School may be underway but that’s no reason to not bring books home from the library is it? I can use school as the excuse for these though. While there is no textbook in the class, the professor did recommend a few books. They are available to read as e-books from the Drexel library but reading e-books is not a pleasant experience except on the Kindle, and these books are not Kindle books. So I checked the university catalog where I work which is actually a consortium catalog that my university shares with about eight other small private universities in the Twin Cities. It is a sweet set up. I can request books be sent from any of the other schools to my home library just like when you request books at the public library be sent to your branch from another branch.
One of the schools in the consortium happens to have a library and information science program. One of the reasons I am attending Drexel and not the local program is the local program is not accredited yet. They had hoped to be accredited this February but disaster struck and the American Library Association did not accredit them which really sucks for the students in the first graduating class this spring. They get to try for accreditation again in 2011, I think, or maybe the end of next year.
Anywho, even though I am not attending their program, their books are available for me to check out from the library where I work. So I was able to get my hands on two of the books my professor recommended:
- From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World by Christine Borgman
- Digital Libraries by William Y. Arms
While I was looking for the books above I did a subject search (I love subject searching!) and found these two books:
- Digital Libraries and the Challenges of Digital Humanities by Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox
- A Companion to Digital Literary Studies edited by Ray Siemens and Susan Schreibman
I got those last two books because they look interesting and because I am going to have to write a term paper and they seemed like good places to maybe find some potential ideas for topics.
One book I really wanted but was checked out is The Web Library: Building a World Class Personal Library with Free Web Resources by Nicholas Tomaiuolo. It is just as well that it is checked out because I am sure I would immediately want to build my own online library. I’ll save that one for the quarter break.
On a side note, the movie version of Enchanted April was wonderful. There was one thing they changed that I didn’t like that had to do with Scrap and Briggs, but overall I was happy with the movie. My Bookman enjoyed it too.
I’d be interested to know what you think of the book by Borgman. I read her more recent book back in April, after seeing her speak at Columbia in March (the video from the talk is online, here. I liked the talk rather more than the book, because I found her speaking style more engaging than her writing style — but still, interesting stuff.
I do love that moment of first search for good research books. It’s always exciting to see what you can find. Hope they all turn out to be completely splendid!
That Gutenberg to Global Information book sounds interesting, I look forward to your thoughts! I’m quite interested in how we continue to organize and make available the vast wealth of resources now at our fingertips.
And I also love subject searching, one of my favorite things to do on Bookmooch.
Noooooooooo to digital books………
That’s really harsh for those students graduating from an unaccredited program! Any idea what will happen to them? It’s very good you’re in the program you’re in. And very nice to have access to so many books. I hope your research process goes well.
Your class sounds interesting and timely. Sometimes I sit out in the public area of my library on my break and there will be a tour coming through so I’ll catch a snippet of what the students are sharing with their tour group–aside from the cafe, which is always a hot topic, most recently I overheard the guide talking about digital books and the thousands that were available to load–not sure if she was talking about Kindles (which we have so would make sense), or iPhones (which is what I heard, and wouldn’t make sense as I don’t think our eBooks can be loaded onto anything). In any case I don’t think the groups actually ever go up to the stacks anymore to see the physical books we own, which is sad (but maybe I’m missing that part of the tour).
My wife and I watched Enchanted April last night (neither of us has read the book). We enjoyed it.
Heather, thanks for the link! I’ll let you know what I think of her Gutenberg book.
Litlove, it is fun, isn’t it? That beginning moment holds so much possibility.
Verbivore, digital libraries is something that might interest you then.
Carrie, digital libraries are not necessarily digital books. They include photos and audio and video and born digital documents as well as books and documents that have been scanned. Not a bad thing, really.
Dorothy, it is really harsh and I heard there were lots of rightfully angry students. many dropped out and will try to transfer their credits to a different school. The college gave some refunds too. Others are holding off on graduating until the college gets accredited but that might be a year or two. I decided not to enroll there when I started school for fear of the very thing that has happened.
Danielle, if your library is like mine, you probably subscribe to an ebook service like netbrary or something. I’ve never tried any of their books though.
wil, glad you enjoyed the movie! Are you going to read the book do you think?