May 18, 2024

I’m So Very Sorry

Two different but very related things happened last week which brought my own fallibility into painful focus for me. One is that I blogged in support of the work of the Ada Initiative. They do great work to advance women in open technology and culture. If you are not familiar with their work, then by […]

The Power of Powers of 2

Despite the fact that I consider myself a lifelong feminist, I am still surprised and dismayed at how easily I can overlook discriminatory behavior toward women. Or not even discriminatory behavior but things that are much more subtle, like situations that discourage women from speaking up or participating. So when a colleague forwarded a notice […]

In Memoriam: Anne Grodzins Lipow

I was reminded by her daughter on Facebook that Anne Grodzins Lipow passed away ten years ago today. In commemoration of that horrible event, I am posting the Foreword I wrote for Anne’s festschrift that was published in 2008. On September 9, 2004 librarianship lost a true champion. Anne Grodzins Lipow was unique – of […]

The Ignorance of What it Will Take

I noted in July’s issue of Current Cites, that we had ended our 24th year of continuous monthly publication and were entering our 25th. Of course the real celebrations will happen a year from now, but I thought that it was worth noting. As I thought more about it, I remembered (again) that I had […]

How to Communicate With Software Developers

My OCLC colleagues at the Developer Network have begun a series of posts that already are beginning to feel like a classic set of posts. The first has tackled the issue of how to communicate your needs to software developers. And although it is written from the perspective of the person asking, I think you […]

Lessons From Rebuilding a Server

As scary as this statement is, I’m my own SysAdmin. This does not come from choice, mind you, but necessity. Sure, I could farm out server administration like many do, but I’ve never found the complete flexibility and power from such arrangements that having your very own server provides. So I make do. And “making […]

The Long Game

It took me many years to figure out my favorite exercise routine. Bear with me, I will make this topic come around to libraries in the end. I knew that the typical “spin class” that many have found to be their groove simply wasn’t for me. But finally, after trying ice skating, roller skating, and […]

Tennant’s Simple Guide to Programming Languages

A colleague recently pointed out that IEEE Spectrum had an interactive tool by which you could explore the top programming languages in various areas (e.g., mobile, web, enterprise, and embedded). Besides noting that my favorite web programming language barely made it into the top ten for the Web (Perl, which they mistakenly called PERL), I […]

Google Announces Google Cloud Dataflow

I have a colleague who has been attending the Google I/O event ever since it began in 2008. This year was no exception, and in his trip report he highlighted what Google calls “Google Cloud Dataflow”. From what I can gather, it is sort of like Google’s version of Hadoop, but presumably better (at least […]

NMC Horizon Report: The Library Edition

I’ve long been an interested reader of the New Media Consortiums series of Horizon Reports. So when I heard that they were doing a “Library Edition” I just about fell off my chair. The way I heard was that they are seeking examples of projects that illustrate the trends that their panel of experts have […]