Library Juice 5:32 - October 17, 2002
Contents:
- Secretary of State Colin Powell on reference materials
- "Me, Mom, Microsoft, and the Library of Congress"
- The California Federation of Labor on the Freedom to Read, 1958
- Re: Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries?
- New Issue of Information Research: "Knowledge Management"
- Thomas Hennen: "Invest in tommorow, invest in libraries"
- The October 2002 issue of First Monday
- Links!
Quote for the week:
"This is an area into which fwe media critics have delved: a thorough
content analysis of the major news outlets on the web. One of the reasons
web content isn't adequately examined is that so much of it no longer
exists. Due to the ephemeral nature of the medium, web content often
disappears into a black hole. For example, I could easily look at a
ten-year period in the history of newspapers (catalogued and stored in
libraries, they become part of the historical record) and assess the
content. But if I wanted to pull together a book of Internet news blunders,
and I wanted to include that "NATO Plane Downed" headline, it would be
impossible. There's little chance that Fox still has digital or hard copy.
At Fox, I was told, 'Get the story up fast. If it's wrong, pull it off the
server and destroy it. No one will ever know the difference.' I can't even
find a single article I wrote during my Fox tenure. And unless libraries
get in the business of documenting every version of every story ever posted
on every major Internet news site, we won't have any 'Dewey Wins' headlines
in the future - a huge blow for scholarship."Tatiana Siegel, in her review of John Motavalli's _Bamboozled at the
Revolution: How Big Media Lost Billions in the Battle for the Internet_
(Viking, 2002), in The Nation, October 7, 2002, p.28.
Homepage of the week: Lynn Gardner
http://sophia.and.org________________________________________________________________________top
1. Secretary of State Colin Powell on reference materials
[ALACOUN:8080] Secretary Powell's Remarks
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2002 14:59:40 -0400
From: "Needham,George" <needhamg[at]oclc.org>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: needhamg[at]oclc.orgDear colleagues,
This was brought to my attention by a co-worker here this
morning.I checked the cite (included) and it's a legitimate
document from the Secretary of State's office.Perhaps this is why our foreign policy sometimes seems
so disjointed, hard to follow, and lacking in relevance or
context.From Secretary of State Colin Powell's remarks to the
President's Council of Advisers on Science and Technology
(PCAST) on Sept 30."Let's get it to the point short of being improper where
people want to go see what's on the State Department website
every morning."And we're trying to mix it up. We're trying to use this as
a powerful tool. I told my staff: 'I no longer have any
encyclopedias, any dictionaries, or any reference materials
anywhere in my office, whatsoever, I don't need them. I've
stopped using all reference materials because you don't need
it. All you need is a search engine."http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2002/13826.htm
George Needham
Councilor at Large
________________________________________________________________________top
2. "Me, Mom, Microsoft, and the Library of Congress"
by
Fredric Alan Maxwell (fredricmaxwell[at]hotmail.com)
No rights reserved -- copy at will, with byline
[Editor's note: I learned of Frederic Alan Maxwell from a friend and asked
him to write an autobiographical piece for Library Juice. Here it is...]After sixteen years of library activism -- having library pieces
published in The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Harper's, thrice
testifying before Congress, serving jail time for civil disobedience
actions at out national Library of Congress, even being profiled by The
New Yorker for my "criminality" -- I'm finally adding my first book to our
libraries this month, when Morrow/HarperCollins publishes my unauthorized
biography of Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, Bad Boy Ballmer (ISBN
0-06-621014-3). Not only do I do what I think every author should do --
acknowledge the libraries and librarians who helped me research the text
(in my case, over fifteen), but I dedicate the book, in part, to my late
librarian mom.As you know, America created public libraries, and out temples of
knowledge are consistently rated as the number one service provided by our
various governments. As you also well know, politicians who curtail
library service are almost uniformly not re-elected, but some still try.
My library activism began in 1986 when a group of the aforementioned
politicians, the people who run our national Library of Congress,
eliminated most evening and all Sunday hours for the first time in 88
years of public access. Angered at such illiberalism, I helped lead a
protest by which over 200 patrons simply continued to study when the new
hours supposedly went into effect. This worked well on the first two days
but on the third day, I and 18 others were arrested and began an empirical
study of our criminal justice system. I penned a letter from the DC jail,
which Ben Bradlee at The Washington Post ran, a My Turn column for
Newsweek ("Chipping Away At Civilization" 5/19/86), and testified before
Congress, saying that evening hours, which had survived two world wars,
numerous recessions, and the Great Depression, couldn't survive Ronald
Reagan. The hours were restored. (Through a series of simply-strange
events, detailed in my first-person "Eight Days In Hell" [Regardie's 8/89]
I ended up spending, yes, eight days in various DC jails for studying
after hours in a library -- being beat up, my hair being set on fire,
stuff like that.And I couldn't have any books.)Researching Bad Boy Ballmer I got to the point where Microsoft went
public with their stock -- their initial public offering (IPO) -- on March
13, 1986. That date seemed familiar to me. Sure enough, the day Microsoft
became a billion-dollar corporation was the same one I spent in jail for
my peaceful rebellion at the library. As I write on pages 114-115 of BBB,
"The week of March 10, 1986 was the most empowering, energizing, and yet
emasculating seven days in American information history. Taking advantage
of an IPO-friendly market, within several days, and with much fanfare and
phenomena; success, Wall Street voiced its opinion of the information
revolution when Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and Microsoft all went public
with their stocks. The same week, citing budget cuts, our national Library
of Congress, which was first housed on Wall Street when New York briefly
served as our nation's capital, and which protects Microsoft's copyrights,
eliminated most evening hours (though, after loud protests, the cuts were
later rescinded). In early March of 1986, the path of the information
revolution started to move, albeit slightly, from the printed page to
electrons and protons, and Microsoft would get the most attention."I continued my activism by twice more testifying before Congress. In
1992, when the idiots, excuse me, library officials again curtailed hours,
friends strongly suggested I not get arrested again. I instead channeled
my anger into written words, relaying testimony the Cleveland Plain Dealer
called "so poetic it was reprinted in Harper's magazine." ("Of Memories,
Mom, and The Library of Congress" 5/93). Then The New Yorker ran a piece
on me and my efforts ("Bookworm" 12/14/92). And when I discovered that, by
the LOC's own admission before Congress, some 800,000 of our books were
"absent" from our national library, I again testified, demanding an
investigation, leading Senator John McCain to author The Library of
Congress Book Preservation Action of 1994. (It didn't pass).Alas, no one save my very shallow pockets were financing these efforts
and I had to concentrate on making a living. I helped Tom Brazaitis and
Eleanor Clift with their book War Without Bloodshed: The Art of Politics
(Macmillan, 96) and Clarence Page with his Showing My Color
(HarperCollins, 96) all the while working on my own texts, getting back
what seemed to be a life-sized replica of the Washington Monument in
rejections. Then finally, finally, thanks to a suggestion by Kay Graham's
biographer Carol Felsenthal and my goddess of a literary agent, Marly
Rusoff, Morrow made an offer for the Ballmer bio, more money than I've
ever seen in one place at one time, which we rejected (!). We kindly
accepted their next offer. I worked like a word slave for the next year
and a half and, now, on September 17, my baby is showing up on shelves
worldwide Dr. Thomas Mann, the author of the Oxford Guide to Library
Research, says good things about the book, which you can read at:
rusoffagency.com. God is in his or her heaven, and the world is as it
should be. Except for one thing. My next book.As you know, one book does not support a writing career, and I'm hard
at work on my next one, on which I'll do a workmanlike job. But the book I
really want to write is one about my librarian mom. I didn't know her that
well, but people tell me she was beautiful -- her fellow students elected
her May Queen at the College of Wooster in Ohio. She then went on to get
two masters degrees in the 1950s, including her MLS. Yet mom had a very
troubled life, and she killed herself. The why is what I aim to discover.
And though she left me, and didn't have much to give, she gave me
something that pervades my heart and soul and mind enough that I dedicate
Bad Boy Ballmer in part to her. As you'll hopefully read, the dedication
is to Howard Roarke, my sister Carla, "And to my librarian mom, Mignonne
Marie Maxwell, who, when I was young and scared as only a kid can be, sat
down on my bed, took my little, trembling hand, held it, and in a soothing
voice said, "Family. F-A-M-I-L-Y. It means "Fredric Alan Maxwell I Love
You."If you don't have much to give your kid, and you're gonna leave him,
and you're gonna leave him with only one thing other than life, I can
think of no better gift.Thanks for keeping the books. I hope to write some more good ones.
Fredric Alan Maxwell P.O. Box 45111 Seattle, WA 98145-0111 206-781-5727
________________________________________________________________________top
3. The California Federation of Labor on the Freedom to Read, 1958
[In light of present day challenges to intellectual freedom, as well as
the increased relevance of unionism in the push for better pay, I thought
this statement on the Freedom to Read by the California Labor Federation
from their 1958 Convention (the first after the merger of the AFL and the CIO)
would make for interesting reading. So, here it is...]From First Proceedings of the California Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, 1958.
Resolutions Section. Pp. 188-189.Upholding the Freedom to Read.
Resolution No. 15 - Presented by Arthur C. Atwell, President, and Justin F.
McCarthy, Jr., Administrative Officer, Los Angeles Newspaper Guild, Local
69, American Newspaper Guild, AFL-CIO, CLC.The Freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is under attack.
Private groups and public authorities in various parts of the country are
working to remove books from sale, to censor textbooks, to label
"controversial" books, to distribute lists of "objectionable" books or
authors, and to purge libraries.These actions apparently rise from a view that our national tradition of
free expression is no longer valid, that censorship and suppression are
needed. We wish to assert the public interest in the preservation of the
freedom to read.We are deeply concerned about these attempts at suppression. Most such
attempts rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy; that
the ordinary citizen by exercising his critical judgment, will accept the
good and reject the bad.We trust Americans to recognize propaganda, and to reject obscenity. We do
not believe that they are prepared to sacrifice their heritage of a free
press in order to be "protected" against what others may think may be bad
for them. We believe they still favor free enterprise in ideas and
expression.We are aware, of course, that books are not alone in being subjected to
efforts at suppression. We are aware that a larger pattern of pressures
being brought against education, the press, films, radio and television.Freedom has given the United States the elasticity to endure strain.
Freedom keeps open the path of novel and creative solutions, and enables
change to come by choice.Now as always in our history, books are among our greatest instruments of
freedom. The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. Those
with faith in free men will stand on these constitutional guarantees of
essential rights and will exercise the responsibilities that accompany
these rights.We therefore affirm these propositions:
- It is in the public interest for publishers and librarians to make
available the widest diversity of views and expressions, including those
which are different from the majority.- Publishers and librarians do not need to endorse every idea or
presentation contained in the books they make available.- It is contrary to the public interest for publishers or librarians to
determine the acceptability of a book solely on the basis of the personal
history or political affiliations of the author.- The present laws dealing with obscenity and horror books should be
vigorously enforced.- It is not in the public interest to accept any book the prejudgment of a
printed label characterizing the book or author as subversive or
dangerous.- It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians, as the guardians
of the people's freedom to read, to contest encroachments upon that
freedom by individuals or groups seeking to impose their own standard or
tastes upon the community at large.- It is the responsibility of publishers and librarians to give full
meaning to the freedom to read by providing books that enrich the quality
of thought and expression. By exercise of this affirmative
responsibility, bookmen can demonstrate that the answer to a bad book is a
good one, the answer to a bad idea is a good one.We do not state these propositions in the comfortable belief that what
people read is unimportant. We believe, rather, that what people read is
deeply important; that ideas can be dangerous; but that the suppression of
ideas is fatal to a democratic society; now, therefore, be itResolved, That the first convention of the California Labor Federation,
AFL-CIO, (a) urges all of its locals to give full support to these
principles; (b) requests both major political parties, and all civic and
community organizations to adopt this statement of American policy; and
(c) commends the American Library Association and the American Book
Publishers Council for their support of these principles and policies of
traditional American Freedom.________________________________________________________________________top
4. Re: Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries?
At 03:35 PM 10/11/02 -0400, X wrote:
Somebody please enlighten me.
We get postings concerning the Friends of Cuban Libraries. Then we get
postings bashing the person who sent the pro-FoCL postings.My questions are:
- Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries?
- What is the real story behind the independent library movement?
- What is the true state of censorship in Cuba?
I don't want to hear this from the pro- or anti-FoCL partisans, RKent
and iskra[at]earthlink.net, since they both have agendas.
Thank you,X
-------------[SRRTAC-L:9087] Re: Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries?
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:45:09 -0700
From: Rory Litwin <rlitwin[at]earthlink.net>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Reply to: srrtac-l[at]ala.orgA long and well-balanced article on this appeared in Progressive Librarian
recently and is on the web:Librarians or Dissidents: Critics and Supporters of the Independent
Libraries in Cuba Project, by Stuart Hamiltonhttp://libr.org/PL/19-20_Hamilton.html
Mark is one of the editors of PL, but like any good librarian is perfectly
capable of supporting good work that he doesn't agree with 100%. Stuart
Hamilton's article has been cited by pro- and anti-Kent people alike. It
should answer your questions pretty thoroughly, I think.Rory Litwin
--------------
[SRRTAC-L:9093] Re: Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries?
Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 14:21:50 -0700
From: "Rhonda L. Neugebauer" <rhondan[at]citrus.ucr.edu>
To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l[at]ala.org>
Reply to: srrtac-l[at]ala.orgDear Dawn:
I'm so glad you asked who Robert Kent and the Friends of Cuban Libraries
are. I first found out about Robert Kent by email and listserv, just
like you. However, later when I announced I was going to Cuba in 1999 and
organizing a delegation of librarians to visit libraries, he personally
contacted me and put me on notice that when I went to Cuba I should follow
his agenda.Follow his agenda? I didn't even know him. I ignored his request. {Later
I found out that he works at New York Public Library and he claims to
carry out all this anti-Cuba work on his own time, with his own computer,
with his/members' money and without the support or approval of NYPL. I
doubt that this is true. He also states his group is independent, but we
found out he has taken money if not direction and direct support from
several anti-Castro groups, several of which are funded by our own
Congress--see Ann Sparanese's "Who are the Friends of Cuban Libraries"
report delivered to ALA.}In his repeated letters to me before my trip to Cuba, he condescendingly
insisted that I use or create forums to denounce Cuban librarians while I
was there. He informed me that he and his group co-founder, an avid
anti-Castro "businessman" who works for Radio Marti (i.e. the US
government), were neutral on US-Cuban relations, but "knew" that "all"
Cuban libraries have slanted collections with no diversity, balance or
perspective critical of the revolution, and that they would dupe me and
not let me know the truth. He claimed that there was widespread
repression against what he called "independent librarians" and that I
should "help" those "independent librarians" in some way........or else!Well, true to slanderous form, on the day I arrived in Cuba, Robert Kent
wrote a letter of denunciation to the ALA Committee on Professional Ethics
about my trip. He denounced me IN THE FUTURE TENSE for what I might NOT
do in Cuba (i.e. follow his agenda). Later, he denounced me to the Latin
American Studies Association in the same way and had his hateful,
erroneous, slanderous emails sent to dozens of listservs and groups. In
all his messages he implied that I had done something wrong for visiting
Cuba and not carrying out his agenda.Imagine that...by going to Cuba and NOT endorsing his agenda, which he
claims is based on support of the principles of intellectual freedom, he
tried to SHUT ME UP. He tried to slander me to professional associations
of which I am a member, and he tried to imply that I didn't even
understand what I saw, observed, heard and studied. He basically attacked
my right to speak, to disseminate my information and to put forth the
ideas and information I had that contradicted his own.I think what really perturbed him most was when Larry Oberg and I
interviewed several of those "independent librarians" and found out that
ALMOST EVERYTHING HE WRITES IS A LIE and that those "independent
librarians" he supports are not independent and are not librarians! He
misstates, accuses, exaggerates, insinuates and re-arranges the truth to
fit his purpose.Just a few examples from my visits:
His email about the library said, "books confiscated."
However, when I went there and asked, the "independent librarian" said: no
they were not.His email said, "library owner arrested."
The '"independent librarian" said: no he was not.His email said, "library owner" treated badly, harrased, intimidated and
punished for owning the library. The independent librarian said: the
"owner" left the country in 1994 (about 5 years before the library was
even "founded").And, I asked the "independent librarians" another questions--where do you
get your materials?Answer: From personnel from the US Interests Section; they deliver
packages and money to us on a monthly basis to our home.Do you receive money for your work, I asked? "Yes, payment for services
rendered," they replied. We receive money because we are in the
opposition to the government and we use these materials to organize
dissent among our neighbors. {Of course, when I asked around the
neighborhoods -- many of them -- NO ONE had any idea these libraries
existed! Owning up to working for the US government in a paid
capacity--that was shocking, but apparently true. Imagine that, in a
country that has a hostile embargo around it supported by the US
government alone.}So, taken point by point, Robert Kent's emails were proven to be 100%
false. I think that is why Robert Kent and his few supporters have had to
attack my freedom of expression and intellectual freedom and me and Larry
Oberg personally--because we called his bluff. And, of course, later a
delegation from the ALA International Relations Committee found the exact
same thing that we did--that Kent's emails and reality of the situation
didn't match up.And his broad claims of support?
Kent claims Latin American/European and US governments support him (when
they don't), he claims Latin American intellectuals are members of his
group (when they are not), he claims to be non-partisan (when he is not),
he even claims he has a group of 100-200 (he said that at ALA, but only 3
people showed up to the debate in Jan. 2000!), he even claimed that a
formerly-imprisoned Chinese scholar supported his group (he withdrew his
support after the truth about FCL reached him).And, he claims victories when he doesn't have them! He tauts the IFLA
FAIFE report as a landmark "investigation." We happen to know that FAIFE,
did not do any independent investigation and that they talked ONLY to
Cuban "independent librarians" who were on the dole, the names of whom
were given to FAIFE by Robert Kent. We know that the FAIFE report reads,
in some places verbatim to the FCL press releases. It's as if the FAIFE
report was written by Robert Kent himself. Compare them and see! And,
last year, when the new Executive Director of IFLA and the Director of the
FAIFE office visited Cuba, they apologized to Cuban librarians for having
issued the report with unsubstantiated claims that merely repeated the
Robert Kent press releases. Does Robert Kent mention this? No.As for the neutrality of FCL: can you be neutral and take money from
Freedom House? Can you be neutral and carry cash to foster opposition to
the Cuban government? Can you be neutral and work for Radio Marti? Can
you be neutral and repeat your articles verbatim on your own website as
well as on the website of Cubanet? Cubanet doesn't claim to be neutral,
although it is a home for the tremendous volume of reporting done by
"independent journalists" (most of whom are also "independent
librarians"). Can you be neutral if Radio Marti or Cubanet or Robert Kent
buys you a fax machine, new telephone, copier, paper upon which to report
all the news that's fit to broadcast on those media? Can you report real
"news" when you are on the dole from a hostile foreign government intent
on overthrowing the revolution?Today his press release says Jimmy Carter is a member/supporter. I bet we
find out that is not the truth too!I urge you to look on the internet, in Library Juice Cuba Supplements and
Progressive Librarian for more information on this topic.And, even though we know Kent won't go away and even though he insists on
being a member of listservs and organizations that stand for everything he
opposes, like democracy and REAL intellectual freedom, we need to remind
people of who he is periodically. So, thanks, Dawn, for the opportunity
(although be prepared for the onslaught of refutations, slander and deceit
that I predict will be forthcoming from Kent's quarters within minutes of
the posting of this note). ;)Regards, Rhonda
PS: My next trip to Cuba will be in Spring 2003; please consider coming
with me (more later). And, if Robert Kent denounces you, slanders you or
writes a press release just about you, know that you are in good,
professional, ethical company!***************************************************************
Rhonda L. Neugebauer
Bibliographer, Latin American Studies/
Social Sciences and Humanities
University of California, RiversidePublisher: E-Resources for Latin American Studies
http://home.earthlink.net/~rhondaneu/eresources/eresources1.htmlCollection Development Dept.
Tomas Rivera Library
PO Box 5900
Riverside, CA 92517-5900
(909) 787-3703
(909) 787 3285 (FAX)
rhonda.neugebauer[at]ucr.edu or
rhondaneu[at]earthlink.net
________________________________________________________________________top
5. New Issue of Information Research: "Knowledge Management"
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 17:23:57 +0100
From: "TOM WILSON" <T.D.Wilson[at]sheffield.ac.uk>
To: t.d.wilson[at]sheffield.ac.ukDear all:
Volume 8 No 1 is now available. Check out
http://InformationR.net/ir/ - remember to hit "Reload" if you have
been using the journal recently.Here is the Editorial - even if you don't normally read the Editorial -
please read the first para. :-)Introduction
First, some Editorial news. I have established a discussion list for
Information Research, which I hope authors, readers and members
of the Editorial Board will make use of. If it fails to attract much
discussion over the course of Volume 8, I shall discontinue it.
However, I'll be using it for announcements about the journal, so if
you are interested, do join. The list is "IRDISCUSS
[at]jiscmail.ac.uk" and you can join by following the
instructions at the Web page:http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/IR-DISCUSS.html
The second Editorial matter is to announce some changes to the
Editorial structure of the journal. Originally, I anticipated that mirror
sites might be needed to speed access, but this does not seem to
have been necessary. Consequently, those who had previously
been designated as 'Regional Editors', will simply become
members of the Editorial Board, with the exception of Prof. Jose
Vicente Rodriquez, who remains responsible for the Luso-Hispanic
area, as we gradually build up a corpus of papers from that region,
and of Dr. Elena Maceviciute whose role in supporting the Book
Review section is recognized. As a result of swelling the Board's
numbers by recruiting former members of the Board of the Journal
of Documentation, we are also thanking some members who have
served their three years (probably temporarily!)This issue
This issue is intentionally provocative. We called for papers that
took a critical view of 'knowledge management', in the personal
belief that it is a conceptually empty buzz word. Naturally, not all of
the authors agree completely with this proposition. One or two
believe that, although 'knowledge' cannot be managed, the concept
is of practical value in organizations when applied to the
management of people or work processes, so as to encourage
information sharing. Others, like myself, believe that for academics
to embrace the concept and seek to give it some kind of credibility
in scientific discourse, is to deny the scholarly aim of critical
analysis.We begin the issue with an invited paper: I came across Frank
Miller's Web site for his company, Fernstar, when I was exploring
the concept of 'knowledge management' some two or three years
ago, and when I invited him to update one of the documents on his
site, I'm glad to say that he accepted. Frank takes the view that if
we talked about 'meaning' and 'message' the notion that
'knowledge' could be managed would disappear - I'm not sure that
would be true, but 'I=3D0 (information has no intrinsic meaning)
presents an interesting argument.France Bouthillier and Kathleen Shearer ask whether 'knowledge
management' is an emerging discipline or a new label for
'information management' noting the lack of clear distinction
between the two. They conclude that, '...although the concepts of
tacit and explicit knowledge, knowledge sharing and knowledge
technologies are often used, they are not clearly defined', but,
'Dismissing KM as simply a management fad could be a missed
opportunity to understand how knowledge is developed, gained and
used in organizations, and ultimately in society.'Next, Paul Hildreth and Chris Kimble suggest that '...the term
knowledge suffers from a high degree of what might be called
"terminological ambiguity" and often requires a host of adjectives to
make clear exactly in what sense it is being used.' They suggest
that knowledge cannot be captured, codified or stored and that the
only way forward is to acknowledge that knowledge resides in
people. They offer the idea of 'communities of practice' as one that
could genuinely help in the more effective utilization of personal
knowledge in organizations.Suliman Al-Hawamdeh, one of the two editors of this issue,
identifies the concept of 'tacit knowledge' as the main challenge for
any idea of 'knowledge management', which should focus on
people, as the repositories of knowledge, and the bearers of
'intellectual capital'.The title of my own paper, 'The nonsense of "knowledge
management", presents my views in a rather obvious fashion.
However, after analysing a cross-section of the literature,
consultancy Web sites, and the sites of MBA programmes, I can
find little to support the notion that anyone is doing anything that
amounts to managing 'knowledge'. Managing information, yes;
managing work practices, yes; but managing knowledge - no. And
using the term simply as a label does not make the mish-mash of
subjects covered by the label anything like a discipline.Finally, we have a Working Paper from Len Ponzi and Michael
Koenig, which reports on the first author's work towards the Ph.D.
The work is partly quantitative, exploring the literature of 'knowledge
management' and describing it in terms of prior work on
management fads and fashions. The authors conclude that, '...a
more detailed analysis, which the authors look forward to
conducting, needs to be undertaken to determine whether
knowledge management is more than an unusually broadshouldered
fad.' We shall look forward to reading about that more
detailed analysis in Information Research.In reviewing many papers for my own article, I came to the
conclusion that the root of the difficulty over 'knowledge
management' is semantic. This is why I sought to define
'information' and 'knowledge' in such a way that they can be seen
to be related, but separate. Many writers fail completely to define
what they mean by 'knowledge' and how it differs from 'information',
and, indeed, many define 'knowledge' in terms of 'information' =96 a
number of examples of this are given in my paper. The result is
semantic and conceptual confusion: not least for the practising
manager seeking to make sense of the research that is filtered into
the business magazines.What, then, to do about it? At the very least those in the academic
community and those in consultancy companies, who are
concerned about the vacuous nature of much of the so-called
research output, could band together in common agreement on
terminology. Frank Miller has suggested that we should talk about
'message' and 'meaning' instead of about 'information' and
'knowledge', but that may be a little too radical for some. Equally
radical is my suggestion that we ought to drop the word
'knowledge' from all work in this area and talk about 'information
management' or 'information resource management' or 'information
technology management' when that is what we mean, and use
'intellectual capital', 'intangible assets', 'organizational change',
'human resources management', etc., when we are using
'knowledge management' as a synonym for any of those things.
The truly useless thing is that different writers are using the same
term, 'knowledge management', to talk about all of these matters.Finally
It's curious (or perhaps not) and certainly frustrating for the Editor,
that so many people appear appear not to read the simple
instructions on preparing bibliographical references. If you are
contemplating submitting a paper to Information Research, please
read the instructions to authors, especially section 3.2I shall be augmenting these instructions to include how to give
references for Web pages and other electronic documents, when
time allows. The absolutely essential point here is to check that
the page exists at the time you submit the paper - they have a
tendency to disappear at a quite amazing rate.Another reminder for those contemplating a submision: the
evaluation form is available on the site.'Best sellers': an update on the most 'hit' papers on the site (as of
the morning of 12th October 2002), expanded backwards in time to
Volume 3 no. 4 (as far back as the counters go) - there have been
one or two changes since the last issue. And no-one has answered
my question - does the use of an issue of an electronic journal
decline less rapidly than a print journal?Vol. 3 No. 4 - Business use of the World Wide Web: a report on
further investigations, by Hooi-Im Ng, Ying Jie Pan, and T.D.
Wilson, Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield,
U.K. -
6,833 hits.
Vol. 4 No. 1 - The Internet as a learning tool: a preliminary study,
by Kate Garland, S.J. Anderson, and J.M. Noyes, University of
Bristol - 5,896 hits
Vol. 4 No. 2 - Student attitudes towards electronic information
resources, by Kathryn Ray & Joan Day, Department of Information
and Library Management, University of Northumbria at Newcastle,
UK - 8,631 hits
Vol. 4 No. 3 - Information in organisations: directions for information
management, by Joyce Kirk, University of Technology, Sydney,
Australia - 10,853 hits
Vol. 5 No. 1 - Experiencing information seeking and learning: a
study of the interaction between two phenomena, by Louise
Limberg, H=F6gskolan i Bor=E5s Bor=E5s, Sweden - 4,747 hits
Vol. 5 No. 2 - Textual and chemical information processing:
different domains but similar algorithms, by Peter Willett,
Department of Information Studies, University of Sheffield, UK. -
3,202 hits
Vol. 5 No. 3 - Recent trends in user studies: action research and
qualitative methods, T.D. Wilson, Department of Information
Studies, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK - 7,696 hits
Vol. 5 No. 4 - Information exchange in virtual communities: a
typology, by Gary Burnett, Florida State University, Tallahassee,
Florida, USA - 3,912 hits
Vol. 6 No. 1 - Designing internet research assignments: building a
framework for instructor collaboration., by David Ward and Sarah
Reisinger, University of Illinois, USA - 7,446 hits
Vol. 6 No. 2 - National Information Infrastructure and the realization
of Singapore IT2000 initiative,, by Cheryl Marie Cordeiro and
Suliman Al- Hawamdeh, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore - 2,714 hits
Vol. 6 No. 3 - Determining organizational information needs: the
Critical Success Factors approach, by Maija-Leena Huotari,
University of Tampere, Finland and T.D. Wilson, University of
Sheffield, U.K. - 5,261 hits
Vol. 6 No. 4 - Scholarly communication, scholarly publication and
the status of emerging formats, by Leah Halliday, Department of
Information Science, Loughborough University, UK - 1,128 hits
Vol. 7 No. 1 - Environmental scanning as information seeking and
organizational learning., by Chun Wei Choo, Faculty of Information
Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada - 4,524 hits
Vol 7 No. 2 - Critical realism and information systems research:
why bother with philosophy?, by Philip J. Dobson, School of
Management Information Systems, Edith Cowan University,
Churchlands, Western Australia - 1,241 hits
Vol 7 No. 3 - The role of motivation and risk behaviour in software
development success, by Kenneth R. Walsh and Helmut
Schneider, Information Systems and Decision Sciences
Department, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
USA - 969 hits
Vol 7 No. 4 - The Semantic Web: opportunities and challenges for
next- generation Web applications, by Shiyong Lu, Ming Dong and
Farshad Fotouhi, Department of Computer Science, Wayne State
University, Detroit, Michigan, USA - 692 hitsProfessor Tom Wilson Publisher/Editor-in-Chief
________________________________________________________________________top
6. Thomas Hennen: "Invest in tommorow, invest in libraries"
[ALACOUN:8017] FW: [PUBLIB] Invest in tommorow, invest in libraries (fwd)
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 09:14:53 -0700
From: "Karen G. Schneider" <kgs[at]bluehighways.com>
To: ALA Council List <alacoun[at]ala1.ala.org>
Reply to: <kgs[at]bluehighways.com>I thought this was a great post on the PUBLIB list.
----------------------------------------------
Karen G. Schneider kgs[at]lii.org http://lii.org
Director, Librarians' Index to the Internet
lii.org New This Week: http://lii.org/ntw
lii.org:Information You Can Trust!
----------------------------------------------Subject: Invest in tomorrow, invest in libraries
Greetings,
The Dow dropped below 8000 today, but if we had a similar national
library barometer, it would doubtless be reaching new heights.A recent article in the Sacramento Bee is most encouraging as most of us
approach budget time in this very difficult economy. It begins with
"Want to make librarians laugh? Ask whether patronage is down because so much
information is available on the Internet. Once they stop rolling on the
floor, you'll get your answer: No!" It goes on to extol the wonders of
rising public library use.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/4460123p-5480900c.htmlTwo national studies commissioned by ALA and released in March 2002 show
that Americans are using their libraries more than ever, and 91 percent
of adults believe public libraries will play an important role in the
future, despite all of the information available on the Internet. Waukesha
County Federated Library System recently replicated both studies locally and
found, not surprisingly very similar results. For the full ALA press release
see: http://www.ala.org/news/v8n5/studies.htmlThe ALA Press release notes that librarians have long believed that when
the economy goes down, public library use goes up. But no one has been able
to substantiate this belief with data - until now. The ALA contracted with
the University of Illinois Library Research Center (LRC) to study library
use over the last five years at the 25 U.S. public libraries serving
populations of 1 million or more. Using data from 18 of those large libraries,
the study found that circulation has increased significantly since March 2001,
when the National Bureau of Economic Research pegged the beginning of the
latest recession. Using statistical analysis, the LRC found that circulation
in March 2001 was 8.3 percent higher than would be expected from the trend
observed since January 1997. Following the events of September 11,
circulation in October 2001 exceeded the trend by 11.3 percent. For the
national study see:
http://www.ala.org/pio/presskits/nlw2002kit/krc_data.pdfWaukesha County replicated the national study using local county
statistics and came to the same conclusion - library use is counter cyclical.
The variations noted in the national study continued through July of this
year. For the Waukesha data see:
http://www.wcfls.lib.wi.us/Public%20Use%20and%20Economic%20Hard%20Times.pdfThe ALA library use survey found that adults are satisfied with their public
libraries (84 percent compared to 7 percent who were not satisfied). While
current public library spending per capita is $25, more than half of those
polled believe $26 to $100 per capita should be spent to support libraries.
KRC Research & Consulting conducted the "[at] your library(tm): Attitudes
Toward Public Libraries" study, which polled about 1,000 adult Americans in
a national random-sample telephone survey conducted March 8-11.
http://www.wcfls.lib.wi.us/ALALibraryUseData.pdfWaukesha County Federated Library System contracted with our local Extension
office to replicate that survey in June of this year. This poll included
500 Waukesha residents. For the report see:
http://www.wcfls.lib.wi.us/ExtensionSurveyJune2002.pdfIn Waukesha we found that:
Almost 45% of the respondents had used a library more than 11 times in the
last year compared to 25% nationally.Nearly 83% of Waukesha County residents were either extremely satisfied or
very satisfied with their public library. That compared to 60% in the nation.Nearly 88% of Waukesha County residents rated their library's use of tax funds
as good or excellent, almost exactly the same rate as is found nationally.Nearly 80% of those that responded in Waukesha County thought that $26
per capita or more was a proper amount of library taxes to pay. That
compared to 52% nationally.Almost 94% of Waukesha County residents rated the library staff as good or
excellent, compared to 85% nationally.In Waukesha County 95% of respondents believe that libraries will continue
to exist despite the Internet. That compares to 91% nationally.I commend ALA for embarking on both of these studies. The information was
extremely valuable for planning purposes and the survey methods were easily
replicable. Having national data to compare with was extremely helpful
during our recent planning committee deliberations. The public will want us
to continue to invest in tomorrow by investing in libraries. We just have to
assure that elected officials hear them.datcalmguy
Thomas J. Hennen Jr.
thennen[at]haplr-index.com
http://www.haplr-index.com
Voice: 262-886-1625
Fax: 262-886-5424
6014 Spring Street
Racine, WI 53406________________________________________________________________________top
7. The October 2002 issue of First Monday (volume 7, number 10)
is now available at http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/
-------
Table of Contents
Volume 7, Number 10 - October 7th 2002
Understanding the Privacy Space
by Benjamin D. Brunk
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/brunk/Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted
Passenger Screening System
by Samidh Chakrabarti and Aaron Strauss
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/chakrabarti/Hypertext Links: Whither Thou Goest, and Why
by Claire Harrison
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/harrison/Measuring Social Capital in a Networked Housing Estate
by Denise Meredyth, Liza Hopkins, Scott Ewing, and Julian Thomas
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/meredyth/Digital Representation: Racism on the World Wide Web
by Indhu Rajagopal with Nis Bojin
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/rajagopal/The Digital Divide or the Digital Connection: A U.S. Perspective
by Beverly P. Lynch
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/lynch/The Internet in India and China
by Larry Press, William Foster, Peter Wolcott, and William McHenry
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/press/Hacktivists or Cyberterrorists? The Changing Media Discourse on Hacking
by Sandor Vegh
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/vegh/Letter from San Francisco: The Internet Bookmobile
by Steve Cisler
http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue7_10/cisler/
________________________________________________________________________top
8. Links!
-----
New on Libr.org
-
Two articles from Vol. II, No. 2 (1977) of Midwestern Archivist:
A speech by Howard Zinn, "Secrecy, Archives, and the Public Interest"
http://www.libr.org/progarchs/documents/Zinn_Speech_MwA_1977.htmland "Archivists and Historians: The Times They Are A-Changin,"
by Patrick M. Quinn
http://www.libr.org/progarchs/documents/Quinn_Article_MwA_1977.html-
Many new Frankentoons
http://libr.org/frankentoons/home.html-
Collected Amusing Searches
http://libr.org/Juice/amusing.html-
Libr.org site statistics for the current month
Available by clicking a button on http://libr.org/-
Pictures of People Named Rory
http://libr.org/rory/rories.html-----
Google the Poet
http://www.buzztoolbox.com/google/goopoetry.shtmlGoogle as poetry critic:
http://www.kannibaal.nl/google.htmGoogle AdWords Poetry Happening
http://www.iterature.com/adwords/-----
Ishmael (if that is his real name) talks about Revolting Librarians Redux
and other topics near and dear, in Metafilterhttp://www.metafilter.com/mefi/20606
-----
"Critical Thinking and the Internet"
A teaching aid from the library at Wilfred Laurier University, in Waterloo, Ontariohttp://www.wlu.ca/library/critical/
-----
After the Supreme Court oral arguments in Eldred copyright term extension
act case:
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/supreme-court-eldred-oct02.htmlLarry Lessig on the Supreme Court steps:
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/larry-lessig-eldred-oct02.htmlInternet Archive bookmobile:
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/archive-bookmobile-oct02.html- Declan McCullagh
-----
"Marketing with Articles"
from the website of Strategic Net Solutions, an online PR firm
http://www.strategicnetsolutions.com/promotional_articles.htmThanks, Mom!
-----
Re: LISNews News
Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 18:27:20 -0400
From: Blake Carver <btcarver[at]lisnews.com>
To:Speaking of Ben being a goofball....
That Harry Potter story Ben did on April fools day is getting MAD hits now,
and some bad ass comments. Google has started indexing dynamic pages, and
that is like #5 in a search for "harry potter and the order of the
phoenix", 98 refferrals in the past 5 hours alone, just on this one search.The stats have been all screwy for the past few weeks (WAY high), I have a
feeling that (Google indexing our full stories now) is why. That (google)
and the post on Memepool seem to have done something to our numbers, close
to double what they used to be. I'm not sure if Google can find it's way to
all the past LISNews stories or not, but if it found it's way back to
April, I'll bet they are all in there.http://www.lisnews.com/article.php3?sid=20020401102145
-Blake Carver
-----
American Library Association/Allied Professional Association (ALA/APA)
http://www.ala.org/hrdr/ala_apa.htmlIncludes links to:
ALA/APA Transition Team Report to Council and Board of Directors
ALA/APA Transition Team Summary Background
American Library Association Tax Exempt Status
ALA/APA Q & A
ALA/APA Bylaws
Transition Team Committee Members
[from Don Wood]
-----
Anti-war resources from the Holt Labor Library
http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/anti-war.htmlfrom Shannon Shepard
-----
Plagiarism (detection) resource
http://www.web-miner.com/plagiarismfrom Bernie Sloan
-----
University of Illinois Current LIS Clips
http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/clips/from LII
-----
21st Century Literacies. (A new conceptual framework.)
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/21stcent/from LII
-----
Znet: Iraq Watch
http://www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/Iraq/Iraqcrisis.htmfrom LII
-----
NYPL Picture Collection Online
http://digital.nypl.org/mmpco{ Center for Arts and Culture Update ]
________________________________________________________________________top
L I B R A R Y J U I C E
| http://libr.org/Juice/
|
| Library Juice is supported by a voluntary subscription
| fee of $10 per year, variable based on ability and
| desire to pay. You may send a check payable in US funds
| to Rory Litwin, at 1821 'O' St. Apt. 9, Sacramento, CA 95814,
| or, alternatively, you may use PayPal, by going to:
| https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=rlitwin%40earthlink.net
|
| To subscribe, email majordomo[at]libr.org with the message
| "subscribe juice".
|
| To unsubscribe, email majordomo[at]libr.org with the message
| "unsubscribe juice".
|
| Other majordomo commands are available in the help file,
| which you can get by emailing majordomo[at]libr.org with the
| message "help".
|
| Original material and added value in Library Juice
| are dedicated to the public domain and may be copied
| freely with appropriate attribution; beyond that the
| publisher makes no guarantees. Library Juice is a
| free weekly publication edited and published by
| Rory Litwin. Original senders are credited wherever
| possible; opinions are theirs. If you are the author
| of some email in Library Juice which you want removed
| from the web, please write to me and I will remove it.
|
| Your comments and suggestions are welcome.
|
| Rory[at]libr.org