Monthly Archives: August 2007

27 posts

Happy Blog Day!

I have some posts in draft mode but I’m putting this one at the top of the heap to get it published today — because — It’s Blog Day once again! Here are my entries for 2005 and 2006. This year, I’m highlighting more blogs that inspire me, engage me and make me think. 1. Bibliodox: Lee LeBlanc is a library student and IT fellow who has some intriguing things to say about service, librarianship and balancde. I appreciate his voice and have linked to his posts before. Take a look at this post: http://bibliodox.blogspot.com/2007/08/why-could-this-post-help-you.html: Remember, above all else: please, […]

Barrier: Illinois Library Charges $1 for Computer Access

http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/530744,281NWS2.article An article by Angela Caputo gets me thinking about learning and libraries this morning, and frankly, I am a little scared: That’s the computer-access rule at the Sauk Village public library. And it’s drawing criticism from one local school board member who challenges the policy as another barrier to technology for some of the region’s poorest children. “Seventy-six percent of our kids are from poor families … Their parents can’t afford to buy technology, and they’re computer illiterate too,” said Marvin Perez, who sits on the Community Consolidated Schools District 168 board of education. “Why do you charge kids […]

Short Bio

Michael Stephens, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in Illinois. He spent over fifteen years working in public libraries while developing a passion for technology. His publications include The Library Internet Trainer’s Toolkit, two ALA Library Technology Reports on Web 2.0, a monthly column with Michael Casey in Library Journal, and a host of articles. Michael also maintains the popular blog Tame the Web. He received an IMLS doctoral fellowship at the University of North Texas, was named a Library Journal “Mover and Shaker,” and recently joined the Dominican faculty. […]

Eliminating Food Regulations

McMaster Library is getting rid of the their rules about food in the library: http://ulatmac.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/elimination-of-food-regulations/ I’m pleased to say we’ve made a significant change to our “no food” policy. This is excerpted from an announcement from our AUL for Teaching, Learning and Research: Beginning September 4, we will no longer be prohibiting the consumption of food in public spaces – with the exception of Research Collections and the Map Collection. We’ve come to this decision for a variety of reasons: a) to create a more inviting space for our users b) to reflect common practice at a growing number of […]

Gaming & Libraries Symposium Audio

Evening teen panel moderated by Stephen Abram Originally uploaded by American Library Association Publishing Do not miss sampling the incredible audio from the presentations and panels from the Gaming Symposium. jenny has put loads of content up at: http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/Gaming+and+Libraries+Symposium/ The image is the evening teen panel moderated by Stephen Abram, where Jenny noted: “Our favorite quote from one of the teens when he talked about using .gov sites versus wikipedia: “who are you going to trust – the government or the people?””

“We’re too timid, aren’t we?”

At a presentation back in June, a librarian came up to me at a break and said “We’re too timid as a profession, aren’t we?” That really got me thinking – which lead to a discussion with Michael Casey which lead to this edition of “The Transparent Library:” http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6466666.html?industryid=47356 In a seemingly unrelated problem, getting new initiatives off the ground sometimes seems to need an act of God, simply because new services mean change. For some librarians, change represents the potential to fail. For others, it’s a fear of success, that a new service might be too popular and draw […]