The latest edition of Tech Therapy covers the differences and similarities between library and IT staff, and discusses why these two groups can’t get along.

The differences? Start with gender: Librarians are stereotypically female, and IT staff members are stereotypically male. Libraries have a long tradition, while IT departments are relatively new. Libraries are very mission-driven, IT departments less so.

But the similarities are striking. “There are three major industries that refer to their customers as ‘users’: IT, libraries, and illicit drugs,” says Tech Therapy’s co-host, Warren Arbogast. Going deeper, both IT staff members and librarians often feel like second-class citizens on campuses. Both groups inhabit a rapidly-changing work environment. Both have insecurities about the future of their...

The Gazette, a newspaper serving the area around Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, recently ran a story about a new policy at Iowa State University: The institution will make students pay to have land-line telephones hooked up in their rooms. Given the triumph of cellphones, we would have thought that this was old news. Certainly, colleges used to bring in some money by providing students with telephone service, but that source of revenue dried up years ago. In fact, it costs money just to hook up the phone.

“Beginning next year, ISU will turn off phone service in dorm rooms and students who want it will have to pay to hook it up,” The Gazette reports. “ISU’s Department of Residence will put the $700,000 in annual savings toward installing wireless in all rooms, at a cost of $...

Those who called for justice in the Sarah Palin e-mail hacking case may get their wish. David Kernell, a 20-year-old economics major at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of accessing Governor Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account without authorization, according to the Associated Press.

The report says that Mr. Kernell, the son of a Democratic Tennessee state representative, faces a maximum of five years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a three-year term of supervised release. His trial is set for mid-December. For now, he has been released on the condition that he will not own a computer and that he will use the Internet only for checking e-mail and doing class...

Starting this coming spring, the University of Texas at Austin will buy e-textbooks as part of an experiment to help students save money.

“If the program, which campus and industry officials say has been tried at other schools, is successful, students would pay $25 to $40 a book in licensing fees,” reports the Austin American-Statesman, but the costs for the university will be much, much higher.

“Courses in chemistry, biochemistry, marketing and accounting will use e-textbooks in the pilot program, which could cost $300,000 to $400,000 for an academic year and include about 1,000 students during the 2009-10 school year.” —Scott Carlson

Technology issues seem to get more entwined with legal issues as the years progress. In the latest edition of Tech Therapy, Michael B. Goldstein, Kenneth D. Salomon, and James M. Burger, three lawyers from Dow Lohnes, talked about how to think about technology and the law.

“Technology has always been important … but it has largely been supporting the academic enterprise,” Mr. Goldstein says. “What has happened now is that it has become integral to the academic program.” That puts IT staff members right at the center of the academic enterprise, which means that they need to be aware of a whole range of legal issues. Yet lawyers are too often brought into the conversation late.

“I always say, ‘Take your lawyer to lunch, because he’s probably lonely,’ and in this case I would say take your IT director to lunch because...

Of the many books that pass through The Chronicle‘s newsroom, this one caught the eye: iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind. Given the recent discussions about technology, learning, and the so-called digital generation over at The Chronicle Review, the book’s theme seemed timely. Mark Bauerlein might feel vindicated by the book’s description of how technology is altering human brains and cognition. Siva Vaidhyanathan might shudder at the characterization of young “digital natives” and old “digital immigrants.”

The book was written by Gary Small, a prominent neuroscientist at the University of California at Los Angeles, and...

On National Public Radio’s Morning Edition today, the reporter David Kestenbaum took a look into a crystal ball for our economic situation.

That is, he reported on a computer model that was developed in the 1980s by Mark Gertler, now an economics professor at New York University, and Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Before becoming chairman, Mr. Bernanke had taught at Stanford University, New York University, and Princeton University. One of his academic interests — and we can hope he studied this one thoroughly — was the Great Depression.

It turns out that his work on the computer model is relevant today, too. “There are lots of models of various aspects of the economy out there,” says Mr. Kestenbaum. “This one is sort of unique because it was designed to incorporate the rippling ...

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on the International Conference on Music Information Retrieval, a meeting that covers “harnessing the power of computers to analyze and manage the world of sound,” which convened at Drexel University recently. It sounds like an interesting event for any fan of music.

“Need a friendly guide for a live performance of Mahler’s Eighth Symphony? A computer program developed at Swarthmore College and Drexel can meet your needs by monitoring the progress of the orchestra and supplying written lyrics and commentary at just the right time.

“Can’t get the hang of improvising a jazz tune on the piano? Looking for music that exactly matches the tempo of your morning jog? Unable to remember the name of that catchy tune stuck in your head? Sophisticated...

The student newspaper at Ohio University has a snarky little editorial about a small policy change at Ohio University’s library — specifically, that the library will bar entry for the Athens public between midnight and 8 a.m. Only students, staff, and faculty members will have access at that time.

College libraries, which can be highly popular gathering spaces, have had to grapple with the tough issues of public access — both to its physical space and to its Internet services.

The editorial says that the policy gives students unfettered access to computers late at night, then adds sarcastically: “Of course, there’s nothing to save the computers for diurnal students during peak library-usage hours.”

There’s more sarcasm about the policy...

An editorial in The Daily Eastern News, the student newspaper of Eastern Illinois University, complains about a policy to require freshmen in some programs (including the journalism program; nice way to get the attention of the student newspaper!) to buy laptop computers. The newspaper says the requirement is a “cost-cutting measure” for the university, which cannot afford to maintain its computer labs.

The Daily Eastern News proposes that the university should hike its technology fees slightly and cut back on buying expensive devices like smart boards and projectors. The editorial quotes James Tidwell, chair of the journalism department, who says that “the university cannot upgrade and support all of the labs on...