Cites & Insights 10:8 - just in time for ALA

Available now: Cites & Insights 10:8, July 2010.

This 40-page issue (PDF as usual, with most but not all the sections available as HTML separates) has a variety of features to keep you entertained or informed on your long flights to & from ALA--and it's well worth reading even if you're not attending (or live near the District of Columbia).

What's here:

The CD-ROM Project...pp. 1-4

The start of a "digital medium archaeology project"--taking a few dozen of the best title CD-ROMs (that is, CD-ROMs that are extended books and multimedia carriers, not just software) from 1994-2000 and seeing whether they'll work on a contemporary Windows 7 system, whether they still have much to offer, whether they're still available (as is or updated) and, if not, what we've lost--and what's readily available on the web that appears roughly equivalent. For starters, we have two astronomical CDs and two art-related CDs...

The Zeitgeist: One Facebook to Rule Them All?...pp. 4-22

A range of commentaries on the December 2009 and April 2010 Facebook privacy changes, including some pre-December items and a few notes on the current situation. Commentaries include some by librarians and a wide range by others--including a group of first-rate commentaries by danah boyd and a ReadWriteWeb piece that gets my coveted middle-finger salute for asininity in the service of (almost certainly false) gengen.

Interesting & Peculiar Products...pp. 22-29

Ten products (or product commentaries) and five group reviews--but some of the product notes are more essay than description, including a non-elegy for OQO and "Catching up with the OLPC XO."

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection Part 2...pp. 29-35

The second of ten segments of this massive 250-movie set, including three great flicks, three near-classics and another dozen worthwhile films. You get cheating wives, crooked electronics geniuses, a blind detective, a sexy ghost...and that's just in the first two of six discs.

My Back Pages...pp. 35-40

As always, this chunk'o'snark is a bonus for "print readers"--those who download the whole PDF. Ten items, only half of them audio-related.

This is the final issue sponsored by the Library Society of the World. Now the uncertainty begins...