Librarian, or museologist?

Prepared by L Ruus,

University of Toronto Data Library Service

For the OLITA session: Librarians and technology

OLA Superconference, 22/01/99

A copy of this presentation can be accessed at:

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca:8080/~laine/ola99.ppt

Overview

• Introduction

• The problem as I see it

• Attitude is everything

• Practicalities

• Planning for the future

Introduction:

• Serendipity: “the faculty of making happy & unexpected discoveries by accident”

• And the blame goes to:– my mother– Pierre Trudeau– Stein Rokkan– Basil Stuart-Stubbs

• Morale: volunteering isn’t always bad

The problem as I see it:

• lack not of change but of anything new:– a career path with nothing new– a job with little/nothing new

• lack of interest/challenge– a job containing little/no interest

Attitude is everything

• Recognize what you don’t know– and resolve to change that lack

• It’s ok to say “I don’t know” if you also say “ but I will find out and let you know”– and do so

• Put responsibility for CE where it belongs– not on BB

Practicalities

• Identify a niche– generalists vs specialists– rare skill sets– e.g. statistics, GIS, management– it has to be of interest to you

Practicalities (2)

• Train yourself:– adult ed courses at universities, colleges,

community centres, the ‘Y’, etc.– WWW-based courses (CAI, distance learning):

free or for fee– WWW-based textbooks, FAQs, etc.– lurking on listservs, Usenet news groups

Adult ed courses at universities, e.g..

• Sheridan College. Continuing Education

http://www.sheridanc.on.ca/learning/courses.html

• University of Toronto. FIS

http://www.fis.utoronto.ca/conted/

Finding WWW-based courses

• Magellan Home > Education > Continuing Education

http://magellan.excite.com/education/continuing_education

• Yahoo : Education : Distance learning

http://dir.yahoo.com/Education/Distance_Learning/• World Lecture Hall

http://www.utexas.edu/world/lecture/

WWW-based textbooks, FAQs, etc.

• Electronic statistics textbook./ StatSoft Inc. 1998

http://www.statsoftinc.com/textbook/stathome.html • HyperStat online: an introductory-level

hypertext statistics book

http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lane/hyperstat/index.html • Statistics: the study of stability in variation

[textbook]./ De Leeuw, Jan

http://www.stat.ucla.edu/textbook/

FAQs etc.

• List of Usenet FAQs

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html

Identifying listservs, Usenet news groups, etc.

• Liszt

http://www.liszt.com/

• Tile.net/lists

http://www.liszt.com/

Practicalities (3)

• Self-motivation– e.g.: what tool would make your life easier?

• find it?

• make it?

• share it!

– Hint: don’t do what a machine can do better.

Planning for today

• focused WWW cruising

• focused lurking

• conferences, seminars, etc.

• active participation in listservs, etc.

Planning for the future

• Plan for obsolescence