My co-investigator fro the CAVAL Visiting Scholar Project, Warren Cheetham, shared this quote with me. It resonates with me as I reflect on working with librarians around the world. “If you get engaged in international library work, your personal life will be transformed every time you encounter and embrace a foreign culture; your personal boundaries will be expanded. International collaboration is needed if we want to make this world a more livable place.” Jesus Lau, President, Mexican Library Association We just submitted a draft of an article based on the academic library data from our surveys and focus groups last […]
Yearly Archives: 2010
226 posts
I couldn’t participate in the rescheduled ALA TechSource Webinar but I was able to contribute slides and some text. Tech Trend: Teaching & Learning in Flux View more presentations from Michael Stephens. Organizational Immersive Learning This subcategory addresses the outstanding success of the Learning 2.0 model of staff training: free, open, and inclusive. I was going to highlight my Australian research project sponsored by CAVAL. The foundation for this multi-dimensional study comes from the global replication of the program (1000 institutions and counting) and the words of Stephen Abram: ““I believe that this has been one of the most transformational […]
http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/08/interview-with-michael-edson.html MS: The connection between libraries and museums gets clearer and clearer to me, especially after my speaking trip to Germany. At our Stammtisch evening, I spent a long time chatting with a museum employee. Her take was this: “We have 30 seconds to grab a visitor’s attention. We can’t use a blog. We can’t create a social experience in that time…” Then at UGUL, you said to the audience “We have competition from EVERYONE.” What can museums – and libraries – do in this time of great competition to meet the needs of users and non-users alike? How do […]
Library Signage, originally uploaded by Aka Hige. Thanks for sending Nathan!
I had a great time at Friday’s workshop with school librarians, technologists and staff from Region 10 in Richardson, TX. I presented a full morning version of “the Hyperlinked School Library.” The slides are here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/HyperlinkedSchoolLibraryTX.pdf I appreciate all of the discussion and sharing!
I was recently interviewed for an email blast for ILI2010. Hope to see you in London in October! Here’s the text: Internet Librarian International continues to provide pertinent resources and support for today’s information environments. With the shifting emphasis on information provision; constantly-evolving methods for delivering it; increased demands from users; and tighter than ever budgets, we asked Advisory Board member, Michael Stephens, for his views on the future for library technologies and more … Read the full Internet Librarian International programme here. I would have to say the advent of participatory technologies has been the single most important technology […]
Brian and Michael, originally uploaded by pelicanwind. I was in Texas last Thursday and Friday. One highlight was driving up to Denton to meet up with my PhD advisor, mentor and friend Dr. Brian O’Connor. We had a nice chat about teaching, LIS education and technology while enjoying a stroll around Denton’s courthouse. It was 8 billion degrees though! 🙂
Jeff Trzeciak provides more information about McMaster University Library’s transformation to blended services: http://ulatmac.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/2010/07/22/reference-desk-gone-2nd-post/ (bold emphasis is mine) In other words, only around 40% are really “research-related” questions. The remaining 60% are largely directional. In a subsequent blog post I reported on the breakdown between in-person, email and IM transactions. These statistics indicate that only 82% of the volume is taking place within one of our buildings. The remaining 18% is virtual. So, a decline of nearly 2/3 from our high, coupled with 18% of the assistance now being virtual and only 40% being research-related. Sounds like a candidate for […]
Jeff Trzeciak writes: http://ulatmac.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/2010/07/15/reference-desk-gone/ After much planning and hard work the last of our reference desks is gone! Our library has completed the transition to “blended services” where library assistants handle most of the transactions at combined service points (circulation, interlibrary loan, research help). Our business library was the first to go in this direction around one year ago followed by our science/engineering library. Finally, I came in this morning to find that the last of our reference desks is now gone! Between 2009-2010 our Research Help Desk answered 21771 questions. As with many ARL libraries this number is down substantially. […]
Another cool initiative I became aware of at Annual is the Crave Libraries project. Skokie PL’s Toby Greenwalt appeared to give me these two buttons. What a wonderful promotion and way of thinking! Find out more here: http://www.cravelibraries.com/ But know that the project is just starting. Toby writes: I’m also going to be drumming up interest in Crave Libraries, a new semi-secret project I’m brewing up with Daniel Nguyen. (A debt of gratitude is also owed to Jason Kucsma, who coined the phrase and has graciously allowed us to run with it. Jason, look me up at ALA, as I […]