library of primitive art

You've been meme'd!

Putting the 'me' in meme, this exercise in social 'tag-you're-it'-ing

I guess it was inevitable that I would be fingered by a fellow librarian from the biblio-blogosphere to participate in the latest virtual parlor game, Five Things You May Not Know About Me. Fortunately for me the tagger was Jenny Levine, and she is such a new (and most welcomed) friend that there's a good chance she might not know these things about me. This post's for you!

I had half a mind to phrase it entirely in the negative, as in "Isn't double-jointed, can't touch his elbow with his tongue, nor engage in any similar amusing party tricks." Or perhaps I could weigh in on the "boxers vs. briefs" controversy. (Where's the novelty in a 50-50 proposition?)

Anyone who knows me even a teeny bit already knows w-a-a-a-a-y more than they need or care to know about me, so forthcoming am I with autobiographical factoids at the drop of a hat. There'll be no revelations in this for my long-suffering coworkers.

1. Surely the least unknown thing about me is that I collect automobile license plates -- lots of them, about 1,600 at last 'count'. Trust me, this exemplifies 'selectivity'. This puts me squarely in the dilettante category among my fellow collectors in ALPCA, the corresponding hobbyists' club. This, and I share a one-bedroom apartment. And I don't own a car. Please don't ask ... !
2. When I moved with my parents from suburban California to New York City between seventh and eighth grades, they let me pick the college prep I would attend. I promptly selected one near my father's office, that had carpeted classrooms (this evidently impressed me), and quite by chance was single-sex and would remain so until my senior year. Okay, so I was like twelve. This might explain why nowadays I deliberate so long when I have to make a choice, even on a restaurant menu.
3. I have outlived most of the schools I've ever attended. This may also be true of a lot of baby boomers. My kindergarten folded, my elementary school was plowed under for subdivision, my high school went bankrupt, and my library school -- dear old Columbia SLIS -- was strangled by its parents. My junior high closed briefly in the 'eighties for lack of students, but has since reopened. And my undergraduate alma mater is going strong and still makes alumni appeals.
4. Throws, bats, writes, eats and sleeps: Left. Left-handedness is a non-issue, unless you're left handed.
5. I'm the fourth James Day in the last five generations, each of whom was given a different middle name. That's why I'm Ross. I'm also clearly the last of the James Days, unless I choose to name a pet James. I've never had nor have I sought a nickname: Ross just doesn't nick and nothing else has stuck. (Mike the Janitor from grade school tried Rusty, since my red hair looked as if it had rusted, but the moniker never took -- thank goodness.) I'd be jealous if it weren't for all the nickname horror stories out there and unwanted shortened forms of names.

I am beginning to worry about the poor individual who ends up the last to be asked her/his five lesser known things. In what might be an illuminating sign, many of my library pals don't feel yet any calling to blog. If they do blog, they're also steadfastly fad-resistant. Fortunately Jennifer "Don't Call Me Jenny" Macaulay (see 5 above), who has weighed in with her five things before I could tag her, has in her valedictory comment left me a perfectly gracious way not to worry:

6. "I never pass along chain letters, chain emails, pleas for help or money, etc."

Le Musee du quai Branly up close

Cliquez pour agrandir -- Click to enlarge
From the photoblog Over the Rainbow

Digital Asset Management at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Even though RLG does a fine job of publicizing its own efforts, it never hurts to highlight important articles -- particularly when they come out of your own 'shop'. The most recent issue of their RLG DigiNews (Dec. 2006) features Why Digital Asset Management? A Case Study, by Susan Chen and Michael Jenkins, both of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The article is a comprehensive overview of the decision making that surrounded the establishment of a museum-wide Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, now christened Met Images, and the concomitant reorganization of museum resources required to implement and sustain such a system. Of particular interest for an insider is learning what steps were necessary to get institutional buy-in from all the parties affected -- senior management, curatorial and research staff, and the image support staff.

One intriguing assertion appears in a box-out two-thirds of the way down the article, reproduced here on the left, in a section headed Cataloguing. (Evidently the image community clings fast to that interstitial 'u'.) When I first read it I thought the suggestion was that cataloging works of art was significantly different from cataloging 'sneakers or pickup trucks'. On its face this seems eminently arguable. Some institutions have wasted much time and energy in developing elaborate and idiosyncratic DIY systems that try to mimic pre-existing cataloging paradigms (with all their inherent flaws) rather than taking advantage of systems that employ industry-standard input and output.

But in the context of this section of the article, the statement is only meant as a caution: The complexity of cataloging works of art may not be sufficiently recognized by DAM vendors in the design of their products. The authors seem optimistic that "tools will be developed that are more appropriate to the needs of museums, libraries, and archives." From my perspective I hope that the tools are both appropriate to the museum's needs and practically implementable.

Has MLA seen the light?

To follow up on my Quo vadis? post regarding the growth of new media scholarly publication, Jim Retting offers promising ruminations at his Twilight Librarian. Jim sifts through the Modern Language Association's recently released Task Force on Evaluating Scholarship for Tenure and Promotion to locate the following recommendation:

4. Departments and institutions should recognize the legitimacy of scholarship produced in new media, whether by individuals or in collaboration, and create procedures for evaluating these forms of scholarship.

Jim recognizes clearly what escapes someone like myself, safely beyond the exigencies of academic tenure and promotion: No faculty member will consider exploiting the new media for publishing without the promise that it will be tangibly acknowledged.

It's too early to pop the cork on the champagne. But Jim makes an excellent point:

It will open new opportunities for collaboration with humanities faculty who turn to librarians and educational technologists for assistance and guidance. Librarians and educational technologists can even form partnerships to help senior faculty learn about the role new media can play in humanities scholarship so that these faculty will be able to make truly informed judgments about their younger colleagues' work.

 

Tracking open-access alternatives to traditional print publishing

A recent post on the blog Material World brought home to me just how quickly open-access publication has arrived, even in our often remote corner of the academic world. The post as it was conceived, illustrated and with scholarly apparatus (including an author's note), is likely to satisfy a research need just as much as any succinct journal article. It would seem that the appearance of the scholarly blog post heralds a certain 'coming of age' of the weblog.