THATCamp MCN November 19
I've just signed on as co-organizer of THATCamp MCN in Atlanta this November. If you're a museum professional or student, or interested in the humanities, technologies, and museum studies, please check out this unconference -- it's free! If you're on a limited travel budget this year (as many of us are), note the bit below about the available fellowships. Yesterday was the official fellowship application deadline, but I believe it may end up being extended for a couple of weeks, so go ahead and apply.
I think THATCamps are amazingly cool and I'm really excited to be a part of one. If you have access to a blog, listserv or other forum that you think might be interested in this event, please feel free to share the following event announcement:
THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp) is an open meeting where humanists and technologists of all skill levels learn and build together in sessions proposed on the spot. It is an unconference, which means that there are no presentations, and all participants work together to form the program. On Saturday, November 19 in downtown Atlanta, GA, the Museum Computer Network is sponsoring THATCamp MCN, a free unconference for anyone interested in how new technologies and platforms are changing the landscape of museums.
Graduate students in museum studies or related disciplines, museum professionals, and developers are all encouraged to register. Topics for discussion might include everything from managing software projects to uses of social media for museums, and participants are also encouraged to propose coding sessions and co-writing sessions where the emphasis is on doing, not talking. We plan to have a draft program up by September 1, but participants can continue to submit session ideas even as the unconference is taking place. There will also be free workshops at THATCamp MCN on technologies such as the Omeka web exhibit builder, and $500 fellowships are available courtesy of the Kress Foundation to make it possible for early-career museum professionals and students to travel to THATCamp MCN. The fellowship application deadline is August 15 (extended from August 1).
This unconference is offered in conjunction with the Museum Computer Network conference, but if you are attending the MCN meeting, you must still register separately for THATCamp MCN. You do not need to register for the MCN meeting in order to attend THATCamp MCN.
Contact Amanda French at mcn@thatcamp.org with any and all questions, and follow @THATCampMCN on Twitter for updates.
Personally, I'm (so far) most looking forward to the Omeka workshops; that's something I've been wanting to learn more about for quite some time now.
Lyrasis Ideas and Insights conference Sept 12
I'll be presenting at the Lyrasis Technology Ideas and Insights Series conference: "Positioning your Library in the Mobile Ecosystem: Content and Delivery," on Monday, September 12, 2011, here in Atlanta. I'm pleased to be giving a presentation with my friend and GSU Library colleague Sarah Steiner. Sarah is a wonderful speaker, and it's been at least a couple of years since the two of us have had the chance to give a presentation together.
Our session is:
Transforming Library Services: Models for Implementing Emerging Technologies
Over the last several years, Georgia State University Library has undergone dramatic physical and virtual transformations to better meet the needs of our diverse and changing student population. We have implemented new research guides, search and discovery tools, social media outreach, online reference, and mobile services, to name a few. In this session, we will share best practices and tips for strategic planning, division of labor, creating buy-in, assessment, and ongoing management of these technologies and others.
In the three years that I've been at GSU, we've devoted a lot of time and energy to shifting our library services online, and we'll be talking about the work that our colleagues have put into making it all work. I hope you can join us. Registration is open.
New Circulating Ideas podcast
My former Emory colleague Steve Thomas is producing a new podcast series called Circulating Ideas. He'll be interviewing interesting and innovative librarians, starting with Buffy Hamilton in episode 1, which came out last week. It's well worth a listen -- as always, Buffy is thoughtful, passionate about the profession, and eloquent, and Steve does a great job with the interview -- and I'm looking forward to forthcoming episodes a great deal. Follow the podcast on twitter @circideas.
Zotero book now available
I'm pleased and proud to announce that my book is now officially available from ACRL Publications! You can buy it on Amazon or from the ALA Store, in print or ebook editions. It will be available at the bookstore at ALA Annual in New Orleans this week.
If you're considering an ebook edition, I recommend buying it from the ALA Store: you'll get DRM-free PDF, ePub, and Kindle/Mobipocket files that will work on just about any device out there. ALA also sells a print/ebook bundle. (As is unfortunately always the case, the Kindle edition sold by Amazon is encumbered with Amazon's DRM.)
Here's the ACRL press release:
ACRL announces the publication of Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Educators. Authored by Jason Puckett of Georgia State University. Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Educators is the first book-length treatment of this powerful research tool developed by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.
Written for end users, librarians and teachers, the book introduces Zotero and presents it in the context of bibliography managers and open source software. Puckett then provides detailed instructions on using the software in research and writing, along with a wealth of useful information including instructional best practices, examples, support tips and advanced techniques for those who teach and support Zotero.
"Puckett draws on his deep understanding of Zotero's technology to provide clear, concise
guidelines and tips for beginners and experts alike," says Sean Takats, co-director of Zotero, assistant professor of History at George Mason University and director of research projects at the Center for History and New Media. "As a bonus, he convincingly argues why you -- yes, you -- need to be using research software and why Zotero is the best choice."
A perfect guidebook to a robust open access research tool that allows the user to manage all aspects of bibliographic data, Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Educators is essential for librarians, classroom faculty and students alike.
Zotero: A Guide for Librarians, Researchers and Educators will be available at the 2011 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans and is available for purchase in print and as an ePub, Kindle or PDF e-book through the ALA Online Store; in print and for Kindle through Amazon.com; and by telephone order at (866) 746-7252 in the U.S. or (770) 442-8633 for international customers.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8389-8589-2
Price: $36
E-Book Price: $12
Zotero course online July 2011
I'm teaching a month-long continuing ed class on Zotero for Simmons College's School of Library and Information Science. This is an asynchronous class that starts July 1 and runs through the whole month of July. The class is for librarians and library staff who want to learn to use Zotero for their own research and teach and support it in their libraries.
You don't need any previous experience with Zotero to participate. We start with installation and setup, cover the basic save and cite features, group libraries and cloud storage, best practices for teaching and supporting Zotero in libraries, practical applications for Zotero in your library, and more.
I use my forthcoming (soon!) book about Zotero as the "textbook" for the class, so as an added bonus you'll basically get a free electronic copy of the book's content as part of your participation. (I don't think the official ebook edition will be available in time, so I'll probably be using preprint chapters. But all the words and pictures are the same.)
This is the second time I've taught this class; I think I got some good ideas from my experiences with the March run and I'm really pleased that Simmons' continuing education office has asked me to bring it back for a repeat engagement.
Register here. The class costs $250, $200 for Simmons GSLIS alumni.
Adventures in Library Instruction episode 26
This month we talked about Lori Reed and Paul Signorelli's new book, Workplace Learning and Leadership: a Handbook for Library and Nonprofit Trainers. Lots of good discussion about training and its relationship to instruction.
Readability and Zotero
Zotero users are probably aware that it doesn't automatically include citation info like dates and author names when saving a citation to a website.
Yesterday, Amy Cavender posted an article to Profhacker explaining how to use the Readability plugin to improve Zotero's ability to save website citations. In a nutshell, clicking the Readability button generates enough metadata for Zotero to pick up the author name (although not perfectly in my screenshot example) and website title, and sometimes date of publication depending on the site -- and it also cleans up the Zotero snapshot, eliminating extraneous ads and graphics.
For more details, read the post:
Use Readability to Make Sites Zotero-Friendly (Profhacker)
ALI episode 25
For our second anniversary of the Adventures in Library Instruction podcast, we teamed up with our old colleague Erin Mooney from Emory U.
LISEvents.com
Great idea from Blake Carver of LISHost -- LISEvents.com is a new crowd-sourced directory of library conferences, workshops, webinars and other events. There's already a lot of stuff listed; add your events!
Bibliography of Zotero book
I've posted the bibliography and chapter titles of my upcoming book on my Zotero page. (Edited to add: Also available in a shared Zotero library.)
No firm release date yet, but we're still expecting it to be available by ALA Annual.
My Zotero book
Adventures in Library Instruction podcast
My posts @GSU Library
I Support
Twittering
- GSU students who ask us when's a good time to find an available library study room: turns out the answer is Superbowl Sunday. #tumbleweeds