Tuesday 29 January 2008

Libraries and Facebook

This case study explores the use of the social networking site Facebook (www.facebook.com) as a tool for libraries and librarians. The case study was in response to the growth and popularity of this social networking site. Many librarians have now joined Facebook for purely social reasons, however it can overlap into the professional world as it is being used by several professional library groups and for promoting library related events. Facebook also has a number of library related tools.

Comments? Ideas?

http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/Case_Study_Five_report.pdf

Tuesday 22 January 2008

Launch of OnlineSocialNetworks Majordomo List

Hi all,
This might be a good blog to keep an eye on regarding social networking and libraries:

"This list is intended to serve as a forum in which individuals of any and all interests can discuss Any and All issues relating to Online Social Networks, most notably their current and potential use by libraries/librarians and/or their current/potential use within institutions of higher learning".

http://onlinesocialnetworks.blogspot.com/2008/01/onlinesocialnetworks-new-majordomo-list.html

Friday 18 January 2008

Information behaviour of the researcher of the future

One more for the week - what the future might look like!

"This study was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to identify how the specialist researchers of the future, currently in their school or pre-school years, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years' time. This is to help library and information services to anticipate and react to any new or emerging behaviours in the most effective way. In this report, the authors define the 'Google generation' as those born after 1993 and explore the world of a cohort of young people with little or no recollection of life before the web".

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/programmes/reppres/gg_final_keynote_11012008.pdf

Thursday 17 January 2008

Education Blog List

"A list of the top 100 (or so) educational blogs as at January 2007 compiled by Aseem Badshah. All blogs listed had a Technorati rating of at least 50 or higher".

For those of you interested in blogs following Roger's presentation. I think a lot are for primary and secondary education, but still worth a squiz!

http://www.livemocha.com/pages/resources/education-blog-list

Wednesday 16 January 2008

Ten things that will change your future

"So Google and Wikipedia took you by surprise? Nick Galvin looks into his crystal ball and explains what you need to know to survive the next decade".

This article was especially relevant considering today's discussions re how the Liaison role will change in the future!
I want a chumby! It's like something out of Harry Potter. Though I am secretly scared they will one day take over the world, in the manner of Triffids etc. ...

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/ten-things-that-will-change-your-future/2007/12/31/1198949747758.html?page=fullpage

Friday 11 January 2008

Postgrad Information Literacy

I happened upon this interesting study via the Morris Miller new book display:

Newton, A. (2007). Reaching out to research students: Information literacy in context. In E. Connor (Ed.), Evidence-based librarianship : Case studies and active learning exercises (pp. 119-140). Oxford: Chandos. (yes I used Endnote to create this reference!)

Author is from Leeds Uni in the UK but surveyed practice in four major Australian unis as well as her own researchers. Her 14 point student needs survey is interesting in its simplicity. (Asks questions like "I have a strategy for keeping up to date with the latest publications...". (p.128)

Also interesting is that we are already doing most of what she thinks is needed in postgrad sessions but adds "copyright" as an essential component and "locating and accessing theses" (p. 136)

Probably most interesting to me was her suggested session structure: a half day workshop in 2 parts:
Part 1. Effective literature searching...
Part2. Information use, following academic discussions, avoiding plagiarism, managing info (i.e. Endnote)

I will certainly follow up these suggestions with the Morris Miller Team...

Wednesday 9 January 2008

Liaison Planning Day January 2008

It would be great to have some post-planning day discussion on the blog

Thursday 3 January 2008

History

Have a look at this transcript which refer to E. Morris Miller and his apparent opposition to the DDC!


Two quotes:

“one of Henry Laurie's star pupils, Edmund Morris Miller”

And further on:
“Several of Laurie's pupils, in terms of outreach into the community, were active in the cultural life of the city. One form of this activity was in the area of libraries. Both Morris Miller and another philosophy graduate, Amos Brazier, worked at the Victorian Public Library, and Miller published the first Australian monograph in librarianship called 'Libraries and Education', as well as being influential in founding the Library Association of Victoria in 1912. Miller and Brazier were involved in lengthy, internal disputes with the Chief Librarian, a man called La Touche Armstrong, over many things, including the building of the famous Reading Room dome, and the introduction of the Dewey decimal system. The philosophy graduates were hotly opposed to the Dewey system. Much of their opposition seems to have sprung from the fact that philosophers were long regarded as the ideal people to classify and categories books and were employed all over the place to do so. And the Dewey system would put most of them out of an enjoyable job, of reading and classifying endless numbers of books. Miller's opposition was so strong that when he became Professor of Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Tasmania in 1928, and later Vice Chancellor of that university, he used his influence to keep the Dewey system out of the university library, until the 1950s”