Blogging Section of SLA-IT

Top 100 Librarian Tweeters

Just for fun, a list of the top 100 librarians, libraries and library-related organizations on Twitter. At position #69, the Blogging Section's own Jill Hurst-Wahl.

Conversants Conference: Join the conversation!

Call for Participation and Collaboration

Announcing “Conversants A Participatory Conversation,” a new idea in professional development for challenging economic times.

We invite you to join the movement to create and share information through worldwide coordinated conversations. Library communities and organizations are uniquely poised to employ the latest collaborative resources; the conversations that result from these collaborations hold great promise for students and practitioners across the information professions. Sharing knowledge and expertise via these collaborative conversations as part of a united effort is both beneficial and necessary, so we invite you lend your voice and join us in this unique event. Become a Conversant!

This effort is spearheaded by R. David Lankes with support from the Information Institute at Syracuse University, librarians and library students.

Theme: Participatory Librarianship

Save the date: Session Proposals are Due April 16th and Ongoing Virtual Sessions will begin April 30th, 2009. A Hybrid Event will take place at ALA in Chicago.

Call for participation:

Virtual sessions will be coordinated through the conference site, but can take place anywhere on the Internet. Blog posts, Second Life presentations, FriendFeed rooms, videos, etc., are all encouraged.

We need participation in the following two areas:

Proposal submissions

We will be soliciting involvement at many levels of participation. Some ways that you can contribute include:

Papers – Traditional long-form papers will be considered for publication in Conversants, an online open-access journal. These papers will use CommentPress to allow participants to comment upon and discuss the paper on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis.

Events – We are also seeking time- and/or place-based events that can be archived and shared. Examples might include a SecondLife presentation, which can archived as a streaming video and shared with participants, or a podcast of a workshop or discussion that took place at a physical library.

Cases – Do you have an example of something that you did at your library that worked really well? Or that flopped spectacularly? Share your experience with your fellow Conversants! Creativity in format is encouraged.

Posters – Present your research, tackle an idea or controversial topic, or present conflicting viewpoints of a current event. Everyone is welcome to submit poster proposals, but library students are especially encouraged to participate at this level.

Postings – Blog postings, open Facebook posts, etc., that will carry a conference badge (that links to the conference hub with an associated conversation).

Conversations – All Conversants will be encouraged to participate in the conversations that will be happening throughout the event. In addition, special “water cooler” threaded conversations on a topic or issue of your choosing will be encouraged. Proposals should include an overview of the topic, starter questions, and a core of at least 5 people to seed/start conversation.

Conference Facilitators

In addition to the above, in order to ensure that this global conversation goes smoothly, people are needed to assist the core group in the following ways:

Technical support – Assist with the managing the Conversant web site, which will include pointers to the various conversations.

Participant support – Create tutorials, pathfinders, publicity, etc.

Reviewers – Review and qualify papers and posters.

Session moderators – To act as hosts or conversation facilitators.

Please send Proposal submissions and Conference Facilitator offers to:

[email protected]

For Proposal Submission, please include “Proposal for Conversants” in the subject.
For Conference Facilitators, please include “Facilitation for Conversants” in the subject.

Using Skype in reference services

The University of Ohio Libraries has installed a kiosk in the lobby of its Alden Library for the usual quick info requests (hours, staff, maps). But the kiosk also sports a webcam and a link to Skype in order to provide instant reference with a live librarian. Chad Boeninger explains the system in a video on his blog. The system is not heavily used but it's an interesting concept.

An article, refered to in the video, has also been written on the topic:

Booth, Char (2008). Developing Skype-Based Reference Services. Internet Reference Services Quarterly, 13 (2), 147-165. Retrieved March 12, 2009, from http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/10875300802103684

Abstract:

Internet voice and video calling have demonstrated a dramatic rise in quality in the past several years and have quickly become communication technologies with a disruptive impact on society. Librarians, who regularly adopt such technologies in outreach and public services, should evaluate Web-calling programs as potential sources of innovative reference programming. This article describes the development of Skype video and Internet telephony pilot reference services at the Ohio University Libraries and considers the utility of Skype and VoIP in a library setting.

SLA Centennial Video contest

The finalists have been chosen and the vote has now begun for the SLA Centennial Video Contest http://www.sla.org/content/Events/centennial/video.cfm) .

The IT Division has an entry in the Professional category, visible here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz4Psrv7rvc. The title of the video is "Be bold. Play. Keep at it." It was produced by Amy Buckland, Kendra Levine and Margaret Smith who did a fabulous job.

 

The voting ballot is here: http://bit.ly/a6Jxv. You must use your membership number to vote. I'm assuming you only get one vote per category so, if I may, I suggest you cast your ballot for "Be bold. Play. Keep at it." Voting ends March 25th.

UPDATE (from HQ)

• Voting will end on March 31, 2009, at 11:59pm (EDT).
• Winners will be announced on April 7, 2009.
• View the videos as much as you would like, but members may only vote once in each category.
• You will need your SLA membership ID to cast your ballot.  If you've forgotten yours, not to worry! Instructions on how to retrieve it are included on the voting ballot through the link above.
• In case of a tie in either category, members of the SLA Centennial Commission and Video Contest Sub-committee will choose the winner(s).

2009 Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award - Call for nominations

The IT Division of SLA is now accepting nominations/applications for the Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award.

The IT Executive Board would like to recognize a member's outstanding efforts on behalf of the IT Division. Do you know someone whose contributions to the Division should be recognized?

Learn more.

Evan Williams - Twitter founder -- talking about Twitter

Less than 10 minutes in length and worth watching. By the way, Twitter was a side project for his company (Odeo). 

(Also posted at eNetworking 101: The Blog)