C&I Updates

Cites & Insights 12:1 (January-February 2012) available

2012-01-20T14:01:00.001-08:00

I won't say Cites & Insights is really back from hiatus, but for now let's say "irregularly published."

Cites & Insights Volume 12, Issue 1 (January-February 2012) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ12i1.pdf

The 20-page issue, PDF as usual, contains three sections, each separately available in HTML form (the subheadings are links):

Bibs & Blather pp. 1-7

Announcing The Librarian's Guide to Micropublishing and why (almost) every public library and (many) academic libraries need it--and some notes on the virtues of professional editing. Also announcing the availability of Cites & Insights 11 (2011) in book form and offering some numbers for Cites & Insights readership in 2011, some not-very-meaningful notes about most-read posts in Walt at Random (which increasingly seems to be "read" mostly by spiders and spammers), and repeating my Prospectus: An Ongoing Public Library Social Network Scan.

Making it Work: It's Academic (or Not) pp. 7-12

Why I don't plan to write much about academic libraries in future Cites & Insights issues and some of my beliefs about academic libraries. Also some notes on "Academic Libraries in Facebook: An Analysis of Users' Comments," an article I had lots of trouble with, after finding that the only discussion of that article I could find was by a certain pseudonymous blogger (who increasingly appears to be named Spencer, unless that's the snarky-comment-responder lackey).

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Box Office Gold, Part 1 pp. 13-20

I did pay attention to the handful of people who expressed sadness about the hiatus and possible termination of this ejournal--and the parts they liked. So if you were hoping that Offtopic Perspectives and My Back Pages would go away, well, guess again. Not quite the first half of a 50-pack of all-color, mostly recent, movies, all with fairly big stars: A combination of TV movies, movies with no real US distribution, and other oddities. (Not quite the first half because it's discs 1-6 of a 13-disc set.)

Cites & Insights special issue now available

2011-11-28T10:09:00.001-08:00

A special issue of Cites & Insights is now available for downloading (or reading in your browser) at http://citesandinsights.info/hiatus.pdf

This two-page unnumbered issue consists of one brief essay:

Not With a Bang ... (pp. 1-2)

Going on hiatus.

There will be no more issues in Volume 11. If and when there is an index, it will only be part of the annual volume available at Lulu, if and when that volume is available.

Cites & Insights October 2011 available

2011-09-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 11:9 (October 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i9.pdf

The 28-page issue (PDF as usual, with HTML versions of each essay available, either from the C&I home page--which will, incidentally, remind you that contributions or sponsorship are both welcome and might help keep this nonsense going--or from the title links below) includes:

Making it Work: Websites and Social Networks pp. 1-17

Some notes on sampling public library websites (2,406 of them in 25 U.S. states) as part of the research for my 2012 book, a few idle thoughts on public library websites, and a Making it Work roundup and commentary on librarians and social networks.

T&QT Retrospective: Far-Away Services with Strange Sounding Names pp. 17-22

Remember Cuil? Remember Knol? Oddly enough, the latter's still around--but the former may have been a Bigger Deal as a one-week web wonder. Looking back and sideways with a little bemusement.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Kings, Part 1 pp. 22-28

Better than the Legends of Horror multipack, with occasional flashes of brilliance (and occasional flashes of stereotyping and schtick).

Now, back to the research and book writing...

Cites & Insights 11:8 (September 2011) available

2011-08-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 11: 8 (September 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i8.pdf

The 32-page issue (PDF as usual, but each essay is available as an HTML separate) includes:

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Requests for help if your public library uses Facebook, Twitter or both, and a quick note about another tweak to C&I.

Writing about Reading: A Future of Books and Publishing (pp. 2-32)

The Diigo tag for the items discussed here was "eb-vs.-pb," but that's not quite right. The bulk of this lengthy Perspective considers items that, to one extent or another, either favor ebooks over print books, vice-versa, or--better yet--compare the two complementary textual forms of book (not that there aren't others, e.g., audiobooks).

As lagniappe, the first 3.3 pages offer a future of books and publishing (not the future, but a future)--one set of possibilities that I might personally find desirable, looking ten years out and "while I'm still alive"--say 35 years out.

Cites & Insights August 2011 available

2011-07-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 11:7 (August 2011) is now available.

The 18-page issue, PDF as usual, includes three sections, each also available in HTML form (and, for two of them, with live links as appropriate):

Bibs & Blather pp. 1-2

The state of the ejournal, such as it is.

Copyright Comments: Talking About the Public Domain pp. 2-10

A mixed bag of notes on relatively recent items related to the growth (or non-growth) of the public domain.

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection Part 4 pp. 10-18

Notes on movies (and early TV shows) on discs 18-24 of the 60-disc, 250-movie Mystery Collection.

Cites & Insights 11:6 available

2011-05-10T19:22:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 11:6, June/July 2011, is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i6.pdf

Barring a pleasant surprise, this is the final issue before ALA. The first essay in the 28-page issue (PDF as usual, but all essays except the last are also available in HTML form from http://citesandinsights.info/) may help explain why that is.

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Where do we go from here?

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 2-9)

Eight mini-commentaries and three quick takes.

disContent (pp. 9-12)

A twofer: Two of my favorite "disContent" columns.

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pp. 12-20)

Twentyone product discussions (where "product" is interpreted loosely) and two editor's choice/roundups.

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 20-23)

The subtitle says it (almost) all: Some Work, Many Don't. The two that worked are both excellent--but so were some of the eight that didn't.

My Back Pages (pp. 23-28)

One essay that's way too long for MBP and five other chunks of snark.

Begging your indulgence...

2011-05-02T13:41:00.000-07:00

This blog exists to publicize new issues of Cites & Insights. Period.

I've been consistent about that, with only one or two exceptions. New books: Not publicized here, for example.

Today, I'm making an exception--linking to a post on Walt at Random that may relate to the future of C&I.

Please read the post and offer comments--not here, but either on that post or as email to me (waltcrawford at gmail dot com).

Cites & Insights 11:5 (May 2011) available

2011-04-07T13:00:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 11:5 (May 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i5.pdf

The 44-page issue is PDF as usual, and consists of 1.5 essays. Each essay (or portion) is also available as an HTML separate; click on the essay titles. If this seems like an all-ebook issue, that's not intentional.

This issue includes:

Perspective: Writing about Reading (continued) pp. 1-16

This essay completes Perspective: Writing about Reading from the April 2011 C&I, with sections on how ebooks will (if you believe the authors) change reading and writing; "all singing! all dancing"--in which the only future for books is as multimedia extravaganzas; and writing about writing. It's snarkier than the first portion, even though it's been heavily desnarked.

The Zeitgeist: 26 is Not the Issue pp. 16-44

This abecedary goes from Absurd licenses to... Well, no, the topic is the only one truly suitable for the Zeitgeist label at the moment--HarperCollins, pay-per-view in some form, deals with the devil and what you lose when ownership turns to licenses.

If this one seems long, I'll note two things:

It's actually the shortest of this year's major essays--but it's all appearing at once, instead of being split over two issues.

I was drawing from some 100 source documents, and in a few cases those really needed to be quoted in full. Most cite-and-comment essays average around 500 words per cited source; this one averages fewer than 250 words per cited source. (Yes, I skipped some of the original 100...)

Enjoy! Or, you know, don't.

Cites & Insights April 2011 available

2011-03-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 11:4 (April 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i4.pdf

The 32-page issue, PDF but with most essays also available as HTML separates, includes:

Perspective: Writing about Reading pp. 1-24

Dipping one toe gingerly into the ebook/ereader waters, here's the first of a two-part megaperspective on the nature of books, reading and writing. (Anticipate the snarkier second part in the May 2011 issue, barring surprises.)

Trends & Quick Takes pp. 24-27

More predictions, the gap between tools and talent, the cost of "free," and seven quicker takes.

The CD-ROM Project pp. 27-30

Six title CD-ROMs about political and cultural leadership--and, unfortunately, the message is right in the title: "Sometimes They Just Don't Work."

My Back Pages pp. 30-32

Only three of nine snarky little essays have anything to do with audiophilia--and in one case, that's stretching things.

Cites & Insights March 2011 available

2011-02-12T09:33:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 11:3 (March 2011) is now available at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i3.pdf

The 32-page issue (PDF, but with HTML separates in the links below) includes:

Bibs & Blather (p. 1)

Announcing preorder availability of Open Access: What You Need to Know Now, from ALA Editions.

Making it Work Perspective: Five Years Later: Library 2.0 and Balance (cont.) (p. 1-22)

The rest of the story, focusing on looking back, looking forward; balance in libraries; balance in librarians and service; and "the next Library 2.0?"--which I do not plan to cover.

Trends & Quick Takes Perspective: Forecasts and Futurism (p. 23-32)

Seven commentaries on how 2010 forecasts worked out, ten forecasts for 2011, two pieces on the perils of futurism and a few library futures.

Cites & Insights February 2011 available

2011-01-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 11:2 (February 2011) is now available for downloading--at http://citesandinsights.info/civi11i2.pdf (if you're not seeing the link).

The 28-page issue (in PDF form, but with each section available in crude HTML--noting that the first essay would require considerably more paper to print out than the whole PDF issue) includes:

Making it Work Perspective: Five Years Later: Library 2.0 and Balance (pp. 1-26)

It's been five years since Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0" and this seemed like a good time to revisit some of these themes.

Bibs & Blather: Where's Chapter 4? (pp. 26-28)

Why this issue does not include Chapter 4 of The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010.

Cites & Insights January 2011 now available

2010-12-20T12:53:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 11:1 (January 2011) is now available for downloading.

The 32-page issue is a PDF download as usual. HTML separates--or, in one case, PDF separate--are available for most essays; follow the links below.

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Announcing The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 (and a pre-Midwinter early-bird discount) and Cites & Insights 10 in book form (also with a pre-Midwinter discount).

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pp. 2-9)

Sixteen products and eight roundups/Editors' Choices, from USB 3.0 to Windows 7 on an 11-year-old PC.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010: Chapter 3: How, Where and When (pp. 9-18)

[Note: This link is to a 6x9" PDF.] Six aspects of most or all of the 1,304 liblogs in this massive study: How they're created (blogging software), where they're written (country of origin), how visible they are (Google Page Rank), when they began, how long they've lasted and currency (a timed snapshot of freshness of posts).

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 18-24)

From scientific articles as stories to asking professional writers for favors: five mini-essays and another five quicker takes.

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 22-24)

Three title CD-ROMs related to national parks--and a somewhat downbeat group of mini-reviews. Well, except that nps.gov is such a great contemporary resource.

Offtopic Perspective: Legends of Horror Part 2 (pp. 24-29)

Great and very good films: None. Films I wasn't willing to watch all the way through: Two. I'm done with this set, in more ways than one.

My Back Pages (pp. 29-32)

A bonus for those who download the issue as a PDF. Nine snarky little writeups on various topics--including an ingenious (but dumb) way to attempt to evade copyright.

There will not be a special Midwinter issue of Cites & Insights, particularly given the early timing of ALA Midwinter 2011 and the fact that I won't be attending.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 now available

2010-12-07T09:18:00.001-08:00

One of the occasional exceptions to the "just announcements of C&I" rule for this blog--because C&I Books and the ejournal are closely linked.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010

The most comprehensive study of liblogs (and, I suspect, the most comprehensive study of blogs in any specific field) is now available--and discounted from now through the end of ALA Midwinter 2011.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 looks at every English-language liblog

[that is, blog by a self-identified library/archives/museum person, or blog about library/archives/museum issues, that isn't an official blog offering an institution's or groups views]

that had a presence on the open web in early summer 2010 and at least one post before June 1, 2010.

That's 1,304 liblogs in all, from more than two dozen countries.

Even though this book doesn't include profiles for individual liblogs (unlike The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008, now out of print, and But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, still available), it covers so much ground and with so much analysis of the recent history of English-language liblogs that the book is still a fairly thick paperback--241 print pages (including 4 pages of front matter and a 20-page index of blogs).

The book looks at key metrics for March-May 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010: Primarily number of posts, average length per post and average comments per post, as well as changes in those metrics and patterns of metrics, but also total length and total comments.

Additionally, the book includes discussion of the overall lifespan, number of posts, and posts per month for most of the blogs--and other secondary metrics such as the software, country in which the blog was (apparently) written, when blogs began and how current the most recent post was (as of May 31, 2010).

On sale now

The 241-page 6x9" (trade) paperback, on 60# cream book paper, costs $35.00--or you can buy the PDF download for $22.50.

From now through the end of ALA Midwinter 2011, both versions come with an early-bird 25% discount, for a final price of $26.25 (plus shipping and handling) paperback, $16.88 (no shipping or handling) PDF.

But wait! There's more...

I didn't include individual liblog profiles this time around because the book would have been far too thick (at about three profiles per page, that's another 430+ pages!) and because the profiles are too much work for the apparently limited audience.

But the profiles are also interesting. So here's an offer:

For each copy sold, I'll post four individual blog profiles on Walt at Random...doing them in absolute alphabetic order. (I'd probably post four profiles at a time.)

"Absolute alphabetic order" is the sort order Excel provides including initial articles, punctuation and all.

So if the book sells 326 copies, I'll post all the profiles...sooner or later.

Wondering when the first Cites & Insights for 2011 (volume 11) will appear?

The most I can say at this point is: Almost certainly before ALA Midwinter 2011. Certainly not this week, almost certainly not next week, maybe not in 2010.

Cites & Insights Volume 10 index available

2010-11-11T13:00:00.000-08:00

The title sheet and indices for Cites & Insights Volume 10 are now available.

The PDF combines a volume title sheet, two-page index to articles cited, and 13-page general index.

That completes Volume 10. The paperback version will be announced when it's ready.

Cites & Insights December 2010 available

2010-11-08T13:00:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 10:12 (December 2010) is now published and available for downloading.

The 34-page issue is, as always, in PDF form. Five of the six (6! count them, 6) essays are available separately, using the links below. (As always, My Back Pages is exclusively for PDF readers.)

This is not the end of Volume 10, although it is the last issue as such. A title sheet and indices will follow, probably later in November, and the annual paperback print volume will become available at some point.

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Announcing the publication of disContent: The Complete Collection, a limited-edition casebound. Also updating plans for The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 and repeating the same info as the paragraph above regarding the rest of Volume 10.

Perspective: Futurism and Deathwatches (pp. 2-17)

Thoughts on good and bad futurism and (always-bad?) deathwatches...including the final disContent column, "'Is Dead' Isn't Dead--But Maybe It Should Be."

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 17-19)

Kidstuff: Three CD-ROMs designed for kids, all of which I scored as Excellent back in the day. Two work, one doesn't...the latter being perhaps the most intriguing of the lot.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010: 2. Methods and Metrics (pp. 19-26)

The draft version of Chapter 2 of The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010, the first of several chapters to appear in C&I. Note that this link yields a 6x9 PDF, formatted as the book will be, rather than an HTML page.

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection, Part 3 (pp. 26-33)

Discs 13-18 of this 60-disc 250-movie megacollection, including one classic and two near-classics.

My Back Pages (pp. 33-34)

Six snarky little essays in a bonus for whole-issue readers.

If you're wondering, while Volume 10 is about 100 pages longer than I'd originally planned, it is not the longest volume. Volume 9 (2009) holds that honor(?), and I hope will continue to do so.

Cites & Insights November 2010 available

2010-10-13T13:55:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 10:11 (November 2010) is now available for downloading.

The 24-page issue is PDF as usual, but HTML separates are available for each essay (click on the essay titles). The issue includes:

Bibs & Blather: Three Times Ten pp. 1-4

Notes about a tenth anniversary, a readership update...and notes and queries about The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010, the nearly-universal English-language liblog project I'm currently working on.

The CD-ROM Project: From Print to CD pp. 4-8

Three different CD-ROMs (and sets) that attempted to add value of some sort to print books or magazines.

The Zeitgeist: Blogging Groups and Ethics pp. 8-18

A brouhaha in one blogging group, thinking about groups and blogs...and thinking about ethics and codes.

Offtopic Perspective: Legends of Horror, Part 1 pp. 18-24

This is not a set of legendary horror films. Instead, it's a set of films that feature someone who could be considered a legend of horror films if you're really loose with the word "legend." Don't expect great movies here... (Note for when Part 2 comes around rapidly: This was ready for the September issue, but held over because 60 pages was way more than enough.)

Cites & Insights September/October 2010 Available

2010-08-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

A very special (and very long) Cites & Insights is now available: Volume 10, Issue 10, September/October 2010.

It's at http://citesandinsights.info/civ10i10.pdf, if you're not seeing the links.

The 60-page issue (which, at 1.5MB, may take a little longer than usual to download) is PDF-only and consists of one essay:

But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009

Except for a few paragraphs (most of page 56), this is taken entirely from the book But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, which is still available. Page 56 summarizes what's not in the issue--a few graphs, one column of quite a few tables, a substantial portion of one text-only chapter...and all 521 liblog profiles.

Pages 57-60 contain an index to liblog names and people's names within the issue--since it came directly from the Word document used for the book, it was easy to create a new index (the book index uses W0rd's internal indexing features), and a group of advisers from that august body, the Library Society of the World, encouraged me to include it.

Since the issue includes dozens of tables and a fair number of graphs, and since it would be vastly longer in printed-HTML form, no HTML version is provided.

Does "September/October" mean there won't be an issue for another two months?

It means this is three times as long as my target size for issues and twice as long as most actual issues. It means there might not be another issue before the November 2010 issue...depending on a whole bunch of other things.

Meanwhile, enjoy. And to the 17 people and libraries who actually purchased the book to date: Thanks. I hope a few others join you. There's a bunch of good stuff in the book that isn't in this issue.

August 2010 Cites & Insights available

2010-07-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 10:9, August 2010, is now available.

The 34-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML versions of each article are available--the article titles are links) includes:

Perspective: On Social Media and Social Networks pp. 1-10

I no longer believe "Social Media" names anything real--or at least not anything interesting (except to marketers). That's the "tl;dr" version. I think the longer version is worth reading.

The CD-ROM Project pp. 10-13

It's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide, which may be all I really need to say about the first of three CD-ROMs reviewed here--in this case, a seven-CD set that works very well.

Perspective: On Words, Meaning and Context pp. 13-18

Do you own your words? If people feel free to moonwalk away from what they say, is it possible to have useful discussions?

Making it Work pp. 18-26

It's summertime (for most but certainly not all C&I readers), and that seems like a good time to deal with some miscellaneous items--sort of a reversion to the old "The Library Stuff" sections. I discuss a baker's dozen worth of posts and library-related discussions.

Trends & Quick Takes pp. 26-30

More miscellany--this time including four mini-perspectives and nine quicker takes.

This issue has no sponsorship (other than those of you who choose to sponsor it). You're likely to see a longer gap before the next (September 2010) issue, for various reasons... Meanwhile, enjoy what's here.

Cites & Insights article links fixed

2010-06-09T13:30:00.001-07:00

The article links for Cites & Insights 10:8 (in this post and on the C&I site itself) have been fixed and should be working.

(Actually, the links were fine; I just misnamed the four files.)

Sorry about that.

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

2010-06-09T07:29:00.001-07:00

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...

Cites & Insights June 2010 available

2010-05-13T10:24:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 10:7 (June 2010) is now available.

The 34-page issue is, as usual, PDF; each essay is also available as an HTML separate

(just click on the links, or use the highly sophisticated notational scheme, http://citesandinsights.info/vNiMx.htm, where N is the volume (10), M is the issue (7), and x is a lower-case letter indicating the article, starting with a, then b, then c...)

What's Here

Bibs & Blather...pp. 1-3

Announcing the new book Open Access and Libraries: Essays from Cites & Insights, 2001-2009, a 519-page 6x9 book combining all OA-related essays from C&I--free as a PDF, minimally priced ($17.50) as a trade paperback. Also a note on ALA and my rehearsals for [semi-?]retirement.

The Zeitgeist: There is No Future...pp. 3-19

You could think of this as a Making it Work Perspective on library futures, if you prefer--focusing on exclusionary vs. inclusionary thinking (OR vs. AND), The Future vs. many futures...and more.

Feedback and Following Up...pp. 19-20

Finally (and probably having missed some feedback), a little feedback--three items in all.

Copyright Currents: Catching Up with the RIAA...pp. 20-27

Yes, the RIAA says they've wound down their vastly offensive campaign of suing 30,000+ file-sharers for a few thousand bucks each--and, during that process, exactly two cases have gone to jury trial. Guess what? So far, the RIAA's batting 1000 in those cases. This piece brings us up to date on the longest-running case (Jammie Thomas, now Jammie Thomas-Rassset)--and ads notes on the other one, Joel Tenenbaum, where a defense lawyer's novel interpretation of fair use was so convincing that the judge ordered a directed verdict...in favor of the plaintiff.

Offtopic Perspective: Spaghetti Westerns...pp. 27-34

That's the name of the five-disc set containing 20 movies covered in this set of offhand impressions (although in 2.5 cases I refer back to an earlier impression). For a few of you on FriendFeed, inclusion of this piece also means I don't plan to do a special "summer silliness" issue--and will integrate my odd digital media archaeology project, if and when, into regular issues of C&I.

Sponsorship and Support

This is the penultimate issue sponsored by the Library Society of the World. Chances are, the final such issue (July 2010) will appear before the 2010 ALA Annual Conference (although that's not guaranteed).

After that, I'm in need of sponsorship or, failing that, direct support. If you regard C&I as worthwhile, one way to show that is to provide some support: The PayPal link is right on the C&I home page.

Cites & Insights 10:6 available

2010-04-18T12:09:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 10:6, May 2010, is now available at http://citesandinsights.info/civ10i6.pdf

The 32-page issue, PDF as usual, consists of two essays, each available separately in HTML form (click on the essay title):

Making it Work - Generations (pp. 1-11)

Lots of commentary about generation generalizations (gengen) and lots of commentary full of gengen--plus some discussions of cases where age, technology and culture really may interact.

Old Media/New Media (pp. 11-32)

Yes, it's been almost two years; no, I didn't give up on this theme. This roundup comes in three parts: Media in general (and specific media other than books, magazines and newspapers); magazines and periodicals (which are overlapping, not concentric, circles); and newspapers.

This issue is sponsored by the Library Society of the World, a sponsorship that will continue through June or July...after which, I'm very much looking for sponsorship.

Regular readers of Walt at Random may have noticed that I reviewed the final disc in the five-disc Spaghetti Westerns set. So why isn't there an Offtopic Perspective in this issue? Because I wanted two "real" perspectives and didn't want a 40-page issue...look for it in a later issue.

Cites & Insights 10:5, Spring 2010

2010-03-25T18:16:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 10:5, Spring 2010, is now available.

This issue and the May and June issues (at least) are sponsored by the Library Society of the World. Don't assume that LSW members agree with what's being said--and please do check the masthead on page 30.

The 30-page issue (PDF as usual, but both essays are available as HTML separates) contains two features:

Bibs & Blather pp. 1-4

Sponsorship, Semi-Retired and Other Quandaries: If you regularly read Walt at Random, you can probably skip this essay, since it mostly repeats what I said in posts on March 13, March 15 and March 18, 2010. [Yes, I will be at ALA Annual, from Friday late morning through Sunday evening, thanks to LSW.]

The Zeitgeist: hypePad and buzzkill pp. 4-30

The first of a new occasional feature, The Zeitgeist. This essay considers two big Silicon Valley companies that rely heavily on the trust and good will of users--and very different recent situations with each one. The first section (pp. 4-25) is about hypePad--the level of hype that preceded and followed the announcement of Apple's iPad. The second section (pp. 25-30) is about buzzkill: Google's remarkably clumsy and intrusive introduction of a new social network.

Enjoy!

Cites & Insights 10:4 (April 2010) Now Available

2010-03-04T14:07:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 10:4 (April 2010) is now available at http://citesandinsights.info/civ10i4.pdf

The 30-page issue is a PDF print-over-the-web publication, as usual, although three of the four essays are also available in HTML form (the article titles are links). As always, My Back Pages is a PDF-only bonus.

This issue includes:

Perspective: On Disconnecting and Reconnecting (pp. 1-9)

Can you turn off all your "connecting" devices for an hour, a day, a week? Should you? A number of librarians and others discuss the virtues of disconnecting from virtual life once in a while--and maybe reconnecting with ourselves, nature and our real-world friends.

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 9-16)

The good old days that never were, blaming the user for bad survey design, the difference between production tools and creative talent, checklists for writing and publishing--and ten quicker takes on an even wider range of topics.

Making it Work: Thinking about Blogging 5: Closing the Loop

The close of this four-part series (there was no Thinking about Blogging 3), on how we should blog--and notes on some impressive blog research, miscellaneous issues, and a brief threnody on a dead blog.

My Back Pages

Nine little essays on topics as diverse as crackpot physics, how to get diners to spend more, stretching "obsolete" past its limits--and powering a 600-watt device with a 2.5-watt source!

Cites & Insights for March 2010

2010-02-09T14:49:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 10:3 (March 2010) is now available.

The 26-page issue, PDF as usual (with HTML separates for each essay), includes two essays:

Making it Work: Philosophy and Future (pp. 1-22)

Two clusters--one on the philosophy and values of libraries and the other on high-profile statements on libraries and their future.

Perspective: Writing about Reading 5: Going Down Slow (pp. 22-26)

Slow reading and related topics.

Cites & Insights 10:2 available

2010-01-19T16:02:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 10:2 (February 2010) is now available.

The 32-page issue (PDF as usual, with individual articles available in HTML, using the links below) includes:

T&QT Perspective: Trends & Forecasts (pp. 1-16)

A heaping helping of trends, forecasts, ghosts of trends past--and deathspotting. (No, this roundup does not include the Midwinter LITA Top Tech Trends--or any other trendiness actually appearing in 2010. Maybe later.)

Perspective: Music, Silence & Metrics (pp. 16-25)

Are the loudness wars mushing up your music? Maybe so. I report on the problem with excessive dynamic compression, some steps being taken to identify and combat the desire of producers to MAKE IT ALL LOUD, and two sets of real-world metrics. If you ever really listen to music, you should care about this issue.

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection Part 1 (pp. 25-32)

Notes on the first six discs in the 250-movie, 60-disc Mystery Collection, including half a dozen Bulldog Drummond flicks, three Dick Tracy--and eight Sherlock Holmes. Here's a mystery: Will I keep doing C&I long enough to review this entire set? That would take us into Volume 14...

Cites ON a Plane 2010: Pre-Midwinter non-issue available

2010-01-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

That's right--here's another non-issue for your reading pleasure to and from Midwinter, with (almost) no new material:

Cites ON a Plane 2010

Stuff That Originally Appeared in Cites & Insights - 50 pages

Perspectives ON...

Conferences in a Time of Limits

Ethics and Transparency

Semantics, Reality, Learning and Rockstars

Disagreement and Discussion (with followup)

The Middle

Numeracy, Naïveté, Google & Pew

The Literature

Note: The links in the bullets are to the original essays, all of which appeared in 2007 and 2008. The essays in Cites ON a Plane 2010 (PDF as usual) have had URLs removed and in some cases been trimmed slightly to make them fit.

Caveats and New Material

While 25 sheets (50 pages, printed duplex) is nothing compared to the paper you'll cope with during Midwinter, this non-issue is primarily intended for ereading. It has bookmarks for the essays and subheadings (but no table of contents), and it does reflow (although how well it reflows...well, that's up to your PDF reader). It supports Adobe Reader's text-to-speech capabilities (strange as they are).

But then, 25 sheets isn't all that much...

This non-issue will disappear on or about January 19, 2010. It might be included in the book version of Volume 10, but it might not (50 pages is a significant chunk of an already-thick volume).

The new material in the issue consists of an introduction and one, count it, one paragraph added as a postscript to the first essay. Here they are, for those of you who wonder but who really aren't planning to download the whole issue:

Ceci N’est Pas Une Édition

Cue Magritte, not spinning in his grave. This is not an ejournal. More precisely, this is not an issue of Cites & Insights and doesn’t carry an ISSN, proper date, volume and issue number, or masthead.

Other than this introduction, footers citing the source of each essay and one very brief update, this is entirely selected reprints—on the theme of the second word of the issue’s non-title: ON.

No table of contents. No HTML separates (those are all readily available). Just a chunk of plane reading (and I’ll try to make sure the PDF is reflowable, although I don’t have a lot of control over that)—albeit in the new typography.

The non-issue will disappear as soon as I return from the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting. It may be included in the trade paperback Cites & Insights 10: 2010.

Why? Well, Cites on a Plane 2007 seemed to get a lot of downloads, so I thought I’d try it again. Total prep time was under three hours, so…

Postscript to the first essay (On Conferences in a Time of Limits):

“I’d be surprised if ALA Midwinter and ALA Annual don’t shrink somewhat, although ALA Annual attendance varies so widely that ‘shrink’ may be hard to measure.” Count me surprised by record attendance at the 2009 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. I believe we’ll continue to be in a time of limits, and it’s certainly true that some conferences have shrunk or disappeared. Otherwise, it’s too early to comment.

When will the next real issue emerge? Shortly after Midwinter. Probably very shortly after Midwinter.

Cites & Insights 10:1 (January 2010) now available

2009-12-16T12:29:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 10:1 (January 2010) is now available.

The 30-page issue (PDF as usual, with HTML versions of the first three articles also available) includes:

Bibs & Blather (pages 1-6)

Announcing But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009, at a special earlybird price; also announcing the trade paperback version of Cites & Insights 9: 2009--and reduced prices on all Cites & Insights Books. Finally, some words about supporting Cites & Insights, which currently lacks sponsorship.

Making it Work Perspective: Thinking about Blogging 4: Declines and Ends (pages 6-22)

Quotes and comments about blogging in decline, how individual blogs change--and the process of pausing or ending a blog.

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pages 22-25)

Five items and four group reviews.

My Back Pages (pages 25-30)

As always, a PDF-only bonus section--this time including notes on Apple apologists, buying friends by the thousands, disappearing technologies, the eternal stereo silly season and Wired's equally eternal silliness--and the typographic change you'll see if you read C&I as a PDF.

Peering into the future:There will not be a Midwinter issue of Cites & Insights; the next issue will (probably) be February 2010 and will (also probably) appear after Midwinter.

Might there be a non-issue similar to the fabled "Cites On A Plane" (which exists only in the trade paperback version of C&I 7: 2007)? Possibly. Check back around January 6...

Cites & Insights: Opinions desired

2009-12-04T15:38:00.001-08:00

It's the interregnum between volumes of Cites & Insights, and also the end of current sponsorship. That's a natural time to play with the layout of the publication (postponing, for now, more substantive issues such as the future of the publication).

So I'm interrupting the series of introductory posts on But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009 (thanks to the multitudes who've already purchased it, and I hope he or she will enjoy it...) to invite reader opinions on a possible change to C&I.

Berkeley Book or Constantia?

For the last five years, Cites & Insights has used Berkeley Oldstyle Book as a text face (with Berkeley Bold for boldface, since Berkeley Book doesn't have a bold version and "bolded" typefaces are inherently ugly). It's one of the most readable serifs in the business; my alma mater knew what they were doing when they commissioned the typeface from Goudy nearly a century ago.

But it's also very much a book typeface, a little light on the printed page.

I've become quite fond of Constantia, one of the typefaces introduced by Microsoft along with either Windows Vista or Office 2007. I love the traditional non-lining nature of its numbers (to me, they're much easier to read than modern lining numerals). I like the overall flow of the typeface.

But it's heavier than Berkeley Book--and sets just a little wider as well.

What Do You Think?

I plan to make a decision before I produce the January 2010 issue (most of which is already written). I'll need to decide by Friday, December 18, since I plan to produce Volume 10 Issue 1 around December 21.

So here's the deal:

Take a look at the Constantia version of Volume 9, Issue 13.

Compare it to the published Berkeley Book version.

Yes, they're both PDFs; there's no other way I could show you Berkeley Book, since that's a licensed typeface (paid for, not transferable to other machines).

Tell me which you like better--send email to waltcrawford at gmail dot com.

One important note: The Constantia version is three pages longer...but part of that is because I wanted to generate a quick test, which meant not going through the issue to do copyfitting (e.g., tightening the text in some paragraphs to eliminate a one-word last line). I'm nearly certain that copyfitting would bring that down to 34 pages and possibly to 33 pages--it will require a little more space, but not as much as you see here.

So: Opinions?

Oh, and if you know of a possible sponsor...that would be even more appreciated.

But Still They Blog now available

2009-11-29T12:08:00.000-08:00

But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009 is now available--at a special early-bird price through the end of the ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting (January 19, 2010 or thereabouts).

This 319-page trade paperback provides a sweeping look at liblogs (blogs created by library people but, generally, not blogs that are official library publications), with trends, facts, figures, graphs, and profiles for each of 521 liblogs.

What's Here

The liblogs included here (you'll find the whole list in the sidebar) appear because:

They're in English.

They began in December 2008 or earlier.

They have at least some relevance to libraries and librarianship, although that point gets stretched in a few cases.

They had at least three posts during March-May 2007, March-May 2008, or March-May 2009.

They were available on the web in the summer of 2009 (even if they'd ceased).

They were known to me--either because they were listed in the LISWiki list of blogs or the LISZen list of blogs or because they showed up in one of a hundred or so blogrolls that I checked.

They were "visible"--in this case, having a Google Page Rank of at least 4 in either early fall 2008 or early summer 2009.

That final criterion was used deliberately to narrow this study's focus slightly from the 2007-2008 study (which continues to be available, The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look.). I'd hoped to get down to 400-450 blogs, making analysis easier and the book shorter. I didn't manage to do quite that well, although the list of 607 blogs from the earlier study did come down to 480 (there are 41 new blogs).

If you're wondering: Only 50 liblogs were eliminated because of their low visibility. The others were either non-English [19], defunct (that is, no longer viewable in August 2009 and with no clear trail to a new URL or blogname) [15, plus three that now require passwords], or didn't have at least three posts in March-May 2007 or March-May 2008 [37]...or, in three cases, really didn't have any posts that had anything at all to do with libraries.

What's Discussed

I'll be doing a series of posts and articles over the next few (many?) months noting some of the metrics and offering some of the content, but here's the gist:

The first chapter discusses the age of liblogs, blogging platform used, and currency as of September 30, 2009 (how long it had been since the most recent post).

The second and third chapters discuss posting frequency and changes in frequency.

Chapter 4 considers the length of blogs--and, more interesting, the average length of posts in blogs (and the changes in both of those metrics).

Chapter 5 deals with conversations: Number of comments per blog and per post and changes in conversational intensity (number of comments per post).

Chapter 6 considers standouts and standards--blogs that score consistently across multiple metrics or multiple years.

Chapters 7 and 8 consider patterns of change across three key metrics (frequency, average post length, average comments per post) for 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 respectively.

Chapter 9 considers correlations and averages, including averages for a very large subset of the liblog universe that might be considered "typical."

Chapter 10 considers why people blog and how blogs change.

Chapter 11 discusses stopping and pausing.

Unlike last year's study, this book distributes blog profiles throughout the chapters, typically including a profile when the blog shows up as noteworthy in one particular dimension. The final chapter includes profiles for "the rest of the liblogs"--50-odd blogs, some of which are indeed noteworthy for content but don't happen to stand out in metrics.

There's an index of blogs (with all mentions) and bloggers (only when they're actually named). The page on which the blog is profiled appears in boldface in the index.

Special Pricing

From now until the end of the ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting (roughly January 19, 2010), But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009 will be available for a special introductory price:

The 6x9 trade paperback costs $29.50. (Lulu Media Mail shipping is now a flat $3.99 for all paperbacks, at least in the U.S.)

The book is also available as a downloadable PDF for $20.00

Those prices will go up $5.50 and $5 respectively after Midwinter.

Reduced Prices on C&I Books

Prices on all other Cites & Insights Books have also been reduced, effective immediately:

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look is now $25 paperback, $16 PDF.

Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change is now $25 paperback, $16 PDF.

All four 8.5x11 trade paperback annual editions of Cites & Insights (including the massive 2009 edition) are now $35 each for paperback, $25 each for PDF. That includes Volume 6, 2006; Volume 7, 2007; Volume 8, 2008; and Volume 9, 2009.

Cites & Insights 9 available as trade paperback

2009-11-17T13:43:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 9 (2009) is now available as a 434-page, 8.5x11, trade paperback, exclusively from Lulu.

The volume includes all 13 issues, exactly as published (typos and all), except that the two book covers in the January issue are in grayscale, not color.

It also includes a contents list showing the articles and pages in each issue, and a volume index.

The price is $50, for either the paperback or a PDF download; a portion of that price goes to support the ongoing publication of Cites & Insights.

The book is printed on bright-white 50lb. paper (my copy looks great!).

As to the cover (a wraparound color photo--you're only seeing the front part here):

Taken by my wife on Molokai, years ago, on the Kaluakakoi golf course running alongside our room at what was then, I believe, a Sheraton at the Ke Nani Kai resort on Molokai's isolated west coast. (The hotel's been closed for some time...tourism on Molokai is an iffy thing.) The only manipulation done to the picture (scanned from a 3x4 print) was to flip it horizontally, so most of the tree would be on the front cover rather than the back. Crappy type position is entirely my responsibility.

Cites & Insights volume 9 indexes now available

2009-11-08T14:32:00.001-08:00

The indexes and title sheet for Cites & Insights volume 9 (2009) is now available.

The 16-page PDF consists of a title sheet, a three-page index of articles and blog posts quoted, and an 11-page general index.

This completes Volume 9.

A paperback version of Cites & Insights 9: 2009 will be available some time in the next few weeks. (I need to choose a photograph, prepare a cover and prepare the book for print-on-demand publication, and a few other things have higher priority.) It will cost $50 and be available exclusively through Lulu, as with each of the previous three paperback volumes.

Cites & Insights 9:13 now available

2009-11-03T18:05:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 9:13 (December 2009) is now available.

The 32-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML separates are available--see the links below, and also the caveat about the second item) includes:

Bibs & Blather

It's the end of a volume (except for the index, later in November) and the end of an era--YBP's five-year sponsorship. I'm looking for a new sponsor. Also, But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009 should be out some time this year...

Making it Work: Purpose, Values and All That Jazz

Commentaries on library values and purpose, including some upbeat commentaries. What's not here: any commentaries on Taiga, Darien or 101. Caveat: The HTML version is provided for online reading--but if you print it out, it will almost certainly be longer than the PDF of the entire issue. Save paper: If you want this printed, do the whole issue.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Classics, Part 2

From "comedy in the classical sense" (that is, most characters survive throughout the film) to little-known but quite funny British films and two versions of a Ben Hecht play, with different genders playing the same lead.

Reminder: This isn't quite the end of Volume 9. Some time later, probably in November, I'll publish the index and title page--but for those who want a bound set of Volume 9, there's a better route: Some time after that, I'll publish the whole volume (by far the longest to date, and that was not intentional) on Lulu, for the same $50 as volumes 6, 7 and 8.

Cites & Insights 9:12 now available

2009-10-03T15:40:00.001-07:00

Yes, I know it's pretty early in October for the November issue--but it's ready, and I wanted to stay well out of the way of Open Access Week, so...

Cites & Insights 9:12 (November 2009) is now available

This 34-page issue (PDF as usual, but an HTML version is available if you plan to read it online) consists of one essay:

Library Access to Scholarship

A year's worth of source material and commentary, organized into:
Mandates, Policies and Compacts
The Colors of OA
Numbers
Scandal!
Framing and Mysteries
The Problem(s) with Green OA
Quality, Value and Progress
Miscellany
Conclusion

Chances are, this is the last hurrah for Library Access to Scholarship and my semi-active independent commentary on open access. To coin a phrase, this may be the optimal and inevitable conclusion to close to a decade of work in this area.

One note (repeated at the start of the HTML version): Please don't use the HTML version if you plan to print more than a small portion of the essay. The PDF issue prints out as 34 pages. Depending on your browser and other settings, the HTML version will require 48 to 51 pages, possibly more. (I happen to think the PDF version is a lot more readable as well, but that's probably only true if you're reading in print--which is why I make the HTML version available.)

Cites & Insights 9:11 now available

2009-09-14T11:00:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:11 (October 2009) is now available.

The 30-page issue is, as usual, PDF, with HTML separates available for most of the essays. The issue includes:

Bibs & Blather

Sponsorship still needed, status reports on Cites & Insights Books (one book gone, one going soon...and a new project underway), and one more chance (11 days) to help me decide whether to keep Library Access to Scholarship.

Perspective: Writing about Reading 4

A variety of perspectives on that long-time favorite, The Death of (Print) Books.

Trends & Quick Takes

Seven mini-commentaries and six quicker takes...including a slightly skeptical take on Wolfram|Alpha and fanboy commentators.

Copyright Currents

Musings on fair use--and why it's important that it's an exception to copyright protections, not just a defense against infringement. (Would'ja believe dancing babies?)

My Back Pages

Always a bonus for full-issue readers (it's never available in HTML), this brief installment includes five brief snarky commentaries.

Cites & Insights 9:10 (September 2009) available

2009-08-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:10 (September 2009) is now available.

This 28-page issue includes the results of two followup "research" projects and a certain amount of summer silliness. The issue is PDF. While three of the four essays are available in HTML form (as links from the essay titles below), I really don't recommend viewing either of the research projects that way--they're heavy on tables, and it's fair to say that Word's HTML converter was overzealous in its preparation of tables: They may or may not look very good, and they result in quarter-megabyte downloads. The PDF version is much easier to read...

Here's what's in the issue--and yes, some of the "regular" features may return soon:

Perspective: Public Library Blogs: A Limited Update

I looked at May 2009 posts and comments, and the most recent post prior to May 31, 2009, for all of the public library blogs in the book Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples (based on blog activity March-May 2007). This update considers currency, frequency, comments and conversational intensity and how those have changed from 2007 to 2009--and includes brief notes on pioneer blogs and some of the blogs I found particularly intriguing. (The HTML is large and may not look all that great.) With this update, my work on these blogs is complete--and the spreadsheet's yours for the taking, if you're so inclined.

Offtopic Perspective: Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins

I didn't buy this 4-disc, 20-movie (actually 18 movies, two TV episodes, and a great hour's worth of trailers); I received it as a gift. The usual little reviews on a bunch of movies that you might find unusual if you only know the Hollywood Hitchcock.

Perspective: Academic Library Blogs: A Limited Update

Similar to the public library blogs update noted above, this looks at currency (prior to May 31, 2009), posting frequency, comments and conversational intensity for May 2009 of the same 231 academic library blogs included in Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples--or as many of those blogs as I could still easily find. The discussion includes brief notes on pioneers and some of the standout blogs in 2007--how they're doing in 2009. Again, this ends my work in this area; the resulting spreadsheet is yours for the taking.

My Back Pages

As usual, this section is a "print bonus"--it's only available in the full-issue PDF. That's particularly relevant for one of the eight little essays in this section (discussing the typeface that spawned a worldwide movement to ban it). For those who've felt My Back Pages spent too much virtual ink on audio matters: Only the two shortest of these eight commentaries have anything to do with audio, and in one case that connection is a stretch.

That's it for this issue--which, as Whole Issue 120, would have been the final issue of C&I's first decade if I'd stuck to the original frequency.

Meanwhile, do note that Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples (currently available as a download from Lulu or a trade paperback from Amazon/CreateSpace) will go out of print and off sale on or about September 1, 2009. Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples will probably follow, a month later.

Cites & Insights 9:9 (August 2009) available

2009-07-05T14:43:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:9 (August 2009) is now available--just in time for the 2009 ALA Annual Conference. That's not a coincidence, to be sure; although the issue may not be directly relevant to the conference, if I didn't publish it now, it wouldn't be out until at least July 19.

This one's 32 pages, PDF as usual, but those who detest PDF or otherwise really need HTML can download the three articles separately.

The issue includes:

Perspective: Writing about Reading 3

The theme for this installment: Rethinking books and rethinking reading. Which means most of the long essay is about ebooks and ebook devices. (How long? A little more than half the issue, that's how long.)

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Classics, Part 1

What's funny is generally in the eye of the beholder, although I suppose there may be objective criteria for labeling a flick a comedy. Watching the many early shorts and early movies in this first half of a 12-DVD collection was sometimes hilarious, frequently a little painful. (If I never see another East Side Kids "comedy" that will be just fine with me.) There's some gold here--and some dross as well.

Making it Work: Library 2.0 Revisited

A large handful of items spread out over almost two years--very much a once over lightly. (Yes, Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0" continues to be downloaded almost as often as any current issue. $0.25 for each copy downloaded would nicely cover sponsorship for the next 18 months...)

Cites & Insights 9:8 (July 2009) now available

2009-06-09T15:18:00.000-07:00

I've just published Cites & Insights 9:8 (July 2009).

The 30-page issue, PDF as usual but with HTML versions of most essays, includes:

Bibs & Blather

Notes on sponsorship for C&I, the status of four possible future projects--and the move of Walt at Random to ScienceBlogs.

Making it Work Perspective: Thinking about Blogging 2: Why We Blog

Continuing the discussion of blogging philosophy and practice that began in Cites & Insights 9:5 with a focus on reasons for blogging.

Interesting & Peculiar Products

Seven individual items and technologies, plus eight editors' choices and group reviews. From high-def Bluetooth to whether you can call a $1,500 computer a netbook...

Perspective: On Privatization

Musings on whether Charles Dodgson had the proper theory of language (as stated by his character, noted wordsmith H. Dumpty), plus unaltered copies of the two blog posts (and most of the comments) at issue.

Trends & Quick Takes

Three trendy items: Myths and limits, "They are not your friends" and the world of plentiful bandwidth.

My Back Pages

Nine little items on nine less serious topics; as usual, this one's a bonus for those who download the issue.

Cites & Insights 9:7, June 2009, available

2009-05-05T16:10:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:7 (June 2009) is now available.

The 48-page issue is only available in PDF form (it includes 16 graphs and more than 60 tables, and it just wasn't worthwhile to generate the HTML version, which would probably run 65-80 pages).

It's another special issue:

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look

Chapters 1 through 11 of the book of the same name, complete (except for chapter numbers and one secondary column in a few tables). It's the equivalent of 121 book pages.

The book continues to be available. (First link: Lulu version. Second: Amazon version, with ISBN.) The book includes

Larger, easier-to-read graphs (30% wider, 30% taller).

One extra data column in some tables (a data column that just could not be squeezed into the narrower column width of C&I, even by reducing type size)

Larger type for all tables

And, to be sure, Chapter 12, Liblog Profiles--147 pages containing 607 individual liblog profiles. The book also has an index of blog titles and authors.

If Andersonomics really works, a bunch of you will rush out to order the book after you've been enticed with this free version...

Cites & Insights 9:6, May 2009, available

2009-04-14T14:09:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:6, May 2009, is now available.

The 28-page issue is PDF as usual, although HTML separates are available for most essays (from the links below).

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather

Two million and counting: Notes on the first two million words of C&I, including the most widely-read issues (or, rather, "what I know about readership except for the first two years") and most widely-read essays since 2004. Also a note on one "why" for the two major essays--the other "why" being life changes getting in the way of original essays.

Public Library Blogs

Most of the first 65 pages of Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples, excluding some overall lists of included blogs and the individual blog profiles. If the gurus of Andersonomics are right, this free access to most of the overall text will inspire lots of you to go buy the print book... If not, at least the study will get a lot more readership.

Academic Library Blogs

Most of the first 62 pages of Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples, excluding individual blog profiles and one section that's an exact duplicate of the same section in Public Library Blogs. What I said above, but more so.

My Back Pages

Three brief commentaries.

Cites & Insights 9:5 available

2009-03-18T17:53:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 9:5, April 2009, is now available.

The 32-page issue is PDF as usual, with HTML versions (such as they are) for each essay available via the links below.

The issue includes:

Making it Work Perspective: Thinking about Blogging: 1

Do comments make a blog a blog? Is the "blogosphere" imploding? Have conversations moved elsewhere? And some offhand notes about blogs as a median medium, in an "interesting sweet spot in a casual media hierarchy of length, thought and formality."

Perspective: Writing about Reading 2

Ignoring the Death of Serious Reading, which is as specious as the Death of Blogs, the Death of Print Media and even (in my opinion) the Sudden Death of Newspapers, we look at some other reading-related topics--Aliteracy and Online and Print Reading. A third topic somehow moved over into...

Library Access to Scholarship

The Death of Journals (Film at 11). That's the overall title, and no, I don't believe journals are nearing sudden death either...but the topics this time around do relate to journals: Are print journals obsolete? Should professional journals evolve into blogs?

Net Media: Beyond Wikipedia

It's not about Wikipedia--or maybe it's (indirectly) all about Wikipedia. After some questions as to why so many people seem to love monopolies so much, there's a bunch of Knol knotes and some catching up with Citizendium--and a few brief notes on Wikia (which is not Wikipedia).

And that's it for April.

Cites & Insights 9:4 (March 2009) available

2009-02-20T17:20:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 9:4 (March 2009) is now available.

The 30-page issue (PDF as usual, but there's an HTML version of the essay) consists of one essay:

Perspective: The Google Books Search Settlement

As an author with nine out of print books (to which I hold the rights): Great! I might see a couple hundred dollars...eventually. As one who cares about fair use: Boo! Google backed away from a case I thought they could win--and did so in a way that will make it harder for others in a similar situation. As a reader: Great--Google Books Search will continue to grow, and we'll see more than snippess from (some? most?) of five million out-of-print/in-copyright books. (As for "buying" such books, or rather, "permanent" online access to indifferently-scanned pages that can't be downloaded as PDFs and don't appear to have first-sale rights: Eh.) As a library supporter and user: Unclear--extremely unclear.

We won't have final answers for a long time. Meanwhile, this issue reviews some of the summaries and commentaries, throwing in a fair amount of my own commentary.

Barring truly unusual events, the April issue will have more than one essay, and almost certainly more than two.

One note: While there is an HTML version of the essay, please don't print out that version. It will require 38 pages (or more), and it's almost certainly not as readable as the 30-page PDF. I'm providing it for online viewing, downloading, cut & paste, whatever...but printing it would just be wasting paper.

Cites & Insights 9:3 (February 2009) available

2009-02-08T13:42:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 9:3, February 2009, is now available for downloading.

The 30-page issue is PDF, as usual. Three of the essays are available as HTML separates (using the links below). The first, which is also the longest, is available as a PDF separate--the inclusion of embedded Excel graphs within the document made HTML creation more cumbersome than I was willing to deal with.

This issue features the article versions of my two presentations for the OLA (Ontario Library Association) SuperConference, held just over a week ago in Toronto, Ontario. The first article is a longer version of my session "Shiny Toys or Useful Tools?"; the second article includes "My own take" as the first set of Tech Trends, and that was my initial commentary during the "Top Tech Trends" session.

Issue contents:

Making it Work: Shiny Toys or Useful Tools? (pages 1-9)

Blogs and wikis aren't shiny new toys for libraries and librarians any more. They've moved from toys to tools. This article includes the only defensible definitions of blogs and wikis that I know of, some comments about planning library blogs, and sections on the state of liblogs and library blogs in December 2008. Included--for the first time in C&I--graphs, eight of them. (As noted, the link is to a 9-page PDF.)

Perspective: Tech Trends, Trends and Forecasts (pages 9-18)

It's that time of year again--time for lots of trendy commentaries. For a change, I begin with my own set: The trends I see "as vital for thinking about libraries, technology and life."That's followed by tech trends and commentaries from nine different sources, six of them library-specific; two sets of general trends, one of them just full of trendy neologisms; and three sets of forecasts (short-term predictions), one of them coupled with a scorecard for 2008.

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pages 18-23)

One long commentary on "budget" high-end audio systems and "the rule of 10," plus comments on seven products (or groups of products) and seven editors' choices and group reviews.

Trends & Quick Takes (pages 23-29)

Four longer commentaries and six quicker takes.

My Back Pages (pages 29-30)

Four brief commentaries.

Cites & Insights Midwinter 2009 (9:2) available

2009-01-09T13:13:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 9:2, Midwinter 2009, is now available.

The 34-page issue (PDF as usual) consists of either one essay or 132 essays, depending on your perspective:

A was for AAC: A Discursive Glossary, Rethought and Expanded (1-34)

That's right! Five years after the Midwinter 2004 issue, "A is for AAC: A Discursive Glossary," here it comes again, thanks to unanimous advice from those of you who chose to comment.

For 97 entries (out of roughly 100 in the 2004 issue), I've repeated portions of the 2004 commentary (preceded by Then: ) and added new commentary (preceded by Now: ) as appropriate.

Another 35 entries are wholly original to this issue (preceded by New: )

It's a little longer than the 2004 edition (34 pages instead of 20). It's mostly new material (roughly 63% new text).

Please don't print out the HTML version

I've provided the whole thing in HTML--but for on-screen use only. Please, if you're going to print it out, use the PDF: My tests show that the HTML version will require 45 pages rather than 34.

Next...

The last time I did this, one or two of you were disturbed because there wound up being two issues in 10 days. That's not going to happen this time. The February 2009 issue will appear in February 2009. Right now, less than a third of it is even in draft form--and with a presentation to prepare for OLA, and notes to prepare for an OLA panel, in addition to ALA Midwinter and OLA to attend...well, you can be certain I'm not going to wrap the February issue up all that rapidly.

And don't forget: six more early-bird shopping days...

The print and download prices of The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look go up on January 16, 2009. You still have a few days to order it at the current early-bird prices.

Cites & Insights 9:1 available

2008-12-14T15:30:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 9:1, January 2009, is now available.

This 30-page issue (PDF, but each section is available in HTML form from the links below) includes:

Bibs & Blather (pages 1-5)

Announcing The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 and an early-bird special ($22.50 through January 15, 2009). Also announcing Cites & Insights volume 8 in paperback form (a great way to show your support for C&I and my blog research)...and notes on other books and the start of a new volume.

Net Media: Wikipedia Notes (pages 5-13)

"Verifiability, not truth," Wikipedia's growing pains, the power of the editor and rise of the Wikicrats, and other notes on the messy reality of Wikipedia.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride Part 9 (pages 13-18)

Solving the "missing issue" problem (oops) and ten notes from ten issues.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Hollywood Legends, Part 2 (pages 18-26)

A wild variety, from classics such as Love Affair, Meet John Doe and The Man with the Golden Arm to pathetic cases like Chandu on the Magic Island to the pure oddity of Home Town Story, a GM-commissioned charmer about how wonderful and pure big business really is (with a bit part by a young Marilyn Monroe).

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride Part 10 (pages 26-30)

This final Retrospective appears here because the next issue will (with luck) be a little different--and I didn't want to stretch it out until March. Just a few selections and comments.

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 now available

2008-11-21T16:12:00.000-08:00

Since this book has been discussed so often in C&I, it seems only reasonable to mention this here:

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008: A Lateral Look is now available!

This 285-page 6x9 trade paperback looks at 607 liblogs (nearly all English-language) and, for most of them, how they've changed from 2007 to 2008.

Eleven chapters consider the universe of liblogs (that is, blogs by "library people" as opposed to blogs from libraries):

Age, authorship, country of origin

Number of posts during a three-month period (and change in that number from 2007 to 2008)

Total word count and average post length (and change)

Total comments and comments per post (and change)

Total figures (illustrations) and figures per post (and change)

Patterns of change from 2007 to 2008

Correlations between pairs of metrics

A look at 143 blogs from 2006 through 2008

Interesting subgroups (national, authorship, type of librarian)

The visibility issue

Liblogs and the larger blogosphere

The final chapter, just over half the book, provides a brief objective description and available metrics for each blog. The book includes many tables and a fair number of graphs. There is an index of blogs and authors.

It's the most comprehensive look at liblogs ever done--and the only one I know of that shows how they're changing from year to year.

Earlybird Price

From now through January 15, 2009, and only from Lulu, The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 is available for $22.50 plus shipping.

On January 16 or thereabouts, that price will go up to $35.00. If and when the book is available on Amazon, it will immediately sell for $35.00.

Want to know more?

You'll find a lot more about the book (or the process of creating it) by clicking on the "Liblog Landscape" category. Additionally, I plan to do a series of posts offering brief descriptions of each chapter, posing some puzzles and noting how often each blog appears in the index.

The best way to find out more, of course, is to order the book.

Cites & Insights Volume 8 now complete

2008-11-19T13:35:00.001-08:00

The Title Page and Indexes for Cites & Insights Volume 8 (2008) is now available.

The 16-page PDF consists of a title sheet for the volume (both sides) and a 14-page set of indexes (one index covering articles and songs cited, the other covering books, blogs, topics, authors, etc.)

No HTML version is available, since the indexes specifically refer to page numbers that would be irrelevant in HTML essays.

That completes Volume 8, if you're looking to bind it.

I believe a paperback version of the entire volume will be available, but not for a few weeks.

Cites & Insights 8:12 available

2008-11-16T14:14:00.001-08:00

It's only taken eight years for C&I to actually appear monthly--that is, for a volume to have only a dozen issues.

Cites & Insights 8:12 (December 2008) is now available for downloading.

The 22-page issue is PDF as usual (a nice compact PDF, as are all the other 2008 issues now that I've regenerated them with Acrobat 9), but you can also get HTML versions of most essays. (Most headings below are live links.)

Bibs & Blather

Advance notice of a special offer: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 will be available soon (late November or early December if all goes well), and will have an early-bird special price of $22.50 until January 15, 2009--at which point it will go to $35.00. (If there's an Amazon version, that will start out at $35.) The book will be announced on Walt at Random as soon as it's ready.

Also: News about disappearing books, notes on potential sponsorship for future research, and this warning: If you're one of the dozens (I can dream) of institutions that binds C&I, hold off--the title sheet and index will be ready in another week or two. (There will probably also be a paperback version of the whole volume.)

Perspective: Writing about Reading

The heart of the issue. An extended essay on NEA's latest sky-is-falling report--and on "stupidity and Google."

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 8

Just two more to go...

My Back Pages

Three audio-related pieces--but two other mini-snarks that are a little closer to home.

Cites & Insights 8:11 (November 2008) available

2008-10-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:11, November 2008, is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as always, but with HTML versions available from links here or at the Cites & Insights home page) includes five essays:

Bibs & Blather: Books and Blogs

Mostly updated versions of Walt at Random posts--library blog books going out of print soon, a progress report on The Liblog Landscape 2007-2008 (with more progress since the post) and notes on Technorati, blogs as a whole and the liblog landscape.

Making it Work: Libraries and the Social Web

Notes on aspects of social-web applications in libraries beyond blogs and wikis.

Perspective: How Common is Common Language?

An original "research" project: What happens when you try 300 everyday sentences against Google--and when you try just the first eight words of each sentence? The answers may surprise you.

Library Access to Scholarship: OA Controversies

Notes on the brouhaha when publishers tried to undo the NIH mandate by congressional hearing--and other notes on open access opposition and, for that matter, extreme positions on both sides.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 7

Just a few highlights along the way--considerably shorter than previous indulgences.

Cites & Insights 8:10 (October 2008) available

2008-09-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:10, October 2008, is now available.

The 28-page issue is PDF as usual, although HTML versions of each essay are also available from the Cites & Insights homepage or via the links below.

This issue includes five essays:

Trends & Quick Takes

Improving patents, the future of the internet, why I give Pew such a bad tome, the HD watch, the purloined bibliography and invisible gifts, plus five quicker takes.

Interesting & Peculiar Products

Six of them--including a hockey-puck home theater PC and a digital projector that throws a 98"-diagonal image from 15 inches away--and six Editors' Picks and Group Reviews

Net Media/Making it Work: Blogging about Liblogging

A range of posts and commentary about liblogs and library blogs, some up to a year old, all worth noting.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Western Classics, Part 2

From the sublime (The Outlaw) to the ridiculous (Gone with the West), with spaghetti westerns, singing cowboys and much more in between--including Bill Shatner playing an arrogant, sexist, tinhorn ruler who doesn't happen to be on a starship but is instead a half-Comanche bad guy (White Comanche)--and Shatner also plays his sort-of-good-guy twin. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 6

The responses to my "copyrights and wrongs" quiz, remembering some 1989 projections for the world of 2000-2001...and lots more.

A note about the HTML versions:

I've been tweaking the Word template used to do quick-and-dirty HTML from a document that's primarily designed for print/PDF output. I've indented the text to leave a little white space on screen, for example. I think it's getting better--but the process still yields strange gotchas now and then, such as strings of forced blanks I don't believe should be there (this time, I think, only in quotes that are also bullets).

I don't spend that much time cleaning up the HTML versions. They're just there as a courtesy to those who just can't abide PDF, for whatever reason. Cites & Insights is fundamentally a PDF publication, and I spend my layout time trying to get that to look good and work well.

Cites & Insights 8:9 (September 2008) available

2008-08-17T10:24:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 8:9 (September 2008) is now available.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML versions of the individual essays are available using the links below or at the C&I home page) includes the following five essays:

Bibs & Blather: Projects and Rejects

40% less self-indulgent than the five-part post! Some new information! Otherwise, it's largely the same material. If you feel you already know all this, skip right on over to:

Perspective: Updating the Book Discovery Projects

Microsoft dropped its project--and in the process released all limits on 300,000 scanned books and gave the scanners to its partners. That and lots more in this multipart roundup.

Perspective: On Conferences in a Time of Limits

Why do we go to conferences--and will conferences change significantly thanks to high travel costs? Some semi-informed musings and non-predictions.

Old Media/New Media

Are print newspapers really dying? Does the news revolution make us better informed? Can you really make a living from the long tail--and is that tail extending, or is the head thicking further? And, of course, a few notes about ebooks and ebook readers.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 5

This set of notes includes my own version of an ALA URL (and I'm sure those will all get better real soon...) and the Best. Issue. Ever.

Cites & Insights 8:8 available

2008-07-18T14:08:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:8, August 2008, is now available. The whole issue is PDF, but individual essays are available in HTML from the C&I home page or the article links below.

The 28-page issue includes:

©4: Locking Down Technology - A number of skirmishes in the ongoing battle for full copyright maximalism, including strange lawsuits and even stranger threats.

Perspective: On Numeracy, Naivete, Google & Pew - Did your newspaper say that Pew says 21% of atheists believe in God? Read on...

Library Access to Scholarship - A range of interesting items, one newsworthy--and, by the way, the PALINET Leadership Network has a brand-new cluster on open access.

Making it Work - A slew of comments on possibility and reality--or, if you prefer, pragmatism.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 4 - A few gems, including "Living with Contradictions" from way back in 2001.

Cites & Insights 8:7 available

2008-06-18T17:08:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:7, July 2008, is now available.

The 26-page issue is PDF as always, but most essays can also be downloaded at the Cites & Insights home page or from the links below.

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather - Why there isn't a nine-year cumulation of Top Tech Trends--and wondering about "free" and the worth of creative work.

Trends & Quick Takes - four trends (including ongoing notes on high-def discs) and four quicker takes.

Perspective: One, Two, Some, Many: Search Results & Meaning - And that's the short title! Notes on the apparent meaningless of large open web search engine result counts.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - fourteen products and eleven group reviews and editors' choices.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 3 - third in the series of centenary celebrations.

My Back Pages - Exclusive to the PDF version, as always: eight mini-rants.

Cites & Insights 8:6 available

2008-05-15T14:09:00.001-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:6, June 2008, is now available for downloading.

The 28-page issue is PDF, as usual, but (since My Back Pages is missing) all segments are also available as HTML separates at the Cites & Insights homepage.

The issue consists of:

Bibs & Blather: Quick Updates: Limits and Slouching - A brief reminder of a timely essay, and a progress report about where things stand on the possible 2007-2008 liblogs project.

Perspective: On Wikis and Transparency - Transparency is great, as long as you're aware of it. MediaWiki makes your wiki (and most other wikis) very transparent to outsiders. A good thing, but do pay attention.

©3 Perspective: DRM and ISP Surcharges - Comments on the slow death (?) of DRM for purchased audio downloads--and the latest plan to assure Big Media of ongoing profitability.

Perspective: On Semantics, Reality, Learning and Rockstars - "Reality" in this case: When is a book not a book? Discover the connections between these four mini-perspectives and win yourself a virtual candy bar!

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 2 - Selected excerpts and comments on issues past, another part of the centenary celebration.

Cites & Insights 8:5 available

2008-04-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:5, May 2008, is now available for downloading.

This 28-page issue (PDF as usual, but each essay is also available in HTML form) includes:

Bibs & Blather: One Book at a Time - A year's experience with self-publishing.

Perspective: Offtopic or Not? Mill Creek & Libraries - Do 50-movie (and 100-movie and 250-movie!) packs make sense for public libraries?

Making it Work Perspective: Changes in Liblogs: Slouching Toward a Study - How have 227 liblogs changed between 2005/2006 and 2007? Notes toward a possible study of 500+ blogs.

Net Media Perspective: Citizendium and the Writer's Voice - Notes on Citizendium and how it's developing--and why I disagree with one fundamental tenet of both Wikipedia and Citizendium.

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Hollywood Legends, Part 1 - From the sublime to the ridiculous, from Good News to The Fat Spy, two dozen movies with big-name stars.

Retrospective: Pointing with Pride, Part 1 - Looking back at "the 1s"--the first, 11th...91st issues of C&I.

Cites & Insights 8:4 now available

2008-03-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 8:4, April 2008, is now available for downloading.

The 28-page issue is PDF as usual (or not as usual--I'm now using Word 2007 and Microsoft's free PDF-output download), but HTML separates are available from the C&I homepage

The issue includes:

Bibs & Blather - a very short introduction to the issue and what got left out.

Library Access to Scholarship - Harvard and Institutional Repositories

Old Media/New Media Perspective: Thinking About Kindle and Ebooks

Making it Work Perspective: TechNos and TechMusts

By the way, if you know anyone who's been getting issue alerts via email, let them know they need to sign up for this blog or Walt at Random; Topica no longer accepts my posts (and entirely lacks help/contact info).

Cites & Insights 8:3 available - the centenary issue

2008-02-15T18:12:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 8:3 (March 2008) is now available.

This is the centenary issue--#100--a nice round number that I'm a little
surprised to have achieved. Naturally, that milestone affects the issue--but not as you might expect.

The issue's long--36 pages--and PDF as usual, although all but the last section (My Back Pages, always exclusively PDF) are also available in HTML form from the home page.

This issue includes:

100 Reasons for Doing Cites & Insights - an introduction

Trends & Quick Takes - ink costs, life without software, the significance of good sound and more: six trends, ten quicker takes.

Perspective: Tracking High-Def Discs - including a prediction for the
likely winner in the format war.

Making it Work - the biggie: 19 pages devoted to aspects of making libraries better, including reading (reader's advisory, slow reading, etc.), philosophy, hassles, balance, and "Library 2.0 debased."

Interesting & Peculiar Products - flashy labels, green PCs, supercheap laptops and more: 19 items in all.

My Back Pages - 16 mini-perspectives, none of them terribly serious.

Cites & Insights 8:2 available

2008-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 8:2 (February 2008) is now available.

The 24-page issue (PDF as always, but all articles are also available as HTML separates) includes:

Announcing Academic Library Blogs: 231 Examples - The latest from Cites & Insights Books, a $29.50 289-page paperback that complements Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. Included are brief notes, the list of academic institutions represented, examples of blog coverage for both books, the announcement of $20 PDF downloads for those who just can't stand print books--and a few notes on the status of Cites & Insights Books.

Trends & Quick Takes: Trends and Forecasts - Time to look at some pundits' scorecards and forecasts, along with some of the trends from the LITA Top Tech Trendspotters, with some of my comments interleaved.

Bibs & Blather: Midwinter Musings - Notes on a much warmer Philadelphia Midwinter, along with a special essay based on an odd but not unique occurrence: "Leadership and Initiative: The Case of the Empty Chairs."

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Western Classics, Part 1 - Roy Rogers is riding tonight, as are Tex Ritter, Gene Autry, John Wayne and a slew of others. A bunch of one hour "oaters" and a handful of pretty good pictures.

When I chatted with a few of you at Midwinter, I may have expressed concern that the February issue might be some combination of late, short and peculiar, since I didn't think I had any of it written (I forgot about the Offtopic Perspective). Well, one out of three ain't bad: It's not late and it's not short. Enjoy.

Cites & Insights 8:1 availale

2008-01-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

For perhaps the first time, the January issue that begins a new volume of Cites & Insights is available in...January.

Cites & Insights 8:1 (January 2008) is now available for downloadingThe 30-page issue (PDF as always, but HTML separates for each essay are also available) includes:

Announcing Cites & Insights volumes 6 and 7 in book form

Cites & Insights Books at Lulu.com (http://lulu.com/waltcrawford/) now offers these volumes in paperback form, $29.50 each, with a bonus in each case (and full-color cover photos). The bonus for Volume 7 is Cites on a Plane, the phantom issue from January 2007. For Volume 6, it's a brief preface including "where are they now?" notes on liblogs studied in 2005 and 2006 that have either moved, changed names or apparently gone silent.

Bibs & Blather: Thinking about Leadership

Some thoughts after a few weeks working on the PALINET Leadership Network, including my current take on "Who's a leader?"

Perspective: Discovering Books: An OCA and GBS Retrospective

A full year after the previous coverage of Open Content Alliance and Google Book Search, it's time for some updates, but also a quick retrospective of C&I coverage of these projects.

Perspective: A Time of Limits?

Does "everybody" actually use Netflix? Have we all become upper middle class? Is there some limit to disposable income--and are some of us disposing of income we don't really have? Some thoughts on ubiquity and reality.

Next month? Maybe back to "normal," whatever that might be--and maybe, just maybe, the academic library companion to Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples.

Cites & Insights: Index toVolume 7 available--but also a print version

2007-11-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

The Index to Volume 7 of Cites & Insights is now available for downloading. This 19-page document combines a title sheet and 17-page indexes, for those wishing to prepare a bound volume.

On the other hand, why bother?

For the low, low price of $35.00 (plus shipping), you can acquire Cites & Insights 7, 2007 in paperback form, including full-color cover. (Two library-related photos, one from Alaska, one from Hawaii.)

But wait! There's more! The book version of C&I includes an exclusive bonus, not available anywhere else (as far as I know): Cites on a Plane, the phantom 38-page non-issue that was only available for two weeks in January 2007. It's not in the index--but it is in the book.

What's in COAP? Five ~~moldy~~ golden oldies:

Perspective: Predicting the Future of Academic Libraries

Net Media: Analogies, Gatekeepers and Blogging

Perspective: You Just Can't Comprehend

Trends & Quick Takes: The Long Tail's Thick Head

Perspective: [40 of] Seventyfive Facets (the 40 actually written for Issue 75)

and an interesting example of Microsoft Word's artificial stupidity at work,

Library 2.0 for Short Attention Spans

or what you get when you ask Word XP for a 10% summary of the Library 2.0 special issue and half-issue followup essay.

Note: If there's enough interest in having other print volumes of C&I, I'd certainly consider it, probably working back from Volume 6, possibly including a special prefatory essay in each volume.

What's "enough interest"? Indirectly, if Volume 7 sells at least 50 copies over the next six months, I'll take that as indication of some interest. Directly, if ten people send me email or leave comments saying "sure, I'd buy Volume X for $35," I'll consider it--but not until after Midwinter 2008.

And if nobody buys Volume 7 at all? Well, here's the truth: I need a bound copy of each complete volume. The only place I know of to get a set of printouts bound at a reasonable price no longer offers perfect binding, and I'm not that fond of the Velobind results (although it's better than spiral binding). When I added up the total cost of reprinting the issues on good paper, even with the relatively low per-page costs of my new Canon MP610, plus Velobind costs...it turns out that, at my lower author's price, the Lulu perfectbound paperback won't cost me much more and should look a whole lot better and be easier to use in future years. If some of you find the book version worthwhile, so much the better.

Cites & Insights 7:13 Available

2007-11-20T14:27:00.001-08:00

Cites & Insights 7:13, December 2007, is now available.

This 22-page issue--PDF as usual, but each essay is also available in HTML form, is another All-Perspectives Issue:

Bibs & Blather Perspective: On Charting New Courses

In which I write off five decades in library automation with a 1.5-page non-memoir, summarize the start of an ongoing career in another 1.5 pages, and discuss new directions and what they may mean for the near-term future of Cites & Insights.

Following Up: On the Literature

Various threads on the state of the professional literature of librarianship.

Trends & Quick Takes Perspective: On Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

With the help of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, a baker's dozen assorted mini-perspectives on such topics as out of print in a PoD world, disk storage "too cheap to bill," the means of creativity, the benefits of liblogs...and many more.

Making it Work Perspective: On the Middle

If you're not 100% with us, you're against us. If you believe that to be true, you should just skip this essay altogether.

Note: While this is the final issue for 2007, it is not the end of Volume 7. There will be the usual volume index and title sheet, for those who might be binding C&I as a print publication. When? Hard to say; see Walt at Random for reasons why.

Cites & Insights 7:12 available

2007-10-17T15:28:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 7:12, November 2007, is now available for downloading.

The 28-page issue is PDF as usual (HTML versions of most essays are available at the home page). It includes:

Bibs & Blather

Thanks! - A note about my new position as Director and Managing Editor of the PALINET Leadership Network (and why there was no liblog extravaganza this year).

Following Up & Feedback

A tiny section correcting two name problems and listing the publishers who've disowned PRISM.

(C)3: Balancing Rights

"Sometimes They're Guilty," a review of and commentary on the first RIAA suit to go to jury trial.

Trends & Quick Takes

Nine trends (including a librarian winner of the Ig Nobel for Literature--and no, the article isn't at all a joke) and eight quicker takes.

Net Media: Thinking about Blogging

The biggest chunk of this issue--ten thousand words considering general blogging issues and library-specific blogging issues from October 2006 until recently.

Interesting & Peculiar Products

Six products (including a variety of views on a certain high-profile Apple product that appears to excel at everything except its supposed primary function) and a dozen Editors' Choices and other winners.

My Back Pages

Six snarky little essays. As always, this one's only available as part of the whole issue.

I've revised the Word template for the HTML essays to be a little more "printlike." If you find that it doesn't work for you, let me know: I might change it back. If you don't notice a difference, that's OK too.

Cites & Insights 7:11 available

2007-09-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 7:11 (October 2007) is now available.

The 30-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML separates of each essay are
also available includes:

Announcing Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples - a new book that every public library (and library school) should own.

Bibs & Blather - Incidents and Sideshows: the accidental theme of most of this issue.

Library Access to Scholarship - PRISM: Enough rope? (Will AAP come to regret the new "partnership"?)

Making it Work - Library 2.0 discussions (and another sideshow)

Net Media Perspective: Tracking High-Def Discs - The Battle Continues

Cites & Insights 7:10 available

2007-08-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 7:10, September 2007, is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue, PDF as usual with most essays also available in HTML form, includes:

Bibs & Blather - A new book is on its way, Public Library Blogs: 252 examples.

Making it Work - Successes and failures in changing libraries

Following Up and Feedback - Extending the conversation for eight or nine previous essays, including substantial new sections adding to "On the Literature" and "On Authority, Worth and Linkbaiting."

Net Media: Wikipedia and Other Wiki Notes

Trends & Quick Takes - Four trends (including notes on Second Life) and seven quicker takes

Interesting & Peculiar Products - Two products and seven editors' choice/roundup notes.

My Back Pages - six mini-rants.

Cites & Insights 7:9 available

2007-07-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 7:9 (August 2007) is now available for downloading.

It's an odd issue (the September issue, 7:10, will be an even issue...cheap jokes never die): Four somewhat overlapping Perspectives and an Offtopic Perspective.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but each Perspective is available as an html separate from the homepage)includes:

Perspective: On the Literature

I believe that gray literature—blogs, this ejournal, a few similar publications and some lists—represents the most compelling and worthwhile literature in the library field today...

Perspective: On Authority, Worth and Linkbaiting

Yes, it’s the dreaded Britannica Blog essay. Yes, I’m late to the game. No, this is not primarily about Michael Gorman, although his blogging (his blogging!) plays a crucial role in the discussion. There will be no fisking here, tempting though it might be—either of Gorman’s posts or of some over-the-top responses...

Perspective: On Disagreement and Discussion

Are librarians willing to disagree with one another?
What a silly question. Of course we are (I’m counting myself as a librarian for this discussion). Consider some disagreements I’ve chronicled and taken part in here and in my blog, just for starters....

Perspective: On Ethics and Transparency

How much do you need to know about who I am and how I deal with issues, people and organizations that might relate to my writing? What do you need to know about my ethical standards? How much disclosure assures adequate transparency?

Offtopic Perspective: 50-Movie Classic Musicals, Part 2 - including Rhythm and Blues Review, Till the Clouds Roll By, All-American Co-Ed, Hi-De-Ho (an hour of Cab Calloway: how can you go wrong?), Royal Wedding...and a whole bunch more.

Not included in this issue: Perspective: On Clever Names for Perspectives. And the Bibs & Blather has appeared instead as an absurdly long post at Walt at Random.

Cites & Insights 7:8 available

2007-06-28T15:14:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large v.7, issue 8 (July 2007) is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but essays other than My Back Pages are available in HTML form) includes:

Perspective: Pew Do You Trust? - "Pew Internet & American Life owes me an apology."

©1: Term and Extent - PermaCopyright and other extremes, including my Modest Proposal for permanent copyright for truly original works

Making it Work - Commentary on personal balance and library service balance.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - Six products (and product groups) and another six Editors' Choices/Best Buy roundups.

Library Access to Scholarship - more of the "opposition literature" and notes about money.

My Back Pages - seven snarky little mini-essays, exclusive to whole-issue readers.

Two quick notes: This was all written before ALA Annual (but with some touchup work and copyfitting done this week)--and there's nary a word about my own future plans.

Cites on a Plane 2: This Time It's for Keeps

2007-05-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

In plenty of time for ALA Annual--but also for those of you not going to DC in a few weeks, Cites on a Plane 2: This Time It's for Keeps is now available for downloading.

This 44-page issue is Cites & Insights 7:7, Mid-June 2007. (The seventh issue of the seventh volume: A lucky issue?)

Like COAP, COAP2 is much larger than a regular issue and is largely composed of old material.

Unlike COAP, COAP2:

Includes a fair amount of new material, something like 35-40% of the issue.

Will stick around permanently (or as permanently as C&I itself)

Has a single theme!

Indeed, it's a "conference issue"--all about Conferences & Speaking.

After a brief introduction, the issue includes four sections:

Coping with Conferences

State Conferences and Others

The Speaking Life

Conference-Speaker Arrangements

There is an HTML version available from the home page--but please do not print out the HTML version in full, as it will use a lot more paper (58 pages as compared to 44 pages for the PDF, in an informal FireFox print-preview test).

Post-ALA, Post-OCLC: What's next?

2007-05-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

I apologize for using this blog for something other than announcing a new Cites & Insights (yes, there will be a special pre-Annual issue), but, well...

I'd appreciate it if you'd go read this post at Walt at Random.

I won't say the future of C&I is in jeopardy (I don't think it is), but my future is certainly in a state of flux.

Thanks. Next post here should be for COAP2: This Time It's for Keeps. More later.

C&I Reminder: Please change any hyperlinks

2007-05-16T17:16:00.000-07:00

If you have any posts or other items that link to Cites & Insights at its old address, please change them to point to http://citesandinsights.info/ (and whatever the filenames were before).

None of the issues remain at the old site, which will disappear in another month.

Cites & Insights 7:6 available

2007-05-12T13:49:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large v.7 issue 6 (June 2007) is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but HTML separates for each essay are available from the home page)
includes:

Bibs & Blather - On Being Wrong (and more)

Making it Work - library resources, innovation, futures and more

Trends & Quick Takes - three essays and six quicker takes

Net Media Perspective: Civility and Codes: A Blogging Morality Play

Given how much I've heard OpenOffice 2 touted as a much better way to produce good HTML than nasty ol' Microsoft Word, I've included an experiment on the home page:

The hyperlinks are, as usual, to Word 2000 "filtered HTML" files. But there's another set of hyperlinks below, to OpenOffice 2 HTML files generated from the same Word file.

It's not really a fair comparison--after all, Word 2000 is two generations and five years out of date, where OpenOffice 2 is the absolutely newest version as of mid-April--but I'd be interested in the comments of HTML gurus (send 'em to waltcrawford@gmail.com) There will probably be a Walt at Random post later...

Cites & Insights 7:5 available

2007-04-13T16:21:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 7:5 (May 2007) is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue is PDF as usual, but you can get HTML separates of most essays from the home page.

NOTE: If you have any websites with links to the old C&I site, please change them. That site will disappear fairly soon.

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather - On being cited, introducing a new section, and a belated followup from Richard Entlich (with apology)

Old Media/New Media - Updates on the health of four old media

Offtopic Perspective: 50-Movie Classic Musicals, Part 1 - no West Side Story, but Reet, Petite and Gone is hot stuff.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - four segments plus 15 roundups in seven categories in the new "Editors Choices and Best Buys" segment (replacing "PC Progress")

Making it Work - A new section, continuing the conversations about libraries, social software in libraries, balance... (and incorporating The Library Stuff)

Net Media: The High-Def Disc Saga Continues - still not time for most libraries to start buying Blu-ray or HD DVD, but lots of news.

My Back Pages - six grumpy little essays.

And don't forget to visit Cites & Insights Books to buy Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change.

Cites & Insights 7:4 available

2007-03-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large volume 7, issue 4 (April 2007) is now available for downloading.

This 24-page issue (PDF as usual, but the essays are available as HTML separates) features the first Cites & Insights book: Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change.

Essays include:

Announcing Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change - description, price, availability, and the first paragraph of each chapter.

Library Access to Scholarship - A thematic essay on Open Access and rhetorical excess.

Finding a Balance: Improving and Extending Service - The third and last book excerpt, Chapter 9 of Balanced Libraries

Perspective: Informal Notes on the Lulu Experience - Comments so far on PoD self-publishing.

Cites & Insights 7:3 available

2007-02-19T17:47:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, volume 7, issue 3, March 2007, is now available for downloading.

The 24-page issue, PDF as always, but HTML separates of some, not all, essays are available from the home page includes:

Bibs & Blather - Who's out there, another language grump, and a reason for the peculiar issue.

Old Media/New Media - Music and video

Trends & Quick Takes - Five trends and seven quicker takes

Net Media Perspective: Wikipedia Revisited

My Back Pages - ten snarky little pieces.

C&I 7:2 Available

2007-01-24T15:37:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large volume 7, issue 2 (February 2007) is now available for downloading.

The 22-page issue (PDF as always, but each section is also available as an HTML separate from the C&I home page) includes:

Bibs & Blather - Cites on a Plane and other oddities

Perspective: Predictions and Scorecards - Back to a roundup of some other people's forecasts and outcomes, after missing a year

Perspective: Conference Speaking: I Have A Little List - Conference speaking arrangements have become a bit more transparent, and it's time for a Lobachevskian job on the Gordon/Salo/West works.

Finding a Balance: The Balanced Librarian - Discussing a prerequisite for balanced libraries.

Following Up and Feedback - three items.

Cites on a Plane

2007-01-10T17:21:00.000-08:00

If you've been reading Cites & Insights all along (or at least for the last 18 months), and if you have no curiosity about the miracle of Word XP's AutoSummarize, you can delete this message.

If not--well, as promised, there is not a Midwinter 2007 issue of Cites & Insights. (The next issue should come out shortly after ALA Midwinter, around January 24-26. I'd like to keep to 12 issues this year...)

But there is a phantom edition, designed for those who've told me they read C&I on the plane to Midwinter or Annual.

Cites on a Plane 2007 is available for downloading

HTML separates are not available, because there's nothing new here.

The 38-page thing--it's not an issue--will disappear on or about January 23. So far, I haven't figured out how to make printed copies do a Mission:Impossible, but...

Other than three introductory paragraphs under the heading "This Issue Does Not Exist," and a single line above each section saying where it originally appeared, there is no new material in this thing.

There's also no table of contents--after all, it's not an issue.

If you've read all the stuff, but you *are* interested in how Word AutoSummary handles a long, complicated pair of texts, you could just print out pages 32-38, "Library 2.0 for Short Attention Spans"--an unmodified 10% AutoSummary of "Library 2.0 and 'Library 2.0'" and "Finding a Balance: Libraries and Librarians."

The rest of the issue is essays from the last 18 months that appear to have had relatively low readership, but no more than one essay from any given issue.

From C&I 5:9 - Perspective: Predicting the Future of Academic Libraries
From C&I 5:12 - Net Media Perspective: Analogies, Gatekeepers and Blogging
From C&I 6:7 - Perspective: You Just Can't Understand
From C&I 6:11 - Trends & Quick Takes
From C&I 6:5 - The 40 original "facets" from the full-issue smorgasbord. (OK, 39 original and one from Walt at Random.)
And "Library 2.0 for Short Attention Spans."

A caution about that final section: Word clearly favors the first paragraph under headings, which means that lots of paragraphs aren't indented. It also appears to favor standalone paragraphs--most of the one-sentence quotes appear. Otherwise--well, I swear I didn't change the results at all. Maybe you can come to conclusions about how AutoSummary works.

Cites & Insights 7:1 available

2006-12-20T16:42:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights vol. 7, number 1 (January 2007) is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but most essays are also available as HTML separates from the home page) includes:

Bibs & Blather: Navel Gazing Part 6 - the usual start-of-volume essay.

Perspective: Book Searching: OCA/GBS Update

Trends & Quick Takes - Five trends and three quicker takes

Finding a Balance: Patrons and the Library

Interesting & Peculiar Products - three products, plus short notes on Editors' Choices and Best Buys (replacing PC Progress)

Perspective: The Death of the Disc?

My Back Pages - eight mini-rants.

Happy holidays!

Cites & Insights: Request for feedback

2006-12-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

I've posted questions on four aspects of Cites & Insights on my weblog, Walt at Random, asking for feedback from readers.

You'll find posts on the four areas here: PC Progress, Censorware, Library Access to Scholarship, and Interesting & Peculiar Products.

So far, I've received very little feedback. If you care about any of those sections--or if you particularly dislike them--go to the posts and either leave comments or send email to waltcrawford@gmail.com.

I'll probably start making decisions about these areas (and other things) for C&I volume 7 in about a week, when I start working on the January 2007 issue.

Cites & Insights 2006 index available

2006-11-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

The title sheet and indexes for Cites & Insights volume 6, 2006 are now available.

This PDF-only document (title sheet and 20 pages of indexes) completes volume 6.

Cites & Insights 6:14 available

2006-11-15T18:01:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 6:14 (December 2006) is now available for downloading.

This 28-page issue, PDF as usual (but each essay is available as an HTML separate from the home page includes:

Perspective: The Lazy Man's Guide to Productivity - A slightly extended answer to "How do I do all that writing on my own time?"

Net Media Perspective: "C&I is Not a Blog" - A section on blogs, mostly metablogging.

The Library Stuff - Eight items cited and discussed

Library Access to Scholarship - FRPAA and more

Offtopic Perspective: 50-Movie All Stars Collection, Part 2 - 26 more TV movies (but one of them isn't really...)

Please note that, while this is the final text issue for 2006, it does not complete the volume. The index (including title sheet, for anyone printing a bound volume) will be out in a week or two. Or three.

Cites & Insights 6:13 available

2006-10-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 6:13 (November 2006) is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as always, but major essays are also available as HTML separates from the home page)
includes:

Bibs & Blather: Should I Care About What You Write? - printability revisited

Net Media Perspective: What About Wikipedia? - The saga of Wikipedia, Britannica, and Nature; various commentaries on Wikipedia; and early stuff on Citizendium (plus two good notes on library-related wikis)

Trends & Quick Takes - three mini-essays, four quicker takes.

Old Media/New Media Perspective: Tracking Hi-Def Discs
- what's happening with HD DVD and Blu-ray and why you should(n't) care

PC Progress: February-October 2006 - 27 group reviews in 14 categories

Copyright Currents - catching up on fair use and infringement, DMCA, orphan works and the analog hole.

My Back Pages - three snarky little essays (one of them not really snarky at all)

Cites & Insights 6:12 available

2006-09-21T16:51:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 6:12, October 2006, is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but you can download HTML separates), which seems to have mostly long essays with long titles, includes:

Open Access Perspective, Part I: Pioneer OA Journals: The Arc of Enthusiasm, Five Years Later - If you're aware of my 2001 study, Getting Past the Arc of Enthusiasm, you'll know what this is about: Seeing how many early free scholarly ejournals made it through more than a decade of publishing.

Old Media/New Media: Books, Bookstores and Ebooks - Inaugurating a new section with various items on print books, bookstores (OK, mostly Cody's), and ebooks.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - seven items, including good inexpensive keyboards (think name brand), cheap steganography, and the 25 worst tech products.

Open Access Perspective, Part II: Pioneer OA Journals: Preliminary Additions from DOAJ - How many other free scholarly ejournals have been around since 1995? This piece provides a preliminary answer to that question (maybe somewhere between 84 and 147, maybe not).

Offtopic Perspective: SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack, Part 2 - 24 more flicks, from Pongo to Eegah, John Agar (& Zontar!) to Gamera, no-budget redneck nonsense to the sons of Hercules.

Cites & Insights 6:11 available

2006-09-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large 6:11 (September 2006) is now available for downloading.

The 22-page issue (PDF as usual, but most essays are also available as HTML separates from the home page) includes:

Perspective: The New Site & COWLZ: A Lost Opportunity? - The largest essay: Why C&I moved, and the history of COWLZ (such as it is), from start to (apparent) finish, with notes on the gray literature of librarianship.

Bibs & Blather - A few things I'd rather not write about and some quick followups from previous issues.

Trends & Quick Takes - 4 "trends" (including a back-and-forth on gen-gen) and four quicker takes.

The Censorware Chronicles - 10 things you might not know about censorware and a new (and better) "Internet filters: A public policy report"

The Library Stuff - Nine or sixteen items, depending on how you look at it.

My Back Pages - Nine little rants

And for those of you who stayed away for the summer: Don't forget Cites & Insights 6:10, August 2006: "Looking at Liblogs," a 30-page essay looking at 213 blogs from library people.

Cites & Insights 6:10 available

2006-08-09T19:10:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 6:10, August 2006 is now available for downloading--from citesandinsights.info, not cites.boisestate.edu.

The 30-page issue consists almost entirely of one big essay:

* Perspective: Looking at Liblogs: The Great Middle - a look at 213 library-person weblogs.

There's also one little piece:

* Bibs & Blather - three brief items.

While each piece is also available as an HTML separate from the Cites & Insights home page, please don't download the big essay if you're planning to print it: You'll use 49 pages instead of 30.

There will be a separate September issue, probably in September.

Cites & Insights 6:10 postponed

2006-07-25T17:10:00.000-07:00

The special "design and typography" issue of Cites & Insights for August 2006 has been cancelled on account of heat (and other reasons). (If you want more details, check Walt at Random after 5:30 p.m. PST today.)

My expectation had been that most people could and would skip this mini-issue. Now you (we!) all will.

C&I 6:10, August/September 2006, will appear in August, probably late August. It will be a more substantial issue, almost certainly featuring "Looking at Liblogs: A Chunk of the Great Middle" (title not final).

Cites & Insights has moved

2006-07-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large has moved to

http://citesandinsights.info

or, if you want to save a little typing,

http://cical.info

All issues and essays are now available at the new site (which is a LISHost.org site, as you might guess).

Please update your bookmarks and links accordingly. For the foreseeable future, issues and essays will continue to be available at the old site (but not via the home page).

Thanks to Boise State University Libraries for hosting Cites & Insights over the past few years!

Cites & Insights 6:9 available

2006-06-14T16:24:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 6:9, July 2006 is now available.

This 26-page issue (PDF as always, but most essays are also available as HTML pages from the home page) is predominantly one 18-page essay:

Perspective: Finding a Balance: Libraries and Librarians - A mostly-upbeat continuation of the "Library 2.0" conversation.

The issue also includes:

Bibs & Blather

Perspective: Scan This Book? - You must have known I'd have something to say about the Kelly/Jarvis booktrashing!

The Library Stuff - Nine annotated citations

My Back Pages - Eight snarky little essays

If you write a blog: Please be sure to read Bibs & Blather

Cites & Insights 6:8 available

2006-05-24T17:12:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 6:8, June 2006, is now available for downloading.

The 26-page issue (PDF as usual, but most essays are available as HTML pages from the C&I home page) includes:

Perspective: Thinking About Libraries and Access - Why I write about library access, and why I don't stick to Open Access

Bibs & Blather - A funny thing happened...

Interesting & Peculiar Products - Nine of them

Perspective: High-Definition Optical Discs: What You Need to Know Now

My Back Pages - five little essays

Cites & Insights 6:7 available

2006-04-26T16:32:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 6:7, May 2006 is now available.

The 22-page issue (PDF as always, but each section is available as an HTML separate from the home page includes:

Perspective: Books, Blogs & Style - Comments (my own and others') about the relationship of books and blogs (and "blooks"!).

Following Up and Feedback

Trends, Quick Takes & Good Stuff - Five trends, two quicker takes, and two article commentaries.

Bibs & Blather - Tweaking the sections, C&I and YBP Academia, two resources you need to be aware of, and a tentative plan for the next four issues.

Library Access to Scholarship - Almost half the issue, but it's been six months...

Perspective: You Just Can't Comprehend - Maybe off-topic. Maybe not.

Cites & Insights 6:6 available

2006-04-06T16:40:00.000-07:00

No rain today in Mountain View, for the first time in two or three weeks--what better reason to publish a Spring issue?

Cites & Insights 6:6, Spring 2006 is ready for downloading.

The 26-page issue (all essays except the last also available as HTML separates at the C&I home page) includes:

Perspective: Discovering Books: The OCA/GBS Saga Continues - Keeping up to date on various projects to make millions of books more discoverable.

The Library Stuff - One featured website and ten articles and posts worth reading.

Trends & Quick Takes - seven items, fromclick fraud to AllLearn.

Good Stuff Perspective: Journal of Electronic Publishing Returns! - Notes on all but one of the articles in the first new issue of JEP in 3.5 years

Following Up and Feedback - belatedly, six pieces of feedback

Net Media: Blogs, Google and [Prawn] - that last word's wrong, but I'd just as soon not have this blog blocked.

My Back Pages - nine comments and curiosities, exclusive to the PDF edition.

C&I 6.5: Temporary replacement for the PDF

2006-03-16T20:13:00.000-08:00

It's clear that the PDF for C&I 6.5 is unacceptably large and slow, with at least one user saying that page 1 never appears. I credit my stupid agreement to accept a 36MB "upgrade" to Acrobat 7.0.7 for this wonderful state of affairs.

For now, I've replaced the typographically accurate but uselessly slow version with a very fast, very small, and unfortunately very Ariel (or "whatever") version (the PDFWriter output from Word); it's certainly readable, if certainly not what I want.

I'll replace it with a proper version if and when I can get Acrobat downgraded to 7.0 and get it working properly again..

But for now, you can either download the HTML version (lots more pages, Book Antiqua) or the PDF version (ugly typeface, 28 pages).

I knew it was going to be a special issue. I just didn't know how special!

Cites & Insights 6:5 available, Diamond Anniversary issue

2006-03-16T14:09:00.000-08:00

It's the seventyfifth day of 2006, and C&I 6:5 is the seventyfifth issue of Cites & Insights. The special Diamond Anniversary edition is now available for downloading.

The 28-page issue, PDF as always (but also available as one big HTML file) consists of a tiny little Bibs & Blather and a 28-page

Perspectives: Seventyfive Facets--75 brief essays (average 290 words each), mostly new, some old (but most of you haven't seen them), covering a range of topics.

The PDF is unusually large (about 50% larger than it should be), and I'm not sure why. If the problem continues next month (when a more normal issue should appear), I'll rebuild the journal template to try to correct the anomaly. For now, well, expect a slow download and slow printing for Page 1; it should be fine after that.

Cites & Insights 6:4 available

2006-02-19T15:42:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 6:4 (March 2006) is now available for downloading.

The 24-page issue is PDF as usual; you can also reach the first five essays as HTML separates from the home page.

This issue includes:

Perspective: Folksonomy and Dichotomy

The Library Stuff: Comments on 20 articles, including the decennial issues of D-Lib and Ariadne

PC Progress, October 2005-February 2006: 32 group reviews in 11 categories.

Offtopic Perspective: 50-Movie All Stars Collection, Part 1: Notes on 24 TV movies

My Back Pages: Eight brief notes

Cites & Insights 6:3 available

2006-01-29T13:00:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 6:3, February 2006, is now available for downloading.

The PDF issue is 22 pages long. Each section except "My Back Pages" is also available in HTML, with links on the C&I home page.

This issue includes the following essays:

Followup Perspective: Beyond 'Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0"' - A few comments on posts since 5 p.m. January 6--and brief notes on what I believe is happening now, and why C&I probably won't be covering it extensively.

©4 Perspective: Analog Hole and Broadcast Flag - Recent activity around the Broadcast Flag (a bad idea that refuses to go away) and recently-introduced legislation to enable an even worse idea, closing the analog hole.

Library Stuff Perspective: Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources - A few comments and criticisms of this generally first-rate 296-page OCLC report.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - seven of them, one of which is fortunately only a somewhat creepy idea.

©2 Perspective: What NC Means to Me - Commenting on an article that attacks Creative Commons NC (Non-Commercial) license, a proposed set of guidelines for interpreting NC--and my own added permissions to those apparently granted by NC.

Trends & Quick Takes - Four trends.

My Back Pages - A baker's dozen.

Cites & Insights 6:2: A special issue

2006-01-08T17:23:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 6:2, Midwinter 2006 is now available for downloading.

This is a special issue, 32 pages long in PDF form, consisting of one essay:

Library 2.0 and "Library 2.0"

Included are quotes and comments from some three dozen sources, some of them new to the discussion.

While the essay is also available in HTML form from the home page, please don't use the HTML if you plan to print the issue--which, at 26,000 words, seems like a reasonable thing to do. The HTML version will take 42 pages to print (at least that's what I see in Firefox "print preview"), as compared to the 32-page PDF. (Since there's only one essay--albeit in five parts--there's only one HTML file.)

A more typical (and shorter!) February Cites & Insights should be available near the end of January (not before January 27) or early in February.

Cites & Insights 6:1 available

2005-12-19T15:55:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 6:1, January 2006, is now available for downloading.

The 24-page issue is PDF as usual. Except for "My Back Pages"--a new section that's exclusively part of the complete issue--all sections are also available as HTML separates from the home page.

This issue includes:

Bibs & Blather - Interdependency (why you should subscribe to the RSS feed for Walt at Random), C&I at Midwinter, YBP at Midwinter, "no year's resolutions" and more.

Followup/Feedback Perspective: OCA and GLP Redux - Why I was partly wrong about Project Gutenberg (as explained by Bruce Albrecht), plus a little more about the Open Content Alliance and a lot more about Google Book Search and the Google Library Project.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - Eleven of them!

Following Up & Feedback - Sony BMG and DRM, and recognizing that Fiona Bradley writes Blisspix, not Explodedlibrary!

Trends & Quick Takes - Eleven trends and quick takes and four quicker takes.

My Back Pages - Five easy pieces in this PDF-only section.

Cites & Insights 2005 index available

2005-11-29T21:22:00.000-08:00

The cover sheet and indexes for Cites & Insights 5 (2005) is now available (one cover sheet and two indexes totalling 18 pages).

This completes volume 5.

If your institution actually binds print volumes of C&I, I'd love to hear from you.

Cites & Insights 5:14 available

2005-11-26T09:26:00.000-08:00

Cites & Insights 5:14, December 2005, is now available for downloading.

This somewhat oversized 28-page issue (essays also available as HTML separates from the C&I home page) is, to use a seasonal metaphor, a post-Thanksgiving feast for the mind, with two big helpings of scanning-related goodness, a turkey of a story, a small side dish of crow, and a dessert helping of odd/old flicks.

Enough of the metaphor, here's the details:

Perspective: OCA and GLP 1: Ebooks, Etext, Libraries and the Commons - the first of two essays on the Open Content Alliance and Google Book Search/Google Library Project. This shorter essay consists entirely of my own perspectives on the two projects and related topics.

Following Up: Mea Culpa - While this section includes several "following up" notes, the "mea culpa" regards "Analogies, Gatekeepers and Blogging"--Seth Finkelstein and Jon Garfunkel have convinced me that I'm not qualified to deny the existence of "gatekeepers" within the biblioblogosphere. Read why.

©3 Perspective: Sony BMG: DRM Gone Bad - How an innovative, customer-oriented consumer electronics company can also be a Big Media turkey.

Perspective: OCA and GLP 2: Steps on the Digitization Road - The big essay (roughly 10K words, 13 pages, and the reason this issue's so big: Quotes and comments on developments within these complementary projects, organized by topic.

Offtopic Perspective: SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack, Part 1 - a little leavening to finish the issue. From Hercules and Gamera to the Wasp Woman and Pia Zadora, mini-reviews of 26 movies (the first six discs of a megapack that now goes for $20), a few of which deserve the "SciFi" label. Be your own MST3K script writer!

Note: While this is the final issue for volume 5 of Cites & Insights, it is not the end of the volume. The index (a volume title sheet and index) will appear in the reasonably near future, for those few (?) who actually bind Cites & Insights.

Cites & Insights 5:13, a special issue, available

2005-11-01T16:18:00.000-08:00

A special Mid-Fall 2005 issue of Cites & Insights (5:13) is now available. (Well, Fall begins September 22 and ends December 20; November 1 is about as "mid" as you can get.)

This 20-page issue consists of two Perspectives:

Life Trumps Blogging (pp. 1-4), which is most definitely a pro-blogging essay, but recognizes priorities.

Library Futures, Media Futures (pp. 4-20), which combines my comments on Blake Carver's LISNews "Libraries and Librarians In A Digital Future: Where Do We Fit?" essay; excerpts and comments from and on "Jeremy, Dan, Luke, and Walt," a multiway e-conversation about the future (yes, the Perspective includes last names for everyone); and some notes about other voices on media and library futures.

Update November 2:

Jeremy Frumkin correctly points out that I miskeyed the URL for his blog, and would be happier if I pointed out the specific links to the two posts discussed in the second essay above.

The Digital Librarian is at http://digitallibrarian.org (with an “a” in digital; Jeremy can spell, even if I can’t).

The two quotations are, respectively, 5 years? and Follow-up on 5 years.

The HTML version of the essay has been modified to add hotlinks for those two posts (and to correct the spelling of the blog’s address), and–although my standard policy is to not make myself look better by fixing errors once publication has occurred–I’ve corrected the spelling in the PDF version as well.

My apologies for the error and vague citations.

I have a formatting question about this issue, specifically the monster essay. In order to make it fit, I used 9.5-on-11.5 point Berkeley Book for quoted excerpts instead of the 10-on-12 point that I usually use (body text is 11 on 13). Is this too small for comfortable readability? If people generally say it's OK, I may leave it that way...

[Yes, you can pick up either Perspective as an HTML separate from the home page--but if you plan to print at all, please use the PDF. The second Perspective in HTML form requires more paper all by itself than the whole issue in PDF, and it's nowhere near as readable, in my opinion. Hey, I paid good money for Berkeley Book...]

Predicted arrival date for what should be a slightly more "normal" December issue: No earlier than November 17, no later than December 1. How's that for precision?

Cites & Insights 5:12 available

2005-10-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

One rule for Cites & Insights is that issues never appear on Friday or Saturday. It has to do with the delay between the first round of publicity (this post, the same post at Walt at Random, a text-only mailing at Topica, and roughly the same post at LISNews) and the second round (forwarding the Topica post, sans ad, to a few big library lists).

So I'm breaking the rules this time.

Cites & Insights 5:12, November 2005 is now available for downloading.

This 22-page issue (PDF, but HTML versions of each essay are available from the home page) includes:

Bibs & Blather - five little essays, including a new email address for publishable feedback.

Net Media Perspective: Analogies, Gatekeepers and Blogging - some notes about net media and analogies, more comments on Civilities' "New Gatekeepers" series (and a related essay on citizen journalism), notes on seven other blogging essays and papers, and a few notes on Meredith Farkas' first-rate demographic survey of the biblioblogosphere.

The Library Stuff - five cited items

Library Access to Scholarship - general notes on sources, events and comments on "building the archives" (NIH, RCUK, and Wellcome, and six cited articles. OCA is too new and too important to squeeze into this essay.

Interesting & Peculiar Products - eleven products and services.

The Good Stuff - four cited items

Cites & Insights 5:11 available

2005-09-06T18:02:00.000-07:00

Cites & Insights 5:11, October 2005 is now available for downloading.

I like to think of this as a nice short 20-page issue accompanied by feedback and followups on "Investigating the Biblioblogosphere," but that brings the actual issue up to 26 pages.

Here's what's there--and those who detest PDF can reach each essay separately, in HTML form, from the C&I home page.

Net Media: Google, Wikis and Media Hacks: Lots on Google (and Yahoo!), less on Wikipedia, Meredith Farkas' remarkable ALA wiki, and more.

The Censorware Chronicles: Because it's been more than a year.

Perspective: Future Libraries: Dreams, Madness & Reality, 10 Years Later: The "self-review" I promised earlier this year.

PC Progress, March-September 2005: 30 reviews in a dozen categories.

Trends & Quick Takes: Five brief essays and five really brief Quicker Takes.

Followups & Feedback: A summary of what's been said about "Investigating the Biblioblogosphere," with some notes on likely changes "If There Is A Next Time"--and a couple of entirely separate items.

C&I Updates

Cites & Insights 12:1 (January-February 2012) available

Bibs & Blather pp. 1-7

Making it Work: It's Academic (or Not) pp. 7-12

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Box Office Gold, Part 1 pp. 13-20

Cites & Insights special issue now available

Not With a Bang ... (pp. 1-2)

Cites & Insights October 2011 available

Cites & Insights 11:9 (October 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i9.pdf

Making it Work: Websites and Social Networks pp. 1-17

T&QT Retrospective: Far-Away Services with Strange Sounding Names pp. 17-22

Offtopic Perspective: 50 Movie Comedy Kings, Part 1 pp. 22-28

Cites & Insights 11:8 (September 2011) available

Cites & Insights 11: 8 (September 2011) is now available for downloading at http://citesandinsights.info/civ11i8.pdf

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Writing about Reading: A Future of Books and Publishing (pp. 2-32)

Cites & Insights August 2011 available

Bibs & Blather pp. 1-2

Copyright Comments: Talking About the Public Domain pp. 2-10

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection Part 4 pp. 10-18

Cites & Insights 11:6 available

Contents

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 2-9)

disContent (pp. 9-12)

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pp. 12-20)

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 20-23)

My Back Pages (pp. 23-28)

Begging your indulgence...

Cites & Insights 11:5 (May 2011) available

Perspective: Writing about Reading (continued) pp. 1-16

The Zeitgeist: 26 is Not the Issue pp. 16-44

Cites & Insights April 2011 available

Perspective: Writing about Reading pp. 1-24

Trends & Quick Takes pp. 24-27

The CD-ROM Project pp. 27-30

My Back Pages pp. 30-32

Cites & Insights March 2011 available

Bibs & Blather (p. 1)

Making it Work Perspective: Five Years Later: Library 2.0 and Balance (cont.) (p. 1-22)

Trends & Quick Takes Perspective: Forecasts and Futurism (p. 23-32)

Cites & Insights February 2011 available

Making it Work Perspective: Five Years Later: Library 2.0 and Balance (pp. 1-26)

Bibs & Blather: Where's Chapter 4? (pp. 26-28)

Cites & Insights January 2011 now available

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pp. 2-9)

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010: Chapter 3: How, Where and When (pp. 9-18)

Trends & Quick Takes (pp. 18-24)

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 22-24)

Offtopic Perspective: Legends of Horror Part 2 (pp. 24-29)

My Back Pages (pp. 29-32)

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010 now available

On sale now

But wait! There's more...

Cites & Insights Volume 10 index available

Cites & Insights December 2010 available

Contents

Bibs & Blather (pp. 1-2)

Perspective: Futurism and Deathwatches (pp. 2-17)

The CD-ROM Project (pp. 17-19)

The Liblog Landscape 2007-2010: 2. Methods and Metrics (pp. 19-26)

Offtopic Perspective: Mystery Collection, Part 3 (pp. 26-33)

My Back Pages (pp. 33-34)

Cites & Insights November 2010 available

Bibs & Blather: Three Times Ten pp. 1-4

The CD-ROM Project: From Print to CD pp. 4-8

The Zeitgeist: Blogging Groups and Ethics pp. 8-18

Offtopic Perspective: Legends of Horror, Part 1 pp. 18-24

Cites & Insights September/October 2010 Available

But Still They Blog: The Liblog Landscape 2007-2009

August 2010 Cites & Insights available

Cites & Insights 10:9, August 2010, is now available.

Perspective: On Social Media and Social Networks pp. 1-10

The CD-ROM Project pp. 10-13

Perspective: On Words, Meaning and Context pp. 13-18

Making it Work pp. 18-26

Trends & Quick Takes pp. 26-30

Cites & Insights article links fixed

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