Sept. 25: Atkinson, Lindgaard

Ross Atkinson's article "Transversality and the Role of the Library as Fair Witness" brings up several extremely important points to consider for the future of libraries and librarianship. Atkinson explains four attributes that make a library a library. First and foremost, a library must have a collection of information from which to choose and this collection must be made up of authoritative sources. Atkinson calls these first-order attributes. Secondly, a library must exhibit metafunctionality and preeminence in its collection, or what Atkinson calls second-order attributes. Metafunctionality refers to the contextuality of other objects in the collection, while preeminence signifies the library's place in the community. Atkinson discusses these aspects of modern libraries in conjunction with the digital information explosion that is currently changing the face of libraries; especially academic libraries. The library as "fair witness" (a term taken from Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land) comes into play with the accuracy and believability of the library as cultural institution. Atkinson proposes (and I wholeheartedly agree with him) that libraries take on the role of "trusted agent behind the technology" - or fair witness (178). This is librarianship at its core. Ranganathan's Five Laws of Library Science came to mind as I was reading this article. Number four - save the time of the reader - seems especially appropriate here. Atkinson goes on to explain the concept of transversality in regard to the library as fair witness. Transversality takes first-order and second-order attributes, along with the idea of fair witness, and gives the user the capacity to make value judgements and draw conclusions from the information and services provided by the library. Transversality is, simply, interoperability (182). Atkinson also discusses the trend of treating libraries as commercial information services, which goes against every librarian grain of my being. Information for sale? No. Wrong. Free information for all. The author cautions against going in this direction and says that, although it is important for libraries to find new sources for funding, "[i]t is...absolutely essential that the library take the greatest care not to emulate too stringently the values of commercial information intermediaries" (185). As we all know, information brokers do not embody the "fair witness" ideal of the library. The article is wrapped up by the (at least in my mind) positive note that libraries must sometimes act in opposition to their own political or even financial interests in order to serve as fair witnesses in society. This reminded me of the many times I've heard about some group or other wanting a particular book removed from library shelves. For example, a group might want a homosexual-themed children's book taken off the shelf, even when the book is specifically targeted to a juvenile audience (such as a book about having gay parents). I think in cases like these, libraries should take a stand and keep the "controversial" book on the shelf. Parenting should be the responsibility of parents, not librarians. As a fair witness, the library has the responsibility to present the true record of society, regardless of whether it ruffles someone's feathers!

Gitte Lindgaard's article, "Attention Web Designers: You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression!" presents the results of three studies on how users perceive web site design. The participants viewed a set of 100 preselected web sites in random order for 500 milliseconds and again for 50 milliseconds and rated each on its visual appeal. Interestingly, results showed that participants made a decision as to whether a site was visually appealing in a matter of 50 milliseconds. The authors indicate that preliminary favorable or unfavorable attitudes toward the aesthetics of a particular site would most likely color the users' subsequent impressions of the site, regardless of whether it was well-designed (from a usability standpoint) or not. The article delves somewhat into what constitutes the aesthetics of "good design" but states that further research is still needed to arrive at a conclusion. I know that the use of color and white space, as well as the choice of font, can make or break a web site for me. If I see Comic Sans, I run the other way in terror!

This is an interesting site I found while searching the web for "bad web sites," which felt just a little surreal... I think I'll bookmark this one for my final project. It has some great tips for avoiding "trainwrecks on the Information Superhighway". Most of the ones I viewed featured really bad color combinations that almost hurt my eyes. Check out the Association of International Glaucoma Societies page if you want to be really confused and, dare I say, disgusted.