The revolution will be organized.
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The Digital Divide: Rural, Urban, and International Issues
Can’t believe I haven’t posted this here yet! Bad blogger. If you’re in Boston on Monday, Simmons College GSLIS is hosting a panel discussion on the Digital Divide. Come and hear Jessamyn West of librarian.net, Susan O’Connor of the Timothy Smith Center, and Pat Oyler, Simmons GSLIS faculty member, talk about access issues in the…
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Conversants and more stuff about library school students
The first issue of Conversants, a journal focused on participatory networks, came out on Friday, and it features an editorial by Andrea Mercado, “Making Library Schools Smarter.” Mercado touches on a lot of the things I’ve been thinking about lately: The fact that librarianship requires higher level computer skills, and the unfortunate fact that library…
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Where are all the techies?
I’ve been contemplating this question since I started library school last semester, when I was enrolled in my program’s basic technology course, the only technology course students are required to take. Where are all the next system designers and OPAC developers and library tech programmers? They certainly weren’t in my class. Lately it seems a…
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Kik-Step Library Edition? I must have it!
Just two days ago I was thinking, “I really need to get a step stool in this house.” I’m not a tall woman, and alas, many things in our house are stored far above my reach. Dragging a chair around the house constantly is getting pretty annoying. And lo! What did I see today? The…
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Beginning Ruby: Some Serious Praise
I’ve been working now as the Assistant Systems Librarian for about a month, and I can safely say I’ve never had a job as challenging, occasionally frustrating, and sometimes satisfying as this one. I should preface that by saying I’ve never had a job that involved work I didn’t already know how to do, and…
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The ACRL Task Force on the Future of the Academic Library
Of course it has taken me almost a month to write anything significant about my ALA experience. So many thoughts were percolating through my head the whole long weekend, and it probably goes without saying that much of it isn’t quite as vivid now, after the new semester has started and my normal life has…
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ALA Midwinter, or A Little Lost in Philadelphia
I decided to come down to ALA Midwinter before I knew that Midwinter is primarily a business meeting, where ALA Committees take care of all their Very Important Business. I wondered if perhaps I shouldn’t come, but was told that it’s actually good for newbies like myself to go to Midwinter, because it’s easier to…
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New new job
Life really has been changing drastically, and quickly, since I started library school, and now there is more big change on the horizon: I just got a new job. The opportunity came about so suddenly; I really expected to be at the Schlesinger for at least a year but passing up this job would have…
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End of the semester wrap up
It’s hard to believe an entire semester is already past. Today was meant to be my last day of classes, but with the storm here in Boston, most of the universities and colleges are closed and my class was canceled. Sort of anti-climactic. When I think about the past four months, it strikes me how…
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Do libraries really need Kindles?
An article in newsday.com asks the (frankly boring) question, “Has the digital e-book moment arrived?” but looks for its answer in an unusual place: libraries. Thomas Maier specifically asks Long Island librarians whether they will be purchasing Amazon Kindles for their libraries, and not surprisingly, the answer is largely no. Or at least, not yet.…