End of Week 3

This week has been a little less hectic. I am getting used to Blackboard and understanding how to navigate it...

I am still reading Double Fold which should be required reading for all librarians and archivists, no matter if they are in school or not. At least they should be made aware of its existence. Though the tone of Baker is a little too overwrought, I like his passion and detail in regards to the history of the cabal that has been advocating microfilming and downsizing collections. Baker takes on the supposed leaders in the field (ca. mid-20th century) and shows how their zeal for technology and ruthlessness in regards to destruction of hard copy has wiped out entire blocks of our history - very 1984 in a way (sorry for the hackneyed analogy). I also like how Baker equates or associates the CIA and academia during the Cold War. I was not aware of how close they all were (I don't have the book handy to make detailed references but there are many examples) and how this affected the information sciences. I guess it makes sense that our national interests during this period in our history would want to understand all aspects of data through the intelligentsia's research habits though it is just a little scary.