Information Center Connections

Librarian Bakes Cake

It's a fact:  attendance at training sessions, open houses, and lunch-and-learns will be higher if you serve food.

Did you use National Bundt Day to call attention to your information center's services? I did!

Mary the Food Librarian baked 30 bundts in 30 days for National Bundt Day.  Take a look at her baking adventures (with recipes!) on her blog.

Mary the Food Librarian and the Bundts

Food Librarian and bundt-lover Mary (@foodlibrarian) is celebrating National Bundt Day, November 15th, by making 30 bundt cakes in the days leading up to that landmark day.

Mary's blog was featured in the Info Sites column in Information Outlook a while back, and I've continued to enjoy her food adventures.

Will you join me (a chocolate bundt for sure) and many of Mary's other followers in baking a bundt for November 15th? Mary is offering an "I Like Big Bundts" button for participants who submit their information and a picture of the celebratory bundt.

I like big bundts...I cannot lie!

Federal library world updates

The Federal Library Directory is a new resource of incredible value.

The directory, organized by FLICC, is searchable and provides detailed information about more than 1,000 U.S. federal libraries worldwide. Contact information, available services, and welcome audiences are listed, among many other characteristics of interest.

Read more about it in the press release.

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As you may know, GPO Access, the federal government's site for documents and reports, is being replaced by FDsys.  The transition has begun, and no new materials will be added to the old site. That site will be "retired" during the 2012 fiscal year, specific date yet undetermined.

FDsys stands for "Federal Digital System" and it is also a product of the U.S. Government Printing Office. The system provides access to information products from all three government branches, including fulltext documents and metadata.

Learn more about this resource on the FDsys site.

Add the HBR Blog Network to your reading list

You may not sit down to read each issue of Harvard Business Review (although we should), but I suggest making time for the HBR Blog Network.

Recently, I wrote about an HBR post on procrastination, and I've been tempted a few times since to write about other topics that have been featured on the HBR site. I find the posts to be informative, interesting, and not so long that I can't spare a few minutes to open myself to the wisdom of the HBR blog writers.

You'll find topics that span the organizational experience. Not all will be 100% relevant to your situation, but the posts will give you a glimpse of the wider world in which we live, work, and negotiate.

Posts on customer service and business practices and their implications (let's reflect on the recent activities of Netflix and Bank of America) instruct us about how business behaves (or doesn't). We can learn how to work productively with others (amidst dreaded office politics), and how we can successfully (and without bloodshed) evaluate the performance of our direct reports. We all need to know how to communicate and work most effectively.

Updates from the HBR Blog Network are available through e-mail and RSS.

This and that: some resources to check out

A few items of interest to info pros and friends:

The Webby Awards have been around for 15 years.  Review the latest list of nominees and winners in almost 70 categories.  Any familiar sites on there?  How does your organization's site measure up?

Zanran is a search engine for data and statistics.  Why not try it if you are looking for that type of information...let's broaden our search horizons!  Looks promising with pop-up results and solid sources of data.  Search Engine Land published a review that's worth a look.

Have a topic and need to find a feed?  Take a look at RSS Search Engine.  Use Google search syntax to limit your results.

New ventures for Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy

Gary Price and Shirl Kennedy, formerly of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker, have launched two new not-to-be-missed resource sites.

INFOdocket brings us industry news, and a whole lot of resources and tools.

FullTextReports...well, it's just what it says!  Reports from think tanks, scholarly organizations, industry analysts, and more.

Each site has an RSS feed and a Twitter feed (@INFOdocket and @fulltextreports), so it's easy to keep up with what's new, and each site is accessible on your mobile device.  How's that for great information service?

 

Worth a click

Prospects for Specialized Libraries: Comments from Colleagues is a report from our friends at SMR International.  What it comes down to is:  what challenges will we be facing, and how do we deal with them?  Read about roles, the collaboration imperative, value (yes), change (and change and change), access issues, and staffing.

More of us are doing Web content and design work.  Need some info on typography?  Look no further than this Speckyboy post.

FUMSI, a FreePint service, offers free articles and a fee-based magazine and research.  Have you taken a look?  Topics of recent free articles include image findability, information risk management, and intranet 2.0.  And, in case you weren't aware, FUMSI = Find Use Manage & Share Information.

Confused about international dialing?  Be confused no longer.

Worth a click

People still use instant messaging, right? Check out Meebo, which is IM central for all your accounts.

Seesmic is a web-based alternative to TweetDeck (desktop and iPhone versions also available) that allows you to view both Twitter feeds and Facebook updates in one place...kind of a like a command center.

Resources on writing from Purdue University.  OWL, the Online Writing Lab.

Portals and KM, an intelligent blog from Bill Ives, covers several topics of interest to members...knowledge management, 2.0 (enterprise and Web), and blogs.

Worth a click

If you aren't wholly satisfied with your Twitter experience, you might need a tool or two to make your life complete.  Take a look at the Ultimate List of Twitter Tools from the Social Media Guide.

Fifty Best Blogs for Law Librarians.  You be the judge.

What is Web 3.0 exactly?  Here are a few explanations.

GovFresh is a mega-feed of U.S. government updates from various 2.0 tools.

Stuff...need some?  Need to get rid of some?  Try takemeimfree.com or Freecycle.

Worth a click: conference edition

Here are a few resources that will help you make the most of your conference experience.  Even if you can't make it to D.C., you can still feel a part of the action.

Conference wiki
Created by the D.C. Chapter, this site is where you'll find the inside scoop on restaurants, local attractions, and wi-fi hotspots. And, take virtual tours of area libraries, including those of the Smithsonian Institution and the National Library of Medicine.  It's searchable!

Conference handouts
Handouts will be posted here before and after the conference. 

Unconference wiki
There will be seven unconference sessions during SLA 2009, on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at various points throughout those days.  Some have assigned topics, and some are "free for all." Check the wiki before, during, and after the conference for materials.

SLA Blog
Shamless plug for our own SLA Blog, where staff and members will be posting about their favorite sessions, conversations, and social activities. Contact me at csosnowski (at) sla (dot) org to blog on SLA Blog!

Twitter
If you haven't heard, @sla2009 is the Twitter account for the conference. If you tweet, don't forget to include the hashtag #sla2009 so that followers of @sla2009 will see your updates.

See you there!