Via Brian Gray at ALA L2: http://briangray.alablog.org/blog/_archives/2006/6/4/2005520.html http://careers.epnet.com/info.php?id=513 The basic function of the Wiki Analyst is to monitor information creation on TWiki, EP’s web-based collaboration platform. The ideal candidate will be responsible for tracking wiki usage, guiding and shaping it’s organization, and helping EP to get the most out of this powerful tool. Develop best practices. Other responsiblities include training and educating users, monitoring projects and activity, and linking content for maximum usefulness.
Categories Library Jobs & Careers
285 posts
Asks Michael Casey at LibraryCrunch: http://www.librarycrunch.com/2006/05/spine_labels_and_dedeweficatio.html Michael addresses some interesting points. I’m fascinated by his thoughs on stickers and labels. Do we really need all the stickers we put on materials? How many colored dots, labels and barcodes does one item need? I’ll be interested to watch the discussions about classification play out. I’d still like to somehow see the library’s collection represented as a Tag Cloud that would show us the way to the materials we want.
http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2006/05/which_users_lif.html Who in your company gets the emails/stories from your users? Too often the good stories are routed to PR/Marketing (the success stories that make for good testimonials) while the rest of us (programmers, customer service, etc.) get all the complaint emails. Yes, we like hearing about how great our product is, especially when we did the work. But it’s the stories about how the company/product/service/cause has changed someone’s life–that matter to those of us doing the actual work. And sometimes the way a user’s life is changed is not at all what we’d expect. Let me tell you a […]
“Policy is anxiety avoidance.” Kathryn Deiss, Patron day, MLS This statement really resonates with me. It leads me to questions about how user-centric our libraries are: Are we avoiding contact with users be creating layers and layers of policy? Are we not turning comments on our public blogs because we might actually get comments? This has been a great day of discussion and thought! More in a bit!
Cluetrain Manifesto #95: We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting. I honestly laughed out loud at this comment at FRL concerning another ALA kerfuffle about conference meetings being posted online: In an effort to establish its street cred as a hip organization, ALA is going to an all-flash mob scheduling process. 30 minutes before the meeting, they’ll send a bulletin to all their myspace.com friends telling them where to show up. Thomas Dowling This too: I laughed first when I read the post, again when I read the messages on […]
“…right now most libraries are letting some truly invaluable people slip right through the cracks.” http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2006/04/11/a_liminal_followup.html ” Ask yourself what your library is doing to value your top staff (all of them, not just the traditional, stereotypical functionaries), to create a collaborative environment (especially between generations and between various job roles), and to let your employees color outside the lines a little in order to draw the big picture.” http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2006/04/10/the_taking_issue_with_absolutes_librarian.html To me, that’s letting go of that micro-management control some librarians use and letting librarians dream, innovate and plan without red tape, endless meetings and barriers disguised as “baby steps.”
Via The Social Customer Manifesto: Guy Kawasaki posts a Top Ten list: The Art of Customer Service. http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_art_of_cust.html This might be good to read and apply to our libraries: how does the administration feel about customer service? How does the director/dean/head librarian feel about users? What levels of trust are their in your institutiuons between management and front line librarians and support staff? Who blames who when things go wrong? Are we hiring the right people or pormoting the right people to the right jobs? Here’s the full list: Start at the top Put the customer in control (Ding Ding) […]
(A confession: I’ve been sitting on this post a LONG time…I finally decided to put it out there and see how it goes.) I happened across this post at Wandering Eyre entitled “IM me. Oh wait, we do not do that here. (Read the whole post & the comments!) “…my library’s new web developer, and my technology partner in crime, asked me last week why we do not have IM. It is blocked on the staff computers and we do not do chat reference. I sighed heavily and told her that was a conversation best had over drinks, but I […]
Via The Goblin in the Library: An Essay by Brian S. Mathews He asks some good questions: Can we as a profession ever really get beyond the “it’s always been done like that” mentality and provide a catalog that patrons actually want to use? that tie directly into the 5 Phrases I Hope I Never Hear post.
http://www.mazar.ca/2006/04/08/10-ways-to-lose-your-best-people/ “10 Attitudes That Would Make this “techie” Librarian High-Tail it Out of Your Library” Another entry in the meme that makes some super good points by a librarian named Rochelle from Canada. Here’s #5: 5. Blogs are stupid. “Blog people” are even stupider. What’s a wiki? Why should I care? It’s best to approach all new applications not only with skepticism, but with active distrust and scorn.