My new “Office Hours” column is up at LJ. It’s about challenges: http://bit.ly/f0PuQe Slackers not wanted At a recent focus group for a research project for the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiatives conference, a small group of librarians and library IT support staff shared their insights about the changing educational landscape. They all agreed that the requirements for supporting a university’s mission are changing, just as our students are changing (see “Can We Handle the Truth?” Office Hours, LJ 1/11, p. 44). One librarian noted a particular challenge: “some librarians are coasting to retirement—they’ve checked out.” Coasting, in library school and in our jobs, […]
Categories Library Jobs & Careers
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I’ve received some wonderful and challenging emails offering feedback about my column in “Office Hours” in Library Journal. A few folks keyed in to the statement I made in the first column: If the online world is not for you, then neither may be a career in librarianship. The most prevalent LIS jobs in the next few years will probably be ones where you’re not tied to your desk and you communicate well beyond the physical walls of the building. It’s not just students who should participate in this online world. Librarians must find their niche as well. Five years […]
References for the video from Phil Bradley by John Kirriemuir: http://use-libraries-and-learn-stuff.blogspot.com/2011/02/hitler-attempts-to-close-libraries.html In order of appearance in the video. Because librarians and information professionals like references 🙂 Save Doncaster Libraries Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries Day of action to save London’s libraries Isle of Wight library threats West Country – Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset – library cuts School libraries Covering the entire country Borrowing a library book recently… CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Voices for the Library campaign group #savelibraries tweets And the press and those posters (Annie) Mauger, CEO of CILIP The Mayor (of Doncaster) Massive mobile library cuts in Hampshire Philip Pullman defends libraries
http://infomational.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/farewell-cal-hello-claremont Char Booth shares via her blog an upcoming move to a new position at the Claremont Colleges: My love of organizational complexity and campus dynamics contributed to my decision to join the Claremont Colleges, which is a rare Oxford-style arrangement of small private institutions. Each maintains its own distinct personality, and what I have heard described as a “fiercely independent” academic/social culture. I imagine that this will make my combined job of coordinating instruction, outreach, and assessment approximately seven times more challenging (and seven times more interesting) than normal, not to mention upping the learning curve ante of a […]
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 […]
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?
http://bit.ly/fJDE6A My new column explores some recent studies about students, faculty and librarians. Ultimately, the authors of the report make a series of recommendations, including a few that librarians must heed. “We believe library instruction could benefit from some serious rethinking and re-examination. We recommend modifying sessions (in-class and reference encounters) so they emphasize…framing a successful research process…over research-finding of sources.” (p. 39) Librarians’ focus on sources over teaching the research process itself has probably contributed to these disheartening survey results. But they also make me wonder how most college students see librarians. Are they invisible within their libraries and […]
Brian Kelly writes: Dave has demonstrated his impact within the wider community in two areas. Dave has been active in supporting the Mashed Libraries series of one day events whoch have aimed to to “bring together interested people and doing interesting stuff with libraries and technology“. The original idea was conceived by Owen Stephens in a blog post on “Mashed Libraries? Would you be interested?” on 1 July 2008. The second response was from Dave, who showed his enthusiasm together with an example of his normal self-deprecating humour: “I’ve love to see a library unconference in the UK… I’m just too […]
Congratulations to Phil Bradley for being elected as Vice President of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in the UK. Phil will serve one year as Vice-President, one year as President, and one year as Past President. I’ve known Phil virtually for almost ten years – he adapted my Internet training book for UK audiences. We’ve only met in person and chatted briefly at ILI but I look forward to the next time we are together. I want to buy him a congratulatory drink. His candidate manifesto surely contributed to his win – it includes an overview of his professional […]