The LibraryLaw blog has some summaries of libraries’ efforts to get organized, find colleagues and get connected in the aftermath of Katrina. She points to the NOPL list [mentioned here already] as well as AALL’s LawLibAssist blog set up for law librarians to help friends and colleagues. The LA State Library now has a big list of links to help evacuees and refugees and librarians with all the aspects of their post-Katrina lives.
NOPL contact and information list
Anyone who knows the whereabouts of a New Orleans Public Library staffer who may not have called in to work yet, can add their information to this list. We’ve just gotten word here at home that some Loyola Law School students may be coming our way to finish out some of their studies at Vermont Law School. Very interesting change of scenery I’ll bet.
ALA statement on Katrina
Katrina: how librarians can help
This just came on the Council list. There is a Yahoo group for librarians who want to help with the Katrina Recovery Effort.
make sure you know the gazingus protocol!
Every now and then I’m asked if I know how to do something I don’t know how to do. Most recently this came about when the staff at the school I work at wanted to learn Macromedia Contribute, for messing with their web site. Did I know how to use Contribute? No I did not. Could I learn it before I had to do a training on it for novice computer users in a few weeks? Sure I could. And, unlike those questionairres you had to fill out when you signed up with a temp agency, I didn’t even have to fib, I just said “I’ll start learning it today.”
Everyone’s lists — like this recent one on LISNews — are great. However, the world changes and what is right for today’s librarian might not be right for tomorrow’s. So, I’d add to this list and to these lists generally, the ability to learn as you go and teach yourself new things. If someone tells me that the job I want requires intimate knowledge of the gazingus protocol, then I guess I’d better learn it, and fast. Since I have a good working knowledge of computers generally, learning something specific about them is usually not too difficult. This is helpful at my job and I bet it would be helpful at yours.