Over a year ago I wrote about a project called MaintainIT, a three-year Bill and Melinda Gates funded initiative designed to identify best practices for maintaining public access computers. Well, since then, they’ve been awfully busy. In addition to going around the country talking to librarians who maintain computers, they’ve published two cookbooks, which are …
I probably owe a lot of people emails and I’ve been wanting to write up my tech trends and talk about some of the cool things I learned at the OLA Superconference last week. Unfortunately, I’ve come down with the worst case of the flu I’ve ever had, which has turned me into a coughing, …
As I’ve been spending more time than I would like in waiting rooms over the past few weeks, I’ve had the chance to catch up on some reading; namely Library Technology Reports. Michelle Boule wrote a terrific LTR called Changing the Way We Work, in which she covers tools for online collaboration. Michelle is really …
I found John Blyberg’s post, Library 2.0 Debased, very interesting and in many ways, a breath of fresh air. I agree with him on a lot of levels. I agree that mistakes have been made. I think there has been a lot of confusing rhetoric about Library 2.0. I think a lot of people lost …
Andrea Mercado and Kate Sheehan have both written insightful posts about the importance of librarians being aware of the culture of the social technologies they’re getting involved in for outreach purposes. From Kate: It’s easy to become enamored of social networking sites and Web 2.0 toys to the point where they seem like a panacea …
Sometimes we start a project or create a new service and it’s an instant success. Other times, we try something and it becomes obvious that it’s not meeting patron needs. Too often though, a project is neither an obvious success or failure. Even with statistics, it can be difficult to know what constitutes success and …
Library Research Guides wiki Originally uploaded by librarianmer A while back, I wrote about the challenges I had in finding the right platform for our subject guides. Well, I’m pleased to say that I just linked to our subject guides from the front page of the library website, so they are live! I ended up …
As liaison to all of the distance learning programs at our University, I frequently deal with our Interlibrary Loan Librarian. We can’t do traditional book interlibrary loan with our distance learners because the loan times do not allow sufficient time for us to ship the materials to the student and for the student to consult …
I hadn’t heard about before Stevie Kuenn sent this the info to me, so I thought some of you may not have either. The folks at YALSA are giving out 20 grants of $450 plus $50 in Teen Tech Week products for a library to celebrate Teen Tech Week: Have a great idea for Teen …
The Pew Internet and American Life project just released a report about how people access information to solve problems. While I’ve only had the chance to skim it so far, it’s definitely a report that will be of interest to those of us in libraries and related information professions. They asked 2,796 respondents if they’d …
Yes, it’s true… I am a woman. I’m also a librarian. In the world of librarianship, I don’t think about the fact that I’m a woman any more than I think about the fact that I’m Spanish-Ukrainian, Jewish, etc. I don’t feel like it should factor into my work or how people view my work. …
I’m reading a really interesting management book right now called First, Break All the Rules. I’m reading it rather slowly since I’m busy with putting together the material for the class I’m teaching in January for San Jose State, but I couldn’t wait to read it as soon as I’d heard about it (it’s not …
I spent last weekend at the Massachusetts School Library Association Conference in Sturbridge, MA. I didn’t get to spend much time there because I had to be back at work on Monday, but I still ended up having a wonderful time. The night before my talks on Sunday, I had dinner with the wonderful group …
Roy Tennant has posted a Library Software Manifesto which was adapted from a talk he recently gave. It outlines the rights and responsibilities customers have in the relationship between libraries and vendors and libraries and patrons. This and John Blyberg’s ILS Customer Bill of Rights are two important documents that outline what we all should …
When I finally got control over the library’s Web presence last year (a long process better discussed in a post of its own), the first thing I did was take down the library “subject guides.” You could hardly call these things subject guides; they were just a bunch of Web links in different areas. Some …
I’ve been wanting to comment on this thought-provoking post by Carleen at Woodsy + Wired (a pretty new blog) for a few weeks now and just haven’t had the time. But almost every day, her post has been on my mind. In Effects of distance learning on public libraries, Carleen writes about her library’s struggles …
Since July, I’ve been sharing an office. I thought I would absolutely hate it, but it turns out that it’s been terrific. Sharing an office with the right person can lead to increased creativity (if perhaps slightly decreased productivity), and that’s exactly what I’ve found since I started sharing an office with Josh Petrusa. Josh …
I absolutely loved Jill Stover’s post about the library as a lab for creative exploration (by the way, if you don’t read her blog, subscribe! It’s a gem!): This “community creativity lab” is where where I see libraries’ future and competitive advantage. I can’t think of any other free, publicly-accessible place (except perhaps for museums, …
Way to go Gary Price for getting the electronic and non-book resources libraries offer the attention they deserve in the mainstream tech media! “Steal This Book? Don’t Bother”: Libraries are offering more free search services, database access, articles, photos, eBooks, audiobooks, music and museum passes than ever. Chances are you are buying, subscribing to, or …
When I find a post or article interesting and think I might want to comment on it, it goes into the “to blog” folder. That folder is getting pretty darn full, and I think it’s time I accept that I’m not going to blog all of these things and maybe should just point to some …