The topic of eBooks and Smartphones are constantly coming up nowadays, and especially in my LIS classes. For the most part, I have been able to get by with my Tracfone flip phone (free advertising for them?). I have been able to get by with just the ability to text and call people; it even has a crappy phone camera! So far I haven’t felt the need to surf the web while on the move (I don’t need to be on Facebook constantly like some people, I just happen to be on it a lot when I am on my computer. Okay, I might have a problem, which is probably why not having a phone with internet access is good for me, at least right now.) However, I hear of all of the apps and fun stuff that smartphones can do now and I find myself wondering, am I going to be behind the times? Am I going to fall behind technology and thus be less capable as a librarian if I do not fall into the trap of smartphones? On one hand I find myself hesitant to go that route, especially since tracfone’s pay-as-you-go system is all I have ever known, on the other hand I find myself wanting one so can keep up with the rest of the world. Now onto eReaders and eBooks. I personally will probably never have one as I do not care for reading off of a screen. I prefer a physical book in my hands and the tactile joy I get out of turning the page. I have nothing against their existence--I remember seeing a similar thing on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the hands of Captain Sisko’s son Jake and thinking it was cool. I think that people who enjoy them should be able to enjoy them and the cheap books, articles, etc. are awesome. I definitely think that they do belong in libraries, but physical books should still be part of library systems. As I kind of ranted on in my first post, I am against totally digital libraries and think they are a disservice to everyone even if they don’t realize it. (Add the bacon.) They are an awesome thing, I just prefer physical books. I do not, however, like how companies that sell eReaders are making physical books their enemy. They belong to the same industry, they are just separate products. I feel it would be better for this industry if they teamed up together to further promote eReaders and physical books, but what the heck do I know I am only a writer and library student.
Also, on one topic mentioned in class, most writers I know are library junkies aka we like libraries and if you run into a writer that doesn’t like their books being in libraries ask them how their writing career is going for them. Money is involved, but as a writer I would rather write for the enjoyment of readers and get my book out to as many people as possible, which means libraries are awesome. Call me biased because I am going to be a librarian but libraries are cool.
Now to a more personal note, I will try to tie it back into libraries at the end but if I don’t I think that there is enough above to appease you. In 511 this week Professor Lankes passed around bags of assorted candy to explain cataloging and metadata (another reason why I love this place, they get creative with their instruction. And they hand out candy.) Before he passed them out, he asked everyone if there were any allergies, and for those of you that do not know or don’t remember, I am allergic to red food dye. Specifically Red Dye #40 but I avoid all red dyes just to be safe. Obviously there was the given shock and awe, especially from Professor Lankes (who also kept bringing it up to make his points, which I was okay with as long as he didn’t ask me if I could slide on a red slide or use a red napkin like my high school friends did). The shock and awe I admit is annoying despite telling people my entire life, no one expects the red dye allergy (doesn’t have quite the same zing as the Spanish Inquisition but oh well).
I hate assorted candy bags (as well as starburst and other variety candy packs). The “fun-sized” Starburst are even worse as there is no indication of what is inside so I could end up with two pieces I can’t eat and a waste of money (I once bought a package of Airheads because it only listed blue dye on the outer package but when I opened it, half of them were red or had red in them. Not happy was a bit of an understatement, though it does present instances to share with friends). In the Wonka assortments they have nerds but it is always the red or the purple, never anything I can eat, thank god for banana Laffy Taffy or I wouldn’t be able to eat anything Wonka. 2/3 of the time I cannot eat the candy in the assortments because candy companies suck at equal amounts (M&Ms I could get 20 pieces or I could get 3 and then have to give the rest to others, this is more common with Smarties, and then have to give the rest to somebody else. Being color blind doesn’t help, especially since the colors I confuse are always the ones that would have red dye and their non-red counterparts). Most of the time they only list out the colors at the end or beginning of the ingredients list and they don’t separate out which is which (companies that make popsicles are notorious for this). Companies that do separate the colors out are awesome, and companies that don’t even use dyes are even better (Lays is awesome for going the All Natural kick. Product placement, product placement, product placement). Bringing this back to libraries though, the output of catalogs is metadata, and the ingredients on the back of the packages of candy qualifies as this metadata. Candy metadata sucks.
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