Francie Helm

Will reading from ink on paper bring the same odd glances that those who still type (if any) on a typewriter now receive? There is something mystical about the experience of settling in with a newspaper. A park bench, a library couch, a kitchen table is transformed into a sacred place when holding the golden pages of stories. There is a thrill to seeing the rolled up print on the doorstep or a flat version on a bookstore shelf. My fear is that my sacred simple pleasure of reading a newspaper in print will be replaced by digital devices. Is this nightmare keeping you up at night too? I cannot bond with a cold device delivering downloaded words on a screen; not to mention the loss of the religious ritual associated with the printed page. But it looks like I may have to mourn this pleasure sometime in the future even though it may be with screaming and hair pulling (my o... (more)

Digital Libraries: History Meets Technological Change

As someone who worked for a historical society during the time of its initial transition into digital formatting, I have first-hand knowledge of the complexities involved. When this major change first began, we were in a small building where almost all of our records were cataloged and accessioned in the old fashioned way. That meant card catalog indices housed in wooden cases with drawers full of hard copy records. It seems hard to imagine that little over a decade ago we were working in such a, retrospectively speaking, primitive environment. Since then, so much has changed it ... (more)

The Phenomenon Called Facebook

Are you old enough to remember the 1982-1993 TV show Cheers and its theme song lyrics by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo? “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came; you want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same; you want to be where everybody knows your name.†Now imagine the creation of that same kind of community feel, but instead of inside a common location of physicality put the community within the confines of an electronic screen and you have the popular phenomenon of Facebook. “We believe that Facebook represe... (more)

Going Viral: Steve Jobs in Silhouette

"We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep on humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information. (see wikiquote) "Want to stay alive in the new world? You better get tech savy. Things are more complicated these days when it comes to all aspects of life thanks to the amazing technological advances we are all enjoying. Business is ... (more)

Random Musings

Today I met with the perfect moment of destiny, the kind of fate that just seems to bring all the right elements together in an unexpected way. I was suppose to meet a long-time friend for coffee at a Starbucks not far from where I live, but having had an all night bout of insomnia, which seems to be happening more and more now that I am over 50, it became a matter of emergency that I had to get in the car and start driving before I found myself asleep, the kind of sound sleep that is unaffected by the phone ringing. I was suffering from extreme tiredness and lack of movement wasn... (more)