Mark MacEachern - Mark MacEachern's Blog

That, at least, is the suggestion in Mike Shatzkin's recent article, Why are you for killing bookstores? Shatzkin's article doesn't actually address the fate of libraries, but Tim Spalding of LibraryThing fame makes the connection in his (depressing) follow-up, Why are you for killing libraries.*

As a health sciences librarian, I see ebooks as realistic necessities in health care environments, and could thus be lumped under the ebook supporting, library killing umbrella. Of course, that type of literature is not the type of literature that bookstores typically sell and libraries typically lend, so that type of ebook adoption and usage is not, I'm sure, an indicator of book repository death. True. More or less.

But even speaking generally, I'm not sure we're talking about an either/or proposition here, that ebook adoption kills book repositories. Yes - the library-as-book-repository is probably dying and the ebook probably has a part in its demise. But, by no means does that mean that the library in general is dying. On the contrary, you could flip the argument around and say that "the proliferation of ebooks makes libraries more relevant 'cause it provides 'em with the flexibility to do modern stuff with their space."

To me, it's not so much the proliferation of ebooks that kills libraries, but the inability to adapt to the times that does.

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* For some discussion, take a look at the chat forum on LibraryThing as well.

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Friday

29Jan2010

A Day in the Life - Friday

Friday, January 29, 2010 at 07:16PM

Co-taught a 2-hour session to first year dentistry students. Content = Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed and PICO searching.
Attended a great presentation on academic article introductions. The presenter was tremendously engaging.
Edited the final article discovery report. The project began in September. We met every Thursday after that. Now we're done. It was enjoyable and I'm happy with our recommendation.
Pursued an email question about accessing a non-UM thesis, which the other institution won't lend because it's their lone copy. We're working on a work-around.
Discussed a systematic review search with surgery faculty. It'll be a short turnaround.
Set a date to record the lectures for the first year Pharmacy course (Feb 10).
Had a meeting with a Dentistry faculty pushed back until next week.

And if Chekov were alive he'd be 150. The Guardian's nice write up.

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Thursday

28Jan2010

A Day in the Life - Thursday

Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 07:28PM

Started the day with a research consultation. Topic (more or less) = perceptions of disease in post-operative patients. We searched PubMed and PsycInfo. Then she left.
Continued working on yesterday's systematic review search until the network went down. Went to lunch with colleagues.
Received a call from faculty in the Department of Surgery asking for assistance on a systematic review search. They'll get back to me to schedule a meeting.
Attended a meeting to discuss this Informatics/Library project I'm involved in. Basically, we're trying to unobtrusively buff up the amount of technology teaching faculty are using in the classroom and in their course sites.
Attended another - our last - meeting for the article discovery working group. The report's due Sunday, but we hope to send it off to the powers that be before the end of the day tomorrow. Looks promising.
I didn't get to spend as much time on the systematic review search as I had hoped. I didn't get a chance to prep for the class I'm teaching tomorrow. I didn't get a chance to make any progress on the other 2 systematic review searches I currently have on the go.

While the above was happening and not happening, this happened:

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Wednesday

27Jan2010

A Day in the Life - Wednesday

Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 11:53AM

Provided the Nuclear Medicine Fellows with a talk on strategies for keeping current with the literature. The talk was part of their Lecture Series, which I contribute to 4 times over the course of the year, covering topics pertinent to clinical and research work. It's a small group, so it's more discussion than lecture.
Read through and made edits to the Article Discovery Working Group report I mentioned on Monday. The report's due at the end of the week, so we agreed to get the Google Doc completed today (more or less). We're having a prolonged meeting tomorrow to wrap things up.
Met with two colleagues to discuss an EBM pharmacy course we're teaching in February. To prep, we need to record the 'lectures' in advance and upload them to the course site. Why? Because the course is all team-based learning. This means there's very little in the way of lecturing. Which means that class time is devoted to things other than lecturing. Things like teamwork and team exercises. Beyond the recordings, we still have a lot to do - but we have a few weeks...
Most of my day was spent constructing and reconstructing a systematic review search for a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. I might work on it a bit tonight, but regardless I'll have to work on it tomorrow.
And - a colleague gave me a homeless - yet domesticated - plant. It's green and on my desk.

The big news of the day was, of course, this:

If I had a HOF vote, I wouldn't've voted for Dawson. But now that he's in I'm glad he's going to be wearing an Expos cap. It would've been ridiculous otherwise. (From Big League Stew's Flickr photostream)