Library 101: More Than Just a Pretty Face

November 3, 2009 · Posted in Internet Librarian 2009, Learning, Librarians, Video · View Comments

The newest video from David Lee King & Michael Porter debuted at Internet Librarian to a room full of people and a live remote audience thanks to streaming by the Shanachies.

Library 101 is more than just a video, it’s a project with a website that includes essays from libraryland leaders about what Library 101 means to them. It also has a great source page that lists 101 Things to Know.

Disclosure: I’m in the video and listed in the blogs on the Things to Know page (no pressure right?)

PS The video made Boing Boing!!!!

Tags: david lee king, digital, essays, information, knowledge, library, library 101, michael porter, skills, Technology, Video

Eternal September: be ready to repeat yourself, again

May 28, 2009 · Posted in Learning, Social Media, Social Networking Sites, Social Tools, Training, Web 2.0 · View Comments

Last week I read this post on Seth Godin’s blog and loved it. I tweeted it hoping other people would pick it up. After reading Stephen Abrams post – What is Cloud Computing where he states

I’ve given a few talks lately and I was surprised to get a few questions about “what is cloud computing?” I guess I really do live in the bubble. Then again I have had my share of what is YouTube? eBay? iTunes? questions lately too.

I decided to devote a blog post to Eternal September, its the idea that every fall new freshmen show up and you need to teach them the ropes, rules, guidelines, etiquette all over again. New people show up on the internet everyday. People who don’t understand how blogs work or what Twitter is or why they would use an aggregator & RSS. It can be easy when talking amongst your cohorts to get caught in a bubble, when most of the people you interact with know what the cloud is and use Twitter everyday (or almost every day) you can forget that the majority of people don’t. If you’re like me, you like (or even love) the web and all the awesome things it can do. You probably want other people to do them too. It can be easy to forget how much you’ve learned, how far you’ve come and how much you know that others don’t. What you take for granted can be amazing, intimidating, daunting, foreign or just plain scary to new people. When you’re talking about the web, stop and explain The Cloud or Twitter, even if you think everyone already knows what it is and how to use it. People often feel dumb for asking. Do it with patience and understanding. Don’t just say how awesome it is, explain it in terms that matter to them, how they can use it, how it will save them time, how it will make their life better.

If you’re a leader or an expert or a presenter or even just a blogger you need to be prepared to teach the freshmen. They are looking to you for explanations and guidance. After all you are a senior.

Tags: eternal september, freshmen, Learning, teaching, the bubble, Training

What programming should a library science student learn?

May 27, 2009 · Posted in Learning, Librarianship, Technology, Training · View Comments

I recieved this email from one of the students in the Collection Development class I taught at Mizzou and thought in addition to giving my answer I’d open it up for the hive mind.

I had read somewhere, it might have been on your blog in fact, that it might be a good idea for library school graduates to learn some web design languages. I am thinking of picking up in my spare time (whats left of it) some web design language and I’m not sure what would be appropriate in the library setting. Which brings me to my question. Do you have any suggestions as to what technical languages or proficiencies would be good to pick up? I have thought about HTML, ColdFusion, ASP, and JSP, but beyond knowing a little bit of HTML/XML I am unsure what would be most useful. What do you think? What would you like to see on someones application if you were hiring?

What advice can you give Chris?

Some other blogs that have addressed this