Episode 689: We Don't Have A National Library... Or Do We?

Episode 689: We Don't Have A National Library... Or Do We?

The show team, with the help of cataloger Sofia Slutskaya, discusses the Library of Congress and tries to answer the question, "We don't have a National Library... or do we?" Guest: Sofia Slutskaya, Head of Resource Description at Emory University Libraries. Transcript at: https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81867 [https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81867] First broadcast July 10, 2026. Playlist [https://www.wrek.org/read/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-july-10-2026-we-dont-have-a-national-library-or-do-we-episode-689] "As a cataloger, I need a more precise definition."

Episode 688: Discarding the Analytic Solution

A Georgia Tech faculty member describes how using AI to write MATLAB code improved a course on chemical reactor design and the benefits of discarding the analytic solution for complex, real-life problems. Guest: Dr. Michael Filler of the Georgia Tech School of Chemical And Biomolecular Engineering. First broadcast June 26 2026. Transcript at https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81864 [https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81864] Playlist [https://www.wrek.org/read/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-june-26-2026-discarding-the-analytic-solution-episode-688] "You are expected to use AI tools in this course."

Episode 687: Clickbait

The show team discusses the 2013 blog post "The End of the Library [https://techcrunch.com/2013/10/13/the-end-of-the-library/]" by M.G. Siegler, clickbait that argued that the economics of ebooks and the existence of the Internet meant that libraries had to change or disappear. First broadcast June 12 2026. Transcript at https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81848 [https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81848] Playlist [https://www.wrek.org/read/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-june-12-2026-the-end-of-the-library-episode-687] "Today's episode is called 'The End of the Library.' No it's not, it's called Clickbait."

Episode 686: Get In The Car, It's Summer

The show team has an unthemed conversation for this summer free cut. They discuss travelling to see art, Google Maps, having your assumptions tested, failure as growth, and if the phrase "get in the car, it's summer" has any significant cultural meaning. First broadcast June 5 2026. Transcript at https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81828 [https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81828] Playlist [https://www.wrek.org/read/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-june-5-2026-get-in-the-car-its-summer-episode-686] "Yeah, it's not really working for me."

Episode 685: Multimodal Hamlet

Georgia Tech faculty members talk about experimenting with virtual reality tools in a composition course, students experiencing multimodal Hamlet, and assessing how best to teach the "To be or not to be" monologue. Audio from a live recording during the Georgia Tech Library's Media Arts Day [https://library.gatech.edu/events/media-arts-day-2026], January 29 2026. Guests: Dr. Kelly Williams, Marion L Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow at Georgia Tech; Dr. Meryem Yilmaz Soylu, research scientist at the Center for 21st Century Universities (C21U); Alison Valk, the Emerging Technologies Librarian at the Georgia Tech Library. First broadcast May 29 2026. Transcript at https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81791 [https://hdl.handle.net/1853/81791] Playlist [https://www.wrek.org/read/playlist-for-lost-in-the-stacks-may-29-2026-multimodal-hamlet-episode-685] "That's as you like it."