30 April 2007

NEW STATE LAW BLOGS


Law Blog Metrics, a collaborative blawg that is part of the Law Professor Blogs Network, has a new list of blogs dealing with law at the state level. California, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and DC are included in this list.


URL:

This post: http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/3l_epiphany/

2007/04/new_state_law_b.html

Law Blog Metrics: http://3lepiphany.typepad.com/

Law Professor Blogs Network: http://www.lawprofessorblogs.com/

27 April 2007

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LIBRARIAN--NEW BOOK


Here's information on a new book that you may want to read. One of the 95 authors who contributed to the book is ME.

Shontz, Priscilla K. and Richard A. Murray, editors. A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library and Information Science. Libraries Unlimited, 2007. 464 pages. ISBN 1591583640
.
Table of contents, excerpts, contributor information, and more at http://www.liscareer.com/dil.htm.

Many people, not just those new to the field of library and information science, are curious about their career options. The editors of LIScareer.com have assembled 95 authors, each of whom describes a "typical" workday or work routine, sharing joys, sorrows, and annoyances in refreshingly candid fashion. In the process, they offer those interested in finding a similar job exposure to useful skills and advice across a wide variety of traditional and nontraditional jobs. In addition to public, academic, school, and special libraries, consortia, associations, LIS programs, vendors, publishing, consulting, and other non-library fields are also covered. This is a perfect guide for library and information science students, prospective information professionals, new librarians-or anyone considering a career change.

26 April 2007

I (ME?!) AM GOING TO BE ON A SIRSIDYNIX INSTITUTE

I am very pleased—and amazed—that Stephen Abram has invited me to do a SirsiDynix Institute webcast with him. He and Jonathan Lorig and I had a great time doing the book, Out Front with Stephen Abram: A Guide for Information Leaders. (It is a collection of Stephen’s writings and presentations.) Stephen and I both blog (and love doing it). So, Stephen thought we’d answer all those questions we get about how we write, blog and communicate and share some of our experiences. Here’s all the information. (BTW—it’s free!!)


Writing for the Library Profession

Date : 10 July 2007, 11:00-noon, Eastern Time

You can register (remember, it’s free) at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=90



Do you want to inform and influence your colleagues? Do you have a story to tell? Have you done something innovative that delighted your users? We don’t have a paucity of ideas and innovation in Libraryland, we do have a problem with diffusion. We need to share our ideas and experiences more. From blog postings, to periodical and newsletter articles to website content and even to books library staff are increasingly being asked to write. With the dynamic and rapid change happening in our sector, we have an increasing obligation to share our knowledge and experiences. It’s an exciting time to be in libraries.


This SirsiDynix Institute brings together two library leaders, authors, bloggers and journalists to share their secrets and tips. Both share the experience of putting together this year’s bestselling Out Front with Stephen Abram. Judith Siess’s latest book is The New OPL Sourcebook: A Guide for Solo and Small Libraries . Their blogs are among the most popular—his is Stephen’s Lighthouse. Both share their knowledge, insights and opinions openly. Want to know some of the secrets? With all of the great innovations happening around the world in libraries, we have to start sharing more. If we don’t take our candles out from under the basket, who will?


Stephen’s Bio (short version)

Stephen Abram, VP Innovation, SirsiDynix, Chief Strategist, The SirsiDynix Institute. a leading international librarian and lighthouse thinker in the North American library community, leverages his extensive experience in library technology and trend forecasting, new product conceptualization, and market development to ensure that SirsiDynix products and services continue to be the most innovative in the library market and meet the needs of library directors, library staff members, and library users. Abram works on strategic projects in all areas to advance our vision. Abram has more than 25 years in libraries as a practicing librarian and in the information industry. His most recent role was as vice president of corporate development for Micromedia ProQuest. Abram’s other roles include publisher for Thomson Carswell and director of Information Resources for the Hay Group. He is a frequent keynote speaker on issues that affect libraries, their communities, and librarians. In addition, Abram was named by Library Journal in 2002 as one of the key people who are influencing the future of libraries and librarianship.


URLs:

Out Front with Stephen Abram: http://www.alastore.ala.org/SiteSolution.taf?_sn=catalog2
&_pn=product_detail&_op=2238

Stephen’s Lighthouse: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/


Register for the Institute: http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=90

25 April 2007

UK LAW LIBRARIAN BLOG

lo-fi librarian is from a newly qualified law librarian in the UK. He or she doesn’t give any more information about him/herself, but the blog has very good stuff on it. Check it out.

URL: http://www.lo-fi-librarian.co.uk/

DRIVING DIRECTIONS AND WEATHER FORECASTS ALL IN ONE

“Trippish is a free service that gives you driving directions with weather forecasts along the route. Trippish not only tells you what the weather is likely to be during your drive, but also allows you to determine the best time to leave based on current forecasts. This product has been developed by Cyberferia and is released in the US by UrbaTron LLC.”


URL:
http://trippish.com/

24 April 2007

THE FUTURE OF SPECIAL LIBRARIES BY GUY ST. CLAIR

Guy St. Clair, the father of the OPL movement, has issued a report on a summit on the future of special libraries. The summit was held on 30 March 2007, with some of SLA’s most eminent leaders participating. St. Clair facilitated the session. He is kindly making it available to us at no cost. I consider this must reading for all of us.

URLs:

The report: http://www.smr-knowledge.com/articles/
SMR_SLA_Summit_Report_4-15-07.pdf

SMR International (St. Clair’s firm): http://www.smr-knowledge.com

RSS DESCRIBED IN PLAIN ENGLISH

Lee LeFever [CommonCraft, Seattle, Washington] has created a fabulous video that quickly and clearly explains RSS and what it can do for the user. He also has posted a printed version of much of the same information, but the video is better. This would be a good training tool.

URLs:
video: http://blip.tv/file/205570/
text: http://www.commoncraft.com/archives/000528.html

23 April 2007

SOURCES OF FREE NEWS AND JOURNAL ARTICLE (with a few for a fee)

http://news.google.com
http://news.yahoo.com
http://www.magportal.com
http://www.news.com (from C|Net}
http://www.smartbrief.com
http://www.newsisfree.com (newspapers, international in scope)
http://www.doaj.org, (Directory of Open Access Journals, “categorized, searchable links to free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals”)
http://www.highbeam.com (not free, but very inexpensive for what you get)
http://findarticles.com

Free RSS news feeds are available at: http://w.moreover.com/site/products/ind/rss_feeds.html

Gale Thompson offers AccessMyLibrary (http://www.accessmylibrary.com), which “gives you free [full-text] access to millions of articles from top publications available at your library.” They will even send a plain text version of the article to your email address.

The resources below come from Gary Price of ask.com.
NewspaperARCHIVE, (http://newspaperarchive.com/), a fee-based service with millions of articles, offers their “special collections” with tens of thousands of articles for free (http://newspaperarchive.com/SpecialCollections.aspx). These are the same articles (full text and full image) that you have to pay for elsewhere. If you are a K-12 school library or a public library, nearly the entire database is available for free (see http://access.newspaperarchive.com/
SiteLoading.aspx?from=default.aspx) for details.

Time magazine offers a free archive back to 1923, http://www.time.com/time/, with a nice selection of options to focus results.

Topix is primarily a web-based news site, but does a good job of making sure “older links” are still available. They now offer case sensitive searching and useful interactive graphs to see trends and go directly to older material. For example, look for the graph at the top of this search results page (http://www.topix.com/search/article?q=%22
Los+Angeles+International+Airport%22).

Remember
that many libraries in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and elsewhere offer free access to numerous full text article databases for personal use, but this is usually for card holders only. Access from any web computer. For example, http://www.sfpl.org/sfplonline/dbcategories.htm or http://www.cpl.org/databases-links.asp. Remember every library offers different resources.

DIGG.COM INFLUENCED MEDICAL WEB SITES


BioWizard

http://www.biowizard.com/

BioWizard users submit relevant, timely research articles they have found to be useful and interesting to the site. Search over 16 million peer-reviewed biomedical articles through our PubMed search page and submit your favorite research articles. When you search for articles, you'll notice a ‘promote it’ button next to every article. If you see an article you like, click ‘promote it’ and assign the article a category on the left frame of the screen. The articles you submit are then read by the rest of the community, who vote up articles they feel are deserving of recognition. All submitted papers are placed in one of three sections:
* Featured Articles: Articles that have received enough votes to be deemed of interest to everyone.
* Top Ranked: Articles that have received the most votes.
* New Submissions: Articles recently submitted by our users.
“In addition to finding the best literature in your field, you can get field-specific news, search for lab products, and read the blogs of prominent scientific minds.”

Dissect Medicine
http://www.dissectmedicine.com/

Dissect Medicine is a collaborative medical news website, which indexes and ranks international medical news. It spans general interest articles to basic research. users submit news items for review with tags and keywords. These are then ranked by the user group. This ensures that only the most relevant and influential articles will make it as a current headline story. It was inspired by digg.com, a technology news website that employs non-hierarchical editorial control. Dissect Medicine builds on this concept by adding extra features and functionality for the specific needs of the medical community. The site is a joint initiative of Macmillan Medical Communications and Nature Clinical Practice.”

Medinews
http://www.medinews.co.uk/

Medinews was originally based on a Spanish website, http://meneame.net/, a web application that” allows you to submit an article that will be reviewed by all and will be promoted, based on popularity, to the main page. When a user submits a news article it will be placed in the ‘unpublished’ area until it gains sufficient votes to be promoted to the main page.” It was also influenced by digg.com.

onexamination.com
http://www.onexamination.com/site/default.asp

Onexamination “provides a growing number of postgraduate and undergraduate revision courses online that are designed to reflect the latest styles and questions in each exam. Its core is a highly efficient question marking and analysis engine that has helped more than 50,000 doctors, in over 100 countries revise for their examinations. The website has analysed over 20 million question responses helping focus learners on the areas they need to improve to pass their exams. Many doctors have passed their exams using the website without the need for expensive and time-consuming residential courses.
"This site is run by Medelect Limited, a UK Technology company founded by four doctors in January 2000 to expand on the success of an MRCP revision website that had been online since 19996." There is a team of specialist editors and authors creating original content. The Company has received support from Cardiff University, Wales College of Medicine, the Cardiff City Council, the Welsh Development Agency, and various pharmaceutical companies.


Journal Review
http://www.journalreview.org/

JournalReview.org is an online forum dedicated to the medical literature. One can utilize our website to perform a complete PubMed query, read and rate articles, as well as participate in discussion of current and past articles. The forum is open to all fields and should help to stimulate critical discussion. Through this venue, we hope users may gain a better understanding of medical literature and practice evidence-based-medicine.”

“This site was envisioned and created by a small group of four individuals. The founders and programmers behind JournalReview.org realize the important roll that this site can play in the shaping of medical practice, research, and health care policy and have provided personal funds to make this site possible.”

18 April 2007

LOOKING FOR A JOB IN NEW YORK STATE?


Library Careers NY is a new website from the New York State Library, the New York State Education Department through the Making It REAL! project, funded by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services.

There are four sections:
The Careers section has information about different types of library careers; the Education section has information on library school programs, distance learning and scholarships; the Jobs section has job listings, help with resume preparation and interviewing tips; and the Career Growth section "will help you make your library career take off."

URL: http://www.librarycareersny.org/

OPEN MEDICINE DEBUTS

Open Medicine launched 18 April 2007. “This new open access journal represents a milestone in the independence and academic freedom of medical research publishing.”

James Maskalyk [University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and Médecins San Frontières, Abyei, Sudan] wrote an editorial, “Why Open Medicine?” for the first issue. Here is just a bit of it.

"Medical knowledge should be public and free from undeclared influence. When possible, it should be free for those who apply it. Since people's lives depend on it, that knowledge must be filtered several times before it is ready to use. Studies need to be peer reviewed, to have their statistics analyzed, their content edited, then copy edited, then published quickly for as wide an audience as possible. The prospect of having a high-quality source of information that held true to these principles but was also free and globally accessible was impossible to imagine 20 years ago. Paper and postage are simply too expensive. The landscape is different today. An ideal medical journal — a truly open one—is not only within our sight, it is within our reach.

Open Medicine is a new general medical journal. It will be paperless and available without charge or any other barrier to access online. We will publish peer-reviewed science and analysis as well as clinical articles. We will provide a forum for informed and inclusive debates on medicine and its application. Open Medicine will be independent of any commercial publisher or association ownership.

Open Medicine, although launched in Canada, is an international endeavour. Its strength will be a connected global community of interested, committed health workers. Like the country that birthed it, it will remain open, inclusive, and independent but its eyes, like those of its readers, will be on the world. We hope that you share our excitement about the future and being part of it."


URL: http://www.openmedicine.ca/

15 April 2007

BLAWG (Legal Blog) DIRECTORIES

Australian Law Blogs: mostly IP related, but there are others, URL: http://www.djacobson.com/australian_law_blogs/

InfoLaw: mostly UK, but some from Ireland, by type of law, directories, job blawgs, newsfeeds, URL: http://www.infolaw.co.uk/lawfinder/browse_type.asp?typ=Blogs

BlawgSearch: lists the most popular, by categories, recent posts, etc. URL: http://blawgsearch.justia.com/

Law Library Blogs and Blogs by Law Librarians or Law Library Associations, from the University of Wisconsin Law Library, includes 113 blogs with sponsoring library or association, very current, URL: http://library.law.wisc.edu/wisblawg/blogslistpublic.htm

Blawg.com
newly updated, lists in same categories as BlawgSearch, URL:http://www.blawg.com

Observatory of the Legal Blogosphere: from Portugal, links to law-related blogs in many languages and from many countries, URL: http://www.estig.ipbeja.pt/%7Eobsblogjur/homepageeng.html

Juriblogs: directory of French-language blawgs, URL: http://juriblogs.juridiconline.com/

Blogs juridiques: list on international law portal, Droit, URL: http://droit.francophonie.org/df-web/listeRessources.do?categoryId=89

Thanks to Michel-Adrien Sheppard (Library Boy, Supreme Court of Canada) for this information. (http://micheladrien.blogspot.com/2007/04/australian-blawg-directory.html)

GOOD IDEAS FOR BETTER REFERENCE SERVICE


Warren Cheetham
and Mei Lin Gray of the Thruingowa Library Service (Queensland, Australia) presented a paper at Information Online Australia on their use of a wireless tablet PC at the reference desk. It is a great idea—they sit next to the customer at a table, not face-to-face over a reference desk.

Also in the article were the Thuringowa Library Services’ Customer Service Standards. They include:
We will:
Allow you time to enter the library and orientate yourself before we approach you.
Make eye contact, smile, and use open body language.
Tell you our name.
Not ask you if you need help, but simply state that we are here to help you.
Be interested and curious about your requests.
Acknowledge you, even when helping someone else.
Break off conversations with other library staff, and attend to you first.
Leave you to browse and search by yourself. If you are looking lost of puzzled, we will offer our assistance.

When seated at the Information Desk, we will:
Be aware of you approaching and greet you first.
Turn in our seat to face you, not our computer screen.
Have a clean, uncluttered Information Desk.
Be ready to help you first and not be busy with other library work.

We will also:
Provide a range of written guides to help you find information.
Explain how we are conducting a search for your, so that you may also learn how to search.
Ask you, as you leave, if you found the information you were looking for, and if there is anything further we can help with.
Commit to staffing the Information Desk during advertised hours.

URL: for the entire article:
http://www.information-online.com.au/docs/Presentations/cheetham.pdf

13 April 2007

TWO REPORTS YOU MIGHT WANT TO READ

1.
Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries, by Sarah Houghton-Jan [San Mateo County (California) Public Library] is the latest in the Library Technology Reports series from ALA TechSource. The Table of Contents and a section of the report are available on the TechSource site.

URL: http://www.techsource.ala.org


2.
Is Education 1.0 Ready for Web 2.0 Students? Is a fascinating article by John Thompson [Buffalo (New York) State College]. The answer is, predictably, no—but it’s interesting to read his comments. Originally published in Innovate 3(4), April/May 2007.

URL: http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=393

THE PRESIDENT OF A HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY IS BLOGGING

If you are in the healthcare industry or at least are interested in it, then you have to read this blog. It is by Charlie Baker, President and CEO, Harvard Pilgrim. Yes, the blog is self-serving and promotional, but Baker also plans for some posts to be informative and/or provocative.

URL: http://letstalkhealthcare.org/

LIST OF LIBRARY-RELATED WEBSITES

libSite.org describes itself as “a recommendation for library-related websites.” It comes from Leo Kline, a Chicago librarian. It “features a blog, a wiki, RSS feeds and email alerts…users can rate sites and add them to a ‘favorites’ page.” It will work only if people contribute to it, of course.

But do we really need another website/wiki for library sites? There are so many I can’t keep track of them all, and I certainly can’t contribute items to all of them. I wish we could all cooperate and have just one or two of these community sites—but I guess that’s wishful thinking, so check this one out.

URL: http://libsite.org/

A VIDEO YOU MUST SEE

Pay Attention,” from the Jordan (Utah) School District, is a wonderful explanation of why you should use technology to work with the next generation of learners, librarians, and customers. Watch it!!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEFKfXiCbLw

A WONDERFUL EXAMPLE OF USE OF TECHNOLOGY IN SCHOOLS

The Jordan School District, the largest in the state of Utah, seems to have completely integrated technology into their teaching. They have a website that provides teachers with technology information and tools. There is also a weekly podcast. This is a site well worth checking out.

URL: http://t4.jordandistrict.org/t4/

VISUAL ATLAS FOR THE EYES

RedAtlas.org is a highly interconnected, visual atlas of ophthalmic diseases.” “The images are available in medium and high resolutions for use in lectures and presentations” You can browse by disease or clinical findings and there is also a quiz section. There is no search function (yet). The site is supported by grants and The Wilmer and Doheny Eye Institutes.


URL: http://redatlas.org

FUN AND ON-POINT VIDEO ON POWERPOINT

There’s a super video on how NOT to use PowerPoint. You must look at it—if not for its instructional value then as pure entertainment.

URL: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2007/04/friday_fun_how_.html

10 April 2007

GREAT IDEA--CHECK OUT A LIVING BOOK!

Mount Barker's living library
by Ian Hildebrand [Mount Barker Community Library, South Australia, Australia], inCite 28(4):19, April 2007.

“On Australia Day 2007 the Mount Barker Community Library invited residents to borrow a Living Book from South Australia’s first Living Library. The aims of a Living Library are to bring people into contact with someone they might not meet or associate with in their ordinary day-to-day-life, to break down barriers and dissolve stereotypes.

“Readers of the Living Library could check out a Living Book for a half-hour chat, and ask questions about that person’s life. Some of the ‘Books’ in the Living Library were people representing groups frequently confronted with prejudices and stereotypes. Others were South Australians with interesting life stories to share. Living book titles at the Mount Barker Living Library included old people; hippies; a human rights activist; a human zoo participant and animal rights activist; an indigenous woman; a Jewish couple, a Muslim, a Catholic nun, a Chilean refugee, a Vietnam war orphan and a witch.

“All books got a good reading with at least seven loans per title. Best sellers were the Muslim (29 loans); indigenous woman (19 loans); witch (18 loans) refugee (15 loans) and Vietnamese war orphan (13 loans). In total, the 16 Living Books received 152 loans from 58 registered readers during the five-hour duration of the Living Library.

“Lismore [New South Wales] was the first Australian library I know of to hold [a Living Library event] (November 2006). Bayside in Victoria have on planned for Library Week this year (Mount Barker’s second one will also be held during Library Week 2007). A Living Library was held at the Malmo [Sweden] festival in 2005 and they have been operating at youth festivals in Denmark since 2000."

What a great idea! A corporate library could let customers “check out” a vice-president for a chat; a hospital could “circulate” top administrators; a law firm could do the same for partners. You get the idea.

INTERNATIONAL INDIGENOUS LIBRARIANS FORUM

I just found out about the International Indigenous Librarians Forum. "In 1997, the Maori Library Workers Network [New Zealand] proposed to the American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Library Information and Resource Network (ATSILIRN) [Australia] a gathering of indigenous library workers from around the world."

"Forums are held every two years in a different country"--this year's is in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia 4-7 June. You can get more information at their website or in the April issue (v. 28, no. 4) of inCite, the journal of the Australian Library and Information Association, page 15 (quotes from that article) . Sounds like a very worthwhile group.

URL: http://www.5iilf.org/

GOOD STUFF FOR LAW LIBRARIANS...

The April 2007 issue of AALL Spectrum, the journal of the American Association of Law Libraries, has some especially good articles. (v. 11, no. 6)

Nevers, Shawn G., Promote Your Electronic Resources: Hot to get more bang for your e-resource buck (Practicing Law Librarianship column), pp. 4-5, 16.
Long, Ann Walsh, All Press is Good Press: Promote the profession by writing articles for your local bar, pp. 6-7, 25.
Lynn-Nelson, Gayle, The Next Generation of Learners: Training issues law librarians face in the 21st century, pp. 8-11.

All three articles are available for download. You should read them!

URL: http://www.aallnet.org/products/pub_sp0704.asp

NEW HOSPITAL 2.0 BLOG


Health LIS 2.0
is a new blog from Australia. There are some good posts there. Check it out.

URL: http://hlis.wordpress.com/

07 April 2007

THE BEST OF THE WEB...EN FRANCAIS

The Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) Public Library "invites you to try out La Bibliotheque de reference virtuelle (BRV)...a French language portal" to online resources in French, chosen by librarians.

I don't speak French, so I can't assess the site, but it looks really good and useful.

URL: http://www.bibliovirtuelle.ca/