Archive for August, 2005
More on the Ministry of Reshelving
August 31st, 2005I’m a bit behind in my professional development reading, so I missed this LISNews piece last week which linked to an article about the Ministry of Reshelving. I was contacted by the Book Standard about the ‘Ministry’ and was quoted in the article. Neat.
Also, from the article, I became aware of a new(ish) [...]
Office READ posters
August 30th, 2005The BookFinder Journal breaks down what ALA READ posters they used to have hanging in their office. A bit of remorse:
“We changed offices a few years ago, leaving our warehouse space for smaller, but marginally tonier, digs in the heart of downtown. We still have reasonably high ceilings, but we ditched the READ posters [...]
Library Support Staff Jobs
August 30th, 2005Here’s and interesting (and very useful) blog.
Library Support Staff Jobs – “This is a list of job openings for library support staff, library assistants, library technicians, and library clerks. Updated whenever I find a new listing.”
I’d love to see this list categorized by state as well.
When Lectures Are Not Enough
August 29th, 2005When a professor at San Diego State University saw that her lectures weren’t enough to get her students engaged, she turned to new adaptive technologies. From the article:
“Before the workshop, Amtower had used Blackboard and her own Web pages; after the workshop, she incorporated blogs, wikis, Flickr, RSS feeds, and digital storytelling into her [...]
Flickring Conan the Librarian
August 29th, 2005Someone is having some Flickr fun.
FeedMail
August 28th, 2005When I first started using RSS, I was so enthralled that I thought that it would replace e-mail. I still think something will replace e-mail as the most popular electronic communications method, but whether that something is RSS will be determined.
In my visions of RSS replacing e-mail, I thought the following:
1) I will be [...]
Blogging Librarians in the News
August 27th, 2005I love clicking on an article on blogs that Aggie sends my way and seeing a picture of someone I know. This time, in an article on blogging as the people’s media outlet, Darlene Fichter takes the stage. Suweeeet!
BTW, I just noticed that Darlene is running a “Blog on the Side” on the [...]
Watch That Page?
August 25th, 2005A few readers have pointed out to me that Watch That Page has been offline for a few weeks. I have noticed this myself and was wondering what happened. To take a phrase (kinda) from Forrest Gump, “Momma always says, Free is as free does.” Does anyone have any news on WTP?
An [...]
Libraries for Dummies
August 24th, 2005If you are ever in the mood for a good laugh that fits into the context of your job, go over to Libraries for Dummies. From the first post:
“I’ve worked in a library for over thirteen years. When I say that I’ve pretty much seen it all, it’s not much of an exaggeration. From [...]
Shiny Happy Librarian
August 24th, 2005Have you noticed my 1991 REM theme this week (2 “Shiny Happy” mentions in so many days)? There’s a reason for my happiness: Education/Library blogs that are focused solely on syndication.
I mentioned RSS4Lib alot this month and Thomson Peterson’s–Syndication for Higher Ed once. Both are highly worthy of subscibing to if you [...]
SUNY Bloggin’
August 24th, 2005No, I didn’t spell SUNY wrong (it’s not supposed to be SUNNY – SUNY is the State University of New York – from which I graduated – Stony Brook) so no need to correct my spelling.
It looks like SUNY Oswego (where my brother graduated – we’re a SUNY family) has caught the blog buzz and [...]
New Titles in UIUC library Via RSS
August 24th, 2005Tarising (I can’t locate the authors real name) noticed that PubSub was grabbing abstracts of new books on linguistics that were added to the UIUC library collection. So, he did some poking around and saw that users can create customized feeds for new books. Here’s one I set up (you can view your [...]
Library Blogs and Google PageRank
August 23rd, 2005Michael Lorenzen takes the blogs from Walt’s list and lists their Google Pagerank. He concludes:
“As you can see, nine blogs on Walt’s list had high Google PR scores of 7 or 8. By contrast, only one blog had a relatively low PR of 4. The largest amount of library blogs (34 of them) on [...]
The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics
August 23rd, 2005I think I may have just died and gone to to heaven. David Dodd, who blogs at Librarian in Tie-Dye (subscribed!) has written a book titled, “The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics”. I’ve already purchased a copy (coming out in October) and will hopefully find him at a conference somewhere to sign [...]
Shiny Happy Parents
August 23rd, 2005Baby Carver and Baby Schwartz were born this week.
Congrats to both. Maybe we should start listing births of future librarians somewhere? How about a Flickr set for librarian offspring?
Edmonton Public Library goes RSS Happy
August 23rd, 2005My manual Web4Lib filter (I’m telling you, there is absolutely no reason for me to subscribe to that e-list now – none, zilch, zero, nada) points to the rockin’ Edmonton Public Library’s subject guides, which are all RSSified. Into the presentations it goes.
I also noticed that they have feeds for Job Postings and Programs [...]
Access Controls Help
August 22nd, 2005A colleague has asked me to post the following questions.
1) Do you use access controls to limit access to your digital collections?
2) What types of software are you using to control access to copyrighted works?
3) To what types of works is access controlled? E-reserves? Licensed content? Unpublished works? Preserved works?
4) [...]
More on Library Marketing
August 22nd, 2005Jill Stover has more to say about the importance of library marketing:
“Libraries are not immune to marketing forces. Ideas about product life cycles and consumer product classifications don’t stop applying once you hit the library’s doors.”
Listen to her folks (read her blog!), she knows what she’s talking about. Oh, and Jill will be one [...]
Syndication for Higher Ed
August 22nd, 2005Another slick blog from Thomson Peterson’s:
“This blog was launched in 2005 as a service to the those in the Higher Ed community who are interested in online content syndication. In particular, it will focus on ways to market and promote colleges and universities using syndication technologies.”
They are also working on a College and University Feed [...]
Why Bother?
August 21st, 2005We’ve heard it time and again. Why should librarians care about blogs, RSS, podcasts, wikis, Flickr, Typepad, whatever? An article from ClickZ helps out with the answer:
“Though the temptation may be to jump onto the latest bandwagon, the fact remains most users spend their time on the Web doing pretty mundane stuff. [...]
Don’t Know What You Got ‘Till It’s Gone
August 21st, 2005A few PubSubers were busy moving servers this weekend and the service was slow for a while. I must say, my aggie was not spitting out exciting content at all. So, the moral of this little story (the “takeaway”) is that PubSub makes your aggregator more exciting. I have 18 subscriptions running [...]
Weekly Day Trip
August 21st, 2005Yesterday, we took Hallie to Old Westbury Gardens to see the Phipps mansion and beautiful flower gardens. Photoset on Flickr.
Colgate University RSS Feed
August 20th, 2005Colgate joins the party with an RSS Feed for their news headlines.
flickr Tag Fight
August 19th, 2005‘Librarian’ beats ‘Lawyer’ in a Flickr Tag Fight
SLJ on Library Weblogs
August 19th, 2005August was a popular month to discuss library weblogs. Today, Will Richardson linked to an article in School Library Journal on the topic. Alice Yucht has some good advice:
““When you begin, tread gently,” advises Alice Yucht, a veteran educator and blogger who teaches online courses in librarianship to Rutgers University graduate students in [...]
Thomas is Getting an Upgrade
August 19th, 2005I tried to ignore David Utter’s ignorance of the library profession when I read the article and attempted to focus on and enjoy the news that Thomas is getting a (long overdue) upgrade. Lack of knowledge is, however, not easy to dismiss considering we’re in the information business. Utter writes:
“Like true librarians, [...]
Local News and Library Bloggin’
August 17th, 2005I’m hooked on local news these days (could this be my “next thing”?). Two days in a row, my aggregator (”aggie” as I lovingly call her) sent me two articles about librarians and weblogs:
1) From the McAlester News Capital & Democrat in Oklahoma comes a brief article about a weblog class that a computer [...]
Laughing Librarian Action Figure Ideas
August 17th, 2005Brian Smith has some ideas for a male librarian action figure. Here’s an idea:
Brian Smith – “I’m going to blog this year. No I’m not. Yes I am. No I’m not.” (action figure’s head spins)
(Thanks Anna)
ASIST Blog
August 17th, 2005ASIST will be blogging their annual conference. Yay. Way to go Beatrice! OK, whose going to be next? (link via Peter Scott’s Library Blog)
Blog From MS Word
August 16th, 2005I’m going to have to download the newest tool from Blogger tonight. So, I can compose my longer blog posts in Word, run a spell-check, and post directly. Suweeeeet! (link via Blogger Buzz)


