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: Systems and Web Services Librarian, Concordia College, Moorhead, MN Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.
Year: 2015
A Linked Data Journey: Introduction
retrieved from Wikipedia, created by Anja Jentzsch and Richard Cyganiak Introduction Linked data. It’s one of the hottest topics in the library community. But what is it really? What does it look like? How will it help? In this series I will seek to demystify the concept and present practical examples and use-cases. Some of the topics I will touch on are: The basics Tools for implementing linked data Interviews with linked data practitioners What can you do to prepare? In this part one of the series I will give a brief explanation of linked data; then I will attempt to capture your interest by highlighting how linked data can enhance a variety of library services, including cataloging, digital libraries, scholarly data, and reference. What is Linked Data? I’m not going to go into the technical detail of linked data, as that isn’t the purpose of this post. If you’re…
Personal Digital Archiving – a new LITA web course
Check out the latest LITA web course: Personal Digital Archiving for Librarians Instructor: Melody Condron, Resource Management Coordinator at the University of Houston Libraries. Offered: October 6 – November 11, 2015 A Moodle based web course with asynchronous weekly content lessons, tutorials, assignments, and group discussion. Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required) Most of us are leading very digital lives. Bank statements, interaction with friends, and photos of your dog are all digital. Even as librarians who value preservation, few of us organize our digital personal lives, let alone back it up or make plans for it. Participants in this 4 week online class will learn how to organize and manage their digital selves. Further, as librarians participants can use what they learn to advocate for better personal data management in others. ‘Train-the-trainer’ resources will be available so that librarians can share these tools and practices with students…
Putting Pen to Paper
Back in January, The Atlantic ran an article on a new device being used at the Cooper Hewitt design museum in New York City. This device allows museum visitors to become curators of their own collections, saving information about exhibits to their own special account they can access via computer after they leave. This device is called a pen; Robinson Meyer, the article’s author, likens it to a “gray plastic crayon the size of a turkey baster”. I think it’s more like a magic wand. Not only can you use the pen to save information you think is cool, you can also interact with the museum at large: in the Immersion Room, for example, you can draw a design with your pen and watch it spring to life on the walls around you. In the Process Lab, you use the pen to solve real-life design problems. As Meyer puts it,…
Jobs in Information Technology: September 16, 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: Digital Technologies, Bridgepoint Education – Ashford University, San Diego, CA E-Learning Librarian, Olin Library – Use Job ID 31577, Washington University, St Louis, MO Archivist/Program Manager, History Associates Incorporated, Fort Lauderdale, FL Program Officer for Federal Documents and Collections, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Program Officer for Shared Print Initiatives, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Director of Services and Operations, HathiTrust, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Learning Commons Coordinator, Forsyth Library, Fort Hays State University, Hays, KS Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.
My Capacity: What Can I Do and What Can I Do Well?
I like to take on a lot of projects. I love seeing projects come to fruition, and I want to provide the best possible services for my campus community. I think the work we do as librarians is important work. As I’ve taken on more responsibilities in my current job though I’ve learned I can’t do everything. I have had to reevaluate the number of things I can accomplish and projects I can support. Libraries come in all different shapes and sizes. I happen to work at a small library. We are a small staff—3 professional librarians including the director, 2 full-time staff, 1 part-time staff member, and around 10 student workers. I think we do amazing things at my place of employment, but I know we can’t do everything. I would love to be able to do some of the projects I see staff at larger universities working on,…
Creating High-Quality Online Video Tutorials
Lately it seems all I do all day is create informational or educational video tutorials on various topics for my library. The Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine Medical Library at Florida International University in Miami, FL has perfected a system. First, a group of three librarians write and edit a script on a topic. In the past we have done multiple videos on American Medical Association (AMA) and American Psychological Association (APA) citation styles, Evidence-Based Medicine research to support a course, and other titles on basic library services and resources. After a script has been finalized, we record the audio. We have one librarian who has become “the voice of the library,” one simple method to brand the library. After that, I go ahead and coordinate the visuals – a mixture of PowerPoint slides, visual effects and screen video shots. We use Camtasia to edit our videos and produce and…
LITA Fall Online Continuing Education
Immediate Registration Available Now for any of 4 webinars, or the web course Check out all of the empowering learning opportunities at the line up page, with registration details and links on each of the sessions pages. The offerings include 4 fast paced one shot webinars: Teaching Patrons about Privacy in a World of Pervasive Surveillance: Lessons from the Library Freedom Project, with Alison Macrina Offered: October 6, 2015, 1:30 pm Central Time In the wake of Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA and FBI dragnet surveillance, Alison Macrina started the Library Freedom Project as a way to teach other librarians about surveillance, privacy rights, and technology tools that protect privacy. In this 90 minute webinar, she’ll talk about the landscape of surveillance, the work of the LFP, and some strategies you can use to protect yourself and your patrons online. Creative Commons Crash Course, with Carli Spina Offered: October 7, 2015, 1:30…
Jobs in Information Technology: September 9, 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: Emerging Technologies Librarian, Marquette University Libraries, Milwaukee, WI Head of the Physics Library, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR Director of Digital Strategies, Multnomah County Library, Portland, OR Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a job posting.
Interacting with Patrons Through Their Mobile Devices :: Image Scanning
QR codes are not a new technology. Their recent adoption and widespread usage has even led the technology into a pervasive state, mostly due to their misuse. However, I want to address QR codes in this series — because I believe the technology is brilliant. I enjoy the potential of its concept, and what has recently developed from the technology in the form of Augmented Reality codes. Originally developed in 1994 by Denso Wave Incorporated, the Quick Reference Code was devised to increase the scan-ability and data storage capacity of the standard linear barcode. Today, they are most often seen in advertising. Their modern pervasiveness is understandable as an inexpensive, easily produced, versatile method of transmitting information. However, their effectiveness as a mode of relaying information is reliant on their method of use. The QR code needs to provide a direct extension of the information in its proximity, and not…