Cultural Research

On Vacation

Must shovel snow.

Note to CR: Library Innovation Blog Twitter Subscribers

I've been using a feature of my blog host, Typepad, to add new posts to my Twitter feed but, because it requires me to remember to check the little box, I keep forgetting to do it so you're often getting links days late which is kind of ridiculous.

I've been using Twitterfeed to add links to Twitter so I'll set that up for this blog as well. Probably should have done that from the beginning but I wanted to see if the Typepad option would meet my needs. I think it would work well for folks with one blog who only want certain posts publicized on Twitter but I'm doing something else.

By the way, if you're really into the real-time web, the Typepad post to Twitter option gets the link up immediately thus bypassing the typical delay of RSS updates and services like Twitterfeed.  So it definitely has its pluses.  Probably works well with Facebook too but I haven't tried that yet.

Note: In my next post I criticize Diigo for only providing customer service through Twitter. I can use Twitter but I've chosen not to and do not believe that Twitter alone is an adequate method for customer service. As I also note in the post, Diigo does have an online form for customer service, they simply aren't responding to my contact via that form.

Embarassing update: I don't have any Twitter subscribers for this blog yet!

Talk about a FAIL!

Please forgive me for acting like I've got all these Twitter followers for this blog.  In my own defense, let me say that my combined Twitter followers for my commercial blogs such as Hip Hop Press: Releases recently passed 10,000 and climbing.  But I'm minor in this field and have no illusions about that fact!

Upcoming at Cultural Research: Library Innovation Blog

Dude, You've Got a Mac!

Wow, this has been a tough year to get going. I feel like I'm having to force my way into the New Year. For example, I received a brand new iMac today but it's still sitting in its box about 12 feet from me. I've got too much work to do until tomorrow later today when I'll get to clean off my desk and kick it into high gear.

But I do have some posts in progress (never trust a blogger when s/he tells you that!) as well as some topics I hope to soon address. Here's what I have planned:

I'm currently reviewing the Proquest Entrepreneurship database with a twist, I'm approaching it as an actual entrepreneur might. That should be done soon after I get some questions answered about pricing and related details.

I've also got some great pics of and thoughts about Black Dog Books, a haunted popup bookstore that I find interesting as a brainstorming device for library marketing.

More about library marketing will follow with a book review of Marketing Today's Academic Library by Brian Mathews. I have to admit, I got sidetracked by Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which is an amazing yet devastating read.

I'm man enough to admit I've gotten teary eyed more than once. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a kid in pain.

Also in the near future, if luck is with me, I will be digging into the concept of disruptive innovation beginning with Clayton M. Christensen's Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. However, if you want to get going with that on your own, I'd suggest going straight to The Innovator's Dilemma. It's an awesome book and it will help you to see how disruptive innovation raises challenges to established organizations that are often difficult to spot before it's too late.

Disruptive innovation is something that folks in academic settings and those who provide them with services should be seriously getting up to speed on though I fear that many will be playing a rearguard holding action. Sadly, some will disregard Christensen's insight because they come in the form of business books and doubt such volumes could be relevant to their world.

I've also started checking out online book clubs and related social networks. I should have some examples of various widgets and some thoughts on why libraries would benefit from connecting with those companies. I'll also have at least one tale of a local public library whose attempt to provide a simple booklist service for their patrons has been radically undermined by their IT department.

Super Special Bonus Content:
It is high time I started sharing stories from my current experiences at Cleveland Library, a volunteer run community library housed in a thrift shop that is around 70k volumes and still growing. The collection is surprisingly good and has some great books that you won't find in any public library in Raleigh cause they got rid of as many as they could a while back.

But those tales will have to wait until I clear it with the boss man.

Ok, you get the idea. Time for me to follow through!

Cultural Research: Library Innovation Blog (CR:LIB) Added to Newstex Blogs On Demand

I'm really happy to report that this modest blog of mine has been accepted for indexing and content distribution by Newstex Blogs On Demand.

That should mean that, before too long, CR:LIB will be available on such hallowed digital ground as LexisNexis and I think that's really cool!

I actually am quite familiar with Newstex because my pop culture/music industry blog, ProHipHop, was accepted into their program in the early days and, out of the various databases in which the blog's content can be found, LexisNexis provides the most traffic.

I'm looking forward to seeing how database users respond to the inclusion of CR:LIB since, in the long run, I believe this blog is a better fit for users' needs. But we'll see what happens.

On that note, I am planning to review commercial products, especially reference databases and the like, and those reviews will be included in the Newstex feed. If you'd like your products considered for review, please send info to:
culres(at)gmail(dot)com

Onwards and upwards!

Update: Just received news that CR:LIB is now fully integrated with Newstex.  Now I'm just waiting on ProQuest's marketing people for Entrepreneurship review access!

Clyde, Where Are Your Library Innovation Posts?

I haven't been asked the headline question yet but I wanted to take a moment and clarify what I'm doing with this blog and how it relates to library innovation.

Two things are currently happening:

1) I'm writing my way into the topic which is how I typically work when blogging. If I was doing academic writing, my focus in public papers would be much clearer because a lot of this process would not be visible. But since I'm a blogger, you, dear reader, get a look at my process whether you want to or not!

2) Library innovation does not occur in a vacuum. I'm ultimately most interested in library innovation in higher education but that focus means that not only do I need to take into consideration the many factors affecting higher education as a whole, since a library serves a whole institutation, but also such areas as public and school libraries, because students come to college having already experienced such settings.

So I will bring up issues that may not seem to directly connect to higher ed but are actually quite influential in establishing the context for academic library usage [or non-usage, as the case might be].

That means that I'll also be discussing what I've learned on the open web over the last nine years during which much of my time has been spent as an online traveler and web publisher. I'll also be referring to my many years working in bookstores, where I learned much about customer service and about human navigation of information resources.

I would like to be able to say that whatever I blog about will therefore be connected to library innovation but that's a bit too easy. So I will do my best to at least make brief references regarding the relationship between a particular post and the topic of innovation, if that connection does not seem obvious, while occassionally allowing myself the blogger's perogative to go off-topic.

If you have any special interests related to library innovation that you would like me to dig into it, please let me know in the comments or at:
clydesmith(at)culturalresearch(dot)org

On that note, if you have any large files, commercial email, promo material or a newsletter you're hoping to sign me up for without permission, please uset:
culres(at)gmail(dot)com

It's the smart thing to do!

More About Cultural Research: History and Future Directions

Cultural Research, the website, was created as a personal scholarly archive, a building block in the open access movement and a way to make my research and related writing on dance, cultural studies, gender studies and education freely available. Much of that work was created in the late 90's and so the Archive of Research Papers now also represents an earlier phase of my academic activity though I hope to return to related themes in future writing projects.

Since earning my PhD in Cultural Studies in Education (OSU, 2000), my focus has shifted to web publishing, Internet studies and library science. The initial subtitle of this blog, "Disruptive Innovation, Libraries & Education," indicates the range of interests I am attempting to tie together but is clearly a bit too broad for the long term.

Moving forward I intend to develop a special focus on innovation in academic libraries while continuing to point to related areas that indicate future challenges and opportunities. I will also be sharing my experiences in the field, whether as a part-time librarian at Cleveland Library, as a job seeker in search of a position in higher ed or as a web publisher with an entrepreneurial bug.

We'll see how this mix shakes out over the next few weeks and update accordingly!

Cultural Research Privacy Policy

Currently I use Google Analytics to track user behavior in the aggregate when you're on the site including where you came from.  I don't keep records of individual users rather I look for trends and general flows of traffic.  I'm also interested in who's sending us visitors so seeing where folks come from is key to that process.

Since we currently have no advertising, there are few third party issues with which to be concerned but it's always worth taking a peek at Google's Privacy Center since this site also uses Google Search.

For further insight into online privacy issues and ad networks, feel free to check out the ProHipHop Privacy Policy for related information.

About Cultural Research & Clyde Smith

Cultural Research began as an archive of research papers and related writing
by Clyde Smith, PhD.

It continues with a blog focused on Clyde's current interest in disruptive innovation,
research libraries and higher education.

Contact Clyde: culres(at)gmail(dot)com

Hard copy may be sent to:

Clyde Smith
514 Daniels St. #347
Raleigh, NC  27605

You may also check the About Category of the blog for related information.