jessamyn

No cats, though between my mom and sister they have three (formerly seven before the mass cat die off of last year) so I get a lot of cats in my life.

Chocolate, for sure.

My sister and mom each had a few cats that were old and/or infirm. So in the span of about 12 months we lost Henry and Lucky and Boo and Trixie. Great animals, all of them.

I like makerspaces as an idea but in a broader sense. Like the places that have sewing machines, craft studios, places that people can record music and work on a lawnmower engine? I think those solve real world problems for people right now. I like 3D printers and think it's good that libraries are getting interested in them (and they're fun for programs especially for kids) but I think thinking about real-world applications of programs are as if not more important than near-future wide-appeal applications of things like 3D printing. What I want to see is code camp things where people learn to render 3D models, make websites and apps and get computers to do things. 3D printing is smart of that, but there's a bigger ecosystem to get competency in.

I might argue that even though we can fit the world's knowledge on a tablet, we're not doing that because there's no way to make a business model out of that and that is one of the larger concerns about tech vs info that I think needs to be picked apart more critically.

Yeah I got to talk to the white house which I discuss at length in circulatingideas' link. I also made my own blog post here

http://www.librarian.net/stax/4446/the-day-i-spoke-to-the-white-house/

Nothing since then, nervously waiting to see what happens. I'm a big fan of Mao, the acting guy even though I think they'll probably go with someone else for the gig eventually.

The other big deal is that now LoC term limits are set to ten years (which could be renewed) and that's going to change the face of the job an awful lot.

I have no idea, it's really frustrating. I think starting with use cases "Our users want to be able to aggregate searching between you and the other person we buy databases from..." is good but ultimately it's maybe being clear with higher-ups that you have to have staff specifically dedicated to this bullshit which would be totally unnecessary if the world were more open access or if the publishers would work together. Like, why isn't there an Overdrive for database stuff so that you could have a third party there basically aggregating stuff for which you had a license. It's incredibly frustrating but I feel like JSTOR and Elsevier really feel like they're going to come out on top and be the One Big Company and so they have no incentive to change.

I really wish I knew because it's one of THE most challenging things facing librarianship today, this shift to digital content and crappy companies who have really difficult ways of getting at it. We can't aggregate which is more and more what users want, we need to find ways to put pressure on publishers but I'm not sure if I know how. Maybe get the National Federation for the Blind to sue them? Head scratcher.