Family Man Librarian

Last week, Valerie Bross, co-chair of this year’s NASIG Continuing Education Committee (CEC), asked for proposals for CEC funding for the coming year.  I decided to submit a proposal for creating a pilot online course focusing on best practices and case studies for e-resources management.  I don’t know yet if it will be accepted or if [...]

One of the things that came up in conversation a few times when I was at NASIG this past weekend was that last year I made a proposal to UIUC GSLIS for a new, advanced course on electronic resources management. My intent in proposing this new course was that an existing course that I [...]

I recently read a final report from the task force on the university library at The University of Chicago, written by Andrew Abbott, a professor of sociology there. It is fascinating reading and I hope it will receive widespread attention because it touches upon many issues that large academic and research libraries are facing. [...]

It has always bothered me when a link to the library of a particular organization is not prominently featured on the home page of its website. This is particularly bothersome for educational institutions given the de facto role of the library as a centerpiece of learning. In fact when I browse the web [...]

Tame The Web: Libraries and Technology: Library Schools Must Teach E-Resource Management (& What Else?)
I couldn’t agree more with the need for library schools to integrate a course on e-resource management into their curriculum. Furthermore, I think it should be a required course. The course I teach at the University of Illinois at [...]

This past summer I taught LIS578: Technical Services Functions as part of the LEEP (distance education) curriculum at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at UIUC. I was contacted today to ask if I’d be willing to teach the same course again next summer because students are already requesting it. [...]

Yesterday I was able to go to UIUC GSLIS at the invitation of Kathie and Bill Henderson to speak to their Technical Services Functions class. (This is the same class that I teach in online form in UIUC GSLIS’s LEEP curriculum.) They’ve invited me every year for the past 14 years. Each [...]

The week before last I made what has now become an annual tradition for the past twelve years or so: a trip back to my alma mater, UIUC GSLIS (the best graduate library school in the country!), to speak to the Hendersons’ Technical Services Functions class. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed talking [...]