Archive for June 2007

Some people say fun does not actually exist. Others bare their teeth and hoot. Nevertheless, the Fun Open Secret Library by Darren Chase is a podcast of fiction and poetry about libraries–not everybody’s idea of a pleasant way to spend time, but it satisfies me. Librarians are a wandering tribe, ranging the best-known and remotest places, moving from job to job. Where are they from? Where are they going? Who are their friends? Do they have fun? The answer to all these questions is Yes.

“Which way shall I fly?” or “Black wind sweeps through the stacks, touching every black book and bound black periodical. Library shadows rock me to sleep.”

Whatever….! You really should subscribe to Fun Open Secret Library and have some fun!

Question: How do I start researching?
Answer: Treat research as a lifestyle not an assignment.

Here is a great approach to lifelong learning …. built around the following key points at Question: How do I Start Researching:

Read widely and often. Yes, this means print as well as online resources.
Read for background. So you think you know everything? Prove it.
Journal. Write short observations about life around you.
Collaborate: talk with your friends and colleagues about subjects.
Schedule a consultation with your reference librarians.
Consider the papers you do in classes as training for your lifelong habit.

Whether you are conducting research along scientific, literary, or historical principles, these steps, known as the Invisible College, will help develop passions and interest.

[From: Reference Points]

Library ELF, is a free third-party service to receive email notices for due, coming due, holds, and overdue materials. You can also consolidate all family library cards on one handy email notice. Have your Library barcode and pin number ready and sign up today!

Check the Library ELF website to see if your country or region is available for this service.

[From: Yarra Plenty Library Blog and Lansing Public Library Tools and Resources]

Social networking is about “connecting people to people to people” or in other words, information power to the people long past the era of email! Throw social bookmarking into the mix, and we have ‘human search engineering’. All beautifully Web 2.0.

For the well presented version of Library 2.0 you can’t go past the power of Slideshare. Web 2.0 Kid Style: Social Software and Public Libraries is an excellent presentation from Andrea Mercado. From across the world, check out Going Social: the Librarian’s Bag of Tricks from Bonaria Biancu.

There are many more fantastic presentations in My Favourite Slideshows which I have collected at my Slideshare place at  Heyjudeonline.

There is now a Facebook Application for Meebo, the “in-browser instant messaging program, like AIM Express, which supports multiple IM services, including Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, ICQ, and Jabber.”

[From: Friends:Social Networking Sites for Engaged Library Services]

Install your Meebo Application for Facebook.

I am ‘Judy O’Connell’ in the Australian network at Facebook. Join me and share with me your news, innovations, and developments for global dissemination.

Technorati Tags: Networks, API, IM, Social Collaboration

Steven Krause has provided open access to his online textbook The Process of Research Writing on the web, making it an excellent online resource to include for students learning the complexities of research writing. Exercises and group work are included. This is one to put onto your Library web site.

Students begin by having to carefully think about a topic of research for the semester and by developing a working thesis. They then write a series of shorter essays that explore that topic. All along the way, students are continuing to research and revise their working thesis so that by the end of the term, their thinking about their original topic of research has evolved. As a result, they are not only prepared to write a “traditional” research paper; they better understand what it means to conduct academic research, which I believe is the real goal of an introductory writing course.

The Table of Contents provides a quick overview of this online resource. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Thanks to HeyJude (winner of the Edublogs best library/librarian blog for 2006) for pointing out what an excellent resource www.bibme.org is for anyone who needs to create a bibliography. To avoid any misunderstandings, notice that this resource is recommended for anyone who actually needs to create a bibliography – an entirely different group from people who need to know how to create a bibliography. While other free tools provide quick, single citations, BibMe takes a more project-based, social type of approach.

[From: Digital Reshift, the School Library Journal blog]

LIBREAS – Library Ideas is an Open Access e-only journal published by a student editorial team from the Institute of Library and Information Science at Humboldt University Berlin in cooperation with the publishing house BibSpider- Info-Networking for Libraries.

LIBREAS Audio. Podcast No 1: BOBCATSSS 2008

In the Libreas Podcast BOBCATSSS im Intervie, Boris Jacob speaks with Diana Marten and Matti Stöhr about the upcoming conference Bobcatss 2008 – Providing access to Information for Everyone – 28-30 January 2008, Zadar, Republic of Croatia.

Call for papers are now open.

[From: Bibliotan]

From BIGWIG comes The Social Software Showcase – an online unconference occuring around and during the time of ALA Annual 2007. On this wiki, you will find eleven wonderful presentations on cutting edge technology and social software by librarians and leaders in the field. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentions here in this space.

BIGWIG is the blogs, wikis, and social software interest group in the Library and Information Technology Association. 

Just the most stunning collection of pics – that for me does two things – reminds me of the power of libraries in society, their long history, their beauty, their all-time value in keeping knowledge going. We might shape-shift with Library 2.0, but we have great origins, and we’re still ‘hot’.

Read Red Hot and Filthy Library Smut and drool over the photos from Nonist:

By “library smut” I am in no way referring to the photo books on native peoples, or the illustrated health manuals, or any of the other volumes which, in your childhood, you lurked about the library aisle to find with the sole purpose of sneaking guilty glances at naked bodies. Nor am I referring to the “risqué” novels by Miller, Cleland, Réage, or Lawrence you leafed impatiently through as a teenager. No. What I’m talking about here is the full-frontal objectification of the library itself. Oh yeah.

As Liela said in the comments:

i love the comments ALMOST as much as i love the post and pictures!

I was glad to read that RMIT has put ‘creativity’ first in exploring Second Life as a virtual campus. RMIT launches Second Life Island, but unlike many other universities using Second Life, the RMIT island is not used as an online campus, but as a creative space for students to learn in.

The Island features a variety of creative projects, but in one project the students designed a “library of performance”, in collaboration with RMIT Library, which explored the future possibilities of library spaces within Second Life.

[From: Openline: the Online news magazine of RMIT]

How does your organization approach change and innovation strategies? How are professional development needs addressed in your strategic plan? Are people your most important asset in jargon only?

A great write-up from Stephen Abram on Building Capacity for Learning, Change and Innovation – the SirsiDynix OneSource Monthly e-Newsletter.

Those damned (but important!) security codes – so here I have a blog post instead.

I am a huge fan of Slideshare, and recommend it for any librarians wanting good information and presentation ideas on all things Web 2.0, Folksonomy, Blogging, Wiki and more. I stumbled upon a fabulous presenation from Teemu Arina, who blogged about how he has tranformed his presentations at My Presentation at Online-Educa Berlin.

I wanted to leave a comment for Teemu – tried various browsers – but was refused by the security code. So Teemu, a blog post instead, just to say thanks for the inspiration.

Interestingly, I found the blog post via my Del.icio.us favourites, and my network – in this case Michael Stephens favourites [of Tame the Web fame] – where I saw that Michael had tagged this with LIS573, and blogging.

Synergy in social networking! My latest Slideshare presentation Creative Web 2.0 Learning is inspired in its design by people like Teemu – though it still doesn’t quite make the grade!

Thanks to Vicki Davis for pointing to more tips about presentation design from Garr Reynolds at Presentation Zen:

• From Design to Meaning: A Whole New Way of Presenting
• Read about the rule of thirds and images in this post

I like the idea of preparing short videos as explanatory guides. Here is one on
Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals from Peabody Library at Vanderbilt University. They have others available via their YouTube Channel.

Nice presentation! Nice concept! Nice Library 2.0!

Collaboration between public libraries and school libraries is becoming an important area in countries where there are already strong and well equipped services as seperate entities. On the other hand, countries that are still evolving school libraries, or who do not have school libraries, are also exploring how to facilitate information and learning services through collaborative ventures.

Through my work in the International Association of School Librarianship, most recently as Vice President (Association Relations), I was on the award committe in 2005 for the Annual IASL/Soflink Award sponsored through the generosity of Softlink International which recognises significant contributions to school librarianship by school library specialists, educators, and/or researchers.

The award in 2005 was given to Australia’s Mackay West State School and Mackay City Council Library Service who developed an enduring strategic alliance between the school and public library service which has resulted in the development of a program: Productive Partnerships — Lifelong Learning. The program’s four elements involve a work shadowing scheme which forges closer links between the school and public library staff, a library monitor program recognising student library leadership in the school, a program of visits “Grade One students At the Library” (GOAL) and a website that, among other things, improves communication between the school and the public library in supporting students’ curriculum activities. I can vouch for the tremendous success of the program.

Jump to 2007: If you are exploring possibilities, you should visit the excellent presentation available at Slideshare on Public and School Library Partnership: How the Twain Shall Meet.