What I've been reading in July

Mashcat

I found Mashcat a really interesting unconference. I won't pretend to have understood everything that was talked about, but I definitely learnt a lot! These are the slides/blog posts from my favourite sessions.

Ed Chamberlain, Text to data [slides]

Gary Green, A Travellers Map in Yahoo Pipes (Really cool visual way to search subject headings referring to places)

Owen Stephens, Boutique Catalogues (Includes demonstration of how a catalogue could be customised for musicians, creating faceted indexes for key, bpm and time-signature)


Presenting

Ned Potter, Good presentations matter


Libraries and the Internet

Lauren Smith, Internet Access and Public Libraries

Phil Bradley, Libraries charging for internet access is wrong

Voices for the Library, Free internet access should be a cornerstone of every public library

Ian Clark, Barking libraries - tiny cuts or massive scars?

CILIP, Act risks limiting internet access in libraries, schools and universities


E-books

Alison Flood, Call to 'move libraries into 21st century' sparks ebook lending review


Volunteer libraries

CILIP, Value of staff at heart of revised volunteer policy

Dalya Alberge, Authors face royalty threat from volunteer libraries

Ian Anstice, Surrey chooses volunteers over paid staff at the same cost


Online learning

Emma Cragg, Where next for 23 Things?   (I've heard a lot about coursera lately, and I'm definitely going to look into it when I finish my MA. One course at a time though...)

By Guillermo Esteves on Flickr

What I've been reading in April

eBooks

Peter Pachal, What Apple's Ebook Fiasco Means for Amazon and the Book Business (See also Digital Divide. Very worrying...)

Bobbi Newman, Ebook Readership Increases, Still Only 21% 

Kathryn Zickuhr, E-books aren't just for e-readers: A deep dive into the data

Andy Woodworth, Reading Between the Lines (has the internet killed reading books?)

Andy Priestner, Ebooks: an epiphany

Digital Divide 

Ian Clark, The income divide and its impact on digital exclusion

Ian Clark, Age, disability and digital divide

Ian Clark, The internet - don't need it, can't afford it

Information Literacy

Greg Downey, Counterintuitive Digital Media Assignments (Very interesting assignment set for a digital media course)

Job Applications

Laura Wilkinson, Designing interview tests

Helen Murphy, Dum de dum de dum de dum de dum (otherwise known as #CPD23  Thing 21: Job Applications) ("I defy anyone reading this to imagine something more likely to take a ruby-encrusted pickaxe to your soul than a poorly formatted Word table.")

Cataloguing

Claire Sewell, CIG eforum - Social media  in the cataloguing community

Misc.

Simon Barron, ISBN, ISTC, and ontology

R. David Lankes, Beyond the Bullet Points: Libraries are Obsolete 

By needoptic on Flickr

What I've been reading in October

Save Libraries

Peter Walker and Alison Flood, High Court Bid to Halt Library Closures Fails 

Lauren Smith, Just Another Liberal Whinger? (A brilliant response to this article by John McTernan) 

Alison Flood, Philip Pullman declares war against 'stupidity' of library closures

Voices for the Library, 22nd October 2011: Library Campaign Conference (includes full speech of Philip Pullman's speech) 

Library Camp

Paul Stainthorpe, Let them tweet cake: why Library Camp was unconferencing done right

Gaz Johnson, Camping

Saint Evelin, Library Camp: Call me Sarah if it makes things easier...

Presenting

Ned Potter, 5 Easy Ways to Create Fabulous Slides 

Ned Potter, Student Induction, Libraries, Prezi, and Interactive Maps

Digital Resources

Micah Vandegrift, The Digital Public Library of America

Dan Cohen, Digital Ephemera and the Calculus of Importance

eBooks and eReaders

Simon Barron, Why I got a Kindle

Ian Clark, Why I have not got a Kindle... (I'm considering buying something to read ebooks on - Kindle, Kobo or Android tablet - so Simon and Ian's posts came at a great time! Any other advice would be very much appreciated.)

Digital Divide

Ian Clark, Follow your dreams - but it will cost you

Mark Herring, Fool's Gold: Why the Internet is no Substitute for a Library (London: McFarland, 2007)

Jobs and Careers

#uklibchat, Summary: Thursday 22nd Sept 2011. LIS Jobs and Careers 

Simon Barron, Thoughts on Military Librarianship

Carley Deanus, My Graduate Trainee Year: On Reflection... 

Games and Gamification

 Gerard LeFond, Why Education Needs to Get It's Game On

by Cindiann on Flickr