A very impressive example of the power of digitisation to support 'book culture' comes from the creation of the digital version of the Codex Siniaticus, the earliest version of the Christian Bible, dating from the fourth century. No complete version of the original parchment manuscript exists anywhere; the 800 pages are scattered in museums and… Continue reading Codex Siniaticus; the good side of digital
Category: documents, books, libraries, collections
Impact factors and half-lives
It's that time of year when academic journal editors nervously look at the Web of Science data to see how they've done compared with their competitors, as assessed by the magic bibliometrics that are now the basis of any assessment of how 'good' a journal is. In my case, of course, I was looking to… Continue reading Impact factors and half-lives
Transferred illusions
I've just written a review of Marilyn Deegan and Kathryn Sutherland's Transferred lllusions: digital technology and the forms of print for the journal Alexandria. This is a modified version: The so-called 'digital transition' has been at the forefront of the minds of many library / information specialists over the past few years, as the certainties… Continue reading Transferred illusions
Ray Bradbury, libraries and the Internet
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
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.
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
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
The Occasional Informationist 