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Thoughts on Learning Communities & Support

David Wedaman at Brandeis has a couple of thoughtful posts up at his blog Theatrical Smoke. I’m very happy to be working with him and Gail Matthews-DeNatale on a poster presentation at next month’s EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives conference. Take a look at his posts: http://wedaman.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/whither-academic-support/ Your community will learn its way forward. It’s people stuff, it’s faith, it’s risk, it’s scary, it’s trust, it’s vulnerability, it’s Negative Capability, it’s relationship-building, it’s engagement on an ideas plane, it’s meaningful personal and community development. It’s perhaps the opposite of everything we’ve ever done. It’s perhaps everything we’ve consciously and subconsciously veered away […]

Using Foursquare to Reach New Audiences

Jasper Visser writes at Museum of the Future: Our new website, and especially its integration of Google Maps, made it easy to add stories from our website to relevant places in Foursquare. About a month ago I’ve added 15 stories as tips to Foursquare. And it seems to work! Some of the tips have been done relatively often and between 0.05 and 0.1 % of our website traffic (wow!) now comes from Foursquare. Here’s what I did (and/or should have done, looking back): I looked for things on our website (stories, etc.) directly related to a location. Then I looked […]

Message from CILIP – Save Our Libraries

A friend from the UK asked me to share this with TTW readers – Mark Taylor from CILIP writes: Here at the UK’s Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals we’re looking for help from across the globe with a day of action in support of UK public library services. www.cilip.org.uk/savelibraries The day is called Save Our Libraries and it takes place on the 5th Feb. Internationally we are hoping for a global day of tweeting using the hashtag #savelibraries in support of UK public library services. Can you please encourage your community to tweet using #savelibraries about why public libraries are […]

Teens Through Time Movie Series

As much of a fan of putting together elaborate and  unique programs at my library, at the same time I feel it’s good to balance things out with some laid back stuff as well.  This lead to my desire to seek out a movie license so that we could show some films.  It was a program that could easily happen and at the same time give our teen patrons something to do. I tried a Random Movie Night program at first.  It was probably the least amount of work I put into a program and I had hoped for high […]

No Balloons: “Serious Rule At The Yonkers Public Library”

balloons, originally uploaded by nycscout. Via AL Direct: http://www.scoutingny.com/?p=3399 I’m amazed that this is such a problem as to necessitate a laminated sign. I mean, I wasn’t planning on bringing any balloons inside…But it’s sort of a downer to know I couldn’t if I suddenly got the urge. -SCOUT Read the comments as well: t’s probably kids from the middle & high schools who created the need for the sign. I grew up about 10 minutes away and there was a tradition in my town of people bringing mylar balloons for you on your birthday for you to tie to […]

Office Hours Extra: Geospatial & Geosocial

https://twitter.com/#!/nypl/status/25616837626560512 Job description: http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/njslajobs/2009/12/geospatial-librarian-new-york.html Duties include: In collaboration with others, develops scaleable tools for delivering NYPL’s digital collections to the public using web mapping discovery technologies and advises on best practices for metadata schema Collaborates with Library Sites and Services staff and engages with users and researchers to provide reference and research services including individualized consultations; engages with users online to foster an interactive and creative use of collection content Promotes and interprets the collections through the use of online tools, classroom instruction, curriculum development, exhibitions and publications Expands outreach to local, national, and international audiences, including K-12 groups Again […]

Office Hours Extra: The New Reality

https://twitter.com/#!/mickjacobsen/status/25217483560460288 I shared this with my Participatory Service & Emerging Technologies class. Skokie PL librarian Mick Jacobsen finds himself in the new reality: developing Web sites as part of his work but without the title or duties of web developer noted in his job description. It makes me wonder – are the proficiencies necessary to create online info environments (think Info architecture, if you will) and online communities becoming part of the greater skill set of the 21st Century Librarian?