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READ poster tool

Rhondda — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:57:12 +0000

[gallery]

Thanks to the Shifted Librarian blog, I found out that the ALA has created a very simple little on-line tool that could be easily used in libraries. It creates a free mini poster, in a matter of seconds, which promotes reading. The user can upload any photograph they like into the space provided. I could see students, as well as staff, creating a miniposter of a book cover they like, for the library to display in a "Student recommends ...." style. There are only four styles of the READ poster but could still be fun and it is quick. The poster above are a pile of the "banned" books we have on display, Catcher on the Rye, Harry Potter, Nineteen eighty-four, etc. I can see a promotion of all types of materials also being done soon. I wander what other ways people will be able to think of using this tool?

There is also a Flickr group pool where people have shared the posters they have created.

What is Technical Services?

geekylibrarian — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:21:45 +0000

I just got back from the most well attended tech services meeting I've ever been to, and it was a really good one. But I think what I found most fascinating this time around was discovering the huge variety in job descriptions that the various attendees had (a few of us are planning to swap them over e-mail now actually). At the meeting were librarians responsible for:

cataloging

mending

collection development

acquistions

administration

serials

archiving

and actually two library directors, who also dabble in tech services work.

Granted I do or have done nearly everything on that list at some point, but it's really amazing to me when you hear that the work done by your entire department (and a few people elsewhere in the library) is done by a single person at another library (who has my sympathy). I don't think I'm going to complain about being overworked ever again.

Legal Links from Argentina

Sergio Stone — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:28:19 +0000

The Argentine Association of Law Librarians (Asociación Civil de Bibliotecarios Jurídicos- ACBJ) has recently posted a useful collection of Argentine legal links. Categories include: national government agencies, provincial governments, blogs, dictionaries, law schools, bar associations, legal guides, law libraries and legal publishers. These links will be useful for academics and practitioners. Muchas gracias to our Argentine colleagues.

ACBJ Legal Links http://www.acbj.org.ar/link.html

The ACBJ annual conference will be held October 9th and 10th in the beautiful resort town of Barilioche. This years' theme is "The Rights of Minorities in a Knowledge Society." For more information visit: http://www.acbj.org.ar/eventos.htm

"New World of Metadata" IFLA Presentation...08.20.08

lonewolflibrarian — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:54:50 +0000

I found the presentation that is mentioned below interesting from Planet Cataloging [http://planetcataloging.org/]:

"As requested by conference attendees, here is the presentation at the Industry Symposium at IFLA, 14 August 2008. The presentation describes a new environment of global information services and exciting new roles for metadata and a variety of knowledge organization methods. Argues that the changes in the environment will permanently affect what it means 'to catalog' materials for the purpose of connecting citizens, students and scholars to the information they need, when and where they need it."

Information Professional Identities and Our Online Reputation by Stephen Abram online...08.20.08

lonewolflibrarian — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:39:17 +0000

As usual a good read is available from Stephen Abram's latest article in SLA's Information Outlook:

Information Professional Identities and Our Online Reputation

Conclusion: "...We need to learn to address the challenging 21st century issues in this socially networked world – privacy, DRM, rights, legal issues, ownership, safety, etc. We need to understand the issues related to our photos – are they real, B&W, colour – professional, edgy, silly, embarrassing, whatever? Will we want them to turn up in other contexts? What about our private lives and photos? What about weird Uncle Bill?

Either way, it’s time to re-find our voice as professionals. Anonymity just isn’t working for us. Professionalism requires that we learn to how to present ourselves, promote ourselves and be where our market of users can discover us and be impressed that we are the sharks in the tank of the emerging information and knowledge economy. Our reputation will play out in the social web space as much as anywhere else. We need to get good at this."