Monthly Archives: April 2005

70 posts
TTW Ephemera

Is Change a Dirty Word at your Library?

Meredith writes: My interviews have offered me more insight into this problem. I’ve been to libraries that were passionate about user-centered innovation and were looking at how every bleeding edge technology could be used to improve services to patrons. These libraries tried to stay just ahead of their patrons and anticipate their needs rather than being reactive to patron demands. I’ve been to libraries that weren’t particularly tech-forward, but that were at least trying to keep up with their patrons. The librarians there may not have known what RSS was, but they were willing to learn if it could help […]

Social Media

Beatrice’s IM Reading List

http://edificeref.info/?p=41 I also read an opinion piece on page 30 of the April issue of American Libraries. In “Eeewww! My Patron Tried to Pick Me Up”, Susan Braxton, a science reference librarian at Illinois State’s Milner Library, recounts a session of recreational chatting (the what-are-you-wearing variety) initiated by a patron. Braxton also discusses how to prepare for this inevitable type of conversation as you dabble in IM.

Emerging Technology

Libraries and DRM

http://bibliotheke.org/archives/2005/04/28/more-complaints-about-libraries-and-drm/ Thanks Bibliotheke! Please click through and read the article, which includes this: The Fairfax County Public Library system is a large library system in Northern Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC. Leaders of the Fairfax Public Libraries think it’s a good idea to distribute downloadable audio books to the public in Windows Media format. These digital rights managed (DRM) files will not play on Macintosh computers, GNU/Linux computers or iPods. Taxpayer funds are being used to purchase these audio books. Listen to the song! “I much prefer MP3..” 🙂

Blogging

Cronin-gate? (Update)(2)

Via Skagirlie: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/news/story.php?story_id=958 One wonders for whom these hapless souls blog. Why do they chose to they expose their unremarkable opinions, sententious drivel and unedifying private lives to the potential gaze of total strangers? What prompts this particular kind of digital exhibitionism? The present generation of bloggers seems to imagine that such crassly egotistical behavior is socially acceptable and that time-honored editorial and filtering functions have no place in cyberspace. Undoubtedly, these are the same individuals who believe that the free-for-all, communitarian approach of Wikipedia is the way forward. Librarians, of course, know better. What blows me away here is […]