Great new books on my “to read” listassessment, librarianship, libraries, our digital future, social software, tech trends, writing

by Meredith Farkas on 7/6/2009 with 3 comments

I must admit that the last time I read a non-baby-related book was probably last Fall. And now all these great books are coming out from the LIS presses that I’m absolutely dying to read! This is torture! The one I’m probably most excited about is Chrystie Hill’s long-awaited Inside, Outside and Online which is …

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2.0 or and bustblogging, libraries, RSS and Syndication, screencasting, social bookmarking, social software, tech trends, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 7/4/2009 with 11 comments

Since before my brain was hijacked by baby stuff, I’ve been thinking a lot about how many third party Web 2.0 vendors libraries are dependent upon (not to mention all the ones we’re dependent on personally!). I actually wrote a column for American Libraries on the subject, but 600 words could not reflect the whole …

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Congrats to the 2009 Movers and Shakers!career, librarianship, libraries, management, our digital future, social software, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 3/16/2009 with 3 comments

Take a look at this truly amazing group of people that Library Journal chose to recognize this year. I’ve never known more folks on the list and so many are folks I absolutely adore: Sarah Houghton-Jan – it’s kind of amazing that she had not been recognized as a Mover and Shaker before this given …

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It’s not all about the tech – why 2.0 tech failslibraries, management, online education, our digital future, social software, speaking, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 3/14/2009 with 6 comments

Yesterday, I gave a talk for the ACRL Virtual Conference entitled Can’t Get There From Here: Achieving Organization 2.0. If you’re registered for the Virtual Conference or the regular ACRL Conference, you can access the archive of the talk, and if not, my slides and links to what I discussed are provided on my presentation …

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Online conferences – the future is nowALA, free the information!, librarianship, online education, our digital future, social software, speaking, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 2/15/2009 with 11 comments

I’ve been lucky to have had some recent involvement with two online conference models — one that recently happened and one that will be happening soon. I’m really pleased to see more organized professional development opportunities being offered online in light of the current economic situation and, selfishly, the fact that I personally won’t be …

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Separate but not equal?librarianship, libraries, online education, our digital future, reference, social software, Work

by Meredith Farkas on 1/10/2009 with 24 comments

When I read David King’s post about Ask-a-Librarian services last week, I didn’t have a strong emotional response to it. That was, until he wrote a follow up which brought my attention to some of the responses people had made to it. With email reference, it’s pretty obvious that it’s not a synchronous medium. We …

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Technology education and the “real world”american libraries, instruction, librarianship, libraries, library school, open source, our digital future, social software

by Meredith Farkas on 12/15/2008 with 20 comments

I just love that feeling of serendipity when I find that people are thinking about the same things I am at the same time. Karin Dalziel made an impassioned case for every librarian to learn how to program. Dorothea Salo responded to it and described how she thinks technology should be taught in library school. …

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What’s new at Maintain ITlibrarianship, libraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 11/7/2008 with Comments Off on What’s new at Maintain IT

The Maintain IT project is awesome, so when equally awesome Stephanie Gerding asked me to pass on info about their new offerings, I didn’t hesitate: The MaintainIT Project is pleased to announce the latest Cookbook! “Planning for Success, a guide for the overworked librarian” http://www.maintainitproject.org/cookbooks/planning-for-success This free online resource brings together the most current ideas …

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Fomenting revolt in Icelandfree the information!, librarianship, library school, our digital future, social software, speaking

by Meredith Farkas on 10/29/2008 with 5 comments

I got back from Iceland this weekend just in time for a storm to knocked our power out at home. It’s back on and I’m slowly recovering from the travel, jet lag and mountains of emails and to-dos. Iceland was absolutely amazing! The landscape is so unique — I got to see lava fields, double …

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SOPAC 2.0 at Darien Public Libraryfree the information!, libraries, open source, our digital future, social software

by Meredith Farkas on 9/1/2008 with 7 comments

Run, don’t walk to check out the Darien Public Library’s awesome new Drupal-based website along with the John Blyberg-designed new-and-improved SOPAC 2.0. I, for one, am totally impressed with the site and the catalog. One of the biggest things about SOPAC 2.0 (short for Social OPAC) is that its component parts are going to be …

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If you haven’t heard of it, it’s new to you!free the information!, social software, tech trends

by Meredith Farkas on 6/8/2008 with 10 comments

I don’t write much on this blog about the gadgets and applications I use, but I’ve recently started using several things that I thought people might want to know about and try for themselves (if they don’t know about them already). I often assume that everyone already knows about the things I’ve discovered, but after …

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Computers in Libraries (CIL2008) – My Brain is Fullblogging, our digital future, RSS and Syndication, social software, speaking, tech trends, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 4/10/2008 with 4 comments

the group – for Connie Originally uploaded by cindiann I had a really wonderful time at Computers in Libraries, as always. While there are always certain talks where the delivery is disappointing or where you don’t learn anything, I went to a lot of talks that were fun or educational or both. And of course …

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