The connection between evolution and library science

Is there a connection?  I've been thinking about the possibility for probably the past year year now and reading chapter 10, "Life's Own Code" from Glieck's "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood" has suggested it to me.  (The following chapter -- "Into the Meme Pool" -- would have done it if I had been a little slower.)

In a way, libraries could be thought of as "anti-evolution".  Not "anti-evolutionary theory" but rather working against the force of evolution.  As it is in meme theory, ideas have a life of their own, literally not figuratively.  Concepts, plans, images, theories, etc. have "survivability" and replicate themselves and can be thought of as surviving, or better yet, thriving the more copies there are of them and the more they are replicating themselves.  The idea of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a particularly successful.  My grocery list from last week, not so much.  So what do libraries collect?  Ideas encased in containers, in a way, frozen in time.  The librarian's job is typically two-fold:  preservation and access.  We collection valuable resources to "save" them from the wilds of the information wilderness, but then also house them in such a way as to allow people to look at them and use them as they see fit.  The analogy to genetic evolution could be something like a zoo, animal conservation area, or even cryogenic lab.  We house books, journals, videos, etc. in a safe place, away from the damage that could be done to them while in the hands of the users, publishers, society in general.  And then we provide a controlled environment for the ideas inside those "idea-holders" to come out and play, or more accurately, reproduce.  When patrons read a journal article, skim through a textbook, watch a video, practice a piece of music, what they are doing is producing an inexact copy inside their mind, in effect, allowing the meme(s) to multiply and escape the confines of the collection.

So libraries are both anti-evolution, in that the organisms are stored away to ensure non-replication (or rather non-imperfect-replication) and pro-evolution, in that the organisms are allowed to reproduce, and in fact, the storage is done for the express purpose of continued and "appropriate" reproduction.

Our job as library workers is made easier and more difficult by the differences in reproduction of ideas as compared to living organisms.  Pure replication is easier of course, so that maintenance of content is made possible by the practice of perfect replication (e.g. LOCKSS).  On the other hand, any replication is easier so that more control and therefore more work is necessary to ensure that unwanted replication doesn't happen (e.g. loss of "old versions" that some shareholders such as publishers may consider valueless but may have value to others).  It's easier to "freeze" content in containers unlike cryogenically storing animals or plants (e.g. archiving old electronic journals).  On the other hand, extended storage without active involvement can involve loss of content as well (e.g. unsupported formats and/or technological failure).

What does this mean for librarians?  I'm not sure.  Perhaps thinking about the work of librarianship in this way can help us prepare for the inevitable disintegration and/or substantial alterative of content.  If we consider the ultimate goal of librarianship is to ensure a certain kind of "idea mutation" then it puts preservation and access assurance into a slightly difference light, doesn't it?

E-Resource licensing and negotiations

Summary of and reactions to "Licensing Electronic Resources and Contract Negotiation" by Ryan O. Weir, chapter four of "Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.

Things to remember when acquiring electronic resources

Summary of and reactions to "Acquiring Electronic Resources" by Denise Pan, chapter three of "Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.

How to survive the clash between e-resources and budgets

Summary of and reactions to "Coping with Economic Issues and a Paradign Shift in Collections" by Regina Koury, chapter two of "Managing Electronic Resources: a LITA Guide" edited by Ryan O. Weir.

ERM basics

Read chapter one of Managing Electronic Resources: A LITA Guide edited by Ryan O. Weir, "Learning the Basics of Electronic Resource Management" also by Ryan O. Weir.

Upon reading this chapter, I've tried to describe the actual life cycle (since, in my opinion, the life cycle(s) described in the chapter are a little out of date or at least impractical) and the key requirements in ERM in this way:

1. Consideration:  This will involve details such as overlap, license terms, possible access points/issues, pricing, potential audience, trials, quote requests, feedback (from librarians, staff and/or patrons), negotiation, and how the final decision will be made.  Regardless of the decision, ideally, all factors that went into the decision as well as the final result should be recorded.
2. Acquisition:  This will involve ordering, receiving, paying, documentation of resource and transaction details (e.g. quantity, rights, license terms, payment, etc.)
3. Processing & Maintenance (initial or renewal):  This will involve providing and ensuring access to the resource (e.g. activation, cataloguing, etc.) as well as checking on and updating all records kept about the resource and the deal(s) (including usage statistics).  This will also involve as-needed troubleshooting and updating of access and functionality of the resource.
4. Evaluation:  This will involve the compilation of details (most importantly usage and cost) about the resource and deal(s) on a regular basis, either at renewal time or simply after a set amount of time, to reconsider keeping the product in the collection.
5. Removal:  Although rarely mentioned in the literature (this chapter included), it is always suggested that, given the need for renewal evaluation, there is the possibility that the resource will NOT be renewed.  There are also resources that cease to exist, or change to such a degree that it is no longer the same resource.  For these cases, actions must be taken to remove the resource from the collection involving the catalog, records kept, website references, etc.

Some of these may be standardized or may be unique to the specific resource or subject.

There is also the issue of promotion of electronic resources.  I have not included it (although I was very close to doing so) since, although vital, it is not truly necessary and is often left undone or at least done by librarians or staff other than those involved in ERM.

Also mentioned in the chapter:

• Electronic resource management challenges and changes:  Mentioned only in very general terms with references to two other chapters.
• Personal organizational skills:  Certainly very important but I'm torn as to the real meaning of this information being included here.  In a way, all librarians need good time management skills and project management methods, etc.  One of the things that I enjoy about librarianship is also a disadvantage:  flexibility.  Librarians, regardless of actual role, can do a wide variety of things, and have a lot of leeway in judging what really counts as their responsibility.  This means that we can and do take responsibility for plenty of different functions, which makes it difficult to manage our workload.  On the other hand, if electronic resources librarians have more than their fair share of work, then this suggests an imbalance in our institutions and the need for restructuring.
• Education and professional development:  Good quick introduction to some of the key issues.  I like the list of conferences:  I tend to go to regional conferences but I really should attend ER&L and maybe even Charleston.  And I've been thinking about how to help build a network of other professionals as it suggests.

Some things I disagree with in this chapter:

• On page 7, it states, "Once the decision is made that the library wishes to acquire an electronic resource, the task of negotiating the licensing and pricing of the resource begins."  Although it does say that the library merely "wishes" to acquire the product before negotiation, too often we find ourselves in the situation of deciding to obtain the product and then negotiating terms.  Details such as pricing, access rights, support agreements, etc. are crucial to determining the value of the resource and therefore should go into the decision to acquire it or not.  This is why I've put negotiation into the consideration process.  Initial negotation MUST take place before the decision is made to acquire.  The acquisition process can only take place once the decision has been made.
• The lack of consideration for "removal" of resources, as I've included above.
• There is no mention or consideration of purchased, or perpetual access resources.  In the "Review and Renewal of Resource", the assumption is that the only motivation for evaluation is for renewal or cancellation.  But eResources are increasingly purchased and although they do not take up "shelf space" they do fill up staff and librarian time, and can often come with slowly rising access fees.  Evaluation MUST take place to ensure that keeping it in the collection is still worth the time and money.

Good intro to the book.

What goes around comes around.

/ Listening to today's episode of Spark about proto-versions of today's online and often "2.0" technology:

1. Pirate radio (e.g. "Pump up the Volume") as proto-blogging/file-sharing;
2. Removal of toll booths (e.g. "Roads to Power: Britain Invents the Infrastructure State") as proto-net-neutrality;
3. Prince's song titles (e.g. "U Got The Look") as proto-texting slang;
4. Ham and CB radio (e.g. "Ham Radio's Technical Culture (Inside Technology)" or "Smokey and the Bandit - Special Edition") as proto-social networking tools; and
5. Eighteenth century coffee house communication (e.g. "Flesh and Stone: The Sociology of Richard Sennett") as proto-status-updates and the explosion in Renaissance Europe of letter writing (e.g. "") as proto-information-overload.

This is an interesting concept and one that speaks to me personally.  When faced with many criticisms of modern tools (facebook, Wikipedia, ereaders, etc.) my response often includes something about how what we have now is not completely unique and has connections to things we've done in the past (why and how).

The criticism of facebook and Twitter in the style of "I don't want to know about what you had for lunch and when you go to the bathroom," earns the response "So why do you talk about similar things over coffee with your friends?"  Social communication in person is often (and has often been) trivial and inane.

The criticism of Wikipedia that "Anyone and their uncle can fiddle with an entry at will," is met with "Yes, that's the strength of the tool."  That's why there's a rather extensive entry about my home town when there will probably never be one in a more traditional encyclopedia.  We have often valued socially generated and grounded information over more objective sources.  In studies about information seeking behaviour, we tend to start with our friends and family before going to the library or other potentially authoritative sources.

And I just read a thought-provoking article about how reading digitally may result in lower retention than print reading (I'm not convinced that it's an important point given such early days).  My immediate response is, as the author agrees, the benefits outweigh these possible negatives.  The reasons why print might allow greater retention than digital apply even more to say pre-printing-press material compared to the "sanitized" and "stream-lined" movable type versions.  And, to make a huge generalization, you have to pay for progress with some loss.

[ Listen to the complete broadcast and the full interviews at CBC Spark. ]

Review of "Good Dog. Stay." by Anna Quidlen

Good dog. Stay. by Anna Quindlen [View on Amazon]

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Not a bad little book. I was just looking for something short in non-fiction and came across this in my small local library branch.

Maybe 40 pages in total (a lot of pictures of random dogs), this book is an extremely short read, and the message is quite simple. But it's a good "pick me up" for anyone who likes dogs to even the slightest degree. It tells of the acquisition of various dogs by the author, their relationships (with each other and with the family), and the end of life for one of them. As the author says, it is really about the people since dog-ownership involves a lot of anthropomorphism and projection of one's self onto the animals.

View all my reviews

And space eels too...

Read this on the train last night and a little this morning. "Creature Tech", a graphic novel by Doug TenNapel, is done all in black and white, a method I don't always like in comics but kinda works here. It's all about this 'agent' that becomes head of a paranormal research warehouse, finds this dead-people-reanimating shroud, loses it to a ghost, becomes host to a superpower-enabling crab-like lifeform, and fights to get aforementioned shroud back. Oh, and falls in love. I know, sounds pretty standard, but it's weird and I like weird.

I'm here for good...

Just finished reading "The weblog handbook : practical advice on creating and maintaining your blog" by Rebecca Blood. Although I really just [heavily] skimmed it [which is what you can do with non-fiction sometimes - I give you permission], it is really a very good guide to the topic. Although this blog of mine is pretty new [only about a month], I've been reading and making [and unmaking] blogs for a year or two or three. Although I knew some of what she was talking about already, there are some really good tips in there. If I had had this before now, maybe I would have quit less.

Between the Lines...

Just finished "Mainline" by Deborah Christian. I had just picked it at random from the science fiction section [that be my tastes, arrrr]. It's not the best story in the world but it's got some interesting ideas - genetically enabled phase and timeline shifting - which is all you really want from sci-fi now isn't it?