Nebraska Learns 2.0

Our fourth BookThing is The Shallows by Nicholas Carr.

From Amazon.com

Finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction: “Nicholas Carr has written a Silent Spring for the literary mind.”—Michael Agger, Slate

“Is Google making us stupid?” When Nicholas Carr posed that question, in a celebrated Atlantic Monthly cover story, he tapped into a well of anxiety about how the Internet is changing us. He also crystallized one of the most important debates of our time: As we enjoy the Net’s bounties, are we sacrificing our ability to read and think deeply?

Now, Carr expands his argument into the most compelling exploration of the Internet’s intellectual and cultural consequences yet published. As he describes how human thought has been shaped through the centuries by “tools of the mind”—from the alphabet to maps, to the printing press, the clock, and the computer—Carr interweaves a fascinating account of recent discoveries in neuroscience by such pioneers as Michael Merzenich and Eric Kandel. Our brains, the historical and scientific evidence reveals, change in response to our experiences. The technologies we use to find, store, and share information can literally reroute our neural pathways.

Building on the insights of thinkers from Plato to McLuhan, Carr makes a convincing case that every information technology carries an intellectual ethic—a set of assumptions about the nature of knowledge and intelligence. He explains how the printed book served to focus our attention, promoting deep and creative thought. In stark contrast, the Internet encourages the rapid, distracted sampling of small bits of information from many sources. Its ethic is that of the industrialist, an ethic of speed and efficiency, of optimized production and consumption—and now the Net is remaking us in its own image. We are becoming ever more adept at scanning and skimming, but what we are losing is our capacity for concentration, contemplation, and reflection.

Part intellectual history, part popular science, and part cultural criticism, The Shallows sparkles with memorable vignettes—Friedrich Nietzsche wrestling with a typewriter, Sigmund Freud dissecting the brains of sea creatures, Nathaniel Hawthorne contemplating the thunderous approach of a steam locomotive—even as it plumbs profound questions about the state of our modern psyche. This is a book that will forever alter the way we think about media and our minds.

About the Author
Nicholas Carr’s latest book, “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” is a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction. A New York Times bestseller, “The Shallows” discusses the personal and cultural consequences of Internet and computer use and, more broadly, examines the role that media and other technologies have played in shaping intellectual history. Carr is also the author of the 2008 bestseller “The Big Switch,” which ranked #4 on Newsweek’s 2009 list of 50 Books to Read Now, and of the influential 2004 book “Does IT Matter?” He wrote the celebrated and much-anthologized essay “Is Google Making Us Stupid?,” which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly, and he has also contributed to the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, Wired, The Guardian, the Financial Times, The Futurist, Strategy & Business, and other periodicals. He was formerly the executive editor of the Harvard Business Review. Carr blogs at www.roughtype.com. More information about his work can be found at his website, www.nicholascarr.com.

Our third BookThing is How to Fix Copyright by William Patry.

From the publisher:

Book Description
Do copyright laws directly cause people to create works they otherwise wouldn’t create? Do those laws directly put substantial amounts of money into authors’ pockets? Does culture depend on copyright? Are copyright laws a key driver of competitiveness and of the knowledge economy?

These are the key questions William Patry addresses in How to Fix Copyright. We all share the goals of increasing creative works, ensuring authors can make a decent living, furthering culture and competitiveness and ensuring that knowledge is widely shared, but what role does copyright law actually play in making these things come true in the real world? Simply believing in lofty goals isn’t enough. If we want our goals to come true, we must go beyond believing in them; we must ensure they come true, through empirical testing and adjustment.

Patry argues that laws must be consistent with prevailing markets and technologies because technologies play a large (although not exclusive) role in creating consumer demand; markets then satisfy that demand. Patry discusses how copyright laws arose out of eighteenth-century markets and technology, the most important characteristic of which was artificial scarcity. Artificial scarcity was created by the existence of a small number gatekeepers, by relatively high barriers to entry, and by analog limitations on copying.

Markets and technologies change, in a symbiotic way, Patry asserts. New technologies create new demand, requiring new business models. The new markets created by the Internet and digital tools are the greatest ever: Barriers to entry are low, costs of production and distribution are low, the reach is global, and large sums of money can be made off of a multitude of small transactions. Along with these new technologies and markets comes the democratization of creation; digital abundance is replacing analog artificial scarcity.

The task of policymakers is to remake our copyright laws to fit our times: our copyright laws, based on the eighteenth century concept of physical copies, gatekeepers, and artificial scarcity, must be replaced with laws based on access not ownership of physical goods, creation by the masses and not by the few, and global rather than regional markets. Patry’s view is that of a traditionalist who believes in the goals of copyright but insists that laws must match the times rather than fight against the present and the future.

Features

• Prescriptive and forward-thinking rather than descriptive and lamenting.
• International in scope, discussing common copyright issues faced in the global arena and not just the U.S.
• Recognizes the power of modern consumerism, making it not only concurrent but relevant.

Reviews
“How to Fix Copyright is full of smart, sensible ideas.” –The Wall St. Journal”A book that is incandescent in every sense of the word…How to Fix Copyright is a superbly argued, enraging book on the state of copyright law today.” — Boing Boing”William Patry, Senior Copyright Counsel at Google and one of America’s foremost experts on copyright law, offers an insightful, reasonable series of fixes to our increasingly outmoded copyright system. But perhaps the author’s greatest triumph is that he makes his complex subject seem familiar and even entertaining. In well-written, easily digestible sections, Patry puts the complex legal, procedural, and constitutional underpinnings of copyright law in context with the rapidly evolving, tech-fueled lives of creators and users. Insightful, impeccably researched, and prescriptive, Patry’s vision of copyright should resonate with today’s creators – and infuriate yesterday’s media and entertainment conglomerates.” –Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

This month’s BookThing is The Information Diet: A Case for Conscious Consumption by Clay A. Johnson.

From Amazon.com:

The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption. Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessly spewed from the screens and speakers we hold dear. Just as we have grown morbidly obese on sugar, fat, and flour—so, too, have we become gluttons for texts, instant messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, videos, status updates, and tweets.

We’re all battling a storm of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by tasty tidbits of information. And just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much junk information can lead to cluelessness. The Information Diet shows you how to thrive in this information glut—what to look for, what to avoid, and how to be selective. In the process, author Clay Johnson explains the role information has played throughout history, and why following his prescribed diet is essential for everyone who strives to be smart, productive, and sane.

In The Information Diet, you will:

• Discover why eminent scholars are worried about our state of attention and general intelligence
• Examine how today’s media—Big Info—give us exactly what we want: content that confirms our beliefs
• Learn to take steps to develop data literacy, attention fitness, and a healthy sense of humor
• Become engaged in the economics of information by learning how to reward good information providers
• Just like a normal, healthy food diet, The Information Diet is not about consuming less—it’s about finding a healthy balance that works for you

Be sure to check out the book’s Web site @ informationdiet.com.

To earn 2 CE credits answer the following three questions in a 300 word blog post or a three minute video posted to your blog:

1. What did you / what can librarians learn from this book?
2. How might the focus of this book impact library service?
3. How might the focus of this book impact library users?

If you would like to plan ahead, next month’s book will be How to Fix Copyright by William Patry.