I have a bajillion and one tabs open in my browser, all things I wish I'd had time to blog about during the last few months. I have to start making room for new tabs I don't have time to blog about, so here's a link dump of just a few of the things I have wanted to write about but am giving up on strictly for lack of time. My apologies to the sources, so click on them and give them a look.

• 4 Things
  "Recently, people have been circulating different kinds of '4 Things' lists on the Internet–4 books you have recently read, 4 places you’d like to visit, etc. Here is a version made just for our library!" [SJCPL Blog, via skagirlie]
• Assess Your Library's Community Standing
  "Even if you don't want to read all 45 pages of this Urban Libraries Council study of some highly effective Chicago public libraries, you should at least take a look at the 'Engaged Libraries Toolbox' that shows how to assess your library's community standing and possible partners." [Infoblog]
• Lego Mindstorms and Getting the Kids
  "BTW, this release of Mindstorms is supposed to be easier to use and get a successful design up and running in less than 20 minutes. I smell a perfect auxiliary to gaming nights - Battle of the Bots. Or for a summer reading program with hands-on activities in robot building. Even sweeter - let's circulate Mindstorm kits and point people to the online sites built by the other patrons for help, ideas, and challenges / solution (like a layout for a maze and the code to successfully navigate through it).

  There are so many tie-ins with this activity, I am not even sure where you start. How about all the books on robotics, science fiction, possible movies, web sites - talk about a mish-mash of stuff that could be on a pathfinder, blog, or web site - maybe even a MySpace Mindstorms in the Library site?" [Technobiblio]



• Library 2.0 for Dummies [Travelin' Librarian]


• Clever Use of Tag Clouds
  "The University of Western Ontario's office of Communications and Public Affairs offers a directory of blogs published by members of the UWO community. Not only is the directory a good idea, but they also provide a tag cloud that covers the content in all these different blogs. To see the cloud, look at the top of their main weblog page." [RSS4Lib]


• Intuitive Revelations: The Ubiquitous Reference Model
  "Essentially, the paper describes a proactive approach toward interacting with college students. While the library world has just discovered blogs, these students have been keeping online journals for years. They use services like LiveJournal and Xanga, and even MySpace and Facebook to interact—often providing insight and commentary on their hectic lives. My interest was mining this data for educational opportunities.

  The Major Theme: We need to get out from behind the desk and help students when and where they need it." [Alt Ref] (I really love this one!)



• If You Build It, Will They Come?
  "A couple of weeks ago I added logging to five of our OPAC tweaks to see if they were being used, and also which is the most popular.... So, here is the top five countdown...." [Dave Pattern's Weblog]


• Know Your Place - Headmap manifesto and the spatialised internet revolution
  "[These words] form part of a technological vision of the future, heralding an age in which our spatial experiences can be overlaid with a rich layer of information - images, text, sound - through GPS capable mobile WiFi devices and a lot of community spirit. This is the Headmap manifesto, an exploration of the technological, and more importantly the social, potential of an 'outside internet' - external, spatialised computing." [Social Issues Research Centre]

Hans Roes, Director Information Resources and Multimedia at the International University Bremen, sent me the following Web 2.0 job opening (emphasis below is mine).

Academic Technology Engineer

"The mission of the Information Resources and Multimedia department is to offer facilities and services in support of teaching, learning and research that meet the high ambitions of IUB. Under a new leadership, a new strategy has been developed that addresses innovations in both the real and the virtual environment. The recently built Campus Center will become the preferred place for students and faculty to meet, work and learn. Digital library and multimedia services will be developed that are closely integrated with learning, teaching and research processes.

Tasks

• Together with the systems librarian, innovate search and retrieve experiences for users.


• Setting up and maintaining the system for the IUB institutional repository.


• Integration of library and multimedia systems with other major campus systems, providing services closely linked to teaching, learning and research.


• Promote to and support students and faculty in the use of tools for collaborative work, e.g. blogs and wikis.


• Contribute to the development of the overall IUB website.


• Backup for the systems librarian.

Background, training and skills

• Higher education in computer and / or information science.


• 3 – 4 years work experience in a complex and innovative environment.


• Versatile with UNIX and PC operating systems. Proven programming skills in several modern languages, like Perl, Python, Ruby.


• Expertise in web technology: LAMP, XML, CSS, template engines.
• Basic knowledge of LDAP, portal technology, and identity management.


• Ability to work under pressure in an intercultural, demanding environment.


• Geek and team player, wild about web 2.0, willing to learn and share.


• Fluency in English, fluency in German an asset."