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Hi All - <br><br>
The magnificence of the laudable task you have set for yourself staggers
even my overgrown imagination. <br>
I have been waiting for this since the introduction of the microprocessor
over 30 yeas ago. <br><br>
How many Net-librarians will we need when we get to 100,000 laptops?
250,000? 1,000,000? <br>
Remember that these OLPC devices will be in literally every timezone, and
in every language. <br>
Also we need to make them useless for adults, or the resources will be
mis-allocated. <br><br>
<br>
<b>ABOUT VOLUNTEERS:<br><br>
</b>1) Internationally: the process must be automated in some manner,
<br>
with the human element introduced only
when necessary (or requested). <br>
An academic specialty specific (or pedagogically
specific) cadre of volunteer <br>
librarians could thus be efficiently allocated
and accessed.<br><br>
2) Nationally: Another option is to make the resource available at the
local level, <br>
and to encourage the client nations to provide a
national net-library clearing <br>
house staff, thus reducing the language and
timezone barriers. <br><br>
3) Locally: A hierarchy of students, teachers and volunteers could be
accessed <br>
via the OLPC device's network to provide local
librarians, and regionally <br>
specific libraries and support. <br><br>
With a networking plan in place, cost estimates could be generated, and
funding <br>
then becomes a real possibility. Also, it is easier to find
volunteers, when they <br>
can understand their place in the bigger picture, and their exact duties.
<br><br>
<b>ABOUT AN EDUCATIONAL DATABASE: <br><br>
</b>Another issue that I would like to address later. <br><br>
Kindest Regards, <br>
Don V Black, Founder <br>
Edutech Project <br><br>
=== <br>
At 08:12 AM 12/13/2006, Idit Caperton wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">Joos,<br>
Thank you for your email and putting your energy and thinking in an<br>
important direction.<br><br>
Some things to think about: <br>
1. Different styles/kinds of NetLibrarians? Real and Virtual?<br>
2. Different NetLibrarians who are creating different kinds of
experiences<br>
for different people who have different personalities, purposes, needs,
and<br>
inquiries? Maybe NetLibrarians are not waiting in a specific library,
but<br>
rather creating one for you on demand based on what you are looking
for?<br>
3. How to create good "matches" and "mashes" for the
above?<br>
4. Generating on the fly different kinds of libraries in terms of
content,<br>
size, locations, and experiences?<br>
5. How NetLibrarians are different than your current concept of
Librarians.<br>
Let's not try to imitate the old, but invent something new,
different,<br>
better...<br>
- Idit.<br><br>
<br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: library-bounces@laptop.org
[<a href="mailto:library-bounces@laptop.org" eudora="autourl">
mailto:library-bounces@laptop.org</a>] On<br>
Behalf Of Joos Search<br>
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:21 AM<br>
To: library@laptop.org<br>
Subject: Online librarians<br><br>
Hello all.<br><br>
I'm currently working on a "do-it-yourself" method for becoming
an<br>
online librarian. I'm somewhat concerned that the children that
we<br>
are welcoming to the world of the Internet may just need some
helpful<br>
assistance finding the correct place to go sometimes.<br><br>
If I could use one word to describe the Internet it would be:
Library.<br>
In fact, it's the best darn library in the world. I helped to
build<br>
much of that library over the past 20 years through programming for<br>
fun and industry. I'm determined to take a gigantic step
backwards<br>
in my own life and **stop programming** in order to help persuade
the<br>
Internet that the library needs to have some librarians.
Otherwise,<br>
"Web 2.0" may come along and perhaps move the Internet in a
direction<br>
that reduces the usability of the library.<br><br>
If I may, I'd like to extend the analogy to "the Internet is a
town."<br>
Let me explain.<br><br>
When the Internet originally began, it was a really small town with<br>
just a library. Anyone could come to the library to find
information<br>
or put up new information. Then, the town began to
develop. They<br>
put in a movie theater, and a mall, and strip clubs, and an amazing<br>
telephone system, just to mention a few additions.<br><br>
And the library is still there, it's just not as flashy as all those<br>
other new and hip things that are being added to the Internet town<br>
everyday. Fortunately, the library just got a fantastic new
card<br>
catalog (Google) and an amazingly growing encyclopedia (Wikipedia).<br>
Unfortunately, the library doesn't have a librarian to tell any<br>
visitor who just happens to stumble in where to go if it's their
first<br>
time. And the librarian(s) really doesn't have to do
much. They can<br>
just be available if anyone has a question and be
trustworthy. While<br>
they're not busy, they can help catalog and cleanup.<br><br>
In some ways, I'd like to help an effort to gather a group of
advanced<br>
Internet users to serve as Internet librarians. Or, another
way to<br>
think about it would be Internet concierges. Welcome to the
Internet,<br>
may I help you?<br><br>
I've started some research on the matter. If you're interested,
I'm<br>
keeping it cataloged at joossearch@gmail.com. Thanks for
reading my<br>
ramblings.<br><br>
-Jeremy Lueck.<br>
aka Joos<br>
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http://mailman.laptop.org/mailman/listinfo/library</a> </blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=2>===================================<br>
Don V Black, Chairman<br>
IEEE-OC Video Game Engineers<br>
<a href="http://www.gamesig.org/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.gamesig.org</a> <br>
Executive Committee Member, <br>
IEEE CS Task Force on Game Technology<br>
1-949-548-1969 <br>
dblack@ieee.org<br>
===================================<br>
Affiliate of
Center of GRAVITY<br>
Electrical Engineering & Computer Science <br>
University of California at
Irvine<br>
<a href="http://newport.eecs.uci.edu/~dblack/" eudora="autourl">
http://newport.eecs.uci.edu/~dblack/</a> <br>
===================================<br>
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