» Next Entries

groups

groups, Sustainability
WebJunction Featured Group: Green Libraries
May 20th, 2009 | Permalink | 2 Comments

A new group sprouted this week on WebJunction focused on Green Libraries. It looks like WJ members Tara Matsuzaki and Sue Kent got the ball rolling! Sue posted an outstanding list of green accomplishments that she and her West Vancouver Memorial Library colleagues shared at the recent BC Library Conference.

I’d like to also take the opportunity to welcome to the WJ fold the brand new WebJunction-British Columbia community, the first WebJunction learning community created for libraries outside the United States!

Come share your green strategies with this new group, browse other WJ Groups, and also welcome our British Columbia colleagues!
Blogging, groups
WebJunction Featured Group: WordPress (wp4lib)
May 4th, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?
We’re showcasing a not-so-new group in the WJGroup (#WJGroup on Twitter) spotlight this week because WebJunction member Laura Crossett deserves some public gold stars for starting what’s become the fastest growing group on WebJunction: WordPress for Librarians.

See more about groups on WebJunction or dive in and join the 40+ members of the the WordPress for Librarians group.
- Do you have WordPress training materials to share? Add your documents to augment Laura’s
- Do you want to know how and what WordPress can do for your library’s web presence? Join in the discussions or start your own!
If you are interested in taking charge of your own group on WebJunction, (like Laura has!), we can help you customize your group and grant you permission to design and moderate what goes on there. If you have an idea for a custom “supergroup” contact Jennifer Peterson on WebJunction.
Community Building, groups, MaintainIT, Tech, Webinar
Webinar to Celebrate the MaintainIT Cookbooks
April 21st, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?

It’s not too late to register for tomorrow’s Cookbook Celebration webinar with friends and contributors from the Maintain IT project. Why the celebration? Well, Sarah Washburn explains it best in her MaintainIT blog post earlier this month, to mark a time of transition for the project:

While grants have explicit start and end dates, the work we do at TechSoup to support libraries does not. TechSoup’s MaintainIT Project was funded by a 3-year grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that ended last month. It’s hard to believe that three years have passed, but March 31 just came and went, because nothing really changed for us behind the scenes of MaintainIT. And nothing much will, really…We’re continuing to support libraries and we’ll continue to share stories from libraries, so please stay in touch.

And we here at WebJunction would like to invite you to join the celebration as we honor the over 400 Cookbook contributors, share lessons learned from the project, and to let you know that the Cookbooks are alive and well on WebJunction. In addition to all three MaintainIT Cookbooks, WebJunction is home to the Cookbook Contributors Group, the collaborative group who uses and updates the Cookbooks.

You’re encouraged to join the group if you’re responsible for buying, supporting or maintaining your library’s technology, so you can continue to share your experiences, solutions and challenges with others. And we’re excited to provide a number of ways for folks to update and build upon the Cookbooks over time.

Please join tomorrow’s virtual celebration, where you’ll get top technology tips from library technology experts, hear what MaintainIT Project staff learned from their many conversations and library travels around the country, and learn more about how you can keep the Cookbook community alive on WebJunction.

In these tough times, there’s little more important than recognizing the efforts of so many people committed to sustaining strong and relevant technologies in our libraries, who have taken the time to share their experience and expertise so that all libraries might benefit. Here’s to all who have stopped “reinventing the wheel”!

Register for the webinar »
groups
Group Update: Does your PAC have Impact?
April 17th, 2009 | Permalink | 1 Comment

Here’s an update from the “Does your PAC have Impact?” group and the research team led by Mike Crandall and Karen E. Fisher of The University of Washington Information School. With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the team is examining the impact of free access to computers and the Internet on the well-being of individuals, families, and communities.
The research methods include a web survey hosted on the web sites of 636 randomly selected library systems, over 1100 telephone surveys, and four case study visits conducted at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore, Maryland; the Blair Public Library in Fayetteville, Arkansas; the Oakland Public Library in California; and the Marshalltown Public Library in Iowa. The research overview posted to the group this week notes:

Through our replicable, transportable, and triangulated methodology, we will identify measurable indicators of the social, economic, personal, and/or professional impact of free access to computers, the Internet, and related services at public libraries, and of negative impact where service is weak or absent.

The project will begin sharing the results and initial analysis this summer and in this current economic climate, libraries and policy makers will certainly leverage this valuable research to demonstrate the impact of libraries and the access they provide to today’s technology.

Mike Crandall posted this exciting update in the group’s discussions:

So far we’ve completed field visits to Baltimore and Fayetteville, Arkansas, with Oakland and Marshalltown, Iowa to come in the next month. The web survey has been rolled out to 20 libraries for the first two week period (starting this week) and will be in several hundred more libraries in subsequent two week periods through June. The national telephone survey should start hitting patrons sometime in the next week. Thanks to all of you for your tremendous support for this work!!!
groups
Groups on WebJunction
April 17th, 2009 | Permalink | Comment?

Did you know WebJunction members have created nearly 100 groups since the launch of our new social learning platform last August? We’ve created a new page to collect all the groups created on WebJunction’s Central site and you’ll find that additional groups have been created on WebJunction Partner sites. Just plug “group” in search and browse all groups under the Groups tab. We’ll be using this new BlogJunction Groups category to keep you informed about groups on WebJunction.

Group Basics

Groups are fun and easy, but if you need help creating your own group or joining one of the existing groups, the WebJunction User Guide covers all the basics for creating, joining and inviting others to your groups.

What Makes a Good Group?

Groups help you connect and share resources and discussion with colleagues around a common interest. While the WebJunction site covers a variety of topic areas, groups allow you to specialize within these topic areas. For example, you can connect with colleagues who are:

* Interested in a specialty not addressed in a topic area
* In a certain geographical locale
* Working on a project together
* Enrolled in a common course, to share as a learning cohort
* Attending a conference
* Alumni of an LIS institution
* A staff cohort for a library system or branch

Before you create a new group, determine if your interest is already covered in an existing topic page by browsing or searching the site. If you find an existing topic, share your documents and discussions there. Or to see if there’s a group to match your interests, browse the Groups list, and if you don’t see one to match your needs, we’ll look forward to seeing your new group on WebJunction!