Funds shift, coworkers leave, a new director arrives. Such unexpected job changes may require you to learn a new skill—fast. In my experience, I feel as though I can learn nearly anything from books. Even if I need to take a class, watch a webinar, or participate in a hands-on demonstration, reading about a topic … Continue reading Continuous Learning
In its Most Innovative Companies 2012 report that analyzes survey data from more than 1,500 senior executives, the Boston Consulting Group noted: “Innovation is rapidly moving up the CEO agenda across regions and industries. Seventy-six percent of respondents ranked innovation as a ‘top-three’ strategic priority—the highest level in our survey’s history.” Innovate on Purpose blogger … Continue reading Not Just Angels on a Pin
Participants at the conference got a chance to tour the lab and other innovative tech-centric initiatives at the library during the two-day event. The Maker Lab has a little over a month left at Harold Washington, before the temporary program ends on December 31. The Maker Lab is the first experiment with CPL’s Innovation Lab, … Continue reading Brave New Library
Innovative Interfaces Inc. (III) has been a strong player in the integrated library system (ILS) field for many years, but its new take on ebook management could thrive in the new field of dis-integrated services. As more big library systems turn to external discovery platforms and other extended digital services, the future of the all-in-one … Continue reading The Fortuitous Dis-integration of an Integrated Library System
It was almost 10 years ago that ALA members started to discuss Google’s plan to digitize the collection of several research libraries to create a book search database. I recall a lot of grumbling about the very idea: Surely this was a very risky thing for the research libraries to agree to, and might it … Continue reading Google Book Search: We’ve Come a Long Way
The anger, frustration, and worry that the situation could turn out very badly were evident in the president’s voice. It was September 1962 and pro-segregation forces were readying for a violent clash with US troops over a court order entitling James Meredith, an African-American student, to enroll at the all-white University of Mississippi. Days before … Continue reading Digitizing Camelot
Remember all those library jobs that were going to open up once the boomers retired? Pundits prophesied librarians being in demand everywhere, with libraries scrambling to fill empty positions. There weren’t going to be enough librarians to go around! Things haven’t turned out quite as we expected, and now the rhetoric has shifted to the … Continue reading Start-Up Librarian
In every town, there are probably community members who have written novels, poetry, and other works whose writing has never seen the light of day. There are probably others who have the creative potential to write the great American novel, but are daunted by the idea of getting it published. Those works, both written and … Continue reading Community Creativity
David “Skip” Prichard became president and CEO of OCLC on July 1, succeeding Jay Jordan, who retired after 15 years at the helm of the nonprofit library consortium. He had most recently served as president and CEO of Ingram Content Group in Nashville, and before that was president and CEO of ProQuest Information and Learning. … Continue reading An Interview with Skip Prichard
By now, we’ve gotten used to the idea that many children’s books identify a Reading Level (RL) somewhere on the jacket or back cover. This number is handy for parents and children’s librarians trying to find books of an appropriate comprehension level for young readers. But where did the number come from? It was generated … Continue reading Guide to Reading Levels
People’s behavior on smartphones, however, increasingly challenged this assumption. Web designer and developer Luke Wroblewski classified mobile usage into the following four interaction types on page 50 of his book Mobile First (A Book Apart, 2011): Lookup/Find (urgent info, local): I need an answer to something now (frequently related to my current location in the … Continue reading Don’t Dumb Down
That’s the question a lot of people were asking even before Bexar County, Texas, opened its all-digital library, dubbed BiblioTech, on September 14. The bookless facility serves an unincorporated area outside of San Antonio, offering more than 10,000 titles available for digital download and 100 e-readers on loan, as well as computer stations, digital literacy … Continue reading Paperless Libraries
