As part of my visit to Prague last week, I gave a presentation to the opening session of the InForum conference. This is an international meeting, albeit with a mainly Central European audience, covering all aspects of modern librarianship and information science. It was the first time I had attended; it is a very efficiently-run… Continue reading Inforum conference in Prague
Month: May 2009
Prague Generations
Last week, I had the pleasure of running a workshop on the idea of 'information generations', and their significance for library / information providers. The pleasure was magnified by being, not only in the lovely city of Prague, but in the (literally) palatial surroundings of the Bredovsky Palace, the home of Charles University's Centre for… Continue reading Prague Generations
Terre a Terre
Moving away, as I occasionally do, from things informational, I had the chance to eat at the Terre a Terre restaurant in Brighton the other day, as I'd wanted to do for a long time. Could this really be as good as the hype claims: 'the best vegetarian restaurant in the world' and so on… Continue reading Terre a Terre
Information Science in Transition
My colleague Lyn Robinson has beaten me to the announcement, in a posting on her blog, of an excellent new book from Facet Publishing. Edited by Alan Gilchrist, 'Information Science in Transition' has 16 contributed chapters (originally articles in a special issue of the Journal of Information Science) covering a wide range of issues relating… Continue reading Information Science in Transition
Metadata and thesauri, plus ca change ?
Last week I ran two of the professional development courses which I run from time to time for Aslib (the London-based Association for Information Management). They were both great fun, particularly with the added incentive of Aslib's new, and very high-class, training facilities at Bonhill House. The course topics were, I thought, an interesting juxtaposition.… Continue reading Metadata and thesauri, plus ca change ?
The library at night
I get to see a lot of new books about library / information science: part of the perks of being a journal editor, and part of the penance of being a postgraduate course tutor. Some are good, a few are very good, a few are bad, most are ordinary. Just occasionally a strikingly unusal one… Continue reading The library at night
Dark Side: is the news fit to print ?
I wrote a while ago about our new paper on the dark side of information: information overload, information anxiety, information avoidance and the like. Subsequently, the University's press office picked this up as something likely to have mass appeal, and a short piece has appeared in the University newsletter. The process by which this appeared… Continue reading Dark Side: is the news fit to print ?
Emerald editors
Last Friday I went to a editor day at Emerald Publishing; one of the few perks of the job that I get for editing the Journal of Documentation. I'm not sure what the collective noun for editors is, but there were certainly a lot of us there; more from Emerald's business and management journals than… Continue reading Emerald editors
Eating in the Library
We have become used to the idea that libraries of all kinds are adding on coffee shops and the like, and no longer necessarily barring food and drink being brought in. This increasing linkage between food and libraries seems to be taken a stage further in London, where a number of former libraries are being… Continue reading Eating in the Library
Libraries and the law: show-down in Wirral
I have been following with interest the furore following Wirral council's decision to close half its public library branches, and to transform the remainder into multi-purpose centres. This is not just because I come from this part of North-West England, but also because the issues have led to a new form of intervention from the… Continue reading Libraries and the law: show-down in Wirral
The Occasional Informationist 