Categories TTW Ephemera

Kate Sheehan’s post on kindness has had some good comments, including this one by Tasha Saecker, Director of the Menasha Public Library: At our library, we did a code of conduct that every employee had to sign. It was about how we treat one another in the library. Our staff had gotten into the habit of being quite toxic with one another. Refusing to reply when greeted, ignoring staff who worked at lower levels in the hierarchy, making caustic remarks both to people’s face and behind their backs, etc. The code reminded everyone what was expected of them. Professionalism, kindness, respect and care. […]

What makes what I’ll call an A librarian? Most librarians—most people in any profession—are what I take to be average, or C librarians. A small percentage, around 10, are B librarians or above average. Perhaps 10 percent of those number are A librarians, though maybe such an exalted condition as I will describe is mythical. What goes into making an A librarian? These are the characteristics, in my opinion. I’ll begin by outlining the hindrances that prevent a librarian from reaching his potential (I’ll use the masculine pronoun throughout). Through the years I’ve heard, in reference to tenure, that once […]

American Library Association Executive Board 50 E. Huron Street Chicago IL 60611 July 13, 2009 Dear Colleagues, On behalf of the American Library Association Website Advisory Committee, the purpose of this letter is to officially commend all of the American Library Association Information Technology & Telecommunication Services staff for their exceptional contributions and dedication to the organization and the membership. Sean Bires, Maribeth Chapman, Louise Gruenberg, Matthew Ivaliotes, Sheila Joy, Jim Kanis, Jenny Levine, Irene Marquez , Tim Smith, Sherri Vanyek, and Donavan Vicha all make these contributions on a daily basis to consistently improve the Web experience for the […]

ALA Web Advisory Committee Recommendation about the Use of ALA Connect The Web Advisory Committee (WAC) is a standing committee of the American Library Association (ALA). One key duty of the WAC is to advise the association on priorities and strategies that promote utilization and continued development of the ALA website. In Spring 2009, ALA introduced ALA Connect, a new section of the ALA website. Fulfilling our mission of advising the ALA on website issues, the Web Advisory Committee strongly urges all ALA organized groups and ALA members to take advantage of the ALA Connect service. ALA Connect replaces the […]

A Teacher’s Guide To Web 2.0 at School View more documents from Sacha Chua.   VIA Hey Jude

I have a new post up at ALA TechSource: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2009/09/just-in-time-for-back-to-school.html Since I started teaching at Dominican, I’ve been requiring students to blog, aggregate RSS, explore Facebook, try out Twitter, and engage in many other Web 2.0 interactions. Recently, I heard from a former student, who proclaimed that “Most of the LIS students I keep in touch with I’ve met in your classes, and it’s all because of social networking websites.” At other LIS schools, I’ve seen similar courses or use of the tools spread out across the curriculum either in the hybrid or online model. This can be beneficial–technology should not […]

Great food for thought from Clive Thompson at Wired, where he examines a recent study on student writing: “I think we’re in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven’t seen since Greek civilization,” she says. For Lunsford, technology isn’t killing our ability to write. It’s reviving it—and pushing our literacy in bold new directions. The first thing she found is that young people today write far more than any generation before them. That’s because so much socializing takes place online, and it almost always involves text. Of all the writing that the Stanford students did, […]

We’re very happy at TTW to be hosting The Young Librarian Series. Check out the video interview between Series Founder Leah (the Librarian) White and Justin Hoenke, Teen Librarian at the Cape May County Library. Also, here’s Leah’s introductory video that introduces her project: The Young Librarian Series #1 from leah white on Vimeo. Please check out the site!

Corporations have The No A**hole Rule, but the motivation and measurement in a for-profit is always the bottom line. The a**hole in the office makes a lot of money, but holds everyone else back with toxic behavior. Fire him, and everyone else steps up their game and increases earnings. Profit provides a reason to hire, fire and take action. Libraries, like most non-profits, deal more in intangibles and don’t look to the balance sheet for guidance. Michael Stephens has used the phrase “kindness audit” most publicly, and several other people have proposed the idea to me recently as well. I […]

Beginning this Fall semester, Michael Stephens and myself (Kyle Jones) began piloting an open source learning management system (LMS) built on WordPress Multi User (WPMU) and BuddyPress.  This post explains our history with WPMU, the move to BuddyPress, and some of Michael’s initial thoughts on the pilot. By TTW Contributor Kyle Jones http://thecorkboard.org @thecorkboard