Winter-Spring 2003 GALILEO Planet 3-31
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The Official Newsletter of GeorgiA LIbrary LEarning Online Spring, 2007 GALILEO's Anniversary In 2281 AD (or CE) Ray Calvert, Coastal Georgia Community College I have now wrestled with writ- in Philadelphia. The day I visited fiction writer Vernor Vinge. In a ing this article for five months. the Library Company it was busy presentation at NASA's VISION- When asked to write an article with patrons. As you recall, I indi- 21 Symposium (http://mind cated that the Library Company stalk.net/vinge/vinge-sing.html) was formed in 1731 making it over in 1993, Vinge talked about a 275 years old. Think of GALILEO’s time when technological change 275th anniversary in the year 2281 would be driven by machine in- AD (or CE if you prefer). Will telligence. Change would then GALILEO still be busy with patrons accelerate so rapidly that a new Ray Calvert 275 years from now? reality would result reducing the In the Law of Accelerating Re- distinction between human and for the GALILEO Planet last turns (http://www.kurzweilai.net/ machine. In their writings, November I was told that I could articles/art0134.html?printable=1), Kurzweil and Vinge each suggest write about anything I wanted, Ray Kurzweil indicates that the rate however, I found myself chal- of technological change is accel- lenged by the problem so com- erating exponentially. Moore's Law monly faced by every college (http://www.intel.com/technology/ freshman, finding something to mooreslaw/index.htm) predicted that machine intelligence will ex- write about. At the celebration that the number of transistors that ceed human intelligence within of GALILEO’s 10th anniversary, could be integrated on a circuit the next thirty years. While this board would double every twenty- sounds like the stuff of fantasy, four months. Kurzweil's law of ac- the Technology Review on celerating returns suggests that July 13, 2006 (http:// paradigms such as Moore's Law www.technologyreview.com/ grow exponentially until they "ex- read_article.aspx?id=17163&ch= haust their potential" at which point biotech) reported how two para- I chose to compare the history Kurzweil indicates that a paradigm lyzed patients with neural im- and vision of GALILEO with shift occurs allowing exponential plants successfully controlled a Benjamin Franklin’s Library growth to continue. Kurzweil says computer and a robotic arm. The Company (http://www.lib that this process continues until it machine converges with the hu- rarycompany.org/). After reaches an event horizon he refers man in order to aid the human. GALILEO's 10th anniversary, to as the "Singularity" (http:// Then there is ASIMO (http:// while at a conference in Phila- w w w. k u r z w e i l a i . n e t / m e m e / asimo.honda.com/), a function- delphia, I had the opportunity to frame.html?m=1), a term associ- ing humanoid developed by visit Carpenter’s Hall as well as ated with black holes (http:// Honda. The machine begins to the Library Company. The Li- f i l e r . c a s e . e d u / s j r 1 6 / have human attributes. Perhaps brary Company is still an active stars_blackhole.html). Kurzweil the new reality or "singularity" is library located on Locust Street borrowed this term from science already occurring. Continued on Page 9 The GALILEO Planet Page 1 Arts of the United States By Digital Library of Georgia Staff Arts of the United States, a study’s objective was to create a When distribution of the slides joint project between the Univer- collection of images that would stopped in 1998, possession of sity of Georgia Lamar Dodd support the teaching of American School of Art, the University of art. To identify the images, Dodd Georgia Library, and Yale Uni- recruited six nationally-recog- versity Librariy, contains over nized scholars to form an advi- 4,000 images of works important sory board, which in turn invited seventeen specialists to select materials from the following ar- eas: American architecture, the negatives and all rights re- verted to the University of Geor- gia. Carmon Colangelo, Director of the University of Georgia to the study of the history of art Lamar Dodd School of Art, coor- in the United States. The pieces, dinated the return of the dating from the 17th century Carnegie photographic collection through the 20th, include archi- to the university. Mindful of pres- tecture, decorative arts, painting, painting, sculpture, graphic arts, ervation, he secured an environ- sculpture, graphic arts, photog- the decorative arts, costume de- mentally-controlled storage unit raphy, and stage and costume sign, photography, the theatre, for the negatives. design, as well as Native Ameri- and Native American art. The re- can art and artifacts. Although the sulting core of selected art im- Soon after, the libraries of the majority of artists represented in ages represent the acknowl- University of Georgia and Yale the database are American, sig- edged and agreed-upon ex- University embarked on a project nificant works created by non-na- amples of American art from its to digitize and make available the tive artists while in the United beginning until the completion of Carnegie collection slide set. States are included. the study in 1960. Staff at the two libraries jointly prepared online cataloging infor- The Carnegie Arts of the The Carnegie study advisory mation for each image that may United States photographic col- board chose Sandak, Inc., a be accessed through WorldCat. lection had its genesis four de- prestigious color laboratory, to In 2001, the University of Geor- cades ago in the Carnegie Study photograph the objects selected gia Libraries received a grant by the Carnegie Study. For forty from The Andrew W. Mellon years after the study ended Foundation to digitize the mas- ter negatives for inclusion in the foundation’s ARTstor database of art images. In addition, the Uni- versity of Georgia Libraries is pro- viding freely-available access to of the Arts of the United States. the Carnegie Collection through The study began in 1956 as a the GALILEO database, Arts of multi-year project directed by the United States. Lamar Dodd, chairman of the University of Georgia’s Depart- Sandak, Inc. continued to provide Visit the Arts of the United ment of Art, and was funded by a duplicate slide sets to a nation- States database at http:/www.gal $110,000 grant from the (then) wide audience in support of Art ileo.usg.edu/express?link=arts. Carnegie Corporation. The education. Page 2 The GALILEO Planet Creating Reading Lists with NoveList and Book Index with Reviews By GALILEO Staff In Jon Scieszka’s Summer lists on many topics and appeal- Reading Is Killing Me!, three boys ing to different age groups from encounter Long John Silver, the pre-K to adult. Click on the Wild Things, and other literary School Resources tab in characters in the skewed world NoveList K-8 for “Grab and Go of a summer reading list come Lists” that focus specifically on alive in a dreadful way. If you the topics that students, teach- want to add this book to a read- ers, and librarians have asked ing list you are creating, it’s easy NoveList staff to cover. Click on to do with NoveList’s Personal the “For Readers” tab for anno- Lists feature. Using this feature, tated book lists and read-alike you can create as many separate lists. lists as you want and add titles For non-fiction titles, Book In- easily. You can save the lists over dex with Reviews, while not as PUBLICATION time and add or delete titles as robust a readers’ advisory tool as INFORMATION you wish. You can e-mail any of NoveList, has many of the same your lists to others. If you have a features, including the saved list topical bibliography, such as “Va- and search alert features. Both cation Mysteries,” you can set up NoveList and Book Index with a search alert searching for rel- Reviews include limiters to help evant titles and be notified by e- refine searches, including param- Jayne Williams, Editor mail when a book that matches eters for Lexile ranges, grade lev- your search criteria is added to els, number of pages, Dewey The GALILEO Planet is the database, making it easy to number, and more. published quarterly as a web- keep the list current. While in NoveList or BIR, don’t based newsletter reporting on NoveList also includes already- forget to look up your own next GALILEO-related information. completed thematic and genre read. Suggestions and contributions Upcoming Conferences are encouraged. Look for GALILEO Staff and the GALILEO exhibit booth Email: [email protected] at these upcoming Fall Conferences Website: http://www.usg. GOLD/GALILEO User’s Group, August 3, 2007, Georgia Cen- edu/galileo/about/news ter for Continuing Education, Athens, GA GALILEO is an Initiative of the Council of Media Organizations (COMO) Conference, October Board of Regents of the 17-19, 2007, Jekyll Island Convention Center, Jekyll Island, GA University System of Georgia. Georgia Council for the Social Studies Annual Conference, The Classic Center, Athens, GA USG Annual Computing Conference, October 24-25, 2007, Rock Eagle 4-H Camp, Eatonton, GA Georgia Educational Technology Consortium (GAETC) Confer- “Creating A More ence, November 14-16, 2007, Georgia International Conven- Educated Georgia” tion Center, College Park, GA The GALILEO Planet Page 3 Meet the Staff: Courtney McGough and Dave Falke By GALILEO Staff Courtney McGough and Dave University of Tennessee’s dis- ence in libraries, including work- Falke are the newest members tance education program for In- ing with serials, GIL, binding, of the GALILEO Support Ser- formation Sciences.