Weekend Reading

Another Friday, another installment of Weekend Reading.  To be honest, there are just so may interesting pdf's and text files out there it's hard to pick a few- but, of course, Twitter comes to the rescue and provides two worthy candidates you will, perhaps, judge worthy to be selected for your weekend reading.

From Read Write Web, The Age of Exabytes, on a topic I posted about yesterday, that being the current need to have tools capable of sorting through large data sets and producing useful information in a real-time demand situation.  Clearly something we need to contend with, as the daily amount of data stored and accumulated grows substantially every year.

Twitter is very useful to not only stay on top of news and events, but also to become aware of some very cool offers made by companies, individuals, and even university presses.  Did you know that the University of Chicago University Press makes one book of their collection every month available for free e-book download?  I didn't until receiving a tweet informing me that Deirdre McCloskey's book The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, was this month's offered download.  A revisionist approach to economic development of the west, it looks like a fascinating read, especially for free.

And, while not a text, this article from Phillip Barron on 'Inside Higher Ed' closely parallels the argument I made yesterday on my post about the Geocities Archive and its potential impact on 'professional' historians.  To quote Mr. Barron:

Detecting patterns, interpreting symbolism, and analyzing logical inconsistencies in text are all techniques used in humanities scholarship. Perhaps the digital humanities' greatest gift to the humanities can be the ability to invest a generation of "users" in the techniques and practiced meticulous attention to detail required to become a scholar.

I agree.  Historians can lead the way in this regard as the increasing amount of digital archives brings more people in the act of producing historical knowledge.  To quote (maybe paraphrase, been a while since I read it) Death of a Salesman, "Attention must be paid."

Thats all for today- enjoy the weekend!