From a 1963 book on academic librarians:

“… the happy librarian is one who has all the books in the library catalog neatly shelved and dusted. He is pictured as a heavily armed miser blocking the only entrance to the stacks.”

p. 12 - Lyle, G. R. (1963). The president, the professor, and the college library. New York: H.W. Wilson Company.

Unfortunately, I don’t opinions in the academic community have changed very much since then.

So Amazon’s Kindle has been accused in the past of not being very vision-impaired friendly, but steps have been made in that direction with text-to-speech menus and improvement in screen clarity and available text sizes and fonts. In addition the Kindle has physical buttons for the keyboard and navigation. What do people think about the new nook in this regard?

Umm, IMDB… I think you have the wrong image here. #imdbfail

Ahh, the fun items you encounter while researching.  Currently reading through an article from the Journal of Organizational Management that starts with examining accounts of the Tiananmen Square “Tank Man” to an analysis of storytelling techniques and ultimately examining the turnaround of the Sears company in the 1990s.  In the end, I will connect this to my paper on organizational and change management in academic libraries.

For those interested, here is the citation for the article:

Collins, D. & Rainwater, K. (2005). Managing change at Sears: A sideways look at a tale of corporate transformation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18(1), 16-30.

Wells, A. (2007). A prototype twenty-first century university library: A case study of change at the University of New South Wales Library. Library Management, 28(8/9), 450-459.

Being a lifelong tea drinker (I’ve never drank coffee) I like seeing some of the comparisons between the two beverages.  I have some serious problems with this infographic though.

Where to start?  How about with the layout.  If you’re going to be comparing two things in an infographic, it would be really nice if you were consistent with which side you’re putting the two items.  First we have coffee on the left and the tea on the right in the sales graph, but they’re switched with the graphics showing sales numbers?  This flip-flopping of sides continues as you read through the infographic. It just feels sloppy and confusing.

Next I have an issue with the sales numbers, they seem too low. It’s almost as if the designer missed the x1000 or something.  I mean only 550,000 GBP of tea sold in 2007 in the UK?

Next up, the plus/minus facts for health.  Ok, so “Studies have shown that Green Tea reduces the risk of esophageal cancer in women by 60%” and “Drinking tea too hot increases the risk of esophageal cancer” seem sort of contradictory. It is possible that both facts are true, but would the risk reduction for women outweigh the risk increase for drinking it too hot?  And what is too hot?

Ok, caffeine graphs.  Side-by-side graphs are always a problem in infographics, because the designers tend to ignore the scales.  Looking at these graphs quickly, it almost looks like black tea has as much caffeine as brewed coffee, until you look at the increments on the scale.  An infographic is supposed to present information in a form that is quick to read and analyze, so please use the same scales on your graphs for easy visual comparison!

Oh look, we’ve switched which sides coffee and tea are on again at the bottom!

Also, get an editor. Capitalization is inconsistent throughout the entire thing.

So once again progress in digital technology is being pooh-poohed by the music industry.  It struck me, what if 10 years ago, instead of using their financial and legal muscle to try and preserve a dying business model (namely CDs), the recording companies had instead of developed their own digital stores and online music lockers?  Aside from generally faster internet speeds, and cheaper storage, the technology for this really is not new.  We would not be talking about Apple, Google, or Amazon in these circles.

I say that the recording industry should stop struggling against this, and start looking at their own houses and maybe producing good music again (Rebecca Black got a recording deal?).  If they kill the burgeoning data lockers, the people are just going to take the technology and go underground.  Thinking of that now, I’m sure there are already services like these under the radar catering to the audience that has already moved on to Bit Torrent for their content acquisition.

Publishers, keep an eye on this, and learn the lessons. You guys are next.

I wonder if this decision might have some impact on eBooks, especially regarding backlist titles where there is no clear stipulation in contracts about digital content.  This raises a specter of the arguments that were thrown about when Andrew Wylie attempted to circumvent the publishers with his special editions.  What are the rights of authors or their estates when it comes to eBooks and how should they be compensated, if there is nothing in the contract?