Leddy Weblog

One of the great things about referrer logs is finding cool pages you didn't know existed. Today I found the Leddy Weblog, “an experiment in a local current awareness service” from the University of Windsor's Leddy Library, although perhaps it's a “successful experiment” since they've been doing this since September, 2000. The very first link on today's page is yet another story about When Cheating Becomes a Way of Life.

“Information has become promiscuous. Everyone can have as much of it as they want. People cut, paste, attach, copy, forward, cc, group mail. It's a miracle….

But there are fewer information workers to process all this information. For the past 10 years, all the major media organizations have been stripping down their work forces, even as the urgency to get the product out has accelerated in the wake of ever-fiercer competition, proliferating specialty channels and on-line newsrooms. The magazine and book markets are under similar pressure….

So what is really converging here is exploding information, a shortage of information processors, and the rise of the information star. The students at Piper High claimed they didn't know that all the stuff pouring onto their desktops had to be cited when pasted into a project….

But let's understand what's happening here. Morals are not in general decline. We are all simply trying to come to grips with a sudden excess of information and a shortage of information labourers who, when they read of these public humiliations, think 'there but for the grace . . .' ” [at The Globe and Mail]

As Mita notes, “information worker = librarian?” Which is why we'll always need librarians, whether we realize it or not. I think I will lobby to have my job title changed to “Promiscuous Information Star,” which would surely require a rather large raise.

FYI, I couldn't find a single reference to a library or librarian on the Piper High Web site.

[The Shifted Librarian]

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