Library Technicians: Education, Training, Practice, Career, Jobs, etc.

Question YOU should be asking THEM during the interview: Cataloging Job

2011-12-05T21:52:00.002-05:00

Here are interesting ideas and thoughts to ASK THEM, why you get an opportunity!!!

Extract:
Interviewing for a Cataloguing Position: The Two-Way Street, by Laurel Tarulli

Questions:

1. What type of person are you looking for to fill this position? For example, personality (sense of humour, easy-going, goal-oriented)? Work ethic?

2. How would you describe a typical work week?

3. Will my time be a mixture of working along and with people? Will it include projects?

4. How many people work in the department? Has there been a lot of turnover?

5. Can you describe the environment of your department? Its strengths and weaknesses?

6. Can you think of an employee/cataloguer who really stands out in your mind as exceptional? Tell me about him/her and their qualities.

7. In the past 5 years, tell me about a project or innovative idea that you’re proud of, or that has been a success within the department.

8. What is your management style? And, how will I know if you are under a lot of stress?

9. If I am working on a project and you feel there is a better way to do it, how will you approach me to offer suggestions?

10. Is this a new position? If not, what did the previous cataloguer go on to do?

11. What is your own professional mission statement?

12. Would you mind telling me how your career got to this point?

13. What is your biggest source of job satisfaction? What would you change?

14. Where do you see the cataloguing department in 5 years? 10 years? Expanding? Heading in new directions?

15. Can you tell me about the cataloguing department at the library now? What are you most proud of? What are its limitations?

16. Are there any projects or plans set for the near future that will impact cataloguing?

Reading now:

A Librarian's Guide to an Uncertain Job Market
Jeannette Woodward, Kindle Store

A Librarian's Guide to an Uncertain Job Market (Ala Editions Special Reports)
Jeannette A. Woodward

The Frugal Librarian, Carol Smallwood

Enhance Your Chances: How to Shine Brightly in a Tough Job Market!

Database Searching -- Information Literacy for Library Technicians

2011-11-19T00:10:00.008-05:00

Finding "something quickly," in each case, proved to be seriously misleading to their overall comprehension of the subject.

In a very similar way, Google searching leaves remote scholars, outside the research library, in just the situation of the Blind Men of India: it hides the existence and the extent of relevant sources on most topics (by overlooking many relevant sources to begin with, and also by burying the good sources that it does find within massive and incomprehensible retrievals). It also does nothing to show the interconnections of the important parts (assuming that the important can be distinguished, to begin with, from the unimportant). six blind men and an elephant, by ben vershbow ideas from the famous Librarian, Thomas Mann: The Oxford Guide to Library Research. (Six blind men) is a parable that has crossed between many religious traditions and is part of Jain, Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu lore. Read more

See holy stages and See Also holy rules of Database Searching, in "Inside a searcher's mind: the seven stages of an online search," by Barbara Quint, Online 15.3 (May 1991): p13

Database Searching in Library environ is not the same as Googling. It is not any ways close to a Google search and hence, not the same as Google results.

Database Searching requires some understanding of fundamental concepts (e.g, information seeking behavior or information needs), essential resources (e.g., primary, secondary), search techniques (what to search, where to search, how to search), etc. In short, it is going beyond Google (in order to find relevant, accurate, current, reliable, dependable, and verified content).

Textbooks:

Computers in Libraries (2006), Chapter 8 (OPAC) pages:109-110, 116-110; Chapter 10 (Information Searching) pages: 137-143

Finding it Online (2004), 'Framing Your Search Strategy,' 73-77

Guide to Becoming Library Technician (2005) 'Developing Search Strategies' 158.

Librarian's Guide to Online Searching, Suzanne S. Bell

The Library Instruction Cookbook, Ryan L. Sittler - see chapter on "The Art of Database Searching by Dawn Eckenrode"

Reference and Information Services in the 21st Century: An Introduction,
by Kay Ann Cassell & Uma Hiremath. Chapter on "Finding the Answer: Basic Search Techniques"

Search Patterns: Design for Discovery, by Peter Morville [Summary: This book explores design patterns that apply across the categories of web, e-commerce, enterprise, desktop, mobile, social, and realtime search and discovery. The authors cover topics such as relevance ranking, faceted navigation, multi-touch, and augmented reality together with a practical guide to help us make search better today--Derived from p. [4] of cover.
Contents: Pattern recognition -- The anatomy of a search -- Behavior -- Design patterns -- Engines of discovery -- Tangible futures.]

Issues in Online Database Searching (Database Searching Series), by Carol Tenopir

The Elements of Library Research: What Every Student Needs to Know by Mary W. George

Understanding Information Retrieval Systems: Management, Types, and Standards, by Marcia J. Bates [see chapter on "Information Searching and Search Models by Iris Xie;" sections are on: MANAGEMENT OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS, TYPES OF INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS and STANDARDS FOR INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SYSTEMS]

Humor and Information Literacy: Practical Techniques for Library Instruction, by
Joshua Vossler, Scott Sheidlower

Magic Search: Getting the Best Results from Your Catalog and Beyond by Rebecca S. Kornegay [showcases how to increase the power of Library of Congress Subject Heading (LCSH) subdivisions to produce astonishing results from your searches.]

The Medical Library Association Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher (Medical Library Association Guides), Terry Ann Jankowski

Research Strategies: Finding Your Way through the Information Fog, by William Badke

Online Retrieval: A Dialogue of Theory and Practice, by Geraldene Walker

Techniques and Tools, How-To, What-to:

Planning a Search Strategy

Seneca's Guidelines on how to find an article

Research Success Tutorial

SELECTING & EVALUATING YOUR SOURCES , (includes: Recognizing a Scholarly Article) Dawson College

Basic and Advanced Operators (Boolean, Truncation, WildCard Chart)

Develop own information literacy skills

Information Literacy and the Contributions of Library Technicians in the Academic Library Dorothy Gagnon and Cyndi Smith, Reference Library Technicians, Georgian College.

Video Tutorial: Evaluating Websites

From the same shelf (Blog):

Podcast of information literacy information from Curtin University of Technology Library and Information Service

Information Literacy (for all) - A useful gateway

Information Literacy Tutorial - Kognito

Finding a journal article is like hunting for a needle in a haystack

Doing Social Media So It Matters, Laura Solomon

2011-04-08T19:53:00.001-04:00

PS. This book inspired me to start the marathon...
This book is a good motivator. But, I wish it had statistics or case studies of what-works and what-doesn't-work in libraries.

Doing Social Media So It Matters: A Librarian's Guide, by Laura Solomon (American Library Association, 2011; ALA Editions-Special Reports). ISBN: 083891067X.
Check out a sample of the book now!
About the book:
Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn: it's difficult enough to keep abreast of social media Web sites, let alone understand how they fit into today's library. This practical resource brings together current information on the topic in a concise format that's easy to digest.
* Provides context on the social media phenomenon
* Offers practical advice on how libraries can choose, use, and monitor these tools effectively
* Identifies additional resources and best practices

Table of Contents:
Introduction;
1 Getting a (Better) Grip on Social Media;
2 Getting Started;
3 Understanding Social Media;
4 Strategies for Social Media Success;
5 What Can We Count?
6 Is It Worth It?
7 A Few Final Words

Here are select "bottom line" quotes from this title, [info courtesy,
Darren Heiber | Watzek Library Research & Instruction Librarian]:

* Social media sites will change. Concepts will not. Be flexible.
* Interact with people in social media, or risk becoming irrelevant.
* Each time your library directly engages with someone online in a positive way, especially one that benefits the other person, it gains social capital. Social capital takes time to earn and trust to build.
* Participate in conversations. Remember that the recipients of any of your library’s messages have expectations of reciprocity.
* Every time your library promotes something or asks for a favor, it is making a withdrawal. If your withdrawals exceed deposits, your library effectively becomes a community leech...and in some cases, a pariah. Spend social capital wisely.
* Be human and talk like a human in your social media interactions. Be authentic and honest, and connections and conversations will follow.
* Social media, in many cases, is happening in close to real time. Failure to respond promptly to a conversation, either positive or negative, can result in a great deal of harm to your library’s reputation.
* Connect to people who want to connect to you, unless you have a very good reason not to.
* Extremely large numbers of social connections don’t usually scale into viable online communities. Focus on connecting with people who will share your content, not on acquiring large numbers of fans or followers.

Meghan E. Gates (Cooperstown, NY United States), a Librarian, says, and says it all: "If you are a librarian (or library) who is new to the social media game, this book is the most valuable item you can read. Solomon covers how to start (and possibly end) your presence in social media from every possible angle. The good, the bad, and the ugly are all contained in this slim volume. Solomon even thinks to cover such things as how to win over colleagues, social capital, and return on investment. "
On the same shelf:

Doing Social Media So It Matters: A Librarian’s Guide by Laura Solomon, Book Review by Susan M. Boland

Fair Use by Social Media, Revisted

Copying an Entire Article Without Permission - OK in Some Cases?

Sale of Wikipedia's material as books on Amazon - Wiki in news again

2010-10-29T17:24:00.002-04:00

PS. See the previous posts on the Wikipedia in news.
Extract from Wiki:

A German information portal for consumers (Preisgenau.de) has criticized Amazon for selling tens of thousands of print on demand books which reproduced Wikipedia articles. Amazon did not acknowledge this issue raised on a blog and some customers that have asked the company to withdraw all these titles from its catalog.

See also on the same shelf:

Free Content Isn't Always What It Seems

By Jennifer Kyrnin, About.com Guide

"Another tempting place to get content is from an online reprinter. Online reprinters are companies that solicit articles that they then offer for reprint (and sometimes translation). On the surface, these reprinters look legitimate, often with long terms and conditions including dire warnings if authors post copyrighted material that is not their own.
But in my experience, these sites simply take any article that is uploaded to them and add it to their directories, without any verification or confirmation that the content is not plagiarized. I have found content from FoxNews, Investopedia, and Wikipedia as well as my own content all reprinted without permission on reprint sites. In fact, in one case, the owner of the reprint site advertises how to "ethically steal" content (I'm not sure he knows what the word "ethically" means). "

Printed Without Permission (A comment at Amazon.com) @ Adoption Is Another Word for Love [Kindle Edition]

“Shake Off the City” ads show a bucolic Niagara but Torontonians are peeved

2010-07-22T22:00:00.000-04:00

The Niagara they show. The Niagara we know.

Jayme Poisson, Staff Reporter, Toronto Star, Jul 20 2010
NIAGARA FALLS, ONT.—We can diss you too, Niagara.
Extract:

Although they don’t name the concrete jail as Toronto straight up, the logo shows a silhouette of the city with the CN Tower and Rogers Centre in the backdrop. It morphs into trees: “Shake Off the City.”

“Toronto has many iconic symbols like the CN Tower while Niagara’s is Robert Wadlow’s gigantic chair,” said currency trader Jamie Heighway. continue reading The Niagara they show. The Niagara we know.

Ten Tips (or Steps) for Tracking Trends

2010-07-16T19:11:00.000-04:00

By Elisabeth Doucett, 05/11/2010, American Libraries Magazine
Libraries can stay relevant to their users by strategically riding the wave of societal trends. [This article is excerpted from What They Don’t Teach You at Library School, to be published by ALA Editions in July].
Extract:

Step 1: Identify potential sources of information for societal and library trend tracking

Step 2: Develop a method for regularly reviewing those resources.

Step 3: Search social networking sites.

Step 4: Review each idea that you pulled out of your research, considering potential implications for your library.

Step 5: Leave your idea list in a file until you start the same process the next week.

Step 6: When you identify the ideas that you want to pursue for your library, get together with some of your fellow librarians to help you review the ideas and find the good and bad about them.

Step 7: Put the ideas back in the file and let them sit for another week.

Step 8: Once a month, pull out one idea that has gone through steps 1–7.

Step 9: Approval.

Step 10: Turned down. Continue reading 10 Tips for Tracking Trends

The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection, Revisited

2010-06-09T16:54:00.003-04:00

Previous post @ Librarians as Knowledge Managers: The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection

A librarian takes on Google Books, Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC, 7 June 2010 :
Extract:

The librarian believes he has found a new cause for his profession, to give a secure home to digitised texts produced with the highest quality standards and available freely to all. "These are huge benefits," he says, "and should be fought for by all of those who care about unimpeded public access to knowledge." Google beware - the librarians are getting cross, and they are quiet but patient people....

The Death of the Open Web, by VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN, May 17, 2010, NYTimes.com

CANADA: Open access - promises and challenges, Leslie Chan
03 May 2009, Issue: 0074 University World News

Amazon's Kindle (genre: e-book reader)

From Realities to Values: A Strategy Framework for Digital Natives

Libraries Reinvent Themselves to Serve Digital-Age Students

NPR Interview Podcast - Can The iPad Or The Kindle Save Book Publishers?

Genre Reader: Why Buying from Kobo Books is Better than the Amazon Kindle Store

Why Apple’s iPad is shaking things up with Amazon and Google by Martin Taylor

10 Biggest Challenges eBooks face

Should libraries have ebooks? I’m not sure they should, by Martin Taylor:
Extract:

"There are several problems with letting libraries lend ebooks, but there are also opportunities that could be a big help to our emerging digital publishing industry. It’s worth looking at both sides."

On the same shelf:
Just released: Job Search The Canadian Way
Buy our book:
Download Ebook @ $10 CDN
Buy softcover in print @ Createspace.com

What is your Library worth to you?

2010-05-24T12:23:00.018-04:00

In a free world who cares? May be if you are among those who are the have-nots, you will be thinking about your return-on-investment.
But, if you are wise (not otherwise), try this Personal Savings Calculator to know: What is your Library worth to you? and
How much would you pay out-of-pocket for your library services?
Click here for a calculator:

Dover Public Library's Calculator
Library value calculations, Cornell University Library's Research and Assessment Unit
Library of Michigan Return on Investment Calculator
Library Research Service's Public Library User Return on Investment Calculator
What is Your Library Worth to You? | WordSalad: Brigham City Library Blog's [Monthly and Annual ways to Calculate your ROI]
Library Value Calculator @ London Public Library
Library of Michigan Return on Investment Calculator

See also on the same shelf:

Economic Recovery and Florida Libraries

Library ROI: A Brief Webliography

Dialog Offers Free Searching of Selected Cengage Files Through March 30th

2010-01-28T20:01:00.001-05:00

Info courtesy: Dr. John Jaeger, Resourceshelf

"Dialog and Cengage are offering free searching in select Cengage files from January 1, 2010, through March 31, 2010. During this time all DialUnits, Connect Time, and Alert Profile charges will be waived to allow customers to search these files and create and run Alerts profiles at no charge. Output pricing such as full formats and Alert prints will be charged at current rates. The included Cengage databases in the promotion are listed in Table 1.

Be sure to take advantage of this opportunity for unlimited searching in a wide range of business information sources!"

Facebook Fellowship Program

2010-01-10T09:47:00.005-05:00

What is this: Facebook Fellowship program to support graduate students in the 2010-2011 school year.

Which areas: We are interested in a wide range of academic topics, including the following topical areas:
* Internet Economics; * Cloud Computing; * Social Computing; * Data Mining and Machine Learning; * Systems; * Information Retrieval

Who can apply:
a. You must be enrolled at a U.S. university and meet the eligibility requirements.
b. Students must be in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, System Architecture, or a related area.
See other details @ here

News:
Facebook funding Ph.D fellowships San Francisco Chronicle
Facebook Launches Fellowship Program For Ph.D. Students : Facebook wants help solving tech problems
By Mike Sachoff, WebProNews: January 8, 2010
Are you a Ph.D. student that's interested in the social web and internet technology? AllFacebook.com
Who said Facebook was more centered at fun, brand promotion and a place to fund a campaign only? Sardar Mohkim Khan
Facebook turns to the ivory tower - genpop.net
Facebook Fellowship Program: Tapping into Bright Minds

Bottomline: Spread good word about this program to help your friends.

Are some degree courses a joke?

2009-12-21T18:27:00.001-05:00

Bill Bennett
knowledge workers – for people who are paid to think for a living
December 13th, 2009
"In 2001, Chris Woodhead, England’s chief inspector of schools caused a storm when he accused British universities of devaluing higher education by offering ‘vacuous degrees’.

At the time, London’s The Sunday Times carried a surprisingly candid interview with Woodhead. Among other things he questioned whether many vocational courses deliver on their claims.

Woodhead says many courses don’t prepare students for the real world..." continue reading
BBC News | TALKING POINT | Are some degree courses a joke?

The question about degree courses (vocational, technical or any other type) is valid and an issue even in other countries, where the courses offered may or may not be worth a return-on-investment. A return-on-investment is again a subject matter. And hence, there is a trend to fill the gaps, such as,

SOLVING THE SKILLS GAP.

And this question, frequently bothering those who take a Humanities degree:

What jobs could i get with an MA in history? - Yahoo! UK & Ireland ...

The credibility issue: closing the academic/practitioner gap

EABIS 2008 Knowledge and Learning Forum Catalogue of Initiatives

Journal of the Week Free Access: 19/10/2009, Interlending & Document Supply

2009-10-20T21:54:00.003-04:00

Info courtesy: Sir Shuping.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited's Journal of the Week feature provides free weekly access to two of Emerald's high quality journals. Simply click on one of the two active journals and you will be taken to the table of contents page where the free issues will be highlighted. Check back regularly for updates.

This week:

Interlending & Document Supply
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
See also forthcoming: Current Journals of the Week

Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

2009-10-17T12:51:00.007-04:00

"Electronic book borrowing is a convenient way for libraries to remain relevant, but publishers are worried."

Libraian's View:
"Some librarians object to the current pricing model because they often pay more for e-books than do consumers who buy them on Amazon or in Sony’s online store. Publishers generally charge the same price for e-books as they do for print editions, but online retailers subsidize the sale price of best sellers by marking them down to $9.99.
“ ‘The Lost Symbol’ is $9.99 on the Sony Reader book page, and I just paid $29.99 for that for the library,” said Robin Bradford, the collection development librarian at the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library. Ms. Bradford said she would consider buying additional digital copies if the price were lower. But “to buy nonphysical copies at the same price,” she said, “I just won’t do it.”
Reader's View:
"In libraries, readers are attracted to free material. Nancy Gobel, a dental hygienist who already downloads digital audio books from her library in Indianapolis, said she currently buys print books. But she is considering purchasing an electronic reader so she can borrow them for free. “I would still continue to buy, but I would download as much as I can,” she said. In many cases, she said, buying “doesn’t make sense.”" continue reading:
Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

By MOTOKO RICH

Published: October 15, 2009

See on the same shelf:

The Elusive eBook, by Sue Polanka

"The elusive eBook: who knew it would come with so many questions, challenges, and issues for libraries and users? It seems logical that we could catalog an eBook just like a print book, add a URL and be done with it. If only it were that easy! Instead, we are confronted by cataloging, purchasing, access, and interface issues. So what’s a librarian to do? Be aware, get informed, be vocal, and ask for more standardization from publishers, aggregators, and distributors. Let’s take a look at some issues that librarians and users find particularly challenging." continue reading

Citing, Citations, Siting, and Sighting the Wikipedia

2009-10-03T21:15:00.032-04:00

"Oh in regards to the Wikipedia citations for a given article, this is no guarantee that that citation was actually used to research that article. I've found several instances of Wikipedia citing pages on my site that have NEVER existed (strange but true)."KenB: Why Is Wikipedia On Top in Search Results?

A Long List of Disclaimers @ WIKI:

Use Wikipedia at your own risk
Wikipedia articles may contain nonsense
Wikipedia is a work in progress
Wikipedia articles may have (numerous) spelling and grammar errors
Wikipedia articles may have errors of fact and errors of omission

WIKI in Progress:

Fake Wikipedia editor unmasked in Webmaster General

Where Wikipedia Ends - Yahoo! News

Is Wikipedia a Victim of Its Own Success? - TIME

New Amazon wiki and citation features

LibraryCrunch: "a Wiki citation is toilet paper"

Tools of the Trade:

Wiki citation maker -- Wiki and Blog citation maker:

"This page helps you create biomedical citations to use as references when writing on wikis such as Citizendium, Medpedia, Wikipedia, and others. This page also helps create citations for biomedical blogs hosted on Blogger, Wordpress, and other sites."

Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

2009-02-22T17:11:00.011-05:00

Any alumni of Rutgers University, and any LIS professional, including this blogger, will be shocked to read about a revival-cum-survival spirit. Rutgers' is again in news--and LJ has it right on--not for a new Rocket Science, rather it is again about a Name change (undeniably, a debate that has always been our cup of tea!!!):

"as a form of protest, i refuse to come up with a witty title for this post
ok, i feel like i should maybe weigh in on this whole Rutgers dropping 'library' from SCILS situation. i posted a comment on my friend mike's blog, and i guess if i'm gonna speak my mind there, i might as well post it here as well. since i am lazy and don't really feel like spending much time or effort stressing over the whole thing, i'm just going to copy and paste my comment. (and what an easy way to drop a post in, since i haven't written in awhile. heh.)" Quoted from The Info Babe

Interestingly, other Library Schools that have no 'L' word include: Ischool @ University of Toronto, and iSchool at Drexel University; these are two current examples of a trend that will influence others.

See also: What’s the matter with our profession?

Bottomline: Some may wonder why we need the word: 'information' if words are just the matter as was argued in "Information Studies Without Information" In Library Trends 52(3) Winter 2004!!! Hence, are we getting into the same pond and business as in the following story where the naming business is a big business: Fresh Fish Sold Here

Flexibility your mantra for the new year?

2009-01-02T11:25:00.006-05:00

Editor’s Note, January 2009

Published by rachel under Editor's Notes

January 2, 2009 - vol. 10, no. 1 - ISSN 1532-0839 @ Info Career Trends

"Happy new year, all! And what better way to start out 2009 than with an eye toward alternative work arrangements — why not make flexibility your mantra for the new year?" continue reading

On the same shelf:

Library Annecdotes: Have Printer Will Travel

2008-12-20T11:45:00.019-05:00

...this particular guy also brought along a full-size HP laser printer (in the box) that he wheeled in on one of those luggage carriers. He was quiet, did what he needed to do in about an hour’s time, then he packed-up his printer and laptop and left. … I never saw this before in the Library. Have Printer Will Travel

New 3 Rs: Revolution, Reorganization and Renovation ~ Thought for the day

2008-12-14T14:30:00.012-05:00

"One of the chapters especially caught my eye. It is by one of the Charleston Conference mentors – Susan Campbell (Director, York College Library, York, Pennsylvania). Her paper is called “The New 3 Rs: Revolution, Reorganization and Renovation.” In it Susan explains how Schmidt Library managed a reorganization that eliminated 13 clerical positions and created 11 new full-time and 2 new part-time positions as well as performing renovations in three and a half months with $3.5 million."

quoted in Rumor of the day by katina.strauch (For book chapters and much more 'Connection. Competition. Collaboration,' See: Defining Relevancy, Managing the New Academic Library, edited by Janet McNeil Hurlbert, Libraries Unlimited, 2007

Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries ~~ Book and Reading Lists

2008-10-20T11:07:00.000-04:00

Note: This is an excellent categorization of the emerging trends in services and products.
Kathy Leeds @ Wilton Library needs to be congratualted for this creative resource.

"Reader's advisory has not disappeared from the list of functions libraries traditionally perform. The following are a few examples of Web versions of this service:
Addison [IL] Public Library: Readers' Resources
Austin [TX] Public Library: Good Reads
Baltimore County Public Library: Books and More
Canterbury [NZ] Public Library: If You Like...
Cleveland [OH] Public Library: YRead? for Teens
County of Los Angeles [CA] Public Library: Readers' Advisory Services
Essex [UK] Libraries: Ask Chris
Evanston [IL] Public Library: Reading Resources
Continue browsing: @ Wilton Library

Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries ~~ Ages & Stages

2008-10-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

Note: This is an excellent categorization of the emerging trends in services and products.
Kathy Leeds @ Wilton Library needs to be congratualted for this creative resource.

"Special sections of sites designed for segments of the service population are increasingly part of library offerings."
Boston Public Library Extreme Teen Lounge
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's Teens Real Life
Dewey Browse [Chesterfield, NH School Library]
eVolver [Denver,CO Public Library]
50 Plus [Phoenix (AZ) Public Library]
55+ [Hennepin County Library]
For Kids [Chicago Public Library]
For Teens, Kids & Parents [Winnipeg Public Library]
Kids & Teens [Tacoma, WA Public Library]
Kids @ the Library [Halifax Public Library, Canada]
Kids' Place [Newark, NJ Public Library]
Kidspoint [The Central Rappahannock VA Regional Library]
Children's Room [High Point NC Public Library]
Kids' Central [Waukesha, WI Public Library]
Kids Know It All [Harris County (TX)Public Library]
On-Lion for Kids [NY Public Library]
Continue browsing @ Wilton Library

Collection Development or Collection Building

2008-10-14T21:54:00.038-04:00

Name (what's in a name, anyways): Collection Building is not a preferred term, rather Library of Congress has the blessings for Collection development (Libraries)

I am reading this book: Crash Course in Collection Developme...
Wayne Disher (2007).

This book looks interesting, educating and detailed. It must be a
required reading for library science students as well librarians
searching for meaning in their chosen specialization by the type of
library (oops! the book's orientation is towards
a public library).

See also on the same shelf:
20 Maxims for Collection Building - 9/15/2007 - Library Journal
Contemporary collection development involves art, science, and business.
By Barbara Genco, as told to Raya Kuzyk

Facet 1: EMPOWERED PATRONS
>1 The user and the ILS > 2 Security and self-check > 3 Tagging, not MARC? >

Facet 2: MOBILITY AND DIGITIZATION
> 4 It's content, not containers, Stupid! > 5 Moving materials smarter > 6 Off-site storage and digitization > 7 Downloadable and digital

Facet 3: TRANSPARENT HOLDINGS
> 8 Power of the OPAC > 9 Logistics and process design are key > 10 If it's not cataloged, it doesn't exist > 11 “One big library”

Facet 4: RESPONSIVE ADMINISTRATION
> 12 Fewer librarians, more parapros? > 13 Measuring productivity, use, and needs > 14 Reference is dead; long live reference > 15 Policies are still primary

Facet 5: E-CONTENT AND THE WEB
> 16 It's a Google world > 17 Licenses and government documents

Facet 6: STREAMING SELECTION
> 18 Improving vendor relations > 19 Staying out front > 20 Libraries: The long tail writ large

Continue reading the article @ Library Journal

DeweyBrowser beta v2.0

2008-10-10T13:05:00.006-04:00

Search for a topic, click on a Dewey caption, or try a Random Search
©OCLC Online Computer Library Center

• a project of OCLC Research
• Learn About DeweyBrowser
Access DeweyBrowser Beta v1.0

Hiring Manager’s Keyword Search Survey Results

2008-09-17T01:15:00.000-04:00

A recent CareerBuilder.com survey found the following:
“…Hiring managers often use electronic scanners to rank candidates based on a keyword search of applications, so make sure to pepper keywords from the job posting into your resume as they apply to your experience. The terms employers search for most often are:
problem-solving and decision-making skills (50 percent)
oral and written communications (44 percent)
customer service or retention (34 percent)
performance and productivity improvement (32 percent)
leadership (30 percent) continue reading @ The Proverbial Lone Wolf Librarian’s Weblog

Amazing how mission drives an organization

2008-09-06T00:00:00.003-04:00

"I was at the ARL "Library Management Skills Institute I: The Manager" session a couple weeks ago, and it was impressed on me how dramatically the values and perspectives of librarians changed depending on their respective organizations' missions.

I work for a library which has clearly articulated a strategic plan, mission, and values which says that service is one of our core principles. This "patron-first" vision frames the way we see things, and it comes straight from our Dean.

It is in this principle of service that our Dean has justified NOT moving toward ARL status as a library. This is a significant change from the previous administration which had placed ARL status as one of the library's priorities... continue reading: Adam Wathen @ The Thinking Library

Library Research Project 101

2008-08-23T12:57:00.027-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Things to think about as you approach a research project

@Ann the Librarian

"I’ve been playing around with making a worksheet to use when I’m working with students who are just starting a research project. “Research” in this context refers to library research to find relevant articles, books, documents, etc, about a topic.
So here’s my first draft:

What discipline or disciplines am I working in?
What type of literature or information do I need?
How and where will I search for the information I need?
How will I access the information that I find?
What keywords or terms will I use to describe my topic?
After running a few searches: What results am I getting?
What refinements should I make to my search in light of those results?
How will I use the results that I’ve found?
What am I missing?

THE LIBRARIAN'S PRAYER / PRAYER FOR LIBRARIANS

2008-07-19T23:17:00.007-04:00

Amazon.com Widgets

Our Chief Librarian at BNB,
Hallowed be thy Catalogue,
Thy Issues be increased,
Thy Books be Strict-Ordered,
In Fiction as they are in Non-Fiction
Give us this day our Overdue Books back,
And forgive us our Classification Errors,
As we forgive those who Misplace our Books
(as they know not thy Prophet Dewey)
Lead us not into False Subject Headings,
But deliver us from Categorisation
..........and cuts in Opening Hours
..........and reductions in the Book Fund
For thine is the Issue System,
the Date Stamp
and the Light Pen
For Ever and Ever
Amen (submitted by Sue Marsden) @IFLA' site

PRAYER FOR LIBRARIANS [From Biblia's Humor Pages]

Lord, grant me the Serenity
to accept that the book is lost forever;
The Courage to refuse
a loan when there's an overdue book;
And the Wisdom to know
when it's time to take a break.

One the same shelf:
Cyber Worship Resource of the Week is The Jewish Prayer While Logging Onto the Internet

22 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Get for Free

2008-07-08T16:51:00.017-04:00

"Conventional wisdom holds that you only get what you pay for, but the real free geek knows that with the right knowledge (and maybe a charming smile) pretty much anything, even the good stuff, can be had for less or in the best case scenarios nothing at all. Despite this, there are a number of things out there that don’t seem to scream “free” majority of the time (MIT being one). Here’s a list of a few free things that might surprise you."

The list includes:
Classes at MIT offers a majority of its curriculum
Language Lessons @ BBC
Business Education @ Local business centers
Computer Classes @ offer workshops
411 Service @ (800-FREE-411)
Used Books @ PaperBackSwap or Title Trader
Comic Books @ free comics
CPR Courses @ online
Much more...

info cortesy: http://www.davelafferty.com

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

2008-07-01T22:28:00.012-04:00

Best comment for those who love to look outside the box:

"Even your librarians learned something new from this article on the lifehacker web site:

10. Get the local time anywhere
9. Track flight status
8. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and more

7. Compare items with "better than" and find similar items with "reminds me of"
6. Use Google as a free proxy
5. Remove affiliate links from product searches
4. Find related terms and documents
3. Find music and comic books
2. ID people, objects, and foreign language words and phrases with Google Image Search
1. Make Google recognize faces

Info courtesy: Dr. John Archer Library

On the same shelf:

18 expert tips which every Googler must know

How to kill a young librarian's love of librarianship (AKA. A Dispute Resolution Guide)

2008-06-16T16:21:00.017-04:00

Thanks to Dr. Wilfred Drew for this inside-box news story.

His list of actions, messages and motivations, all coming from the box around, include many do's and don'ts. I like his do's, as guidelines to be considered by all the concerned (just-in-case they are looking for creative visualizations):

Award only those that maintain the status quo
Blame people for failures.
Call young librarians "cute" and ignore what they can really do
Maintain walls between departments
Demand unquestioning trust in what you do
Veteran librarians know best because that is the way it has always been done

Continue reading the list, and the comments of the experienced

PS. I need his help in drawing a list of such guidelines on how to kill a foreign trained librarians' love of librarianship (and de-humanize these in a very polished, friendly and courteous manner, not to lead him, but just mention in passing, find a sure-killer list that comes with sugar coated delusions).

Nine Free Apps Every Writer Should Consider

2008-06-07T20:05:00.000-04:00

q10: A cool, minimalist full-screen text editor that includes a spellchecker and a couple other nice features. (Win Only; Alternatives: DarkRoom, also Win-only; WriteRoom, Mac-only but not free; Writer, online app)
Freemind: Java-based mindmapping software. Great for brainstorming and taking notes. (Runs anywhere Java runs)
EverNote: Capture formatted notes from any application to a single place. The new version (in private beta now) offers online access, too. (A paid version offers niceties like handwriting recognition.)
Zotero: Firefox extension that allows you to capture bibliographic information from web pages, organize citiations and documents, and create bibliographies in Word and OpenOffice. Essential for anyone who does research on the web.
yWriter4: Novel-writing software created by a working writer with writers in mind. Keeps character descriptions, notes, and other essential information at your fingertips as you write. (Win and Linux)
Sonar: Submission tracking software from the same guy who wrote yWriter4. Keep track of markets and submissions easily. (Win and Linux)
Foxit Reader: A super-fast PDF reader. Opens almost every document much more quickly than Adobe Reader. (Win only)
PDF Creator: Open source program to create PDF files from any application that can print. Installs a "virtual printer" under your programs "Print" menu; select it to save as PDF. (Win only)
Enso Words: Provides system-wide spellchecking and word count; simply select text and enter a keystroke combination ("Caps Lock" + s for spellcheck, "Caps Lock" + w for word count, etc.). (Win only)
Continue reading: The Ultimate Writing Productivity Resource by Dustin Wax

[Info courtesy: Narrative and Storytelling @ How to Save the World by Dave Pollard]

Ten New Positions I'd Like to See

2008-05-06T03:19:00.005-04:00

Dream come true of another library blogger?? Not yet.... says Laura Cohen:

My library just got a huge, anonymous donation to fund ten new positions for as long as we want them. We're now in the process of figuring out the basics of these new lines. It's an exciting time for us. I may have been dreaming this.

Dreaming about:

Social Networking Support Librarian.
Collaborative Publishing Librarian.
Multimedia Publishing Librarian
Coordinator of Student Participation
Programming Risk-Taker.
OPAC Transformation Librarian
Testbed Technologist
Digitization Librarian
Remote User Librarian
Exploration and Training Librarian

Keep reading and hope against hope: Library 2.0: An Academic's Perspective

PS. Same shelf: A librarian by any other name... by Mary Ellen Bates

FREE TOOLS & Software for Information Managers

2008-03-10T17:15:00.004-04:00

FREE TOOLS/Software to Download for use in the Library, at Home or for your own Business @ LibrarySupportStaff.com

PLEASE BE AWARE! I DO NOT ENDORSE & AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY SOFTWARE OR ONLINE SERVICES That you may link to from this page!! Use, Download Software or Link to Individual websites at Your Own Risk.

NB. Library Suppport Staff's website has tonnes of stuff on Helpful for On the Job in Libraries

Talking Books Librarian: Who Needs Libraries?

2008-03-05T07:24:00.000-05:00

Listen to this Article
It seems like these days, almost everyone is debating the purpose of libraries and printed books... and lots of libraries are facing budget cuts... in light of this, have you heard the online sound publication titled Who Needs Libraries? You can listen to it at SoundPrint
On the same shelf: Article: Cell Phone Reads to the Blind

HOWTO Make a bedside book-pocket

2008-03-04T21:28:00.000-05:00

[PS. info courtesy: Posted by Cory Doctorow @ Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things]

Much more @ Knitty, Vintage and Rosy

Obsolete Academic Librarian Skills

2008-03-01T13:03:00.002-05:00

"A few bloggers were having fun identifying totally obsolete skills. You know, the sort of things we all used to do all the time that nobody has to bother with anymore. For example, dialing a rotary phone, using carbon paper to make copies, or changing the ball on a selectric typewriter. That got me to thinking that in the years I’ve been in this profession, for the vast majority of academic librarians, there are more than a few accumulated skills and practices that could now be considered obsolete...." continue reading
Posted by StevenB on February 20th, 2008 under Just Thinking. Comments: 38

PUNCHLINE:
"If Google and a librarian had an informational smackdown, who would win?"
"Today's librarians are shelving stereotypes" read more by By CAROLYN FEIBEL: Information isn't reserved for books @ Houston Chronicle

Bed built into an "igloo of books"

2008-02-28T20:24:00.000-05:00

[info courtesy: Cory Doctorow]@ Boing Boing - A directory of wonderful things

Blog Search Contestants 1 and 2

2008-02-24T18:38:00.000-05:00

Blog Search Revisited - Google vs Technorati vs Techmeme Andy Beard (Feb
Compared blog search at Google and Technorati, and explained why he starts at Techmeme.
Identifies some of the ranking factors at Google: title, order of words in title, keyword occurence in the text, site authority metrics.
He found Technorati fresher and with less spam. Ranking is really according to relevance, rather than the giving the user the ability to define an "authority threshold". continue reading [info posted by Gwen @ Internet News]

Digital Bookplates: A Creative Visualization

2008-02-21T15:31:00.000-05:00

Info courtesy: New Jack Librarian

Demystifying the Technician/Librarian Relationship in Academic Libraries

2008-02-16T01:15:00.000-05:00

Session # 605 OLA's Super Conference 2008,

Tanis Fink, Chief Librarian, Seneca College;
Mark Bryant, Reference and Information Literacy Librarian, Humber College;
Laurie Morrison, Librarian for Modern Languages and Visual Arts, Brock University;
Autumn Piette, Reference Technician, King Library, Seneca College.

Explore the nature of the relationship between librarians and library technicians. What is your perspective on these two similar and yet different groups that share common goals and values? How do we foster teamwork and relationship building? Can we uncover ways to improve and promote a healthy working and collaborative environment? A diverse panel of librarians and technicians will explore their personal experience. Come prepared to participate and share your thoughts.

Convenor: Jennifer Peters-Lise, Seneca College

This Week's Roundup for Library Technician Jobs: 02/09/2008

2008-02-09T23:25:00.000-05:00

@ University of Toronto's FIS.

Library Technician (Part-time) Peterborough Law Association, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; Posted: Friday, 08 February 2008
Deadline:February 20, 2008

Systems Library Technician, competition number 08-SSLT-RAF (Full-time) The Law Society of Saskatchewan Libraries, Regina, SK, Canada; Posted: Friday, 08 February 2008, Deadline:February 25, 2008

Information Services Technician (Part-time)Library @ Mohawk College of Applied Arts & Technology, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Posted: Wednesday, 06 February 2008, Deadline:February 13, 2008

@ The Partnership National Library Jobsite of Canada

LIBRARY TECHNICIAN Lambton College of Applied Arts & Technology, Sarnia, ON, 2/1/2008, Deadline: 2/15/2008

@ http://www.fla.org/jobline.html

Library Technician - Calgary Catholic School District - Calgary, AB CLOSING DATE: Until a suitable applicant is found

@ Saskatchewan Association of Library Technicians. None this week.

PS. Click here for previous job postings!

Disclaimer: The positions are as described on the above Website(s). This blogmaster does not accept responsibility for accuracy, reliability, etc. All clarifications / communications about a position should be directed to the respective source.

Library 2.0: Based and Debased

2008-02-07T07:37:00.001-05:00

It is heartening to see that Library world is adapting the word: Library 2.0--adapting the word sounds more apropriate because adapting the technology & / or technique of Web 2.0 is not so much obvious. The Word-base is growing, at least if the following is any trend in a Web directory:

Home : Libraries : Library and Information Science : Weblogs : Directories Links:
BlogBib: Select
Librarian/Library Blogs - Annotated list.
BloggingLibraries - Lists by library type, from blogwithoutalibrary.net.
Library Weblogs - Directory categorized by geographic location, compiled by Peter
Scott.
RSS(sm): Rich
Site Services - A categorized registry of library services that are
delivered or provided through RSS/XML, Atom, or other types of web feeds.
The Blog - Overview of blogging for librarians by Rachel Mathieu and Robyn
Fleming. Includes a directory of library blogs.

This Week's Roundup for Library Technician Jobs: 02/02/2008

2008-02-02T15:29:00.000-05:00

This idea of a Weekly Roundup is based on the trend set by Heather Matheson, Reference Librarian, Carleton University Library @ inspyration: recruit : retain : reflect

None this Week @ University of Toronto's FIS.

Other Job sites: @ The Partnership National Library Jobsite of Canada

LIBRARY TECHNICIAN Sarnia, On --CLOSING DATE: 2008/02/04
Branch Library Technicians (2 Positions) Richmond, B.C., CLOSING DATE: 2/15/2008

@ http://www.fla.org/jobline.html

Library Technician - McCarthy Tétrault LLP - Calgary, AB; Date posted: January 29, 2008
Interlibrary Loan Clerk - Grande Prairie Public Library - Grande Prairie, AB, posted: Jan 28, 2008
Deadline Extended* Libray Technician - Westbrook School - Cochrane, AB
E-Resources Library Technician II - Library, SAIT - Calgary, AB, closing date: 22 Feb., 2008

@ Saskatchewan Association of Library Technicians. None this week.

Strains and Joys Color Mergers Between Libraries and Tech Units

2008-02-02T13:07:00.000-05:00

By ANDREA L. FOSTER, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 18, 2008
Adrift. Dysfunctional. Desperately needing a change. The adjectives sound like descriptions of a bad relationship, but about three years ago Xavier University, in Cincinnati, applied them to two of its departments.
Both Xavier's library and its information-technology unit were in terrible shape. Xavier had hired four chief information officers in five years, its technology was obsolete, its library and IT staffs didn't talk to each other, and students had to jump through hoops to do online research.
David W. Dodd, the CIO who arrived at Xavier in 2005, said students and faculty members wanted three basic things: "Provide the services I'm looking for, in the manner I want, and get out of my way." They weren't getting any of them. full article

Same Shelf and aisle of my desktop:
Librarians and IT Professionals and
Librarians and Techies – A NEXUS
Readings between the shelf:
Google Print vs. The Open Library vs. Project Gutenberg

"Today we saw yet another entry from The Library of Congress, as it
received 3 million dollars to start their own project, from a most
unlikely source, Google! It was suggested at today's Geek Lunch a
motivation of Google's might be to let The Library of Congress pay
the price in non-cash value, for opening the vast intercontinental
virtual prairieland to the virtual settlers, who just happed to be
an assortment of multi-billion dollar cartels, who have felt those
slings and arrows of their misfortune a little too much." Michael Hart

Best Practices: Trainer, Train Thyself (Part 1 of 2)
Carole Leita’s Infoblog post earlier this week draws attention to a myth-breaking report from University College London (UCL), the British Library, and the Joint Information Systems Committee: Information Behavior of the Researcher of the Future. Her post also makes me think about the current behavior of those of us who are or have been involved in staff training and development programs.
British Study Says "Google Generation" a Myth; Libraries Must Step Up, Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 1/28/2008 [info courtesy: Sujatha.Thadakamalla @ Aucklandcity Public Library]

Two interesting articles review this British Library Report: Society Is Dumbing Down, by Zubin Jelveh @ ODD Numbers; and We're all information gatherers now, By Jeremy Wagstaff @ AsiaMedia

SIRLS LSO Job Series: Panel Discussion

2008-02-01T17:19:00.000-05:00

Three guest speakers share their experience and perspective on the information profession and librarianship. The speakers, in talking order, are: Jan Knight (information consultant) at 3 minutes into the clip, Ann Dutton Ewbank (K-12, University librarian) at 19 minutes into the clip, and Mary Graham (Museum librarian) about 36 minutes into the clip.

Inter-Library Lending @ Brooklyn College, New York +

2008-01-27T17:17:00.000-05:00

Brooklyn College: Borrowing Books from Other CUNY Libraries

This short video explains how the Brooklyn College community can use CLICS to borrow books from other CUNY campus libraries.

Librarians and IT Professionals:

2008-01-24T23:26:00.000-05:00

Ian said...
Actually, Ian only WORKS WITH the talented people who created the "Librarian/IT Professional" videos (Sean Robinson, our IT Department manager; Lynn Hoffman, Information Services Coordinator and Digital Collaborative chair; and Kay Gregg, videographer, among others).
But I did do the Miniature Mayhem one. With lots of help from Kay.

see also interesting comments [by Nick Dobbing, Meredith, @ davidrothman.net's Blog

Librarians and IT Professionals

A Fuse #8 Production

Librarians and Techies – A NEXUS

Is a Library Technician (LT or LIT) allowed to teach LTs?

2008-01-19T10:16:00.000-05:00

I have received the following question, any response to this?

Hello Mohamed:

I found this blog post on Sunday and I'm sending it round to anyone I think might be interested. Do you know if LTs are allowed to teach LTs in your area or if a university degree is required? Cheers.

Julanne Hennessy, Library Technician

Suggested reading:
See also a blogpost by Derek Whitehead that shows concern (among others) at least on two related issues in the professional circles:

it seems likely that we haven't got a systematic enough approach to articulation between paraprofessional and professional qualifications

there is a strong preoccupation with the relative roles and status of librarians and library technicians, as one might expect

Quotes (for reflection): "As with teacher-librarian jobs, full-time library technician positions tend to be a secondary school phenomenon." Anybody home?Who's really left in Ontario's school libraries?Glenn Turner

"A library technician recently contacted me for advice on how to teach the school staff about the Focus on Inquiry document (Alberta Education 2004). Though I applauded her initiative in seeing the need to teach children using an inquiry model, I questioned why this job was being done by non-certificated staff. I am told by learning resources consultants from across Alberta that it is common for non-certificated staff to teach information skills." Almost extinct
Teacher–librarians are Alberta’s newest endangered species, Fern Reirson

And, the punchline is, if you wish to see the trend, as to how many LTs have teaching qualification, wait for the results of this survey: Australian School Libraries Research Survey

Uneasy tensions in LIS Education

2008-01-06T22:18:00.000-05:00

This article covers the training and education of librarians.
Education for 21st century librarianship continues to face many of the uneasy tensions that have been present since its beginnings in the 19th century. Some of the tensions facing Library and Information Science Education:

Tension # 1: Generalization versus specialization

There's always been a tension between specialization and generalization in the history of the development of Library Science as an academic discipline (at least in the United States). I guess you could say both have won or maybe they co-exist uneasily? For example, one can still get a graduate degree in Library and Information Science with just about 12 courses. In some schools such as the University of Arizona's School of Information Resources and Library Science the generalization-specialization is exhibited in the following ways: graduate students can specialize in an area of study such as Knowledge Organization. The specialization is a core intellectual problem area of LIS - see this article in D-Lib Magazine for more. Or they can specialize in a particular information environment such asSchool Library Media certification.

Tension #2: Practice versus Theory

Tension #3: 1 year versus 2 year graduate degree

Tension #4: Education for Information (the I word) versus Education for Library Science (the L word) or is it LIS Education?

Tension #5: Cataloging education versus Knowledge organization (or organization of information) approaches

Tension #6: Distance learning versus classroom delivery

The Williamson report on library education chastised librarians and called them "prejudiced" even in this regard for failing to take advantage of new technologies that would provide access (to library education through DE - distance education) to rural areas.

Tension #7: Crisis Criers - if we believe some folks LIS education has been in crisis now for over a hundred years in the US (since inception in fact). continue reading @
Education - LISWiki

Outsourcing Libraries - Public Library as a Private Enterprise

2007-11-20T11:46:00.000-05:00

"Once known as staid, quiet repositories for books, some institutions are copying business models on how best to attract and keep 'customers.' Jeff Overly "

Outsourcing Libraries: @ OntheCommons.org, Tue, 11/06/2007 , by David Bollier's blog
"There may be no more eloquent statement about the erosion of our civic connectedness than the news that public libraries around the country are starting to outsource their daily operations. Yes, public libraries are being privatized. This should not be entirely surprising, given how jails, highways and even military operations are being privatized these days. Yet it does raise the distressing question – If libraries are vulnerable, where will this momentum for dismantling our civic institutions end? ... http://faithcommons.org/feeditem/outsourcing_libraries

Google for more on "Outsourcing Libraries" "library outsourced"

The Librarians - an Australian ABC Comedy Series

2007-11-11T16:45:00.000-05:00

The Librarians Interview

[Info courtesy: Michelle McLean @ Connecting Librarian]

THE SAD SIDE OF REMEMBRANCE DAY 2006

2007-11-09T11:57:00.000-05:00

November 10, 2006 [News from Ontario Library Association]

After the tremendous surge of support for Remembrance activities in 2005, it is sad to see the growing number of stories in the media involving the theft of donation boxes this year. These stories are being offset by people rising to the occasion to replace the stolen money but it is a measure of the shock. A robber made off with a Remembrance Day poppy box that had been set up at the circulation desk at the Elmvale Acres branch of Ottawa Public Library. In an Ottawa Citizen story, library spokesman Alan Roberts said Friday the staff were "mortified" by the robbery and they, like so many others, are pitching in to replenish the money that was stolen.

See also: ola meeting space › Community Blog › OLA Headline Stories

2008 Ontario Association of Library Technicians Conference

2007-11-07T21:23:00.000-05:00

OALT/ABO: 35th Annual Conference
Up coming ConferencesDates:
May 7 - 10, 2008
Location: Kingston, ON
More details to follow...
Past Conferences - themes and locations

A Course on Library 2.0 & Social Networking

2007-10-26T02:03:00.000-04:00

Info courtesy: Sukhdev's World

LIS 768: Course Syllabus
Here is the updated syllabus: stephensl2syllabusfinal1.doc
Revised Course Schedule: lis768courseschedulerevised.doc

See also:

Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us: Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation, By Melissa L. Rethlefsen -- Library Journal, 9/15/2007

Social Software in Libraries, by Meredith Farkas

New OCLC Report: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World:
The practice of using a social network to establish and enhance relationships based on some common ground—shared interests, related skills, or a common geographic location—is as old as human societies, but social networking has flourished due to the ease of connecting on the Web.

This OCLC membership report explores this web of social participation and cooperation on the Internet and how it may impact the library’s role, including:

* The use of social networking, social media, commercial and library services on the Web
* How and what users and librarians share on the Web and their attitudes toward related privacy issues
* Opinions on privacy online
* Libraries’ current and future roles in social networking

The report is based on a survey (by Harris Interactive on behalf of OCLC) of the general public from six countries—Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States—and of library directors from the U.S. The research provides insights into the values and social-networking habits of library users. continue reading the report

Info courtesy:
Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

The Future of Electronic Paper

2007-10-25T22:30:00.000-04:00

Monday, October 15, 2007 - Iddo Genuth

Home >> Articles >> The Future of X

Thirty-five years in the making, electronic paper is now closer than ever to changing the way we read, write, and study — a revolution so profound that some see it as second only to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century. Made of flexible material, requiring ultra-low power consumption, cheap to manufacture, and—most important—easy and convenient to read, e-papers of the future are just around the corner, with the promise to hold libraries on a chip and replace most printed newspapers before the end of the next decade. This article will cover the history, technology, and future of what will be the second paper revolution continue reading

Advice to future graduates

2007-10-20T16:04:00.000-04:00

What's an MLIS Worth?
A picture of overall growth is marred by fissures in job outlook

By Stephanie Maatta -- Library Journal, 10/15/2007
"A final question on the follow-up survey—for advice they would give to future colleagues—elicited responses from the philosophical to the practical. But in general, graduates stressed a need to be able to “parlay” personal background into professional experience. They emphasized the need for experience in a library or information agency even if it's in the capacity of a volunteer or page. Additionally, they suggested polishing the professional persona before entering the job market. One advised, “Be sure your MySpace or other social networking web pages are what you want future employers to see. The first thing a department head does when she gets a résumé is google the person.” For those going the corporate route, another advised, “No visible tattoos! Before going to an interview with a reputable firm, take out the face piercings and nose rings. Dye your blue (purple, mauve, or green) hair something 'normal.' Invest in a professionally prepared résumé.” Such professionalism extends to attitude, as expressed in the final piece of practical advice the 2006 graduates issued: “Show your administration that your job is more than just a 'job,' that it is your career.” continue reading the full article

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION's Education & Careers Section

2007-10-14T03:58:00.000-04:00

Make a living making a difference...

Consider joining the 400,000 librarians and library workers who bring opportunity every day to the communities they serve. If you're looking to enter the library profession or furthering an existing career in libraries, the following resources can help you on your way.

Explore a career in libraries:

Career Overview

Salary & Outlook Information

Interested? Start your library career:

Education & Degrees

Scholarships

Furthering your library career:

Professional Development

Getting Involved in ALA

Continuing Education

Employment Opportunities
Includes information for jobseekers, as well as employment resources for existing library workers and human resource professionals.

Recruiting others to the Profession
Love your library career? Use these resources to usher in the next generation of library workers.
Click here for more info and updates

+ Practical Ideas You Can Use to Improve Your Library Program

2007-10-11T03:51:00.000-04:00

Text from the AASL 2001 Annual Conference Session
Title of presentation: 101+ Practical Ideas You Can Use to Improve Your Library Program.

Presented by: Gene Hainer, Colorado State Library and Su Eckhardt, Cherry Creek School District.

(c) 2001, Colorado Educational Media Association and Colorado State Library. Permission to duplicate for educational purposes only, with proper credit to the above authors and organizations. All other rights reserved.

The following ideas were gathered from many sources or personal experience. Some you may want to do now. Others you may never want to do. There may even be things you know about that aren't listed here.

While reading, take a moment to commit yourself to doing something--anything--to improve your library, work life, collection, PR, communication, collaboration, instructional practices. Anything. Then take that first step and try it! If that's successful, try something else. You (and your program) will be better for it.

Categorized by the elements presented in Principles of Information Power: Building Partnerships for Student Learning.
LEADERSHIP
1. Realize that you do not have time to do EVERYTHING. Decide what is important and do THAT....

LEARNING AND TEACHING

45. Start curriculum mapping of the classroom content. Work with teachers to sketch out the major curriculum areas or units that they will be working on throughout the year. These can be displayed on poster board (if first laminated, can be written on, erased, and changed as needed during the year). It also reminds teachers that you and the library are there to help with instruction.
PROGRAM ADMINISTRATION

55. Post copyright restrictions. Place on copy machines, VCRs, reproducible notebooks that request permissions, etc.

Continue reading the 101+Practical Ideas You Can Use to Improve Your Library Program

THE IMPORTANCE OF ERESOURCE STATISTICS

2007-10-06T15:29:00.000-04:00

Sarah Houghton-Jan [San Mateo County (California, USA) Library] made a good point in this post on Librarian in Black.
in
eMusic says no to DRM -and- Sarah's lesson on the importance of eResource statistics
Hint to Libraries: “Please examine your online resource statistics. When you’re shelling out thousands a pop, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden to make sure those resources are actually being used. Right? You might be surprised that the resources your staff tell you they use all the time are actually the lowest-used in your collection...or what you think might be used, based on instinct, just isn’t. At that point, you have to ask yourself why, and make adjustments in PR, staff training, staff promotion of the resources to the public, and look at the barriers to access on your website or the vendor’s site. See if the numbers rise after making some changes, but give it at least 6 months; it will take time.”
URL: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2007/10/emusic-says-

info courtesy: Judith A. Siess @ OPL Plus (not just for OPLs anymore)

Enhanced Speed Reading

2007-10-01T02:30:00.000-04:00

PS. Interesting application news @ Factiva's "Researcher", info courtesy: Daniela Barbosa and Daniela says: "As promised on Lou's original post, Greg writes about some of the tools that he has been experimenting with which provide capabilities that he is calling 'enhanced speed reading'. His thoughts are based on conversations with information professionals and researchers about how to effectively manage the ever increasing volume of information they need to read."

The following is from Greg's blog:

Concorder Pro: This tool is a bit buggy but I still use it to navigate mini text archives using concordance to browse by words alphabetically or by count. Once you get beyond stop words, it gets very interesting. This app was last updated in 2003 and for OS X mac only. Concordance provides the word counts for every word my mini archive.
Other tools that are also very interesting include:

DEVONagent
Concept Q
RefVis

When considering the professional researcher we not only talk about expert search strategies but how the results are really used. Who scans, reads, annotates the ever-increasing overload of relevant information.

Librarian faces racism at trial if extradited, lawyer tells court

2007-09-23T14:54:00.000-04:00

Sep 22, 2007 04:30 AM
Peter Small
Courts Bureau, TheStar.com
A Toronto librarian accused of shooting a white police officer in Chicago almost 40 years ago should not be extradited to face trial in the U.S. because as a black man, he won't get a fair trail, his lawyer has told three appeal court judges.

"Black men in the United States have been victims of persecution for centuries and that includes to the present day ... including state authorities in Chicago," John Norris argued yesterday.

Canada's justice minister turned a "blind eye" to this deep-rooted racism when he ordered Joseph Pannell to be surrendered for extradition, Norris told the panel.

But federal Crown counsel Janet Henchey countered there would be no particular risk to Pannell due to U.S. racism. "Frankly, there is racism in Canada."

Pannell, 58, has been in jail since July 2004, when he was arrested at gunpoint as he left his job at the Toronto Reference Library. continue reading

LIGHTSPACE: Paradigm Shift in Education

2007-09-09T15:53:00.000-04:00

"In my student days I studied in some of the world’s most renowned libraries, such as the awe-inspiring library of the British Museum, — where supposedly the dream and the horror of communism was born —, or the much smaller library of Mackintosh’s Fine Arts School in Glasgow. Their difference in size was immense, but there was a common denominator shared by almost all the classical style libraries: that was their dark atmosphere, dim spot lights only, hardly any sound, only whispering; visually you were surrounded by stacks of mostly leather bound and dusty books looking all very ancient. Both buildings were center oriented, inward looking only. You were meant to be glued to your seat over your book. One had the feeling of being in a monastic setting with ancient editions of the Bible, the Greek tragedies and other heavy volumes of sacred wisdom. One wasn’t allowed to speak, forget about laughing. Libraries were conceived as castles of learning, education and ancient wisdom, as if education by default had to be directed backwards. And above all, the accent was on seriousness.

The results of this cloistered and serious paradigm of human learning, whether in the dark halls of Oxford, Harvard or Berlin, ultimately sanctioned by the “religions of the book” from 2000 to 2500 years ago and not derived from “religions of personal experience”, are not encouraging: the 20th century was the bloodiest in human history, and the 21st promises to beat the gruesome record. continue reading Architecture of the Month: 2006 April

"

Yahoo Answers on the Street

2007-08-30T01:06:00.000-04:00

Shifting Careers - Outside The Box Interactions

2007-08-21T19:39:00.000-04:00

Blogging Your Way Into a Business

By MARCI ALBOHER

Published: August 12, 2007

New York Times

Extract:

When Ellyssa Kroski, who is in her mid-30s, completed her master’s degree in library science in 2004, she could not find a full-time job. She was working part time in the Butler Library at Columbia University and in technology consulting, the work she did before she started her master’s program. She decided that blogging about her expertise might be a way to build connections in the field that could lead to a job.
Befitting a librarian, Ms. Kroski’s posts are well researched and well cited, the old-fashioned way, using properly formatted footnotes rather than hyperlinks.
And the blog did lead to a job, an adjunct faculty position at Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science. But in the meantime, her interests have changed: while the job is not full time, because of her blog Ms. Kroski’s horizons have risen even further.
“As a new librarian, no one would publish me,” Ms. Kroski said. Yet, after publishing her first article, “Authority in the Age of the Amateur”, on her blog, Infotangle, and circulating it to bloggers in her field, she discovered that she was cited everywhere.
Continue reading

ALA Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher

2007-08-19T19:28:00.000-04:00

Developed and maintained by Pat Ensor

Tired of endless lists of Web search tools that give you no guidance as to which ones to use? Or that were last updated when Gophers were alive? I'm inviting you to look over my shoulder and use what I use every day for Web searching in an academic library. I keep up with this stuff so you don't have to! continue reading

Top Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians

2007-08-14T07:51:00.000-04:00

Part One @ iLibrarian & OEDb

Librarians are experimenting with a wide range of Facebook Apps ranging from the productive such as the 30 Boxes Calendar, Meebo, Twitter, and Zoho Online Office to the silly with Zombies, Likeness, My Aquarium, and SuperPoke. Here are the first three Facebook Apps designed for the librarian in all of us:
Books iRead – With nearly 200,000 users, this handy app claims to be the most popular book application on Facebook. .

LibGuides Librarian – For those of you using Springshare’s LibGuides subject guides maker for libraries, you’ll be pleased to see this new app which lets you display your guides in your Facebook profile and also provides a search of your library’s catalog.

Librarian –This virtual librarian service provides links to books, scholarly sources, and reference resources which the community can add to and vote on. Those who access this application can access an “Ask a Librarian” service, as well as customize and build their own widget based on the original. Continue reading

“11 Life Rules”. This is not the work of Bill Gaets.

2007-08-04T10:37:00.000-04:00

posted @ www.gaets.com

Did Bill Gates really say that?
Bill Gates: Life Is Not Fair - Get Used To olliebray,

(Alleged) advice from Bill Gates
As the story goes, "Bill Gates gave a speech at a high school in which he talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world."
I don't believe this actually came from Bill, but I like it anyway!
Originally from:
Dumbing Down Our Kids
Charles Sykes is the author of DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS. The following is a list he created for high school and college graduates of things he did not learn in school. In his book, he talks about how the "system" may have created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and set them up for failure in the real world.

The 6th Annual Ohio Library Support Staff Institute August 5 – 7, 2007

2007-08-04T00:58:00.000-04:00

at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio

Just added to the agenda:
“The Library Degree: Is It For Me?”
a discussion with Michael Bradshaw, 2006 OLSSI Chair
and Doug Morrison, OLSSI Founder
Keynote Address by Neal Semel of Diversity Matters - "Multiculturalism and Respect"

Classes include:
3-Dimensional Picture Book Art: Movable & Pop-Up Books
Assault Prevention and Self-Defense
Basic Animation Techniques in PowerPoint Presentations
Book Repair
Creating Original Records in WorldCat
Creating Your Own Blog...Hands- on Training
Etiquette and Greetings Around the World
Multicultural Communications and Holidays in a Diverse World
Sexual Harassment: Working With Respect
The Elixir of Librarianship. ..Maps
What A Difference A Generation Makes
Yoga for Stressed Library Staff
This year’s grand prize is an Amish Heartland Package for two at the Inn at Honey Run in beautiful Holmes county.
SPACES ARE FILLING QUICKLY! Register at: http://www.olssi.org [librarian-wannabes]

- posted by Rachel @ Beyond the Job

Reference Books Bulletin: Is Print Reference Dead?

2007-07-25T00:42:00.000-04:00

in ALA Annual 2007: Day 4: June 24: Is Print Ref Dead?

Extracts:

Reasons why print is dying:

Catalog information for p-titles is limited to title in most cases
e-ref is very browsable online--TOC, indexes, etc.

Preferences of contemporary users who expect 24/7 access, searchability, full text delivery.

P-content is invisible

Print indexes are too hard to use

MLS/MLIS students are not required to take reference. Most get out of school with only one (or fewer) ref classes

Print is....print. E-resources offer interactivity and multimedia. Many resources are dynamic and frequently updated

Make sure your resume is noun-intensive

2007-07-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

A thought for those who are looking for a job and sending a resume: Don't be insensitive

Scanning technology used by most companies tends to search by nouns, not verbs. For example, instead of writing "managed projects" on your resume, write "project manager." in 10 Ways to Stand Out From Your Competition, By KATE LORENZ, CAREERBUILDER.COM EDITOR

Who is Reading Books (and who is not)

2007-07-20T18:18:00.000-04:00

PS. This is a quote posted by Bill @ Faith Commons: A Chasm Is Growing Between the Knows and the Know-nots

58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.

42% of college graduates never read another book.

80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.

70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.

--Jerrold Jenkins via Dan Poynter's ParaPublishing

What are the advantages of e-books over print books

2007-07-16T15:13:00.000-04:00

punchline:

3.2.6i: Why Librarians would like to purchase more e-books and encourage greater use of them, and their concerns
3.2.6ia: Access
3.2.6ib: Stock Maintenance and Administrative
Tasks
3.2.6ic: Quality of Stock
3.2.6id: Economic Considerations

3.2.6ii: Librarians’ prioritisation of e-book acquisition, with reasons
3.2.6iia: High demand
3.2.6iib: Material types sought
3.2.6iic: Target subjects
3.2.6iid: Specific user groups
3.2.6iie: Constraints
continue reading: What are the advantages of e-books over print books

see also:

Advantages of E-books www.ukoln.ac.uk

The Benefits and Advantages of Ebooks By Remez Sasson

advantages of ebooks

Google for more

The Top 10 Reasons to Be a Librarian

2007-07-14T17:25:00.000-04:00

By Martha J. SpearLibrary media specialist Berkley (Mich.) High School
(with apologies to David Letterman)

As a high school library media specialist, I have the good fortune to work with, and sometimes mold, young people. If I’m lucky, I discover what they do after graduation. Recently, one of my favorite students informed me that after earning her humanities degree at a tiny private college, she was pursuing a master’s degree in museum studies. Congratulating her, I jokingly said, “Watch it. That’s awfully close to a master’s in library science.” She laughed and said: “Oh, I’d never do that.” Somewhat defensively, I replied, “You could do worse.”

Long after this brief conversation, I wondered, where did we, as librarians, go wrong? Why is there such an onus on this profession that a bright, young person would choose, well, any career but that of librarianship? I think it’s sad. Librarianship has much to offer, and I think we can do better in promoting our profession. Toward that end, I present my top 10 reasons for being a librarian.

Ever-changing and renewing
Romance
Useful skills
Great conferences
Time off
A job with scope
It pays the rent
Good working conditions
Cool coworkers
Grand purpose
In sum, I feel very much like Evelyn Carnahan in the film The Mummy. To refresh your memory, our leading lady is in the midst of describing—and defending—what she does for a living to a roguish male. They have been drinking.

Evelyn: Look, I—I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell! But I am proud of what I am!

Rick O’Connell: And what is that?

Evelyn: I am . . . a librarian!

I couldn’t have said it better.

This article originally appeared in American Libraries, October 2002, p. 54–55. continue reading

Finding a journal article is like hunting for a needle in a haystack

2007-07-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

I have an excellent powerpoint presentation on information literacy. This was originally designed as an online tutorial.
Available on request.

Punchline:
"Unfortunately, database searching techniques are rarely taught inelementary secondary education and college and graduate education may often see little increase in this nil level of instruction. Hence information literacy in academia is perhaps the most neglected area of erudition and is after all only that minor aspect of scholarship that involves the methods one uses in electronic sources to find the
publications and documents that are on topic for research and specific subject learning." David Dillard

See also other PowerPoint presentations:

Library Technicians - Who are they?

2007-06-26T11:36:00.000-04:00

From: College Grad Careers
CollegeGrad.com - Career Videos, Library Technicians. Library Technicians occupy the top spot on the Librarian support staff. They free Librarians up for other tasks, while helping to acquire, prepare and organize materials.

Library 2.0 - This network is for Library 2.0 Stuff

2007-06-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

This network is for librarians and others interested in Library 2.0.

Quote of the Day - Good Library is ....

2007-06-10T01:24:00.000-04:00

"The closest we will ever come to an orderly universe is a good library." Ashleigh Brilliant

Thanks to Gwyn Raven @ Myrddin Wandering for this quote, and for linking all my blogs.

PS. See more quotations on Library, books, readers, and reading habits @ my blog: Library & Information Science Quotations

Academics strike back at spurious rankings

2007-06-03T11:52:00.000-04:00

Academics strike back at spurious rankings
D Butler, Nature 447, 514-515 (31 May 2007) doi:10.1038/447514b

Below are excerpts from the Nature article, followed by some
references:
Universities seek reform of ratings.

[A] group of US colleges [called for a] boycott [of] the most influential university ranking in the United States...
Experts argue that these are based on dubious methodology and spurious data, yet they have huge influence...

"All current university rankings are flawed to some extent; most, fundamentally,"

The rankings in the U.S. News & World Report and those published by the British Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) depend heavily on surveys of thousands of experts - a system that some contest. A third popular ranking, by Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, is based on more quantitative measures, such as citations, numbers of Nobel prizewinners and publications in Nature and Science. But even these measures are not straightforward.

Thomson Scientific's ISI citation data are notoriously poor for use in rankings; names of institutions are spelled differently from one article to the next, and university affiliations are sometimes omitted altogether. After cleaning up ISI data on all UK papers for such effects... the true number of papers from the University of Oxford, for example, [were] 40% higher than listed by ISI...

Researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands have similarly recompiled the ISI database for 400 universities: half a million papers per year. Their system produces various rankings based on different indicators. One, for example, weights citations on the basis of their scientific field, so that a university that does well
in a heavily cited field doesn't get an artificial extra boost.

The German Center for Higher Education Development (CHE) also offers rankings... for almost 300 German, Austrian and Swiss universities... the CHE is expanding the system to cover all Europe.

The US Commission on the Future of Higher Education is considering creating a similar public database, which would offer competition to the U.S. News & World Report.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bollen, Johan and Herbert Van de Sompel. Mapping the structure of science through usage. Scientometrics, 69(2), 2006
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-006-0151-8

Hardy, R., Oppenheim, C., Brody, T. and Hitchcock, S. (2005) Open Access Citation Information. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11536/

Harnad, S., Carr, L., Brody, T. & Oppenheim, C. (2003) Mandated online RAE CVs Linked to University Eprint Archives: Improving the UK Research Assessment Exercise whilst making it cheaper and easier. Ariadne 35.
http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/Ariadne-RAE.htm

Shadbolt, N., Brody, T., Carr, L. and Harnad, S. (2006) The Open Research Web: A Preview of the Optimal and the Inevitable, in Jacobs, N., Eds. Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Economic Aspects,
chapter 21. Chandos. http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/12453/

Harnad, S. (2007) Open Access Scientometrics and the UK Research Assessment Exercise. Invited Keynote, 11th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics. Madrid,
Spain, 25 June 2007 http://arxiv.org/abs/cs.IR/0703131

Kousha, Kayvan and Thelwall, Mike (2006) Google Scholar Citations and Google Web/URL Citations: A Multi-Discipline Exploratory Analysis. In Proceedings International Workshop on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Seventh COLLNET Meeting, Nancy (France).
http://eprints.rclis.org/archive/00006416/

Moed, H.F. (2005). Citation Analysis in Research Evaluation. Dordrecht (Netherlands): Springer.

van Raan, A. (2007) Bibliometric statistical properties of the 100 largest European universities: prevalent scaling rules in the science system. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology http://www.cwts.nl/Cwts/Stat4AX-JASIST.pdf

Stevan Harnad
AMERICAN SCIENTIST OPEN ACCESS FORUM:
To join or leave the Forum or change your subscription address:
http://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.html

Seneca Library Holiday Song

2007-05-28T10:12:00.000-04:00

2007 ALA Annual Poster Sessions Abstracts - Online!

2007-05-26T12:01:00.000-04:00

26th Annual ALA Poster Sessions Abstracts - Online!

American Library Association Annual Conference, Washington, DC, June 21-27, 2007

Info courtesy:

Jody Condit Fagan
Chair, ALA Poster Sessions
Digital Services Librarian
James Madison University
E-mail: faganjc@jmu.edu

See related resources:

CALL Conference 2007 Presentations Online

Funny you should ask: Humor at the Reference Desk

2007-05-23T05:30:00.000-04:00

"A short time after returning to librarianship after some years away, I was working at the reference desk . . . When I looked up . . . a young man (approximately college age) was standing there. I asked if I could help him and he said, "Do you have anything on eunuchs?"

A sample from "Funny You Should Ask: Baffling, Bewildering, and
Bizarre Questions from the Reference Desk" (Thomson, 2005) (a weekly e-mail column from Gale.com)

Janis Test of the Abilene Public Library contributed this:

"Somewhat taken aback, I decided to use my reference interview skills (however rusty) and began asking questions such as "Do you have any particular time period in mind?" and "Are you more interested in harem culture, or castrati?"

When I noted that he was looking at me as if I were from another planet, I sighed and fell back on the tried and true, "How do you spell that?"

He rolled his eyes and said patiently, "U-N-I-X." I said, "Oh, exactly," looked it up in the online catalog and directed him to the appropriate part of the library. Once he had gotten out of range, I began laughing and almost literally fell out of my chair. So much for the reference interview." [source: "Al Reynolds" ]

True Library stories

"Humor is allowed in reference desk answers"

Librarian Humor in Classroom and Reference

Library Related Conferences - A Global List

2007-05-21T13:27:00.000-04:00

Library Related Conferences

compiled by Marian Dworaczek
University of Saskatchewan Library

Information Seeking Behavior - Quote of the day

2007-04-29T06:18:00.000-04:00

"In early days, I tried not to give librarians any trouble, which was where I made my primary mistake. Librarians like to be given trouble; they exist for it, they are geared to it. For the location of a mislaid volume, an uncatalogued item, your good librarian has a ferret’s nose. Give her a scent and she jumps the leash, her eye bright with battle" Catherine Drinker Bowen (1897–1973), U.S. biographer.
source: http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/infoseek.html

see also related post from my other blog:

Information Seeking Behavior of the Believers

more Library & Information Science Quotations

SHARP 2007 - Open the Book, Open the Mind

2007-04-23T05:30:00.000-04:00

Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing (SHARP)
July 11-14, 2007 (pre-conference activites July 10), Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA

The conference theme, “Open the Book, Open the Mind,” will highlight how books develop and extend minds and cultures, and also how they are opened to new media and new purposes. However, individual papers or sessions may address any aspect of book history and print culture. Continue reading

PS. Info courtesy: Sarah @ Beyond the Job

A Job By Any Other Name - Finding Career Information

2007-04-18T00:28:00.000-04:00

PS. Excellent taxonomy: Library, Information Professional, Knowledge Worker (see the image below):

Source: A Job By Any Other Name - Finding Career Information

See my recent posts:

Blog Taxonomy

Librarians and Knowledge Management

Leadership Basics for Librarians and Information Professionals

See my related posts:

The 'Librarian' Job Title - An Unending Marathon

How To Prepare For An Interview

Introvert and Looking for a Job - You are not alone

Job Pathfinder - Join the race

Show Your Business Plan

Top Ten Ways to Find a Law Library Job

A Cover Letter Pinpointing Their Needs and Your Skills

Nine Questions on Technology Innovation in Academic Libraries

2007-04-07T02:27:00.000-04:00

In February, 2007, an invitation to an informal survey of "Nine Questions on Technology Innovation in Academic Libraries" was posted to the WEB4LIB, NGC4LIB, LITA-L, COLLIB-L, ACRL-NJ and New Jersey academic library listservs, and it was mentioned in the national ACRLog blog.

The following is a brief summary of the informal survey results with links to more complete information:
***
The survey received 136 responses in total, and 75% said that their library is not the center of technology innovation on campus, while 23% identified the library as the center of technology innovation on campus.

Overall, the majority responded that:

*Recent technology innovations in the library included blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, IM reference, and digitization projects.

*The driving force behind tech. innovation is student needs, followed by an Information Tech. Chief or Dean with vision, and the initiative of individuals.

*The biggest obstacle to tech. innovation in libraries is lack of money, staff, and time, with an unsupportive administration cited as one of the top four obstacles.

*The Library's approach and the Library staff's approach to technology innovation were both overwhelmingly described as "cautious but willing," though the staff were more often described as "resistant and blocking" than the Library itself.

*Faculty and librarians were most cited as the introducers of disruptive technology on campus, followed closely by students.

*The most disruptive technology for academic libraries today is "Web 2.0" or Social Computing technologies with Google/Google Scholar coming up second.

*The Top Ten Models of Technology Innovation cited by the libraries that answered that their libraries are centers of technology innovation were very similar to those cited overall. The Top Ten Models identified were:

1) North Carolina State University – Endeca Project
2) University of Pennsylvania - PennTags
3) MIT – DSpace
4) University of Michigan – Digital Library Production Service (DLPS)
5) University of Minnesota – Primo library system
6) Cornell University – Digital Library Research Projects
7) University of Virginia – Fedora Open Source Institutional Repository 8) University of California – California Digital Library (CDL)
9) University of California, Santa Barbara - Alexandria Digital Library Geospatial Network
10) Oregon State University – LibraryFind Project

For more information on these Top Ten Models of Tech. Innovation in Academic Libraries, links and abstracts are posted on the ACRL-New Jersey Chapter Website
Separate analyses for the libraries that answered "yes" they are the center of technology innovation and the libraries that answered "no"
The overall quantitative results of the survey and the text of the nine
questions are posted online

NB. Info courtesy: Mary A. Mallery @ [Web4lib] & College Libraries Section [COLLIB-L@ala.org ]

Technorati tags:
ACRL
college and research libraries

Mattering in the Blogosphere

2007-04-06T19:12:00.000-04:00

"American Libraries asked 16 much-visited librarian bloggers why the medium continues to appeal to them and what keeps them posting. The 10 who replied are, in alphabetical order:"

Blake Carver, LISNews
Nicole Engard, What I Learned Today
Rochelle Hartman, Tinfoil+Raccoon
Sarah Houghton-Jan, Librarian in Black
Jenny Levine, The Shifted Librarian
Kathleen de la Pena McCook,Librarian at the Kitchen Table
Mary Minow, Library Law
Joshua Neff, Goblin in the Library
Jack Stephens, Conservator
Jessamyn West, Librarian.net

PS. All-of-the-above information courtesy: Tinfoil + Raccoon's Blog
American Libraries, March 2007

Blog Taxonomy

2007-04-03T07:54:00.000-04:00

Annoyed Librarian Library Blog Taxonomy

Walt Crawford is preparing his new study of library blogs, and that got me to thinking about the wonderful world of bibliotekblogging. Inspired by his example, I thought I would come out with my own taxonomy of library blogs. I'm sure his study will be thorough and insightful, because he likes to work hard and do useful things for the profession. I, of course, don't. So what follows is my exhaustive analysis and classification of library blogs, arrived at by carefully scrutinizing Walt Crawford's Bloglines subscriptions for about 10 minutes.

[view these taxonomies]
Library Blog as Personal Diary
Library Blog as Personal Diary Written by Andy Rooney
Library Blog as Professional Therapy
Library Blog as Personal Cry for Help
Library Blog as Pathetic Cry for Attention
Library Blog as Counter-Librarian Blog
Library Blog as Professional Self-promotion
Library Blog as Serious Library Report
Library Blog as Witty Library Report
Library Blog as Book Review Medium
Library Blog as Book Free Zone
Library Blog as Librarian Cheerleader
Library Blog as Cynical Library Critic
Library Blog as Informative Library Analysis
Library Blog as Unpaid Technology Advertising
Library Blog as Informative Technology Selection Tool
Library Blog as Future Manifesto
Library Blog as Business Manifesto
Library Blog as Left-wing Propaganda
Library Blog as Right-wing Propaganda
Library Blog as Fair and Balanced Political Analysis
Library Blog as Inoffensive Satire
Library Blog as Offensive Satire

BoleyBlogs! » A Taxonomy of Legal Blogs

A Taxonomy of Legal Blogs

My previous posts:

Citing a Blog, Wiki - Style for bibliographic notes and references

Blog As A Teaching Tool

Go to the library - ways to survive life without the Internet

2007-03-24T02:11:00.000-04:00

An online search may be fast and effortless, but there is nothing like a reference library to make you really appreciate the world of knowledge. Surround yourself in books and get a taste of what it was like to engross yourself in research before the Internet. The process is far more challenging and rewarding." Source: 7 ways to survive life without the Internet

And, Then The Life Will Be As-Is:

Internet and the Future,
"...the Web’s days are numbered as the Internet moves to a second round of expansion beyond the browser... continue reading"

Living beyond Internet, by VAISHNAVI SUBRAMANIAN - Dil Se, The Hindu, Aug 06, 2007

To a Librarian Who Wants to Write - Outside the Box

2007-03-23T09:26:00.000-04:00

"If I were in a position to recommend anything as an addition to the education of librarians, it would be that they write a novel." Michael McGrorty @ Library Dust: A small gift to the library world from Michael McGrorty.

See my LIS quotations' blog for more on writing, librarians, novels and the world of bookmanship.

see also:

Writing for the Library Profession Presented by: Stephen Abram - Vice President of Innovation for SirsiDynix and Chief Strategist for the SirsiDynix Institute
Judith A. Siess - Expert in one-person librarianship and interpersonal networking

Provision of Medical Information - Ask Cosmo, NLM’s Virtual Representative!

2007-03-15T03:52:00.000-04:00

1. "Ask Cosmo" is an automated answer-my-question site at http://wwwns.nlm.nih.gov/
Many questions from the general public can be answered by Cosmo the Owl.

2. Questions may be directed by telephone at the following numbers:
(888) FIND-NLM
(888) 346-3656 Local and international calls:
(301) 594-5983
-------------------------------------------------
Background note: NLM usually received from 200 to 500 requests per day when I was there. Some were library questions ("How to I use PubMed?") but many were cries for medical help ("My daughter has cancer and the medicine isn't working, what can I do?").

Al Reynolds [ecumenical77 at earthlink dot net] wrote:

I served on the Customer Service staff of the National Library of Medicine for two years. Such questions are constantly being directed to NLM as a free and reputable source of medical information.

There are 7 or 8 full time staff members tasked with responding to such questions. Of course we are not clinicians, so we provide information found on such sites as MedlinePlus and PubMed, and we use directory sites, advocacy organizations and professional associations quite heavily.
You or your patrons may address queries to: custserv@nlm.nih.gov
A response will be sent within 4 working days. NLM does not send printed materials.
During my two years I worked messages originating in 106 countries.
Al Reynolds
Reference Assistant
Frederick Memorial Hospital
Frederick, Maryland
Former contractor at U.S. National Library of Medicine

P.S. This information is disseminated with permission from Al Reynolds.

From the Blogosphere:

Ask Cosmo, NLM’s Virtual Representative! by Jodi

Copyrights and Copywrongs - Responsibility of Media and Academia

2007-03-01T08:58:00.000-05:00

P.S. This is not a sequel of Copyrights and Copywrongs: Interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan.
Rather, this is about media (MSN, Yahoo, Google) and academia

Belgian newspapers go after Yahoo, By: Nancy Gohring
IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau) (22 Jan 2007)

Google argued that it doesn't violate copyright because it only summarizes articles and displays the source of the content and the name of the author before directing users to the Web page hosting the content. The judge is expected to rule on the case this month. full story

EMERGING NEWS:

Google has pledged to tighten its advertising controls after some of the biggest media companies in the US accused it of knowingly encouraging copyright theft. in US media: Google 'encourages copyright theft' By Laura Clout, Telegraph, 13/02/2007

PUNCHLINE for the academic world (just-in-case):
Oh my god not more copyright stuff @ Playing with Technology
See also:
Public Domain Chart
Fair Use Checklist

Related posts from my desktop

Citing Sources - Electronic, Print, etc.

With Malice Towards None; And Citations for All

The Lessons of T Shirts to Marketers

2007-02-19T10:53:00.000-05:00

"One of the problems all of us marketers has is that we lie to ourselves. We want so badly to reinforce what we think we know that we often miss the obvious.

We turn to focus groups and see what we want to see.
We turn to "experts" and hear what we want to hear.
We turn to research to read what we want to read.

We even talk to our customers. Unfortunately, our customers perception of how they interact with our products and services don't alway match reality. No where is this more obvious than at sporting events." Full artilce

Wikipedia and Academia Hit News Headlines Again

2007-02-14T06:18:00.000-05:00

Poor Wikipedia. Professional Golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is suing one of its contributors for a defamatory cyber-attack. And last year, television host and comedian Stephen Colbert urged his audience to vandalize a Wikipedia entry about elephants to prove the point that in a model where any user can edit encyclopedia entries, those entries are only as good as their source. Look Who's Using Wikipedia, Mar. 01, 2007, By BILL TANCER, Time / CNN [info courtesy, David Dillar]

Current News Stories:

"...places like the blogosphere or the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, people no longer treat or respect each other as individuals." Web 2.0's 'digital mobs' attacked: Jaron Lanier tells BBC World Service's Culture Shock

Wikipedia not source for papers: College Sify News, Tuesday, 13 February , 2007.
Middlebury: Middlebury College history students are no longer allowed to use Wikipedia in preparing class papers.
The school's history department recently adopted a policy that says it's OK to consult the popular online encyclopedia, but that it can't be cited as an authoritative source by students.
The policy says, in part, "Wikipedia is not an acceptable citation, even though it may lead one to a citable source."
History professor Neil Waters says Wikipedia is an ideal place to start research but an unacceptable way to end it. Read another source

A Wikipedia WIthout Graffiti by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 07,

A Stand Against Wikipedia: Inside Higher Ed, January 26, 2007
As Wikipedia has become more and more popular with students, some
professors have become increasingly concerned about the online,
reader-produced encyclopedia.

A Stand Against Wikipedia

The Death of Authority?

Tricky truths behind Wikipedia By Alex Beam, Globe Columnist | March 12, 2007 [or Stikcy Wiki, in Deccan Chronicle, India]

Wiki Etiquette [ Business Week has a good “do’s and don’ts” list for working with wikis. Worth a quick read. ]

From News Archives:

Wikipedia Revisited Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large, March 2007 v. 7 no. 3

RERERENCE: ENCYCLOPEDIAS: The Wikipedia and Serious Research

Rick's Blog without Clogs: Wiki Picki Poo Poo

When it comes to Computer Science, don't reference Wikipedia

Wikipedia And Academia in ACRLog - Blogging by and for academic and research librarians

Wikipedia "nofollow" aftermath Seth Finkelstein's

The Faith-Based Encyclopedia

The other side of the coin:

Wikipedia/Our Replies to Our Critics

Criticism of Wikipedia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Related resources:

Blogging: A Reliable Academic Source?

The academic contributions of blogging?

The scholarly content of blogging

Academic Blogging Collection

My previous posts:

Citing a Blog, Wiki - Style for bibliographic notes and references

Blog As A Teaching Tool

Is this yet another Wiki in Library and Information Science

Thought for the day - Nicole Godin

2007-01-23T11:54:00.000-05:00

- Nicole Godin, Manager/Technical Services Librarian Regulatory Information Services Bell Canada 110 O'Connor St., 7th Floor Ottawa, ON

Continue reading more at Info*nation:
At the Core
"Back in the days of sensible shoes, buns and shushing (and YES, those days are past) the library world held the same basic values it does today. If any of the concepts below inspire you with noble aspirations, you may have found your calling - in libraries."

Literacy & Education
Serving the Public
Intellectual Freedom
Access to Information
Information Intermediary
Preservation
Professionalism

How To Prepare For An Interview

2007-01-14T11:43:00.001-05:00

This post is dedicated to Joseph Romain, my pal, who inspired me to develop my communication skills.

NB. In case the above video is not clear, check Youtube's How To Prepare For An Interview And much more on Job Interviews @ YouTube

See also:

Monster Success Coach Robin Sharma
Library interview questions @ Job Interview Questions

The Changing Role Of Library Science

2007-01-13T00:10:00.000-05:00

By Aja Carmichael

From The Wall Street Journal Online
The librarian with cat's-eye glasses, a faded cardigan and gray hair twisted into a bun is getting a makeover.

source: Library Link of the Day

See also:

Jenny Levine addresses the SC Librarians

Re-defining the library by Lynne Brindley, Library Hi Tech 2006 Volume: 24 Issue: 4 Page: 484 - 495
Abstract: Purpose – This article was originally the keynote speech to the Bielefeld Conference. The article aims to explore the challenges facing libraries in the digital age and consider ways in which they need to reshape and rethink their services and skills to maintain their relevance and contribution.
Check for fulltext article and other interesting stuff, such as, Design / methodology / approach Findings Practical implications

Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 by David King, Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library

Dewey, or Don't We?, By Traci Vogel

Interview (by Vinita Ramani) with Julian Samuel who made a documentary film, 'The Library in Crisis'

Picture database recognized as "Best Site"

2007-01-08T06:30:00.000-05:00

101 Best Web Sites for Elementary Teachers.
The International Society for Technology in Education has named a Miami database as one of "101 Best Web Sites for Elementary Teachers." (Media-Newswire.com)
Valerie A. Ubbes ( physical education, health and sport studies ) created the Children?s Picture Book Database at Miami University in 1995 in partnership with the Miami University libraries.

The project now provides abstracts for more than 5,000 children's picture books and can be searched by topics, concepts and skills from eight academic disciplines. The key feature of the database is that books are organized by 10-15 key words, not only the few words provided by the Library of Congress. This gives users access to a broader collection of books for specialized purposes, in new patterns for interdisciplinary study.

The site's usefulness can be judged by the fact that thousands of users from the United States and seven foreign countries log into it weekly. "Googling" Children's Picture Book Database at Miami University, 25,000 links come up, including resource lists maintained by universities, schools, libraries, teacher groups, national literacy organizations and businesses catering to parents. Continue reading

A Visible Pathfinder for Increasing Blog Traffic in 2007

2006-12-26T04:44:00.000-05:00

"The wise learn from their own experiences but the truly intelligent will learn from someone else's!" - Benjamin Franklin.

My 2007 resolution for return-on-investments in blogging is to have a two-way traffic. The prescription is, please:
1. post a comment--aka, visual signature--in this blog on whatever subject (spam and phishing EXEMPTED)
2. turn on your blog comments' button; I will reciprocate not once, but every post that you create in 2007. This is my own idea of live and let live. I do reciprocate; my 2006 ledger shows Bloggers, such as, Sukhdev Singh, K. G. Schneider, Nancy White, Nirmala Palaniappan, David Tebbutt, Peachy Limpin, Thomas Brevik, Steven Edward Streight, Neil Patel, Diane Levin, and more.

PUNCHLINE: Increasing Blog traffic is a major concern, even for many Gurus [e.g., Adrian W Kingsley-Hughes' Three simple actions that doubled my website traffic in 30 days]
Previous post:

Visualizing Comments on Blogs

Visualizing Traffic At My Blog Via Mapping The Pathways

Blog As A Teaching Tool

Idea courtesy: Bloggers Compose Their Yearly Ledgers, By Jeralyn; and How to Pay for Blog Comments, @ usability blog of John S. Rhodes; So what'd you get? by Ryan Block

Technorati Tags: blog comments 2007 blog blog traffic 2007 resolution 2007 blogging popular bloggers popular comments top bloggers Reward-program return-on-investments

Faith's purchasing power - USA TODAY

2006-12-16T01:07:00.000-05:00

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY 12/13/2006
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — In the beginning was the book.

Long before Christmas became a retail explosion, before Christian-related toys, doodads and décor became a $4.5 billion industry, faithful Protestants needed their Bibles.

READING ABOUT RELIGION

When shoppers read books about religion, here's where they say they're most likely to get them:

A Christian bookstore: 15.9%
A general bookstore such as Barnes & Noble: 14.8%
Borrow from a friend or family: 12.2%
The public library: 9.2%
A church library: 5.6%
Other: 5.1%
Online retailer: such as Amazon.com: 4.4%

Source: Baylor Religion Survey

Continue reading the full story

Previous post from my blogs:

Cyber Worship in Multifaith Perspectives

Video for the Voiceless: An Idea for Missionaries - Faithwise Review of the Week

Multifaith Stacks: Reading Between the Shelves

Introvert and Looking for a Job - You are not alone

2006-12-12T11:26:00.000-05:00

There are lots of guides, gurus and googlers:
PS. thanks to Ahtisham (in chat) & Nirmala for a lead on this topic: Networking for the Introverts

NETWORKING TIPS, FROM ONE INTROVERT TO ANOTHER, LYNN SCHEURELL IS THE [Certified Feng Shui Expert ]

Introverts unite! Written by Brian Flemming

Networking for Introverts, by Rachel @ The Liminal Librarian

Confessions of an Introvert, The Shy Girl's Guide to Career, Networking and Getting the Most Out of Life, by Meghan Wier

Successful Marketing for Introverts
Beth Woodward, CPCC, Pinnacle Associates, Inc.

How To Network: For Introverts, by rob @ Businesspundit.com

Library Technicians: Education, Training, Practice, Career, Jobs, etc.

Question YOU should be asking THEM during the interview: Cataloging Job

Database Searching -- Information Literacy for Library Technicians

Doing Social Media So It Matters, Laura Solomon

Sale of Wikipedia's material as books on Amazon - Wiki in news again

Free Content Isn't Always What It Seems

“Shake Off the City” ads show a bucolic Niagara but Torontonians are peeved

Ten Tips (or Steps) for Tracking Trends

The Battle of Building Library's Digital Collection, Revisited

What is your Library worth to you?

Dialog Offers Free Searching of Selected Cengage Files Through March 30th

Facebook Fellowship Program

Are some degree courses a joke?

Journal of the Week Free Access: 19/10/2009, Interlending & Document Supply

Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending

Citing, Citations, Siting, and Sighting the Wikipedia

Another graduate school serving the library field is about to lose the “L” name

Flexibility your mantra for the new year?

Editor’s Note, January 2009

Library Annecdotes: Have Printer Will Travel

New 3 Rs: Revolution, Reorganization and Renovation ~ Thought for the day

Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries ~~ Book and Reading Lists

Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries ~~ Ages & Stages

Collection Development or Collection Building

DeweyBrowser beta v2.0

Hiring Manager’s Keyword Search Survey Results

Amazing how mission drives an organization

Library Research Project 101

Things to think about as you approach a research project

@Ann the Librarian

What discipline or disciplines am I working in?

What type of literature or information do I need?

How and where will I search for the information I need?

How will I access the information that I find?

What keywords or terms will I use to describe my topic?

After running a few searches: What results am I getting?

What refinements should I make to my search in light of those results?

How will I use the results that I’ve found?

What am I missing?

THE LIBRARIAN'S PRAYER / PRAYER FOR LIBRARIANS

22 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Get for Free

Top 10 Obscure Google Search Tricks

10. Get the local time anywhere

9. Track flight status

8. Convert currency, metrics, bytes, and more

7. Compare items with "better than" and find similar items with "reminds me of"

6. Use Google as a free proxy

5. Remove affiliate links from product searches

4. Find related terms and documents

3. Find music and comic books

2. ID people, objects, and foreign language words and phrases with Google Image Search

1. Make Google recognize faces

How to kill a young librarian's love of librarianship (AKA. A Dispute Resolution Guide)

Nine Free Apps Every Writer Should Consider

Ten New Positions I'd Like to See

FREE TOOLS & Software for Information Managers

Talking Books Librarian: Who Needs Libraries?

HOWTO Make a bedside book-pocket

Obsolete Academic Librarian Skills

Bed built into an "igloo of books"

Blog Search Contestants 1 and 2

Digital Bookplates: A Creative Visualization

Demystifying the Technician/Librarian Relationship in Academic Libraries

This Week's Roundup for Library Technician Jobs: 02/09/2008

Library 2.0: Based and Debased

This Week's Roundup for Library Technician Jobs: 02/02/2008

Strains and Joys Color Mergers Between Libraries and Tech Units

SIRLS LSO Job Series: Panel Discussion

Inter-Library Lending @ Brooklyn College, New York +

Librarians and IT Professionals:

Is a Library Technician (LT or LIT) allowed to teach LTs?

Uneasy tensions in LIS Education

Education - LISWiki

Outsourcing Libraries - Public Library as a Private Enterprise

The Librarians - an Australian ABC Comedy Series

THE SAD SIDE OF REMEMBRANCE DAY 2006

2008 Ontario Association of Library Technicians Conference

A Course on Library 2.0 & Social Networking

The Future of Electronic Paper