I am to give a presentation to some of CUNY’s librarians in less than two days. When I spoke with my host, Steve Ovadia (he is a librarian and also a blogger) about the content of my presentation a few weeks ago, I said I would base it largely on my presentation this past May to k12 educators, Open Technology Solutions for K-12 Education. I also said I would talk about the then upcoming K12 Open Minds Conference.
However, as I started to put together the presentation I found myself creating much new content, much more content than I would have expected, and that content will comprise the core of my presentation:
Written in October:
TWWP Puzzler: Name The U.S. Presidents Known To Have Made Use of The Library of Congress
On Thin Clients and Hospital Waiting Rooms
On Education, Innovation, OLPC, And Open-Source
On Open Content: Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web
The Long March Up From Obscurity: Technorati Authority Now 40, Rank 199700
What Are Your Favorite Web Sites or Blogs?
Announcing The Women In Technology Project
Open Source Divertimento K. 2007
Golden Oldies With a New Sparkle
Can you explain open-source in one sentence?
Written this November:
Goodnight Windows, Goodnight Mush
Ubuntu 7.10: Inflection Point or Tipping Point?
New York Botanical Garden: Kiku
December 1999: Three Predictions
An Open-Source Experiment: Google Enters the Wireless World
New Life Forms in the Open-Source Ecosystem: Redmonk, Mellon Foundation, And Some Newbies
An Authoritative Opinion Comparing Security in Linux and Microsoft Windows
An Authoritative Opinion on Libraries and Authoritative Opinions
On Libraries: The Ernie Pyle Memorial Home/Library
On Libraries: The Library of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester
On Libraries: On Searching for the Meaning of “Sabbath Kristallnacht”
k12openminds07: I just ordered my XO Laptop. Have You?
Search Engine Terms for November 12, 2007
Thomas J. Watson Library: The Gates of Paradise”>
The Two Hundred Dollar Computer
Software cost now equals hardware cost
Annus Horribilis, Annus Mirabilis
First Memories of Reading And of Being Read To
On Authors: Ira Levin, of ‘Rosemary’s Baby,’ Dies at 78
On Unexpected Authority: Recent Examples
Technorati Authority Now 50, Rank Now 154,301
On Authority and Rating Programmers. Making Linus Number 1
On the Authority of Librarians
Written in November as part of the Rabbi Chaim Stern Project:
Shabbat Kristallnacht in the Library of Temple Beth El of Northern Westchester
On Searching for the Meaning of “Sabbath Kristallnacht”
Of course I can not go over all these posts, nor would I even attempt to do so.
I had a lot of fun writing these posts, and I draw the following conclusions from what I learned writing them:
- Librarians are also educators, but they have their own distinct mission and associated responsibilities
- Librarians are also amongst our key arbiters of authority. I did not fully appreciate this until I wrote these posts, and I think it fair to say it emerged as a dominant theme;
- While librarians face many of the same challenges in learning about and effectively deploying open techologies as do our educators, they have their own unique challenges and responsibilities;
- They need as much help as do our educators, and they are equally fun to learn about and to work with.
I have a two-hour slot, but do plan to spend as little time as I can muster presenting my own thoughts, as I would like to spend most of the time in an open discussion about their view of the challenges they face, and how best they can make use of the available open technologies such as open-source to become more effective in their vital mission.
I hope the presentation is not too far from one of the CUNY libraries, for I have spent many of the best moments of my life in a library, and so would like to visit one of theirs.
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[…] Talk to CUNY Librarians: Trip Report I gave a presentation to some of the CUNY (City University of New York) Librarians at the Cohen Library on the Uptown Campus on November 16, 2007. I wrote several posts in preparation for the talk, and a list of them can be found at Promoting Open Technologies in Libraries […]
[…] Promoting Open Technologies in Libraries […]