David Berman, Archives & Museum Informatics, wrote an article in D Lib magazine (Decemeber 2006) recapping Jean-Noël Jeanneney’s Critique on Google. I think all librarians need to read and think about those 5 critiques that Berman addresses.
I was talking with friends over thanksgiving dinner about google (you can tell I can’t stop thinking about google!). We agreed that it is problematic that there is very little public discourse on google despite their increasing expansion into all areas of the cyberworld and it’s infrastructure. We were speculating why there is no public discourse:
Whatever the reasons for the lack of public discourse, silence is not the solution. If ignorance is the reason then we have to find the way to educate our public and ourselves. If fear is preventing the public discourse then we need to create a community where we can engage in critical dialog and encourage people to discuss about how the decisions we make now will affect future generations of library users and the world’s citizens. If conflict of interest is the reason then we have to ask ourselves whose interests are being looked after?
I think this is the time and I hope we don’t wait too long.
I thought no one was reading my blog since I haven’t posted anything for a long time. But since I restarted the blog a couple of days I found out that my friend, Jim Jacobs, was picking up my new blog posts via RSS. I guess you never know who will read your blog in cyber world 
Speaking about Jim, I had a chance to talk him on the phone today. I always think he is one of the library world’s visionaries but few library administrators recognize his brilliancy since he is way ahead of them (and I’m not trying to butter him up 
).
I mentioned to him about my mental struggle with google as a library tool. One thing he pointed out that I think is really important is the concept of transparency. No one knows how google works. There are so many mysterious layers between google search technologies and users.
This is crucial distinction between libraries and Google. When I teach a library class to students I am able to teach how knowledge is organized in the library and how Library of Congress (LC) Subject Headings and LC classification that we use are biased and western culture/dominant ideology-centered — for more, see for example, Sanford Berman’s Prejudices and Antipathies.
With Google, I can’t teach students about the intricacies of how knowledge is organized and why, in google’s search results, certain links are on the top and the others are not. Worse, I don’t even know what is included and what is not included. Google claims that they will organize the world of information, but I am wondering whose world they are talking about.
Organizing knowledge is inherently subjective and its subjectivity has to be revealed in order to challenge the oppression/bias embedded in our culture. One thing that the library community can do while they are dealing with Google is to point out to their user communities about google’s opaqueness in terms of how things are organized and be aware of it’s implications.
This seems to todays zeitgeist.
The Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together into one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers looking for content to teach with and about, and to explore issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.
And, if you have iTunes, go to
podcasts -> education -> higher education
to see lots of (mostly free) higher ed. podcasts!
ResearchChannel is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by a consortium of leading research universities, institutions and corporate research centers dedicated to creating a widely accessible voice for research through video and Internet channels.
In addition to health and medical sciences, computer science and engineering, more than 30% of the content is in arts, humanities, and social sciences.
ResearchChannel has a video library of over 1300 full-length programs available for
webcast and searchable on-demand.
The University Channel makes videos of academic lectures and events from all over the world available to the public. It is a place where academics can air their ideas and present research in a full-length, uncut format.
Already available: The Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement, The Pope and the Future of Religion and Politics, How Unequal Can America Get Before We Snap? …and much more!
Information and Communication Technologies and the Effects of Globalization: Twenty-First Century “Digital Slavery” for Developing Countries–Myth or Reality? by L. A. Ogunsola
Hezekiah Oluwasanmi Library, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile - Ife, Nigeria.
Abstract
The main goal of this paper is to examine the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) revolution and the concept of globalization as they effect developing countries. Globalization as one of the reasons for possible widening of the gap between the poor and the rich nations was examined and the emerging concept of “digital slavery” was carefully evaluated. The wide gap in availability and use of ICTs across the world and the influences ICTs exert on globalization at the expense of developing countries were carefully examined and suggestions and necessary policies were offered for developing countries to leap-frog the industrialization stage and transform their economies into high value-added information economies that can compete with the advanced countries on the global market. This is why it is important for Africa, in general, and Nigeria, in particular, to be aware of the implications, prepare to avoid the most telling consequences and prepare to meet its challenges.
Slashdot reports
“Two prominent science fiction authors have recently released their newest novels as free downloads to coincide with their in-store releases.”
The Forum on Privatization and the Public Domain
The goals of the Forum are to:
Create a public voice on the issues raised by the relentless expansion of what are considered to be patentable products, processes, discoveries, inventions and appropriated goods, or what is commonly referred to as intellectual property…
Thanks to Librarian Activist!
Stevan Harnad, the long time evangelist of open access to scholarly literature, has started a new blog,
Open Access Archivangelism
“Maximizing Research Impact by Maximizing Research Access” (http://openaccess.eprints.org/).
He says,
As of this date, I will begin branching my own substantive
American Scientist Open Access Forum postings
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/ archives/ American- Scientist- Open- Access- Forum.html
to the OAA blog as well. I may also blog selected AmSci comments by others
there too, but OAA is not meant to replace the AmSci Forum by any means, only
to mirror it.