brain in the second floor display.

Photo 1: Wilder Brain Collection display in Uris Hall. Photo 2: Rulloff’s brain.

Quote via Cornell Facts entry about Uris Hall.

Are you Cascading Into Librarianship?

Sun, 05 May 2013 10:31:34 -0400

The most recent episode of the Freakonomics podcast (“It’s Crowded at the Top”) discusses how unemployment has forced highly educated individuals who can’t find jobs in their field into professions that don’t require as much education or expertise. They begin with the example of the college grad who ends up as a barista, but then explode the cliché by discussing how this can have beneficial side effects. For example, many highly educated people are being rerouted into teaching. Teach for America has had a record number of applicants.

I think we already know, anecdotally, that information professions are popular with people who are transitioning to a career that better matches their disposition. However, we should also think of this as an opportunity to engage individuals with skills or expertise that could fill critical gaps in our teams, but who, in a different economic environment, would otherwise be difficult to hire or retain.

For example, many job listings require an ALA-accredited MLIS or its equivalent in theory or practice. I think we need to push that boundary, and identify related skill sets that can then be augmented by library coaching/continuing education.

So for your next library position, do you need a librarian, or do you need a project manager who can work in a library environment? Do you need a metadata librarian, or a computer scientist/programmer who can apply those skills to our records/systems? Do you need an instruction librarian, or do you need an instructional designer who can teach while also transforming your unit’s approach to teaching? Do we need a scholarly communications librarian, or someone who’s worked in publishing and can get Open Journal Software up, running, and sustainable?

It’s time to explode the MLIS echo chamber we’ve created and infuse our libraries with varied skill sets. Doing so doesn’t mean that traditional library roles aren’t important or valued, it means that we need a diversity of skill and disciplinary expertise to best serve our user populations and support top-level library goals.

A video for One: Number 31, 1950, part of the Jackson Pollock...

Sun, 05 May 2013 09:56:12 -0400

A video for One: Number 31, 1950, part of the Jackson Pollock conservation project at MoMA. A very compelling example: previous restoration (overpainting) covers cracking, a photo from 1962 confirms the change, the chemistry that differentiates the original and added paints, and finally the process of the conservators removing the heavy-handed restoration work. Fascinating!

From the library suggestion box—artist unknown. Can you...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 08:19:13 -0400

From the library suggestion box—artist unknown. Can you tell that Friday is the last day of classes?

My sister’s Jackson Pollock conservation project at MoMA...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 08:52:00 -0400

My sister’s Jackson Pollock conservation project at MoMA continues. This week, examining the painting to illuminate the artist’s process. What amazed me was how many foreign objects have been suspended in Pollock’s paint. (Jen pointed out a key in one painting, for example, the last time I toured her lab.)

A housefly drenched in paint. (Han Solo-trapped-in-carbonite-style!)
Studio woodchips floating on the surface.
A bottle cap, to the upper left of center.

You can find more photos at the link below, and many of my sister’s other posts here.

Edit: Now updated with arrows thanks to feedback!

Via MoMA’s Jackson Pollock Conservation Project: Insight into the Artist’s Process.

The red-tailed hawk’s clutch of eggs just hatched! You can...

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:57:00 -0400

The red-tailed hawk’s clutch of eggs just hatched! You can see the little buggers here (if their majestic parents aren’t keeping them warm).

Screenshot courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s live webcam.

State of the art high-density, long-term, climate-controlled...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:02:00 -0400

State of the art high-density, long-term, climate-controlled storage for library collections at the Cornell University Library Annex. (Unique materials with artifactual value are held at the Kroch Library.)

Photo 1: The first module of the annex facility, built in 1978. It’s three stories high, but doesn’t have many of the efficiencies of the other modules.

Photo 2: One of the more recent additions—30 feet high. Daredevil library staff retrieve materials using basket cranes. (Just kidding! They don’t need to be daredevils. The cherry pickers are actually very safe.)

Photo 3: Collections (books, maps, newspapers, archival documents, microforms, &tc) are organized by size, not subject area, for space efficiency. Barcoding and an inventory system makes retrieval quick and simple.

Misty vista taken from McGraw Tower after a chimes concert.

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 11:40:59 -0400

Misty vista taken from McGraw Tower after a chimes concert.

Kudos to the architecture students for their imaginative...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:05:00 -0400

Kudos to the architecture students for their imaginative “mock burning” of the geodesic dragon at the end of today’s Dragon Day parade. Great fun!

View from my office: Revelers sporting green body paint during...

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 10:58:00 -0400

View from my office: Revelers sporting green body paint during “Green Streak 2013”. This Friday is Dragon Day (history here, Facebook event here).

Brrr!

Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:21:40 -0500

Brrr!

This espresso bar to be located near Grand Central Station in...

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 16:01:00 -0500

This espresso bar to be located near Grand Central Station in New York was designed by New York studio Nemaworkshop to resemble a library turned on its side. […]

Called D’espresso, the interior has been rotated 90 degrees so that one wall features herringbone-pattern wooden flooring while the opposite wall will have pendent lights protruding horizontally.

Third places converge, with a twist.

Library-themed café photos and quote via dezeen.

IST & Business Liaison Librarian (Penn State)

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 11:31:21 -0500

IST & Business Liaison Librarian (Penn State):

The job I just transitioned out of at Penn State has been posted. If you want to work with a fantastic set of business, economics, and science librarians in a large research institution, the opportunities don’t get much better than this! From the job description: “Entry-level or early career librarians are encouraged to apply.”

unypl: She’s reading “Jitterbug Perfume,” by Tom Robbins....

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 13:15:00 -0500

unypl:

She’s reading “Jitterbug Perfume,” by Tom Robbins. He’s reading “Memoirs of a Geisha,” by Arthur Golden

Jitterbug Perfume: Borrow I Read

Memoirs of a Geisha: Borrow I Read

Trendy novelty blogs don’t usually catch my eye, but this photo blog (Underground New York Public Library) about what NYC straphangers read piqued my interest. Sadly, there seems to be a dearth of nonfiction on the train.

Photo and quote via Underground New York Public Library.

”[…] we can’t let legacy business models try...

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:54:00 -0500

”[…] we can’t let legacy business models try to shut down progress simply because it’s not convenient for them.”

- Jared Polis in the most recent episode of Decode DC. Fantastic listen, as always.

Image and quote via Decode DC.

Lawrence Lessig’s post about Aaron Swartz’s untimely...

Sun, 13 Jan 2013 11:53:00 -0500

Lawrence Lessig’s post about Aaron Swartz’s untimely death is required reading, especially for librarians and information professionals. I’d encourage those who already have preconceived notions to take a step back, gather more information, and consider the human aspect of what happened.

PDFs and metadata just aren’t worth it.

Photo via Sage Ross on Flickr.

It seems the closer my sister, Jennifer, gets to Pollock’s...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 13:33:00 -0500

It seems the closer my sister, Jennifer, gets to Pollock’s One the more beautiful it appears!

Photos via MoMA’s Jackson Pollock Conservation Project: Looking Closely at One: Number 31, 1950.

Via MoMA’s Jackson Pollock Conservation Project—An Ounce of...

Sun, 06 Jan 2013 15:24:00 -0500

Via MoMA’s Jackson Pollock Conservation Project—An Ounce of Prevention…