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SOLIS, which is another student group in the Wayne State LIS Program is hosting this panel discussion and I said I would pass the information along. I plan on attending right after I work on this day, and I think this looks like a great panel.

They will be webcasting and hosting the event online, if anybody outside of the Michigan area is interested in more information, let me know and I will try and get that for you.

Please save the date for an excellent opportunity to learn about how local information professionals are using Web 2.0 technologies in their institutions.

Got 2.0? A Panel Discussion on Libraries and Web 2.0

Wednesday, November 19, 2008
6:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Bernath Auditorium
Undergraduate Library
Wayne State University
Reception to follow in the Community Room

The panel is free and open to the public and will feature:

Moderator: Mike Sensiba, Next Gen Librarian, WSU

Panel Presenters:

• Annette Healy, Librarian, Science & Engineering Library, WSU
• Alicia Biggers, Senior Data Research Supervisor, Ford Motor Company
• Paul Neirink, Digital Resources Specialist, Reuther Archives
• Eli Neiburger, Associate Director, IT & Product Development, Ann Arbor District Library

This week is the start of school for me.  It's almost over, just two more semesters to go!  This semester is also the first semester that I will be participating in 3 classes (2 of which are online) and working about 40 hours between 2 jobs.  It should be an interesting semester.

For the curious, I will be taking Library Administration & Management (a required course for the LIS program), Information Policy (a required course for my Information Management certificate), and Information Architecture (not required, but of course really excited to take).

The week started rough but I managed to muddle through it all yesterday.  Being sick with a cold hasn't helped my motivation. 

I'm going to try to extend my decision to go paperless over to schoolwork as well.  I really don't like to read on a computer, but I think I'll have to get over that.  Journal articles are long and if you have to read a number of them during the week, that amounts to a lot of dead trees.

First off, I had to fill in some question and answer type things for one class, I did those in Google Docs.  Since I'm pretty browser dependent, it just seemed easier to do that sort of stuff there than to fire up Word (I did use Word for an essay because I can format pretty there).  I am a bit interested in some of the Microsoft Live online tools I've been hearing about, I might want to try those out, but I'm a huge fan of Google Docs.

I plan to use my iPhone as a way to keep copies of my journal articles, if I have a few minutes here or there I could conceivably read for class (huge hypothetical I know, but it's the beginning of the semester so I can be optimistic still).  Two applications will help me out here, DataCase and Instapaper.  DataCase will let me save files directly to my phone over a wireless network, including pdfs, which most of my journal articles will likely be.  Instapaper is a great application that allows me to save web pages, and the great thing about the app on iPhone is that link will also be available offline.

I also plan to use Evernote a lot for storing and organizing notes.  Since this service extends directly to the iPhone, it will also be available to me wherever I go.  If I'm not mistaken the latest version now allows you to edit notes.

Currently I work on 3 different computers, I tend to do a lot of checking in on course things when I'm not at my laptop.  That's where Windows Live Mesh is awesome.  I only have the software set up on my laptop (well, also on my XP laptop, but I don't turn that computer on much anymore), but I sync my school folders from my laptop to my Live Desktop.  Anything I add to the Live Desktop when I'm not at home will automatically be synced to my computer the next time I log in.  That works the other way too.  My course files will always be accessible and I don't have to save 3 copies of the syllabus to different places because I forgot when my assignment is due.

I still plan on taking notes using my fancy new pen (which I probably still need to blog about) and my fancy new notebook, but that results in digital output.  Sometimes a pen and paper is just easier to carry around with you.

I'm really looking forward to this semester at school. I'm taking two classes, Research Methods which is a physical class and Information Behavior which is completely online. I started off a little disorganized for the Info Behavior class because I was in Vegas when everything was posted online. Once I got things together I realized I can probably use the same research in both classes this semester. My Info Behavior project has to be done with a partner though, which is alright, I might have to tailor the research to suit their interests too.

Last night I realized that I have a short paper due soon though for Info Behavior. She's calling it an "interaction diary" where I have to record an "information-seeking experience" and write about 8-9 pages about it. I've started taking notes on my Toronto trip, traveling to a new place seems like a good comparison and something interesting to write about. I believe I could probably get about 8 pages on the Detroit-Windsor Bridge alone! Another possible experience to write about is how using something like GPS technology changes the way we move around and find things within an area. I realized when the GPS gave us a different route than I wanted to go that our familiarity with an area can change our decision to rely on the technology or not. We also have less of a dependency on printed maps, or printing directions before we leave. I have also used the GPS to find places to eat or stop for gas along the way, instead of relying on road signs or researching locations before we go.

Information Behavior is a pretty interesting class so far and it's within my specialization too. I enjoy my library classes as well, but I usually enjoy my Information Management classes a bit more. I keep going back and forth about whether I want to continue to work in libraries, if I do I certainly don't want to be in public service anymore. I think that's a general consensus between most of those in IS in the program right now. We all enjoy libraries but none of us want to be reference librarians. That's ok I suppose, there's still plenty of people out there that do.

Wow, I realize I have not contributed a real blog post here in a long time. I started my Fall class last Thursday and I was thinking about my class project just now. I have to create a dynamic website of some sort, of course my choices include just about anything, but there seems to be no point of doing a project like this unless I can apply it to something useful in the library realm. I know this is overly ambitious but I would love to try my hand at a public library catalog.

As a side note, I've dropped the use of the acronym OPAC from my vocabulary. I'm trying very hard to avoid using this, even with my colleagues. I think OPAC should be banished from our vocabulary for good. I especially think we should not be using this term with our patrons, and I know quite a lot of librarians who do. One of the first things I did at our branch was change our signage, our public catalogs were labeled as OPACs which is just not right.

Back to my project, obviously I can't create a system with the functionality of a complete ILS, but I might be able to attempt something on the public side that at least outlines what features are completely missing from the vendor choices we have now.

Since this is an ambitious project I might have to have a backup project on hand, since with this class our website actually has to work.

Technorati Tags:library catalog, opac, class project, school, library, libraries
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The really sucky thing about citing blog posts in journal articles is that come 3 years later there's a chance you might not be able to find it anymore.

Just reading an article from a journal that cites a blog post from Socialtext.  Sounds interesting but it's no longer archived on their website.  It also happens to fall in a huge chunk of blog posts that are not on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive.

This is certainly something to consider for the future of publishing your ideas both in print and on the internet.


Technorati Tags: publishing, blogs, journals, research

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This past week I have been in researchdom. My favorite part of research is discovering new cool things from the cool things I already discovered. I was thinking as I was looking up various books and articles at just how awesome Google Scholar is! I can search a journal article across many different databases and in most cases it saves me the step of looking up the journal title in our catalog (which I can't deny is also useful), accessing the database this way and then searching for the article. Google Scholar is so simple! To make my life even easier Wayne State provides a link to Google Scholar that automatically authenticates each journal article I click on through their search (linked on the library's front page even...how wonderful!).

Google Book Search is also pretty cool. Find in a library links will open to Open WorldCat, but just typing the same search in Open WorldCat, MelCat, or one of my other library plugins for Firefox is also pretty easy. Although I was very surprised to find that one of the books I was looking for in Google Book Search is available almost completely in digital form on there. It was a new book too, ironically about copyright law. I knew we had it in my library so Iopted to request it from there but it's good to know it's there.

I love finding connections between the things I do, read, and/or participate in. I guess that's why I was excited to see the connections between the book I'm reading now and both of my upcoming classes. I'm currently reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything (which I love). One of the first chapters was on things like Wikipedia and Open Source (entitled "The Peer Pioneers"), now I'm reading all about the benefits and perils of digital copyright and production in the "Prosumers" chapter. One of my classes we'll be talking a lot about Linux and I've already determined that my final paper will probably have something to do with open source (it really fascinates me!). I was especially fascinated by the IBM/Linux collaboration story and how well that worked. My other class is dealing with digital issues. I was happy to see both of these things merged in this book!

I'm pretty excited about going back to school now, I'm positve that both of my classes are going to great learning experiences for me. I'm also anxious to get through this book. I have a million other books stacked up and the reading has been slow over the holidays.

I have to enjoy this moment because I just looked at my class grade. I got a 101% for the class I just finished up. I've never been an exceptional student before so I'm pretty psyched about the fact that not only can I pull off an A+ in a graduate school class...I've also maintined a 4.0 GPA to this point.

If you knew the sort of grades I would get up until now, you'd understand why I'm so happy with my grad school performance. I suppose it helps that I'm finally doing something I love though too.

I went to work/school with Alex today. I want to spend the day at the library working on my assignment but I thought it might be easier for me to just go with Alex...save on parking, save a tree, whatever. So right now I'm sitting in the graduate library reference room at the University of Michigan and let me tell you this room is enough to make any reference student needing to do an encyclopedia project salivate. The walls of the entire room are reference books and encyclopedias on just about every subject there is...

I have to choose one encyclopedia on each topic geared to children so I may take a walk down to the AADL main branch sometime today to see what's available in the children's room over there.

Tags: library, libraries, reference, resources, encyclopedia

I had to write about class last night, mostly because it was an "issues" class and I love talking about library issues. Here is what was on the agenda:

1. Banned/challenged books

2. Intellectual Freedom

3. Censorship

4. The Patriot Act

5. Copyright

I might be forgetting something...my husband must know me too well too, I came home and told him what we talked about in class and he said, "I bet you couldn't keep your hand down." I guess my spirits are lifting a bit after deciding to not take me to Germany, but it's still raining so I guess I'm still a bit gloomy.

Technorati : issues, libraries, library, school