Free Range Librarian

K.G. Schneider’s blog on librarianship, writing, and everything else, since 2003.

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Entries from October 2007

Ah, California

October 29th, 2007 · 8 Comments

I’m in Monterey attending the Internet Librarian 2007 conference. I’ve had a perfectly lovely weekend and will need to send thank-you cards to Walt and Marsha and Thomas and Jenny and Alexis and Marie and Dinah and Gail, and I’ve eaten mmmmmmmmmmmm so many good things, glad I wore nice roomy cords, and I’ve seen [...]

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Tags: Talks and Tours · Writing

Writing for the Web: Best Online Examples Sought

October 26th, 2007 · 15 Comments

Three weeks from today I’m leading an all-day workshop for Panhandle Library Access Network, “Writing for the Web.” I’m looking for examples of the very best online writing.
Admittedly, the very best online writing is hard to distinguish from the very best writing, period, and my workshop will bear a startling resemblance to any-old-writing-workshop (and what [...]

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Tags: Writing · Writing for the Web

ALA member e-participation survey: input keenly hungered for

October 24th, 2007 · 2 Comments

So I’m on the ALA Task Force on electronic member participation, and one of our tasks is to survey the members about e-participation. I volunteered to spearhead the task, and a few other folks are chipping in. You can see the really early it-could-go-in-entirely-different-directions rough draft.
What questions should we ask? What do you wish you [...]

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Tags: American Liberry Ass'n

Caution about emailing me

October 24th, 2007 · 5 Comments

Email you send me to my personal addresses (kgs@bluehighways.com and kgs@freerangelibrarian.com ) may be going into the bitbucket. So if I don’t respond, don’t assume I didn’t see it. Post here to the blog or IM me at either of those addresses or freerangelib, or email me at work.
I’ve recently had tussles back and forth [...]

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Tags: Hot Tech · Vast stupidity

OCLC’s report on privacy and trust: the nut graf

October 24th, 2007 · 18 Comments

(And if you’ve never heard that term…)
The Big O’s long-awaited report on “sharing, privacy and trust” begins by pointing out that lots of people use the Web, and adds (the far more interesting point) that people increasingly build the Web. “We have moved from an Internet built by a few thousand authors to [...]

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Tags: Librarianship · The Big O

Libraries, Google, OCA make first page of the New York Times

October 22nd, 2007 · No Comments

Zowie! The front page of the NYT — above the fold, no less — has a gorgeously long article about research libraries rejecting scanning deals with Google and Microsoft and choosing instead to go with the underdog, crunchy-goodnik Open Content Alliance.
Among other things, it feels gratifying (if a little alternate-universe) to see the national paper [...]

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Tags: Google · Hot Tech

Lit mag costs: several more reality checks

October 20th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Invariably, when I write about libraries dropping subscriptions to print literary magazines, at least one person says, “but there are other costs associated with serials management!” Yes, I do know that; I’ve lived it as a practitioner/pinch-hitting copy cataloger/administrator/geek-type/budget maven in a variety of libraries.
A few quick responses to the usual comments:
1. Let’s get some [...]

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Tags: Get a Grip · Librarianship · Writing

ALA’s virtual members and their real obstacles

October 19th, 2007 · 12 Comments

When it comes to modernizing ALA, I’m like Charlie Brown with the football. I cannot help myself, even though I’m now on my fourth committee/task force/whatevah dedicated to “electronic participation.”
So I’m working on a very, very early draft of a survey for ALA members and I pull up Ye Olde ALA Policy Manual for [...]

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Tags: Uncategorized

Williamsburg Regional Library Staff Day Presentation

October 19th, 2007 · 9 Comments

I put the slides on Google after two uploads to slideshare.net failed abysmally.  (My talk was also greatly enriched by two slides I stole, one from Andrew Pace and the other from Darlene Fichter. Thanks ;-)  )
This was a great experience. I haven’t done a pure “2.0″ talk in over a year, which meant I [...]

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Tags: Library 2.0 · Talks and Tours

Do you use Meebo-me or AIM for reference?

October 16th, 2007 · 20 Comments

If you are using Meebo-me or AOL instant messaging for reference at Your Place Of Work, and you will have your chat window open as of 8 a.m. ET this Thursday, October 18, and would be willing if I popped in sometime between 8 and 10 a.m… well, I would be most graceful, that’s what.
I’m [...]

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Tags: Talks and Tours