Archive for October, 2007

LibraryThing for Libraries

Friday, October 26th, 2007

LibraryThing has now gone the next step and allowed integration between its now-massive database of information and your library’s OPAC (that’s Online Public Access Catalog for those who haven’t been through Library School–what people nowadays simply call the online catalog or just “catalog”). Imagine your library patrons being able to add tags and recommendations to the entries for your books, and without you needing to struggle to program it all. LibraryThing’s done the work for you, so you just need to add a few lines of HTML code and that’s it!

http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/ gives you all the information you need, including a handy “Take the Tour” link.

Posted in Libraries, Technology | 1 Comment »

Zombie Librarians

Monday, October 22nd, 2007

I just came across this Flickr photo thanks to Library Stuff. What a great marketing tool for libraries! Makes you want to go to your local library and check out one of the “starring roles,” doesn’t it?

I love that! “They are smarter! They are stronger! They are HUNGRY!”

Sure made me laugh. What a fun thing to encounter on a Monday morning. (Click the picture for the original size.)

Posted in Humor, Libraries | No Comments »

A Vision of Students Today

Wednesday, October 17th, 2007

Yesterday Michael Stephens linked to a very thought-provoking video about students today and how they relate with technology. The main emphasis is on how that relates to how they’re being taught in school. Much of the content in the video is students communicating their answers (or parts of their answers) to the question “What is it like being a student today?” This question was asked on a Google Doc and 200 students collaborated in creating the document that led to this video.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Technology | 1 Comment »

bLaugh

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

I found out about another online cartoon series today that I’ve really enjoyed. It’s called bLaugh and it’s a comic strip that is specifically for bloggers. In fact, the cartoon’s subtitle is “The (Un)Official Comic of the Blogosphere!”

Here are a couple samples. If you like them, here’s a link to their RSS feed. (Thanks to Stephen Abram for recommending bLaugh.)






Posted in Humor, Technology | No Comments »

Blogs vs. Websites

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007

There’s a really good article by Steven on the ACRLog called “What Happened to the Personal Web Site” which discusses the impact that the personal blog has had on academic librarianship. Here is a snippet:

In the pre-blog days if an academic librarian wanted to achieve some of those things for which a blog now serves, a personal web site was the best available option. It could provide a personal profile, access to a CV, a listing of articles and presentations, resources that the site owner wanted to share with colleagues, and specialized resource pages designed to enlighten colleagues, promote new ideas, and create a name for oneself. Perhaps the blog’s ability to accomplish the latter is the primary reason why the personal web site is no longer the first choice – or a choice at all – for many academic librarians who want to establish themselves as thought leaders in the profession and influence their colleagues.

Please click the link above and read the whole thing. It’s a reasonable length and is well worth the read.

Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »