Living online:
Comments to one of the posts I linked to last week (Denise’s post about why LiveJournal has been such a major free speech tool in Russia) brought up a link to another great post, this one from a 2008 speech from Ethan Zuckerman (formerly of Tripod) about how technology use can shift – the Cute Cat Theory of Activism. It’s well worth a read.
The future of libraries:
Several interesting posts this week about the future of libraries.
- Jenica digs into a conference presentation of that name that she found problematic in several directions (and, as usual, she is articulate about why.) There’s great conversation in the comments, too.
- One of the NPR blogs had a great piece on how libraries can support pop-culture fans.
- And I really liked this sign posted on LISNews from a library celebrating National Library Week.
- One technology that’s been getting a lot of conversation is Freegal. Sarah takes on some of the problems with both the service and the theory behind it. Extensive discussion in comments, which are in and of themselves a really interesting object lesson in the challenges of online conversations about complex issues where people have some vested interests.
Other ways to teach:
Michael Stephens posts comments about what’s working and not working for two different MLIS students in online programs, and solicits ideas from others – some interesting stuff!
Gwyneth posts a great series of library orientation exercises using QR codes that were particularly accessible to ESOL students.
And Cat Valente (author and prolific blogger) shares a really great story from her own education, and about how a week of class time had a lifetime impact on her sense of story and narrative.
Copyright resources update:
I’ve added two new links to the copyright video resources page – one from YouTube about copyright (as you might guess, pretty heavily on the side of content creators, not remixers), and one from Rocketboom about how to dispute a takedown challenge (and what kinds of uses might be fair uses.) More on the copyright videos page. I have some more additions planned, but due to other commitments, it may be about two weeks before I get a chance to both watch the new videos and write them up.
There may or may not be links post next week: I have a day-long interview in a totally different city on Thursday, so it’ll depend on things like travel delays and the amount of focus I have after that.
