Conversation Feeding by Anna

Anna Farmery, blogger over at The Engaging Brand, had a post about feeding the conversation that I think library managers (well, any managers) should read. Smart managers everywhere want good ideas from the people they supervise/lead/manage, but how many of us shut down conversation instead of growing it? I like to flatter myself that I [...]

A Beacon Level Error and the McLaughlin Group

I was listening to episode 23 of Uncontrolled Vocabulary this morning and learned a new phrase - “A Beacon Level Error.” This phrase was used by Greg and several guests to describe the possible outcome of Google’s new Knoll initiative. For those totally unengaged in social networking, Beacon was a very bad idea by Facebook [...]

NCSL Cites Education as a Top Priority

The National Council of State Legislatures (NCSL) recently released their Top 10 list of important state legislative issues. In a post at the NCSL blog, The Thicket, Meagan Dorsch cited Transforming Education as issue six.
The subject of transforming education was featured in a recent NCSL podcast. According to Meagan, this podcast  featured:
“Trying to lower [...]

The Reese’s of Podcasting

For those of us who grew up in the 1970/80’s, we know that Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are two great tastes that taste great together.
That is how I felt about show 130 of the Engaging Brand. The Engaging Brand podcast is hosted by Anna Farmery, someone I’ve really come to respect for her ability to [...]

In Praise of OPAL Casualness

The library programming site OPAL recently initiated a series called Casual Conversations. So far, moderator Tom Peters has talked with Aaron Schmidt and Meredith Farkas. The series lives up to its name going from big picture library issues, to nuts-and-bolts tech tips to tatoos within minutes. I’ve found them very enjoyable so far and [...]

KTD - Junior podcasters

Fred Factor author Mark Sanborn recently spoke to first year teachers and heard about this interesting tidbit regarding elementary school children:
————–There was a video of fourth graders who created their own podcast after twenty minutes of instruction, and a teacher in the system who did a podcast using Google map technology to connect her class [...]

TalkShoe and the Service Terms of Doom!

I really liked Uncontrolled Vocabulary. And I’ve setup the TalkShoe client that Greg needs to use right now to make it work. But aside from sounding like something out of Get Smart!, the Terms of Service are ominous enough that while I’ll participate in TalkShoe programs when I can, I won’t be using it for [...]

Uncontrolled Vocabulary - Listen Today, Talk Tomorrow

If you’re a librarian and you haven’t yet listened to Greg Schwartz’s new podcast Uncontrolled Vocabulary, zip on over to the site (see below) and listen to the first episode. Then sign up for the podcast.
Uncontrolled Vocabulary (UV) #1 featured Greg and several other librarians having a live discussion on various library issues from patron [...]

Libraries in Asia and Asian Learners Here

If your library has significant numbers of Asian born students, I urge to check out this class cast from LIS Radio.
In this program Mr. John Hickok, Coordinator of Library Instruction at Cal State Fullerton describes his sabbatical year travelling to 14 countries in Asia to discover how “how to use the library” classes were done [...]

Exploring Parallel Universes

Stuart and Glory (not Gloria) Jaffe are husband and wife podcasters who publish the Eclectic Review. If you have the slightest interest in science, science fiction, movies, writing, etc, I think they’re well worth a listen.
For the last three episodes, they’ve been discussing Parallel Universes, among other things. I’ve only heard the first two bits, [...]