Monday, December 21, 2009

Are some degree courses a joke?

Bill Bennett
knowledge workers – for people who are paid to think for a living
December 13th, 2009
"In 2001, Chris Woodhead, England’s chief inspector of schools caused a storm when he accused British universities of devaluing higher education by offering ‘vacuous degrees’.

At the time, London’s The Sunday Times carried a surprisingly candid interview with Woodhead. Among other things he questioned whether many vocational courses deliver on their claims.

Woodhead says many courses don’t prepare students for the real world..." continue reading
  • BBC News | TALKING POINT | Are some degree courses a joke?

  • The question about degree courses (vocational, technical or any other type) is valid and an issue even in other countries, where the courses offered may or may not be worth a return-on-investment. A return-on-investment is again a subject matter. And hence, there is a trend to fill the gaps, such as,

  • SOLVING THE SKILLS GAP.

    And this question, frequently bothering those who take a Humanities degree:

  • What jobs could i get with an MA in history? - Yahoo! UK & Ireland ...

  • The credibility issue: closing the academic/practitioner gap

  • EABIS 2008 Knowledge and Learning Forum Catalogue of Initiatives
  • Tuesday, October 20, 2009

    Journal of the Week Free Access: 19/10/2009, Interlending & Document Supply

    Info courtesy: Sir Shuping.

    Emerald Group Publishing Limited's Journal of the Week feature provides free weekly access to two of Emerald's high quality journals. Simply click on one of the two active journals and you will be taken to the table of contents page where the free issues will be highlighted. Check back regularly for updates.

    This week:
    See also forthcoming: Current Journals of the Week

    Saturday, October 17, 2009

    Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

    "Electronic book borrowing is a convenient way for libraries to remain relevant, but publishers are worried."

    Libraian's View:
    "Some librarians object to the current pricing model because they often pay more for e-books than do consumers who buy them on Amazon or in Sony’s online store. Publishers generally charge the same price for e-books as they do for print editions, but online retailers subsidize the sale price of best sellers by marking them down to $9.99.

    “ ‘The Lost Symbol’ is $9.99 on the Sony Reader book page, and I just paid $29.99 for that for the library,” said Robin Bradford, the collection development librarian at the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Ms. Bradford said she would consider buying additional digital copies if the price were lower. But “to buy nonphysical copies at the same price,” she said, “I just won’t do it.”

    Reader's View:

    "In libraries, readers are attracted to free material. Nancy Gobel, a dental hygienist who already downloads digital audio books from her library in Indianapolis, said she currently buys print books. But she is considering purchasing an electronic reader so she can borrow them for free. “I would still continue to buy, but I would download as much as I can,” she said. In many cases, she said, buying “doesn’t make sense.”" continue reading:

    Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

    Published: October 15, 2009

    See on the same shelf:
  • The Elusive eBook, by Sue Polanka
    "The elusive eBook: who knew it would come with so many questions, challenges, and issues for libraries and users? It seems logical that we could catalog an eBook just like a print book, add a URL and be done with it. If only it were that easy! Instead, we are confronted by cataloging, purchasing, access, and interface issues. So what’s a librarian to do? Be aware, get informed, be vocal, and ask for more standardization from publishers, aggregators, and distributors. Let’s take a look at some issues that librarians and users find particularly challenging." continue reading
  • Saturday, October 03, 2009

    Citing, Citations, Siting, and Sighting the Wikipedia

    "Oh in regards to the Wikipedia citations for a given article, this is no guarantee that that citation was actually used to research that article. I've found several instances of Wikipedia citing pages on my site that have NEVER existed (strange but true)."KenB: Why Is Wikipedia On Top in Search Results?

    A Long List of Disclaimers @ WIKI:

    WIKI in Progress:

  • Fake Wikipedia editor unmasked in Webmaster General
  • Where Wikipedia Ends - Yahoo! News
  • Is Wikipedia a Victim of Its Own Success? - TIME
  • New Amazon wiki and citation features
  • Wikipedia popularity from a citation analysis point of view,
    Alireza Noruzi, http://www.webology.ir
  • LibraryCrunch: "a Wiki citation is toilet paper"

  • Tools of the Trade:
  • Wiki citation maker -- Wiki and Blog citation maker:
    "This page helps you create biomedical citations to use as references when writing on wikis such as Citizendium, Medpedia, Wikipedia, and others. This page also helps create citations for biomedical blogs hosted on Blogger, Wordpress, and other sites."
  • Sunday, February 22, 2009

    Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

    Any alumni of Rutgers University, and any LIS professional, including this blogger, will be shocked to read about a revival-cum-survival spirit. Rutgers' is again in news--and LJ has it right on--not for a new Rocket Science, rather it is again about a Name change (undeniably, a debate that has always been our cup of tea!!!):
    "as a form of protest, i refuse to come up with a witty title for this post
    ok, i feel like i should maybe weigh in on this whole Rutgers dropping 'library' from SCILS situation. i posted a comment on my friend mike's blog, and i guess if i'm gonna speak my mind there, i might as well post it here as well. since i am lazy and don't really feel like spending much time or effort stressing over the whole thing, i'm just going to copy and paste my comment. (and what an easy way to drop a post in, since i haven't written in awhile. heh.)" Quoted from The Info Babe
    Interestingly, other Library Schools that have no 'L' word include: Ischool @ University of Toronto, and iSchool at Drexel University; these are two current examples of a trend that will influence others.

    See also: What’s the matter with our profession?

    Bottomline: Some may wonder why we need the word: 'information' if words are just the matter as was argued in "Information Studies Without Information" In Library Trends 52(3) Winter 2004!!! Hence, are we getting into the same pond and business as in the following story where the naming business is a big business: Fresh Fish Sold Here

    Friday, January 02, 2009