Clear your diaries, Apple Fanbois: the iPad will be available on April 3. That’s a Saturday, so pack the kids off to granny’s on Thursday and start queuing at the closest Apple Store. Only the Wi-Fi models [...]]]> iPad Launches on April 3, Pre-Orders Begin March 12 [UPDATED] | addybaddy | Fast Company.

Clear your diaries, Apple Fanbois: the iPad will be available on April 3. That’s a Saturday, so pack the kids off to granny’s on Thursday and start queuing at the closest Apple Store. Only the Wi-Fi models will be available at first, but the 3G models will be available by the end of the month. You’ll be able to pre-order them online from next Friday, March 12, or reserve a unit to pick up on the launch date. The rest of the world will have to wait until end of April, when all models will be available in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

The author of a new book talks about the secret lives of America’s favorite — and endangered — disciplinarians.

Behold the stereotypical librarian, with her cat’s-eye glasses, bun and pantyhose — a creature whose desexualized persona and desire for us to be quiet has fueled generations of wild sexual fantasies. But [...]]]> From Salon.com:

The author of a new book talks about the secret lives of America’s favorite — and endangered — disciplinarians.

Behold the stereotypical librarian, with her cat’s-eye glasses, bun and pantyhose — a creature whose desexualized persona and desire for us to be quiet has fueled generations of wild sexual fantasies. But there’s bad news for those of you with a shushing fetish; as Marilyn Johnson explains in “This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All,” the uptight librarian is a species that’s rapidly approaching extinction.

A new generation of young, hip and occasionally tattooed librarians is driving them out. They call themselves guybrarians, cybrarians and “information specialists,” and they blog at sites like The Free Range Librarian and The Lipstick Librarian. They can be found in droves on Second Life, but also outside the Republican National Convention, dodging tear gas canisters and tweeting the location of the police.

Johnson, a former staff writer for Life magazine, and author of “The Dead Beat,” a book about the fascinating world of obituary writing, delights in refuting our assumptions about librarians, while making a rock-solid case for their indispensability at a time when library systems are losing an average of 50 librarians per year. Who else is going to help us formulate the questions Google doesn’t understand, or show non-English speakers how to apply for jobs online, or sympathize with your need to research the ancient origins of cockfighting? Librarians, Johnson argues, are one of our most underappreciated natural resources.

Read the entire review at Salon.com.

Even non-techies can offer cutting-edge services right away

New social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter enable librarians to converse, communicate, and collaborate with patrons as never before, because they are increasingly a part of people’s everyday lives. A brochure [...]]]> American Libraries features this nifty article on easy tech wins:

Even non-techies can offer cutting-edge services right away

New social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter enable librarians to converse, communicate, and collaborate with patrons as never before, because they are increasingly a part of people’s everyday lives. A brochure that describes your library with a few pictures is great, but a video tour that people can watch on your website or blog is immeasurably better. Enabling patrons to save their catalog searches is important, but offering the ability to notify patrons via email and text messaging when new acquisitions arrive presents a fresh way to connect with users.

Librarians who are still becoming comfortable with the Web are often reticent to begin using new technologies in their day-to-day work because the learning curve often takes more time than they have at hand. When I begin teaching people about Web 2.0, mobile, and emerging technologies, I try to answer three questions:

• What is it?
• Why is it important?
• How can it help me better serve my users tomorrow?

Here are 10 ideas you can use to start creating, collaborating, connecting, and communicating through cutting-edge tools and techniques. All of them are culled from the 10 books in the Tech Set series, to be published by Neal-Schuman in March.

10 Technology Ideas Your Library Can Implement Next Week | American Libraries Magazine.

The University of Guelph Library is extending its search for an experienced and innovative librarian to be the Head of the Library’s new Discovery & Access strategic area.  Discovery & Access is responsible for a suite of inter-related services, systems, and tools connecting users with Library resources and services. The Head will provide [...]]]> Posted to CACUL:

The University of Guelph Library is extending its search for an experienced and innovative librarian to be the Head of the Library’s new Discovery & Access strategic area.  Discovery & Access is responsible for a suite of inter-related services, systems, and tools connecting users with Library resources and services. The Head will provide leadership for user experience design, web development, electronic resources management, reference, e-learning operations and reserves, circulation and interlibrary services, and the Library Centre for Students with Disabilities. These teams are dedicated to improving the total user experience, in-person and online, by designing and delivering user services grounded in a deep and evolving understanding of user behaviours, expectations and needs. To learn more about this opportunity please see the full posting at: http://www.uoguelph.ca/facultyjobs/postings/ad10-08frweb.html . Applications are due April 2, 2010.

Feel free to contact Catherine Steeves, csteeves@uoguelph.ca, for more information.

Thank you for considering this opportunity.

“Domain Specific Applications of Knowledge Media Design”

If you answered yes to those question, we need you!

Who are we?

The professional development committee consists of [...]]]> KMDI Professional Development Events – Seeking Featured Panelists!

“Domain Specific Applications of Knowledge Media Design”

• Do you work in a field that is related to Knowledge/Media/Design?
• Do you consider your work ‘domain specific’?
• Do you enjoy speaking to students and sharing your experiences?

If you answered yes to those question, we need you!

Who are we?

The professional development committee consists of KMD collaborative program students <http://kmdi.utoronto.ca/graduate/> who are dedicated to bridging the gap between research and education in the university setting, and the real-world experiences of the professional world.

We are looking for featured panelists who have domain-specific work experience they would like to share with KMD students in a workshop-format. The workshop-format is designed to be an alternative to the more traditional short presentation followed by Q&A format.

Where is the space?

The brand new Brian Cantwell Smith idea Exchange is a collaborative space  at the Faculty of Information (140 St. George Street) with a brand new SmartBoard set up, completed with a fancy coffee machine.

The space has great potential for the kind of dynamic event we envision, all we need are interesting people and interesting experiences to tickle our student’s enquiring minds.

Participation Details:

Two professional panels in a workshop format are being organized for Wednesday March 4 and April 1st, from 4-6pm at the Faculty of Information (140 St. George Street), featuring guests and projects that reflect our theme: “Domain Specific Applications of Knowledge Media Design”.  These panel discussions will showcase projects from various disciplines and provide an informal and dynamic forum for students to learn more about the emerging and dynamic field of Knowledge Media Design from a professional perspective.

We are seeking interested speakers (faculty, alumni, advance graduate students) to come in and showcase any projects that they have worked on, and to share their insight and experience to graduate students.

If interested, please forward us a brief bio, your professional background, your research interests, and some of the projects that you think you would like to share at this event to margaret.lam@gmail.com (“KMD PD Event” in heading). We are looking for 3 speakers for our March 4th event, and others who are interested in speaking at such an event some time in the future.

This is a pilot initiative, and the success of these first two events will steer the direction of any future events held by the PD Student Committee. Your feedback and comments will be greatly appreciated! We look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

Ryan Kealey (PhD Candidate – Mechanical & Industrial Engineering)

Margaret Lam (Masters Candidate – Faculty of Information)

Tonya Noel (M.Ed Candidate – Curriculum, Teaching and Learning)

Dor Reich (Masters Candidate – Faculty of Information)

If you are thinking about your 2010 conference planning, don’t forget that the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries has conference grants to help you off-set the costs of attending the 2010 CLA conference held this year in Edmonton AB.

CACUL has up to 5 grants available  for 2010 — 3 grants (up [...]]]> Posted on CACUL-L:

If you are thinking about your 2010 conference planning, don’t forget that the Canadian Association of College and University Libraries has conference grants to help you off-set the costs of attending the 2010 CLA conference held this year in Edmonton AB.

CACUL has up to 5 grants available  for 2010 — 3 grants (up to $1,800) each)  intended for new librarians, librarians who are unemployed or employed in a contract position, or a library technician; and two grants (up to $500) to support mid-career librarians.

For application details see:

http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Conference_Grant

http://www.cla.ca/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Mid_Career_Travel_Grant

Deadline for all conference grants is March 31 2010.

Best Regards,

Carol Shepstone,
CACUL Director, Grants

26-28 April 2010, Trondheim, Norway

This is a new international conference for academic librarians, information professionals, academic staff, students, library system developers and suppliers, among others. The conference aims to provide answers to the following questions: What can academic libraries do to address change? How can we [...]]]> International conference on emerging technologies in academic libraries 2010 (emtacl10)

26-28 April 2010, Trondheim, Norway

This is a new international conference for academic librarians, information professionals, academic staff, students, library system developers and suppliers, among others. The conference aims to provide answers to the following questions: What can academic libraries do to address change? How can we adapt? Which technologies can/should/must we use/create? (View the conference programme

<http://www.ntnu.no/ub/emtacl/?programme>)

Keynote speakers: Lorcan Dempsey (OCLC), Conor Galvin (UCD), Guus van den Brekel (UMCG), Ida Aalen (NTNU), Martin Malmsten (Libris), Chris Clarke (Talis).

The conference is hosted by NTNU Library, the Library of the Norwegian university of science and technology in Trondheim, Norway.

• Earlybird registration (before 15 February 2010) EUR 360 Registration after 15 February EUR 400 Conference dates: 26-28 April 2010
• Direct link for registration <http://www.ntnu.no/ub/emtacl/?registration>
• For additional information, please visit the conference website: <http://www.emtacl.com or email us emtacl@ub.ntnu.no>

- Jon Bing, Professor of Information Technology Law, University of Oslo, Norway