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Reference, instruction, and technology come together in the arena of research support. No matter the level of the researcher (from the student writing his or her first high school research paper to the Nobel prize–winning scientist) source citation is fundamental to good research. (more…)
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Jenny Emanuel is passionate about the user search experience. She is young (well, younger than me) and her experience growing up with networked libraries informs her views. (more…)
M. Kathleen Kern, Editor
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I was a little behind in getting this column finished. This semester I took on another project that has required a lot of time: teaching an introductory reference course online for a graduate school of LIS. Fortunately for me, this is a technology column in a reference journal, so I caught up with writing by making this column about teaching reference online. (more…)
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In May 2008 I spent a month working at the Shanghai Library as part of a work exchange. A month is a long time to be gone from work and home, but a short time to become acquainted with a library as large as the Shanghai Library. In this column I will share a few of my thoughts on my experience. (more…)
This quarter, Michael Stephens of the popular Tame the Web blog offers advice on dodging “technolust” and how to recognize and deal with “technodivorce.” It isn’t all avoidance, though, as he provides ten positive steps for your library’s technology planning. Michael has a pedigree in technology planning as the former Special Projects Librarian at Saint Joseph County (Ind.) Public Library. He now teaches in the LIS program at Dominican University and recently authored two Technology Reports on Web 2.0 for the American Library Association. If you’ve heard Michael speak, you will recognize his straight-from-the-hip style. –Editor (more…)
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Sam Stormont’s well-considered column made me think about current virtual reference issues in a different way. He brings together and unifies several threads: instant messaging, the goal of convenience, technological barriers, and collaboration. These themes were hot topics at the Collaborative Virtual Reference Symposium in July 2007. (more…)
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When I finished reading Amy Wallace’s manuscript, I knew it needed to be the next Accidental Technologist column. Amy’s experience with users’ constantly changing technology needs will resonate with all frontline librarians. Her library’s response is a readily available but often overlooked technology and her advice will be of great use to libraries in their quest to provide access to a variety of computer peripherals, both cutting-edge and legacy. (more…)
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Something happened last week to cause me to reflect on how I became technologically knowledgeable enough to edit a technology column. One of my graduate assistants asked me to explain (1) how a patron clicking on a link in an article index is taken to the full-text of the journal article from another vendor, and (2) what happened behind the scenes when the patron was off-campus to allow remote access. (more…)