Library & Information Science – Page 2

Library Social Networks on Ning

March 30, 2007 by Dan

I’ve had a Ning account for about a year, but I really hadn’t used it much. Well recently Ning seems to have gained popularity, at least among library folks. ALA now has a Ning site, and Bill Drew has started a Library 2.0 site on Ning. There is also a Librarian Bloggers site. It will … Read more

Work and a post worth keeping at the top

March 27, 2007 by Dan

Well work on new UTK templates has kept me from blogging much lately. But I still read blogs, Walt at Random among them. So when he posted today about Kathy Sierra of the blog “Creating Passionate Users” receiving death threats and canceling speaking engagements, I had to go to her blog and read her latest … Read more

This library is just way too full

November 3, 2006 by Dan

From Flickr Update: Just to be clear, I didn’t take this photo. I just found it on Flickr and thought it looked cool.

Research Beyond Google (because Google can’t find everything)

November 2, 2006 by Dan

Research Beyond Google: 119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources There’s plenty of good information and links here. Some of these resources I knew about, but there are plenty on this list that I didn’t. Google is great for the quick fact check or the shotgun approach to just see what’s out there. But when you … Read more

What is a librarian?

April 7, 2006 by Dan

Library Journal has a short article about a session at the recent PLA conference in Boston, titled “Is the MLS Needed for a Career in Public Librarianship?”. Daniel Walters, director of the Las Vegas–Clark County Library District, sees nothing wrong with hiring non librarians, especially in technical areas such as cataloging. Cataloging is being outsourced … Read more

Information Overload and Anomalous States of Knowledge

April 1, 2006 by Dan

Too much information? In a stunning breakthrough research librarians have now discovered ‘The Cure for Information Overload‘. Their paper has some interesting findings based in part on Nick Belkin’s Anomalous States of Knowledge.

The American Library Association has absolute power

February 25, 2006 by Dan

According to PABBIS (Parents Against Bad Books in Schools) “ALA will soon have absolute power in deciding what is appropriate in English class and the libraries for all America’s children” ALA and absolute power? Clearly these people have never been to any ALA meetings. I for one welcome our new librarian overlords. 🙂 For those … Read more

Thoughts on an LIS Ph.D and bit of history

February 6, 2006 by Dan

This posting about Ph.Ds for academic librarians at ACRLog made me think about my long, strange road to the Ph.D program here and where I’m going afterwards. I’ll talk about that, at length, in a bit. Basically I’m getting a Ph.D not so much to be be better qualified for a management job now, but to be ready for one when the opportunity arises. My thinking about a Ph.D was that if I kept going immediately after my Masters I would still be in grad student mode and things would be easier. I also got assistantships for both my first attempt at a Ph.D at UT and again here at Missouri. So I’m not investing a lot of money, just time.

This post is long, and is pretty much a personal narrative beyond this point. …

ALA becomes radical and militant

January 18, 2006 by Dan

ALA has jumped on the button bandwagon again and has their own Radical Militant Librarian Button. To me it seems a little over the top. So you go with the homemade classics. Librarian Avengers has a nice design as well.

Library 2.0 contined

January 17, 2006 by Dan

Walt provides a nice overview of Library 2.0 in his Cites & Insights Midwinter 2006 issue . I’m still reading it but my take on Library 2.0 still stands. Libraries are about people. “Library 2.0” seems to be a rush to use technology, without considering how to use it. Like Walt, I think that “Library … Read more