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32
Tips to Inspire Innovation for You and Your Library: Part 1
"In part one of this three-part column, Stephen (Abram) reflects on
his past 25 years since library school and shares insights about what has
inspired innovation in his own life. If your job involves consensus
decision-making, usability testing, or project management, you're sure to
find useful tips to enrich your career and improve your library."
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The
Value of Libraries: Impact, Normative Data, & Influencing
Funders
"...So,
as I said, this story got me thinking about proofs to how the unfettered
access to information and information services makes a
difference in our various communities: public libraries, school
libraries, university and college libraries, and special libraries. What is the
real value of public, academic, school, and special libraries? Here are the
highlights of what I found. I’ve included a selected webliography at the end
of the article so you can enjoy more of the reading too.
Article
continues
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POMONA, CA. –
Auto-Graphics, Inc. (AUGR.PK), a technology innovator providing library
automation solutions for over 35 years, today announced an industry first – the
ability for libraries to offer online book-buying functionality to their
patrons, while sharing in the sales revenue generated through the company’s
AGent™ platform of products including VERSO™ ILS, Search and even the ILL
Resource Sharing products. This groundbreaking program has been developed in
partnership with Baker & Taylor – a worldwide distributor of books, video,
music, and games – with the vision to provide public libraries a powerful
revenue generating opportunity that supports the ongoing needs of their
libraries, while increasing community awareness through word-of-mouth referrals
and a library-branded website. This novel technology will significantly change
the library market, expanding the library’s role from a borrowing entity to an
online destination where patrons can easily and immediately purchase items.
Read more
**Section
9: Special Handling Instructions:
Disaster Affected Collection
Material
To avoid causing
further damage to disaster affected
collection material, staff should refer
to the following special handling
instructions. Appropriate handling
depends on the type of material and the
type and severity of the damage.
Material covered in
this section includes:
-
Books, journals,
pamphlets and newspapers
-
Large format sheet
material
-
Small format sheet
material
-
Artworks on paper
-
Easel paintings
-
Vellum, parchment and
leather material
-
Photographic material
-
Electronic and
magnetic media
Read on …
**
H.W. Wilson Launches Free Resource
for Librarians: Standardcatalogs.com
"Clearinghouse" of
Free Tools for Collection
Development
Over the course of a century,
librarians have made the Wilson
Standard Catalogs standard resources
in libraries, for their help with
collection development and
maintenance. Today H.W. Wilson
announced a free service for
librarians that will "give back" to
the profession--Standardcatalogs.com.
Standardcatalogs.com
is a free clearinghouse for tools
for collection development: "Best"
lists, Editors' picks, hot topics,
periodicals lists, best professional
books, librarian home pages and
blogs, profiles of editors (and
others) who shape the Wilson
Standard Catalogs, and more.
>>more
 E-metrics for Library and Information Professionals. How
to use data for managing and evaluating electronic resource
collections
Is your library getting every dollar’s worth out of that expensive database? Should you re-subscribe to that pricey e-journal? Are your indexes serving your users? Collection development and acquisitions librarians are facing tough new questions. Unfortunately for many, these were unanswerable questions until now. White and Kamal show how to use e-metrics to measure library performance and value in the digital age. With this book, you can learn how to use effectively the electronic data captured from various network activities to manage library collections, budgets, and services. Using e-metrics, the authors identify expensive and underused digital resources, visualise virtual search behaviour patterns and construct new collection development strategies. Authors: Andrew White and Eric Djiva Kamal
2005. 268p. paperback. 1-85604-555-2
Available at Amazon from $10.00
Xiaorong Xiang and
Eric Lease Morgan
This article describes the
design and implementation of two digital library collections and
services using a number of "light-weight" protocols and open source
tools. These protocols and tools include OAI-PMH (Open Archives
Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting), SRU (Search/Retrieve
via URL), Perl, MyLibrary, Swish-e, Plucene, ASPELL, and WordNet.
More specifically, we describe how these protocols and tools are
employed in the Ockham Alerting service and MyLibrary@Ockham. The
services are illustrative examples of how the library community can
actively contribute to the scholarly communications process by
systematically and programmatically collecting, organizing,
archiving, and disseminating information freely available on the
Internet. Using the same techniques described here, other libraries
could expose their own particular content for their specific needs
and audiences.
Read the article
By Dennis
Dillon..... The arguments for cutting library
purchases of books and for outsourcing
operations are well meaning. And the
uncomfortable facts are that libraries are
collections, publishers are distributors,
and both collecting and distributing could
be done online if enough money,
organization, and expertise were put into
the effort. But the arguments against those
moves include a wealth of legal, financial,
practical, political, pedagogical, and
philosophical reasons.
Read the whole article
BookDrive®
is the first
and only
automatic
page-turning
scanner.
Unlike
traditional
scanners,
BookDrive
can flip
pages of a
book
automatically
by simply
entering the
number of
pages you
want to
scan. BookDrive
will
digitize
bound
content in a
variety of
formats
allowing the
user to
share and
archive
bound
materials.
With
patent-pending
technology
only offered
by BookDrive,
book
digitization
suddenly
becomes an
effortless
task. Almost
all of the
book
scanning
costs are
now gone!
You will
never have
to manually
turn pages
again.
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" ...
our library has the most effective search engines yet
invented — librarians who are highly skilled at ferreting out the uniquely
useful references that you need. Rather than commercializing the library
collections, why not export to the public market the most meaningful core of
Hopkins' intellectual property — the ability to turn raw information into useful
knowledge."
Read on ...
"Information Literacy in a
Corporate Environment"
By Jane Macoustra
The concept of Information Literacy (IL)
recently reared its head as part of a project I was working on. As an
Information Professional, IL is a competency that I have taken for
granted, because it is a natural part of what being an IP is all about.
However, others in a corporate organisation may not possess these skills.
IL has been around for a long time and is a well documented subject -
especially in an academic context (7), but there is very little
information available when it is translated across to a corporate or
workplace environment. I have not specified putting IL into practice in any
particular type of organisation, to enable the reader to
understand the broad concepts that can be put to use. Due to length
restrictions, this article is a brief outline of the main issues, and
therefore is by no means fully comprehensive.
Continue reading here:
http://www.freepint.com/issues/
060303.htm#feature
“One of the ways that libraries can engage their patrons in the
process of building out the
technical infrastructure
inside library buildings and
in online services is to
create volunteer technology
advisory boards which
convene on occasion to give
tech staff a chance to meet
with and talk to techie
patrons in the community.
This process can be as simple as networking from your staff and
board and Friends of the
Library to find the people
they know who have tech
expertise, and can be
extended out in larger
cities and bigger
organizations to reach out
to executives in tech
companies in the area.”
Post continues
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/
somerset/4732054.stm
"It has taken 15 volunteers more than three years to
complete the cataloguing work, which is still continuing."
Steve Jones, Matt Jones, Malcolm
Barr and Te Taka Keegan
Department of Computer Science
University of Waikato
Abstract
Digital libraries can empower end users through on-line
provision of previously inaccessible materials, synergistic
integration of related information collections, and
tailoring of access mechanisms for target user groups. In
this paper we describe the HistoryMap system that supports
access to digitised collections of historical maps and
newspapers, integrating searching and browsing between the
two. We report on our solution to providing place name
searching across maps that vary in accuracy, scale and
orientation, and how newspaper text is dynamically
reconfigured to include hyperlinks to maps containing given
locations. Both the user interface and software architecture
of the system are described, as are a usability study of the
system and discussion sessions with target end users.
Although some surface level usability problems were revealed
by the study, target users of the system are enthusiastic
about its potential.
Article continues
Library Success: A Best
Practices Wiki
“This wiki
was created to be a
one-stop-shop for great
ideas for librarians. All
over the world, librarians
are developing successful
programs and doing
innovative things with
technology that no one
outside of their library
knows about. There are lots
of great blogs out there
sharing information about
the profession, but there is
no one place where all of
this information is
collected and organized.”
I decided I
wanted to know how this
worked, so today I came up
with this:
http://labs.lcls.org/firefox/default.html
I created one for
LCLS and for
MLS (because it was
so easy).
This will let you do a
title search right from the
Firefox search toolbar,
instead of having to load
the catalog, and do it
there. I will be posting
this to
our catalog to
invite patrons to try it out
if they are using Firefox.
Patron Choice
Find in a Library
lets you use Web search sites such as Yahoo! and Google to
locate books, videos and other materials in a library near you. When your search
term matches words associated with a library-owned item—such as the title or the
author's name—your search results can include a link for that item with the
prefix "Find in a Library."
A Framework of
Guidance for Building
Good Digital Collections
This Framework has two purposes. First, to provide an overview of some
of the major components and activities involved in the creation of good digital
collections. Second, to provide a framework for identifying, organizing, and
applying existing knowledge and resources to support the development of sound
local practices for creating and managing good digital collections. It is
intended for two audiences: cultural heritage organizations planning projects to
create digital collections, and funding organizations that want to encourage the
development of good digital collections.
Read the whole document
Harry Potter
Book Raps
In conjunction
with Lynda Davies from Griffith Uni, we are creating three Book Raps based on
the Harry Potter Books. The first one is completed so far, the second is about
to go live online...and the third one is currently being written. The first two
raps cover the first three book in the Harry Potter series. The third rap will
be developed for the latest novel.
Feel free to enrol in the first Book Rap at any stage. The information can be found at:
http://www.learningplace.com.au/
raps/raps.asp?pid=2504
Wet Books?
http://theepicenter.com/tow05166.html
http://www.nla.gov.au/policy/disaster/
disact4.html
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*Changing Things*
Tinker Massey
“ …What I have found
interesting is the invitation to reorganize
a complete library. The church that has
adopted me has a library without a
librarian. Some years ago this person spent
endless hours cataloging a lot of books into
an organized entity of Dewey labeled
materials. She did a great job as far as I
could tell, even developing a card catalog
and procedures for check-outs, etc. The plea
from the Church was that no one used it
because they couldn’t figure out the
system…”
Read the whole article.
Do libraries matter? The rise of Library 2.0
"Seven Deadly Sins (and
Desirable Strategies) for Library Managers"
By Rachel Singer Gordon
http://www.freepint.com/issues/
050106.htm#tips>
During our recruitment and retention discussions, long-term managers
often give upcoming generations advice on how to lead. What, though,
are effective management strategies and styles in 21st-Century
libraries? Focusing on upper management in larger institutions
drowns
out voices from smaller libraries, middle managers, and frontline
staff. Talking to working library staffers and up-and-coming
managers
reveals some disconnect between received wisdom and what staff
actually need.
Library
bars kids with no adult chaperone
WICKLIFFE - Libraries have tried monitors,
private guards and even Bach and Beethoven to control crowds of
rowdy kids. Now one Northeast Ohio library is insisting that
children be accompanied by an adult during after-school hours.
Continue
homeworkNYC.org
is made possible by a
major grant from The Wallace Foundation as part
of the Learning in Libraries initiative. For
more information about what the Foundation has
learned about out-of-school time, education
leadership and arts participation, visit the
Knowledge Center at
www.wallacefoundation.org.
This site is produced by
The New York
Public Library with the assistance of the
Brooklyn Public Library and
Queens
Library. We gratefully acknowledge the
assistance of the teachers, administrators and
school librarians at the New York City
Department of Education.
(January
2005)
The
fourth
and
final
report
examining
the
implementation
and
effects
of nine
library
literacy
programs.
 Read
More
NetLibrary reaches 100,000-title milestone
—NetLibrary, a division of OCLC Online
Computer Library Center, Inc., and a leading platform for
full-text digital content in libraries worldwide, has
achieved a ground-breaking milestone in the eContent
industry. NetLibrary is the first eContent platform to
offer academic, public, special and school library users
access to more than 100,000 full-text eBook and eAudiobook
titles."Being the first to reach the 100,000-title
milestone shows NetLibrary's continued commitment to
electronic content, and the breadth and depth of our
collections," said Richard Rosy, Vice President of Content
Management, OCLC. "This milestone is a significant
achievement for the digital world."
Read
on ...
How to Repair a Book
The repair of antique, historical or
rare books requires special knowledge and should be left in
the hands of professionals. There are some basic repairs,
however, that you can perform on most books.
Paul
Miller explores some of the
recent buzz around the concept of 'Web 2.0' and asks what it means
for libraries and related organisations.
Introduction
'Web 2.0' is a hot story out on the blogosphere
right now, with an army of advocates facing off against those who
argue that it is nothing new, and their allies with painful memories
of Dot Com hysteria in the 1990s. Even respectable media outlets
such as Business Week are getting excited, and an expensive
conference in San Francisco at the start of October had to turn
people away as it passed over 800 registrations.
So, is Web 2.0 something real? Does it mean
anything for the way in which we continue to go about our work? Or
is it yet another bubble that will burst if we simply ignore it for
a few months?
Article continues
Add AIM presence to your blog or website
Jenny has made this excellent little feature available to Librarians on her blog. Visit the article by clicking on:
Presence of Mind
Add AIM Presence to Your Website with
a Simple IMG Tag!
“I spent a little time this afternoon
working on my AIM Presence project. A lot of
people want to put online/offline status
icons on their websites so patrons and/or
readers can see if the person is online and
likely available.
Are you planning a Narnia themed activity? There are some
excellent activity sheets available at:
http://www.narniaresources.com/
pdfdownloads/
"The RSS revolution: Using RSS: An
Explanation and Guide."
When
he said that he monitored news on a particular company via RSS I was
hooked. My only complaint? He didn't detail how to do so in that
particular article. But that's okay....he wrote a book!
Keeping Current: Advanced
Internet Strategies to
Meet Librarian and
Patron Needs is a relatively short book with a long title; and
it's chock-full of useful information on how to find current
information on the web.
Review continues
Searching for
teaching notes for novels.
First, if it is a well known publisher, go to their web site and look for a
teachers OR readers section. You often find notes tucked away there.
If that isn't successful, go to Google and search on the string <title
author teachers notes> (don't include the carats). You might have to use
<readers notes>, especially for adult titles ( but if you have to fiddle
any
further than that it's probably not worth it).
For Australian publications, search on Australian pages only.
It doesn't always work but then neither does my lawn mower. However I have
been able to send worthwhile sites to almost every recent notes request
using this technique.
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Bronwyn
Ritchie's
