Re: cover image and amazon with a Friday :)

From: john g marr <jmarr_at_nyob>
Date: Fri, 25 May 2012 12:09:29 -0600
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
On Fri, 25 May 2012, James Weinheimer wrote:

> "The Use of Eye-Tracking to Evaluate the Effects of Format..." by 
> Michael Prasse

  Can't wait for that to come to my local TV ...

> too difficult to purchase books online

  Compared to what? Crossing the street?

> The world, and we ourselves, really are changing that fast.

  I'll make my Point again-- we pay far too much attention to the changes 
and far too little to the potential consequence and the changers 
themselves (and their motivations or compulsions). See this article:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/york-senate-bill-seeks-end-anonymous-internet-posting-162549128.html

> there is a certain commercial aspect that seems to be
> creeping in.

  Everywhere: education, policing, social media, the legal system, the 
"free" Internet itself, you name it-- make a list. And it's not because 
"privatization" is simply more efficient. Wealth is really just a symbol 
of power, and the corporate state a symbol of control. There's no mention 
of paranoia in this article: 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/bsl.925/abstract

> Do we just close our eyes to all of this?

  Pretend you are not Jewish and living in 1930s Germany, or not Black and 
living in 1960s Birmingham, or not Gay and living in 2012 North Carolina, 
or not college educated, or not a woman ...

> Should the catalog be a part of such a commercially crass situation when 
> it never would have been before?

  Should anything (see your lists above)?
>
> I really do not know what I think about this.

  Think about the ca. 40% (and increasing) of the American population that 
suffers from low IQ or will not even be trained in how to think (partly 
thanks to prioritizing "job skills" and skills testing in education).

> I don't want to be called a Luddite

  Aw, com'on-- it's just a word that vampire robots can use against you. 
Think about the vampire robots instead. And fear as a motivating factor.

> I [don't] want to let searchers of the catalog be more exploited than 
> they are already.

  That's our job!-- when in-house...

Cheers!

jgm

  John G. Marr
  Cataloger
  CDS, UL
  Univ. of New Mexico
  Albuquerque, NM 87131
  jmarr_at_unm.edu
  jmarr_at_flash.net


     **There are only 2 kinds of thinking: "out of the box" and "outside
the box."

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Received on Fri May 25 2012 - 14:16:41 EDT