Posted inlibraries our digital future
Library services to distance learners
Where I got my MLIS, distance learners had to pay more per credit hour than students who took classes on campus. I understood that the extra fees paid for the…
The Simpsons on libraries
I know this episode aired in 2004, but I was just watching it again today and it made me laugh just as hard as I did last time. And this…
Posted injob search libraries
You want to pay me what? To live where????
Let me preface this post with the statement that I didn't become a librarian in order to get rich. The average librarian's salary is more than the average salary for…
Posted inlibraries our digital future search
Lorcan Dempsey on library middlware
I've read a lot of posts and articles lamenting the fact that many students and patrons prefer using Google to the library's print and electronic resources, but few look at…
Posted inlibraries our digital future tech trends
Dumb down the catalog? Yes, let’s!
I recently had an interesting discussion with a librarian regarding the usability of OPACs. I, as usual, was arguing that there are lessons to be learned from Google, RedLightGreen, and…
Posted inlibraries our digital future tech trends
Oh Canada!
I've never really been "up" on Canada. For one, I've never been there (not that I wouldn't like to, but the opportunity has not presented itself yet). Two, I, like…
Posted inlibraries reference tech trends
Chat interoperability
My new friend, and fellow Wesleyan alum, Stephen Francoeur, wrote: Wouldn't it be cool if your patrons could use an IM client to chat with your web contact center software…
Posted inlibraries our digital future
Is innovation all about technology?
I'm sure there are people who think that technology is the be-all-end-all and that every bleeding-edge technology should be implemented in libraries. But I don't happen to know any of…
Posted inlibraries
The innovation gap
George at It's all good just got back from giving a presentation at the New Jersey Library Association where he was asked a difficult question: This was an excellent audience,…
Posted inlibraries our digital future search
The Failure of Middleware, Part 7: OAI and Google Scholar
The Open Archives Initiative develops interoperability standards with the goal of developing easy ways to access digital content and improve scholarly communication. They have developed a protocol for harvesting XML-formatted…
Posted inlibraries our digital future search
The Failure of Middleware, Part 6: Link Resolvers
Link Resolvers allow users to move from a citation to the actual article (so long as the library has access to it), regardless of which database the article happens to…
Posted inlibraries our digital future search
The Failure of Middleware, Part 5: The Unintegrated Library System & Federated Search
Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of this, but we were flying to Florida yesterday to visit family. Nice to be in consistently warm weather for a few…
Posted inlibraries our digital future
The Failure of Middleware, Part 4: What works?
Next, our fictional student is going into RedLightGreen to find resources for her paper. RedLightGreen, a union catalog, is an excellent tool for resource discovery as the user only needs…
Posted inlibraries our digital future
The Failure of Middleware, Part 3: How do we measure up?
So now that we know what our population wants, we can see how our OPACs measure up. I created a screencast using my alma mater’s OPAC to illustrate some of…
Posted inlibraries our digital future
The Failure of Middleware, Part 2: Who are our users?
The first thing anyone designing a website or a search engine should ask themselves is how can we meet the needs of our users? In the case of academic libraries,…
Posted inlibraries our digital future
The Failure of Middleware, Part 1: What’s the Problem?
In many libraries, we see collections that do not meet the needs of their users. This problem can affect small rural public libraries with limited budgets and prestigious academic libraries…
technology in information literacy: an appeal
I'm going to be doing a presentation on information literacy in a few weeks, and I'm planning on looking at how new technologies can be used in information literacy instruction.…
Federated searching and why users aren’t finding/using your electronic materials
Looking at my alma mater’s library website, I noticed that they are implementing a new federated search tool that searches eight resources (a mix of A&I databases and full-text). It's…
Movers and Shakers!
Two bloggers from whose writing I get a great deal of food for thought were just named "movers and shakers" by Library Journal. Congratulations Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens! You…
Posted inlibraries
What They Didn’t Tell You in Library School
So this week I'm all alone in the big chilly city of Chicago (hubby's in New England on business). When, on Monday, I heard that there was a free conference…
