library

conferences - library

Bursting the bubble

September 26, 2012 by 0 Comments

I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the Ontario Library Services North (OLSN) conference in Sudbury. One of the reasons I was excited to accept the invitation is that it took me out of my normal presentation audience. I love working in academia, but it often feels like a bubble. We’re so busy looking at our own issues that we don’t get to think about our colleagues in public libraries and the issues they face. This conference offered me a chance to try to think a little differently and, because it isn’t my area of expertise, I’ve been able to learn a lot so far, like working with First Nations clients and engaging your community. The latter is something I think academic libraries should be working towards: both our own university community but also partnering with public libraries to reach out to our greater community. Universities are very insular, but partnerships between the university, academic and public libraries can help open up the institution and engage their community in new and exciting ways.

I’ve really enjoyed breaking out of my norm and learning so much from my public library colleagues. It’s been a refreshing to look at librarianship through a new lens and I highly recommend taking the chance to learn something outside of your own field.

 

 

library - reference - Second Life - virtual worlds

Google Gab

July 10, 2008 by 0 Comments

Google is often the fodder of much discussion among librarians. The vast majority of librarians I know love and use Google frequently (I use Google Reader, iGoogle, gmail, gtalk, Google maps, Google Scholar and Google Books). Librarians have often struggled to figure out the relationship they have with Google – some see great potential while others see Google as a threat. Google sought a partnership with libraries for their Google Books project and suggested they would like to continue the relationship, even starting a newsletter for librarians. As Steven Cohen and others have pointed out, they have not kept up this relationship. The Chronicle of Higher Education has since picked up this story. There is some great discussion occurring on the story, so take a look and consider what you think of the matter.

Google has also become the talk of librarians thanks to the release of Lively, Google’s virtual world. I’ve already jumped in and started looking around (I’m Darrwyn if you happen to be in Lively). At first glance, it seemed to be more like IMVU, a 3d chat room, than a virtual world. It wasn’t as intuitive as I thought it might be either. I found it a little odd that you choose your room before creating your avatar. I found it interesting that you can be in multiple rooms at once (simply tab between rooms). Rooms do show who is visiting, which will result in less empty world syndrome, a phenomenon that is commonplace in Second Life. It is also Windows only at the moment – I’m hoping this will change soon. I think there is potential though. I will be spending some time in there for the next while, learning the ropes, creating rooms and seeing how it compares with Second Life. One of the nice things is that Lively rooms can be put on a webpage – could this be a new step for virtual reference (I’ll have more on this idea later, so stay posted). We already have meebo widgets on our webpages, perhaps there will soon be a Lively room as well.

Update – It’s much easier to move around when using a mouse with my laptop. If I had started out this way, I may have felt the interface was a little more intuitive than I originally did.

library - public libraries

Library and Archives Canada

November 21, 2007 by 0 Comments

Go LAC! They’re doing some neat things lately. There is a new show on CBC called Who Do You Think You Are? – they take Canadian celebs and trace their genealogy – and it’s presented in part by LAC! They also have recently launched a Goverment of Canada web archive. They’ve also been looking into Second Life. I’m sure they’re doing other neat and nifty stuff. It’s great to see our National Library doing some amazing things.

gov info - library - web 2.0

Trouble coming?

July 28, 2006 by 0 Comments

I’m sure many have posted on this, but as a Canadian, this was the first time I took a look at the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) in the States (House Resolution 5319). If passed, it will force schools and libraries to block anything that allow users to post profiles, personal information and allow communication among users or lose federal internet subsidies. This could be a terrible blow to the Web 2.0 movement and seems to be mostly backlash at MySpace. I understand the need to prevent predator’s from approaching children, but educating children on proper use of the web may be the most important step. Despite this being an American resolution, I will be keeping my eye on it, just in case Canada feels the need to follow our neighbours to the south. For more info, check out the post from Techcrunch, which offers links to other sites talking about DOPA.

library - odd stuff

Info*Nation

May 10, 2006 by 0 Comments

I'm helping spread the word. Info*Nation is in pre-launch at the moment (to be released around the time of the CLA Conference in Ottawa June 14-16) and so is aimed at gaining support from those in the profession. Once it launches however, it will be aimed at those thinking about becoming a library or information professional. I think there's some great potential here and will be interested to see how youth use the site. Take a look at it for yourself.

information - library - reference

Merger

May 8, 2006 by 0 Comments

For those of you who may not know, OCLC and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) are thinking of merging together. As two of the biggest non-profit library groups, this is big news. You can read more about this merger and possible implications (loss of jobs, integrated database, etc) in the Chronicle of Higher Education (requires subscription, sorry).

Update: For those who can't access CHE, here's a link to an ALA tidbit on the merger that doesn't require a subscription (as far as I can recall).

library - reference - tech - web 2.0

The Future?

April 6, 2006 by 1 Comment

Take a look at this post from A Zulu in Silicon Valley. It looks at a search engine called Quece that actually searches by chat. They call it Conversational search. You search like you think. Simply type in your search, get results, and then you are asked another question, thereby refining your search. This sounds awfully like a reference interview. I haven't tried it out yet but it is certainly added to my to do list. I'll be keeping on eye on this one.