It was a most excellent night on Answerland.org. Earlier today on NEXGENLIB-L there had been a brief discussion on reader's advisory so of course, I got to practice that skill tonight ;-) Additionally, I was doubled-teamed by a mother/daughter team who started off looking for a particular book (no title and no author, of course) -- something along the lines of an "old dark woman who turns children into either objects or food." I didn't have a clue and I said as much. I kind of tried to explain that books, er, weren't my forte but that I was there to find facts and figures kind of thing. So I said she'd probably be better off calling the library first thing in the morning (they needed the book for a party tomorrow!) She was fine with that but I felt bad that I couldn't do more to help.
Then before I knew it, I was chatting with the daughter (who was nine as it turns out) and she said, okay, how about a book on witches? So I headed to the online catalog, started looking for juvenile Halloween/witchy books when she lets me know that maybe she'd rather have something along the lines of fairies and sorcerers. So I start a new search, I'm skimming along, thinking that this is not anything I have a clue on how to do when I run across Spellfall -- I copy the card catalog summary to her, she reads it, and we co-browse to the catalog entry page. Then she puts a hold on it and thanked me. Yay!
Right after that, I had my final patron of the evening -- a college student who wanted to know how she could find an article on electronic reserve for one of her classes. Once I knew what University she was attending, we co-browsed to school's library home page, found the link to electronic reserves and she was on her way!
"[Commentary] Columnist Simson Garfinkel challenges what he calls the myth of "universal computer competence among young people." While Generation "Net" is more tech-savvy than its predecessors, millions of kids are still not "wired." According to Garfinkel, these kids risk falling behind much faster than their elders. He cites research from the Pew Foundation, which found that 26 percent of young adults do not have Internet access. The educational divide is even more striking: Only 23 percent of people who did not graduate from high school have access, compared with 82 percent of those who have graduated from college. Garfinkel is concerned that today's society is making things increasingly difficult for people who aren't online. He believes that the problem won't be solved through more education or federal grants. "As a society, we need to come to terms with the fact that a substantial number of people, young and old alike, will never go online. We need to figure out how we will avoid making life unbearable for them," he writes. SOURCE: Technology Review; AUTHOR: Simson Garfinkel"
"According to the study, parents play an important role in their childrens use of the Internet, with a majority of parents of children ages 2 to 17 and children ages 6 to 17 agreeing that parents have knowledge of and influence over childrens online activities. To a striking extent (86 percent), parents perception of their role is as a guide to good Internet content rather than as a watchdog over their childrens use."
"This is a well deserved award and all ASIST student members, past & present, and the iSchool Community at large should feel very proud for this achievement.
The ASIST Student Chapter (http://students.washington.edu/asis/) has been very active and over the years, as our programs have increased, it has expanded its membership and now includes in its ranks Informatics, MLIS, MSIM, and PhD student members. The Student Chapter has a long tradition of organzing professional networking & mentoring events, workshops, colloquia, and being actively engaged in iSchool affairs and with the American Society for Information Science and Technology at the local and national levels."
Well, after having been sick for the past few days, I'm alive again. I seem to have caught some kind of 24-hour bug, having spent Saturday fighting a 101.4 fever.
My LIS 550 class is wrapping up: we turned in our group paper last night (a policy document implementing CIPA for a large metropolitan public library) and will spend the last two weeks in small, online discussion groups discussing Manuel Castells' The Internet Galaxy: Reflections of the Internet, Business, and Society. I still have to turn in one last (short) assignment on Sunday but things are definitely wrapping up there :)
LIS 510 however, is turning into quite the steamroller. I love the topic (Information Behavior), the professor (Dr. Karen Fisher) is great, the text is a good read (Looking for Information by Donald Case), and the assignments are very meaningful. Unfortunately, my project group for this course is one of the first to present online to the rest of the class which is due about the same time as an individual paper. Anyhow, we're all in a bit of panic because of the amount of work that has to be done in such a short time, but I'm sure we'll muddle through somehow. Once we get past this part, we'll just get to sit back (sorta) and enjoy everyone else's presentations :-) And then there's one final paper due near the end of the quarter (mid-Decemeber). Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting to the other side of this next push :-)
The Career Services Office of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin is proud to announce the opening of the = online Professional JobWeb to the public. The JobWeb is an online listing of jobs specifically geared toward students and professionals in the fields of Library and Information Science, updated daily.
To post a position, free of charge, email careers@ischool.utexas.edu with the complete announcement in the text of the email or as an attachment.
Good news for job seekers (and employers) -- hopefully this will take off. I should probably spend some time compiling a list of LIS specific job resources. I'm sure there are compilations already -- I just need to find them.
Taking a quick break from writing papers to pop into the Apple iTunes for Windows users forum and talk about a clash of cultures!
What's fascinating from an information management point of view is the conflict in approaches to how Windows users have become accustomed to managing their music files versus how Apple users have. It will be interesting to see how many converts Apple makes to their way of thinking :)
Personally, I have become more and more willing to let something else take care of all the details for me so I guess I'm going to be an easy convert :)
Now, I'm just waiting for all the Radio UserLand plug-ins for it (after having tracked down this one for WMP and BlogAmp for Winamp).
Geniuses at Your Fingertips. Ron Force writes "They're geniuses, and they're at your fingertipsLong-forgotten public library reference desk stocked with answers, Doug Clark says.This is the Information Age, when fact-seekers surf the cyberwaves via powerful search engines like Google, Alta Vista or the ever-popular Yahoo. Not this yahoo.When Doug needs data, he puts down the computer mouse. He picks up the telephone and dials up Dennis, Jean or Louise.Google's cool, sure. But my search engines would kick your fanny on Jeopardy.Which is why I'm taking today to sing the praises of this oft-overlooked informational resource:The library reference desk..." [LISNews.com]
Search Tips From Google Expert. 20 Great Google Secrets, by Tara Calishain, author of Google Hacks, offers useful suggestions to make your use of the... [via beSpacific]
Which is just another reminder for me to get a copy of Google Hacks too.
The latest issue of Information Research just happens to contain four new articles on information behavior (including one by Dervin) and a fifth on virtual communities which seems awfully coincidental given the fact that I'm currently enrolled in a course focused on this very topic. Everbody seems to love Dervin, whom I haven't had a chance to read in any great detail yet (though Donald Case's book Seeking Information covers a number of her papers among many others) and hers is the invited, leading paper.
There's a been a few follow-ups to Greg's post (somewhat prompted by my entry here) on teaching, learning, and generally sharing one's experience with reference questions (and answers).
This just in from Mike Eisenberg, the dean of iSchool at the University of Washington (the program I'm enrolled in):
To the entire iSchool community -
I am honored to announce that our own Raya Fidel is winner of the 2003 American Society for Information Science & Technology (ASIST) Award for Outstanding Information Science Teacher!
Established in 1980, the award is co-sponsored by ASIST and the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI). The $1,000 award is presented to "an individual who has demonstrated sustained excellence in teaching information science." This is a highly competitive award, and the judges carefully look at the nominee's record including letters of support from colleagues, students, and alumni of the nominees. Although Raya's many professional activities and prodigious research contributions served as supporting evidence, this award specifically recognizes Raya as an exceptional teacher of information science.
Raya is in outstanding company in receiving this award. Former winners include F. W. Lancaster (1980), Pauline Atherton Cochrane (1981, to whose festschrift Raya contributed the article, "The User-Centered Approach: How We Got There"), Tefko Saracevic (1985), Linda C. Smith (1987), and current ASIST president (and iSchool outstanding alumni) Nicholas Belkin (1990).
Congratulations to you, Raya, from everyone at the iSchool.
There are a ton of interesting things streaming by my aggregator but I'm out of time. Busy with various job applications and homework assignments. I may post some of them quickly but only to their respective categories and not to the main page...
As a former Software/Internet Consultant, a job like this is something to keep in mind. (This bit of info, btw, came via the NEWLIB-L mailing list today)
Truly, once again, I feel as though I've been bit by the "too many interests" bug. I think I would do exceptionally well in corporate environements given my previous experience. On the otherhand, I feel as though that might not be enough of a change, a change that I've been looking for for awhile now.
Other interests include:
Academic libraries (that don't require a second masters such as community colleges, or some private institutions such as the Oregon Graduate Institute)
Technical Services (I'm dying to find out if I'm a cataloger or not!)
Reference (what bigger thrill is there than the hunt for the right information?)
Technology Services (perhaps I don't really need a complete change?)
Was quite fun to wake up this morning to an email from one Marcia Bates -- of course, it wasn't addressed to me personally but sent out to the ASIST mailing list. She was sending out some very useful information for the out of town travelers headed to ASIS&T's annual conference next weekend.
I need to start looking at one or two conferences to try to attend over the next year. I actually won a free student membership to SLA during the new student residency this past August -- the paperwork is still in process for that and I'm really looking forward to getting involved with my local chapter. And I still need to join OLA too...
"There was — and is — room for many other improvements. You could tie in the catalog to the book registry and get real-time view of whether a book had been checked out. (It's still a little difficult to know if someone's waiting in line to check it out downstairs or if it's sitting in the Reshelve cart waiting for a library assistant, but that's progress anyway.) If your library is part of a group of libraries sharing catalog information, you can see if a branch location or another library has the book. You can even request it from another location. It's much easier to see related subjects and works, as well."
I followed up with an email pointing out three examples (WILInet, the Multnomah County library online card catalog, and SUMMIT) in my little world that already exist, doing exactly what he outlines above. I have to wonder though, are these libraries that far ahead of the times? Or is chromatic just unlucky enough not to have been exposed to enough libraries to know better? Or, perhaps I've missed the point he's trying to make.
"You know what I find lacking in the LIS blogosphere? I see a fair amount of writing that mentions different reference transactions (refgrunt, anyone?), but I never learn anything about how our diverse collection of information professionals goes about handling these situations.
Why don't we share more? Maybe we're not willing to have our techniques scrutinized by other so-called experts. That's understandable, but at the same time, I'd like to think I can be accountable for the guidance I provide. Plus, by sharing our approaches with the blogosphere, we're likely to hear alternate ideas from our brilliant cohorts. Perhaps there'll be some lively debate. Who can say for sure? All I know is that we have a lot to teach each other, the kind of insight you just can't get in a few hours of a grad school course.
We have an opportunity to propagate more than our opinions about Ashcroft and OCLC (although these are clearly worthwhile pursuits that I have no intention of abandoning). Rather than saying over and over again that free-web search engines are not necessarily the best approach, let's start demonstrating it. We are not guardians of arcane knowledge, but information guides of the first order. So quit guarding your knowledge and let the guide in you shine through."
Needless to say, Greg got my attention for a couple of reasons. The first being that the first reference question above is one I had from a recent session at Answerland. The second being, he's totally right. As a complete beginner, as someone who hasn't had a single reference class (yet, I can't wait for it; next term I think), I'm a little shy about sharing but what the heck. In general, I seem to have a "talent" for searching things out. And when I can't find the exact information requested, I usually get people pointed in the right direction.
In this particular case, I did indeed us Google and came up with this set of results (and warned the patron that he would have to sift through those results quite a bit) and these results. I wasn't really happen with either so I strongly recommended that the patron follow up with someone at the University of Oregon, School of Music. The patron, however, seemed satisfied with what I found for him. Perhaps (as we were somewhat co-browsing), he learned enough to feel confidant about performing additional searches on his own. Or perhaps, he was just being polite.
So, are you willing to share? To teach? To learn? And if so, should we create a dedicated space?
For all you distance students like me, don't take all those negative comments to heart! Most of them either display the ignorance about good distance programs or apply to "traditional" programs too.
I'm not sure how current this info is, but there's a new Friends of the Library organization for PCC libraries forming. I've just sent off an email requesting more information. Could be interesting, especially the part about volunteer opportunities. That's what I need! :-)
"According to Hennen's American Public Library Ratings index, which Lake Oswego library officials call the definitive ranking of U.S. libraries, the city's library ranks just behind the Washington Centerville Public Library in Ohio and the Elmhurst Public Library in Illinois in categories such as number of visitors, staff, book circulation and hours the library is open.
Molly Raphael, soon to be director of the Multnomah County Library system, will receive the full salary offered her but nobody seems happy with the solution:
"In the end, Linn agreed to pay the extra money with public dollars, seeing it more as a long-term legal settlement than a salary boost.
The settlement marks the first time since the county became self-insured in 1979 that an employee has been compensated with yearly payments from the fund to make up for salary, said Dave Boyer, the county's chief financial officer. " [Read More @ The Oregonian]
An editorial in today's Oregonian has a couple of book suggestions for all parties involved.
So for LIS510 today ("Information Behavior"), I headed out and attempted to get 10 people to answer a 5-minute survey. I chose to stand in front of Fred Meyer and nab people on their way out. It actually went pretty well -- some better than others, of course. People are funny creatures and I got some interesting and some bizarre responses. One of my favorites was where one woman turned me down (which was fine, about one in three folks did), came back while I was with another woman and then came up to me, apologized and asked to be interviewed! I told her not to worry about but she insisted :)
Each student is required to get 5-10 respondents, submit their notes (basically, an electronic version of the instruments), tabulate the results, write an individual analysis/report, and then write-up a group report (with three other studnents). The topic is pretty interesting -- the professor has come up with a very cool area of investigation and her paper on the topic is currently under peer review and should finalized this week or next -- I'll share more about it then :-)
I'm determined to get my results out to my teammates tonight before going to bed and getting my paper done tomorrow. So that means I need to be doing that, er, now.
I had a great time on answerland.org tonight! I was sort of dreading my (2-hour) session tonight because I assumed I would have the same connection problems as last time. So, I was kind of hoping no patrons would drop by... and it looked like that was going to be the case until 10 minutes before my shift ended. Not one, not two, but three folks showed up and I was bouncing around all over the place :-) One lost their connection to the server (not under my control) before I could verify they got the info they needed (looking for reviews on the books/movies, Schindler's List) but the other two were quite happy with what I found for them (overview of Swedish history for a topic for a short paper and the history of music in Oregon during the 1850's).
I'm really looking forward to the rest of my shifts now!
"Clackamas County library leaders have spent nine months putting together the financial pieces for a five-year local option levy.
Joanna Rood, manager of the county's Library Information Network, said after extensive study, the 11-member library board estimates $16.3 million will be needed by 2005-06 to meet the needs of the 10 city and three county library branches the network serves. "
"We need a levy that will sustain what we now have," said Rood, who spoke last week to Milwaukie's Ledding Library Board. [Read More @ The Oregonian]
'An aspiring young writer, a romantic mouse with big ears and a 12-year-old pipeworker in a dying city are among the characters Club Newbery members will meet this year in Washington County libraries.
Now in its third year, the club is a book discussion group for children in grades 5 to 8. Washington County youth services librarians read newly released juvenile fiction and choose at least six books they think will be candidates for the prestigious Newbery Medal for children's literature.
Club members read books from that list, discuss them at regular meetings, critique them on the Club Newbery Web site and finally, in January, vote for the one they think will win the Newbery Medal. Five years ago, an early version of the club at the West Slope Community Library correctly voted for Louis Sachar's "Holes," which not only won the 1999 Newbery Medal but became a movie this year. ' [Read More @ The Oregonian]
"The resource, called Summit, offers students, staff and faculty access to more than 22 million items in Oregon and Washington university and college libraries.
John Helmer, executive director of the Orbis Cascade Alliance, said the service is more than just a new technological advance.
"The only reason this works is because these institutions banded together to form an organization," Helmer said. "It's the right thing to do to work together."
The Orbis Cascade Alliance is a consortium with 27 member libraries throughout the Northwest. Summit combines the catalogues of these libraries over the Web for students to search for and borrow items that are unavailable at their campus libraries. The Summit catalogue provides access to twice as many items than the University offered with access only to the Orbis catalogue. " [Read More @ The Oregon Daily Emerald]
Very cool! I remember hearing that this was coming during the residency for incoming students (last August) when we had our (far too) brief library orientation session. Glad to see it's ready for prime time!
After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the university's Institute for Ethics and Social Policy started studying new federal policies and their effects on civil liberties. This year's series of seminars, "Homeland Security, the Patriot Act and the Bill of Rights," will look at the Patriot Act and its affect on higher education and libraries. [Read more @ The Oregonian]
I know this woman! :-) I'm so happy for her as I know she works very hard with very little resources to get the job done. I met her through doing a school assignment (interview someone from your future field about their job-related writing habits) and that led to her sponsoring me for a scholarship (which I was awarded but ended up having to decline).
Forest Grove School District's librarian recently won statewide recognition Name: Susan Thomason Age: 53 Job: Librarian District: Forest Grove School District
File under "winner:" The Oregon Educational Media Association recently named Thomason the state's District Library Media Teacher of the Year. As a district librarian, she is responsible for overseeing 11 libraries and the library techs who work at each school. The association will give her the award Oct. 11 at the group's fall conference in Corvallis.
