Thank you Oprah!random

by Meredith Farkas on 6/10/2005 with Comments Off on Thank you Oprah!

I think I was the only person in my high school English class to actually enjoy Faulkner. Admittedly, his writing can be difficult to read. The first time I read The Sound and the Fury I rarely knew which character was narrating the book at any given time. Some of his books really require a …

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Blogging ALA on a wiki!ALA, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 6/9/2005 with Comments Off on Blogging ALA on a wiki!

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 …

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Selling change @ your librarylibraries, our digital future

by Meredith Farkas on 6/8/2005 with Comments Off on Selling change @ your library

Aaron at Walking Paper recently wrote a great post entitled Letting Go. In it, he encouraged librarians to let go of rules that really serve librarians rather than patrons (and often are barriers to patrons getting what they need from the library). Other than those rules preserving basic etiquette and safety, the rules should exist …

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Very snarfyALA, General, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 6/8/2005 with Comments Off on Very snarfy

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 …

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On the other hand…job search

by Meredith Farkas on 6/5/2005 with 9 comments

In the past, I’ve written about the do’s and don’t’s of interviewing and have described some of the bad experiences I’ve had in interviews. So I thought it would be good to mention the absolutely wonderful interview experience I had on Friday (I just got home yesterday). Like I’ve said before, the way you are …

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WikilustWikis

by Meredith Farkas on 5/31/2005 with 1 comment

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, …

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Even more on our plateALA, random

by Meredith Farkas on 5/31/2005 with Comments Off on Even more on our plate

Not that we don’t have enough going on at the ALA Conference, but there are going to be two other very cool events happening in Chicago at the same time. The first is Wired’s Nextfest, which is being billed as the World’s Fair for technology. For those of us who love gadgets and still dream …

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Ooo baby, baby it’s a wiki worldALA, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 5/31/2005 with Comments Off on Ooo baby, baby it’s a wiki world

What I love best about wikis is that their content is not limited to the imagination of just a few people (like most websites are). Anyone can add new sections and content to the wiki that they think people would find useful. From the Curmudgeony Librarian’s rethinking of the Calendar of Events to Andrea’s rockin’ …

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“The Price of Indifference”General

by Meredith Farkas on 5/26/2005 with 4 comments

I just saw this article, by Henry Raymond, in the Chronicle of Education that rivaled even the worst of my interview woes: The committee members repeatedly warned me that their students were not as academically equipped as my current students, and that I’d have a terrible time adjusting to a new caliber of teaching. (My …

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Job search hoopsjob search

by Meredith Farkas on 5/25/2005 with 11 comments

This morning (at 8 am Central Time) I got a call from a college on the east coast. They wanted to interview me for a reference librarian position I’d applied for months ago. First, however, they needed me to get my references to write letters of recommendation that specifically addressed the job responsibilities. Personally, I …

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Cites and Insights June 2005 is here!blogging, job search, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 5/21/2005 with Comments Off on Cites and Insights June 2005 is here!

The June issue of Walt Crawford’s Cite & Insights is out with some interesting articles, particularly those about the open access movement and the broadcast flag. What surprised me was that there were two mentions of my blog in this issue. Wow!!! I guess I’m still surprised that people even read my blog, so I …

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Your screencasting experience?screencasting

by Meredith Farkas on 5/16/2005 with 1 comment

The Indian Blogger recently posted an excellent survey of screencasting and the software that can be used to create screencasts. People tend to talk about Qarbon Viewlet Builder, Macromedia Captivate, and TechSmith Camtasia in conjunction with screencasting. While these probably are the most usable products on the market, there are plenty of lower-cost or no-cost …

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No room at the inn?ALA, Wikis

by Meredith Farkas on 5/15/2005 with Comments Off on No room at the inn?

So, I’ve heard from several sources that there are no rooms left for the ALA Conference at the hotels suggested on the ALA’s website. Yikes! I live in Chicago, but I have never stayed in a hotel here, and therefore I really don’t have any insights other than to check Hotels.com/Orbitz/whatever and pick something in …

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