General information

October + November Library Tech Roundup

Each month, the LITA bloggers share selected library tech links, resources, and ideas that resonated with us. Enjoy – and don’t hesitate to tell us what piqued your interest recently in the comments section! Brianna M. I shared my openness story on The Winnower, an open access online scholarly publishing platform. An open letter to PLoS regarding libraries’ role in data curation, compiled by a group of data librarians. Two takes on data management threshold concepts: from Jake Carlson and from Kristin Briney. My superb assistant Cameron created data comics to celebrate Halloween and they’re too good not to share. Cinthya I. I only have one link to share, but it’s pretty awesome. POP (Prototype on Paper) is a program that lets you create a simulated app without having to know how to code. Simply upload an image file and you can create clickable screens to walk through how the…

General information

Brave New Workplace: Text Mining

Hi there, future text miners. Before we head down the coal shoot together, I’ll begin by saying this, and I hope it will reassure you- no matter your level of expertise, your experience in writing code or conducting data analysis, you can find an online tool to help you text mine. The internet is a wild and beautiful place sometimes. But before we go there, you may be wondering- what’s this Brave New Workplace business all about? Brave New Workplace is my monthly discussion of tech tools and skill sets which can help you adapt and know a new workplace. In our previous two installments I’ve discussed my own techniques and approaches to learning about your coworkers’ needs and common goals. Today I’m going to talk about text mining the results of your survey, but also text mining generally. Now three months into my new position, I have found that…

General information

Jobs in Information Technology: November 24, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks. New This Week: Tenure-track – STEM Librarian, Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, PA Web Services Librarian, Meridian Library District, Meridian, ID Information Technology & Virtual Services (ITVS) Officer, Pikes Peak Library District, Colorado Springs, CO Systems & Discovery Services Librarian, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, IN Systems Administrator, University of Wisconsin-Madison General Library System, Madison, WI Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

General information

A Linked Data Journey: Interview with Allison Jai O’Dell

Image Courtesy of AJC under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license. Introduction This is part three of my Linked Data Series. You can find the previous posts in my author feed. I’ve decided to spice things up a bit and let you hear from some library professionals who are actually implementing and discussing Linked Data in their libraries. These interviews were conducted via email and are transcripts of the actual interviews, with very minor editorial revisions. This first interview is with Allison Jai O’Dell. Bio: Allison Jai O’Dell is Metadata Librarian and Associate University Librarian at the University of Florida, George A. Smathers Libraries. She is on the editorial teams of the RBMS Controlled Vocabularies and the ARLIS/NA Artists’ Books Thesaurus – and is working to publish both as enriched, five-star linked datasets. Learn more about her from her website. The Interview Can you give a brief description of TemaTres? TemaTres is a…

LITA Jobs

Jobs in Information Technology: November 18, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks. New This Week: Programmer, University of Colorado Denver- Auraria Library, Denver, CO Head of Digital Library Services, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Discovery Services Librarian, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

General information

Agile Development: Building an Agile Culture

Over the last few months I have described various components of Agile development. This time around I want to talk about building an Agile culture. Agile is more than just a codified process; it is a development approach, a philosophy, one that stresses flexibility and communication. In order for a development team to successfully implement Agile the organization must embrace and practice the appropriate culture. In this post will to briefly discuss several tips that will help develop Agile development. The Right People It all starts here: as with pretty much any undertaking, you need the right people in place, which is not necessarily the same as saying the best people. Agile development necessitates a specific set of skills that are not intrinsically related to coding mastery: flexibility, teamwork, and ability to take responsibility for a project’s ultimate success are all extremely important. Once the team is formed, management should work to bring team members closer together and create the right environment for…

LITA Jobs

Jobs in Information Technology: November 11, 2015

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 12 noon Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks. New This Week: Head of Processing, Yale University, New Haven, CT Information Services Team Lead/Librarian (NASA), Cadence Group, Greenbelt, MD Head of Collection Management, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Head of Graduate and Undergraduate Services, J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.

General information

I’m Jenny Levine, and This Is How I Work

(Format shamelessly stolen from LifeHacker) Location: Chicago, IL Current gig: Hey LITA members, I’M YOUR NEW EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR! One word that best describes how you work: Collaboratively Current mobile device: Samsung Galaxy S6 (I love customizing the heck out of my phone so that it works really well for me) . Current computer: At work, I have a standard HP desktop PC, but at home I use an Asus Zenbook. What apps, software, or tools can’t you live without? I’m constantly trying new tools and cobbling together new routines for optimal productivity, but right now my goto apps are LastPass for password management across all of my devices, PushBullet for sharing links and files across devices, and Zite for helping me find a wide selection of links to read. What’s your workplace setup like? At work, I love my adjustable standing desk. I wanted to paint my office walls with whiteboard paint,…

General information

“Settling for a Job” and “Upward Mobility”: Today’s Career Paths for Librarians

I very recently shifted positions from a large academic research library to a small art school library, and during my transition the phrases “settling for a job” and “upward mobility” were said to me quite a bit. Both of these phrases set me personally on edge, and it got me thinking about today’s career paths for librarians and how they view their own trajectory. At my last job, I was a small cog in a very well-oiled machine. It was not a librarian position and because I was in such a big institution I did not have a large variety of responsibilities. Librarian positions there were traditionally tenure-track, though it was clear that Technical Services was already on the path to eliminating Librarian titled positions and removing MLIS/MLS degrees from the required qualifications of position descriptions. A recent post from In the Library With the Lead Pipe addressed the realities of…

General information

Follow Up Post to: Is Technology Bringing in More Skillful Male Librarians?

My main motive for my recent post was to generate discussion on the topic of stereotypes of male librarians, technology, and our profession.  It can get lonely as a writer when you do not have exchange with readers.  It was not meant to be an opinion piece.  I wanted to move away from posting on a technology review or share something I tried at my library.  I wanted to present information I found while reading.  These negative views of our profession are alive and well in our society – to not write about it is to sweep it under the rug. It may be an exploration of my own experience.  I live it every day.  I am a 40 year old male librarian who fits the stereotype and all these stereotypical elements point to someone who is less than.  When I tell someone that I am a librarian, I get…