Current Cites
August 2014
Edited by [2]Roy Tennant
Contributors: [3]Alison Cody, [4]Peter Hirtle, [5]Leo Robert Klein,
[6]Nancy Nyland, [7]Roy Tennant
_____________________________________________________
Furay, Julia. "[8]Stages of instruction: theatre, pedagogy and
information literacy" [9]Reference Services Review
42(2)(2014): 209-228.
Library instruction as performance art is pretty much the focus of this
article. "As teaching librarians," writes the author whose background
is in the theater, "we act as playwright, director, performer and even
stage crew for our information literacy instruction sessions."
Storytelling, metaphor and even clowning are discussed. - [10]LRK
Johnson, L., S. Adams Becker, and V. Estrada, et. al.[11]NMC Horizon
Report: 2014 Library Edition Austin: Texas: New Media Consortium,
international panel of 47 experts has identified 18 of the most
important trends, challenges, and developments in technology adoption
for academic and research libraries. The six trends accelerating
technology adoption are rated as fast, mid-range, and long-range
trends. The six challenges impeding technology are divided into
solvable, difficult, and wicked challenges. The solvable and difficult
challenges are those that can be understood, and for which we may or
may not have obvious solutions. "Those that are complex to even define,
much less address" are the wicked challenges. The final section sorts
six important developments in technology into time-to-adoption horizons
of one year or less, two to three years, and four years or more. Each
trend is considered in relation to its implications for policy,
leadership, and practice. More detailed information about the process
of selecting, filtering, and rating the issues is given on [12]the
participating in the next version of this report, or other NMC reports,
[14]NN
Kelion, Leo. "[15]Millions of historic images posted to Flickr"
[16]BBC News (29 August
describes how Kalev Leetaru wrote software to automatically extract
images published before 1923 (and therefore in the public domain) and
make them discoverable on the web. Using books digitized by the
Internet Archive, Leetaru has so far uploaded over [17]2.5 million of
these images to Flickr. Leetaru is hoping these images can be used to
enhance Wikipedia pages about historic events, as well as other uses.
He is planning on making the code available so that others can employ
the same process. - [18]RT
Leeder, Chris, and Steven Lonn. "[19]Faculty Usage of Library Tools in
a Learning Management System" [20]College & Research Libraries
75(5)(September 2014): 641-663.
article sought to learn more about the attitudes and behaviors of
faculty regarding the use of library widgets in the learning management
system (LMS) at their institution. The authors surveyed faculty in the
ten departments that were identified as the heaviest users of these
LMS-based library resources, collecting demographic data as well as
information on faculty awareness and use of the widgets. (As a
comparison, small group of librarians who have access to some course
sites were also surveyed.) The authors found that those who used these
resources had been employed as faculty longer than those who did not,
and indicated that they were more experienced in conducting library
research. However, overall awareness of the tools was low - even among
users of the widgets. Despite this, faculty responses indicated a
positive opinion of librarians, demonstrating an opening for the
library to rethink how they publicize and support the widgets, and
where to focus their efforts in order to have the most impact. An
interesting read for any librarian trying to determine how best to
integrate library resources into the LMS, or improve an existing
implementation. - [21]AC
Pekel, Joris. [22]Democratising the Rijksmuseum: Why did the
Rijksmuseum make available their highest quality material without
restrictions, and what are the results? The Hague, Netherlands:
Europeana Foundation, 29 July
+Rijksmuseum?version=1.1). - The Dutch [23]Rijksmuseum has received
justifiable praise for its decision to make over [24]150,000 high
resolution images of public domain works freely available on its web
site. This was not a policy that was easily reached, however, as this
case study makes clear. The museum had to overcome both the concerns of
its curators and the potential loss of over $240,000 in licensing fees.
The museum also worried about the confused state of rights issues
associated with some of the artwork. In the end, though, it concluded
that the museum's core goal was to "get the collection out and known to
the public as much as possible." Internet access can achieve that. For
this museum, "Releasing the material has resulted in an incredible
amount of goodwill from the public and creative industries. Combined
with the enormous exposure, reputational benefits and the ability to
enter more cost-effective sponsor programs greatly outweighed the
reduced images sales for the museum." - [25]PH
Wilson, Dan. "[26]Take the Library Disaster Readiness Test"
[27]National Network of Libraries of Medicine (5 August
Earlier this week I sat bolt upright in bed at 3:20am because our house
was violently shaking. We soon found out that we were only about a
dozen miles away from the epicenter of a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. So
perhaps I can be forgiven for citing this short blog post that
identifies 15 things a library can do to make sure that your building
and your staff is prepared for a disaster and the aftermath. Of course
earthquakes are a special kind of disaster that requires special kinds
of precautions (for example, making sure your book shelves are properly
secured), but the items listed here are a good start. - [28]RT
__________________________________________________________________
Current Cites - ISSN: 1060-2356 is hosted by Roy Tennant.
(c) Copyright 2014 by Roy Tennant [31]Creative Commons License
References
Visible links