@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

dbs

@dbs@code4lib.social

#FreeSoftware, #OpenAccess, and #LinkedOpenData are (some of) my jam.

Dad to four kids (two human, two #BeardedDragons).

#Librarian at Laurentian University (Canada). Systems, health, education, #ScholComms, #ResearchDataManagement, statistics, and other stuff.

Unions rock.

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mjgiarlo, to random
@mjgiarlo@code4lib.social avatar

Dear technology community, we need to talk about @OCLC.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@pbinkley @mjgiarlo my middle initial is B, so maybe I'm next on the list for having created and maintained File::MARC, which some rando might have used at some point to parse a verboten OCLC record

dbs, to random
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

I used to come away from feeling inspired, proud of how much we were able to do with very little resources, and frustrated that we didn't have more resources.

These days I don't even have time to watch the stream. I can't remember the last time I did any significant coding. The admin of this server should probably politely ask me to find a new host.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@edsu There is certainly an awful lot of (sometimes awful) hosted code that libraries depend on.

Like Alma's reporting tool, a minimally skinned Oracle UI, that allows you to use "special characters" like a forward slash in report names, which breaks Alma's ability to do anything with that report. Basic encode/decode shit.

And there's nothing that we can do about it, because we can't change the code, and support rejects tickets because it's a documented limitation.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@bencomp oh you're very kind! I'll stay. I was just reflecting on who I was, and what I was passionate about, and wondering if I've fundamentally changed, or if circumstances have led me away from who I was.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@djfiander @edsu yeah it's one of the worst kinds of cop-outs.

About on par with providing increasing levels of technical detail to support and receiving variations of the same copy/paste response that quotes the very same documentation you referred to in your initial report, when you told them that the documented thing isn't working.

That was a different vendor. They escalated it when I got a little ragey after the third generic response.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@djfiander @edsu but I understand the lvl 1 support techs are desperately trying to keep their average response times low. Metric gamification for job evaluation, sigh.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@djfiander @edsu yeah my effective ragey response was

"""Please stop sending generic responses.

In my last email, I:

  • (long list of things)

... only to have all of that ignored.

Please escalate this support ticket to someone who will do more than regurgitate level 1 support copy & paste responses."""

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@djfiander @edsu it's not a bug, it's just an extremely obfuscated API!

wdenton, to random
@wdenton@cosocial.ca avatar

Some links from a panel discussion today on "The Role of the MLS Degree in Academic Libraries."

The Displays: On Anti-Racist Study and Institutional Enclosure
by David James Hudson
https://www.uproot.space/features/hudson-the-displays

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@wdenton Baharak, Dave, Maha, and Yoonhee are so good: critical thinking and straight talk for the win. I've shared your comments with them!

djfiander, to random
@djfiander@code4lib.social avatar

Ex Libris development is based in Israel.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@djfiander No big deal right? We can just spin up a new Evergreen consortial ILS if Ontario colleges and universities decide they want to divest

platypus, to random
@platypus@glammr.us avatar

"For the fiscal year ending June 2023, OCLC revenue totaled nearly $225 million, up from $220 million in the previous fiscal year." oh cool https://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/2024/05/01/2024-library-systems-report/

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@platypus @JMarkOckerbloom @dsalo huh I had not heard of that one. Their precioussss MARC records, oh no!

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@platypus @JMarkOckerbloom @dsalo oh damn that's our Maria! Shit

adr, to random
@adr@mastodon.social avatar

@dbs hey!!! Look who's got a thing! https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/laurentian-university-budget-tuition-pool-1.7186718

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@adr heh, yeah the story doesn't give the full context. I support the original $30m transformation project: we need to get away from running on many different spreadsheets.

But I was alarmed by the new "high" estimate of $74m that the latest consultants introduced, so I attempted to translate that into meaningful units of comparison (faculty, programs, etc).

And we know consultants breed consultants who will suck public institutions dry.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@adr anyway I think this is my last year as Senate representative to the Board of Governors. It's been very frustrating: they treat non-voting members as an annoyance, and they've ignored the advice from the Auditor General to increase communication between the Board and Senate, actually decreasing our ability to participate by restructuring committees to remove us.

adr, to random
@adr@mastodon.social avatar

Is there such a thing as a modern car, preferably electric, that is not networked? Just, like, a normal fucking car? Or are they all awful?

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@adr Older LEAFs (pre-2016) relied on 2G so they're no longer networked

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@adr Just wrap a new one. In a Faraday cage.

adr, to random
@adr@mastodon.social avatar

I do understand the attraction of having conferences in prestige locales, but ... I kinda wish they didn't, once in a while. I'd love to see Access in, say, Brandon Manitoba.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@adr Sudbury? Problem is that the conference would fall to pieces because nobody here has time to do any organization, and anybody who did show up would just be depressed by the state of our library & archives

metageeky, to random
@metageeky@code4lib.social avatar

Why yes, discovery layer vendor, I really wanted you to force a major UI update on my library just as we start a migration to a new ILS and completely different discovery service.

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@metageeky That's a lot to deal with. Ouch

SemAntiKast, to random
@SemAntiKast@openbiblio.social avatar

Can anyone currently reach the code{4}lib Journal?

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@SemAntiKast "Error establishing a database connection" here :(

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@SemAntiKast I've sent a message to the code4lib mailing list to alert them to the issue.

platypus, to random
@platypus@glammr.us avatar

Oh my God, someone cut over all of our VPN IPs without giving anyone any time to update our vendor lists. All of them.

fortunately I am not the actual humans who have to do it and I am not on site to deal with any of the fallout. But that sucks

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@platypus Ugh. There are days when I wish every platform would use IPRegistry so the update would only have to happen in one place.

But then I think, gee, instead of a centralized locked down option where you have to moderate suggested updates submitted by who knows, why couldn't platforms just check your library hostname for a tiny chunk of linked-or-meta data that says "here is our authoritative set of IP addresses"

platypus, to random
@platypus@glammr.us avatar

Just found myself walking through a Google Cloud convention 😱😱😱😱

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@platypus Hmm were a bunch of people disappointed because they were hoping for an Eclipse convention?

dbs, to random
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

So after the cybersecurity incident at work, outbound SSH is blocked. Fun.

I can ask for a firewall exception for my IP address, I guess.

quintessence, to random
@quintessence@hachyderm.io avatar

I know this post may date more than a fair few of us, but what was your first computer? (This includes family computers, for those to whom this applies.)

Mine was an Apple IIGS that was bought before I was born. Was reminded of that sweet old school look-and-feel by an account that's tinkering with one on oldbytes.space .

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@quintessence My first was an Atari 600XL with a cassette drive.

jessamyn, to random
@jessamyn@glammr.us avatar

Book 1: System Collapse. I'd been eagerly awaiting this book. I enjoyed it but it wasn't quite the Murderbot book I was expecting. May have been a me problem, it was a long time since I'd read the last one and I had to re-learn who the characters were and this novel seemed short on "get to know the characters" stuff. A lot of Murderbot's inner mind, some of their relationship with ART, the usual clusterfuck on a remote planet. Last year's reading list https://glammr.us/@jessamyn/111666401754992583

dbs,
@dbs@code4lib.social avatar

@jessamyn oh I enjoyed the hell out of that book. Read it long ago when I was riding. I had so much empathy for the author's frustration when her bike tipped. And I occasionally moo at cows that I pass because of her!

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