New Schlock

In case there was any doubt:
"Librarianship, Profession of the Overeducated"

As always, proceeds go to the "Librarian's mortgage" fund, where they will go toward the Actual Mortgage of a Real Librarian.

Number Inflation

What has happened to big numbers? Units aside, a sizable amount of something used to be counted in the hundreds. One thousand was Grand. Tens of thousands were quite enough.

The digital age has brought about a curious sort of obsolescence for formerly large numbers. Googol (the number) became popular around the 1980's, with its goofy appeal and almost inconceivable size. As processing power increased, Megs shifted to Gigs, and on to Terras. Goofy googol became a simple search engine, billion is a household word, and nobody is very impressed by millions anymore. What's next? What gigantic sum will satisfy our ever-hungry minds? Must we begin speaking in scientific notation? Will the cockroaches that inherit the earth discuss infinities of infinities over their radioactive lunches?

It's too much to think about. I'm going back to preschool, where a hundred still means something.

Hi Wired News readers, Publib.

Jeepers. A recent link in Wired News (thanks Katykins!) has led to lots of unexpected traffic, which means I should probably get off my e-butt and do some updates.

If you're new to this site, welcome, librarians are great, don't be afraid of the reference desk, and by the way, our webforums got hacked awhile ago and I haven't pieced them back together yet.

Librarian Avengers visitors usually fall into the following categories:

• Frazzled librarians looking for fellowship
• Hipster librarians looking to put the "hepcat" in cataloging
• Library students looking for evidence that their future can be cardigan-free
• Disenfranchised humanities majors tossing around the idea of becoming a librarian
• Journalists trolling for material for the next "ohmygod librarians have a sense of humor and are kinda sexy" article.
  

With that said, I'll try to provide some appropriate resources. 'Cause that's what librarians do.
Compulsively.

• Librarian.net - Jessamyn's librarian news site. Check out her naked librarians page. Updated daily, and chock full of goodness.
  
• Well Dressed Librarian - A librarian with style. I just love this fellow. I'd have him over, but I'd have to polish my silver first.
  
• The ALA's guide to accredited U.S. library schools. You'll be wanting an accredited one if you want to work in the States.
  
• Gin, search and retrieval, the weblog I kept while I was in library school. All of the dirt. Well, 5% of the dirt, anyway.
  
• A list of frikkin' funny librarian websites.
  
• Unshelved, the comic strip about librarians. No kidding. It's funny.
  

Blogging for the library crowd

Sorry I haven't updated in a few weeks. I've been busy downloading music from this quasi-legal russian mp3 site. But not at work (hi library collegues). And there was some vacation involved. And dogsitting. And basement wall drylocking.

Speaking of the theft of intellectual property, at work recently I've been looking at online digital collections and identifying nifty interface elements we can borrow for the cataloging/digital library software we've been making. There's some pretty rad stuff out there. I've been liking the NYPL's Picture Collection Online, in spite of it's bass-akwards name. (Adjective Adjective NOUN, people. We don't call you the Public Library New York, do we?) Plus, it's the only library search interface I've seen to contain the word "bollicky" in the source code.

You all might know about this already, but coolperson Marguerita clued me in to the new TNT movie "The Librarian". Unless April fools came early this year. Or USA Today isn't a legitimate news source...