In an article titled "Libraries and librarians in the 21st Century" (College and Research Library News, December 2004, p. 668-671 or see the on-line version) Robert S. Martin, the directory of the Institute of Museum and Library Services, writes about the social agencies that support learning in the United States.

The learning that happens outside of work and school, free-choice learning, is what most concerns social agencies like museums and public libraries. "As more people become self-guided learners throughout their lifetimes, institutions such as libraries, museums, and public broadcasters, among others, can help to stimulate and meet their demands." He believes that "librarians, archivists, and museum professionals are not separate and distinct professions, but rather different facets of a single unified profession...."

Since I just completed a project for my government documents class on the National Archives and Records Administration, I have reason to agree. It was fairly obvious that a seamless interaction between librarian and archivist would be the best way to handle the information need of a patron learning about history or genealogy. In the example I used, the local librarian could assist by finding information that has already been digitized and by locating the archives where physical documents and objects are located. At that point, the patron would need to travel to the archives where the archivist would be spearheading the assistance for the patron.     #    (0) comments

2004-12-16

Trivia Night

Librarians have the reputation of being good team members for Trivia Night. I'm better at it than when I started library school. Although, now, I have a new frustration--I frequently can't quite pull the fact out of my brain, but know exactly where I would look it up.

I've always thought librarians would be great at writing the questions. Jessamyn West at librarian.net has done it and links to her questions in this blog entry. I also like Andrea Mercado's outreach ideas at LibraryTechtonics. Even if the librarian doesn't write the questions, libraries can hook up with the idea and become known as the place with the answers.

In my area, trivia nights are not, generally, pub events. They are charity fund-raisers and usually held in schools or church basements. Andrea was worried about the alcohol connection, but I don't think that would be a problem in St. Louis. Of course, I'm not sure trivia nights draw the twenty and thirty-something audience that Andrea is trying to reach the way that a pub quiz might.

Andrea seems to be thinking of public libraries, are there pub quizzes or trivia nights on college campuses that could use the participation of academic librarians?
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2004-12-14

Invasive plants

Since we haven't gone to the cabin for awhile, I have no new photos for the Weekends at Innsbrook site. But I found a government document about invasive plants that reminded me of last month's honeysuckle hunt.

Invasive Plants: Changing the Landscape of America is a well-written on-line fact book with an attractive layout and graphics.

Our invasive amur honeysuckle is on the appendix list of Ornamentals Invading Natural Areas in the Continental United States.

Also in that section is this boxed quote:
"At least 45% of the invasive non-native plant species that plague Florida's public lands were imported for ornamental reasons. At least 39% of the worst invasive plant species in Florida are still commercially available for sale and continual spread."
DON SCHMITZ
Florida Department of Environmental Protection
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2004-12-13

Information Literacy Weblog

I recently joined the Information Literacy Instruction list server. The farther I go into librarianship, the more I think information literacy is where the action is in the field. This is the most compelling answer to the question "Are librarians still relevant if it's all on the Web?" Even if it were all on the Web, librarians would be relevant as the driving instructors, trip planners, and tour guides of the information superhighway. Just because it's on the Web doesn't mean that it's indexed by Google, or that it can be found among Google's 5000 hits, or that it's authoritative, or that it doesn't display a bias.

An announcement on the list server led me to the Information Literacy Weblog. It's in the UK, so a number of the conferences and events described are over there.     #    (0) comments

2004-12-10

Government document tops most-owned list

OCLC is familiar to library folks, but I'm not sure how to explain it to my non-library readers. Imagine the on-line catalog at your local library joined together with most of the other on-line catalogs in the world. This would be WorldCat, a subscription service that I have access to with my student ID. OCLC runs WorldCat and a number of services that support and use it.

So, when OCLC compiles a top 1000 list of books owned by libraries, they are in a position to know. Guess what beats out the Bible for first place--the Census!     #    (0) comments

2004-12-03

Picture your congress person

The new crop of congress creatures (that's what my gov docs professor calls them) are portrayed with pictures and short biographies in the New Member Pictorial Directory. Missouri's two new members, Russ Carnahan and Emanuel Cleaver, are on pages 8 and 9.     #    (0) comments

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