Monday, March 29, 2010
The Library Blog Awards - Salem Press invites nominations of library blogs. http://salempress.com/Store/pages/announcing.htm . I couldn't tell what date the call for nominations was made, nor if there is a deadline for nominations, so please send in all of your favorite library blogs and see what happens!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Dr. Paul Silvia of the University of North Carolina http://silvia.socialpsychology.org/ is the keynote speaker at today's Write Right Now! conference at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. If you write, or serve academic writers, this RefShare folder of his suggested readings might be useful references: http://www.refworks.com/refshare/?site=037501144987200000/RWWS2AA638028/031610WriteRightNowBookReferences . (Note: I added Dr. Silvia's book to the list.)
Monday, March 08, 2010
Article: "Libraries of the Future" in the current Research Information, Feb/Mar 2010:
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=250
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=250
Thursday, March 04, 2010
The most-used portion of most academic library collections is digital. This means that we as librarians are acting more as lost baggage claim agents than connectors of information.
Hypothetical situation:
Customer: "Why can't I open this full-text document? I could yesterday." Librarian: "Well, it seems that the vendor did not forward our check to the document supplier, so they now consider us former subscribers and have cut off our access to the 10 year collection of articles. Please enter your information on the document delivery request [formerly known as interlibrary loan request-th], and you should receive it within 2 business days."
I predict that academic librarians that are furloughed because of library closures or drastically reducing budgets could easily transfer into lost baggage claim agent jobs. We are used to dealing with angry, confused people asking questions about what they were led to trust would happen did not, in fact, happen when they needed it most. A library customer, who really needs a full-text document in order to get their paper done by Friday, accessing the library's online journals collection only to be denied access and told that someone would search for it and deliver within 2 days, can be compared to an airline customer who really needs their suit for tomorrow's interview and is told that they are denied said suit until someone searches for it and delivers within 2 days. Neither customer is fully served, but both have paid in money, time, and lost trust.
Hypothetical situation:
Customer: "Why can't I open this full-text document? I could yesterday." Librarian: "Well, it seems that the vendor did not forward our check to the document supplier, so they now consider us former subscribers and have cut off our access to the 10 year collection of articles. Please enter your information on the document delivery request [formerly known as interlibrary loan request-th], and you should receive it within 2 business days."
I predict that academic librarians that are furloughed because of library closures or drastically reducing budgets could easily transfer into lost baggage claim agent jobs. We are used to dealing with angry, confused people asking questions about what they were led to trust would happen did not, in fact, happen when they needed it most. A library customer, who really needs a full-text document in order to get their paper done by Friday, accessing the library's online journals collection only to be denied access and told that someone would search for it and deliver within 2 days, can be compared to an airline customer who really needs their suit for tomorrow's interview and is told that they are denied said suit until someone searches for it and delivers within 2 days. Neither customer is fully served, but both have paid in money, time, and lost trust.
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
A great comic showing what our patrons/customers can experience when trying to access any resources with DRM:
The Brads-Why DRM Doesn't Work, or How to Download an Audio Book from the Cleveland Library
http://www.bradcolbow.com/archive.php/?p=205
I know that we as librarians must limit access to resources by non-authorized users, but some of the access-granting hoops our authorized users face are unacceptable. Our jobs are to reduce barriers to information resources. Really.
The Brads-Why DRM Doesn't Work, or How to Download an Audio Book from the Cleveland Library
http://www.bradcolbow.com/archive.php/?p=205
I know that we as librarians must limit access to resources by non-authorized users, but some of the access-granting hoops our authorized users face are unacceptable. Our jobs are to reduce barriers to information resources. Really.
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