While I was in Phoenix, I worked with the State Library facillitating a discussion about the cost and use of leased databases. Jen Maney from Pima County Public Library was there and asked me to follow up with an interview at SLJ: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6647835.html Here’s part of the back & forth: JM: In our discussion, things like content, scope, credibility, and ease and extent of access came up as some of the reasons that databases are valuable for libraries. What do you see as the strengths of subscription databases? MS: The deep content springs to mind first and the fact that […]
Categories TTW Ephemera
472 posts
I was working last week on various writing projects and updating presentations when it struck me I should check in and see if my hometown library Mishawaka Penn Harris Public Library had relaxed the ban on Facebook and MySpace that I wrote about on TTW and that Michael and I covered in the our LJ column. I called the library and spoke with the public relations person. Through the course of our conversation, I mentioned that I had sent the column draft and links to all of the online discussions to the library adminstration last year just as an FYI. […]
Twitter – Zero to Amazing in 30 Days by Chris Oien A lot of people just do not get Twitter. For quite some time, I was one of them. I enjoyed the stories like the one about how a guy got arrested by the police in Egypt, Twittered the word “Arrested”, and got his friends spurred into action to get him released. But, I just could not see what use it could be to me. That started changing in Michael Stephens’s Library 2.0 class, that I took last fall. The whole class signed up for it and talked to each […]
Hi Michael, Thought we’d share an e-flyer for a design contest that we’re running at the Chicago Public Library. Grand Prize winner has their work featured in a public awareness campaign for the library. For more info, visitwww.notwhatyouthink.tumblr.com. If you haven’t seen our new campaign please visit www.chipublib.org/notwhatyouthink Thanks! Bruce Not What You Think team This is good to see CPL reaching out to involve the city in creating a marketing campaign for the library. I am interested to see the results. Here’s more info about the contest from their site: Imagine. Design. Compete. From March 5 – April 9, 2009, […]
No, it’s not the secret service of the Soviet Union – it is, however, the commercialized reference desk. KGB, or the knowledge generation bureau as they sometimes call themselves, provides a two-way text reference service straight to mobile devices. Anywhere. Anytime. Which begs these questions: What about the reference desk? Why not ask a librarian? You’ll never hear me say or read that I think the reference desk is dead – because it’s not. But I will say that we can see in the KBG that there is a niche for text message information resources and they are filling it. […]
The Importance of the Non-Techie or How I Learned to Stop Pulling Out My Hair and Love my Luddite by: Mick Jacobsen My wife mocks Twitter thoroughly, “You don’t even know these people,” she repeats. She thinks Facebook/MySpace is weird. She considers online gaming to be silly. She wasn’t sure about this whole “Blog Thing” and renamed my Google Reader an RSS aggravator (which I still find hilarious). She doesn’t want her images on Flickr. I think it is safe to say she pretty much dislikes any 2.0 technology on contact. Last week she started a LibraryThing account and loves […]
John Taube writes: I am a Library Director in Western Maryland and am pushing our system to more library 2.0 stuff such as patron tagging of records and using the library as a communication hub of the community. I have hit a snag in that due to our rural location, I cannot find local programmers or IT folk to help me out. Can you point me in the right direction? Any prospects or interested people should still feel free to contact me at jtaube@allconet.org. Thanks Any TTW readers have thoughts? Send John an email!
Do not miss this intriguing discussion that really speaks to the sea change were in. Star here, with this post from Bob McKee, Chief Executive of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP): (emphasis in bold mine) http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/cesdesk/archive/2009/02/18/all-of-a-twitter.aspx There’s some twittering at present about whether CILIP has (or should have) any “official” presence on various lists or micro blog sites. The simple answer, of course, is no. In terms of “official” activity, cyber life is just like real like – if it happens in a CILIP-sanctioned space, it’s official; if it happens down the pub or in someone else’s […]
Hello, I’m a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, where I study literacy and digital media. I follow your blog, and it’s pushed me to rethink how and what I teach (particularly for my young adult lit course). I have a question, and thought that I would throw it out there (since, in my experience, librarians are a couple steps ahead of teachers!) I’m interested in learning more about interactive graphic novels (like Inanimate Alice) and digital comics (similar to recent work on Deviant Art). Do you know of any, particularly for children and teens? Thanks so much, Jen Scott Curwood Doctoral […]
From ALA TechSource: Ask and ye shall receive. Not 24 hours after I lamented our challenges in covering school libraries, I received an e-mail from an employee at a private, K-12 school in New Jersey: I am running a non-profit private school and I need some help in setting up my library. The main help that I need is to find out what kind of software I should be buying to launch the library. What initial things do I need? We have at least 1,500 Books and we want them to circulate to the students. Initially, I wasn’t sure how this […]