Archive for February, 2006

VOTE in the election that really matters

Sunday, February 26th, 2006

Update: I am going to keep this survey open the rest of today (Tuesday) and then will close it when I get up Wednesday morning. I’ll announce the results then.
I know Michael is big on surveys and on user-centered change. So I thought, what better way to decide Michael’s new catch phrase than [...]

Help Michael Stephens find a new catch phrase

Friday, February 24th, 2006

For those of you who don’t read Tame the Web and have no idea who Michael Stephens is, you may just want to ignore this post.
For those who do know Michael, I’m sure you know what word frequently comes out of his mouth (or on his blog or on IM) when he’s excited about something.
“HOT.” [...]

Me. Talking. At CIL2006.

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

Ok, well maybe a 15 minute Cybertour isn’t such a big deal for seasoned speakers like Michael Stephens or Alane Wilson, but this is going to be my very first time speaking at a conference. Ever. And for someone who avoided taking classes in college with fewer than 20 people because she [...]

Good reading

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

This has been a rockin’ week for reading — I wish I actually had more time to do it.
Rachel Singer Gordon wrote an amazing column for Library Journal entitled “Secure Our Professional Future”. In it, she makes some very good points about the reality of the current job market and how important [...]

Well… duh!

Tuesday, February 21st, 2006

I just started a blog at work to communicate with my distance students and faculty. For a long time people kept telling me “we have a really old version of WebCT so you can’t have blogs in it.” And realistically I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the distance learners to leave [...]

Congratulations Michael!

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006

In a month where lots of people seem to be making major transitions, I am so happy to congratulate Michael Stephens for his appointment to a tenure-track teaching position at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University!!! I’m happy not only for Michael but for the students who will benefit [...]

CIL 2006 Wiki

Sunday, February 12th, 2006

I know less than nothing about Washington D.C. and even less about the Computers in Libraries conference. And I bet I’m not the only one. I do know that there are a whole bunch of folks who probably know a lot about both topics, so I thought it would be nice to have [...]

So who’s going to Computers in Libraries?

Sunday, February 12th, 2006

I am!!!! I’m so excited! This will be my first Information Today conference and I can’t wait to meet all the people I’ve only known online and hang out with some of the bloggers I haven’t seen since ALA. YAY!!!
Is there anything I should know about the conference or about D.C.? [...]

The road to hell is paved with good intentions

Sunday, February 12th, 2006

I’ve been doing a whole lot of thinking lately about helping patrons, marketing our services, and just generally about making libraries better. Something Steven Bell wrote recently got me thinking about the idea that there are some librarians who just don’t want to improve libraries:
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t think that making [...]

I’ve been tagged: four things.

Friday, February 10th, 2006

Wow! I think this is the first time I’ve ever been tagged for a meme. You like me! You really like me! Thanks Nicole!
Four jobs I’ve had:
1. Lemonade stand owner
2. “Girl Friday” (as my boss called me) at a local non-profit cultural organization
3. Child and Family Psychotherapist
4. Library Assistant I
Four movies [...]

Working on the book: lessons learned so far

Wednesday, February 8th, 2006

For those who don’t know, I am currently writing a book on libraries and technology. At this point, I can’t even imagine what life would be like if I didn’t spend every weekend doing research and writing. I mean, I do something book-related almost every day, so it’s completely sewn into the [...]

Marketing @ my library: your input needed

Wednesday, February 1st, 2006

OK, so I’m not a marketing expert by any stretch of the imagination. But I know that we need some serious marketing PR stuff to go on at my library. We have very low reference desk usage stats. I think part of it might be the population (over 50% military) but a [...]