Friday, March 25, 2005

Good Google, Bad Google

A couple of new Google projects, Google Scholar and Google Print, have caused a lot of buzz this year. Here's an article embracing one and criticizing the other. By the way, I came across this in Rory Litwin's not-really-a-blog, Library Juice.

He once compiled a great list of paper topics for library school students that, frankly, made me want to go back to school and have some fun. Rory recently relocated to Duluth; I suspect the radical tradition of the Iron Range drew him like a magnet. He's always worth reading.

Barbara

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Grace, wit, yes ... but calm?

People see libraries in different ways. Here's what Germaine Greer says:

"Libraries are reservoirs of strength, grace and wit, reminders of order, calm and continuity, lakes of mental energy, neither warm nor cold, light nor dark. The pleasure they give is steady, unorgastic, reliable, deep and long-lasting. In any library in the world, I am at home, unselfconscious, still and absorbed."

Okay, our library may not always be orderly and calm - it's usually pretty noisy around 8 pm - but I'll take "resevoir of strength."

Barbara