Congrats to the 2009 Movers and Shakers!career, librarianship, libraries, management, our digital future, social software, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 3/16/2009 with 3 comments

Take a look at this truly amazing group of people that Library Journal chose to recognize this year. I’ve never known more folks on the list and so many are folks I absolutely adore: Sarah Houghton-Jan – it’s kind of amazing that she had not been recognized as a Mover and Shaker before this given …

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It’s not all about the tech – why 2.0 tech failslibraries, management, online education, our digital future, social software, speaking, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 3/14/2009 with 6 comments

Yesterday, I gave a talk for the ACRL Virtual Conference entitled Can’t Get There From Here: Achieving Organization 2.0. If you’re registered for the Virtual Conference or the regular ACRL Conference, you can access the archive of the talk, and if not, my slides and links to what I discussed are provided on my presentation …

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Online conferences – the future is nowALA, free the information!, librarianship, online education, our digital future, social software, speaking, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 2/15/2009 with 11 comments

I’ve been lucky to have had some recent involvement with two online conference models — one that recently happened and one that will be happening soon. I’m really pleased to see more organized professional development opportunities being offered online in light of the current economic situation and, selfishly, the fact that I personally won’t be …

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Libraries in tough times – what about librarians?ALA, american libraries, job search, librarianship

by Meredith Farkas on 1/21/2009 with 13 comments

Yesterday I received the ALDirect (from American Libraries) Special Issue on the Tough Economy in my Inbox. It contained great information about library advocacy during tough times. What I found glaringly missing from this email was any discussion about or tips for librarians who’ve been laid off or about-to-graduate LIS students. Obviously, if we advocate …

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Separate but not equal?librarianship, libraries, online education, our digital future, reference, social software, Work

by Meredith Farkas on 1/10/2009 with 24 comments

When I read David King’s post about Ask-a-Librarian services last week, I didn’t have a strong emotional response to it. That was, until he wrote a follow up which brought my attention to some of the responses people had made to it. With email reference, it’s pretty obvious that it’s not a synchronous medium. We …

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A lesson in bad customer service: Pottery Barn Kidslibrarianship

by Meredith Farkas on 1/2/2009 with 5 comments

You can view an update to this post (and an update to my update) here. In an economy where there’s lots of competition for a smaller and smaller number of dollars, good customer service becomes an issue of survival. While product is important, customer service can make the difference between creating a life-long customer and …

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Technology education and the “real world”american libraries, instruction, librarianship, libraries, library school, open source, our digital future, social software

by Meredith Farkas on 12/15/2008 with 20 comments

I just love that feeling of serendipity when I find that people are thinking about the same things I am at the same time. Karin Dalziel made an impassioned case for every librarian to learn how to program. Dorothea Salo responded to it and described how she thinks technology should be taught in library school. …

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Validation of my crackpot teaching ideasblogging, free the information!, instruction, library school, online education, social software

by Meredith Farkas on 12/11/2008 with 5 comments

Last week, my students in the Web 2.0 and Social Networking class I teach (at San Jose State) presented their fantastic proposals (via web conference) for implementing a specific social tool at a specific type of library. I was so impressed with their creativity and professionalism. Each of them made a very good case for …

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TRLN Management Academy: Inspiring!career, librarianship, libraries, management, Work

by Meredith Farkas on 12/11/2008 with Comments Off on TRLN Management Academy: Inspiring!

I know people have been bemoaning the death of blogging in recent months. I certainly haven’t helped any with my lack of posting, but it’s certainly not from a lack of inspiration nor from my immersion with microblogging (which I’ve never quite managed to get into on a regular basis). I actually have lots of …

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