Librarian by Day Bobbi Newman | I'm not that kind of librarian

I am delighted to endorse my friend and colleague Courtney Young for ALA president. I have had the honor to serve on Council with Courtney and observe her tireless work in support of all libraries and library staff. I have watched her demonstrate leadership not just in an official capacity through such efforts as service on the Executive Board and as President of the New Members Round Table, but in her individual and personal interactions. Courtney is a fountain of knowledge and she never tires of answering questions (even when I am sure it is for the 100th time) and helping out her fellow librarians. Read more [...]

I came across this great post from the American Historical Society - "The Dos and Don’ts of Live-Tweeting at an Academic Conference: An Update" which has some great suggestions (see below for the abridged version or click on through for full text - it worth reading the full text btw). But I have a question about the first Do - Ask permission. Before the panel begins (preferably a few weeks in advance), ask panelists whether they agree to be tweeted. Do you ask permission? Should you ask permission? I will confess I have never asked permission to tweet a confession session of any sort, academic Read more [...]

Let me state here, for the record, I have no objection to reducing the number of councilors at-large or the number of division and chapter councilors if evidence can be provided as to how those reductions would benefit council or the membership. Some background info: I am an ALA Councilor at Large. Sean Reinhart is the California chapter councilor. He feels we have too many at-large members in proportion to chapter/division representatives I do not have an opinion on whether or not we should reduce the size of council. I do have an issue with the framing of Mr. Reinhart’s arguments. The Read more [...]

Erin and I announced Looks Like Library Science open for submission a little over a year ago on February 13th. This project has been so much fun! Thank you to everyone who submitted a photo! If you haven't submitted a photo - you still can - see instructions at the end. I've learned that Tumblr is great for allowing others to submit photos to your site, but also that Tumblr is truly horrid for recovering any type of useful data. I kept separate list of the countries of submissions and I'm not 100% sure I got them. But here are some numbers! As of now there are 704 photos (some Read more [...]

This is a half thought out mash-up of two things that crossed my path this week. The first was the article in the Wall Street Journal "The Web-Deprived Study at McDonald's". Which covers what many of us already know - the digital divide is real, 33 million American's do not have broadband service at home. Cheap smartphones and tablets have put Web-ready technology into more hands than ever. But the price of Internet connectivity hasn't come down nearly as quickly. And in many rural areas, high-speed Internet through traditional phone lines simply isn't available at any price. The result is a divide Read more [...]