[Web4lib] Paperless society

Mon Feb 11 14:58:34 EST 2008

I strongly suspect that in years to come we'll move towards a
distributed data model where data resides locally as well as remotely (I
don't say "centrally", since there could be many "master" copies that
are verifiably identical to other copies). Asynchronous "syncing up"
with a trusted remote source might happen regularly, so our local data
is both correct AND not subject to the whims of network access, etc. A
local copy could regularly "mix-in" other resources as well (say, data
more important to a local constituency).

As things stand, a publisher's print run of a valued reference source
is our equivalent to a "synching up" with a trusted source, and the
benefits of such should not be underestimated. And the marginal
notations that we relied on, edited, etc. at the reference desk in
certain works are the print equivalent to digital data "mash-ups" -- of
course the digital realm allows those mixins to be carried over to a new
data set, and w/ print we would need to hold on to our annotated copy to
enjoy its benefits.

We ought to keep in mind that sometime in the not-so-distant future,
ALL existing telephone numbers will fit on a thumb drive. Better that
we focus on search/retrieval/indexing/sync-ing of very large data sets
(and of course being constantly aware of the incredible benefits of
data-on-paper, even if it on produced just-in-time).

Actually, there's no good reason that I shouldn't be able to download my
entire university's online catalog (with regularly sync-ed updates) and
use whatever search tools that Windows 2015 or Mac OS 10.9  offer for
searching structured data. ;-).

--peter keane
daseproject.org
The University of Texas at Austin

On Mon, 11 Feb 2008, Andy Murdoch wrote:

> There was an interesting point in relation to this that came up at a
>recent local law librarians meeting. Quicklaw was most Canadian legal
>librarians first stop for any caselaw or legal literature. It was
>bought by Lexis Nexis and major changes were recently made to QL's
>front end so it resembles the Lexis site and its functionality. Fair
>enough, I can understand why they did that. Thing is, what came up at
>our meeting was that some of my colleagues noticed Canadian editorial
>content drying up. Certain of the lesser used (but not unused) parts
>from Quicklaw have been dropped. For a relatively small market like
>Canadia, this is worrying especially in light of the fact that every
>week on the CALL listserv (Cdn Assoc of Law Librarians) you will see
>whole sets of hardbound law reports being given away for the cost of
>shipping. Is what we relied on to take the place of our paper reports -
>online services - losing comprehensivity?
>
> I am all for going more and more online, esp in a paper heavy legal
>setting - but shouldn't we be able to rely on the big central data
>holders like Lexis or Westlaw to keep their archives? Their weeding
>worries me!
>
> Andy 
>
> ----- Message d'origine ----
> De : Peter Keane <pkeane at mail.utexas.edu>
> À : "Anderson, Patricia" <pfa at umich.edu>
> Cc : Jocelyn Shaw <redfernshaw at gmail.com>; web4lib at webjunction.org
> Envoyé le : Lundi, 11 Février 2008, 12h39mn 15s
> Objet : Re: [Web4lib] Paperless society
>
> I find it useful to step back and, rather than think about
> paper-vs-digital, think about all of the options we have for information
> storage and retrieval and begin to evaluate each for its costs,
> benefits, etc. Metrics like "old" vs. "new" are not nearly as useful as
> cost to produce, long term viability, cost to preserve, accessibility,
> access dependencies, etc. I look forward to a time when we consider
> books as simply another technology with all sorts of emergent propeties,
> some good, some not-so-good.
>
> I often recommend Linus Torvald's Google Tech Talk about distributed
> source control [0] to folks interested in where things are heading.
> And it is certainly NOT centalized data storage and digital "master"
> copies. If you think about Linus wanting the entire Linux source code
> history readily accessible on his own machine and then think about
> a reference librarian who wants a shelf full of phone books right
> behind the reference desk, I suspect you might see some very real
> commonalities.
>
> --peter keane
> daseproject.org
> The University of Texas at Austin
>
> [0] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XpnKHJAok8
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 11, 2008 at 10:38:40AM -0500, Anderson, Patricia wrote:
>> Personally, being a tad on the paranoid side, if the information is electronic and suddenly disappears, it is extremely useful to have a paper archive to prove you weren't hallucinating. :) I am a HUGE fan of redundancy, especially for critical information. By "critical" I mean any information that might be essential in case of a disaster response scenario. Phone books are an excellent example of the type of information that is often overlooked on a daily basis but which become absolutely essential in a disaster or crisis. 
>> 
>> I would really like to see librarians, as a collective, partner with other service professions to develop an agreed upon set of core information that requires duplication in a variety of locations and formats for the purpose of disaster and crisis preparation and response.
>>
>>  -- Patricia Anderson, pfa at umich.edu
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org on behalf of David Rothman
>> Sent: Mon 2/11/2008 10:04 AM
>> To: Carol Bean
>> Cc: Jocelyn Shaw; web4lib at webjunction.org
>> Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Paperless society
>> 
>> And it is convenient to have a horse-and-buggy if your car breaks down.  So?
>> 
>> On Feb 11, 2008 9:51 AM, Carol Bean <beanworks at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> > Not so inefficient when the internet connection is down or non-existent
>> >
>> > Carol
>> >
>> >
>> > On Feb 11, 2008 9:35 AM, David Rothman <david.rothman at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > > Jocelyn-
>> > >
>> > > Telephone books are *much* more scarce than they used to be.  That you
>> > > continue to use the most inefficient available container for this sort
>> > > of
>> > > information doesn't make the assertion silly or wrong.
>> > >
>> > > -David
>> > > David Rothman
>> > > Community General Hospital Medical Library
>> > > Syracuse, NY
>> > >  On Feb 11, 2008 9:29 AM, Jocelyn Shaw <redfernshaw at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >
>> > > > I had to chuckle at the quote:
>> > > >
>> > > >  "'Paper is no longer the master copy; the digital version is,' says
>> > > > Brewster Kahle, the founder and director of the Internet Archive, a
>> > > > nonprofit digital library. 'Paper has been dealt a complete deathblow.
>> > > > When
>> > > > was the last time you saw a telephone book?'"...
>> > > >
>> > > > Having used the phone book twice in the last 20 minutes to answer
>> > > > reference
>> > > > questions I found it quite humorous.
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > Jocelyn Shaw
>> > > > Librarian
>> > > > Hackley Public Library
>> > > > 316 W Webster
>> > > > Muskegon MI 49440
>> > > >
>> > > > The Smartest Card. Get it. Use it.
>> > > > @ the Hackley Public Library
>> > > > _______________________________________________
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Carol Bean
>> > beanworks at gmail.com
>> _______________________________________________
>> Web4lib mailing list
>> Web4lib at webjunction.org
>> http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
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