Why Librarians are better than Google

Just to make you feel appreciated ...

It is from YALSA, but if the YA doesn’t apply to you, then just mentally delete the letters and read “Librarians”.

Five Reasons Why (YA) Librarians are Better than Google:

5. Google locates only web sites, while YA librarians find all typesof resources in any format.

4. Google requires you to design your own searches, but YA librarianshelp you plan an effective search strategy.

3. Google leaves it up to you to sort through the mountain of results,while YA librarians assist you in selecting information to meet yourspecific needs.

2. Google provides no quality control, but YA librarians always have aPlan B if your search yields no results.

1. Google is an inanimate web site with no ability to offer moralsupport, but YA librarians are real people who can dispense thingslike encouragement, high fives and even hugs.

Beth Yoke Executive Director Young Adult Library Services Association, fastest growing division of the American Library Associationwww.ala.org/yalsa

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New Information Literacy website

This website has been designed and developed by information professionals from key UK organisations actively involved in the field of information literacy. The site will support practitioners by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely available toolkits. Our aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regularly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy.

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information literacy

library

Help for your public speaking

For articles, tips and links to useful sites, visit the Pivotal Public Speaking blog

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public speaking

communication

A Beginner's Guide to Podcasting: Part 1 - A Consumer's Guide

May 17, 2006 01:00:00

This two-part session SirsiDynix Institute will seek to remove some of the mystery surrounding podcasting and demonstrate the importance of this new media distribution model to libraries and librarians in meeting the information needs of your patrons.

Click here for details

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library
podcasting

Collections of the month - April 2006 - Perchance to dream

Archives Hub - access to the archives of UK universities and colleges

"This month we look at collections relating to beliefs and traditions surrounding our slumbers, and some of the practicalities involved, and have also selected some web links."

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library

New information literacy website

This website has been designed and developed by information professionals from key UK organisations actively involved in the field of information literacy. The site will support practitioners by providing news, case studies, examples of best practice and freely available toolkits. Our aim is to provide a practical resource that information professionals regularly visit to discover the latest developments in information literacy.

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information literacy

Web .0, Libraries 2.0, Librarian 2.0: preparing for the 2.0 world

From Stephen Abrahms

"...Anyway, I thought it might be useful to devote this month’s column to a little information on Web 2.0 and its newborn babies, Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0. And why should you read this column? You’ve heard it all before, but in a few years these Web. 2.0 conversations have the power to drive huge transformations in our media landscape and, therefore, our life, work, and play environments."

Read on ...

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libary
library 2.0

Google scholar become direct link to British library

British Library gains Google Scholar direct link status in second major deal with a GYM member

The British Library (BL) became a directly linked resource for scientific and academic information on the Google Scholar search engine following a deal between the two parties today. Search results in Google Scholar will now feature – if the article is in the national collection – a BL Direct tag alongside the cache and citation links

Read on

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library

Boy wizard beats chef to win award

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the latest installment in JK Rowling's record-breaking series on the adventures of the boy wizard, was last night named book of the year at the 17th annual British Book Awards. Read on …

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Harry Potter
books
library

E-metrics for Library and Information Professionals. How to use data for managing and evaluating electronic resource collections.

Is your library getting every dollar’s worth out of that expensive database? Should you re-subscribe to that pricey e-journal? Are your indexes serving your users? Collection development and acquisitions librarians are facing tough new questions. Unfortunately for many, these were unanswerable questions until now.

White and Kamal show how to use e-metrics to measure library performance and value in the digital age. With this book, you can learn how to use effectively the electronic data captured from various network activities to manage library collections, budgets, and services. Using e-metrics, the authors identify expensive and underused digital resources, visualise virtual search behaviour patterns and construct new collection development strategies.

Authors: Andrew White and Eric Djiva Kamal

2005. 268p. paperback. 1-85604-555-2


Available at Amazon from $10.00



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books
library

Information literacy for all

The final report of the High-Level Colloquium on Information Literacy and Lifelong Learning, held at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, 6-9 November 2005, sponsored by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the National Forum on Information Literacy (NFIL) and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA), was released on 1st March 2006.

Building on an earlier international meeting of experts which was held in Prague, the Czech Republic, in September 2003, the report challenges international, regional and national organizations to move beyond an exclusive focus and concern for "Information for All" to "Information Literacy for All."

The report argues that the existence of information holds little to no value to people who do not even know what information they need, much less whether it exists or not, or how to locate, evaluate and effectively use it.

Read the release

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information literacy
library

Win a Maisy Party at your library

To celebrate Library and Information Week and the paperback release of Maisy goes to the Library, Walker Books has donated two Maisy MouseParty prizes.

One Australian Public Library and one Australian SchoolLibrary will win a party at their library.

Complete the online entryform on the ALIA Website at http://alia.org.au/advocacy/liw/maisy/ and answer the question The best thing about having a mouse in the libraryis ...

Entries must be received by 5pm Monday the 8th May 2006. Thewinning libraries will be announced during Library and Information Week.

Check out this year's LIW merchandise including wristbands and balloonsat the LIW website at http://alia.org.au/liw/

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library
books

The latest chapter of the e-book

By Spencer Kelly

While music, games and videos have all enjoyed the move to electronic hand-held devices, maybe it is a bit surprising to think that our favourite way to enjoy the written word is still on paper.

Read on …

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books
ebooks
library

Pulitzer prize winner announced. Are we missing something?

As is so often the case, there are the questions about why literary prizes are awarded. Are we missing something? Are we not literary enough to appreciate this book? What were they thinking? And it seems to happen all over the world and across all genres.

Today it applies to the latest prize-winner – of the Pulitzer prize.

Here is the announcement of the winner:

From Yahoo news … NEW YORK - "March," Geraldine Brooks' novel that imagines the life of the fictional father in Louisa May Alcott's "Little Women," was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday. For the first time since 1997, the Pulitzer board declined to award a prize for drama. Brooks depicted the life of John March, the father absent for most of Alcott's famed novel of four sisters growing up in Massachusetts during the Civil War.

And here is the review also in the news this morning.

“ …It is difficult to pinpoint where and when “March” loses its appeal. Although Brooks is a creative writer, she is missing an essential ingredient that makes readers want to continue reading and find out what happens next. Novels based on previously published materials, especially those like “Little Women,” which have found a special place in many readers’ hearts, have a lot to live up to…”

Read the whole post

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library
books
literary prizes

LA Times Young Adult fiction award

L.A. Times Finalists Named

The finalists for the Los Angeles Times prize for young adult fiction have been named.

The five nominees are:

Looking for Alaska by John Green (Dutton),
Black Juice by Margo Lanagan (HarperCollins/Eos),
You & You & You by Per Nilsson (Front Street),
The Center of the World by Andreas Steinhofel (Delacorte) and
I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak (Knopf).

The winner will be announced on April 28.

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booksyoung adult fiction
library

Young Peoples Poetry Week 10-16 April

Young People's Poetry Week is your chance to encourage people to celebrate poetry—read it, enjoy it, write it—in their homes, childcare centers, classrooms, libraries, and bookstores. During the third week of April, the Children's Book Council, in collaboration with the American Academy of Poets (sponsor of National Poetry Month) and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, sponsors Young People's Poetry Week.
You can get 2006 YPPW materials, find a list of ways of Celebrating YPPW, follow links to New poetry for young people, read Articles on sharing poetry and see ways of Promoting YPPW

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library
poetry

SOS for Information Literacy

S.O.S. for Information Literacy is a dynamic web-based multimedia resource for educators, that promises to make a significant contribution to enhancing the teaching of information literacy skills to children. At no time in history has the ability to locate, organize, evaluate, manage and use information been more critical for today's learners. These skills, collectively referred to as information literacy, lay the groundwork for success in every phase of a student's life both in and out of school.

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library
information literacy

Send an eCard - change the world @ your library

"Change Your World @ Your Library - Libraries Matter"

Send an e-card to a friend or family member in honor of National Library Week or ANYTIME! Your friend will then receive an email that has a story about how they can change their world @ their library - and why libraries matter. Libraries, schools, and other agencies - place this colorful icon and link on your websites so your patrons can also send this e-card!  

Find out how


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library

Library communities putting forward their best face

“One of the best things the Vermont Department of Libraries has done is to make sure every library in Vermont has a fixed and memorable email address that either forwards or links to an easy to use webmail interface.

They have had this for years and it’s done a lot to help libraries stay connected and feel like part of the larger library system, even when they’re up a mountain serving 600 people.

I’m not usually one to jump on the “technology builds community” bandwagon, because I think there are certain irreplacable virtues to face to face interactions. However when done properly and effectively, technology can help support communities that are already built, and help them put their best face forward.”

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library

Free finds for frugal librarians

" ...You don't have to switch all your computers to Linux or be a geek to use free software. You can also combine free and commercial software on the same machines. All of these options run on Windows machines or Linux, most on Macs, and most will run well on older versions of Windows and older hardware...

This piece highlights some wonderful ways librarians can implement and work with wireless, but we still need to serve the patrons who rely on us for basic computer access. Keeping software on public access machines current, given hefty licensing fees, pricey upgrades, and pervasive patches and updates, can be an expensive hassle. We're all under pressure to provide more services for less money. Here, find some free and lowcost alternatives that are both easy to install and popular with patrons."

Read the whole article


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library

Marketing wth metadata

“'Metadata' is the accepted term used to describe information about content, and the essence of this document concerns ways to market with metadata. This document focuses on illustrating and explaining the benefits of achieving this by exposing metadata via standard and interoperable means. In a nutshell, this document introduces the means by which content providers can share, or embed, their descriptive data (metadata), with other websites, in standard and reusable ways. It is primarily intended for a non-technical audience who require an overview in order to allow them to make decisions regarding the best means of exposing metadata. However, the document does provide illustrative case studies and links to technical specifications which will provide useful starting points for those tasked with actually implementing the exposure of standardised metadata. If you wish to increase the visibility and exposure of your content in the online environment, then read on!”

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marketing

Is Google being a fair use user?

by Bessie Mayes

Technical Service Senior Advisor/Cartographic ConsultantSPAWAR Systems Center, Pacific
bessie.mayes@navy.mil

Some technology revolutions can be very subtle in the beginning.

Perhaps you have noticed that the number of computer commercials outnumber commercials for television products, with the exception of the Super Bowl season of course.

The technology markets are driven by the consumer’s desire for convenience, relaxation, and saving time. There are many new technological surprises these days to accommodate those masses too. For instance, Sony Corporation has a new product that may change the way we read books in the future. You are familiar already of course with email, e-journals, and e-commerce, but are you aware of e-paper? Sony’s new device will allow the user to read up to eighty books on a device they call the Sony Reader. The company developed this reader last year, and is now marketing it to the public. The device weights only 9 ounces, and looks just like a book with a LCD screen. The Sony Reader is adjustable, meaning you can manipulate fonts, and is easy to carry around.

Just think, instead of thumbing through a paper copy of your favorite novel, you now have the luxury of pressing a button to flip to the next page. However, my question after reading about this new item was how could I acquire a digital book that could interface with this device and how much would I have to pay? What if I told you that someday in the future, you may be able to download your favorite book into your Sony Reader directly from a library’s website?

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library
lib 2.0

Using your Classification Skills

*Changing Things*

by Tinker Massey

“ …What I have found interesting is the invitation to reorganize a complete library. The church that has adopted me has a library without a librarian. Some years ago this person spent endless hours cataloging a lot of books into an organized entity of Dewey labeled materials. She did a great job as far as I could tell, even developing a card catalog and procedures for check-outs, etc. The plea from the Church was that no one used it because they couldn’t figure out the system…”

Read the whole article.

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library

Exploring ways to bridge the generational divide in the library

Digital Native or Digital Immigrant

Exploring Ways to Bridge the Generational Divide in the Library

Read the paper

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library

Podcasting is coming to Waterloo Public Library

‘If you haven't already heard the Waterloo Public Library has received a grant to produce podcasts! This is very exciting news. Woohoo for us!...

“It’s an excellent example of Waterloo as an intelligent community,” says Chief Librarian Cathy Matyas, referring to the recent recognition of Waterloo as one of the top seven technological innovators in the world. “The library project uses the broadband technologies that have grown up in this community to share local heritage information with both residents and visitors.”’

Read the whole blog post

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Library marketing
podcastinglibrary

Wikipeda and Britannica - the son's alright and so's the old man

by Paula Berinstein Consultant, Berinstein Research

(image

placeholder)Many Searcher readers, especially those of us who went to library school, remember the hushed reverence with which the 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the last published in the U.K., was spoken. Here was a classic work of scholarship that was so definitive, so monumental, that it was still unmatched decades after its completion in 1911. So it is perhaps with mixed feelings that we regard the upstart Wikipedia [http://www.wikipedia.org].

The bottom-up, dynamic, nonprofit, Web-based encyclopedia continues to mushroom in popularity (about 2.5 billion page views per month) and size (more than 873,000 articles and 43,000 contributors associated with the English-language version, and more than 89,000 total volunteers working on over 2,550,000 articles in more than 200 languages). And as it grows, a battle of sorts has emerged between it and the iconic Britannica (which now contains over 65,000 articles and 35 percent updated content in the 2005 print edition and more than 120,000 in the online edition).

The Britannica also now appears online as well as in hard copy, DVD, and CD-ROM. The most blatant symbol of the battle is Wikipedia’s page devoted to correcting errors in Britannica. The primary question for info pros is, of course, reliability.

Can "the public" concoct and maintain a free, authoritative encyclopedia that’s unbiased, complete, and reliable? If not, then Britannica may rest on its laurels and its good name, although with the Web so free and accessible, it’s been taking licks for some years. But if the answer is "Yes," what happens to that shining beacon of scholarship, its publishers, and its academic contributors? Is encyclopedia publishing a "zero sum" game? Read the whole article

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wikipedia
Library

Libraries getting the digital treatment

“… Gary Strong, the UCLA librarian, said that he envisions the library of the future as a space of collaborative learning. Instead of coming to the library to read books, students will be able to collaborate with peers and faculty while looking at and researching collections of rare material, he said. And though the number of digitized books is quickly increasing, Strong said print versions are not going to disappear anytime soon. …”

Read the whole article

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Neurotic pedantic librarians - on a good day ...!

" ...A lot of the work that's done in a library is about being critical and accurate. These skills are often needed to do the work, but some librarians and library techs/assistants are unable to turn them off and they become nitpicky and pedantic as people.

Is the pedantic and neurotic librarian a similar species to the stereotypical brusque but brilliant surgeon? I'm doubting it. There seem to be two different skill-sets to library work - which aren't always complementary. One set is concerned with accuracy and technical competency. The other set are people skills, understanding what our users really want and need, building necessary relationships with vendors, IT, administration...
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library

Ten ways to get rid of your techie librarians

…From Tame the Web…

”On page 67 of the January/February Public Libraries magazine is one of the HOTTEST numbered lists I've read in a long time: "How to Lose Your Best People" is authored anonymously by "several seasoned librarians." Points like "Nitpick the dress code - because socks are essential for good public service" are not only humorous but very telling in some libraries.So with apologies to the Seasoned Anonymous Writers, let me offer up:Ten Ways to Lose Your Techie LibrariansDismiss blogs/wikis/RSS as just for the geeks not library users”

Read the rest

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library

staff management