• General Information
• Apr 08
• Issue: 221

What’s Up on the Web?

This month my springboard to lots of interesting sites on the Web was Jessamyn West’s librarian.net blog http://www.librarian.net/. Since this blog has existed since 1999, many of you may be aware of it, but I just became acquainted with it after learning that Jessamyn would be participating in Nylink’s Annual Meeting in May to talk about “Web 2.0 and the Open Library” (more details at http://nylink.org/events/amtg08.cfm). [Ed. See the Annual Meeting agenda for links to available presentations]

In a March 19, 2008, posting to her blog entitled “Why should libraries be socially networking?” http://www.librariannet/stax/2266/why-should-libraries-be-socially-networking/, Jessamyn answers the question and then provides some suggestions for how librarians can learn about and get involved with Web 2.0 technologies. She talks about Vermont’s 23 Things http://vermontlibrarieslearn.wordpress.com/about/, an online continuing education program for library staff in her home state that’s based on the Learning 2.0 online course developed by Helene Blowers while she was Public Services Technology Director for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC) in Charlotte, N.C. (Helene is currently Director of Digital Strategy for the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio.)

Helene’s Learning 2.0 program http://plcmclearning.blogspot.com/ provides library staff with 23 exercises that allow them to learn about and experiment with blogs, wikis, RSS, image sites, podcasting, and other Web 2.0 technologies. Over 250 libraries and other organizations have duplicated the Learning 2.0 program for their staffs including Queens Library in New York City http://ql-things-about.blogspot.com/.

Along with many of her colleagues, Jessamyn West also acknowledged those named to the Library Journal list of Movers & Shakers fr 2008 which was included in the March 15 issue supplement <http://www.libraryjournal.com/archive/. Included are three library professionals from New York State: Christopher Harris, Coordinator of the Genesee Valley BOCES School Library System in LeRoy; David Rothman, Information Services Specialist, Community General Hospital Medical Library in Syracuse; and Stephanie Squicciarini, Teen/Young Adult Services Librarian, Fairport Public Library.

David Rothman is one of the creators of LibWorm, described as “a search engine, a professional development tool, and a current awareness tool for people who work in libraries or care about libraries” http://www.libworm.com/rss/aboutlibworm.php. LibWorm compiles updates from over 1,000 RSS feeds and organizes them for browsing by category (e.g., Podcasts: Academic Libraries), by subject (e.g., censorship) and by tags. Keyword searching of the content is also available.

Stephanie Squicciarini heads up the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival which is now in its third year. This successful event is a collaboration between public librarians and school librarians to encourage and highlight reading among teenagers. Read all about it at http://www.teenbookfestival.org/.

[Ann Gunning, Member Services Librarian, Nylink]