Walt at Random

If I do a “year in review,” it would come a week or so from now–but I’m unlikely to do one anyway. You’ve already heard enough here and in Cites & Insights. Meanwhile, a few random notes…

• We’d always been ones to get stuff done at work over the “missing week” (between Christmas and New Year’s). With no place of work to go to in any case, that’s gotten a little stranger. Still, we’ll go spend the day with my immediate family tomorrow and go celebrate the new year (and our 30th anniversary) a week from tomorrow with an old and dear friend…and in between, well, carry on.
• One or two of you might be surprised that the first 2008 Cites & Insights isn’t out yet, given past history. It’s mostly written (and an odd one it is), with one probable exception (see next bullet). My current plan is to publish it very early in the new year–say January 1 or 2. After all, most of you aren’t around anyway, and if you are, the last thing you want to do is read a 15,000-word retrospective and commentary on Google Book Search and the Open Content Alliance (and a couple of shorter essays). Right?
• The exception: I’m almost certainly going to do a book version of Cites & Insights 6: 2006; I really like having a paperback instead of a Velobound cumulation, even if nobody else buys it. There will be something extra for those who do buy it, though. With Volume 7, it’s the phantom issue. With Volume 6, it’s a prefatory essay that I’ll start writing today, and which will include some details on losses and major changes among the liblogs profiled in 2005 and 2006. I’ll probably do a summary post, but the details will only be in the book. Of course, it’s also a neat packaged way to get both of my major essays on Library 2.0, and it will cost the same as (or less than) that separate package would have, if I’d had the will to do all the footnotes and bibliography/index needed to make it a book. (Which is to say: $29.50, only from Lulu. I’ll post an announcement when it is available.) If I do the book version, I’ll probably open C&I 8:1 with an announcement for both book versions…and, as time permits, see whether it’s feasible to do earlier volumes in book form.
• I am going to Midwinter, and other than Saturday evening and Sunday early evening, my schedule’s still pretty much open. If you’d like to get together for something, send me a note. Given that I didn’t have a big network of local friends, telecommuting can be a trifle isolating–Midwinter will be a nice chance to spend some face-to-face time with people.
• If you’re wondering about the Academic Library Blogs project (is anyone?): The research portion is done. Now it’s a matter of crunching numbers, writing the first few chapters, editing the blog-based chapters, choosing a cover image…possibly sometime in January. Possibly later.
• You’re still invited to join the PALINET Leadership Network; go to PLN and click on “Log in/Create account” and create an account. Good stuff!

Have a good whatever it is you have. Enjoy; life’s too short not to.

Based on the overwhelming response to the availability of Cites & Insights 7: 2007 in book form (including the otherwise-unavailable Cites on a Plane phantom issue), I’ve decided to

Reduce the price!

It’s now the same price as other Cites & Insights Books: $29.50. Which, in this case, gets you a 405-page 8.5×11″ trade paperback.

I’m still thinking about doing previous volumes in book form–but certainly not because of anticipated sales (”overwhelming response” continues to add up to zero). For Volume 7, I finally figured out that the beautiful book version actually cost me less than doing another Velobound volume would. For earlier volumes, I already have the Velobound volumes, of course–but the book version’s a whole lot nicer and easier to use.

Is it worth it to have better versions of earlier volumes? Maybe. Not this week or next, but maybe. (Of course, given response, it’s unlikely that I’d write the promised introductory essays to earlier volumes.) Will sales eventually arise? Who knows? (Note that, if I did extract the two Library 2.0 essays from Volume 6 and publish them as a standalone volume, that volume would also cost $29.50.)

Meanwhile, work on the academic library blogs project has crawled nearly to a halt; given the response to the public library book, it’s hard not to prefer, say, taking another walk or reading a book to working on it. First priority, to be sure, other than home and family, is the PALINET Leadership Network–and that’s going just fine, with new content starting to appear in the next two days. I’ll be blogging more about that, I’m sure.

When I posted C&I Volume 7: Buy the book!” it was partly a leap of faith. Given past experience (and that I expected/expect fairly low sales, but thought a few libraries and people might spring for it), I didn’t wait for my own copy to arrive before opening it up for sale.

My copy arrived today. It looks great–with a couple mild caveats:

• As you can sort-of see if you look really closely at the small cover illustration, my attempt to blend the rest of the cover in with the sky color in the photo didn’t entirely work. There’s a band just above the picture and at the very top of the page that’s a little less greenish than either the sky in the picture or most of the upper part. Not sure how that happened, but I’m certainly not a CorelDraw expert (or Gimp expert, and don’t have enough use for photo-editing to spring for Adobe Elements). Let’s call it a feature rather than a flaw: A slight difference in decorative bands. (Hey, there’s still a little programmer/analyst in me…) On the other hand, the spine (type on that same background color) and back cover look great–the sign in front of Molokai Public Library against a partly-cloudy deep-blue and light-blue sky is, I think, a great shot.
• The book cover photos on page 1 of the April and October issues are grayscale because they had to be (I changed them before packaging up all the PDFs): You can’t have two color pages without having everything in color, which would be prohibitively expensive. The grayscale versions turn out very well, though.
• On my copy–but not necessarily anyone else’s–there are occasional signs that this is laser printing, that is, slightly irregular darkness at points. Not enough to be troublesome, or I’d ask for a replacement.

On the other hand: It is indeed bright-white 60lb. paper, the print is quite crisp, the margins are enough for the binding–and it makes the four Velobound and two tape-bound volumes look pretty sad by comparison. If there was any plausible reason to do so, I’d be tempted to try to put previous volumes out as paperbound books–they’re considerably easier to handle this way.

But given that zero sales volume, I can’t see any way to justify doing the work… Of course, it’s early yet.

Meanwhile, it looks great. And, to be sure, it’s the only way to get Cites on a Plane…

If you want it, it’s still $35, exclusively from Lulu.

Appreciate Cites & Insights? Want to support it? Why not pick up this year’s issues in a single, convenient, indexed, perfect-bound package?

Cites & Insights Volume 7, 2007 is available now, for $35 plus shipping, only from Lulu. (Amazon/CreateSpace doesn’t do full 8.5×11 books, so it’s not feasible to do a duplicate edition there.)

It’s a 405-page volume including everything you’ll find at the website–but also something you won’t find there: The 38-page phantom issue, Cites on a Plane, which was only available for ten days in January 2007, right around Midwinter. I believe it’s on bright white book paper, so it should read very well.

Oh, and as a bonus you get two library pictures–one from Alaska covering about half of the front cover, one from Hawaii covering the whole back cover.

I’d be delighted to autograph this or any of my other books during Midwinter, if you want them defaced. Chances are, I’ll be at the PALINET booth for some stretches, but I don’t know when–and, of course, I’ll be focusing on the PALINET Leadership Network then, but you can come look at the network and get a book signed.

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As noted earlier, I’d consider putting out book versions of (some) earlier volumes if there’s some demand for them, probably with a bonus essay in each volume. I’m not sure it’s feasible to do volumes of the pre-2005 volumes (there may be a PDF issue), but…

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, 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.

Note: It has been pointed out (thanks, Dorothea!) that a few words are missing at the very bottom of page 9. “If so, perhaps the answer is ejournals” should make the sentence more coherent (thanks, Pete, for the suggested wording).

• 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.

I know, I know, I’ve said more than once that people shouldn’t need to explain why they’re not blogging for a while…but always with an explicit or implicit caveat: unless they want to.

I want to.

You’re unlikely to see any posts here for at least five days, maybe more–which is even a little more irregular than this irregular blog usually runs.

Why? For positive reasons, in this case–positive but also disruptive:

• Tomorrow I’ll fly out to Philadelphia, and go from there to Baltimore. (This means getting up way too early to drive to SFO instead of SJC, my favorite and closest airport–because there are nonstops from SFO to PHL, even if on airlines I’ve never used before. In this case, a 7 a.m. nonstop makes the whole trip workable.)
• What’s up in Baltimore? PALINET’s Annual Conference & Vendor Fair, at the Tremont Hotel & Conference Center, October 29-30 (with a Digitization Expo October 31, but I won’t be going to that).
• On the way from Philadelphia to Baltimore–and much more so in Baltimore–I’ll meet the people I’m working for and with in my new (part-time) position as Director and Managing Editor of the PALINET Leadership Network. Up to now, everything (including interview and hiring) has been done on the phone or via email.
• I’ll also get to meet some of PALINET’s members and start talking up the PALINET Leadership Network. I’ve gotten off to a running start over the past two weeks in setting out milestones and looking at the current beta wiki to see how things might proceed. We decided not to add me to the program as such–probably just as well, given how early it is in the process–but I will be meeting with most of the PLN Advisory Group to work through some issues I’ve identified.
• Why am I flying into Philadelphia rather than Baltimore (an airport I like quite a bit)? Because Tuesday night we’ll drive back to Philadelphia–and I’ll spend Wednesday morning at PALINET headquarters before flying back home Wednesday afternoon (just in time to help deal with trick-or-treaters, specifically the older ones from outside the neighborhood who show up after dark).
• I still travel without technology–at least for the moment–so I won’t be blogging during that period (or checking email, or reading Bloglines, or…). And chances are I’ll spend Thursday and maybe Friday writing up notes and catching up with everything. So a post prior to next weekend is fairly unlikely.
• For my LSW Meebo friends, that also means I’ll be even scarcer over the next week, as in not there at all. Which has mostly been the case since 10/15, so no big surprise…

Not that you’re likely to notice. A bunch of bloggers at IL will cause blog overload for most avid liblog readers anyway. If experience is any guide, readership numbers will probably rise as long as I don’t actually write anything (that’s not just my experience–it’s a fairly frequent occurrence).

If you need a dose of my writing, there’s always the current Cites & Insights–you can write nasty email after reading the ©3 essay, see whether you find the 12-page “Thinking About Blogging” standoffish, and try a few Trends & Quick Takes on for size.

Better yet, if you’re in a public library or library school, buy a copy of Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples. (Or Balanced Libraries: Thoughts on Continuity and Change, same link–both books also available at Amazon.com.)

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.

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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.

This post appeared at the same time as the October 2007 Cites & Insights, noting some uncertainties about C&I’s future because my own future in general seemed so uncertain.

As of right now, I’m about 99% certain that C&I will continue–not because of direct sponsorship (still up in the air), but because of a satisfactory “core situation.”

I’ll provide a more complete post when the last tiny uncertainty is cleared away, and probably in coordination with the people I’ll be working for/with. I thought it was important to get this out right away, though: The future’s looking a whole lot brighter.

There is a typo near the bottom right of page 14 of the current Cites & Insights: The SFWA vice president is Andrew Burt, not David Burt.

Thanks to Seth Finkelstein for pointing out the error. I’ll run a correction next issue.

Update: Oh, and later in the issue: it’s Jennifer Macaulay; there’s no “e” in her last name. I know that. Sorry.

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”?)
• ©3: Balancing Rights - SFWA Takedowns: A Copyright Incident
• Making it Work - Library 2.0 discussions (and another sideshow)
• Net Media Perspective: Tracking High-Def Discs - The Battle Continues

This post was part of Bibs & Blather for the October 2007 Cites & Insights (which will probably appear somewhere between this evening and Thursday evening). I removed it as part of the “copyfitting” process (in this case cutting 34 pages down to 30) and because I’ve generally kept “job search” stuff out of C&I.

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Those of you who read Walt at random will be aware that my future’s been somewhat uncertain since this spring. I’ve generally kept that set of issues out of Cites & Insights, which may be a mistake. I’ve also generally said that the future of Cites & Insights was not in doubt, barring some personal or general disaster.That was true enough–on the basis that I’d have a secure job until I was ready to retire. That basis no longer exists. As I write this, my future sources of income are largely unknown. Cites & Insights is sponsored–but (currently) at a level that only makes sense when it’s over and above my salary.Here’s what I can say at the moment:

• Three conversations should take place in late September or early October. If some or all of those conversations poroduce appropriate results, the future of Cites & Insights will be assured.
• If that proves not to be the case, I’ll have to do some hard thinking about the future in general.
• The first hundred issues of Cites & Insights are assured (barring even more unforeseen circumstances). But…well, see the masthead at the end of this issue. [Insertion: That is, the October 2006 issue is Issue 95.]
• If you care about this stuff, follow Walt at random over the next few weeks. I will certainly post something if things work out as I hope–and I will probably post several things if the future continues to be up in the air. I’ll probably write something here as well, but that’s not likely to happen until late October, and a lot can (and should) happen between now and then.

I care about C&I. I think you do too. I believe it offers significant value to the field. I hope it makes sense to continue doing it.

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That’s the text that would have appeared (with the bracketed insertion added). While two of the three “conversations” don’t seem to be happening (that is, they haven’t been scheduled), the third (and possibly the most promising) does seem to be moving along.The last six months have been personally disruptive and revealing. I’ve tried to keep the problems from damaging C&I–and I believe I’ve succeeded: I think the set of issues since April 2007 has been as strong as any in the ejournal’s history. As noted, I’m now thinking it may have been a mistake to shield C&I almost entirely from what I’ve been dealing with–but it’s a little late to stop now.

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Postscript Monday, January 24:: Things are looking considerably better. See later post “Future of C&I (& this blog): blue skies”

Tomorrow I turn 62. It’s been (to put it charitably) an odd year–but hey, I produced two excellent books that everybody should rush out and buy, so it hasn’t all been bad. Anyway, I got a present of sorts that made me feel even a bit older…

Michael McGrorty posted this at Library Dust. It’s his non-contribution to a meme I haven’t contributed to. Here’s the money quote:

I write a blog; actually a couple of them, this being one. I am primarily and essentially a writer; I predate the Internet. In fact, I predate the personal computer and the electric typewriter. I do not predate Walt Crawford, who was present at the Big Bang and responsible for the current dimensions of the visible universe.

It’s a compliment, to be sure–an honor, even, given the high quality of McGrorty’s writing.

In keeping with which, I think this might be a good time to clarify my opinion of my own writing quality, given that I’ve called myself a hack writer more than once.

I believe I’m a pretty good writer–OK, I’ll say one of the best X writers in the library field, but don’t ask me to turn “X” into a number. (Somewhere between 5 and 100?) I think my zero-draft writing is clear and coherent–that’s what you see in this blog, which is, 99% of the time, written and posted in a single setting without revision. I think my 1.25-draft writing works well: you see that at Cites & Insights. The books? Second draft. And when I have the help of good editors, as at EContent (and soon, Online), I point with pride.

I don’t regard “hack writer” as a putdown. I regard it as a label, maybe the wrong one. I’m not a literary writer–I don’t consider myself an Author. I aim for clear, natural, idiomatic prose; I try to organize, analyze, synthesize and produce something that is both informative and interesting. I don’t agonize over each sentence and paragraph. If I produce memorable phrases at times–and I do believe it’s happened–that’s nice, but it’s not my primary goal. Michael is a prose stylist. I have a style, but I’m not a stylist. Both good, just different.

I started using an electric typewriter while still in high school, incidentally. (We had a magnificent old glass-sided Royal manual at home before that.) I started writing with a personal computer in, I think, 1983. The Big Bang happened 4,000 years ago–or maybe a few billion, if you’re fact-oriented.

Oh, and I don’t work on the web. I work in Mountain View, and use the web as one of several tools…

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.

Just thought I’d touch base, in case anyone’s interested:

• Public Library Blogs: 252 Examples - The book and cover are done and uploaded at both Lulu and CreateSpace, with proof copies ordered from both sources. I could hold the next C&I until I see and approve proof copies, but probably won’t–maybe. Best guess: It will be about 2 weeks before the book’s available. The final book is 299 pages (289 + x). My wife (whose photography provides the cover once again) finds my choice of cover photo a little ironic for a book about blogs…but you’ll see when it’s ready. Price: $29.50.
• Cites & Insights - I have a handful of items to add to the first Followup and Feedback section in many moons (since February, actually), and a few items to add to Trends & Quick Takes–and, probably, a Bibs & Blather to write. After that–which may take a while, because of other needs for my PC this weekend–it’s a matter of editing, combining, copyfitting. Best guess: midweek (say 8/21-8/23). On the other hand, if the proof copies show up early, I could revamp the whole thing and it might take longer…
• The CreateSpace/Amazon experiment - The proof copy of Balanced Libraries–no textual changes, but I’ve scrapped the “continue the conversation” last page and back-of-title “comments” section and provided a different edition date–is also on the way. If it looks good, I’ll go live…but Lulu will continue to be first choice, at least for now.
• Pricing for Balanced Libraries - When/if it goes live on Amazon, it will be $29.50. I’d originally said that the price at Lulu will increase sometime between 9/14 and 10/1. Given the enormous increase in sales since that announcement (I don’t use emoticons, but I think I can count those sales on one hand), I’ll probably reprice the book on Lulu at the same time–to $29.50, of course.
• The search for ongoing revenue sources / employment / sponsorship - Still nothing to report. Still interested in talking to people about possible situations. Still not looking to replace the whole of my current income, in case that (and possible misapprehensions about my current income!) is holding anyone back.

The next C&I–that is, the one after the September issue I’m working on now–will be the final one while I have a steady job, at least as things stand now. So far, I’ve mostly kept “job search/sponsorship search” issues out of C&I. That may change. Or, of course, something could develop between now and then.

Oh, and for a few who are interested:

• The academic library blog book - I’ll probably start working on it shortly after wrapping up the September C&I, and have absolutely no target for completion. Come October, I might also start working on yet another project that involves blogs–but there’s no point talking about that one just yet.