Jason Griffey the other day suggested alternatives to the traditional funding streams ALA has, and it got me thinking about how ALA could make money in the online medium. I sometimes forget that I have this amazing resource at home (my husband) and that the things I learn from him can sometimes be translated into …
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 …
I’ve written some posts critical of ALA in the past and have had a number of people encourage me to get involved so that I can try to make a constructive difference (instead of just complaining). So, when I was asked to be on two committees whose missions I felt strongly allied with, I said …
This weekend I’m driving down to Sturbridge, MA for the Massachusetts School Library Association conference. I’m giving a workshop on wikis… twice. I’ve never given the same talk twice in one day, but it’ll be an interesting opportunity to immediately improve my talk based on my observations during the first iteration. My slides are already …
The University of Pennsylvania sure has some pretty impressive library tech folks! First they create PennTags, now they’re working on Pennvibes, which, according to this abstract from the DLF conference, looks like an exciting new way to create resource guides: Pennvibes is a framework for content delivery and organization inspired by Netvibes, iGoogle, and Pageflakes. …
There’s been some speculation in the comments of this blog, her blog, and even at some dinners that I write the Annoyed Librarian . I want to state emphatically that this isn’t the case. I have no connection to the Annoyed Librarian, and that should be obvious to anyone who reads both of our blogs. …
I’m rich! Originally uploaded by librarianmer I always knew my blog would make me the big bucks one day. 😉
Today [Note: This part was written Monday] will be my first day back at work after the marathon that was Internet Librarian and the LAUC-B conference. I ended up giving 5 talks in one week, which is a record for me (and probably for most people other than Roy Tennant, Stephen Abram and other similarly …
Oh boy, this is going to be quite a week! On Saturday, I’m leaving for Monterey, California and Internet Librarian. IL is one of my favorite conferences, mainly because I get to spend a few days with some really smart and amazing people I respect. Plus, we have A LOT of fun! I’m also giving …
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 …
Pfew! All done publishing the results of the 2007 Survey of the Biblioblosophere! To refresh your memory, here are all of the posts about this year’s survey: 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Demographics 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Blog Demographics 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviors 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Results from …
Before I lost my Survey Monkey pro account, I created a bunch of results filters and exported them as PDF files. They allow you to see how a group who answered one question a certain way answered all of the questions in the survey. I think they add richness to the results and I’m sure …
For comparison to the 2005 results (though some questions are new) visit Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Attitudes and Behaviors 23. What is the primary way that you read blog content? ResponsePercent ResponseCount I visit each blog individually 15.1% 118 I read blogs in a Web-based RSS aggregator (Bloglines, Google Reader, etc.) 71.1% 557 I read …
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 …
no more training wheels Originally uploaded by shadycat I’ve been reading a number of interesting posts on the “training-wheels culture” from Dorothea Salo, Nicole Engard, and Emily Clasper. As I’ve been doing a lot of teaching — both online and in-person workshops — it’s an issue I’ve also been thinking a lot about on my …
I didn’t end up blogging the rest of the conference, because I was too busy listening. There were some really interesting talks on topics I don’t usually hear about, like digital public history, so I kind of wanted to just take it in instead of typing out what someone was saying. It was also a …
“New ideas are fine, but they are also illegal, because they are a form of ageism… We’ve learned that you can’t teach a dog new tricks, because it’s illegal and you will go to jail.” -Michael Scott, The Office You can read a great analysis of generational issues and technology adoption through the lens of …
Update: Peter offers an account of his presentation and his slides on his blog. Ok, can I just say how much I love any conference with free wireless and outlets close to where I’m sitting? Reading the Next Book Peter is talking about what is means to interact with books in an online digital format, …
The Top 10 1. Annoyed Librarian 2. Librarian in Black 3. Information Wants to be Free 4. Librarian.net 5. Tame the Web 6. Free Range Librarian 7. Library Stuff 8. Caveat Lector 9. Walt at Random 10. The Shifted Librarian (for the rest of the results, see just below the commentary) What can we learn …