Bryan A. Garner, ABA Journal; The tragedy of ‘deaccessioning’ books from university libraries
"Book research is well-nigh irreplaceable to the skillful researcher.
It can’t, and shouldn’t, be fully superseded by online research, which
of course has its own splendors but also its own limitations.
So it’s disheartening to hear what’s happening to our libraries. A lead Associated Press
article on Feb. 7 reports that “as students abandon the stacks in favor
of online reference material, university libraries are unloading
millions of unread volumes in a nationwide purge.” Some books are being
hauled off to permanent storage sites; others are being sold en bloc to
used-book dealers; and still others are being thrown into dumpsters.
Given that half the library collection at the Indiana University of
Pennsylvania has been “uncirculated for 20 years or more,” university
administrators decided to purge 170,000 volumes. “Bookshelves are making
way for group-study rooms and tutoring centers, ‘makerspaces’ and
coffee shops,” the article reports. Oregon State University librarian
Cheryl Middleton, president of the Association of College and Research
Libraries, is quoted as saying, “We’re kind of like the living room of
the campus. We’re not just a warehouse.”
Traditional scholars are outraged. One calls this jettisoning of books “a knife through the heart.” He’s right, of course."
Showing posts with label digital humanities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital humanities. Show all posts
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Tuesday, July 18, 2017
What the Enron E-mails Say About Us; New Yorker, July 24 Issue
Nathan Heller, New Yorker; What the Enron E-mails Say About Us
"Small, sometimes moving dramas unwind in the folders of sent mail. In May, 2001, a trader who is given to enthusiastic, exclamation-laden e-mails tells a friend that it’s already getting hot in Houston, which is a pain, because he’s begun jogging again, to lose 8.5 pounds. He has just been through a breakup. A vice-president is having a custody battle in September, 2001, and sends a legal aide a frenzied, unedited, and wrenching plea: “How can she be aloud to keep me from my son?” Some of the most interesting messages were never meant for anyone else’s eyes. That same jogger, still romantically at loose ends, e-mails his Hotmail account a link to workouts on fitnessheaven.com. An employee on the legal team sends his personal AOL account a joke he may have found worth mastering. (“Moses, Jesus and an old man are golfing,” it begins.) “Do you know what’s included in Enron’s Code of Ethics?” an e-mail advertising an in-house informational event prompts. “Do you know what policies affect corporate conduct? Ask Sharon Butcher, Assistant General Counsel of Corporate Legal, all your questions about our corporate policies today.” The message was sent on June 5, 2001. Ten weeks later, Jeffrey Skilling resigned as president and C.E.O. A programmed search could find this e-mail, but it wouldn’t be able to locate the irony. For this, we need the same human instrument—faulty, romantic, and duplicitous—that brought Enron to that self-defeating point."
"Small, sometimes moving dramas unwind in the folders of sent mail. In May, 2001, a trader who is given to enthusiastic, exclamation-laden e-mails tells a friend that it’s already getting hot in Houston, which is a pain, because he’s begun jogging again, to lose 8.5 pounds. He has just been through a breakup. A vice-president is having a custody battle in September, 2001, and sends a legal aide a frenzied, unedited, and wrenching plea: “How can she be aloud to keep me from my son?” Some of the most interesting messages were never meant for anyone else’s eyes. That same jogger, still romantically at loose ends, e-mails his Hotmail account a link to workouts on fitnessheaven.com. An employee on the legal team sends his personal AOL account a joke he may have found worth mastering. (“Moses, Jesus and an old man are golfing,” it begins.) “Do you know what’s included in Enron’s Code of Ethics?” an e-mail advertising an in-house informational event prompts. “Do you know what policies affect corporate conduct? Ask Sharon Butcher, Assistant General Counsel of Corporate Legal, all your questions about our corporate policies today.” The message was sent on June 5, 2001. Ten weeks later, Jeffrey Skilling resigned as president and C.E.O. A programmed search could find this e-mail, but it wouldn’t be able to locate the irony. For this, we need the same human instrument—faulty, romantic, and duplicitous—that brought Enron to that self-defeating point."
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