Monthly Archives: March 2009

What’s the matter with our profession?

March 5, 2009
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What’s the matter with our profession?

It’s a question many of us with an MLS,  and those without, struggle with.  Just take a look at the Library Day in the Life blog entries.  You’ll see a wide, and I mean WIDE, range of variety in how we spend our days, weeks and years and our education levels. Matt Hamilton wrote a post with some observations on the field,  he’s about to graduate with an MLS and he’s the Library Innovation and Technology Manager at the Boulder Public Library.   He points to some problems in the field, namely the wide variety of what we do.  I agree with him when he says : The field is not in good shape. I don’t think adding “information” to the MLS is the answer, either. I don’t think that by further genericizing the profession by calling ourselves “Information Professionals” is any kind of an answer either.. I don’t completely agree with his solution. It’s time to stop making our field generic in the I-schools, and to let our students get the specialized skill-set they need. And I don’t mean that you take a “track” that consists of three classes providing a shallow introduction to your area of specialization. I mean

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23 Things Summit Wrap Up #23smt

March 4, 2009
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23 Things Summit Wrap Up #23smt

Yesterday’s  23 Thing Summit was great and intense (audio, slides, chat and Twitter!)  There were almost 300 attendees (I think). WebJunction and MaintainIT staff did a great job wrangling the presenters and the attendees.  Thank you Brenda, Michael, Jennifer and everyone else! If you couldn’t make it, you can find the slides, audio and chat transcripts here and David took some notes. There was even a Twitter hash tag  #23smt, which popped up on Twitter trends about 40 minutes in. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

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Technology for Tight Budgets

March 3, 2009
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Technology for Tight Budgets

Times are tight, and likely to get tighter, if you’re looking to save money talk with your IT department. They may have some helpful solutions. Take a look at the University of Missouri’s IT department suggestions – Technology for Tight Budges. Many of these can be used by libraries and other businesses looking to save funds. Investigate the Technologies Available to Stretch Your Budget MeetingPlace Audio/Web Conferencing SharePoint Online Collaboration Tools IT Training — In the Classroom and Online Captivate e-Learning Authoring Tools Voice over IP (VoIP) Go Green, IT! Power Down and Virtualize Server Virtualization Videoconferencing TelePresence Smartphone Technologies Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

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If I made a commercial for Trader Joes

March 2, 2009
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I found this video on Beth’s Blog and she links to Logic + Emotion which recommends some steps Trader Joes should take in response.  The video is mostly complimentary but points out some negatives too.  What if this video was about a library? What if it was about your library? How would you respond it? I like this idea, I’d like to turn a patrons loose on the library with a flip to flim what they do and don’t like.  It would be much more powerful than a questionaire, instead of forcing them to recall what they do and don’t like, walking around recording would bring up a lot of issues that on-the-spot questioning would miss. It makes me wish we had 5 or 10 Flips to hand out to patrons during National Library Week and say go record what you love about the library and what you’d like to see change and bring it back to me.  What would I see?  What would I learn? Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell

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photo by Beth Tribe

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