“To the librarian I once overheard saying, “It is my personal duty to make sure we have no typos on anything!” I must say: Don’t miss the forest for the trees, Dear Lady. Typos can be corrected, especially online, and focusing too much on those little details may lead to missing the big picture. You’re the one that staff may be e-mailing about, while they wait to launch the new wiki, you are still proofing the proposal for the wiki! A nimble organization can move quickly if not mired in proofing, re-proofing, and proofing one more time a policy change, […]
Daily Archives: November 30, 2006
ALA Editions vs. TechSource Originally uploaded by ALA staff. You know Jenny is in the house when the ALA folk are DDRing.
Thought-provoking and insightful article at Educause. http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm06/eqm0640.asp Policy Disconnects Drawing a clear line between technology and policy can be difficult. For example, how many of the characteristics of current libraries (identified by the list below) are driven purely by technology or by policy? These traits include: Mainly electronic text-based collections with multimedia content noticeably absent Constructed for individual use but requires users to learn from experts how to access and use information and services Library presence usually “outside” the main online place for student activity (MySpace, iTunes, Facebook, the campus portal, or learning management system) Note that comments are enabled, […]
Goodness but I love numbered lists! Are you starting your library blog? Take a look at: http://www.avivadirectory.com/successful-blog-launch/ A fave: 2. Don’t get seen naked: Never launch a blog with fewer than 5 posts. In the blogosphere you typically get just one shot at impressing a visitor or fellow blogger. Too many new bloggers throw up two posts and then start working on promotion. In the world of blogging, you are selling yourself and your writing. If you can’t give people a fully dressed picture of what your blog is all about and what type of writing will be on it, […]
bookwall Originally uploaded by acpl. ACPL is on FIRE folks! http://acplinfo.blogspot.com/2006/11/remember-browsing.html Ian writes: Allen County Public Library has recently launched a Web feature that casts browsing in a whole new light. Sean Robinson, head of IT Services at ACPL, created a mashup of book covers and information for the books cataloged at ACPL yesterday. This is the new browsing: http://blog.acpl.lib.in.us/amzamash/book_wall.php Check it out!
Via Stephens’s Lighthouse: Search Engine Land is a new search news blog launching December 11, 2006. Danny Sullivan, along with Chris Sherman and Barry Schwartz, will be providing information about search engine marketing and how search engines work in general, from a searcher’s perspective. At launch, the site will provide: Original content covering developments in the search space. Daily blog posts covering search news from across the web. SearchCap: A daily email newsletter recapping search news from Search Engine Land and across the web. Also available by feed. SearchCap Monthly: A monthly email newsletter recapping search news over the past […]
Via my colleague Jeff up at Traverse Area District Library, comes this article from Tracy Mitrano, Director of IT Policy at Cornell University and the Cornell Director of the EDUCAUSE/Cornell Institute for Computer Policy and Law Program. http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0660.asp?bhcp=1 There’s a lot here, including: Quashing technological advances is never the solution. I genuinely enjoy watching my children dive into new technologies such as iPods and online games or my students demonstrating new uses of search tools or network applications. New technologies alarm us for very real reasons but can and must be addressed in ways that do not crush innovation and […]