Connecting Librarian

Have a big week coming up - attending and giving a short showcase at VALA in Melbourne. So before I start blogging that (hopefully live), I thought give my readers some interesting things to read.

Pew/Internet regularly produces reports related to online use. One of the latest was conducted with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois on Information searches that solve problems: how people use the internet, libraries and government agencies when they need help.  Interesting results include high use of public libraries by Generation Y’ers for the scenarios surveyed, digital divide is still an issue and the expected result of the internet as a first stop.  Well worth a look at.

University College London has produced another in their series of Ciber briefing  papers, this one on the Information behaviour of the researcher of the future.   The study was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to “identify how the specialist researchers of the future, currently in their school or pre-school years, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.”  Very eye opening with some interesting results.

The Horizon Report 2008 from the New Media Consortium is out.  It aims to “identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning or creative expression within learning-focused organizations’.  This is their 5th annual report.  Considering the link between libraries of any type and our learning organisations, this is a key document to be watching.  The key emerging technologies highlighted in this report include grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence and social operating systems.   You can get the gist of the report through the Executive Summary.  Definitely food for thought for our libraries.

Enjoy!

I think I am finally settling into the idea that I am a blogger (not just a wannabe) and that people want to read what I blog. So I think I’ll start having a bit more fun with this adventure. Its been a gradual process, 18 months to be exact, but with encouragement from all sides, I am ready to make some changes.

First change has been the template I am using for this blog. I liked the original dark colours, they were a bit mysterious and made me feel a little on the dark side, allowing me to hide myself away in anonymity. But now I don’t feel the need to be anonymous, as I am doing things as a result of blogging that I wouldn’t have been asked to or felt comfortable doing before. The new lighter look of my blog is a reflection of this. Its also a lot easier to read!

I am also happier about starting to play around with things, so for example I have a link to my RSS feed at the top of the page and have updated my links - I have too many in my feed reader to put them all here, so I have just listed key ones. I have also included a feature that Kathryn at Librarians Matter put me onto - an Odeo Voicemail option. Click the link and as long as you have a microphone, you can record a voice mail message for me. I will then get an email to tell me I have a message and will go to Odeo and listen to it. Its free, cute and I hope its the beginning of new features (toys) that I will be able to use as I continue my learning journey. Hope you will continue along with me.