Submitted by Jenny Levine on October 31, 2005 - 11:28pm
I was thrilled to read Michael's mini-interview with Will Richardson, because I, too, was blown away by Will's keynote at the Internet Librarian conference. Pretty much every part of his talk resonated with me in some way (especially since we have two middle school children at home), but the part that really hit me hard was when Will discussed "negotiated meaning." He defined it as teaching kids how to negotiate what is true, especially since you can no longer just hand them a textbook or The New York Times and tell them they're "right." Read More »
Submitted by Michael Stephens on October 31, 2005 - 1:56pm
 I’ve heard Will Richardson (that's him, at your right) speak twice at various conferences, including last week in Monterey; he keynoted the Internet at Schools conference that ran concurrently with Internet Librarian. Jenny did a bang-up job reporting on his talk here.
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Submitted by Tom Peters on October 31, 2005 - 3:54am
Cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, and other portable information/communication appliances all have buttons. For most tasks, the dominant way of interacting with these devices involves pressing buttons. The functionality of some buttons has become so multifarious that they seem like joysticks—without the stick and without the joy.
The problem is: most button designs are poor, assuming that easy usability is the principal design goal. Somewhere along the line the device-design community developed the collective wisdom that the purpose of button design is to enhance the overall style—and sales attractiveness—of the device. The result is a bunch of gadgets with buttons that elicit user responses ranging from confusion to open hostility. Read More »
Submitted by Tom Peters on October 19, 2005 - 10:34am
I don't know what possessed me to write a blog entry about copyright. Hasn't enough been written about copyright already—even if the future of copyright, fair use, the right of first sale, and intellectual property in general is arguably one of the essential issues currently confronting society and culture?
Here's how it happened. I was walking our dog Max in the pre-dawn darkness. Overhead, the slightly past-full moon was beginning its decline. The warm breeze reminded me that today probably will be the final day this year of summerlike weather in beautiful Blue Springs. Read More »
Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on October 18, 2005 - 9:41pm
Although the sweltering temps in Chicago this summer at ALA Annual weren't at all comforting, Chicagoland offers librarians oh-so many comforts (meaning the M-W Online definition of 2comfort [noun]: "strengthening aid, assistance, support") this autumn.
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Submitted by Michael Stephens on October 18, 2005 - 10:53am
 Exploring the Future of Digital Entertainment
This will be the first of a few posts about books that have rocked my world in the last few months that I would suggest to all librarians who want to understand our current and future technology landscape.
“The best selling CD of 2004 was BLANK."
I'm still reeling from Apple's big announcement about downloadable video last week while I was in London for the Internet Librarian International conference. Thanks to my colleagues who texted the news to my Treo! This is a perfect segue to a post I've been pondering about a book that has really inspired me.
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Submitted by Karen G. Schneider on October 17, 2005 - 10:04am
This is the first part in a series of postings about libraries and
Katrina. After this post, I'm going to look close up at libraries that
were affected by Katrina—either directly, such as the libraries in
Mississippi and Louisiana damaged or closed by the storms and flooding,
or indirectly, such as the libraries that increased or changed services
in response to the sudden "Katrina Diaspora" that swept our country. I
have some stories that will confirm your belief in libraries.
But
for this post, I'm concentrating on the mile-high view of technology
responses to Katrina, and from that perspective, the assessment is
often an A for effort, but sometimes a C or lower for outcome. Read More »
Submitted by Teresa Koltzenburg on October 11, 2005 - 2:53pm
"This film will increase the public's awareness of the
complex and democratic nature of librarianship in the age of
technology, and be a step toward librarians redefining themselves as
not only more than a stereotype, but also as a cultural imperative."—The Hollywood Librarian: Librarians in Cinema and Society Web Site
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