What is proprietary in a search result and what is open information? Under state and Federal laws, or professional codes some occupations in the religious, legal, and health sciences that regulate what their practitioners may share with a third parties. They may also be required to report certain kinds of abuse or dangers. Read More »

Shoulders of Giants? : Judging a Science Fair 3 Last Friday (January 27, 2012) I was a judge at a regional science fair of the Chicago Public Schools. Two of my fellow librarians were also judges and share some of the ideas presented here. Read More »

New President Interview — Part 11 Customer Service* Q> I read an article by Norm Brodsky, “The Inspector” concerning how a hotelshould treat their guests. When the hotel owners wanted to join a trade association they needed to have a superior level of service. Read More »

For the past couple of weeks I have been editing letters that my father wrote from June – August, 1945 while stationed in Italy. As a good historian I have been trying to put these letters into some kind of context. He mentioned movies, operas, and USO shows that he attended along with some of his friends. Read More »

Q> Student-centered education is frequently mentioned as a way to center the process of learning on the student rather than on those teaching or administering the schools. What place does this theory fit in the way the College operates? * A> Student-centered learning needs to be focused on making the students active participants in their education. Read More »

Many people wrote comments to concerns that I wrote in my Dec. 18th review of the iPad. I was not trying to make a comprehensive scientific study of the iPad. I was just delivering my opinion based on how I would use the device in my computing environement. I changed part of the text of the blog to reflect these comments. Read More »

On December 20 I was a judge at the science fair for Lincoln Park High School. I was recruited by my daughter who attends this school. There was no conflict of interest because she was not participating. Since I was a judge for the Central Region Chicago Public Schools Science Fair in January 2011, I wanted to compare the two experiences. Read More »

Apple Computers has sold close to 4 million iPads. I was very curious as to why so many people think this is a worthwhile device to purchase. When the library purchased four Apple iPads, I wanted to evaluate how they could be used in the library. Read More »

It does seem like the wrong season to write about haggadot shel Pesah, but I write about what crosses my desk. This is a follow-up to the last article about finding a page from the Golden Haggadah. I ordered a copy of the 1997 reproduction edition of the Haggadah published by the British Library. A dealer was selling this edition for $1.74. Read More »

The chairman of the humanities department stopped by my desk in the library and asked for help with a picture that he bought at a garage sale for $5. The gold frame contained a page with four pictures that looked medieval. Because the picture was under glass we could not determine the material.[fn 1] It could have been velum or paper. Read More »

Q> In the November 2001 issue of Campus Technology , Michelle Fredette [fn 1] writes about customer service improvements that would help the technically literate student have a better customer service oriented experience. Read More »

Last March I wrote about the card sorter as a piece of older library technology that many younger libraries don’t know how to use. Card sorters are used for catalog cards that need to be ordered before filing. Cards could be typed locally or purchased from a vendor. Read More »

Q> It’s been four months since you were appointed dean and now that your first semester is close to half over, what can you tell us about the registration process and getting started? A> All beginnings are hard because one does have the experience of the past. No matter how much one knows about the process, living through it has no substitute. Read More »

We all seem to complain too. It is just more fun to complain than to tell a story of someone who is happy when we just do our normal everyday job. Two weeks ago a librarian on the LM net list serv suggested that every Friday we share some good news. The next Monday the college vice-president’s office asked for us to share any good news. Read More »

I rarely hear administrators talk about infrastructure. Infrastructure includes all of the administrative, logistics, and back-office support that allows faculty to do their jobs. Last week a vendor supplied database was turned off because the bill was not paid. Read More »

The spine label is not a lost library skill, but some earlier methods are no longer used. The challenge is that no one label fits all the needs. [fn 1] Libraries need labels that are inexpensive to create and apply, stick to books, easily removable, never damage the book, and never fades, dries out or deteriorates. Such a label doesn’t exist. Read More »

Attribution to sources goes back at least to the time of the Talmud, if not earlier. Frequently one rabbi will say something in the name of one of his teachers or quote a Biblical verse. While this is not the same as an academic citation, it does acknowledge that we are students of our teachers and we draw our ideas from reliable sources. Read More »

In a comment to my blog article of February 17, 2011 I mentioned a case before the British Supreme Court of George Lucas v. Andrew Ainsworth. The case was argued in March 2011 and the judgment was given on July 27, 2011. Ainsworth was the designer of the Storm Trooper costumes in the 1977 movie, Star Wars. Read More »

In my previous post, “Mistaken Attribution,” I was trying to show that scholars and those who claim to be serious intellectuals need to properly cite and credit their sources. One can not just put words in someone’s mouth. One needs to make proper citations for everything. Read More »

Creating a Community* Q>; Jonathan Sacks in his book, The home we build together said, “ Society is the home we build together when we bring our several gifts to the common good.” Previously you said that Sacks’ theory of society has influenced your theory of management. Read More »