Even that guy from Memento is like, "Dude, I get it."

I've noticed something about the library's movies. Certain titles circulate like crazy for years without being damaged, lost, or stolen. How crazy, you ask? Like one copy of Sabrina added in 2003 that has circ'd 161 times and 22 times last year! Or Being There, which might have the all-time record at 171 total checkouts. And it's not just classics. There's a copy of Memento that has 115 checkouts. So maybe movies aren't being stolen quite as often as we think.

What books are getting this many circulations in a lifetime? It turns out, not many. In a sample of 400 items in the catalog that have over 150 total checkouts, only 17 items are books. I'm sure many books are just as popular or more popular than movies, but a book may actually be more fragile than a disc, despite the perception that DVD's don't last.

Kindle DX

I started subscribing to RSS feeds and I got distracted by one of the stories from slashdot.org, which is a handy site for both techy and nerdy news. (So far I like having the RSS feeds on my homepage (iGoogle) rather than in Outlook or Bloglines.)

Anyway, a new version of the Kindle has been released, this time with a larger screen. I do think e-ink is getting better and better and more and more like an actual printed page, which might help convince some people to transition from book to e-book. I'm not of a collector mentality, so I don't really care about the container- my interest in books is the content. If Kindle's ever become more compatible with libraries and their e-books, I'll be sold.

But I understand some people feel attachment to books themselves. I had a friend who told me that they would never let go of books for an e-book reader, because the experience of turning the page was too special to them. Of course, at one point the page was the latest technology, so I wonder if people were reluctant to give up turning the scroll.

This video has been around for awhile, but maybe some of you haven't seen it:

Folksonomy: Threat or Menace?

Actually, I'm a big fan of folksonomies and tagging. Even though all the tags on Flickr are user-created, it still works almost as elegantly as if it were being cataloged by a professional.

Still, it's interesting to see how people manipulate tags, as it clearly can be abused. Some people use misleading but popular tags to sneak in images that otherwise would remain buried (usually promotional and/or shocking images). Flickr seems to have a system to counter-act this kind of thing, though.

Others use arbitrary tags to form their own community within Flickr. For example, the author of a webcomic I read started promoting the use of the tag haylookit for anything his readers found interesting or noteworthy. Now there are over a thousand images tagged with haylookit on Flickr.

a point of contention

What are blogs for if not addressing contentious issues? It's probably my own fault for reading a blog called the Annoyed Librarian, but I thought Library Journal's hosting of the anonymous ranter added some kind of legitimacy.

Anyway, here is a link to the post that riled me: http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/580000658/post/1590035559.html

The opening paragraph begins, "All along I've noticed that a lot of librarians resent my criticism of the lowest-common-denominator, give-'em-what-they-want, bread-and-circuses approach to public librarianship that so many librarians seem to desire. Sometimes it seems that I'm the only librarian who believes public libraries should have some sort of purpose larger and more important that subsidizing the puerile entertainment desires of the mass of people who can't afford Netfllx or videogames. Some naive people think that the masses should provide their own puerile entertainment and public institutions should contribute to the public good. "

I won't go into great length regarding why I defend puerile entertainment in the library, even though I'm a total snob in my personal life. Here's a short break-down of my argument:

• Public institutions have included entertainment as a worthwhile goal for a long time. See Parks & Rec for an example.

• Yesterday's trash is tomorrow's treasure. Charles Dickens was considered a trashy writer in his day and his work is now considered the pinnacle of Western literature. There's something to be said for the wisdom of the crowd.

• Should a publically funded institution take upon itself the role of tastemaker? An institution so closely tied to the government should be careful about declaring what has cultural worth and value and what is 'puerile' entertainment. Censorship is often framed in terms of protecting public morality.

It's been a while since I last rapped at ya

I have a history of abandoned and failed blogs(not to be confused with the Fail Blog), due primarily to the fact that I am a recluse and sharing does not come naturally to us.

However, I am a long time lurker, so I have some familiarity with many of the 27 things. I wasn't planning on doing 27 things, but they lured me in with the promise of a shiny new flash drive.

The prizes do seem an odd choice if they want to encourage the Luddites to participate.... But I'm an easy sell. After all, I would probably want one of these if it was real.