Text Bite, Vol. 2, #4

"Ebooks seemed kind of dubious and gimmicky to the older generation, but they already are pretty normal to the current generation. I don't say the battle is won, but the impetus is so strong in this direction that I think it's clear the vast amount of scholarly work will be transmitted through the web."

Robert Darnton, Director, Harvard University Library
2/28/08 Interview, Library Journal
(context: scholarly communications and the future of university presses)

This photo is of Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon.com presenting the Kindle late last year.

Photo: AP

From the 11/20/07 online version of the Sydney Morning Herald.

It's likely that e-books will be used, displayed, and browsed on various devices. In recent years they've mostly been viewed on personal computers, and therefore created and arranged for that medium, but this may change soon.

Focus on new book "Thesis Projects"

Thesis Projects: A Guide for Students in Computer Science and Information Systems arrived this week. Graduate students in SLIS, the School of Informatics, and Computer Science may find some useful discussion within. Place a hold through IUCAT, or use Request Delivery to have this sent to you.
See Ann Fleury's (Aurora University) 2002 review of the first edition.

Lost and Found, 5th Edition, Marsden's Vector Calculus

M312 people, one of you probably left your text in a Swain West classroom today. No name written in it. Come by Swain West 208 if you can't find yours.

New Statistics in Swain Hall Library this week

The title's cut off the Christensen book below, it's "Analysis of Variance, Desiogn and Regression: Applied Statistical Methods".
There are other statistical books on display, but they tend to be physics titles, e.g. Statistical Methods in Quantum Optics.

Tonight at 7:00 pm EST, Earth beams "Across the Universe" Beatles tune into the Cosmos

It is supposed to be beamed at 186,000 miles per second at Polaris, the North Star. Why? I don't know, just roll with it.... No, it's to commemorate "the 40th anniversary of the day The Beatles recorded the song, as well as the 50th anniversary of NASA's founding and the group's beginnings. Two other anniversaries also are being honored: The launch 50 years ago this week of Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, and the founding 45 years ago of the Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe. NASA 1/31/08 Press Release.

Yoko Ono commented that she "see[s] that this is the beginning of the new age in which we will communicate with billions of planets across the universe".

Others contend that transmitting this song into space is stupid and brands us as a race of borderline delusionals. These tend to be "glass half-empty" kind of people.