Shameless Book Plug

In March 2016, my book Dynamic Research Support for Academic Libraries was released in the UK by Facet Publishing, and will also be available in the US from the ALA Store and through Amazon.com. It’s a contributed volume full of accounts from amazing librarians about how they support faculty and student research at academic libraries across the globe!

What does “research support” mean? It’s any method by which a librarian (or a related information maven) supports how faculty and students contribute to knowledge in their discipline. This includes some services traditionally in the library wheelhouse (reference or research consultations), but is rapidly expanding to include support for GIS projects, better metadata, and more. For more about this topic, see the video below.

Who should read this book?

• Librarians, administrators, and other library staff interested in re-thinking their approach to research support.
• Librarians looking for an international approach to this topic.
• Library school students interested in emerging forms of academic librarianship.

For more about the book’s content and structure, see the following video.

If you enjoy the video’s spiffy “research lifecycle” graphic, you can also download it as a PDF to print and enjoy as a nerdy decoration for your office, or proudly affix to the front of your home refrigerator.

Open Source vs. Open Access (vs. Free)

The near-simultaneous rise of interest in open source and open access in the context of academic libraries has made these concepts ripe for confusion. Adding to the confusion is the presence of projects that are both open source and open access. Rather than cringing in silence when these terms are used interchangeably, I’m hoping to clarify the conversation. Note: I’m not an expert in either concept, so please feel free to research more and/or to add your comments.

Insert Synonym for “Update” Here

I’ve been slowly plugging away at a few posts on my job hunt strategies. It may be a bit longer before I put them up here, simply because I have a lot of information to share and not a lot of spare energy to organize it in a meaningful fashion. So–maybe December, eh?

Another School Year Begins…

I keep thinking I’ll have time/energy/willpower to finish writing up the first of my job hunt posts… but teaching at Pratt and librarian-ing at Columbia have me buzzing all over at the moment! It’s great, tremendous fun, but this is a draining time of the semester.

So instead of textual content, I give you some photos:

 

If you’re not following my Instagram feed, you can also keep up with my regular photo postings on Flickr.

Joining Columbia!

Things have been quiet on the blog for a bit, because news was on the horizon… Yesterday, I began my new position as Journalism & Digital Resources Librarian at Columbia University! In this capacity, I’m tweeting @JournalismLib (separate from my personal account). (Now to update my disclaimer: all opinions on this blog/ePortfolio/website are completely my own and not associated with Columbia University. Whew, that’s done!) I’m splitting my time between being embedded in the Journalism School (the Journalism Library is a room within Pulitzer Hall–yes, that Pulitzer) and the Lehman Social Sciences Library. I have some big shoes to fill–Cris Erugany, the former Journalism Librarian, was not only talented and justly beloved, she’s a fellow Star Wars/Trek enthusiast. (Was this meant to be, or what?)