Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Click 06
I should have posted this a long time ago, but better late than never: the closing date for submitting papers to the Australian Library and Information Association's biennial conference, Click 06, is 1 February, next week. So if you have anything you'd like to share with your colleagues, get cracking!
The conference will be held here in Perth, yes Perth, in September. The weather in our fine city is usually quite lovely at that time of year, and you'll also get to meet all manner of wonderful West Australian (not to mention Australian) librarians, so I hope you all come and visit, even if you're not presenting a paper.
The conference will be held here in Perth, yes Perth, in September. The weather in our fine city is usually quite lovely at that time of year, and you'll also get to meet all manner of wonderful West Australian (not to mention Australian) librarians, so I hope you all come and visit, even if you're not presenting a paper.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Best jobs in 2006
Just saw this list of the best jobs to have in 2006 (courtesy of US News and World Report via Yahoo - as pointed out by Christina), and amazingly, 'librarian' is listed as one of them!
The paragraph describing our profession states that:
The paragraph describing our profession states that:
The need for librarians, unfortunately, may decline because search engines make it easy for patrons to find information without a librarian's help.I think this would be true if we weren't constantly changing what we do! I agree that search engines make it all too easy to find information, but I'd argue the need is still there for librarians to teach our patrons how to search (and I don't mean just what buttons to press), to discover, evaluate and point out new information sources, and to deliver information using all means available to us - and in means are as convenient as possible for our patrons.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Interesting use of RFID
Here's one use of RFID technology I'd never considered:
RF-IDing the dead.
I haven't yet gotten back into the flow of things with this blog, despite having read lots of articles that would have been good to share here.
RF-IDing the dead.
Gary Hargrove, coroner of Mississippi's Harrison County, began injecting radio frequency identification (RFID) chips into cadavers to cope with the mounting body count. He said the chips, supplied by a Florida company called VeriChip, helped the county identify and return storm victims to their families without mix-ups. The county also injected the chips into bodies dislodged from graves during flooding.The author interviews the coroner in question and discusses the ethical issues involved.
I haven't yet gotten back into the flow of things with this blog, despite having read lots of articles that would have been good to share here.
Monday, January 09, 2006
Everything you ever wanted to know about e-books, but were afraid to ask
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you've all had pleasant and happy Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations, and to all Muslim readers, Happy Eid ul-Adha! I always like this time of year for the overall holiday feel and especially like it when there are lots of different festivals happening around the same time. Chinese New Year is coming, too...
But to get to the topic of this post, I just found a great bibliography of quite up-to-date materials on e-books, and thought it might be useful to some of us. It's available courtesy of Information Automation Limited: Writings about e-book publishing, 2005.
But to get to the topic of this post, I just found a great bibliography of quite up-to-date materials on e-books, and thought it might be useful to some of us. It's available courtesy of Information Automation Limited: Writings about e-book publishing, 2005.
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
Bloglines down!
Bloglines is offline for much needed plumbing works (it has been a bit patchy of late).
How am I going to cope without it for the next few hours???
How am I going to cope without it for the next few hours???Friday, December 09, 2005
Treasures
Just wanted to share some treasures I unearthed while skimming through my aggregator:
The Poetry Archive, which allows you to listen to recordings of contemporary poets reading their work for free (if you love the recordings you can buy them). The creators of the site point out that "Poetry was an oral art form before it became textual. Homer's work lived through the spoken word long before any markings were made on a page. Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it. When a poet dies without making a recording, a precious resource is lost for ever and as time goes by that loss is felt more and more keenly. What would we not give to be able to hear Keats and Byron reading their work?" Indeed. I can only imagine listening to one of my favourite poets, Rilke, reading his work - I don't think there are any recordings of him.
The British Library's The Writer in the Garden online gallery, which tries to showcase how authors "have inspired authors and how authors in their turn have shaped notions of the garden". Some great virtual books on display!
And of course I mustn't forget the National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries exhibition! It's not very often that I can say this, but here's the blog of one of the people who worked on the online exhibition: shelter.nu from Alex in Canberra.
The Poetry Archive, which allows you to listen to recordings of contemporary poets reading their work for free (if you love the recordings you can buy them). The creators of the site point out that "Poetry was an oral art form before it became textual. Homer's work lived through the spoken word long before any markings were made on a page. Hearing a poet reading his or her work remains uniquely illuminating. It helps us to understand the work as well as helping us to enjoy it. When a poet dies without making a recording, a precious resource is lost for ever and as time goes by that loss is felt more and more keenly. What would we not give to be able to hear Keats and Byron reading their work?" Indeed. I can only imagine listening to one of my favourite poets, Rilke, reading his work - I don't think there are any recordings of him.
The British Library's The Writer in the Garden online gallery, which tries to showcase how authors "have inspired authors and how authors in their turn have shaped notions of the garden". Some great virtual books on display!
And of course I mustn't forget the National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries exhibition! It's not very often that I can say this, but here's the blog of one of the people who worked on the online exhibition: shelter.nu from Alex in Canberra.
Sunday, December 04, 2005
Why I blog
This post was inspired by Chad Boeninger (Library Voice blog). He wrote his answers to these questions back in the middle of November. It’s taken me a while to get to it, but I thought I might answer these questions too.
When did you begin to blog, and why?
I actually created my first blog in 2002. Back then I didn’t have any particular reason to write, so that blog died very quickly. This time around I started in June this year and the practice seems to have ‘taken’ – it has become a part of my daily routine. I started because I found myself having to learn more about blogs and blogging for work, and I find that the easiest way for me to learn something is to actually do it. Rather than reading about it, or going to a class. I also thought it might be useful to have a reason to write.
Does your job require a blog, or is it your own personal choice?
At this stage, no, so blogging is entirely a personal choice for me. I choose what I want to write about. Like many other librarian bloggers (and other bloggers), I’ve chosen to stick with blogging because I enjoy reading and adding my own small occasional contribution to the many conversations out there.
Do you write your blogs at work or elsewhere?
I mostly write at home, although I do occasionally post on this blog during my lunch break if I find something I simply must blog about. When it comes to my other blog, Ruminations, I actually have a strict self-enforced rule about not blogging at work. I just think the timestamp on a post would be a dead giveaway that I was not working (writing about my fountain pen obsession or my cockroach phobia would not count as work, I don’t think).
What is the primary purpose or aim of the blog?
This blog is where I write and collect material on issues affecting librarianship, academic librarianship in particular, as it’s the flavour I know best. Also technology – specifically all that ‘stuff’ that is starting to coalesce under the Web 2.0/Library 2.0 label. I hope to be able to help my colleagues by finding and pointing out material that may be of interest or some use to their work. I have been known to muse about how much I’ve learned reading other librarians’ blogs, so this is my attempt at giving something back.
Ruminations is for more ‘personal’ stuff. This-is-My-Life.
I originally started out thinking that I’d just be playing around with blogging software and all those tools and applications (del.icio.us, Flickr, etc) that plug into blogs. Somehow the writing superseded all that, although I still do play with things as I find them.
Does your company have any policies or guidelines about blogging?
Not yet. Amusingly, I have been asked to assist a senior manager who is on a working group specifically to decide on blogging guidelines and policies for our organisation.
Are your blogs monitored by your organization?
Not officially. Because I recently gave a presentation to my colleagues and handed them the URL for this blog as part of it, I expect/hope that at least some of them will be visiting here at some point. (Hello LIS people!) I don’t usually proclaim my name on either of my blogs, but I don’t think it would be too difficult to work out who I am from what I’ve written.
What inspires you to blog?
The sense of community. I feel a part of the biblioblogosphere, even if there aren’t (m)any of my closest colleagues engaging with me in this medium at this stage, and I’m still such a newcomer and don’t know many people. I’ve never ever felt a part of a community with email lists. I think there is a lot to be said for blogs as a one-to-many means of communication. Where email lists are cacophonous for me (RE: RE: RE: RE: FWD: – help!), blogs are easy to digest and easy to follow, and you can really see the conversations developing – and even participate in them yourself.
Do other members of your organization blog?
Not as far as I know. I live in hope…
One of my former colleagues, Kit, contributes to this blog from time to time.
There aren’t all that many West Australian librarians blogging yet, as far as I know. (Apart from Kit and one of her colleagues, are there any others??)
Is blogging for you an act of self-empowerment?
I’d never thought of blogging that way, but I suppose it is, in a way. Being better informed is empowering. There is so much out there it can be a fine line between being informed and being swamped by the information. Blogging can help a little towards clarifying things – for me writing about things is surprisingly useful, illuminating, even. Connecting with other people can also be empowering.
Do you feel you can write about anything and not be judged? Have you ever “vented” or wrote about negative feelings toward your organization?
I try not to. I’m always aware that things can be misinterpreted so I do try to be careful. I try not to name names. I do my best not to write anything about other people that could offend them. I try to only write what I would happily say to someone's face. If I feel I can tell Colleague X (or Colleague Y, or Colleague Z) to her face that I think she is a complete idiot, then I will write it here. No photos of people without their permission. I do my best to be accurate when writing factual stuff. I often write about things that I know about. I also write about things I am learning about. I try to have fun.
Do you feel like you are writing for yourself, or your audience?
Both. Often I’m trying to record some information for myself, as well as my responses to whatever it is. I do also try write as clearly and as interestingly as I can, because anyone could be reading this! Ruminations is definitely written for me – but I am starting to have ‘regulars’ so I find that I often do keep them in mind when I write.
When did you begin to blog, and why?
I actually created my first blog in 2002. Back then I didn’t have any particular reason to write, so that blog died very quickly. This time around I started in June this year and the practice seems to have ‘taken’ – it has become a part of my daily routine. I started because I found myself having to learn more about blogs and blogging for work, and I find that the easiest way for me to learn something is to actually do it. Rather than reading about it, or going to a class. I also thought it might be useful to have a reason to write.
Does your job require a blog, or is it your own personal choice?
At this stage, no, so blogging is entirely a personal choice for me. I choose what I want to write about. Like many other librarian bloggers (and other bloggers), I’ve chosen to stick with blogging because I enjoy reading and adding my own small occasional contribution to the many conversations out there.
Do you write your blogs at work or elsewhere?
I mostly write at home, although I do occasionally post on this blog during my lunch break if I find something I simply must blog about. When it comes to my other blog, Ruminations, I actually have a strict self-enforced rule about not blogging at work. I just think the timestamp on a post would be a dead giveaway that I was not working (writing about my fountain pen obsession or my cockroach phobia would not count as work, I don’t think).
What is the primary purpose or aim of the blog?
This blog is where I write and collect material on issues affecting librarianship, academic librarianship in particular, as it’s the flavour I know best. Also technology – specifically all that ‘stuff’ that is starting to coalesce under the Web 2.0/Library 2.0 label. I hope to be able to help my colleagues by finding and pointing out material that may be of interest or some use to their work. I have been known to muse about how much I’ve learned reading other librarians’ blogs, so this is my attempt at giving something back.
Ruminations is for more ‘personal’ stuff. This-is-My-Life.
I originally started out thinking that I’d just be playing around with blogging software and all those tools and applications (del.icio.us, Flickr, etc) that plug into blogs. Somehow the writing superseded all that, although I still do play with things as I find them.
Does your company have any policies or guidelines about blogging?
Not yet. Amusingly, I have been asked to assist a senior manager who is on a working group specifically to decide on blogging guidelines and policies for our organisation.
Are your blogs monitored by your organization?
Not officially. Because I recently gave a presentation to my colleagues and handed them the URL for this blog as part of it, I expect/hope that at least some of them will be visiting here at some point. (Hello LIS people!) I don’t usually proclaim my name on either of my blogs, but I don’t think it would be too difficult to work out who I am from what I’ve written.
What inspires you to blog?
The sense of community. I feel a part of the biblioblogosphere, even if there aren’t (m)any of my closest colleagues engaging with me in this medium at this stage, and I’m still such a newcomer and don’t know many people. I’ve never ever felt a part of a community with email lists. I think there is a lot to be said for blogs as a one-to-many means of communication. Where email lists are cacophonous for me (RE: RE: RE: RE: FWD: – help!), blogs are easy to digest and easy to follow, and you can really see the conversations developing – and even participate in them yourself.
Do other members of your organization blog?
Not as far as I know. I live in hope…
One of my former colleagues, Kit, contributes to this blog from time to time.
There aren’t all that many West Australian librarians blogging yet, as far as I know. (Apart from Kit and one of her colleagues, are there any others??)
Is blogging for you an act of self-empowerment?
I’d never thought of blogging that way, but I suppose it is, in a way. Being better informed is empowering. There is so much out there it can be a fine line between being informed and being swamped by the information. Blogging can help a little towards clarifying things – for me writing about things is surprisingly useful, illuminating, even. Connecting with other people can also be empowering.
Do you feel you can write about anything and not be judged? Have you ever “vented” or wrote about negative feelings toward your organization?
I try not to. I’m always aware that things can be misinterpreted so I do try to be careful. I try not to name names. I do my best not to write anything about other people that could offend them. I try to only write what I would happily say to someone's face. If I feel I can tell Colleague X (or Colleague Y, or Colleague Z) to her face that I think she is a complete idiot, then I will write it here. No photos of people without their permission. I do my best to be accurate when writing factual stuff. I often write about things that I know about. I also write about things I am learning about. I try to have fun.
Do you feel like you are writing for yourself, or your audience?
Both. Often I’m trying to record some information for myself, as well as my responses to whatever it is. I do also try write as clearly and as interestingly as I can, because anyone could be reading this! Ruminations is definitely written for me – but I am starting to have ‘regulars’ so I find that I often do keep them in mind when I write.
