Archive for the ‘InfoPros’ Category
Librarians: from collections to communities (David Lankes at ILI 2012)
R. David Lankes is a proud and passionate supporter of libraries. In his book, The Atlas of New Librarianship, David outlines his vision for a ‘new librarianship’ which focuses on knowledge creation and learning…
In his keynote presentation at Internet Librarian International 2012, he “will be talking about how our libraries should act as platforms for community learning and innovation. Our spaces, our services, and our collections are tools that a good librarian orchestrates to allow the community to dream and achieve its aspirations“…
Instead of containing the service oriented expertise of librarians in a building or focused on a collection, librarians can now go out into the community (a city, a university, a school, a business) and engage in their original mission of improving society through facilitating knowledge creation. I get very excited when I see the brilliance and skills of librarians unconstrained by manual processes, and historical hold overs…
David says: “I believe in the future of libraries… I think it is bright. However it requires the profession to shape that future and communicate to the world that we are powerful, on their side, and innovators“
Extracts from:
Internet Librarian International:
http://www.internet-librarian.com/2012/
iPad 2.0 and Librarians
A stimulating article from the latest issue of TILT (IFLA):
“As more and more of our library clientele are becoming techno-savvy, librarians and other information professionals must not only keep abreast of the technology in order to assist them but must lead the charge. (…)
Many of the apps are “must haves” for librarians and information professionals that I will address later in this article including how the iPad 2.0 can be considered the “go to device” for librarians and information professionals.
Some suggestions of application:
- The iWorks suite should be at the top of every information professionals list. They can use iWorks for presentations, documents, and spreadsheets. iWorks is the equivalent to Microsoft Office
- Information professionals have access to exciting and informative courses on any topic imaginable through Apple’s iTunes U. They can subscribe to courses, take self-paced classes, and get access to learning materials from some of the most erudite scholars in education
- Information professionals can use Drop box for storing, retrieving and sending large files and can synchronize all of their Calendars through the Calendar application
- Librarians and information professionals can collaborate with colleagues all over the world using the Facetime and Skype applications.
Some of the popular Apps that librarians have recommended are included below. Top 10 iPad Apps for Librarians by Andy Burkhardt (Information Tyrannosaur) –
http://andyburkhardt.com/2010/07/07/top-ten-ipad-apps-for-librarians/
Joiner, Ida A. iPad 2.0: Information Professionals Don’t Leave Home Without It! TILT (Trends and Issues in Libray Technologies), July 2012. Available from:
http://ifla.intersearch.com.au/tilt_july2012/tilt_july2012.html#article5
[Accessed 9th July 2012]
Research Information (June/July 2012): again an amazing issue!
Patients as partners: Reports from the Health 2.0 workshop held recently in Lyon, France
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=370
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=371
With a librarian, it is better!!!
A recent study has has found quantitative evidence of a significant difference in search performance between paediatric residents or interns assisted by a librarian and those searching the literature alone.
Each participant searched PubMed and other online sources, performing pre-determined tasks including the formulation of a clinical question, retrieval and selection of bibliographic records. In the assisted group, participants were supported by a librarian with ≥5 years of experience. The primary outcome was the success of search sessions, scored against a specific assessment tool.
To read in Health information and Libraries Journal:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2011.00957.x/abstract
Future technologies for Librarians
What will be the future technologies to be apllied in libraries?
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One year or less:
- Cloud Computing
- Mobiles
- Tablet Computing
- Open Content
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two-three years
- Learning Analytics
- Semantic Applications
- New Scholarship
- Semantic Applications
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four-five years
- Augmented Reality
- Collective Intelligence
- Telepresence
- Smart Objects
Kelly, Brian. What’s on the technology horizon. Implications for librarians. UK Web Focus, Online, the 15th of September 2011.
http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/whats-on-the-technology-horizon-implications-for-librarians/
Copyright challenges in private companies
A very instructive article published by RightsDirect in the latest WIPO magazine.
“The use of copyrighted works – in particular text and image-based works – is intensive and pervasive in most companies, and not only those with a strong research component. (…) Organizations use many different types of content, including scientific and technical information, financial, legal and business information, statistics, news, graphs and photographs and other images. Employees may obtain this information from a variety of sources including scientific, technical and trade journals, books, magazines, newspapers, websites and blogs. Access is typically gained through subscriptions with publishers or agencies, from document delivery and press-clipping agencies, and from corporate intranets and the Internet.
What do employees need to do when they want to share a scientific article, a blog post, a photograph or statistical information? How can they find out whether specific content is copyright-protected or who the copyright owner is? Whom should they contact in their company if they have doubts about copyright protection or to secure the necessary permissions? (…)
Studies show that most workers still lack sufficient awareness of their responsibilities under intellectual property (IP) laws, particularly when it comes to sharing digital content. Many believe that content available on the Internet can be shared without requesting permission. They either assume they can forward articles from journals they subscribe to, or they are unaware of whether – or how to – clear the necessary rights. (…)
In many cases, obtaining the necessary authorization means interrupting business workflows and delaying the dissemination of information. Corporate researchers who need to share scientific articles online with their colleagues require authorization mechanisms that are quick and easy to use. In an ideal world, these researchers would have a license that pre-authorizes this type of content use.
The good news is that there are solutions to these challenges. The “copyright compliance toolkit” at the disposal of private firms can be summarized in three key concepts: education, information and efficient licensing mechanisms.
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) and its European subsidiary, RightsDirect, for example, provide a license that gives corporations the right to share content belonging to thousands of different copyright holders. Employees are granted a consistent set of rights for sharing information with co-workers in multiple territories. CCC and RightsDirect also offer free resources to help companies develop copyright policies of their own and to educate staff about copyright law.”
Colodron, Victoriano. Copyright compliance in private companies: challenges and solutions. WIPO Magazine, June 2011. Online:
http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2011/03/article_0007.html
Conference: PharmaBioMed, Venise, Nov. 2011
Preliminary programme is announced… sounds promising…
UCB, Merck, Astra, Nycomed, etc.
BizInt, Dialog, etc.
Helen Malone, Shaida Dorabjee, etc.
http://www.pharma-bio-med.com/
Library bloggers appear to be turning to social media
Based on 1,108 professional and personal blogs (Library and Information Science related) indexed by LibWorm, this study tends to show that adoption of FaceBook and Twitter has a negative effect on blogs production.
Some findings:
The importance of blogs, however, has been affected by the arrival of new tools for social networking (e.g., Facebook and Twitter), which now rival blogs as primary communications media tools on the Internet.
Once blogs were at the core of social networks, but now the Web 2.0 conversation has fragmented, with general interest shifting away from blogs in favor of other platforms. Indeed, the bloggers themselves are the ones who, as early adopters, have popularized the newer applications.
Libraries and information centers have been especially active in the creation and management of blogs as part of a communications strategy for offering new services for their patrons
The results obtained show a loss of significance for blogs as a communications medium for the LIS community, as indicated by the closure of blogs and the reduction in gross number of posts being published. These losses have been constant and steady and have affected all the blog types studied, personal and corporate.
These figures could merely be showing that bloggers have been migrating to other services and applications that are increasing in usage, specifically Twitter and Facebook.
In all cases the corporate blogs presented values thatwere significantly lower than personal blogs and only blogs of academic or public libraries had figures of any significance, demonstrating that success and visibility in the blogosphere is closely linked to personal initiative.
Conclusion:
The decline in personal blogs is less pronounced than in corporate, and productivity and visibility patterns in both categories show that personal blogs are more active and have greater impact than corporate blogs. A small core collection of blogs, a reference group for the LIS community, seems to persist despite the general decline.
Torres-Salinas, D., et al., State of the library and information science blogosphere after social networks boom: A metric approach, Library & Information Science Research (2011),
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2010.08.001
