I’m trying a new assignment in LIS768 this semester. One of my favorite things to do is read current technology-related or cultural books and apply the concepts to how libraries might adapt or tap into the trends. This semester we’ll try it as a group.
Context Book Report: Students will read one book selected from a list provided in class and write a 200-300 word reflection relating the topic and focus of the book to libraries, technology and participatory service.
Below are the books I’ve selected. What would you add? What would you delete?
- Anderson, Chris. The Long Tail
- Beck, John C. & Mitchell Wade. Got game
- Bernoff, Josh. Groundswell
- Breakenridge, Deidre. PR 2.0
- Carr, Nicholas. The Big Switch: rewiring the World, from Edison to Google
- Collins, Jim. Good to Great
- Frankel, Alex. Punching In
- Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat
- Gee, James Paul. What Video Games Have to teach Us about Learning & Literacy
- Gilmore, James & B. Joseph Pine II. Authenticity
- Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink
- Godin, Seth. Small is the New Big
- Jenkins, Henry. Convergence Culture
- Jenkins, Henry. Fans, Bloggers & Gamers: Exploring Participatory Culture
- Johnson, Steven. Everything Bad is Good for You
- Kelley, Tom with Jonathan Littman. The Ten Faces of Innovation
- Kusek, David & Gerd Leonhard. The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Revolution.
- Levy, Steven. The Perfect Thing
- Martin, Patricia. Ren Gen Renaissance Generation
- Meyer, Danny. Setting the Table
- Palfrey, John & Urs Gasser. Born Digital
- Penn, Mark J. Microtrends
- Pink, Daniel. A Whole New Mind
- Reynolds, Glenn. An Army of Davids
- Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs
- Rushkoff, Douglas. Playing the Future
- Scoble, Robert & Shel Israel. Naked Conversations
- Senge, Peter. The Necessary Revolution
- Shirky, Clay. Here Comes Everybody
- Solove, Daniel. The Future of Reputation
- Sunstein, Cass. Infotopia
- Tapscott, Don & Anthony D. Williams. Wikinomics
- Weinberger, David. Everything is Miscellaneous
- Weinberger, David. Small Pieces Loosely Joined
- Zittrain, Jonathan. The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It
What? No Cory Doctorow? He has a new book out – a collection of his essays – called “Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future” and it is available to read, for free, in PDF format [http://craphound.com/content/Cory_Doctorow_-_Content.pdf]
YES YES! Of course… Doctorow for sure. Please forgive!
heck of a list, Michael; hard to think of anything to add. but I just might have done it. check out this title:
Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World, by David Friedman, new from Cambridge U Press.
http://cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521877329
It might be a little off the topic but what about Sherman Young’s The book is dead (Long live the book)
http://www.unswpress.com.au/isbn/0868408042.htm
I have nothing to add to this great list Michael, but have a question: what is LIS768 about? I want to send it to a LIS educator colleague and was wondering about the course. I checked the Dominican site and couldn’t seem to locate it (probably just me being blind)…
Thanks for the quick response, Michael, much appreciated!
I think i might have to do this assignment myself, as a librarian in an Australian university library. in fact, I shouldn’t just stop at one book
This is a nice list. How about ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’ by Rick Levine?
OH YES! I use The Cluetrain Manifesto throughout my courses. I’ll add it!
I loved this book and used it for my LIS770 paper during the summer
Pine, II, B. Joseph and Gilmore, James H. The Experience Economy Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999.
While it dates from 2001, Eric Raymond’s, “The Cathedral & the Bazaar” helps to define the open source revolution that is finding converts in libraries of all sizes.
Andrew Keen’s “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing Our Culture”
Terrific list. A few favorites that are missing though:
Negroponte’s “Being Digital”
Tracy Kidder’s “The Sould of a New Machine”
Jarice Hansen’s “24/7″
And while a little bit of a stretch, my students have loved reading “Feed” by M.T. Anderson, which fits very well with Clive Thompson’s article in this week’s NYT Magazine on digital intimacy and ambient awareness.
What about Taleb’s the Black Swan? That one got some traction last year.
To complement The Long Tail, you might want to include:
Blue ocean strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant
by W. Chan Kim, Rene?e Mauborgne.
I have not read it myself, but the ENTR 200 class here (Purdue University) reads both it and The Long Tail… you might see if your students are inspired to make the library into an uncontested space!
-George
What about Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds and Putnam’s Bowling Alone?
I’d recommend “Cult of the Amateur” by Keen as well.
I am calling dibs on Zittrain.
Ok, looking a little more closely at the list, I’m not sure that the guy whose theories ruined Hillary Clinton’s campaign should be given much credence.
[...] interested to see that five of these books were also included in Michael Stephens thirty-five item reading list for his class on Library 2.0 and Social Networking [...]
I concur with many of the additional suggestions, and have one of my own:
David M. Levy’s Scrolling Forward. It’s a little older than some on the list, but is of high quality (in both prose and thought).
[...] LIS768 Reading List – Reading list of current technology-related or cultural books [...]
Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds for sure! Excellent list, Michael.
I agree with Melissa Dessent (10 Sep). I think that “Experience Economy” (1999) is superior than “Authencity” (2007). Although it updates a lot of information.
If you’re going to read The World is Flat, you then you have to read “Who’s your City” (Florida, 2008)
We’re delighted that you chose to add “Born Digital” to your reading list! If any students in the course review BD and the review goes online somewhere we’d be happy to link to it in order to build a conversational bridge and enrich the dialogue on digital natives. Also: feel free to explore and contribute to the Digital Native wiki at: http://www.digitalnative.org.
Cheers!
I would add Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other Dies by Chip & Dan Heath. A great text to get at the core of how libraries can market, technology, events, ideas etc. and make sure they are ingrained in their community.