http://www.startribune.com/789/story/963043.html The library board plans to vote next month on a proposal to install Internet filters on more than 1,000 computers in its 26 libraries. Hennepin County libraries are the only ones in Minnesota that don’t already use filters, said board Secretary Holly Guncheon. Currently, the library relies on staff members to enforce rules against displaying offensive material, said Janet Leick, operations director. That’s a poor use of staff time and sometimes leads to confrontations when patrons refuse to log off offensive sites, she said. State law allows libraries to use filters to protect children from viewing “harmful” material, Leick […]
Monthly Archives: January 2007
61 posts
http://www.internet-librarian.com/CallForSpeakers.shtml The Call for Speakers is out for Internet Librarian International, October 8-9, 2007 in London, England! I have attended, spoken at this conference, and worked on the advisory committee the past few years. This is one heck of a fun and informative meeting. Consider submitting a proposal. Take a look at some Flickr shots from last year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/tags/ili2006/
I think the best part of conferences for me play out as conversations. I remember the threads of conversation at ALA 2005 very well. This year, at MidWinter, I was honored to be included in a lunch meeting hosted by the folks at Darien Library in Darien, CT. (They hosted Library Camp East last year.) In the 90 minutes I was there, on the 29th floor of the Grand Hyatt overlooking Elliot Bay and the Puget Sound, the conversation not only enlightened me but challenged me as well. Hosted by Louise & John Berry and Alan Gray, the lunch was […]
Technology Made Simple Originally uploaded by mstephens7. I just received my copy and have only started the first chapter but KUDOOS to Bolan and Cullin for a useful, straightforward technology guide that includes bits about 21st Century library statistics and the value of training. Aimed at medium and small libraries, the book and companion Web site at (get ready for a long ALA URL folks) http://www.ala.org/ala/ourassociation/publishing/alaeditions/webextras/technologymadesimple/technologymadesimple.htm are most useful, especially at combining classic IT stuff with a dash of 2.0 goodness. Disclaimer: I provided the authors with documents and information about IT at SJCPL during their writing process and met […]
Rob Coers, my Dutch partner for presentations at Internet Librarian International, just posted about iPod training he recently completed: http://www.robcoers.nl/weblog-artikelen/bibliotheek-spijkenisse-en-ipod-nano.html He translated the post as well: In september 2007 the Spijkenisse Public Library in The Netherlands won the 4th IFLA International Marketing Award with their campaign “We miss you”. Library director Huub Leenen awarded his staff (21 people) with a iPod Nano. I had the honour to do a hands on training to help the staff on the way. Altough usage is very easy, managing your music on iTunes is sometimes a pain. Specially for those who are not used […]
Tuesday I spoke to a class at Elmhurst College about Web 2.0, libraries and future trends. The class, Great Chicago Libraries, is a course offered to Elmhurst College Honors Program students and is taught by Donna Goodwyn, Associate Librarian, Susan Swords Steffen, Library Director, and Peg Cook Reference/Instruction Librarian. The highlight of the course is multiple library visits. Each visit was blogged and YouTubed as well. Take a look at: http://www.greatchicagolibraries.blogspot.com/ and get a load of this list of “Library Visit Blogs:” Bensenville Public Library Brookfield Zoo Library Carol Stream Public Library Des Plaines Public Library Galter Health Sciences Library […]
http://www.accessola.com/superconference2007/index.html Wednesday night I fly up to Toronto for a few days to present at the Ontarion Library Association Superconference. Thursday I’ll be at McMaster University to speak at their launch of their own Learning 2.0 series for staff and in Toronto, I have two sessions for OLA: Best Practices for Social Software in Libraries on Friday and Top Technology Trends with John Blyberg & Amanda Etches-Johnson on Satiurday. If you are attending, please say Hi!
See: http://librariansmatter.com/blog/2007/01/25/me-tooodeo-me-too/ Talk about links and connections: I just made a post to VLINT about Timothy Greig’s slides on Flickr about MMOs and digital libraries, found via Tame the Web. I wanted to ask him to expand it in a post for VLINT if he was interested, so I went to his home page. I saw the nice, shiny “record voicemail” button and just had to have one of my own. So, of course, I trotted over to Timothy’s site and left him a greeting. It was early here so I had “morning voice,” but at the end I got […]
As far as I am concerned, tens of thousands of people who are actively creating new stuff are more interesting than millions of more passive participants. Howard Rheingold I had to contain my fanboy self last week at OCLC’s symposium “Who’s Watching YOUR Space,” because on the ticket (and sitting next to me on the stage) was Howard Rheingold, someone I consider to be an authority on virtual communities, deeply involved in the genesis of online social groups, and the forecaster of the whole social software things with his recent book Smart Mobs. I actually got to sit and chat […]
One of my former 753 students still posts to her class blog. Take a look at her short post about MySpace and the comments that followed. http://punkrocklibrary.blogspot.com/2007/01/leading-by-example-libraries-and.html I pointed out that the teens who were on the Teen Council were probably the stereotypical “good kids” who already obey their parents and wouldn’t be the ones who’d “misuse” MySpace anyway, or be taken in by predators pretending to be peers, or whatever all else their parents have spooked them with. In other words…the Teen Council kids wouldn’t be the teens who’d NEED the MySpace page in order to get interested in […]