About

Welcome to The Pinakes, a discussion of library technology, new and old, and how the two might meet. Your host and bibliophylax is Daniel Ransom. By day I am the Instructional Services Librarian at the California College of the Arts. I am an MLIS graduate from San José State University’s graduate School of Library and Information Science. I have a passion for history, instruction, and modern technology.

This site is named for the first known library catalog. The pinakes was the work of Callimachus of Cyrene, a scholar, poet and librarian of the third century BCE. Callimachus oversaw the famed Great Library of Alexandria at a time it housed all the known knowledge of the Mediterranean world. He is considered by many to be the father of bibliography.

The original pinakes was an index of all the world’s information, divided into eleven categories. I will use this blog as a tool for discovering, describing and indexing the latest tools for information-sharing - how many categories of technology will we discover? From the bronze age to the digital age, from papyrus, to codex, to pdf - it’s all information.

Presentations:

Ransom, D.S. (2016, April). Reframing the narrative: Librarians as innovators in the past and present. Contributed paper at the biennial conference of California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL), Costa Mesa, California.
Carbery, A., Hamelers, R., Pun, R., Ransom, D.S., and Wilson, H. (2015, June). Forum: Frames into Action! Panelist for the College Library Section Forum at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association, San Francisco, California.
Ransom, D.S. (2014, September). Blazed pathways and skillful glancing: Using the lens of library history to focus on the new information literacy framework. Featured speaker at the joint conference of the Kentucky Library Association and the Kentucky Association of School Librarians, Louisville, Kentucky.
Ransom, D.S., Berg, J., Olin, J., Pappas, J., & Chadwick, K. (2014, June). What I really want to do is direct: First-time library directors discuss their experiences. Moderator of a Conversation Starter session at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tkacik, K., Theisen, C., Ransom, D.S., Stade, I., Anderson, K., Wetta, M., & Dobkin, R. (2014, June). TumblarianTalk. Panelist on a Conversation Starter session at the Annual Conference of the American Library Association, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Dahlen, S., Branch, N.A., & Ransom, D.S. (2014, April). Flipped library instruction panel. Panel discussion presented at the California Conference on Library Instruction, Oakland, California.
Branch, N.A., Jackson, J.M., & Ransom, D.S. (2014, April). Database demolition: Exploding the scope of information literacy and leading through pedagogy. Discussion session presented at the biennial conference of California Academic & Research Libraries (CARL), San José, California.