According to a New York Times story, science fiction icon and general guru, is fighting to save his local public library in Ventura County, California. Bradbury is, of course, most famous for his depiction of book burning in his novel Fahrenheit 451, but the NYT reminds us that some of his other books have significant… Continue reading Ray Bradbury, libraries and the Internet
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Occasional tweeting
After resisting for a long while, I have finally joined Twitter. I image that my tweeting will be even more occasional than my blogging, but for anyone interested it's @david_bawden. Yes, the underscore does matter.
Inforum proceedings
The proceedings of the Prague Inforum conference, which I mentioned in a previous post, are now available online here. They are of interest to anyone concerned with the use of digital information sources, particularly though not entirely in a Central European context. My own paper, 'Library / information prospects: three views of the future', can… Continue reading Inforum proceedings
Prague’s New Library
I had the opportunity last week to see around the newly built, though not yet opened, State Technical Library in Prague, thanks to the kindness of Martin Svoboda, its director. Very different from its predecessor in the mediaeval town centre, the new library sits in a campus suburb a few stops away on the metro.… Continue reading Prague’s New Library
Everyday information practices
Having just read a highly interesting new book by Reijo Savolainen of the University of Tampere, Finland, on his work on 'everyday information practices', I was inspired to use this as the basis for an editorial in the Journal of Documentation. This is some of what I wrote: Everyday practices of documentation, and the influence… Continue reading Everyday information practices
Inforum conference in Prague
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
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 Occasional Informationist 