The collection in a school library should reflect the community it serves. When curating information and ideas for new books and materials in the school library, the school librarian should communicate with students, faculty, parents, and administration through a variety of digital tools and resources. Input from your school community is crucial…

It's been well documented in a number of articles regarding the contemporary library patron that with the rise in mobile computing and smart phone technology, patrons are looking for fast and easy service from whichever technological avenue they are using to access library services. Libraries are responding with increasing numbers of online…

This article examines the role online communication and tools play in embedded librarianship at American University. Two embedded models of user engagement, traditional and hybrid, are discussed. The librarians operating in each mode share their experiences providing tailored support to the departments of music/performing arts and business. The…

When improving a web presence, today's libraries have a choice: using a free Web 2.0 application, opting for open source, buying a product, or building a web application. This article discusses how to make an informed decision for one's library. The authors stress that deciding whether to use a free Web 2.0 application, to choose open source, to…

Surprisingly, many tools exist on the web that can help sites become more inviting and easier to use. By now, many are probably familiar with the free tools offered by Flickr, del.icio.us, or YouTube for embedding images, tags, and videos on webpages. This article presents a comprehensive list of some perhaps lesser-known but equally useful tools…

The author describes how she was able to broadcast her whereabouts, her moods, and her desire to connect with friends for dinner to over 150 conference attendees simultaneously, using her mobile phone through a service called Twitter. Twitter enables social butterflies like the author to instantly publish brief messages to a network of contacts.…

According to "Library Journal's" latest annual book-buying survey of public libraries, e-service is at the heart of current efforts to maximize library use through more, and more direct communication with patrons. Nearly four out of five respondents report offering some sort of e-service to facilitate these conversations. This article presents…

As a group, readers' advisory (RA) librarians are a chatty bunch when it comes to what they are reading. They share book ideas with their friends and families. The adoption of online RA conversation forms is helping to extend these opportunities even further and offers a fascinating testing ground for RA work. Librarians have found that offering…

People do not want to talk about failure, and technological innovations that do not work out are especially difficult for librarians to discuss. Technological failures are expensive in terms of money and time lost, and they are often minimized by library directors in their annual reports in favor of reporting more positive outcomes. Today's…

This article describes the use of chat widgets on library websites and how it affects daily work and organizational culture. The use of chat widgets can be as simple or confusing as the website itself, but it helps to make choices that fit the web design and the organizational culture. Too often change is driven from outside, which can make…

The media often report on the negativity of Facebook, with horror stories of people losing their jobs because of something they posted. There can be useful purposes for Facebook, however, especially after the unthinkable happens on a college campus. Community college libraries can incorporate Facebook into their security planning.

Podcasting is a term derived by combining iPod with broadcasting. During 2006, when the idea of podcasting was still in its infancy, this author [an information systems librarian at the Universal College of Learning (UCOL) in New Zealand] began to consider how this new technology could be used by librarians to provide instructional sessions. She…

Learning 2.0--aka the "23 Things"--is a self-paced online learning program that the author designed in 2006 as a one-person crusade to move an entire organization of 500-plus staff onto the Web 2.0 bandwagon. Along with numerous requests to duplicate the program, many seek insight on how to do this successfully. In this article, the author shares…

At the beginning of last year the assistant Middle Division director at the Berkeley Preparatory School challenged his faculty to collaborate with at least one teacher from another department in the division for a portion of one unit. Because the challenge was given at the beginning of the school year, it was received with trepidation, but, after…

A librarian may be comfortable with the idea of using a blog, wiki, or other social application with students, but other stakeholders in his or her community may not be so sure. Any technology maverick looking to sell the use of Web-based applications will, at some point, have to make the case. This article presents some of the most common…