Some of the features in Eric Lease Morgan's "food for thought and
discussion" list (03/13/08) are included in Amazon's recently issued
appliance, Kindle. Amazon calls it a "reading device," not a catalogue.
For people who don't know Amazon's product, an interesting interview with
Jeff Bezos done by Charlie Rose of PBS appears at
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2007/11/19/1/a-conversation-with-amazon-com
-ceo-jeff-bezos. There are also many opinions of the Kindle online - pro
and con. (As an aside, perhaps Bezos' best remark was something about
"it's hard to improve on a book.")
I like to think that the thing that distinguishes librarians from
technology -- whether that technology resides in an appliance or on a
server -- is the librarians ability to select and recommend. Librarians
that provide support in highly technical scientific research areas, and
librarians who choose the right book for a particular 8 year old in a
particular community, provide the same service. Both jobs imply
considerable reliance on training and experience. Judgement becomes more
important than ever.
Is it possible that, even if the traditional controlled vocabulary is not
be widely used by people who ask librarians for help, it is needed by
librarians (more than ever)? Will it help them communicate within their
profession and help them summarize all the choices in ways they can
understand and manage?
Nancy Cochran
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric Lease Morgan <emorgan_at_ND.EDU>
> To: <NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU>
> Date: 3/13/2008 7:35:22 AM
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] food for thought and discussion
>
> When I think about the library "catalog" I think that it will contain
> more than just metadata about library materials but also the
> materials themeselves.
>
>
>
> Eric Lease Morgan
> Head, Digital Access and Information Architecture Department
> University Libraries of Notre Dame
>
Received on Thu Mar 13 2008 - 12:08:05 EDT