When you think of Twitter, you might think of Oprah. You might think of Ashton Kutcher. But do you think of Roy Tennant, Jessamyn West, and ALA’s Association of College and Research Libraries? While social networks are useful for keeping up with celebrities, friends, and family, they’re also valuable professional networking tools that can connect … Continue reading Dipping into the Stream
There are few pleasures in life as rewarding as being in the presence of a great storyteller—an opportunity I get every year when the University of Washington SLIS hosts the Spencer Shaw Lecture, in honor of our beloved emeritus faculty member. This year’s treat was Patricia McKissack, whose talk was titled “On the Front Porch … Continue reading The Biggest Front Porch
If we think back, we can imagine a time before the book and, once books became inexpensive and widespread, how revolutionary and democratizing the book was as a tool for sharing information. It must have been incredible to think that you could have so much text in such a compact form, and so many of … Continue reading Gadgets and Gizmos
Yesterday afternoon I met up with some of the AL editors for a quick overview of a few of my favorite browser-based (i.e., cloud or SaaS) photo editing programs. Our idea is that to keep up with trends in online publishing, we all need basic photo-editing skills and anytime access to functional photo-editing software. So we demoed … Continue reading Publishers and Libraries Get SaaS-y
"There is no frigate like a book,” Emily Dickinson wrote long ago, “to take us lands away.” Only the foolhardy would quibble with her eloquent, 19th-century paean to the written word, and librarians aplenty support reading as a vehicle for escape and learning alike. Yet in the current century, more and more librarians themselves opt … Continue reading The Pixelated Campus
Having a professional online portfolio is a great way to show off your technology skills and provide additional information to potential employers that doesn’t fit into your résumé and cover letter. However, this alone won’t give them a strong sense of who you are, nor will it help you develop a professional network. Adding a … Continue reading Finding Your Voice
Cornell University Library has introduced a voluntary, collaborative business model to support arXiv, its free online repository of nearly 600,000 research articles in physics, mathematics, statistics, computer science, and related disciplines. It will remain free to submit or download articles, but Cornell is now asking the 200 institutions that download most from the repository to … Continue reading Cornell Seeks Sustainable arXiv Support
Cosponsored by American Libraries, SirsiDynix Insititute, and ALA's Library and Information Technology Association, the TechTrends: Midwinter 2010 webinar produced by ALA Tech Source attracted about 850 participants. "We had some great presentations and some lively discussion," says Tech Source editor Dan Freeman. The webinar tackled topics related to the new wares being touted in the exhibit hall during ALA's … Continue reading TechSource Webinar Available Online
Library catalogs have evolved over time as technology has changed. The last 150 years have seen a progression from book catalogs to cards, and eventually, to online catalogs. Each of these changes has provided new capabilities that can be adopted for improved user services. The next step in this evolution is on the horizon, and … Continue reading Cataloging Horizons
Apple's announcement of the iPad tablet computer drew ample attention from the technology world. As Martin Peers wrote in the Wall Street Journal December 30: "Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments written on it." But will that buzz translate into applications for libraries? At the January 27 introduction, … Continue reading Apple’s iPad Introduction Met with Excitement, Derision
New social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter enable librarians to converse, communicate, and collaborate with patrons as never before, because they are increasingly a part of people’s everyday lives. A brochure that describes your library with a few pictures is great, but a video tour that people can watch on your website or … Continue reading 10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week
I recently started teaching another great group of future librarians at San José State University about Web 2.0 technologies. I’m always in awe of their enthusiasm for the subject matter and for their chosen field. This year, I also feel a little sad, knowing that some of them will likely struggle to find work after … Continue reading Your Virtual Brand
