Monday, July 19, 2010

Assignment 10 Books

Ten books. Only ten. No, this is good. I'm overwhelmed with books and getting down to ten would be good. Maybe if I get down to only ten lists of ten things, I would be in good shape. One of them could be ten ways to find books. There are four to start in the assignment, and a bunch of others on top of that. I wonder if Nancy Pearl has ever appeared on Letterman?

10. Google Books
9. WorldCat
8. LibraryThing or Goodreads
7. Amazon or Barnes&Noble
6. Blogs devoted to genres and book reviews
5. Professional Committees and their work (such as ALSC's annual notable books for kids)
4. Databases like Novelist or About:Books. (You'll need a library card number for these)
3. Books or magazines or journals about books
2. Recommendations from friends
1. Books I've been meaning to read anyhow

Trying out the social sites, I found browsing to be a little cornering because I could only alter or narrow the search one subject term at a time. For instance, Goodreads' Explore->Books let me select "children" but then listed all the results within that. Entering "children's fantasy" and selecting genre had me scrolling past all the Harry Potter, being surprised by the inclusion of Slaughter House Five, and basically ending up with a long list that didn't seem very browseable.

The Zeitgeist tab in LibraryThing showed an array of tag assortments: authors, genres: miscellaneous tags, reviewers, people with the most books, and so on. Starting with these unusual categories gave me chance to happen upon something by sheer popularity, accessing collections or books that have most been selected by others. Without a particular subject in mind this proved to be an interesting approach.

Google Books and Amazon are both places where searching seems yield closer results to what I am intending to find that then either Goodreads or LibraryThing were able to produce, but that is their strength. Goodreads and LT seem to have arranged their site according to users and what they are doing and promoting, rather than the actual books themselves, which seems to be Google Books and Amazon's interest.

The interconnectedness of the sites, being able to find a book on Amazon from Librar Thing, or finding a book in a library on the Google Books page, makes me think that there will be less and less undiscovered information, a visible component of the One Machine.

With all this technology abounding and so nimbly guiding me through the digital world, I feel very capable and able to access a lot of information. But as useful as these systems are, I still feel like they are very contrived, designed to meet my anticipated needs. Where is the whimsy and nonsense? Where is the inexplicable? Where is the coincidence? I decided to make my list concerning those who embrace the wild and unseen quality of things. That's right, I'm talking about wizards:

10. Wizard: the life and times of Nikola Tesla : biography of a genius
by Marc J. Seifer

9. Wizards: Magical Tales From The Masters of Modern Fantasy edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozios

8. Storm Front (The Dresden Files, #1)
by Jim Butcher

7. The Lost Years of Merlin (Lost Years of Merlin Series #1)
by T.A. Barron

6. Powerless
by Matthew Cody

5. The Tapestry Book 1: The Hound of Rowan
by Henry Neff, narrated by Jeff Woodman

4. The Wizard Test
by Hillari Bell

3. The Widows of Eastwick
by John Updike

2. The Once and Future King
by T.H. White, recommended by Carole Wallencheck

1. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula LeGuin

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Assignment #9 - Building Libraries starring Google Scholar

It seems that current scholarly research on library architecture is mainly focused on digital libraries. There is certainly good reason for that, but the absence of papers about planning and construction of physical spaces strikes me as odd. I had to modify my search from "library architecture" to include "-digital" to even get results. From this list, not many of the articles were cited more than the requisite five times. A lot of the articles were from a long time ago, the 60s, 70s, and 80s, so they probably would not be as helpful to someone searching for the current trends. By clicking on the link to the articles which cited the ones found in the search, I found a few topically relevant articles but these had not been cited yet by others. Clicking on the related articles link gave more of that type of result. Changing the search terms to phrases like "library construction" and especially "public library design" was the best method for finding current, relevant and cited results.

Compared to the Library Literature database, the Google Scholar results were more spread out in subject, and also in format. Google Scholar pointed me to articles, citations and, distinct from the Kent databases, books. These books actually seemed to be more often cited than articles but are probably not as easily retrieved. Some results were, partially, in Google Books, so there was some immediate access, but since Google Books only shows up twenty percent of published books you only get a glimpse of the item. In terms of format, the Kent database certainly made it easier to collect the results I wanted, just by clicking on the "add to folder" boxes next to the listings. Google Scholar did not have this option.

Medical Librarianship, A Mid-Century Survey: A Symposium Medical Library Architecture in the Past Fifty Years

nih.gov [PDF]A Fry, S Adams - Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 1957 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
S INCE the start of the BULLETIN in 1911 there have been 18 articles and five fairly important
news notes published related to
library planning and/or architecture. The news notes,
chronologically, mention the new University of Michigan General
Library (1); the second ...
Cited by 6 - Related articles - All 5 versions

[CITATION] Library Architecture in China in the 1990s

X Guodong - The Journal of The Library Science In China, 2001 - en.cnki.com.cn
... Library Architecture in China in the 1990s. Xia Guodong. In the 1990s, more and larger new library
buildings were built in China. In this paper, the author analyzes their characteristics in design
and functions. 1 tab. 8 refs.
Key Words】: Library architecture in China. 1990s. ...
Cited by 5 - Related articles - Cached

A History of Library Architecture: A Bibliographical Essay

DE Thompson - The Journal of Library History, 1969 - JSTOR
Page 1. A History of
Library Architecture: A Bibliographical Essay ... Much has been written about
library architecture but there is little in print on its history. There are no sources in which a com
plete history of
library architecture, either as a whole or by type of library, is presented. ...
Cited by 5 - Related articles

The Evolution of Academic Library Architecture: A Summary.

KE Toombs - Journal of Library Administration, 1992 - eric.ed.gov
... EJ464292 - The Evolution of Academic Library Architecture: A Summary. ... Click on any of
the links below to perform a new search. ERIC #: EJ464292. Title: The Evolution of Academic
Library Architecture: A Summary. Authors: Toombs, Kenneth E. ...
Cited by 5 - Related articles - Cached - BL Direct - All 2 versions

[CITATION] Library architecture and environmental design: the application of selected environmental design factors to the planning of public library facilities

JL Veatch - 1979 - Florida State University.
Cited by 6 - Related articles

Library Architecture: The Cleveland Experience.

E Gaines - Wilson Library Bulletin, 1982 - eric.ed.gov
... EJ261925 - Library Architecture: The Cleveland Experience. ... Click on any of the links
below to perform a new search. ERIC #: EJ261925. Title:
Library Architecture: The
Cleveland Experience. Authors: Gaines, Ervin; And Others.
...
Cited by 5 - Related articles - Cached


Library Architecture and Buildings

RE Ellsworth - The Library Quarterly, 1955 - JSTOR
Architects, too, now live by a new conception of their work. "Form fol- lows function," now a tiresome
cliche' really did represent a new spirit in
architecture in the 1920's and 1930's and today. The
best of the
architects did begin in that period to follow the principle that beauty was ...
Cited by 5 - Related articles - All 2 versions


[CITATION] Blueprints and Books: American Library Architecture, 1860-1960

HG Montgomery - Library Journal, 1961
Cited by 5 - Related articles

[CITATION] The Tendency of College Library Architecture in the New Century [J]

W Hai-qing - Journal of Lanzhou College of Petrochemical …, 2002 - en.cnki.com.cn
Combining state conditions with requirement of information age, based on the culture , art ,
flexibility,ecology and multifunction of
library architecture as well as the modern tendency of library
and infiltration of humanism,the paper discusses the new tendency of college
library ...
Cited by 4 - Related articles - Cached


[CITATION] Carnegie libraries: their history and impact on American public library development

GS Bobinski - 1969 - Amer Library Assn
Cited by 81 - Related articles - Library Search - All 3 versions


[CITATION] Designing library buildings for activity

JMC Orr - 1972 - Deutsch
Cited by 14 - Related articles - Library Search

[CITATION] Public libraries and their use: a research report on the use of public library buildings with implications for their distribution, location and design

JN Taylor, IM Johnson - 1973 - HM Stationery Office
Cited by 10 - Related articles - Library Search


[CITATION] The design and evaluation of public library buildings

N Lushington, JM Kusack - 1991 - Library Professional Publications
Cited by 12 - Related articles - Library Search


[BOOK] Planning the modern public library building

GB McCabe, JR Kennedy - 2003 - books.google.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Planning for the modern public library
building/edited by Gerard B. McCabe and James R. Kennedy, p. cm. Includes bibliographical
references and indexes. ISBN 0-313-32155-8 1.
Library buildings—planning. 2. Library ...
Cited by 6 - Related articles - Library Search - All 2 versions

Trends in Public Library Buildings.

RM Holt - Library trends, 1987 - eric.ed.gov
... EJ366394 - Trends in Public Library Buildings. ... ERIC #: EJ366394. Title: Trends in Public
Library Buildings. Authors: Holt, Raymond M. Descriptors: Building Design; Futures (of
Society);
Library Automation; Library Facilities; Public Libraries. ...
Cited by 6 - Related articles - Cached - All 3 versions

[CITATION] Planning library buildings: A select bibliography

A Dahlgren, EP Heyns - 1990 - Amer Library Assn
Cited by 8 - Related articles


Changes in library design: An architect's perspective

SM Foote - portal: Libraries and the Academy, 2004 - muse.jhu.edu
... These designs still do not address issues that arise when a subset of the patron population wishes
to come together to work collaboratively
... A glance at the New York Public Library Reading Room
in figure 3 will confirm this phenomenon in which readers' turf is vigorously
...
Cited by 7 - Related articles - All 3 versions


Library design influences on user behavior and satisfaction

DE Campbell, TM Shlechter - The Library Quarterly, 1979 - JSTOR
... The third method involved direct observation of all public areas of the library to produce detailed ...
in different
library locations, and satisfaction with different aspects of the total library system ... It
was concluded that the physical
design may influence student behavior and satisfaction ...
Cited by 19 - Related articles - All 4 versions

[BOOK] Checklist of library building design considerations

WW Sannwald - 2009 - books.google.com
... Chicago 2009 Page 3. William W. Sannwald was assistant to the city manager and
manager of
library design and development from 1997 to 2004, and was city librarian
of the San Diego
Public Library from 1979 to 1997. He is ...
Cited by 23 - Related articles - Library Search - All 8 versions


[BOOK] Interior design for libraries: drawing on function & appeal

unair.ac.id [PDF]

CR Brown - 2002 - books.google.com
While extensive effort has gone into ensuring the reliability of information appearing in this
book, the publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, on the accuracy or relia- bility of the
information, and does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any person for any
...
Cited by 13 - Related articles - All 5 versions

[BOOK] Planning public library buildings: concepts and issues for the librarian

M Dewe - 2006 - books.google.com
© Michael Dewe 2006 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored
in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.
...
Cited by 10 - Related articles - Library Search - All 23 versions

[BOOK] Libraries and learning resource centres

B Edwards - 2009 - books.google.com
Architectural Press is an imprint of Elsevier Linacre House, Jordan Hill, Oxford OX2 8DP, UK
30 Corporate Drive, Suite 400, Burlington, MA 01803, USA First edition 2002 Second edition
2009 Copyright Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be
...
Cited by 9 - Related articles - Library Search - All 3 versions

Planning academic library buildings for a new age

A McDonald - Advances in librarianship, 2000 - emeraldinsight.com
At the close of the 20th century new library buildings continue to be con- structed all over the
world with increasingly imaginative and varied designs. This is despite some almost reckless
predictions about the end of libraries and their book collections, due to the rapid growth in
...
Cited by 9 - Related articles - BL Direct - All 3 versions



Sunday, July 4, 2010

Assignment #8 - Building Libraries

It was very hard to find articles relating to the physical construction of a library. Cited articles about information architecture abound. Digital libraries building principles are very much being analyzed and written about, but physical spaces do not seem to garner as much attention. I had intended to explore physical spaces, but results relating to digital library architecture were much more prevalent. Even articles that were thorough enough, on topic enough and old enough to be considered relevant information were not cited. For instance:

Balanli, A., et. al., University Library Buildings in Turkey: A Survey and a Case Study of Yildiz Technical University Main Library Building. The Journal of Academic Librarianship v. 33 no. 6 (December 2007) p. 714-18

cited: 1 time

Camacho, S. D. Louisville's Shelby Park Branch: The Rise and Fall of a Neighborhood Carnegie Library. Kentucky Libraries v. 71 no. 1 (Winter 2007) p. 20-7

cited: 0 times

and

Vereen, F. D. Public Library Buildings: The Future. American Libraries v. 36 no. 4 (April 2005) p. 67

was not even found!

Just like this last example, plenty of Library Literature articles were not found in the Citation Index. Another problem in dealing with the results was the inability to filter out article written in different languages.

Because I think a large part of this assignment is to compare the results of searching in academic, highly controlled spaces where the ability to 'tag' requires writing a whole paper to more loosely associative situation with Google Scholar, I chose to eschew the minimum citation requirement in creating my bibliography.

As a last note, I would be happy to be wrong about this. If anyone is able to do a search on this topic and find the articles in ISI, please post a comment with your method.

Shoham, S., et. al., Implications of Monumental Construction for Public Library Services. Libri v. 58 no. 1 (March 2008) p. 34-46 Peer  Reviewed

Thompson, J., et. al., Learning from the Past, Building the Future. Illinois Library Association Reporter v. 23 no. 6 (December 2005) p. 4-12

Lackney, J. A., et. al., Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Public Libraries: Lessons Learned from Three Case Studies. Library Administration & Management v. 19 no. 1 (Winter 2005) p. 16-25

Harper, P. Building Better Libraries. Public Library Journal v. 20 no. 4 (Winter 2005) p. 4-7

In Queens, a New Service Model Means Renovations. Library Journal (1976) part Library by Design (Fall 2005) p. 44

Porter, T. Suddenly a New Library. OLA Quarterly v. 11 no. 2/3 (Fall 2005) p. 6-7

Martin, E., et. al., Express Makeover. Library Journal (1976) part Library by Design (Fall 2005) p. 1, 4-19

Bennett, C. J. Eugene Public Library: Celebrating 100 Years!. OLA Quarterly v. 11 no. 2/3 (Fall 2005) p. 14-15

Coatney, S. Does the Room Make the Library Program, or Does the Library Program Make the Room?. Teacher Librarian v. 33 no. 1 (October 2005) p. 60 Peer  Reviewed

Kenney, B. After Seattle. Library Journal (1976) v. 130 no. 13 (August 2005) p. 34-7

Forrest, C., et. al., Beyond Classroom Construction and Design: Formulating a Vision for Learning Spaces in Libraries. Reference & User Services Quarterly v. 44 no. 4 (Summer 2005) p. 296-300 Peer  Reviewed

Healey, P. D. Appreciating Architecture. AALL Spectrum v. 9 no. 7 (May 2005) p. 1

Burek Pierce, J. What to Do with Your Old Carnegie. American Libraries v. 36 no. 5 (May 2005) p. 58

Hildreth, S. H. The Library As Place. California State Library Foundation Bulletin no. 82 (2005) p. 16-18

Konradsson, G. A very good investment. Public Library Journal v. 20 no. 1 (Spring 2005) p. 5-7

So Goes the Community [Photographic essay]. American Libraries v. 36 no. 4 (April 2005) p. 32-52

Vereen, F. D. Public Library Buildings: The Future. American Libraries v. 36 no. 4 (April 2005) p. 67

Allmang, N., et. al., Building an Information Commons at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Library: A Case Study. LIBRES v. 15 no. 1 (March 2005) p. 1 E-Journal Full TextPeer  Reviewed

Park, C. S. Harris County Public Library: creating a design paradigm for twenty-first century libraries. The Bottom Line v. 18 no. 4 (2005) p. 167-71 Peer  Reviewed