This link is to an interesting article on the creative (and not so censored!) uses of twitter at a recent library conference in the US. Please be warned there are NO lolcats in this post.
Here is the gist of the article… ‘When the American Library Association’s annual conference kicked off in Chicago last Thursday, some attendees wanted the world to know that librarian get-togethers aren’t all about shushing and stacking: There’s a lot of fucking, too. ‘
Hmm…
“As we scan the workplace of the future, we see that everything we know about work — where we work, how we work, what skills we need to stay employable, what technologies we use to connect with colleagues — is changing. And these changes will only continue to accelerate as we move toward 2020, as the Millennial Generation will comprise nearly half of the workforce by 2014”
from –
also worth looking at:
Both of these are from the Harvard Business school
The European Union will save the Sydney Opera House, or something!
Oh hang on, maybe we can help http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/24880/20090415-0006/oak.arch.utas.edu.au/publications/PDF/02s.pdf amongst many other pages
A succinct list of things that all librarians should be able to do/know is available at http://www.libraryman.com/blog/101rtk/. All the normal bases are covered, however some of the links are to pretty basic resources on the subject, but considering the need for brevity it is still a good heads up or first look at these things for beginners. Though actually if you are already a librarian, you really should have caught up on all or most of these tools/skills a while ago.
Brought to you by Michael Porter & David Lee King the site also has this very nice video (below) on the frontpage reminding us that we have to change library services with the times to remain relevant, this valuable lesson is delivered in the form of a lively succession of pastiches of ‘pop’ videos. The site also has a set of essays, which includes a video essay by Australian Kathryn Greenhill at http://www.libraryman.com/blog/?page_id=423
There’s a great article over at the Wall Street Journal which asks the question: why can’t IT departments keep pace with developments in the outisde world that their users regularly utilise from home?
Nick Wingfield offers the following scenario:
“At the office, you’ve got a sluggish computer running aging software, and the email system routinely badgers you to delete messages after you blow through the storage limits set by your IT department. Searching your company’s internal Web site feels like being teleported back to the pre-Google era of irrelevant search results.
At home, though, you zip into the 21st century. You’ve got a slick, late-model computer and an email account with seemingly inexhaustible storage space. And while Web search engines don’t always figure out exactly what you’re looking for, they’re practically clairvoyant compared with your company intranet.
This is the double life many people lead: yesterday’s technology for work, today’s technology for everything else.”
How can we address this divide? Food for thought.
How are new technologies integrated in your library? Over at ALA Techsource, there’s an interesting blog post about the assumptions (or “sacred cows”) of technology in the library world.
I particularly liked the dicussion about technology being “the domain of the few”. In progressive workplaces, this seems to be on the way out, with the use of multiple technologies being used and experimented with by a number of work areas. “A library organization whose librarians and staff are empowered to experiment with technological solutions or who are given tools to create their own digital content will be more nimble and able to respond to the changing technology needs of users. Ideas for meeting information or collection needs with a technological tool will be more widely accepted—and therefore more successful among staff—if those ideas originate in the departments that will use those tools.”
What is this blog if not an aspect of that very idea? A step in the right direction.
Whatever - formerly New Technologies for Libraries Blog 