LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

This Friday I'll be talking in Syracuse at The Upstate New York chapter of SLA day long conference: "The Librarian’s Toolbox: Enhance Your Connectivity, Productivity, and Presence"

My talk is more or less finished, but I'd love to hear from LISNews.

What's in your "toolbox" (online & offline) that helps you...
1) Be more productive
2) Increase your visibility in the profession
3) Connect to others when you need help / ideas

What are your favorite tools that help you get things done and get noticed?

Leave a comment below, Hit The Form or send me an email (btcarver@lisnews.com) and let me know!

Not specific to libraries, but...does your school or public library have a flagpole & flag?

From the Sun-Sentinal: Another casualty of the economy. American flags. The city of Clearwater (FL) can no longer afford to fly as many as they once did.

Should it be an expendable item? Should it absolutely stay? Or...

We're getting closer and closer to the start of another academic year and a new intake of LIS students. A question that arises is how to follow LISNews. Recognizing that people have different interests and also different habits in consuming Internet content, it is necessary to perhaps list some of those tools.

In case you've been in Casablanca or otherwise out of the librarian loop this summer (or not on facebook), you might not know about the Facebook Group People for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor! But now you do know about it and there's been a 'call to action'!

Here's a message from the leader of the charge and new LISNews author Andy W, on the group's facebook page:

"4,000. It took awhile but we got there. Completely awesome. This past month and a half has been pretty different for me. Stories about the group have appeared in Library Journal (both print and online), a local newspaper, tons of tweet and retweets on Twitter, and shared on Facebook. And for all those efforts, I cannot thank you enough. I am planning this to be the penultimate message, with the last message being one announce success =D

So, here's the deal now. Time to step it up and take some action in a couple easy steps.

(1) Submit a flavor to Ben & Jerry's directly.
Appeal to the 5 Flavor Gurus directly! (Arnold, John, Eric, Peter, & Nettie) Here is the link for their Suggest a Flavor form.
And here are a couple of the flavors, easy to cut & paste into the form. Pick one and submit (or submit one of your own).

a) Name: Gooey Decimal System (birdie's recommendation)

Publishers Weekly would like your input on the Google Book Search Settlement (from PW) and they are conducting a survey designed to gather a broad view of how the Settlement is being viewed. For details on the proposed settlement (from Google), click here.

If you're interested, take a few minutes to answer this brief, targeted questionnaire to help gauge industry opinion on whether the settlement should be approved, modified or rejected. Note that you do not have to have standing in the suit to participate in the survey.

Please click on this link when you are ready to take the survey.

Author Molly Dowd, whose book "Kevin Knows the Rules" was publicized on LISWire last winter knows that the Wire is a great way to reach a broad selection of librarians. Over 150 librarians accepted her offer of a reader's copy of her book to examine for their libraries. LISWire Works!

Now it's time for you to order copies for your libraries. Here's a listing on Google.

Publishers, authors, vendors and suppliers--register on LISWire today, and once your registration is accepted, you are welcome to post press releases about new titles, imprints and other products. Librarians...post press releases about author appearances, exhibits and personnel news...anything of interest to the community. Take advantage of this wonderful resource (while it's still free!!).

LISWire is a website from the guy behind LISNews & LISHost, Blake Carver, along with assistance from birdie, Robin K. Blum. Member companies and organizations can send their full-text news releases and multimedia content to librarians, journalists, library professionals and anyone with an interest in libraries.

She's tall, she's elegant and she welcomes all comers...wouldn't you like to know more about this lady?

Barry Moreno, the New York historian and author of “The Statue of Liberty Encyclopedia” will be responding to NY Times readers’ questions about the revered woman of New York harbor.

Readers who would like to submit a question to Mr. Moreno should do so in the comments box below. His first set of responses will be published on Wednesday.

C'mon librarians, think of a real stumper and see if he answers it.

County Commissioner Jeff Carlson suggested on June 2 the library computers should be for research, not entertainment, and that Highlands County libraries should buy fewer popular novels.

Should taxpayer money be spent on novels, electronic books, movie DVDs and music CDs? How do you use the library? Reporter Gary Pinnell is writing about the issue. If you can contribute to the story, please e-mail gpinnell@highlandstoday.com, or call 386-5828.

You can hear Commissioner Carlson's remarks here:

The State Funding he mentions that he feels the library doesn't need is referenced Here.

This is a story 'in progress' about your libraries.

Where is your library/name of your library?
Do you have a summer reading program?
When does it get started?
Who's in charge?
How is it implemented?
Is there a theme to the program?
Who's involved; children, teens and/or adults?

Let's exchange ideas...please add your comment below.

What's YOUR library doing? What do you wish it were doing? Please comment below...
(ps) there's no story unless you comment