Contributors Michael Stephens

3974 posts

Online Salon: ALA President To Discuss Creating Connections

Join ALA President Jim Rettig at the ALA Connections Salon, an online event scheduled for 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Friday, Sept. 26.   Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) Coordinator Tom Peters will begin the hour with an interview with Rettig, whose presidential focus is “Creating Connections.”  Rettig’s initiatives foster connections among libraries, library workers, the communities libraries serve and those who make library funding and policy decisions.  Rettig is particularly interested in fostering connections among ALA members and exploring new ways for members to benefit from and contribute to our association.  The ALA Connections Salon is one […]

Excuse me, Prof. – Can I Twitter that?

I take notes, share those notes, and build a community with my peers – just by using twitter -it’s really quite simple. This is how I feel about Twitter in the classroom.  But the 9/18/08 article over at Techdirt, and the comments in particular, paints some different hues (see: “Should you live blog/twitter a class?“). Last weekend I was engulfed in one of three weekend intensive sessions in Michael’s “Library 2.0 & Social Networking Technologies” class.  As he went through his well-honed version of “The Hyperlinked Library”, I thought, “man, it would be cool to capture some of this and […]

TTW Reading List: Library Blogging

  As TTW readers may know, I write a lot about the power and potential of blogging in our profession. My dissertation “Modeling the Role of Blogging in Librarianship” examined the motivations of early adopting bibliobloggers while my work with ALA Library Technology reports offered the hows and whys for blogging libraries. I recently got a review copy of Library Blogging by Karen Coombs and Jason Griffey. I must say it fits the bill as a perfect “How to” guide for librarians  from two practitioners and bloggers that’s up to date and pretty darn inclusive. The opening chapters give the […]

Please help Abby with her Homework

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2008/09/please-help-abby-with-her-homework.html Karl Fisch, whose blog I really enjoy, posts about an assignment his daughter has: to create a travel journal and write to friends to ask for postcards. Karl thinks like I do. What about the online component? I think this assignment is fine as far as it goes, and we mailed it off to a friend in Kentucky on Friday. But, and you’ve got to know what’s coming, I thought this assignment was ripe to have a “virtual companion” to it. So, I haven’t asked for much on this blog (well, other than changing the world), but I’d like […]

SJCPL Launches Game Collection

http://www.sjcpl.org/aboutsjcpl/departments/sightssounds/sightssounds.html#videogames Some things to remember when checking out video games: Limit: 5 total games or CD-ROMs (combined) per cardholder (as per current policy) Loan period for each: 5 days Service charge: $1.00 per day Fines: $2.00 per day for each overdue item Age Limit: 18 and over Holds: No Renewals: No Grace period: No View a complete listing of the video games in our collection here. (pdf) Games are available only at the Main Library’s Sights & Sounds Department. Games may be returned at any SJCPL location. Want to know more? Contact us by phone (282-4609), email (sightsandsounds@sjcpl.org) or chat (asksjcplav). And watch the SJCPL […]

SOPAC for the Smaller Set

Don’t miss: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2008/09/sopac-for-the-smaller-set.html KJS: How about the staff’s relationship with the web? Has that changed? GH: When the blogs were a separate function of the old site, they were disconnected from our online presence. Blogging was doled out as a staff responsibility to one or two people. When we first started working in the staging site, I encouraged everyone to participate, which took some adjusting to for most of the department. There are a couple of staff members who discovered with the new website that they had a great voice and lots of really interesting things to share. Part of […]