NYC's Library Hotel is arranged by the Dewey Decimal system. If you stay on the 5th floor, that's the 500 section (science); if you're in room 500.001, that's the math room. (Why isn't the math room 510? This is not made clear.) On the one hand, NYC is a publishing town, so this might be a clever way to attract bookish folks to stay in a hotel. On the other hand, this might be alienating half of those bookish foks, what with the whole Cutter versus Dewey debate that's been going on all these decades. And what about the tagsonomists? Do we have each of them stay in multiple rooms at once? Nonsense! Oh man there's no way I'm staying at that hotel, it goes against everything I believe about information architecture.
In other news, it's taking me a while to figure out travel plans.
Permalink
& Comments
Mechanics' Institute Library
Remember a while back I screamed that USA legislators wanted to make a local censorship service a la China's Great Firewall? They're still at it. Lots of folks are protesting it today. You can, too. ...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: Information Architecture for the World Wide Web
My job title is "Technical Writer" but I don't write much. I work with engineers, helping them to explain their work. Most engineers can write just fine. I bolt organization onto their stuff. Some e...
Permalink & Comments
Puzzle Hunts are Everywhere, Even the Prelinger Library
So I finally visited the Prelinger Library, after having heard about it for months. The front door was locked. I wasn't expecting that. But it made sense: the Prelinger Library shares space with o...
Permalink & Comments
Link: Pimp my Bookcart Contest
Some webcomic is holding a Bookcart decoration contest. The only place I have ever seen decorated book carts is at UC Berkeley's library; that's where I've shot all of my book cart graffiti photos. ...
Permalink & Comments
Site: Yet more Library Book Cart graffiti photos
I uploaded more library book truck graffiti photos (scroll down to the section marked February 2009 for the latest greatest). Can you find the palindrome? I knew you could.Labels: libraries, photog...
Permalink & Comments
Site: Yet More Library Book Cart Graffiti Photos
I went to Doe Library again yesterday and I had my camera with me--with some juice in the batteries this time. I snapped photos of the re-shelving carts, the ones which have been decorated. I guess...
Permalink & Comments
Site: Library Cart Graffiti Photos
Yesterday was a good day for a few reasons, few of which will make it into the permanent record. But one good thing was a visit to Doe Library. While there, I snapped photos of a few decorated book...
Permalink & Comments
Semi-Irony in some Library Mail
This came in the mail: We're sorry, but your LINK+ request has been cancelled. Please contact your local branch library for more information. Reason: Not on shelf. AUTHOR: Jones, William F., 1952-...
Permalink & Comments
Irony in a Library Catalog
I want to check the book Ambient Findability out of the UC Berkeley library. So I looked it up in the catalog: 1. Morville, Peter. Ambient findability / Peter Morville. Sebastopol, Calif. ; Fa...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: Mathematical Cranks
My lip-bump had a name: pyogenic granuloma. You can Google that if you enjoy gross photos. Speaking of annoyances, what about those mathematical cranks, eh? Back in 2006, I reported that R.S.J. Re...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: Rainbows End
It pays to increase your word power. I always thought that "hyperventilation" meant "breathing too fast", but really it means "breathing too fast and/or too deeply". I didn't know it was possible to...
Permalink & Comments
Site Update: Photos of Library Book Trucks
So far, this page of photos of library book trucks only has a few photos. But I'm setting it up anyhow. I've taken other photos of library book truck graffiti--and thrown those photos out because I...
Permalink & Comments
Site Update: More Library Handcarts
Yeah, I know you want a game report. Yesterday was BANG17, which was pretty awesome. Even if the game hadn't been awesome, it would have been a good excuse to hang out for a day with some folks who...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: The Island of Lost Maps
The Island of Lost Maps is non-fiction, a book about a non-descript thief who slices rare maps out of old books in libraries. It was kind of a non-descript book. I can't remember much of it. I rem...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: BAE05: Andrea Barrett's "The Sea of Information"
Early Saturday morning, my friend Tom Lester drove me to the Emeryville Amtrak station from Berkeley. He pointed out the bakery called Sweet Adeline, and said that they had good cookies. My memorie...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: Nightwork
It's a book about MIT pranks, with photos. Including some color photos. It was nice. Web sites can be more comprehensive, but are not so easy to read on the streetcar. Thus, I was glad to read th...
Permalink & Comments
Link: Shigabooks.com
Jason Shiga's site has erupted from inactivity to interactivity. He makes these wonderful interactive comic books, some of which he has translated to web-o-matic form. Because this blog is more abo...
Permalink & Comments
Book Report: Rex Libris #1 "I, Librarian"
Oh, "Rex Libris" is a a comic book about a librarian, this sounds interesting. Oh, he's a time-traveling librarian. Oh dear. He's a time-traveling librarian who can withstand a vacuum and has super...
Permalink & Comments
Summer Reading
For Fourth of July weekend, the U.C. Berkeley libraries are closed. Nevertheless, they recalled the book I was reading. I'm not sure how that works. In theory, I was returning the book because some...
Permalink & Comments
Practical Physics
Outside the San Francisco main library, there is a bin where one may return borrowed things. I walked up to it, ready to return a few books. A lady was already there, looking inside, noticing somet...
Permalink & Comments
Happy National Library Week
Today there was art in the central stairway/atrium area of Doe Library: dozens of books suspended in air by wires. Meanwhile, there's a book I want which is currently unavailable because it's in the...
Permalink & Comments
Compliance
At the front of this library book, it says In compliance with current copyright law, U.C. Library Bindery produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard Z39.48.1984 to repla...
Permalink & Comments
Ask Not For Whom the Klaxon Peals
As I stepped up to the library exit, the stolen-book alarm sounded. I stepped back from the door and waited for some nice librarian to wave to me, to tell me to open up my backpack. But no nice lib...
Permalink & Comments
