τεχνοσοφια

I was stoked to see our Digital Initiatives Coordinator position posted earlier today. We have been without a full-time field officer for nearly eight months, though Kevin Clarke (lead programmer) has served with distinction — and with nary a complaint! (Well, okay, there may have been some complaints, but he always had a smile on his face.)

Here are some reasons you might consider this position:

• A chance to get in on the ground floor — our team is still undecided on many important issues, so you would have the opportunity to shape the organization.
• Work with a broad range of technologies, such as Java, Ruby, XQuery, XForms, native XML databases, Solr, and more.
• Assist in the ongoing effort to select repositories for various use cases — we're evaluating DSpace, several Fedora front-ends, and the X-Hive/DB native XML database
• Many rare and beautiful library collections.
• Great location — it hardly seems like New Jersey!
• Lead the digital collections team, currently consisting of four librarian programmers and five digitization gurus.
• Forge ties with one of the finest faculties in academia.
• Comprehensive benefits package — 24 days vacation, the whole insurance kit and kaboodle, and so on.
• Uncommon amount of support (financial and otherwise) for professional development.
• … and you get to work with me! But seriously, the great team we have assembled has been a big part of why I've thoroughly enjoyed my time at Princeton.

You can get a sense of the work we've been doing by browsing our Digital Collections, though that's only the tip of the iceberg, and the site will be overhauled in the coming months.

Have some digital initiatives experience? Ready for leadership responsibilities and an environment in which you will hone your vision? Then by all means, check it out. An MLS is not required.

Maybe I'm late to the party — nods to John Blyberg and Rob Styles — but damn(!), does Microsoft have some exciting visualization projects or what?

John and Rob wrote about Microsoft Surface, a hardware/software combination that allows for tactile manipulation of data. In Microsoft's own words:

Microsoft Surface represents a fundamental change in the way we interact with digital content.

With Surface, we can actually grab data with our hands, and move information between objects with natural gestures and touch.

Surface features a 30-inch tabletop display whose unique abilities allow for several people to work independently or simultaneously. All with out using a mouse or a keyboard.

Don't take my word for it; go watch a demonstration video and be amazed.

But wait, open the video in another window, and keep reading before you lose interest in my uninteresting prose.

I noticed among the recently released TED talks a brilliant short presentation by Microsoft's Blaise Aguera y Arcas on their Photosynth project. My first impression was just the visual joy of the photo browse / pan / zoom interface. It's impressive in its own right. But what really tickles me about Photosynth is that it "takes a large collection of photos of a place or an object, analyzes them for similarities, and displays them in a reconstructed three-dimensional space."

For example, throw it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/seattlepubliclibrary/ and it will construct a collage-like view of the Seattle Public Library. Zoom in and you'll see images at that level of zoom. Pan in three dimensions and (assuming there are enough photos to support the various views) you can virtually be in front of SPL. See for yourself:

Imagine browsing the stacks with this thing. Imagine finding a book on the stacks and being able to hook directly into its full-text. Super cool!

Microsoft Surface is tentatively planned for a November release, which will be targeted for "retail and entertainment settings". It could be available to the public in a few years' time though it will likely cost a few times more than an average PC. [Gleaned from a Seattle PI article.] Photosynth is also not available yet, but you can track its progress on the Photosynth team blog. (Yes, there's a feed.)

[Disclosure: I lived in the shadow of Redmond not long ago, though I was not employed by Microsoft. I probably invest in Microsoft indirectly, but I haven't scoured my portfolio distributions in a while.]

First, I'm stoked to be getting copies of the following books over the course of the next few weeks:

• Information Architecture for the World Wide Web: Designing Large-Scale Web Sites
• Ambient Findability: What We Find Changes Who We Become
• A Semantic Web Primer (Cooperative Information Systems)
• RESTful Web Services

They reflect pretty clearly the sorts of things that have been on my mind of late.

Also, I saw a very interesting post on Peter Brantley's blog, Shimenawa, and I thought it was important enough to share verbatim:

There is considerable ferment these days in the library community about the shortcomings of the current generation of OPAC systems. A number of libraries are investigating replacement discovery systems divorced from their Integrated Library Systems (ILS), and a few have already implemented alternatives. Replacing an integrated OPAC with an external generalized discovery system raises some difficulties, however, as OPACs provide functions beyond simple bibliographic discovery. Among the areas of difficulty are: * Handling/displaying complex non-bibliographic library data, such as detailed serial holdings; * Providing access to highly volatile ILS transaction data, such as circulation status; * Supporting ILS-specific patron functions, such as renewing charged-out books; * Supporting institution-specific functions, such as requesting the delivery of books from a remote storage facility. The inability to provide such popular functions will inhibit the freedom of libraries to use alternative (frequently more modern) discovery platforms for their catalogs. From the standpoint of libraries it would be ideal to be able to mix-and-match ILS and discovery platforms to suit local needs. To create such a rich environment the library and vendor community will need agreement on the specific technical details of how discovery and ILS systems are to integrate. DLF is planning to establish a Task Group to analyze the issues involved in integrating ILS and discovery systems, and to create a technical proposal for how such integration should be accomplished. We are now seeking nominations of knowledgeable people to serve on the Task Group. Candidates should have analytic skills, be familiar with ILS and discovery systems, and, ideally, have some experience in systems interoperation. We hope to create a group that has a balance of experience with a variety of specific ILS and discovery systems. We encourage both self-nomination and the nomination of people from the community you believe can contribute to this important effort. Because we believe the need to regularize interoperation is immediate, we are hoping to name this Task Group within the next several weeks, and that its work can be completed by the end of the calendar year. We expect most of the work of the group to be carried out through telephone and electronic means, although one or two face-to-face meetings may be needed. I have also asked a few experienced people to serve as advisors for the Task Group, to offer help and advice if needed.

Note that although this call went out originally to DLF members, this effort will not be limited to DLFies.

It would be an understatement to say I've been enthusiastic about Ruby on Rails for a while now. Okay, I am downright fanatic — just look at that shrine to DHH in my closet; it's plain to see that I've drunk the (ruby red) Kool-Aid.

This is the first post in a series in which I hope to share my enthusiasm and explain just what it is that I love about Ruby on Rails. Not many folks in the library world seem to be using RoR — with a few notable exceptions — and so I thought it might be of interest to folks unfamiliar with or curious about Ruby and Rails to hear some impressions from a bright-eyed newbie.

Stay tuned, folks.

I decided a while back that I would use this space exclusively for library- and technology-related bits, that I should not clutter it with more personal or political matters. That decision has probably saved me a lot of embarrassment. But it's also kept me from updating more often than I would like, and forced filters upon me that give a one-dimensional view of what I'm about. Underlying the decision was a certain trepidation and strange sense of professional propriety — what would colleagues and potential employers think of me if I just spilled my guts out here?

I'm starting to question that decision. Other well-known biblio-bloggers do it — I'm looking at Dorothea and Karen — though I'm in the league below the bush league compared to them. But sometimes, dammit, I just want to be me.

I'd like to add to the left-leaning echo chamber by reminding folks that Jerry Falwell was a lunatic. People come out of the woodwork to spout ebullient praise about the recently deceased, whether they were actually good people or not, and the posthumous Falwell spin has begun with numerous smiley glad-hands lauding his life and deeds. But let's not forget what kind of guy ol' Jerry was.

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say 'you helped [the terrorist attacks on 9/11] happen'.

I'm not so crass as to celebrate the death of someone who has arguably done some good during his long lifetime, but I couldn't help but think "good riddance to bad rubbish" when I heard of his passing.

I am sure there will be dozens of doomsayers scrambling to take his place in the Pantheon of Evangelical Kooks. I can see it now: And lo, I woke up this morning and my toilet was running. SURELY THIS IS A SIGN OF THE SECOND COMING.