Forgotten Corner

IMG_5910
Originally uploaded by sweet lil' bunny.

I recently came across this photo I took of a old storage closet that was open briefly during the library renovation - I like knowing that all the old leaded windows and pews no one uses any more are still around if a little dusty.

Legacy (data that is)

I tend to give my profession as "Jerk of All Trades" when asked in a context where that's going to be interpreted charitably. Nominally I am charged with Computer and Information Systems Support (i.e. Desktop Support). That sort of work including training, which I perversely enjoy won't take up more than 50-60% of my workday on average leaving the rest for the more interesting learning experiences. Most recently, this remainder time has been eaten by the seemingly infinite task of converting the collection management data and systems of a large and ancient research and institutional archival repository - including a location database that talks to an aged behemoth of an ILS. The exciting variety within the legacy data has been the real beast up to now. It's a bit like turning an oil tanker - churn away, all ahead full for a very long time before the view out the front window begins to change in the least. So, "converting to what?" one might ask. The plan is for all the various description, and management and location data to converge into the open source Archivists' Toolkit.

We (I'm only a small part of a valiant team effort) have also been engaged in a development-on-a-shoestring game trying to add plug-ins necessary to handle our systems' specific needs. Most of this has been thoroughly detailed on the AT @ Yale blog by one of my hardworking co-conspirators. Shortly, although at this point I wouldn't bet a nickle on the exact date, we will present the rest of the staff with an as-finished-as-it's-gonna-get-for-now prototype version. Then begins the hard part of getting the thing to actually work in the real world with actual users! Oh the bugs and heretofore un-thought-of paradoxes that crawl through my dreams.

One of my other sidelines has been thinking and being minimally involved in digital preservation - particularly for AV materials. I find that the insane maze of formats, files and standards that one must thread to even begin to plan the migration of a video archive into digital for the purpose of preservation boggles the mind. It is also a good illustration of the problem legacy data presents in any collection management system. A reputation as a large and venerable institution is one sort of legacy, but it hides a legacy of another slightly less thrilling sort.

Flashlights! Night Hike at Common Ground

Flashlights! Night Hike at Common Ground
Originally uploaded by sweet lil' bunny.

A good way to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox - crickets and tree frogs were there too.

Mechanical Reading Machine

John Scalzi on the Amazon Kindle text-to-speech flap. He's one of my favorite writers and this sort of blurb is exactly why:

• In short: I’m not at all convinced that realistic and engaging computerized audio will be possible at any point in the near or even middle future without requiring a clear and obvious derivative work to generate it. When it is possible, I suspect AI will be at a point where it will also be able to generate actual novels, and then, of course, I will retire, to spend my remaining days being pleasured by my sexbots, until they plug me into the mainframe to use my brain cycles for sewage maintenance and I slip comfortably into the hive mind.

Sheet of paper after winter under snow pack

This is sort of how we all feel venturing out after in the first above freezing day since the new year.

Sheet of paper after winter under snow pack
Originally uploaded by sweet lil' bunny.