Librarian X

In which we discuss assessment with my friend and GSU colleague Sarah Steiner. Listen if you want to!

 

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"Protecting my money maker" by jonlesser (not me)

This is a quick post about some tidbits I learned today from one of the Zotero developers. She was able to share with me some of the development plans for the coming year or so:

1. Zotero API to give it interactivity with webapps. (I’m thinking I’d love to be able to save items into Zotero and have them appear in a formatted bibliography in a Libguide. I hope something like that will be possible.) This will start with a bridge between Zotero and the Center for History and New Media’s open source web publishing project Omeka.

2. A web-based client, which would do two things: Make the Firefox add-in optional, and allow Zotero use from other browsers!

3. Zotero Commons, a drag-and-drop interface to a scholarly repository hosted by the Internet Archive. I know the least about this one. A friend has already asked me about how they’ll address copyright, to which I answer “I have no idea.”

Audio Books by Playful Librarian via Flickr

I wrote a short article about free audio books for Georgia Library Quarterly’s Winter 2010 issue. It’s for a regular column called “My own private library,” in which librarians write about the books in their home libraries.

GLQ isn’t online yet, but they’ve given me permission to post the article here:

(continue reading…)

The February 2010 issue of College and Research Library News includes my article  “Superpower your browser with LibX and Zotero: Open source tools for research.” It’s an overview of these two research tools and my ideas about how and why they’re valuable resources for academic libraries. If you’re interested in my March 23 ACRL webcast, this article gives you a good idea of the kind of thing I’ll be covering, but of course with live demos and discussion.

Superpower your browser with LibX and Zotero: Open source tools for research via C&RL News

For a couple of years now my friend Beth Gallaway has been asking me to submit a proposal with her for a Simmons College LIS continuing education class. We finally did it this year, and I’m pleased to say we’re co-teaching an online workshop together this spring:

They’re Googling You: Online Identity for LIS Professionals

May 1 – 31, 2010

Should you separate your professional online identity from the personal, and if so, how? Self-promotion and branding is becoming increasingly important as library professionals face dwindling traditional employment opportunities, due to layoffs, downsizing, budget cuts, and library closings. On a more positive note, library staff wishing to contribute back to the profession may want to hone a professional identity that makes one marketable for teaching and training purposes, conference speaking or consulting. Developing a professional online identity for either purpose may be a challenging and rewarding endeavor.

More info on the Simmons site, and you can register here. If you’ve never set up a blog or personal website, you’ll learn how — if you have, we’ll talk about how to use it and how to augment it. Topics will include privacy, professional development, personal branding, and technology how-to.