This video, The Future of the Library, has been making the rounds on library blogs and after watching it I visit the blog Everywhere is Here. Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the digital divide and the bubble I spend most of my time in so I was much more interested in this video. It is about the Digital Doorway and the UNICEF Bee, providing access to the internet for those in remote areas. The project was inspired by the Hole in the Wall experiment (perhaps more famous for inspiring the movie Slumdog Millionare) The information and access we take for granted, so for granted in fact that we we’re concerned about the future of libraries as they have been traditionally, is something a great many people don’t have. This video and the projects linked to are in Africa and India but the divide is real, right here in the United States. There are a great many people without access to the internet access or a computer or a smartphone. People, who, if they did have access wouldn’t know how to use them. Just something to think about. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Share on
Posts Tagged ‘ library ’
What Reading (Listening) Do You Recommend for a Leadership Program?
My library has a leadership program and we were asked to recommend books, journals articles blogs blogposts podcasts whatever with an annotation preferably, on any topic relevant to leadership, management, customers service or other topic we think would be helpful to participants. I went through my favorites of the last couple of years and came up with these: Predictably Irrational, The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions Outliers: The Story of Success Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable The Myth of Multitasking: How What do you recommend? 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
Geek the Library
Monday OCLC kicked off their Geek the Library campaign with Iowa (my home state!) and Georgia (my current state!). What is Geek the Library? Its a community-based public awareness campaign. The idea is to increase public awareness of libraries and the important role they play and the funding we so desperately need. People can share what they are passionate about using geek as a verb Geek\Verb. To love, to enjoy, to celebrate, to have an intense passion for. To express interest in. To possess a large amount of knowledge in. To promote I love (or is that geek?) the potential of this campaign! When they get the gear up I’ll be first in line for a shirt and coffee cup! Right now they are testing the campaign in Georgia and Iowa, with plans to kick off nationwide in 2010. I’ll be interested to see how it plays out. The site looks slick and being a geek is cool in many circles now, I’m sure it will be a hit with librarian. Will it raise public awareness and more importantly funding for libraries? I hope so. For the public they have show your support page. I do with they had made
“Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.”
I’ve never been fortunate enough to hear Jessamyn West speak and based on Jenica’s notes from last week, I’m really missing out. Some of my favorite bits The digital divide is real, and our system for technology education scales very badly. There are economies of scale in most library work – processing 30 books does not take 30 times as long as processing one book – but teaching 30 people about the internet and computers takes 30 times longer than teaching one person. Libraries have become the social safety net for many Americans to learn what the tech-savvy think of as remedial technology skills, but the project doesn’t scale. “We are living in a future that they are not that interested in.” “Librarianship both is and is not sexy. Exploit that. Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.” These are some really good things to think about, but we’re supposed to do more than just think – “Go be secretly awesome. Then tell someone.” 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
What programming should a library science student learn?
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 Why every Library Science student should learn programming Technology education and the “real world” Core skills: Curiosity technology advisory Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed
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