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In light of the recent Wikipedia blackout, I just wanted to point out some resources that do a good job of addressing recent American anti-piracy legislation (that has thankfully been shelved after widespread protests this week). Check out:
And … PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo. Last June I attended (and presented at) the NEOS Mini-conference at Grant MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alberta. Marketing Director for Edmonton Public Library (EPL), Tina Thomas, led the keynote session entitled It’s a New Day! Rebranding the Edmonton Public Library. I was thoroughly impressed by the new brand that EPL released last year. The Library’s collection of promotional materials–including t-shirts, mugs, tote bags, logos, bus ads, & videos–are simple, clean, fresh, captivating… For more information, take a look at Edmonton Public Library: Spread the words. There’s also lots of great videos on EPL’s YouTube channel. & hopefully the EPL Store will be up and running soon. Early bird registration is open until October 20, 2011 for the Augustana Information Literacy in Academic Libraries Workshop. The event will be held at the University of Alberta- Augustana Campus in Camrose, AB on Thursday, November 17, 2011. I attended last year and was thoroughly impressed with the quality of speakers and activities. This year’s workshop is looking just as great, with the focus of the event centred upon Building the Information Literate University: From Concept to Strategic Change. The only downside is that the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries Fall Meeting is happening the same day, which is another event that I got a lot out of attending last year. In other news, Happy Academic New Year! :) I was on the plane to WILU 2011 in Regina last week when the woman sitting beside me, also headed to the conference (I am pretty sure the plane was full of library folks), handed me a newspaper article in the National Post entitled Can Wikipedia improve students’ work? It’s a good read. It discusses the merits of Wikipedia as a jumping off point in research, and how it can be integrated into course assignments in a way that challenges students to think about evaluating information and the rigorous work that goes into producing scholarly research articles. While librarians are not mentioned in the article, it sheds light on the type of assignment design we could be assisting faculty with in our efforts to become increasingly more involved in helping students develop information literacy skills. Just some food for thought. Check it out! Don’t Discard the Librarians is an article by Ian Brown appearing in the Globe and Mail. It will warm your heart. Some key quotes: “Here is the case for human librarians: You, the information consumer, don’t want to go insane.” “Librarians know what’s available in a field, where to find it, whether to use it. You, on the other hand, have to write a paper about the self in Hamlet. Try Googling that without the help of a professional librarian: 12.3 million results.” “Nearly 19 million people visit its [Toronto Public Library's] 99 branches every year, and borrow 32 million items (which means every item goes out about three times). Nearly 90 per cent of recent immigrants stop by the library. Many can’t speak English. None of that works without human librarians in the equation.” “‘I think it’s a very exciting time,’ Ms. Moore insisted, contradicting the stereotype of the librarian as a backward-looking shusher who is happiest dusting book jackets. (I have yet to meet an actual librarian who fits it.)” “There’s only an under-allocation of money, and the digital technocracy’s strange distrust of human beings sitting in a public room while communally enjoying the freedom of their own minds.” Take a listen to Jian Ghomeshi’s eloquent plea for the survival of school librarians in his opening essay for Q on CBC Radio 1 today. Bravo! [Posting now closed] If you’re a recent (2010 or 2011) grad of an accredited Canadian library school program I would strongly urge you to apply to the Academic Library Internship Program at the University of Alberta Libraries. I have heard nothing but positive things about this program, and would have loved a shot at this opportunity had it been offered while I was looking for work and still met the criteria. (Also, despite torturous winters, Edmonton would be a fantastic place to live.) Deadline: May 31, 2011 On Thursday, April 14, I helped lead a workshop (turned webinar thanks to bad weather) at the Annual General Meeting- Spring 2011 of the Alberta Association of Academic Libraries (AAAL) in Calgary, Alberta. Digital & Media Literacy @ RDC The ability to interact with information across a variety of technological platforms, tools and media is a vital skill for students and faculty to possess in contemporary learning and workplace environments. This session will address challenges and opportunities academic librarians and staff at RDC Library have experienced in seeking to foster patrons’ digital and media literacy skills. Learn more about Digital & Media Literacy:
RDC Library Guides:
These surveys, taken by Library and Information Science (LIS) grads between 2003 and 2008, offer insight into things like how long it took them to find work, salary, types of jobs, length of job search, and location of placement. If you’re considering library school–or looking for library work–I’d definitely recommend taking a look at them. They do not provide a full and complete picture of what the job hunt is like right now across the country, but they do still shed some light on the realities facing library school graduates over the last decade. I would also recommend taking a look at the following blog post. It provides a lot of great advice on applying for library jobs from the perspective of an employer, including valuable advice on writing cover letters: The author, Rick Roche, also provides a number of insights into the profession of librarianship as a whole. For instance, Roche points out that new librarians need to explore non-traditional professions, and be prepared for the risk of being unemployed or under-employed. Furthermore, he argues that library schools need to scale back their enrolment numbers. I concur. With several library schools in Canada alone churning out graduates (in addition to US schools and online MLIS programs), supply is increasingly exceeding demand.
I attended the Handheld Librarian Online Conference a few weeks ago. QR Codes were mentioned in pretty much every session. So … what are QR Codes and how are libraries using them? QR (Quick Response) Codes are matrix barcodes that you can scan with a QR Code reader installed on your cell phone. (Note: Some cell phones come with this already built in, while older phones–like mine– will not allow for this technology.) Once scanned, you are taken to a URL … or whatever other information has been encoded in the QR Code. Libraries are placing QR Codes in catalogues and research guides to provide users with mobile-accessible information about resources, as well as in physical library spaces to provide information about things like library hours and online research guides. The QR Code to the right will take you to a mobile library guide that we have recently created at RDC Library (which is also available here). Soon we will be placing this QR Code at our Information Desk in the library, along with handouts on how QR Codes work. To learn more… Read QR Codes: Uses in Libraries Download a QR Code Reader Create your own QR Code! Watch QR Codes Everywhere |
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Tonight I was pleased to come across 
