Do not miss this post at In the Library with a Lead Pipe: http://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2011/is-the-united-states-training-too-many-librarians-or-too-few-part-1/ Is the United States Training Too Many Librarians or Too Few? (Part 1) Some questions from the essay: Should library schools admit fewer students? Is the admissions process sufficiently selective? Are library school curricula and graduation requirements too similar or too distinct? Are they providing their students with the skills they need in order to get hired and do useful work? Should there be licensing exams for librarians? What data would we need to collect in order to come up with useful answers to these questions? […]
Categories Resources & Websites for Librarians
101 posts
I have heard reports of the demise of libraries and librarians since I first entered library school over thirteen years ago. I tend to not pay much attention to them, but in the last few months a couple articles followed by personal experiences have caused me a bit of concern. The first was Rick Anderson’s guest editorial in the Journal of Academic Librarianship (July 2011, 37:4) where he argued that we have valuable services, but students and faculty don’t really care. Second, was the blog post by Mike Shatzkin (http://www.idealog.com/blog/it-will-be-hard-to-find-a-public-library-15-years-from-now) where he argues that big picture trends are going to […]
I am thoroughly enjoying this issue of Library Technology Reports by Kyle M. L. Jones and Polly Alida-Farrington. Read the first chapter here to get a taste of the useful, practical and engaging work. Kenley Neufeld and I have an interview in the issue concerning WordPress as an LMS for course management. There’s also an extended version here and a TechSource post about the early stages of the project here. The guest sections include an excellent article on utilizing WP to enhance the user experience by […]
I’m enjoying the writing at this blog: http://hacklibschool.wordpress.com/ From the About page: The Web is our Campus. This is an invitation to participate in the redefinitions of library school using the web as a collaborative space outside of any specific university or organization. Imagine standards and foundations of the profession that we will create, decided upon by us, outside of the institutional framework. Ideas like the democratization of the semantic web, crowdsourcing, and folksonomies allow projects like this to exist and we should be taking advantage of it. What will the information professions be next year if we define it […]
Download the full poster here: ELI_Poster_acad15_v5 Michael Stephens, Gail Matthews-DeNatale, and David Wedaman recently conducted a proof-of-concept research project on perspectives of higher education academic support staff. We’ll present a poster on the topic at the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. in mid-February, 2011. A brief overview and the fifteen emergent key themes are posted here; you can also see a more detailed overview document. The “Academic 15:” Emerging Roles in 21st-Century Learning Support I. Overview We interviewed 24 library and I.T. professionals serving in positions that directly supported teachers, learners, and researchers, to understand their perspectives on curricular change and […]
Social Media, Libraries, and Web 2.0: How American Libraries are Using New Tools for Public Relations and to Attract New Users – Third Survey November 2010 View more documents from Curtis Rogers. Dr. Curtis Rogers shares a report of his most recent survey. This is useful, practical data to explore.
Eva Norling at the BTH Library tells me they are showing the video in the library now and the Web version will include music.
This seems so appropriate for this time of year: http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/how-will-you-use-your-gifts-in-2011/ Jeff Bezos had some questions in a commencement speech given this year – they ring especially true to me: How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make? Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions? Will you follow dogma, or will you be original? Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you wilt under criticism, or will you follow your convictions? Will you bluff it out when you’re wrong, or will you apologize? Will you guard […]
This is the second installment from the ILEAD U Project. Click here or on the category hyperlink to read more about it. – Mick Jacobsen Team Springfield Big Read includes Amanda Binder and Janelle Gurnsey from University of Illinois Springfield, Brookens Library; Julie Wullner from Lincoln Library, The Public Library of Springfield, Illinois; Amy Ihnen from Chatham Public Library District; and Sarah Garley from Rochester Public Library. Together we represent four of the 14 partners of The Big Read in Central Illinois. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute […]
In Mick Jacobsen’s post, “An Unformed Thought,” in which he discussed the possibility of libraries acting as a hub for information technology needs such as website design and hosting, he hit on a core value of librarianship – community building. As we strive to build library spaces that are usable and promote interaction and collaboration, we naturally try to enhance interpersonal connections and create conversations that connect our patrons either to us or other users. And the conversation in the past couple of years has advanced this thought into our online spaces but with a reliance on preexisting technologies like […]