Fool's Gold Why The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library by Mark Y. Herring, McFarland and Company, North Carolina, c2007

Fool's Gold Why The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library by Mark Y. Herring, McFarland and Company, North Carolina, c2007

This book provides clear arguments to why the internet and also ebooks are no substitute for a physical library.

He argues against the uncluttered, unauthoritative, often inaccurate nature of the information made available on the internet. Mark Y. Herring abhors internet pornography, spam, the presence of hate sites, and plagiarism rampant on the web.

There are reminders that internet sites disappear quickly; a phenomenon called link rot and are not cited or footnoted like in books. There is an excellent set of footnotes at the back of the book with extensive, often ironic commentary.

Some of the most striking ideas were that Wikipedia is a secondary source; copyright has not been sorted by Google and the best electronic information is still in propietary databases.

I do not agree with some of his points,especially the ones on book, this book was written in 2007, so it was just before the advent of the Kindle and the expansion of many of the archives of free information on the web like wikimedia.

Also, his statements about the pure decline of reading because of the internet are starting to change. People have become much more aware of the decline in reading. This may be in part because of books like this. This is a link to the latest National Endowment for the Arts study
http://www.arts.gov/news/news09/ReadingonRise.html

This book was ironic and coherent; a strong statement against web evangelism. It gives solid arguments on why we should keep a physical library and not just turn everything over to the internet.

Mark Y. Herring, the author, is the Dean of Library Services at the Dacus Library, Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina. He has written extensively for Library Journal and other academic publications.

Daily Thoughts 5/25/2009

Daguerrotype of Emily Dickinson.

Daily Thoughts 5/25/2009

I just finished reading Escape From Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It is a sequel to Inferno. After finding the exit to hell in the last novel, Inferno, Allen Carpenter, a science fiction writer returns to hell to try and help some people escape. He believes that some people are redeemable.

This hell is the hell of Dante's Inferno. The whole novel is one of poetic justice. The authors, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle throw various modern day villains into hell, including Kenneth Lay, the people who watched the levees in hurricane Katrina, Anna Nicole Smith, and other sundry characters. I especially like the motorcycle riding preacher, Aimee in this story.

The novel is not scatological or prurient. It is primarily philosophical, ironic, and sometimes darkly funny. Allen Carpenter visits the different places in Dante's Inferno and attempts to rescue people. The best part of the novel is when he rescues Sylvia Plath from her eternal state as a tree. Sylvia Plath travels with him through the whole novel. There may be some philosophical points of contention, the novel will not be agreeable with everyone. I did enjoy reading it very much. It is clearly a fantasy novel. I hope they write another sequel featuring Allen Carpenter, Dante did write Purgatorio.

Happy Memorial Day. Today is Memorial Day in the United States. I watched the parade go by my house. They had the usual groups, the veterans associations, the fire, police, ambulance, boy scouts, girl scouts, the sports leagues, the mayor, and the local car club. The car club had a number of old Chevrolet Impala's, Fords, a few army trucks, and some sports cars. Remember those who fought for your country.

I read some more of Fool's Gold by Mark Y. Herring. In the last chapter, he was railing against the Paperless Society. I don't think paper will ever completely disappear. What I think is happening is that people are getting much greater control over what they will put on paper. It is very easy with all the reviews of books all over the web and in print magazines to get reviews of books. There is also another phenomenon that is happening; the ability to look inside the book or sample a book. Many publishers are giving away the first set of chapters for a book. Amazon has their look inside the book program, and Baen gives away the first several of their science fiction books.

I think this selectivity is fueling print on demand which is the fastest growing segment of the book publishing industry. This is an article from Library Journal on On Demand Books. http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6659232.html?industryid=47175

Daily Thoughts 5/24/2009

Richard Wright photographed by Carl von Vechten. Richard Wright wrote a book of Haiku called Haiku This Other World. As the restrictions on this collection expired in 1986, the Library of Congress believes this image is in the public domain However, the Carl Van Vechten estate has asked that use of Van Vechten's photographs "preserve the integrity" of his work, i.e, that photographs not be colorized or cropped, and that proper credit is given to the photographer.

Daily Thoughts 5/24/2009

I have been reading more of Fool's Gold by Mark Y. Herring. It is an entertaining book. I rather like some of his arguments. You pick up some of the common arguments against using the internet as a pure research tool. He reminds us that Google has a separate search engine for more scholarly articles http://www.google.scholar.com/ . Most pages with databases or deep repositories of knowledge are hidden from standard search engines. They reside in a place called the deep or invisible web. Complete Planet has a search engine specifically designed to find pages with databases built into them http://www.completeplanet.com/ Incy Wincy is another search engine which can reach into the invisible web http://www.incywincy.com/ .

As I read this book I am learning many arguments that will be useful in why we should keep a library and not just have everything put on the internet. There are many secondary uses that are not just about resisting change. Libraries are in an environment of budget cuts and have to be able to justify their existence.

Right now, I am reading the section on Google and digitization. Mark Y. Herring correctly states that the main benefit of digitization is increased access. The moment an item is put on a website in digital format it instantly becomes available to anyone who has a web connection. This will become a tremendous boon for all the classics of literature and all the works in the public domain. Suddenly they will become available all over the world. This is the real advantage of scanning, much more so than preservation. Because the information is public domain it also is public property to manipulate and build on. I look forward to seeing the creative use of this material.

I took a short break from reading serious material and tried out one of the previews on the Baen previews, In The Stormy Red Sky by David Drake. It is military space opera, part of the RCN (Royal Cinnabar Navy) series featuring Captain Leary and Adele Mundy. The story reminds me a little bit of the Master and Commander series of naval fiction written by Patrick O' Brian. There are seven free chapters. http://www.webscription.net/chapters/1416591591/1416591591.htm?blurb

Web Bits

If you go to Stanza the most popular free ereader produced by Lexcycle with over a million downloads for the Iphone, one of the main highlights is places to get ebooks. Many of these books are public domain or free. http://www.lexcycle.com/faq/where_to_get_books

This is also interesting. It is in its early stages. You should be able to get many public domain books available as print on demand. http://www.publicdomainreprints.org/

There is a corollary idea that goes with giving away free books on ereaders. This cannot be proven yet. If you give away an ebook by an author, you are likely to increase demand for their books that are in print. I might even say that if you give away a free ebook, the reader is going to look for more print books for free. Libraries are places with a lot of free material. I think the increase in the availability of free material in the public domain through the internet will increase library use.

Daily Thoughts 5/23/2009

Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was a British poet. She is known for her poem Goblin Market.

Daily Thoughts 5/23/2009

Harvey Pekar has a new graphic novel called The Beats A Graphic History. It is on the New York Times bestseller for graphic novels. I am looking forward to reading it soon.

I picked up two books I had on hold, Mind Over Ship by David Marusek a science fiction novel and Fool's Gold Why The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library by Mark Y. Herring.

I did a little bit of entering orders this morning in Baker and Taylor and filed some law looseleafs. It has been a fairly quiet day.

I also had some carrots and apple sauce instead of food from the snack machine. It is a first step.

I have started reading Fool's Gold by Mark Y. Herring. Mark Y. Herring is famous for writing the article, Ten Reasons The Internet Is No Substitute for a Library. http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/resources/selectedarticles/10reasonswhy.cfm I find his contrarian view quite refreshing.

I got my confirmation today for going to the Book Expo America next Friday, May 29. I also almost missed that the Museum of Comics and Cartoon Art Festival was on June 6 and June 7. This is very affordable, $10 for the day. It is almost entirely independent and small press comics. The show usually has some very interesting and offbeat work. Top Shelf, Fantagraphic, DC Vertigo, Oni Press, NBM, and other independents usually are there. The feeling is more arts oriented than than fandom. It feels like crafting for comics. There are usually people selling rubber stamps, t-shirts, small toys, mini-comics and similar things. http://www.moccany.org/