Join the digital humanities…or else

On Sunday, I had an interesting exchange on Twitter with none other than Duke professor and HASTAC founder Cathy Davidson. At issue was the tone of her recent blog post, “How Digital Humanists Can Lead Us to National Digital Literacy.” I wasn’t going to write anything about it, but you know, it’s been bugging me a little bit. Allow me to quote her introduction to the post…

“Here’s the entrance exam question for 21st century literacy:

QUESTION: If SOPA/PIPA had been passed into U.S. law in 2002, would Wikipedia exist today? If either law had passed in 2012, would Wikipedia exist in 2022? Why or why not? Discuss.

If you cannot answer that question, you are not literate nor are you in control of your life—even if you think you are.” [my emphasis]

Now, I don’t know about you, but when a leading scholar (the leading scholar?) in the digital humanities argues that a nuanced understanding of SOPA and PIPA are necessary conditions for both literacy and personal autonomy, it strikes me as hyperbolic at best, and elitist and condescending at worst. I, for one, have no idea what Wikipedia would be like in 2022 if SOPA had passed. Apparently, I’m an illiterate slave to the system. Surely, Davidson doesn’t really think that personal autonomy is a function of how Web-savvy we are. Well, I posed the question and she responded: ”If we live our lives on the Web and don’t understand its positives AND negatives, we do not control our lives. All of us.” This is equivalent to saying that if we do control our lives, then either we don’t live on the Web or we do understand the positives and negatives of the Web…or both (which is weird).

Read Full Post »

Life after Google: You Have Options

Back in October, the geeks were crapping their collective shorts in anger at some ill-advised changes coming out of Mountain View. If you’ll recall, Google tweaked Reader and rolled out some crappy apps in what was called the week Google messed up. “We’re leaving Google!” the geeks proclaimed. This sort of “you changed your service, so I’m going elsewhere” bloviating is rather common with social media, so I decided to call the bluff: is it really possible to quit Google? Well, for the past 84 days I’ve been Google-free as part of my Life after Google experiment. That’s twelve weeks without using Google search or any other Google products. I am (almost) completely Google free*…and what an 84 days it’s been.

Read Full Post »

Come work with me!

Sorry I haven’t updated in a while: since I quit using Google, I’ve spent most of my time in the fetal position under my desk. I’ll post an update on Google really soon, I promise, but in the meantime…

Hoo-boy! Have I got a job for you! You may remember that the library at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga recently hired two new librarian positions. Well, we’re at it again, and this time we’re looking for a Web Design & Instruction Librarian. You can read through the ad yourself (here’s the detailed description), but it goes something like this. We’re looking for a forward-thinking librarian to help redesign and then manage our website and content management systems, as well as play an active role in our award-winning instruction program (multiple PRIMO databases and last year’s ACRL President’s Program Innovation Award, if you must ask). Web-development + library instruction = this job.*

The job ad explains what you’d be doing, but I’d also like to point out that you’d be joining a kick-ass team of librarians. Our librarians are well-established presences at national and international conferences; ALA, ACRL, Internet Librarian, LOEX, CIL, Brick and Click, you name it and we’re presenting. We’re also at the forefront of some pretty cool new initiatives. Library Boing Boing? That’s our guy. OCLC’s Web-Scale Management Services? That’s us, too. Trust me, if you want to get creative or pursue novel initiatives, this is the place to be.

What’s that? You’re worried that a gun rack won’t fit in your Prius and you don’t know how to make moonshine? Well, don’t worry, Chattanooga is actually a remarkably progressive city. Did you know that the New York Times recently placed Chattanooga in it’s top 45 travel destinations in the world? (Granted, we kind of have an in) Chattanooga is also routinely ranked as one of the most livable cities in the U.S., due in no small part to a great housing market, a nationally respected art scene, a killer restaurant scene (weighted towards locavorism), the nation’s fastest Internet speeds, internationally renowned outdoor activities, and environmentalism in your face (from the solar farm at the airport to the electric-car recharging stations to more LEED buildings than you can shake a sustainably harvested stick at). What’s not to love? We’re like a smaller version of Portland…with fewer hipsters and more fried chicken.

"I use eleven herbs and spices...you've probably never heard of them."

So…ummm…yeah. Come work at UTC. Who knows, in a few months you could have the office right next to mine!

 

*And, on a personal note, I want to give a big shout-out to the person you’d be following: Caitlin Shanley, who recently left us for a sweet job at Penn. If you apply for this job and are even half as awesome as Caitlin, I know you’ll be hired. (And, Shanley, if you’re reading this, I tried to send you a care package of your favorite things, but my barbecue pit died out before I could catch a squirrel. Sorry.)

 

Read Full Post »