We here at Boise State are gearing up for the Fall semester. I’m particularly excited about once again teaching one of the online library research courses, aka UNIV 106. The class has no textbooks, students use libraries to complete assignments, and even though I hardly ever see my students (this being an online course) I
Author Archive
25 Jul 2011
What is geolocation?
Any mobile device has the capacity to share information based on location of the device. For example, based on my IP address, a Google search will show me local information as opposed to information in another city. Apps can suggest places for users to visit based on the type
25 Jul 2011
How Gaming Will Save the World
I just had a revelation while watching Jane McGonigal's TED talk that gaming really, actually IS the future of education. She convinced me, and I am not easily convinced. In my mind I saw a confluence of ideas - how rewards, games, levelling up - as it meets education can really change everything. This is
20 Jul 2011
Exploring Mobile Reference at Handheld Librarian V!
Next week I am co-presenting on Exploring Mobile Technology. My colleague and I have been doing just that, exploring mobile reference, over the past year. We've been experimenting and trying new things, and learning from these experiments. We are ready to share what we have learned with you!
Lots of individuals have mobile devices now, and
09 May 2011
Social Capital: Building relationships
I wrote a review about the new book Doing Social Media So It Matters : A Librarian’s Guide.
The author brings up the concept of social capital. According to the Encyclopedia of Governance social capital includes "
06 May 2011
Thinking Differently: ProfHacker
Lately, all of my new ideas have been actually coming from the ProfHacker blog/column in the Chronicle of Higher Education. I read it often, and there are always new tools, and new ways of doing things. I like to think differently. Among some of the ideas, I've been re-reading about good citations managers, like
05 May 2011
QR Codes in The Idaho Librarian
QR codes are gaining traction as more people have access to smartphones and their accompanying apps and tools. In the big scheme of things, QR codes are not THAT big of a deal. After all, it's only a two-dimensional graphic, right? But the potential to
21 Apr 2011
21 signs you’re a 21st century teacher
Just came across a very cool list titled "21 signs you're a 21st century teacher" from the Simple k12 website. Now change gears and combine this other list from a teacher librarian in Asutralia that adds more context to the original list. Worth a quick read.
12 Apr 2011
SPLAT article!
Amy and I showcased SPLAT at last year's Internet Librarian and Reference Renaissance (more on this later) conferences, and now the SPLAT idea has been published in the latest issue of The Journal of Library Innovation (JOLI).
JOLI is a great fit for a scholarly treatment of SPLAT. JOLI is "a peer reviewed
07 Mar 2011
How many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Humor time! Funny question! And IFLA answered this question, too at this library humour page: http://archive.ifla.org/I/humour/humour.htm
I realized today that I had answered so many questions, "it depends" that I thought it sounded funny. So I decided to make it the punch line.
Q: How many librarians does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: It depends on