Participants: Amanda Etches-Johnson, Aaron Schmidt, and Michael Stephens Why are we spending so much money on commercial software when we could just put an IM name online for our patrons? There are 65 libraries currently providing IM on the Library Success Wiki. Michael Surveyed a bunch of librarians on IM 50.5% are allowed to use …
talk given by Tom Peters and Lori Bell of OPAL OPAL stands for Online Programming for All Libraries. Lori used to be the head of the Illinois Talking Book Center. Hard to get people with limited mobility together for a book discussion, so they were looking for a way to do this online. Tom Peters …
Note: I’m going to put my own editorializing in italics to keep it separate. Ok, so they said we wouldn’t be able to get a signal in the ballrooms, but low and behold I seem to be getting a good signal! Rock on! Update: Ok, nevermind. Once they closed the doors I lost it. Well, …
Tomorrow (very very early) morning Adam and I are hopping on a plane and heading to DC for Computers in Libraries. This is my first Computers in Libraries, so I’m really excited! It’s also my very first time doing any sort of speaking at a conference. I’m not too nervous, since if I can’t talk …
This has been a crazy few weeks. So many exciting things going on and so many people I want to congratulate. First, I want to congratulate Chris Deweese on the birth of his beautiful baby girl Tess Isabel. Something like that really puts everything else into perspective. YAY! Secondly, I want to congratulate Laura Crossett …
In just a couple of weeks, HigherEd BlogCon will be starting! It will be going on all month on the HigherEd BlogCon blog and through several Webcasts. I encourage all of you to visit the HigherEd BlogCon blog and to subscribe to our RSS feed so you won’t miss any of the terrific presentations that …
You’ve got to give the man credit. It can’t be easy to try to explain ALA. I’ve been embarassed to admit that I understand almost nothing about how ALA and the divisions, roundtables, offices, council, etc. fit together. When Michael Golrick said he was going to write some sort of ALA 101 piece in response …
ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki I tried to get out… but they pulled me back in! No, actually I was thrilled to have been contacted by Mary Ghikas, the Senior Associate Executive Director at ALA, about the possibility of ALA creating an official ALA New Orleans Wiki. After discussing it for a while, we decided …
The NextGen Librarian’s Survival Guide by Rachel Singer Gordon If you’re a nextgen librarian, a new librarian, or someone who now or may one day be supervising nextgen librarians, you should run and order this book right now. I just got it in the mail last night and after looking at the Table of Contents, …
Other than perhaps being included in a blanket condemnation of “illiterate bloggers,” I never would have thought that I’d be so much as acknowledged by an incoming ALA President. Although she got my name wrong, it’s still nice to see that Leslie Burger is keeping up with the conversations in the blogosphere. And I really …
There was some sad ALA-related news this week. Karen Schneider, a passionate supporter of ALA, has had to quit ALA Council as a result of the funding cuts at her place of work, Librarians’ Internet Index. I’m sure this was a difficult decision for Karen, but a very understandable one in light of the fact …
A little over two months ago I wrote about the issues I have with the ALA. This was in light of Jenny’s complaints about the ALA charging her registration for PLA when she was flying to Boston just to speak at the conference. For me, it was pretty much the straw that broke the camel’s …
OVERDUE!!!! Overdue got 14.3% of the vote, not exactly a landslide, but good enough. In a tie for second place, with 9.5% of the vote were 2, brilliant, and Techno-groovy.
Update: I am going to keep this survey open the rest of today (Tuesday) and then will close it when I get up Wednesday morning. I’ll announce the results then. I know Michael is big on surveys and on user-centered change. So I thought, what better way to decide Michael’s new catch phrase than to …
For those of you who don’t read Tame the Web and have no idea who Michael Stephens is, you may just want to ignore this post. For those who do know Michael, I’m sure you know what word frequently comes out of his mouth (or on his blog or on IM) when he’s excited about …
Ok, well maybe a 15 minute Cybertour isn’t such a big deal for seasoned speakers like Michael Stephens or Alane Wilson, but this is going to be my very first time speaking at a conference. Ever. And for someone who avoided taking classes in college with fewer than 20 people because she was afraid of …
This has been a rockin’ week for reading — I wish I actually had more time to do it. Rachel Singer Gordon wrote an amazing column for Library Journal entitled “Secure Our Professional Future”. In it, she makes some very good points about the reality of the current job market and how important it is …
I just started a blog at work to communicate with my distance students and faculty. For a long time people kept telling me “we have a really old version of WebCT so you can’t have blogs in it.” And realistically I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the distance learners to leave WebCT just …
In a month where lots of people seem to be making major transitions, I am so happy to congratulate Michael Stephens for his appointment to a tenure-track teaching position at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University!!! I’m happy not only for Michael but for the students who will benefit from …
I know less than nothing about Washington D.C. and even less about the Computers in Libraries conference. And I bet I’m not the only one. I do know that there are a whole bunch of folks who probably know a lot about both topics, so I thought it would be nice to have a place …