explodedlibrary bunker

from Crikey: Michael Gill pounded over AFR.com fiasco

This little piece in Crikey is music to my ears.

Fairfax Business Media boss Michael Gill copped both barrels yesterday in a meeting with about 10 corporate communications executives from a number international and top 100 firms ... . He was left in no doubt that the entire process has been a major blunder from the start.
...
But earlier this year AFR launched its new website, abruptly cutting off all access to archive stories from the Fairfax Digital platform and putting them all on its own website, and ending its long-running relationships with Media Monitors [and Factiva]. They also constructed the site so that the stories couldn't be cut and pasted into an email and forwarded on.
...
The system, which uses Flash rather than HTML, is so bad that some subscribers can't even type in the search terms without trying three or four times.
...
One senior comms person for a major company said their execs now considered The Australian "the newspaper of record for financial markets" because they simply couldn't get anything from the Fin. ...

When Australian librarians first heard about AFR.com, many of us were outraged about it too - it seemed like a lousy product with a business model totally at odds with how libraries work. Fairfax intimated that the product was not designed with librarians' concerns in mind because it was optimized for their core corporate market. That's why it's made my day to read that the corporate market is rejecting AFR.com as well.

I've already taken a little look at AFR.com during its beta. I was not impressed. Now that it's out of beta, I'm going to be taking another look at it to see if it's improved at all. [I did end up doing that and my opinions are in the main blog]

trivia about the Australian deodorant market

While doing some research today, I came across a statistic that astounded me. The most popular deodorants in Australia are still sprays. According to 2005 figures, sprays make up 62% of Australian retail sales of deodorants, followed by roll-ons (28%), sticks (5%) and pumps (4%). According to the Global Market Information Database report that I looked at (Deodorants - Australia / Country Report / 4 May 2006), the spray deodorant sector faces challenges, including "environmental concerns". Well I should hope so!

a small collection of charitable reading links

I remember first reading about "charitable reading" in Information wants to be free. The term was mentioned in an email which Meredith quoted from Josh Neff. Shortly afterwards, Josh Neff wrote about where he found the term: from an RPG-related forum called the Forge. I really recommend this link, because it contains practical instructions on how to do charitable reading and talks about particular pitfalls to be avoided.

Since then, the concept of charitable reading has been discussed by some other bloggers, including Walt Crawford and Jack Vinson.

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digression on charitable reading

Online writing is unique from other communication forms in that it can have the immediacy of spoken conversation, and the longevity and reach of the printed word. The downside is that online writing lacks the tonal quality and body language aspect of the spoken word and often lacks the delays and deliberation of the printed word. Because of this, it's so easy to have misunderstandings online. That's one of the reasons where there are so many spats online - whether it's on blogs, email lists or forums. That's why charitable reading is so important.

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more on this later in the main blog

"Occasionally someone may mention my books in a blog. I believe the dangers of this indiscriminate reporting on books is that people who have no knowledge of literature can air their views as though they were of value and may influence readers. Critics may not always be right, of course, but at least they have read and studied literature, the great books, and have some outside knowledge to refer to when critiquing our work."  [CRITICAL MASS via the Liminal Librarian]

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articles from Library Hi Tech vol. 25(1) I'd like to read

This bunker blog is morphing into an intermediary between my main blog and the ephemera that I write on Twitter. Among other things, I'll be putting posts here that I'd like to put on Twitter but there's no way they could work under the 140 character limit.

I find that reading and researching are totally different things for me. Of course, research involves reading - but for me, that's usually skimming. I need to be in a particular mood to do the reading which involves thinking lofty thoughts. When I'm in that mood, I'm not interested in researching - I just want the thing in front of me so I can read it. That's why it really pisses me off when people think that librarians and such spend their whole day reading. I wish it were like that - but generally we're too busy finding things for the people who are fortunate enough to be spending their days reading.

Just I found some articles from Library Hi Tech journal which I'd like to read when I next have the chance / inclination. I've decided to link them here - so I don't have to bother finding them again. Hopefully I'll get a chance to read them at home or on the train.

Unless you're accessing these links from the UNSW campus or somehow can authenticate through the AGSM proxy server, these links won't work for you. I'm providing them for two reasons. 1. It makes my life easier. 2. Those in the know who subscribe to the same product can find a way of making them work.

I plan to do this from time to time with other LIS journals too.

things can only get better after no

I just gave a little seminar about MPOW about how wikis could be used in libraries. Just baby steps, but I guess you have to start somewhere. I've realized that the first time you introduce any new technology to people, there may be some people who will just say no and reject it right then. I've learned that it's better not to engage with that initial, instinctive refusal. Just let it wash over you, so it's out of the way, and don't give up. Sooner or later things will change and there may be an opening.

the non-blogging blogger

I didn't want to have to spell this out, but I guess that nuance and subtlety is lost on some people. The guiding principle of my blogging for the last few weeks has been "less is more". Pretty darn effective, isn't it?

Currently playing in iTunes: Wanderlust by Bjork