Best Web 2.0 Software of 2006
Dion Hinchcliffe posts an overview of the best of Web 2.0 for 2006:
http://web2.wsj2.com/the_best_web_20_software_of_2006.htm
Amongst the choices are some of my favorites as well: Netbvibes and YouTube.
Dion Hinchcliffe posts an overview of the best of Web 2.0 for 2006:
http://web2.wsj2.com/the_best_web_20_software_of_2006.htm
Amongst the choices are some of my favorites as well: Netbvibes and YouTube.
I owe a mountain of inspiration to Karen Schneider for this one!
I'm working on the syllabus for my section of LIS701: Introduction to Library and Information Science for this Fall at Dominican. We're using Rubin's Foundations of Library and Information Science from Neal-Schuman and I'm adding a reading of The Cluetrain Manifesto as well. We'll have articles and blog posts to react to and discuss. Putting this together, I'm reminding of a question I had last semester during one of our discussions of current library jobs and those 2.0 job descriptions.
"What do we need to pay attention to?" one of my students asked. "How do we get good jobs to do cool things and keep those jobs ..and move up?"
I have written about jobs in libraries, here at TTW and at TechSource. I often wonder about the new librarians we are sending out into the LIS world from Dominican and other schools. What do they actually encounter in their first professional jobs? I was drawn to the new hires at CPL last year because I wanted to know how it was for them.
All of this has been on my mind as I work with my current section of students this summer and plan for my full-time position in the fall. Submitted then for discussion is this short list -- a cautionary list of things to ponder in a library 2.0 world (or whatever you choose to call it!) as new grads hit the streets and start their first jobs.
Ten Rules for New Librarians
Ask questions in your interviews. Hard questions, like "How many projects are on the library's list right now?" or "What is the technology planning process like here?" Read this and remember!
Pay attention to the answers and what the librarians interviewing you say about their users. Are they dismissive, bothered by them and their presence in the library? Run away!
Read far and wide and immerse yourself in culture, pop and otherwise. It will help you know what your users are doing and into!
Understand copyright and the Creative Commons very well and understand what it means for our future content creation-driven culture.
Use the 2.0 tools, not because it's cool, or any number of speakers/bloggers/librarian-geeks tell you to, but do it as one way to harness the collective intelligence of our profession. Grab some RSS feeds. Also do it to understand what spaces are users are moving in...creating content in...LIVING in. Create some custom searches of your interests in the field. Do not feel you have to subscribe to every LIS feed in the world. My advice? Find the news sites and the biblio-voices that speak to you and inspire you and follow them and their links. If you're inclined, add your voice to the Biblioblogosphere. Or participate vis commenting -- it's a beautiful, though-provoking, ongoing conversation that welcomes everyone!
Work and Play nice with each other at your jobs, at conferences and in those places where information professional gather.This isn't a competition or a contest. It's not all about you, new grad (sorry, but it's not). It's about the user. And creating services. And being the best librarian you can be.
Manage yourself in a professional way but don't forsake fun, wonder, curiosity or play. Use productivity tools of your choosing but be organized and follow thorough on the things you say you follow through on. Do not be that person in the meeting that says "I didn't have time."
Avoid technolust. Technology worship is a trap. Never let technology be a god in itself.
Listen to the seasoned librarians you encounter. They know things. Good things. Listen and they may inform your future decisions and planning. Learn from every conversation, meeting or water cooler chat. (And seasoned folk, listen to your new hires! You do the same: listen, learn and share... break down the generational divide present in some organizations...you'll be happy you did!)
Remember the Big Picture. Don't start 5 new HOT technology-based services without the foresight to plan how they will continue (and then flit on to the next thing). Understand budgeting, staffing and governing forces. Be mindful of hidden costs, marketing and how tech fits in to everything. Build services, collections and libraries that are sustainable, relevant to users and useful.
UPDATE: What a great time that was! Thanks to all at OPAL!!
Here are some extra links as resources:
Open Source Software at TechEssence
ALA on DRM & DRM Guide for Librarians
The Internet is Entering its LEGO era
Libraries with MySpace accounts
Tennant and Pace on the Future of Catalogues from Panlibus
Rainie on Millennials from SELCO
iPods in Action at Georgia College and State University
From the Dead Tech Panel and via "What I Learned Today:"
Lots of interesting Web 2.0 bits in my aggregator this morning, as I prepare to sign on the dotted line for a condominium in Oak Park, Illinois! (I may faint when I sign...)
Anyway:
Greg Schwartz reports on a library branded podcatcher! This is important on many levels: the library sees the need to use a Web 2.0 tool but also gets the importance of branding the service. Go Lansing PL! I think Illinois Libraries ROCK! http://openstacks.net/os/archives/000929.html
Have you branded your L2/Web 2.0 services for your library? Is the wiki/blog/IM presence linked to the linbrary and its online look and feel? (And don't forget to brand your places and spaces as well!)
Rachel Gordon reports that the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies at the University of Missouri-Columbia is producing webcasts! (I originally wrote podcasts! -- see Greg Schwartz comment! oops!)This is huge and other LIS schools may want to ewatch this project closely. Again, many levels of importance: the LIS school that podcasts/webcasts will certainly be preparing students for jobs like this and it certainly is a great promotion tool for lecture series, notable news and more as well as a recruitment tool! http://librarycareers.blogspot.com/2006/03/university-of-missouri-colubmia-lis.html
In a similar example, Emily from my LIS753 reports on the GSLIS Wiki run by library students at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign! http://eroses.blogspot.com/2006/03/gslis-wikisee-what-competition-is.html
AND
Hathaway, also in my LIS753 at Dominican, reports on wikis and the use of a wiki for a librarian/patron created short story at Coralville Public Library. http://libschoolconfidential.blogspot.com/2006/03/hawaiian-words-in-english.html
Nice post from Don Yarman who works in Ohio:
http://yarmando.blogspot.com/2006/02/librarian-20.html
Especially this bit about iTunes:
If I ran a library, I would be looking to see what I could do with this. Not just following the Shifted Librarian's suggestion to buy some iPod shuffles to circulate. How about a public iTunes download station? Let library users set up their 'pods on the station and download a title or two to their own devices? The library could even rip their own CD's to the public iTunes station. Look, you know that iPod owners check out the CD's and rip them to their devices; why don't we just save them the trouble? This isn't total anarchy -- we're librarians: we'll find some way to impose rules.