stomper
Guest
[edit: this post has been up a while, so I've changed my goal from replacing myself as the Librarian to just getting a few people to help out. Read the whole thread to see. 5 minutes a day, and you'll be a subject expert! thanks, stomper.]
Hi, as you may or may not be aware, one of the unique things about the BRS site is a fairly high-quality "Library" section, with an edited synopsis of current literature about barefoot running, plus extensive lists of academic research, press coverage, etc. (See the Library section in the Menu.) It has a fairly high readership for an individual page on the site, with more than 3000 pageviews in the current stats.
I created the section and have been maintaining this for some time, and I'm interested in handing it off, ideally to someone who has some experience with scientific literature and/or the press. It is a very small amount of work to keep going, basically you just need to subscribe to certain google and google scholar feeds. Most of what comes up every day will be totally redundant and repetitive. But when something really worthwhile does come up, you need to add it to the bibliographic database, and occasionally paste a new bibliography into one of the Library's pages.
It's a pretty simple job and it takes little time; it just requires one to be up to date on what's going on in the current discussion about the topic. I am just a bit weary of paying attention to the feeds and straining them for new information. Though it only takes 5 minutes a day to review the feeds, and the Library needs updating probably only once a month, I've lost the fascination for it.
I do hope that whoever takes it over will maintain the separation between hard, peer-reviewed work and popular testimonies and cryptoadvertisements. Most of the discussion about running is based on anecdote and personal experience, which is good, but science adds a level of objectivity that the subject needs at this point.
I would say the one really fun thing about the role is that over time, you see the discussion arround the subject evolving (like currently, "barefoot running" in the media almost always means "in VFF's"). You see the way that memes grow and decay. And when something that is really new comes out, you'll be the one to understand it.
(Totally unexpected perk: Once you've become the official Librarian, then it becomes possible to become that nerdy fantasy: the HOT librarian that lets down their hair, takes off their glasses, and WOW!).
If you're interested, let me and/or TJ know.
cheers, stomper
Hi, as you may or may not be aware, one of the unique things about the BRS site is a fairly high-quality "Library" section, with an edited synopsis of current literature about barefoot running, plus extensive lists of academic research, press coverage, etc. (See the Library section in the Menu.) It has a fairly high readership for an individual page on the site, with more than 3000 pageviews in the current stats.
I created the section and have been maintaining this for some time, and I'm interested in handing it off, ideally to someone who has some experience with scientific literature and/or the press. It is a very small amount of work to keep going, basically you just need to subscribe to certain google and google scholar feeds. Most of what comes up every day will be totally redundant and repetitive. But when something really worthwhile does come up, you need to add it to the bibliographic database, and occasionally paste a new bibliography into one of the Library's pages.
It's a pretty simple job and it takes little time; it just requires one to be up to date on what's going on in the current discussion about the topic. I am just a bit weary of paying attention to the feeds and straining them for new information. Though it only takes 5 minutes a day to review the feeds, and the Library needs updating probably only once a month, I've lost the fascination for it.
I do hope that whoever takes it over will maintain the separation between hard, peer-reviewed work and popular testimonies and cryptoadvertisements. Most of the discussion about running is based on anecdote and personal experience, which is good, but science adds a level of objectivity that the subject needs at this point.
I would say the one really fun thing about the role is that over time, you see the discussion arround the subject evolving (like currently, "barefoot running" in the media almost always means "in VFF's"). You see the way that memes grow and decay. And when something that is really new comes out, you'll be the one to understand it.
(Totally unexpected perk: Once you've become the official Librarian, then it becomes possible to become that nerdy fantasy: the HOT librarian that lets down their hair, takes off their glasses, and WOW!).
If you're interested, let me and/or TJ know.
cheers, stomper