Tag: Librarians

5 Days in Library Land: Day One, Technology

I have several topics that I’ve been meaning to post about, so, for the week of December 14th I’ll be doing a post a day.? The subject will be in each post’s title, feel free to read all, or just the one or two that interests you.

It’s no surprise that technology, its use and availability, is a major issue for libraries. Here is a collection of articles, tutorials, opinion pieces, and blogs that I have found interesting, and useful, when considering my own use of technology as it relates to libraries, and the library community.

A recent article in the New York Times featured information about putting a bar code on places. I think this would be an easy fun way to reach out to the more technologically inclined patrons in your community. All you have to do is decide what information you want to put in your barcode (a URL,Text, 250 char., Phone Number, or SMS) and enter the information at a site like Kaywa which will then generate your free bar code which can be placed near the entrance to your library. You can use this to promote events, link people to your events webpage, or make announcements. All it costs is a few minutes of your time, a piece of paper, ink, and some tape.

There was also an interesting article on WIRED: How the iPhone Could Reboot Education by Brian X. Chen. While I do not think that paper books will go away, I do think it is important to engage students in a way that shows we are paying attention to their interests, and how they learn. Another interesting article, from Library Journal, covers the new EBSCOhost Mobile, and Summon mobile, smartphone interfaces to their electronic resources.

There is a large focus, and rightly so, on how technology changes interactions with our patrons, but what about how it changes the interactions between librarians? Without the advances in technology we would not have listserves, Twitter topics (#librarians, #cataloging), or Facebook pages. Check out Library Web Chic’s recent post: Tools for Remote Collaboration and Interaction, and remember that your fellow librarians are an invaluable resource.

I encourage anyone interested in technology to check out Alan Maynard’s 2020Science.org. Starting today, Monday December 14, 2009 he will have 10 guest bloggers, with differing points of view, answering the question “How should technology innovation contribute to life in the 21st century?”

Tips & Tutorials:

7 Tips to Make Your Web Site Mobile-friendly by Igor Faletski

10 LOL Cat Laws of Web Services for Smaller and Underfunded Libraries from the Librarian in Black Sarah Houghton-Jan

50 Free Open Courseware Classes for Web Designers by Best Web Design Schools

Full Web Building Tutorials by W3Schools.com

How to Build a Social Media Cheat Sheet for Any Topic by Marshall Kirkpatrick

How to Embed Almost Anything in your Website from digital inspiration

Modern CSS Layouts: The Essential Characteristics by Zoe Mickley Gillenwater

Web Accessibility from the American Library Association

W-E-B-S-I-T-E, Find Out What It Means To Me by Brett Bonfield

Five Essential Apps for Your Nonprofit Facebook Page provides guidance on how to market your nonprofit(library) on Facebook more effectively.

Six Things Libraries Should Tweet by Andy

100 Ways to Use Twitter in Your Library by Mobile Libraries

Twitter for Organizations by the Lowrider Librarian.

Leaders of Academic Libraries:

Bookless Libraries by Steve Kolowich

Libraries of the Future from Inside Higher Ed

View from the Trenches:

Reviving the Academic Library by Johann Neem

The Hyperlinked Library in Times of Change and Challenge by Michael Stephens

Sources of News & Information

ACRL Tech Connect
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/proftools/techconnect/index.cfm

Campus Technology
http://campustechnology.com – Website
http://campustechnology.com/RSS-Feeds/All-Articles.aspx – RSS Feed

David Lee King
http://www.davidleeking.com/ – Website
http://www.davidleeking.com/feed – RSS Feed

Journal of Information Architecture
http://journalofia.org/

The Librarian in Black Sarah Houghton-Jan
http://librarianinblack.net/ – Website
http://feeds.feedburner.com/Librarianinblack – Choose Your RSS Feed Here

Library Web Chic
http://www.librarywebchic.net/

Libraryman
http://www.libraryman.com – Website
http://www.libraryman.com/blog/feed/ – RSS Feed

Library Tech Talk
http://libtechtalk.wordpress.com/ – Website
http://libtechtalk.wordpress.com/feed/ – RSS Feed

LibWorm: Librarianship RSS Search and Current Awareness
http://www.libworm.com

The Loose Canon Librarian
http://loosecannonlibrarian.net/

Tame the Web
http://tametheweb.com/

TechKNOW a quarterly publication by the Technical Services Division of the Ohio Library Council
http://www.library.kent.edu/page/11226

Web Science Trust
http://webscience.org

Need more ideas of how to combine new technology with library service? Check out:
Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data
Edited by Nicole C. Engard
ISBN 978-1-57387-372-7
http://books.infotoday.com/books/LibraryMashups.shtml

Who do you look to for technological innovation? What issues do you find interesting?

Job Resources for Library School Students & Librarians

As promised, here are my picks for library job listings. Please note that this list is geared toward corporate and academic librarianship, although, some public and school library jobs are also posted to these lists. This list of job sources is by no means comprehensive; you should also subscribe to mailing list in your field of interest, search local library association websites, and search for websites dedicated to jobs in the area you are interested in. Topics of job websites range from USA government employee, Higher Education, School (k-12), Information Specialist/Services, to International Jobs.

Things you should keep in mind:

  1. Preferred is not the same as Required, if you meet the Required qualifications and have some of the Preferred go ahead and apply. The more skills that are asked for in the Preferred section the less likely it is that someone has all of them, be willing to learn the ones you don’t have and you could land yourself a job.
  2. I realize that some people have obligations which do not allow them to move, however, being willing to move for a new job gives you a much larger job pool to draw from. Think about what is more important to you, having a job you could love long term or staying within a specific geographic area.
  3. If you are willing to move for a job start going through your possessions now. You own more stuff than you think you do, and time may be limited when it’s time to move. The more you have sorted, donated, and given away the easier it will be when the time comes.
  4. If you follow all of these job feeds you will see a few duplicates and triplicates from time to time. This is to be expected, the majority of the jobs are not double posted.
  5. Do not ever do the final proof of your cover letter yourself. Find a professor, or someone who has been in the profession for a while who has experience hiring, to do the final read through. Not only will this improve your letter significantly, but you will learn things from their corrections that you can apply to the next letter that you write.

Job Lists
http://twitter.com/ALA_JobLIST

Combined Library Jobs – RSS Feed
http://www.lisjobs.com/rss.asp
(Provided by Library Job Posting on the Internet – http://www.libraryjobpostings.org/
And LISjobs.com http://www.lisjobs.com/)

GetLibraryJobs – Twitter
http://twitter.com/GetLibraryJobs

libassociates – Twitter
http://twitter.com/libassociates

Libgig_Jobs – Twitter
http://twitter.com/Libgig_Jobs

Libraryjobonline – Twitter
http://twitter.com/libraryjobline

LibInfoSciJobs – Twitter
http://twitter.com/LibInfoSciJobs

tmj_usa_library – Twitter
http://twitter.com/tmj_usa_library

Lastly I’d like to mention ACRL’s Residency Interest Group (RIG) webpage. RIG not only posts news about current and former residents, we also post residency position openings. There is no other place where residency information is compiled on the web. Check us out and consider a library residency.

http://acrl.ala.org/residency/