Infomancy n. 1.The field of magic related to the conjuring of information from the chaos of the universe. 2.The collection of terms, queries, and actions related to the retrieval of information from arcane sources.

infomancy

The DDC is Killing our Libraries

April 9th, 2010 by Christopher Harris

The Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC) is broken. I am not going to entertain any sort of conversation on this point, it is just a fact you need to accept. Accept it, and move on. One of the incontrovertible facts that clearly demonstrate the brokenness of DDC is that we have to teach DDC, and [...]

Math4Life

April 8th, 2010 by Christopher Harris

Library Policy Theater

April 6th, 2010 by Christopher Harris

Anyone who has travelled by air recently should be quite familiar with the concept of security theater; the complex set of TSA rituals designed to make us feel more safe (or at least to make the TSA feel like they are making us feel safe) while not actually addressing any of the real safety issues. [...]

Follett Cognite – Details

March 17th, 2010 by Christopher Harris

This was posted as a comment on Cathy Nelson’s post about my letter to Follett Software about Cognite.
In response to some questions about details, Follett doesn’t specifically state that their new Cognite software is designed to replace a librarian, but using my library kung fu I read between the lines.
Check out http://www.follettsoftware.com/cognite/what.cfm – that [...]

Open Letter to Follett Software

March 15th, 2010 by Christopher Harris

Thomas Schenck, President
Follett Software Company
1391 Corporate Drive
McHenry IL 60050-7041
Dear Mr. Schenck;
Congratulations on the launch of your new Cognite software. Taking a major project like this from concept to an actual, usable product is always an exciting challenge. Your team has done an excellent job working with librarians to define needs and provide real world tools [...]