Here are some of the great things I’ve found this week: Roy Tennant’s brilliant What I Wish I Had Known, a reflection on the things he would have been better off knowing back when he was finishing up library school. It’s important for people to reflect on their mistakes, both to learn from them and …
I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about Library 2.0 that I’m not comfortable with. And again, it was thinking back to my former career that gave me my lightbulb moment. In my second job as a therapist, I was part of a large-scale grant-funded program which required that we provide therapy based …
Is your library doing something exciting with social software? Do you know of a library or a librarian who is doing cool stuff with social software? The applications could either be for their patrons or for the profession. I’m looking for the best examples out there to highlight in my book. I’d love to see …
I’m never afraid to try something and have it fail. I’d rather learn from a mistake than learn nothing because I was afraid to make a mistake. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Certainly, in the four months I’ve been at my job, I’ve learned a great deal (in …
The unsinkable Rachel Singer Gordon’s column about the role Gen-X’ers can play as a bridge between the boomers and the millennials. She’s dead-on and this is an article you should clip out and give to the boomer library administrators you know. Heidi Dolamore’s blog, Quiddle. Her posts about her job interviews should be read by …
It’s interesting to watch the lack of dialogue between librarians who are rah-rah Web/Library 2.0 advocates and those who think it’s all a bunch of hot air. It’s like two parallel conversations, with no intersections between the two conversations. The pro-2.0 people don’t defend the concept and the anti-2.0 people don’t seem to acknowledge any …
HigherEd BlogCon is a totally online conference exploring the new technologies being used in higher education. I am thrilled to announce that I am going to be chairing the Library and Information Resource track for the conference and am excited about getting submissions from librarians who are thinking about the future of social software and …
I’ve talked a lot in the past about the gulf that is growing between libraries that are change agents and libraries that are change averse. Lately, I’ve been seeing a new gulf growing in libraries, that has less to do with one’s attitude towards change and more to do with the skills of one’s staff. …
These days it’s completely impossible to keep up with all of the “Web 2.0” apps out there. I read eHub and TechCrunch and it seems like dozens of social software apps are released in beta (or even alpha!) each day. Social browsers, collaborative editing tools, RSS aggregators, social search, mashups of other social software apps …
I am not one of those people — like Steven Cohen or Jessamyn — who is very comfortable giving talks. No matter how well I know the material, I still get insanely nervous when I have to get up in front of people to talk. I’ve never had a talk go badly, but it doesn’t …
The big buzz on my campus (and probably many others) is that Blackboard is buying WebCT. Here’s a snippet from a very long press release at PRNewswire: The merger of Blackboard and WebCT marks a major milestone in the build-out of networked learning environments by colleges, universities, schools and other education providers. It creates a …
It’s rare that I can sneakVermont into a discussion about technology, but today I have the perfect excuse! In today’s Barre Montpelier Times Argus (originally in the New York Times) I read an article called Podcast for your leaf-peeping?. Yankee Magazine has created weekly podcasts about the foliage, including foliage forecasts, music, narrated driving tours …
I got our Virtual Private Server all set up at work so now I can get to the business of actually putting up webby things. I’d really love to create some sort of Staff Intranet where we can post announcements and info so that our email boxes don’t become clogged with them. I was thinking …
This is not a term I am particularly fond of simply for the fact that no two people seem to define it in the same way. Also, call me a curmudgeon, but I just don’t like buzz words. Since I categorically refuse to use a term I can’t clearly define, I set out to learn …
Over the past month, I’ve worked with the folks at WebJunction to develop September’s Online Communities focus. I had the opportunity to work with some fantastic librarians/writers/bloggers and got to do some wiki evangelizing in my own two articles. It was the first time I’ve ever been involved in the publishing process and the first …
When I was a child, I was always reading (surprise, surprise, right?). Often, I would read books that were perhaps a little advanced for my age range in terms of the vocabulary. I’d lay in bed with my book and my most trusty sidekick: my dictionary. When I’d read a word I didn’t know, I …
Next month, WebJunction’s editorial focus will be on Online Community for Public Libraries and I was asked to serve as guest editor for this segment. I know I don’t work at a public library anymore, but I am very passionate about developing online communities using blogs, wikis, and other online media, and these obviously can …
I don’t know how much I’ll be able to post during the month of August. Between the move and the probability of Internet access issues, I can’t promise anything. I’m sure I’ll be able to write a bit about what’s going on with the move and the job, but the longer posts will probably have …
I’ve never understood librarians who are afraid of change. Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I doubt it, because I’m probably a bigger fan of routine than the average person. I’m far more open to change inside the library world than outside in my personal life. I’m not a believer in the whole “change is …
I have gotten several emails from library students who feel that their programs are not teaching them enough about technology. The student I heard from a few days ago expressed concerns that she would be at a distinct disadvantage when she got out of school and wondered if I learned what I know about technology …