Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is the Science Section of the Tuesday New York Times meets This American Life. In this exploration of what happens to our bodies after we die, Roach eases us past the initial gore into a story of wonder about the human corpse.

Human cadaver research in the auto industry has been around since the 1960’s. The first few decades of study helped us learn how to save human lives in a car crash; this work resulted in the three-pointed seat belt and the air bag. The next phase of cadaver work is showing bioengineers how to save ankles, wrists, and other parts of our extremities so that when we survive crashes, we can walk and pick up our children.

As Dennis Shanahan, an injury analyst whose worked helped to explain why TWA Flight 800 crashed into the Atlantic in 1996, points out in an interview with Roach, as a human pathologist you can get used to the gore, but not the suffering. Similarly, as a reader, I get used to the grisly, but can’t get over the human body. I’ll never look at my own flesh quite the same way.

See the VBT schedule to find a stop near you.

Digital Preservation

We take for granted that our cultural artifacts will last. This is why it offends and horrifies us when we learn of decaying archaeological sites, looted museums and burning libraries. But our digital heritage does not afford the durability that we enjoy with cave paintings, cuneiform tablets, and even paper. Web sites are disappearing and changing all the time.

Sadly, if you ask most digital content creators what their strategy for preserving their material, they tell you that they have backup tapes or printouts. A wonderful article in June 19th’s Economist outlines why backups are not a preservation strategy.

Just two weeks before the big event, I finished writing my book. The last pass was the most difficult; about three months ago it became clear that each chapter was good on its own, but the material did not come together to make a whole book. I am told that this is a typical problem for the first time author. I fixed it; Web Design on a Shoestring is now the book that I wanted it to be. In September or October, it can be in your hot little hands.

There is, however, a chance that it will not be published under this title. There are three book buyers in the English speaking world: Amazon, Borders, and Barnes and Noble. One of these three (I myself do not know which one it is) has trouble with the title.

My publisher and I are working to resolve my little problem; market research indicates that Web Design on a Shoestring registers well with consumers. If the research does not cajole the reluctant book buyer to accept our title, my editor and I will come up with a new moniker.

Book writing is hard, and book marketing is hard. I may only have to change my title to get my book picked up by the sellers. Easy enough. But for an author to get her book to sell to consumers is the next worry.

Kevin Smokler has a plan for helping authors with this problem: the Virtual Book Tour (VBT). Most book deals do not include marketing, so authors must take it upon themselves to sell their own stuff. Tomorrow, The Rogue Librarian site will be a stop of the first day of Mary Roach’s Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers virtual road trip.

Thank you for the well wishes.

Part one of the Jayson Blair Story, The New York Times reporter who committed journalistic fraud while covering major national news events, is about plagiarism and falsehoods. Part two of the story is about our cultural record. How will The Times treat the electronic copies of Blair’s articles? For the moment it looks as though the articles will stay in The Times’ digital files along with a note about the suspect authenticity of Blair’s work. If they are yanked, the digital record of Blair’s deceit will be incomplete.

Thanks to Chuck Hamaker for reporting this on Liblicense.

Web Design on a Shoestring stays with me for the next two months while I take another pass at the manuscript.

Following up on yesterday’s accessibility tip, Tanya Rabourn notes that Mac users can test a page in link only view with IE 5. Tanya tells us, "Make sure explorer bar is visible (bottom left of your browser), choose a page to test, then on the explorer bar, select ‘pageholder.’ In the pageholder select ‘add’. Then select links. You’ll see only the links from your page. If all your links are ‘click here,’ you’ll see a big list of click here’s." That would be a bad thing.

Also on accessibility, just because a site uses CSS, does not mean that the markup is accessible. Jim Byrne has noticed a new generation of sites that have the following problem: "Headings, paragraphs, quotes, lists and inline elements such as strong and em are being replaced with neutral or inappropriate tags, and merely styled to look like headings, paragraphs, lists or inline elements." Lack of logical structure leaves a page that reads poorly on assistive technology, and other devices for that matter. Link via Shirley Kaiser; Shirley is one of my West Coast friends.

A new exhibit at Newman Library, Baruch College, CUNY commemorates a Kent State memorial held at Baruch College, May 6, 1970. This simple but powerful exhibit contains photographs, articles, and audio files from that day, just over thirty-two years ago.

Google is now a clearinghouse for reference questions. Curious about the accuracy, cost and timeliness of the new service, I ask both Google and NYPL’s Ask Librarians Online the same question, "What is the origin of the term ’shoestring’ as it is used to refer to a small budget?"

Each site has a requirement; Google wants money, and NYPL wants your library card number. I told Google that I would pay up to four US dollars for an answer, and have not heard back. NYPL, happy enough to know that I had a card, answered in about 22 hours.

You don’t have to have an NYPL card to receive a timely, accurate and detailed answer from a librarian. Tons of libraries are doing it; some require cards and other do not.

Just back from SXSW, and my batteries are recharged. A few snaps by PhotoMatt tell all. Below are my notes from the Book Culture talk that Kevin Smokler, Ben Brown and I did.

Book Culture

• Malcolm X Papers at The New York Public Library.
• Half of all the web sites created in 1998 are now gone.
• 320 Million with a new one being added every 4 seconds.
• Library of Congress houses some 125 million items.

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass. It is easy for historians to trace the creative process for print; find the collection and look at it.

Page One, Page Two, Page Three, Page Four.

Cory Doctrow

What happens to his manuscripts? How will we read them in the future?
Do we preserve is printed book, the online version, or both? Are they different objects?
Will we want to preserve his blog and bookmarks too?
How about his CPU?

How Can We Preserve our Digital Cultural Heritage?

• Individual collectors.
• Distributed efforts.
• Broad collations.
• Note to authors and publishers: preservation begins with production.

Preservation Efforts that are Underway

Neil Young and The Grateful Dead

In 1990 Neil Young hired an audio engineer, a video engineer and an archivist to begin work on creating an archival/asset management system for Young’s work. It was supposed to be a three-month project, but 13 years later they are still working. The Grateful Dead has an archive, called the Vault, which generates $10 to $13 million a year. It 26 member staff includes an archivist.

Science publisher Elsevier and The Royal Library of the Netherlands

The KB will receive digital copies of all Elsevier journals made available on its web platform, ScienceDirect, which are approximately 1,500 journals covering all areas of science, technology and medicine, and exceeding 7 TB of data.

National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP)

Back today after a trip to Austin for SXSW, and one day in Phoenix for PLA. It was the perfect trip. Two photos (one of Tantek, Jeffrey and Josh, and another of Carrie, Jeffrey, Jessica, Billy and Tantek) seemed worthy of posting. Had I a photo for every fondly remembered experience, my sysadmin might be upset.

Upon arrival in Phoenix, we were blindfolded (security purposes only) and escorted to International Lemurzone HQ where we supped on manicotti topped with Lemurzone red sauce. Strawberry shortcake, freshly whipped cream, and the perfect cup of coffee followed.

The hospitality was topped only by the company: Lindsay, Mark Newhouse, six dogs, and four cats. I am only sad that the evening was cut short by our 11PM flight home.

Notes from my PLA talk, Sticky Sites on a Shoestring, are here.

The book is done; just shipped the last chapter. A few revisions wait for my attention. Then production begins.

Here is a little something from Web Design on a Shoestring, Chapter 5. The Design: Looking Good With Less. I am looking for inspiring stories about CMS on the cheap. Please contact me if you have any.

Typography as a Three-Step Facelift

Imagine this scenario. You have just started a new job as an in house web designer, and the first thing your boss wants you to do is clean up the web site. She has given you a week and no money to do it. This is not to be a complete redesign; that will come later when you have a little more cash. You just need to give it a facelift.

Assume that your cluttered site was created three years ago. While it is fine as the boss’s nephew’s first web site, it makes your company look amateurish and out of touch.

Start with the typography, and use it to define your style, simplify your color scheme, and clean up the visual lines in your site. Think about the variety of typefaces, how consistently each typeface is being used, and the placement of text on the screen. Ask yourself how you might change these three typographical elements — variety, consistent use and placement — to eliminate visual clutter and to improve the site. This analysis begins three-step facelift that will inexpensively add elegance and style to what every design you are trying to improve. Your boss will wish her Botox treatment had been as successful and pain free.

1. The Careful Variety of Typefaces

The least expensive way to create uniformity and hierarchy is to select two or three good typefaces. Try to select typefaces that together create strong visual contrast, and that look good on a computer screen.

2. The Consistent Use of Typefaces

Once you have selected your typefaces, write a quick visual style guide that will dictate how each of the typefaces will be used. This guide should prescribe a set of rules that cover elements like headlines, site-wide navigation, body copy, links and call-outs. You will undoubtedly go back and make changes to these rules as you begin implementation. That is fine; just be sure to update your style guide.

3. Creating Clean Lines by Placing Text

When you lay text out on the screen, make sure that you use clean lines. The alignment of each text area should be strong, and should relate visually to other text areas on the page. Clean placement costs no more than sloppy placement, but it adds tremendously to the integrity of your design.

Take the three elements — careful variety of typefaces, the consistent use of those typefaces, and the clean lines via typeface placement — and start cutting.