Whether it comes to their love of Internet porn in public or their angst over the lack of popular ebook titles, librarians tend to have the same response: we can’t judge anything. With Internet porn in public, some librarians will actually resort to saying something like, “who’s to say if it’s porn?” I admit, [...]
Libraries
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Most Topular Stories
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Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged, Unless It’s Convenient
Annoyed Librarian22 Feb 2012 | 5:00 am -
Booze for Books
Annoyed Librarian13 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amBefore I start talking about libraries, I want to sing Happy Birthday to myself. The Annoyed Librarian just turned six, and for over half of those six years has been hosted by the Library Journal. This past weekend we had a huge LJ birthday party to celebrate. I barely had time [...] -
Free And Premium Video Hosting Platforms – Best Of
The Distant Librarian12 Feb 2012 | 12:28 pmLooking for somewhere to host your videos or screencasts besides YouTube? Hongkiat.com has a nice annotated list of 19 video hosting services for you to take a look at. -
Dear OverDrive: did you *actually* listen to us?
Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton17 Feb 2012 | 3:37 pmIn December, Ryan Claringbole and I wrote a post about his library’s (the Chesapeake Public Library’s) sub-standard selection catalog from OverDrive: “OverDrive Has Different eBook Catalogs for Different Libraries.” eBooks that I could see in my library’s OverDrive selection catalog to license were not available in his library’s selection catalog. I decided to follow up and browse through his library’s OverDrive site and found that those very same authors titles that his library couldn’t even license back in December were in fact now in their… -
You’re Invited! – This Is What a Librarian Looks Like
Librarian by Day13 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pmI’m so excited to announce this new project! As the ultimate compliment to Library Day in the Life we bring you This is What a Librarian Looks Like! What: a site to go beyond the bun and challenge old, outdated librarian stereotypes with photos of real librarians in their real lives doing real stuff Who: YOU! The site is up and running and ready for submissions. So find a picture that you think best represents you to the world and submit it! Please don’t submit photos of others and be tasteful! This is a fun, light-hearted project, please approach it in that spirit!
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David Lee King
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People are Human, Brands (and Organizations) not so much
21 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amI recently read this post, Why your nonprofit needs a personality and NOT a brand, on John Haydon’s blog. Here’s a snippet: “Most of the people you connect with on Facebook and Twitter are your friends. They’re people. They have personality. And I bet that you spend 95% of your time connecting with people – not companies. And even when you do connect with a company, your best experiences are defined by the people who work at that company (think Zappos).” Reading that made me think – how does my library work on giving our organization “personality?” How… -
Our 2011 Annual Report Video
17 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amWe like to make my library’s annual reports fun – or at least, something our customers just might watch/read. This year’s report is in a video format (embedded above), with supporting info as part of a blog post in our Press Room blog. Take a peek! Related PostsLibrary360 – a new Video Series for my LibraryContent Creation, Media Labs, and HackerspacesInternet Librarian 2011, Day 2: Keynote by Lee RainieBe a Forward-Moving ThinkerYour Boss is … you. -
Turn Your Blog Readers into Die-Hard Fans
16 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amGreat post by Jonathan Cooper over on the Thesis Statement blog – 7 Critical Ways to Turn Readers Into Die-Hard Fans. We’re library workers – we get that to succeed, we need to connect with our readers, and we know how to do that in the print world pretty well. How about connecting with your library blog readers? Here’s Jonathan’s 7 ideas: Respond to every comment. Comment on your readers blogs Find influential readers Send your readers a quick “thank you” email Reader Hall of Fame (or a “reader of the month” mention. Cool thought!)… -
Vote for Gina Millsap for ALA President
14 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amGina Millsap is my library’s Executive Director. She’s also running for ALA President! Interested in finding out more about Gina and what she’ll do as ALA president? Read about that here and here. You can also connect with her in these places: follow her blog follow her on Twitter follow her on Facebook connect with her on LinkedIn You can also show support for Gina and her ALA campaign by displaying this image on your website or blog and link to her website (I’m using it on my blog!): So – are you an ALA member? Voting is a little over a month away. Vote for… -
High Plains Library District Staff Day Presentations
11 Feb 2012 | 1:44 pmYesterday, I hung out with the staff of the High Plains Library District in Greeley, CO. They are a very dynamic, energetic bunch! I gave two presentations while there – here are the embeddable versions of them: and Video in the library View more presentations from David King. Enjoy! Related PostsLibrary360 – a new Video Series for my LibraryHey Milwaukee, You’re Doing it Wrong!Most Popular Posts and Videos of 2011Focus on Youtube – Summary and Why?Focus on Youtube – Use Annotations!
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Libraries and Transliteracy
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Transliteracy, Customer Services and the Future of Reference
6 Feb 2012 | 1:18 pmLast week I had the pleasure to speak to the LACONI Reference Services Section at the Harold Washington Library in Chicago. I wanted to share my presentation here. Filed under: Presentations, Transliteracy -
Digital Learning Day
1 Feb 2012 | 9:18 pmFebruary 1st was the first Digital Learning Day designed to encourage innovative use of tech in schools. Did your library participate today? The initiative, sponsored by the Alliance for Excellent Education, was designed to encourage exploration of how digital learning can provide more students with the opportunities to get the skills they need to succeed in life and showcase innovative teaching practices that make learning more personalized and engaging. While the project is aimed at school libraries, there certainly MANY possibilities for public libraries to have participated. Somehow I… -
“Multiple literacies”? Who really talks like that? (Survey)
27 Jan 2012 | 6:31 pmYou may recall that last February we highlighted a great article by Trudi Jacobson and Thomas Mackey introducing ‘metaliteracy’ as a framework for understanding information literacy. The number of alternative “literacies” has seemed to explode over the past few years, and the article does a great job of reining competing literacies in and organizing them under a more manageable conceptual framework. But, certain questions remain. In particular, how are terms like ‘metaliteracy, ‘transliteracy’, ‘information literacy’, and other… -
Skills that Transfer (ACRL/NY 2011)
5 Dec 2011 | 1:19 pmSkills That Transfer: Transliteracy and the Global Librarian (ACRL/NY 2011 Symposium) View more presentations from Lane Wilkinson This past week-end I had the honor of presenting to the Greater New York Metropolitan Chapter of the ACRL at their annual ACRL/NY Symposium. This year’s theme was “the global librarian” and, as you’ve probably guessed, I presented on transliteracy. My slides are posted below, but, unfortunately, at 80 megabytes, the original PowerPoint file was too large for the free version of SlideShare to handle. So, the slides are in PDF format… -
Call for Proposals: 3T’s Engaging Students with Transliteracy, Technology and Teaching
9 Nov 2011 | 8:19 amThe 3T’s Engaging Students with Transliteracy, Technology and Teaching has put out a call for proposals. Call for Proposals (deadline December 1, 2011) 3Ts 2012: Engaging Students with Teaching, Technology, and Transliteracy. Do you collaborate with colleagues, using various technologies that have created an effective learning module? Have you created a successful teaching collaboration with colleagues that incorporates technology and/or with emphasis on metaliteracy? Do you use a mode of metaliteracy or transliteracy that you have found to be effective? Are you using innovative…
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librarian.net
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toread: Book-ish Territory: A Manual of Alternative Library Tactics
22 Feb 2012 | 5:50 pmEvery so often it’s really useful for me to remember that while I’m here in the rural US helping people use email and scan photographs, there are some people not far away who are really finding the cool edges of the profession. I like to know what these people are up to, even as the paths we may take towards information liberation may be different. This text: Book-ish Territory: A Manual of Alternative Library Tactics by architect NIkki O’Loughlin is an exciting and interesting way of conceptualizing the idea of libraries as a public space not just for the public but by the… -
Happy Ten Year Anniversary Unshelved!
16 Feb 2012 | 12:02 pmA happy birthday to my friends over at Unshelved. I’m happy to have played whatever small part I had in their continued fame and awesomeness and I LOVE this jacket. -
let’s be honest about the ebook situation
9 Feb 2012 | 8:29 pmBeen doing a lot of reading and not enough writing the past few weeks, getting taxes sorted, preparing for SXSW and doing some SOPA follow-up. Sarah Houghton has a great post about ebooks, the current situation with some publishers opting out of providing ebooks to libraries and what she is doing about it at her library. I agree with her that if we want to solve the problem, we need to be honest about what we’ve been doing and what others have been doing, notably publishers that are making it difficult for us to provide their titles digitally. Libraries want to do this and we… -
“What do they expect us to do, go to the library?” a wrap-up of the SOPAstrike
19 Jan 2012 | 3:31 pmI was surprised by how much activity there was yesterday over SOPA/PIPA. If you’ve been following along you’ll know that SOPA/PIPA are the House and Senate versions of a bill that has been proposed in order to manage the fact that there are a lot of websites that basically help you get copyrighted content for free. I’ve spoken previously about my opposition to this legislation and I made my site “go dark” thanks to a WordPress plugin, to register my displeasure. On MetaFilter we made an interstitial clickthrough page so that everyone coming to the site would see… -
Getting serious about SOPA – what librarians need to do
9 Jan 2012 | 9:46 amOriginal image thanks to Christopher Dombres and Creative Commons licensing. I oppose SOPA unequivocally; it’s vague, it’s anti-free-speech, and it won’t solve the problem it’s designed to combat. One of the things that is tricky about SOPA–the legislation moving through Congress that threatens to enact stiff penalties for online piracy–is the number of things you need to understand to even understand what it does. I’m very good with computers and I had to spend sometime getting my head around it. I suspect my legislators may not even understand what…
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ResourceShelf
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National Archives Announces Website for Free 1940 Census Online Release
21 Feb 2012 | 5:44 pmFrom the National Archives : The National Archives, with its partner Archives.com, launched its new website www.1940census.archives.gov in preparation for its first-ever online U.S. census release, which will take place on April 2, 2012, at 9 a.m. (EST). The public is encouraged to bookmark the website now in order to more quickly [...] -
Getty Images Announces API Platform
21 Feb 2012 | 4:06 pmFrom the press release : Getty Images, Inc. , a leading creator and distributor of visual content and other media, today announced the release of Connect by Getty Images , an innovative new content distribution service that allows customers and business partners to integrate Getty Images’ core functionality and robust content and [...] -
Guide for Best Practices in Cloud Computing for State and Local Governments
19 Feb 2012 | 8:04 pmFrom beSpacific : TechAmerica Foundation formed a group of experts to develop guidance for helping state and local governments evaluate, adopt and implement cloud computing. This State and Local Government Cloud Commission (SLG-CC) initiative follows the Foundation’s earlier release of a blueprint for the U.S. federal government’s adoption of cloud computing...It addresses [...] -
Microsoft Launches Buzz Tracking Service
16 Feb 2012 | 9:15 amFrom CNET : New service from Microsoft taps into feeds from Facebook and Twitter to cull the most shared news from the Web, giving users a real-time snapshot of the national conversation. Trying to tap into the national conversation, Microsoft is launching a new service today, msnNOW, that algorithmically curates the [...] -
LexisNexis Creates Apps for iPad and iPhone
16 Feb 2012 | 8:27 amFrom the press release : LexisNexis UK (www.lexisnexis.co.uk) announced the release of its first U.K. legal applications. Combining the trusted content of LexisNexis and the ease of use and seamless design of mobile applications, LexisNexis is proud to be the first major content provider to create apps for its U.K. subscribers: Legal [...]
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Agnostic, Maybe
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The Illusion of Unity
21 Feb 2012 | 6:30 pmOver the weekend, I was hanging out with Pete Bromberg who was gracious enough to help me fine tune (read: completely untangle) my forthcoming presentation for CIL 2012. In chitchatting on various things, one of the topics that came up was the lack of unity in libraries and librarians in dealing with some of the challenges of the profession (with eBooks being the latest of these issues). Pete asked a very cogent question that has stuck with me: how much unity can there be in the librarian profession when the issues, communities, politics, and challenges are generally hyperlocal? As much as… -
Fight the Future
16 Feb 2012 | 8:38 pm“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.” That quote by the English historian Edward Gibbon was a favorite of my Grandfather. So much so that he printed it out, framed it, and hung it in the family room. It was only years later that we noticed a spelling error (responsibility… -
Circulating Ideas & Upcoming Speaking Engagements
14 Feb 2012 | 10:13 pmMy interview with the Circulating Ideas podcast came out today. I had a wicked good time talking with Steve during the interview and felt like I could have talked for another hour. It was a nice enjoyable interview/conversation and I’m thankful to Steve for asking me to participate. As you can see from the show notes, we hit a wide range of topics. I hope you take a listen to my interview as well as the other great people Steve has talked to in previous episodes. I’d also like to take a moment to say that I’ll be speaking at Computers in Libraries 2012 next month. I’m part of a group… -
Booze for Books (and Pearlclutching for Pessimists)
13 Feb 2012 | 1:21 pmIf you’re a fan of a good cause (or a person who is drawn to librarian controversy like a moth to a flame), then check out the YALSA’s “Booze for Books” fundraiser on April 12th. It’s raising money in support of the Books for Teens cause which (in their words) seek to “empower the nation’s at-risk teens to achieve more by providing them with free high quality, new, age-appropriate books.” Aside from the use of the word “empower”, it seems like a decent enough concept to support and one worthy of the backing of YALSA. The pearl clutching starts at the first word of this… -
The Friction Fiction
10 Feb 2012 | 6:27 pmIn this whole Penguin books quagmire, the aspect that has been furrowing my brow and aggravating my mind has been the use of the term, “friction”. This was from Molly Raphael’s report that I quoted in my blog post yesterday: A key issue that arose in each meeting is the degree to which “friction” may decline in the ebook lending transaction as compared to lending print books. From the publisher viewpoint, this friction provides some measure of security. Borrowing a print book from a library involves a nontrivial amount of personal work that often involves two trips—one to pick up…
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theanalogdivide
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Midwinter Bump: Preliminary Findings
31 Jan 2012 | 4:31 pmHow about that Midwinter Bump, eh? If you follow EarlyWord, you’ve probably seen the dramatic immediate effect the Caldecott, Newbery, and Printz awards have had on the Amazon rankings of their respective winners. One week out, we’ve got to ask ourselves the inevitable question: is it sustainable? So far, we’re seeing some qualified successes in a number of categories. Here’s the chart compiling the before-and-afters that I’ve received so far. Titles that have gained in Amazon ranking since the awards are noted in green, while those that have shown a… -
The Midwinter Bump
16 Jan 2012 | 4:37 pmAs the ebooks in libraries war rages on, we’ve been having a tough time putting our money where our mouths are. In my last post, I talked a bit about our’ struggle to prove their worth to a publishing industry that’s less than receptive to emotional appeals. As long as publishers see library loans as “lost sales,” it’s going to be incredibly difficult to convince the Simon & Schusters and Penguins of the world to sell us their eBooks on mutually beneficial terms. So much of what we do to fuel the engine of book discourse is intangible by nature. As a… -
It’s Not Just Overdrive.
9 Dec 2011 | 11:42 amSarah Houghton over at Librarian in Black dropped the latest library-world bombshell with her post “Overdrive Has Different eBook Catalogs For Different Libraries.” Her thorough research in the situation has uncovered an unmistakable conclusion: Libraries are being sold different bills of goods. The response on Twitter has fallen into the stock Twitter response: shock, outrage, threats of boycotts. But at the risk of sounding like an Overdrive apologist, I want to urge some restraint on the part of my colleagues. After all, they’re hardly the only party making these rules… -
Reflections on Video Bootcamp
3 Oct 2011 | 2:22 pmIt’s been two years since the launch of my library’s Digital Media Lab. What was once a storage room is now an active space for patrons to edit video, create music, design artwork, and archive their old media. We’ve settled into a good routine, using a mixture of experienced volunteers and Computer Lab staff to train and work alongside patrons. But now it’s time to go bigger. If our library is going to function as this kind of creative space, it’s going to take a much larger effort on the part of all staff. We need to lead by example, creating our own media and… -
A Seat at the (Digital Round)table
23 Mar 2011 | 9:10 pmAs #hcod continues to develop, it’s been refreshing to see additional voices come out of the woodwork. While there is still a great deal of concern about publishers and librarians taking an antagonistic role toward one another, other voices have emerged from the woodwork showing that both sides have a vested stake in talking to one another. I’ve worn myself out saying it over and over again, but it continues to bear repeating: libraries and publishers have a common interest: getting as many books in the hands of as many people as possible. We take different paths to get there, and…
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Librarian by Day
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You’re Invited! – This Is What a Librarian Looks Like
13 Feb 2012 | 3:03 pmI’m so excited to announce this new project! As the ultimate compliment to Library Day in the Life we bring you This is What a Librarian Looks Like! What: a site to go beyond the bun and challenge old, outdated librarian stereotypes with photos of real librarians in their real lives doing real stuff Who: YOU! The site is up and running and ready for submissions. So find a picture that you think best represents you to the world and submit it! Please don’t submit photos of others and be tasteful! This is a fun, light-hearted project, please approach it in that spirit! -
Mea Culpa on Penguin and Libraries and An Alternative to OverDrive
11 Feb 2012 | 8:07 amI feel I need to make a clarification on yesterday’s post title How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries - Penguin did NOT stop doing business with libraries. They stopped doing business with OverDrive. As Publisher’s Lunch Points out: As we have reported multiple times, but does not seem to have seeped out into general reports or public consciousness, multiple publishers have told us that Overdrive’s implementation of their Kindle library lending–in which library patrons are sent to a commercial, third-party… -
How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries
9 Feb 2012 | 9:48 pm[edited 2/11/2012] I feel I need to clarify that Penguin did not stop doing business with libraries, they stooped doing business with OverDrive, read more here. And how to get them to talk to the Publishers. I’ve had this post in my drafts for a long time. I originally planned to include it in my November post Penguin Pulls eBooks From Public Libraries Dropping it Down to 1 of the Big 6 Publishers Playing Nice With Libraries, but cut it at the last minute. Thanks to Sarah’s post about Penguin’s decision to end it’s contract with OverDrive. I’m digging it… -
Reflecting on Library Day in the Life Round 8 #libday8
8 Feb 2012 | 12:50 pmWow! Hard to believe when this all started I could read all the posts by all the bloggers. Now I couldn’t if I wanted to, never mind the tweets. Some numbers from Round 8 of the Library Day in the Life Project, Twitter has made it increasingly hard to get data from Tweets by closing access for services such as WhattheHashTag and TwapperKeeper, so I don’t have the numbers from Twitter like I have in the past. My best estimate is that there were over 1,000 people tweeting with the #libday8 hashtag. From the wiki: 350 people have registers 20 Countries including:… -
The First Rule of ALA Executive Board is You Don’t Talk About ALA Executive Board
31 Jan 2012 | 9:26 amOk not really. At least I don’t think so. Based on how many people I talked with at MidWinter who didn’t know about the election process or what Executive Board does it might be. Several people contacted me and asked me to elaborate on the Executive Board process and experience I mentioned in my MidWinter reflections post. It does seem odd to me that there isn’t more information out there about the process, especially from past candidates. No one said I couldn’t talk about it and since I have been very transparent over the years about most, if not all, of my…
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Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton
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Dear OverDrive: did you *actually* listen to us?
17 Feb 2012 | 3:37 pmIn December, Ryan Claringbole and I wrote a post about his library’s (the Chesapeake Public Library’s) sub-standard selection catalog from OverDrive: “OverDrive Has Different eBook Catalogs for Different Libraries.” eBooks that I could see in my library’s OverDrive selection catalog to license were not available in his library’s selection catalog. I decided to follow up and browse through his library’s OverDrive site and found that those very same authors titles that his library couldn’t even license back in December were in fact now in their… -
Notice to publishers: curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal
9 Feb 2012 | 7:43 pmWith yet another publisher announcing today that it’s dropping out of the library eBook market, I decided to put up a new sign in our library in a few different spots to raise public awareness. The sign lists which publishers won’t do eBook business with libraries and provides contact information for the publishers in question. I’ve posted about the issue on our library blog and pushed it out on our Twitter account, Facebook page, and Google+ page. And here’s a direct link to a downloadable copy of my sign on Google Docs. It’s not fancy, but feel free… -
Ms. Librarian Goes to Washington, Part 2
25 Jan 2012 | 8:57 amLast night I was honored and privileged to attend the official White House State of the Union Tweet-Up. To read more about how that happened, see Part 1. I am so thankful to @ks44, @macon44, and @brianforde for organizing the event on behalf of the President’s staff and including regular folks in the State of the Union event. It means a lot to those of us rather disillusioned with politics…gives me hope that things can modernize, change, and be just a tad more inclusive. 50 or so of us met up at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and were escorted to a small auditorium… -
Ms. Librarian Goes to Washington
24 Jan 2012 | 3:06 pmI am writing from Washington D.C. where I just toured the White House and met with the U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and tonight will be live-Tweeting the State of the Union from next door to the White House and then having a Q&A session with senior officials from the Obama Administration. You can follow the Tweets of our whole group all day at #whtweetup. Our Tweets about the State of the Union tonight will also be tagged with #sotu. A few days ago, I thought I’d be at my library today working on statistics. Big thanks to San Rafael‘s City Manager Nancy… -
SOPA and PROTECT IP are dangerous for the future of digital information
12 Jan 2012 | 5:17 pmThe SOPA and PROTECT IP bills scare the heck out of me. They have the potential to allow entertainment companies to decide what information is okay to share and what information is not, which sites are okay and which are not, and popular sites like Facebook and Twitter could get completely shut down for a single infringing link (or, what a single judge decides is an infringing link). Scare you? Want to know more? Watch this short video and get a brief education in the scary workings of SOPA and PROTECT IP. PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.
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The PLA Blog
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“Win A Trip to PLA 2012″ Contest Winners Announced
21 Feb 2012 | 2:46 pmTwo winners have been chosen in the ‘win a trip to PLA 2012’ contests that were recently sponsored by the Public Library Association (PLA). Winners will receive free registration to the PLA 2012 Conference, March 13-17 in Pennsylvania, four nights hotel, and up to $500 reimbursement for travel to and from the conference. The first, an essay contest aimed at current MLIS students, required entrants to submit a 150 word essay detailing why they would like to attend PLA 2012 and also showing their creativity and enthusiasm for the public library world. Essays were then evaluated by members… -
What is your library doing to help job seekers?
16 Feb 2012 | 2:17 pmJob Searching and Libraries During these difficult economic times, people searching for jobs are turning to libraries more than ever. What is your library doing to help job seekers? The co-editors of the Perspectives column in Public Libraries want to know! Please submit your essay (no more than 1500 words) for inclusion in the March/April Perspectives column no later than Friday, March 2nd to Nanci Milone Hill, co-editor at nhill. -
Participate in the PLDS Survey
15 Feb 2012 | 2:15 pmMake sure your library is counted! Participate in the PLDS Statistical Report survey. Visit http://pla.countingopinions.com/ to participate in the survey. You will need your library’s individual PLDS ID number and password. Completed surveys are due by March 30, 2012. Questions? Email: plasupport. -
PLA 2012 Virtual Poster Sessions
13 Feb 2012 | 3:28 pmPLA is seeking interested parties to submit virtual poster sessions as part of the upcoming PLA Virtual Conference. The topic of your poster session can be of your choosing, but must be related to public librarianship. Virtual posters can be submitted as Web pages, PowerPoint presentations, or other formats which can be “mounted” on the Web. Accepted “posters” will be mounted on the PLA Virtual Conference website prior to the event (the PLA Virtual Conference will be held on March 15 and March 16 during the PLA 2012 Conference in Philadelphia). Presenters are also welcome to… -
Upcoming PLA webinar will provide fun and affordable ideas to enhance the look and feel of your library
13 Feb 2012 | 10:53 amAt 1 p.m. CST on Feb. 23, the Public Library Association (PLA) will host a live, hour-long webinar, “Creating Dynamic Library Atmospheres: What We Can Learn from Theater, Retail, Museums, and the Container Store,” as part of PLA’s “Public Libraries at Work” monthly webinar series. Presenters Sally Decker Smith, library consultant, and Ted Swigon, museum design consultant, will share practical and effective ideas for making patron-engaging differences in the library. Participants will learn how to look at their libraries with a visitor’s eye and will walk away with affordable,…
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Swiss Army Librarian
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Librarians, What People Think We Do
22 Feb 2012 | 6:42 amA coworker sent this to me - I've been enjoying these on failblog, but I hadn't seen this one yet: Here are a few others: Game Designers/Programmers Science Students Customer Expectations Stay-At-Home Mom The Makers of These Comics More about these at KnowYourMeme.com. Thanks Sharon. -
Reference Question of the Week – 2/12/12
18 Feb 2012 | 10:00 amThis reference question happened in our Childrens Room one night, which makes it all the more humorous. An adult patron went to the Childrens Desk looking for information on the terracotta warriors of China, for a short college paper. The reason she was in the Childrens Room is that the entire sixth grade in my town does an ancient civilizations project, so there is a lot of material up there. However, the terracotta warriors are a popular topic with the kids, and as a consequence of an entire grade working on one project, there wasn't a single book on the shelf that would help this patron. -
CCD Scanner at the Circulation Desk
15 Feb 2012 | 1:20 pmAlmost exactly a year ago, I posted about scanning library cards on smartphones. While the FaceCash scanner I ordered worked, it wasn't designed to be used for library purposes, so didn't really fit at the circulation desk*. At the time, we decided that as our existing desk scanners stopped working, we'd replace them with CCD scanners, so we'd be able to accommodate patrons with their library cards on their smartphone. And I'm happy to say it finally happened - one of our scanners stopped working, and we replaced it with a CCD scanner. The model we chose is the one Jeff Pike from the Groton… -
Reference Question of the Week – 2/5/12
11 Feb 2012 | 11:57 amI freely admit to being entertained by immature things, but the sheer unexpectedness of this discovery will hopefully make everyone laugh. A few weeks ago, my library decided to revamp our DVD collection: the "fiction" DVDs were split into separate sections for Feature Films and for TV Series, and all the non-fiction DVDs were interfiled, by Dewey, with the non-fiction books. This has elicited mixed reactions from patrons, as they adjust to looking for documentaries and exercise videos in a new place. However, interfiling with the non-fiction books also sort of put me in charge of them - or… -
Freading Ebook Library from Library Ideas, LLC
8 Feb 2012 | 9:40 amLast week, a salesman from Library Ideas, LLC, came to demo their new ebook product, Freading. This is the same company that has the DRM-free music download product Freegal, so I was curious to hear their approach to ebooks (tl;dr version is their excellent FAQ). Ebooks are more popular than ever in my library, and our Overdrive ebook catalog (which we share with 36 other libraries in my consortium) just cannot keep up. Patrons are disappointed that everything they want to read isn't available for immediate download (either because the publishers won't deal with Overdrive or because other…
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ACRLog
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Digital Library, Virtual Place?
11 Feb 2012 | 9:05 amAll of our academic library services and resources have their origins in the physical world, but many of them can be and are replicated online fairly easily. Access to collections in multiple formats (text, image, audio, video), reference services, and library and information literacy instruction all have digital variants, and examples of each are out there in the academic library universe (though not all libraries may implement an online version of every physical service or resource that they offer). Of course any service or resource can be improved, but there are lots of well-understood and… -
Learning to Embrace the Uncomfortable
2 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amPlease welcome Veronica Wells to the ACRLog team. Veronica is the Access Services/Music Librarian at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. She is currently in her first professional position after earning an MLIS and Master of Arts in Music from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Veronica’s research interests include assessment of music information literacy instruction, incorporating emerging technologies into library instruction in a meaningful way, and best practices for educating faculty and students on Copyright Law and intellectual property. “Be comfortable… -
Game Up Your Unconference
30 Jan 2012 | 10:00 amLast weekend I was delighted to head down to the University of Maryland for THATCamp Games, an instance of the popular humanities and technology unconference devoted specifically to games in education. It’s been a while since I attended an unconference — my last one was LibCampNYC in 2009 — and THATCamp Games reminded me how much I enjoy the unconference format. Capping registration at about 100 people and eschewing formal presentations means lots of opportunities for discussion and conversation among the participants, and lots of opportunities for learning. At this… -
Convenience and its Discontents: Teaching Web-Scale Discovery in the Context of Google
27 Jan 2012 | 3:07 amACRLog welcomes a guest post from Pete Coco, formerly of Grand Valley State University, now Humanities Liaison at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. With the continued improvements being made to web-scale discovery tools like Proquest’s Summon and EBSCO’s Discovery Service, access to library resources is reaching a singularity of sorts: frictionless searching. Providing a unified interface through which patrons can access nearly all of your library’s collection has an obvious appeal on all sides. Users get the googley familiarity and convenience of a singular, wide-ranging… -
Collision Spaces
23 Jan 2012 | 9:01 pmPlease welcome Laura Braunstein to the ACRLog team. Laura is the English Language and Literature Librarian at Dartmouth College’s Baker-Berry Library. She has a doctorate in English from Northwestern University, where she taught writing and literature classes. She has worked as an index editor for the MLA International Bibliography, and serves as a consultant for the Schulz Library at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. Her research interests include collaborative learning, using archival materials in teaching, and the impact of the digital humanities on teaching and learning.
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The Distant Librarian
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10% of English book sales in Canada are now in digital format
16 Feb 2012 | 1:39 pmI can't find the press release on the National Reading Campaign website, but a press release crossed my inbox this AM that sounds pretty interesting. Here's the PDF for your reading pleasure. In a nutshell, the NRC now has data from a week in Jan 2011, and a week in Jan 2012, so they're able to give us some information about book sales AND book circulations from Public Libraries in Canada, including both hard and e-copy. Some of the interesting numbers: E-book sales comprised 10% of all books sold in English Canada. Public libraries reported that 3% of their circulation comprised digital… -
Libraries & the Post-PC era
12 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmJason Griffey's currently Down Under, and last week he gave a plenary address at VALA2012 entitled Libraries & the Post-PC era. The whole address is available online, and it's a good use of an hour of your time. When it started, I remembered a quote I'd heard a while back that if a keynote speaker said lots of things that were new to you, then you weren't reading enough, and for the most part I *had* heard what Jason was talking about. Where it got interesting to me was about halfway through when he started talking about gadgets, and some examples of just how connected our up-and-coming… -
Free And Premium Video Hosting Platforms – Best Of
12 Feb 2012 | 12:28 pmLooking for somewhere to host your videos or screencasts besides YouTube? Hongkiat.com has a nice annotated list of 19 video hosting services for you to take a look at. -
How Users Search the Library from a Single Search Box
9 Feb 2012 | 11:45 amA preprint from College & Research Libraries is well worth your read, even if you're not a webmaster: How Users Search the Library from a Single Search Box (from NCSU, Cory Lown, Tito Sierra, and Josh Boyer) AbstractAcademic libraries are turning increasingly to unified search solutions to simplify search and discovery of library resources. Unfortunately, very little research has been published on library user search behavior in single search box environments. This study examines how users search a large public university library using a prominent, single search box on the library… -
Call for nominations - Springhare Innovation in Academic Libraries Award
9 Feb 2012 | 11:30 amThe Academic Division of SLA is very proud to present for the second year an award for academic libraries, sponsored by Springshare, Inc., creator of LibGuides!This annual award recognizes a new program or service that demonstrates an innovative approach to academic librarianship. Please feel free to distribute to all innovative academic libraries you may know.AwardA certificate and a $500 US award, donated by Springshare, are presented during the Academic Library Division Business Meeting at the Special Libraries Association (SLA) Annual Conference. The winning library is also recognized…
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Information Tyrannosaur
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Expect Amazing Things
14 Feb 2012 | 9:23 amIn a recent OCLC podcast with Roy Tennant and R. David Lankes, Lankes says that lower expectations are going to doom libraries as we know them. He goes on to say that librarians have trained our communities to expect too little of us, and this leads to complacency in librarians. This also leads to a slow fade where people say they love libraries but fewer and fewer people use our services. I have come across this idea of low expectations in other places as well. Steven Bell, at the ACRL in Philadelphia, presented a paper entitled “Delivering a WOW User Experience: Do… -
New Guest Post On Library Tech Talk
14 Feb 2012 | 8:15 amAre you getting annoyed with Google Reader, or feeling overwhelmed when it regularly say “1000+ unread?” Check out my guest post over at Library Tech Talk about an alternative that is much less overwhelming and much more visually pleasing. “Google Reader is a great tool for organizing all the blogs, sites, and content you subscribe to, but it’s not always the most visually stunning. It’s a list of endless posts from various blogs, and it can be overwhelming, especially when you have 1000+ items unread. That’s where Flipboard comes in!” -
Awesome Library Day In The Life
2 Feb 2012 | 8:18 pmI decided last minute to do Library Day in the Life this time around. It all started this morning when I was at the gym. As I was working out I was listening to Steve Thomas’s most recent Circulating Ideas podcast featuring Bobbi Newman. I’ve really been enjoying these podcasts and liked listening to Bobbi talk about this grassroots project. It inspired me to share my day, especially since it was particularly awesome. After working out and showering I got into the office, answered some emails, and did some much needed organizing of my desk and reading area (as you can see from the… -
Love Your Thoughts
30 Jan 2012 | 5:49 amMy new favorite spot in Burlington is Maglianero. It’s an industrial, bike centered coffeeshop (and it has a small skatepark inside). I have been thinking about student feedback and user-centered design a lot recently and the feedback cards that this place had struck me as being well designed. On the cards they ask 5 simple questions: What’s working? What’s not working? What’s missing? What kind of events would you like to see in the cafe? If you could change one thing in this world… The design of the card is simple but it works really well, and I love the idea… -
2012 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award
29 Jan 2012 | 12:17 pmThis past week our library was awarded the 2012 ACRL Excellence in Academic Libraries Award in the College category. Our team is all really honored and excited here. We’re looking forward to the party that we’re going to throw in celebration of it, because after all there ain’t no party like a library party. I’m also really grateful to ACRL and YBP for this recognition. This is one of those moments that makes it all worth it. The process of writing the application involved significant effort, but was very valuable. First, it was exceedingly collaborative. Multiple…
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Pattern Recognition
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How I Presented at VALA2012
11 Feb 2012 | 6:56 pmI had a handful of people at VALA 2012 ask me not about the content of the talk (although I got a ton of those) but about how it was I put together and ran the presentation itself. My goal with the presentation was to make it look and run like no other presentation that people had seen…I don’t think I got 100% of what I wanted to achieve, but I got about 75% of the way there, and definitely got the idea across. I told a few people that what I wanted was for my presentation to look like something out of Harry Potter, something that was surprising and magical. So how did I do it? I… -
Libraries & the Post-PC Era
7 Feb 2012 | 4:58 pmMy talk from VALA2012 is now up and online! Please take a look, and let me know what you think. I’ll have the slides up separately, but the live show is a better way to get a feel for the presentation. -
StoryBundle
1 Feb 2012 | 12:52 pmVery interesting announcement today from Jason Chen, tech blogger of Lifehacker and formerly of Gizmodo. He’s getting out of the tech blogging business and launching an ebook startup, StoryBundle. From the StoryBundle site: You know those indie video game bundles where you pay what you want for a batch of quality titles? We’re like that, but for ebooks. We give you a handful of ebooks (about five or so) for a low price that you choose, all DRM-free, delivered to your ereader. We only choose quality independent authors so you can be sure what you’re buying is good. -
Bre Pettis, Libraries, and 3D Printing
22 Jan 2012 | 11:33 amAt CES 2012, I had a chance to talk with Bre Pettis, CEO of Makerbot Industries, about how libraries and 3D printing can be a really, really great match. Take a look at the video…I’ll be writing a LOT more about 3D printing in the near future, or you can go back and see some of the stuff I’ve already written. -
Improv Electronics Boogie Board – CES 2012
17 Jan 2012 | 8:56 amHere’s a product that intrigued me, but I can’t really nail down why. It’s not immediately apparent what sort of problem this solves. But it was interesting enough that I’d love to see if anyone out there sees a use for libraries. I’m going to see how it works for writing practice with my daughter, so there could be an instructional use for toddlers…
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ResearchBuzz
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Google, Vimeo, Big Data, Pinterest, More: Morning Buzz, February 19, 2012
19 Feb 2012 | 10:27 amDigital archive of Revolutionary War coverage? “In addition to the 400-page, full-color book, Todd Andrlik and Sourcebooks are launching a sensational multimedia package complete with website, digital archive of 300+ Revolutionary newspapers, interactive app, video, audio and educational lesson plans.” Nice! HijackThis has been released as open source. A new exhibit based on scrapbooks of African-American life by L.S. Alexander Gumby: “Now, examples from his life’s work are available online on the Unwritten History: Alexander Gumby’s African America website, which has… -
China, Google, Chemistry, Civil War, More: Morning Buzz, February 17, 2012
17 Feb 2012 | 4:56 amChina has published a national bribery blacklist. Whoopsie! Google.com was accidentally getting flagged as malware. I know someone who will be very interested in this new archive about Polynesian voyaging. “If he had known what a complex undertaking it would be, Nainoa Thompson says now, he might not have asked Honolulu Community College to create a digital library of documents related to the Polynesian Voyaging Society.” A new search engine oriented toward privacy: Stealth. Heh, applying Google PageRank to chemistry: “Aurora Clark, an associate professor of chemistry at… -
Google, Facebook, TextPipe, More: Evening Buzz, February 16, 2012
16 Feb 2012 | 6:14 pmWoo! A new Web site to rank privacy policies. “PrivacyChoice has analyzed more than a thousand of the most trafficked web sites to score them on a scale of 1 to 100 in their collection and use of personal data, as well as the collection and use practices of the third-party companies that they allow to track users on their sites.” Google Maps: trouble in France. TextPipe is now version 9.0. Sigh… love TextPipe. The 2010 Mexico Earthquake: a 3-D map study of before and after. The EPA has released a new tool for tracking greenhouse gases. Bowdoin’s student body talks… -
History, Archives, Google, Iowa, More: Morning Buzz, February 14, 2012
14 Feb 2012 | 5:44 amA new oral history project captures the stories of Haiti earthquake survivors. Hey! The UK Supreme Court has a Twitter account. Oo! Awesome Archives! What an awesome Tumblr! Remember the book The Long Tail? Now it’s a free online comic. Twitter is going to https by default. Good for them. Google Wallet, hacked again. WOW. Meanwhile, Google is laying fiber in Kansas City. The British Library is going to start archiving video game Web sites! So cool. So when I’m still playing Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom fifty years from now, I’ll have a place to find hints. The… -
Cars, Montana, The Pentagon, Twitter, More: Morning Buzz, February 9, 2012
9 Feb 2012 | 3:18 amMotor Trend has launched its own YouTube channel. “The Motor Trend Channel’s programs have been developed to create content from the unique opportunities and insights offered by SIM’s large portfolio of automotive media brands, from Motor Trend to Hot Rod, Motorcyclist, Lowrider, FourWheeler, Dirt Rider, Car Craft, Automobile, Import Tuner and more. The programs cover first rides and drives and tests of the latest two- and four-wheeled machinery, as well as automotive lifestyle and documentary shows.” Fipeo, a new video social network. The article describes it like this:…
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alatechsource.org
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Continuing the Conversation: Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level
22 Feb 2012 | 4:13 pmWe just wrapped up Buffy Hamilton’s workshop Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level. The readings, resources and slides for the event are listed below. Have further questions or comments? Whether you participated in the event or not, feel free to chime in via the comments area below! The Readings for Today’s Workshop: Embedded Librarian’ on Twitter Served as Information Concierge for Class http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/embedded-librarian-on-twitter-served-as-information-concierge-for-class/30000 Presentation: Embedded Librarians: Three Models to Promote the Library and… -
TOC 2012 Showcases Publishing-Related Startups
20 Feb 2012 | 2:00 pmLast week's O'Reilly Tools of Change (TOC) Conference hosted a publishing start-up showcase. Seeking a range of tools from 60 submissions, O'Reilly chose the following 11 companies to display at the showcase, including a library vendor. Amidst the variety was cluster of technology in self-publishing. As technology entrepreneurs zero in on publishing industry, writers look to be the big winners, no longer so dependent on the traditional path to getting published. Do you see tools your library could use? BiblioCrunch Network Marketplace for would-be self publishers plan and budget their… -
Kepler's 2020: Literary Entrepreneur Reinvents the Bookstore
16 Feb 2012 | 2:27 pmTuesday, at O'Reilly's Tools of Change Conference (TOC), Praveen Madan spoke about the Kepler 2020 project. The project's goal is reinvent the bookstore and build a future for Kepler's Book's, a Menlo Park bookstore with a 50-year history and deep roots in the Silicon Valley community. The project is sharing its story, strategy, and perhaps its software to create a new business model that other independent bookstores might follow. Staff and friends of public libraries may want to watch the project to inform their thinking about libraries. Two trends are important to shaping Madan's thinking… -
Live Streaming of Sessions from the O'Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing Conference
14 Feb 2012 | 8:10 amWatch live streaming video from oreillyconfs at livestream.com -
Live streaming from O'Reilly's TOC Conference, February 14 - 15
13 Feb 2012 | 12:22 pmO'Reilly Media is hosting the TOC Conference in New York City starting today and running through Wednesday. The conference brings together publishing and technology professionals to explore new strategies, platforms, and business models. ALA TechSource has selected a few presentations of interest to the library community to stream from our website. Follow the link for a description of the presentations and tune in tomorrow and Wednesday. All times are Eastern. Tuesday 9:05am - 9:20am Keynote by LeVar Burton LeVar Burton @levarburton (RRKidz) 10:45am - 11:30am What Should I Read? A Brief…
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Catalogablog
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Music Discovery Requirements
22 Feb 2012 | 9:35 amThe Music Library Association's Emerging Technologies and Services Committee seeks comments on the document Music Discovery Requirements.The Music Library Association's Emerging Technologies and Services Committee invites your comments on the second draft of our "Music Discovery Requirements" document. This paper and appendixes explore and detail the specialized needs of music materials for discovery interfaces of all kinds. An initial draft of this document was shared via MLA-L (a distribution list for music librarians and those interested in music librarianship) in fall 2011. We have now… -
Downloadable Version of FAST Now Available
16 Feb 2012 | 10:37 amImage via WikipediaOCLC has announced a downloadable version of FAST is now available.OCLC Research has made FAST (Faceted Application of Subject Terminology) available for bulk download, along with some minor improvements based on user feedback and routine updates. As with other FAST data, the bulk downloadable versions are available at no charge. FAST is an enumerative, faceted subject heading schema derived from the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). OCLC made FAST available as Linked Open Data in December 2011.The bulk downloadable versions of FAST are offered at no charge. Like… -
Oberlin LCRI Cumulation
14 Feb 2012 | 4:53 pmThe last edition of the Oberlin LCRI Cumulation has been published.This, I believe (and, after 30 years, fervently hope) is the final update to the Oberlin LCRI cumulation. Our original edition was published using a Sigma IX mainframe computer in 1982. In the late 1980's, our subscriptions peaked at about 1200. While you've undoubtedly moved on to adventures in RDA, electronic resource management, and discovery layer XML, should things ever spin out of control-- should you care reminisce about a "simpler" time-- you can find your faithful guide to each and every rule of bibliographic life,… -
Off Topic
13 Feb 2012 | 9:42 amA photo I took of the Vehicle Assembly Building is on the Travel and Leisure site. I took it at the STS-133 NASA Tweetup. -
Cataloging Paper
13 Feb 2012 | 9:32 amJames Weinheimer has posted his recent talk on his weblog. Is RDA the Only Way? An Alternative Option Through International CooperationThe ultimate goal of the Cooperative Cataloging Rules Wiki is a bit on the radical side. It does not declare that no changes are needed, but rather that the changes needed are much deeper and far more profound than the superficial changes suggested by RDA. In addition, these changes can come from the cataloging community as a whole, instead of being decided by a few libraries in the most important libraries and trickling down to everyone else. The entire…
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LJ RSS Feeds
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Fiction Reviews, November 1, 2011
16 Feb 2012 | 5:21 pmAusubel, Ramona. No One Is Here Except All of Us. Riverhead: Penguin Group (USA). 2011. c.336p. ISBN 9781594487941. $26.95. F In 1939 in an obscure Jewish village in Romania, a woman washes up on the shore of the river, the only survivor of a brutal ... -
Fiction Reviews, July 15, 2011
30 Nov 2011 | 5:20 pmBenson, Raymond. The Black Stiletto. Oceanview. Sept. 2011. c.280p. ISBN 9781608090204. $25.95. F Imagine waking up to discover that your Alzheimer’s-stricken mom had been an action figure. That’s the fate of Martin Talbot, who unearths a 1958 dia... -
Mystery Reviews, November 1, 2011
30 Nov 2011 | 5:20 pmIn this Article Debut of the Month Series Lineup Quotable Amateur detectives make a strong showing this season, venturing into all sorts of dark corners and evil dens. Of course, these sleuths are professionals in other areas, most ... -
Social Sciences Reviews, August 2011
30 Nov 2011 | 5:20 pmIn this Article Columbus and Beyond Reviewer of the Year Biography Adler, William M. The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon. Bloomsbury, dist. by Macmillan. Sept. 2011. c.448p. illus. bibliog. index.... -
SF & Fantasy Reviews, June 15, 2011
30 Nov 2011 | 5:20 pmAllston, Aaron. Star Wars: Fate of the Jedi; Conviction. Lucas/Del Rey. Jun. 2011. c.400p. ISBN 9780345509109. $27. SF The exiled Luke Skywalker, his Jedi son, Ben, and Sith apprentice Vestara Khai continue their precarious alliance as they track d...
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Library Journal Reviews» Prepub Alert
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A Farewell to Anthony Shadid
20 Feb 2012 | 9:37 amIn September 2011, one of my Picks was Anthony Shadid’s House of Stone, a memoir about his working to restore his grandfather’s estate in Lebanon. Shadid spent time there after being released from his six-day detention, with four other New York Times reporters, by forces loyal to Colonel Qaddafi. The book is currently set for a late March release. But, alas, the Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter, whose coverage of the Middle East was unparalleled (reputedly, he was the only reporter in Iraq who spoke Arabic), won’t be here to see his book’s publication. As readers will… -
Barbara’s Picks: August 2012, Pt. 4: Kitamura, Stedman, Grunwald, Marton
20 Feb 2012 | 8:51 amKitamura, Katie. Gone to the Forest. Free Pr: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 224p. ISBN 9781451656640. pap. $15. LITERARY Since his mother died, Tom and his father have dwelled together uneasily on their farm in an unnamed colonial country close to violence. Then a young woman named Carine enters their lives, forming a triangle and causing tensions to flare openly even as a volcanic eruption tips the country into revolution. A New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award finalist, Kitamura here follows up her highly regarded first novel, The Longshot, with something that sounds both smart and… -
Fiction Previews, August 2012, Pt. 4: Reichs and Rendell Rule
20 Feb 2012 | 8:36 amBarnes, Steven & Tananarive Due. Devil’s Wake. Atria: S. & S. Aug. 2012. 288p. ISBN 9781451617009. pap. $15. PARANORMAL Plague is sweeping the country, brought on by odd, uncontrollable biting attacks by the victims. The victims don’t die or join the realm of the undead, however; they’re simply front runners for an alien life force intent on taking over Earth. First in a new series from a husband-and-wife team who jointly boast a stack of awards and best sellers, this nicely cultic apocalyptic title has a built-in audience. Greanias, Thomas. Dominus Dei. Atria: S. & S. -
Nonfiction Previews, August 2012, Pt. 4: Nicholson Baker and the Caliph of Baghdad
20 Feb 2012 | 7:59 amBaker, Nicholson. The Way the World Works: Essays. S. & S. Aug. 2012. 304p. ISBN 9781416572473. $25. ESSAYS Having stirred us up with his latest novel, House of Holes, Baker offers a second essay collection that should prove just as thought-provoking, whimsical, and physically detailed as that novel and indeed all his work. These essays, which have appeared in publications like The New Yorker, range from political controversy and video games to paper mills, Wikipedia, the OED, and the invention of the gondola. Smart entertainment. Bobrick, Benson. The Caliph’s Splendor: Islam and the… -
Book Chatting with Karl Helicher
13 Feb 2012 | 9:33 amOn February 8, instead of slaving at my desk, I hopped a train for King of Prussia, PA (named not for royalty but for a bar), to participate in a Book Chat led by Upper Merion Township Library Director Karl Helicher—also a longtime friend and longtime LJ associate, whose Reviewer of the Year plaque hangs on his wall along with many other honors. In its tenth year, Book Chat is an author interview program broadcast over the township’s award-winning government access channel, UMGA-TV, and now live-streamed worldwide as well. No, the chat hasn’t been aired yet, but it was a thrill to be…
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Annoyed Librarian
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Judge Not, Lest Ye Be Judged, Unless It’s Convenient
22 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amWhether it comes to their love of Internet porn in public or their angst over the lack of popular ebook titles, librarians tend to have the same response: we can’t judge anything. With Internet porn in public, some librarians will actually resort to saying something like, “who’s to say if it’s porn?” I admit, [...] -
Be Grateful Publishers Don’t Like You
20 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amRemember a year ago when librarians were up in arms about HarperCollins’ decision to cap library borrowing for their ebooks at 26 copies? Boy, was there a lot of uproar. There were boycotts and petitions and some earnest librarians even came up with a “ebook user’s bill of rights,” perhaps forgetting [...] -
Ebooks and Libraries Don’t Mix
15 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amLibraries certainly are living in interesting times, and last week was no exception. We were also provided with more evidence supporting one of my hypotheses, which is that if you want to get something done, don’t involve the ALA. For example, top ALA representatives met with several major publishers a couple of weeks [...] -
Booze for Books
13 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amBefore I start talking about libraries, I want to sing Happy Birthday to myself. The Annoyed Librarian just turned six, and for over half of those six years has been hosted by the Library Journal. This past weekend we had a huge LJ birthday party to celebrate. I barely had time [...] -
Evergreen State Library of Porn
8 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amLibrary porn is all over the news again, this time in Washington state. This story from Seattle last week mocks the Seattle Public Library for allowing patrons to view hard core Internet pornography in full view of everyone. The opening is just the kind of publicity public libraries shouldn’t want: The Seattle Public [...]
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Library Journal Reviews» In the Bookroom
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APA Announces Audie Award Nominees
21 Feb 2012 | 7:46 amAllright, audiobook heads, listen up! The Audio Publishers Association yesterday announced the contenders for the 2012 Audie Awards. I was pleased to see a few titles that were listed on LJ’s Best Audio for last year, like Tina Fey’s Bossypants, which is nominated in several categories; The King’s Speech, and, my personal fav, Black Mask Stories Vol. 1: Doors in the Dark and Other Stories. There were a record-breaking 1250 nominees, and new this year are a separation of the SF and Fantasy categories and the Paranormal category, which was added as a special judges category last year, is… -
Geeky Friday: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
17 Feb 2012 | 7:14 amIn honor of President’s Day, let’s talk some Abe Lincoln. Honest Abe has been sucked into the current zombie/vampire/mash-up craze. Based on the novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, who previously brought us the New York Times best seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, this “real story of the 16th president” comes to the big screen June 22. As completely goofy as it sounds, the film’s trailer actually looks pretty badass (but that’s their job), and with the tag line “Are you a patriot or a vampire?” how could you not love it? See Abe the rail splitter… -
Book Buying Survey 2012: Book Circ Takes A Hit
14 Feb 2012 | 1:35 pmTight money and the rise of ebooks deflate the numbers With the economy still in the gutter, it’s hardly surprising that LJ’s 2012 Book Buying Survey of public libraries nationwide turned up a book budget decrease of more than two percent on average. Nor is it surprising that, as budgets are cut, some respondents have adapted their purchasing policies, particularly in the high-circ area of fiction. And with ebooks taking off, one might expect the materials budget breakdown to shift somewhat in their direction. But it is a shock to discover that book circulation, having soared over the… -
Author Q&A: Saladin Ahmed
10 Feb 2012 | 4:05 pmOn February 7, Saladin Ahmed’s highly anticipated Muslim-inspired fantasy debut landed on bookstore and library shelves. The first title in a projected trilogy set in a medieval Islamic world, Throne of the Crescent Moon introduces readers to Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, the last of the true ghul (ghoul) hunters, the dervish Raseed, and Zamia, a young shape-shifting desert tribeswoman, as they hunt the malevolent force responsible for a series of brutal supernatural murders. A Nebula and Campbell award finalist for his short fiction, Ahmed joins a group of exciting new writers like… -
Geeky Friday: The Avengers Extended Trailer, Spidey Reboot, and Comic Book Men
10 Feb 2012 | 7:23 amAnyone who watched the Giants trash the Pats (said the proud New Yorker) at last Sunday’s Super Bowl were treated to an abbreviated trailer for the upcoming The Avengers flik. A longer version now is on the web. Check it out! Does that look cool, or does that look cool? It’s clobberin’ time for any film that goes up against it at the box office for at least the first two weeks. Team Spidey The initial footage for The Amazing Spider-Man reboot that premiered awhile back looked crapola, but this updated trailer is killer. The actor is a little too much of a pretty boy for my tastes (good…
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In the Library with the Lead Pipe
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Snooki, Whale Sperm, and Google: The Unfortunate Extinction Of Librarians When They Are Needed Most
22 Feb 2012 | 5:00 amYork Restoration Corporation Library Closed “Google can bring you back 100,000 answers. A librarian can bring you back the right one.” — Neil Gaiman The night before I was scheduled to return to work after summer vacation I was lying in bed, staring at the ceiling trying to quiet my thoughts and reset my body into work mode. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful. My quest led me to the couch where I began to mindlessly flip through channels searching for something to bore me to sleep. I landed on a late night talk show where the infamous Snooki of The Jersey Shore fame happened to be… -
Q&A: Lead Pipe on Professional Development
8 Feb 2012 | 11:00 amBy forkergirl on Flickr This week, In the Library with Lead Pipe fields professional development and career questions from library school students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The questions they asked ranged from committee work to composing cover letters to conference attendance. Here is the complete list (so you can jump around if you like): What committees do you serve on that are most important/relevant to your professional development? Which activities do you feel have been the most beneficial for your professional development? What is the best way to represent… -
Consensus Decision-Making and its Possibilities in Libraries
25 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amIntroduction Since Occupy Wall Street finally started getting mainstream media coverage, the idea of consensus decision-making seems to have permeated our American psyche. For me, it was waking up to a story on NPR’s Morning Edition that I couldn’t shake. The story featured a discussion of the group meetings and decision-making process occurring in Zuccotti Park, where protesters deliberated their need for sleeping bags (Chace, 2011). Despite the somewhat flip tone of the piece, it stuck with me. The Occupy Librarianship trope hit the blogs a few weeks later, and we at Lead… -
Perspective and Doing Good Work
11 Jan 2012 | 5:00 amPaul Farmer speaks at IDEO by Global X / CC-BY This post is adapted from a speech I gave at Drexel University’s Beta Phi Mu initiation on December 6, 2011. The text of the original is available on Scribd, and a video of my speech, which includes a brief introduction by Helen Snowden is available on Vimeo. Greek Picnic is a reunion and gathering of the alumni and current members of the nine historically African-American fraternities and sororities. It was first celebrated in Philadelphia in 1974, where it has been celebrated every year since. For most of its history it was a well attended… -
Favorite Gift Books
28 Dec 2011 | 8:30 amImage courtesy of Flickr user quinn.anya With the holidays among us, email on a short hiatus, and a few new books on our bedside tables, several of us from the Lead Pipe would like to share some thoughts about what makes for a great gift book to give or to receive. Our favorite gifts books may not all be in Amazon’s Best Sellers list, but we offer our own short list with a healthy helping of caveats and opinions. What’s your favorite book to give or receive? Brett I have a theory of gift giving: 1. A gift should be something its recipient wants. It makes no difference whether they know…
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iLibrarian
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16 New Library Tech Stories You May Have Missed
22 Feb 2012 | 12:32 pmThe start of 2012 has been great for library technology stories. Here are 16 of them that you won’t want to miss. Please list any other recent library tech stories in the comments!! Social Media 5 Ways to Use Pinterest in Your Library 5 More Ways to Use Pinterest in Your Library How Facebook Can Help Market Your Library 10 Tips for Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Library NYPL: Making Collections Possible Through Collaboration Mobile 8 Essential Apps for Library Conferences e-Books So you want to start a Kindle lending program E-Books and Libraries: 25 Resources 61 Non-Librarian… -
Getting the Most out of an In-Person Professional Conference
21 Feb 2012 | 1:26 pmAustralian librarian Kathryn Greenhill at Librarians Matter writes about Getting the Most out of an In-Person Professional Conference. It’s just the beginning of conference season so this post is perfectly timed. Kathryn shares her ideas about how conferences can make their events more engaging. -
Ebooks on Fire: Controversies Surrounding Ebooks in Libraries
21 Feb 2012 | 9:03 amCharles Hamaker, Associate University Librarian for Collections and Technical Services at Atkins Library, University of North Carolina–Charlotte writes for Searcher Magazine about Ebooks on Fire: Controversies Surrounding Ebooks in Libraries. This is a thought-provoking article on the pressing issue of e-books in the library realm: “Ubiquitous web and print ads tell individuals and libraries to “buy” ebooks. But long-term preservation and retention rights to stable content are not the norm, because many resellers and vendors don’t possess those rights from the publisher or… -
37 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed
19 Feb 2012 | 5:28 pmMatt Petronzio at Mashable rounds up 37 New Digital Media Resources You May Have Missed. This excellent post recommends top stories in the categories of Editor’s Picks, Social Media, Tech & Mobile, and Business & Marketing. Here are just a few to get you started: Pinterest: Everything You Wanted to Know About 2012′s Hottest Startup 10 Social Media Tips for Bloggers 8 Job Search Tips From the Co-Founder of LinkedIn 4 Tips for Better Engagement on Facebook Hashtag Marketing: 9 Ways to Avert Disaster -
Is Pinterest the Next Game Changer: Infographic
17 Feb 2012 | 12:09 pmThe folks at Monetate have created an excellent infographic about Pinterest with some enlightening statistics such as the fact that Pinterest has been driving more traffic to retailers’ websites than Google!
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Library Stuff
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Sad Cuts: Multnomah County Libraries Plan to Close on Mondays Starting in July
22 Feb 2012 | 7:12 amBlogtown – “Proposed budget are due to the county chair’s office today and the library’s pitch lays out $6.5 million in cuts that, if approved, would go into effect this August. The library, along with the rest of the county, is facing a serious budget gap and is digging up money in various ways.” -
Mike Bloomberg: Libraries Aren’t Just About Books, They’re Places to Find Jobs!
22 Feb 2012 | 7:02 amVillage Voice – “Yes, books and reading and anything that involves words on actual paper are totally screwed. But that doesn’t mean New York City libraries aren’t valuable! That was kind of the message behind Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s announcement this morning that he is expanding the city’s efforts to help unemployed New Yorkers find jobs through partnerships with public libraries.” -
How New York Pay Phones Became Guerrilla Libraries
21 Feb 2012 | 1:59 pmThe Atlantic – “John Locke thinks people should read more. So in the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries.” -
Social Media for Research: Not Quite There
21 Feb 2012 | 12:30 pmPress Release – “ebrary®, a ProQuest business and leading provider of ebooks and research technology, today announced that the social media data of its 2011 Global Student E-book Survey is now publicly available…Among other key findings, the addendum revealed the following…35% students indicated they would “likely” to “very likely” pose a question to a librarian using social media, compared to 45% who would “likely” to “very likely” use social media to pose a question to faculty.” -
Official: Books burned in Afghanistan extremist
21 Feb 2012 | 9:28 amAP – ” A military official says Muslim holy books that were burned in a pile of garbage at a U.S. military base in Afghanistan had been removed from a library at a nearby detention center because they contained extremist messages or inscriptions. A military official with knowledge of the incident told The Associated Press on Tuesday that it appeared the Qurans and other Islamic readings were being used to fuel extremism, and that detainees apparently were leaving notes for one another inside them.”
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The 'M' Word - Marketing Libraries
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Time to Show Off Your Amazing Promotional Materials!
15 Feb 2012 | 3:00 am"ALA's Best of Show" Kathy and I have both been huge supporters of the PR Xchange. The past couple of years we've been there signing our books but even before that, I've always loved seeing the kind of promotional materials other libraries are creating. I just saw this call for entries- I strongly encourage you to submit your materials! You are taking the time to create great materials, national awards are a nice feather in your cap- great for your library director to share with boards and funders AND another opportunity for media coverage. I won a couple of years when I was at the NJ… -
Authors on Why Libraries Matter
12 Feb 2012 | 5:51 pmMay is Get Caught Reading Month in the U.S. Note that the website has a Libraries Matter section with more than dozen short videos where authors explain why libraries matter to them. Link to it and use the big-name promotion for all it's worth! I liked this video by Jessica Harper (except for the first line: "used to" sounds negative to me). The M Word Blog teaches your library and non-profit tips, tricks and trends of the marketing trade. -
Free Webinar: Building a LibraryAware Community through Outreach
6 Feb 2012 | 4:00 amDoes your library need to build stronger community connections, but the thought of where to start leaves you feeling overwhelmed? I'm moderating a webinar that could inspire you to kick-start the process. Its free! We have gathered together four amazing librarians - Molly Fogarty, Springfield City Library Director, MassachusettsGerry Meek, Calgary Public Library Chief Executive Officer, Alberta, Canada; and Tony Tallent, Director of Literacy and Learning and Susan Lyon, Learning Engagement Manager, Richland County Public Library, Columbia, South Carolina. Each of them have used… -
3 Feb 2012 | 4:39 am
3 Feb 2012 | 4:39 amKathy and I are talking about redesigning our blog in the next few months. I came across a new tool that looked very interesting and took it for a spin. Hubspot's free tool is called "Marketing Grader". It analyses three critical marketing areas of your websites. I popped in The' M' Word. Kathy and I did okay with a score of 74 out of 100.What I love about the grader is that it carries you through an easy process to improve your stats. So let's go through it... Top of the Funnel Creating, optimizing, and promoting content are keys to filling the top of your sales and… -
Life Changes
1 Feb 2012 | 4:15 amI was thinking how the events we plan to be “life changing” are so easily overtaken by the things we hadn’t planned for. My husband and I thought we were changing our lives last year when we bought our dream house. It was an 1830 beauty that had great bones but needed lots of TLC to bring it back to life. Halfway through the renovation process a friend emailed a job announcement from NoveList - they were looking for a person to lead the development of a new marketing product. The company was based 450 miles away but the job sounded very intriguing. If what I was reading was true, they…
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Lorcan Dempsey's Weblog
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Big data .. big trend
4 Feb 2012 | 2:31 pm[I spoke at the Lita Top Technology Trends at Dallas. I had a trend in reserve - big data - but did not use it. Here is something along the lines of what I might have said ...] Big Data is a big trend, but as with expressions for other newly forming areas, it may evoke different things for different people. A few years ago, academic libraries might have thought of scientific or biomedical data when they heard the expression 'big data'. In particular, the publication of The Fourth Paradigm: data-intensive scientific discovery helped crystallise awareness of developments in scientific practice. -
Linking not typing ... knowledge organization at the network level
1 Jan 2012 | 12:19 pm'Knowledge organization' seems a slightly quaint term now, but we don't have a better in general use. Take the catalogue. This has been a knowledge organization tool. When an item is added, the goal is that it is related to the network of knowledge that is represented in the catalogue. In theory, this is achieved through 'adjacency' and cross reference, notably with reference to authors, subjects and works. In practice this has worked variably well. In parallel with bibliographic data, the library community, notably national libraries, have developed 'authorities' for authors and subjects to… -
End of the digest ....
13 Oct 2011 | 8:47 pmFor almost as long as this blog has been going we have had an associated digest. This has gone out to over 800 people. The frequency of the digest has changed as the frequency of posting has gone down. We have decided that it is now time to turn off the digest. While the blog continues, it has become more a venue for occasional comment than a steady stream. Thank you to all those who have subscribed to the digest, and I hope you continue to read entries in the future. And, as a reminder, I am on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/LorcanD. -
Collections are library assets
31 Aug 2011 | 3:48 pmI quite like using the word 'assets' with reference to library collections. We tend to think of assets in positive terms, as things that are valuable. More of that later. I was interested to see Rick Anderson remark on the vocabulary used by my colleague Constance Malpas a while ago. This was in the context of a generous note about Constance's "Cloud-sourcing Research Collections: Managing Print in the Mass-digitized Library Environment." [pdf]. I confess that I giggle and shudder simultaneously at the thought of referring publicly to books in our collection as "inventory that is increasingly… -
The ILS, the digital library and the research library
17 Aug 2011 | 8:43 pmJob adverts are interesting for a variety of reasons. They give a sense of skills and attributes in demand. They say something about how the hiring institution wants to present itself. And they can indicate trends. I have been interested to see three research libraries look for senior digital library posts in recent months. Associate Director for Digital Library Programmes and Information Technologies, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford. Associate Vice President for Digital Programs and Technology Services, Columbia University Libraries/Information Services. Head of Digital Library,…
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Stephen's Lighthouse
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The Psychology of Color
21 Feb 2012 | 6:48 amThe Psychology of Color http://www.coolinfographics.com/blog/2012/1/31/the-psychology-of-color.html Colour is a key thing to consider in library spaces – virtual and physical. Courtesy of NowSourcing, Inc Stephen -
8 Essential Apps for Library Conferences
20 Feb 2012 | 5:51 amFrom Elyssa Kroski, iLibrarian: 8 Essential Apps for Library Conferences http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2012/8-essential-apps-for-library-conferences/ I find myself playing with new apps often at conferences and continue using some later. Her are Elyssa’s 8, check out her descriptions in her post. 1. Foursquare 2. unsocial 3. BeamMe pro 4. Facebook 5. Bump 6. Ustream Live Broadcaster 7. Shhmooze 8. Free Wifi Finder Stephen -
HBR: Innovating the Library Way
19 Feb 2012 | 6:44 amFrom HBR: Innovating the Library Way Grant McCracken — January 26, 2012 | 11:28 AM ET — The original value proposition of the library was not just free books but something more, something I learned as a seven-year-old at the Dunbar Public Library in Vancouver, B.C. The library looked like dumpy, public architecture but it was in fact a house of many mansions, a place of possibility, a portal. Space travel, time travel, identity travel, you name it, the library could do take you there. But other media can make the same… CONTINUE READING… -
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (video short)
18 Feb 2012 | 6:40 amThe Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (video short) http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/fantastic-flying-books-of-mr-morris.html It’s a nice 15 minutes. The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore from Moonbot Studios on Vimeo. Stephen -
Facebook and Bullying
17 Feb 2012 | 6:28 amAre Jerks The Future Of Facebook? EXCLUSIVE INFOGRAPHIC http://www.allfacebook.com/are-jerks-the-future-of-facebook-exclusive-infographic-2012-02?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+allfacebook+%28Facebook+Blog%29 Stephen
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Tame The Web
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Thanks Evansville Vandergurgh Public Library
21 Feb 2012 | 8:27 amThanks to everyone at the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library. I thoroughly enjoyed spending the morning with the staff at their Staff Development Day. The slides are here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/239835/HyperlinkedEvansville.pdf -
Battles & Wars
19 Feb 2012 | 1:28 pmWe librarians are in a war for survival but we keep getting caught up in battles. The battle with Overdrive, the battle with Harper Collins, Penguin, other publishers, the battle with database providers, the battle with Apple, Facebook, and everybody else trying to limit choices/privacy, etc. and we are losing them and losing them badly. It is time to remember the War. I don’t know about you, but I am fighting the War to make the Library vital to my community and make the community I serve the best in the world. I don’t care about eBooks, I am not sure I even care about books anymore… -
Question of the Moment – Nicest Thing
14 Feb 2012 | 6:02 pmQuestion of the Moment – Nicest Thing, a photo by Enokson on Flickr. Question of the Moment – Nicest Thing Question of the Moment: “What is the nicest thing anyone ever said to you?” Students and staff are enjoying answering our newest Question of the Moment posted on one of the library hallway windows. Within minutes of the question being displayed, we had some funny answers such as, “Someone said I had thick hair!” written by a teacher whose hair is very sparse, and some deeply felt answers such as, “You are a good son.” and “Someone said they wanted to help me.” -
Happy Valentine’s Day!
14 Feb 2012 | 3:09 pmThe Hyperlinked Library as Word Cloud – How will you encourage the heart of your library users? Happy Valentine’s Day (click to get the giant version) -
Create, Play, Read – Lending Devices to Teens
14 Feb 2012 | 2:52 pmWe can talk all day about whether or not it’s a good idea to lend out devices to patrons, but in the end action is better than any kind of talk. After listening to both sides of the lending devices story for a few weeks, I decided to say the heck with it and buy some Nooks and iPod Touches to lend out to my teen patrons. My approach to lending out these devices was simple: sure, anyone can go out there and buy these devices and put whatever they want on them, but what about all of the cool stuff they may overlook? There’s so many great apps and games out there that there’s no way…
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Informania
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Put Some Excitement into Citations!
3 Feb 2012 | 8:13 pmAs an English teacher, I struggled to teach my students to use MLA citations. Why? Students didn’t see the need for citing. They failed to understand its purpose and if students don’t comprehend the purpose of a task, they often don’t put forth their best efforts to accomplish it. In South Carolina, tenth graders take the High School Assessment Program (HSAP) test during their spring semester. As part of the ELA section, the research questions can include the proper form for MLA citations. So, although I prefer to use citation generators like BibMe and KnightCite,… -
Free Educational Posters
29 Jan 2012 | 2:41 pmPoster-Street offers an array of free posters that teachers and teacher librarians can download, print, and display. And with dwindling (or disappearing) budgets, free looks even better. The posters are divided into several categories: *office *home *teacher *kids *teens Visit the site to discover posters that will inspire both you and your students. (Screenshots of posters used here, but the site does provide embed codes. WordPress.com does not allow me to use them, however.) -
Three Quick and Easy Ways to Advocate for Your School Library Program
31 Dec 2011 | 8:02 pmHas advocacy for your program been moved to the back burner while you deal with other, more pressing issues? The following advocacy strategies can be easily and quickly replicated. Why not try one this week? 1. Ask students to recommend books they would like to have added to the library’s collection. This can be a simple Google Doc Form that you link to on your website (examples: The Unquiet Library , Blythewood Middle School , North Andover Public Schools , Rock Creek School Library) or it can be a sign on the Circulation Desk with slips of paper (example:Academy of… -
Purchaser on the Prowl
27 Dec 2011 | 4:52 pmTracking Book Reviews Your library may subscribe to several reviewing journals, but why limit yourself to print publications to discover new books that would fly off your shelves? As you can see from the image, I have a folder in my Google Reader devoted to YA Lit. I have to admit that the small number (39) of unread posts is unusual; the holiday break has given me time to go through my reader. I often leave this folder unread for days. Do I not like YA lit? Please. It composes approximately 90% of all of my fiction reading. So why am I not anxious to discover the jewels (some not… -
Very (P)interesting….
27 Nov 2011 | 7:56 pmHave you heard of Pinterest? (The better question might be, “How could you not have heard about Pinterest?”) “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.” ~http://pinterest.com/about/ This delightful tool provides a place to organize and save pictures you…
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Information Wants To Be Free
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Classic Blunder #2 – Assuming resistance is a bad thing
14 Feb 2012 | 11:29 amI remember when I was in library school, a lot of people talked about librarians who were resistant to change and would try to derail your exciting and innovative projects. Often, this discussion was couched in ageist “us” (young, innovative librarians) vs. “them” (old, set-in-their-ways librarians) terms, but even when it wasn’t, the assumption was there that someone bringing new ideas was right and the people resisting those ideas were wrong. After seven years of pushing change and encountering resistance to various projects in libraries, I can say with some… -
Classic blunder #1 – Let’s just try it and see what happens!
28 Jan 2012 | 11:06 amThere are a lot of popular assumptions people make in this profession that lead us to make classic blunders. These can be assumptions about the change process, assumptions about our colleagues, and assumptions about our patrons. We can go into developing a new service or technology with the best of intentions and fail spectacularly because of the blinders we put on due to these strongly-held assumptions. Sometimes things fail in libraries because they weren’t a good idea or fit, but sometimes the failure is caused by the approach taken to creating change. And those failures truly can be… -
The elusive dream of work-life balance
19 Dec 2011 | 10:22 amI have been wanting to write a post on work-life balance for a while, especially after spending a week at ACRL Assessment Immersion with a bunch of people who are deeply committed to their work and all define balance in their lives differently. Some of the people there are so active in the profession, so plugged-in, publish a ton, travel a ton, and get to meet lots of awesome librarians. Others are dedicated to work during their 40 hrs/wk there and are deeply focused on family and community. Most of us probably fall somewhere in between. And yet we are ALL amazing professionals. I’ve… -
Lifting the veil on my “system”
10 Dec 2011 | 11:23 pmI am a huge fan of research log and research process reflection assignments. Because research is a means to an end (the paper) and because people are often doing it in a rush, there is little reflection on process. What worked? What didn’t? What can I take from this experience for the next time I have to do something similar? Because this reflection is not usually written into the curriculum, students don’t learn enough from their mistakes or even the good things they did. Having a research log helps students become better researchers in the future and, most importantly, helps… -
“I need three peer reviewed articles” or the Freshman research paper
27 Oct 2011 | 12:42 pmFor the past six and a half years, I have been teaching Freshman about peer-review and how to find peer-reviewed articles through the library (or Google Scholar). I’ve developed all sorts of activities in different disciplines to get students thinking about audience, writing style, and the format of the articles they find. And every year, I become more and more convinced that having first-year students use peer-reviewed literature in their research is a terrible idea that takes the focus away from what is important for them to learn. I have also sat at the reference desk for six and a…
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The Unquiet Librarian
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ALA TechSource Presentation–Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level: Action Steps and Practices
22 Feb 2012 | 4:54 pmMany thanks to the awesome people who attended and participated in today’s webinar! I’ll have a follow-up post over at the ALA TechSource blog in a few days in which I’ll answer questions I didn’t get to fully address in chat. Please also check out my Scoop.it magazine on Embedded Librarianship. Filed under: My Conference Presentations, Participatory Librarianship and Learning, Webinars and Virtual Events Tagged: embedded librarians, embedded librarianship -
Transforming Information Literacy for Today’s K-12 Learners Through the Lenses of Transliteracy, Inquiry, and Participatory Learning
21 Feb 2012 | 3:06 pmMany thanks to today’s NEFLIN webinar attendees! Below is a link to download the PDF of today’s slides. Filed under: Participatory Librarianship and Learning, Transliteracy, Webinars and Virtual Events Tagged: information literacy, inquiry, learning, Transliteracy -
Sunday Morning Poetry Reading with Mary Oliver
19 Feb 2012 | 7:59 amThese clips were filmed at the poetry reading she gave in January 2011 at Emory University (which I unfortunately could not attend due to a migraine). Take a few minutes to enjoy these beautiful poems, including one of my personal favorites, “Wild Geese.” Filed under: Poetry Tagged: Mary Oliver, Poetry -
Share: Ken Robinson—Changing Education Paradigms
18 Feb 2012 | 6:29 pmThank you to my friend and colleague Andrea Stanfield for putting this most excellent video on my radar this evening via TED Talks | Best of the Web. In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools’ dwindling stake in the arts, and ADHD. An important, timely talk for parents and teachers. Filed under: Issues Tagged: education, Ken Robinson, RSA Animate, TED, video -
In Honor of Valentine’s Day: Love Thy Library
14 Feb 2012 | 1:03 pmIn the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we’ve been giving away some fun Gale Cengage Learning bling since we have access to three Gale databases we use heavily for research here on a regular basis at The Unquiet Library. Many thanks to Gale for the free goodies that are helping our students show their love for The Unquiet Library (and databases)! Simple yet fun vendor swag goes a long way in helping students remember our learning tools that we use on a regular basis. Filed under: Celebrations, Etc., Library Promotion Tagged: bling, databases, Fun, Gale, learning, promotion
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What I Learned Today...
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Receiving Orders in Koha 3.2
20 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amLast time we looked at placing an order in Koha 3.2, now it’s time to cover receiving an order. If you have an idea for a video, please just let me know and I’ll add it to my list of things to record. Related posts: Placing Orders in Koha 3.2 Fast Cataloging in Koha 3.2 Koha 3.2 OPAC Demo Video -
Bookmarks for February 15, 2012
15 Feb 2012 | 6:30 pmTeamViewer TeamViewer connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Digest powered by RSS Digest No related posts. -
Bookmarks for February 13, 2012
13 Feb 2012 | 6:30 pmHarvard Library Lab Harvard Library has established the Harvard Library Lab in order to create better services for students and faculty and to join with others in fashioning the information society of the future. By offering infrastructure and financial support for new enterprises, the Lab offers opportunities for individuals to innovate, cooperate across projects, and make original contributions to the way libraries work. Inscriptio An app to help manage the reservation of carrels and other reservable library resources. Digest powered by RSS Digest Related posts: Harvard Business School… -
Placing Orders in Koha 3.2
13 Feb 2012 | 9:00 amA few changes have been made to the Acquisitions module in Koha 3.2, so I thought it was time to give you a sneak peak of what it takes to place an order in this new release. If you have an idea for a video, please just let me know and I’ll add it to my list of things to record. Related posts: Disabling Holds in Koha Koha 3.2 OPAC Demo Video Short Koha OPAC Video -
Book Review: Zotero by Jason Puckett
12 Feb 2012 | 6:03 pmAges ago I got a copy of Zotero: a guide for librarians, researchers and educators by Jason Puckett with the intention of reading it and reviewing it. Soon after I was hit with medical problem after medical problem and even though I read it cover to cover in practically no time at all, the book has been left un-reviewed. So here we go! I am a huge Zotero fan, in fact I learned of Zotero from Jason Puckett’s amazing research guide on the topic. I thought I had learned all there was to know, until I read this book. I guess I should start (for those of you who don’t know) with an…
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INFOdocket
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Associated Press Working With Prime Focus to Digitize Its Video Archive, Over 70,000 Hours of Material
22 Feb 2012 | 5:27 pmFrom an Announcement: The Associated Press is working with Prime Focus Technologies (PFT) to digitize its unique video archive, making it available to a whole new audience across digital platforms. AP’s film and tape archive contains around 70,000 hours’ worth of footage, including more than 1.3 million global news and entertainment stories, in 16mm film [...] -
Florida: West Palm Beach Public Library Foundation Receives $5 Million Grant
22 Feb 2012 | 4:35 pmFrom The Palm Beach Post: The West Palm Beach library foundation is receiving a $5 million grant from The Mandel Foundation, a Cleveland-based foundation whose primary priority funding areas include leadership, management of nonprofits, higher education, Jewish education and continuity, and urban neighborhood renewal. The library will be renamed the Mandel Public Library of West [...] -
36 Attorneys General Question Google’s New Privacy Policy While Center For Digital Democracy Files Complaint With FTC
22 Feb 2012 | 3:23 pmTwo stories. 1. State AGs Voice Concern With Google’s Privacy Changes (via CNBC) Citing concerns that recent changes to Google’s privacy policy heighten the risk of identity theft and fraud, 36 Attorneys General have sent the company’s chief executive a letter outlining their issues with the new guidelines. Full Text of Letter Sent to Larry [...] -
American Heart Association Launches Peer-Reviewed and Open Access Journal
22 Feb 2012 | 2:34 pmFrom the American Heart Association: The American Heart Association has launched the online-only open-access Journal of the American Heart Association: Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Disease (JAHA)— packed with free peer-reviewed research on heart disease and stroke. “We envision JAHA as a forum for high quality original articles that cover the full range of cardiovascular science, including [...] -
New Research From BISG: Highlights from “Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education” Report
22 Feb 2012 | 2:14 pmThe full text report is fee-based but here are a few numbers from the news release. The first installment in Volume Two of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG)’s ongoing Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education survey shows that students are rebelling against the rising costs of textbooks in a variety of ways. Some [...]
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American Libraries Magazine - The magazine of the American Library Association
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“Book Traffickers” Meet Tucson Ban on Mexican-American Studies
22 Feb 2012 | 12:28 pmEducators in the Houston metro area are readying a “book trafficker” caravan that would travel March 12–18 from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Arizona, to donate books about the Mexican-American experience to four volunteer libraries. read more -
The Coolness Factor
22 Feb 2012 | 11:35 amBy Will Manley Hipness rarely ages gracefully Age among librarians used to be fairly easy to determine, but no longer in our era of nips, tucks, Botox, and hair coloring. You can’t just come out and ask someone his or her age. We all know that in today’s world such a question is not only impolite but possibly even discriminatory. Not featured read more -
Original state charters on display at Pitt
22 Feb 2012 | 11:01 amFeatured Editor's Pick: Not featured read more -
AL Direct, February 22, 2012
22 Feb 2012 | 11:00 am -
Newsmaker: Jamal Joseph
22 Feb 2012 | 10:55 amOne educator’s odyssey from the streets of Harlem to the halls of Columbia Not featured read more
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BIBLIOTHEKSPOLIZEI
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Vanity Depressing
22 Feb 2012 | 11:27 amThe Research Works Act (RWA) is a sad and shameful moment in American History. It will be viewed as dirty greed freaks slapping a price tag on moving history forward. It might be a necessary stage in human progress to shoot these fools out of cannon as traitors to our species, ratiocination, and goddamn common sense. How can any reasonable human being argue for keeping taxpayer-funded research from taxpayers? How can one in all seriousness defend it? Worse yet are the all the professors high in the ivory tower of scholasticism fearing that their grad students might hand over research to… -
Roller derby picking up speed on Long Island
16 Feb 2012 | 9:06 pmFor those looking for a fun night out with the family to a sporting event without breaking the bank should look no further than their own backyard, or rather, their own local skating rink. Roller derby, an extreme sport played on roller skates, has had booming popularity on Long Island in the past couple of years. Though roller derby has been around for a long time, it has gained professional sports status over the past decade. Many of the leagues throughout the world are members or apprentice members of Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (not to be confused with banked-track roller… -
Random House of Fire
14 Feb 2012 | 5:36 pmRandom House, Inc. is the only major publisher that gives libraries unrestricted access to purchase and loan ebooks. So click above and like their Facebook page. Show some love for those who do us well this Valentines Day . Technorati Tags: Random House Check It Out No Related Post -
Federal Research Public Access Act
12 Feb 2012 | 4:50 pmBeing positive requires steely eyes in the face of danger, one of the reasons I love Buffy The Vampire Slayer. In these times of corporate evilness, greed and political tomfoolery it is easy to be negative. There are some politicians working towards reasonable legislation and it is only fitting to publicly thank them for their efforts. Enter the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA). We the taxpayers of the United States of Awesome sauce give money to the government. And despite all the cynicism associated with giving money to the government, they actually do good things from time to… -
Bad Penguin and what to do about it.
10 Feb 2012 | 6:08 pmPenguin Publishing is being, shall we say, a jerk because Amazon is being a jerk. “Penguin joins publishers Simon & Schuster, MacMillan, and Hachette Book Group in not allowing e-book library lending. As e-books have increased in popularity, major publishers and libraries — who share the goal of getting books into readers’ hands — have found themselves bumping into a number of complicating factors that seem to put them at odds” “For Penguin, that issue was OverDrive’s relationship with Amazon. A 2011 arrangement made library lending possible on the Kindle.
