brave new word processor

When I first read about Writely (I can’t remember where, though I’ve since read about the experiences that Rick and Rikhei have had with it, and I’m interested to see what comes of Chad’s experiments with SynchroEdit), I was extremely excited. Writely (and its rival applications, including SynchroEdit and WriteBoard, which Rikhei was unimpressed with) is a web-based word processor. All of them are hyped as collaborative tools–ways for multiple users in different locations to work on the same document, but they can also be used by a single user to work on the same document at multiple locations. That’s the part that got me excited.

For years I have been schlepping files around (either literally, via floppy disk, or virtually, by e-mailing attachments to myself) in order be able to work on them as I move from home to school to work. It’s kind of a pain, since I often have to reformat documents–I use a Mac at home and PCs of varying ages and with varying editions of Windows installed on them elsewhere–and from time to time the transfer simply doesn’t work.

Wouldn’t it be great if I could store my files in cyberspace, and work on them in cyberspace, and have them accessible to me anywhere I can I get online, no muss, no fuss? That day may be coming, but it’s not quite here yet. Writely lets me write and keep files on the Web, but so far (and I should cut them some slack; I know they’re still in beta) it doesn’t provide many of the functions that I need and want in a word processor. It’s great for blog posts and probably for Web content in general; I like the template layout rather better than Blogger’s, which I’m using now, though I haven’t been able to post to my blog directly from Writely yet. But if I’m writing a paper or an article, there are a lot of things I can’t do. I can’t add footnotes. I can’t get a page view to get an idea of how many pages I’ve written and how much space I have left to fill, and I can’t get a word count. In theory you can export the document as a Word file or a .zip file; on my Mac, the .zip file came out nicely as an .html document, but the Word file came out as an Excel file, and I wasn’t able to read it at all.

Despite these difficulties, I’m still excited about Web-based word processors. I have a Web site in part because it’s such a handy way to store information, although the process of storing it there is somewhat laborious. Web-based e-mail and blogs are wonderful because you can create them on the Web as well as storing them there. I look forward to the day when I can do fully functional word processing on the Web and stop worrying about how to get my words from one place to another.

metablogging 2: the why I blog post

So Travis Ennis wants to know why we–we here being ML(I)S students–blog.

The snarkier part of my nature is of course tempted to say “Because I can” and/or “Because I’m good at it”–two responses often given by Famous Authors who have been asked Why They Write. I am not a Famous Author (I mean, really, I’m not even dead yet!), and such a response would seem pretty obnoxious even if I were.

I have always known that I am pretty good at writing–it’s one of those things that makes up for other things, like being unable to run or throw or catch, being unpopular, being awkward and unsure of your place in the world. Going through an MFA program is a pretty good way to shake your confidence in your writing abilities, in some cases because everyone seems so much better than you do and in some because everything they’re doing seems like such crap that you figure you can’t be much better, but I got through more or less intact.

I used to write a newspaper column, which is still my idea of a totally ideal job. I keep hoping someone will say, “Here, let us pay you a living wage to give us 800 words several times a week on whatever you’re thinking about,” but it’s never happened. I loved writing a newspaper column even when I only got $15 0r $20 for it, though, and I’d do it again for that little, or less. In the interim, though, blogging is a nice substitute. (Among other things, there are no deadlines and no required word counts. I sometimes miss the discipline of 800 words every seven days, but not too often.)

There’s a very long explanation over at my other blog about how that got started, and there’s a little explanation of my original reason for starting this blog in its very first post. Oh, and then a few weeks later, I hopped on the metablogging bandwagon again with a little more explanation. lis.dom’s purpose has changed over time–as I’ve noted before, starting a blog in order to tell people about the existence of blogs is probably a little illogical–but some of what I’ve said before remains the same.

At the moment, though, the real reason that I blog is that I want to be part of a community (or, as I sometimes put it, I want to be one of the cool kids). Can you imagine a library run by the members of the biblioblogosphere? I think it would be the most amazing library in the world. It would have all the hottest new technology, but the technology would work for us, not the other way around, and nobody would get burned. It would have provocative, timely, and enriching programming. It would be the place everyone wanted to hang out and where everyone was welcome. It would be staffed by people relentlessly, zealously working to make the library a better place–working to make library vendors give us what we want, working for, and often with, patrons to make sure they had the information they wanted. It would be a thing of beauty, if not a joy forever. Some people work in libraries that are closer to that ideal than others, but here–wherever here is, wherever you imagine cyberspace to be–we all get to be a part of it. I think that’s pretty neat.

the long tail of relief

I’m glad to hear that organizations are getting their act together and jumping in to do what Geaux Library Recovery set out to do. Now they’re trying to decide what to do with the site:

One idea is to use it to apply Michael McGrorty’s endangered libraries idea. Maybe a clearinghouse of information for libraries in crisis–any sort of crisis. ALA chose not to officially support a resolution on endangered libraries, for several reasons. My thought is that this would be a source for libraries that wanted to identify themselves as endangered. Mind you, it’s still all very much in the brainstorm stage. Since we have this space, we’d like to do something with it. Your ideas are appreciated. And, if shutting down is the best idea, we’ll honor that. –rochelle

Perhaps such a project will have a similar effect on the powers that be and ALA will get serious about libraries that are endangered by budget cuts. Well, one can dream.

I’ve been fascinated over the past few weeks to see not just the outpouring of aid to people and institutions on the Gulf Coast but also to see the varieties that aid has taken. You know about Geaux Library Recovery, and about ALA’s Adopt-a-Library program. You’ve probably also seen Radical Reference’s compilation of resources for Socially Responsible Katrina Relief. But there’s more.

The Neighborhood Story Project, which I wrote about a few weeks back, is looking for volunteers to “help get their local independent bookstore to take a box of these incredible books to sell as a way to raise money for relief and recovery, and as a way to get out the amazing stories of the people and neighborhoods of New Orleans.” Contact jamieschweser [at] yahoo.com for more information.

On September 8, I got an e-mail from Poets & Writers with a list (since added to) of how writers can help.

And then a few days later, someone from my old writing program forwarded this e-mail [thanks, pasta!] from Bret Lott, editor of The Southern Review at LSU.

Common Ground is running an incredible clinic (and then some) in Algiers, and Naomi Archer is writing up a storm of Real Reports of Katrina Relief from the ground.

And I could go on.

While I am as appalled as the next person by the level of disorganization and incompetence in the official response to the disasters of the last month, I’m simultaneously cheered by the many people–and the many kinds of people–who have come out to help. It pleases me to know that there are as many kinds of help as there are people affected. Perhaps it’s not enough–perhaps nothing ever could be enough–but it’s a start.

big wheel keeps on turning. . .

Carnival of the Infosciences #7, at Mike’s Musings.

Carnival #8 stops next week at The Industrial Librarian. Send your submissions to davehook [at] rogers [dot] com. Here are the carnival guidelines, in case you’re new to the show or want a refresher.

I have all kinds of things to say but no time of late to get them written up. A substantive post or three should be coming up sometime in the next week or so; in the meantime, cruise on over to the Carnival and enjoy the ride.

back to school


by the numbers
Originally uploaded by newrambler.

update on 9/21: URLs fixed!

I’ve now started all my fall classes, which are a slightly different line-up from when I last posted on the topic. I’m now taking

LIS 721 Library Materials for Children
LIS 745 Searching Electronic Databases
LIS 763 Readers Advisory Services

All told, that makes for 9 hours a week of class, 19.5 hours a week at the library, 8-12 hours a week of dog-walking, and 8 hours a week commuting, not counting time spent schlepping between dogs. And all told that adds up to lots of time spent on various duties and not so much time for blogging, I expect to be checking in periodically.

Also, may I belatedly add that you should check out the most recent stops of the Carnival of the Infosciences:

this post will self-destruct. . .

Surely you’ve seen this by now, but in case you haven’t:

“Our users want the world to be as simple, clean, and accessible as the Google home page itself,” said Google CEO Eric Schmidt at a press conference held in their corporate offices. “Soon, it will be.”

And as a special bonus, all the archives of The Onion are now available online for your perusing. I first heard of America’s finest news source one night in college. I was working patrol and walking around with a friend, who said, “Do you read The Onion? No? You should. This week’s headlines: ‘Secondhand Smoke Linked to Secondhand Coolness.'”

Thanks to Jenna for the link. . . and by the way, have you ever wanted to run for ALA Council? She’s recruiting people.

while supplies last. . .


certificate
Originally uploaded by newrambler.

(Gosh, this Flickr business is fun. . . .)

I don’t normally keep track of the books I read, although I keep meaning to. I didn’t manage to this summer, either, but in case you did and feel that your summer reading efforts have gone underappreciated, may I offer you this handsome certificate, complete with Latin motto, suitable for thumbtacking to an appropriate surface?

The end of summer reading seemed to coincide with a lot of vacations, and thus a number of kids never showed up to pick up their certificates. If you would like one, please send an e-mail indicating your name as you wish it to appear on the certificate and your snail mail address to lauracrossett [at] hailmail [dot] net. I can also fill in the number of books read, and any number of Book Bucks you want, though I’m afraid that at this point they’re about as useful as Confederate money in 1865.

on and off the bandwagon

  • update 9/5/05 9:55 pm CST: Flickr link at the bottom is now fixed and will actually take you to pictures and not to Wired article

I am late to jump on many bandwagons, and, quite often, just simply late. Last weekend, which now seems impossibly long ago, I took a trip home (though I spend most of my time in Chicagoland these days, I’m still an Iowa resident, and Iowa City is still home) to do a few things and see some friends. It was in the course of hanging out with my friends that I realized that in the last six months or so, I have started to speak another language.

A few examples:

  • “I’m sorry I never read your site, but OpenDiary doesn’t have an RSS feed.”
  • “Oh, you’ve got a blog for your radio show? Send me the url and I’ll add it to my aggregator.”
  • “The camera’s just on loan, but I’ll just upload the pictures to Flickr and then I’ll be able to post them wherever.”

I got a lot of blank looks from my friends, who, as you may surmise, are not technologically oriented. They are very smart people. Most of them graduate students at the University of Iowa; the rest are the over-educated, under-employed types one finds around a college town. I don’t consider any of them hopelessly uninformed. But I now inhabit, at least part of the time, this whole world that most of them are only barely aware of.

Now that I’ve found this world, I’d never want to leave it behind, but my visit home was a little reminder that it is, in many ways, still a small and insular community. I love RSS and think it is one of the greatest things since the resurgence of decent bread, but I’ve been reminded that it’s not part of the picture for a lot of people and that, for the most part, they are getting by just fine without it.

You’ve probably heard about different kinds of learners (visual, oral, etc.) and different kinds of intelligence (emotional, intellectual, practical). There are also different ways of gathering information. I get most of my news from the radio, though when I lived in Iowa City, I also read the Daily Iowan in its hard copy version. I got an iPod for Christmas, and while it’s a nifty little device, at least a third of my music collection is still on LP and cassette. In my car at the moment all I have is radio, and thus when I’m driving around on my dogwalking route, I mostly (shudder) listen to commercial rock stations, since “Fresh Air” loses something when heard in 5 minute chunks with 20 minute gaps in between.. I did listen to a bunch of Greg’s podcasts on my drive home (I don’t have one of those handy gadgets that will play your iPod through your radio, so I did this by listening through one ear bud), and they were pretty great, but I don’t know that I’m going to get hooked on podcasting. My friends are mostly not tapped into the world of feeds and aggregators and social bookmarking, and that’s okay.

I started this blog with the idea that it would be a way to show fellow grad students about the wonderfulness of library-land blogs, which I now realize was kind of a nutty idea. I continued it, though, because I was getting so much out of it, which seems like a fine reason. And now just as I’ve learned that lots of people are considering jumping off the Flickr bandwagon, I’m jumping on. I don’t actually own a digital camera, so posts will be few and far between, but I did borrow my mother’s while I was home for the weekend and put together a little tour of Iowa City (only the parts I like, and only some of them). Take a look if you like (and remember I’ve never used a digital camera before). Enjoy!

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started