Stephen Abram

Back in September, Stephen Abram began a series of essays called Waiting for Your Cat to Bark-Competing with Google and Its Ilk (part 2, part 3). These essays were published in the SirsiDynix OneSource e-newsletter. Another interesting essay is from the December issues of OneSource. Abram's Reconstructing the Reference Team: 6 Ways to Sunday is a motivational shopping list of sorts for how to grow and develop technologically as our patrons do. Although, in a way, we have a chicken and egg experience of sorts. In some locations, our patrons may be ahead of us and in others, we are are teaching them. One of the best examples of a library system ensuring that its staff is technologically proficient is the Learning 2.0 program at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. If you really like the idea of Learning 2.0, PLCMC Technology Director, Helene Blowers conducted a SirsiDynix webinar called "Learning 2.0: Make "Play" Your New Year's Resolution." Grab an instrument and get on the bandwagon!

New Books

• Becoming a Library Teacher by Cheryl LaGuardia and Christine K. Oka
• Book Repair 2nd ed. by Kenneth Lavender
• Hands-On Information Literacy Activities by Jane Birks and Fiona Hunt

New Books

• Learning to Learn: A Guide to Becoming Information Literate in the 21st Century by Ann Marlow Riedling
• The Virtual Reference Handbook: Interview Delivery Techniques for the Chat and E-mail Environments by Diane K. Kovacs
• Education for Library Cataloging: International Perspectives by Haworth Information Press
• Leadership Basics for Librarians and Information Professionals by G. Edward Evans
• Rethinking Information Work: A Career Guide for Librarians and Other Information Professionals by G. Kim Dority

Subjects

The main subject posts of this blog, I expect, will be announcements of new books and materials received in the Professional Collection. I also hope occasionally to share with you articles I come across that may be of interest to you, patrons of the Professional Collection. Perhaps through the Comments you will share with me/us a book or article that you have read that has been beneficial to you in your work. This blog could be a very interesting experiment and will, undoubtedly, evolve. Let's see what happens.