Reviews of Marilyn Johnson's book

Having written previously called This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All. Well, with the release of there books there have been some very positive reviews here and here. Hopefully mine will be there tonight.

Seth Godin and the future of libraries

(Found via here). Seth Godin has an interesting post The future of the library. He asks:-

What should libraries do to become relevant in the digital age?.

I suggest you read the rest to see what his idea's on the subject are.

Being a librarian is a serious matter.....

(Found via here). I was interested to read the cataloguing librarian's article discussing how when she mentioned to a second hand card salesman that she was a librarian there response was:-

he laughed. Yes, laughed. As he leaned back in his chair, he went on to say derisively “ahh, I know Dewey is going the way of the dodo.”

Firstly, you don't laugh at your clients if your trying to provide something to them (do you laugh at patrons because they may want to read?).
Secondly, what is so laughable about being a librarian?
thirdly, I often get this reaction from people ask what i do. Some say 'what do you do all day? Go shhhhhhhh all the time?' Others think the Google revolution of having all information makes us redundant? Poppycock.

Its a shame more people don't take us more seriously. Anyway, I am going to make sure there is silence in the building.

Library video and the hive

(Found via here), Jisc has released a video entitled Libraries of the future on youtube.
Librarians Matters blog says of it:-

Libraries as bee-hives? Google as a partner? Librarians as network administrators as much as information specialists? Librarians “entrepreneurial, engaged and outward looking”? Investing thousands of pounds in change management programs?

The video is well worth a look.

Should we stop blogging and go to twitter........

(Found Via David Lee King), I was pointed to Kathryn Greenhill blog post entitled When should you stop blogging ? in which she says:-

While I don’t think I have any intention of stopping Librarians Matter, I’ve noticed my posts are slowing down as I enter my third year. I’ve been spending more time twittering, on new work projects, blogging elsewhere , getting slowly interested in videoblogging - and even trying to go walking at 6am to spend some one-on-one time with Mr10.

I've gone through periods where i have struggled to blog, but the idea of just twitter or not blogging seems a sad loss. I like blogging as I feel it keeps me up to date, I have to read something current and I interact with people I respect. I even wish it made me a better writter, but thats not so i'm afraid. If your thinking of quitting blogging check Walt Crawford's Thinking about Blogging in Cites & Insights: Crawford at Large.