Librarian X

I mentioned this back in February: I’m co-teaching “They’re Googling You: Online Identity for LIS Professionals,” an online continuing education class for librarians and other LIS professionals. It’s a four-week class running through the month of May.

More info on the Simmons site, and you can register here. My co-instructor is the awesome Beth Gallaway. I hope you can join us.

This is the “handout” for my March 23 webcast “Superpower your Browser: Open Source Research Tools” for ACRL. I’ve included printable URLs.

My article about LibX and Zotero is available in the February 2010 issue of C&RL News and online at http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/2/70.full

“LibX and Zotero: Firefox extensions for librarians and library patrons” by Jacob Glenn. Zotero in particular has introduced many new features since this was written, but it’s a good introduction to both programs. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jkglenn/firefox/

LibX

LibX project home page, including edition builder and documentation: http://libx.org

My LibX guide: http://research.library.gsu.edu/libx

Creative Commons licensed. You may copy and alter it for your library as long as you credit me.

Great LibX guides from

Eastern Kentucky U: http://libguides.eku.edu/libx

and Murdoch U: http://wwwlib.murdoch.edu.au/mylibrary/LibX/

Zotero

Zotero home page, including documentation, forums, and more: http://www.zotero.org

My Zotero guide: http://research.library.gsu.edu/zotero

Creative Commons licensed. You may copy and alter it for your library as long as you credit me.

“7 Things You Need to Know about Zotero: A white paper from Teaching and Learning with Technology at Penn State” (pdf link): http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/wp-content/uploads/zotero_hot_team.pdf

Zotero guide from the U of Michigan: http://guides.lib.umich.edu/zotero

Other browser tools for researchers

In no particular order.

• Top Twenty Firefox Add-ons that Make Firefox the Researcher’s Browser of Choice: http://resipsablog.com/2008/08/23/become-an-efficient-researcher-top-twenty-firefox-add-ons-that-make-firefox-the-researchers-browser-of-choice/
• How to customise your browser for effective online research: http://helpmeinvestigate.com/ColinMeek/posts/41-how-to-customise-your-browser-for-effective-online-research
• 50+ Useful Firefox Extensions for College Students: http://www.collegedegrees.com/blog/2008/05/21/50-useful-firefox-extensions-for-college-students/
• Academic Power Research: Add-ons for Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/collection/academic
• 100 Essential Firefox Add-Ons for Librarians: http://oedb.org/library/features/100_firefox_addons_for_librarians

We just posted episode 12 of the Adventures in Library Instruction podcast. Our guest Lauren Pressley joins us to talk about learning objects: what they are and how we make and use them. More info here or just press play below.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I’m giving an online presentation for ACRL next week:

Superpower your Browser: Open Source Research Tools

Libraries are harnessing the power of digital resources, moving tools and resources not only onto the Web but into the browser software itself. Open source browser plug-ins such as LibX and Zotero can help researchers at every stage of the research cycle, from search and discovery to writing and citation.

The LibX search toolbar can be customized to search your library’s catalog and databases, insert library links into sites like Amazon and Wikipedia, and more. Zotero is a citation manager and bibliography creator that is as easy to use as iTunes. New features such as online storage and shared libraries make Zotero a strong competitor to proprietary software.

This webcast will examine these two powerful browser tools as well as others. By using free, open source tools, libraries can offer assistance and resources with little cost and foster skills that patrons can use throughout life, regardless of location.

If you’re interested in seeing how LibX and Zotero can benefit libraries and researchers, join me and ACRL on March 23 at 11am Pacific/2pm Eastern. My C&RL News article by (almost) the same title will give you an idea of what I’ll be talking about, but the online format gives us a chance for some live demonstration, Q&A and discussion. Also probably some funny pictures of superheroes and my cat. Register here.

(See ACRL’s e-learning site for more details)

I’m proud, pleased and a bit stunned to announce that I’ve been named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker for 2010. It’s hard to feel that I’ve done anything as interesting, innovative or exciting as the other M&S recipients, but I’m proud to be in their company and I’m looking at it as something to live up to and inspire me to do good work for libraries in the future.

If I’ve done anything to deserve recognition, I owe thanks:

To Beth Gallaway for nominating me and saying such kind things about me to LJ;

To my department manager Leslie Madden and Dean Nan Seamans at GSU for giving me a shot at the best job I’ve ever had and encouraging me to run on a long leash once I got here;

To Rachel Borchardt and Anna Van Scoyoc for making Adventures in Library Instruction with me;

To my past and present colleagues at GSU, Emory and in the Library Society of the World, from whom I continue to learn daily;

And to my wife Anne Graham and my friends and family who keep encouraging me in everything I do.

Congratulations to my fellow honorees, particularly my LSW friends and cronies Maurice Coleman (who has the most bad-ass M&S photo in history), Matthew Hamilton, Steve Lawson, and Josh Neff.

If you or your library own, or are considering buying, an ebook reader, you should take a look at this great article from Gizmodo about ebook formats, DRM, e-readers and a lot of the factors that affect how those things interact.

The idea of an open ebook format that works on any reader sounds nice. Buy it from any source, read it on any device. In a few cases, it’s true, and that open format thing can work for you. But, in reality, right now? You’re pretty much going to be stuck reading books you buy for one device or ecosystem in that same little puddle, thanks to DRM. And well, Amazon.

I’ve been following the e-reader wars with half an eye for a while now, and I learned some new stuff.

Giz Explains: How You’re Gonna Get Screwed By Ebook Formats (thanks, Michael Sauers, for tweeting this)

Catherine Pellegrino has a great post over at Spurious Tuples called “Why I’m a teaching wimp” about teaching fatigue that pretty well sums up how I feel this semester:

“What do you mean, only three preps per week?” you’re probably howling. “I do three preps per day some terms.  What a total wimp!”

Yep, I admit it.  But here’s the thing:  every class I teach is the first day of class.

I did ten classes in January and eight in February, so I’m right there with you, Catherine. Spring break is coming wooo!

Link: “Why I’m a teaching wimp“