Francie Helm

Many of us are familiar with the quote by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” We may remember his sage advice in a different variation, since quotes, like whispers travelling through children’s’ ears, can be altered, or even restated and credited to another, but the gist has remained the same. If we choose to ignore past events and the lessons surrounding those events, then we will go down the same path of falls, bumps, and in extreme cases, catastrophic disaster. But this famous axiom is not simple to apply, as we discovered in the recent financial debacle of 2008. One reason for the difficulty in applying the lessons of the Great Depression, in reference to recent ills, is in the fact that we did not adhere to history’s truths as a preventative measure in the first place, but waited until dire circumstances forced us... (more)

The Smell of Newsprint a Soon to Be Anachronism

Will reading from ink on paper bring the same odd glances that those who still type (if any) on a typewriter now receive? There is something mystical about the experience of settling in with a newspaper. A park bench, a library couch, a kitchen table is transformed into a sacred place when holding the golden pages of stories. There is a thrill to seeing the rolled up print on the doorstep or a flat version on a bookstore shelf. My fear is that my sacred simple pleasure of reading a newspaper in print will be replaced by digital devices. Is this nightmare keeping you up at night t... (more)

The Phenomenon Called Facebook

Are you old enough to remember the 1982-1993 TV show Cheers and its theme song lyrics by Gary Portnoy and Judy Hart Angelo? “Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came; you want to be where you can see, our troubles are all the same; you want to be where everybody knows your name.” Now imagine the creation of that same kind of community feel, but instead of inside a common location of physicality put the community within the confines of an electronic screen and you have the popular phenomenon of Facebook. “We believe that Facebook represe... (more)

Digital Libraries: History Meets Technological Change

As someone who worked for a historical society during the time of its initial transition into digital formatting, I have first-hand knowledge of the complexities involved. When this major change first began, we were in a small building where almost all of our records were cataloged and accessioned in the old fashioned way. That meant card catalog indices housed in wooden cases with drawers full of hard copy records. It seems hard to imagine that little over a decade ago we were working in such a, retrospectively speaking, primitive environment. Since then, so much has changed it ... (more)

Going Viral: Steve Jobs in Silhouette

"We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep on humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information. (see wikiquote) "Want to stay alive in the new world? You better get tech savy. Things are more complicated these days when it comes to all aspects of life thanks to the amazing technological advances we are all enjoying. Business is ... (more)