The Library History Buff blog is a great deal of fun and well worth a look if you’re interested in the history of libraries. It appears to be focused mainly on the history of American libraries but within that niche, there is great variety. You can see historical library post cards, a visual history of the Boston Public Library, library history highlights of 2009,and photos and discussions of US Presidential libraries. As much as I focus on the future of the library as an insitution and services that will be provided by librarians, I think it is also important and refreshing to consider the history of libraries and librarians. My graduate work in history focused on the development of the Manchester Public Library and its impact on English life, so I know a fair bit about the history of libraries but there is still plenty to learn.

Space Ship One, the world's first privately built and operated space ship, was built to win the X Prize. Can libraries learn from this?

As I was cooking yesterday, I listened to Peter Diamandis, founder of the X Prize foundation, describe his project to get launch the commercial space travel industry through prizes on the Big Ideas program. Diamandis is part of a larger history of organizations providing awards to solve important problems. The most famous example of this is the longtitude prize offered by the British Admiralty in the 1700s (the story is told in entertaining detail in Dava Sobel’s book Longitude). The general idea behind prizes is that it encourages many people to solve a problem from all over and goes beyond simply recruiting the usual suspects.  The effort and money expended by applicants often far exceeds the prize money. The original focus on the X Prize foundation was focused on space travel but they are now interested in a range of problems including energy and life sciences.

This project has me thinking about applying the prize ethic to the library world. There are some prizes out there already that tend to recognize outstanding individuals but these kind of awards do not appear to have the same effects as the X Foundation. The missing ingredient is encouraging people to focus on a big, challenging problem and then go from there. So, let’s say there was a million dollar prize available to people that solved pressing library problems, what could we get solved? One challenge: how can we turn  public libraries into a Third Place? In the academic context, how can we make the process of using research databases more seamless? In a special library context, the challenge could involve something like how to we get librarians into boardrooms and executive teams? I have also been thinking a bit about library architecture and design of library spaces; are there better ways to do that? After coming up with challenges, the next step is figuring out who will fund the prize. Why should engineering and technology get all the entrepreneurial energy?

A photo of Haiti's capital city, Port-au-Prince, from 1957

In reading news coverage about Haiti’s earthquake, I periodically came across references to the Digital Library of the Caribbean. It turns out that it is organizing efforts to help Haiti rebuild its libraries and archives; it is also providing training in digitization. Founded in 2006, the digital library has a variety of materials including maps, photos, archival materials and books documenting the history, culture and other aspects of the Caribbean. The image at the top of this post, a view of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital city, came from the Digital Library. Even more impressive is the fact that the interface functions in the region’s three major languages: English, French and Spanish. There is also a geographical search tool where you can either enter latitude and longitude or draw the area you’re interested in. By using the map search tool, I was able to find a 2006 photo of Haiti’s archives. As impressive as the Digital Library of the Caribbean is now, it will only get more impressive later; it looks like there are plans to add oral histories, more newspapers and other resources. Some aspects of the interface strike me as a bit difficult to use and perhaps inelegant, but there is still much value to be had from it.

In 2008, I started to become very interested in learning more about economics. There are several reasons for this including the fact that a friend had recently started a PhD in the subject and the fact that the financial crisis was starting to bubble over. I hda also been listening to the EconTalk podcast for some time by then and wanted to learn more. Several years earlier, I had taken an undergraduate economics course and it was awful; boring charts and math that seemingly had nothing to do with the real world. Then, I happened to come across some books that helped me learn more about the topic. In this post, I’m going to describe some of them and what I learned from them. One of the most important things I learned about economics is that it goes far beyond the world of business; it is a social science that can be used to explain and investigate all kinds of events and behaviour.

The Economic Naturalist by Robert H. Frank

This book is highly readable and really provides a good introduction to the fundamental principles of economics, including incentives and supply and demand. And yes, it is free of abstract diagrams that make you scratch your head in confusion. The book is also incredibly engaging due to its unique format. For years, Frank has assigned his students the task of seeking to explain some aspect of daily life using economic principles. The catch is that they have to answer the problem in 500 words. That kind of restraint was very productive and you get all kinds of interesting questions asked and answered in this book. In contrast, I was much less interested in Frank’s 2009 book, The Economic Naturalist’s Field Guide: Common Sense Principles for Troubled Times, which collects his columns from the New York Times and other sources. There are some interesting sections there but it doesn’t give you the kind of education his earlier popular book provides.

You also can read the first chapter of the Economic Naturalist for free online. If you want to get a sample of Frank’s newspaper style writing, you can read some of his writing for the New York Times. If you’re curious to kno w more about Frank’s views on the current sorry state of economics education, his interview on EconTalk is the place to go.

Discover Your Inner Economist by Tyler Cowen

Tyler Cowen is an economics professor who is also co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog, one of the best economics blogs I’ve read out there with posts on all kinds of topics. DYIE is a conversational kind of book that is endlessly fascinating and gives you a sense of Cowen’s wide ranging interests. He looks at topics ranging from dentist to dining around the world (e.g. he argues that poor countries or neighbourhoods tend to have better food than rich areas since the main cost of really good food is labour). It was a lot of fun to read but it does not come across quite as strongly as other books I’ve read. At times, it is a weird blend of economics and self-help; a combination that seems promising but ultimately doesn’t quite work. His blog, mentioned above, is well worth a read though be prepared for a variety of topics there too.

Freakonomics and Superfreakonomics by Steven D. Levvit and Stephen J. Dubner

These pair of books (the original in 2005 and the “super” one in 2009) can be credited with creating a great deal of popular interest in economics. After all, where else are you going to find economists trying to explain the economics of drug gangs and prostitutes? That’s much more sexy that trying to price mortgages or deriveratives. Both authors have got a lot of attention out of these books and they write a fun NY Times blog on economics too. These are probably the most page-turning economics books you’ll ever read but you might well end up feeling a bit dissatisfied. There’s no conclusion or effort made to draw larger conclusions; you just get a bunch of case studies on a seemingly random set of topics. Would I recommend the books? They’re fun to talk about and read very quickly but I don’t know that I’d consider them to be all that great. BUT, if you think economics is boring and just about topics like interest rates, then you should read Freakonomics.

The Freakonomics books are probably the most book-club friendly of the books discussed here but I wonder at their enduring value. For me and others, they showed that economics can be used to discuss and understand problems outside of business school and the stock market, and for that, they deserve some credit and recognition.

Filthy Lucre: Economics For People Who Hate Capitalism by Joseph Heath

This is one unique book written by Canadian philosophy professor Joseph Heath and it has a unique structure. Heath systematically looks at economics points routinely misunderstood by the political left and right and takes them apart. I couldn’t find a part of the book online, but there’s an extended interview with Heath on YouTube that gives you an idea of what the book is about. For example, Heath attacks the idea capitalism is somehow natural and good (regulation is needed to make it work well), for example. Heath also discusses the fallacy that taxes eliminate wealth or the economy; taxes pay for education, schools, public health programs, regulation and the framework of rules that makes life relatively pleasant and safe. If you’re more interested about the relationship between politics and economic arguments, this is a good book to consider. Neither the traditional political right or left has a monopoly on economic wisdom.

The book also has a damn good cover (a pig capitalist!) and that’s part of the reason that I first picked it in the bookstore. The ultimate appeal of this book is the philosophical way Heath approaches the topic, the way he brings politics into the discussion. Economics is a challenging topic and figuring out how to explain the world is a challenge, but I think these books help you get started. It is not a mystery and more people should get interested in the topic and see how it can apply to other aspects of life beyond the traditional areas of economic interest like business, interest rates, investment and so forth.

Every library should produce a video like this. You have interviews with the library’s leadership and regular people who use it.

Wrapping your mind around a natural disaster is difficult to do as so much is happening. One way I try to understand such developments is see how these events can impact libraries. Back in graduate school, I did a paper examining libraries in post-Cold War conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia. In some cases, libraries were targeted for political reasons and in all reasons, securing reconstruction funds is difficult when there are so many other causes calling for attention. Libraries are still very important though as they sustain culture and contribute to education. Let’s have a look at some recent coverage of the impact of the earthquake on Haiti’s libraries and efforts to assist the country.

The New York Times (Cultural Riches Turn to Rubble in Haiti Quake) reported that Haiti’s National Archives suffered some damage but most of their most important documents have avoided damage. The American Library Association has established a relief program to help rebuild the country’s libraries and archives. IFLA reports that while Haiti’s national library mostly avoided damage, the country’s oldest library, Bibliothèque Haïtienne des Pères du Saint Esprit, has collapsed and taken numerous materials with it. Happily, there is an organization – Bibliothèques Sans Frontières (Libraries Without Borders) – that is seeking to help rebuild Haiti’s libraries.

Shortly after independence in the early nineteenth century, Haiti was burdened by France which made it very difficult for the country to grow and prosper. In the long term, lack of education (the literacy rate is estimated at 65%; better than Afghanistan but still very far from standards of rich countries) and inadequate libraries will have similar effects in the country.