Is Tuesday too early to start planning your Friday happy hour? We don’t think so, especially since tickets to our After Hours events tend to sell out. You are cordially invited to join us at the Ca…
It’s a new version of library outreach, a la happy hour.
A return to work after my wonderful 3-week vacation has my brain in project mode, as much as I’m trying to avoid it (there’s so much rote scanning to be done, I’m trying shut my brain off so that I can stand at ScanRobot all day).
Anyways, one of the projects is the institutional repository, ongoing since I started back in August. We finally now have all policy approved, and are waiting for the technical platform to be finished. I wrote this up a while ago, before the work group’s idea to use DSPACE was not accepted. We’re now waiting for an in-house platform to be developed.
It’s an interesting quandary, and one I’d be interested in hearing about at other libraries. How are you solving this? Are there other solutions that I don’t see?
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Many of the Kazakh faculty and staff are publishing in local print journals that are not indexed anywhere online. This causes a problem in keeping comprehensive records of publications, because of the time and effort that would be involved in locating all of these sorts of publications (we would have to identify all of the local journals in which these people might publish, have one of the local staff members manually go through each journal edition looking for familiar names or affiliation, and write these down).
After heavy thought and collaboration with the Central Research Office, we decided that the most agreeable solution would be to develop a self-archiving system. In order to be effective, this system would have to both add value to our record-keeping (be accurate enough) and to the faculty or staff member themselves. By offering a service that would allow the faculty or staff member to keep track of their publications in a way that they could easily generate a list for a grant proposal or CV, we could solve our own problem.
“About ten days after the troops entered [Basra], the library was completely burnt down. We carried about 30,000 books to the restaurant and to our homes. Then, we transferred them from the restaurant to our homes in my own car and in cars belonging to the employees. Most of these books and manuscripts were rare and important ones. Regrettably, we lost a lot of books in the fire,” she said.
(Source: themugglelibrarian)
In which she writes about the nonsense of day-to-day life abroad. It’s always weird little meditations, but she’s got a master’s in Creative Writing or English Lit or something that gives her authority.
In short, give it a glance.
I just posted this list I’ve been working on over my vacation - any other international librarians (looking at you, Natashainlibraryland) have good suggestions???
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American Library Association president Maureen Sullivan, in discussing why ALA has chosen to honor Aaron Swartz with the James Madison award.
I’m so proud to be a librarian, and a member of ALA, today.
From redefining physical library spaces to teaching patrons how to build digital ones, libraries are excited to adopt new technologies and introduce them to their communities. Here are just some of the buzzworthy things libraries and librarians are doing, some of which we heard about at SXSW Interactive last week:
- Maker spaces, where patrons can get hands on experience in a variety of creative ways, ranging from sewing and crafts to 3-D printing. Many libraries will be participating in #MAYkerMondays, which promotes maker spaces in libraries by showing how their own libraries use maker spaces and programming.
- The adoption of technology like Raspberry Pi, a $35 minicomputer designed for experimentation, to replace older and more expensive machines. Raspberry Pi units are being used to run library catalog terminals and foster creativity in maker spaces.
- LibraryBox is an open source, digital distribution system that allows information to be shared despite access to a traditional internet connection. LibraryBoxen were distributed throughout Austin last week via pedicabs that served as little free libraries and volunteers who carried them to different panels.
- Arizona State University and the Arizona public libraries are collaborating on a project called the Alexandria Network, which aims to assist small businesses and entrepreneurs by providing fact checking services, ASU’s startup resources, and co-working spaces in one convenient space in several of the state’s public libraries. Could a library be home to the next great startup?
Cool!
A good quote to live by. I’d be so sad if I died while carrying around anything from the Twilight series.
(Source: notdeweydecimal, via mal-ya)
I don’t often use my tumblr for serious things… but I figured, with this? Why not.
So, I’m interested because being a part of that “white, hetero, and cis” crowd I don’t share that the feeling the Schiller’s post was “not for me” nor did that feeling even occur to me as a way to feel (I facepalm over things like this more and more frequently). But what of Schiller’s invitation to suggest readings to him (which Fobazi has done here)? What about having to find somewhere, some place to start this discussion?
I think reading out of the box is a great idea, no matter what background/perspective you’re coming from. As much as I can see adejesus’s perspective on Schiller’s original post, I still think that we can all happily benefit from “diversifying” our lit, whatever that means to us.
To me, it means not only authors of different backgrounds, but also picking up different types of books. For me, this means a (wait for it) YA novel here and there - I never read them (unless they’re written by friends, like this awesome novel by Sean Joyce). I’m also not a huge fantasy/sci fi person, so maybe I’ll even add that to my year’s reading.
As an aside, I love how deeply LIS folks think about issues like diversity and understanding.
(Source: satifice)
Whether you’re a librarian, student, teacher, or just an avowed bibliophile, Pinterest offers another great way to keep up with creative and cutting-edge ways libraries are engaging with their communities. [Click the link] to learn about some of the many ways libraries are helping spread the word about the resources and services they offer, using this innovative new social media forum.
Lots of great links to tips and examples of how libraries can effectively use Pinterest to market themselves and connect with their communities. I especially love #20 Creating collaborative boards with patrons, and #12 Highlighting library staff members.
(via themonicabird)
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Theme is The Atlantic by Peter Vidani for Tumblr.
