Group items tagged

We create economic value out of information when we figure out an effective strategy that includes aggregating, filtering and connecting.

So, the real question is, how do we design filters that let us find our way through this particular abundance of information? And, you know, my answer to that question has been: the only group that can catalog everything is everybody. One of the reasons you see this enormous move towards social filters, as with Digg, as with del.icio.us, as with Google Reader, in a way, is simply that the scale of the problem has exceeded what professional catalogers can do. But, you know, you never hear twenty-year-olds talking about information overload because they understand the filters they’re given. You only hear, you know, forty- and fifty-year-olds taking about it, sixty-year-olds talking about because we grew up in the world of card catalogs and TV Guide. And now, all the filters we’re used to are broken and we’d like to blame it on the environment instead of admitting that we’re just, you know, we just don’t understand what’s going on.

Judgement-based filtering is what people do.

Acknowledging the tough economy and lost library jobs, Doug Johnson, director of media and technology for Mankato (MN) Public Schools, declared, “We have no choice but to change,” as he kicked off the June 28 Forum event of SIGMS, ISTE’s special-interest group for media specialists.

That change means not only embracing technology directly, but taking a leadership role in helping teaching peers and students manage the shift, whether it’s going from print to ebooks or using instructional videocasting to “flip” the classroom.

1. Leverage social media and the Web.

The Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference, November 2 – 4, 2011, is a unique chance to participate in a global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. Subject strands include the changing roles of libraries and librarians, the increasing impact of digital media and the e-book revolution, open educational resources, digital literacy, shifts from information consumption to production (Web 2.0), multimedia and gaming spaces, libraries as community centers, the growth of individualized and self-paced learning, the library as the center of new learning models, understanding users in the digital age, assessing service delivery, and defining leadership and information professional careers in a networked and changing world.

without a strategic plan for a department, you cannot implement new initiatives successfully, nor can you plan changes or institute changes in thinking. Without a strategic plan, movement forward will always feel forced, slow and lacks critical conversations that must take place with all members of staff in order to have team “buy in”. In the formation of the strategic plan, it is the one time that all staff have input and can “own” the direction of the department as a whole.

As a library we are a strategic arm of the school, even if we are not mentioned directly, and if we are not mentioned directly, then that’s our fault for not doing enough to be important to the school plan.

Library strategic plan based on the goals of the school strategic plan