In one of my major talks - "The Hyperlinked Library" - I use many different examples, and often change them to keep them as current as possible. One example I've used for over a year is the Dublin City Library's creation of a public portal with Pageflakes. While in London for Internet Librarian International, I got to meet up with Edward Byrne, Senior Web Services Librarian , and chat with him about the project.

I use the development of a library portal via a free tool as an example of how libraries can create something useful without 6 months of meetings, decision-making or using a  "home grown" IT solution that only one or two people can configure. Eddie agreed to fill me in on all of the details of Dublin's portal. It makes for a fascinating case study and in terms of timing and coincides with some recent developments that show the importance of caution when using Web 2.0 tools without planning for backups and changes in the tool. Our conversation started in London, wound its way through Facebook, and concluded via email. Read more »

As I reflected on my 2008 Information Commons field trips, I realized how important these spaces are to information literacy, to the relevance of the library and to the mission of the institution itself.

In "The Comedy of the Commons," Dr. Carol M. Rose describes the commons as a place where each person adds more value. In our LIS701 course here at Dominican, we use Rose to illustrate the potential and usefullness of common spaces in relation to different types of libraries and what they might mean to their users. According to Rose,  "The more who join and use the commons, the greater the enjoyment of each participant."

This was entirely evident in the series of field trips I made this year to visit library spaces that had integrated the idea of the commons. Read more »

During the past few months, I've explored various in carnations of the student-centered learning and technology commons. I'm pleased to see this trend in academic libraries gaining more and more ground. We visited the IU South Bend Commons last time, an example of a smaller university library thinking big and applying the same concepts and strategies for student space and making it work. On a wind swept, rainy day last April, I toured the inviting Information Commons at Loyola University, where community, collaboration and connectivity guided the student- centered space. And this summer while in Georgia, we visited the Georgia Tech Library Learning Commons that features spaces and technologies to enable all types of student, faculty and staff interaction.

There's one more stop - and sadly, I haven't visited this outstanding example of student  space in person but via the photos shared on Flickr. So I emailed Stacey Greenwell, Head of the Information Commons (The Hub) at the University of Kentucky to find out more about the incredible spaces and help desk I'd seen on Flickr. She obliged with this detailed interview: Read more »

On the new commons, Michelle Russo, Dean of Library Services at the Franklin D. Schurz Library at Indiana University South Bend, states: To send the message that this was a welcoming place, the wall separating the room from the lobby was removed. The stacks were turned 90? which allowed natural light to flow from the windows between the aisles to the center of the room. The new service desk was also designed to send a welcoming message. It allows space for librarians, IT consultants, and multimedia specialists to work at one of two levels. The counter-height level allows service to people as they walk into the Commons, while the lower desk-height permits one to work at eye level with students in a wheelchair or with those who want to be seated as they receive more in-depth assistance.

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These results lead to the creation of spaces in the Learning Commons East and West that were inspiring, useful and flexible. We talked about creating an experience for students, making the library a memorable place. Bob said one goal would always be to "engage students from the beginning." I was reminded of the Welcome event Brian write about: poker, DDR, speed dating and more welcomed freshman to the library! One thing Bob kept emphasizing: "We don't build walls here."

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First up, let’s get the obvious out of the way: Folks at ALA 2008 in Anaheim, California were all “A-Twitter!” Of course there was also much Flickring, texting, blogging, IMing and any other 2.0-ish, social-networkey “ing” you can name going on as well.

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Darien Library's John Blyberg weighs in on the construct of information experience as libraries move forward in a very different world:

The difference now, as opposed to even five years ago, is that we also operate within a global context that empowers us to quickly recall data and assemble it into our own personal nebulae. In other words, information use has become an expression of self--that’s not something libraries ever accounted for.  When I talk about this, I refer to it as the “information experience” because, for the growing number of us who participate in the hive, we build our own network of information and interaction that accompanies us through our lives.  We literally construct highly-personalized information frameworks and place a huge amount of personal reliance upon them.  Ten years ago, this wasn’t the case. Read more »

Ah! Summer break. It’s nice to have some time to breathe and energize. My eyes fall on the stack of fiction and just-for-fun reading that awaits me these next few weeks. I must confess, however, that my thoughts also return to teaching and prep for next semester. I’ve already started work on integrating Drupal into my courses, working with my graduate assistant Kyle Jones, a TTW Contributor and blogger in his own right. Read more »

Last week, I had the pleasure of visiting and speaking at the new Loyola University Information Commons on the campus of Loyola University just north of Chicago. It was a blustery, rainy cold day along the lake, but the space and the library folk were warm and inviting. Before the visit, I checked out the Web sitLast week, I had the pleasure of visiting and speaking at the new Loyola University Information Commons on the campus of Loyola University just north of Chicago. It was a blustery, rainy cold day along the lake, but the space and the library folk were warm and inviting. Before the visit, I checked out the Web site for the Commons, eager to read about the project. Read more »

I was very lucky to share a podium with Jen Maney, Pima County Public Library, and John Blyberg, Darien Library, on Friday morning at the 2008 Public library Association conference in Minneapolis, MN. I wrote two pages of hurriedly scribbled notes while Jen spoke and I really wanted to share them here. They tap into some of the themes I've written about at TechSource since we began in 2005. Read more »