Sarah Houghton-Jan has a new URL and an all new look. Go over to her inaugural post and say hello. Don’t forget to update your feeds!
Category: blogz
a few late summer links
I’ve been scooting around a little bit lately and here are some things that have been crossing my virtual desk. I’ve also dealt with two wordpress issues [a hack! and an outdated sidebar navigation element] and I’ve upgraded to the latest version of WordPress. If you’re on a Summer schedule, I’d suggest upgrading before things get hectic.
- A small and to the point help save our library blog from the William Leonard Public Library in Robbins Illinois. More about their library’s financial crisis.
- Ralph has some space for a new library at the Canadian Aerospace Warfare Center and no idea how to do it. He’s built a little wiki. maybe people have advice?
- Bernie Margolis, now the State Librarian of NY after leading Boston Public Library for a long time, is quoted in a library Journal article saying that ALA and its allies should be stepping up to demand more library access for the scanned books that will be made available via the Google Books Settlement, if and when that happens.
- LSW fundraiser for the LFPL, one week left. Don’t know what those acronyms are? Click the link!
did you mean “Olive skitteredâ€? a look at what’s wrong with the OPAC
Ross Singer is one of my favorite geeky librarians that I (mostly) haven’t met yet. He has a great article in In The Library With The Lead Pipe (my favorite library blog that I haven’t written for yet) that talks about libraries and what they’re maybe doing not so well and how they could maybe be doing some of that better. I enjoy the long-form library blog posts considerably, and even better when I get the link through short-form Twitter. Go read it.
Real Lives Revealed – readers advisory by Rick Roche
Longtime friend of librarian.net ricklibrarian [aka Rick Roche] has published a book Real Lives Revealed A Guide to Reading Interests in Biography featuring 600 revieed and categorized biographies. Nice job Rick. For those of you going to ALA, be sure to say howdy and check the book out.
ways to help new computer users
“Once upon a time, young people helped senior citizens across the street. While this is still a good idea, it’s just as important to help them setup their Facebook page.”
This short article makes a few points very well. Many novice tech users are experts in other things and get easily frustrated feeling like they’re back at square one. That sort of thing needs to be considered when you’re figuring out the best way to approach teaching topics. Additionally, find ways for people to succeed, whatever their level of skill is. This can be a challenge for people who are really brand new, but just having simple taks like mouse proficency and “send an email to me. Oh look there it is” can give peopel the confidence they need to explore on their own. [thanks barbara]