Ontario school library staffing down: report

Staffing at school libraries across the province is declining, a trend that could affect children's ability to think critically about information, according to a report released by an education advocacy group.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/05/16/ontario-school-libraries549.html

Any thoughts?

This Day in LIS History: March 15, 1963

The Snowy Day by Ezra Keats

"By creating a successful book with a Black protagonist, Ezra Jack Keats encouraged others to publish multicultural books. Both he and the brave Newbery-Caldecott committee of 1963 changed the contents of children’s books forever. … After the book won the Caldecott Medal in 1963, it was purchased for library collections throughout the country, and for a period of years The Snowy Day was often the only book to show the face of a person of color in many public and school libraries. Hence it had a profound influence on thousands of children who for the first time could see themselves in a book.”

Read more

(prov. du Québec) - Les bibliothèques de quartier relèvent la tête

Merci pour le lien d'article Jason...

Les bibliothèques de quartier relèvent la tête
Gabriel Béland
La Presse

Le déclin de la lecture, l'apparition du livre électronique et la construction de la Grande Bibliothèque faisaient craindre le pire. Certains prédisaient le déclin des bibliothèques de quartier. Mais les dernières statistiques prouvent le contraire: elles se portent mieux. Et si la Grande Bibliothèque leur avait montré la voie?

Pour lire l'article au complet :
http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/regional/montreal/201103/05/01-4376401-les-bibliotheques-de-quartier-relevent-la-tete.php

Stop the Meter On Your Internet Use!

The CRTC just made a decision that paves the way for new internet fees to be added to your bill. To stop this we need to raise our voices now more than ever.

This means Internet prices are on the rise for everyone: me, you, and your local libraries who already try to provide Internet access to those who can't afford it at home.

Si vous êtes aussi frustrée que moi, prenez quelques secondes pour remplir la pétition contre cette décision en ligne! J'ai aussi pris le temps de le partager sur mon compte Facebook.
Don't complain while making dinner, speak up!

http://openmedia.ca/meter

Human Library Program coming to Ottawa

Vous avez peut-être lu cet article dans les journaux aujourd'hui?

The Ottawa Public Library is working to launch its own version of the Human Library, a program where users can "sign out" people from different backgrounds for a conversation.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2011/01/26/ottawa-human-library-war-museum.html#ixzz1CAZ6bxrJ

Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?

UVic digitally preserves 30 years of feminist chronicles

Posted at the request of Lynne Bowker, who says "FYI some good press for archives and their value in teaching and research in today’s issue of the Times-Colonist, in a piece about the 'Victoria Women’s Movement Archives' held at UVic Archives."

Supporters of the Victoria Women's Movement Archives at the University of Victoria are raising money to digitize the collection:

The feminist archives are now celebrating 15 years as one of the only such collections in Canada. The downside: Its logo of a filing cabinet suits the current 30-box collection of paper documents. Which means that researchers or interested parties have to show up in person to use the information or contact an archivist and arrange for copies of what's inside.

Supporters are seeking donations from the public to help put the collection into digital form.

Read the whole story at the Times Colonist website.

Browse the archives.

Great Link: 5 Library Sources for Quick Computer Training

Une ressource que j'ai trouvée très intéressante
To see the full post click on the link!
http://alalearning.org/2010/09/25/5-library-sources-for-quick-computer-training/
J'ai bien apprécié numéros 1 et 2.

5 Library Sources for Quick Computer Training

It’s hard to find good online technology tutorials, especially those for quick and basic computer skills. Harder still to find some that meet our high expectations as information professionals. So why not turn to the library world itself?

Below is a collection of my top 5 favorite sites for these quick computer training materials. These could be webinars, class handouts, tutorials, screencasts, you name it. What’s important is the content. It’s content I’m comfortable pointing a customer or a fellow staff member to if some core computer fundamental skills need improving. Weirdly, two institutions get two mentions apiece — but that’s because what they have is awesome. Browse through what they have, and you might be surprised to find there’s something there for you too!

Useful websites

This list of useful websites and online communication tools was compiled by Andre Vellino.

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Here are some “generally useful web sites” that were briefly mentioned at the Orientation Day info-session:

Blackboard https://maestro.uottawa.ca/indexFR.asp
Some professors use Blackboard as a web-tool for communicating with students, distributing grades, quizzes, handing out course material etc.

InfoWeb
The InfoWeb site at the university of Ottawa is the web-vehicle for "secure" services (personal information / grades etc.) http://www.uottawa.ca/students/ -> InfoWeb

UOzone
UOzone is a personalized portal created by the University of Ottawa which provides personalized information and alerts from professors, faculty in a single-sign-one environment. http://uozone.uottawa.ca/

By all means familiarize yourself with UOzone via the YouTube Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uspA72DlFMc

Email
Last year, the School set up a Google Groups mailing list to which students, faculty and alumni could subscribe (or unsubscribe). This Google Groups mailing list will be discontinued as a method for faculty to communicate announcements to students. In the future, faculty announcements will be made via the school mailing list which only contains UOttawa mailing addresses. Therefore:

• Please use your U. of O. address (UserName@uottawa.ca)


• You may forward your U. of O. e-mail to your personal address if you want as well as change spam filter settings to allow for notifications from websites like “wordpress.com” from this location: https://web.uottawa.ca/cgi-bin/mailadmin/main.pl


• Note that alumni are given an “alumni.uottawa.ca” for life that can be requested at http://www.uottawa.ca/alumni/ to register

Miscellaneous
Some courses may use a blogs as a method of communicating course-material (as an alternative to Blackboard)

One such (commercial) blog site is http://wordpress.com/

Other courses will be requiring you to learn how to use Wikis so that students can collaboratively create documents or resources together, e.g. http://www.wikispaces.com/

Yet other courses may ask you to learn a variety of collaborative bibliography sites such as:

• http://www.refworks.com/


• http://www.mendeley.com/


• http://www.citeulike.org/


• http://www.zotero.org/

These will also introduce you to some important technologies in Web 2.0 such as social tagging, RSS feeds, recommender systems.

"I Write Like"

"I Write Like" is a website featured in a Toronto Star article. The website analyzes writing samples using keywords and gives you the name of a famous author who has a similar writing style as you. Who do you write like?

To read the article, click on the following link:
‘I Write Like’ finds your inner author - thestar.com

Or try the website: http://iwl.me/

-- Melissa

Social Media Overview

Twitter, Skype, Yammer, Digg, LinkedIn... If you've ever want to know more, check out this wonderful resource that gives an overview of a lot of different social media technologies:


Introduction to Social Media

This resource looks at the key social media technologies and tools and how they can be used for learning and performance enhancement

What makes an academic library?

I just read an interesting article on the American Libraries website about the future of academic libraries. The article addresses the need for space in academic libraries and the resistance from faculty, alumni and students to any plans for making space by moving unused books offsite.

The one certainty is that the continued over-my-dead-body insistence that no
books be removed from campus libraries is an unsustainable position that, sooner
or later, must give way to new ways of managing and using academic
libraries.

Is an academic library without books still a place of thought and learning, or is it just another internet cafe?

Read The Myth of Browsing by Donald A. Barclay to find out.

List of library twitter feeds

I came across this really great list of twitter feeds. I found lots of great stuff going through it and thought you might be interested in checking it out.

It includes a list of twitter feeds by library professionals, job lists, library and information science news, organizations and resources.

100 Best Twitter Feeds for Librarians of the Future

Melanie