Something to consider in the future when all the librarians retire on a Tuesday as (wrongly, in my and others' opinions) predicted, and library boards as well as leaders in academia want to fill the director positions with people from other professions. Story in today's Washington Post about the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian's director and his excessive spending habits (remember, he is working for the American citizens, after all, so he should have KNOWN that his spending habits would be public someday). Here is a link to the story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122702515.html
(You may have to register to read the story.) The Director, Mr. West, received compensation in 2004 of $292,000 for the year. A quote from him tells much: ""I am grateful," West said, "for at least the past year to have been the highest-paid director of a museum in the Smithsonian. Even at that status I have yet to earn even two-thirds of what I earned as a private attorney in my last year" in private practice."
(I personally heard a similar quote from a new public library director that was trained in the realty field, when she was commenting on what her city paid her to direct a library and what she had 'given up' in commissions that year.) Different professions, different pay, folks. But I can imagine the discussion at some future committee meeting when they are considering replacing the retiring academic librarian with someone from another profession, say a physician or lawyer. That discussion will no doubt include some comments on what the new person will be giving up in income to take the directorship position, and I bet the salary will be increased to 'compensate'. Heh - too bad they can't start increasing salaries right now to better match other professions. After all, look at what the library directors 'gave up' by choosing library science instead of law or medicine or realty or used car sales...
The Washington Post article was found thanks to an entry in BoingBoing.

A new report from Research and Markets: Academic Library Website Benchmarks.
A link to the press release, which gives some great numbers on how the 84 North American college libraries responded to the survey questions: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20071221005296&newsLang=en
(I would really love to know which library said they have 200 staff entering data on their website...)
The report is available for $85, or a pdf for $92.50. Direct link to the report page at Research and Markets site: http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c78165

"Taking libraries to the street", a column by Ken Gray, talks about ways that libraries can be brought to the citizens of and near Ottawa without building a brand new building http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=6f9d8819-1809-4125-a575-cf0d4288c354. I really like his ideas of kiosks placed in areas of the city, bringing the online access to the library resources to EVERYONE. If we can have ATMs everywhere, why not library kiosks? Enlarge the current system of couriers that go between branches, and have them deliver materials to doorsteps. Place secure overnight boxes in neighborhoods. I know these seem to be radical ideas, but I sure hope that those in power around the world consider alternatives to the 'big library building' that forces patrons to come to it, rather than a better service model of going to the patron.

Libraries in Australia have a wonderful supporter - read Dr. Alan Bundy's article "Build a Library, Build a Better Country" here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/build-a-library-build-a-clever-country/2007/12/21/1198175338142.html

Dr. Bundy is President of Friends of Libraries Australia. Thanks to the Internet, his words have the power to support access to modern public libraries everywhere!

SPECTRUM DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP: LEADERS WANTED!

Interested in a dynamic career in library and information science (LIS) education, research, or executive level administration?

The Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship program is currently accepting applications for students beginning doctoral studies in the Fall of 2008. The deadline to apply is January 18, 2008. More information and application materials can be found at www.ala.org/spectrumphd

ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The University of Pittsburgh and the American Library Association were pleased to announce in 2006 the creation of the Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship program funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and designed to increase racial and ethnic diversity among our profession's next generation of LIS leaders.

ABOUT THE FELLOWSHIP
The Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship provides full tuition and annual stipends of $20,000 to Fellows for the first two years of study.

Partnering programs provide full tuition and stipends to their Spectrum Fellows for all remaining years of study. Six inaugural Spectrum Doctoral Fellowships were awarded in 2007. We are pleased to announce that Fellowships are available for individuals beginning doctoral studies in the Fall of 2008. To underscore the fellowship program's emphasis on leadership, all Spectrum Doctoral Fellows will attend the expense-paid E.J. Josey Doctoral Leadership Institute held in conjunction with the 2009 annual meeting of ALISE, the Association for Library and Information Science Education, and named for the University of Pittsburgh Professor Emeritus acknowledged as one of the LIS profession's leading diversity advocates.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
To be eligible for a Spectrum Doctoral Fellowship:

* Applicant must be a citizen or permanent resident of the U.S.

* Applicants should be of American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino or Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander heritage.

* Applicants must exhibit intellectual curiosity, interest in the LIS field and its sub-fields (i.e., archival science; academic, school, or other types of librarianship, medical informatics; etc.), evidence of academic excellence, effectiveness as a communicator, the ability to excel as a scholar or executive administrator in the LIS field, and a strong commitment to diversity.

* Applicants need not have received a Spectrum master's-level scholarship to be eligible, but must meet the requirements of each participating program to which they are applying.

* Applicants must be admitted to one or more of the ten participating PhD programs by February 1, 2008.

The ten participating programs are University of Pittsburgh, University of Arizona*, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Michigan*, Rutgers University*, Simmons College*, Syracuse University*, University of Tennessee at Knoxville*, University of Texas at Austin*, University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Do you have those end-of-the-year blues? Looking for something to lighten your day off? Try Google Books for some business and professional humor:
http://books.google.com/books?q=+subject:%22Humor+/+Topic+/+Business+%26+Professional%22

Remember - these have only limited or snippet previews, or even none at all, but there should still be enough chuckles in there to lighten your load.

12/28/07 Followup: I have to admit posting this link as a teaser - it is actually a better link for you to use when demonstrating why your library is still the place to come instead of folks counting on Google Books for their reading sources. In the Business and Professional Humor section of Google Books, there were no full-text books available. Only limited or snippet previews, or none at all.

Knowing how teens use social media is useful to not only youth services librarians, but all librarians - after all, teens tend to grow up and access academic libraries or special libraries someday. Even more important to keep in mind - they may turn into decision-makers who have the power of increasing or decreasing funding, space, and missions for future libraries. Along those lines, you might want to check out this report:

The Pew Internet Project released a new report today on Teens and Social
Media. The report is available at
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/230/report_display.asp.

There has to be a good way to get the library involved with everyones' mobile phones. If you know of mobile library models that are out there, please send them to me at teresa.hartman (at) gmail.com.

One possibility for our library's excellent consumer health service (http://www.unmc.edu/library/consumer ) to go mobile would be to tag on with the medical uses that are developing for cell phones. Here is an example in a story about a Canadian company joining up with a Korean cell phone company to turn cell phones into health monitors (as seen on iHealthBeat today):
Cell Phone Latest Tool in Health-Care Arsenal http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/national/story.html?id=2e4ad7f7-5c13-4a11-b87b-2f24c9e47a84&k=16423
Cell phone users would have their health monitored and easy access to consumer health information as well.


Another would be to develop a method for people to text their questions to us, similar to what Google has done for its mobile service: http://www.google.com/intl/en_us/mobile/sms/
We would need to make sure our replies are usable and readable on those tiny screens...

And if your library already has issued you a cell phone, start using Jott to send ILL reminders, program announcements, and reserve book notices to folks who would rather get a voice mail than an email: Jott http://www.jott.com/ .
(as seen on the TechLearning blog - "My Father Never Went This Way" http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2007/12/my_father_never_went_this_way.php).

A new site you may wish to pass along to your board, Friends group, or your library organization's governmental relations committee:

CommitteeCaller
http://www.committeecaller.com/


It is an automated dialing site that allows one person to target an entire committee over the phone. I haven't tried it yet, but it appears to be a great help in contacting committee members to discuss issues. I like the slogan on the connect button, "Put me in touch with democracy!"

As seen on BoingBoing today: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/17/committeecaller-phon.html

Library protests in the news today - these protests have to do with proposed closings/budget cuts of libraries in Great Britain, Australia, and India.

Concerned Library Users Protest Closure http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/headlines/display.var.1908783.0.concerned_library_users_protest_closure.php

Dozens Protest Over Library Plans
http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/latest/display.var.1908206.0.dozens_protest_over_library_plans.php

Waving a Placard to Sae [sic] Our Library
http://bathurst.yourguide.com.au/news/local/general/waving-a-placard-to-sae-our-library/1144470.html

Protesters Spreading Their Net
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEO20071217003735&Page=O&Headline=Protesters+spreading+their+net&Title=Thiruvananthapuram&Topic=0

A great comment on the new Eee Laptop by Phil Shapiro: First Impressions of the Eee PC Laptop from a Public Library Point of View http://blogs.pcworld.com/communityvoices/archives/2007/12/first_impressio.html

A link to ASUS June 5, 2007 press release on the Eee, located at HardwareZone:
http://www.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?id=7470&cid=9

Are there any academic librarians using the Eee or other ultralight notebooks in their public access or instruction areas? I would like to talk with you if you are - thartman (at) unmc.edu.

Are you considering adding audio books to your library's collection? You could start with those in the public domain, available at LibriVox http://librivox.org/ .

Library Journal has a an article by Meredith Farkas' extensive research on librarian bloggers: The Bloggers Among Us - http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6510669.html

Thanks to you, my reader, the User Education Resources for Librarians blog is ranked 53rd in the top 100 library blogs at TheLibraryShelf. You can check out the other highly ranked library blogs at the community's webpage: http://www.TheLibraryShelf.com/community

Recent stories on Google News about digital libraries:

Digital Library Project Surpasses Initial Goal of 1 Million Books - http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Business/Headlines/bizBIZ03121307.htm

The Universal Digital Library (http://ulib.org) also made Website of the Week at Voice of America - http://www.voanews.com/english/Science/2007-12-07-voa30.cfm

The Montana State Library is transitioning to a digital library format. More in this story: Library Delays Digital Switch - http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/12/13/news/state/48-digitalswitch.txt

EU [European Union] Looks to Create Digital Library - http://www.thebookseller.com/news/49531-eu-looks-to-create-digital-library.html

If you are considering a library exchange project, please consider Yemen. The current status of libraries in the capital city is outlined in this article: "Two Million People, Only Two Libraries" http://yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=1110&p=culture&a=1

Articles on Google about libraries remaining relevant:
http://news.google.com/news?tab=wn&hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1124696371

"In Digital Age, Libraries Turn A Page On Services They Offer"

"Can the Library Remain Relevant In A Digital Age?"

"Guest Commentary: Public Libraries Provide Lifeline to Government"

In the Phillipines, librarians have to pass an license exam, and take an oath: "278 Pass Librarian Licensure Exam" http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view_article.php?article_id=104097
The article states that only 278 of the 868 test-takers passed the exam.

China punishes professor by transferring him to librarian position. "Professor Banned From Teaching for Publishing Open Letters"
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-12-10/62777.html

Another news item about outsourcing libraries: Librarians Under New Managementhttp://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hfzrKirUy3nuHI55oZlDtSgXewnAD8S2J2U80

A follow-up story on the closing and reopening of the Jackson County, Oregon public libraries in today's Boston Globe:

For-profit libraries a sad story
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/10/22/for_profit_libraries_a_sad_story/

Signing out for a bit, as I am among over 50 members of a conference planning team that have finally arrived at the date of their long-anticipated conference: the 2007 Midcontinental/Midwest Joint Chapter of the Medical Library Association Conference http://www.mcmla.org/2007 . If you want to catch up and keep up with the news about what librarians from 16 states and one foreign nation are up to, here is the conference blog: http://midwestmla.org/ConferenceCall2007/.

A great article in the Library Journal on their recent survey findings: Librarians-Too Traditional? http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6483882.html
From the article: "...responses from those of you who are older and have been in the field longer show deep concern and frustration about your chances to implement change, technological or otherwise. You use words like “glacial,” “traditional,” “fearful,” and “pointless” to describe the bureaucracies in which you operate. The resistance to change that younger librarians point to reflects a misplaced complacency among administrators and managers who’ve been at it for a while."

Congratulations to the University of Witwatersrand Library for their award-winning paper on Subject Portals: http://www.wits.ac.za/Library/new/whatsnew.html#ifla.

Take a look at the great subject portals they have created: http://www.wits.ac.za/Library/elecres/subjectguides.htm.

Are you looking to build customer loyalty? Unless you work in an unusual library that has too many customers, you are probably working each day to serve your customers and keep them coming back. Look outside the library science field for additional sources on how to draw and keep customers. One good one is CustomerThink. A recent column: Six stages of customer loyalty and how to leverage them http://www.customerthink.com/article/six_stages_loyalty_clients_advocates.

"How the Internet will change libraries is at the front of my mind" - a column by Sarah Long. http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=42996&src=3
Ms. Long says she will be interviewing people about their thoughts on libraries over the next few months. Her first interview, with Mary Ghikas (senior associate director of the American Library Association) can be heard in its entirety here:
http://www.sarahlong.org/podcast.

Slam the boards on September 10th! There has been a call for librarians to answer as many questions as they can on the Web boards this coming Monday, to reinforce library services as a source of answers. More on this call can be read in this story: http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/wndReader.asp?ArticleId=37382 .

A wonderful article from Outsell Insights on their report on the value of libraries (includes figures):

http://www.outsellinc.com/store/insights/3538

Where I originally saw the report mentioned:

http://www.bizreport.com/2007/08/endusers_are_increasingly_turning_to_libraries.html

Read these and send the links to your administrators! Quoting the Outsell Insights article:

"In light of Outsell's newest ROI data, it seems penny-wise and pound-foolish for enterprises to eliminate library budgets in a time of increased information challenges." Amen to that.

There is a county in Oregon that closed all of its libraries at the start of summer due to lack of funding. Jackson County has since been looking for ways to reopen the libraries (I never did see where the funding would be coming from, but evidently they have found a source or two). They put the operation of the libraries up for bid, and want to go to the lowest bidder. Two organizations bid - one was the local government employee union, the other was LSSI, whose motto is "Partnering with communities to build better libraries" http://lssi.com/. An update of where this story stands can be read here: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070816/NEWS/708160322 .
My question: if it is so much cheaper to outsource the library and the service remains the same or better, why doesn't everyone do it to all county/city services? Why would a county/city even consider keeping on the cost of a fire department, police department, streets department, etc., if they could outsource it for cheaper and get the same or better service? (And pardon my ignorance if this is actually what all counties ARE considering! I might be just catching up to the world on this topic.) From the newspaper story, it appears that the library bids that were submitted met the objectives specified by the county as far as services go. The librarian that was leading the effort to reopen the libraries has left or is leaving for a new job, so no librarian has reviewed the bids (as far as I know). Will libraries of all kinds more likely to be outsourced in the future, much like the military base libraries did in the 80's and 90's (and are still doing)? What exactly makes up the difference in cost between a library that is run by an organization like LSSI, and one that is run by a local government or even an academic unit? Does one cover more human resource-type costs and the other not? For example, does one cover retirement and health insurance, and the other not? Did the Jackson County library system really have so much sloppiness in their budget that LSSI is able to come in and offer the same level of service for 30 percent cheaper cost, with only a 3 percent inflation rate over the next few years? If so, where does that put all the other county and city library budgets? From what I have seen in the Midwest, there usually isn't too much to cut in any library budget, particularly when facing staggering increases in electronic information resources and human resource-related costs.
If LSSI is offering a cost-effective management service for libraries, and hires professional librarians to run things, I say more power to them. Let them get in there and show folks how it should be done! From their Open Jobs list http://lssi.com/OpenJobs.cfm, it looks like they are doing well and looking to hire. If LSSI's mission is to truly offer same or better service, a library director could experience better communication for new library programs with their higher-ups, since LSSI would more likely understand library operation needs and innovations than a city council or county board. I haven't seen a Special Interest Group in library associations for 'contracted-out libraries', but if you are a director or librarian in a contract library, I would really like to hear from you about your experiences! Just email teresa.hartman (at) gmail.com and let me know how things run in your world, and if you think this is the way everyone in the library world is going to be going.

Survey Says Librarians Like Their Jobs But Are Displeased With Vendors: http://www.law.com/jsp/llf/PubArticleLLF.jsp?id=1186650119943

Library news I have read this morning:



Libraries Live On: http://www.candgnews.com/Homepage-Articles/2007/8-8-07/XF-LIBRARY.asp

The future of libraries: http://blog.iwr.co.uk/2007/08/the-future-of-l.html

Bids on table for library operations: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070806/NEWS/708060326

Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies has come up with a list of the top 100 Tools for Learning http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/recommended/top100.html . I learned of this list through an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education: A list without libraries http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/index.php?id=2288.
Check out the list of tools, and see how many you already use - and how many you want to try out!

Story from the BBC that was highlighted on BoingBoing.net August 4th: Bibliomulas, or mule libraries, and how they serve to encourage reading in Venezuela - http://www.boingboing.net/2007/08/04/mule_library.html .
Direct link to the BBC story: Venezuela's four-legged mobile libraries
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6929404.stm

Additional story on the O'Reilly Radar: Books to Villages, Libraries on Mules http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/08/books_to_villag.html

Sites that I found while taking today's Nebraska Library Commission class: The Wonderful World of Wikis, by Michael Sauers, Technology Innovation Librarian at the NLC:

-Social Computing Magazine http://socialcomputingmagazine.com/
interesting article for my fellow librarians who have secret dreams of getting their library worldwide notice: How to use social bookmarking to take over the world (includes link to Part One of this article in first paragraph) http://socialcomputingmagazine.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=315

-Quickeo - private file sharing-video, photo, mp3, etc. (PDF articles, anyone?) http://www.quickeo.com/

-New MindTouch service-oriented wiki http://wiki.opengarden.org/Deki_Wiki/Release/Hayes

-Open Library launches with library as wiki service http://newsbreaks.infotoday.com/nbReader.asp?ArticleId=37019

-The wiki workplace: how web 2.0 changes everything (webcast from CIO magazine) http://www.cio.com/webcast/124960/The_Wiki_Workplace_How_Web_._Changes_Everything

-15 productive uses for a wiki http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/07/13/15-productive-uses-for-a-wiki/

-conference currently taking place in Taipei: Wikimania 2007 http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/08/03/in-taipei-wikipedians-talk-of-fundraising-and-wikiwars/

Have you heard of ChaCha, Inc.? It is a human-assisted search engine. Seems reasonable to assume that it should involve librarians, right? Here is a news item from Indiana: ChaCha to link to IU [Indiana University] librarians, tech specialists:

http://cms.ibj.com/ASPXPages/6iframes/FrontEndArticlesDetailPage.aspx?ArticleID=03441&NoFrame=1

Tricks and tips I learned at the Nebraska Library Commission class I took today: RSS - A new way of communicating.


-learned about one Omaha librarian's blog: Information Warfare http://informationwarfarelinks.blogspot.com/


-the Nebraska Library Commission (our state library organization) blog http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/blogs/NLC/



-and their list of feeds http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/feeds/feeds.asp is an example of how feeds can be promoted on a library website



-two feed readers to consider: Bloglines http://www.bloglines.com/, and Google Reader http://www.google.com/reader.

-use Feed Digest http://feeddigest.com/ to put feed content on a blog or to create an RSS feed for your many patrons' subject interests.

Amazon just sent me a notice that they have a new site, named "Askville", where I can "ask a question, get real answers from real people" http://askville.amazon.com/askville/CIndex.do?id=5#answers . Hmmm. When I checked some of the answers and what was sourced for each answer, I will continue to go to my own favorite place where I can ask a question and get a real answer from a real person - the library.

Libraries in Illinois are working to better serve their patrons that speak languages other than English. Polytalk, a network of bilingual volunteers, is ready to conduct real-time interpretor service: http://www.polytalk.info/ . Here is a story about the service in the Herald-Review: http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2007/07/27/news/local_news/1025243.txt .

What is your state doing to fight illegal immigration? How will it affect your library?

Virginia counties target illegal immigrants; libraries may be put in a bind
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6464164.html

This advice given to Nurse Practitioners might apply to many other professions seeking ways to create an independent business model:

"If all of this is daunting, keep in mind these three things. First, some of the most successful restaurants started out as small catering businesses. Second, whether you are going for a change of law or a contract with a practice or managed care company, it pays to be a good negotiator. Third, if a service is good and needed, usually there is a way to make a business out of it."

This is from the article, "In search of independent NP practice", written by Carolyn Buppert, CRNP, JD, in the journal: Journal for Nurse Practitioners. 2007;3(6):374-376.

A CNET article of interest to librarians and patrons alike: "Free information for the taking" http://news.com.com/Free+information+for+the+taking/2100-1038_3-6197920.html . The good news - they refer readers to contact their library for more help.

An article in the recent CIO magazine, titled: "Seven Ways Technology Vendors Blow the Sales Pitch" http://www.cio.com/article/124957?source=nlt_cioinsider , just may be of use to librarians. After all, we are out there too, selling our services, even if they are 'free' to the end user...

The Omaha Public Library was recently mentioned by the Library Journal for its unusually formatted annual report: http://www.libraryjournal.com/blog/1010000101/post/810011681.html

If you or your community are leading the discussion on how relevant libraries are in this day and age, you may find this article useful reading -
A Vanishing Breed? In the Information Age, the Role of Libraries Is Debated
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/07/09/news/coastal/7807111616.txt

Check out all of the comments at the end of the article - they are a great illustration of how our patrons and non-patrons view library services.

If you are a U.S. blogger, you should be aware of these laws, posted on : 12 Important U.S. Laws Every Blogger Needs to Know http://www.avivadirectory.com/blogger-law/. I learned of this blog post from Mary Helms, a colleague at McGoogan Library of Medicine. Be sure and read the comments for additional good information.

Thomson recently announced the recipients of their Awards for Information Professionals:
http://scientific.thomson.com/news/newsletter/2007-06/8392244/

More information about their awards and how to apply can be found here:
http://scientific.thomson.com/knowledgelink/awards-scholarships/

While looking for more information on the Quantum2 InfoStars award, I found this list of competency tutorials: http://quantum.dialog.com/about/framework/rate_yourself/ . The list includes:

• Environmental Analysis
• Knowledge Culture Vision
• Perception Analysis
• Relationship Management
• Management Buy-In
• Needs Assessment
• Service Definition
• Marketing
• Performance Measurement

Teaching evidence-based medicine? These resources may be of interest to you and your colleagues:

EBM Librarian Wiki http://ebmlibrarian.wetpaint.com/

University of British Columbia Health Library Wiki http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Main_Page

North Carolina EBM Center for Excellence http://library.ncahec.net/ebm/pages/index.htm

Article: Expert synthesis of the literature to support critical care decision making
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=17082827

Does your library offer self-service yet? Two articles I saw today covering the same story in the U.K. mention it:

Essex libraries embrace RFID
http://networks.silicon.com/lans/0,39024663,39167602,00.htm

Librarie lend growing support to self service
http://www.itweek.co.uk/computing/news/2192481/libraries-lend-growing-support

Threats Force South Carolina Library to Cancel Summer Program http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6453294.html

Chart-topping music titles to be available for download from libraries http://www.marketwire.com/2.0/release.do?id=743730&sourceType=1

The company that is behind this - Overdrive. You can check to see if there is a library offering this service in your area here: http://search.overdrive.com/

You just have to love the title of this article (plus, the article is a good read): Management lessons from The Sopranos
http://www.cio.com/article/119503?source=nlt_cioinsider

The first International m-libraries conference is scheduled for November 13-14, 2007 in Milton Keynes, UK: http://library.open.ac.uk/mLibraries/index.html . From the conference page: "This conference, hosted by The Open University in partnership with Athabasca University, aims to explore and share work carried out in libraries around the world to deliver services and resources to users 'on the move,' via a growing plethora of mobile and hand-held devices. The conference will bring together researchers, technical developers, managers and library practitioners to exchange experience and expertise and generate ideas for future developments."

More libraries using RFID, says expert: http://www.tuvps.co.uk/news/articles/more-libraries-using-rfid-says-expert-18179242.asp

Looking at the NXP Semiconductors website, I found these articles on the same subject:

no date - Complete inventory management for libraries http://www.nxp.com/news/identification/articles/articles/a13/index.html

from 2002 - Smart libraries, the smarter way to learn http://www.nxp.com/news/identification/articles/success/s47/index.html

from 2005 - ICODE sees steady growth in library market http://www.nxp.com/news/identification/articles/otm71/library/index.html

from 2006 - The silent revolution: RFID in libraries http://www.nxp.com/news/identification/articles/otm81/library/index.html

from 2006 - Libraries around the world are becoming smarter with Phillips RFID chips http://www.nxp.com/news/content/file_1248.html

China has established more than 66,000 libraries since 2003 - story in China View http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/14/content_6242911.htm .

No word on if the libraries have professional librarians on duty. They also do not specify the libraries' size. It would be cool if they saved space and used the technology that Mexico is using to create their network of books-on-demand libraries: The world's first network of books on demand libraries http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/6/prweb532438.htm .

June 8th speech by Sri Lanka Minister of Higher Education - Role of the professional librarian in the intellectual life of universities: http://www.dailynews.lk/2007/06/11/fea01.asp

I wonder if U.S. leaders in higher education share these views?

Google has partnered with the Big 10 Schools' libraries to expand the book digitizing program. Here is a link to all of the stories on Google News:
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1117020148

iPods and how they are being used in medicine. Story in American Medical News:
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/04/bisa0604.htm

Grant for summer '08 research, as seen in May 30th edition of eSchool News:
Awards of $6,000 for summer research Grant Title: NEH Summer Stipend Organization: National Endowment for the Humanities Eligibility: Educators Value: 80 awards of up to $6,000 each Deadline: October 2, 2007
Summer stipends support individuals pursuing advanced research that contributes to scholarly knowledge or to the public's understanding of the humanities. Recipients usually produce scholarly articles, monographs on specialized subjects, books on broad topics, archaeological site reports, translations, editions, or other scholarly tools. Summer stipends support full-time work on a humanities project for a period of two months. Applicants may be faculty or staff members of colleges, universities, or primary or secondary schools, or they may be independent scholars or writers. This program is intended for the period of summer 2008.
Contact: http://www.neh.gov/grants/guidelines/stipends.html

Lockers may be installed for Lincoln Library homeless: http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/115592.asp.

If you are interested in keeping up with current news about libraries, librarians, library education, try searching Google News for those terms.

New Gilbert library due to be first in nation to drop Dewey Decimal: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0530nodewey0530.html .
Quote from adult service coordinator: "Nowadays, people are used to going to a bookstore to browse, so we're trying to create the same atmosphere.... I know Dewey fans are out there. But we haven't changed a lot in so long, and I think we're in a fight for our own survival."

Another blog comment about a library futurist speaker, Joan Frye Williams, at the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference, this time from "2 Cents Worth": http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/11/04/saturday-morning-keynote-by-joan-frye-williams/
One of the great suggestions: make an entry for your library in Wikipedia. Users often don't start at the library itself, so put out sign posts where they are looking.

Videos about librarians talking about where they think the profession is going, created by The Speculist: http://www.blog.speculist.com/archives/001305.html . Videos were shot at the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference .

Screencasts - tutorials and movies made while navigating your computer screen, and includes a narration component. Links to sites and software for screencasting:

O'Reilly
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/11/16/what-is-screencasting.html

Screencast Central
http://www.screencastcentral.com/

Screencast entry at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screencast

Replay Screencast (software)
http://applian.com/replay-screencast/index.php

The Four Habits of Highly Effective Librarians - by Todd Gilman, as seen in The Chronicle of Higher Education. http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/05/2007052301c/careers.html
Thanks to Dorothy Knee, McGoogan Library, for sending this link.

None of us hope to experience a disaster such as flood or fire in our library, yet we should be planning for such an event. Here is a story about how the Zimmerman Library at the University of New Mexico handled the aftermath of the fire that struck a year ago: http://www.unm.edu/~market/cgi-bin/archives/001936.html.

InsideHigherEd.com article on library research and discourse: "Good at reviewing books but not each other" http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/04/27/bell . The good news - there are great comments to be read at the end of the article.

Download videos? You bet - through your library!: Video Downloading Extends Libraries' Reach, Improves Service http://www.prnewswire.com/mnr/overdrive/27751/ . I am going to check it out to see if this service will work on my video iPod...

Story in the EU Observer on April 19th: Copyright Deal Clears Way for European Digital Library
http://euobserver.com/9/23894. From the story: "An EU expert group on digital libraries has agreed to a basic model for handling copyrights for digitalised cultural publications in libraries." Libraries would be responsible for collecting payments for copyright holders, estimated to be 1 Euro per item used (similar to the iTunes payment model).

Another story covering this topic: Report addresses copyright issues linked to digital preservation http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=27530.

Good news - there are still free online storage facilities for computer users to connect with. One that I heard about today: Gspace http://www.getgspace.com/. This would be useful for anyone conducting outreach, traveling between computers, or that would appreciate always having access to a file through any computer.
After using sites such as this successfully before the dot-com bust, I thought most of the sites had gone to a membership business model (such as .Mac, and others). Glad to see that free online storage still thrives.

In honor of National Library Week (April 15-21):

Thomson Gale has announced a new online community for libraries:
http://www.gale.com/librareo

Thomson Gale has also announced a $10,000 contest for "I Love My Library" videos - for rules, go to: http://www.gale.com/librareo.

And Thomson Gale has an open house for all of its databases this week:
http://www.accessmylibrary.com/libraryweek

Evidence-based medicine resource, from the Institute of Medicine, has a chapter on training health professionals: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11903&page=211. Title of resource - The Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary - Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine.

The National Agriculture Library is adding federating searching, and creating a National Digital Library for Agriculture: http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-12-2007/0004564139&EDATE=. The mock-up of their new page: http://www.nal.usda.gov/ndla/. And the sources that will be searchable through the new gateway: http://ndla.nal.usda.gov/sources.shtml.
Reading the comments in the press release, such as "DWT provides powerful federated search solutions that help users save time and improve results by intelligently
and securely accessing internal, subscription and web databases and sources
through one search page.", makes one wonder - in the future, will our users only have a gateway and digital access with no librarians? What are the long-term prospects of digital libraries as well as those with human searchers/aggregators?
If there are any library/information science students writing about the future of libraries, please get in touch with me and I will share your thoughts on this blog!

Other examples of digital gateways:
Iraqi Virtual Science Library https://www.ivsl.org/
National Science Digital Library http://nsdl.org/browse/index.php?GEM_cat=2&verb=Search&q=Health&s=0&n=10
Some that didn't make it:
Virtual Naval Hospital http://www.vnh.org/
Virtual Hospital/Virtual Children's Hospital http://www.vh.org/ (but may be mirrored here? http://lib.cpums.edu.cn/jiepou/tupu/atlas/www.vh.org/)
EPA Digital Library of Environmental Quality http://www.epa.gov/ceisweb1/ceishome/digitallib/
BiodefenseEducation.org http://www.biodefenseeducation.org/

Librarian of Congress Testifies On Library's Digital Evolution

News story: http://www.managinginformation.com/news/content_show_full.php?id=5616

Testimony: http://www.loc.gov/about/welcome/speeches/digital/digitalage.html

Join the fun and education in Omaha, Nebraska this October 12-16, when the MCMLA and Midwest Chapter of the Medical Library Association conduct their joint meeting: License to Learn/License to Lead. Take a look at the website for more information: http://www.mcmla.org/2007/

The UK National Health Service has announced on March 28 that they will be doing consumer health information service: Tailor Made Information Will Help Patients Take Control of Their Treatment http://media-newswire.com/release_1046575.html

Inside Higher Ed article: Libraries At the Cutting Edge, by Pamela Snelson
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/03/29/snelson

Xerox has some free brochure templates for small business use: http://www.office.xerox.com/small-business/resources/brochure-templates/index.html.

If you serve K-12 science educators in your audience, or if your campus works with them through community outreach programs, please send this link to them: NIH Curriculum Supplement Series http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/. The supplements are now alligned to state standards.

For those in your audience that don't have access to a RefWorks account or haven't bought their own EndNote software to collect, manage, and cite their research sources, Zotera might come to their aid. This is a free Firefox extension: http://www.zotero.org/.

xps vs. pdf? How does the new Microsoft XML Paper Specification (XPS) stack up against the established Adobe PDF? Some links on the topics follow. You may wish to check with vendors to see how they are supporting both formats. This topic may be of interest to someone in your team that is working on digitizing projects.

XPS Overview (Microsoft) http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/default.mspx


Adobe-Why PDF? http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/adobepdf.html


XML Paper Specification (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_Paper_Specification

Adobe PDF vs. Microsoft XPS (Digital Inspiration blog) http://labnol.blogspot.com/2006/01/adobe-pdf-vs-microsoft-xps-xml-paper.html

Michigan Library Consortium uses Second Life as training location
I saw this story in the Lansing State Journal online edition: Second Life brings virtual, real life together. http://www.lsj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070308/NEWS03/703080351/1004/news03.
They also had a virtual party to celebrate their new eLibrary gateway: http://www.mlcnet.org/cms/sitem.cfm/news__announcements/mel_remix/.

TechWatch, according to its web site, identifies and tracks developments and standards in communication and information technology that are critical to higher education. It is a function of JISC in Great Britain.
They released a report in February 2007 on Web 2.0 and Education. You can read the most recent TechWatch reports online.
JISC also sponsors a conference that might be of interest to anyone involved with information and communication technologies in their institution.

A great explanation of the anatomy of Second Life and how businesses (insert 'library' here) can use it for collaboration, research and marketing:

The Anatomy of Second Life
http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2098917,00.asp

Please take this professional association survey! (Posted with permission of the authors-TH)

Many professional library associations have generated surveys to figure out what their members want from a professional organization. The purpose of our survey is to query librarians directly, regardless of what association they might belong to, in an effort to determine how library associations in general are meeting the needs and expectations of their members.

The survey is confidential and takes only 10 minutes to complete. The results will be reported during a poster session at the upcoming Medical Library Association conference in Philadelphia.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=676253314746

If you are interested in receiving a copy of the results, please contact us directly. Thank you!

Megan von Isenburg, MSLS
megan.vonisenburg@duke.edu

Rebecca Pernell, MSLS
rebecca.pernell@jefferson.edu

Dan Kipnis, MSI
dan.kipnis@jefferson.edu

Who needs a library when you can purchase your own archives? (Of course, that is a rhetorical question, folks!) As seen on BoingBoing, here is a link to the entire archive of the New Yorker Magazine on a hard drive, offered by Levenger: link .

Research journals could do the same thing.

Did you know that you can now send Google Maps to cell phone users? In addition to the regular "Get Directions: To here - From here - Search nearby, there is now - Send to Phone.
Do your library resources have such a function yet? Are you exploring the possiblities? I would love to learn from any library investigating this level of service!

MySpace for Healthcare? Much Closer Than You Think: http://www.health-itworld.com/newsitems/2007/february/02-06-07-dhp-social-networking-in-healthcare .

Your library or organization should consider maximizing Web 2.0 technology to reach the social-networking users.

Library using podcasting for education purposes. University of Tennessee Health Science Library has a podcast page: http://library.utmem.edu/media/podcasting/Podcast/Podcast.html .

Health search engine just purchased by Microsoft. I saw this in today's iHealthBeat newsletter: Microsoft has purchased Medstory http://www.medstory.com/Home.html .

M.J. Tooey has a great article on Open Access issues on her library newsletter: Why Open Access Won't Go Away http://www.hshsl.umaryland.edu/information/newsletter/ .

Article describing The New Library Professional at The Chronicle of Higher Education Careers section: http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/02/2007022001c/careers.html. The author suggests that the successful library embraces the new professionals while remaining true to our profession's "timeless values".

Thanks to Dorothy Knee for the link!

Do you remember the Y2K threat to computers? Well, ZD Net has a page titled: Wake Up to the 'Daylight-Saving' bug. http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9589_22-6159840.html.
Since the US Gov't changed the dates of Daylight-Savings this year, computers could be affected.

Microsoft has some templates for sales and customer relationship:

http://www.microsoft.com/smallbusiness/markets/connect/sales-process-imp
lementation.mspx

There is a value-added analysis calculator on the page that could work for many types of services, including library service - here is a
direct link to the template
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC011038971033.aspx

I love this suggestion about a National Signing Day for professors and librarians! http://denver.yourhub.com/Parker/Blogs/Life/Work-Career/Blog~180384.aspx . It goes right along with my dreams while in my masters library program to develop pro teams of librarians in each town, and have them as revered and sought after as sports figures have been. A librarian team could include: health science librarian, law librarian, museum librarian, music librarian, etc., with each having their strengths and stats posted on the back of their very own sports card... Each year, cities would bid to see who would pay the highest amount for a librarian to join their team. Hey, a person can dream, can't they?!

Check out the Rapid Responses to Dean Giustini's editorial "How Web 2.0 is changing medicine" in BMJ. The first response is from a library staffer, who describes their use of Web 2.0 tools to keep up on new publications and to distribute information to their patrons. Other responses describe how wiki technology can be used to keep health professionals informed.

Native American Library Grant Applications Now Being Accepted: The IMLS has announced their 2 year Native American Library Services Enhancement Grants here: http://www.imls.gov/applicants/grants/nativeEnhance.shtm

You Can Enter Information Today's 2007 InfoTubey Awards!

Hi Everyone,
My company is starting a new contest this year to award interesting library
promotional work. We're calling it the InfoTubey Awards! ;-)

We’re looking for videos that librarians have created and posted to YouTube.
Each production must demonstrate creativity, humor, and sincerity in
marketing a library, promoting library services, or enhancing a library's
value. Videos cannot be more than 5 minutes long.

The deadline is Feb. 14. All submissions will be judged by a panel of
distinguished information professionals, who will contact winners in March.

Five InfoTubey Award winners will each receive one free 3-day
conference pass to the Computers in Libraries 2007 conference (a $449
value). Awards will be presented at a gala event during the CIL conference
on April 17 near Washington, D.C.

The entry form is at https://secure.infotoday.com/InfoTubies/Submit.asp.

You can direct your questions to InfoTubies@infotoday.com.
C'mon, show us what you've done! And feel free to pass this on to your
colleagues (unless you're afraid they'll beat you!).
~Kathy


Kathy Dempsey
editor in chief, Computers in Libraries magazine
editor, Marketing Library Services newsletter

Information Today, Inc.
143 Old Marlton Pike, Medford, NJ 08055 USA
609/ 654-6266, www.infotoday.com

Blog article on IT-Director.com: We The Librarian http://www.it-director.com/blogs/MWD/2007/1/we_the_librarian.html . As blogs impacted media, social software services are predicted to impact knowledge management, making 'everyman' a librarian.

Have you created a wonderful education newsletter, brochure, video, or other form of communication? Then enter it in this year's APEX Awards http://www.apexawards.com/apex2007awardscategories.htm! Deadline for entries is: March 15, 2007.

Join the Live Discussion at The Chronicle of Higher Education on Feb 1, noon (Eastern Time): The Changing Role of Academic Libraries in the Information Age http://chronicle.com/live/2007/02/gorman/ . Michael Gorman, Dean of library services at California State University, Fresno, will speak on the future of libraries, and take questions. A transcript of the session will be posted to the address above following the discussion.

Advocating for libraries these days? You might be interested in reading this blog entry and the links included that take you to other stories covering the EPA's work to reduce their library:
EPA librarians told: Shush! http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/110714.asp .

Noted in the LA Times article that is linked to the blog entry:
"An EPA study in 2004 concluded that the libraries saved millions of dollars a year by performing time-consuming research for agency staff members. "

From the Washington Post: A Librarian's Lament: Books are a hard sell http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/19/AR2007011901361.html?sub=AR .

Google has just announced in their Librarian Newsletter that they have created a Librarian Central blog: http://librariancentral.blogspot.com/ . They have added a link to their teaching tools that might come in handy during your next user education session: http://www.google.com/librariancenter/librarian_tools.html .

17 Grantseeking tips in this article:
Habits of Fearless Grant Seekers http://grantseeking.net/?p=8 .

An event you don't want to miss, if you are anywhere close to NYC on Jan. 18th:

Un-Bound: Advanced Book Publishing in a Digital World
http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/unbound/index.html .

From the invitation: "Please join us for a day examining how the book business has changed and how it will continue to evolve. Hear from thought leaders and industry veterans who are taking advantage of our increasingly digital world - from blogs and social networks to print-on-demand and online access."

Free Hacker Scan for Universities, Nonprofits (Story found in NetworkWorld):
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/011007-acunetix-free-scan.html?nlhtsec=0108securityalert4&company=SonicWall . The company Acunetix is offering a free web site security scan and reporting service. Use this link to apply: http://www.acunetix.com/site-audit/us-universities.htm.

Harvesting RF [Radio Frequency] Energy - story on CNET: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-12760_7-9673092-5.html?tag=cnetfd.mtThis could be a benefit for patrons that visit the library in person - they could charge their cell phones for free while browsing the library resources.

New search engine expected in 2007: Powerset
The Powerset CEO was on CNBC this morning, talking about the new search engine they expect to launch late 2007. The Digital Markets blog at ZDNet posted a message on this topic: http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=825 . Powerset claims that they are developing a search engine that 'breaks the confines of keyword search'. It is not apparent at this time if they can do better than a good librarian.

Medical librarian site mentioned in AMA's e-newsletter:

Medical librarian is featured health profession

Now featured on the Health Professions Network's Web site
is the medical librarian profession:
http://enews.ama-assn.org/UM/T.asp?A40.576.4015.10.194066

If you or someone you know uses the OpenOffice suite, there has been a patch issued for a security flaw. More in this story from Network World: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/010407-openoffice-patch.html?nlhtsec=0101securityalert4&company=Finjan.

Washington Post has an article on weeding in public libraries that you might find interesting:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/01/AR2007010100729.html

You may soon be able to purchase a mobile Wi-Fi unit for your car, or rent Wi-Fi from Avis when you rent your next car: http://www.playfuls.com/
news_05676_Drivers_Can_Now_Go_Surfing_With_New_Internet_Service.html. Since more than one user can access the Wi-Fi within a 30 meter area, your next outreach training class could take place under the trees and sky, instead of a computer training room.