Letter from Barack Obama to John Gage

The nation's president elect writes in his Oct 20th letter to John Gage, National President, American Federation of Government Employees that . . . [the] EPA was established to be the nation's leader in environmental science, research, and education – yet these are the three fields which have been damaged by politics and ideology. I strongly oppose attempts by the Bush Administration to thwart publication of EPA researchers' scientific findings, as well as the attempt to eliminate the agency's library system. In an Obama Administration, the principle of scientific integrity will be an absolute, and I will never sanction any attempt to subvert the work of scientists.

Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian script

Too funny listening to this radio play featuring Prarie Home Companion's character, Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian. Should be required listening for reference 101 class in library school RE "The Reference Interview" and probably required listening for library managers everywhere who want to know how their library staff can better give the public what they want ;)

Upcoming Internet Librarian Conference Session Law Library 2.0

Please join us Tuesday Oct 21st, 2008 3:15 PM – 4:00 PM at Internet Librarian in Monterey, CA for session A204 – Law Library 2.0

How do you introduce 2.0 technologies into the law firm library? Law firms are notoriously slow in adopting new technologies and are often steeped in the traditional. In the first presentation, learn how creative law librarians spearheaded a project to create a firm intranet in a culture that doesn’t embrace technology or sharing easily.

Working with several other departments the speakers bridged the gap between many different user groups with competing ideas and helped lead the change through collaboration as they introduced the law firm to new technologies.

They share how they used focus groups, marketing, and involved key users to “sell” the intranet, first to management, then to staff; what tools were used to create buy-in; and the strategies that were involved, as well as experiences with an internal wiki as a project management tool for the intranet and a way to introduce library staff to 2.0 technologies in a user-friendly format that spawned other uses, including collaboration, policy development, resource sharing, training, and more.

Camille Reynolds MLS, Director, Research & Information Services, Nossaman LLP
Liana Juliano, Technical & Electronic Services Librarian, Nossaman LLP Vice President/President Elect American Indian Library Association
Connie Crosby, Principal, Crosby Consulting Group
Jaye Lapachet, Manager of Library Services, Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass LLP

Content Innovations' ProBarcodes In the News!

CI's Probarcodes solution is in the news thanks to Socket's recent press release about Hanson Bridgett's automated low-footprint self-check solution at a law firm library. Read all about it!

Defending Libraries in a Time of Budget Uncertainties

Wednesday, September 17 (formerly August 12): SLA San Francisco and San Andreas will co-host a dinner meeting featuring SLA CEO Janice Lachance speaking on “Defending Libraries in a Time of Budget Uncertainties.” The 45-minute lecture will be based on Janice’s experiences and lessons learned from defending the EPA libraries . . .

Innovative to provide UC's next ILS

Innovative to provide UCB's next ILS

Abe Lederman Interview

Interview with Deep Web's Abe Lederman

Stanislaus County Library cuts 94 part-time jobs

Many Public and School libraries are facing drastic budget cuts this year and resorting to drastic cuts to keep their institutions in the black. The Niles Library in Fremont was open regular hours during the Depression. For the past several years it has only been open half a day twice a week. As institutional and community priorities change it is difficult to truly determine why the will to keep the libraries open was so strong in the 30's but so weak today.

SLA urges action on National Agricultural Library Budget Cuts

SLA urges action on the proposed National Agricultural Library budget cuts.

Starving libraries into submission by cutting their budgets is a great way to distribute & grow information about health, food, etc., in a democracy. Elsewhere in this blog we have commented on the struggle of EPA & other federal libraries to stay funded and stay focused on delivering excellent, timely information to their constituencies during these turbulent budget years. The struggle continues. As the EPA pendulum finally swings back the other way, Agriculture is taking the hit. This month's "Information Outlook" (v 12 no 5) the cover story is: "Public Affairs: Keeping a State Library Open & EPA Libraries Coming Back". Coming full circle from 2006 when they were weeding their collections and selling off their furniture while they were under GAO investigation ordered by the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committe , the EPA will now reopen regional libraries in Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City, plus the headquarters repository & chemical library in Washington, D.C. at least four days a week with professional librarians at each site. The libraries will re-establisha nd maintain on-site collections & will provide core services of reference/research assistance & interlibrary loan/document delivery. All libraries in the EPA network will follow standard procedures implemented to sensure that all EPA libraries maintain or exceed standard service lievels in accordance with library best practices.

Second in Enterprise Search series by Mark Bennett

Mark finishes up discussion of the technical differences between Internet and Enterprise search, with an emphasis on the source data that is to be searched, and the spiders and connecters that are creating the search index.

New Idea's 20+ Differences Between Internet vs. Enterprise Search - And Why You Should Care (Part 1)

Mark Bennett's series of articles in New Idea Engineering's Enterprise Search newsletter provide a valuable perspective on discriminating between the needs and requirements for enteriprise search vs web search. Managers embarking on Federated search or portaled search of enterprise research will find this series titled: " 20+ Differences Between Internet vs. Enterprise Search - And Why You Should Care" to be worthwhile reading!