Aaron Schmidt and Michael Stephens have put together a good write-up about using Instant Messaging in libraries. Once you read this, you'll want to try IM at your library. Link via LibrarianInBlack.
Open Source Software
Meredith has provided a good summary or open source applications, and several good reasons for using open source software options. She promises to share future reviews of open source products: Anyways, I’m getting off my soapbox now. I just hate to think that I am holding onto information that might be useful to my readers... Continue Reading →
Needing Critiques of Blog Software
I am giving a presentation with Nancy Stimson, author of the Stark County Law Library Blawg, next Tuesday at a joint meeting of the Cleveland Special Library Association and the Northern Ohio Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. Nancy is doing the 'about blogs and blogging' piece, and I am going... Continue Reading →
Librarians as Teachers
Michael Stephens at Tame the Web writes some encouraging words about the future role of librarians as teachers. I agree with him in that as long as there are new technologies, databases, interfaces, resources, and information needs, librarians will still make a huge impact as teachers.
Partners in Information Literacy
The level of instructional collaboration can vary with each school, department, curriculum, or professor. Some departments and faculty members are not very open to collaboration in the classroom, while others are quite proactive in initiating library instruction opportunities. I think it is important to start with a small group of folks who are enthusiastic about library instruction and information literacy. Word of the success of these initial partnerships will spread to others, and library instruction business will increase. It's important not to get frustrated, as these relationships often take quite a long time to develop. As a librarian, it is essential to try to understand the academic culture, not attempt to change it. With each small success and new relationship, you will have the more opportunities in establishing new (or improving) instructional opportunities for information literacy.
American Aggregator Idol
You know that RSS is catching on when American Idol has an RSS feed. I wonder what is the aggregator of choice for Simon, Randy, Paula, and Seacrest? Are they part of the 16 people that are subscribed with Bloglines? Perhaps now that the competion is into the final 12 contestants, hits on the Idol... Continue Reading →
More Blogging Tips
I have blogged about using blogs for internal communications before, but the folks at Advanced Business Blogging have a good post about the topic. They too have grasped the idea of using a blog as a knowledgebase: As your team becomes accustomed to accessing the knowledge they need from this internal blog, they win with... Continue Reading →
Not Just for Reference Anymore
Since January 6, I have had a total of eleven IM sessions with business students. Of these , nine were basically your run-of-the-mill reference questions. Most had questions about industry ratios, market shares, or SWOT analyses. However, the last two interactions were a little more unique. The first encounter occurred last Thursday. The question started... Continue Reading →
Library Instruction & Information Literacy Resources
LibraryInstruction.com has a wealth of resources about information literacy and library instruction. This site contains library instruction lesson plans, articles about library instruction, a large library instruction bibliography, and links to library instruction resources. This site also includes material relating to information literacy. The Lesson Plans section of the site appears to be really interesting,... Continue Reading →