Management Assignment Tip

I thought that the following tip might be useful to some of my colleagues who are working on their management papers for next week. You may find this to be a useful search strategy:

Once you have generated a list of potential author names for your references, go to Web of Science (an electronic index) and select "author search." Type in the author's last name and initial(s). You will eventually be lead to a page that lists the author's articles listed on the database, as well as options to find out how many times they have been cited, and where they have been cited.

Good luck!

Koha Assignment

As a preamble:

In this last FIS1311 assignment, I examined the open source software Koha. In this assignment, I focused on Koha's overall stability (particularly as evidenced on the SourceForge website). I also pointed out that Koha is flexible regarding the computer systems on which it can function. Lastly, I thought that having such an active community of users and developers that participate on the Koha listserv is a big benefit -- contributing to both developing Koha and resolving its diffficulties! The biggest disadvantage, in my opinion, was the expense of the third party commercial support for Koha -- cost savings might only be a longterm goal, not a short term achievement, due to the expense of the third party maintenance.

Here is the (brief) conclusion which I submitted in my report.

As evidenced by its stability and the interactive developments from its user community, Koha is a viable operating system. However, the possibilities of making a financial savings may only occur within a longterm usage of Koha.

Talis Conclusions II

In addition to my other conclusions blog, I also think that it would be difficult for a local library to maintain control over the organization and flow of information if all library catalogues were to be joined into one.

Additionally, and this will not be mentioned within my critical article review -- might I be right in asserting a view point that focusing on Library 2.0 might only include the "digital natives" and exclude other groups who are either unable to access the technology or to use it, including seniors and children (keeping this post in alignment with one of my original hopes for this blog -- to discuss children's services and technology)?

Talis conclusions

In reading the Talis paper on Library 2.0 entitled "Do Libraries Matter?", I feel that it is a good introduction to the technological possibilities that are left open to libraries, and that it is a reminder that librarians should be aware of technological developments used by patrons. Having said that, I think that the article skirts around the important issue of patron information privacy, and that it could do a much better job of explaining the measures which would be taken to prevent online vendors from tracking the patrons. Many public libraries in North America are subject to different privacy policies; in Ontario, libraries must ensure that they follow the policies of the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This paper also does a disservice to its argument by failing to quote any statistical sources to prove that drastic technological changes are considered necessary either by current patrons or for current patrons.

Finally, I do believe that Library 2.0 can only be successful (and indeed should only be used) to draw patrons into the library for services, maintaining themselves as communal sources of information. In some cases, this may mean maintaining a blog or wiki, but it could even be something as simple as posting an electronic notice on a communal resource, advertising a relevant workshop, clinic, or library acquisition.

Essential Blogging

Hi all!

I would like to let my fellow FIS 1311 students know that there is a different way to access the e-book "Essential Blogging" by Cory Doctorow et al. If you go to the University of Toronto library website, click on the "All e-resources" tab and type in the title of the book, you should be able to access the e-book with no problems.

I hope that this was helpful!