Things that make you go "Hmmmm??"

So here we are, Halloween week. One of my favorite times of year. Cool fall weather; pumpkins everywhere; ghost and goblins lurking at every turn.

Even scarier than any witch or ghost that I've seen lurking around the neighborhood this week was an article on Yahoo! on blog censorship. Pope John XXIII Regional High School, a private school in Sparta, New Jersey has ordered their students to remove any blogs they maintain from the Internet citing safety concerns from cyberpredators. Principal, Rev. Kieran McHugh told students in an assembly to remove any blogs they might have or risk suspension. To support their decision, the school stated that parents of students enrolled in their school signed contracts with the institution governing student behavior, including responsible Internet use. (Does this contract include non-school time at home and off school property???)

While this may sound like a gross violation of the students' free speech claims, the rights of students at private schools are very different than those of public schools because administrators at public schools are agents of government while those at public institutions are not. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which works to protect the civil and free speech rights of cyberspace users including bloggers, said there have been several attempts by private institutions elsewhere to restrict or censor minors' Internet postings. "But this is the first time we've heard of such an overreaction," said spokesman Kurt Opsahl. "It would be better if they taught students what they should and shouldn't do online rather than take away the primary communication tool of their generation."

I couldn't agree more with the statement by Mr. Opsahl. Rather than completely take away their rights to blog, the school should focus on educating their students on how to be responsible cyber-citizens. Doesn't the school realize that there are summer vacations and other non-school times in which their students can and will freely partake in the Internet, regardless of any contract their parents signed? In the end, the administrations energies would be better spent on creating savvy Internet users rather than trying to enforce such bans.

Another article this week that made me gasp with fright was on the reliability of Wikipedia. Phil Bradley's Blog references an article from Guardian Unlimited Technology entitled Can You Trust Wikipedia? In a nutshell, several experts from various fields were asked to rate the data given in a sample of Wikipedia entries. The scores weren't too impressive lending to the question of how much can a reader trust Wikipedia as a one stop source?

Image courtesy of About.com, Web Clip Art

More School Library Web Site Resources

As an addendum to my last post on School Library Web Site Directories, I found another collection of Web resources at a site called Resources for School Librarians . There is a wealth of resources that can be useful to a school librarian trying to put together a web site from scratch at a page entitled, Writing School Library Web Pages.

On a lighter note, there is a collection of library humor resources at a Humor page on the site. There are even links to a couple of library humor blogs, including Love the Liberry.

and on a final note......
What did the librarian say when she had to leave?






Time to book!
(Thanks to Marlin Day)

Collection of School Library Web Sites & Resources

So with the LIS 753 Web design project looming before me, I've been thinking extensively about what type of Web site to create. My focus within Dominican's Library and Information Science program is in school libraries so I would have to say, the logical thing to do would be to create a school library site, right? But as a career-changer who has never worked in an actual school library (does volunteering count?) what would I include in such a site?? Well, you can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon an entire site devoted to school library Web sites, not only around the country but around the globe!

School-Libraries.net serves as a directory of school library Web sites from all around the globe. The site was created by school librarian Peter Milbury and is sponsered by the School of Library and Information Science at San Jose State University. School-Libraries.net also hosts a companion site, School-Libraries.org which offers a collection of selected Web resources for school librarians who want to make effective use of the Web. I found both sites to be helpful in showing a librarian-in-training, such as myself, the different types of Web sites that exist and the typical information that is shared on these sort of Web sites. It also showcased the individual styles used by the creators of the sites. Some Web sites were more captivating than others. Design basics such as font size, background colors, and formatting come into play as far as what captured my interest as a third party viewer. I will definitely be keeping these style issues in mind when I create my own Web site as part of the LIS 753 Web design assignment.

There was also a link of interest on School-Libraries.net to an article writen for librarians on web design. The article, Writing for the Web: A Primer for Librarians
by Eric H. Schnell provides a general introduction to Web content creation. What I liked about the document was that although it touches upon various Web design topics at a very high level, Mr. Schnell also provides a variety of outside resources to suppliment the topics that he references. This allows the reader to obtain more information on the subject matter is they so choose at the mere click of a link icon. Also of note, the article provides some good, common sense design tips under a section entitled Design Considerations.

So all in all, after finding these Web design sites this week, I'm feeling a little better about the BIG Web design assignment coming up. Hopefully, I'll be this calm and assured about it all in the middle of November when I'll be knee deep in HTML coding trying to make it all work!

OPAL, a librarian's best friend....

This week, I decided to look into podcasting to find out what the hype is all about. Come to find out not only are libraries podcasting but so is the Vatican! For novices like me, let me take a minute to define a podcast. Audiofeeds.org defines a podcast (or audiofeed) as an RSS file that contains a link to downloadable audio files instead of a link to a news story (or written text). RSS (also known as Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication) is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used (mainly) by news websites and weblogs. (Wikipedia, 2005) Audiofeeds.org describes an RSS file to be a lot like HTML....lots of tags and content. One of the biggest benefits of podcasting is that it allows anyone who wants to broadcast to reach a huge potential audience online and for relatively inexpensive cost.

As I researched podcasting in libraries, I came across an organization called OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries and All Library Users). Lori Bell, a blogger for LISNews.com, reviewed OPAL in a post entitled "OPAL begins Podcasting its Audio Archives " OPAL is an international collaborative effort by libraries of all types to provide web-based programs and training for library users and library staff members. These live events are held in online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting and synchronized browsing. The public is welcome to participate in any OPAL program with no need to register. OPAL programs are offered free of charge (Bonus!) to participants.

Examples of OPAL programs include book discussion programs, interviews, library training, memoir writing workshops, and virtual tours of special digital library collections. (Bell, 2005) Click here to listen to an Opal podcast . I listened in on the podcast of a book discussion of the Great Gatsby and thought it to be a great way to share ideas across distances and to the masses. For example, from the Great Gatsby podcast, I found out some background information on author F. Scott Fitzgerald that I did not know before. This seems like a good venue for students (or anyone interested in learning) to obtain more information on an author, book, subject matter, etc.

Back to the Vatican, even they are podcasting! Vatican Radio offers podcasts in 14 different languages in an effort to reach out to the online Faithful. And here I am, up until this week, clueless to what podcasting is all about and the Pope is already out there podcasting to the masses. I really have a lot of catching up to do on the Web and the technological possibilities that exist with disseminating information to the public!

Image courtesy of royaltyfreeclipart.com

Library Blogs

This week, I looked at a variety of library blogs. In the process, I stumbled upon a very informative article on library blogs entitled "Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services" by Darlene Fichter. The article starts with a basic definition of a blog. It then explains how a blog can be used to the benefit of a library ("Savvy librarians are recognizing that blogs are a wonderful and inexpensive way to market library services"). There are also examples of existing blogs as well as ideas for new weblogs. What I liked most about the article was its run down on what to consider when starting a blog, such as "who is the target audience?", "what information is your library trying to convey?" and "what are the technical and networking issues that need to be considered?". This is a great article to use as a resource for any library looking to start its very first weblog.

Some Interesting Library Blogs
* Blogger Book Club
The Roselle (Illinois) Public Library maintains a Blogger Book Club. This is an online book discussion group for kids to share their thoughts about books. Beats having to step
out into the bitter cold during those long Chicago winters!

* Peter Scott's Library Blog
Maintained by librarian Peter Scott, this blog features links and news about library resources and libraries around the world.

* Library Blog for Kids and Teens
The Parma Public Library in Hilton, NY supports two blogs for its local area children and teens to keep these young citizens abreast of what is going on at their local library as well as offer informative links to other websites. What I liked most about the format versus the standard public library youth webpage was 1) it's "cutting edge" and 2) it encourgages feedback from patrons via the blog's comments option.

blogs, Blogs, BLOGS!!!

As the person in the first session of LIS 753 who publically admitted that she didn't know what a blog was, I have to say that now I know and man, have I been missing out!! I am a reality show and Biography channel junkie! I can't get enough of the real life stories of anyone and everyone out there. What a pleasant surprise for me to find that blogs are online personal journals written by everyday folks who talk about anything and everything that is on their minds. This blog stuff is right up my alley!! As a librarian-in-training and newcomer to the world of blogs, I choose three librarian blogs to review and I will talk about these three specifically for this first blog entry. The three blogs I reviewed were http://www.librarian.net, http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com and http://www.librarianavengers.org

First, I have to say that I liked all three blogs I perused. Each had a unique style to them and as I mentioned, I love any sort of autobiographical data that gives one an insight into the mindset/opinions of others. Of the three blogs I reviewed, I liked the style of the Shifted Librarian the most. The site was easy to navigate and focused on providing readers with a variety of references and links on technology available in the library field. For example, the Shifted Librarian has a page dedicated to what she calls her Shifted Reading List, a list of links to articles on technologies available to today's librarian.

In contrast, both the Librarian.net and Librarianavengers.org blogs seemed more centered on the personal thoughts and opinions of the respective authors. These bloggers have their pulse on the library profession and share their viewpoints via their blogs. I thoroughly enjoyed the Libraryavengers' essay on "Why you should fall to your knees and worship a librarian" and was quite impressed that the Librarian.net (Jessamyn West) has her very own Wikipedia entry (how cool!).

All in all, I am excited at the opportunity to look at more blogs over the next few weeks. So much to see, so little time.....will my house ever get cleaned again over these next few weeks?!?

This is my first post!

Hello. My name is Brenda and I am blogging for a class (LIS 753) at Dominican University. Over the next six weeks, I will be posting 5 entries about blogs, libraries, the web and applicable technologies.