LSTEP CIL 2006

1
LSTEP -- CIL 2006
Google Flat World
Library 2.0 Web 2.0
Ajax n-1 n n1

• Postmodernity ...

2
Introduction
3
Initial Thoughts and Questions

• What is
• Information?
• Knowledge?
• Are they same or different?
• What is a librarian?
• What is the role of the librarian in the
  knowledge transaction process?
• What is a library?
• Knowledge ? Library ? Technology ? History

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Part 1 -- Knowledge and History
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Periods in History

• Medieval
• Time period (St. Augustine, 354 - 430 AD) to
  before the Renaissance.
• Technology Paper and ink news traveled slowly.
• Literacy Clerical members of the Church and
  people of the privileged class.
• Knowledge
• Understanding via PARTICIPATION within an ongoing
  narrative, i.e. Tradition.
• Principal method of learning Memory.
• Knowledge is attained through a gradual process
  of participating in ritual (liturgy), listening
  and memorization (lectio divina), which leads
  thereafter to transformation of character toward
  the beatific vision (union with God).
• E.g. Bonaventures Itinerarium mentis in deum --
  The Souls (Minds) Journey to God.
• Knowledge is located within a body of communities
  that professes, not necessarily a system of
  beliefs, but rather a communion of assured
  experiences of the beatific vision, i.e. the
  doctrinal statements speak out of experience.
  Thus, one is immersed in the voices of the past
  and appropriates that knowledge for the sole
  purpose of taking a similar journey toward the
  same end, and adding to that ongoing dialogue.
• Therefore, texts point less to a fact but rather
  to an authorial voice or voices (glosses in the
  margins of texts) in dialogue with ones personal
  voice, e.g. Augustines Confessions, leading the
  listener on a path toward the end goal -- the
  beatific vision.

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Periods in History (continued)

• Modern
• Time period Renaissance (Early Modernism) to
  Post WWII? Vietnam War? Not yet?
• Technology
• Printing press (Early Modernism)
• Machine and automation (High Modernism)
• Literacy School education, where available.
  Varies from place to place, and from historical
  periods.
• Knowledge Understanding via REPRESENTATION
  within a syllogistic system.
• Understanding via seeing from a totalizing
  system, a representation that points to the
  truth.
• In Semiotics Sign -- Signfier --gt Signified.
• Signified as the thing or noumenon (in Kantian
  terms), things as they are in themselves) as
  opposed to phenomenon, knowable by the senses.
• Signifier the totalizing system that explains
  the signs (phenomenon).
• Knowing through imbibing encyclopedic information
  about a subject matter.
• Knowledge is separate from the knowing community
  it can be taken out, abstracted, and put into a
  separate container, e.g. a book, i.e. it can be
  stored.
• Knowledge as object.

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Periods in History (continued)

• Postmodern
• Time period Post WWII? / Vietnam War? - current?
• Technology
• Electronic
• Space Travel
• Globalization Internet Interconnected
  Networks.
• Bio-technology
• Nano-technology
• Nuclear
• Literacy Apparently more widespread than before.
• Knowledge
• No common denominator no totalizing or
  overarching metaphysical idea.
• Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern
  as incredulity towards metanarratives
  Jean-François Lyotard.
• A sign does not only refer simply but also
  specifies a system of meaning and value at play.
• All systems are self-contained and largely
  self-referential, i.e. ones relative world
  constructs the world. There is no such thing as a
  transcendental reference.
• Knowledge is constructed or invented, therefore,
  changeable.

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Postmodern Crisis

• Subject
• Modern view
• the irreducible individual -- the one that is
  because it thinks or is conscious, e.g. Descartes
  Cogito Ergo Sum.
• Postmodern analysis
• What is individual is not necessarily an
  irreducible essence but rather a complex
  discourse between culture, history, gender,
  personal specificity, etc. The question of Who
  am I? becomes acute.
• Object
• Modern view the things that constitute a world
  that is single, not multiplied. The Modern
  project the teleological goal of the one system,
  e.g. Communism, Capitalism, The Aryan Race, etc.
• Postmodern analysis
• Plurality of worlds, multiple realities.
• Bricolage Improvisation -- using whatever is
  lying around.
• Attempts toward a totalizing vision must be
  avoided because the underlying drive is sheer
  naked power (postmodernism as a reaction to the
  horrors of WWII).
• Sign
• The word that refers to the world thus
  constituted.
• The question of what is is
• It depends upon what the meaning of the word
  'is' is. If 'is' means 'is and never has been'
  that's one thing - if it means 'there is none',
  that was a completely true statement -- Bill
  Clinton.

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Postmodern Crisis (continued)

• Historicism
• Modern view History as a single, universal
  system of human explanation of what was and
  therefore is -- the notion of a neutral objective
  description of what happened.
• Postmodern analysis
• If all particulars and practices are functions of
  systems, the historian is a part of a system.
  Thus, history is put onto the spot of examining
  its historicity.
• Summary
• (Subject) If the individual is not irreducible
  but a product of complex sets of systems then
• (Object) If each individual perception of reality
  is dependent on those underlying drives. Then,
  what is truly real, beyond the subjective miasma?
• (Sign) Further, if the communication device of
  these subjective perception, i.e. language, is
  permeated with such subjectivity, because that
  (the signified) which a sign refers to is NOT
  ultimately irreducible, then
• (History) What we thought we knew, we no longer
  know, and what we know now is it valid in the
  future?
• Therefore the postmodern reaction bricolage
  what works will do for the moment.
• Postmodernism not a unified system of thought
  a pastiche of thought.

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Knowledge

• Medieval
• Knowledge as cyclical, as a peregrination, as
  participative, as an experience.
• Relational Knowledge is bound to a body of
  people, past, present, and future one knows by
  belonging religio bind together or unite.
• Senses of comprehension Abstract intellect,
  emotions, imagination, 5 physical senses, and the
  will.
• Modern
• Knowledge as linear, teleological, abstract,
  singular, and totalizing.
• Hierarchical Knowledge is inter-related in an
  interlocking hierarchy of meanings.
• Abstract intellect as the only sense required for
  comprehension.
• Postmodern
• Knowledge as contingent, provisional,
  fragmentary, and cobbled together.
• Flat Knowledge is a fragmentary collage of free
  associating knowledges that can be used upon
  will as necessary.
• Knowledge is created by humans searching for
  meaning within a particular socio-political-econom
  ic-cultural-temporal-geographic context.
• Can I trust my senses? Have they been culturally
  and linguistically pre-determined?

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The Medieval -- Diagram
Interpretation
Text
Knowledge

• Embedded within community
• Bound within ritual and shared
• symbols
• Understood within an ongoing
• Dialog across time (Tradition)

• Dimly apprehended
• Grasped within a contextualized language

• The four senses of reading
• Literal / Historical
• Allegorical
• Moral / Tropological
• Anagogical / Sapiential

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The Modern -- Semiotic Diagram
Signifier
Sign
Signified

• Abstract
• Impersonal
• Stable
• Permanent

• Irreducible
• Universal
• Independent of the sign
• Comprehensible, i.e. the mind can grasp it

• Primary method of reading
• Critical
• Historical / Critical -- diachronic
• Form criticism -- textual / synchronic
• Source criticism
• Redaction criticism -- literary

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The Postmodern -- Semiotic Diagram
Signifier
Sign
Signified

• Unstable
• Personal
• Idiosyncratic

• Linguistically and culturally constructed
• Signified also a sign?
• Everything is a sign?

• Primary methods of reading?
• Hermeneutics of Suspicion (Ricoeur)
• Deconstructionist (Derrida)
• Gendered reading (e.g. Julia Kristeva)
• Queer reading
• Foucauldian (There is no outside )
• Reader-response
• Cultural hermeneutics
• Post-colonial (Said, Spivak, Bhabha)

14
Salvatores speech

• Penitenziagite! Watch out for the draco who
  cometh in futurum to gnaw your anima! Death is
  super nos! Pray the Santo Pater come to liberar
  nos a malo and all our sin! Ha ha, you like this
  negromanzia de Domini Nostri Jesu Christi! Et
  anco jois mes dols e plazer mes delors Cave
  el diabolo! Semper lying in wait for me in some
  angulum to snap at my heels. But Salvatore is not
  stupidus! Bonum monasterium, and aquí refectorum
  and pray to dominum nostrum. And the resto is not
  worth merda. Amen. No?
• Salvatore spoke all languages and no language.
  Or, rather, he had invented for himself a
  language which used the sinews of the languages
  to which he had been exposed--
• -- Eco, Umberto. Name of the Rose. pp. 46

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Concluding Thoughts

• Knowledge as we understand it and as
  constructed is still modern epistemologically.
• Postmodernism stresses Praxis (method) over
  Theory (idea). However, the postmodern praxis is
  modernistic in its explication.
• The scientific language still predominates.
• The idea of the postmodern may just be that an
  idea.
• While the postmodern cultural phenomena is here,
  has the modern actually truly left?
• Therefore, what should we keep and what should we
  discard in terms of our notions of knowledge?

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Part 2 -- Libraries and Postmodernism / Library
2.0
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Medieval Libraries

• No generalized systematic organization
• Organized according to the eccentricities of the
  person in charge.
• Books as repositories or reminders of oral
  discourse.
• Libraries as treasures -- books were precious.
• Library stacks (or rather a cabinet) was
  inaccessible.
• Scriptorium -- reading room was noisy one does
  not read silently!

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Modern Library

• Systematically organized according to
• Hierarchical classification, e.g. LC
  Classification, Dewey, etc.
• Discrete subject categories
• Ranked according to alphabetical order
• Library as store of knowledge.
• Books as repositories and store of abstract
  knowledge.
• Library Stacks accessible but library reading
  area is silent reading as a solitary exercise of
  mental cogitation!
• Librarians as experts in their subject area in
  the context of finding and providing information
  to users.

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Postmodern Library?

• Blend of systematic organization with
  participative metadata tagging?
• Multiple access points to metadata?
• Relevance ranking customized to user?
• Interdisciplinary curriculum forcing a rethink of
  subject categorization?
• Is value free subject tagging really possible?
• Example a 1920 Marxist pamphlet in Boston
• Current approach Communism -- United States,
  1920 --.
• Postmodern approach? Political propaganda,
  Marxism, pamphlet, utopia, etc.
• The place and space of libraries
• Librarian as collaborator with user in
  information searching?
• Complexity of subject matter, is the generalist
  librarian capable of understanding the subject at
  hand?, e.g.
• Stem cell research
• Abstruse Canon Law issue
• Bioethics
• Cognitive Science and Computational Linguistics
• Transactional Database Algorithm

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Postmodern Library? (continued)

• What is authoritative sources?
• Do we exclude sources deemed not authoritative,
  i.e. the privileging of a certain group of texts?
• Or do we discuss with our users the differences
  (a very postmodern concept) between one source
  and the other, enabling them to choose.
• Lyotard Knowledge is valued for its pragmatic
  and utilitarian aims -- driven by economic and
  political gains, and not valued for its own sake
  (self-improvement / self-actualization)
• Users interested only in what enable them to
  complete their assignment?
• William H. Wisner, Whither the Postmodern
  library
• libraries, unable to compete with technology
  and edged out by competition with for-profit
  information management companies, will cease to
  exist they will die within the coming century.
• - Yoder, Amanda. The Cyborg Librarian as
  Interface
• Comments?

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Selected Topics in Computers and Libraries 2006

• Experience Planning
• http//www.davidleeking.com/pdf/experienceplanning
  .pdf
• Creating a memorable and good experience for
  users
• Saving users an extra step, e.g. antifreeze ready
  mix.
• Find trigger points whats truly important for
  the user.
• Find users along their journey and map an
  itinerary for them, e.g. TurboTax.
• Transforming knowledge into an aided experience
  process.
• AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript And XML) technology
• http//www.infotoday.com/cil2006/presentations/B10
  2_Clark.pdf
• Interactions between user and server is activated
  by event.
• Event activated programming.
• Non-hierarchical coding structure of coding
  based around events.

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Selected Topics in Computers and Libraries 2006
(contd)

• Web 2.0
• Flat applications.
• Lightweight
• Applications built on top of the Internet, e.g.
  Ajaxwrite (thanks Jonathan!)
• Web service
• Audience level web service -- OCLC
• Greasemonkey script, e.g. OCLC Amazon.com
• Data is the new functionality
• Audience level
• Audience level indicator Using holdings info in
  union catalog.
• Publicly available APIs Amazon, Yahoo, Google,
  etc.
• Participation
• Wikis, reviews, blogs, etc.
• Social tagging flickr.com, del.icio.us
• Rich interaction
• AJAX, e.g. http//maps.google.com
• Google Suggest http//www.google.com/webhp?comple
  te1hlen
• Other Google stuff http//labs.google.com/

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Web 2.0 is

• The network as platform, spanning all connected
  devices
• Web 2.0 applications are those that make the most
  of the intrinsic advantages of that platform
• delivering software as
• a continually-updated service that gets better
  the more people use it,
• consuming and remixing data from multiple
  sources, including individual users,
• while providing their own data and services in a
  form that
• allows remixing by others,
• creating network effects through an "architecture
  of participation," and
• going beyond the page metaphor of Web 1.0 to
  deliver rich user experiences.
• -- Tim OReilly, Web 2.0 Compact Definition
• Essentially, a means by which data and services
  can be liberated from locked proprietary formats
  and reused in all sorts of ways according to the
  wishes and needs of users.

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Web 2.0s impact on Libraries

• Web 2.0 vs. Libraries (potential disruptions and
  challenges)
• Always available -- no limited opening or
  appointment hours.
• Free.
• Instant access to in-print and out-of print books
  (instant gratification).
• Better and easier to use metadata tagging, e.g.
  Flickr, de.icio.us, etc.
• Seamless access to huge databases of information,
  e.g. Amazon, Wikipedia.
• Easy repackaging of these data into personalized
  portals
• Amazon Lite http//www.kokogiak.com/amazon/defaul
  t.asp
• Amazon Web Service Documents
• BUT
• No reason why we cannot adopt some of these ideas
  and to engage with these trends.

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What we can do

• Remix library services
• We can make our OPAC data available through a
  variety of interfaces
• APIs, e.g. OCLC OpenWorldCat
• Handheld devices
• Electronic Books (evolving technology), etc.
• Greasemonkeys and Firebox extensions
• The library is everywhere
• Be available
• At the point of need
• Available on a wide range of devices
• Integrated with services from beyond the library
• Example be integrated with Amazon (e.g. via a
  Greasemonkey)
• Have an icon on the Amazon website that points
  the user to our library instead of buying the
  book.
• SFX enabled (FIND-IT) button for electronic
  documents (this has been enabled now via Google
  Scholar with WRLC and SFX).
• Collaborate with vendors and Web 2.0 information
  providers, e.g. Yahoo / Flickr.

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Collaboration in Library 2.0

• Picture Australia -- National Library of Australia

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• http//www.flickr.com/photos/80651083_at_N00/11328082
  5/

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• Links to Flickr

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Interoperability

• Library vendors need to create products that will
  interoperate with other products
• Common standards and protocols
• XML
• OpenURL
• OAI (Open Archives Initiatives)
• ODF (Open Document Format)
• If vendors do not currently provide interoperable
  products, libraries should create interim
  band-aid workarounds for better public service.
• Collaborate with library vendors, e.g. NCSU and
  Endeca
• http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/catalog/
• Endeca software interoperates with library
  automation system via a text-file exchange format
  transfer workaround.

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Library as Physical Space

• Even as information moves from physical objects
  to bits and bytes, the physical space is still
  important.
• Physical space for discourse
• Meeting face-to-face is still important.
• Enable places where people can meet and talk or
  study in silence
• places where
• conversation is possible (Le Café au
  Bibliothèque?)
• silence is encouraged (Le Scriptorum de Silence?)
• events encouraging discourse on a variety of
  topics are available
• professional information needs consultation and
  collaboration can be found

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Librarians as Cyborgs

• (From Yoder, The Cyborg Librarian as Interface
  )
• Academic librarian as a human-machine engaging
  in
• human interactions with users
• Being a machine, navigating a labyrinth of
  resources buried within complex machine systems
  in hypertextual discourse, fragments in reference
  books, citation investigations, online abstract
  and indexing systems, etc.
• The cyborg librarian as the interface between
  machine and human
• Human form reference interviews.
• Electronic form website, Firefox extensions,
  Instant Messaging, subject guides, etc. etc.

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Library 2.0 Map

• Library 2.0

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Some Final thoughts

• Dells computer call center is in Punjab, Mohali
  (India) and also in Hyderabad and Bangalore. Dell
  is not unique.
• Doctors are sending X-Ray images to Telarad
  Solutions in Bangalore, India, a tele-radiology
  center for 30 minutes turnaround time results via
  Fibre Optic cable link.
• Yale library internship for Ph.D graduates
  without MLS
• The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman
• Globalization 3.0 It doesnt matter where you
  are born so long as you are a genius!
• Let me reiterate some of my questions on the
  first page
• What is information? What is knowledge?
• Whats a library? Whats a librarian?
• What should we discard and what should we keep?
• Would a discerned appropriation of Medieval modes
  of learning and thinking be of any use to us?
• Any takers?

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Bibliography

• On Postmodernism
• Ermath, Elizabeth D. Postmodernism. Routledge
  Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Craig, Edward (ed.)
  Routledge 1998.
• Stover, Mark. The Reference Librarian as
  Non-Expert A Postmodern Approach to Expertise.
  The Reference Librarian No. 87/88, 2004, pp.
  273-300.
• Yoder, Amanda. The Cyborg Librarian as
  Interface Interpreting Postmodern Discourse on
  Knowledge Construction, Validation, and
  Navigation within Academic Libraries. Portal
  Libraries and the Academy. Vol. 3, No. 3 (2003),
  pp. 381 - 392.
• On Medievalism reading practice
• Chandler, Peter. Theology, Rhetoric, Manuduction,
  or Reading Scripture Together on the Path to God.
  Eerdmans (2006).
• On Library 2.0
• Chad, Ken, and Miller, Paul. Do libraries
  matter? The rise of Library 2.0. Talis (2005).
• Miller, Paul. Library 2.0 The challenge of
  disruptive innovation. Talis (2006).