I was more than a little frightened when I saw the survey, sponsored by the James L. Knight Foundation, which found that 35% of the high school students surveyed thought the “First Amendment goes to far in the rights it guarantees.” The study also found that three-quarters of the students think that flag burning is …
I just found this very interesting website via TangognaT. John Kupersmith, a reference librarian at UC Berkeley has collected usability survey data from various libraries as well as the library terminology used on library websites to create Library Terms That Users Understand. In it, he suggests best practices for library website usability testing and the …
Ever since I started this blog, I’ve made a big effort to post regularly. Unfortunately, I slacked off last week. Well, I don’t know if packing, putting our junk into storage, and moving to the other side of the country is considered slacking, but I do feel badly about falling out of the loop and …
Thank you Librarian Avengers for spelling out what most of us say to ourselves day after day as we navigate library websites and library catalogs: most library websites suck. In one of the classes I took for the MLS, we had to critique library websites, and we certainly found no lack of terrible websites to …
I’ve had many interviews, both in the social work and library fields. Some have gone great and some have been disasters. But the disasters haven’t always been mine. I’ve read plenty of books that talk about how to do well in an interview as an interviewee, but are there books for teaching people to be …
If 2004 was the year of the blog, I think 2005 will be the year of the Wiki. Wikis first came to my attention in 2003 in the form of the Wikipedia, which I thought was a fascinating and fabulous idea. What I didn’t know at the time was that Wikis have been around since …
If you haven’t already, go check out A9.com, a yellow pages for the future. More a reference work than simply a “phone book”, A9 allows users to not only search the yellow pages but it lets you leave notes on the places they find, it shows you what else is in the neighborhood, and sometimes …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
I will be flying up to freezing Chicago next week for a second interview for a job I am absolutely dying to get. I’d have to be VERY interested in a job to be willing to fly to Chicago in January! This job could hardly come closer to my description of a perfect job for …
According to the New York Times, ETS has developed a test to measure a college student’s level of information literacy in order to determine how well schools are preparing students for a world where IT literacy is increasingly necessary. The test is designed to show how well a student is able to use critical thinking …