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Yet another study saying chocolate may be good for you! As a self-professed chocoholic, it’s music to my ears!
The New York Times (may require registration) reports that the American government is apparently reclassifying documents which were previously offered to the public. One wonders how this can be done, since researchers already have copies of many of the documents. This news comes after a recent article that stated that the US government was releasing the largest amount of documents by the end of the year.
Government documents have been taking a beating in the past few years. Electronic versions of documents provided nightmares for gov docs librarians. The issues in preservation and access are astounding and yet more and more gov pubs end up as online versions only. The Bush administration is the most secretive administration yet. Gov pubs librarians are trying their best to address the problems but it seems an uphill battle. I could rant on about the problems facing gov pubs in the next while, but sufficit to say, I’m looking forward to my upcoming conferences (CLA, ALA), both of which have gov pubs tracks. It will be nice to talk about these issues with others who have the same concerns. I’ll keep you posted of any solutions on the horizon.
I’m thinking of changing the name of my blog. While I am wee, as my nickname suggests, I am not the only wee librarian in the blogosphere. It seems there is another blog called Wee Librarian. To avoid confusion, I am trying to think of a new, exciting, perhaps daring name for my blog, but have yet to hear the muses. I’m always open to suggestions though. Keep a look out for the change!
Stephen Abram of Stephen’s Lighthouse has suggested a definition for an Internet Voyeur:
“Definition: An Internet Voyeur is someone who is aware of the tools, sites and concepts of the new ways of web ecology but hasn’t really experienced them personally. They’ve read about blogs, maybe visited a few; they’ve heard about, for example, MySpace and The Facebook, or del.icio.us and Flickr but only understand what they look like from afar and on an intellectual level.”
I must confess that I may fall in this category. Yes, I have a blog (which I don’t keep up to date very well, but I’m trying) but I have yet to really play with things like del.icio.us, Flickr and My Space. I think this will be a mini-project of mine over the next while: to start using the technologies that so many are heralding as things for libraries to consider. It will help me get a better feel for what the students use and whether it’s worth all the hype.
Yes, I have been delinquent. I was previously preparing for my first professional conference presentation. I survived! I presented “How Do I Teach That? Connecting Government Documents and Information Literacy in Academic Libraries” at the OLA Super Conference in Toronto.
Conferences are a great way to rejuvinate passion for my work. There’s nothing better than being able to talk to others who understand and love what you do too. It is heading up to conference season and perhaps I’ll see a few of you at CLA or ALA. There are some great programs lined up. Now, to find the time and the money…
