Antisocial Networking?

January 18, 2010 – New York Times

Professor Is a Label That Leans to the Left

The overwhelmingly liberal tilt of university professors has been explained by everything from outright bias to higher I.Q. scores. Now new research suggests that critics may have been asking the wrong question. Instead of looking at why most professors are liberal, they should ask why so many liberals — and so few conservatives — want to be professors.

A pair of sociologists think they may have an answer: typecasting. Conjure up the classic image of a humanities or social sciences professor, the fields where the imbalance is greatest: tweed jacket, pipe, nerdy, longwinded, secular — and liberal. Even though that may be an outdated stereotype, it influences younger people’s ideas about what they want to be when they grow up.

Continue reading. Click here.

What is a library? What makes a library? What should a library be in the future?

As a library director, and someone who has worked in libraries for over 20 years, I have some opinions.  But what do you, dear reader, think about the topic?

In the most recent USA Today article about his decision to de-book (print on paper) the library, Cushing’s head Jim Tracey says:  It was really to save libraries five, 10, 15 years down the road,” he says. “What the students are telling us is: ‘We’re not using the print books. You can keep giving them to us, but they’re just going to collect dust.’ So we’re saying, ‘Let’s be honest: Let’s give them the best electronic information available.’    To read the entire article click here.

Read, think and respond to the queries opening this blog post.

                                                             – Alison Ernst, Library Director

image: http://www.photoeverywhere.co.uk

From the Wall Street Journal Online:

Why Email No Longer Rules… And what that means for the way we communicate.

“Email has had a good run as the king of communications. But it’s reign is over.”  To read the article, click here.

Well, what do you think? How are your communication patterns developing? Is the article an target or way off?

                                                             – Alison Ernst, Library Director

Hilarious image by Asher Sarlin, via LifeHacker.com

From Information is Beautiful
Sept.8, 2009

The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions

I notice these days that I can spend hours at my computer, in a cloud. A swampy blur of digital activity, smeared across various activities and media and software.

Emailing, writing, tweeting, designing, browsing, taking calls, Skyping, Facebooking, RSS Feeding – all blurred into a single technological trance.

I seem to switch randomly from one to the other. But actually is there a subtle hierarchy in this cloud? Do I prefer some distractions over others? I think so.

Continue reading the article here /Read – Think – Respond