explodedlibrary.info

link shedding

Today is a day that I’ve been looking forward to. I get to take down my list of Australian librar* blogs.

I am pleased that there are now two places on the web which I can turn to when I want to find Australian blogs.

First is the list on lint. If I ever miss maintaining my list, I can be happy because I can always do so as a contributor at lint.

Second is something I have only recently noticed. The Australian Index has a very worthy list of Australian librar* blogs.

I made that list because there wasn’t anything like that around which was managed by Australians, and I thought there should be. Now that two good Australian-made alternatives have appeared, I can happily drop the responsibility of maintaining my list.

While I’m at it, I’ve decided that it’s time to overhaul all the other external links on this blog. This time I want to try something different. Instead of tinkering with what’s already there, I’m dumping them all and will then gradually rebuild. I'm sure that many of the blogs which used to be there will return. But for the moment I'm enjoying this moment where my sidebar feels light and uncluttered.

[27 September 2006 update: The old links are available here]

On Vox: the accidental

   
   

It is the most natural and comfortable thing in life to sink into a rut. Our routines aren't usually just blind habit, they usually develop that way for very good reasons. I don't think that ruts are bad per se, but that it is good to be aware of them. Sometimes the only way to know that you've been in a rut is the intense feeling of oddness which occurs when for whatever reason, you step out of the rut.

» Read more on Vox

groupthink, shooting the messenger and other information-related dysfunctional behaviour

Dysfunctional information behaviors and dealing with the millenials:

Dave Pollard at How to Save the World had a post on dysfunctional information behaviors. It includes a large list of dysfunctional behaviors ...

(Via The Gypsy Librarian.)

Thanks Angel for drawing this to my attention. I'm posting it here too for future reference too. I wonder if blogs have a role in curing some of this  dysfunction?

what do libraries, landscaping, lighting and liqour have in common?

How interesting. While helping a student do some research on the Australian landscaping suppliers market, I discovered that there's another ALIA in Australia which has nothing to do with libraries. Unfortunately for them, the Australian Landscape Industry Association did not get any ALIA domain names.

My curiousity piqued, I then discovered that the Australasian Lighting Industry Association has the alia.com.au domain.

I mustn't forget the Australian Liquor Industry Awards, which are sometimes known as the ALIA awards, but mustn't be confused with these ones.

There's a school in Victoria called Alia Secondary College, although it's website seems to be down right now.

Finally, there's an Alia involved in an Australian scandal, although it's not actually Australian. It is the name of the company which was a front for the previous Iraqi regime. The Australian Wheat Board paid bribes to the Iraqi government through Alia. Well, that's still not as bad as enduring all the Symbionese Liberation Army jokes from a former co-worker whenever I attended an Special Libraries Association function.

blogospheres

Although the term "blogosphere" is used as if it means the entire blogging universe, I think that this is true only in the most exceptional of circumstances. Usually "blogosphere" is a contextual word, as in the political blogosphere, the libr* blogosphere, the legal blogosphere, a.k.a. blawgosphere. Usually when the media talks about a particular meme or scandal sweeping the blogosphere, they are referring to the political blogosphere.

I have travelled through different blogospheres during the four years of my blogging life. I started out in libraries and law. I have also spent some time in the US (left) political blogosphere (via Salon.com), and the Sydney local blogosphere. I have found that although a subject may diminish in importance, it is never truly left behind.

The amazing thing about blogging is that finding a new blogosphere is like travelling to a new country. This week I have started investigating the business school blogosphere - the blogs of business school faculty and MBA students. Maybe I haven't yet found the movers & shakers in this area, but it seems to me that the business school blogosphere is not as developed as say the blawgosphere is.

Proportionally, there don’t seem to be as many academic blogs as in the blawgosphere. Many of the student blogs that exist seem more personal with the MBA experience in the background rather than being about business school. Which is fine - I'm just noting the difference.

And being so new in this subject area, maybe I haven't yet found the best ones. If any of my readers follow any business school blogs worth recommending, please let me know ...

Expect to read my travel notes soon.