Recap of Common Myths

After several days of postings both on this blog and on the Libnet listserv, some consensus has emerged regarding the most prevalent myth about libraries.
Here’s a breakdown of the most common responses:
9     Libraries are no longer needed because everything is [...]

Tenure for Librarians - Is It Worth It?

About once a year or so, I feel the need to say something about tenure and faculty status for academic librarians. Not quite “defend” our position, but at least take stock and reevaluate that position. Am I feeling defensive? Well, perhaps just a little. The truth is, library faculty play a different role than [...]

Beacons of Hope

This article from Inside Higher Ed by Russell Olwell was very inspiring for me on this Tuesday morning. For those of us at public institutions, this is a reminder of mission. As one person commented on this posting, we have an opportunity to “provide education for students of all ages who have limited means. It [...]

Burn Out

In the last two months I have taught two workshops on blogging for faculty. I’ve tried to make the argument that using RSS feeds and blogs to keep up with developments, news, and trends in their disciplines will save them time. I’ve been met with some skepticism but I do believe that once faculty get [...]

iDunno

I really loved the post below from Barbara Fister at ACRLog. I’m picturing our library with giant earbuds. Our library is six stories tall. It would certainly capture students’ interest. The ETS’ ICT exam measures not only computer skills but also information literacy skills. We have been interested in a trial here on our [...]

The Value of Interlibrary Loan

One of our faculty members emailed me this article today, and I found it very rewarding. In an environment where we are continually asked to do more with less, to introduce new resources every semester, and to justify our existence, it’s wise to occasionally take stock of what we are doing well and it’s nice [...]

Creative Commons

The following link is to a very nicely done explanation of Creative Commons licensing. What is that? This is an important tool for higher education because it allows academics and others to control the copyright of their own works. Most importantly, it can allow the author/creator of a work to specifically allow certain kinds of [...]

Why Choose a Small College

Steven Bell pointed out this article in his blog The Kept-Up Academic Librarian. I find it very interesting on both a personal and professional level. I too am both a parent of a high school sophomore and a library administrator at a small university. I firmly believe that smaller colleges have much to offer [...]

Information Communication Technology Literacy

Back in November, Inside Higher Ed, ran a story about Information Literacy. They linked to a new report the ETS published with preliminary results from its new Information Communication Technology (ICT) Assessment. If you haven’t heard about it, this test assesses students abilities to use information technology to solve information problems using life like [...]

Magic Fulltext Access Cookie

In an oped piece for Inside Higher Ed, Alex Golub laments that he has lost access to full-text resources through his alma mater, the University of Chicago. He discusses how he used to view this access as a privilege that he enjoyed for having attended this elite school, especially given his current underprivileged position at [...]