Academic librarians want their Web sites to attract faculty and students the way flowers invite insects for a visit. The urge to plunge into the cornucopia of electronic riches that lies waiting in the library’s highly organized portal should be irresistible. Exclusive research databases, costly electronic journals and digital books and treasures lay in wait for those who need and are willing to seek them out.
Advocating a much needed transformation of the library portal leads to two questions. First, how can libraries more effectively create awareness about their content so users can discover it? Second, what should replace the library portal? The answers are intertwined, but the changes needed depend on faculty recognizing that it is a change they must help to facilitate.
There is a lot to this article. The snippets above provide some flavor of the discussion. Full article here.
Blogs. Boston Public Library. Cambridge Public Library.
At our Boston Public Library and our Cambridge Public Library blog type templates are needed for librarians interested in letting everyone know of their specialized knowledge of BPL and CPL collections. City libraries’ leadership need to encourage the writing of entries and listings of the areas of expertise name by name for those BPLers and CPLers that would make available their curricula vitae. It serves the interest of our communities and the interests of librarians with expertise advancing their careers previously in anonymity.
the zak’s day
the zak’s day
http://hpn.asu.edu/archives/Jan98/0063.html