I don't usually share what I'm doing in library school beyond just complaining about the workload, or telling people what courses I'm taking and how long it is before the quarter ends, but I thought I'd post something about my "Information in Social Context" course because it's full of really cool, thought-provoking topics. We've been discussing intellectual property issues such as copyright, liability, intellectual freedom and censorship, as well as ethics, privacy, and scholarly communication. Whew! One of my classmates posted this hilarious take on copyright basics using Disney clips. And not only is it funny, its informative and accurate.
I just finished writing a paper on the Lawrence Lessig's The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World. I had to read it for a book report assignment in this same course, but am really glad- it was a thought-provoking book about increasing control of the Internet and how this affects its original development as an open resource. Lessig argues that strict control creates a loss of creativity and innovation, therefore negatively impacting its quality and the ultimately hurting the public good. I recommend it, especially if you're interested in intellectual property issues in the digital world, or just learning about some ways the Internet is controlled that the average person may not be aware of. For more information on the author or other books he's written, you can check out his website. If you'd like to read my paper on the topic, email me at bookey13@juno.com.
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6 comments:
That video is brilliant, but it must have taken forever to put it together!
I have to be honest, I am slightly jealous of your course of study, it sounds fascinating.
Yeah, someone with alot of patience and good sense of humor. Some aspects of my study are more fascinating than others. My cataloging course was pure hell. I thought I'd gain some sort of appreciation for it, but that didn't ever happen :)
It is that way with any academic pursuit, some things rock, others trudge on endlessly through the bogs of boredom. Even my music study was like that, despite my love of it at the time, there were things I skipped because I couldn't abide tedium. I am a bred-in-the-bone library geek, though, so it all seems great to me. When I was a kid, I tried to memorize the Dewey system, and did pretty well with the basics, but the minutiae always eluded me. Too bad I don't remember more of it now!
Impressive- I still don't have the Dewey system memorized, although lots of people believe that's what one does in library school.
Yeah, if that was all it took, we'd all be librarians! Grant actually plucked a specific subject call number out of thin air for me yesterday; it blew my mind. A few people have done that in my presence, come to think of it... I guess that happens after basically living with the collection for a while.
One of the side effects of shelving for years during high school and college was that for years I would occassionally spout out a dewey number when someone mentioned something. Most people are not impressed and it really doesn't add to the conversation. However, later in life I worked at a botanic gardens library-- all library of congress and all SB (horticulture) or QK (botany). I never remembered another number again.
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