In Memoriam: Frank Turner

In Memoriam: Frank Turner

I did wonder why Mr. Turner would not accept my request for an interview. This is truly shocking.

Librarian Frank Turner dies suddenly

Posted by Mark Alden Branch '86 on November 11, 2010, 3:12 pm

Frank Turner ’71PhD. ©Julie Brown

Frank M. Turner ’71PhD, a long-serving Yale professor and administrator who just two months ago was appointed University Librarian, died suddenly this morning, according to an e-mail from President Richard Levin ’74PhD. He was 66.
Turner was the John Hay Whitney Professor of History and an esteemed scholar of European intellectual history. He was provost of the university from 1988 to 1992, and he had been director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library since 2003. He is survived by his wife, the Reverend Ellen Louise Tillotson.

Extrinsic v. Intrinsic Value

Our 511 class had a really heated discussion over the instrinsic value of a book, which then moved into the realm of GOLD.  What I realized within the discussion is that commodities (like gold) do have an intrinsic value that can be estimated by looking at both tangible and intangible factors (see definition below).  I am, however, not sure about the intrinsic value of a book.   Prof. Lankes was adamant that the book ONLY had value that we attributed to it, there was no intrinsic value whatsoever.   Does anyone have any thoughts about this?


What Does Intrinsic Value Mean?The actual value of a company or an asset based on an underlying perception of its true value including all aspects of the business, in terms of both tangible and intangible factors. This value may or may not be the same as the current market value.  Value investors use a variety of analytical techniques in order to estimate the intrinsic value of securities in hopes of finding investments where the true value of the investment exceeds its current market value.

What Does Extrinsic Value Mean?
The difference between an option's price and the intrinsic value.

Investopedia explains Extrinsic ValueFor example, an option that has a premium price of $10 and an intrinsic value of $5 would have an extrinsic value of $5. Denoting the amount by which the option's price is greater than the intrinsic value, the extrinsic value of the option declines as its expiration date draws closer.

References

Extrinsic value definition Retrieved 11/5/2010, 2010, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/extrinsicvalue.asp

Intrinsic value definition Retrieved 11/5/2010, 2010, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/intrinsicvalue.asp

Library tours

So, last week we went on an 'in-depth' tour of the Bird library.  I was quite interested in knowing more about the man the library was named after, Ernest Bird, but frankly could not find out much about him except that he graduated from Syracuse in 1916.  I did find out that this library has 2.3M volumes, not too shabby compared to my 3,000.

We saw many of the services that are performed from book preservation to book wrapping (to care for older books).  The most fascinating aspect of the tour was seeing some of the old collections.  A book which came from Queen Elizabeth's private library, early stone tablets (no, not the original Ten Commandments), and a very unique diary with notes from the holocaust. 

The tour was very interesting, especially seeing how much work goes in to preserving the collection.  It made me think about digital libraries and how the future of the printed book is coming to an end. [sigh].

Question of the week: What sorts of classes do you take to become a librarian? (with thanks to Dan)

Here at Syracuse, we take core classes and electives in the MSLIS program (Master of Science, Library and Information Studies).  The core fall classes are Intro. to the Library and Information Profession, Information and Information Environments, Information Resources:Users and Services, Information Resources:Organization and Access.  Additionally, Management Principles for Information Professionals is required but offered both terms (I am taking this in the fall term).  I am also part of the Black and Latino Leadership program, this is an uncredited elective class.

In the spring, I will take 2 classes dealing with Telecommunications and Information Policy and Information Resources: Acquisitions.  My two electives will be,  Creating.Managing.Preserving Digital Assets, Database Administration Concepts and Database Management. 

We also have electives which up to 6 credits can be taken in any School at Syracuse. I have chosen to transfer my 6 credits from the MBA progran ( Strategic Management and Managerial Economics).

My final 5 credits will be an internship (hopefully back at Yale) and a 2 credit independent study.

All of these classes have been discussed with my advisor, Prof Lankes, who also happens to be the Director of the Libary and Information Studies Program.

So, I have been getting a lot of questions about the mission here at the iSchool.  One buzzword that is heard consistently in many of my interactions is innovation.  I would have to say that Dave Lankes (our instructor who wanted us to create this blog) is an innovator.  He spent the first four classes in full deconstruction mode, but then he continued the educational process by beginning to construct what a vision of a librarian might be. 

In our latest class, he brought in a guest speaker, Joseph Janes, from the iSchool at the University of Washington.  UW is a main competitor for students studying Information Science so I thought the discussion would be thought provoking.  It was.  We heard a lot about "play" in the discussion which immediately brought me back to Derrida's notion of "jouissance".  Ideas should be played with, tossed around and used to stimulate discusssion.  This is at the very heart of innovation.  Then Prof. Janes told the class that he and Lankes had been separated at birth!  That explained a lot as to why they were saying very similar things.  Then we find out that they both graduated from Syracuse.  Even better, because now I am sure that Syracuse University is the right place to be.  It is truly an innovation hub.

One final note, as Camus said in The Fall, "We are all in the soup together"

Question of the week: tell me, why are librarians so technologically oriented these days? what do blogs have to do with that? why do you need to build websites? I have so many questions...

At the Syracuse iSchool (School of Information Studies), there are three majors: library and information science, information management and telecommunications and network management. Librarians are concerned with the access, retrieval and storage of information. So I am taking classes in digital libraries, database management, open access systems, etc so that I can understand the architecture that we all use. The notion of a librarian standing behind a desk checking out books for you is kind of an idealized notion that really does not correspond to a modern librarian's job.