Saturday, November 08, 2003

Almost Back I know, it's been too long since I've last updated here. I've been in a school-crunch which I'm sure most if not all of you can relate to :-) My time should be freeing up tremendously after Sunday as I will be done with one class and have a lot less left to do in my second class. Until then... 10:08:26 AM      comment []    trackback []

Thursday, October 30, 2003

Fun Night at Answerland It was a most excellent night on Answerland.org. Earlier today on NEXGENLIB-L there had been a brief discussion on reader's advisory so of course, I got to practice that skill tonight ;-) Additionally, I was doubled-teamed by a mother/daughter team who started off looking for a particular book (no title and no author, of course) -- something along the lines of an "old dark woman who turns children into either objects or food." I didn't have a clue and I said as much. I kind of tried to explain that books, er, weren't my forte but that I was there to find facts and figures kind of thing. So I said she'd probably be better off calling the library first thing in the morning (they needed the book for a party tomorrow!) She was fine with that but I felt bad that I couldn't do more to help. Then before I knew it, I was chatting with the daughter (who was nine as it turns out) and she said, okay, how about a book on witches? So I headed to the online catalog, started looking for juvenile Halloween/witchy books when she lets me know that maybe she'd rather have something along the lines of fairies and sorcerers. So I start a new search, I'm skimming along, thinking that this is not anything I have a clue on how to do when I run across Spellfall -- I copy the card catalog summary to her, she reads it, and we co-browse to the catalog entry page. Then she puts a hold on it and thanked me. Yay! Right after that, I had my final patron of the evening -- a college student who wanted to know how she could find an article on electronic reserve for one of her classes. Once I knew what University she was attending, we co-browsed to school's library home page, found the link to electronic reserves and she was on her way! I love the feeling of success! 10:30:32 PM      comment []    trackback []

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

The Myth of Generation N http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_garfinkel080803.asp?p=0 "[Commentary] Columnist Simson Garfinkel challenges what he calls the myth of "universal computer competence among young people." While Generation "Net" is more tech-savvy than its predecessors, millions of kids are still not "wired." According to Garfinkel, these kids risk falling behind much faster than their elders. He cites research from the Pew Foundation, which found that 26 percent of young adults do not have Internet access. The educational divide is even more striking: Only 23 percent of people who did not graduate from high school have access, compared with 82 percent of those who have graduated from college. Garfinkel is concerned that today's society is making things increasingly difficult for people who aren't online. He believes that the problem won't be solved through more education or federal grants. "As a society, we need to come to terms with the fact that a substantial number of people, young and old alike, will never go online. We need to figure out how we will avoid making life unbearable for them," he writes. SOURCE: Technology Review; AUTHOR: Simson Garfinkel" 9:45:02 PM      comment []    trackback [] Two Reports on the Digital Divide CPB Report Shows Surge in Internet Use Among Underserved Children http://www.cpb.org/programs/pr.php?prn=314 "According to the study, parents play an important role in their childrens use of the Internet, with a majority of parents of children ages 2 to 17 and children ages 6 to 17 agreeing that parents have knowledge of and influence over childrens online activities. To a striking extent (86 percent), parents perception of their role is as a guide to good Internet content rather than as a watchdog over their childrens use." See also A Nation Online, But Where Are the Indians? http://www.digitaldividenetwork.org/content/stories/index.cfm?key=215 9:42:43 PM      comment []    trackback [] ASIST Student Chapter of the Year Awarded to the University of Washington "This is a well deserved award and all ASIST student members, past & present, and the iSchool Community at large should feel very proud for this achievement. The ASIST Student Chapter (http://students.washington.edu/asis/) has been very active and over the years, as our programs have increased, it has expanded its membership and now includes in its ranks Informatics, MLIS, MSIM, and PhD student members. The Student Chapter has a long tradition of organzing professional networking & mentoring events, workshops, colloquia, and being actively engaged in iSchool affairs and with the American Society for Information Science and Technology at the local and national levels." Woo hoo! 8:57:32 AM      comment []    trackback []

Monday, October 27, 2003

E-Government for All Announcing E-Government for All A Virtual Conference on E-Government and the Digital Divide November 3-14, 2003 Issues to be covered at the conference: E-government best practices Access to government information, services and decisionmaking Latest research from leading experts Citizen's panel: underserved community experiences with e-government Government website accessibility E-government and importance of 21st century skills International perspectives of e-government And more! 10:08:34 AM      comment []    trackback [] T-Shirts No Cool Librarian Can Do Without! :-) You must check out these great new t-shirts! I, of course, am leaning towards this one! 10:04:13 AM      comment []    trackback [] Alive Again Well, after having been sick for the past few days, I'm alive again. I seem to have caught some kind of 24-hour bug, having spent Saturday fighting a 101.4 fever. My LIS 550 class is wrapping up: we turned in our group paper last night (a policy document implementing CIPA for a large metropolitan public library) and will spend the last two weeks in small, online discussion groups discussing Manuel Castells' The Internet Galaxy: Reflections of the Internet, Business, and Society. I still have to turn in one last (short) assignment on Sunday but things are definitely wrapping up there :) LIS 510 however, is turning into quite the steamroller. I love the topic (Information Behavior), the professor (Dr. Karen Fisher) is great, the text is a good read (Looking for Information by Donald Case), and the assignments are very meaningful. Unfortunately, my project group for this course is one of the first to present online to the rest of the class which is due about the same time as an individual paper. Anyhow, we're all in a bit of panic because of the amount of work that has to be done in such a short time, but I'm sure we'll muddle through somehow. Once we get past this part, we'll just get to sit back (sorta) and enjoy everyone else's presentations :-) And then there's one final paper due near the end of the quarter (mid-Decemeber). Yeah, I'm looking forward to getting to the other side of this next push :-)   10:00:33 AM      comment []    trackback []

Monday, October 20, 2003

UT's JobWeb Site Now Open to the Public The Career Services Office of the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin is proud to announce the opening of the = online Professional JobWeb to the public. The JobWeb is an online listing of jobs specifically geared toward students and professionals in the fields of Library and Information Science, updated daily. To view the listings visit: http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/jobweb/ To post a position, free of charge, email careers@ischool.utexas.edu with the complete announcement in the text of the email or as an attachment. Good news for job seekers (and employers) -- hopefully this will take off. I should probably spend some time compiling a list of LIS specific job resources. I'm sure there are compilations already -- I just need to find them. 10:05:39 AM      comment []    trackback []

Saturday, October 18, 2003

iTunes for Windows Taking a quick break from writing papers to pop into the Apple iTunes for Windows users forum and talk about a clash of cultures! What's fascinating from an information management point of view is the conflict in approaches to how Windows users have become accustomed to managing their music files versus how Apple users have. It will be interesting to see how many converts Apple makes to their way of thinking :) Personally, I have become more and more willing to let something else take care of all the details for me so I guess I'm going to be an easy convert :) Now, I'm just waiting for all the Radio UserLand plug-ins for it (after having tracked down this one for WMP and BlogAmp for Winamp). 2:13:19 PM      comment []    trackback [] High Praises for Reference Librarians Geniuses at Your Fingertips. Ron Force writes "They're geniuses, and they're at your fingertipsLong-forgotten public library reference desk stocked with answers, Doug Clark says.This is the Information Age, when fact-seekers surf the cyberwaves via powerful search engines like Google, Alta Vista or the ever-popular Yahoo. Not this yahoo.When Doug needs data, he puts down the computer mouse. He picks up the telephone and dials up Dennis, Jean or Louise.Google's cool, sure. But my search engines would kick your fanny on Jeopardy.Which is why I'm taking today to sing the praises of this oft-overlooked informational resource:The library reference desk..." [LISNews.com] 12:06:11 PM      comment []    trackback []

Friday, October 17, 2003

Google Expert with More Search Tips Search Tips From Google Expert. 20 Great Google Secrets, by Tara Calishain, author of Google Hacks, offers useful suggestions to make your use of the... [via beSpacific] Which is just another reminder for me to get a copy of Google Hacks too. 3:53:33 PM      comment []    trackback []

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