TWO GREAT HOMEMADE LIBRARY VIDEOS

YouTube is the most popular video-sharing website. Searching for “librarian” or “librarians,” I found nearly 200 videos. (Searching for “library” produces over 2900 hits, but I found that most are of high school kids just goofing around.) There are two that are especially good and could be duplicated or emulated by any librarian.


1. The adventures of super librarian. This short video was made by the McCracken County Public Library in Paducah, Kentucky. The description reads: “Faster than free internet, More powerful than a stack of reference books, Protector of Knowledge and Free Entertainment.” It is cute and provides a good image of librarians.


2. Ray of Light, St. Joseph County Public Library Version. “This video was created for library staff in service day at the St. Joseph County Public Library in South Bend, Indiana by Dale Kerkman, Bob Lewandowski, Michael Stephens and Adam Tarwacki. Set to Madonna's [song] Ray of Light and inspired by the video of the song, this video details a day in the life of a thriving public library system, highlighting the faces and places that make the library the library.” Stephens said that it was designed to show the staff and public that the entire staff is important in providing service to library customers. It is well done, if a bit long. You could do something similar to show your customers all that you do and introduce your staff (if you have one).


URL: http://www.youtube.com

INFORMATION FROM THE USA NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE

The Fall 2006 issue of MedlinePlus magazine, from the US National Academy of Medicine, is available at http://www.fnlm.org/magazine/autumn2006.pdf. Included is an overview of NLM and the NIH Quickfinder, links to NIH’s institutes and offices nationwide. You can subscribe to the free magazine at http://www.fnlm.org/join.pdf.


Also available from NLM are the comments from the Director, Dr. Donald Lindberg. His weekly report is available at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/directorscomments.html and can be downloaded as a mp3 file or a text transcript. You can also subscribe to the podcasts.


Thanks to the blog Clinical Evidence, Searching Tidbits, and Other Minutiae for this link. You can find the blog at http://clinicalevidence.blogspot.com.

TWO GOOD USES OF TECHNOLOGY FOR YOUR LIBRARY

There is a lot of new technology out there. But which are really appropriate for your OPL—or small library, or even large library? Here are two that I think deserve strong consideration.


Internal, project-specific blogs. Nicole Engard [Jenkins Law Library, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA] is quoted by Michael Stephens on use of project-specific blogs at her library. This concept is more like an online filing cabinet that is accessible by multiple people.


URLs:

Stephens’s post: http://tametheweb.com/2006/09/ltr_update_internal_blogs.html

Engard’s post: http://www.web2learning.net/archives/535


Stephens also highlighted the use of flickr to provide a virtual tour of a library. He links to the one of the Lackman Branch of the Johnson County (Kansas) Library. Any librarian with a digital camera could do the same for customers off-site.


URLs:

Stephens’s post: http://tametheweb.com/2006/09/ttw_mailbox_virtual_tours_with.html

Lackman tour: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11329886@N00/sets/72157594291410121/

TWO “DICTIONARIES” OF INTERNET ACRONYMS AND EMOTICONS

I just found this article from PC World, LOL :) -- A Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons. James A. Martin put together both acronyms and smileys in the following categories: Everyday Acronyms: Coming and Going, Hooting and Hollering, Exotic Acronyms, Acronyms We Wish Existed (and Possibly Do), Everyday Emoticons, Favorite Exotic Emoticons, and More Shorthand Slang Online. There are nice descriptions of each entry.


For a more complete list, try NetLingo. It has a searchable data base including acronyms and other abbreviations for text messaging and IM, smileys and emoticons, top 20 lists (acronyms every parent needs to know, tech terms that are now common expressions, and newbie terms everyone needs to know), file extensions, country codes, and more. You can also download the entire thing as an e-book (US$25) or PDF (US$10).


URLs:

LOL: http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,88686-page,1/article.html

NetLingo: http://www.netlingo.com/index.cfm

EQUATION AND SCORE CALCULATOR FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

MDCalc gives physicians and other medical professionals an easy way to calculate medical equations and scores—and now has the international SI units as well. (Caution—“all calculations must be re-checked by hand and should not be used alone to guide patient care.”)


Some of the equations are: abs neutrophil count, Bayes sensitivity and specificity, Cardiac output (Fick), Oxygenation index, and Winter’s formula. The scores included are: APGAR, Cardiac risk (Framingham) PORT score/CAP risk, Glasgow coma score, MELD score, Ranson’s pancreatitis mortality, Strep probabilility, TIMI Scores for UA/NSTEMI and STEMI, and Well’s criteria for PE.


URL: http://www.mdcalc.com/si/

LISTENING TO STUDENT VOICES—ON TECHNOLOGY

Michael Stephens brought my attention to this report from Education|Evolving, a partnership of the Center for Policy Studies and Hamline University (Minnesota). Listening to Student Voices—on Technology presents 15 findings, but these are the ones most of interest to librarians.



Students are sophisticated users (duh!)

In-school access to technology is limited and its corollary, Home use dominates.

Computers and the Internet are communications tools, first.

Students want adults to move beyond using the “Internet for Internet’s sake.”



And the most important finding: Technology has caused students to approach life differently; but adults act as though nothing has changed.



You may also want to look at the “Vision 2020.2” report on Student Views on Transforming Education and Training Through Advanced Technologies (suggested by a commenter on Stephens’s blog. There are some really good ideas for library technology here.



URLs:

Education|Evolving: http://www.educationevolving.org/

The report: http://www.educationevolving.org/studentvoices/pdf/tech_savy_students.pdf

Stephens’s post: http://tametheweb.com/2006/09/listening_to_student_voices_fr.html

“Vision 2020.2” report: http://www.netday.org/SPEAKUP/pdfs/Visions2020-2.pdf

blog@your library

blog@your library is the new blog from the Sydney campus of Curtin University of Technology in Australia. It is very attractive and has some wonderful posts.


URL: http://library.curtin.edu.au/blogs/

NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT’S NEW WEBSITE

The Parliament of New Zealand has a very well designed new website. Included are: How Parliament works, Parliamentary business, Select committees, MPs and parties, This week, Publications and research, History and buildings, and Explore Parliament. There is also a good FAQ (frequently asked questions) page, with answers to questions such as How can I find out the name of my member of Parliament? How can I contact a member of Parliament? Can I take photographs or film inside Parliament Buildings? Which leads to…Do I need permission to have my wedding photographs taken in Parliament grounds? Do I need permission to hold a protest in the grounds of Parliament? How do I find out about getting a job at Parliament? Finally, there’s a link to the Parliamentary Information Service for questions not answered by the website.


URL: http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ

FREE PUBLICITY IDEAS FROM THE WORLD ALMANAC

Looking for a source of publicity or promotion ideas for your library? The free World Almanac E-Newsletter has lots of good ideas for you. Each monthly issue contains: events for the month, both USA and international; this day in history for each day of the month; birthdays of celebrities that month, and obituaries for the previous month. There are also special features, offbeat news stories, links, quotes, and other interesting but not too useful stuff. To see a sample, go to http://www.worldalmanac.com/newsletter/
200609WAE-Newsletter.html. To subscribe, send an e-mail to: newsletter@waegroup.com with the subject line reading "SUBSCRIBE."

BLOGGING LIBRARY DIRECTORS

Library Director is a wiki on Blog Without a Library that lists blogs by library directors or administrators blogging “from the administrative point of view at any type of library.” There are only a few places listed, in Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ontario (Canada), Belgium, and France. Predictably, nearly all of the directors are in public libraries, but there is one school library, five universities, and two state librarians represented. These are well worth looking at.


URL:
http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Library_director

EVIDENCE BASED LIBRARY AND INFORMATION PRACTICE

The third issue of the journal Evidence Based Library and Information Practice is available now from the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. There are some very interesting articles in this issue. Abstracts and full-text are available online.


URL:
http://ejournals.library.ualberta.ca/index.php/EBLIP

LIBRARIES USING EVIDENCE

From the University of Newcastle (Australia), a list of resources for evidence-based library and information practice. Includes a blog, a toolkit, events, current projects and publications, and recent articles of interest. A great resource!

URL: http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/gosford/ebl/

HOW TO DO (ALMOST) ANYTHING

I want to: How to do the things you want to do, posted by Phil Bradley, includes everything from Web 2.0 social community programs to the just plain fun Sticky Map, Catalog Card Generator, and Comic Strip Generator.


URLs:

I want to: http://philbradley.typepad.com/i_want_to/

Sticky Map: http://www.stickymap.com/

Catalog Card Generator: http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

Comic Strip Generator: http://www.comicstripgenerator.com/

LIBRARY TECH CONFIDENTIAL BLOG

Greg Smith, library student at Seneca College [Toronto, Ontario, Canada], has a nice blog, Library Tech Confidential. He writes, "Most of what you’ll find here consists of links and snippets from library, publishing, or information management-related articles I’ve encountered on the web, but some original commentary bubbles up to the surface every now and then. While I maintain this site essentially as a memory-aide of sorts, others with similar interests may find it useful." There's some really nice stuff here.


URL:
http://libtechconfidential.com/

CANADIAN PARLIAMENT IN SESSION--HOW TO KEEP UP

Michel-Adrien Sheppard, alias Library Boy, reminds us that the Canadian Library of Parliament LEGISinfo servicewill allow people to track bills, follow parliamentary debates, gain access to background documents and additional reading material on legislative proposals, find voting information as well as up-to-date details about the coming into force of bills that are passed by the 2 Houses of the federal Parliament.

As well, it is possible to track bills via RSS feeds. See Sheppard's post for the details.

URL:

LEGISinfo: http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Language=E

Sheppard's post: http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2006/09/canadian-parliament-back-in-session.html

MARYLAINE BLOCK ON LIBRARY SIGNS

Marylaine Block has a wonderful article in the latest (15 September) issue of ExLibris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies. It is on signs in the library. Here are a few excerpts, but you should read the entire thing. (http://marylaine.com/exlibris/xlib287.html)


“The sign makes perfect sense to you, not because of what it says, but because you are mentally filling in the blanks in what it does not say.”

“users of the Seattle Public Library have been having [trouble] trying to find restrooms, copy machines, and even the way out. People have been so confused that librarians hired a professional ‘wayfinder’ ‘ to show them how to improve their directional signs.”

“It's also the same sort of problem many users have trying to follow written instructions on how to use the internet and library databases.”

"The problem is that the person making the signs knows “too much about the [subject] and therefore cannot think about them as their users will.”

“One cure, it seems to me, is enlisting users early on in the design process. You could, for instance, put up dummy signs and building maps before you order the professional ones. Test them by bringing in some users for a private showing…. Observe where their eyes go as they're looking for signs and maps and other clues. Are those the places where you've posted signs?

“Alternatively, you could do what librarians at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh did after they remodeled the first floor of their building: watch users as they navigate through new or remodeled buildings to see the places at which they stop, stare, and try to figure out what to do next. At each of those confusion points, librarians posted either signs or staff.”

To solve the problem of using databases, Block suggests you “show students how to use the databases and then ask them to write instructions for other students. Why? Because they won't mentally fill in the blanks like we do. They know from experience the ways in which the search interface doesn't make sense, and they will tackle those problems head on.”

Another approach: “you might spend some time analyzing the dumb questions you get. If people keep asking you where the copy machine is when they're standing right by a sign for the copiers, you just might have a problem with either the wording or placement of that sign.”

GOOD STUFF!!

NEW EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE BLOG

CCE Resource News is a new blog from Catherine Voutier of the Centre for Clinical Effectiveness, Monash Medical Centre, Clayton, Victoria, Australia. CCE works with clinicians and consumers to find and implement the best available evidence in health care settings. CCE also works collaboratively with Southern Health to put evidence into practice in an acute health care setting.


Recent posts include: assessment tools, CHE critical appraisal tools, preventing medication errors, cost and economic search strategies in EMBASE, guideline development methods, supercourse in epidemiology, herbal databases, UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, evidence-based practices in mental health, and finding peer-reviewed articles.


URL: http://cceresourcenews.blogspot.com/

HOW FRIENDLY IS YOUR DONATIONS POLICY?

David Cornwall [Juneau, Alaska, USA], blogging at Alaskan Librarian called our attention to the gift policy of the Seldovia Public Library. He likes it--and I do too--because it words the policy in very positive terms. “So if your gifts policy is in need of revision, or you’re looking for a way to avoid saying, ‘No! We don’t want any!’ check out what Seldovia Public Library is doing.”


Here are some excerpts from their policy (all emphasis mine).


While the library is very pleased to receive donations of books that expand our collection in identified areas of need or that can be sold to augment our grant funding, there are things donors can do to help us take best advantage of your donations.” The donor becomes a partner with the library in order to maximize his or her donation.


Other recipients might be better able to make better use of your donations, and we can help guide you to some of these.” Much better than, “we don’t want.”


To get donors to call first, and not leave items outside, they give an example. “Recently, a very large donation was left outside the library, without notice, for days…the books became weather-damaged as well as suffering from the territorial marking practices of local dogs. Would you want to read these books or have your children read them? What a sad waste, and one that could have been prevented with a phone call.” Gives an example and states the requested action.


“These are some donation types we welcome” and “These are some donation types that we regretfully cannot make use of.” A very positive introductions to their itemized lists.


URLs:

Cornwall’s article:

http://alaskanlibrarian.blogspot.com/2006/09/seldovia-has-friendly-and-reasonable.html

Alaskan Librarian:
http://alaskanlibrarian.blogspot.com/

Seldovia’s donation policy:

http://seldovialibrary.blogspot.com/2006/09/help-us-make-best-use-of-your.html

SUPPORT FOR US EPA LIBRARIES—TOO LATE?

The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility have release a wonderful memo voicing support for the libraries of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Agency is closing the libraries in a budget move. See the entire memo at http://www.peer.org/news/print_detail.php?row_id=735.

NEWSLETTER ON IMPROVING PATIENT SAFETY

Patient Safety Link is “a [free] monthly newsletter for health care professionals dedicated to improving patient safety” from the Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety. The August 2006 issue had articles on Identifying Impaired Physicians: How to address problem physicians quickly, Civility in the Health Care Workplace: Strategies for Eliminating Disruptive Behavior, and Defensive Medicine: Physicians’ fear of lawsuits may affect treatment.” Signup by sending a message to patientsafetylink@jcrinc.com.

TEACHING ENGLISH, UK STYLE

The Teaching English website is a co-production between the British Broadcasting Corporation and the British Council and is designed for non-native speaker teachers of English working predominantly in secondary education. The site acts as a forum for teachers to exchange ideas, as a resource for teaching materials, and as an archive of teaching ideas and techniques.

The site is divided into three main sections: Think: Teachers' articles on different aspects of teaching; Try: practical activities to download; and Talk: idea sharing. There is even an RSS feed for updates.

URL:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/

MICROSOFT OPENS SCHOOL--WITHOUT A LIBRARY

School District of Philadelphia and Microsoft Open School of the Future—WITHOUT A LIBRARY

Excerpted from and with comments from Judith A. Siess, Editor, The One-Person Library newsletter, from the press release at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/sep06/09-06MSPhiladelphiaSOFPR.mspx

Opened in Philadelphia 7 September 2006, “the School of the Future is the result of a unique collaboration between the School District of Philadelphia, Microsoft Corp. and the community of West Philadelphia that will deliver a new approach to curriculum and school design and the infusion of technology into the daily lives of educators and learners.” It features “a progressive and research-based curriculum, integrated technology, and environmentally advanced architecture…within the strict confines of a standard urban public-school budget.”

The school has 170 freshman students who will make up the first School of the Future graduating class of 2010. They were chosen in a lottery from the local neighborhood and are 99 percent minority and 85 percent low income.

“The School of the Future project has created education-specific tools for school administrators, faculty and the community in which they live and work.” They include smart-card-accessible lockers, a tablet PC for every student, wireless access at school and broadband access at home, software such as the Virtual Teaching Assistant, media-rich classrooms and the Interactive Learning Center, which replaces the traditional library—allowing content to be constantly updated, in essence creating textbooks with local, regional and global information that is always refreshed and never out of date.” (emphasis mine)

More detail on the library “alternative:” (all emphasis and comments—in brackets—are mine)
“Unencumbered access [does that mean no mean librarians to deny access to materials?] to expertise will be gained by providing learners and teachers with access to streaming media content on a variety of subjects, from a variety of content experts. No longer limited due to their location, these experts can be brought into the classroom, or home, whenever the learner or teacher needs access to them [library materials aren’t portable??].

ILC replaces traditional library (and textbook use). Students can access resources throughout the building and from home. The ILC allows for community members to access these resources as well. [Libraries are open to the community, too.]

Space is designed to support ad-hoc collaboration and informal learning opportunities. [Libraries are getting to this—the concept of library as place.]

A complete multimedia encyclopedia and study tools will be installed on students’ computers for use at all times. [Most libraries have 24x7 access to their reference works via their website.]

Students will be able to customize their portal to give them content that is immediate and relevant. [Immediate, yes; relevant, maybe; but what about reliable and accurate?]


Final comments

Isn’t Microsoft being self-serving?! By eliminating the library and having the students rely totally on online materials, they ensure a steady supply of customers. But does teaching them that “everything is online and it is free”—from MS of course, help the students in the long run? Of course not.

By relying totally on the Web, the students learn to accept whatever they find, without examining the source or reliability of the material. And what of the students “unlucky” enough to work in a organization without such free and easy access to the Web? Will they know how to find information in any other way? Will they know that they can find reliable, free information at their local library (public or otherwise)?

What Microsoft is really creating, rather than educated citizens, is a populace that knows only one way to find information—the Microsoft way. Good for Microsoft, bad for society.

For more information, see http://www.microsoft.com/education/SchoolofFuture.mspx

YES, YOU CAN HAVE FUN WITH GOOGLE

Philipp Lenssen has written a book called 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google: A cabinet of search engine curiosities, riddles, games, and a little bit of usefulness. The book contains over 220 pages and is available to buy at Lulu.com for US$16.50 or Amazon for US$19.66.T It also is available for free downloading (.pdf or Word format). Also take a look at his daily weblog, Google Blogoscoped.

The book is interesting, but the best part may be the Glossary in the back.

URLs:

download the book: http://www.55fun.com/

Google Blogoscoped: http://blog.outer-court.com

A Short Reading List for Managers

Ivan Chew had a good post with some books worth reading. See the list at http://rawnotes.blogspot.com/2004/08/short-reading-list-for-managers-on.html

Websites for Students

Here are some sites your students, or children of your customers, may find useful--courtesy of the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Los Angeles Times.


Internet Public Library, http://www.ipl.org, The University of Michigan has now been joined by 14 other schools in this wonderful venture.


Spark Notes, http://www.sparknotes.com, Like a Cliff’s Notes, but also has reference guides to other topics. And the real Cliff’s Notes is at http://www.cliffsnotes.com.


How Stuff Works, http://www.howstuffworks.com, As the article said, “great for science reports.”


Atlas of Human Anatomy, http://www.anatomyatlases.org, “Fantastic images of human body parts.”


Biology portal from the University of Arizona, http://www.innerbody.com


Periodic Table, http://www.chemicalelements.com


Conversion tables, http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html—but remember that Google can make a lot of conversions for you.


Verb conjugations, http://www.verbix.com/webverbix/index.asp


Algebra Help, http://www.algebrahelp.com, practice problems.

Attention European Medical Librarians: EAHIL Membership is Now Free!

Membership in the European Association for Health Information and Libraries is now free—at least for “European members.” Non-European members must, unfortunately, still pay, but it’s a small price (€50) for their very good Journal. For instance, the current issue is all (and I do mean all) about Evidence-Based Medicine and is very useful. There’s a great article on “How to Make Evidence-Based Medicine Work for You” by Tom Jefferson of Rome, Italy, and another on “Where’s the Harm in EBLIP? Current Perspectives, Future Developments, by Andrew Booth of Sheffield, England.


URL for EAHIL: http://www.eahil.net

Legal Research Guides: Finding Facts and Statistical Resources

These are two wonderful resources from The Virtual Chase, continuing its mission of “teaching legal professionals how to do research.”

http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/facts.shtml

http://www.virtualchase.com/resources/statistics.html

German Civil Code now available in English

The German Federal Ministry of Justice has commissioned a translation of the Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (or BGB), the civil code of Germany. The translation can be downloaded free of charge at http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_bgb


Thanks to Sabrina I. Pacifici's beSpacific blog for the heads-up.

I'M BACK...AND I HAVE NEW SITES FOR YOU

Sorry for the gap in posting. I was in rainy, humid, hot southern Florida for a family event and couldn't post. I hope these make up for it.


AASL Advocacy Toolkit: Because Student Achievement IS the Bottom Line

http://www.ala.org/ala/aasl/aaslproftools/toolkits/aasladvocacy.htm

The American Association of School Libraries has compiled this collection of ready-to-use tools to conduct an advocacy campaign—large or small—for school library media programs.


Google News archive Search

http://news.google.com/archivesearch/

“Provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. In addition to helping you search, News archive search can automatically create timelines which show selected results from relevant time periods.”


Salida Regional Library (Colorado) tries books by color:
http://vielmetti.typepad.com/superpatron/2006/09/salida_regional.html

“What if the library rearranged it's books by color? Instead of Dewey Decimal numbers such as 306.73 or 978.847, we could have B123 (for Blue #123). Better yet, we could sort by color and size, and the spine label might say something like RS27 (for Red Small #27). New books would get added to the end of their color sections, so finding newer books would be easy. You could no longer browse the shelves by subject matter, but you might more easily find a book you’d seen before. Most people can recall the color and size of books they’ve read. My favorite such description: ‘It had a simple white cover, kind of like the Google homepage.’ And people remember where, too. Like most people, librarians easily remember ‘red book, shoulder high, to the right.’”


U.S. Adults More Likely to Turn to the Web For Legal Information

http://www.lexis-nexis.com/about/releases/0922.asp

A new survey from lawyers.com reveals that there is a decline in relying on friends and family for legal advice.


Create Your Own Catalog Card

http://www.blyberg.net/card-generator/

It’s really cute—try it.


GlobaLex Research Guide on International Health Law

http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/international_health_law.htm

From Chenglin Liu, Foreign and International Librarian at the O'Quinn Law Library at the University of Houston (Texas) Law Center and the Hauser Global Law School, New York University.


How to Blog a Conference

http://hyku.com/blog/archives/001253.html

Suggestions on developing a conference blogging plan from Josh Hallett, a consultant on using blogs for public relations and marketing success.


McMaster University Library Blog

http://ulatmac.wordpress.com/

The McMaster University Library (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) is a blog sponsored by the University Librarian, Jeffrey Trzeciak. It is intended as a interactive mechanism for distributing and receiving feedback on library-related news.


This Week in LibraryBlogLand

http://twil.lisnews.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/04/1440233&from=rss

This summary of good posts appears on lisnews.org every Monday before noon (Central time).


Resources on Labor

http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2006/09/labour-day-resources.html

From Michel Adrien, librarian at the Supreme Court of Canada.


Free Printable Highway Maps

http://www.milebymile.com/

Maps and travel guides for the USA, Canada, and Mexico. There is less detail for Mexico, but these are pretty good.


12 Really Necessary Things to Learn

http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/08/ten_things_to_l.html

A list from Guy Kawasaki (of angel investor matchmaking service Garage) of what he wished he learned in school before he graduated.

1. How to talk to your boss.

2. How to survive a meeting that’s poorly run.

3. How to run a meeting.

4. How to figure out anything on your own.

5. How to negotiate.

6. How to have a conversation.

7. How to explain something in thirty seconds.

8. How to write a one-page report.

9. How to write a five-sentence email.

10. How to get along with co-workers.

11. How to use PowerPoint.

12. How to leave a voicemail.


Marketing the Small Library

http://ks.webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=13764

From Shannon Roy, State Library of Kansas, for librarians in “small public libraries.” Includes: The Supreme Importance of Planning: including internal and external scans; The Human Side of Marketing: to local government, community leaders, library users, and target audiences; Marketing Library Services: the facility, the collections, public services, and through programs; Tools for Marketing: with the media, self-publishing, through electronic information, and community fundraising; People Who Can Help: staff, volunteers, trustees, friends, active library users, computer buffs, local artists, speakers, fundraisers, and members of the target audience; Resources.


IRCworld

http://ircworld.blogspot.com/

Notes posted by US State Department Information Resource Centers around the world. Links to good resources you might have missed.


Get Organized Here!

http://www.lifeorganizers.com/

LifeOrganizers.com is a rich resource of office and home organizing articles, tips, and fresh, easy ideas on how to get rid of clutter from every part of your life... from the garage to your filing cabinet to your spiritual matters! We show you how to organize anything and everything! Get organized completely with us—read one article a day, put one suggestion into action a day. Includes: organizing your home clutter, organizing your office, organize your time, get your finances organized, moving and real estate, and school and family. You can subscribe to their e-newsletter, too.