Submitted by Michelle Boule on September 17, 2007 - 9:06am
I should begin this post with the disclaimer that I am not a member of either of the most popular social networking sites, MySpace or Facebook. Depending upon your definition of "social networking," I am a member of Ning, Pownce, del.icio.us, Flickr, Twitter, LibraryThing, Dopplr, and probably a few others I have missed or that I have forgotten about. I use all of them with varying degrees of frequency.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on July 24, 2007 - 11:31am
The picture at the top of this post is from the game night at the Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium. These librarians are playing Wii Tennis and being coached by Giz Womack. The gaming night, which happened the first night of the conference, helped define the atmosphere that made this conference different.
This was a symposium about games. Games mean play and there was an atmosphere of play to everything. There were three keynotes on Sunday and every speaker talked about the transformative power of games. We spent all afternoon soaking up knowledge from people thinking big things about games and then we were set loose on the games themselves.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on February 22, 2007 - 1:07pm
Submitted by Michelle Boule on January 22, 2007 - 6:14pm
At ALA Midwinter 2007 in Seattle... Read More »
Submitted by Michelle Boule on January 11, 2007 - 12:12am
Recently, the Maintain IT Project
has been mentioned on various electronic-discussion lists and blogs. The Maintain IT Project is funded
by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is gathering information and
success stories about Public Access Computers (PACs) in public libraries. Eventually, the project team plans to compile the stories and make them available to
libraries as a troubleshooting resource.
I was intrigued by the project idea
and wanted to know more—this could very well be an invaluable resource for
libraries in the future—so I contacted the leader of the project, Barbara
Gersh.
MB: Can you tell me a little bit about what the Maintain IT Project is?
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on December 15, 2006 - 12:00am
Google has a relatively new offering called Google Apps for Education. It is part of its Business Solutions branch of services. Google Apps for Education is a suite comprised of Gmail, GTalk, Google Calendar, Google Page Creator, and the Google Start Page customized for your school. This option is also available, though in a slightly different format, for businesses. Both the Google Apps for Your Domain and the Google Apps for Education are in beta production, and a limited number of schools are being offered the service free of charge during the beta period.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on October 25, 2006 - 9:12pm
 From Internet Librarian 2006, Monterey (Monterey Peninsula), California...
The theme for the first day seemed to be libraries using their funds differently when planning for program offerings and technology needs. More libraries are saying "no" to large, expensive turnkey, out-of-the-box products and "yes" to more money for staff who can build unique, flexible products.
Out-of-the-box products create more silos and information gateways, which may not be integrable with other items in a library's virtual presence. Though these products may save your library time, it forces the user to invest more time in finding what he or she needs. “Save the time of the user,” Ranganathan said, not save the time of the library staff member.
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Submitted by Michelle Boule on October 4, 2006 - 1:34pm
A little over a year ago, ALA TechSource Blog sashayed out onto the dance floor. I remember thinking how it was wonderful that ALA was finally getting into blogs. Teresa had gathered some big names in the Biblioblogosphere, and I knew ALA TechSource Blog was going to be a hit. I was right.
ALA TechSource was distinguished from other "techie" blogs by being a tech place for the layman. Here was a place that librarians unfamiliar with the jargon and discussion could read without being overwhelmed. The discussions were often illuminated with real-world examples and interviews with librarians in the trenches. I was a fan.
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