David H. Rothman continues to articulate and comprehensively document the case that a public national digital library system should serve people of all income levels and all ages, centenarians included. In this article he focuses on how books for young, disadvantaged children are one area where it could make a special difference, and how better-off families would benefit along the way.
NPR’s Senior Librarian Laura Soto-Barra highlights specific “Future Ready” skills that comprise e-leadership competencies: Skills, Attitude, Knowledge and Experience.
Lorette Weldon’s research has identified that librarians are using SharePoint in the corporate, government, and non-profit sectors. She expertly identifies and illustrates how to leverage the power of this application through an understanding of the site templates that Microsoft bundles in SharePoint “out-of-the-box”. These templates are based on social networking abilities and not program coding. Through “plug and play” efforts librarians can find the features in SharePoint that will assist them in managing their multifaceted “collections.”
Not long ago, the law library was “a place”. It housed printed materials and staff and provided work space for research. Lawyers went there to use books and consult librarians to locate and complete assignments. Today Eleanor Windsor and Ron Friedmann report that the notion of a modern law library is very different, shaped by the skills of specialized researchers and information managers rather than by bookshelves and bound volumes.
Elaine Billingslea Dockens and Karen Krupka, each of whom has over 20 years of law librarian experience, discuss the field of law librarianship, and key issues and factors that new law librarians are likely to encounter as they enter this unique, and still vital profession.
Roger V. Skalbeck and Meg Kribble describe how the majority of social media activity during the 2009 AALL conference took place on Twitter, and how this technology impacts the profession and the free exchange of information, moving forward.
At Cornell University Library (CUL) a committee was established in 2005 to address the issue of information literacy at the university. The committee did extensive research on this topic and developed an approach for seeking solutions. Stuart Basefsky presents three exhibits to accomplish this objective.
Connie Crosby’s column returns with an insightful clarion call about the work in which we must engage now, collectively, to clarify, market and invigorate our profession.
Stuart Basefsky documents how the Personal Information Trainer can become a unique employee benefit written into the employment contract of key individuals deemed to be essential to the success of a firm or institution. This concept is useful to human resource managers, libraries, and the institutions they serve. This article provides the fundamental concepts and constructs necessary to implement such a program with an emphasis on why and how this should be done.
Bonnie Shucha explores the pros and cons of real-time communication, explains how real-time communication works in a library setting, and introduces two free, easy-to-use applications for virtual reference.