I am forever amazed at the wonderful things you can find on YouTube. This is a great case in point. I found this video of Meredith Farkas' keynote address at UC Berkeley's Academic Libraries 2.0 on "Building Academic Library 2.0" to be fascinating. Lots of good ideas here.

Perhaps even more important than the matter of the talk is the concept of making this lecture available on the Net. As McLuhan would say, "The medium is the message." Many libraries, especially smaller libraries, cannot afford to send staff to many conferences. Videos like this allow much better dissemination of ideas to these librarians.

Why 40 Acres and a Library Blog?

The name of this blog pays homage to two things. First, the promise to freed African-American slaves granted in Major General William Tecumseh Sherman's Special Field Orders, Number 15 that they would be given 40 acres of land as a homestead and a mule to work the land. Second, I am paying homage to my belief that the Internet in essence sets each of us free. This space will be my homestead on the Net and this blog will serve as the promised mule. In this space I intend to discuss various issues related to library science and to share links to sites that I find useful. I hope that these posts will be useful for others. Cheers.