Social Machines

As the web becomes more integrated into everyday life, it seems that it increasingly reflects human beings' social machinery. This article makes some observations I'm sure many of us were thinking subconsciously, but a lot of the observations hadn't occurred to me.

One particuarly thought provoking quote, "'I feel uneasy about the word 'computing'...have we passed computing?'" I think we have. "Computing" was sooo '90's. Your biggest, most powerful web device might be your laptop, but so many other lifestyle appliances are smaller and more integral than ever before. It seems the word "computing" really doesn't come close to describing what most people are doing with the web. I agree with Hannu Leinonen when he says, "It sounds like counting." You don't have a computer just to do your taxes and make spreadsheets.

Evaporation of Physical Academic Libraries

<---CAREFUL! This is linked to a PDF doc.--->

Proof that this is a topic in mainstream academia...published in Educause this time.

LOCKSS in CLOCKSS

LOCKSS made a lot of sense to me when I researched it a couple of years ago. This is its implementation at some very large, prestigious libraries with some big-hitting publisher sponsors. Sweet.

Didn't realize how much I missed...

...teaching until the beginning of this semester rolled around. This is always the busiest time for library instruction, and the end of the semester is the slowest. Before the winter break, I was consumed with preparing workshops, finishing reports, and placing that final book order of the calendar year.
After a stressful break, coming back to work seemed daunting, but I've found that I really missed interacting with my students in a class-like setting. It's helped me blow off steam by cracking jokes (to an audience other than my dog), and seeing comprehension in my students eyes is always uplifting and edifying.

This is my ideal job!

I believe I would be a top candidate for this one, but I'm not moving to Detroit. Either way, it's encouraging that maybe there will be positions like this created at other higher education institutions.

Welcome HCC Faculty

Welcome to the HCC Spring Full-Time Faculty In-Service!