The USC Libraries are seeking energetic incoming freshmen to serve as Library Ambassadors to the Residence Halls for the 2012-13 academic year.  Ambassadors are required to: Attend training sessions scheduled during the first month of classes Outreach to other students living in the Ambassador’s residence hall and be available to those who have questions regarding library research Complete a capstone project to promote the USC Libraries’ services and resources (see below for more information) Represent the Library at campus events Library Ambassadors will receive a $600 stipend awarded in two disbursements: $300 in November 2012 and $300 in March 2013 (contingent on completion of the capstone project).  Ambassadors are expected to keep a log of hours and activities undertaken as part of the position.  Hours will be flexible in accordance with the student’s schedule and life in the residence halls.

essentially it’s a place for folks to make things, perhaps writing and illustrating a zine, using the open source Arduino computing platform to program a robot, screenprinting, or creating model houses with a 3D printer.

some public libraries are experimenting with makerspaces, including Fayetteville Free Library in New York, Westport Public Library in Connecticut, and Cleveland Public Library in Ohio.

What could a makerspace look like in an academic library? What do we help our patrons make? We have computer labs, some more specialized and high-end than others, and we could add equipment like 3D printers. Of course, not every library will have the funding and staff to create tech-centered makerspaces. And faculty and departments may already have that equipment for students to use, especially those in engineering, computer science, and other technical majors.

The $9.99 ZotPad app lets you access your Zotero library on an iPad.

I’m delighted that the newest version of ZotPad has solved these two limitations: you can now access your Zotero attachments if you use WebDAV (and also if you store your Zotero library on DropBox), and regardless of which method you use to sync your Zotero files, you can upload annotated PDFs back up to Zotero.

You can highlight, underline, add notes and comments to the the PDF, using whatever your preferred app is on the iPad. Then, when you’re ready, use that app’s Share… or Open In… feature to kick the document back to ZotPad. ZotPad will figure out which item that PDF belongs to, and swap out the old version for the newly annotated version.

A few weeks ago, I found myself just up the road in Nashville for the ACRL Immersion Intentional Teacher program…sort of a professional retreat for instruction librarians.

Part way through the Immersion program, I remembered a great piece that Char Booth wrote for In the Library with the Lead Pipe in which she argued that librarians are persistently beset with similar questions of identity. That is, we have a nasty habit of trying to define our roles by appeal to something other than “librarian”; it’s the “librarian as __________” problem.

To put the obligatory philosophical spin on it, the “librarian as __________” issue is an issue of bad faith. In attempting to mold ourselves into the roles we think we should embody, we are only deceiving ourselves.