Project of the North Suburban Library System, designed to connect librarians with a whole bunch of library blogs.
The Shifted Librarian
Present at GLLS2008!I have a lot going on at work right now, which is one reason I haven’t been posting much to my blog. I’m going to talk a little more about MPOW here, as some of my projects are kicking into gear and will have some vi......Read More about 3 hours ago |
“Libraries Aren’t Just Buil...Pokemon teaches kids to respect libraries. Originally uploaded by Klara Kim No Tags...Read More 1 day ago |
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H Is for HamI work with some fun and interesting people. John Chrastka is one of them, and not just because he’s willing to ham it up in service of ALA. John stars in the latest AL Focus video, a guide to Annual Conference for new att......Read More 8 days ago |
Agreeing with Vint CerfWhat I’ve Learned: Vint Cerf “It may seem like sort of a waste of time to play World of Warcraft with your son. But you’re actually interacting with each other. You’re solving problems. They may seem like......Read More 11 days ago |
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LISNews - Librarian And Information Science News
When To Say When: Is it ever appropriat...Thought it's rare for any post at LISNews to get more than a few comments, on rare occasions a thread will take off and degenerate into the worst of what the internet has to offer; name calling, profanity, anger, stupidity and r......Read More 43 minutes ago |
CA Political Candidate: recognize this ...Conway should back library assistant: "It is reckless and irresponsible in a predominantly Christian community such as our own, to allow a good person to to be targeted and punished for a selfless act of protecting our children ......Read More about 2 hours ago |
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Singaporean Bicycle User Mad At His Lib...It may have taken a while, but it appears that a ruckus kicked up by a library user over bicycle parking has had some effect. Ten new bicycle racks now sit near the entrance of the Singapore National Library Board's community li......Read More about 15 hours ago |
Trustees Vs Director: Who Has The Power...So who's in charge here? That's the question the trustees are passing around the table at the Yakima Valley Regional Library (WA) where some members of the library board feel that the director is taking her authority too far. Wh......Read More about 15 hours ago |
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LibrarianInBlack
My Online Marketing Webcast AvailableToday I gave a 90-minute webcast for OPAL: Online Marketing for Libraries. Tom Peters, OPAL's coordinator, has already archived the presentation on OPAL's archive site. You have three choices: you can listen to the audio while v......Read More about 8 hours ago |
Live Mesh - bring your data with youIf you haven't read about Live Mesh from Microsoft yet, it's an idea to bring together various computing experiences and make them uniform based on user, not on location. In other words, you bring your preferences and your files......Read More about 10 hours ago |
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IPL collection on web appsThe Internet Public Library has a special collection of links dedicated to Web Applications. It's a couple of years old, so a lot of the "hot new stuff" isn't there, but the solid stand-bys are here, and I was able......Read More about 10 hours ago |
New Children's Books PodcastI just heard about a children's books-themed podcast, entitled Just One More Book. The podcast comes out three times a week, is between 5 and 25 minutes in length, and discusses favorite books and literacy issues. There are over......Read More about 10 hours ago |
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Stephen's Lighthouse
SLA New Jersey ChapterHere's this week's presentation to the SLA New Jersey Chapter: Reality 2.0: Transforming Ourselves & Our Association Lots of fun there at Rutgers and talking to the profs and students too. Stephen...Read More about 17 hours ago |
Connecticut Library AssociationHere's the session I did for the Connecticut Library Association conference this month. Technology Watch: What's New, What's Coming, and What You Need to Know Mystic CT, great name! Stephen...Read More about 17 hours ago |
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FAMENot that kind of fame but the Florida Association of Media Educators! I did a presentation for them in West Palm Beach on The Ftuure Learners Will See. Pretty place too. Stephen...Read More about 17 hours ago |
SEFLIN PresentationI spent some nice time with the SEFLIN board in West Palm Beach. My presentation was called The Future of Libraries. They also had the CEO of the World Future Society there. Cool. Stephen...Read More about 17 hours ago |
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Ad Lib: Advocacy for Libraries
National Library DayIt’s that time of year againâ€"the annual National Library Day when those of us with strong feelings about the role that government can play in the world of libraries trek to D.C. This year we need to once again thank legisla......Read More about 23 hours ago |
New Voices for AdvocacyYou may notices some new names coming in on the Ad Lib blog in the coming weeks, as we expand our roster of contributors beyond yours truly. We've invited NSLS's Advocacy Team &emdash; our director, Sarah Long; Donna Tieberg; Da......Read More 3 days ago |
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Library Day is Coming!As I'm sure you're aware, it's just over two weeks until Illinois Library Day — the day when library people from across Illinois descend on Springfield and make our voices heard.A full schedule of events has been posted on......Read More about 1 month ago |
Budget Hearings Are Back!Illinois Speaker of the House Mike Madigan is offering another chance for you to let the government know what you think is important in the state's budget. The House of Representatives of the Illinois General Assembly is once a......Read More about 1 month ago |
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Blue Skunk Blog
Plucked from the belly button of a Burm...My heart goes out to Myanmar. For a very personal reason. I was visitor there once upon a time and fell in love with the country's people, its beauty and its troubles.Exactly 20 years ago, my good friend Clair and I left a NESA ......Read More 1 day ago |
Media special - itisA fellow Minnesotan teased me a little about the name of ISTE's special interest group for library media specialists - SIGMS. He teased that MS was a disease, not a profession.After reading this comment, I began wondering - migh......Read More 1 day ago |
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Open response to Stager's complaintThe Noah Principal: No more prizes for predicting rain. Prizes only for building arks. Louis GerstnerOne of my favorite educational scolds, Gary Stager, yesterday excoriated "the most popular, hired and prolific members of ......Read More 1 day ago |
Do I write like Dick Cheney looks?Paul Bogash at Blogush argues that blog authors should NOT include their photos with their blogs. He writes:I like using my imagination to create an image of the person I am listening to or reading. Some of the people that I hav......Read More 2 days ago |
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Tame The Web
What are you starting?This one time I had a Professor tell me you have to start something new at least once a month. Her idea was that we are these “perpetual discovery engines” Apply, apply, apply was a core tenet. The greatest ideas s......Read More 1 day ago |
There is Only One YouJohn Klima writes: Here’s the magic of this. I am not confined in thinking that I need to be like everyone else, think like everyone else, or act like everyone else. I can’t be. We’re all unique. And being uniq......Read More 2 days ago |
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Thanks Reference Librarian Association.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } Thanks Reference Librarian Association, original......Read More 2 days ago |
Page2RSSPhil Bradley writes: Now, this is very useful. For pages that don’t have an RSSÂ Â Page2RSSÂ will basically create one for you. Simply type in the URL of the page that you’re interested in, grab the feed, add it into......Read More 3 days ago |
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ALA TechSource Blog
Call for Presenters for GLLS2008!We're in full swing for planning the second annual ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium, which will take place on November 2-4, 2008, in Oak Brook, IL (a western suburb of Chicago).There's some preliminary in......Read More 1 day ago |
Today the Users, Tomorrow the ObjectsAbout forty years ago Sunsweet Pitted Prunes ran a famously funny TV ad, written by Stan Freberg. It featured a stuffy British character actor complaining about the fact that prunes contained pits and were wrinkled. Once y......Read More 16 days ago |
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Student -Centered Digital Learning at L...Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting and speaking at the new Loyola University Information Commons on the campus of Loyola University just north of Chicago. It was a blustery, rainy cold day along the lake, but the space an......Read More 19 days ago |
"Get over it" - and Experiment: Notes f...I was very lucky to share a podium with Jen Maney, Pima County Public Library, and John Blyberg, Darien Library, on Friday morning at the 2008 Public library Association conference in Minneapolis, MN. I wrote two pages of hurrie......Read More about 1 month ago |
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walking paper
not a boxOk, so the *last* thing I ever expected to blog about is a children’s book but I came across one in the library yesterday that I liked so much I want more people to know about it. It is titled Not a Box and is about a lit......Read More 2 days ago |
no babies in the library!!Young babies and toddlers can sometimes be loud in the library. They scream and run around, often disrupting real patrons’ placid library experience. Parents have no control. These little menaces really have no place in......Read More 9 days ago |
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walking paper scraps→ Zkimmer Browse magazines with Google Maps controls. It actually works pretty well. → The hours of operation are perhaps not the sexiest aspect of a library website, but they are nonetheless a “killer app,” prov......Read More 22 days ago |
v. important reference itemThe CIA’s library has a copy of “Danger Man” aka “Secret Agent.” originally uploaded by goppenheim P.S. I did some spy work on my own and noticed that the CIA’s holdings appear to not be in ......Read More 29 days ago |
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Information Wants To Be Free
31 Day Comment Challenge: Days 2-7In case you were wondering, I haven’t given up on the comment challenge! I’ve just been rather involved in the comment storm that’s taking place on my blog right now. I definitely didn’t do all of these a......Read More 2 days ago |
Is this how we encourage people to cont...A person I’m friendly with in California wrote me last night asking for advice about a speaking gig he just got. He’s pretty new to the speaking thing (though he is excellent) and wants to grow his reputation as a sp......Read More 3 days ago |
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31 Day Comment Challenge: Day 1The first activity in the comment challenge is to do a comment self-audit. Here’s mine: How often do you comment on other blogs during a typical week? It is so variable. Probably on average I comment on three blogs a week......Read More 5 days ago |
Comment Challenge: 31 Days to Being a B...One of my favorite blogs is the Bamboo Project Blog by the brilliant Michelle Martin. Michelle writes about social software in the non-profit sector, e-learning, workplace learning and more, so while it’s not a library blo......Read More 5 days ago |
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BlogJunction Illinois
New @ WJ-IL 05.06Resources Podcasting - Not an alien activity! Still trying to figure out exactly what podcasting is and how your library can use it? Use this WJ Weekly tip for a pathfinder on creating audio and podcasts for your library as we......Read More 2 days ago |
Literacy Spotlight: Regional Office of ...Adult literacy education programs often make it possible for adults who never completed their education to return to school. Day and evening tutoring sessions are available at ROE St. Clair County and are designed to work around......Read More 3 days ago |
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E-Rate NewsThe SLD’s News Brief for April 25th focuses on the newly revised Automated Search for Commitments tool on the SLD Web site. The key features of the new tool include: Easier access to more data by funding year, by funding ......Read More 3 days ago |
Get in the Game ResourcesFrom the most recent RPLS “Let’s Get it All Together” newsletter, here are some resources to help you get ready for the 2008 Summer Reading Program - “Get in the Game”: American Library Association......Read More 3 days ago |
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PlainTalk
DPPL People - Meet Joanne Griffin!It's May and that means it's time for another edition of DPPL People, this time featuring Reference librarian Joanne Griffin, who also happens to be the library's liaison to the Des Plaines business community. You will often fin......Read More 2 days ago |
What's Happening This Month at DPPL - M...How on earth did May get here so quickly? I was starting to think that the mountain of snow I gazed upon outside my office window was never going to melt and then I woke up to tulips. In order to keep you posted on events and pr......Read More 7 days ago |
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Do the Dewey 2008 - now on video!If you were lucky enough to be at our Do the Dewey event this past Saturday, you will want to watch for yourself in our latest YouTube video right up at the top of this post. Couldn't make it? Watch the video and you'll see how ......Read More 10 days ago |
Thanks for helping us Do the Dewey!I'm sure I'm not the only library staff member who's feeling a little tired and achy today, but wow, what a party! Thank you to the hundreds of people who came out on Saturday night, April 26, to help us Do the Dewey and raise f......Read More 11 days ago |
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Sarah Long - Our Libraries
Good reads suggested from across the po...Jenny and I became friends in the 1970s in Bristol, England where we worked at a teacher training college. She was in the art department and I worked in the library. We've remained friends, sometimes exchanging visits, but mainl......Read More 4 days ago |
Mental workouts equally essential as ph..."Use it or lose it" applies to the brain, too. As we get older, we tend to avoid challenges. We've experimented and we know what works for us. We resist new ways to do things especially if the old way works. Learning is ha......Read More 11 days ago |
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Podcasting helps easily bring informati...Want to be on the cutting edge of technology? Get into podcasting! Podcasting is like a radio show, except you listen to it whenever you want to on your computer, iPod, MP3 player and even some telephones. You can subscribe t......Read More 18 days ago |
Get Smart With Money at the Library Nea...These days who's not worried about money? Between falling house prices and rising food and gasoline prices, money is a worrisome subject. In 2002 the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in partnership with several financial ins......Read More 24 days ago |
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LibraryBytes
Social Media ReportUniversal McCann, an international social media communications firm, has just released their 3rd Wave report comparing the growth and use of social media tools across the globe. What’s interesting to see is how far the US is a......Read More 5 days ago |
Updated Hard TimesI can’t remember how I stumbled across this, but it was about a week or so ago. Anyway, this interesting short historical/ cultural comparison -- it's hard to call it a book, but that's how its laid out online -- takes a l......Read More 7 days ago |
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My contribution to deep thoughts …I’ve been working on a new talk on libraries and lifelong learning and it’s occurred to me that in reality all learning experiences are lifelong. That is with the exception of one… There’s a longer post inherit in this ......Read More 8 days ago |
Can you guess which phone is mine?1.0,1.5,2.0 phones Originally uploaded by tscrobinson At lunch yesterday Sean grabbed this photo of our work "appendages." Can you guess which one is mine?Hint: Mine was acquired through erate standards.Now guess which one......Read More 8 days ago |
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David Lee King
My Mountain Plains Library Association ...Just got back from Salt Lake City yesterday - I gave a breakfast talk titled The Future is Not Out of Reach: Trends & Transformations for MPLA’s annual conference. Some of you might enjoy the pdf of the slides, too - f......Read More 5 days ago |
Working Your Community’s BlogosphereRecently, Darren Rowse at ProBlogger posted Five Reasons Why Mom Blogs Are the Blogs to Watch. Darren says “Mom blogs are poised to become the next big “It” when it comes to the internetâ€"they’re gathering power lik......Read More 5 days ago |
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Looking for a Web DeveloperWanna move to Kansas? We’re looking for a Web Developer: “The Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library is seeking a creative, energetic Web Developer to help move our Digital Branch to the next level of sophisticatio......Read More 13 days ago |
Admin Level Rights on Staff PCs?I am looking for examples of libraries that DON’T lock down their staff PCs… libraries that provide power/super-user/admin level rights for staff. We will be re-doing our staff PC profiles later on this year, and I w......Read More 20 days ago |
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Perennial Searcher
Top 100 Tools For LearningHere's an excellent roundup of essential Web apps: Top 100 Tools for Learning. Here you'll find software to help you with the following: blogs, wikis, social networking, email, Web browsers, email, social bookmarking, customized......Read More 5 days ago |
GrokkerDo you Grok? If you use Ebsco products/database you might . . . that is, if you use the "visual search" feature. According to the company . . . "Grokker’s name is inspired by the 1961 Robert A. Heinlein science fiction class......Read More 7 days ago |
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IRN: May 2008The May 2008 issue of Internet Resources Newsletter is now available. What the BBC is to the news, IRN is to the Web. Be sure to comb through the A-Z New & Notable Websites. Profiled this month is AllPsych, an excellent portal o......Read More 16 days ago |
80% of Web Searches = InformationalThe findings of a Penn State study reveal that 80% of Internet searches are "informational". What, exactly, does that word mean in context? Answer: "Informational searching involves looking for a specific fact or topic, navig......Read More 27 days ago |
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The "M" Word - Marketing Libraries
Ideas from the NJ Library Association C...I was at the NJ Library Association's 2008 Conference yesterday, taking notes on various ideas I heard. This first list is made up of some of the recommendations that came from the NJ State Librarian's Blue Ribbon Task Force on ......Read More 6 days ago |
SLA Goes GreenerYesterday I posted about being green and greenwashing. I'm thrilled to see that SLA is getting serious about the environment in a big way. One more great movement started by Stephen Abram (who's currently SLA president). You go ......Read More 15 days ago |
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Connecting to our customersI've been talking about using new media to connect with our customers and just found a series of very short videos by Calgary Public Library that are a neat example of that. I love the idea that they are focusing on the customer......Read More 15 days ago |
Earth Day SpinHappy Earth Day, one and all! I've always been devoted to the environment (esp since my dad was a forester), so I'm all for Earth Day. But am I the only one who's tired of the media telling me to buy different lightbulbs and to ......Read More 16 days ago |
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Youth Services Librarians Unite!!
Great Web Sites for KidsALA's Great Web Sites for KidsThis is definately one to add to your library's website!...Read More 6 days ago |
Toon BooksThis wonderful new series is SURE to delight young readers - if you haven't seen them yet - YOU MUST!!! My first encounter with this series of Graphic Novels for younger readers was at PLA this year. I have purchased them all!To......Read More 14 days ago |
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SpatulattaFound this fun website -and I'm thinking others will find it neat too. Spatulatta is a website for cooking with kids. It's done by Scholastic and it's very good!! I think you will find lots of fun recipes to make while you are t......Read More about 1 month ago |
Hot Sites for LibrariansHere you go - a colleague shared these with me:TONS of Story Hour Themes: HCPLThe Best Kid's Book SiteEZ Program SearchYou won't be sorry!!!!...Read More 2 months ago |
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The Book's the Thing
Revelation: Library school can be FATTE...It's a truth universally acknowledged that a busy library student in need of a commute to videoconference classes must be in want of fast food. And it's really starting to show. No one warned me of that when I applied for libra......Read More 8 days ago |
End of semester hair pullingComing up to the end of the spring semester of grad school. It's time all my major projects come due, so if you can remember how that was when you were in school you'll know how hairy this time is. The good news is I'm done wit......Read More 17 days ago |
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Congrats to Bill LoehfelmFrom Publisher's Weekly: New Orleans Bartender Wins Amazon Breakthrough Award By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 4/7/2008 7:55:00 AM The winner of the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award was announced today: Bill Loehfelm......Read More about 1 month ago |
Hugo Award Nominees Announced2008 Hugo Award Nominees Published on 21 Mar 2008 at 12:09 pm.. Denvention 3, the 66th World Science Fiction Convention, has announced the ballot for the 2008 Hugo Awards. Nominations were made by the members of last year’s W......Read More about 1 month ago |
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Something Different Every Day
No Child Left Behind @ your library?I am back on my early literacy soapbox, thanks to the checklist someone passed to me of how library staff in one library system are being rated on their storytimes. The checklist is entirely based on Every Child Ready to Read s......Read More 14 days ago |
Library books are too scary!Last weekend, a mother asked me to help her find some books for her preschool daughter that might persuade her that all library books are not scary. She explained that for her daughter, any book where someone expressed fear, or......Read More about 1 month ago |
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Desk blogsI know it's kind of annoyingly navel-gazing to blog about blogging, but I've been wrestling with our department's blog so it's on my mind. I'd read before about the benefits of having a departmental desk blog, but it wasn't unt......Read More 2 months ago |
The little things in lifeAs I overheard a mother talking to her toddler the other day, I was struck by something important. She was saying, "Are you ready to go say goodbye to the bunny?" The bunny is a puppet I bought on an expedition to Milwaukee so......Read More 2 months ago |
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Annotations
18 Sexy Scenes in the StacksI just got this great link from the Lib-Ref list and wanted to share. I guess it is from Entertainment Weekly and is entitled "18 Great Film Scenes That Take Place in Libraries" Can you think of others?...Read More 23 days ago |
Fasten Your Seatbelts...Interesting artilce by Matthew Barakat, Associated Press that appeared in USA Today: "WASHINGTON â€" Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he expects the next decade to bring even greater technological leaps than the past......Read More about 1 month ago |
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Are you a positive deviant?NSLS usually sends some staff to the Pegasus Conference. This is an outgrowth of Peter Senge's work and involves various forms of systems thinking and leadership methods. As a result most staff get an e-newsletter called Leverag......Read More about 1 month ago |
You have to see what Indiana has done!You have to see this! Indiana has created a wonderful website for data and statistics. Posted on this site are the results of a state study conducted to measuere, access, and analyze the economic impact of the state's public an......Read More 3 months ago |
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