Information R/evolution: How is Information Evolving?

Information is constantly changing:
Changing form
Changing content
Changing accessibility

This YouTube video does a great job of showing you how Information is changing around you.

What does it make you think about?

Check out the St. Joseph County Public Library YouTube Video

The St. Joseph County Public Library made a YouTube video that you should take a moment to check out.  It shows libraries in a new “light”.

LIS 753 Dominican University

Just thought I’d share a picture of my fellow LIS753 students (see me in the Chicago Bears sweatshirt?).

Post #3: Shanachietour! We had some Dutch librarians vist my LIS 753 class

In my LIS 753 class at Dominican University we were fortunate to have three Dutch “librarians” visit; Erik, Geert and Jaap. They are visiting from Delft, which is a city in the province of South Holland, in the Netherlands (“Delft” Wikipedia, 2007).

They do not call themselves a library; they are known as DOK. In Dutch DOK stands for Discotake (Music), Openbare (Public), Kunst (Art). Their “library” is very heavily technology oriented; they have 24″ Mac computers throughout their library, round/pod shaped music charis that have speakers inside the chair, flat screen televisions that all have a Wii connected to each one and Playstation 3’s.

DOK’s mission is to become the world´s most modern “library” in the world. They are gathering information about gaming in libraries, what libraries in the United States are doing and what people think about the future of libraries by touring across the United States in a camper they rented; calling themselves the LBI: the “Library Bureau of Investigation”. They started at the New York Public Library and will end up in Monterey, CA for the 2007 Internet Librarian Conference. Check out the website/blog for their tour, called the Shanachietour (the story tour).

They also interviewed my classmates, my professor (Michael Stephens) and myself about what we think the library of the future will look like (see picture below). I answered that in the future school libraries should be able to use Web 2.0 Technology and Tools to enhance teaching and learning. Look for the video they made with us in it; it is posted on their Schanachitour blog and titled  LBI Shanachie Tour 2007 Episode 7.1.

Photo from mstephens7 Flickr page

Check out other photos from the mstephens7 Flickr page of the Dutch visit to Dominican!

Don’t forget to check out the DOK website and blog!

Thanks so much for visiting Erik, Japp and Jeert!!

Harry Potter’s Dumbledore is Gay?

By Timothy A. Clary, AFP/Getty Images

I found an article from USA Today where author J. K. Rowling revealed that she “…always saw Dumbledore as gay”.  An interesting article that might raise questions and discussions from Harry Potter fans, students, library patrons and librarians. 

Check out the full article here.

Assignment: Web Page Review: Dominican Rebecca Crown Library

To the Library Director:

As part of the staff committee for library webpage review, I have spent many hours researching other Academic library webpages in order to determine if our webpage for the Rebecca Crown Library is without flaw or if improvements might be made to enhance its service to our students and patrons. To make this determination, I reviewed the Bowdoin College Library webpage and the Trinity College Library webpage.

The Bowdoin College Library webpage is a simple webpage with much to offer. It was not over-run with pictures and not sparse of information. The links were all organized by useful headings such as: Find, Research Help, Services & Forms, About the Library and Library News. Each link was then listed underneath the headings, right there for the user to see; there was no need to click on each heading to find out what links the heading contained. There is a box on the homepage where the patron can search the library’s catalog and databases; they don’t have to go to another page in order to use the catalog! Also clearly displayed is the option for live help. Although live help is not offered around the clock, the button clearly shows if live help is available at the current time. There is also a very clear link for patrons to contact the webmaster and the library.

The Trinity College Library webpage is visually more appealing than the Bowdoin College Library, but offers many of the same valuable resources to patrons. Users can search the library catalog and databases right from the homepage without having to click through several links in order to arrive at the catalog. There is also a link to the library blog and the capability to subscribe to their blog through an RSS feed. Offering Web 2.0 technology is a wonderful way to provide users a way to keep informed about the library. There is also a link to contact a reference librarian on the homepage that will immediately allow the patron to ask a question without having to click through several annoying links.

The Rebecca Crown Library webpage could incorporate many features of the two above-mentioned college webpages to better serve our patrons. According to Nielsen’s Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005, “users want content that answers their questions” (Nielsen, 2005). By offering information upfront on our homepage, like Bowdoin and Trinity do, we will be serving our users more effectively. We need to allow our catalog and databases to be searched from our homepage and not have patrons click on several links. All links should be clearly displayed and accessible; organized under unifying headings. The Rebecca Crown Library blog should be accessible from the homepage and RSS should be made possible. We should have a links to get help from a librarian, contact the library and contact the webmaster on the homepage so users don’t have to do unnecessary clicking. There are many good thinks about our webpage. The link to the Dominican GSLIS homepage is a wonderful service and the font and colors are very appealing. The site is personal, although needs the above mentioned improvements to become easier to navigate. In short, the information is available on our webpage, but we need to make it easier to get to by providing links on the library homepage.

October Is Polish American Heritage Month

Chicago has a very large Polish population. As elementary school librarians we have to recognize the populations we serve and have resources available that will interest and educate them. Check out the Polish American Center website for activity ideas and great information to share with your colleagues and students.

Post #2: Look What You Can Do On Flickr!

This is a trading card I made on Flickr. It was free and easy! Imagine how you could use this in your school library with your students! You could take digital pictures of your students reading their favorite books and they could write a brief summary about the book; they could advertise for their favorite genre or they could even print them out and use them as bookmarks (students can never get enough bookmarks!)

Check it out or make your own trading card at: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/deck.php

Flickr is a Web 2.0 tool and a photo sharing website.  Not only can you post your photos to share with others, you can tag your photos to allow anyone else to find and view your photos.  Tagging also allows you to search for a tag term to find certain photos that match your criteria.  It is a free tool that anyone can utilize for personal reasons or to use as a tool to add attractiveness to your library. However, only the first 200 photos are accessible through a users account.  After you accumulate over 200 photos, you won’t have direct access to tag or edit them through your account (“Flickr” Wikipedia, 2007). In fact, you can now tag and search photos by geographic location (Arrington, 2007).If you don’t want anyone to be able to see the pictures you post on Flickr, you can choose to keep your photos private.  This decision would be a great topic to discuss with students in the school library: how do you make the decision of whether you want the public to see your photos?  If you decide to make them public, should you just post any picture you want or use some discretion?