http://www.copyblogger.com/blogging-is-dead/ Great discussion of blogging and the shift to social networks: In truth, the real opportunities for building authority and buzz through social media have only just begun. You simply have to look and see where things are going instead of where they’ve been. Value will always be key. And I think you’ll find that the migration of pure social chatter off of blogs and onto social networking applications is a good thing for the rest of us who are looking to build businesses powered in whole or in part by blogs. Also: http://www.gapingvoid.com/Moveable_Type/archives/004018.html Then suddenly, along comes stuff like […]
Contributors Michael Stephens
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Dominican Students & Michael Stephens Originally uploaded by mstephens7 I was honored to have students from Dominican GSLIS attend my talks at conference. I was so glad for them to experience annual — with the crowds of library folk, far flung meeting rooms and a regular orgy of freebies and schwag in the exhibit hall. What troubles me is the reports from the conference concerning Aaron the Librarian’s attempt to speak to Council. He writes: …Councilor-at-Large Heidi Dolamore stood for me (with coaching on parliamentary procedure by Councilor-at-Large Michael Golrick) and asked the moderator to suspend the normal rules of […]
Me at Work Originally uploaded by jessamyn An incredible image from Jessamyn’s photostream brightens my gray day in Northern Michigan: She writes: This is what I do on a lot of my days. I go to libraries and help people with their computers. Today was a fun day. Both my students had Macs and were clever and interesting people [the little girl is a grandchild of one of the trustees] with problems to solve. I taught the man on the right how to reply to an email, how to use the shift key and how to make a folder and […]
A Cheap Lynnetter Knockoff Originally uploaded by cogdogblog Play is integral to this thing we call “work” in the new net space, not bounded by walls, old rules of behavior, etc. Where is the carefully drawn line between work and play? Please click through and read Cogdogblog’s comments.
Greetings from the ultra-cool Traverse Area District Library, where I am embedded on the second floor working on my second installment of Library Technology Reports. This issue is a followup to last year’s Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software. This year it’s “Web 2.0 & Libraries, Part 2: Trends and Technologies, and I’m working on pulling it all together so it is as current as it can possibly be. My request? Please share your success stories and not so successful stories about marketing social software to the public. When Karen Schneider reviewed part one last year she […]
I’ve been watching for the first reports of iPhones accessing library Web resources. This just in from Papercuts at Topeka Shawnee: http://papercuts.tscpl.org/2007/06/iphone_the_library_in_your_poc.html The iPhone came out yesterday and we’re so excited that we decided to test the accessibility of the library’s website from the iPhone’s web browser. Using his new iPhone, Daniel was able to browse the library’s webpage, view the .pdf of the library’s magazine connectnow, search the library’s catalog and request items, request items for purchase, and search the magazine and journal databases. He can use Google Maps to get directions to the library’s building at 10th and […]
By Michael Casey & Michael Stephens The job of library director is difficult and often underappreciated. These days, library directors are more like university presidents, needing to build support in the community, raise money, and make a name for themselves and their library. Obviously, this varies by the size of the community, but all library directors need to garner sufficient political and community capital to get budgets approved and expansions funded and to keep door counts high. It’s no longer enough for the library director simply to keep the place running. Today’s director is politician and lobbyist, fundraiser and spokesperson, […]
Michael Stephens, Ph.D., is currently Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. After receiving an MLIS from Indiana University, he spent over fifteen years working in public libraries, where he developed a passion for the practical application of technology. He published The Library Internet Trainer’s Toolkit in 2001, and two years later, he launched his popular weblog, Tame the Web. Since then, Michael’s writing has appeared in Public Libraries, Library Journal, Computers in Libraries, and a host of other publications. In 2004, Michael was awarded an IMLS doctoral fellowship […]
Buying the iPhone Online – Bellaire Public Library, Bellaire, MI Originally uploaded by mstephens7 We had a dinner engagement in Bellaire, MI last night – far away from the cottage and an Internet connection. Thank goodness for public libraries and wifi — and a big THANK YOU to the folks at Bellaire Public Library. The wifi signal was strong and true last night at 9:05pm when we pulled into the parking lot to order the iPhone.
"They can be checked out after Friday, July 6" Originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian Jenny discovers she can’t check out “exhibit books” at Downers Grove Public Library. Today is Friday, June 29, and I as a taxpaying resident with a valid library card cannot check out any of the books in this bookcase for an entire week. It’s insane. Do you know of *any* other institution that spends taxpayer money on new things, proudly displays them, and then keeps them from residents for a week or longer? I wonder if I request the title I tried to check out […]