Review: Captain Vorpatril's Alliance

Captain Vorpatril's Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



While I have enjoyed all of the books in the Vorkosigan series this may be my favorite of the lot. This book follows Ivan Xav Vorpatril instead of Miles Vorkosigan as he finds himself. . . "in a family way". An absorbing plot line, lots of action and intrigue, and some of the best characterization in the series.



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Quick Review of Mark Hurst’s Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload

Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload.  By Mark Hurst.  New York: Good Experiences Press, 2007.  180 p.  (ISBN 978-0-9793681-0-3).

Mark Hurst provides a set of tools in this book to help the busy, information overloaded worker regain control of their work and home environments.  By following these tools the user will become “Bit Literate” and be able to spend their time doing the work they are paid to do rather than being overwhelmed the sheer volume of unsorted information they are confronted with. 

Hurst identifies the misuse of the e-mail inbox as one of the main reasons that people become overwhelmed.  He feels that people use the inbox for many purposes for which it was never meant such as a todo list, a filing system, a calendar, their bookmarks list, and an address book.  As he says, “[t]he inbox is appropriate only as a temporary holding place for e-mails, briefly, before they’re deleted or moved elsewhere.” (loc. 273).  By moving e-mails out of the inbox and into the appropriate location, be it your web browser’s bookmarks, your address book, or whatever todo list that you use, you can become far more organized and spend less time searching for what you need.  Hurst is a proponent of the “zero inbox” theory that says that you should strive to keep your inbox empty by moving items to the appropriate location as they arrive.  This is the chief “hack” offered in the book and many of the other hacks build upon this concept.

After you have moved everything from your inbox the next hack Hurst suggests is that you do the same thing for your sent mail box.  He suggests that users BCC themselves on all e-mails that they might wish to save and to then manage these items through the inbox.  He is a fan of automating various functions and among his recommendations is that the sent mail box should be automatically emptied after a certain amount of time.

Hurst argues that the most important resource that any worker has is their own attention.  Accordingly he suggests that to help avoid information overload the worker should put themselves on media diet.  Basically, you must accept that there is only so much time that you have to consume media and that we should focus on those items that provide the most information that you need and filter those of only tangential interest out.  Tested items become part of what he calls the “lineup” and he suggests that other items be rotated in for “tryouts” periodically to see if they are better suited to your information needs than any of your existing sources.  As a librarian, this is perhaps the hardest part of the book to implement.

Hurst also provides considerable advice on “bit literate” information creation.  He suggests ways that you can name and organize various bits of information from reports and your own e-mails to digital photographs and music files in order to make them more accessible and less cluttered.  The suggestions here range from standardizing the ways that you name files to choosing the right file format for any given file.

Bit Literacy focuses on organizing the digital information that we each deal with on a daily basis.  The principles contained in the book are equally effective in managing our analog information.  Simply put, we must use the tools we have for the purposes that they are best suited and we must accept that there is a practical limit to the amount of information we can consume.  If like me you have often felt overwhelmed by your inbox, your to-read box, your bedside reading pile, etc., then this book may be a good place to start in your quest for greater productivity.     

Selected Bibliography for the Study of Cargo Cults

Selected Bibliography for the Study of Cargo Cults

John E. Adkins, M.A., M.S.L.S.

University of Charleston, Charleston, West Virginia

Scope Note

This bibliography contains selected items on the largely Pacific Island phenomenon known as the 'Cargo Cult' including items related to the John Frum cargo cult on Vanuatu.  My interest in this topic originates in the chapter dealing with the issue in Richard Dawkins' book, The God Delusion.  

Cargo cults are religious cults dating primarily to the World War II and post war era (though there are similar instances dating to the first appearance of outsiders in the area in the 1850s) in the Pacific islands.  Cargo cults developed from native observations of the activities of American and Japanese occupation force activities on the islands.  To the natives, it appeared that the strange activities of these people had to be magical in nature as much of the activity appeared to be impractical and unrelated to the production of the goods that they used and received via cargo plane and ship.  Once the islands were abandoned the natives began to perform activities modeled after what they observed in the hope that the “cargo” would return.  Many of these cults are associated with particular individuals such as John Frum.

This bibliography should be considered a working bibliography and is not intended to be exhaustive.  Annotations will be added to items as time allows.  The compiler is not an anthropologist but a librarian with graduate degrees in library science and historical studies.

Books

Christiansen, Palle.  The Melanesian Cargo Cult: Millenarianism as a Factor in Cultural Change.  Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1969.

Cochrane, Glynn.  Big men and Cargo Cults.  Oxford: Claredon Press, 1970.

Dawkins, Richard.  The God Delusion.  Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006.

Jebens, Holger, ed. Cargo, Cult, and Culture Critique.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii, 2004.

Kaplan, Martha. Neither Cargo Nor Cult. Durham: Duke University Press, 1995.

Lattas, Andrew. Cultures of Secrecy: Reinventing Race in Bush Kaliai Cargo Cults.  Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.

Lindstrom, Lamont.  Cargo Cult: Strange Stories of Desire from Melanesia and Beyond.  Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993.

Worsley, Peter.  The Trumpet Shall Sound: A Study of ‘Cargo’ Cults in Melanesia. 2nd ed. New York: Schocken Books, 1968.

Articles

Brunton, R.  “Cargo Cults and Systems of Exchange in Melanesia.” Mankind 8 (1971): 115-28.

Dalton, D.  “Cargo Cults and Discursive Madness.”  Oceania 70, no. 4 (2000): 245-361.

Hermann, E. “The Yali Movement in retrospect: Rewriting History, Redefining ‘Cargo Cult.’” Oceana 63 (1992): 55-71.

Jebens, Holger. “Trickery or Secrecy? On Andrew Lattas’ Interpretation of ‘Bush Kaliai Cargo Cults.’” Anthropos 97 (2002): 181-99.

___.  “‘Vali did that too’: On Western and Indigenous Cargo Discourses in West New Britain (Papua New Guinea).”  Anthropological Forum 14, no. 2 (July 2004): 117-139.

Lattas, Andrew. “Cargo Cults and the Politics of Alternity: A Review Article.” Anthropological Forum 17, no. 2 (July 2007): 149-161.

___.  “Telephones, Cameras and Technology in West New Britain Cargo Cults.” Oceania 70, no. 4 (2000): 325-44.

Lindstrom, Lamont.  “Cargo Cults, Sexual Distance and Melanesian Social Integration.”  Canberra Anthropology 1, no. 2 (1978): 42-58.

Schein, Louisa.  “Of Cargo and Satellites: Imagines Cosmopolitanism.”  Postcolonial Studies.  2, no. 3 (1999): 345-375.

2012 Articles Read Annotated Bibliography

Collins, Maria.  "Serials Literature Review, 2008-9."  Library Resources & Technical Services 55, no.2 (2010): 60-80.

This article reviews the state of serials literature during the two year period of 2008 and 2009.  The author identifies six main areas of emphasis found in publications from the period and deals with each of these themes in turn.

My purpose in reviewing the article was twofold.  First, I am interested in periodicals and especially the transition from print to electronic versions but the second, more direct reason was to examine the methodology used by the author in performing such an extensive literature review.

Collins began by looking at those sources used in previous serials literature reviews and at core serials titles.  She next reviewed the contents of these journals and identified the themes she wished to cover in more detail. Once she had these themes she expanded her collection of articles, monographs, and reports through examination of the citations in the previously located articles and searches for on the theme topics in LISTA and Library Literature.

Quick Review of Samantha Hines' Productivity for Librarians: How to Get More Done in Less Time

Productivity for Librarians: How to Get More Done in Less Time. By Samantha Hines.  Oxford: Chandos Publishing, 2010.  158p. (ISBN 978-1-84334-567-1).  

Samantha Hines, a librarian at the University of Montana-Missoula, delivers in this small volume the tools for a busy librarian to begin organizing their work life.  In this book she surveys a number of popular productivity/organizational strategies and helps the reader decide which system, or which parts of which systems, would be most effective in their own work life.  Perhaps one of the better qualities of this book is that rather than dogmatically push a "one size fits all" approach to productivity she begins by asking the reader to define for themselves what they see as their vision of a productive work life.  This theme of asking the reader to consider their own goals, needs, and work habits runs throughout the book and make it far more useful to a wider variety of readers.

In working through the book, a better description of the experience you will have than to simply say "reading" it, the reader will learn how to set better goals and to identify commitments and habits that are limiting their productivity.  Many organizational and planning tools are presented, most of them common to the productivity literature.  Few librarians have not previously encountered SMART goals, To Do Lists, the concept of information overload, or goal setting exercises.  The added value in this book is the thoughtful way they are discussed and reconsidered in light of the duties of librarians.

Hines' provides an extensive survey of the various systems that are currently popular with business professionals such as Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Effective People, David Allen's Getting Things Done and Timothy Ferriss' Four-Hour Workweek system.  Her short summations of the approach that these systems employ, along with a simple quiz she provides, should allow the reader to pick a system or two to look into further though the basic organizational skills she provides will suffice for some.  Finally, she provides a list of further resources to explore for those who are so inspired.  If like myself, you began the year hoping to finally get more organized at work, I highly recommend this book.      

2012 Books Read - A Work in Progress

Given that my reading hovers around 50 books each year I am going to make that number my goal for the coming year with sub goals of 12 professional (LIS/Education/Productivity), 12 general non-fiction, and 24 novels during the year.
1. Mentoring in the Library: Building for the Future by Marta K. Lee (Prof. 1 of 12)
2. Productivity for Librarians: How to get more done in less time by Samantha Hines (Prof. 2 of 12)
3. Crucible of Fire by Naomi Novik (Novel 1 of 24)
4. Ghost Story: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Novel 2 of 24)
5. How to Get Things Done: Lessons in Living to your Maximum Productivity Potential by Steve Pavlina and Tim Johnson (Prof. 3 of 12)
6. Berserker by Fred Saberhagen (Novel 3 of 24)
7. Reamde by Neal Stephenson (Novel 4 of 24)
8. Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku (Gen. 1 of 12)
9. 1636: The Kremlin Games by Eric Flint (Novel 5 of 24)
10. Space Chonicles by Neal deGrasse Tyson (Gen. 2 of 12)
11. Monster Hunter International by Larry Correlia (Novel 6 of 24)
12. DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs, and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education by Anya Kamenetz (Prof. 4 of 12)
13. Green Lantern: War of the Green Lanterns
14. Pirate Cinema by CoryDoctorow
15. Everyone Plays at the Library by Scott Nicholson
16. On Basilisk Station by David Weber
17. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
18. Star man Jones by Robert Heinlein
19. Secret Warriors: Nick Fury Agent of Nothing
20. Secret Warriors: Gid if Fear, Gid of War
21. Secret Warriors: Wake the Beast.
22. Batgirl: Death Wish