Jason Puckett.net

Attention Atlanta MLIS students, new grads and other library job-seekers.  Copying and pasting from the event flyer:

Join us for the second meeting of the Atlanta Emerging Librarians Meetup Group! This group is intended to help library students and new librarians in the Atlanta area to learn and network.

Belinda DeLisser of Cadence Group will discuss how  to prepare and interview for open positions and demonstrate an incorrect and a correct interview.

Jason Puckett of Emory University will discuss creating a personal website as a tool for networking and personal promotion: how to set up a site, how to make it a portfolio that’s more engaging than your resume and how to use it to connect with other online librarians.

There will also be time for you to mingle and snack with your colleagues. Library science students, new librarians, and job seekers are all welcome to attend.

When: Saturday, July 12, 2008, 3:30-5:30pm

Where: Georgia State University Library, Classroom 1 (on the first floor of Library North)

Cost: Free!

Getting There: Detailed directions from the roads and MARTA are available here:
http://www.library.gsu.edu/directions/.

Visitor parking in G Deck (located off Collins Street) is $6.00. If you’d rather not drive, The Five Points and GSU MARTA train stations are within close walking distance of  the University Library. Campus map: http://www.gsu.edu/map.html

Registration: Seating is limited to 60, so please register for this event at:  http://www.library.gsu.edu/gla/emerginglibrarians.asp

Hey, that’s me!

This was posted on BMEzine’s Modblog today (Caution: the pictures linked below don’t contain nudity, but BMEzine and Modblog often do.  Use due discretion before clicking):

Since I’m planning to commemorate completing my MLIS with a tattoo, I couldn’t resist linking to it.  This one from last year is still my favorite, though:

No, I’m not getting my finger tattooed.  That would really hurt.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but have obviously had a busy summer so far.  I did eventually get around to creating that guide to free audiobooks that I have been meaning to do for a while:

Audiobooks Guide

Short version: students leaving for break always want audiobooks, we don’t have many.  I listen to a lot of audio fiction, hence the idea.  If you have suggestions for additions, please post ‘em.

This is also a link to our new Libguides setup, which won’t officially debut until August.  So far I love Libguides, and I’ll blog about it soon.  (After I finish getting ready to train our staff on it.)

Okay, I’m late to the party on this one. Amy at informing MUVES in forming thoughts tagged me a couple of weeks ago and I was having a bad week and then went on vacation, so….

Yes, anyway. The idea is:

Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title. And link back to this post.

I choose to interpret “kids” as the college students I work with, but I’d occasionally like to wave this in the face of some librarians too.

Original photo by “matteo_dudek” on Flickr.

I’m not going to tag anyone, but feel free to tag yourself in the comments.

As I posted a couple of weeks ago, author Cory Doctorow is making copies of his new young adult novel Little Brother available free to librarians and educators who work with kids.  He’s doing this by matching donors who liked the free e-book edition and want to pay him for it with appropriate recipients.  This is one of those “so simple it’s genius” ideas.

Little Brother donor “matchmaker” page

My friend Beth Gallaway, a library trainer and consultant, was interviewed yesterday on New Hampshire Public Radio about video games. The main guest was Cheryl Olson, author of Grand Theft Childhood.  Beth talked about the role of video games in libraries.  Beth’s main specialty is in young adult programming and she does a lot of work with gaming; she’s the author of the forthcoming book Game On: Gaming at the Library.

It’s so great that they thought of getting a librarian perspective!  Beth made us sound smart.  Listen here.

Slideshare offers a very cool feature they call “slidecasting,” syncing audio with a slide presentation.

Unfortunately, they not only make the common mistake of referring to an mp3 as a podcast, they’re actually using an RSS icon to indicate an mp3.

I keep meaning to do more with Slideshare. It seems like it would be a great way to do tutorials and such. We’ve got an audio tour in the works that’s basically a slideshow with narration even though we’re producing it as Quicktime video. I should consider doing a Slideshare version.

Notes on library windows

Originally uploaded by jazzmodeus

A student in one of our group study rooms used the glass walls as whiteboard. As far as we know this is entirely cleanable. In any case, it looks kinda cool. Maybe our next renovation needs to include more glass walls.

I’ve been using Bookmooch for a few months now, and I can recommend it highly.  It’s an amazingly simple idea: list the books you want to give away, and the books you want, and the site matches givers to receivers.  (I’ve seen it called “Bittorrent for books.”)  The only cost is postage for the books you send, but hey, you get free books in return so no complaints here.

When you first sign up, you have to add ten books to your give-away inventory.  That gives you one point to request a book, and from then on you get a point whenever you give a book away.  Receiving a book costs one point.  Easy.  I’ve more or less added my whole Amazon wish list to Bookmooch, and once in a while I get an e-mail telling me that a book I want has become available.  One click and a week or so later it’s in my mailbox.

My wife and I are on a slow, painful de-cluttering binge at home, and this is how I’m weeding my bookshelves.  (I know, I’m getting books in return to take up shelf space again, but at least they’re books I’m sure I want to keep.  And I’m sending out at least as many as I’m acquiring.)

Wow — this post by Lorelle Van Fossen, Blog Resources: Researching the Research, Finding the Facts, and Seeking Supporting Evidence, is pretty much an online ready reference shelf in one place.  I’ve never used most of these, and am fairly sure I’ve never even heard of most of them.