Netlibrarians

[Jim Pace]

Take a look at:

http://www.aiip.org/index.html

http://www.informedlibrarian.com/index.cfm

http://www.ipl.org/

http://wikis.ala.org/LITALibrary2.0/index.php/Tool_Kit_for_the_Expert_Web_Se
archer

http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/

For a few of the longer lasting previous attempts to answer your questions,
plus just some great spots for beginning to aquire several entire bodies of
knowledge concerning digital libarianship.

Jim Pace

-----------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2006 11:12:12 -0500
From: "Idit Caperton" <Idit at MaMaMedia.com>
Subject: NetLibrarians

Joos,
Thank you for your email and putting your energy and thinking in an
important direction.

Some things to think about: 
1. Different styles/kinds of NetLibrarians? Real and Virtual?
2. Different NetLibrarians who are creating different kinds of experiences
for different people who have different personalities, purposes, needs, and
inquiries? Maybe NetLibrarians are not waiting in a specific library, but
rather creating one for you on demand based on what you are looking for?
3. How to create good "matches" and "mashes" for the above?
4. Generating on the fly different kinds of libraries in terms of content,
size, locations, and experiences?
5. How NetLibrarians are different than your current concept of Librarians.
Let's not try to imitate the old, but invent something new, different,
better...
- Idit.


-----Original Message-----
From: library-bounces at laptop.org [mailto:library-bounces at laptop.org] On
Behalf Of Joos Search
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:21 AM
To: library at laptop.org
Subject: Online librarians

Hello all.

I'm currently working on a "do-it-yourself" method for becoming an online
librarian.  I'm somewhat concerned that the children that we are welcoming
to the world of the Internet may just need some helpful assistance finding
the correct place to go sometimes.

If I could use one word to describe the Internet it would be: Library.
 In fact, it's the best darn library in the world.  I helped to build much
of that library over the past 20 years through programming for
fun and industry.   I'm determined to take a gigantic step backwards
in my own life and **stop programming** in order to help persuade the
Internet that the library needs to have some librarians.  Otherwise, "Web
2.0" may come along and perhaps move the Internet in a direction that
reduces the usability of the library.

If I may, I'd like to extend the analogy to "the Internet is a town."
Let me explain.

When the Internet originally began, it was a really small town with just a
library.  Anyone could come to the library to find information
or put up new information.   Then, the town began to develop.  They
put in a movie theater, and a mall, and strip clubs, and an amazing
telephone system, just to mention a few additions.

And the library is still there, it's just not as flashy as all those other
new and hip things that are being added to the Internet town everyday.
Fortunately, the library just got a fantastic new card catalog (Google) and
an amazingly growing encyclopedia (Wikipedia).
Unfortunately, the library doesn't have a librarian to tell any visitor who
just happens to stumble in where to go if it's their first
time.   And the librarian(s) really doesn't have to do much.  They can
 just be available if anyone has a question and be trustworthy.  While
they're not busy, they can help catalog and cleanup.

In some ways, I'd like to help an effort to gather a group of advanced
Internet users to serve as Internet librarians.   Or, another way to
think about it would be Internet concierges.  Welcome to the Internet, may I
help you?

I've started some research on the matter.  If you're interested, I'm
keeping it cataloged at joossearch at gmail.com.   Thanks for reading my
ramblings.

-Jeremy Lueck.
aka Joos