Well, technology has produced a new savvy information consumer among the masses. These patrons, have become accustomed to having information delivered to them in whatever format they desire – whether that be in an email, an RSS feed, or even delivered to the door. Disappearing are the days when people actually go the library to find out the acidic content of an orange (one of my first reference questions asked in 1996) or what paper money is made of (another old favorite of mine). I am proud to say that this library (and this Reference department) does deliver content in […]
Contributors Michael Stephens
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It’s nice to be reminded of some of the “Getting Things Done” principles, especially since I juggle teaching, writing, presenting and life. The ideas and some of the methods speak to me. Here’s a great post about that elusive empty inbox: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/11/15/five-simple-rules-for-keeping-an-empty-inbox/ Five simple rules for keeping the inbox clean: If you don’t need to read it now, it shouldn’t be in your inbox. If you’ve already responded to it, it shouldn’t be in your inbox. If it comes from a known source (some person, retailer or mailing list that sends you mail more often than once every few months) […]
Take a look: http://www.davidleeking.com/2006/11/14/single-greatest-point-of-value-from-blogging/ Thanks for the pointer David Lee King!
First of the original ten cohort members to finish the degree! Well done!
A shout out to Jennifer Graham and her blog “jennimi” on her one year anniversary of blogging. http://jennimi.wordpress.com/2006/11/30/one-year-and-then-some/ It’s been an interesting endeavor. Sometimes it sucks me in and I have to leave for awhile to get things done. Sometimes I absolutely love it. But always I am cognizant of the fact that I am, in my tiny tiny lower case j way, participating in the web’s creation, not just observing or reacting to it. I also have begun to see how this process allows librarians to reach out to more people with our knowledge, curiosity, problem solving urges, welcoming […]
I don’t say it enough! Blake is the MAN for working so hard to keep TTW and the other hosted sites, blogs and wikis going at good ole LISHost, which turns 4 today! Thanks Blake! http://lisnews.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/01/1719209
One of the respondents of the OCLC perceptions survey urged libraries to look at ways to deliver books by mail. That person needs to move to Topeka and Shawnee! From the Superpatron: David Lee King writes in his article The Missing Piece of the Library Netflix Model Previously, I have posted a little about Netflix and how libraries could use the model in a similar way (mainly riffing off Michael Porter’s great posts about Netflix). And then I switched jobs. And guess what? In my first two weeks at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, I kept hearing things about […]
“To the librarian I once overheard saying, “It is my personal duty to make sure we have no typos on anything!” I must say: Don’t miss the forest for the trees, Dear Lady. Typos can be corrected, especially online, and focusing too much on those little details may lead to missing the big picture. You’re the one that staff may be e-mailing about, while they wait to launch the new wiki, you are still proofing the proposal for the wiki! A nimble organization can move quickly if not mired in proofing, re-proofing, and proofing one more time a policy change, […]
ALA Editions vs. TechSource Originally uploaded by ALA staff. You know Jenny is in the house when the ALA folk are DDRing.
Thought-provoking and insightful article at Educause. http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm06/eqm0640.asp Policy Disconnects Drawing a clear line between technology and policy can be difficult. For example, how many of the characteristics of current libraries (identified by the list below) are driven purely by technology or by policy? These traits include: Mainly electronic text-based collections with multimedia content noticeably absent Constructed for individual use but requires users to learn from experts how to access and use information and services Library presence usually “outside” the main online place for student activity (MySpace, iTunes, Facebook, the campus portal, or learning management system) Note that comments are enabled, […]