What I Learned Today…

Web 2.0 and programming tips from a library technology enthusiast, What I Learned Today… covers blogs, rss, wikis and more as they relate to libraries.

Category Archives: About Me

Summer Presentations

May 16th, 2009

I’ll be traveling all over this summer – if you’re in the area, stop by and say hi:

  • Wikis: Collaborate, Connect & Contribute
    CJRLC, Freehold, NJ, May 18, 2009
  • Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data
    InfoLink, Clark, NJ, May 19, 2009
  • Free Your Mind and Your Data Will Follow: Open Source for Libraries
    NEFLIN, Orange Park, FL, May 21, 2009
  • Facebook for Librarians: Connect with Your Customers
    NEFLIN, Orange Park, FL, May 21, 2009
  • What the Hack? Library Hacks
    PaLA College & Research Division, Philadelphia, PA, May 27, 2009
  • Open Source Software for Libraries
    CLA Annual Conference, Montréal, Canada, May 30, 2009
  • Wikis: Collaborate, Connect & Contribute
    InfoLink, Clark, NJ, June 9, 2009
  • Practical Open Source Software for Libraries and Librarians
    SLA Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2009
  • Gen XYZ Panel
    SLA Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 15, 2009
  • Mashups: Future of Changing Content
    SLA Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., June 17, 2009
  • Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data
    CJRLC, Freehold, NJ, June 23, 2009

Like I didn’t have enough to do :)

April 14th, 2009

I just wanted to share a bit of news with you all. I am now officially a columnist for the Collaborative Librarianship journal.

This issue will introduce a new regular “column” feature by Nicole Engard, “Open Source Evangelist” at LibLime, and an expert in many technologies that enable collaboration. Nicole states, “I am very excited to participate in a journal that focuses on what I’ve been talking about for years – collaboration! My new column will focus on tools that you can find on the web to help you collaborate in your library and in libraries that are using these tools successfully. I love helping librarians find more efficient ways to do their jobs and the fact that I will be combining that passion with encouraging collaboration it’s going to make for a great column.”

Read the full news release here.

Pet Peeve – Printing Registration Forms

April 3rd, 2009

Okay, it’s been a while since I’ve ranted :)

I was waiting to register for SLA Annual until today because, silly me, I assumed that a big organization like SLA would take online registrations!! But as it turns out that was a bad assumption. I have to print my registration form, fill it out by hand and then mail or fax it in. In a time when we can buy movie tickets online, book travel online, check in for flights online and book a table at a local restaurant online – shouldn’t we be able to register for conferences online?

Now I have to print this form out – try and write neatly (not something I can’t do easily) and get to the post office before heading off to an event I’m driving to today – all because the envelope has to be post marked by today. Yes, I could fax, but I don’t have a land line – and so I don’t have a fax machine. Yes, I could use an online faxing service, but I have yet to find one with reasonable prices – or that I can use for free – not since drop.io was forced to stop offering their service for free because of stupid spammers.

Okay, rant over. Lesson to be learned? It’s not that hard to offer online registration for your events – so please please please stop making me print out forms!!! At the very least, offer editable PDFs so that we can fill the form in online and then email it to you.

[update 4/9/2009] Okay – so I have been corrected in the comments below. There is an online registration form – but it’s not immediately obvious – at least it wasn’t to me. Read below to see how to access the form. [/update]

My Presenting Calendar Updates

February 9th, 2009

Holy Cow! My calendar is filling up quick. Just wanted to share where I’ll be over the next few months with all of you. Lots of talks – I love seeing that because it means that people are excited about learning :)

  • Open Source for Libraries: All Grown Up (Guest Lecturer)
    Rutgers Information Technologies for Libraries and Information Analysis, New Brunswick, NJ, February 5, 2009
  • Using Facebook to Connect with Customers
    SJRLC, Voorhees, NJ, February 10, 2009
  • Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data
    CJRLC, Live Online, February 18, 2009
  • Library Mashups: Exploring new ways to deliver library data
    SJRLC, Cherry Hill, NJ, February 19, 2009
  • Facebook for Librarians: Connect with Your Customers
    InfoLink, Clark, NJ, March 18, 2009
  • Free Your Mind and Your Data Will Follow: Open Source for Libraries
    SEFLIN, Fort Lauderdale, FL, May 5, 2009
  • Open Source Applications for Libraries
    Florida Library Association, Orlando, FL, May 7, 2009
  • Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data
    InfoLink, Clark, NJ, May 19, 2009
  • Open Source Applications for Libraries
    NEFLIN, Jacksonville, FL, May 21, 2009
  • Facebook for Librarians: Connect with Your Customers
    NEFLIN, Jacksonville, FL, May 21, 2009
  • Open Source Software for Libraries
    CLA Annual Conference, Montréal, Canada, May 30, 2009

We’re in danger of losing our memories

February 6th, 2009

My title is taken from the title of this post over at the Guardian.

As most of you know my new obsession has been creating my family tree. I keep a social tree on Geni.com so that the whole family can work together and a research tree on Ancestry.com so I can find records and more generations. I have also sent out pleas to my family to send me their old scrapbooks and photo albums so I can digitize everything I find and share it back with the whole family. Too much of our history gets lost when our ancestors pass away – I’m trying very hard to preserve that for future generations on our tree.

Lynn, chief executive of the British Library, writes:

Too many of us suffer from a condition that is going to leave our grandchildren bereft. I call it personal digital disorder. Think of those thousands of digital photographs that lie hidden on our computers. Few store them, so those who come after us will not be able to look at them. It’s tragic.

So, will all the work I’ve done and will be doing work to keep our family history in the hands of our future generations? Where would you put your information and artifacts? I have been looking at Kete and thinking of ways to use it for my own personal collection of family history – but what happens when I’m no longer around? Who would maintain it? Maybe that’s why services like this are geared toward libraries – because we all think that libraries will be around forever to preserve our history.

So this is my call for libraries to make sure they have backups and backups and backups – preserve our history so that we don’t lose all of the great research that has been done by and about our ancestors.

Come see me at ALA Midwinter

January 19th, 2009

On Weds I fly to Denver for my first ALA Midwinter. I will be in the LibLime booth #722 for most of the time, plus I’ll be speaking in the booth and outside of the booth. Here’s my schedule:

SATURDAY, January 24th

  • 10:30- 12:00 NOON
    Sheraton Hotel, Gold
    Serials Management in Koha’s open-source library software.
    Presenter: Nicole C. Engard, Open Source Evangelist LibLime

    The presentation will help you understand what open source is all about and show you how the Koha open-source automation system cannot only handle your serials in the library catalog, but provide better services to your patrons.

    ALA Midwinter program sponsored by the ALA ALCTS Continuing Resources Section College and Research Libraries Interest Group. (E-Journals All Around: in the Catalog, the Knowledgebase, and the Web)

  • 1:30 – 3:30 PM
    Crowne Plaza Hotel
    Room: Altitude
    KUDOS (KOHA Users and Developers of Open Source) Meeting

    NOTE: This is for users of Koha only. Libraries who are interested in Koha, but have not yet signed a contract with a support provider or implemented Koha on their own, should attend the Koha Interest Group Meeting– see below.

  • 3:30 – 5:30 PM
    Crowne Plaza Hotel
    Room: Altitude
    Koha Interest Group Meeting

SUNDAY, January 25th

  • 3:00 PM – Open-Source Technical Services Tools
    LibLime Booth #722
    Presenter: Nicole C. Engard, Open Source Evangelist LibLime

MONDAY, January 26th

  • 9:30 AM – Koha ZOOM Staff Client Demo
    LibLime Booth #722
    Presenter: Nicole C. Engard, Open Source Evangelist LibLime

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What I’ve been up to

January 16th, 2009

I have been learning tons and tons about mashups!! That’s right, it’s book editing crunch time. I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still here and trying to keep up with all of the news out there while editing my first book. If you’re interested in seeing what you can expect, you can see the book website here (remember that it’s a work in progress).

I am also working hard on preparing for ALA Midwinter where I hope to see some of you! Stop by the LibLime booth (#722) and say hi or come to one of my talks (I’ll put a schedule up ASAP).