Three Lists of Must Reads

100 Best Blogs for Librarians of the Future
The folks at Bachelor’s Degree Online (whoever they are) have compiled of list of blogs to follow. Divided into Technology and Education, School and Academic Librarians, Library Issues and Advocacy, Research and Reference, Innovation and Information, Reading and Literature, and Professional categories, they include most of the ones I follow and some I have to look at. A good place to start if you’re looking to keep up with the ever-changing library world. (Find more at http://globeofblogs.com by searching on “library.”)

URL: http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2009/100-best-blogs-for-librarians-of-the-future/

25 Predictions for the University of the Future
On Associate Degree (which seems to be a site similar to Bachelor’s Degree Online), site administrator Emily Thomas goes out on a limb to predict “how the university of the future will operate.” The ones focusing on libraries:
“Libraries will continue to become more tech-focused”
“Learning resources will shift online”
“There will be an increase in the variety of educational resources and materials”
and many interesting predictions for other facets of higher education.

Definitely worth a read.

URL: http://associatedegree.org/2009/07/29/25-predictions-for-the-university-of-the-future/

Best Practices for Government Libraries 2009. Change: Managing it, Surviving it and Thriving on it.
LexisNexis’s Marie Kaddel has compiled over 60 articles by librarians, association leaders, and LexisNexis consultants. Included are federal standards, actual library case studies, LexisNexis presentations, press releases, and think pieces. And all this is available for free! Download it and learn. (PS. Not just for government librarians….)

URL: http://www.lexisnexis.com/tsg/gov/Best_Practices_2009.pdf

Recent Website Reviews on InSITE

(from Law Librarian Blog by Joe Hodnicki, Butler County Law Library, Ohio)

Law librarians at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, search the Internet for potentially useful websites, select the most valuable ones, and provide commentary twice a month via their current awareness service, InSITE.

The June 15, 2009 issue includes:
AfriMAP: Africa Governance Monitoring and Advocacy Project
American President: an Online Reference Resource
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
and the
Worker Rights Consortium

There's also a searchable database of past reviews and you can browse current and archived issues from the home page. You can subscribe to the RSS feed as well.

URLs:
InSITE home page: http://library2.lawschool.cornell.edu/insiteasp/default.asp
Hodnicki's full post: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2009/06/recent-website-reviews-on-insite.html

A Handful of Practice Area Blogs by Lawyers

Joe Hodnicki [Butler County (Ohio) Law Library] called our attention the these blogs in a recent post on his Law Librarian Blog. See his post at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/2009/06/recent-website-reviews-on-insite.html for details and URLs

Military Veteran Attorney Blog
Products Liability and Injury Lawyer Blog
Drug Recall Lawyer Blog
Overtime Lawyer Blog
Lemon Law Lawyer Blog
DUI Attorneys Blog
Securities Fraud Attorney Blog

HEARD ON THE LISTS: Are Blogs Replacing Websites?

Barbara Keef [Windham (Maine) Public Library, USA] wrote the following on the LIBREF-L electronic list.
“At a recent local library meeting, the speaker suggested that websites were outdated and being replaced by blogs. The main reason for this change is that ‘People cannot interact and comment on a website. A website simply delivers information. If you are thinking about book groups or any kind of sharing of info, the blog is the way to go. Also in most cases it is much easier to add information to a blog site.’ Are websites being replaced by blogs? Pros? Cons? Comments?”

Scott Peterson responded, “It depends on where you draw the line at; many websites have comments/forums which allow visitors to post their input, such as Slashdot. Effectively these sites have been ‘blogs’ before the term became popular. On the other hand, a blog isn’t the answer to everything, nor does every website need to have a comment section. The assumption is that blogs/comments have the most current or relevant information, but a lot of the time it seems it’s more an endless opinion war. There are times I’d really prefer to read the information from a knowledgeable source than try and draw a consensus from pages of comments.

Dan Lester [Boise, Idaho, USA] had this to say. “Well, first of all, blogs are websites. Yes, they’re ones with particular software for a particular purpose, but that’s true of the website you call your ‘library catalog’ and the website called ‘Amazon’ and the one called ‘Susie’s House’o’porn.’ It isn’t really much different than fiction vs. non-fiction or a zillion other examples. But you’ll find those who think a blog is the way to go. Others prefer ‘forums’ or ‘boards.’ So, the basic question is ‘what is the purpose of what you want to create?’ And, you don’t have to have just one or just the other. Personally, I think you might want a semi-traditional (fixed content, updated as needed) with links to your library catalog website, a blog for what I’d consider to be ‘announcements on which people can comment,’ and perhaps a ‘board or forum’ for discussion on the book-of-the-month. Just look at all the options, join some sites if you’ve not already, and figure out what might be best for your need(s). And whatever the ‘answer’ is today, it may be different in 3 months or 3 years.”

Blogger (Librarian In Black) Sarah Houghton-Jan [San Mateo (California) County Library, USA] commented, “I think what is being targeted here isn’t really blogs vs. websites, but rather making sure that websites are more interactive. My guess is that this is what the speaker was getting at. That indeed is a trend, and an important one for libraries to pay attention to. But you don’t need blogs to make your website interactive. Anything will do it—a discussion board, community calendar, wiki, or just about anything else that allows the public to write content that is posted to your website. Blogs make ‘interactivity’ easy as they have a commenting feature built in. Allowing your website to be a two-way street is essential today. It is what our community expects. If your site is static with just library staff being able to post to it, you will lose a lot of your potential users.

Andrew Heiz [Flushing, New York] added, “As always when a new tool enters the toolbox it is thought that it will replace the entire contents. Web publishers have a new tool that allows a high degree of interactivity and flexibility, the blog. So that blog would be the tool to use if you want the commenting features you mentioned. But it won’t replace every web design tool available to librarians. A library may desire a certain amount of interactivity in their overall web presence. Blogs need a high degree of maintenance to stay current. While it is of little effort to update a web page or a blog, a blog is expected to be updated a minimum of daily and sometimes more frequently than that. A blog or web site is only as useful as the people who feed them. In the end whether you call your site a blog or just a site users will find their way to it if it is the following: current, accurate, easy to navigate, understandable, etc. In a nutshell blogs are not replacing web sites. Take away the personal blogs that are not relevant unless you are related to the blogger, the abandoned blogs, the corporate advertising blogs and I suspect that you’ll find an equal number of useful blogs and web sites.”

How to Succeed by Blogging

Tania P. Bardyn [UCLA, Los Angeles, California] has a very good article in the June 2009 issue of Computers in Libraries—Library Blogs: What’s Most Important for Success Within the Enterprise? (pp. 12-16) She asks if library management should support blogs in the enterprise and answers yes—if adequate software and creative librarians are present.

Five factors influence the implementation and eventual success of library blogs:

1. Develop clear strategies, objectives and plans.

2. Understand the value proposition of a blog. (reducing cost of producing marketing materials, reduction of email spam, more efficient communication, increase in site traffic, for example).

3. Incorporate multiple initiatives in the enterprise.

4. Engage library management in continual improvement of the blog.

5. Invest in IT in the library (by installing appropriate and sufficient technology).

The article and its suggestions are worth a read.

Two Blogs to Help You

Just a quick note on two blogs I just came across.

Designing Better Libraries: "Exploring the application of design innovation and new media to create better libraries and user experiences." With this cast of contributors it has to be great: Steven Bell [Temple University] Brian Mathews [Georgia Tech University], John Shank [Pennsylvania State University], Jill Stover [Virginia Commonwealth University] Jeff Trzeciak [Mc Master University] and Michael Giralo [Princeton University].
URL: http://dbl.lishost.org/

For My Information: I couldn't find out the author, he/she writes "This blog helps me keep a record of the tools I use to teach my patrons - lawyers, legal assistants and other legal professionals - about the sites, sources and techniques used to conduct research...'for my information.'" Lot of good links here.
URL: http://resevoir.wordpress.com/

IS YOUR LIBRARY REALLY ACCESSIBLE?

To get an idea what a person in a wheelchair really needs in accessibility, read the review of the Boston Public Library on The Traveling Wheelchair blog. There are also short reviews of nine other Boston-area libraries on the blog.

Librarian Jessamyn West wrote about it on her blog, Librarian.net, “gives you a really good idea of not just what accessibility means from a legal perspective, but how it’s perceived from a wheelchair user perspective.”

URLs
BPL review: http://thetravelingwheelchair.com/the-boston-public-library/
West’s post: http://www.librarian.net/stax/2802/how-accessible-is-your-library/

ADDICTOMATIC.COM: INHALE THE WEB

I’ve just discovered a great new site to help you keep up with specific topics. “Addictomatic searches the best live sites on the web for the latest news, blog posts, videos and images. It's the perfect tool to keep up with the hottest topics, perform ego searches and feed your addiction for what's up, what's now or what other people are feeding on. After you search, you can personalize your results dashboard by moving around the source boxes. When you're done, bookmark the page and keep coming back to your personalized results dashboard for that search.”

I’ve set up searches on “one-person library,” “solo librarian” and my own name; and I’ve found items I’d probably never find any other way. Be sure to use the quotation marks for a phrase.

The site was created by Dave Pell, founder of Rollyo, who has just launched a new health news blog called The Skeptical Hypochondriac. (“Dave also is maintaining his son's site until he turns three and starts blogging himself.”)

Sites covered include: Google, Yahoo, Technorati, Ask, YouTube, Truveo, Flickr, Blinkx, Ice Rocket, Digg, Topix, Newsvine, Tweetscan, and their Top Blogs (from 150-200 blogs selected by Addictomatic “with a lot of help from sources like the Technorati 100 and the blog reading lists of some of our favorite bloggers.”)

The site “enablers” (staff) have a great sense of humor. This is from the FAQ:
“What if I get hooked and I can't stop? Welcome to the club.”

Try it—you’ll become an addict too.

URLs:
Addictomatic: http://addictomatic.com
Pell’s other blog: http://skepticalhypochondriac.com/

TOP 50 LIBRARY BLOGS: MY FAVORITIES

I gather that the original list was not in any particular order, so neither is this list. Nearly all have RSS feeds to make it easy for you to follow them--so do it!

Librarian.net, Jessamyn West, a rural, circuit-riding librarian/tech consultant, has “what is thought to be ‘the first single-editor library-oriented weblog.’” http://www.librarian.net

David Lee King, Digital Branch and Services Manager at the Topeka and Shawnee Public Library, tells us about the wonderful things he’s doing at his cutting edge library. http://www.davidleeking.com

Information Wants to be Free, from Meredith Farkas at Norwich University. Technology-oriented. http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/

Stephen’s Lighthouse should be on your must-read list. It is, from one of my favorite people, Stephen Abram, VP of Innovation for SirsiDynix, the big integrated library software vendor. He is also one of the profession’s premier forward thinkers. Plus, he travels all over the world and reads voraciously, thus keeping us up-to-date on just about everything library. http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/

Another of my favorite people, Michael Stephens, is a librarian turned professor (at Dominican University). He blogs on information technology and social networking, among other topics at Tame the Web. He’s big on customer service. http://tametheweb.com/

Jenny Levine left the library for a post at the American Library Association, but is still writing on technology and how we react to it on her blog, The Shifted Librarian. http://theshiftedlibrarian.com

LISNews, founded by Blake Carver, is produced by a group of librarians and covers the news of the library world (especially technology). http://www.lisnews.org/

Librarian in Black is the baby of Sarah Houghton-Jan, digital futures manager, San Jose (California) Public Library. Tech news mostly. http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/

Law Librarian Blog covers more than the legal field, especially on Fridays when it posts on the funny or unusual. From Joe Hodnicki (Butler County [Ohio] Law Library) and Ron Jones (University of Cincinnati Law Library) and a part of the Law Professors Blog Network. http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/law_librarian_blog/


URL for the entire list: http://www.getdegrees.com/articles/career-resources/the-top-fifty-librarian-blogs/

HELP FOR LAID-OFF LAW LIBRARIANS

Christine Sellers, formerly a Senior Research Librarian at Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd, P.A., in Columbia, South Carolina, has created the Librarians of Leisure blog “in an effort to provide something positive to the law librarian community out of this experience….” She provides job listings, advice, and “a place to stay connected.” There was a post on LLOF about a focus group of “Laid Off Librarians” in the Law Library Society of DC.

Although it’s sad that it is necessary, this is a wonderful idea and public service. If you know of similar blogs for other areas of librarianship, let me know.

URL: http://lawlibrariansofleisure.com/

NEW (TO ME) LIST OF BLOGS

Globe of Blogs was launched on February 1, 2002 by Heather R. (she keeps her real name a big secret). At the time there were no other weblog directories online. You can search by author’s name, author’s birthday (why?), title, topic, or location. I searched “library science” got zillions, but only 50 were really library-ish blogs. It would be nice if you could really search by topics that were assigned by the blogger. But I still found a substantial number of interesting blogs that were new to me.

This is very interesting, if flawed, site and worth a look. If you like it, you can even buy a t-shirt, mug, or poster at cafepress.com. You can’t say that about many (any?) other blogs.

As of late April 2009, there were 68,201 weblogs registered.
North America: 39249 (58 percent)
Europe: 13197 (19 percent
Asia: 8351 (12 percent)
Australasia: 2310 (3 percent)
South America: 1905 (3 percent)
Other: 1458 (2 percent)
Africa: 1000 (1 percent)
West Indies: 425
Central America: 138
Pacific Ocean: 100
Indian Ocean: 33
Atlantic Ocean: 26

URL: http://www.globeofblogs.com/

DO YOU BLOG?

If you are a solo and are blogging, please send me your url--for the OPL Archives.
Thanks.

Reply to: jsiess@ibi-opl.com

MYERS-BRIGGS ANALYSIS OF OPL PLUS

Stephen Abram posted about the Typealyzer tool that determines what personality type your blog is. Mine came out INTP--The Thinkers, which sort of matches me, I hope.

"The logical and analytical type. They are especially attuned to difficult creative and intellectual challenges and always look for something more complex to dig into. They are great at finding subtle connections between things and imagine far-reaching implications.

"They enjoy working with complex things using a lot of concepts and imaginative models of reality. Since they are not very good at seeing and understanding the needs of other people, they might come across as arrogant, impatient and insensitive to people that need some time to understand what they are talking about."

URL: http://www.typealyzer.com/
Abram's post: http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/archives/2009/01/blog_personalit.html

NEW FROM THE SLA INFORMATION CENTER

The Information Center Connections blog is up and running. Carolyn Sosnowski has put a lot of effort into it and it is really worth your reading and subscribing--I do. It's part of the larger family of Connections blogs (which evolved from our e-newsletters).

Also, the 2008 SLA Salary Survey was just released; new this year: a breakout chapter for CI/Business research There's a blog post with the details and a direct link to SLA site with more information, including summary data. Personally, I don't understand the salary survey. I don't know of anyone making these high salaries--I certainly never did.

URLs:
Info Center blog: http://slaconnections.typepad.com/info_center_blog/

All connections blogs: http://www.sla.org/connections/

Blog post about salary survey: http://slablogger.typepad.com/sla_blog/2008/11/2008-sla-salary.html

Salary survey summary data:http://www.sla.org/content/resources/research/salarysurveys/salsur2008/index.cfm

FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH

Want to have some fun? Analyze your blog. Here are three courtesy of Helene Blowers (via Stephen Abram’s blog).

Typealyzer “provides a Myers-Briggs type analysis of your blog and shows you the area of the brain that your writing style reflects most.” I am an ISTP and use my left brain. (ISTP: The Mechanic: The independent and problem-solving type. They are especially attuned to the demands of the moment are masters of responding to challenges that arise spontaneously. They generally prefer to think things out for themselves and often avoid inter-personal conflicts. The Mechanics enjoy working together with other independent and highly skilled people and often like seek fun and action both in their work and personal life. They enjoy adventure and risk such as in driving race cars or working as policemen and firefighters.)

Genderanalyzer determines what sex you write like. I test as 68% and, last time I looked in the mirror, I am a woman.

Readability Test determines what grade level your blog is written at. I guess I write over most people's heads: post-grad college level. I think that's because I tend to write long, complicated sentences. Sorry about that folks.

It I were not convinced of the accuracy of these type of analyzers before, I am even less confident in them now. But you might have better results.

URLs:
Typealyzer: http://www.typealyzer.com
Genderanalyzer: http://genderanalyzer.com
Readability Test: http://www.criticsrant.com/bb/reading_level.aspx

BOOK REVIEW: POP GOES THE LIBRARY

Brookover, Sophie and Elizabeth Burns, Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2008, ISBN 978-1-57387-336-9, US$39.50, foreword by Erin Helmrich, Teen Services Librarian, Ann Arbor District Library, Michigan

Based on their blog, Pop Goes the Library, Brookover, a Library Media Specialist at Eastern Regional HS, Voorhees, NJ (and formerly Senior Teen Librarian, Camden County Library System, Voorhees) and Burns: head of Youth Services, NJ Library for the Blind and Handicapped, Trenton and former lawyer, have created a wonderful guide to creating a library that will please and inspire your younger users.

In the introduction they write, “This book is about identifying and harnessing the power of your community’s pop culture.” (xvi) More of their mission comes from the blog’s manifesto: “We’re public librarians. We believe libraries can learn from and use Pop Culture to improve their collections, services, and public image. We love TV, music, the movies, comic books, anime, magazines, all things Net… you get the picture.” (xv) Even if you don’t work in a public library, you can learn from this book since we are all serving and marketing to the same people—and, increasingly, this means to younger people.

“To us, pop culture is whatever people in your community are talking, thinking, and reading about.” (3) Community can be the hospital, law firm, or organization you work for just as much as it refers to the people in a public library’s district. They encourage readers to talk to teens; they will be the future users of your library—public or special. They include a good section on trendspotting to help you become proactive, get ahead of the curve, and be prepared for the future. None of this is any good if you don’t tell your users of the new and exciting things you are doing, so there is a section on marketing. A long chapter is on information technology and stresses the importance of being at least somewhat IT literate, a problem many solos face. “Technology can both be pop culture in itself, and can be used in innovative ways to provide pop culture library services such as materials, programming, and outreach.” (112)

The biggest lesson Brookover and Burns make is that you shouldn’t work in isolation; use the combined talents and knowledge of your peers, management, and users to improve the library. One of the best features of the book is the Voices from the Field section at the end of each chapter. The “voices” are librarian responses to survey done by the authors in July 2007. There are three chapters and an appendix on programming, with a list of ideas month-by-month. Other appendices include websites and resources by chapter and a list of core pop culture resources for library professionals (e.g., print, web, video). There is an index. The book is supported by a web page with links to many of the resources in the book.

This is a great resource for any librarian, public or otherwise, who wants to bring a fresh approach to collection building and programming.

URLs:
The blog: http://www.popgoesthelibrary.com
The book’s web page: http://www.popgoesthelibrary.com/popbook

SOCIAL TECHNOGRAPHICS DATA—WHAT?

Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research has just published his newest Social Technographics data. He divides US online adults into six groups: creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives. More people are participating—inactives dropped from 44 to 25 percent from 2007. However, there were only relatively small gains in the most active groups: creators up3percent, critics up 12 percent, collectors up 7 percent, and joiners up 10 percent. (Yes, I know those don’t seem to add up—they’re his numbers, not mine.) Nevertheless, it’s an interesting report.

URL: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/10/new-2008-social.html

TWO BLOG POSTS TO LOOK AT

Susan Akers [Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USA] posted some great ideas for Promoting Library Resources to Students & New Faculty on Marketing Your Library.

URL: http://www.marketingyourlibrary.com/2008/10/promoting-library-resources-to-students.html

Brian Herzog [Chelmsford (Massachusetts) Public Library, USA] raises some good points in Work Like a Patron Day on his Swiss Army Librarian blog. Look at your library through your customers’ eyes—it will really open your eyes!

URL: http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2008/10/07/work-like-a-patron-day

WEBSITE=BLOG?

If you are thinking about updating your website, you should read Meredith Farkas’ column in the October 2008 issue of American Libraries (v. 39, no. 9, p. 45). In “Our New Website Is a Blog, the head of instructional initiatives at Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont and author of the Information Wants to be Be Free blog describes how she uses Wordpress to create professional-looking blog. She points out that your site does not even have to look like a blog. See the site from Troy (New York) Public Library for an example.

Note: You no longer have to be a member of the American Library Association to read American Libraries. Most of each issue (and back issues from 2003) is now available online.

URLs
Information on accessing American Libraries: http://www.ala.org/ala/alonline/alonlineebrary/alonlineebrary.cfm

(While at this URL, sign up for the free weekly ALA Online newsletter, too.)
Troy Public Library: http://thetroylibrary.org

BLOG FOR PRISON LIBRARIANS

Institutional Library Services: Where Positive Change Takes Place comes from the State of Washington’s Office of the Secretary of State. Its mission statement: “with spirit and fortitude, ILS branch staff enhances the quality of life for unique populations by providing a welcoming, neutral and secure place where informational, educational and recreational needs are met.” There is a great post on a typical day in the life of a prison librarian and another about their quarterly conferences where most of the participants are OPLs. Good stuff here.

URL: http://blogs.secstate.wa.gov/ils/