Subscribe to this blog
librarianship
« Previous Entries Next Entries »Chicago here I come!
Sunday, July 5th, 2009I still don’t quite think it’s hit me that I’ll be leaving in a few days for ALA with my husband and baby. Not only is it Reed’s first flight ever (and I sure hope he likes airplanes!), but it’s my first time speaking at an in-person conference since October (I gave two talks online [...]
2.0 or and bust
Saturday, July 4th, 2009
Since before my brain was hijacked by baby stuff, I’ve been thinking a lot about how many third party Web 2.0 vendors libraries are dependent upon (not to mention all the ones we’re dependent on personally!). I actually wrote a column for American Libraries on the subject, but 600 words could not reflect the whole [...]
Answers – and I thought that was our schtick!
Friday, June 26th, 2009As a new mother, I spend a a lot of time awake with Reed when most sensible people are asleep. Consequently, I’ve seen plenty of infomercials and commercials that are rarely if ever on television when sensible people are awake (my personal favorite is the Lee Majors Bionic Ear — “it won’t cost six million, [...]
Do you link to Harvard Business Review from EBSCO?
Friday, June 26th, 2009Paul Pival wrote today and yesterday about “mafia tactics by Harvard Business School Publishing”, wherein they are trying to charge libraries to link to articles from Harvard Business Review in EBSCO for online classroom use and then are turning off PURLs to HBR articles in Business Source products if the school refuses to pay. I’ve [...]
Do we need library ombudsmen?
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009I recently had a not-so-fun experience with our local hospital which reminded me of how important it is to ensure one’s front-line staff are empowered to question things. During our childbirth class – which was sponsored by the hospital where I was going to be giving birth – we were told by our childbirth educator [...]
Didn’t know I needed to be a salesperson
Friday, April 10th, 2009Yes, I knew I’d have to teach people how to use email. And unjam printers. And help people use copiers. But I don’t think I ever understood in library school how important sales and marketing would be to the success of our profession. Within a month of starting work as the Distance Learning Librarian at [...]
Looking beyond the technolust
Monday, April 6th, 2009Let me preface this post with the statement that I hate the term Luddite. I think it’s often used to dismiss people and ideas that differ from our own. It’s much easier to dismiss someone as being anti-tech than to try and understand what may be their very rational argument against something you love or [...]
I’ve been provoked!
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009Steven Bell commented in a recent ACRLog post that there hasn’t been much reaction to the Taiga Forum Provocative Statements. I’ve seen a few reactions online and here’s mine — YAWN. Seriously, I found a lot more to like about John Dupuis’ crititicisms of the Taiga Forum Provocative Statements than about the statements themselves. I’m [...]
Congrats to the 2009 Shovers and Makers!
Monday, March 23rd, 2009In case you haven’t heard about the coolest new award in librarianship, I wanted to add my congratulations to all of the Library Society of the World Shovers and Makers award winners. This award was developed by three of my favorite people (who always manage to make me smile) — Josh Neff, Steve Lawson and [...]
Congrats to the 2009 Movers and Shakers!
Monday, March 16th, 2009Take 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 [...]
It’s not all about the tech – why 2.0 tech fails
Saturday, March 14th, 2009Yesterday, 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 [...]
Why not?
Sunday, March 8th, 2009I have been so touched by the kind words people have written about me with respect to my winning the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology (or as my father-in-law started calling it to everyone he saw last weekend “tech librarian of the year” — lol). I always feel [...]
Online conferences – the future is now
Sunday, February 15th, 2009I’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 [...]
ALA Annual Unconference
Wednesday, February 11th, 2009For the past year and a half, I’ve had the pleasure of serving on Jim Rettig’s Presidential Advisory Committee. I honestly had no idea at the time what it would mean to be on this committee, but Jim seemed like a really cool guy with a vision for a more inclusive ALA, and I really [...]
Libraries in tough times – what about librarians?
Wednesday, January 21st, 2009Yesterday 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 [...]
Want to come work for me?
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009We are sadly losing our beloved Distance Learning Librarian to her family (but good for her!), so we are again in the position of looking for a new Distance Learning Librarian. The position reports to me and I’ve had a wonderful time mentoring our current DLL and growing in my role as a manager. I [...]
Separate but not equal?
Saturday, January 10th, 2009When 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 [...]
Making progress on library instruction
Wednesday, January 7th, 2009Last April, I started in my new position as Head of Instructional Initiatives, though for the first four months, I was also still doing the job of Distance Learning Librarian. Since taking this on at the end of July as my only job, it’s been a wild ride. I took a lot of risks, tried [...]
A lesson in bad customer service: Pottery Barn Kids
Friday, January 2nd, 2009You 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 [...]
Internet Cool Tools for Physicians
Thursday, December 18th, 2008My friend, the incredibly awesome David Rothman, has co-authored a book (with another fantastic medical librarian and a physician) on Internet Cool Tools for Physicians. The book is designed to help physicians find the best medical resources on the web. Given the glut of medical resources online — some questionable, some excellent — this should [...]
« Previous Entries Next Entries »