Yesterday, Edward Vielmetti, a very committed patron at the Ann Arbor District Library e-mailed me about an amazing idea he has for improving the Library Success Wiki (stay tuned for more on that — it’s so EXCITING!). When I wrote him back, I called him the “AADL Super Patron,” which is very coincidental, since he …
Here are some of the great things I’ve found this week: Roy Tennant’s brilliant What I Wish I Had Known, a reflection on the things he would have been better off knowing back when he was finishing up library school. It’s important for people to reflect on their mistakes, both to learn from them and …
Well, I guess that comes as no surprise, but this time I’ll actually be talking (as opposed to writing)! I’m so excited to be giving a live online talk about wikis for OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries). Participation is totally totally free and all you have to do is download a tiny little applet …
The unsinkable Rachel Singer Gordon’s column about the role Gen-X’ers can play as a bridge between the boomers and the millennials. She’s dead-on and this is an article you should clip out and give to the boomer library administrators you know. Heidi Dolamore’s blog, Quiddle. Her posts about her job interviews should be read by …
My mother tells me that I was terrible about sharing when I was a little girl. My toys were MY toys. I would lick cookies so that no one would ask to have a bite. My dad even has video footage of me at age three grabbing my book away from my best friend Bonnie. …
These days it’s completely impossible to keep up with all of the “Web 2.0” apps out there. I read eHub and TechCrunch and it seems like dozens of social software apps are released in beta (or even alpha!) each day. Social browsers, collaborative editing tools, RSS aggregators, social search, mashups of other social software apps …
I am not one of those people — like Steven Cohen or Jessamyn — who is very comfortable giving talks. No matter how well I know the material, I still get insanely nervous when I have to get up in front of people to talk. I’ve never had a talk go badly, but it doesn’t …
Or does using a specific type of software necessarily define the product? I was as excited as everyone else when I heard that the WorldCat wiki was live in Open WorldCat and that people could start adding reviews, tables of contents, and other notes on books. It will add tremendous value to WorldCat! How easy …
Well, it’s new to me at least! It’s always exciting for me to see librarians using wikis to share information. The fabulous folks at Librarians with class pointed out the Library Instruction Wiki, which was created by the Oregon Library Association’s Library Instruction Roundtable. It has the very wiki-propriate slogan “… stop reinventing the wheel…” …
Wow, this is some month for me! Library Journal and School Library Journal! This month, the Library Success Wiki is featuerd as SLJ’s Website of the Month. It’s a terrific, concise piece and it really promotes the wiki as something school librarians should contribute to. Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems like school librarians are …
Over the past month, I’ve worked with the folks at WebJunction to develop September’s Online Communities focus. I had the opportunity to work with some fantastic librarians/writers/bloggers and got to do some wiki evangelizing in my own two articles. It was the first time I’ve ever been involved in the publishing process and the first …
When I was a child, I was always reading (surprise, surprise, right?). Often, I would read books that were perhaps a little advanced for my age range in terms of the vocabulary. I’d lay in bed with my book and my most trusty sidekick: my dictionary. When I’d read a word I didn’t know, I …
Next month, WebJunction’s editorial focus will be on Online Community for Public Libraries and I was asked to serve as guest editor for this segment. I know I don’t work at a public library anymore, but I am very passionate about developing online communities using blogs, wikis, and other online media, and these obviously can …
I’ve never understood librarians who are afraid of change. Maybe it’s because I’m young, but I doubt it, because I’m probably a bigger fan of routine than the average person. I’m far more open to change inside the library world than outside in my personal life. I’m not a believer in the whole “change is …
I’ve been feeling very guilty about my lack of posts this week, especially since they will probably become even more sparse during the month of August. My mind is truly in a million different places. We’re leaving Chicago for Vermont on August 3rd and I start my new job on August 8th. Unfortunately, we don’t …
Library Success wasn’t the only wiki to come out last week. We also saw the birth of the LISWiki, which has been criticized by various people in the biblioblogosphere (love that term! Thanks Karen!). I do agree with some of the critics that the LIS Wiki needs more of a defined focus and purpose, and …
I don’t know how many of you have looked at the ALA Wiki since the conference, but there are a growing number of conference reports culled from other blogs. Definitely worth checking out. It’s great to have a single place to read all of the reports people have written about the conference. All in all, …
When the wiki was first created, I put up a page for people who are blogging the conference so that people would know where they could find conference reports. Well, Luke, from the lbr blog took it one huge step further. Here’s an excerpt from the email he sent me: If a number of people …
I must apologize for the lack of posts this week. I’ve come down with a horrible cold (bordering on the flu) and I just haven’t felt up to doing much of anything. I can’t believe I was healthy all winter while cooped up inside and now that the weather is warm and beautiful, I’m stuck …
I just read a fantastic article about wikis from the Educause Review (Sept/Oct 2004). Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not, by Brian Lamb, includes mentions about just about everything that I find so wonderful about wikis. He describes how groups of people have used wikis for such diverse purposes as research spaces, conference planners, …