Steph at TechnoBiblio wrote about an interesting observation at a recent panel discussion she attended: The final panelist came forth with a statement that seemed to take the audience by surprise, but it really shouldn’t have… “Users don’t care.” They don’t care that the subject specific databases will bring back more relevant hits. They don’t …
So many great library related things to listen to online! Libraries of the Future From WBEZ (soon to be my public radio station — woo hoo!) a fabulous discussion about why people are still visiting libraries in the digital age and what innovative things libraries are doing to keep patrons coming back. [real audio] Greg …
TangognaT turned me on to Cheap Eats at the Semantic Web Café from Burningbird. It’s mega meta-post on folksonomies and the Semantic Web. Technorati tags, controlled vocabulary versus folksonomies, the spam and abuse factors, Clay Shirky, Rebecca Blood, Tim Bray, etc. Insanely comprehensive and quite thoughtful insights on the subject. If you’re going to read …
I’ve been reading a lot of great articles and posts about the viability of virtual reference and how we can make it better for our patrons. The Library Journal article, Virtual Reference: Alive and Well, by Brenda Bailey-Hainer, talks about how virtual reference services will only be cost effective when done as cooperative ventures between …
Michael McGrorty is an ALA Councilor and a man of conscience. He is one of the few people who has made more than a mention about the Salinas libraries and he pushed the ALA to approve a resolution about the libraries’ closing. He’s also a damn good writer. Please read some of his writings about …
Curious about what a library web manager does in an average day? Dave King offers us a glimpse into his work at the Kansas City Public Library: Checked email, bloglines, news sites (I really need to aggregate some news feeds). I did this constantly throughout the day. Met with supervisor about different projects – once …
During one of my interviews this week, I asked the interviewers what some of their biggest challenges were at their library. One of the challenges they mentioned was keeping all the staff on the same page about policy changes and news when people worked varying shifts. This is a common issue in libraries. The fines …
In light of IBM’s offer to allow use of 500 of their software patents for open source applications, Sun is now freely offering 1600 of its own patents for open source development. This comes on the heels of their announcement that they are open sourcing Solaris’ source code through the CDDL (Common Development and Distribution …
We all know what networking is, but as an MLS student or a new librarian with few connections, it is difficult to know where to begin. It can be particularly difficult for those first-time job seekers who can’t afford to attend conferences and meet fellow librarians in person. Priscilla Shontz has an excellent article on …
People have been up in arms about the news that the Philadelphia Free Library system is running 20 of its 49 libraries without professional librarians. I think it’s awful too, but on several levels. Yes, it’s awful that the library system thinks these libraries can be run without a single MLS staffing them. I agree …
I’m back from Chicago with two more interviews under my belt. It’s lovely to see that Illinois really seems to value their libraries — or at the very least, the communities value their libraries. Coming from Florida, a state where the Governor wanted to dismantle the state library and sell it off to a university, …
There are a few bloggers who have spent a lot of time questioning the library shortage due to their own experiences in library school and on the job hunt. Dorothea Salo at Caveat Lector seems passionate about librarianship, but has become disillusioned by much of what she’s been told by library schools and the ALA. …
From the PLA Blog, I learned that the ALA is planning to launch a recruitment website to attract more future librarians to the profession. I’ve written a whole bunch about the so-called librarian shortage and have made no bones about the fact that I think it’s a major bunch of hooey. Sure, I believe in …
David King at Dave’s blog asks some valid questions about Sirsi’s new RSS offering: But for me, there are some questions I’ll need to answer to become completely satisfied with the product. Mainly, because the way I’m reading SIRSI’s PDF, to use the RSS feed part, you have to purchase SIRSI Rooms (a separate product …
Feedster has come out with a job search tool where users can search for a job and then subscribe to the feed for that search. I put in a search for “librarian” and there weren’t too many good, current, or relevant results. Perhaps it would be a better tool in searching under other fields (business …
All of the photos I’ve taken with my regular camera over the past few years are sitting in a shoebox. They aren’t at all organized and, as a result, I rarely look at them. However, the digital photos my husband and I have taken are well-organized for easy browsing thanks to Picasa. I have been …
Exciting news from the world of ILS’s [as reported by Jenny at The Shifted Librarian]! I’ve been crawling out of my skin with anticipation, waiting to be able to announce this, and now it’s finally official! Sirsi will be the first ILS vendor to offer native RSS feeds out of the catalog, and they’ve gone …
Clive Thompson at collision detection posed an interesting question in his blog today: “can you think better when you’re typing?” I’ve found, at least for the past 10 years, that the quality of my writing is far better when I type than when I write. I’m not sure if it’s because I can type very …
For those who have an RSS feed for their blog, you can now easily submit your feed to 15 aggregators using Feed Submitter by Thomas Korte. If you find that your submission fails on some of the aggregator sites, it may be because you’re already listed on there. [via Research Buzz]
Is referrer spam getting you down? Killing refferer spam has become an obsession for Dorothea at Caveat Lector over the past week, and she shares some useful tips on how to eradicate it, along with a narrative of her own experiences. Don’t know what referrer spam is? Here’s a definition from Wikipedia: When someone accesses …