Ok, Rilke’s title sounded a lot better. I got an email this morning from a gentleman from New York City who is in his early 40’s. He recently started library school and has been hearing all sorts of horror stories about the job market and how terrible it is to work in public libraries. While …
I am in charge of our website redesign at my job, and I’ve been putting my graduate coursework in Web Usability to work over the past few weeks. This week, I’ve been doing usability testing of students (all Freshman and Sophomores) and here are a few interesting things I’ve learned: The average Freshman doesn’t know …
I just finished writing up all of the results of the Survey of the Biblioblogosphere. The results have been broken down into four parts. Since I posted them in the order in which I wrote them, I thought I’d put links to them here for easier retrieval. Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Demographics Survey of the …
I received 116 responses to the open ended question “why do you blog?” Instead of presenting every answer to you, I went through and categorized them by the different goals one would have for blogging. Many of the answers fit into more than one category. Here are the reasons why we blog: To share ideas …
16. How many blogs are you subscribed to (or if you don’t subscribe, how many do you read regularly)? Less than 15…. 21 (12.8%) 16 to 40…. 36 (22%) 41 to 75…. 33 (20.1%) 76 to 100…. 23 (14%) 101 to 150…. 24 (14.6%) 151 to 200…. 13 (7.9%) more than 200…. (8.5%) Skipped this …
Here are the questions relating to people’s blog(s) and their blogging history: 11. How long have you had your current blog? Less than 4 months…. 20 (12.3%) 4 to 8 months…. 33 (20.2%) 9 months to 1 year…. 29 (17.8%) 13 months to 2 years…. 39 (23.9%) 25 months to 3 years…. 27 (16.6%) 37 …
Since there were 19 questions in the survey, one essay question, and many questions that allowed “write-in’s”, I figured I’d break the results up into a few blog posts. Here is the list of the other posts in the series: Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Blog Demographics Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviors Survey of …
When I was looking for a job, I remember reading (and sometimes participating in) the many discussions about the job market on NEWLIB-L and NEXGENLIB-L. People would talk about how they’d read articles about a rosy employment forecast for librarians and how the graying of the profession would lead to plentiful jobs. I read those …
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 …
Vermont is so beautiful I can hardly believe I’m allowed to live here! Even though I started work today, I still feel like I’m on vacation, and I’ll probably feel that way until we move into our house on Friday. Our first house. It’s too many changes to process all at once. Today is also …
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’ve been feeling very guilty about my lack of posts this week, especially since they will probably become even more sparse during the month of August. My mind is truly in a million different places. We’re leaving Chicago for Vermont on August 3rd and I start my new job on August 8th. Unfortunately, we don’t …
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 …
Library Success wasn’t the only wiki to come out last week. We also saw the birth of the LISWiki, which has been criticized by various people in the biblioblogosphere (love that term! Thanks Karen!). I do agree with some of the critics that the LIS Wiki needs more of a defined focus and purpose, and …
On Saturday, I went to two sessions that were really a study in contrasts. After the first one, I felt like I’d heard it all before. After the second one, I was overwhelmed with a wealth of new information. The first one left me feeling cold. The second one left me feeling energized and optimistic. …
Just because I’m young and female does not make me a “princess”. Adam and I had just left the Jybe booth, where we’d had an interesting talk with Brian, the president of the company. As we walked up that aisle, I hear a vendor call out to me, “hey, princess! Wanna sign up to win …
Aaron at Walking Paper recently wrote a great post entitled Letting Go. In it, he encouraged librarians to let go of rules that really serve librarians rather than patrons (and often are barriers to patrons getting what they need from the library). Other than those rules preserving basic etiquette and safety, the rules should exist …
I just had another really great interview today. I could get used to this (though I could also get used to having a job and being done with these shenanigans)! 😉 The search committee said a lot of things that impressed me, but what really stuck with me was the fact that when I asked …