I mentioned PBWiki’s new editing interface a few weeks ago, but this week was the official launch of this tool. I truly think that having a WYSIWYG editor like PBWiki has now is going to break down the biggest barrier to adding content to a wiki. Wiki markup may be easier than HTML for some …
mk1_1024 Originally uploaded by Dave & Bry. This is so cool! Visit the picture in Flickr and click on All Sizes and you can actually see the individual books! And there are many others too! Thanks Dave! 🙂
I always tease Roy Tennant about how so many geek girls (me included) — and probably geek boys too — are totally crushing on him. He doesn’t really “get it”. I think his recent post in TechEssence, “Open Letter to ILS Vendors” is a great example of how smart, pragmatic and (as John Blyberg puts …
The weeks and months before the start of Five Weeks to a Social Library required a significant amount of work, but I don’t think I was prepared for how much time I would need to devote once the course started. However, it has been totally worth it so far. I am literally blown away by …
I have always been an idea person. I probably get that from my dad who has had dozens of business ideas in the 29 years I’ve known him. However, before I became a librarian, I rarely pursued any of the ideas I had. I usually either didn’t know where to start or I didn’t think …
Honeymoon in Big Sur Originally uploaded by librarianmer. My husband, Adam, never likes taking credit for the things he’s done, though he deserves an absolute boatload of it when it come to my successes over the past couple of years. I’m not a naturally confident person, so I doubt I would have accomplish half of …
chickadee Originally uploaded by withrow. To the chickadees, blue jay and brilliant red cardinal I saw in the pine tree just outside my kitchen window as I made breakfast this morning, thank you. I have no idea why you’d want to be here in Vermont when the temperature this morning was well below zero, but …
I’ve been meaning to write about Walt’s great Cites and Insights piece on conference speaking. If you haven’t already read it, do take a look. He combines insights from Rachel Singer Gordon, Dorothea Salo, Jessamyn West and 90 people who participated in Rachel’s survey on the subject with his own insights to create a really …
I just wanted to give people a head’s up that the wiki for this year’s Computers in Libraries conference is up and people are already starting to add content. I’ve already got my schedule online and I’m really excited about speaking at the conference and seeing some of the terrific talks on the roster. I’m …
I’m so happy to finally be able to publicly congratulate Dorothea Salo on her new job as Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I knew Dorothea enjoyed her job at George Mason, but like me, she is not a city person and I know how city life can wear on someone …
One thing I was really excited about with Five Weeks to a Social Library was playing around with Odeo. I’d seen a lot of people using it and it looked like a really great service. I love their cute embedded players. Unfortunately, I seem to have come to it at the point where things are …
On a happy note, a friend of mine has recently started a blog in an area of librarianship that doesn’t get enough discussion in the blogosphere: access services. Mary Chimato is the head of access and delivery services at NCSU, and started Circ and Serve because she saw a gaping hole in its representation on …
I have received many e-mails in regards to the first article in my tenure as a columnist for American Libraries, “Balancing the Online Life” (wish I could link to it, but it isn’t online). Most of them have been very positive, but I did get a few complaints. All of them were from librarians who …
Jennifer Macaulay, who really just has to stop writing such insightful pieces or I will never get anything done, wrote a piece on her experiences as a distance learner a couple of weeks ago. And if I didn’t know better, I would have thought that I had written the entire thing myself, so much did …
In light of what I was writing about wikis and participation, I would like to ask for your help. I have been wanting to have some guidelines on the Library Success Wiki, similar to those that govern the Wikipedia. However, I never wanted to do it on my own for fear that it would be …
David King is in the middle of a terrific series on his blog about inviting participation in Web 2.0/social software tools. Here are the ones he’s come out with so far: Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 Part 2: Passive Invitations Part 3: Active Invitations Check out the comments too where people are making some great …
I remember when I got my job at Norwich, but before I started, I wondered what the new job would mean for my blog. How would my writing reflect on my organization? Would people ask me to censor myself? Fortunately, it has not changed what I write in the least. My blog is separate from …
My post earlier in the week may just have gotten more comments than anything I’ve ever written. I believe Steve Lawson called it “a great trainwreck of a comments thread.” In addition, I have received a dozen e-mails and IMs from readers of my blog extending their support. One of those e-mails was from my …
You know, I was kind of wondering why everything was so quiet today in terms of comments after the post I’d written yesterday. It seemed a bit… odd. Then I look in Akismet and found a whole bunch of comments that it had eaten. I think I’ve restored all of them, but I’m still not …
I remember a few months ago, my friend Rochelle wrote a terrific post about the Second Life Library 2.0. She basically wrote about her first-time experiences in the Second Life realm and how confusing and off-putting it was for her. She voiced some criticisms of the Second Life Library project, which she made clear were …