So what exactly is the future for libraries?

Greater access to information waiting to be transmuted to knowledge and perhaps wisdom. Increased complexity in searching - forget the 'user friendly' paradigm or worse, that old chestnut of simple is best (it ain't) - and greater than ever challenges for librarians and their clients.
We were having a discussion at work recently as to how long a librarian who left the profession could stay out and then reenter it without being out of date. We were talking about needing to do serious relearning or risk being terminated on the grounds of being useless. I was an optimist and suggested maybe five years. Others think it is now less than a year for a higher education institution. So keep on running.
This web site article is from the Da Vinci Institute and features some ideas about what the future may hold for libraries. Thanks to Savita at RMIT for the link.
http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120

Enjoy Oxford Reference Online Premium!

Do have a look at the extra bits and pieces we have with Oxford Online Premium!
Not only can we now search a greater number of dictionaries & encyclopedias but we can now reorder our results. I'm enjoying the option to list the longer entries first, often what I prefer but listing those with illustrations or the quotations first will be useful.

BTW, also have a look at the timelines and links by subject, maybe we could consider the latter for some of our research guides...

Welcome to ILS staff and try this URL shortening tool!

Hello and good to "see" you to the ILS staff who I invited to join out blog community.

Now for those of you who would like to use long URLs on occasion, you may find DigBig (free) handy. It somehow shortens the URL so it looks tidy in newsletters and other communications. http://www.digbig.com/

TRIG report

Kate's report on the TRIG meeting of 23rd June is available at http://staffweb.mail.bhtafe.edu.au/f3/index.cfm?fa=sw.rShow&rid=141156&cid=90509&Site=582

Recipes anyway

I remember when I was at Elgar it was useful to have a few recipe sites on hand to help the cookery students so here is one I've just come across that seems quite good.
http://www.recipezaar.com/
A diverse range of recipes including ones from our part of the world, NZ & Polynesia.

How good does it get? High quality and open access.

Thomson Scientific, suppliers of a number of highly valued databases, have a web site featuring a number of resources which are open access, including professional news and links. Worth exploring and then scheduling regular checks for new content.
http://scientific.thomson.com/free/
http://scientific.thomson.com/knowledgelink/

Don't throw out those old statistics with the bathwater!

Traditional data collected by libraries may still have a use in this volatile, dynamic 21st century, when libraries try to show what beneficial impact they have on their communities. The link below is to a guest forum in 'Informed Librarian' featuring 'Evaluation and Assessment for the Practicing Librarian' by Rosalind Dudden. It includes a list of references and links to resources for the librarian to use. Go Rosalind.
http://www.informedlibrarian.com/guestForum.cfm?FILE=gf0607.html

Emerald good for librarians

Rita was impressed with the Emerald database, it is put together by an international group of academics, the most interesting thing about it was a resource site for librarians linked from the database, with information about conference location and places to publish your own aritcles.

After all, we are in the business of training a diverse range of prospective small business operators who could all benefit from this database although we do have some concerns that the material is a little theoretical than how to run your business in the real world. Please correspond with your own findings!

Info Literacy Toolkit

Another from George
http://www.ltu.unsw.edu.au/documents/infoliteracytoolkit_May2006.pdf
From the UNSW - seems very useful indeed - although intended for University, the principles apply widely - even to public libraries (personal opinion)

COIL - Chisholm IL tutorials

You may have heard about these Information Literacy tutorials that Terri Bell & others at Chisholm have put together. http://library.chisholm.vic.edu.au/coil/site/index.htm
They have seven general interactive tutorials. George reckons there is a specific nursing one but if so, I'm not sure where it is; there is a horticulture one which is very pretty.

Information Literacy practices of TAFE librarians

Thanks again to George for this report by Jenny Fafieta " Taking the pulse: the Information Literacy Practices of TAFE librarians". As George says 'you probably have come across it - but just in case - no real surprises are there?'
http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/rails/fafeita.ppt

Gen- Y & Top 10 tech trends

As a Gen-Xer, I knew about some of the stuff in this presentation Richard Giles delivered at VALA via teleconferencing but I understand a bit more now about what some of our students are doing on the PCs for hours. Some of these online communities and ways of using the Internet in a broader way are facinating. Have a look one and all!
http://www.cliquecomm.com/blog/2006/02/09/vala-top-ten-tech-trends-presentation/

Vote for a Librarian

In an interview with Geraldine Barkworth in Incite April 06, Louis Rosenfeld suggests that the world needs the skills of librarians to be applied more widely in information architecture in all its forms, organising and structuring and labelling content to make it more navigable and searchable. Librarians need to do a better job of welcoming and encourage entrepreneurs in their midst (he argues entrepreneurship is more a gift than a learned skill) to build on the many positives that we have in our skills sets from organising information to customer knowledge.
Hence his theory that librarians are well suited for "public office" because we are trained to value facts and acknowledge our ignorance and make every effort to find the truth.
What he sees as important to the future is that librarianship is a critical skill that has wide application and whenever we feel pessimistic, we should remember we are the "ultimate service professional". Read the full interview for some inspiration!

Copyright myths and misconceptions

I know we have our very own Lisa (Intellectual Property Guru) but in the April 2006 Incite, Moyra McAllister, (ALIA copyright advisor) answers some of the common copyright misconceptions very succinctly. If you have a staff member who is entering the realm of Curriculum creation or the like, it might be worth photocopying/scanning her page-long article and sending it to them.