Z666.7.L364 (www.jenniferlang.net)

For a while now, I haven’t known why the summary in Google for my website/blog had so many references to phenteramine, xanax, and the like. Puzzling, but not enough for me to do investigate the problem. (Note: it appears I’m now into debt consolidation…)

Earlier this evening I was working on a presentation I’m giving tomorrow at work about Terry Reese’s amazing MarcEdit, and one of the features I want to demonstrate is its “Generate MARC from URL” feature, so I tested it on my website/blog to see what kind of record would be produced.

This is how the resulting record looked:

=LDR 00000nam 2200000Ka 45e0
=008 080528suuuu\\\\xx\\\\\\\\\\\\000\0\eng\d
=245 00$aZ666.7.L364 (www.jenniferlang.net) - musings related to metadata, cataloging, and the “great big” world of librarianship (plus some other stuff…)$h[electronic resource]
=520 \\$a Newsletter: Diphemanil Desyrel Phentermine ionamin canada Carbidopa Lorazepam Deferoxamine Cozaar Buy cod pay phentermine Demecarium Buy Celexa Viagra online consultation Esomeprazole Liqued viagra Bromocriptine Discount xanax Drug phentermine 37.5 pdr Citalopram Phentermine without doctor’s approval Viagra for woman information Viagra patent Trimethaphan Fluvastatin Viagra users Buy Effexor Language phentermine ru Does phentermine speed up
=856 40$qtext/html$uhttp://jenniferlang.net

Not exactly what I want to show the folks tomorrow, much less what I want the world to see if they happen to Google my website. I viewed the HTML source code for my website/blog and found the following at the bottom of the page:

So, puzzled as to how all of those links got there, I Googled “wordpress spam templates” and found Leanne Wildermuth’s excellent blog post about the subject: How to Find Spam in Your WP Templates.

I cleaned out spam from all of my WP templates.

Out of curiosity, I did a line count in MS Word of all of the spam links on the homepage of my website/blog and discovered 5,499 links on that page alone. Dayum!

I guess it’s time to change some of my passwords.

I saw the headlines yesterday about the Perry library in Gilbert, Arizona, but I didn’t read any of the articles because it was a busy day. I read one this morning. Apparently the Perry Branch of the Maricopa County Library District is to be the first public library in the country to drop the Dewey (and any other formal) classification scheme.

Surely they don’t think this is a good idea. Or is it?

I started reading Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous a few weeks ago but had to set it aside because I really don’t have time to read anything right now. Last night before bed, I finished chapter one. There was nothing in this chapter that wasn’t already obvious to me–I think it must be how Weinberger says things that has everyone, including me, interested in his book. I really like the way he writes. (But I digress. I guess reading about the Perry library reminded me of Weinberger. I wonder what he thinks. I’ll have to check out his blog.)

One book can’t be in more than one place at a time. We need a system of classifying books in a collection so they can be located (for those who know what they want), even if that classification scheme doesn’t make sense to some people. So, back to Gilbert. (It’s probably really hot there.) In terms of browsing, what happens to the book that deals with more than one topic? The library will choose the one it thinks is the best fit, but then the book will be lost to everyone who expects to find it in another area. Folks will still need to use the catalog (they are keeping the catalog, aren’t they?). Libraries aren’t bookstores. Bookstores have problems, too. For example, what’s up with the “African-American studies” section? Why is there so much fiction in that section of some bookstores? Another digression.

OK. No more time this morning, but I’d really like to understand how the library envisions this working. And why they don’t think that, in the long-run, they are doing their users a disservice. Dewey and LCC are not perfect, but they are (IMO) certainly better than nothing.

Perhaps I’m missing something.

Will wonders never cease?

From Karen Coyle:

As a result of a meeting at the British Library on April 30 and May 1, it has been announced that RDA and Dublin Core communities will work together in the following ways:

• develop a formal RDA Element vocabulary (probably following the DC Abstract Model)
• develop an application profile of RDA for Dublin Core using FRBR and FRAD
• use RDF and SKOS to disclose RDA vocabularies (see Diane Hillmann’s work on this)

The document lists the “benefits” as:

• the library community gets a metadata standard that is compatible with the Web Architecture and that is fully interoperable with other Semantic Web initiatives
• the DCMI community gets a libraries application profile firmly based on the DCAM and FRBR (which will be a high profile exemplar for others to follow)
• the Semantic Web community get a significant pool of well thought-out metadata terms to re-use there is wider uptake of RDA

Karen, who was at the meeting, asked Diane Hillmann for further clarification on some of the points listed above.

Read Karen’s entire blog posting here.

The former dean of admissions of MIT who resigned after it was discovered that she lied about her credentials has a college degree after all. Hmmm….

“If she could, and did, do this job well without a degree, why should she — or anyone — need a degree to be hired for it?” asks Eugene Glickman of Nassau Community College, in his letter to the NY Times editor.

Good question.

I have an avatar on Second Life: Steffie Beck. I’m rarely on Second Life, however, because I can’t log in at home - my computer isn’t robust enough.

Last week there was a story on MSNBC about a virtual love affairs and there was mention of one that occurred on Second Life.

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