This brief report summarizes the purpose and key activities of the Geek the Library program, its reach and participation rates, and its outcomes, including analysis from the project evaluators.  #oclcresearch #geekthelibrary

As longtime advocates for civil liberties, librarians are uniquely positioned to teach today’s teens about digital privacy.

What GAO Found The National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) is primarily used by older adults with visual disabilities...

A few weeks ago, a video by the Chicago Public Library caught my attention. It was part of a series of videos designed to promote a fine amnesty program. If you haven’t seen them, you need to…

The National Federation of Advanced Information Systems (NFAIS) honored me at its annual meeting in February with the Miles Conrad Award. I had an

Good statement of what privacy is for.

Laying the Foundation: Digital Humanities in Academic Libraries examines the library’s role in the development, implementation, and instruction of successful digital humanities projects. It pays special attention to the critical role of librarians in building sustainable programs. It also examines how libraries can support the use of digital scholarship tools and techniques in undergraduate education. Academic libraries are nexuses of research and technology; as such, they provide fertile ground for cultivating and curating digital scholarship. However, adding digital humanities to library service models requires a clear understanding of the resources and skills required. Integrating digital scholarship into existing models calls for a reimagining of the roles of libraries and librarians. In many cases, these reimagined roles call for expanded responsibilities, often in the areas of collaborative instruction and digital asset management, and in turn these expanded responsibilities can strain already stretched resources. Laying the Foundation provides practical solutions to the challenges of successfully incorporating digital humanities programs into existing library services. Collectively, its authors argue that librarians are critical resources for teaching digital humanities to undergraduate students and that libraries are essential for publishing, preserving, and making accessible digital scholarship.

Learn about privacy topics and generate a custom privacy toolkit geared towards your online needs.

Abstract This research investigates emotional labor events in libraries. Twenty-three librarians kept work diaries for 5 days recording details of interactions with customers and fellow employees in which the emotions the librarians were feeling were in contrast with the emotional expressions they believe their organization desires. Participants reported 83 events, which were analyzed by type of event, interaction partner, feelings and behaviors that were displayed, outcomes that resulted from the event, and the reflection participants provided on how they and their organization could have handled the situation differently. The findings show that emotional labor exists primarily when interacting with customers, colleagues, and superiors. Librarians performed significantly more surface acting than deep acting in regulating their emotional expressions and reported feeling a wide range of emotions during the events. The findings lead to some suggestions for library managers to consider in order to lessen the negative effects of emotional labor in the workplace.

Adobe has made it extremely easy for unwanted eyes to read over the shoulders of library patrons. Earlier this month reports surfaced about how Adobe’s...

Biblionix sets a high bar for security and privacy of your data. And your patron data is private. We do nothing with it but save it for you. No harvesting, no marketing. Our data protection is all encompassing,... Read More

Reflections on Cornell University Library’s “Day in the Life” Project by Nancy Fried Foster In 2014, Kornelia Tancheva and I met to discuss a question of

Last summer, Bloomberg BusinessWeek devoted an entire issue to “What Is Code?” a single article by Brooklyn-based writer and programmer Paul Ford. Ford’s breakdown of key concepts pulls back the curtain on the fundamentals of computer programming and makes a compelling argument that any smart person can learn the basics—and that the basics are worth learning even for those who aren’t planning to become professional coders. It is, in part, a case for coding as a new frontier in digital literacy. There’s a growing interest in this type of education among kids, teens, businesspeople, career changers, and the generally curious. And a growing number of public libraries are already responding to this need within their communities. Here’s a look at ways in which a few libraries have made their programs a success.

We were thrilled to welcome these lightning talk speakers to the Confab Higher Ed stage.

Pat Brown
How to increase traffic 700% and still not make the client happy

Suzanne Chapman
Pick two: Short, true, or meaningful

Cary Foster
Go ahead, walk into the lion's den

Jason Pope
From Zero to User Testing: Launching a program now...and with no budget

Nicholas O'Brien
Improving web governance through a community of practice

Amy Grace Wells
The new content strategist: Four months to implementation