Technobiblio is more polite than I am so I will just say this: charging $25/day per user for wireless Internet access at ALA is total bullshit. Not that I am such a junkie that I will whine and complain that I can’t get my fix, but it is out of scale for a) the actual cost per user of providing this service and b) what other equivalent vendors charge. I don’t need wireless throughout the whole center [though it would be nice and far from impossible technologically] I’d just like a few hotspots where I can sit with my laptop and check my email. Shorter lines at the Internet cafes [where one well-placed wireless router could accomplish all of this for $99 for everyone forever] and happier people who can use their own software. It’s astonishing that this is such an impossible endeavor to do well, or even to approach realistically.
Author: jessamyn
bloggercon ii, see you there?
Jessica Baumgart is trying to put together some sort of librarian blogger event at BloggerConII which will be in Boston/Cambridge the weekend I’ll be down to speak at Simmons. Anyone else interested in getting together? If so, sign up [it’s free, free as in $0] and email Jessica.
core competencies for librarians
I love lists. These lists are great: The Top Ten Things a new Sci/Tech Librarian Should Know. I am sorry I missed this in Toronto.
9. You might get a lot of colds (working with the public).
10. You won’t be expected to do everything you promised in the interview.
11. Your colleagues are just as clueless or insecure as you are.
10. You won’t be expected to do everything you promised in the interview.
11. Your colleagues are just as clueless or insecure as you are.
read contest
ALA is sponsoring a READ poster contest to highlight their new $99 make your own READ poster CD. I did this myself a while back. Here is me and the Alternative Press Index, my reading material of choice. Man my hair grew fast.
hi – 15mar
Hi. I’m staying someplace in what I think is the “upper west side” here. I went to a meeting of the Progressive Librarians Guild last night which was really fun. Met some cool library students and librarians and said hello to some old friends. If you’re interested in progressive issues and you’d like to know more librarians, look these folks up, especially if you are in the NYC area. A lot of good thinking going on there, dues are cheap and you don’t have to be a member of ALA. [site hosted on Libr.org which as a new store up and running]. I got a Brooklyn Public Library card which may allow me to hassle smartie BPL librarians with “ask a librarian” questions in the afternoon hours.