Category Archives: people

Categorizing people without marginalizing them

Posted on April 29, 2013 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Libraries and bookstores have perennially faced the problem of how to organize books on their shelves.  There’s a tension between making certain books easy to find for readers with one set of interests, and making them more difficult to find … Continue reading →

Posted in discovery, libraries, metadata, online books, people, subjects | 2 Comments

Persistence

Posted on December 30, 2012 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The week between Christmas and New Years is mostly time off for me– I’ve added no new listings to The Online Books Page this past week, for instance– but even on vacation, as long as I have a working Internet … Continue reading →

Posted in failure, online books, people, preservation | Comments Off on Persistence

My mother’s orphan

Posted on October 7, 2011 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Before my mother was pregnant with me, she was working on a book. The book had begun its gestation at least a year before. She had been teaching math in Massachusetts, and was involved with the Madison Project, one of … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, findingada, online books, open access, people, preservation, sharing, teaching | 4 Comments

Libraries: Be careful what your web sites “Like”

Posted on September 27, 2011 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Imagine you’re working in a library, and someone with a suit and a buzz cut comes up to you, gestures towards a patron who’s leaving the building, and says “That guy you were just helping out; can you tell me … Continue reading →

Posted in crimes and misdemeanors, data, libraries, people, privacy | 2 Comments

A digital public library we still need, and could build now

Posted on June 15, 2011 by John Mark Ockerbloom

It’s been more than half a year since the Digital Public Library of America project was formally launched, and I’m still trying to figure out what the project organizers really want it to be.  The idea of “a digital library … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen librarians, copyright, libraries, people, sharing | 11 Comments

Erin McKean and inclusive entrepreneurship

Posted on March 24, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Today is Ada Lovelace Day, a day celebrating the achievements of women in science and technology.  There are all kinds of ways to be a scientist or a technologist, and just in the fields of computing and information technology I … Continue reading →

Posted in people | Comments Off on Erin McKean and inclusive entrepreneurship

Lots of conversation keeps stuff sustainable

Posted on March 23, 2010 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Among the hats I wear at my place of work is that of LOCKSS cache administrator. LOCKSS is a useful distributed preservation system built around the principle “Lots of copies keep stuff safe” (whose initials give the system its name).  … Continue reading →

Posted in libraries, people, preservation, sharing | Comments Off on Lots of conversation keeps stuff sustainable

Remember this

Posted on October 5, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I am eating a sandwich at the end of Pier 14 in San Francisco.  The sun has set behind the downtown skyscrapers, and the colors in the sky are slowly fading to grey.  I’m not the only diner out here.  … Continue reading →

Posted in people, preservation, sharing | 2 Comments

Getting bugs out of our systems

Posted on May 27, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Very soon after we start learning to program, we start learning to deal with bugs.   Folks who have programmed for a while might forget that effective bug handling, like effective programming, is a skill that doesn’t come entirely naturally. Many … Continue reading →

Posted in crimes and misdemeanors, people | 3 Comments

David Reed: Some extracts from his life and letters

Posted on April 23, 2009 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Last summer I was looking for a particular book. I couldn’t find it in any library in my State. Went interlibrary loans and found one copy at the library of Congress. Only one copy in the whole country. One of … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, people | 43 Comments