Yes, this is from a real email:
Ha, I love saying, “hack my way into JSTOR”: it’s so mildly subversive and so painfully academic at the same time. Like painting academic graffiti (with in-text citations) on a library wall or something.
If you’d shown me this when I was in high school and told me I’d written it, I’m not sure I would even have understood it, let alone gotten any enjoyment out of such a glimpse of my future self. As an undergrad? Oh my, I can imagine how dumbstruck I would have been.
And now? Muhahaha.
My, how people change.
Ahem. I get it, but, perchance, do you really *cough* know how to hack into JSTOR? That would be most convenient for me…
I love it. I’m a big fan of both JSTOR and citations in library-wall graffiti.
Oh, no, I wouldn’t have the faintest clue. ;)
And it kills me that the first response to this post is not commenting on the geekery, but indulging in same. Muhahaha.
What geekery? I’d also be curious about the convenience James mentions…
Geek!
Bugmenot often has passwords for places like JSTOR and even places where registration is free… Failing that, you can usually find errant passwords on Livejournal, or by googling the ovbious phrase… :)
But I’m not condoning hacking into JSTOR or other wonderfully subversive, independent-scholarly activities. Ya geeks!
Tara,
Sorry, as you’re a new commenter, your comment got held in moderation for a bit.
Likes JSTOR and citations in library-wall graffiti, huh? A reader (and fellow writer) after my own heart. Welcome, and by the way, nice blog you’ve got yourself got over there…
mmm….academic graffiti. Wow, that’s l33t, I never thought of using Bugmenot to get into JSTOR.
You’re making me remember my favorite hangout in the college library back when I was in highschool — the HQ section. (insert Beavis and Butthead laugh here)
V,
Yeah, not so 133t, really. :) But handy for those whose universities don’t subscribe to that service. (For some reason the medical college has access, and we don’t.)
As for the college library — sorry, but what’s the HQ section? Oh, wait, is that some weird American thing? (Library of Congress system? ie. “Marriage. Family. Women”) Or am I totally missing your joke?
I was pleased to find that my building has automatic access to JSTOR. One of the few advantages to living on campus, but a nice one.
(Also, picking up passwords off the internet or Bug Me Not isn’t really hacking, so I’m going to continue to entertain the idea that you did something far more subversive…)
Charles,
Yeah, I envy you. We have database access, but the databases aren’t the ones I need, AFAIK. I was told, “Just request the articles you want and we’ll have them printed at another campus and sent over,” but I’d rather have the electronic format so I can store and read at leisure, and so on.
As for password-filching, who said I was doing that? ;)
Gord, I have access to pretty much anything through the UC system. If you need an article on not-very-short notice, just drop me a line.
~T
Thanks, Tristan! I definitely appreciate the offer.
I think I can probably get access if I wander over to one of the other Universities in Seoul, too — as I remember, Yonsei University and Seoul National University allow anyone to enter with an ID card, and I could probably database-trawl while there. I just wish I had access from campus, is all.
(Also, I could be mistaken: maybe Science Fiction Studies and NYROSF and so on are all available in one of the databases to which my campus subscribes. I should bug a librarian about that.)