Please find below direct access to a one page web survey produced by the Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom. This second annual survey is intended to help the Committee develop documentation about challenged resources and policies in Canadian libraries in the 21st century. This initiative supports Canada's Book and Periodical Council's (BPC) Freedom to Read campaign http://www.freedomtoread.ca/ as we share our results with the BPC. Our survey also complements the American Library Association's ALA) Challenge Database project. Thanks are extended to the Edmonton Public Library and the ALA for providing valuable insights into the survey questions.
One of my favourite professors from FIMS, Sam Trosow, has co-authored a new book entitled “Canadian Copyright: A Citizen's Guide“. The page I link to is the home page of the other co-author and has a few excerpts. This site has a brief summary and links to where you can buy the book.
I've had a few different jobs in my life. One of my favourites was my college summer job where I visited various small towns around Saskatchewan as a traveling cable TV salesman. (Yes, I know a “vacuum cleaner salesman” joke just popped in your head. Don't bother – I've heard it.)
But this job was different from being a “typical” traveling salesman. I was a huge TV fan back then (not so much vacuum cleaner fan) so I was actually selling something I enjoyed and knew about. Mini-satellite dishes like Bell and Star Choice were just coming into existence so my sales job was a lot easier as the only TV entertainment options for people were cable, a giant satellite dish that filled up your yard or the three channels that were available via what my friends and I lovingly called “FarmerVision”. (The Internet wasn't available outside of universities either at that time so no BitTorrent competition either. )
I was paid a decent hourly wage but also had an escalating commission structure on top of that which moved this job into the stratosphere of college summer jobs. This escalating structure meant I got a certain amount for every new cable subscription I sold, a certain amount for every package of channels (we had four) I sold to either new or existing subscribers and even a certain amount for selling extra outlets (for those who'd never heard of a splitter.) I also got a generous per diem that could be stretched quite a bit by sharing hotel rooms with two other students hired to do line work while I did sales, eating cheaply and staying with family or friends in communities where I knew people.
Once I hit various new sales thresholds – 50 subs, 100 subs, 150 subs – and so on, the amount I got for selling any one of those items I listed jumped as well. In my best summer, I sold over 300 new subscriptions, my company won a national marketing award and the escalation in commissions became so lucrative that I made more than half of what I made per year while working for literary non-profit organizations in those four months!
The whole point of this trip down memory lane is that I'm pretty excited to have been given a similar assignment for the next few months at my current job. Although there's no escalating commissions to be seen, I will be on the road pretty much every day visiting each of the 46 rural libraries that make up our region to do some one-on-one computer & Internet training with our branch librarians, holding a drop-in time when local residents can bring any technology questions to me for assistance and doing a one-hour presentation on “Everything You Wanted To Know About The Internet (But Were Afraid To Ask)”. In fact, I'll be visiting many of the towns that I visited while working for the cable TV company all those years ago. I'll have some downtime between sessions in most communities so my blogging shouldn't fall off (it'll probably increase to be honest!)
I thought I wrote about Wikia when I first heard about it but couldn't find anything via my blog search engine. So I guess this will be my first mention of it here.
Radiohead are usually extremely innovative with any multimedia products they put out – from videos to concert films to web sites (although the current version is quite traditional compared to what they've done in the past.)
That makes this hour long video they recently released of them performing all the songs from “In Rainbows” in a recording studio with no other elements except some artsy bumpers between songs a bit disappointing.
But hey, it's Radiohead so on another level, it's all cool.
[Edit: the last song in the video has some “Street Spirit”-esque slow mo. There you go. Cool confirmed.]
Kathleen DeLong, a librarian at the University of Alberta, is conducting a survey on the engagement of new library professionals in leadership roles and activities as part of her LIS PhD.
If you're a recently hired librarian (within the last five years), why not take a few minutes to help her out by filling out this quick survey.
Here is some more information from Kathleen:
This is your invitation to participate in a web survey on leadership engagement of new library professionals. The survey is directed to new professionals who have worked for five years or less since graduating with a Masters degree in Librarianship (graduated in years 2000 to 2007). The survey data is being collected for purposes of a study carried out in fulfillment of requirements for the PhD Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions programs at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston, MA. The short survey (shouldn't take more than 15 minutes) probes various factors associated with leadership engagement of new professionals in Canadian libraries. It is your choice whether or not you wish to participate in the survey, participation is entirely voluntary. You can terminate the survey at any time by closing your browser. There will be no penalty or consequence for doing so.
Responses are anonymous and data will be reported without any identifying characteristics.
This survey has been approved by the Simmons College Institutional Review Board. Although I am professionally affiliated with the University of Alberta, this survey is not related to my work with the University of Alberta Libraries.
Presumably they did this in the hopes of driving traffic to their web site but still, was it even worth $5 to do this considering my question, although it got a few “favourite” votes, is by no means a highly visible question that many people will see?
I guess for some people, sure, it's about the cost of a pint of beer and it's a permanent link in a very targeted spot to promote their web site. Plus I know that whenever I post a link to my blog on MetaFilter in relevant discussions (I've done so in a couple library school related threads), I always get a few ongoing hits because of that.
But still, MetaFilter profiles are a bit more buried than the posts and comments that make up the bulk of the web site so seeing this sock puppet/spammy account connected to a post of mine just seemed really strange to me.
Each year for the past ten years, the Edge Foundation has asked leading intellectuals and thinkers, from Brian Eno to Richard Dawkins to Tim O'Reilly for their thoughts on a particular question.
The 2008 question is “What have you changed your mind about? Why?”
You can also find an archive of previous questions such as… 2007 – “What Are You Optimistic About?” 2006 – “What Is Your Dangerous Idea?” 2005 – “What Do You Believe Is True Even Though You Cannot Prove It?” …going back all the way to 1998.
And it appears that they're now producing books based on the question so if you're doing any collection development for your library, you might want to consider purchasing them.
