Idaho Commission for Libraries

I found this kind of interesting, perhaps you will too. If not, sorry for the extra clutter.

[Editor's Note: Full text of article removed. Please visit Reuters.com for the article: FCC slaps Comcast, fuels network neutrality hopes]

I had no idea we had a site and we could have our own blogs too! I don't really know what to write about here, I always thought blogs were kind of weird, I mean who wants to read my babbling anyway ya know? Lol

Hello there, and welcome! Thanks for the opportunity to join your blogging community. I look forward to reading and contributing.

Here is an article recently published on the Red Herring site (from the April 10th print issue) — The Future of the Internet: in a decade, the Net will dig deeper into our lives*.

Paul Dirac shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger in 1933 for his work in the mathematics of quantum mechanics. No, I’m not going to bore you with the math and I’ll try to keep this simple (so that I understand it too).

After the discovery of the positron in 1932 (confirming Dirac’s prediction in 1928), Dirac postulated (among many other things) that positrons are noticed because they are the ABSENCE of an electron. This can be compared to a fish, which doesn’t notice the water but does notice the bubbles (the absence of water).

We live in a sea of information and, like the fish, don’t notice it (and like the fish we use it without noticing it). We take notice of information only 1) in its absence and 2) when it disagrees with our preconceptions.

Read this post from A Wandering Eyre. Jane talks of her Freshman Comp class learning to use the library. Asked to come up with synonyms for “technology,” they surprised her:

“These students, about 8 years younger than myself, think of what they do with technology as opposed to the object of technology. Their attitudes are completely different than what I expected.”

When I returned to work, there was this e-mail waiting for me. It seems to be related just to library architecture, but ends up talking about the future of libraries. I enjoyed the article, and thought you might, too… Beth Hill, U of I, Moscow

THE OBSERVER
Architect of learning
The reinvention of the college library

By Sam Allis, Globe Columnist | July 31, 2005

Good architects are a treat to talk to because they speak the language of
design — a tongue we rarely hear. Developers and contractors traffic in
their own argot and, as a general rule, pursue the vocabulary of design with
the fluency of a Serbian speaking Sanskrit.

When I got home from Boise last night, I checked my email and found a message about an interesting post on what constitutes a library at the blog Sivacracy.net :

“The Madisonian Take on Libraries”
http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/001875.html

There are some very interesting ideas noted there — gives us more food for thought to add to our discussions at the Think Tank.

Enjoy.

Samantha

We as librarians — regardless of our type of library — hold knowledge in trust. Library school (at least mine!) said that we exist to meet the educational, recreational, and informational needs of our users. To do this, we assume a hubris that ranks right up there with the best in Greek tragedy: we confront and attempt to organize for use all human knowledge.
…………

Information is abundant; wisdom is rare. Should we be attempting to provide keys to wisdom as well as information?
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Video on demand is one of the “coming things.” Do you supposed that a “library on demand” is also possible?
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This will be my last attempt at blogging before the conference. I realize I missed the boat by not responding regularly to what others had to say like Cayce does with Parkaboy in William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition. But, I do look forward to meeting all the characters in our drama face-to-face.

I also finished The Age of Spiritual Machines, Good to Great and I’m working on Tomorrow Now along with many other documents and those in OCLC’s 2003 Environmental Scan. I bounced his writing about genetics off on an expert in the industry and had an enlightening conversation. It is hard to believe we will actually meet this author. It is an incredible opportunity.