Last updated on June 26, 2007
This week’s 4cast:
1. The Return of Gorman
Former ALA President Michael Gorman has courted controversy in the past for his openly conservative stances on the library profession and what some regard as his out-of-touch, anti-technology viewpoints. Last week, he stirred the pot again when he wrote a series of posts on the Brittanica Blog called “Web 2.0: The Sleep of Reason” and “The Siren Song of the Internet.”
- Michael Gorman (Britannica Blog)
- Old Revolutions Good, New Revolutions Bad: A Response to Gorman (Many-to-Many)
- Gorman, again (Pattern Recognition)
- Still in the incunabula stage (T. Scott)
2. Creating Traffic Detours
Various libraries are using popular online resources like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter to draw attention to special collections on their own websites, thereby increasing exposure, search rankings, and most importantly, overall usage. For examples of one modest approach, look for OPLIN’s links on the following Wikipedia pages: Ohio, Ohio Lands, and Identification of trees of the United States.
- Using Wikipedia to Extend Digital Collections (D-Lib Magazine)
- UNT Creates 400k Library Users with Wikipedia (Free Government Information)
- Using Twitter to Pull in Web Traffic (LibrarianInBlack)
- but once libraries get to facebook, what do they do there? (librarian.net)
3. Misc. (Etc.)
David Weinberger’s new book, Everything Is Miscellaneous, is making a big impact in Libraryland and across the web, and the author has been following up its release with a slew of enlightening (and entertaining) interviews and presentations.
- Everything is Miscellaneous (official blog)
- Weinberger talks about Everything is Miscellaneous (Boing Boing)
- Excellent: David Weinberger at Google (LibraryThing)
- Everything is Miscellaneous Interview Series (Odeo)
4. Something Wireless This Way Comes?
By February 2009, American analog television broadcasts will be a thing of the past, replaced entirely by digital technology. At that point, broadcasters will be forced to relinquish the 700 MHz broadcast spectrum, which UHF TV currently occupies. The U.S. Senate recently held a hearing to explore how the FCC should reassign this spectrum; some parties want it to become a new pipeline for broadband wireless Internet.
- It’s Silicon Valley vs. Telcos in Battle for Wireless Spectrum (Wired)
- Google Proposes Innovation in Radio Spectrum Auction (New York Times)
- A Quarter-Million Americans Flood the FCC with Comments (Save the Internet Blog)
- Frontline Wireless pitches plan to build “third pipe” using 700 MHz spectrum (Ars Technica)
