While I’m kind of bummed about not making it to ALA Midwinter, I’ve gotten to hear all about it from the PLA Blog, Library Techtonics, and It’s All Good. A lot of what I’ve been reading has been very encouraging in terms of librarians and libraries embracing change and new ideas. Alice from OCLC wrote …
David King wrote two responses to Michael Stephen’s 2005 library tech predictions. The first one highlights the importance of user-centered technology planning and implementation. This is something that cannot be stressed enough. There are libraries that are completely adverse to change and to technology, and there are libraries that are so tech-forward that they pass …
I find myself often linking to Michael’s posts on Tame the Web. So much so that I would urge all of my readers to subscribe to his blog (most of whom already have, I’d bet). Instead of looking back at 2004, like so many others have, Michael listed Twelve Techie Things for Librarians 2005, which …
Dorothea has written a very interesting post comparing the ALA to the guild system in the Medieval world. She makes some great suggestions and observations about the ALA’s mission and whose interests they should be serving. I agree with her 100% that if the MLS is to mean anything, programs need to become far more …
Here is an article from the Chronicle of Higher Education that has been causing some controversy on the library-related listservs. Information Literacy Makes All the Wrong Assumptions rails against the traditional ideas behind information literacy curricula. While I disagree with much of what the author has written, he does raise some interesting points. I’ve never …
I have two job interviews coming up that I’m very excited about. It’s made me optimistic that perhaps my job search will be over soon (fingers crossed). I haven’t been looking for so long — it hasn’t even been a month since I’ve graduated. There are plenty of people I hear about who have spent …
The New York Times has an article about how our mobile technologies have made us increasingly dependent on seeking out electricity in places like cafes, restaurants, bookstores and even commuter trains. The author talks about how ettiquette rules have developed for the use of electrical outlets. I know I’ve been at Borders and seen people …
As a former social worker/psychotherapist, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a very familiar concept to me. People must fulfill their basic material needs before they can start thinking about things like self-actualization and intellectual fulfillment. I worked with families who could barely keep their electricity on and get the children to school, and I always …
From Extension 337 [via Tame the Web], comes 10 Reasons why Nonprofits Should Use RSS. The post lists some very good reasons why RSS is a much better way to get news and information out and connect with interested users/patrons/clients/etc. than most traditional methods (newsletters, unsolicited or solicited emails, etc.). I’m just reproducing the basic …
According to Gary Price at Resource Shelf, GuruNet has become Answsers.com and is now offering a ready reference search engine for free. Answers.com culls its information from a variety of free and pay sources, including Columbia Encyclopedia, Columbia University Press, Merriam Webster, Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, SparKNotes, Who2, and Wikipedia. The user submits a query and …
The latest issue of Info Career Trends is out and is devoted entirely to Next Generation Librarianship. Lots of interesting articles and advice for those just entering the field and those trying to get ahead in the field.
I know blogging is getting bigger. Blogs seem to have been featured in every magazine and newspaper lately. Everyone keeps saying 2004 was the “year of the blog” yadda, yadda. But the Pew American Life Project recently came out with actual stats on blogging and its effect on mainstream America. They found that blog readership …
RUSA has come out with its 2004 list of Best Free Reference Websites. They cover a variety of subjects and come from academia, government, industry, non-profits, the media, libraries and librarians. One of my personal faves is The Straight Dope by Cecil Adams, definitely one of the coolest reference librarians in the universe. If you’re …
Barbara Quint has put together a list of questions and answers about the Google Library Project that have been pondered by various people in the library and search worlds. Some questions remain unanswered. Others, like what the Google Library Project means for brick and mortar libraries, involves answers ranging from unconcern to grudging acceptance to …
From Resource Shelf, I have found An Introduction to Feeds, which does an excellent job of describing what RSS is and how to use aggregators. I will definitely send this on to my dad, who I recently got set-up with Firefox, Bloglines, and del.icio.us. What is Christmas for if not to work on family members’ …
Earlier this month, I had reported on a new way to search handwritten manuscripts that was developed by the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Today, the New York Times has written about this exciting development, along with the fact that the head of the project is going to brief Google on it next month. So …
The New York Times today has a story about the closing of the Salinas Public Library. What a sad situation. In a community comprised of many migrant and blue collar workers, losing the library may have a tremendous impact on community life (especially for children, immigrants, and the elderly). They may not realize it now, …
D-Lib has an article about a new grant-funded partnership between the library and information studies departments at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Indiana University at Bloomington to develop a program in digital libraries. They will offer it as part of the masters curriculum and as a post-masters program: The project directors envision two …
Wow! In an age of shrinking budgets and shrinking staffs, the Phoenix Public Libraries has secured $175,000 to hire one full time professional librarian and three paraprofessionals to police their no-porn policies. The professional, this “Internet Resource Specialist”, would monitor people’s use of the Internet and deal with people’s requests to turn off the filters …