Cites & Insights 9:3 now available

Cites & Insights 9:3, February 2009, is now available for downloading.

The 30-page issue is PDF, as usual. Three of the essays are available as HTML separates (using the links below). The first, which is also the longest, is available as a PDF separate–the inclusion of embedded Excel graphs within the document made HTML creation more cumbersome than I was willing to deal with.

This issue features the article versions of my two presentations for the OLA (Ontario Library Association) SuperConference, held just over a week ago in Toronto, Ontario. The first article is a longer version of my session “Shiny Toys or Useful Tools?”; the second article includes “My own take” as the first set of Tech Trends, and that was my initial commentary during the “Top Tech Trends” session.

Issue contents:

Making it Work: Shiny Toys or Useful Tools? (pages 1-9)

Blogs and wikis aren’t shiny new toys for libraries and librarians any more. They’ve moved from toys to tools. This article includes the only defensible definitions of blogs and wikis that I know of, some comments about planning library blogs, and sections on the state of liblogs and library blogs in December 2008. Included–for the first time in C&I–graphs, eight of them. (As noted, the link is to a 9-page PDF.)

Perspective: Tech Trends, Trends and Forecasts (pages 9-18)

It’s that time of year again–time for lots of trendy commentaries. For a change, I begin with my own set: The trends I see “as vital for thinking about libraries, technology and life.”That’s followed by tech trends and commentaries from nine different sources, six of them library-specific; two sets of general trends, one of them just full of trendy neologisms; and three sets of forecasts (short-term predictions), one of them coupled with a scorecard for 2008.

Interesting & Peculiar Products (pages 18-23)

One long commentary on “budget” high-end audio systems and “the rule of 10,” plus comments on seven products (or groups of products) and seven editors’ choices and group reviews.

Trends & Quick Takes (pages 23-29)

Four longer commentaries and six quicker takes.

My Back Pages (pages 29-30)

Four brief commentaries.

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This work by Walt Crawford is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 8th, 2009 at 1:40 pm and is filed under Cites & Insights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Cites & Insights 9:3 now available”

  1. Mark State says:
    March 1, 2009 at 9:59 am

    Hi, Walt!
    Belatedly regarding an article re ig nobel awards quoting my opposition…

    I just ran across your article on my impassioned letter against the ig nobel prizes. One doesn’t ordinarily remember all the responses one writes in the mood of after-viewing a website of most kinds, and I had forgotten this one.

    Thank you for publishing my response, and responding back to it. I have a great big smile on my face after reading it, and it didn’t even take a prize to get it there.

    (As far as coming last in the 2006 election was concerned, that was I, all right. Running was done for the experience, and I learned a great deal about the process.

    At least all of my 194 votes came from people who were informed about my platform. The guy who was first on the ballot alphabetically won over 5000 votes; and his platform, as I recall, was that Toronto should secede from Ontario. I’m thinking about changing my name to Mark Aardvark-State for the next election!)

    All the best,
    Mark State