Marcus' World

Come Together, Fall Apart

Last summer I posted about my college friend Cristina Henriquez, who had just published a short story in the New Yorker. 

That's small potatoes now.  Cristina's first book, Come Together, Fall Apart, will be published in a few weeks, and can be ordered now.  She's coming to New York for a reading, and I can't wait.

Sandra Cisneros is one fan, calling Cristina "an ancient soul, a zen master."  I'm just happy that she's a great writer, and that I knew her way back when.

Editor of Biomedical Digital Libraries

Today I officially became an editor-in-chief of Biomedical Digital Libraries, along with biomedical library legend Wayne Peay.  BDL is an open access journal that I've been involved with for three years, since Charlie Greenberg founded it.  It has had some hot moments, but mostly been quiet.  Hopefully Wayne and I will be able to guide the journal smoothly through a period of growth.

When I started at BDL, I was an open access zealot.  Now I recognize that it is more complicated, although I still support the goals and principles of open access. 

The Journal of the Medical Library Association will always be the flagship for our field. I like to think of BDL as filling a supportive niche, and providing another outlet for publication.  It will certainly provide me with an outlet, although I vow not to pepper the journal with too many editorials.

Any library colleagues reading this blog--You are welcome to submit to Biomedical Digital Libraries!

Starbucks Lingo

One sign of upward urban mobility is a lemming-like attachment to Starbucks outlets.  I know where the Starbucks is on my walk to work, and what corners they are on for several avenues west of where we live.  For a while last year, I was also keeping track of the service levels at different stores, until deciding that was extremely lame.  The Starbucks at 39th/Park treats you like royalty, in case you're keeping score.

Helen shares my fascination with the coffee monolith.  She recently discovered the lingo for ordering her favorite drink, an iced tall vanilla latte.  It's often too sweet, because they put in three pumps of syrup.  The official language is "iced tall 2 pump vanilla latte."  She ordered it today, and it worked like a charm.  A small victory in the grand scheme of things, but still sweet.

If All Else Fails, Blame the Messenger

The President's approval ratings continue to fall, as more of the public wises up to the fact that he has created a debacle in Iraq.  When the going gets tough, there's no easier target than the press.  I shouldn't be drawn into responding to the administration's smokescreens, but sometimes they are so egregious as to demand a rebuttal.  This spin machine takes no account of the fact that Iraq is an extremely dangerous place to be a journalist.

Within the past few days, as Iraq descended into civil war and we observed the 3rd anniversary of conflict, Donald Rumsfeld criticized "blogs on web sites" for telling the truth about the war; Vice President Cheney acted like things were great on Face the Nation; and the President told an exaggerated tale about how good life is in the Iraqi town of Tall Afar.  I wonder if Rumsfeld had my blog in mind; I guess it's my fault--along with that of the liberal media--that the war is such a mess.

Check that--it's really the administration's fault.  From a feverish certainty about WMD, to a refusal to have enough troops on the ground to prevent looting after the war, to a willful ignorance about long-term post-war challenges, they have dropped the ball.  Because they'll never have the courage to blame themselves, get ready for many more rounds of blaming the messenger.

Censuring President Bush

Kudos to Senator Russell Feingold for introducing a resolution to censure the President for his illegal wiretapping program.   Impeachment is better, but censure will have to do.

Thus far most Democrats have tried to avoid the issue for fear of political consequences.  But Feingold made a very compelling case Friday night on the Charlie Rose show.  Warrantless wiretapping is illegal; the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the law of the land, even at the White House. 

If Congress does not express disapproval of the President, it will fail in its obligation to defend the Constitution.  Everyone who cares about civil liberties should support censure.

An Unexpected Album Title

Wandering through Barnes and Noble tonight, I came across the album Synchronistic Wanderings, by Pat Benatar.  That sounds like the title of a snooty poetry collection, and not what I would expect from Benatar. 

Perhaps I only know early Benatar; Amazon informs me that she also has albums entitled Innamorata and Gravity's Rainbow.  (The latter must not be confused with the odd novel by Thomas Pynchon of the same  name. )  Apparently Pat has had a pretentious streak for years. Go read her bio on Wikipedia, the perfect reference source.

I'll take the rough and tumble Pat any day.  "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" will always be my favorite Benatar anthem. 

Sing along with me now, and relive your years of adolescent angst:

Hit me with your best shot!  (Thump...thump)
Come on, hit me with your best shot! (Thump...thump)
Hit me with your best shot!
Fire a-wayyyyyyy!

Michigan Conference: Scholarship and Libraries in Transition

The University of Michigan, one of the participants in Google Book Search,  is hosting a two-day conference on Scholarship and Libraries in Transition: A Dialogue About the Impacts of Mass Digitization Projects.   For those of us who can't make it to Ann Arbor, there is--what else?--a conference blog.

I don't know how the copyright wars regarding Google Book Search will play themselves out.   I feel strongly that it's covered by fair use.  But if the courts decide otherwise, the debate will have to shift to the legislatures, who have the power to modernize our laws.  We cannot afford to let copyright laws designed in another period hinder scholarship today.

Tough Times for US Scientists

A provocative column in the latest issue of The Scientist laments the declining focus on science at the national level in the United States, due to the meddling of our anti-scientific administration.   All politicians are tempted to ignore or criticize scientific statements that harm their political goals.   But the Bush administration has gone further than any other to  minimize science, from harmful restrictions on stem cell research to absurd claims that there is not enough evidence about what causes global warming.  The United States could rightfully claim an international position of scientific leadership a few decades ago, but this no longer holds true.

The Scientist piece focuses on the activities of various individual states (often under Republican governors) to become scientific innovators, since the national government has abdicated its leadership responsibility.   The article is excessive at times, but perhaps that's one way of making us think about the scientific heritage that the US is frittering away.

There is some hope--It's never too late to support the Union of Concerned Scientist's Campaign for Scientific Integrity.

Volunteering Again

This year I made a resolution to volunteer regularly.  Since moving to New York I haven't done much except for tagging along at various events organized by Helen's work.  When I lived in the District of Columbia, every single week I volunteered for the Washington Literacy Council.

In New York I've focused on political activism, which is  always uninspiring in the long run.  (Yes, it is ironic that this political tendency bloomed in New York rather than Washington. But there you have it.)  Now I am trying to get back into a type of volunteering that makes me feel I've actually accomplished something.

When I was at Northwestern, like all idealistic students I thought my earnest efforts would change the world.  One of my fondest memories of those days was completing the Freshman Urban Program, a week-long volunteer immersion in some of Chicago's toughest neighborhoods.  As a sophomore, I served as a counselor for this program.  I also was active in a student group called Resources for the Homeless in my early college years. We organized a drop-in center for homeless people at the First Presbyterian Church, where we would converse with them as they wished and tutor them if necessary.  We even had a substance abuse counselor come in a few times, who at one time had been homeless himself.

By senior year I had figured out the obvious: most volunteering is a band-aid, because the causes for social inequity and dysfunction are impossibly complex and tangled.  By that point I was quite bored with the politics of the student volunteering community.  Some people just wanted to do a good deed; I sided with them, figuring that something was better than nothing.  Others felt that the only valid volunteering included an effort to beat back the larger causes of the problem.  A related debate was about the moral equivalent of mere philanthropy (such as Northwestern's very successful Dance Marathon, which is taking place this weekend) vs. get-your-hands-dirty volunteering. 

None of us knew what we were talking about.

Yes, volunteering is a band-aid.  But a band-aid is better than an open wound.  Starting Monday I'll be working with a fourth grader at the East Harlem Tutorial Program, sharpening his math and reading skills.  The East Harlem neighborhood will be just as impoverished when I stop tutoring him as it is today.  But hopefully his life will be better.