Spivack’s predictions for 2008 in five (5) mins.:
1. Yahoo’s RDF use will kick-start semantic web and bring in Google & Microsoft;
2. The data web – we will transition from pages to linked data;
3. Facebook will move boldly to compete with Google by getting into social search.
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Learning from the Future with Nova Spivack from Maarten on Vimeo.
There are very few librarians deserving of the word ‘amazing’ – but I think Ann McKibbon is one of them. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. I’ve been working on the wiki entry for Ann (with plenty of help from the equally amazing Liz Bayley), someone who I find is always willing to share her knowledge with other health librarians. She continues to amaze me (there’s that word again) with her prolific publishing output and influence in the area of information retrieval.
Gosh, this is so ::kewl:: – I want to do one for the Vancouver hospital library. This is a totally hip way to bring patrons into the library or to your virtual reference services – http://www.qandanj.org/ . Hey, are blogs digital versions of drive-thrus?
Over at Open medicine blog, I posted Part I from 1989 to 1999 of Canada’s involvement in OA – and I even had a cameo by Stevan Harnad, who recommended I change some emphasis and add some other resources. I have really worked on Part II of Canada’s Involvement in Open Access, 2000 to present at the UBC Health Library wiki. It’s not just for health librarians, so check it out. If you want to sign up for access, and wiki editing ability, go here.
In the spirit of collaboration, think of the wiki entry as a dynamic document. Feel free to add, edit or subtract from the discussion.
I have created an early stub for the electronic patient record (EPRs) over at the UBC Health Library wiki. It’s difficult to write early drafts and to contextualize them for health librarians. I’ve tried to put a Canadian spin on EPRs also. My idea for this new entry is related to my post on 23andMe from the weekend.
“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s,
we rob them of tomorrow”. – John Dewey
Don Tapscott – of Wikinomics, mass-collaboration fame – responds to the Horizon2008 Wiki Project in this video – a must-see for all educators and librarians, and those wanting to understand the larger educational forces at work in our changing, increasingly digital world.
Tapscott hits on some generational truisms for teachers and learners in the 21st century – that education is in need of real change. Progressive teachers, students and librarians will nod in agreement with him as he talks. Today’s younger “Y” generations, for example, do not watch television or consume media like the Boomers did; iGens produce their own knowledge in the digital age and want to stay connected while they learn – using wikis, blogs, Facebook and Twitter.
iGens are not passive recipients of information the way we were – they live it.
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Some key messages:
1. The Horizon2008 Project is student-centred not teacher (or librarian) centred;
2. Teachers should direct students to relevant information to derive their own answers;
3. Teaching should encourage collaboration with students in different time zones;
4. Students need to appreciate global perspectives rather than boundaries;
5. Students (and teachers) should work to develop research skills in web 2.0;
6. Peer-to-peer collaboration helps to make knowledge dynamic;
7. Students want to learn in open places, and to interact with ‘experts’.
I ::heart:: the Irish, especially those Irish librarians working at places like the Waterford Institute of Technology who call their collections ‘stock’. Check out this fine new guide on using Google scholar, which I found using their blog.
As many of you know, this is open access week. I have taken the liberty of writing a highly-selective history of Canadian involvement in open access initiatives from 1989 to 1999 over at Open Medicine. This is preparatory to doing a more involved second posting, or part II, on Canadian involvement from 2000 to the present. Go read part I – and come back later for II.
UBC Academic Search – Google Scholar Blog
“To advocate for health librarians, better search tools and web reorganization”
I hope to feature more of the really exciting work of health librarians in the months to come. Let me know if you know of any health librarians who are making a difference.
It all began so long, long ago (or so it seems). Three years ago on April 8th, 2005, I started down this fascinating web 2.0 path, a journey full of wonderful highs and wacky lows. Would I do it again – ie. make a commitment to be a librarian blogger? To write daily entries? Would I encourage others to do the same?
These are important questions. I only know what has been right (and good) for me. Three years ago, I had no clue what I was doing when I started to blog. I wanted to document changes to Google scholar because physicians were asking questions about it. But I was a terrible writer and had no understanding of the importance of blogs. The only medical librarian blogger I read was Michelle Kraft, and her grasp of issues was comprehensive.
Anyway, I always tell my LIBR534 students that it took me six months to a year to really figure out the whole point of blogging. Why was I doing it? I wasn’t sure. I wanted to direct my learning, I knew that, and needed a place to put my questions about Google and its impact on libraries. Then, the BMJ called and my professional life took a bit of a turn. Things were a lot quieter in 2005!
I wrote the Google editorial in two days, feverishly, with no idea whether the article would even be accepted by BMJ’s editors (Tony Delamothe is a gem). I was concerned that my health librarian colleagues would think I had lost my marbles: was I advocating using Google in health contexts? What was behind the idea of a medical portal for evidence-based information I was calling Google medicine?
All of that concern and worry seem distant now (I have new concerns and worries). After three years, I am finding a new way forward for UBC Google scholar blog, to use its (and my) visibility appropriately. To do good works, as Her Majesty might say. To advocate for my profession and Canadian hospital librarians.
This blog has changed. And, so has my byline. No turning back now.