Some things to pay attention to:
My Info Quest: A brand new international consortium of libraries providing text messaging reference services for the public. 50 U.S. libraries are participating. Users text questions to a number and librarians respond. The service is free, provided through Altarama software, available from 8am-10pm Monday-Friday and 9am-5pm Saturdays, and the first of its kind. The project is accepting new library members if you are interested.
Three recent Pew studies:
- The Mobile Difference: A Pew study of how Americans use their mobile devices. In an ever-mobile world, libraries need to pay attention to how their users prefer to access information.
- The Internet and the Recession: How are people using the web differently due to the recession? What information do they want? How do they access it? As libraries have redirected resources at user needs due to the recession, this report informs us of user needs and wants and can help us to improve services.
- Twitter and Status Updating: How are people using these social networking tools? What kind of information are they putting out there and what do they want to get in return?
Xerox’s take on Information Overload: Xerox has a humorous site dedicated to the effect of information overload on workers. The site contains a cute video, discussion board, some serious resources on managing IO, and a cute “Information Overload Warning” email generator to send to colleagues. Totally worth your time.
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:27 am
good info. fyi the hyperlink for the MyInfo Quest needs to be edited.
July 27th, 2009 at 9:07 am
MyInfoQuest link has been fixed! Thanks for pointing out the extra “.” in the URL.
September 1st, 2009 at 12:12 pm
Perhaps I’m just missing this or something, but I’m not seeing where I can contact My Info Quest about becoming a member. Do you happen to have this information? Thanks!
September 2nd, 2009 at 11:53 am
My InfoQuest has a Google Group at http://groups.google.com/group/InfoQuest?hl=en&pli=1. Enjoy! We are doing text messaging on our own, and it’s working out really well too. I think the cooperative idea is a great one and seems quite successful, but remember — you can be independent too if the coop doesn’t work for you.