Blogging Librarian

- Neat Amazon Feature: Book Citations
An innovative feature of Amazon.com that allows you to look at books that cite from your favorite book(s). So, Seth Godin, an author, is asking if this wonderful feature is even possible at his public library.
(via Seth’s Blog)

- Library is more than just “resources”
Ever wonder why no one comes to us when they have questions or require information assistance. Well, besides the readers being shy or think they can look for information on their own on Google, there’s another reason why. It’s because we might be using too much jargon which might scare off the readers. The article is written by Janet Steiner, the director of the Tompkins County Public Library in New York. The comments at the end of the article are interesting read as well.
(via LISNews.org)

- Public Library Geeks Take Web 2.0 to the Stacks
The Wired article looks at a training program designed by librarians to teach other librarians what exactly is Web 2.0 and how to use the different social networking sites such as Flickr, Technorati, Second Life, YouTube, Rollyho and others. The name of the training program is called Learning 2.0 and was developed by Helene Blowers, the public services technology director at North Carolina’s Charlotte & Mecklenburg County public library. Her initial plan was to train all the 550 staff in her public library system. She made them do 23 things with those who complete the tasks entitled to winning MP3 players and even a laptop. Besides it becoming a bit hit among the staff, it has become an international hit as it has been slowly introduced by different libraries around the world, though not in Singapore yet. And even a public relations firm is planning to set up a Learning 2.0 program for their staff.
(via LibraryCrunch)

- Book Club in A Bag
A great idea to encourage book clubs. The Kitchner Public Library has started offering a set of 10 copies of the same book together with book discussion materials, which can then be checked out as one item. Currently, there are 25 titles that are available for book clubs to choose from.
(via Pop Goes the Library)

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