Librarian of Fortune

Ask.com goes 3-D

I just wrote a short item on what I like best about the user interface that Ask.com rolled out recently in June. [OK, so it was a month ago... I've been busy dealing with bees.] Link

JIT vs. JIC

To that end, I wonder if you have a suggestion for "processing" (in whatever form that may take) summary or "answer" messages from listservs such at BUSLIB-L?

This morning, I got an interesting email from a new librarian. In essence, her questionj was how to save for future reference the most useful postings from email discussion lists. My response:

My philosophy has been to do Just-in-time information collecting, rather than Just-in-case collecting. If you see something in an email discussion list that's useful immediately, use it. If not, you know where you'll be able to find the information again - in the list's public searchable archives. So I think your main task is to identify the lists and other resources that are consistent sources of good information, and become familiar with the archive search functions of each. That way, you can always find the information later.

Trying to retain and store these bits of information is, IMO, pointless. The problem is that you don't know what you'll use the information for later, so almost by definition you can't design a storage system that would work for you, unless you re-create the archives of all the useful sources.

Trends in the info profession

I recently had a delightful interview with Cybele Wert on the information profession, that's now available as a podcast.  She is a great interviewer, and I really enjoyed talking with her.

Besides that, Mrs. Lincoln...

I celebrated my birthday the other day. Great party, wonderful friends. But... that morning a circuit breaker went bad, so an electrician had to come out and bring light back to the guest bathroom. My drip system wasn't working and was, in fact, killing my trees, so a landscape guy came out. And, leaving the best for last, a swarm of bees has taken up residence 3 feet from my front door. See pix below. I've called 10 beekeepers and no one is willing to come out and (for a fee of ~$800) tear out my siding and remove my new hive. I've read a lot about Colony Collapse Disorder and, frankly, I'm hoping this colony collapses before I lose my patience. Other than that, it was a great birthday.

 

 

Update: I finally got someone to come out and vacuum (yes, really) out the bees. He promised that he was taking the box over to a beekeeper.

And now there is one bee hanging from a spider's web right next to where the bees were vacuumed out, which looks for all the world like a warning to other bees: beware of this house. Kind of like those old hobo signs outside houses...

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers - New York Times

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers <registration required - try BugMeNot> (NY Times, July 7, 2007)

The New York Times style section has finally figured out that librarians are cool, hip and with-it. Obviously they never knew about the ground-breaking 1972 anthology, Revolting Librarians, and the 2003 sequel, Revolting Librarians Redux.....  Or the Librarian by day, Bacardi by night ad. Or my favorite librarian-related ad, Lucy Liu in a librarian's lap.

International trade research

The World Trade Center of Central Pennsylvania invited me to talk about how business people can use the web to research trade opportunities outside the US. (It was a fun presentation, except for one of those Air Travel Trips From Hades, in which it took me 20 hours to get from Denver to Harrisburg, PA.)

Anyway, following are some of the resources that got the most interest:

• US Commercial Service -- great for Country Commercial Guides, "Best Markets For..." and market research reports
• Export.gov, the US government export portal, with databases of export trade leads
• National Trade Data Bank (STAT-USA): one of my favorite government sites. (Yeah, that's geeky, isn't it?)
• The International Trade section of Business.gov: a portal to federal agency sites devoted to international trade
• "Really Useful Links for International Trade": yes, that's the name of the site, and fairly self-explanatory
• "Really Useful Sites for International Trade Professionals": a free newsletter
• the International Trade Administration's list of sector analysts, by industry

This is by no means comprehensive, but gives a non-expert some good, authoritative starting points.

SLA Conference presentations

In June, I gave a number of presentations at the annual conference of the Special Libraries Association. I finally got around to posting the Powerpoint slides on my web site.

• How to Convince Your Clients They Desperately Need You
• 20 Tips For Searching the New Web

• Super Searcher Secrets: What Today's Web Researcher Needs To Know

I also taught a very popular half-day workshop, "What Do I Do After Logging Off?: How to add value and deliver information solutions". This workshop focused on the practical tools, techniques and resources for providing analysis and synthesis of information, and packaging your research so that the added value you provide is clear.

Email me if you are interested in the table of contents to the workshop, to see if this would be something your organization would find useful.

The Art of the E-Newsletter

Factiva recently commissioned me to write a short white paper on how to develop an electronic newsletter. It was produced in conjunction with Factiva's Newsletter feature, but you need not be a Factiva subscriber to read the white paper. Go here, click "The Art of Newsletters" and fill in the form, and you'll be pointed to a copy of the white paper.