As Book Warehouses Vanish, Is It Time for Librarians to Stop Running Libraries?
Are librarians making the same mistake railroads made — forgetting their purpose to remain tied to their physical heritage?
Stick to Your Ribs — Ghost Writers in the Sky
From the archive: an interview of a medical ghostwriter and an inside view of the medical communications industry — both speakers featured at the 2011 SSP Annual Meeting.
Fear-Mongering, Confusion, and Paranoia About Privacy — Are We Sweating the Small Stuff?
Privacy concerns seem aimed at the small stuff, but could expand into a system of censorship.
Mourning the Printed Book — The Aesthetic and Sensory Deprivation of E-books
Nostalgia about the book will be upon us soon enough. But we’ve been down similar paths before, and so have prior generations.
Stick to Your Ribs: Can the Creativity of Social Persuasion Cure "Corporate Asperger's Syndrome"?
This week, we revisit the power of persuasion, and wonder out loud if perhaps publishers suffer from traits that hold back engagement.
Bike Sharing Comes to the Academic Library
At Cornell University, you can rent a bicycle from the circulation desk. Should the library be peddling a different brand?
Tweeting Bin Laden — The Power of a Single Tweet and Serial Trust Networks
The power of Twitter was on full display on May 1, as one tweet alerted an audience of mass-media proportions about the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Stick to Your Ribs — Why Publishers' Brands Matter
(Editor’s Note: Published just over a year ago, this post helped people from outside publishing houses understand some fundamentals of brand management and quality proxies. It’s as clearly written as anything you’ll ever see, and a gem from the archive.) […]
Positively Predictable — The Multiple Costs of Mindless Studies
The media’s flip coverage of science is certainly a problem — but atheoretical studies are a waste of everyone’s time.
Concerns Over the Higher Education Bubble Continue to Grow and Evolve
The “education as financial bubble” meme is spreading, and new facts and comparisons are emerging.
Worried About Apathy in Modern Society? Maybe It's More About Information Design
Social and civic apathy may be more a result of sloppy or intentionally disenfranchising information design. For non-profits, learning how to overcome these may be a key to success.
Slicing and Dicing — Do Distinctions Between Users' Technologies Make Sense Anymore?
Does thinking about technology as something new and different gerrymander strategies and initiatives in unhelpful ways? Maybe we need to accept that the future has arrived for our users.
Retract This Paper! Trends in Retractions Don't Reveal Clear Causes for Retractions
Does an increase in article retractions signal a corrupt publishing system or just better policing?
The Real Life Social Network — Facebook Has a Lot to Learn
Humans are better at socializing than the social Web’s design allows for. But new levels of sophistication may be coming.
When Bad Science Persists on the Internet
Even when a paper is retracted, free copies of articles still persist in institutional repositories and public websites. Authority for the accuracy of scientific record must keep pace with open access. Fortunately there is a solution.