Computer Labs are the ugly ducklings of libraries, very rarely get discussed, very few presentations on best practices, disgruntles reference librarians everywhere “I did not go to library school to help somebody play with Facebook”, and all that jazz. I have never understood that opinion but I am not here to try and change anybody’s mind about the need, but to discuss the future of computer labs in libraries (my experience is in public libraries). As background, mpow’s computer use statistics were down from last fiscal year, and this year looks to be down again. At our height we were […]
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Early in my career, I made the mistake of mentioning in one of my one of my presentations that I was one of those librarians that didn’t read a lot but somehow got into libraries. Since then, I don’t think I’ve been able to live that down. To some, I’ve become “ that teen librarian who doesn’t read” and to some extent I think that’s hurt me. I was wrong in saying that I don’t read. In fact, I read quite a bit: I read the most on my phone (news, gaming, music, sports, RSS feeds) I play video games, […]
Perhaps I have been living under a rock but I just stumbled across the Idea Box from Oak Park Public Library, IL. Very interesting. TTW Contributor: Mick Jacobsen
I got this note from one of the teens that uses my library when I came into work today. I think it’s some great advice! Post by Justin Hoenke, Tame the Web Contributor
I had the honor of helping unveil the German-American Gaming League while I was in Hamburg last month for the Bibliothekartag Library Conference. If you’re interested in the league, please visit this link for more information (please note: the page is in German, so have Google Translate handy!) What is the German-American gaming league? In the gaming league take people from Germany and the United States in an open competition against each other. Here are several computer games such as Wii bowling and playing Mario Kart. Why did the German-American gaming league? We believe that gaming will have a major impact on […]
At the request of the students, our class embarked on a geography themed expedition this year to study the beauty and mystery of this huge country. All the students in our class are new to the US. After researching they have became experts on one of the US Census regions. In addition, they developed a practical understanding of how the world is categorized into the 5 themes of geography. –Catherine Paul I wanted to share this awesome project some of the teens who use my library just did at their school. They came into the library today and were really […]
The Portland Regional Chamber held its annual business expo on Wednesday, and booths included the usual: credit unions, hotels, sign shops, telecom companies, the Portland Public Library. Attendance was light in the early afternoon, but began to pick up as …. — “Wait!” I know you’re all saying, astonished: “The Portland Public Library???!!” Sonya Durney, who is the Business and Government Librarian at my library just recently did something super awesome. She took her show on the road the Portland Business Expo and talked to local small businesses about the benefits of using their local library. Durney explained: “If we can […]
What a great partnership. I’ve been playing Kid Icarus: Uprising on my 3DS for the past few weeks and have been enjoying the experience quite a bit. The 3DS is a neat little system and from what I see here in this video it makes the Louvre experience even cooler. -Post by Justin Hoenke,Tame the Web Contributor
I’ve been thinking a lot about public libraries/organizations and social media lately, especially on the differences between Twitter and Facebook. I wanted to jot down some notes about what I think works and what doesn’t, & figured I’d share them publicly so that folks can do anything from heartily disagreeing with them in the comments to potentially benefiting from them. I’ve had a personal Twitter account and followed libraries with it since fall of 2007, but have only recently started tweeting for a library system (about a month now). I still have a lot to learn, but I’ve also learned […]
The Young Writers and Leaders film is part of a Telling Room program, Sonya Tomlinson, David Meiklejohn, and 15 Portland, Maine area teens (all of whom use my teen library everyday!). Simply stated, the film tells the stories of the teens and their involvement in the Telling Room program and their lives in Portland, ME. Their goal is to take their film and the fifteen teen participants on a trip to Boston and spend the day in the city visiting a sister writing center, pairing up with Boston-area young writers, and holding a screening of the film in a film house […]