Happy Poem in Your Pocket Day!

“Library spaces in the knowledge society – knotting together global and local”

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

“Library spaces in the knowledge society – knotting together global and local”

View more presentations from bridgingworlds2008.

"Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill. I think that there is nothing, not even crime, more opposed to poetry, to philosophy, ay, to life itself than this incessant business."

Henry David Thoreau

In a time of seemingly unlimited information it is important to consider the benefits of a well organized piece of information such as a book. While the current debate rages about books disappearing or becoming nothing more than decorative pieces, its ability to convey information in a journey-like experience from front cover to back cover is difficult to digitally imitate. The experience garnered from reading a book remains as important today as it was for Thoreau.

"What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
Henry David Thoreau

The poster across from my desk reads "The library is the second defense of freedom. Reading is the first." whoot whoot

Lucy in the Sky with Servers?

Well folks Cloud Computing is where its at. From my preliminary analysis cloud computing refers to the use of off-site computing services accessed via the Internet. It can either be Software As A Service (SAAS)in which services like word processing, spreadsheets, picture editors, etc. are provided via a third party site. Hardware As A Service (HAAS) provides things like processing and storage services off-site. Interestingly after talking with an IT guy he reminded me of how a similar situation existed early on with dummy terminals connected to the room sized mammoth computers.

Libraries which do not have the manpower or space to manage burgeoning IT needs will benefit greatly from cloud computing. Services can be streamlined and comparable across libraries. However it will be important for those on the other end to have a good understanding of library values and function; hopefully employing MLIS and MKM graduates to ensure a good fit.

What will be telling is how Open Source services like those offered by Sun will compare to the Microsofts and IBMS of the cloud computing world. Open source is a great way to overcome the digital divide but only if it can offer the same quality services.

load it, check it, quit - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it, rip it,
drag and drop it, zip - unzip it