Book Talk: How Did You Get This Number

How Did You Get This Number is the sophomore effort of author Sloane Crosley. Her autobiographical essays about life and love (mostly set in New York City) are fresh and insightful, causing me to want her life and to be her friend. These essays talk about growing up, learning disabilities, dating, shopping and even Sarah Palin in a way that makes you think "that's hilarious" and "I've totally been there" at the same time. Her vignette about her ex-boyfriend Ben is especially moving.

Book Talk: Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary is the latest book of short stories by David Sedaris. Like his other books, this one tells harsh truths with scathing and weird wit, but this time through talking animals in human-like relationships. I really enjoyed this book because of the dark humor and social viewpoints with commentary on everything from race relations to sex. I don't know if this book is for everyone, but it's certainly worth a try.

'Cause Tonight is the Night

My digital archive uses Dublin Core and I’ve been looking into best practices. This led to the realization that we currently violate one of the central tenets of Dublin Core, the One-to-One Principle:

In general Dublin Core metadata describes one manifestation or version of a resource, rather than assuming that manifestations stand in for one another. For instance, a jpeg image of the Mona Lisa has much in common with the original painting, but it is not the same as the painting. As such the digital image should be described as itself, most likely with the creator of the digital image included as a Creator or Contributor, rather than just the painter of the original Mona Lisa.

Like many cultural heritage projects, my digital archive has cheerfully ignored the One-to-One Principle for years, combining metadata about both the digital file and physical original in a single record. I’m not planning to change this because--abstract principles aside--mixed records make more sense for both our users and our local situation.

In an article on current practice and the One-to-One Principle, Steven Miller of the University of Wisconsin gets to the heart of the problem for me:

…many practitioners, including those who are well aware of the One-to-One principle, come to their digital collection projects with the intent to create records only for their digital resources. They are creating metadata for an online collection of digital resources, not a database or catalog of both their analog holdings and their digitized files.

My archive doesn't even have real physical material (all of our documents are photocopies or scans from other archives), so why go to the trouble of creating two separate records for each item? Not to mention, double records would be a headache if we ever exposed our metadata for aggregators.

In the same article, Miller recommends a compromise solutions:

1. Follow the One-to-One Principle as much as possible, with the bulk of a record focusing on either the digital or the original,
2. use the source field to explain the relationship between the digital and original versions (i.e. “Digital reproduction of photographic print in the So-and-so Collection, located in the Such-and-such Archive.”)

He goes into more detail in the article, but that's the basic idea. This is similar to what we are doing now and I think I'll follow his suggestions, keeping in mind what our metadata records will look like when stripped down to simple Dublin Core.*

*One caveat: I’m not crazy about some of Miller’s DC mappings in his examples. For instance, in one he uses the "Contributor" field for the name of the institution holding the original physical document, which I don’t think is right. It makes much more sense in the Publisher or Relation field. See Arwen Hutt and Jenn Riley, “Semantics and Syntax of Dublin Core Usage in Open Archives Initiative Data Providers of Cultural Heritage Materials,” p. 6.

PDF/A Link Dump

I’m considering using PDF/A at my digital archive and thought I’d drop some useful links here for anyone else interested.

PDF/A is a new(ish) file format. It’s a long-term archival version of the classic PDF format we all know and love. Basically, it’s the same as regular old PDF, but it’s guaranteed to look exactly the same years from now when you open it on your holographic iPhone. It should be super easy to implement since the scanning software we currently use, Adobe Acrobat Pro, already has settings for scanning/converting to PDF/A.

• PDF/A - A new Standard for Long-Term Archiving

White paper from the PDF/A Competence Center which explains the standard in easy-to-understand language.

• PDF/A: A Viable Addition to the Preservation Toolkit

Report from Ohio State University Library which discusses different options for converting documents using Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

• Working with PDF/A in Acrobat 9

Great Adobe Acrobat Pro tutorial which explains exactly which features are and aren't PDF/A compliant. (Note: The narrator has a very soothing accent.)

• FREE PDF/A Validator

Uses email to verify attached PDF/A documents.

"No soup [library service] for you!"

I really enjoy the "Soup Nazi" from Seinfeld. At times, I find I act a lot like the Soup Nazi, especially when patrons don't behave the way I want them to, like following basic rules. I work at a private academic university, and I feel we have a community patron problem. Why do we even have community patrons, you ask? Mainly because we are a partial federal depository library, and we are legally required to allow community users access to our materials. Also, academic libraries generally allow patrons outside the campus community to look at their books, periodicals, etc.

Our community patron, R., doesn't make use of our books. He monopolizes a computer - a computer from which he runs a business. He doesn't understand why he cannot use his cell phone right next to the library computer, in case, as he terms it, of conference calls. When he's on a computer, we have to kick him off so students can use it. He has figured out the student login (not as though that was difficult), so now he has unlimited printing. He never brings his own pens or pencils, so he is always using ours or a student's. One time, he asked to use the reference desk phone, then our personal cell phones because he was having trouble with his. When we all refused, he asked a student to use hers. He constantly has technology problems, which he then needs help solving. We have to constantly remind him that he cannot use the lab, to please take his cell phone calls outside, stop pestering the students, and so on. (As you can tell, he has been the fly in my ointment for a while).

There are all sorts of theories flying around about what he is actually doing. For a while, we were convinced he was running a spam operations because we had to help him with pdf problems. Then, we thought he was running a phone scam because he is constantly asking for and promising large sums of money to people. (He'd also like us to find the number for Goldman Sachs).

I have really worked on my attitude (although it doesn't seem like it). I don't want to be the only librarian who constantly complains about R. My colleagues try to remind me that it isn't my problem; my boss has made a decision to let him stay. For some reason, I find this unhelpful. I can't see a problem like this, where someone is disrupting library service, and not do anything about it. On the other hand, I did not decide to work in a public library, so all I really want to deal with is snotty college students. Upon further reflection, though, I realized that even a public library would not put up with his behavior. I think the problem I'm having comes down to valuation of library services. Apparently, my colleagues and I have a difference of opinion.

I caved and bought an iPad

As the headline says, I recently caved and bought an iPad. As the lovely Gwen suggested, I am blogging about its capacities as an e-reader, because "inquiring minds want to know!"

I was totally skeptical about the iPad when it came out. I'm not a huge Apple fan, I was worried about there being a lack of options for where I could buy stuff, and I thought the name was annoyingly reminiscent of sanitary napkins. I started to come around when I read more about e-readers and the relative environmental impacts of buying paper books or using an e-reader. I also discovered that while I don't like audiobooks, I can READ a book in nearly any format - although something I can take to bed with me is best. Then, my little sister got an iPad for free (I know!) and LOVED it. She convinced me, and might have inspired some serious jealousy.

So I bought one. I considered other e-readers, but the iPad appeared to do books reasonably well while also doing lots of other interesting stuff. I won't cover all the other stuff now, because this is about books!

To start with, my worries about where I could get books were pretty unfounded. I currently use the iBooks ap, which is intended for iPad use, and I also have the Kindle ap and I'm experimenting with a few others. From what I've seen, there are tons and tons of e-book aps and stores available to iPad users. Some of them seem more usable and aesthetically pleasing than others, but they are definitely available.

I actually really like the iBook ap, because I can change the font size and brightness and turn on a sepia effect, all of which help prevent headaches (one big difference from other e-readers is it doesn't have that "real paper" look, so it is like reading a computer screen). The touch screen is pretty awesome in the iBook ap, because it makes turning pages look amazing - although I still occasionally turn pages I didn't mean to turn. One thing I find totally awesome is the dictionary - I can tap a word and then have the option to, among other things, look it up in the dictionary. I have actually used this tool several times already, which is not to imply I have a poor vocabulary!

My biggest concern currently is getting access to books, regardless of which ap I use, without paying for them. Buying books is easy - I bought one from the iBook store and it worked just like buying something from iTunes. I don't have a Kindle account, but I assume it is equally easy to use that if you don't want to give Apple more money. Books are generally also a little cheaper than they would be if you bought the physical object. I've downloaded a number of free Project Gutenberg books from the iBook store, but it takes a little more searching because Apple really does not like presenting all the free stuff right up front. I've also downloaded a few from sites online that provide EPUB books for free. These are, of course, all older books, because of copyright issues.

Getting newer books for free has been harder, because dealing with the library has been the most challenging part so far. Unfortunately, part of that is because the library's selection is a little unimpressive. The other part is because I have yet to figure out the perfect way to get the books actually onto the iPad. My techy boyfriend got it to work on another ap, and he says the problem is a DRM issue. I've had multiple awesome librarians respond to my cries for help with more information, which I need to check out - I want the process to be as quick and easy as possible, and I want it to be on an ap that I like.

So, this is an epic post, but here's the bottom line: The iPad is really expensive if you're only using it as an e-reader, but as an e-reader I think it's pretty darn good. Since it also does other stuff, I think it justifies the price, but be prepared for a few struggles with library books especially, since it hasn't been around as long as other e-readers.

Quinoa!

Ever since my friend Lauren made me a summer meal of salmon and quinoa I've always wanted to try making another quinoa dish. So, I adapted this recipe and used quinoa instead of bulgar. My, is it tasty and super easy!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of quinoa (I found it in the rice/pasta section of my grocery)
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 cups diced plum tomato
• 3/4 cup shredded cooked chicken breast (I used the packaged kind)
• 3/4 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1/2 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup diced English cucumber
• 1/4 cup minced fresh mint
• 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• Optional: 1 garlic glove, minced (I love garlic)

Preparation

1. Combine quinoa and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes (or whatever the box says).

2. While the quinoa cooks, combine all of the ingredients. Once the quinoa is done, put it in the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and combine well. I didn't even wait for the quinoa to cool. Eat!