Monthly Archives: July 2011

17 posts

Office Hours Extra: Digital Media & Learning Job at MacArthur

How cool is this recent ad for  the position of Program Officer, Digital Media & Learning at the MacArthur Foundation?: (bolding is mine) Knowledge, Skills, and Experience: The Program Officer role requires graduate training and experience as a researcher or designer, with a strong grasp of research and theoretical literature relating to learning, adolescent development and new media, and practical, “on-the-ground” experience with youth, in libraries and museums or schools. He or she must be familiar with significant thought leaders and national organizations in relevant fields, and to be a respectful, collaborative colleague who can build bridges and actively engage […]

Pink on Games

“You must understand video games.  Seriously. You must. So if you don’t know a joystick from a jelly roll, spend some time getting up to speed on games played on computers, online, and on special devices such as Game Boys and Playstations. Ask your kid. Ask your neighbor’s kid. Or go into an electronics store such as Best Buy where the games are usually on display, and ask for a demo. You won’t regret it. And you may even become hooked.  At the very least, you’ll begin to understand the powerful new grammar, narrative pattern, and thinking style these games […]

SJSU SLIS: Seminar: Participatory Service & Emerging Technologies (Updated)

Note: This is an updated version of the “green sheet” I just submitted for review – it is a DRAFT until approved. Course Description Course Overview “The new tools provide powerful options for working with data, text, sound, and images. …. There is, predictably, an increasing departure in information handling from the simple pattern of read, think, then write. Computers are used for so much more than the traditional notion of “computing.’” –Michael Buckland, Redesigning Library Services, 1992 Library scholars have noted the ongoing impact of technology on libraries and have called for a redesign of services to meet the […]

This is a Call

“The time is now,” I keep telling myself. Let me tell you why. It’s been almost five years since I fell into being a teen librarian. I was working toward my MLS at Clarion University when I was approached to do some summer teen programming at the Clarion Free Library in Clarion, PA. Their proposal was simple: do stuff for teens, buy some cool books, and get them into the library. I was a one-person team tasked with pretty much creating a library for these oft-forgotten patrons. I did it, and the teens were happy, but I realized at the […]

Call for Papers: 3rd International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World

3rd International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World, September 19-21, 2012, Ankara, Turkey Symposium web site: by2012.bilgiyonetimi.net E-Science and Information Management  Scope The “3rd International Symposium on Information Management in a Changing World” (or IMCW2012), organized by the Department of Information Management of Hacettepe University, will take place in Ankara, Turkey, from 19-21 September 2012. “E-Science and Information Management” being the main theme, IMCW2012 aims to bring together both researchers and information professionals to discuss the implications of e-science for information management. “E-Science” is defined as collaborative, networked and data-driven science.  Researchers have to get access to large, […]

Office Hours Meets UX in Library Journal

I’m honored to have written a combined Office Hours column with User Experience author Aaron Schmidt in the new issue of Library Journal: http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/ljinprint/currentissue/891081-403/putting_the_ux_in_education.html.csp UX thinking doesn’t have to be limited to specific courses, however. Core parts of the LIS curriculum can and should change as we review and update classes to reflect the focus on our patrons’ experiences. Reference and resource-based study can easily morph when taught through a UX lens. Take collection development, for instance—wouldn’t classes about collection development be richer and more productive when combined with thinking about building design and library programming? When LIS classes encourage […]

Participatory Service & Emerging Technologies – Draft Course Greensheet for SJSU SLIS

Course Overview “The new tools provide powerful options for working with data, text, sound, and images. …. There is, predictably, an increasing departure in information handling from the simple pattern of read, think, then write. Computers are used for so much more than the traditional notion of “computing.’” –Michael Buckland, Redesigning Library Services, 1992   Library scholars have noted the ongoing impact of technology on libraries and have called for a redesign of services to meet the evolving needs of users. Virtual communities have thrived online since the early 1980s. New media and social sites are part of the next […]

TTW Interview Series: Vanessa Morris, Part II

This is the second and final installment of my interview with Vanessa Morris. Part 1 was posted on Wednesday, July 13th and is available  HERE. – TTW Contributor Ben Lainhart —- BL: I know that you have both a professional and personal interest in virtual worlds and and social media. You mentioned their usefulness in relation to education. What are some other purposes they could serve? Do you think they are changing how we interact with others or how we view ourselves?  VM: Social media is definitely changing how we interact with others and how we view ourselves. For those […]

TTW Interview Series: Vanessa Morris, Part 1

When Michael asked me to be a Contributor here on Tame the Web I knew that one of the things I wanted to do was start an interview series with different people in the profession that I find interesting, instructive or challenging. My goal with this series is provide interviews that are more conversational in nature and touch on a wide variety of topics. While my approach is that of a recent MLIS graduate trying to make sense of the LIS profession and its future, I hope that these interviews help foster dialogue about the many difficulties and triumphs LIS […]