Contributors Michael Stephens

http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2005/11/text_a_libraria.html This is huge and should not be ignored. Read Sarah’s excellent overview of South Eastern Louisiana University’s SMS Reference project. Two Ultra-HOT bits of many: He also noted that an ongoing issue is trying to limit your response to 160 characters. You can send the response in multiple messages, but librarians tend to try their hardest to fit it into one. The system auto-abbreviates some words (for-4, too-2). What an excellent point and a big vote for librarians to really “get” the vernacular of chat. We can’t ignore it much longer if we are to be relevant to future […]

“Social Software for the Rest of Us” is at the ALA TechSource Blog

This blows me away. It says what I’ve been trying to articulate here and in talks. We need spaces in our libraries for collaboration and experience with Web 2.0 tools. Thomas Frey offers the same suggestion in his piece on the Future of Libraies, that we all should read over and discuss in our respective staff meetings. http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120 Experiment with creative spaces so the future role of the library can define itself. Since the role of the library 20 years from now is still a mystery, we recommend that libraries put together creative spaces so staff members, library users, and […]

” It seems like at a lot of schools, the IT department controls every technology choice. Rather than educating faculty members on how to create wikis and blogs and use other cool technologies in the classroom, they keep faculty on a tight leash.” Meredith Farkas “One key justification for using virtual reference software rather than instant messaging software, shared with me at the state conference last week, is that many city IT departments don’t allow IM software. Which leads me to conclude: 1. Many city IT departments are too godlike, 2. Many libraries are unable to effectively work with IT […]

http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/blog_detail.php?blog_id=87

When Chris Jowaissis points something like this out in a session, in an IM to me and notes it on the Technobiblio Blog, it’s one to keep on your radar: http://www.opencroquet.org/ From the bit I’ve read, it’s the beginnings of what may become a 3-D collaborative online environment. Imagine, if you will, a cyber library think tank populated by all of our colleagues. There we might create and enhance learning, services and future initiatives. Wowza! The LiB is right: I’ll need to get a stylish avatar to move through these new spaces!