I apologize! I meant to post a shout out to Karen Schenider the day she started her new job at Florida State. Here’s a bit about her first day: http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/12/alice_in_academia.php And I especially appreciate this: http://freerangelibrarian.com/2006/11/a_little_this_a_little_that.php What is my new job, you have asked? It’s an extremely cool gig. Florida State University originally hired me as the ERM librarian, which I thought sounded fun-‘n’-cool, and is in fact still my position, in a way. But then the fellow who hired me got hired himself by a supercomputing center, and the next thing I knew I was agreeing to be Acting […]
Monthly Archives: December 2006
70 posts
Denver Public Library YouTube Contest Some things to note: Use of YouTube is not only encouraged by DPL but the site is used as an extension of the library’s presence within its community of teens The same goes for the library’s Teen MySpace page at http://myspace.com/denver_evolver — where the videos that meet contest criteria will be highlighted! On so many levels, this gets the library “out there” and in the minds of young people. They’ll market the content, the MySpace page and more by word of mouth. How open, participatory and decentralized is this? Wowza! (Thanks to Michael Sauers for […]
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timothygreigdotcom/sets/72157594410634966/ I met Timothy Grieg virtually (via Flickr!) when I gave a presentation in New Zealand in October vis the Web. Today, Stephen Abram let me know that Timothy had transformed Abram, Jenny Levine and I into “Miis.” I have so much to learn about the Wii and Mii… Timothy writes: One of the most exciting things for me about the Wii and it’s Mii characters is the ability to leave your Wii on and connected to the internet, even while it’s powered on. You can set your Miis to “Mingle” and they’ll wander off and visit your friend’s consoles! […]
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/12/10/its-cool-to-be-cool/ A common response to hearing discussions such as this is to be dismissive – “It’s just geeks being clever. We need to adopt a user-focused approach to development, and we must deploy formal user needs analysis. And we should be dispassionate about the services we’re developing – so the ‘cool’ word is banned! ” Although there is a need to take a user-focused approach to development, I would argue that there’s also a need to encourage a ‘cool’ approach to development, especially at a time of rapid technological development that we are currently seeing. I think encouraging “cool” stuff […]
Via The Church of the Customer Blog comes a link to an essay by Jeff Barr about presenting in Second Life: http://www.jeff-barr.com/?p=707 We might also use it as a guide for getting comfortable in SL as more librarians come into the environment: Spend time in world Attend some events Master the basics Dress the part (This include some useful links, including a links to SL Clothing sites. I think my black shirt, jeans and flip flops are getting tired.)
A BIG congrats to my friend Aaron Schmidt on his new position as director of the North Plains Public Library.
The mayor of Cybrary City, Paul Miller of Talis, will officially welcome Cybrary City residents and other interested librarians on Wed, December 6 at 2:30 pm sl time, 4:30 central, and 5:30 Eastern to welcome everyone. The welcome will be held on the plaza in front of the new conference center. Second Life Blog A few of the Dominican faculty gathered and we projected my Mac running SL up on the screen in a library training room yesterday for this event. Afterward, we toured some areas of the island and SL in general. My avatar got stuck in a sitting […]
You have new Picture Mail! Originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian. I can’t wait to get my copy! Have you ordered yours? http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/gaming-and-libraries-intersection-of-services.html If you are any type of librarian and you are curious about all this talk about gaming, gamers, library services, learning and literacy, then this is certainly a publication to checkout. Even if I didn’t present with Jenny and write with her at TechSource, I’d still point you all to this resource!
Via Michael Casey: I appreciate Director Charles Brown’s encouraging remarks and Helene Blower’s enthusiasm. I feel honored to have helped kick off this learning initiative with Michael Casey back in August. A great shout out to the folks at PLCMC! And don’t miss the PLCMC Orientation Video for new staff, another innovative use of YouTube!
Via AL Direct comes this news story about Plainfield Library in Illinois, where instead of trying to block access, they are embracing their young users and diving into social networking: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/158984,4_1_JO04_MYSPACE_S1.article Young Adult Librarian Joe Marcantonio noticed this summer that nearly every teenager on a computer terminal had their MySpace.com Web site pulled up the entire time. For some, it was the only reason they ventured into the library. Librarians decided to join them in the world of social cyber-networking and put up their own MySpace site, www.myspace.com/plainfieldpubliclibrary. There, they post bulletins about programs and pictures from events, and can […]