Blogging Section of SLA-IT

Meme: Passion Quilt

We have been tagged in the Passion Quilt Meme.  I chose the picture above for my bit of the quilt because:

The thing I'd like kids to know is that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  If you have a love of learning, you can experience the comfort that comes with lifelong learning. If you go forward in life believing that you're going to reach an age where you can't learn anymore then you're going to find yourself in uncomfortable situations.  Instead, go forward in life with the goal of always learning something new!

3 Simple Meme Rules:

 

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry. (Known origin of the meme is here)
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Tag! You Are It: I know that the SLA IT Division Bloggers have been tagged already, but there are many of us - and I'd love to hear from other members so you're all first on my list:

• SLA IT Division bloggers
• NJSLA Blog Members
• Christine Schwartz
• Tom Ipri
• John Blyberg

The Hollywood Librarian's financial predicament

Via LISNews:

Lynne writes: “Greetings to all librarians. I am Lynne Martin Erickson. I have been the fiscal agent for The Hollywood Librarian documentary film since 2004. I post this in the hope that librarians will respond immediately and repost widely.

As many of you know, this wonderful film is the result of the tireless efforts of one person: Ann Seidl. She single-handedly raised $200,000 to make and distribute this movie, worked on it for over 8 years and she is still working to get it seen by as many members of our public as possible. She is traveling throughout the US and the world to promote the film. Thanks to the librarian network, the film is being seen in dozens of locations by hundreds and even thousands of people.

While Ann has devoted her full-time work to this cause, she has been paid very little. She insists she is not in it for the money. I can guarantee that is the case. She wouldn’t say this to you, but I can assure you that Ann is broke.

During the Banned Book Week release, when tickets sold for $8, we took in about $10,000, but less than $400 was profit. These days, she is asking for a small fee to screen the film but that money is to fund the editing and authoring process for the DVD which she wants to make available this fall. But she must have some financial support to go on working on the film. We can’t let her stop working on the film to take other employment when she is so close to finishing.

If you are a fan of The Hollywood Librarian or of Ann, I am asking you to send her your financial encouragement.

Go here now http://www.hollywoodlibrarian.com/involved.html and click on the Paypal link.”

I never got to see the movie and have been looking for the DVD - I’m happy to hear that it’s in production and hope that we can help this movie make it to the masses!!

Are you a leader?

Somehow with all of the busyness in my life I missed the announcement about the new PALINET Leadership Network page.  This from Walt Crawford:

Take a look at the PALINET Leadership Network (PLN). It’s an international network to provide resources and share ideas among library leaders (present and future) of all varieties. It’s free, it’s open to anyone who believes they belong, and it’s off to a good start–with just under more than 300 users and some 200,000 words of content already in place.

What I love - is that they're considering out busy lives and allowing us to keep up with updates in more than one way.  As a wiki you can of course "watch" pages and receive updates via RSS or email, but Walt is also helping us out:

We also know that most leaders (and would-be leaders) are busy people, who don’t have time to go check a wiki every week or two to see what’s new. With that in mind, we’ve created PLN Highlights–... You can add PLN Highlights to your aggregator–or, if you’re not a big aggregator person and blog reader, you can sign up to get posts via email.

Read Walt's original post for more information or just poke around at the wiki.

 

LISjobs.com Launches Online Community

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For further information, contact Rachel Singer Gordon, rachel@lisjobs.com
January 2, 2008

LISjobs.com Launches Online Community

New discussion forums now open

LISjobs.com, the largest free library career portal on the Internet, is pleased to announce the launch of its new online community for librarians. Devoted entirely to career development and job hunting, these forums provide a space for librarians, LIS students, library workers, and information professionals to discuss professional development issues: http://lisjobs.com/forum/.

“I’m excited to be able to offer this space for collaboration and discussion,” says Rachel Singer Gordon, webmaster, LISjobs.com. “As librarians, we know that we work and learn best in community -- I look forward to watching the forums grow.” Current forum moderators include:

• Michael Stephens, LIS schools
• Jess Bruckner, Jumpstart your career
• Meredith Farkas, Professional development and participation
• Susanne Markgren, Talking tenure
• Kim Dority, Professional writing
• Sophie Brookover, Work/life balance

In recent related developments, Info Career Trends, LISjobs.com’s professional development newsletter, has moved to the Wordpress platform to better serve its subscribers. Its long-time career Q&A columnists, Tiffany Allen and Susanne Markgren, have moved to their own blog, and author/entrepreneur Kim Dority joins in with her new monthly column on “Rethinking Information Careers.”

Info Career Trends continues to fill an underserved niche, devoted entirely to career and professional development issues for librarians and information professionals. The newsletter and column content are accessible at: http://www.lisjobs.com/career_trends/. Rachel Singer Gordon shares: “I’m so pleased to bring Kim on board, and to watch the Library Career People column evolve in its new blog format. I look forward to hearing others’ opinions across the LISjobs.com online community.”

LISjobs.com, launched in 1996, provides free library-related job listings to both employers and job seekers, as well as related services from resume postings to career development blogs.

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LISjobs.com: http://www.lisjobs.com
Online community: http://www.lisjobs.com/forum
Info Career Trends newsletter: http://www.lisjobs.com/career_trends/
Contact: Rachel Singer Gordon, rachel@lisjobs.com

Stephen Abram on change

Stephen wrote a long article recently on change, which struck both positive and negative chords with its readers.  You may not agree with all that he says, but there likely there is something in the article for you to ponder.  Here is what stood out to me:

I believe that we can’t control change on a personal level. I can, however, control my own emotional reaction to it. On the other hand, I do agree with those who say that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. We, libraries, have the ability and the intelligence to create a future that is compelling, desirable, and independent of the visions that are driven by advertisers. In fact, I believe that we have a duty to invent this future.

What Helps You Manage Change

In my inaugural post here at the SLA-IT Blog I'd like to ask you what helps you (personally) handle change?  The fact of the matter is that we all have trouble with change, some of us are just better at hiding it than others :)

For me, it's a song.  Pretty simple right?  Well, maybe not, it's a song that I have been listening to for years, but have just come to appreciate even more.  The song is titled "The Wood Song" and it's by the Indigo Girls.  You can find the complete lyrics on their site.  I'd also like to share some of them here with you.

The song starts out by saying "the thin horizon of a plan is almost clear my friends and I have had a hard time bruising our brains hard up against change" - how many times have you felt that way? The fact of the matter is, no matter how much we fight it - and we all do at times - change is going to happen.  The song ends with:

sometimes i ask to sneak a closer look skip to the final chapter of the book and maybe steer us clear from some of the pain that it took to get us where we are this far but the question drowns in its futility and even i have got to laugh at me cause no one gets to miss the storm of what will be just holding on for the ride the wood is tired the wood is old and we’ll make it fine if the weather holds but if the weather holds then we’ll have missed the point

I just love this song!  It's one of those bits of my younger days that has stuck with me and grown with me over the years.  I highly recommend that you find a copy (maybe a friend has a CD you can listen to) or buy a copy on your favorite MP3 site, it's well worth a listen and well worth sharing with those colleagues who are having trouble adapting to the high rate of change we're all going through right now.

New contributor to the blog

Please welcome a new contributor to the weblog, Section member Steven Kaye. Steven works in the insurance industry and I have a feeling he may have interesting insights on corporate blogging.

Many happy postings Steven!

Blogger Featured in SLA Member Profile

Upon opening the September 2006 issue of Information Outlook, I was delighted to see that this month's member profile features Jill Hurst-Wahl.  Jill has been an active contributor to this blog since its beginning.  I had the pleasure of meeting her at the Bloggers Get-Together in Baltimore and look forward to working with her as she takes on the role of 2007 Blogging Section Chair for the IT Division.

UB dissolves the School of Informatics

I worked the library school alumni event at the SLA conference for Syracuse University (where I am an adjunct).  I was surprised to see what schools didn't participate.  And it caused me to think about those library science programs that no longer exist.  Since then, another library science program is in an uncomfortable position.  The Buffalo News states:

UB's School of Informatics - not to be confused with its highly touted bioinformatics program - was among the first in the country when the School of Information and Library Studies and the department of communication were merged with much fanfare in 1999 to offer broader study of how communication is combined with information technology.

Provost Satish K. Tripathi, the No. 2 official at UB, informed faculty members last week that the department of communication will return under the umbrella of the College of Arts and Sciences, while the department of library and information studies will become part of the Graduate School of Education by the end of the fall semester.

Tripathi called it a realignment of academic programs. This arrangement makes more sense, and allows for more collaboration among departments, he said.

A follow-up article from Buffalo Business First is here.  And there is a blog posting by one of the School's assistant professors here.

Although New York State has several universities with library science programs, since the late 1970s we have lost at least two (Geneseo and Columbia).  Now the feeling is that we may be on the verge of losing another.  If we are to train more librarians/information specialists, shouldn't we be creating more programs, not dismantling existing programs?

So here are questions to ponder:

• What can SLA do to help programs introduce new courses that teach emerging/needed skills for 21st century librarians?
• How can SLA (and the IT division specifically) help programs ensure that students have the right computer skills for the workforce?
  
• How can SLA help library schools recruit students?
  
• Can SLA do more to attract people to the profession and to MLS programs?
• Can SLA somehow help universities see the value in retaining or creating library science programs (perhaps part of an I-School)?
• Is there some role (perhaps as lobbyists) that our vendors/partners can play in ensuring that these programs remain viable (or innovative), perhaps by helping them understand the industry?
  

Chair-Elect for the Section

It is my pleasure to announce that Jill Hurst-Wahl, contributor to this weblog, has become Chair-Elect of the Blogging Section. Her term as Chair will begin in January at the Leadership Summit in Reno. Congratulations to Jill and thanks go to her for rising up to the challenge!

New contributor and Web 2.0 session

Please welcome a new contributor to the Blogging Section and to the Blogging Section blog, Karen Huffman.

Karen works at the National Geographic Society. She presented, along with her colleague Barbara Ferry, an "Hot Topic" session at SLA 2006 titled "Web 2.0 - Making Use of Collaborative Applications -Wikis, Blogs, CoPs, RSS and Podcasts." I unfortunately missed it since it was at the same time as the IT Division Business Meeting but I heard it was a *great* session. You can view the presentation at http://www.ngslis.org/sla/ (username: conference | password: sla2006). The NGS is ready for Web 2.0!

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Technorati tag: sla2006

Award winner

With great joy, I just learned that Stacey Greenwell, IT Division's Chair-Elect, member of the Blogging Section and super-duper contributor to this very blog, received last Friday the Professional Award from the Kentucky Chapter of SLA.

The 2006 recipient of the SLA-KY Chapter Professional Award is Stacey Greenwell, Desktop Support Librarian at the University of Kentucky. The Professional Award shall be given to an individual or group in recognition of a specific achievement in the field of librarianship or to the subject field in which they serve. Stacey's impressive level of professional activity at the national and state levels makes her most deserving of this award (from the KYSLA list).

I have had the pleasure to see Stacey in action for a number of years now, she is "da bomb". Congrats Stacey, you richly deserve it!

Thursday evening, Houston meeting

Well, the Texas Chapter sure can put up a nice reception!Great view up the top of a nearby hotel, great food and a nice opportunity to meet other information professionals.

While there, I met Marydee Ojala, editor of Online Magazine. Marydee is blogging about the meeting over at the Online Insider blog.

Tomorrow is "association" day. One of the highlights will be the luncheon with the various candidates for the SLA board. Among them, several IT members: Baltimore planner James Manasco and Libby Truddell who are running both for Chapter Cabinet Chair-Elect; Blogging Section member Dav Robertson and Stephen Abram both for President-Elect; “Buzzy” Basch  for Treasurer and LaJean Humphries for Director.

CORRECTION: I failed to mention that Libby Truddell, candidate for Chapter Cabinet Chair, is the Chair of the IT division's Public Relations Committee. My apologies for the omission.

Workshop given by a Section member

Brand new Section member and veteran blogger Jill Hurst-Wahl will be giving a workshop on blogging for business January  10, 2006 in Syracuse, NY. Jill is the author of the Digitization 101 blog, among others.

Section members, you are welcome to let us know of your achievements, presentations, publications and others so we can share with all.