The Shifted Librarian
Shifting Libraries at the speed of byte!
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- Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:58:31 -0600
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RSS FEED IDEMS: The Shifted Librarian
- Library Romper Room
That's how I feel - I see Chris and The Library Dude and smalls and Christel and The Lurker.
Hello to the King County Library System crew going through the KCLS U 27 Things Learning 2.0 initiative. I hope you're having as much as we are watching what you're doing. :)
Chris ended her post with the following:
"I was thinking that I probably would not use many of the '27 Things' once I have gotten through with all of lessons, but I am really enjoying learning and using everything that I have tried. Now I am ready to go to the next lesson. Hope there are alot of you out there in blog land... having a good time with this too."
Yes indeed we are. Keep up the great work and the great attitude, Chris and cohort!
Tue, 13 Mar 2007 23:58:31 -0600 - Thanks to Everyone that Attended My SirsiDynix Institute Session!
Thank you to everyone who attended! And major gratitude to Tania and Kathryn for their efforts today, as without them it wouldn't have even happened. I am not as at ease in these virtual presentations as I am in a room full of people (even though I am a total "I" introvert), because I'm used to gesticulating, playing off the audience, and moving around a little, so I hope it went well enough.
When the session ended, I forgot to grab my own PDF of the presentation with the polls in order to post it here so until I can get my hands on a copy, I'm going to post my original, poll-less one since I'm already getting requests for it. I know there were still quite a few more questions and we ran out of time for them all, so if you'd like to leave questions in the comments, I'll be happy to respond. You can also try to catch me on AIM at cybrarygal for one-on-one Q&As.
I'll update this post when I (or SirsiDynix) have the version with the polls online because I hope that's the version that will get used with administrators. The questions went exactly as I had hoped - we took a poll, and 60-something% self-identified as non-gamers. (Sorry I don't have the exact numbers, but I forgot to take screenshots, too - oy.) Then when we redefined what "gaming" and "gamer" might mean today and redid the poll, the numbers reversed and almost 60% self-identified as gamers. It helps show that we need to think about these things a little differently in order to truly understand them. It turns out they are us after all.
Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:41:38 -0600 - 23 Library 2.0 Things in 15 Minutes a Day
"I'm working up some materials to promote a 2.0 learning program at my library, and it's turned into a really interesting project. I've put together a wiki with a rough draft of some curriculum, as well as links to libraries doing similar programs. I'm hoping to get some input on the wiki - it's at http://instructionwiki.org/Library_2.0_in_15_minutes_a_day.
Eventually I'd like to cover a lot of different 2.0 topics, so that other libraries doing the program can pick and choose what they want to pursue with their staff." [Library 2.0]
In just a year and a half, we've gone from Michael Casey coining the term "Library 2.0" to Helene Blowers' L2-based training program to teach staff about L2 using L2 tools, this "15 minute a day" program by Sam Wallin, and more. It's great to see librarians taking the lead like this.And of course, how great that I found this resource because Bill Drew got out there and played, created the Library 2.0 social network on Ning.
It also shows what an idea generator Stephen Abram is for our profession. If you haven't read his two seminal articles that inspired this trend, here they are.
- 43 Things I (or You) Might Want to Do this Year
- 15 Minutes a Day: A Personal Learning Management Strategy (PDF)
You can watch his blog, Stephen's Lighthouse, where he posts links to new ones when they are posted online to be further inspired.
Tue, 13 Mar 2007 06:54:54 -0600 - Reminder: My SirsiDynix Institute on Gaming Is Tomorrow!
Just a quick note to thank the 400+ of you who have signed up for tomorrow's free Gaming in the Library session of the SirsiDynix Virtual Institute and to note that you can still register if you haven't had a chance to do so yet. "See" you tomorrow! :-)
Mon, 12 Mar 2007 10:33:24 -0600 - Survey Says
Two great surveys you can help with:
- From the Project L team of the Emerging Leaders program: "We are choosing programs for the PLA National Conference that are of interest to new and young librarians. Many concerns are the same across types of libraries, so even if you are not in a public library we would appreciate your help. We have put together a very short survey and would appreciate it if you could take the time to complete it."
- From Rachel Singer Gordon: "I'm working on a book on alternative careers for librarians, and am looking for input from folks who have pursued nontraditional paths.
I'm interested in hearing from a broad variety of people, including: those who have embarked on a new career after working for some time in libraries, those who earned an MLS but never worked in a traditional library setting, those who pursue alternative opportunities as a supplement to a traditional library career, those who work in a traditional setting but do nontraditional work, and those who do library work in nontraditional settings. Basically, if you think you might have/had some sort of nontraditional career, I'd love to hear from you -- thanks!" Survey here.
Sun, 11 Mar 2007 21:54:07 -0600 - From the Project L team of the Emerging Leaders program: "We are choosing programs for the PLA National Conference that are of interest to new and young librarians. Many concerns are the same across types of libraries, so even if you are not in a public library we would appreciate your help. We have put together a very short survey and would appreciate it if you could take the time to complete it."
- Social Librarians
It's been a very interesting couple of weeks to watch librarians and social networks. Some observations.
- I first started wondering what was going on last month when out of nowhere came a surge of librarians on Linked In, a more professionally-oriented social network that has been around for several years. I had two accounts on the site from a couple of years ago, neither of which I'd done much with, but they both started getting friend requests at a surprising rate. I'd love to know what started the friending frenzy - I think I missed someone blogging about it, but my theory is that in the same week, Michael Porter and Ed Vielmetti both gave presentations that included the site and things took off from there.
It seems to have died down a little now, and I haven't been back in the site lately to do anything more than consolidate the two accounts, update my profile, and accept invitations. The site is great for networking but lacks the social tools some of the more viral networks have. It will be interesting to see if much else happens there, other than just learning about degrees of separation and who knows whom. Then again, I'm more of a fun network user, rather than a business one.
- At the other extreme, librarians on Facebook are having a lot of fun. I love my Facebook news feed (even though it's held hostage in the site instead of in my aggregator) and it's what keeps me coming back to the site (so I guess their strategy is working). I enjoy the groups - although I enjoy finding groups with funny names even more - but it's that constant update of what my friends and friendsters are doing that is pure crack.
What's really great is to watch what happens when one person finds a good group and joins it. All of a sudden a bunch of us see that they've done this and then we flock to it. It's not a new phenomenon online (even in the physical world), but it nicely highlights the power of these tools. My favorite group name is still "when I was your age, Pluto was a planet." Oh, to make libraries this viral and Gladwellian-tipped.
- A couple of weeks ago, Bill Drew started the Library 2.0 network on a build-your-own-social-network-for-free site called Ning. There's a fascinating article to be had in how quickly it has grown and how (more than 300 members in just two weeks). There were times when you knew a link to the site had been posted or passed around because suddenly you got several friend requests within an hour or two.
There are some discussions happening on the site that aren't occurring elsewhere or are not as visible, so I highly recommend joining if you are at all interested in Library 2.0. Nice job, Bill!
- I first played with Twitter in December when Ed Vielmetti showed it to me at the National Library Agenda. He was using it to post where he was, what he was doing, and/or what he was thinking about at the time. I created an account (http://twitter.com/shiftedlibrarian) and used it for a few days (it helps to have unlimited texting on your cell phone) but then fell out of the habit. Since then, I've noticed a lot more folks embedding their Twitter status on their websites, and I've thought about it adding it to mine.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am being completely open about my location or status, although I have started to be more open about that to friends on Facebook. In my presentations, I've sometimes noted how Ed uses Plazes on his blog to automatically show where he is (based on where he is using WiFi), because that's a very different way of "putting yourself out there," and I'm still figuring out how comfortable I would be doing something like that. I think a lot of younger folks are like Ed and are growing up that way, which has implications for future library services.
Then along comes Twitter, which is like status on steroids and it further breaks down those privacy barriers for some people, making these kinds of instant gratification updates a little more okay. David Lee King and Steven Cohen have both discovered the site recently, so I'll be interested to see if they keep up with it more than I have. I still may go back to posting ideas and tasks to my Twitter account, as I did find that valuable and that is the first rule of a social site - give the user added value.
The moral of the story: I think a good number of librarians are playing with, understanding, and adopting social networks online at a time when we need to be doing this in order to fight attempts to ban these very sites from being accessed in our buildings. I also see an awful lot of people having fun, usually accompanied by some learning, which can only be good.
Thu, 08 Mar 2007 00:52:27 -0600 - I first started wondering what was going on last month when out of nowhere came a surge of librarians on Linked In, a more professionally-oriented social network that has been around for several years. I had two accounts on the site from a couple of years ago, neither of which I'd done much with, but they both started getting friend requests at a surprising rate. I'd love to know what started the friending frenzy - I think I missed someone blogging about it, but my theory is that in the same week, Michael Porter and Ed Vielmetti both gave presentations that included the site and things took off from there.
- Understanding the Importance of Exploring Virtual Worlds
Sony Unveils Big PS3 Secret: Gamers Get To Go 'Home'
"...Sony revealed on Wednesday (March 7) that it is indeed launching a 'Second Life'-style service called PlayStation Home that will grant every PS3 owner an avatar and a virtual apartment, which are linked into a virtual world that will be available for free to all system owners when it launches in the fall.
'We are building a very rich 3-D social-networking service for PlayStation 3 users all around the world,' said Sony PlayStation's head of worldwide studios, Phil Harrison, during an advance briefing to the media on Tuesday night.
People familiar with the avatar-based worlds of 'Second Life' and MTV's own 'Virtual Laguna Beach' would find much familiar with the demo. Launched from the PS3's main menu, Home starts a gamer off in a lobby, framing a full-body shot of the player's customizable avatar while the avatars of other PS3 users mill around that same lobby. The characters are designed to look like real people, down to the details of individual eyelashes. They don't appear as cartoon figures, like Nintendo's Mii player-avatars on the Wii.
...Players can communicate via voice, text chat (supported by a USB keyboard or a virtual keyboard) and through canned speech and gesture. Every player gets a selection of free clothes, with more advanced goods available for purchase online or unlocked by playing new PS3 games....
Home users will each have a personal apartment they can customize with free and purchased furniture, all rendered to bounce and pile up with realistic physics. Players can redecorate and stream movies and music saved on their PS3 into virtual TV sets and stereos. At one point Harrison snapped a digital photo of the reporters he was addressing and, within a minute, had that photo uploaded into Home and hanging on a virtual world as a handsome piece of décor. Home gamers can invite friends — and their avatars — to hang out in their apartment, and when gathered they can collectively leap into multiplayer PS3 games." [MTV.com]
Hopefully it is becoming clearer that we need to pay attention to virtual worlds because they are going to be a part of our collective, professional future. It's up to each of us individually how much of a role it will play in our personal lives, just as we make decisions about books, television, the internet, parties, movies, parties, etc. are, but between Sony's plans, the BBC's forthcoming online children's world, Second Life, There, and other virtual spaces, we're seeing further illustrations of why librarians need to understand how cultures and interactions work in these spaces for our professional lives.Maybe there isn't something we should be doing in all of these worlds (maybe even probably), but how will we know if we don't explore and find out? I think it's great that there are librarians out there on the forefront, trying things out for those who can't, and reporting back.
This also helps show why the concept of "play" is so important. Even if you don't "get" these virtual worlds and don't care to spend much time in them, it's good to enter them once or twice, just to see what they're like. Exploring future spaces - physical and virtual, outside of our four walls - is important, even at the personal level. And when you try the next iteration in a year or two, you might just be surprised at how far they've developed (or not, which is also good to know).
While it won't be easy for most librarians to play in Sony's "Home" world because of the barriers to entry, you can still experiment in free spaces like Second Life and There to get a taste. In fact, if you start looking around, it's amazing how many new sites, especially those favored by younger users, are avatar-based and how social and transactional interactions occur in them.
Imagine how much better we could have been prepared if we'd paid more attention in 1994-95 to the disruptive internet that was about to hit us. Maybe we wouldn't have spent so much time trying to individually catalog the entire web. Maybe we would have figured out single search box faster. Maybe we would have taught Google literacy from the beginning. Maybe we would have added patron comments to the catalog in the 20th century. Who knows how we might have helped shape today's internet and associated literacies for the better.
Related: Nielsen Says Video Game Penetration In U.S. TV Households Grew 18% During The Past Two Years
"The number of video game consoles in U.S. television households has expanded by 18.5% since the fourth quarter of 2004, according to a new report released today by Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services, a service of The Nielsen Company. In the fourth quarter of 2006 there were 45.7 million homes with video game consoles, representing 41.1% of all TV households, compared to 39.1% (43 million) in 2005, and 35.2% (38.6 million) the previous year....
The report, “The State of the Console,” incorporates extensive data on video game console usage from Nielsen's National People Meter (NPM) sample of television households as well as its quarterly Home Technology Report. It is the first in a series of analytic studies from Nielsen examining trends in the video game industry.
The launch of Nielsen's GamePlay Metrics later this year will, for the first time, deliver metered video game usage and demographic data by game title, genre and platform. It will provide advertisers, agencies, hardware manufacturers and game developers with independent, high-quality, quantitative information for negotiating the buying and selling of in-game and around-game advertising.
Among the key findings of the report:
- The number of connected console households (those subscribing to a service that links their consoles to the Internet) has grown to more than 4.4 million, even before accounting for the connectivity of the PlayStation 3 and Wii platforms.
- Two-thirds of all men in television households between ages 18-34 have access to a video game console in their homes.
- During the fourth quarter of 2006, gamers in the top quintile (the top 20% of users based on average use over the quarter) accounted for 74.4% of total console usage.
- Between September 18, 2006 and December 31, 2006, 93.8 million persons used a video game console at least once for a minute or more. Moreover, in any given minute of the day, about 1.6 million people in the U.S. are using a video game console."
Read the full report (PDF).
Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:54:43 -0600 - DDR - Not Just for Libraries
Being on the staff side at ALA's Midwinter Meeting (I have been learning that it's not a "conference" - it's a working "meeting") wore me out. ALA policy is to give employees that attend Midwinter and Annual two days off if they worked the Saturday and Sunday during which it took place. These days off must be used within two weeks and are called "collapse" days. Now I know why.
It's not just that you have to go to a lot more meetings when you're staff (and I mean *a lot*) and that they tend to start early and go late. And it's not just that they're spread out so you're always on the go. These same things hold true for members who serve on committees and hold offices (especially folks like presidents, presidents-elect, etc.). It's more that you're nuts leading up to the conference, preparing for all of those meetings, and then you're on call pretty much all the time while there. You can't just blow off a session or meeting the way you sometimes can when you're a member.
Personally, one of the main reasons I was so worn out after this last Midwinter was that I seriously underestimated the effect playing DDR for four days straight would have on me in addition to all of my other staffly duties. It's my own fault, but we were having so much fun and engaging in such interesting discussions about gaming with all kinds of librarians. And certainly this was the first time an ALA booth was accused by vendors of being too loud and too popular! Check out the smiles and laughter:
You can also check out rock stars Beth and Steve - Webmaster...or Guitar Hero?
Once folks saw how much fun and effort Dance Dance Revolution is, one of the most frequently-asked questions became "how do I set this up at home for myself?" The truth is that the answer is the same for a library looking to make an inexpensive investment to get started with gaming, so I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and list the components here. You can do the whole thing for just over $200, assuming you have a television at home or a projector at the library (or vice versa). Here's what you need:
- A Playstation 2, which you can get new for about $130. I got a "slim" one that takes up less room, but you can get an old style one for under $100. You can also watch for a deal or try to get a better price on a used system on eBay.
- A DDR game, which will run you up to $35, maybe a little less on eBay. The newest DDR game costs more (at the moment, that would be "DDR Supernova" on the Playstation), but you can get older ones cheaper. There are several titles now, so you should be able to find one fairly easily. DDR Extreme is a good one, especially for libraries, as the way in which it weights scores lets inexperienced players beat expert ones. This is the game we played most at Midwinter.
- You can buy cheap dance pads, and there are bundles of the game with pads, but I suggest you get the next step up, as the cheap ones won't last you long. In addition, they have no traction on the bottom, so you slide around a lot. Instead, I recommend the 1-inch think, foam insert pads, and I think you want two so you can dance against someone if the opportunity arises, especially if you have kids at home. I've gotten these types of pads off eBay in the past, two for $80 with shipping and handling (although it looks like the price has dropped a little on these already). An example: 2 x PS2 HARD FOAM IGNITION 8.0 DDR DELUXE DANCE PAD NEW.
Bonus video: Gail McGovern is one of the people that asked about a DDR setup for home, and she immediately went out and bought equipment after seeing our setup at Midwinter. She also posted on YouTube video of her and me dancing at the American Libraries/TechSource booth. Thanks, Gail!
Tue, 06 Mar 2007 23:23:12 -0600 - Keeping Up When You Don't Have the Time
I recently got a call from a former boss (one of the best I've ever had!) asking for advice on how to stay current about technology when you're a public library reference librarian, you just don't have a lot of time or money, and you don't want to become a "techie." I believe that staying current these days means reading blogs, so that is my core recommendation, and I'd recommend tracking 10-12 of them if possible, just to get a broad enough view.
My major criteria for the blog recommendations are consistent posting over time, frequency (more than once a week), sticking to the topic, and a general sense of value to a public librarian. This could have been a very long list and it's very subjective (it is not a "best of"), so this truly is a baseline - add on from here.
- Read some blogs using an RSS reader/aggregator (NetVibes, PageFlakes, Google Reader, Bloglines, more at AllRSS). At minimum, you should be reading:
- Librarian in Black
- Library Garden
- Library Link of the Day
- LISNews
- Tame the Web
- You can also find a blog relevant to any work-related subject interests you have - Library Law, Pop Goes the Library (popular culture), The M-Word (marketing), ResourceShelf (reference), Library Grants, etc. - so check the list at LISWiki.
- Read Library Journal and Computers in Libraries.
- Read USA Today's Tech section (which you can read via RSS feed).
- Watch the SirsiDynix Virtual Institutes.
- Read the biweekly Carnival of the InfoSciences.
- Read AL Direct in your email inbox each Wednesday. (Disclaimer: I work for ALA, but I honestly believe that George Eberhart consistently provides a great roundup of news, blog posts, and events.)
- Read the reports (or at least the summaries) from the Pew Research Center.
Mon, 05 Mar 2007 23:20:46 -0600 - Read some blogs using an RSS reader/aggregator (NetVibes, PageFlakes, Google Reader, Bloglines, more at AllRSS). At minimum, you should be reading:
- Contract to Be a Virtual Scholar for ULC!
It's not on their website yet, but check out this interesting opportunity to help public libraries move forward.
Virtual Scholar Program
"The Urban Libraries Council (ULC), an association of large public libraries in the U.S. and Canada and the corporations that serve them, is now seeking a virtual scholar to provide technical support and help move an important new futures initiative forward with our member organizations.
BACKGROUND:
In June 2006, the ULC Executive Board adopted a new initiative, ULC 2020 Foresight. The purpose of the initiative is to:
- Provide broad contextual information about the public library industry, outside trends, uncertainties, and discontinuities
- Infuse creative thinking about alternative futures in urban and suburban public libraries
- Showcase existing adaptive thinking, adoption of new processes and practices, and organizational change initiatives among ULC public library members
- Promote tools, such as scouting, scanning and scenario planning, to increase the quantity and quality of futures thinking in the public library industry
VIRTUAL SCHOLAR SCOPE OF WORK:
To support staff in moving this initiative forward, ULC seeks to contract with a virtual scholar to develop research, events, and executive conversations.Several broad goals of ULC Foresight 2020 are envisioned:
- Map the Forces Impacting the Industry
- Identify and Expand the ULC Network of Futures Experts
- Develop Actionable Research Briefs and Communications Materials
- Support Informed Industry Conversations and Learning Opportunities
- Measure the Impact of the Initiative on Industry Attitudes and Behavior
The term of the contract will be from June 2007 through August 2008. The contract amount is $30,000, firm, plus expenses. The ULC offices will be located at 125 S. Wacker, Chicago, IL after April 13, 2007.DELIVERABLES
Specific deliverables we would like to contract for include:
- Two briefing papers for an audience of library directors and trustees, one in January 2008, and one in June 2008.
- Assistance with the design and implementation of a ULC Futures Forum conference that will take place in Annaheim CA June 25-26, 2008.
- Assistance with content creation and production of an Audio Conference November 30, 2007.
- Planning for the official launch of the ULC Foresight 2020 initiative in 2008.
REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS PROCESS
ULC is now accepting Letters of Qualification that outline a commitment for contract services that includes specific ideas and tasks that could contribute to the previously mentioned scope of work and deliverables over the contract term.The deadline for submitting your Letter of Qualification is April 12, 2007. Letters must be received at the ULC offices by 5:00 p.m. CENTRAL TIME.
Letters of Qualifications should include the following:
- No more than 3 pages describing specific research, ideas, and strategies you would develop over the contract term.
- A timeline of activities keyed to deliverables outlined above. Please describe any schedule conflicts you may have related to the dates mentioned in the deliverables section above.
Additionally, please provide
- Your complete contact information, including address, phone and email.
- Two references that can describe your work as a consultant.
- Two writing samples (brief pieces, please).
- Brief vita with client and/or publication list, if applicable.
All Letters of Qualification should be sent to:
ULC Virtual Scholar Program
Urban Libraries Council
1603 Orrington, Ste. 1080
Evanston IL 60201
ULC executive staff and a member review committee will review letters, conduct follow-up interviews. ULC staff will negotiate final contract terms. Criteria for selection include:
- Demonstrated expertise related to scope of work
- Quality of ideas developed in letter
- Commitment of time to contract
- Quality of references and writing samples
CONSULTANT INFORMATION CALL:
To further your understanding of this new program at ULC and to help you prepare your Letter of Qualification, an informational call will be held on Wednesday, March 28, 2007 from noon to 1:00 pm CENTRAL time. If you wish to join that call, please dial 1.888.311.0079 and enter 8000300# at the prompt.QUESTIONS?
Please submit all questions to info@urbanlibraries.org with the subject line: Virtual Scholar Inquiry."
Mon, 05 Mar 2007 20:13:41 -0600 - Companion Video to "Web 2.0: The Machine Is Us/ing Us"
Some hype to be sure, but it would make for an interesting discussion in the context of library school and what we're teaching students. Naturally I love the title. [via WML Tech Updates as imported by Rachel Vacek in Facebook]
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 22:37:21 -0600 - Another Type of Gaming in Education (Plus Good Librarian Press)
Reading, Like a Brick, Forms Strong Foundation
"Ketelle likes the different. The unconventional. The fun. Her weekly vocabulary quizzes for juniors are sprinkled with puns.
'No. 2,' she says during a recent quiz, 'Bondage. Let's put a bondage on your cut.'
Students, who respond with gentle laughter, must define the word and use it in a sentence, the funnier the better. 'You get 1 point extra credit if the sentence makes me laugh,' she reminds the class.
Brandi Bolden, 16, says students appreciate the fun quotient.
'I used to dread doing vocabulary,' Brandi says. 'But she's found a way to make it into a game.'
But don't mistake fun for easy. Ketelle is known for her academic rigor and concedes she occasionally drives her kids with her demands for improving reading and writing and her tough grading.
'Learning and fun are not mutually exclusive,' Ketelle says. 'The ultimate learning experience is that learning is fun in some way, that there's something you're exploring that is exciting your mind.' " [USA Today]
That's one of the things Second Life is really good at for many people right now - "something you're exploring that is exciting your mind," comparable to the early web and current online social spaces.And as we'll show at the TechSource Gaming Symposium in July, games in education and libraries can indeed be fun and still have academic rigor on many levels. We may not have originally thought of what Ketelle is doing as "gaming," but clearly at least one student considers it a game.
Fri, 02 Mar 2007 21:13:33 -0600 - "Casey Just Made Us All a Lot Smarter"
I missed this when it was originally posted in December, but I want to highlight how totally cool it is (yes, cool!) that Casey Bisson made the nightly news because his WPopac software won the Mellon Award. Belated congrats, Casey, and keep pushing us forward.
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:26:49 -0600 - Another Reason Banning iPods from Schools Is a Bad Idea
The iPod Widens Its Audience in School
"When they aren't dancing, those familiar iPod silhouettes are probably hunkered down in the classroom, where the devices have become a common learning tool....
Students at the University of Washington can download lectures. At the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, school President Mary Sue Coleman invites students to 'think of the university as your intellectual iPod.'...
IPREPpress offers a range of downloadable documents, including travel guides, a 40,000-word version of Merriam-Webster's Dictionary, the Encyclopedia Britannica and biographies.
The bios are designed like graphic novels or comic books, with text hyperlinked to full-color images on subjects, from sports figures to scientists.
The cost is something even the financially strapped student can manage: Some dictionaries and encyclopedias cost less than $4, and graphic biographies sell for between $10 and $15.
Pearson Education, a business and educational publisher, and Audible, which makes spoken audio entertainment, recently launched VangoNotes study guides....
'Giving an iPod to everyone seemed to be overkill, to put it mildly,' said Stephen Miller, a senior who was at Duke during the iPod giveaway.
'It was an early Christmas present for a class of freshmen,' he said. 'It almost became laughable with teachers bending over backwards to find a way to put iPods into a course. I feel like it was a promotional gimmick.'...
Christopher Ayers, a Latin teacher at Wilbraham & Monson Academy, a private school in Wilbraham, Mass., favors content from EF Educational Tours for learning foreign languages, citing a trip to Greece last year....
'When we got to Greece, many of the ones with the podcasts were much more confident in speaking it,' Ayers said." [MSNBC]
Although there is no mention here about libraries providing content for iPods, the last bit in particular represents the essence of Library 2.0 - using technology where it makes sense and enhances the user experience. Something to think about as you evaluate content and services for mobile devices (which, by the way, will become more and more important during the next decade).
Thu, 01 Mar 2007 23:04:21 -0600 - For Michael
Nice job, Burbank Public Library!
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:51:25 -0600
