Aussie Librarian Blogs worth following

Some Australian Librarian and related blogs worth following.

ADHD Librarian by the ADHD Librarian (twitter/ADHD_librarian)

 

Better than cheesecake by Susanne Newton

 

Bronwyn’s Library Blog by Bronwyn Ritchie

 

Bright Ideas – School Libraries Association of Victoria

 

ConnectingLibrarian by Michelle MacLean

 

Derek’s ALIA Blog by Derek Whitehead

 

Explodedlibrarian by Morgan Wilson

 

The future of librarianship / R. David Lankes, 2011

Speaking at the Delaware Library Town Hall, Dover, in January 2011, R. David Lankes spoke about ‘The future of librarianship’.   R. David Lankes challenges librarians, and library staff, not to be passive as change occurs in the profession.  Librarians need to be “proactive” when they encounter changes which some in the profession fear will push library professionals out of libraries in favour of dumbed down services.  Change will happen whether we like it or not, so can librarians see opportunities in the change to engage more fully with “members” of the library?

This is a really inspiring talk, worth listening to a few times if you think you understood it the first time.  It is just under 20 minutes on Vimeo.com, (audio from R. David Lankes website).  Lankes asks ‘Are you OK with that?’ when librarians see a future in which library services are delivered not by librarians but by computers.  He  wants librarians to see people, “YOU”, as the centre of activity for librarians, not buildings, statistic collection, technology, or the latest computer applications.  Using this idea, he changes the usual question ‘What is the future of libraries?’ into ‘What should be the future of libraries and librarians in a democracy?’  He suggests ‘The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities.”

Some great quotes I took away from from the talk include:

2011 Snapshot Days in the USA

Libraries across the USA undertake an annual ‘Snapshot’ Day, which allow library staff to document some activities on an ordinary day in the library.  A listing of the states and links to their sites is available from the American Library Association.  Below are some examples of videos put together so far this year.

The New York Library Association’s ‘SnapshotNY’ is conducted as part of a campaign supporting their libraries called ‘New York’s Libraries : Essential’.  There is a website, a facebook page, and I came across the campaign from the vimeo account, ‘protectnylibraries’ which also documents some of the ‘SnapshotNY’ videos.  Below, a patron of the library tells why he needs the library.

The Washington Library Association have a wiki for their Snapshot Day, which was in April.  Below 

Just a list of some interesting blogs or articles I’ve been reading lately…

• L.A. Times’ cuts review freelancers – “In a move as significant for its breadth as its implications for the future of book coverage, the Los Angeles Times book review laid off all of its freelance book reviewers and columnists on July 21.” By Wendy Werris, Publisher’s Weekly, 27.07.2011

• Research workflow and digital texts – “Some students took to the Kindle like a duck to water, but others (insurveys) wrote of their disorientation within the e-book, because of their ingrained habit of dealing with books as material objects as well as content containers.” By Phoebe Acheson, North Carolina Central University, 13.07.2011

• How to protect yourself from hacking – “Many of the vulnerabilities that consumers face are due to the services that they’re using. So for example, many of the services like Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo don’t use strong encryption when you’re logging in. And so what that means is that if you’re logging in from your home connection and there’s a password on your Wi-Fi network, you’re fine. But if you’re at Starbucks, or you’re at school or a library and there’s an open Wi-Fi network, anyone sitting nearby you who’s using the right software on their laptop can actually pick out your information as it goes over the air.” Interview by Michele Norris, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 25.07.2011

• Hunting for a password that only you will know – “Weak or even non-existent passwords were at least partly to blame for security breaches of voicemail accounts in the recent U.K. phone hacking scandal.” By Hansi Lo Wang, All Things Considered, National Public Radio, 25.07.2011

• Crowdsourcing and social engagement in libraries : the state of play – By Rose Holly, Crowdsourcing.org, 29.06.2011

• The social media presence of Australian Public Libraries – “For a project at a public library, I have been

Australian Internet Directories

The National Library of Australia

Here is a basic list of good Australian Internet Directories.  Most are by Reference Librarians.  All up, these are some of the best places to start looking for internet sites in Australia.

LibGuides   AussieEducator     APHL     ANU     Charles Sturt     SLQ     SLT     SLWA     NTL     SLV     SLSA     Victoria University    Canterbury Library     Ryde Library     Sutherland Shire     HolmesGlen     Australia Govt.      Oz Guide      Blackstump     ANZWERS     AllMyFaves     WebWombat

A list is also available in a Trove list I created – ‘Internet Directories by Australian Librarians’.

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This post will be updated from time to time

(Updated 07.08.2011)