I’m really excited about ALA and I can’t believe it’s coming up so soon! I’m giving three talks and have to do signings and appearances at the exhibits on Saturday, so I don’t have a lot of time to see DC or to go to sessions other than my own. Still, it’s going to be …
When I read Michael Gorman’s two-part blog post (yes, I said blog post; if that isn’t the height of irony…) to respect the wisdom of the expert over the wisdom of the crowd, I thought of two people: Ayn Rand and Eric Cartman. The piece had all of Ayn Rand’s black-and-white, either-or thinking as well …
A couple of weeks ago, I finally received copies of my re-printed book. The laminate is on nice and tight as it should be and the cover colors are a bit lighter. It looks good. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like my book is shipping (at least I have not heard of anyone receiving a copy) …
We talk a great deal about the importance of being more transparent to our patrons. Things like blogs, flickr, etc. can help put a human face on the library, make us seem more approachable and friendly. For my August column for American Libraries (which I just finished) I wrote about how Virginia Commonwealth University’s library …
Rachel tagged me with a new meme and challenged me to come up with eight random things about myself. I feel like I’ve disclosed a lot on this blog, so I had a hard time coming up with anything anyone would find remotely interesting. Here goes nothing! My favorite author right now (and for the …
I’m sure you’ve all heard that our dear Walt Crawford will be free of his job at OCLC at the end of September 2007 (if you don’t recognize the name, you certainly know his excellent monthly publication Cites and Insights or you almost certainly have his MARC for Library Use somewhere in your professional collection …
I have to remember to give Sarah Houghton-Jan a big pat on the back next time I see her for her post on social networking software. In it she risks ostracism de-friending 😉 to articulate some of her gripes about the dilution of social networks. One gripe in particular is one I’ve been thinking about …
I’m back from my whirlwind vacation. I returned Monday night, but I’ve been so exhausted since then that I haven’t had the energy to post (and yesterday was my birthday, so I had to devote lots of time to eating pie). It was a physically and mentally exhausting trip. Lots of hiking, lots of driving …
I’m at the airport right now heading off to the second part of my 2-week vacation. However, I’ve gotten a bunch of panicked e-mails from people who have ordered their books through Amazon and received an e-mail that the book is not available and that their order has been cancelled. I just wanted to say …
I’m sure those of you who have ordered Social Software in Libraries are wondering when your books will be coming. Believe me, I’m more anxious than anyone to see the new and pristine version (see this post for background on the first printing snafu). I have been assured by John Bryans, Editor-in-Chief of Information Today …
I’m coming to the point in my year when things really start to get crazy. I’ve got in the neighborhood of six or seven talks coming up in the next seven weeks. I have a book chapter on librarians and library services being embedded into online courseware due at the end of this month for …
I have always enjoyed reading books and articles about certain places written by foreigners. Whether it is the British writer Jonathan Raban writing about America, the early 20th century British adventurer, Freya Stark, writing about “Arabia”, or American journalist, Adam Gopnick, writing about Paris, there is something special in their writing that comes from seeing …
Ok, enough of my very rusty and pathetic French. 🙂 Tomorrow I’ll be heading up to beautiful Montreal for the Quebec Library Association Conference. I’ll be giving a talk on the afternoon of May 4th entitled Building Collaboration with Wikis (the description — in English and French naturellement — is available in the program). If …
In Please, Not Another Wiki Casey Bisson complains about the proliferation of wikis: Perhaps I cringe at any suggestion to create a new wiki because I wonder why that content can’t be published on an existing wiki. Perhaps I cringe because I wonder if the proprietary motivation to create a new wiki is itself in …
Last night, I got an e-mail asking if I’d like to join the LITA Top Technology Trends panel as one of their experts. And it didn’t take me more than 2 seconds to decide that I was going to say yes. Wow! What an honor to be included with such a distinguished group of professionals! …
Stephen Abram wrote a column for Information Outlook on Learning 2.0 called 15 Minutes a Day: A Personal Learning Management Strategy. So it got me thinking. If I had 15 minutes each day to keep up with technology and libraries’ use of technology, what would I do? Here’s what I would suggest… Keep up with …
When we taught Five Weeks to a Social Library, we used Drupal and kind of had to hack it to make it work as a course management system. Too bad DrupalEd wasn’t out yet. But it is now! The goal of this site is to create a flexible framework that allows for users to set …
My good friend, Roy Tennant, has just accepted a sweet job at OCLC, and he didn’t even have to leave Northern CA! I don’t quite understand exactly what he’ll be doing there, but I know that anything he works on is going to be great. OCLC has been making some good hires lately and I …
I got back home from Computers in Libraries yesterday afternoon. The sky was a beautiful blue (still is) and the weather finally convinced me that it might be possible to get my snow tires removed. What a nice change from the weather I’ve been experiencing in Arlington, VA and New York City over the past …
Meredith Farkas on Social Software Originally uploaded by madinkbeard. I did a lot of blogging at the last two major national conferences I attended. I decided this time, given that I’m giving so many talks, doing the book signing, etc., I would just kind of take things in without writing everything down. I’ll still write …