Carson's to Close Its Store in Downtown Chicago

This is sad: Carson Pirie Scott will be closing its downtown Chicago store as of March 2007. I used to work there in the Credit Department while going to college. I guess we won't be hearing 'You Get a Charge from a Carson Pirie Scott Charge Card' anytime soon. I remember when they tore down the horrifying 50's or 60's cement facade revealing the original Sullivan finery underneath -- that was at some point in the 70's. They once had a "Roman Day" sale where they repainted the whole sidewalk to look like a Roman Villa together with busts of Roman Citizens on pedestals alongside every shop window. It was pretty wild.

One Year Ago Today

It's hard to believe that a year has gone by since that fateful day which began with so much hope. We had worked so hard to make sure that Kerry would be the next president of the United States. So many great people from all over Illinois had stepped up, many for the first time, and lent all of their time and energy to make this country a better place. Certainly we were going to be successful.

Election Night Party: On election night I hurried back to Chicago from Milwaukee where I had been for a week -- helping keep Wisconsin blue like so many people from Illinois. We watched the preliminary results together -- all the Kerry supporters in Chicago. It was in one of the hotel ballrooms downtown. At first things looked good. The States we knew that were heavily blue, did not dissappoint: New York, Illinois, even Pennsylvania. But then the bad news started coming in: we lost Florida by what looked like a sizeable margin. Things weren't going well. By the time I left the reception, after midnight, people were silent if not altogether glum. [More photos from election night...]

Google and Libraries: What’s in Store for Google Print and Google Scholar

Write-up on a presentation given at the 2005 ALA Conference -- originally appeared on the LITA Blog (link) :

Boy, that was a packed program! I thought yesterday's "Top Technology Trends" was packed. Today there were even more people. (see photos…)

Participants

What everyone came to see was the panel discussion featuring Google's Adam Smith along with representatives from the five libraries that have agreed to let Google digitize their books. In order of seating, that was John Price-Wilkin (Michigan), Catherine Tierney (Stanford), Ronald Milne (Oxford), Dale Flecker (Harvard), and John Balow (NYPL). Maurice York (Emory) on the far left was moderator.

Google Print

Although the program was subtitled "What's in Store for Google Print and Google Scholar", most of the attention was paid to Google Print — quite rightly because it involves libraries handing over to Google the very things that make them unique, namely, their collections.

It soon became clear however that some of the libraries appear to be engaged in “Pilot Projects”. Harvard for example, is starting out with 40,000 volumes.

Why Google?

The motivation for doing this was obvious: Google has the kind of deep-pockets (or claims it has) to undertake digitizing entire libraries — at a rate far faster than the libraries themselves could manage. It also has, in the words of Dale Flecker, the “nerve” to do it. When Google told Michigan it wanted to digitize their entire collection, John Price Wilkin called it an “amusing story”.

What the libraries get in return are their books back (natch) plus a digital copy of the material. What the libraries will do with their copy isn’t immediately clear. John Balow conceded that these are still “early days”.

Even Adam Smith admitted that Google is in “research-mode” concerning some aspects of both Scholar and Print. Its technology “continues to evolve”.

Access & Preservation

What isn’t in doubt is the increased access these titles will have once they’re part of Google. “It’s all about access,” Ronald Milne emphasized. For Oxford, the notion is to bring the “Republic of Letters” into the 21st Century.

Not addressed are issues of preservation. Indeed, with the exception of Michigan, most didn’t think this was a “preservation project”. The kind of “industrial” process that Google is using (mum’s the word on what it actually is) can only be used on books that are in good shape.

That said, it would be “more possible”, in the words of Catherine Tierney, for libraries like Stanford to concentrate on their more unique materials — with Google handling its part. Dale Flecker thought it might also make things cheaper.

Copyright

Google intends to scan everything including books not yet in the public domain. The user will only see “snippets” of works where Google has no agreement (read, permission) with the publisher. This naturally raises questions of copyright infringement.

Adam Smith stressed that Google wasn't setting up a “book distribution system but an indexing system”. That said, Smith admitted that copyright is a “complicated issue”. He suggested a public listing of “orphaned” works post-1923 so everyone would know what was in copyright and what wasn't.

Trust Google?

One recurring theme was whether it made sense to put so many (library) eggs in the basket of what ultimately is a profit-driven corporation whose first loyalty is to its stockholders.

None of the representatives seemed disturbed by this. As John Balow explained only half seriously, “We rely on the generosity of strangers. This is just another day of work.”

And what if Google should pull out?

“Time will tell,” John Price Wilkin concluded.

Links:

Google Library Digitization Agreement With University Of Michigan… (Search Engine Watch).
Includes link to the U-Mich/Google Agreement

Michigan Digitization Project
Good information about Michigan’s project plus links to the other Libraries in the Agreement.

Don’t Get Goggle-Eyed Over Google’s Plan to Digitize. (Mark Y. Herring, Chronicle of Higher Ed. March 11, 2005).
Looks at the Agreement with a Grain of Salt.

Review of Google Scholar (Martin Myhill, Charleston Advisor - April 2005)
Balanced — even helpful — review of Google Scholar.

Google and Libraries (Photos)

I’ll have my write-up of the program a bit later [link to the write-up] but for the moment, have a look at these shots:

Verdict

[Message sent out to the local Kerry groups after the election results for 2004 had come in -- source]

Thursday, November 11, 2004

I sent out a final listing of new articles and galleries to our Yahoo Groups in Illinois. I still have a few things to add -- mostly photos from events prior to 11/2 -- but as the campaign winds down and we redirect our efforts, there naturally will be fewer updates.

I'd like to thank everyone from Illinois who supplied articles and photos to the site. I'd also like to thank all of those on the various Yahoo Groups across the state who kept us informed and added to our enthusiasm and committment through the example of their own.

We may have lost this round but think of it this way: we have a mandate from all of those who supported us and who we care about to continue standing up for progressive causes, and we have values -- because that's the way we were raised -- not to relent until we eventually win.

See you all,

LEO
webmaster
illinoisforkerry.com

Interview on Dance Music by NPR

Wonderful interview by NPR host Steve Inskeep on my thoughts (and experience) regarding dance music: [ link... ]

The Expert User Is Dead

The problem with interface design in libraries is that we don't go about it as if it really mattered. If we cared, we'd pay more attention to people like Marissa Mayer, interface designer at Google, when she says, "Google should be 'what you want, when you want it.' As opposed to 'everything you could ever want, even when you don't.'"

How is that for a concept? Meanwhile in Libraryland, the murmuring continues about "Google-ization" and the dangers of appealing to the lowest common denominator. You'd think taking care of our users--our customers--in a manner in which they are accustomed to is beneath us. This is a recipe for going out of business.

Everyone talks about user-friendly design, yet bad design happens. Why? Information architect Jesse James Garrett lists this as the most common misconception: "We know our users--they're just like us."

Not so, say Jerilyn Veldof and Karen Beavers, two librarians testing the effectiveness of online instructional material in Minnesota. "Librarians," they report, "need to be more conscious that their own mental models are not the only ones." They conclude that "students view the research process as something to hurry through in order to get to an end--the articles and books required for their project."

They're busy

Klein, Leo Robert. "The expert user is dead: we must design library web sites to welcome all users." Library Journal, vol. 128, no. 17, 15 Oct. 2003, p. S36 [link]

Big Move Back To Chicago

Big move back to Chicago after more than 20 years. For the past few years (i.e. 1990s) I've been in New York; prior to that (i.e. 1980s) it was Paris (2 yrs), Rome (2 yrs) and West Berlin (6 yrs).

Amtrak Chicago Unlimited #19
Leave NYU : July 1, 2003, 2:50pm
Arrive Chicago : July 2, 2003, 9:10am

Design Guru Jeffrey Zeldman and NYPL’s Carrie Bickner Discuss Standards, XML, and the Digital Divide with Leo Robert Klein

Chances are you know the work of Jeffrey Zeldman and Carrie Bickner, even if you don't realize it. Zeldman's many private sector commissions and the redesigned New York Public Library (NYPL) pages alike owe a lot to a mutual belief in crisp, clean design and straightforward language. A style guide that Bickner commissioned Zeldman to work on for NYPL staff has been circulating among both library and nonlibrary designers ever since its release at the end of October. Another coproduction, the web site for NYPL's Click On computer training program, has likewise garnered kudos and the attention of imitators.

Zeldman is also the man behind The Daily Report (www.zeldman.com [WebArchive]) and A List Apart: For People Who Make Web Sites (www.alistapart.com), a popular journal and online community center for like-minded designers. In addition, he consults through his firm, Happy Cog, recently published Taking Your Talent to the Web (New Riders, 2001), and plays a lead role in The Web Standards Project. That group has fought for adherence to official World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards. Before turning his attentions to the web, Zeldman worked in journalism and advertising.

Web coordinator for the NYPL Branch Libraries, Bickner may be better known to library blog aficionados as the Rogue Librarian (www.roguelibrarian.net [WebArchive]) or for her articles on A List Apart and TER. While earning her degree at the University of Michigan's School of Information, she worked on both the Internet Public Library and the Humanities Text Initiative.

Any one of their initiatives prove that libraries can produce top-of-the-line web projects to rival and even best those of the corporate world. What is more, their ongoing association shows that a successful partnership is based on something other than just a contract. The client-consultant relationship flourishes when both parties share fundamental beliefs and are clear about their mission from the inception. Last December, they sat down with frequent netConnect contributor Leo Robert Klein to talk about their collaborations.

If you want to hear more, Zeldman and Bickner will be speaking at the Public Library Association meeting in March.

Continue [article through Archive.org] ...

A Multilingual Virtual Tour for International Students

Article co-written with A. Downing for the 5/2001 issue of College & Research Libraries News [link]:

Providing effective library orientation for international students poses special challenges. An international student’s profi- ciency in the language of the host country may be limited, and his or her functional vo- cabulary is unlikely to include library terminology. International students encounter library procedures, resources, and systems that are quite different from what they had experi- enced in their homeland. Moreover, the educational system of their native country may entail a role for the library that con- trasts with the course re- quirements for library re- search faced in the host country.

[Downing, Arthur, & Leo Robert Klein. "A Multilingual Virtual Tour for International Students: The Web-based Library at Baruch College Opens Doors." College & Research Libraries News [Online], 62.5 (2001): 500-503.]

Roy Announces New Additions to the Current Cites Team

Included in the March 2001 edition of Current Cites (link):

Editor's Note: It is my great pleasure to announce that Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Margaret Gross, Shirl Kennedy, Leo Robert Klein, and Eric Lease Morgan have joined the Current Cites team. All of them combine significant writing experience with awareness of current information technology issues and challenges. Welcome, all! Also, starting with this issue, only those who have cites in any particular issue will be listed as a contributor. A complete list of team members will continue to be available [link to list].

Follow-up: here's a link to my first contribution(s) one month later: April 2001 edition of Current Cites.

Web Design and Sin

Article for netConnect, a supplement to Library Journal, by Leo Robert Klein (pub. date 7/1/2000)

Slashdot (1), the popular news and discussion site for programmers, web developers and peripatetic librarians, recently hosted a discussion on web design with Jeffrey Zeldman. Zeldman, billed by Slashdot as a "Web Design Luminary", is well known for his work on A List Apart(2) and the Web Standards Project (WaSP)(3) among other things.

The discussion, alas, quickly degenerated into a series of rants against Zeldman for having committed various "cardinal sins of design" on his personal site(4). He committed the "cardinal sin" of "putting [up] an 'entry page' that does nothing but suck bandwidth" ran one complaint. He committed the "cardinal sin" of "taking away the status bar with JavaScript" ran another. The level of (geek) rancor here and in the 230 or so comments that followed was extraordinary.

The topic after all was web design. How could something so seemingly innocuous as web design provoke such a reaction?

Continue [article through Archive.org] ...