http://youthtech.wordpress.com/2006/12/05/news-stuff/ News: As of January 2, 2007, I will be serving in a new capacity as the Emerging Technology Manager here at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. Nice work PLCMC! The groundbreaking, open and “easy to steal” Learning 2.0 and now this position. Tell us more about it, Matt!
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Karen Schneider weighs in at TechSource on the recent happy news! This is what I’m talking about when I tell groups I speak with to “Never stop learning” and “Never stop dreaming.” http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/12/unsucking-the-opac-one-mans-noble-efforts.html Like the Endeca tea cozy—I mean, interface—for the NCSU catalog, the WPOPAC not only presents one type of solution for the “missing module” problem, but also emphasizes that the solutions for our problems can come from creative thinking inside the profession and reaching out to work done elsewhere. It’s the dawn of our self-actualization, LibraryLand!
There’s coverage of the SLJ Summit in this month’s School Library Journal: Building trust means dispelling other educators’ fears over their students’ use of Web 2.0—the second generation of Internet-based services, such as social networking sites and wikis, which emphasize collaboration and sharing among users. The learning potential of these technologies should outweigh any fears of abuse, the attendees seemed to be saying. Building trust also involves educating stakeholders and the learning community about the learning opportunities that new technologies offer. Finally, “trust” implies trusting students to use social networking sites like MySpace and Friendster appropriately—while still expecting adult oversight. […]
http://www.librarything.com/thingology/2006/12/is-your-opac-fun-manifesto-of-sorts.php This is about participation! Give patrons a reason to check in every day—something about the books, and ideally about them and the books, not some “trick” like free movie passes. Read the whole post!
Press Release from Plymouth State University: Making Libraries Relevant in an Internet-Based Society PSU’s Casey Bisson wins Mellon Award for innovative search software for libraries PLYMOUTH, N.H. — You can’t trip over what’s not there. Every day millions of Internet users search online for information about millions of topics. And none of their search results include resources from the countless libraries around the world. Until now. Casey Bisson, information architect for Plymouth State University’s Lamson Library, has received the prestigious Mellon Award for Technology Collaboration for his ground-breaking software application known as WPopac. The Wpopac software will revolutionize the online […]
http://blog.nekls.org/index.php/archives/301 I do still see some libraries prohibiting the use of instant messaging (IM). One of the reasons libraries have prohibited it is because of the need to install the Instant Messaging client on each public access computer. That, however, is no longer required. There are web-based tools that allow you to use IM without having to install software. My personal favorite is Meebo. It allows users to access their AIM, Yahoo!, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ or Jabber accounts, without needing to install any software. And it’s free! When you access Meebo, you will frequently see interesting notes from the […]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=C9ct7fAj6zk
One of my students calls one of the large, urban local libraries doing research for group projects. He encounters this intriguing story: Librarian: Hello? ________ Public Library, may I help you? LIS753 Student: Hello, I’m working on a project for my library school class and I have a question. Librarian: Of course. LIS753 Student: Does the library have plans to start an IM reference service? Librarian: Oh God, No! Wow, not even a “We have heard of libraries doing that but we haven’t looked into yet..” or anything! Shame on you, large, urban Illinois-located Public Library system!
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 […]
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) […]