Monthly Archives: January 2006

60 posts

Recording with Talis and some Links

While we gear up in the next few minutes to record a podcast with Talis, I’m scanning the Technorati search on Library 2.0. Here are some links: Ranga 2.0: Unamable ponders what Ranganathan might say about L2. I like to think one principle of L2 is “the Library encourages the heart,” and this bit makes me smile: “1. Content are for use. Libraries are designed to be used in the physical and digital dimensions, they are not icons or symbols we are in awe of – except in that they should be “cool” “awesome” or “wicked” from the patron’s perspective. […]

TTW Mailbox: Those Teenies!

I got a note from a TTW reader from Europe, who’s excited about upcoming plans for IM in their libraries! Don’t be surprised if the city’s libraries offer IM communication with the users from all 20+ libraries. The head of the libraries just said “Go do it!” Now, what remains is to convince our colleagues that it is a good idea. Do you have the same problem with convincing your collegues about that? We sure have: “That’s stupid and just for young teenies who want to chat nonsense to each other”, “We don’t have time for that, emails and telephones […]

Institutional Inertia

I’m mining the qualitative data from the Blogger’s Survey after some excellent assistance once again by Luke Rosenberger, and this caught my eye: I think there is a small subset of active librarian bloggers who get their issues out into the air, but in general, institutional inertia keeps blogs out of the realm of useful tool and keeps them as personal side-projects.

Heading North in May: Toward Library 2.0: Training, Technology, & the Big Picture

Greetings! Looks like I’ll be heading north to Minnesota this May for a 5 day, 5 city tour. I hope to meet up with some cool librarians, so if you live in Minnesota and are coming to one of these talks, please say Hi. I’ll be travelling with Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran, Community Information Librarian for SELCO(Southeastern Libraries Cooperating) and we’ll be visitng points all over the state, doing what looks like a whole bunch of driving and some talking about L2, tech training and opportunities for libraries to use social tools. I look forward to this exerience! http://www.selco.lib.mn.us/apps/training/courseDescription.cfm?courseID=10226 Library services […]

Learning is Social

Great post at Librarians with Class that links to this article. Reading this article is a bit hard for someone who has devoted a great deal of time and energy to the preparation of training materials and the delivery of training classes. I don’t think that I’m ready to just give up on training. I think there are ways, however, that we could incorporate more of the communities of practice elements into training sessions. I have found some of the best moments of learning and “AHA!” is one the folks in workshops I lead discuss the topics amongst themselves and […]

Steve Lawson on Library 2.0

Good stuff Steve! Somewhat against my better judgement, I thought I’d lift my moratorium on “Library 2.0” and try once more to separate signal from noise. What is the “good work” that the hype/controversy/hostility surrounding Library 2.0 might obscure? Here’s what I got so far: recognizing that patrons have an online life outside the library, and trying to make our online presence more consonant with their experience and expectations; opening up our data to allow others (other libraries, librarians, programmers, patrons) to use that data in novel ways; building better, simpler, more usable, more accessible interfaces; all kinds of librarians […]

Give Em What They Want!

Great post at OPL Plus! http://opls.blogspot.com/2006/01/just-give-customer-what-heshe-wants.html That’s just what I’ve been saying. Our customers don’t want books or articles; they don’t even want information. Our customers want answers to their questions, solutions for their problems. If you provide answers and solutions, you’ll thrive. If you don’t….polish up that resume.

Searching in Seattle

I’m enjoying Michael Casey’s photos from Seattle. He’s out there for Microsoft with some other cool folk. He did what I would: arrive, get in the hotel and immediately zip over to see the new main library! http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelcasey/tags/seattlecentrallibrary/ Catch all the photos tagged seattlecentrallibrary here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/seattlecentrallibrary/