owlmoose: (Default)
KJ ([personal profile] owlmoose) wrote2007-10-19 01:43 pm

A few book and research related links

I caught up on some of my library blogs yesterday, and I found a few tidbits:

-- Judging books by their covers and why boys don't read. Should publishers avoid book covers that are too "girlie" to encourage boys to pick them up? A sound idea, or more pandering to stereotypes? I really can't decide.

-- Growth vs. quality on Wikipedia. The debate between Inclusionists (we have the space, so why not have articles on everything?) and Deletionists (too much trivia is bad for our reputation) as demonstrated by a deletion war over a possibly trivial entry by founder Jimmy Wales. The article led me to Wikirage, a listing of the Wikipedia articles that are currently receiving the most edits. Edit-war watch?

-- While we're on the subject. Since we're in presentation season at work, the subject of Wikipedia keeps coming up when we talk to students about doing research. J has taken to making live edits during class presentations, which has been really effective. The one time I saw her doing it, one student sat up in amazement. "I didn't know you could do that!!" I love getting to see mental gears turn like that. Of course, the edit only lasted about 20 minutes, but it was a pretty blatant one. I wonder how something more subtle would do.

-- "Theives try do-it-yourself censorship": an article on the phenomenon of checking out a book from the library, then refusing to return it because you think it shouldn't be available there. This strikes me as much worse than making a protest to the school board/library director/whoever. I can not like it when a community decides to ban a book, but at least there was a process and opinions get heard. This is the very worst sort of enforcing your beliefs on others. Another article on a similar case.

-- One of the funniest things I've read in awhile. A grad student's adventures as a library tech. Link via [livejournal.com profile] plantgirl.

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