Information Center Connections

9/11 eCollection from ebrary

As the 10th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, ebrary has created an eCollection of 9/11 related-resources that are freely available now through the month of September.

The collection includes 15 ebooks, which are browsable and searchable. 

For a full list of titles, visit the eCollection.

Did you know that ebrary offers other open access collections?  Find them here!

Minerva Library

You may not have heard of the Minerva Library, and that's likely because it's on a cruise ship.

The Minerva is Swan Hellenic's only ship, and it's quite popular among its many repeat cruisers. 

This article from the Daily Mail describes the library collection as "extensive" and relevant for the ship's varied itineraries.  The library is kept by the Minerva's hotel and entertainment manager.

Dream job, anyone?

The challenges of prison librarianship

Avi Steinberg has written Running the Books, which describes his experiences running a prison library in Suffolk County, New York.  Read more on Amazon.

You know you're curious about it!

Avi was recently interviewed on NPR's "Talk of the Nation."  The NPR site also has an excerpt from the first chapter.

Sounds interesting, and challenging.  Some of the most popular genres in the collection?  Astrology and real estate.

Special price for the 2008 Salary Survey

Did you know that...

...new for the 2008 SLA Salary Survey was a chapter just for CI and Research responsibilities?

...almost 25% of your U.S.-based SLA colleagues that responded to the survey identified themselves as administrators or managers?

...the median salary for U.S. federal government employees who responded to the survey was $79,000?

...with the purchase of the print/PDF salary survey you receive access to the online calculator, with which you can combine more than one data set?

...now through September 15th, the 2008 SLA Salary Survey is available at the special price of $34.95 for members?

Take this opportunity to find out what you're worth!

Reading is fundamental

Fast on the heels of my last post, which asked what your summer reading plans are, is an announcement from the Leadership & Management Division about a new SLA Reading Club.

The Reading Club blog is a great place to get ideas, make suggestions, discuss, and contribute!  Contact Alex Grigg at agrigg (at) lexmark (dot) com if you want to write posts for the blog...or just comment on posts others have written.  Visit the blog for the whole scoop.

What's on your bookshelf?

More specifically, what are you reading?

In summer (at least it's summer in my part of the globe), we all seem to have more down time to explore our personal interests, but we can also use that time to catch up on professional reading. 

Besides info industry magazines and journals (have you read this Computers in Libraries article on Twitter?), what will you be reading this summer?

My plan is to take a look at Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations and read my signed copy of Neil deGrasse Tyson's The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet (actually, I think I want to read all of Tyson's books, but I'm getting ahead of myself).

So, what will *you* be reading this summer (or winter, if that's your current season)? 

Recommended reading

The April issue of The Information Advisor (edited by Robert Berkman, of the Intelligent Agent blog) makes some suggestions for "insightful" books that information professionals should read.  Here are two to get you inspired:

Content Nation by John Blossom, president and senior analyst at Shore Communications, a consulting and research firm. The book is about the impact of social media, and is available as a "live" book (what a great use for a wiki).  Read more from Blossom on ContentBlogger and Twitter (@jblossom).  And don't forget the Shorelines e-newsletter.

Social technologies are also the focus of Groundswell, which was written by two former Forrester analysts (Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff).  Here, it's how blogs and their social friends can be used by business.  Lots of case studies.  Subscribe to the blog, too.

How have *you* changed your services to clients or your information-gathering because of social technologies?  Are your tasks easier, or more overwhelming?

Worth a click

The Global Legal Information Network is a database that contains the "official texts of laws, regulations, judicial decisions...and other legal sources."  Read more about it in the January/February issue of Online.

Need a book?  Try AbeBooks, your connection to booksellers around the world.

The Researching Librarian brings together sources for librarians who need to do research for themselves...for publication, promotion, tenure, whatever.

Save your money.  Feed the Pig.

Out-of-Print SLA publications added to SLA Store

SLA has just made available in PDF a dozen of its popular out-of-print publications through the SLA Store. There is a minimal charge for members of $10 to cover admin costs, $15 for non-members. Although some of the books were published over 10 years ago the issues are often the same even if the technology is certainly not.  Here are examples of the publications now available:

Enhancing Competitiveness in the Information Age: Strategies and Tactics for Special Librarians and Information Professionals.

Exploring Outsourcing: Case Studies of Corporate Libraries.

Unlocking the Door to Higher Compensation: Your Key to the Salary Maze.

Special Libraries: Increasing the Information Edge.

Future of Competencies of the Information Professional.