Educating the Luddite

Digital Space

2007-11-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

My conclusion of my evaluation of DSpace as a digital Institutional Repository:
The benefits of DSpace to an institution interested in open access publishing are many, but the success depends are promoting the repository to communities.

The Machine is Us/ing Us

2007-11-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

I can't seem to figure out how to post this video on my page.
I found the editing amazingly disorienting.

Web 2.0 in five minutes:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

(Can anyone give me a quick tutorial/post instructions on how to post this, please?)

In Conclusion

2007-10-18T11:45:00.001-07:00

When first reading Chad and Miller's "Do Libraries Matter? The Rise of Library 2.0" I totally bought into their presentation:

Yes! Libraries should adopt Web 2.0 applications and provide better services to a changing society. Yes! Libraries have still life in them, and are not just outdated repositories of musty old books. Yes! I will let Library 2.0 into my life as my own (soon to be) professional saviour.

But like most things, upon closer inspection I began to see the holes...

The intention of the authors and their advocation of a Library 2.0 model became suspect when looking for the sources to their claims of libraries inferiority to Internet-based services. And the possibility that they were using this white paper as a marketing tool to position Talis as a leader in the Library 2.0 model. And the emerging interest of private technology companies in libraries and their holdings (the same month Chad and Miller presented this paper, Google donated $3 million to the Library of Congress' World Digital Library project).

Though I found Chad and Miller's presentation useful in imagining a response to the challenges presented by Internet-based, I concluded that librarians must critically assess the Library 2.0 model (and all the external influences informing it), before adopting them into their library's services.

From The Couch Dialogues

2007-09-25T15:40:00.000-07:00

My friend Justin thought I might enjoy this, and I think my fellow FISers might as well. Penny Arcade!

http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/03

Binary Language

2007-09-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

In today's Management of Information Organizations lecture (FIS1230 section two), we were discussing/dissecting David McClelland's problematic statement:

Most people in this world, psychologically, can be divided into two groups. There is that minority which is challenged by opportunity and willing to work hard to achieve something, and the majority, which really does not care all that much… Psychologists have tried to penetrate the mystery of this curious dichotomy. Is the need to achieve (or the absence of it) an accident, is it hereditary, or is it the result of the environment? Is it a single, isolatable human motive or a combination of motives-- the desire for wealth, power, fame? Most important of all, is there some technique that could give this will to achieve to people, even whole societies, who do not have it now?

David McClelland, 1966 “That urge to achieve.” Cited in S&M, 2002, 329.

A fellow classmate (unfortunately I don't know his name at this time) countered with: "There are two types of people: those that believe that there are two types of people and those that don't."

I liked this statement enough to write it down in my notes and post it here.

More Information

2007-09-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

Please excuse me for my rudeness. It would seem that in my anxiety over launching my first blog, I failed to introduce myself.

My name is Caroline. I have always had the sneaking suspicion that I was names after Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", though my parents tell me they just "really liked the name".
I completed my undergrad at York University in English Literature (my interests being CanLit, PoMo and PoCo), but after graduation I worked for the Elizabeth Fry Society as a Residential Youth Counsellor (I am also interested in Human Services).

My interest in Information Studies began in 2005 when I met a woman named Vjollce (Albanian for "Violet"), who told wonderfully romantic stories of smuggling out restricted literature while she worked in the National Library during the totalitarian government of Enver Hoxha. Listening to her experiences, and reflecting on the current post911 climate surrounding information -think Orwell's 1984 - I was inspired to do more research. A little more than two years later I arrived at the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto.

What I exactly want to do with a MISt has yet to be revealed to me.

A Blank Slate

2007-09-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

This is the record of a technophobe's (re)education.

Maybe it is a mistake to label one's self a "technophobe" or a "Luddite" (one who resists technological changes) in an Information Technology course setting. However, I believe in being upfront with my shortcomings: I am (for the most part) technologically impaired. It is my hope that by the end of this semester, my brain with implode with all the fascinating information I will learn. Or at the very least feel a little more comfortable and knowledgeable in this digital age.