Circulation

Online Northwest 2010

lindybr1 — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:54:37 +0000

I participated in the Online Northwest conference this year. It was a nice opportunity for professional development and it took place right on the OSU campus. I attended several sessions, but the one I enjoyed most was Jen Klaudinyi’s presentation on the Cooperative Library Instruction Project (CLIP): Collaboration and Curriculum Integration: Presenting shared information literacy tutorials at the point of need.

From the CLIP wiki:

CLIP is a partnership between Western Oregon University, Oregon State University, Willamette University, and Chemeketa Community College whose mission is to design and develop sharable, web-based tutorials to assist in library instruction and information literacy… CLIP is creating tutorials that specifically address the larger ideas of information literacy. The collection might look something like an interactive, online information literacy “text book” from which librarians or instructors anywhere can select and use pieces as they choose.

CLIP is striving to serve librarians and instructors with different needs and resources. Our tutorials are free, already hosted on the web and ready to be used as they are. Simply copy the URL provided with each tutorial and distribute via websites, email, etc. We also provide source files for those who wish to download, customize and/or locally host the tutorials.

CLIP has several information literacy tutorials available at the moment:

CLIP plans to continue adding tutorials to the site. Anyone can download these and customize them to their department, library, or school (as long as the source is attributed). Text files are available of each presentation. Why continue to remake the wheel, if great tutorials already exist? CLIP provides that opportunity.

What about the rest of the conference?

All presentations can be accessed at the Online NW website. Previous conference posts can be found there as well.

On a side note:

I do have one suggestion for Online NW: please consider having a student rate. $130 is pretty spendy for a one-day conference, especially for those that may be poor graduate students or unemployed. (See: Public Library Association’s national conference in Portland this year — the student rate for the 4 day conference is only $90).

Technology in the Classroom – Office Parody (Video)

lindybr1 — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 05:04:49 +0000

Earlier today I was thinking about how professors can integrate technology into classrooms — how they, instead of fighting it, could use it to promote learning and collaboration.

Then this evening, I read a timely post from Kansas State University Professor Mike Wesch’s blog Digital Ethnography. The post was about a video created by Lynn Schofield Clark’s Innovation in Mass Communications class at the University of Denver. This video is a mini-mockumentary of a professor trying to teach his digital native students about technology. If you are a fan of The Office, then you’ll enjoy this take on a professor trying to teach a class of young students about technology.

Here’s the actual video, “The Class” (which would be an example of how not to integrate technology in class):

By the way – if you don’t follow Dr. Wesch’s blog, I highly recommend you do. And, if you haven’t seen other videos made by him and his students, check out his youtube channel. One of my favorite educational videos from Dr. Wesh (in collaboration with 200 of his students!) is about students today, aptly titled “A Vision of Students Today.”

I also recommend The Machine is Us/ing Us because it provided a timely look into Web 2.0. (Note that this video was created in 2007, so it was right on time/at the cusp of the proliferation of Web 2.0 technologies).

#libday4: Day in the Life… Project

lindybr1 — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 04:34:19 +0000

#libday4 has been a very popular tag in the library world today.

Eh?

#libday 4 = A Day in the Life of a Librarian, Round 4.

Ah ha!

I remember when Bobbi Newman first wrote about her day in the life of a librarian, just over a year and a half ago. It has grown exponentially since then. All it took was one blog post about her day… then it quickly grew into a wiki where others shared their stories… and today I noticed a Day-in-the-Life netvibes page filled with all sorts of social-sharing goodness from twitter, delicious, flickr, friendfeed, etc.

I recommend all MLIS/MLS programs incorporate it into their introduction to the information professions classes. Information/Library science students can learn about real people straight from their own writings rather than from static handouts filled with random charts or book chapters dryly explaining librarian-related tasks.

[Think of this vs. this].

I wanted to write more about how grateful I am to everyone who shared information about their day, allowing others to take a peek into their daily professional lives. I had many thoughts in my head about why this project was a brilliant idea, but I can’t say it any better than Erin Dorney (see blog: Library Scenester).

I especially like her idea of some sort of day-in-the-life spinoff of library school students sharing what they’re learning. Just as professional librarians have a lot to share about the practical things that happen daily, MLIS students have a lot to share from what they are learning in the classroom. I’m not saying this because I am one, but MLIS students are great resources of information about new trends, theories, and so on (for a great example, follow the #lis768 tweets from Michael Stephens’s students at Dominican U).

So as a side note for all graduate and doctorate students – I call on you to share what your day is like in the life of being a librarian/information professional-to-be, what-have-you. A few folks have posted already:

Rachel Slough, MLS Candidate, Indiana University SLIS: Lib and Learn
Karen Cawley, MLS Candidate, Syracuse University—School Media: karenthelibrarian
Alison Miller, Doctorate of Professional Studies in Information Management, Syracuse University School of Information Studies: infolibnow.net
Laura Williams, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University Library Service: Theatre Grad Blog
Sarah Hogg, Graduate Trainee, Oxford University: Library Trainee in Oxford

Dewey Music: search the Internet Archive’s audio

lindybr1 — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 06:39:40 +0000

Dewey Music is the interface of the Internet Archive’s fabulous music library. Grateful Dead fans may know the archive.org’s great collection of the band’s live shows throughout the ages, but there are many more vintage (and contemporary) goodies nestled inside the Archive’s library. Search Dewey Music to find old school live jams or newer music such as, shall we say, one of my favorite bands, Guster and artists like, Deb Talan, and Elliot Smith.

Dewey Music basically searches through this entire list from the Archive’s website. You can listen to, download, remix, and share anything you see on this site legally and for free, which is a bonus. Dewey Music allows you to create playlists, share the music with others via Facebook, and music you choose continues to play as you search. In addition to their general search, you can browse by genre, top rated, most played and newest uploads.

So far, I’ve found Dewey Music’s search features a lil’ buggy. Searches were dropped, I had to hit “go” twice in order for results to show, and the search engine didn’t produce recordings that I could find by directly using the Internet Archive’s audio search page. Despite this, Dewey Music offers a lot of promise, however, to unlocking the fabulous goodness of the Archive’s music library.

The Intenet Public Library & Librarian’s Internet Index = IPL2

lindybr1 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:20:05 +0000

It’s official: the Internet Public Library (IPL) and Librarian’s Internet Index (LII) merged today. Check out the new and improved website, with ever-so-much-more trustworthy, authoritative, librarian-approved resources.

Clicker – Helping you find free TV shows on the Web

lindybr1 — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 06:54:57 +0000

Hulu will soo n require moola in order to access content… What are some other options? Sure, Crackle is definitely one. Clicker, is another.

Clicker is much more than a video search engine. In fact, CEO and co-founder Jim Lanzone describes Clicker as “the first structured, comprehensive and unbiased programming guide for internet television.” Its content includes music, web originals, movies and much, much more.

How’s that? Like Yahoo Directory, Clicker indexes video. It also allows community involvement where users can annotate videos, add comments and point to related videos. Clicker relies on structured data to organize and present content, thus providing a better user experience rather than a search engine that relies on metadata.

You can create an account, create playlists, search, or browse alphabetically by show title, “what’s hot” or recommended by others. Clicker has a “trends” option where you can see what’s most popular by shows and episodes. Not sure what you want, but know you want a certain genre? Check out their categories page — browse by categories such as animation, drama, arts, business/finance, documentary, education, live programming and more. Clicker’s content is impressive — containing more than 450,000 episodes, from over 6,000 shows, from over 1,200 networks, and 50,000 music videos from 20,000 artists!

What’s handy about Clicker is the various ways to search and the information provided from each. A search for “Glee” give a snapshot of information about the show, the episodes Clicker found, and then a handy sidebar suggesting similar shows. Having trouble finding what you need? Just start typing out the first few letters and Clicker will intuitively provide suggestions. I tried out a search for “maddow” and it not only suggested the actual show, but episodes of Meet the Press, Charlie Rose and American Microphone where she has made appearances. Clicker’s search is definitely user-friendly!

As more people go to their computers instead of TV, they will find sites such a Clicker (and Hulu and Crackle) as an essential part of their entertainment. The ease at which Clicker helps find, organize and present information make it a strong competitor with its fellow online video sites.

For more information on the subject:

Clicker Blog: Hi, We’re Clicker.

NPR’s all tech CONSIDERED: TV on the Web on the TV

Search Engine Land: Clicker: More Than Just a Video Search Engine

Inspiring Story: William Kamkwamba

lindybr1 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 05:20:45 +0000

Need an inspirational story? Watch William Kamkwamba’s interview with Jon Stewart on the Daily Show:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

William Kamkwamba

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

Zombies in the Library

lindybr1 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:22:49 +0000

I love, love, love this video from the College of DuPage Library:

via Library Secrets

No related posts.

Pets & Homework Help

lindybr1 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 22:35:42 +0000

No related posts.

25 Tools: a Toolbox for Learning Professionals (slideshare presentation)

lindybr1 — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 02:41:59 +0000

Joyce Valencia’s most recent post on retooling oneself got a lot of link love on twitter today. She provided many wonderful resources for educators and information professionals, but one particular resource I enjoyed was a presentation by Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies:

25 Tools: A Toolbox for Learning Professionals 2009

View more presentations from Jane Hart.