Taiga Provocative Statements

I received a tweet last week with a link to the 2009 Taiga Provocative Statements that came out of the Taiga Forum held in January in Denver. The Taiga Forum is a group of Library AULs and ADs. The statements all begin with "Within the next five years...". The draft version has an item about Google meeting virtually all of the information needs for both students and researchers, but is item was struck before the final version was released.

You can find links to this year's statements as well as the 2006 list. Information about the process can be found in the press release located here. This is a list that all librarians should sit up and pay notice to. Very interesting.

Examples:

2. ... collection development as we now know it will cease to exist as selection of library materials will be entirely patron driven. Ownership of materials will be limited to what is actively used. The only collection development activities involving librarians will be competition over special collections and archives.

6. ... libraries will provide no in-person services. All services (reference, circulation,instruction, etc.) will be unmediated and supported by technology.

9. ... the library community will insist on a better return on investment for membership organizations (e.g., CRL, DLF, CNI, SPARC, ARL, ALA). All collaboration of significance will be centered around either individual entrepreneurial libraries (e.g., HathiTrust, OLE), or regional consortia.

10. ... 20% of the ARL library directors will have retired. University administrators will see that librarians do not have the skills they need and will hire leaders from other parts of the academy, leading both to a realignment of the library within the university and to the decline of the library profession.

The State of Newspapers - living in a transitional time

It has been months since I have posted here - too busy I guess with holidays, traveling, work, blah blah blah. I came across a blog post by Clay Shirky on the future (or demise) of newspapers as we know them and I thought it warranted a mention.

His posting is interesting and highlights the fact that sometimes successful ventures end before new ones take their place. This has happened repeatedly through history with many examples in the last hundred years. The point is it is difficult to identify the direction and impact of change while you are living through it.

Here is a link to the full article - read it for yourself. Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable.

Photos and videos from the China trip

I finally put some of my photos on Flickr and my videos on YouTube. Here are the links:
China food set of photos, photos of markets in China, video of the street food, video of morning exercise in Shanghai, and video of eating hot pot in Shanghai.

I hope you enjoy them!

Shopping in Shanghai

Who knew shopping was so great in Shanghai? Certainly not me! We have been on the power shopping tour since we got back from Jingdezhen. We went to the fabric market where they sell yard goods plus all kinds of clothes imaginable. They can also make anything you want. The silk and the silk things are especially nice, but they also have cashmere anything. It is absolutely luscious. I found a winter coat I liked, but of course the model that they had in the booth was a size six or so. Lola the sales girl said they could make one to fit me in 5 hours. It is modeled after a Chanel design and is great. I decided to think about it since I have no more space in my luggage and will need to carry it on the plane. I got to thinking - a great coat, tailor made to fit me, for far less than I could buy a coat at Target. What's to think about!??? I went back today and they will bring it to my hotel tomorrow.

We also went to look for eye glasses. The glasses mall was four floors of glasses shops. If you can't find glasses there you aren't going to be finding glasses! Joe found two pairs and I settled on one. Mine were $109. and his were two for $150. They are fantastic frames that are totally unique. One of his looks like it is carved out of wood - they are designed by a Japanese designer. Mine look Italian, but I don't really know for sure what they are.

Add to this the silk, cashmere, lotus shoes, antiques, tea, pottery and other assorted things we have purchased, I think we have done enough shopping to keep my shopping black belt. Yikes.

Great bargains can be had - you just have to also buy the airline ticket.

Noodle Man

One of the best places to eat in Food Alley in Jindezhen is at the Noodle Man's place. This gentle noodle maker, his wife and two beautiful little girls run this little restaurant. He makes the BEST noodles. He makes them all from scratch. You can have them as soup or stir fried. They are spicy and tasty. Here is a video of the noodle making. You can catch glimpses of his wife and girls, too.

Traditional pot trimming, China

Jingdezhen is all about ceramics.  There is a wonderful ceramics museum with kilns, pottery makers of all kinds, shops, and on and on.  I managed to get some video of one of the artists trimming a pot.  For those who don't know about ceramic process, the wet clay is formed into a shape by throwing it on a potters wheel.  The pot is then dried and then it is trimmed to make it's final form  - thinning the walls and making the foot of the pot the right shape.  In the states the trimming is generally done when the clay is "leather hard" - firm but not completely dry.  Here, the pot is trimmed when the clay is "bone dry."  This man in this video is using the traditional methods all around.  Notice how he makes the wheel spin at the beginning.  No power except his own.  My potter friends can probably find all kinds of things to correct in my description of this process, but watch the video and you will get the idea.

The Holiday Hotel

Our hotel here in  Jingdezhen is called the Holiday Hotel....not to be mistaken with the Holiday Inn.  It is brand new.  In fact last June when Joe was here it wasn't even started.  I would not exactly call it finished.  The room where we are staying is more or less finished, but there are big parts of the hotel that are still under construction.  Certificate of Occupancy?   We don't need no stinkin' C.O.!  

We are on the top floor with a great view.  That part is great.  The weird thing is that the wall that separates our room from the adjoining room doesn't quite reach the front wall so there is a 4 inch (or so) gap.  You can't see through to the adjoining room, but you can sure hear!  When the guy staying next door turned on his TV late at night it was like it was in our room.  He also smokes and I was convinced he was blowing smoke through the gap.  I woke up on the night smelling smoke and then was worried that this guy (dubbed Smelly Greasy Guy) was smoking in bed.  It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to believe this as people smoke everywhere here.  

SGG checked out today so perhaps no one will be in there tonight.