Recent Posts by Bloggers@CIL11

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ALA TechSource Presentation–Taking Embedded Librarianship to the Next Level: Action Steps and Practices

Many thanks to the awesome people who attended and participated in today’s webinar! I’ll have a follow-up post over at the ALA TechSource blog in a few days in which I’ll answer questions I didn’t get to fully address in chat. Please also check out my Scoop.it magazine on Embedded Librarianship. Filed under: My Conference … Continue reading →

New eLearning Librarian Job

Are you interested in joining in the fun at the Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University? I’m happy to answer questions about the position if you have them. Here’s the official announcement: We have a new position coming available … Continue reading → Related posts:

Read more at: New eLearning Librarian Job
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/laurenslibraryblog/~3/Sl6-XSM19Lk/
Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 16:36:10 +0000

Librarians, What People Think We Do

A coworker sent this to me - I've been enjoying these on failblog, but I hadn't seen this one yet: Here are a few others: Game Designers/Programmers Science Students Customer Expectations Stay-At-Home Mom The Makers of These Comics More about these at KnowYourMeme.com. Thanks Sharon.

Read more at: Librarians, What People Think We Do
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/swissarmylibrarian/~3/_eWj4PIvNPA/
Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:42:35 +0000

The Future of Education: The Horizon Project’s Tenth Year Retreat

Immediately following ALA, I was extremely lucky to be able to attend The Future of Education: The Horizon Project’s Tenth Year Retreat. Since I first learned of the Horizon Project, I have been impressed with it. It’s an annual report, … Continue reading → Related posts:

Transforming Information Literacy for Today’s K-12 Learners Through the Lenses of Transliteracy, Inquiry, and Participatory Learning

Many thanks to today’s NEFLIN webinar attendees! Below is a link to download the PDF of today’s slides. Filed under: Participatory Librarianship and Learning, Transliteracy, Webinars and Virtual Events Tagged: information literacy, inquiry, learning, Transliteracy

Got Direction? Use a Compass not a Map

Love Seth Godin’s recent post, The Map has been Replaced by the Compass. He says it so well.

“The map keeps getting redrawn, because it’s cheaper than ever to go offroad, to develop and innovate and remake what we thought was going to be next. Technology keeps changing the routes we take to get our projects from here to there. It doesn’t pay to memorize the route, because it’s going to change soon.

The compass, on the other hand, is more important then ever. If you don’t know which direction you’re going, how will you know when you’re off course?

And yet…

And yet we spend most of our time learning (or teaching) the map, yesterday’s map, while we’re anxious and afraid to spend any time at all calibrating our compass.”

Rebecca and I have spent almost 20 years working with organizations to set their direction — we’ve called it direction planning for most of those years (although the term strategic planning keeps sneaking in as it is more familiar in most organizations). Seth is so right, setting direction (often with a vision of a preferred future state) is key to any journey and continues to guide the path taken. Thanks for this post, Seth.

Continue reading Got Direction? Use a Compass not a Map

Read more at: Got Direction? Use a Compass not a Map
http://dysartjones.com/2012/02/got-direction-use-a-compass-not-a-map/
Posted: Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:56:38 +0000

ALA Midwinter: LITA

January/February has been an unusually busy conference season for me, leading much of my work time to be focused on catching up in the office. I’m just now getting a chance to process some of my experiences and blog them. … Continue reading → Related posts:

Read more at: ALA Midwinter: LITA
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/laurenslibraryblog/~3/HiIKbCiup0I/
Posted: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:25:28 +0000

Receiving Orders in Koha 3.2

Last time we looked at placing an order in Koha 3.2, now it’s time to cover receiving an order. If you have an idea for a video, please just let me know and I’ll add it to my list of things to record. Related posts: Placing Orders in Koha 3.2 Fast Cataloging in Koha 3.2 [...] Related posts:

Read more at: Receiving Orders in Koha 3.2
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/web2learning/YOVk/~3/rqXAHpduXV8/4942
Posted: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:00:00 +0000

Sunday Morning Poetry Reading with Mary Oliver

These clips were filmed at the poetry reading she gave in January 2011 at Emory University (which I unfortunately could not attend due to a migraine). Take a few minutes to enjoy these beautiful poems, including one of my personal favorites, “Wild Geese.” Filed under: Poetry Tagged: Mary Oliver, Poetry

I was shocked: Only one space after a sentence.

O.k. I’m old enough to have been taught how to type on a manual typewriter, so, I guess have an excuse. I’ve been using two spaces after the end of a sentence all through out college, even graduate school, and all my professional career. The shocker: I have never been corrected! I was flabbergasted to [...]

Share: Ken Robinson—Changing Education Paradigms

Thank you to my friend and colleague Andrea Stanfield for putting this most excellent video on my radar this evening via TED Talks | Best of the Web. In this talk from RSA Animate, Sir Ken Robinson lays out the link between 3 troubling trends: rising drop-out rates, schools’ dwindling stake in the arts, and … Continue reading →

Reference Question of the Week – 2/12/12

This reference question happened in our Childrens Room one night, which makes it all the more humorous. An adult patron went to the Childrens Desk looking for information on the terracotta warriors of China, for a short college paper. The reason she was in the Childrens Room is that the entire sixth grade in my [...]

Read more at: Reference Question of the Week – 2/12/12
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/swissarmylibrarian/~3/wA2oCgI2PLU/
Posted: Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:00:40 +0000

Dear OverDrive: did you actually listen to us?

In December, Ryan Claringbole and I wrote a post about his library’s (the Chesapeake Public Library’s) sub-standard selection catalog from OverDrive: “OverDrive Has Different eBook Catalogs for Different Libraries.” eBooks that I could see in my library’s OverDrive selection catalog to license were not available in his library’s selection catalog. I decided to follow up [...]

Management is Not the Decision-Making Team

While reading the post below, this caught my eye. What do you think? Would this apply to libraries as in software development industry? “The “management team” isn’t the “decision making” team. It’s a support function. You may want to call them administration instead of management, which will keep them from getting too big for their [...]

Read more at: Management is Not the Decision-Making Team
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/LibraryHat/~3/hKK8m47wZ64/1780
Posted: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 18:23:09 +0000

Bill Moyers Essay: Freedom of and From Religion

Bill Moyers Essay: Freedom of and From Religion from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo.

CicerOWN'D

On February 14th, 2012, the number of Cicerone.org Certified Beer Servers (CBS) reached 10,000. As a present to all of us, the next day the exam was $10 instead of the usual $69, which triggered something like an exam stampede as over 700 people took the 60-question multiple choice exam on all things beer.

Backstory: the word Cicerone® means "guide" in Italian and becoming a Certified Cicerone® is vaguely analogous to being a sommelier, which translates to "wine steward" in French, but for beer. Cicerone.org Certified Beer Servers are the first level of credentials handed out, the next being Certified Cicerone®. The final level earns one the title of Master Cicerone®, and the organization is notoriously stringent with its trademarks, which they are entitled to be.

I'm waiting for the final tally, but I know that February 15th was the busiest day ever for the Cicerone.org website, which at times wasn't able to handle the traffic. The website allows one to view the number of CBSs by city, so we'll soon find out how DC stacked up among those 700, but an informal tally via twitter reveals that at least 26 people in the #dcbrews community took and passed the exam. Meridian Pint lead the way, as 6 of their staff joined the ranks of Cicerone.org Certified Beer Servers. Coming in second as an institution was yours truly, DCBeer.com, with 4 CBSs now on staff, including myself.

I took the exam over a period of about 10 minutes, and for the first third of it I was working with a staff member on scheduling, so it wasn't exactly taxing, though there were a few questions that genuinely stumped me. I think of it as a feather in the cap, a sign that my beer knowledge is up to snuff. Ten dollars isn't a lot to pay for that validation, but I am ambivalent about the Cicerone® program. I don't think this is something you need for external validation, and it saddens me when people think that way. Blind item relating to this point: once I interviewed a restaurateur who lied about being a Certified Cicerone®, the next level up. It's mystifying that someone I talked to for several hours, who clearly knew what they were talking about when it came to beer, would misrepresent themselves like that. When I asked this person about being a Certified Cicerone®, I was told

That’s a very interesting question. For me it was mostly a business decision. There are a lot of [redacted] companies in [redacted] and I thought this could really help with marketing and finding a niche, and it did. I think that some people will take you more seriously with these kind of credentials. At the same time, it’s nice to have this piece of paper that shows what I know, what I’ve been working on for a long time.

When I found out (this information is easily accessible on the Cicerone.org website), this person confessed via twitter:

Ouch, had always used that as a means of conveying my expertise, never again. Self taught. IAdmire your thoroughness #lifeslessonsinhumility

We haven't spoken since.

There is a tension between making beer accessible to all - and I think most people agree that beer is more accessible than wine, which is one of its appeals - and acting as a gatekeeper to that knowledge, and that dichotomy is inherent in the program. I'm also surprised that Ray Daniels, who runs the organization, is the only person doing this. It strikes me that there's room for more than one of these operations, even though I'm not sure these operations need to exist outside of my, and our, need to validate and codify what we already know.

What did you think of the exam, or of the Cicerone® program, or of the accreditation of craft beer? Does this make you more likely to sign up for a Certified Cicerone® exam, the next level up? Let me know in the comments, and if you were one of those who passed the exam, congrats!

[UPDATE: approximately 900 people took the CBS exam and passed on February 15th. Approximately 100 of them are from the DC-metro area. DCBeer has written about it. Also, please read JP's comment below, which could be a post on its own.]

Read more at: CicerOWN'D
http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/cicerownd.html
Posted: 2012-02-17T06:14:00.000-08:00

TEDxOKC: Anthony Shadid: “Democracy in the Middle East, Elusive Dream or Coming Reality?”

I had never taken the time to polish and publish my notes from TEDxOKC last spring. Tonight’s tragic news that NYTimes Reporter Anthony Shadid suddenly passed away in Syria is prompting me to dust off my notes from his incredible talk and finally publish them as I took them. I will never forget his talk…

Explanation of “A day of Glass 2″

Corning released another video that explains the technology behind “A Day Made of Glass 2″. Explanation of “A Day Made of Glass 2″

Read more at: Explanation of “A day of Glass 2″
http://librariantea.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/explanation-of-a-day-of-glass-2/
Posted: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:40:59 +0000

Payola in the Washington, DC Beer Market

If you've ever been to a bar or restaurant and complained, or thought to complain, about the selection of beer there, there's sometimes a nefarious reason for that, as opposed to a lazy one. I put on my journalism hat and delve into the word of payola, the quid pro quo that goes on between the people who make beer, distribute it, and sell it to us. I'll have more to say on this later, as there's going to be some fallout from this post over at DCBeer, especially since it went national. Some of that fallout is already in the comments, where a former Flying Dog employee, this brewery being the alleged victim of payola that got the ball rolling on this piece, adds some nuance to the proceedings in the comments section. In short, craft brewers and their distributors engage in this kind of behavior, too. Everyone does, and it's often hard to tell the difference between an illegal activity and building a business relationship. I'm not sure where the line is on this kind of behavior, and neither are the authorities who are supposed to enforce the law. Give it a read.

Read more at: Payola in the Washington, DC Beer Market
http://beerbrarian.blogspot.com/2012/02/payola-in-washington-dc-beer-market.html
Posted: 2012-02-16T06:29:00.000-08:00

Bookmarks for February 15, 2012

TeamViewer TeamViewer connects to any PC or server around the world within a few seconds. You can remote control your partner’s PC as if you were sitting right in front of it. Digest powered by RSS Digest No related posts. No related posts.

Read more at: Bookmarks for February 15, 2012
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/web2learning/YOVk/~3/XNGkm-wM0aQ/4988
Posted: Thu, 16 Feb 2012 00:30:02 +0000