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April 2006
News There was a time when everyone knew for sure that Wikipedia was the online equivalent of Cheers' postal mommy's boy, Cliff Clavin - huge fact-per-minute ratio but near zero reliability. Then Nature magazine threw a spanner in the works with its report that the online encyclopaedia "that anyone can edit" was actually a viable alternative to the meticulously researched and edited reference behemoths we all know like, say, Encyclopaedia Britannica, for instance. Understandably miffed, Britannica hit back with a damning analysis of the methodology of the Nature piece - available to anyone with time to read its 7000 words at www.eb.com - which seemed to invalidate the best claims for Wikipedia. And things don't seem to be getting any better in Wikiworld from the look of Andrew Orlowski's excellent Guardian article ( 13th April 2006) which namechecks Wikitruth, a site established possibly by former Wikipedia employees and cheekily straplined " the free scandal sheet that! anyone can visit". Filled with sarcasm and occasionally impenetrable Wiki in-jokes there's nevertheless real passion for the original idea on display and the tales from Wikipedia insiders are rarely less than alarming.View it here: www.wikitruth.info Wiki isn't a solution to the information needs of professionals or end users but it is a fascinating development in the participation of the population at large in our business and it isn't going to go away. Deadline would love to hear your stories and opinions on Wikipedia and other Wiki information sites. The convergence between digital content and those early pioneers of online content, e-journals, continues apace with the launch of Exact Editions the latest venture from the founders of xrefer. The site allows hard-copy magazine subscribers access to archived digital content exactly as it appears on the printed page, including advertising. The sharp, clean images are complemented by a powerful full-text search facility and the usual zoom capabilities of PDFs. The service's only (surely temporary) downfall is in its current rather meagre set of titles - while the London Review of Books, Art Newspaper and The Spectator are all useful sources perhaps Kite World is not at the top of everyone's wish list. Niche is the word, as Frankie Valli never sang. Conference may be a long way off ( see Diary Dates) but start hunting around now for goodies for the silent auction. Anything you can find that hasn't been snaffled by your free-loading colleagues will raise money for The Medical Foundation For The Care Of Victims Of Torture.
It's show time again...or to be more precise it is time to book your train tickets to Birmingham as next week sees the 2006 Library and Information Show roll into the NEC. If you are in two minds about whether or not to attend let me dangle a few carrots in the hope of changing your mind. Most importantly (of course) you can visit AUKML on the Associations Stand and pick up one of our stylish pens, but if that offer isn't going to have you rushing for the nearest train station there is a great deal to recommend a day spent in our second city attending this event. For the price of your transport costs you can hear a wealth of free seminars in the two lecture theatres; catch up with old friends and colleagues in the Reunion Bar; visit the new Careers Clinic and take a look around over 130 exhibitors stands for even more free pens. On the Wednesday I am looking forward to attending the Practical Marketing Workshop for Corporate Librarians and Why Libraries Matter given by Library Association Chief Executive Bob McKee. Thursday sees what is sure to be an interesting session on The Corporate Need for the Information Professional and what promises to be a bit of a giggle with Laura Swafford as she presents more of her ever popular Media Watching. An added bonus for me as the books coordinator for my paper is the Independent Publishers Showcase, providing a chance to see what some of the smaller publishers are up to and hopefully pick up a few titles for future reviews. Have I persuaded you yet? OK time for my trump card...we have sweets as well as pens to give away, which must surely have swung your decision. Seriously though come and have a chat with us we are always keen to speak to members (and non-members for that matter) and if you have issues, comments, gossip (especially gossip) we will be delighted to see you. I'll be holding the fort on Wednesday and Katharine Schopflin, current AUKML chair, will be there on Thursday. You will also be able to pick up details about our forthcoming conference in September, another not to be missed date for your diary. Look forward to seeing you there. Elena Botterill
I have been asked by one of my supervisors during the placement at the FT, Claire Madge, to contribute to the newsletter by writing a report about my work experience. This covers in more detail why I chose to do my student placement in a media library (and why I chose the Financial Times), how useful it was, whether I think that the MA programme is a good preparation for my future career and, finally, if I see myself working in a media library in the future. I personally chose to do my placement in a media library in general and at the FT in particular for two reasons. First of all I had already had three weeks work experience in a public library. It was fantastic, however, I would prefer not having to work with certain age groups. Secondly, as I did my graduate trainee year in an academic library, I wanted to see something different. The FT was more familiar to me than the Guardian thanks to my previous experience in the media. All work experience is useful at one point or another. However, it does not necessarily become obvious immediately what we gained from it. Two things should be pointed out here. One, it was useful to have had the previous experience in the field. Two, work experience over such a short time period of two weeks can only give a first impression of the kind of work. When one becomes more familiar with the way the workload is done, the databases and so forth, time is almost up. Bearing this in mind I did learn and see quite a lot. Both supervisors took considerable time to show me how work is carried out (databases, microfiche, monitoring of articles), and to explain how the structure of the newspaper works. They gave me tasks that helped apply the knowledge. While doing a few jobs in the library I realised how much I have learned in the first term. More than I would have thought while focusing on course work, deadlines and chasing up book titles in libraries. I was even gladder to hear that one of the web pages I browsed through, as part of my work would be dealt with in more depth in a module this term. That brings me to the present. To my mind the preparation of the MA in Library and Information Studies for the future career is fairly good. The course content conveys the theoretical knowledge necessary. Where applicable, practical sessions are added to the timetable. Moreover the course work requires to imagine work related situations. The options give you the opportunity to focus more on traditional libraries (and study historical bibliographies or manuscripts for example) or the digital aspect (digital resources in the humanities, electronic publishing). Many lecturers had work experience in the information environment, IT sector or other relevant modules before they started to teach. It is difficult to predict where one ends up working. Small libraries are closed down or merge. The information sector changes all the time. Having worked in a country where the unemployment rate is around twelve per cent, I must say that I do not strive to get the post I may have dreamt of. I shall first see what is available. At the end of this report I would like to seize the chance to thank everyone I have met at the FT for the warm welcome they have all given me. Unfortunately I could only tell a few how much it was appreciated. It made the fortnight so much more pleasant. I really enjoyed working with the library team Anke Settgast is taking an MA Library and Information Studies at University College London. If anyone is interested in taking a student in the future, they normally run their work experience in January for 2 weeks. Contact Dr J Bowman Programme Director for Library & Information Studies, School of Library, Archive & Information Studies,UCL email j.bowman@ucl.ac.uk
Latest Reading The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain - Brian Hennessy (Southerleigh, 2005, ISBN 0-9551408-0-3) Imagine a world where the airwaves are free from speech and music, where the media consists of the printed word and news from press bureaux are tapped down the line in Morse code. Brian Hennessy's book takes the reader from a world when telecommunications was dominated by spark transmission, incapable of carrying the human voice, to the award of the BBC's charter in 1926. This is a complex and unlikely story in which commercial electronics manufacturers accidentally created a professional broadcasting industry. So much of what we now take for granted as broadcast skills: how to announce music, the form of broadcast news, the right length for radio drama, had to be invented from scratch by pioneering broadcasters. Moreover, it was achieved against the initial opposition of the government (who feared radio interference) and news and entertainment industries (who feared competition). Hennessy, who died in 2005, was not a historian, but was one of the many enthusiastic researchers into areas in broadcasting history not covered by either academic research or consumer publications. Like many of these writers he has an enthusiasm for small details and he has put admirable effort into gathering together primary and secondary research sources, including original interviews. There is particular detail given to the development of technology, almost to wiring-diagram thoroughness. He is less interested in events' social and historical context - little attention is given to either the First World War or the General Strike, although both were significant in creating a society ready for broadcast mass media. And while he outlines most of the events which led to the establishment of the BBC as a public service broadcaster, the book does not explore its evolution from a consortium of competing manufacturers into a national institution. The book is independently published and edited posthumously by the author's brother, a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and could have benefited from a sharper storytelling focus. Hennessy conscientiously records details of technological developments and the appearance of important buildings (for example, a copiously-illustrated chapter is devoted to BBC office and studio layouts in Savoy Hill) but sometimes feels haphazard in tracing the course of events. Content and structure seem to be dictated by the number of its sources available; more than half of its content covers the year 1922-3, about which numerous books, memoirs and articles have been written. Moreover the structure - now chronological, now thematic - is often confusing. John Reith is yet to be appointed as General Manager three chapters after a description of his first day. It is also sometimes a little scrappy in places: pictures captioned with one date describe an event dated differently in the text. He clearly admires early broadcasting's pioneers and mavericks, not only amateurs building crystal sets at home, but eccentrics like Peter Eckersley, who entertained the few hundred people listening into experimental broadcasts in the early 1920s before becoming the first BBC Chief Engineer. He makes clear that broadcasting was shaped like innovators like Marconi PR man Arthur Burrowes. At a time when the company saw limited opportunities for making money out of valve technology, he organised Dame Nellie Melba's famous experimental broadcast from a hut in Chelmsford. The descriptions of chaotic early broadcasting are in fact some of the liveliest parts of the book, although they do mostly draw on previously published sources (including more rarely-seen reminiscences from 1930s radio fan magazines). Hennessy's chief failing is being unable to compile these individual snapshots into a complete story. However The Emergence of Broadcasting in Britain remains a useful addition to any broadcasting, technology or media history collection. Other books tell parts of the story better (especially the two biographies of John Reith, by Andrew Boyle and Ian McIntyre) but Hennessy should be admired for attempting to trace the entire history of these years. Standard works covering the same period by Asa Briggs (A history of broadcasting in the United Kingdom, volume I: the birth of broadcasting. Oxford University Press, 1995) and Edward Pawley (BBC Engineering 1922-1972. BBC, 1972) are more authoritative, but their dense detail (administrative and technological respectively) make them almost impossible to read from beginning to end and difficult to use as reference works. Hennessy's technical detail is impressive, if perhaps a little overwhelming for the general reader. His short chapters provide useful and user-friendly illumination on certain episodes and the book is acco! mpanied by a comprehensive bibliography. As such it is a good basic research source for a complex part of broadcasting history. Katharine Schopflin. A User's Guide To Copyright (6TH EDITION) by M F Flint, N Fitzpatrick and C D Thorne Tottel Publishing 2006, GBP78 ISBN: 1845920686, It's highly likely that a copy of the 5th edition can be found on the shelves of most media libraries, such is the reputation of this work in an area of law where change is being driven constantly by technology. As in previous editions, the guide is broken into two sections, the first covering copyright law in general with the second taking a contextual approach to regulation in a variety of sectors. Key to the sixth edition are extensive revisions to take into account developments in digital storage and copying including such thorny issues as peer-to-peer networking and attempts to enforce transborder copyright. The ascendance of international over national law is particularly well handled, illustrating the increasing frailty of national laws in a fluid, digitized world. Looking at the mass of cross references and footnotes, there can be little doubt that this is A Big Law Book but the authors write with skill and clarity and the text is targeted squarely at those for whom copyright issues are a part of daily working life. An impressive set of case studies in Part Two puts the theory nicely into context, analyzing the importance of cases such as the 2005 IPC Media v News Group fair dealing scrap in which the two media giants clashed over the use of copyrighted cover images. The judgment is significant not least in its recognition of the difficulty of defining "fair dealing", crucial to the News Group defence. Other cases illustrate points on joint ownership of copyrighted works and rights relating to format, image, and databases. There have been huge changes in copyright law over the five years since the last edition of this work and at times it's been difficult for librarians to keep pace with new legislation and precedent. Value, in Western economies at least, increasingly lies not in products but in ideas, - in intellectual property. The change is clearest in the music industry, where the product has been stripped of its physical manifestation entirely (a record or CD) and can now exist as a pure expression, a quantifiable business asset with no discernable physical form. The peculiarities and contradictions thrown up by this trend will continue to drive copyright law for some time to come and it's vital that librarians keep up to speed with current regulation. This is a well thought out, detailed guide to the intricacies of the law as it stands and as such should be required reading for all information professionals. Paul Fairclough. The Case of the Missing Books By Ian Sansom, Fourth Estate 2006 ISBN 0007206992 Israel Armstrong (Irish father, Jewish mother, from suburban London) arrives in remote County Antrim to take up the post of Tumdrum Branch Librarian. Not only has the library closed but the books intended to fill its replacement, a battered mobile library van, have mysteriously disappeared. There follows a series of farcical events as the inept Israel tries to find the books and annoys everyone in the village in the process. Ian Sansom has written self-deprecatingly about his disillusionment arriving in a Northern Ireland filled with ring roads, Tesco and pebble dashed bungalows, rather than green hills and endless craic. This perhaps explains his unnecessarily unsympathetic depiction of his main character as naive, overweight, self-indulgent, tactless and ignorant. He also inflicts a series of misfortunes on Israel, who in his first 24 hours in Tumdrum bangs his head, receives a black eye, melts his credit cards on a stove, has his belongings covered in chicken faeces and is soaked by a hosepipe. Israel's lack of intelligence means his search is mostly unsuccessful and the detective elements of the book are among the least compelling. As each attempt to unmask the thief descends into farce, providing yet another opportunity for him to offend one of the locals, the story becomes slightly wearing. However the book is very funny and the last quarter recovers somewhat, leading to a predictable, but pleasing, ending. Moreover, despite the familiarity of the urban fish out of water theme, the inscrutable locals here are drawn affectionately and a certain poignancy is added by their matter-of-fact relating that siblings, spouses and children have died in the troubles. The satire on local government mismanagement (Israel is not a `mobile librarian' but an `outreach support officer') is also successfully drawn and recognisable. The books' absence limits the amount of librarianship detail in the story and Sansom gives Israel an unlikely `six months library diploma' (not from a CILIP accredited-course, clearly). However, it is refreshing that Israel's failure in life is not that he is a librarian but that he is an unsuccessful one. His one bit of library experience is a few months arranged by his girlfriend in the library of a solicitors' office (full marks to Sansom for knowing that these exist) and most of his working life has been spent in a discount bookshop in Lakeside shopping centre. It is nice to see a character, even one as pathetic as Israel, whose greatest dream is to stalk the halls of the world great research libraries. The Case of the Missing Books is the first of a series of Israel Armstrong mysteries. Given a bit of character development, he could become an engaging hero and the village setting is certainly intriguing. The next book will apparently have more librarianship detail and will presumably follow up on the many threads left hanging in this volume. It is to be anticipated with pleasure. Katharine Schopflin 
MY INTERNET CAN YOU REMEMBER WHEN YOU FIRST USED THE INTERNET? HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO ONLINE? WHICH SEARCH ENGINE DO YOU USUALLY USE? CAN YOU NAME ANY OTHER SEARCH ENGINES? NOW THAT YOU CAN SEARCH THE INTERNET YOURSELF, DO YOU THINK THERE IS STILL A ROLE FOR LIBRARIANS/INFORMATION PROFESSIONALS? NAME YOUR THREE FAVOURITE SITES ARE THERE ANY SITES THAT YOU FIND REALLY IRRITATING? HAVE YOU EVEN BEEN SO BORED THAT YOU'VE GOOGLED YOURSELF? DO YOU STILL USE OLD MEDIA? WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR MOST PLEASURABLE EXPERIENCE WHILST SEARCHING ONLINE?
Diary dates
Deadline is produced by Paul Fairclough from the library at Time Out Magazine with contributions from Elena Botterill, Anke Settgast, and Katharine Schopflin. Please send news, reviews and letters to: Paul Fairclough. The opinions expressed in Deadline are not necessarily those of the AUKML.
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