Engaging with library users on the web is no longer restricted to simply putting a static HTML file on a server and calling it a successful website. Yet without technical assistance and forethought, content management can be an actively complex and frustrating process. A content management system like WordPress lets you manage your website more … Continue reading WordPress as a Library CMS
However much one learns while studying for that MSLS degree, some skills are learned on the job—perhaps with the help of a guide like Be a Great Boss: One Year to Success by Catherine Hakala-Ausperk. Part of the ALA Guides for the Busy Librarian series, the book provides a month-by-month program, starting with “Attitude” and … Continue reading New from ALA
Every year, in late March and early April, I’m consumed with putting together Booklist’s annual Mystery Showcase issue. For more than a month, my mind is clogged with crime novels: reading them, writing about them, editing what others have written about them, etc. But when that issue finally sleeps its Big Sleep, I run as … Continue reading The Ancient World
There are fewer and fewer print dictionaries, and in fact the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, once considered a mainstay of the dictionary collection, seems to have altogether disappeared. But language lovers can take heart in the publication of a new and wonderful resource, the three-volume Green’s Dictionary of Slang, compiled by British … Continue reading Volumes of Vernacular
When we library staff members are struggling to respond to incoming phone calls, email, text/instant messages, tweets, Facebook and LinkedIn updates, and people stopping us in hallways to ask for help, it’s easy to forget that we, too, need learning resources and communities of support. Many of us who are responsible for organizing and providing … Continue reading Professional Growth through Learning Communities
While much has been written recently about using Facebook as a promotional tool for libraries and librarians, opinions vary widely on Facebook’s effectiveness in reaching library users. It’s indisputable, though, that Facebook can successfully promote advocacy on behalf of library-related issues, based on the creation of a Facebook Page that generated community awareness in western … Continue reading Fanbase to the Rescue: A Massachusetts Tale
The word atlas generally conjures up a road trip, and R. David Lankes traveled to “29 locations on three continents” to put together The Atlas of New Librarianship. But his atlas is more about data than maps—data collected from a variety of sources and providing the basis for “new librarianship,” by which he means “the … Continue reading The Road to New Librarianship
Suffering from the after-school network grinding-to-a-halt syndrome? Have a flat or declining budget with little state or local political support? Can’t figure out how to pay for a bandwidth upgrade to support patrons’ online activities such as searching for jobs and applying for e-government services? If you haven’t considered the e-rate program lately, now’s the … Continue reading Refresh Your View of E-rate
concerned about the future of my organization that I started reading much more widely and deeply. Many of the books were about brain research. Most focused on how and why we come to believe things, both as individuals and as communities. A couple of those books dug into how difficult it is for us to … Continue reading Keeping Our Message Simple
After Hurricane Katrina, some people wondered if New Orleans was worth rebuilding and said, “Sure the food is good, but can’t you just take the recipes and start all over in another city?” But to understand why generations of people have found dining in New Orleans such an enchanting experience, you really must understand the … Continue reading Magical Meals
The need to transmit and process information efficiently has given rise to technologies from talking drums to alphabets, from Charles Babbage’s difference engine to Vannevar Bush’s differential analyzer, from the telegraph to the internet. In The Information, James Gleick shows how many of the information-related concepts that we now take for granted evolved. This is … Continue reading A Compendium of Communication
What do young people want? When it comes to library space, they’re inclined to seek sophisticated yet comfortable areas. In a focus group that gave teens the opportunity to advise librarians and architects charged with designing the new Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Public Library, their wishes were simple: Skip the clashes of color that might be … Continue reading A Facility Forever Young
