An article from the Independent today - Friday, 22 May 2009 - concerning iPhones at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Students are being asked to buy iPhones for use in their learning. "It's like asking an engineer to buy a calculator," said Brian Brooks, associate dean for undergraduate studies.
Or an art student a brush? ...Actually take a look at Stef Kardos' brilliant iphone paintings.
Friday, 22 May 2009
Space has always been an issue in Libraries but until recently usually concerned with assets - books, journals , and the space required to keep them, now the debate is about people & users and how creativity and learning is facilitated in these 'spaces' - now that we are removing hard copy and print title backruns... 12 Keys to Library Design: Improving the Academic Experience
By Thomas Sens, AIA, LEED AP, BHDP Architecture -- Library Journal, 5/15/2009
The academic library has evolved into a forum for students to collaborate, enjoy fellowship, engage in healthy debate, create and challenge ideas, and experience learning and discovery in a multitude of meaningful ways. Good design supports these activities. The following 12 keys to designing an academic library will deliver great experiences for its patrons and ensure the library's central role in academic life.
read more here...
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6656754.html?nid=2673&source=title&rid=830120475
Thursday, 14 May 2009
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Future of Scholarly Publishing?
Well not yet - but just imagine if the digital library - books or journals could be accessed in this way...NY Times 2.0 Reader
No Shelf Required A moderated discussion blog covering eBooks, for librarians and publishers points to the NY Times 2.0 Reader today (its powered by Adobe Air) . No Shelf Required blogger and Head of Reference at Wright State University Sue Polanka, writes -
"The NY Times released it’s 2.0 Reader today, powered by Adobe Air.
The basics:
• works on Windows, MAC, linux
• updates every 5 minutes
• stories run in multiple sections of the paper
• news feed for breaking news
• read off-line
• 7 day archive
• even has the crossword
• all for $3.95 a week"
There is a short flash clip here http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/timesreader/nytreader.html
and Sue points to this NY Times article for more information
No Shelf Required A moderated discussion blog covering eBooks, for librarians and publishers points to the NY Times 2.0 Reader today (its powered by Adobe Air) . No Shelf Required blogger and Head of Reference at Wright State University Sue Polanka, writes -
"The NY Times released it’s 2.0 Reader today, powered by Adobe Air.
The basics:
• works on Windows, MAC, linux
• updates every 5 minutes
• stories run in multiple sections of the paper
• news feed for breaking news
• read off-line
• 7 day archive
• even has the crossword
• all for $3.95 a week"
There is a short flash clip here http://www.nytimes.com/marketing/timesreader/nytreader.html
and Sue points to this NY Times article for more information
Monday, 11 May 2009
Guru Library Thang
Here is a new (to me) library type app - GuruLib. GuruLib is a privately owned website, started in April 2006 by two University of Missouri students. It aims to help catalog, connect and share books, movies, music and games between home libraries. Much like Library Thing "an impressive cataloging app that feels like del.icio.us for books." according to Lifehacker and "both entrancing and evil" according to anomilygrace! Anyway it looks interesting, it also has a touchscreen version and and Itunes type flow interface. Are we going to incorporate into our catalogues as we have done with the L thing - see Dave pattern's excellent slideshare on OPAC 2.0 about how we might 'pimp' our catalogues....
OPAC 2.0: Supporting library users
View more presentations from Scottish Libraries.
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Social Movements
Reading a great little new handbook - from the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. This was circulated to conference attendees recently and I noticed it sticking from a pile of literature as the 'attendee' returned home from the event.
The Handbook entitled 'The Power of One, The Power of Many - Bringing Social Movement Thinking to Health and Healthcare Improvement' caught my eye immediately - perhaps it was the word 'social' and the association I automatically make with technology these days - social networking/technologies are about communities, Leadbeater's We Think, Clay Shirky, mass creativity etc. Anyway it is a very interesting and thought provoking read. Not knowing much about Social Movements (The institute has helpfully published a literature review) I've started following this up with some vigour.
"This new guide provides knowledge on, and demonstrates how ‘social movement’ approaches have been used to deliver improvement at previously unseen levels and how it can contribute toward creating the levels of engagement as required by the goals as set out in the NHS Plan"
Social movements are being studied as a model for driving change within the NHS. This study has four main objectives:
- to explore 'social movements' as a new way of thinking about large-scale systems change
- to assess the potential contribution of applying this new perspective to NHS improvement
- to enrich and extend NHS thinking in relation to large-scale, system-wide change
- to begin to establish a research and evidence base to support the emergence of an improvement movement in the NHS.
It just might help as we struggle with the change agenda in Libraries and Universities and it does sound like the language we are using in our social networking deliberations. A combination of the two deserves some further exploration ... more on this to come!
See - Helen Bevan, Director of Service Transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement on Social Movement Thinking
The Handbook entitled 'The Power of One, The Power of Many - Bringing Social Movement Thinking to Health and Healthcare Improvement' caught my eye immediately - perhaps it was the word 'social' and the association I automatically make with technology these days - social networking/technologies are about communities, Leadbeater's We Think, Clay Shirky, mass creativity etc. Anyway it is a very interesting and thought provoking read. Not knowing much about Social Movements (The institute has helpfully published a literature review) I've started following this up with some vigour.
"This new guide provides knowledge on, and demonstrates how ‘social movement’ approaches have been used to deliver improvement at previously unseen levels and how it can contribute toward creating the levels of engagement as required by the goals as set out in the NHS Plan"
Social movements are being studied as a model for driving change within the NHS. This study has four main objectives:
- to explore 'social movements' as a new way of thinking about large-scale systems change
- to assess the potential contribution of applying this new perspective to NHS improvement
- to enrich and extend NHS thinking in relation to large-scale, system-wide change
- to begin to establish a research and evidence base to support the emergence of an improvement movement in the NHS.
It just might help as we struggle with the change agenda in Libraries and Universities and it does sound like the language we are using in our social networking deliberations. A combination of the two deserves some further exploration ... more on this to come!
See - Helen Bevan, Director of Service Transformation at the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement on Social Movement Thinking
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