WHY NOT DO THIS WITH YOUR LIBRARY CARD?

You’ve seen the ads for making your own Capital One credit card. Now you can customize your Starbucks card. I think a good marketing tool would be to allow your customers to create their own library card.

URL: http://www.starbucks.com/mycard/

MY READ POSTERS

I couldn't resist adding one of my cat, Harry Potter. (His sister is Hermione, of course.) In case you can't read the writing at the bottom of his poster, it says "or else..."

WHO IN THE WORLD IS USING SOCIAL MEDIA?

Power to the People Social Media Tracker Wave 3, the third study by Universal McCann, is the result of a survey of 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries. It is surprisingly current—completed in March 2008. Here are some of the more interesting results (to me, at least).

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social, and cultural development. If you are online you are using social media.

Asian markets are leading in terms of participation, creating more content than any other region.

Video Clips are the quickest growing platform.

57 percent [of those surveyed] have joined a Social Network; 23 percent of users have uploaded photos; 22 percent have uploaded videos

Blogs are a mainstream media world-wide; 73 percent have read a blog; now 184 million bloggers world-wide; the number one thing to blog about is personal life and family; China has the largest blogging community in the world with 42 million bloggers, more than the US and Western Europe combined;

Other interesting stats:
83 percent have ever watched video clips online; 55 percent left a comment on a blog; 45 percent downloaded a podcast; 40 percent started their own blog, and 34 percent , subscribed to an RSS feed.

How many active Internet users are there worldwide? 475 million. Of those, 100 million are in the USA, 61 million in China, 30 million in Japan, 19 million in Germany, 18 million in India, 18 million in the UK, 14 million in South Korea, 14 million in Brazil, 12 million in France, 11 million in Spain, 10 million in Italy. (Australia has about 5 million.)

But what about percentages? The countries rank a bit differently when we look at percentage of all adults online. Number 1 is the Netherlands at 88 percent, followed by Australia (73 percent); USA (71 percent); South Korea, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Denmark, Japan, Taiwan, the UK, Canada, Germany (all 60-70 percent). Brazil has 44 percent, China 12 percent, and India only 5 percent.

The study’s “Final Word” says, “the key technologies that underpin the social media revolution continue their ascent. Social media is established everywhere there is an Internet connection…” They suggest creating content to establish an experience with your customers, “develop widgets applications, services and platforms that create a genuine consumer benefit and drive engagement. Be inventive in connecting with consumers. Integrate it with offline communications and use social media as link or as a story to communicate.” I like this statement: “Consumers are doing it well; well resources brands [libraries] have no excuse.”

URL: http://www.universalmccann.com/Assets/wave_3_20080403093750.pdf

MANAGING KNOWLEDGE IN HEALTH SCIENCES BACK “IN PRINT”

The classic book, Managing Knowledge in Health Sciences, edited by Andrew Booth and Graham Walton, London: Facet, 2000, is now available online. (It had been out of print, but the publisher has allowed it to be placed online). Contributors and subjects are:
Linda Banwell, Evaluating information services
Andrew Booth, Identifying users’ needs; making a case; organizing information resources; delivering and accessing resources; marketing a service, formulating the question; selecting appropriate sources, searching the Internet; organizing a personal knowledge base; keeping up to date with the knowledge base
Sharon Dobbins, Identifying resources
Louise Falzon, searching the databases
John Hewlett, Health service information providers
Alison Hicks, Training the users
Donald Mackay, Consumer health information
Jane Mackenzie, Health service libraries
Suzy Paisley, filtering and evaluating the knowledge base
Christine Urquhart: Health service users of information
Graham Walton, Health services: a contemporary approach; providing direction and management for health library and information services

URL: http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/mkhs/

DISAPPEARING TECHNOLOGIES??

Dave Pollard [Meeting of Minds, Caledon, Ontario, Canada] has written an interesting post on his blog, How to Save the World. He lists Twelve Tools That Will Soon Go the Way of Fax and CDs. You should really read the entire post, but here are the 12 tools.

1. Hard Drives:

2. “Wall of Text” Reports & Documents:

3. “Best Practices”:

4. Email and Groupware:

5. Corporate Websites:

6. Corporate Intranets:

7. Corporate Libraries and Purchased Content:

8. Cell Phones:

9. Classrooms:

10. Meetings:

11. Job Titles:

12. Offices:

URL: http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2008/08/05.html#a2212

DID BILL GATES REALLY SAY THAT?

I ran across a site with quotes from and about Microsoft. Here are some of the ones I really like. You can read the rest at http://www.slothmud.org/~hayward/mic_humor/mic_quotes.html

640 K ought to be enough for anybody (1981)
The Internet? We are not interested in it (1993)
Microsoft products are generally bug free (n.d.)
There are people who don't like capitalism, and there are people who don't like PCs, but there's no one who likes the PC who doesn't like Microsoft (n.d.)

and one about MS...Every time you turn on your new car, you're turning on 20 microprocessors. Every time you use an ATM,you're using a computer. Every time I use a settop box or game machine, I'm using a computer. The only computer you don't know how to work is your Microsoft computer, right? (Scott McNealy, CEO, Sun Microsystems)

(Attention MS: I'm just kidding--please, no black screen of death....I "love" my PC.)

BLOG ON MUSEUMS & DIGITAL MEDIA

I just found this blog, Fresh+New, written primarily by Seb Chan [Powerhouse Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia]. "The purpose of the site is to act as a repository and sounding board for discussions around digital media and its use in museums. It evolved form a team discussion tool into a sector resource."

URL: http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/

PHYSICIANS AND LIBRARIANS SHARE THE "INTERNET" PROBLEM

There's a good article in the current issue of C&RL News (v. 69, #7, July/August 2008). In The Issues Facing Librarians and Physicians: Facilitating Quality Research in the Internet Age, Mary Francis [Dakota State University, Madison, South Dakota, USA] notes the common proglems that the two professions face.

She "heard a doctor comment on how his patients were turning to the Internet to conduct research on their health. My thought, 'Welcome to my world.' As a reference and instruction librarian, I have
continually been faced with students who use the Internet as the end all and be all of their research. I spend time during each instructional session I teach to note how the Internet will not provide the same quality material as that found within the academic journals indexed in the library’s databases. Physicians face a similar problem when patients find poor-quality health information online.

To the suggestion "that doctors provide their patients with a list of Web sites they would recommend as containing quality material," she comments, "Fortunately, this list has already been compiled by the Medical Library Association." It's a shame that haven't gotten the message to more MDs that we've already done much of their work for them. We have to do better!

URL:http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlpubs/crlnews/backissues2008/july_aug08/qualityresearch.cfm

MAXIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL NETWORKING

It is time consuming to send the same message to all of your social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc.). Web Worker Daily has a great post on software that can automate this activity.
Broadcasting to Your Social Networks, by Aliza Sherman, describes several levels of Social Aggregation Broadcasting Tools. An active SABT is HelloTxt; ShareThis and AddThis are passive SABTs; Utterz integrates SABT features; and Twhirl, Tweetburner, and Twitterfeed are examples of narrow SABTs. Some of the 14 comments suggest other programs you can use for this purpose.

URLs:
the article: http://webworkerdaily.com/2008/06/25/broadcasting-to-your-social-networks/
HelloTxt: http://hellotxt.com/
ShareThis: http://www.sharethis.com/
AddThis: http://www.addthis.com/
Utterz: http://www.utterz.com/
Twhirl: http://www.twhirl.com/
Tweetburner: http://tweetburner.com/
Twitterfeed: http://www.twitterfeed.com/

NEED HELP CREATING YOUR PUBLIC LIBRARY WEBSITE?

The people at CraftySpace "have created website development & service programs that are affordable for public libraries of all sizes." They use Drupal, the open-source content management system, as well as other open-source programs. See their samples at the website.

CraftySpace has offices in Los Angeles, California and Eugene, Oregon. Their staff have over fifty years of software application development experience.

URL: http://www.yourlibrarysite.com/

MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS NOT ALWAYS PROFESSIONAL WHEN BLOGGING

Four scholars at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia recently published an article in the online Journal of General Internal Medicine, Content of Weblogs Written by Health Professionals. They identified 271 blogs with medical content apparently written by doctors or nurses and reviewed five entries per blog from 2006 to see how often blog authors commented about patients, violated patient privacy, or displayed a lack of professionalism. Over half the authors provided enough information to show who they were. Nearly half described individual patients (16 percent positively and 18 percent negatively). Less than one-fifth of them included enough information for patients to identify themselves and three blogs had recognizable photographs of patients.

The investigators concluded that “Blogs are a growing part of the public face of the health professions. They offer physicians and nurses the opportunity to share their narratives. They also risk revealing confidential information or, in their tone or content, risk reflecting poorly on the blog authors and their professions. The health professions should assume some responsibility for helping authors and readers negotiate these challenges.”

URL: http://www.pharmalot.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/medical-blogs.pdf

TWO TOOLS FOR READERS

Fiction DB calls itself "the essential fiction reference." I don't know about that, but it is a neat resource. You can search for book titles by author (including pseudonyms), series, genre, or keyword. There are reviews, links to author websites, and the ability to find a vendor for the book (or sell your book on your own). There's even a wish list. You can upgrade (for US$29.99/year) and get a free book and access to some other (non-essential) services. The site is updated monthly.
Looks useful.

URL: http://www.fictiondb.com/

PaperBackSwap allows its over 1300 members to swap books (not limited to paperbacks) easily. You list your books (you get 2 free credits with the first 10 you list), then exchange them with others (1 credit=1 exchange). A neat feature: you can print out postage from their site and not have to go to the post office. I haven't used it (yet), but it seems easy and is free.

URL: http://www.paperbackswap.com/index.php

IF YOU WANT TO SEE PHOTOS OF MY TRAVELS...

In case you are interested, I have put 12 photo albums up on Picasa (from Google). You look at pictures from France, Mexico, Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks, Sedona Arizona and the Grand Canyon, and South Africa. More of our trips will be put up as I get time to organize them.
There are also family events documented: Leiseth reunion in Arnegard, ND; Steve's mom's 80th birthday; friends and family in Alexandria, Louisiana--my dad's hometown; the establishment of the Siess Professorship in Civil Engineering.
And there are photos from the Cleveland Illini Club and the inside of our new house in Champaign.
You'll have to have a Google account to see them.

URLs:
photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/jsiess1
to get a Google account: http://gmail.com

A PUBLIC LIBRARY WEB PAGE TO EMULATE

The Oakville (Ontario, Canada) Public Library has a wonderful web page. It looks like a web page, not a library web page. There are lots of links, community links, an easy to use search engine, reviews, and more. Look at the box at the bottom--How can we make this page better?

Right now they're having free games for teens--the ad reads: "Play Wii for Fwii @ the Librawii!!" I love this.

URL: http://www.opl.on.ca/

(If they're going to have a URL with "opl" in it, it's great that it's an exemplary site.)

COPYRIGHT COMIC BOOK--REALLY!

Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain has created a comic book on copyright. It is called Bound by Law and features the issues surrounding film making and copyright. It is both entertaining and very informative.

It is also free. You can download a digital version, buy a hard-copy version, remix the comic for your own use by downloading individual pages, read it a page at a time (including turning the pages with your mouse), or download the text so you can translate it into another language.

This is one of the neatest new library services I've seen. They are working on another comic, too. I can't wait.

URL: http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/digital.php

Post to your blog without ever leaving Firefox

ScribeFire, an extension of Firefox ®, enables users to easily drag and drop formatted text from the Web into their blog(s), post entries, take notes, and optimize their ad inventory, directly through the Firefox browser.

I just found this on the web and it's pretty neat--if you use Firefox and one of the supported bloggers (I use Google Blogger).

You can cut and paste text right in Firefox, edit it, and post it to your blog. You can also do a bunch of fancy stuff, but you know me, simple is best.

URL: http://www.scribefire.com/

PRELIMINARY REPORT ON NEW SCHOLARLY SOCIAL NETWORK

Ologeez! is "a scholarly site" to "connect, share, and learn from colleagues through papers, networked groups, collaborative tools and more." It is open only to those with an .edu or .org email address, but looks promising. You can look at articles from scholarly journals, see what other libraries and/or universities are doing, participate in wikis for laboratories in academia, government, or industry; non-profits, or professional societies so far; and read their blog.

I've just looked at this site, not evaluated or used it yet, but you may want to check it out or tell your users about it. It is a project of Stanford University, California, USA and is only in beta right now.

URL: http://ologeez.stanford.edu

CHANGING MINDS

I just found ChangingMinds.org, an interesting site with lots of links that you might be able to user. Categories include: disciplines (such as sale, negotiation), techniques (assertiveness, body language, etc.), explanations (behaviors, beliefs, culture, and more), theories and principles.

URL: http://changingminds.org

NEW LAW LIBRARIAN BLOGS

The Law Professor Blogs Network announced two new blogs:
Career & Professional Development Blog by Susan Gainer [University of Minnesota] and Mina Jones Jefferson [University of Cincinnati]
International Law Prof Blog by a group of 4 US law professors.

Thanks to the Law Librarian Blog for letting us know about these.

URLs:
Career & PD Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/lawcareer/
Intl Law Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/international_law/

FOR SOLO LAW LIBRARIANS IN THE UK

If you are an OPL in a law library in Britain or Ireland, you are in luck. BIALL (the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians) has a new group just for you. The One Man Band/Small Teams Group has just been organized. "It is proposed that the primary method of meeting will be email and voice conferencing, with a session also being scheduled for the BIALL Conference. The aim will be to use the available technology to allow individiuals to participate in the activity of the group with a minimum expense of time and money."

There is a BIALL-SOLOS mailing list, too. If you want to be added to it, email with the message SUBSCRIBE BIALL-SOLOS.

URL: http://www.biall.org.uk -- click on OMB/Small Teams under Groups in the left column.

PS. Check out the results of their May 2004 survey on Budgeting and Marketing; Increasing Value in Hard Times.. There are some interesting numbers and some even more interesting comments under case studies.

CAUTION: THIS MAY BE HABIT-FORMING! WORDLE

If you want to have fun, try out Wordle, a neat free software program to make word clouds*. You can input any text or an RSS feed from your website, a blog, or anything else. Once the cloud is made, you can edit it to change color, format (horizontal, vertical, rounded, etc.), language, and other characteristics. Then you can save it (even as a PDF), print it, or add it to their online gallery for others to see (and use).

The author of the program (Jonathan Feinberg), an engineer at IBM, says that you can use any of the Wordles you create (or the ones from the gallery) for any purpose you want, including making money. Wouldn't it be neat to have a poster or t-shirt with a Wordle made from your library's website or mission statement? Or from your club or organization? I made Wordles based on the University of Illinois Fight Song, the Beloit College web page on academics (note that the largest word is students, showing their orientation), and the RSS feed from this blog. You can see the first two in the gallery, search on "University of Illinois Fight Song" or "Beloit."
Oh yeah, the gallery is searchable--a neat feature. Try searching on the "Lord's Prayer"....

There are even business applications for Wordle. Karen Blakeman [RBA Information Services, Caversham, Berks UK] wrote on BUSLIB-L, "I was alerted to using tag cloud generators for business purposes by Sue Hill of Sue Hill Recruitment. Her organisation sometimes pass candidate CVs and job descriptions through a cloud generator to highlight which words are being emphasised and used more than they should. I've used Wordle to look at individual promotional materials for membership organisations and events. Some turned out OK and were focussing on the topics we intended to promote, but for a few it became obvious that the advertising had failed because it had all the wrong buzzwords. Very illuminating!"

*In case you don't knoow what a word cloud is, here is the Wikipedia definition: "A tag cloud or word cloud (or weighted list in visual design) is a visual depiction of user-generated tags, or simply the word content of a site, used typically to describe the content of web sites. Tags are usually single words and are typically listed alphabetically, and the importance of a tag is shown with font size or color."

URL: http://wordle.net/

WHERE IS GASOLINE REALLY CHEAP?

I read a post recently on the highest and lowest gasoline prices. Norway was the highest, at US$8.73 per gallon (in 2007) and Venezuela was the lowest at just 12 cents. The USA was somewhere in the middle at $3.02.

But how does the impact of income level affect these rankings? I divided these countries' median income by the average price of gasoline to see how many gallons their income could buy.
Venezuela is still the cheapest with their median income buying 50,583 gallons of gasoline. Kuwait was a distant second at 34,033 gallons, followed by Saudi Arabia at 27,800. The USA was 5th cheapest at 14,891 gallons.
The most expensive gasoline was in Portugal, with the median income purchasing only 2,309 gallons (under 5 percent of the Venezuelan amount). A big group of countries could buy 4-5,000 gallons: Swaziland, France, Germany, Belgium, and the UK.

I don't know how useful this information is, but it is interesting and I had fun coming up with it.
It does remind us that as much as we complain about the high price of gasoline here in the USA, there are a lot of people paying far more than we do when our relatively high income level is taken into account.

FYI. Norway ranked only 8th in my list since their median income is a whopping $66,530!

BLOG (AND MORE) FROM THE UK HOUSE OF LORDS

Several members of the House of Lords in the UK are contributing to Lords of the Blog. It "is an experimental project to encourage direct dialogue between web users across the world and Members of the House of Lords." It is conducted by the Hansard Society, "the UK's leading independent, non-partisan political research and education charity."

There seem to be 11 participating peers, all but three listed as "the Independent Peers." (What that means I have no idea.) There aren't a lot of posts, but it's such a fascinating idea.

Another project of the House of Lords is a presence on YouTube. There's an especially fascinating one that shows how little some Brits know about their government and some of the Lords try to explain what the House of Lords does. Check it out!

URLs:
Lords of the Blog: http://lordsoftheblog.wordpress.com
Hansard Society: http://www.hansardsociety.org.uk/
YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtqWwCIhW4E

NEW LIBRARY NETWORKING SITE

It seems that every other day there is a new library networking site announced. I don't think we need this many sites and many or most of them will probably die from lack of support, activity, or money, but here's the latest--and it seems pretty good.

LibGig: Your Career, Your Community is "dedicated to bringing together everyone who accesses, organizes, creates, manages, produces or distributes information for a living." A big purview to be sure, but it's nice that they named it LibGig and not InfoGig or such.

It consists of three sections: careers, schools, and community. Careers has searchable job listings--currently free for both sides, but employers will be charged a pretty reasonable fee (US$99 per month) soon. Most of them look pretty interesting and varied. There is also a resume doctor (Meredith Lavine), sample resumes, and career questions and answers.
Schools has, in addition to a list of all ALA accredited LIS schools, alumni profiles and links to continuing education and certification opportunities. I would like to see this expand to include listings of schools, etc. from outside North America.
Finally, Community has three exclusive blogs and links to others, new product announcements, an event calendar, and industry news. Here there's a forum, too. Not much on it yet, but it could improve.

Who's behind LibGig? Larry Honig is the principal of LAC New Ventures, a technology entrepreneur, and has worked for MIT's Lincoln Lab, the Gartner Group, and Broadcasting & Cable magazine. Raissa Fomerand is LAC's VP of sales and marketing and a librarian! She was publisher and founder of The Librarians Yellow Pages. Web content manager is Gabe Geltzer.

URL: http://www.libgig.com

NEW NETWORKING OPPORTUNITY FOR NEW YORK LIBRARIANS

Tom Nielsen, a former OPL who is now the Member Services Manager at the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO, a library consortium serving libraries in NYC and Westchester County, north of the city) would like you to know about a great regional professional membership for any solos who don’t get a lot of support from their employer but still want to stay in touch with other info pros.

METRO has launched a new membership category called myMETRO. myMETRO provides a full range of services in professional development and career support for individual librarians, information professionals, students, support staff and retirees. Previously, METRO membership was limited to libraries, archives and research organizations in New York City and Westchester County, New York. With myMETRO, individuals from across the region can take advantage of myMETRO benefits such as: discounts on METRO workshops, professional development grants, networking events and receptions, and special career-focused courses designed to increase the skills and leadership abilities of information professionals.

Note: membership is $100 for professionals, $50 for retirees or students.

For more information, contact Tom 212 228 2320 x16 or or check out their website at http://tinyurl.com/3q2kvm.

SEE KNOWLEDGE AS “FLOW,” NOT “STOCK”

Since the real product of your library is answers (knowledge), the way you look at it is important. John Dolan, head of library policy for the UK cabinet level division of Museums, Libraries & Archives, said that it is “critical” for libraries to move away from thinking of libraries as storehouses “to libraries as animators, to help empower ‘smart publics.’ Libraries should be thee not to gather knowledge but to move it—to be a facilitator. The library worker can act as the catalyst, pollinator of learning, or discovery. Being part of the solution to the need, not just being the go-between, the mediator.”

Library+information update 7(5):16, May 2008.

IS THE ACADEMIC LIBRARY FALLING BEHIND?

A study in the UK by Sero Consulting and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) reported that “library management systems are not fully fit for purpose because they do not allow seamless integration with teaching, learning, and research behaviour in the Web 2.0 environment.” Users expect a seamless, easy searching experience, which most LMS do not provide. Mostly, the systems were designed to serve backend users (technical services), not customers. “The report says that the business case for libraries is that they provide authoritative information, and access to it in the most efficient way. However, libraries ‘are not yet exploiting intelligence about user habits to enhance their position in the information value chain.’”

Is your OPAC (online public access catalog) as easy for your customers to use as it is for you? How can you make it easier for them?

Library+information update 7(5):15, May 2008.

TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE CREDIT CRUNCH

“City Business Library (CBL)—the only UK public library focusing exclusively on the business sector—expects to be busier as the ‘credit crunch’ leads companies to cut back on information. This was the message form CBL Manager Goretti Considine to the City Information Group [of the Chartered Institution of Library and Information Professionals—the UK equivalent of the American Library Association] seminar…. Job seekers and freelancers find their ‘no-questions-asked’ service particularly valuable.”
Can you offer your services to other organizations that now have no library?
How can you make yourself so valuable to your organization so that you don’t join the list of the unemployed?
Turn the current economic downturn into a plus by being creative in marketing your services.
Library + information update 7(5):12, May 2008:

THREE INTERESTING RESOURCES: One for law librarians, two for medical librarians

Real Lawyers Have Blogs: Law Blogs, Blawgs, Law Firm Marketing is produced by Kevin O’Keefe, founder of Lexblog, Inc. and former trial lawyer. His goals in blogging are: “to get people the legal help they need, to connect people in need of a lawyer with the most appropriate lawyer, to help lawyers, and to improve the image of the legal profession.” It’s a very professional looking blog, with legal news, links to “in-depth information on blogs and their marketing potential,” and links to other law and lawyer blogs. Although it isn’t aimed at law librarians, it’s one you should at least add to your RSS feed.
URL: http://kevin.lexblog.com/

The MLA Essential Guide to Becoming an Expert Searcher, by Terry Ann Jankowski, Neal-Schuman, 2008, ISBN 978-1-55570522-7, US$65.00. I haven’t seen a copy yet, but it looks like it would be a good resource for almost anyone. It includes a self-evaluation tool to “find out where you are on the novice-to-expert continuum,” an interview checklist, examples of librarian-user interactions, “practical guidelines for deciding what resource to start with,” tips and tricks, reviews of health-related databases, and exercises.
URL: http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706227

Also new from Neal-Schuman and MLA is Answering Consumer Health Questions by Michele Spatz (2008, ISBN 978-1-55570532-6, US$65.00). “Spatz outlines the most common inquiries and behaviors of health information searchers and the most useful go-to resources.” There are “templates and forms and tips on everything from setting up the reference desk to encourage confidential inquiries to using body language to signal your availability….” Spatz also includes sections on ethics; legal issues; email, virtual, and telephone reference; marketing, and even job stress. Again, I haven’t seen the book, but it looks really great.
URL: http://www.neal-schuman.com/bdetail.php?isbn=9781555706326

WHO BLOGS?

eMarketer has release a report on the demographics of US bloggers.

Nearly 70 percent are white, 20 percent Hispanic, 12 percent African-American, and just under 4 percent Asia. They average 37.6 years of age, 14.3 years of education (that is, 2 years of college), and income above US$55,800. (Based on a survey of people 18 years of age or older "who regularly or occasionally write in a blog."

They predict the following:
2008: 25.2 million bloggers, 94.1 million blog readers (50 percent of Internet users)
2009: 28 million bloggers, 104.7 million readers (54 percent)
2010: 30.9 million bloggers, 116.1 million readers (58 percent)
2011: 32.8 million bloggers, 135.6 million readers (64 percent)
2012: 34.7 million bloggers, 145.3 million readers (67 percent)

I wonder what the comparable numbers for librarians would be? Does anyone know of any research in this area?

URL: http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?id=1006293

GOOD TRAINING RESOURCES FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, REFERENCE, AND MARKETING

I just found the Houston Area Library System's training site. They have three great training "courses," one on customer service, one on reference, and one on marketing. They are easy to use and understand. Not too in-depth, but worth a look.

URL: http://www.hals.lib.tx.us/

ANOTHER GREAT ISSUE OF COMPUTERS IN LIBRARIES

Even without Kathy Dempsey at the helm, Computers in Libraries is still pub]lishing great stuff--way to go, Dick (Kaser, new editor).

The first goodie is an article on redesigning your web site, The Secret to Patron-Centered Web Design: Cheap, Easy, and Powerful Usability Techniques by Erica Reynolds of Johnson County (Kansas) Library. The emphasis is teamwork and listening--to both customers and staff.

Cassi Pretlow [Denver (Colorado) Public Library] lists 10 Web Tools to Create User-Friendly Sites. She includes old favorites and some neat new ones like Browsershots, to check how your site looks on various browsers (http://www.browsershots.org).

Finally, read Fast and Easy Website Tuneups by Jeff Wisniewski [University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania] to get some great ideas. You can read this one online for free at http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/jun08/Wisniewski.shtml.

USING GOVERNMENT MONEY TO RECRUIT NEW LIBRARIANS--WORTH THE MONEY?

There’s a very interesting article in the most recent issue of the MLA newsletter about the US Government’s funding of various projects to recruit more people into librarianship. As part of the Laura Bush 21^st Century Librarians Program, the Institute of Museum and Library Services has handed out over seven million dollars in grants to various library schools. I can’t help but wonder if this will help.

The University of Illinois, Syracuse University, and University of Pittsburgh have received nearly a million dollars “to increase the diversity of and access to LIS course offerings.” The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was awarded over a million dollars; first “to study the career patterns of LIS graduates” (only in North Carolina) and then “to recruit 2 cohorts of medical students into a new dual-degree master’s program” (LIS at UNC and a medical degree from Duke University). Johns Hopkins University and seven other academic medical libraries are collaborating “to increase the number of underrepresented minorities entering the health information professions.” The University of Arizona recruited “48 Native American and Hispanic students to a master’s LIS program as part of its Knowledge River Initiative” and “to help [24 Native American and Hispanic high school students] develop valuable abilities such as leadership, professional contribution and community service…[and] opportunities to interact with library leaders.” Simmons College has received money “to establish a unique doctoral program in management leadership…to prepare 15 full-time posts for LIS students working to move into senior leadership.” The American Library Association’s Office for Diversity was given money “to double the number of underrepresented master’s in library science students from 105 to 210 in its Spectrum Initiative program.” Vanderbilt University had 15 students in a “model internship program.” Texas A&M University received money “to pilot a recruitment and teaching model to recruit 10 diverse undergraduate students into health sciences librarianship.”

So, there’s money for minorities, for studying the careers of librarians, a new doctoral program, and even for high schoolers. But, does any of this actually add to the profession? Are we creating new librarian for positions that don’t exist (because the boomers aren’t retiring because of the poor economy)? Will these new librarians make a difference? Will the pre-librarians actually enter the profession—and find jobs—and make a difference?

What are we getting for our money? Is this the right way to go about adding to and improving the profession? What do you think?

Citation: Shoevel, Evelyn, Recruitment of Librarians for the 21^st Century: An Institute of Museum and Library Services Initiative, MLA News (405):15-16, May 2008.

Minority Health Archive

The Minority Health Archive, created in collaboration with the Center for Minority Health and the University Library System at the University of Pittsburgh, is an online archive of print and electronic media related to the health of the four nationally recognized minority groups: Blacks/African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, and Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders.” It includes materials on general health, current research, or health disparities among these groups. Information may appear as journal articles, journal articles, web-based materials, government documents, books, book chapters, conference proceedings, conference papers, course outlines, events/presentations, images, pre-prints, or theses and dissertations. The archive is free, but you must register to add to it.

URL: http://minority-health.pitt.edu/

PALLIATIVE CARE WEBSITE, AUSTRALIAN STYLE

"CareSearch is an online resource of palliative care information and evidence. All materials included in this website are reviewed for quality and relevance." It is sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing and in cooperation with Flinders University, Adelaide.

The site is divided into: what is palliative care? for patients and families, finding services, clinical practice, finding evidence, education, research resources, and professional groups. There are quick links for those working with indigenous populations and for general practitioners.

I'm not a medical librarian, so I can't judge the content, but it looks good and useful--even for those outside Australia.

URL: http://www.caresearch.com.au/

GREAT NEW SEARCH ENGINE--MIDDLESPOT

Middlespot is a really neat new search engine. You enter a term (or terms) and you get both a list of hits and a mosaic of screen shots. If you click on the screen shot it takes you to the cite/site (unintentional pun). That in itself is nice, but what I like is that I found links that I'd never seen before. I searched on my name (of course) and on "one person library" and "solo librarian" and was amazed at the results.

There are other nice features, such as being able to store individual results on your personal workpad and share that workpad with others. It is sponsored, but the ads are very inconspicuous. That makes Middlespot free, which we all like. There's a tutorial slide show to help you get started but you don't really need it. The only negative I could find is that there's a limit of 75 citations per search, but if you don't find something in the first 75 hits, you're probably not going to find it anyway.

URL: http://www.middlespot.com/

TOOLS FOR MENTORS AND MENTEES

The Central New York Library Resources Council (Syracuse, New York, USA) has put up a wonderful Mentoring Toolkit. Included is a definition of mentoring, common questions from mentors or mentees, a memo of understanding form between a mentor and a mentee, additional activities that mentors and mentees can do together, and a link to other resources from the Council. Thanks to CLRC and the Federal Institute of Museums and Library Services who provided the money to develop this resource.

URL: http://www.clrc.org/mentoring

CANADIAN CONSUMER HEALTH INFORMATION WIKI

The Toronto Public Library Consumer Health Information Service has put together a wiki “to help you find reliable, understandable health information for you and your family.” The site includes information on locating reliable health information, links to various resources, a browsable list of over 500 current information files held by the library, several health FAQs, and toll-free number for various Ontario health services and organizations. Some of the site is also available in French. Looks to be pretty useful.

URL: http://chis.wikidot.com/

FREE DOWNLOADABLE POSTERS

The State Library of Iowa has several downloadable posters with “fantastic photos and quotes [that] can be used by any library—no need to customize.” Most were developed with a grant by the Illinois State Library using funds provided by the federal Library Services and Technology Act.

Some of the ones available are Can't judge a book by its cover! (teen with orange hair) Who would have thought there's actually cool stuff here? (for teens) Books are good for young children...and not just for teething. (for preschoolers) For people who like to read the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth (nonfiction) You mean it...we're really going to the Library? (toddler) Today's Library. Think More. Summertime...and the reading is easy (for adults) He is Into Needlepoint (tattooed man) Tutor doesn't have to be a scary word Young Latino man (in Spanish) Family Destination (in Spanish) Hot days. Cool books. Great prizes. Young girl in star-shaped sunglasses. We think your question deserves more than, "Uh, I think that might be, like in aisle four?" (to highlight helpful staff) It's okay if you don't know what URL stands for. Really. My Library is the Greatest Because... (download and print, let customers write their comments on why they value their libraries, great information for annual reports, budget presentations, etc.)

URL: http://www.statelibraryofiowa.org/ld/tell-library-story/Props/posters

TRAVEL DIARY TOOL

I just happened on TravelPod Community, a neat tool to let you create a travel blog, complete with photos, that you can share with others. You can add to it while you’re on a trip and notify friends and family that there’s something new. It also makes a map of your trip and keeps track of all the places you’ve blogged on your own personal world map. And of course you can look at other people’s trips for ideas and recommendations. I’ve one trip so far, to Africa in 2005, but I plan to use it for creating trip reports in the future.

URL: http://www.travelpod.com

SPEECHMAKER’S AID

CuePrompter.com is a free utility that can turn your computer into a teleprompter, so you can be just like all the politicians and celebrities. I got it to work with Firefox, but it is best with Internet Explorer. You can change the size of the type and the scrolling speed. What a neat idea!

URL: http://www.cueprompter.com

MS. OPL IS MOVING

My husband and I are moving back to Champaign, Illinois. I grew up there and got my library degree at the University of Illinois and my husband got his B.S. there. We leave Cleveland on 7 May 2008. My email will remain the same, but my new address and phone are 830 Sedgegrass Drive, Champaign, IL 61822-2024, 1-217-355-9071.

Go Illini!

HAVE YOU TWINED YET?

I’ve just started using a new social network called twine. Yes, another one. But this one seems a bit easier to use—there’s an applet you can put on your browser bar that let’s you add a page to your list immediately. You can even share it with others (either individuals or twines—interest-based sub-networks). I’ve added a link to this blog to my twine stuff.
There are a few library-related twines already: social networking, Web 2.0, ready reference, medical libraries, and information commons (a place to share information, not about the physical space). It would be nice if we had more librarians on the network. You need an invitation to join—it’s still in beta (but very full-functioned already). Check the home page for instructions.

URLs: http://www.twine.com/

SOME REALLY GREAT TAG LINES FOR MEDICAL LIBRARIES

When I was working as a corporate librarian, my boss accidentally created my tag line, or slogan—“The Bailey Library—it’s more than you thought!” If you don’t have a creative boss and/or haven’t come up with a tag line yourself, here are some to think about from Amy Frey [Hospital for Special Care, New Britain, Connecticut, USA], editor of National Network, the newsletter of the Hospital Libraries Section of the Medical Library Association (v. 32, no. 3, p. 3, April 2008). They come from some of the HLS members; I’d suggest locating the “owner” (by Googling the phrase) before adopting one of these.

Information today…for smart health care decisions tomorrow
The information you trust
A resource and a refuge
Your link to health information and more
Supporting education and research to foster clinical excellence
Quality information for quality health care
Solving your problems; saving your time
Check it out
Got a question? Step right up, open wide and say ahhhh…
Navigating the maze: health information for the busy consumer

One slogan I just found (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,17689-page,1/article.html; but it’s other places on the Web, too) is Stop searching; start finding; ask a librarian!

A GUIDE TO THE MEDICAL LITERATURE FOR STUDENTS—AND EVERYONE ELSE

A Student’s Guide to the Medical Literature “has been designed especially for medical students, but it can be used by anyone who wants a guide to the medical literature.” It has almost everything you might need, including: a tutorial on a 4-step approach to reading medical literature; search strategies and links to “best” Web sites; “a guide to critical appraisal of journal articles;” an interactive glossary with statistical terms hotlinked; calculators for outcome measures; and a list of useful references. There’s even a version to use on a Palm or pocket PC. This was a fourth-year medical school project of Katherine McLucas [University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, USA], and is being kept up by the librarians there.

URL: http://grinch.uchsc.edu/sg/

SCHOOL LIBRARY WIKI

WebTools4u2use is a new wiki for school library media specialists. It was created by two Ph.Ds from the University of Central Florida, Tampa. “Much of the information is the result of a survey conducted in 2008 of over 600 school library media specialists about their knowledge and use of Web-based tools….” There are sections on audio and podcasting, blogs, calendars and to-do lists, drawing/charting/mapping tools, photo tools, portals and Web pages, presentation, quiz and polling, RSS feeds and aggregators, social bookmarking, social networking, video and video sharing, wikis, word processing, and more. It looks like could be a useful resource.

URL: http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/

HOW TO CONVINCE YOUR BOSS TO SEND YOU TO A CONFERENCE

Just in time for conference season, here is a post from PubCon (sponsor of a major IT conference) on Top Tips to Get Your Boss to Send You to a Conference. Although it is written for IT-types (geeks), it has some good tips for anyone.

For reasons that escape me, but probably make sense to an IT person, it starts at the end with "post conference deal sealers," then covers your presentation to the boss or staff after the conference, what you do when you get back, how to get the most out of the conference, and selling your boss before you go. It's worth a read.

URL: http://www.pubcon.com/blog/index.cgi?mode=viewone&blog=1188320040

INNOVATIVE (PATIENT) CARE WEBSITE

If your hospital administrators are looking for ideas for better health care delivery systems—and who isn’t?—then this website may be of some help. Innovative Care Models “provides detailed profiles of 24 successful care delivery models…developed as part of a research project conducted by Health Workforce Solutions LLC and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.”

The models are divided into acute care, bridge continuum, and comprehensive care. The ten acute care models range from ones for a small (12-bed) hospital to ones for medical/surgical nursing teams and patient-centered care [shouldn’t all care be patient centered??]. The ten bridge continuum models include “hospital at home,” chronic care, and “the little clinic.” There are only four models under comprehensive care: one for rural care, the Evercare system, independently living for the elderly, and the values-driven system.

Each model is carefully chosen and is “intended to serve as a starting point in the development and propagation of innovative care delivery models” and includes an overview, background, key elements, implementation and replications, results, lessons learned, a leader profile, discussion board, and links to relevant resources. Organizations are encouraged to submit their own best practices.

URL: http://www.innovativecaremodels.com/

INSITELAW: BLOG AND NEWSWIRE

I just discovered InsiteLaw, a site with both a blog and news "designed to focus on legal news and law blogs." It is a product of Mike Semple Piggot [Semple Piggot Rochez, London, UK] who also co-founded "the world's first Internet law school" (BPP Law School).

The newswire has an editorial, features, law reports, podcast interviews, news flashes, links to the blog (to allow participation), and practice/personnel notes.

URL: http://www.insitelawmagazine.com

SELLING POINT FOR PUBLIC LIBRARIES

In these trying economic times, public libraries need all the help they can get. Alice Sneary of OCLC has posted a great way to promote a public library on It's All Good, OCLC's blog.

"I know all too well the whole 'the library is free' mentality is a double-edged sword--it's free but it must be funded adequately."

[Actually, the public library isn't free--it's prepaid with tax dollars. Judy]

"But I was thinking that the economic downturn could be just the thing for libraries to use as a springboard to make their case to the American [and any other] public:
1. We are a vital city service--as important as electricity or clean water. [I'm not too sure about this one.]
2. Use us in good times and in bad.
3. We welcome all the people of the community here for technology access.
4. Hope lives here, at the library--hope for improvement.

"When all the headlines you see are about closing doors and belt-tightening, we can stand out from all the bad news; our doors are open, we are the place to come for education, entertainment, information--basically, we are the place!"

URL: http://scanblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/economic-downturn-could-be-uplifting.html

RESOURCES FOR US NATIVE AMERICAN LAW

Out of the Jungle has a post with Free Online US American Indian [Native American?] Legal Resources. They include:

American State Papers, v. I & II, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwsplink.html#anchor2

Kappler’s Indian Affairs: Laws and Treaties, http://digital.library.okstate.edu/kappler/

9 Early Recognized Treaties with American Indian Nations, http://earlytreaties.unl.edu/

Indian Land Cessions in the United States, 1784-1894, http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/amlaw/lwss-ilc.html

Native American Constitution and Law Digitization Project, http://thorpe.ou.edu/

Native American Rights Fund site, http://www.narf.org/nill/triballaw/onlinedocs.htm—including Basic Indian Law Research Tips I and II, http://www.narf.org/nill/bulletins/lawreviews/articles/coloradoLawyerArticle-fed.pdf and http://www.narf.org/nill/resources/guide2.pdf

Department of the Interior’s Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, http://www.ost.doi.gov/

and

The Tribal Court Clearinghouse (for current legal issues), http://www.tribal-institute.org/

URL: http://outofthejungle.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-online-us-american-indian-legal.html

GREAT NEW BOOK FOR PATIENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES

Jari Holland Buck has turned personal tragedy into a positive for everyone. Her husband was taken to the hospital with acute pancreatitis. He wound up having crisis after crisis, including heart attacks and strokes, and was hospitalized for over seven months in four different hospitals. If Buck had not been at his side 24/7 and been his advocate, he probably wouldn’t have survived—but he did, though not in great shape.

Buck has written a book about their ordeal and it is wonderful! Hospital Stay Handbook: A Guide to Becoming a Patient Advocate for Your Loved Ones (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Worldwide, 2008, ISBN 978-0-7387-1224-6, US$17.95) is just that—a guide. It starts with forewords from the primary physician, the patient, and the wife. Then she makes 14 recommendations: take care of yourself, choose your hospital with awareness, pick the days of your stay carefully, take legal steps to ensure the patient’s wishes are honored, read and use the patient advocacy statement, assume your loved one can hear everything so speak in the positive, educate yourself, ask about every medication, understand every procedure used or denied, keeps track of all supplies and services, arrange for 24/7 coverage, pray, surrender, and (again) take care of yourself. Each recommendation comes with checklists and/or appropriate forms to fill out. There are a few essays at the end for more depth and a list of resources (mostly on the Web) and an index.

There are two other wonderful things about this book: it mentions the hospital library at least twice as a great source of information (even if she does think every hospital has a library) and the extremely reasonable price of US$17.95.

If you have anyone in the hospital or think you might, you should read (and/or buy) this book. It will help you and your loved one survive.

URL: http://www.hospitalstayhandbook.com (a great site with additional resources)