PLA Blog

Alexis Linoski is working with a colleague to author a book titled Federated Search: A Librarian’s Guide, and while they’ve had a plethora of academic librarian feedback, they’d really like some public librarian feedback. Alex writes:

“We are surveying both library practitioners and the federated search vendors to get a complete picture of what the profession is looking for and what the current / forthcoming options are. This data will be combined with a guide on selecting and implementing a federated search tool. The aim is to illuminate all of the decisions necessary in order to alleviate the pitfalls of the process.”

Take a few minutes to fill out the survey online and give them more of a public librarian perspective on federated search.

What are your thoughts? Is there more you wish the survey let you express, vent, or gush? Post your comments here, we’d love to hear from you.

Another excellent free continuing education opportunity from WebJunction’s Rural In Focus Webinars series! These webinars are entirely free and online, so you can participate from the comfort of your desk, at home or at work.

A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Library Surveys
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
11:00 am PT/2:00 pm ET
“Surveys can be rich sources of information about your community’s needs and your library’s services and resources. When should you conduct a survey? What are the essential elements of an effective survey? How can you best evaluate your survey results? Colleen Eggett, Training Coordinator from the Utah State Library will be presenting and she has developed a Participant Guide as an option for those attending this session.”

If you’ve never attended a WebJunction webinar before, take a few moments to review the joining the webinar instructions in advance to make sure you’re all set up for the session. Also, feel free to post questions and comments here.

How very exciting! It turns out that Sophie Brookover and Liz Burns, two of the intrepid librarians who blog over at Pop Goes the Library, are working on a book titled Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community, to be published sometime in 2008.

And they need *your* feedback! Here’s why (via a quote from their post about the book):

So while we feverishly research, write, and revise the manuscript, we have a request of all of you, dear Readers & Friends of Pop: we have this survey, you see, and it would help us out tremendously if you’d be willing to answer our questions. It’s one thing for us to write about what we think makes a great marriage between pop culture & libraries; it’s quite another, more powerful thing to quote our experienced colleagues on this topic.

Please take a few minutes to help by filling out their survey. Understanding the fit of popular culture in the library is one of the many keys to staying relevant with our patron communities, so this is a very worthy cause for your time. Thanks!

Brendan Gallagher, a participant in Leslie Berger’s Emerging Leaders Initiative, posted to the Mentors, Masters, Leaders blog today about the survey that’s been making the rounds through various digital venues:

I’m one of the ALA Emerging Leaders this year, and I’m part of a work team that is looking at options for “rebranding the library profession in the digital world.” We’ve decided to survey as broad a spectrum of library professionals as possible in order to see what we think of ourselves.

This survey is part of Project KK. You can read more about the project and other projects on the ALA Emerging Leaders wiki. I’ve seen the survey mentioned on Twitter, in emails, in IM chats, and on blogs, and I’m hoping that ALA will actually post a link to it from the ALA home page, which would make a lot of sense and increase the outreach of such an important request for feedback.

Click here to take the survey, and definitely come back and tell us what you think about the idea of rebranding librarianship, what it will mean to public libraries, and about the survey itself.

I’ve noticed a plethora of surveys and other feedback requests for librarians out there recently. You may want to consider offering your solicited opinion to these efforts, your voice counts!

ALA Web Site Usability Survey
http://tinyurl.com/y6yhta
Love it? Hate it? Let them know by taking the survey. While there is no published deadline for taking the survey (all accounts I’ve seen note the deadline as “late October 2006″), it is still up as of today, so take a moment to help ALA improve the web site.

ALA Online Resource Center for Library Cultural Programming Survey
http://tinyurl.com/tebaw

The ALA Public Programs Office is developing a resource called “The Online Resource Center for Library Cultural Programming” (ORC). The ORC will be a “one stop” web site where librarians interested in cultural programming can find all the information they need to learn about and present quality public programs, program ideas, presenters, partners, funding, training and materials. … Responses are requested by NOVEMBER 20, 2006.

Library Journal Sixth Annual Movers & Shakers
HTML form:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6358087.html (LJ notes that you may want to print your HTML form before submitting)
PDF form:
http://www.libraryjournal.com/contents/pdf/LJMoveShakeForm.pdf

“The sixth annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile 50-plus up-and-coming individuals from across the United States and Canada who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2007 will celebrate the new professionals who are moving our libraries ahead. The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2006.”

2007 ALA Recognition Awards and Grants
http://tinyurl.com/wzw86
“Nominations are being sought for the 2007 American Library Association (ALA) Recognition Awards and Grants. Unless otherwise noted, the deadline for awards is December 1.” There are 15+ awards to choose from, so if you know of a deserving library or librarian, take a look a the list and show them some love.

Google Librarian Center and Newsletter Survey (added 2:30pm)
http://tinyurl.com/yg8yw6

The purpose of this survey is to help us identify how we can improve the Librarian Center and Newsletter to better fit your needs. … We hope that you’ll take the 10-15 minutes to complete this survey and let us know more about you and what you’d like to see from our program. … Please note that the survey will close on October 31st, 2006.