Roy Tennant has a lovely post up at LJ: http://blog.libraryjournal.com/tennantdigitallibraries/2011/02/18/an-open-letter-to-new-librarians/ Roy offers some advice for success in librarianship, including these that speak to me: Focus your efforts where you can make a difference. Identify some things that you can do that are within your talents, that deeply interest you, and for which you can envision potential success. This may mean starting small and working your way forward incrementally. Big things can be accomplished this way. Savor success. The small ones as well as the big ones. Did you get that report finished? Good on you. Crack open the bubbly. Savor […]
Monthly Archives: February 2011
28 posts
Don’t miss the new Horizon Report! Since 2002 the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives have released the yearly Horizon Report, which “introduces six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use within three adoption horizons over the next five years” in the realm of learning and inquiry. The last few editions of the report have highlighted these trending technologies: social computing and personal broadcasting (2006); social networking and user generated content (2007); “grassroots video” and collaboration webs (think free and easy online tools) (2008); mobile devices and cloud computing (2009). The 2010 edition featured […]
I’m enjoying the writing at this blog: http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/ From the About page: The Web is our Campus. This is an invitation to participate in the redefinitions of library school using the web as a collaborative space outside of any specific university or organization. Imagine standards and foundations of the profession that we will create, decided upon by us, outside of the institutional framework. Ideas like the democratization of the semantic web, crowdsourcing, and folksonomies allow projects like this to exist and we should be taking advantage of it. What will the information professions be next year if we define it […]
My new “Office Hours” column is up at LJ. It’s about challenges: http://bit.ly/f0PuQe Slackers not wanted At a recent focus group for a research project for the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives conference, a small group of librarians and library IT support staff shared their insights about the changing educational landscape. They all agreed that the requirements for supporting a university’s mission are changing, just as our students are changing (see “Can We Handle the Truth?” Office Hours, LJ 1/11, p. 44). One librarian noted a particular challenge: “some librarians are coasting to retirement—they’ve checked out.” Coasting, in library school and in our jobs, […]
DOK, the Library Concept Center in the Netherlands and home of the Shanachies has been working on digital storytelling tools for libraries and museums for a number of years now and have come up with new applications for Multi Touch that allow the users to bring their own content to the library. There have been a number of articles on the earlier apps DOK has developed such as the Heritage Browser. The Heritage Browser displays archival material from the City Archive in the library’s public space via a Microsoft Surface table. DOK has linked the material of the City Archive […]
I’ve received some wonderful and challenging emails offering feedback about my column in “Office Hours” in Library Journal. A few folks keyed in to the statement I made in the first column: If the online world is not for you, then neither may be a career in librarianship. The most prevalent LIS jobs in the next few years will probably be ones where you’re not tied to your desk and you communicate well beyond the physical walls of the building. It’s not just students who should participate in this online world. Librarians must find their niche as well. Five years […]
References for the video from Phil Bradley by John Kirriemuir: http://use-libraries-and-learn-stuff.blogspot.com/2011/02/hitler-attempts-to-close-libraries.html In order of appearance in the video. Because librarians and information professionals like references 🙂 Save Doncaster Libraries Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries Day of action to save London’s libraries Isle of Wight library threats West Country – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset – library cuts School libraries Covering the entire country Borrowing a library book recently… CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Voices for the Library campaign group #savelibraries tweets And the press and those posters (Annie) Mauger, CEO of CILIP The Mayor (of Doncaster) Massive mobile library cuts in Hampshire Philip Pullman defends libraries
Åke Nygren reports from Helsinki Midwinter Darkness Camp: http://www.InfoToday.eu/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/Nordic-geeky-and-cool-73614.aspx At the Helsinki Midnight Darkness Camp we had the opportunity to pitch project ideas that had either already started to take form as a formal project, or were still waiting to be matched with the right combination of people. One project idea that took an important step forward towards realisation was a very interesting peer2peer loaning concept for mobile devices:using the mobile phone as a library card and making it possible for patrons to borrow and lend books directly between themselves. Near Field Communication, anyone? Other project ideas buzzing around at #hmdc11 […]