For those of you who may not know, OCLC and the Research Libraries Group (RLG) are thinking of merging together. As two of the biggest non-profit library groups, this is big news. You can read more about this merger and possible implications (loss of jobs, integrated database, etc) in the Chronicle of Higher Education (requires subscription, sorry).
Update: For those who can't access CHE, here's a link to an ALA tidbit on the merger that doesn't require a subscription (as far as I can recall).
Free Government Information wrote a little piece on the Library of Parliament in Canada. Questions have been raised about preservation. The response is that print is still important. I believe in this whole-heartedly. Electronic is a great medium for access but preservation of electronic information leaves a lot to be desired yet. I'm heading a group at my library to try to figure out what can be done with electronic government publications. The issues are enormous, preservation is just one. I'm also concerned with accessing the many of hidden government documents. More to come on that when solutions are found.
Ok, I promise I'll try not to write too much more on this topic, as it does seem to be dominating lately. However, according to a New York Times article, it seems that 1/3 of the items that were withdrawn and reclassified since 1999 from the National Archives in the Staes did not contain sensative material. The remaining 2/3 could technically be justified but often held old secrets that are known. It begs the question, why were they withdrawn then? I have no answer for you.
Just thought I'd pass along a couple of interesting library 2.0 stuff to play with. There is now a library 2.0 wiki. Firefox also has an extension for libraries: LibX. I haven't played with it yet, so no comments at this time. Have fun playing!
Update: I should really wait until I read all my rss feeds before posting. Here's another good resource to check out for Library 2.0 stuff.
Well, I just can't seem to get away from secrecy issues, so much so in fact that I've created it as a new tag. I blame part of this on account of my government publications duties. Here's some more about the National Archives and the CIA (from the Chronicle Of Higher Education, may need a subscription). The archivist, who claims he only found out about the agreement recently, agrees with what I said in my previous post: such an agreement goes against everything they stand for. He has stated that he will not be entering any secret agreements in the future. Update: Here's a link for background info on NARA and MOUs. Be Spacific also has a good posting on the recent couple of secrecy issues at NARA.
Papers from Jack Anderson have been donated to George Washington University. Great, except that the FBI want to look at them first and take out any classified documents. According to CNN, his family has refused to let the FBI look through the papers.
The National Archives in the States has admitted to removing items from their shelves and secretly reclassifying them. While I blogged on this before, the shocking part of this is to me that they would agree to secretly remove items that has formerly been available to researches. In a profession that is supposed to uphold access to information it seems counter-intuitive. The memorandum was obtain through a Freedom of Information request and has since been posted on their website. At least they are admitting to their acts now.
Finally, a Canadian study showing the link between academic achievement and libraries and librarians. The Ontario School Library Association is certainly glad to hear this news, news they've known all along. Now, if only the funding would reflect the importance of these libraries.
Take a look at this post from A Zulu in Silicon Valley. It looks at a search engine called Quece that actually searches by chat. They call it Conversational search. You search like you think. Simply type in your search, get results, and then you are asked another question, thereby refining your search. This sounds awfully like a reference interview. I haven't tried it out yet but it is certainly added to my to do list. I'll be keeping on eye on this one.
For those of us still learning about web 2.0 and the myriad of applications that are associated with it, check out the blog A Zulu In Silicon Valley. I'm finding it a great way to find about many of the new applications that probably would have gone amiss. There just simply isn't enough time in a day to get it all done, the surfing and exploring, work, and of course, a life. It's also a nice way to start dreaming what possible library applications there might be with some of these things.
Well, it's that time of year here. I'm getting ready for my annual review. It's a great way to look back at the year, examine what was accomplished and what has yet to happen. I've managed to accomplish quite a bit this year but it's rather overwhelming when I consider the number of things I still want to accomplish.
Not only are there a number of things to actually get done, there's lots to contemplate in the ever changing world of librarianship. Top on my list of considerations:
The state of government information – There are so many issues when it comes to government publications, especially electronic gov pubs. We're creating an e-gov pubs working group to try to get a handle on some of the issues.
Library 2.0 – yes, more library 2.0. I'll definitely keep following this and consider how we can apply it here. Luckily, we've got a couple of experts in this area already.
Information Literacy – this almost goes hand-in-hand with another concern of mine, liaison work. I think it's incredibly important to reach out to both faculty and students in the form of liaison work. This year the library's trying to get more involved with student orientation and I'm playing a role in it. Hopefully our relationship with both students and faculty will become stronger over the next year.
The year ahead holds many challenges and opportunities. Bring it on!
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