Librarian of Fortune

A few of Google's secrets

I'm getting ready for all my spring speaking engagements, including the AIIP conference, Computers in Libraries, Web Search University, and the SLA Annual Conference. My favorite sessions are the ones where I show some of the lesser-known features of Google, Yahoo and Bing. Some of the Google tools are particularly useful for web researchers; I wrote about three of them in my Bates InfoTip for March.

My web site has a store!

Thanks to the efforts and inspiration of Sandra Abbott of Buzzwords Inc., my web site now has an online store. In addition to selling the second edition of Building & Running a Successful Research Business, I have several eTools designed to help info-entrepreneurs price their services, market themselves effectively, and grow their businesses.

My rant on the futility of marketing information services through cold-calling is free to download. Look for the eTool titled "Friends Don't Let Friends Cold-Call". Yes, I feel kind of strongly about this one...

Hungry?

I know... bad translation in restaurant menus are a dime a dozen. But I liked these, selected from among approximately 15 on my local Indian restaurant's menu.

 
 

Plus ça change...

In 2003, I was asked to give a short talk at the Information Online 2003 conference in Sydney on the role of information professionals in the online environment. I predicted the day when we saw the distinction between librarY and librarIAN, when info pros permeated the workplace, when we were seen as an essential component of every information management function within organizations and institutions.

I re-discovered it when migrating to a new laptop and realized that almost all of what I said then applies just as much today. It's here, on my Extras page. What do you think? Besides the Microsoft Watch, which is now a smartphone, I think it's still applicable today.

I love my job

Reason # 5,882,401 for why I love my job: working with clients who get as geeked out about whatever they're working on as I do. Moisturizers, bathroom plumbing fixtures, pens - our obsession of the month gives us one more thing to bore people to tears with. It's a gift...