Vast Active Library and Information Science blog. From a recent library science graduate in Wellington, New Zealand. A focus on reference and current awareness tools and issues, especially free, web-based resources.

 
From the Australian Library Journal, an article by Sue Myburgh of the Centre for Internet Studies at the University of South Australia, discussing the knowledge, skills and attributes required by information professionals in the 00s. This is worth a read - it was originally presented at the 11th Information Online Conference and Exhibition of ALIA (the Australian Library and Information Association) and I saw Sue's presentation. I was impressed with what she had to say (and it removed a lot of the worries and doubts I had about entering professional library studies).

| posted by Simon at 4:46 pm

 
Successful corporate libraries market their function as value centers rather than cost centers in order to maintain corporate support of their operations, according to a new study by research and consulting firm Best Practices, LLC. The study examines effective practices for the operation of corporate libraries and information centers in pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

"From Books to Bytes: Creating Effective Corporate Libraries in the Digital Age," online at Best in Class, reveals how leading corporate information centers demonstrate value by delivering services and resources for which the benefits exceed the costs.

From Business Wire, found via Google News.

(Eep! The full report costs a STM-journal-like $3000! At 111 pages that's, oooooh, $30 a page. About $1 per line. But there's a summary available online for free).

| posted by Simon at 1:57 pm

 
Analyst Paul Gooden of Bear Stearns upgrades Reed Elsevier (REL) to "outperform."

In a research note published this morning, the analyst mentions that the company has notified librarians that it intends to increase science journal prices by 6.5% in 2004. The company�s strong pricing power in journals is the reason for its stock�s current valuation as well as its capability to generate earnings growth, the analyst adds. The company is well positioned to benefit from the expected recovery in the business advertising segment in the long term, the analyst says.

Taken from New Ratings, found via Google News.

| posted by Simon at 1:06 pm

 
"However, in a small percentage of cases, poor quality information has direct, devastating consequences. For example, many of the arguments concerning personal privacy are based on the knowledge that an adverse comment on a person's reputation perpetuates itself, even after a formal retraction is published or a libel case is won. Some sorts of information are more "sticky" than others. Just as the garden weeds are more robust than the desired plants, bad information rears its ugly head more virulently than good information."

From Information Today via Infosophy.

| posted by Simon at 8:13 am

 
'The librarians will have bongos. They are learning the anthem.'

The New Zealand Herald reports on a group of Australian librarians who have "adopted" Namibia as their team in the Rugby World Cup. Something of a relief to see that the article doesn't explicity treat this as a 'look at those crazy librarians bucking the stereotypical image' story. Somewhat disappointing that a majority of them hadn't heard of Namibia. But at least they knew how to look it up.

'They will have funny-coloured clothes. And if the team hasn't got a dance to rival the haka* they will make one up.

"Most of us had never heard of Namibia and we had to get the atlas out," said Ms Abbot, 46.

"But that's easy in a library."

It was unclear yesterday how the Namibian players would react to 56 screaming librarians wearing their national colours at a remote Australian rugby ground.'

' Namibia has just 16 clubs and 540 senior players, and needed better than a seven-point loss to Tunisia to make the cup.

Despite having eggs and tomatoes tossed at their bus, their rooms visited by prostitutes the night before the game and being attacked with slingshots during the game, they managed to lose by exactly seven points. They qualified because they had scored an extra try during their qualifying games. The team then needed to get a loan and Government help to pay for the trip. "

[*Haka: a traditional Maori war dance/challenge, performed by the New Zealand rugby team before each international match].

| posted by Simon at 10:57 am

 
On the off-chance that anyone in the US reading this is desperate to hire a partially-qualified librarian with about 3 years solid work experience and the ability to handcode RSS feeds (see below) if given a suitable template to work from, please let me know ;).

Ideally I'd like to be in the Northeast, but right now anywhere in the continental US (or Canada) sounds good.

I have my reasons.

| posted by Simon at 10:22 pm

 
I mentioned a few months ago that the NZ e-government unit was recommending that government agencies create news feeds using RSS 1.0. The feeds would then be displayed on the NZ government portal . After some playing around, and with help from the e-gov unit, I've managed to code a newsfeed from our site. I'm pleased. It's the first time I've actually used this technology for something related to work, as opposed to my own professional development/interest.

It won't be the last though. We're planning on building a page on our website to display imported feeds relevant to our work. Should be a good project.

| posted by Simon at 5:01 pm

 
LIS News reports proposals in the UK to extend legal deposit to websites, with the operator of the website being responsible for delivering a copy of the site, at their own expense.

New Zealand has already passed such a law, with the National Library Act 2003 providing for the extension of legal deposit to native electronic format material. See National Library press release, 1 May 2003.

| posted by Simon at 11:23 pm

 
BBC Technology news reports that users have now downloaded 10 million songs from Apple's iTunes music store, in the four months it has been operating.

Which is great for Americans, but iTunes still hasn't negotiated licenses for the rest of the world. C'mon guys, it works, people like it, get it out there. (I know there are issues with having to negotiate rights for each country, but surely when they see something like this, that works, the record companies should be willing to get involved?)

| posted by Simon at 12:38 pm

 
Seen on In-between, a discussion of a future consisting of open access journals, but one in which the serials crisis remains, as publishers treat authors, rather than libraries, as a source of income.

| posted by Simon at 12:33 pm

 
From Info Today via The Virtual Chase. I've only had time to skim this, but it's a useful reminder for anyone working with information.

| posted by Simon at 8:36 am

 
Sadly (or perhaps not) it's nothing to do with the sexual image of librarians. CNN has named corporate librarians as one of its hot jobs for 2003/4.

"Librarians are needed far beyond the school and public library systems. Corporations, government and advertising agencies, law firms, museums, research laboratories and medical centers are just a few of the arenas Challenger noted have need for those with library science degrees.".

CNN listed the average salary for corporate librarians as $60-65, 000 (US obviously).

I hope two people read this - my father, and our HR director ;-)

Via LIS News.

| posted by Simon at 5:27 pm

 
I guess you know that blogging is becoming a mainstream subject when the Harvard Business Review writes a case study involving a blogger. OK, they went through and explained what this whole blogging thing was in simple language for those in their target audience who didn't know. But the fact is, they did feature blogging.

I found the study interesting as well. It was a (hypothetical) case of a blogger who was simultaneously helping her company's sales (by talking up their products in an honest and open way) and harming it (by publicising personal or inappropriate material). Three of the four industry experts that HBR asked to comment on the scenario said that the company should leave the blogger alone, that she was in fact an asset to the company. Only one suggested she should be disciplined. Interesting...

(It's in the September 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review, p.30 onwards).

Ties in quite nicely with Steven's comments about the growth in awareness of blogging.

| posted by Simon at 12:20 pm