Programme now online for the 74th IFLA Conference:10-14 August 2008, Québec, Canada

In an earlier post I discussed how excited I was to be selected to present a co-authored paper at IFLA 2008.  Well, that paper is now available online, along with the complete programme for this year’s conference.  We’ll be discussing the ongoing journey of East Renfrewshire Library & Information Service as it attempts to embrace the concepts of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 [...]

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Virtual visits DO inspire physical visits to libraries…

That’s just 1 of 5 conclusions reached by a national study investigating the use of libraries and museums, carried out by The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) in America.   The report also found that libraries, along with museums evoke considerable trust amongst diverse sets of adult users; moreso than any other information sources.  The study also confirmed that [...]

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Chinese American Librarians Association seeks support with earthquake recovery efforts…

Just over two weeks ago the Sichuan province of China was hit by its deadliest earthquake in over 3 decades, measuring between 8.0 – 8.3 on the Richter Scale.  Since then there’s been a further 52 major aftershocks with experts predicting more of the same in the coming weeks and months.  To date almost 63,000 people have been [...]

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Libraries to become extinct by 2020…really?

Well, that’s if predictions made by Futurist Richard Watson actually come true.  Libraries, along with post offices, direct marketing, free parking, butchers and sit down breakfasts will cease to exist in just 12 years time.  And a few years after that we’ll see the death of blogging, spelling and web 2.0, apparently!  We’ll have to wait [...]

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Public libraries build social capital in Chicago…

Last weekend I was at a party with lots of other librarians (yes, librarians do party!) and I got to talking to East Renfrewshire’s former Head of Libraries Liz McGettigan about the power of public libraries, as you do! Liz brought to my attention a recent report published by the Urban Libraries Council in America [...]

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Book Promotion 2.0

This is one of the funniest videos I’ve seen in a while. Dennis Cass pretty much sums up our society with this ingenious book promotion and satirical look at what it means to be an author in the 21st century. Check it out below and laugh along knowingly – this man feels your virtual pain! [...]

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Librarians as superheroes!

In previous posts I’ve championed librarians as everyday heroes so imagine my joy when I stumbled upon this lovely article via the ALA newsletter.    A self proclaimed superhero junkie and librarian has pulled together a brief overview of ‘superhero librarians’, including well known characters such as Batgirl and lesser known heroes such as Xi’an “Shan” Coy Manh and [...]

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Librarian fights back against FBI and wins the right to speak about unconstitutional gag order

Last year the Internet Archive, a California based digital library, received a National Security Letter (NSL) from the FBI requesting access to personal information (name, address and electronic communication records) related to a specific user.    Contained within the letter was a gag order, a Statute of the 2001 Patriot Act, which prevented the Internet Archive’s Digital Librarian from discussing the [...]

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False memories and forged documents at the National Archives!

In an attempt to imply a secret friendship between Winston Churchill and Nazi SS chief Henrich Himmler during World War II an ‘historical revisionist’ created 29 forged documents and ‘slipped’ them into twelve different files at the National Archives between 2000-2005.     Officials at the National Archives assure us that this was a one off case, but how can they [...]

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Post offices to merge with public libraries?

Anyone else find the latest ad campaign by the post office a bit annoying?  The one where random celebs like Joan Collins and Westlife stop by to post their mail?   Yeah, they’re totally believable aren’t they?  Doesn’t look at all like the post office jumping on the celebrity bandwagon in a desperate attempt to appeal to a wider audience…. [...]

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