Recruitment of Librarians – Best practice

Google Translate – Awesome resource

Well, I think Mightysearch was more then I could chew, the very nature of the beast would mean  me dedicating more time then I humanly have. I introduce Google Translate a fantastic resource like Babelfish, but with more functionality.  If you commonly translate between two languages then you can even add a button on your [...]

Positive news…

For once I have positive career news.  I volunteered for a position of Web Editor for COFHE and it looks like I have got the job.  No extra money and extra responsibility, and even two other volunteers to boss about.  It looks like I am on my own with this one, as the responsibility is [...]

Ebooks, my two cents/pence

I would love to stand here on my pedastal and say that ebooks are going to be the future of LIS and that paper will be admonished to the recycling bins in a few years time, but that is simply not going to happen.  Like the Internet, CDROMs and other formats that have come and [...]

Mightysearch.org.uk

I want to introduce a project that I am working on called Mightysearch.  The idea is simple, it has already been done before, but as far as I know not in a forum environment.  Using a free hosting service that uses phpBB forums (imho the most adaptable and easy to use) I have created a [...]

Probing the hidden web with Complete Planet

What an invaluable tool.  Bright Planet featured in an article on SearchEngineWatch about the Hidden Web/Deep Web/ Invisible Web, and years ago introduced me to one of my favourite search engines. Complete Planet searches web pages and sites that are stored away in databases or ‘hidden’ from the realms of Google and more traditional search [...]

Keeping your calm: Dealing with obnoxiousness and anger from patrons/users, a grunts guide.

I am not going to reference this article as it is an incredibly subjective topic. Librarians are normally dealing with a plethora of users, all with different issues and needs and when those needs or expectations are not met or even afronted, there can be a surge of wrath that surges forth in ones direction. [...]

The Index Card Revival

http://webworkerdaily.com/2007/10/10/24-things-you-can-do-with-an-index-card/ I vaguely remember index cards, at school we had little card wallets that we called library cards but still the catalogues were on an OPAC.  Admittedly we, as an institution, still had a few things on index cards dotted around but what are we going to do with with all these old cards that [...]

25 Fantastic Web Tutorials, everything you need to know about the web in tutorial form!

http://mashable.com/2007/10/11/25-tutorials-web-minded/  I have already recommended a few people to these websites.  Mashable a great resource and a really good example of the Web 2.0 working for the benefit of the user!  Although these websites seem to focus on web related topics, they collectively make a fantastic resource!

The truth about library patrons

Patrons, clients, users and god forbid call them customers, but they are never stupid. Or are they? If I wrote down all the amazingly stupid questions that I have ever been asked as a librarian, they would collect in to a few categories.  Computer related and LoCS (lack of common sense), Most of our lot [...]