Google video worth watching, Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired, and former editor of Whole Earth Catalog

I listened to this lecture this morning and thought it was pretty good. It's interesting, Kevin Kelly apparently has no degree from anywhere, yet he really has much to say, and has all sorts of insights into technology, science, and the future.
The Next Fifty Years of Science 47 min 53 sec - May 9, 2006Average rating: (65 ratings)Description: Google TechTalks May 9, 2006 Kevin Kelly
"ABSTRACT The scientific method which provides us with so many technological goodies does not resemble the science of 1600. Ever since Bacon, science has undergone a slow evolution. Landmarks in the history of the scientific method are the invention of libraries, indexes, citations, controlled experiments, peer review, placebos, double blind experiments, randomization, and search among others. At the core of the scientific method is the structuring of information. In the next 50 years, as the technologies of information and knowledge accelerate, the nature of the scientific process will change even more than it has in the last 400 years. We can't predict what specific inventions will arise in the next 50 years, but based on long-term trends in epistemic tools, I believe we can speculate on how the scientific method itself -- that is, how we know -- will change in the next five decades."

arXiv Monthly Submission Rate Statistics, 1991-2006

For the four largest "subject areas": hep=high energy physics, "cond-mat"=condensed matter physics, "astro-ph"=Astrophysics, "math"=Mathematics. Click on chart if you want to see the fine print.

Former Swain Hall Librarian Carol Hutchins recently alerted the community of PAM librarians to this interesting growth chart (PAM, physics, astronomy, math). One comment she made about the future, yes, there's growth, but who and which communities of scientists are not participating in this, not sending their preprints to the arXiv?

The following is lifted from arxiv.or/Stats/hcamonthly.html

"Note: These are not meant to be interpreted as measures of research output, but rather only as measures of the extent to which communities deposit their output at arXiv.org.
In calendar year '05, the astro-ph and cond-mat submission rates each grew to exceed the hep rate (which appears to have flattened out the late '90s, suggesting 100% participation from the community. math(+math-ph) has been growing even faster since 2002 (suggesting a rapid adoption of this resource by an increasing percentage of the mathematics community)."

Alan Kostelecky elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Theoretical physicist and friend of Swain Hall Library Alan Kostelecky has been elected to the AAAS. Congratulations Alan! For the full story check out IU Media Relations coverage.

Listen to WFIU's Sarah Stevens interview with Kostelecky from last year on PROFILES (aired 1/1/06, scroll down once you connect to find it).

Doomsday Clock Moved for the 18th Time in Sixty Years

There has been a lot of talk about how the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Doomsday Clock has moved closer to midnight recently. Reasons? Climate change, nuclear proliferation, atomic ambitions of Iran, North Korea. We may as well throw some other calamities in there to spice up the soup: the gradual death of the human spirit due to inescapable advertising, the mind-numbing effects of online gaming and increasingly attractive virtual worlds, and may as well mention the resurging interest in Hall & Oates music. All of these things taken together clearly put us on the brink. Don't miss the new Swain Hall Library "Rough Guide to Climate Change" by Robert Henson. There are very few popular science titles collected in Swain Hall (see the Information Commons for a much better selection), however this title recently arrived and is a readable and informative book, perfect background reading for our 2007 summer.

Science Books Then, and Now

Academic libraries collecting science and mathematics books often encounter space problems. One thing that sometimes happens is that these science books on the left can end up being remotely stored, so that the tight shelves might have enough room to handle the flood of newly published science titles (unfortunately most of these titles pictured below are considered, in a broad sense, "mathematics", but what is their long-term value?). It's not that the new books aren't useful, they can be. They just take up a lot of room. It's a lot of stuff, all this literature related computers and computing. Everything seems to be a "how to" manual..."Master Idiotic Techno-jargon in 24 hours!" Fortunately we're getting quite a bit of access to computing manuals as online only books.
To have a look at some of these, open IUCAT, login, and select "E-book Search (Beta)"...then look, for example, for SQL books published after 2001, or something like that. Experiment with it.

New IUCAT, "My Account" for January 2007

Many of you will notice a new IUCAT in 2007. For a quick tour through what's different now, please go to http://www.indiana.edu/~libopac/IUCAT-Announce/publicupgrade-Dec06.html

For January, the Libraries are going to be ironing out some kinks that are not quite right yet. For example, if you're accustomed to glancing at My Account to see if anything is overdue, you may notice for the next few weeks that this will show both your fines, and what you've paid if you've already reconciled your account... it may look like a new standing fine, but it's not.

Exact searches now are associated with Periodical Title, but please try the Browse search or "Begins With" to find known items out there, and the opening "basic search" screen should help you close in on well-known books that used to get buried in general keyword searches. Come see us in the Swain Hall Library if you have questions or need help.