Please join ASIS&T@Simmons this Friday, February 18, 2022 at 12pm ET for a talk on Technology in Academic and Public Libraries featuring Chris Kaufmann and Kevin Kidd.
Chris and Kevin will present on technology challenges faced by students and patrons in academic and public libraries.
Please use the included Zoom link to attend the virtual event.
Link: https://simmons.zoom.us/j/98032041630
Meeting ID: 980 3204 1630
Technology in Academic & Public Libraries
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Joint ASIS&T/UXPA Meet & Greet event on Friday, January 28th, 2022 at 12pm ET.
Zoom Room: https://simmons.zoom.us/j/99660470996
Meeting ID: 996 6047 0996
The spring semester is an ideal time to discover the SLIS student chapters of the Association for Information Science and Technology and the User Experience Professionals Association.
Join us on 01/28/2022 at noon ET to meet others passionate about research, technology, and user experience design.
The joint meeting offers students a perfect place to learn about both groups and hear how you can be involved this semester and beyond. Whether you’re just starting out at Simmons or wrapping up your time in SLIS, please take the time to engage with your virtual campus community!
For more information about Simmons ASIS&T and UXPA@Simmons:
Why not take advantage of some free time and get a head start on some upcoming classes.
Free being the important word here….LIS Grad students love these sites.
Only after your morning bike ride and reading some chapters from your summer novel…there are free opportunities to learn some LIS skills. First, Simmons offers a free account to lynda.com to their students using their own Simmons user name and password. You can review html, Google analytics, or Excel to name a few general ones plus more advanced tutorials. Second, check out Treehouse.com which my local library (mhl.org) offers as a free subscription. Your local library might too! They have individual courses or tracks to complete that focus on starting your own business, android development, or CSS. Personally, I like healthcare and medical subjects so if you are interested as well take some free courses offered by the National Library of Medicine. They have online courses specifically geared towards librarians using PubMed. Finally, if you came to our ASIS&T Year End Event you would have heard about Kanopy. This database is full of video based learning, documentaries, and independent films. Just log into your Simmons Library account, [Research&Resources], [Databases], and [K] for Kanopy.
After your hard work learning on the couch don’t forget to relax. Keep your local library card handy because they might have free subscriptions for you to use Hoopla or Freegal. Also, take in some art, chase the ice cream truck, and head to the beach!
It’s a pretty exciting time to be a library student here in the Boston area. With the recent rejection of the Google Books settlement and the building of momentum behind the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) initiative, in incubation just across the Charles at Harvard’s Berkman Center.
The New York Times has posted an editorial addressing the rejection of the Google Books settlement. James Grimmelmann, a law professor affiliated with the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, provided a legal analysis of Judge Chin’s decision. Robert Darnton, the director of the Harvard University Library contributed an op-ed piece discussing the Google Books decision and the DPLA in the New York Times.
John Palfrey posted a concept note drafted by the DPLA steering committee, sparking extensive discussions on the DPLA mailing list. An article in today’s New York Times on the DPLA includes an interview with Robert Darnton.
For students who are interested in the DPLA initiative, it’s worth following the discussions on the DPLA mailing list. Also, an upcoming event hosted by the GSLIS Alumni Board, GSLIS After Dark, will feature a speech by alumna Maura Marx, whose work at the Berkman focuses on the DPLA.
This Tuesday we’re skipping the tutorial to bring you the latest issue of the ASIS&T Bulletin.
This issue is focused on search and includes an excellent article from Daniel Tunkelang on human-computer information retrieval:
In economic terms, HCIR aims to offer users better return on investment. Instead of slavishly accepting the constraints of the current interaction metaphor (users enter two words as input and see a ranked list of ten results as output) and attempting to optimize the user experience within those constraints, a search engine can allow users to get more if they give more. But what should it ask users to give? And what will users get in return?
For one perspective on what users should get in return for their search input, don’t miss this Thursday’s Lunchtime Lecture by Prof. Benoit: The ‘beautiful’ in information: philosophy of aesthetics and information visualization.
The Franklin Park Public Library in Illinois was featured in Library Journal last year for its use of Google Maps.
I particularly like the local history map, but check out the library’s other maps also.
This simple tool helped the library provide users with a visual tour of local history, highlight images from their special collection, and inspire users to interact with the library website via comments.
CNN picks up a story on Library 2.0 and the Future of Libraries:
In a world where information is more social and more online, librarians are becoming debate moderators, givers of technical support and community outreach coordinators.