Archive for March, 2005

My bags are packed…

Wednesday, March 30th, 2005

Darn it! Spring’s finally sprung in Chicago and I have to go away!!! Well, at least I had one lovely day of walking the city streets without mittens and seeing all of the happy people sitting outside in street cafes. This is the best time to be in the city. When it starts to warm [...]

Community at work

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2005

I just want to thank everyone who wrote me with insights and suggestions for my presentation. I have received so many wonderful emails over the past week from my colleagues. And a special thanks to Steven Cohen and Paul Pival for getting the word out for me. What I love most about blogging is the [...]

Podcasting in education

Monday, March 21st, 2005

To continue my theme of practical user-centered applications of technology in libraries and education, I started thinking about podcasting. I don’t really know how it could be used in libraries. I don’t imagine patrons would want to listen to an audio listing of events or interesting items read by their librarians and I don’t know [...]

technology in information literacy: an appeal

Thursday, March 17th, 2005

I’m going to be doing a presentation on information literacy in a few weeks, and I’m planning on looking at how new technologies can be used in information literacy instruction. I was thinking of looking at screencasting/flash tutorials (using camtasia, captivate, etc.), podcasting, wikis, blogging, rss, social bookmarking (del.icio.us, FURL, etc.), or anything else that [...]

Ok, you were right… [about Podcasting]

Wednesday, March 16th, 2005

I’ll admit that I was initially somewhat indifferent to podcasting. I’m not sure why… maybe I thought it was just a flash in the pan and would disappear as quickly as it appeared. Or because I’m not currently driving anywhere and I can’t listen to things and read/write at the same time. Well, I’m willing [...]

Skyperviews?!?!? How cool!!!

Wednesday, March 16th, 2005

Just about every day, I learn about some other cool use for new technologies that makes my head spin. And I love it. Alan Levine (of cogdogblog) has been interviewing librarians and other techies via skype for an article about recent trends in Internet audio. Here, he writes about what he used to do it. [...]

Federated searching and why users aren’t finding/using your electronic materials

Wednesday, March 16th, 2005

Looking at my alma mater’s library website, I noticed that they are implementing a new federated search tool that searches eight resources (a mix of A&I databases and full-text). It’s powered by Metalib from Ex Libris, a company I think is pretty great. I was really excited at first, until I decided to test it [...]

Movers and Shakers!

Tuesday, March 15th, 2005

Two bloggers from whose writing I get a great deal of food for thought were just named “movers and shakers” by Library Journal. Congratulations Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens! You two really should be proud — not of some mention in Library Journal, but for all you’ve done for your libraries and for librarianship. Rock [...]

The job hunt heats up

Thursday, March 10th, 2005

I got a call yesterday from an institution I’d interviewed with over the phone last week. They want to fly me down to interview with the search committee, my potential supervisor, and anyone from the library staff or University faculty who want to watch me present on three topics (eeek!). I’m kind of excited about [...]

The highlight of my weekend

Tuesday, March 8th, 2005

My husband and I were having dinner with the new librarian friend I met at the conference last week and her fiancee (who is also a librarian). He said that he’s heard I was a blogger and asked what the title of my blog was. So I told him and he exclaimed: Oh my gosh! [...]

Geek confessions

Tuesday, March 8th, 2005

Via the Eclectic Librarian, I learned about and helped to stop a grave injustice. What was this terrible injustice you might ask? It was poor Wesley Crusher (from Star Trek: The Next Generation) being again named the most annoying character on the show. The Eclectic Librarian pointed me to Wil Wheaton’s blog, which I’ve browsed [...]

Finding a job far far away…

Saturday, March 5th, 2005

I have encountered one major problem in my job search that may or may not be attributable to the generation gap: the fact that many libraries will not consider applications from people outside of their general area. This applies more to public library positions than academic ones, but really, I have no idea whether geography [...]

What They Didn’t Tell You in Library School

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2005

So this week I’m all alone in the big chilly city of Chicago (hubby’s in New England on business). When, on Monday, I heard that there was a free conference being offered by the North Suburban Library System that week, I decided it would be a great to go and meet some fabulous Chicago-area librarians. [...]