Gary Price compiled a “best of the best” resource list on 9/11, including text, audio, and video formats. All in one spot you can find television clips and coverage, 9/11 resources and coverage from NPR & the Library of Congress, 9/11 Commission Hearings information, and a lot more. He also includes information about the citizen journalism being done at the September 11 Memorial & Museum, building a media-timeline through photos and videos from everyday folks being collected through the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center.
Looking to sharpen your Spanish language skills? Do you need some trustworthy language-learning resources to point customers to, and don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an online subscription service?
Try BBC Languages.
I was astounded by the amount of language learning material available on their website for free. The full beginner’s courses (12 weeks long) are available in 4 languages. The site also provides audio & video courses for learning Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Gaelic (!), and so on. And, finally, the site covers essential phrases in 36 languages. It is easy to use and the language materials are practical, rather than esoteric. Congrats BBC on yet another top notch resource.
A Boston Globe article, “Welcome to the library. Say goodbye to the books.”, covers the Cushing Academy’s new “library”–all digital, no books. That’s right, not “fewer books” but “no books.”
I think that much of what they describe would work well in a library, especially a wealthy prep school library with well-off kids. But there is still a role for books. There is so much information that is simply not online and that can only be found in books. To remove books from the kids’ environment completely is not to be forward looking but to be blind to the present state of things.
Buying 18 Kindles & Sony eBook Readers is not the same as having a library full of books. Browsing isn’t anywhere near the same. Serendipity is pretty much gone except through advertisers’ recommendations. Besides which, most books are still not available on either of those devices. And I’m sorry, but reading on those devices is not the same as reading a printed book. Until the resolution of the printed word on screen matches that of the printed word on paper, I don’t think we’ll see many converts….even young ones.
Ah, enough ranting about the value of books. I’m getting way too heated. I’m going to go have a time-out in the corner of my office and take a break to read a *gasp* book. 
Thinking of using Twitter but too scared to? Check out How Your Library May Not Be Using Twitter But Should. Kelly D. Allen makes a very good argument about the potential uses for Twitter in libraries and lays out the different types and levels of Tweets that you can be sending.
For those of you who have followed my inner battle with Twitter (shall I, shan’t I?), I do still stand by my opinion that I don’t like it personally and I think its trendiness belies its shallowness, I do still see a use for it in organizations. It’s one more way to communicate with customers, and there’s nothing wrong with that whatsoever. Open your doors, open your arms, and open your eyes.
The Internet Librarian conference is a’coming! Watch a short preview video from the Shanachies on the conference website. Will you be there? I most certainly will! Starting with my first Internet Librarian conference several years ago, I said at the time that it was “the best conference I’d ever attended.” And each year it seems to get better. The library brain power present is astounding. Nowhere else (except perhaps at the sister “Computers in Libraries” conference) have I ever seen so many brilliant people and ideas in one place. See you there!
And be sure to take a look at the the other videos on the Shanachie site to see what the Shanachies have been up to on their European tour of libraries.
This article has been making the rounds of listservs and blogs lately, but in case you haven’t seen it:
“The future of libraries, with or without books” on CNN, by John D. Sutter
It’s so rare there’s a mass media article about libraries that doesn’t make me cringe. This one even made me smile (yes that actually does happen once in a blue moon).
This article would make a fabulous conversation starter at a staff meeting, as a brainstorming starting-point for a team or group working on a library’s web presence, etc. It gets people thinking…especially library staff “late adopters,” who will possibly pay more attention to something like Twitter and texting now that it’s mentioned in a popular media article.
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center has released a number of useful reports about children’s learning styles and strategies over the years. I am quite taken with a recent release, entitled “Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning.”
If you are at all involved with children’s services at your library, this is a must-read report. We know that younger users rely more on mobile devices than other users. So, how can we use this technology to reach them effectively and help them learn? What can a library do? I know I got a few ideas reading this report, and I think you will too.
If you want to start with an executive summary and not the full report, you can do so here.
found via: Mobile Libraries Blog
The Lowrider Librarian created a useful Twitter for Organizations guide. Not only is this useful for libraries looking at using Twitter, but for libraries trying to teach local businesses & non-profits how to use Twitter effectively. I love comprehensive resource guides. It tickles my inner reference librarian happy spot.
There is a fabulous Hard Times Resources Guide available from the Washington State Library.
Why is it good? The design is simple and easy to use. You can find what you need quickly. The resources listed are of high quality but not too many in number to create confusion. They even provide state-specific information right on the site, like a list of tips on filing unemployment (toward the bottom of the Employment & Job-Seeking page).
See what kinds of info you could be providing for your own customers.
Looking for a free and simple way to set up conference calls between your staff members, or perhaps with outside agencies? Check out FreeConferenceCall.com.
This seemed too good to be true, but it’s a totally free service that accommodates up to 96 separate callers with a simple dial-in number, for up to 6 hours per call. The calls are recorded so you can access the call later. The calls are private too (their privacy policy seems to check out to me). Plus, there are no ads. No kidding.
This would be a great way to offer call-in training sessions to staff where a lecture-style format would work best. Or a quick call-in teleconference between staff members on a team who are in different locations. Can we say sweet online perfection?
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