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'What is Verde?' I looked around the table at my colleagues, wondering if anyone would respond with something other than 'an electronic resources management system?' Silence. 'Why did we buy […]

I spend a lot of time thinking about how my library is perceived: by our users, by visitors, by the larger campus, in the context of our community, and on [...]

Before I get going this month, I want to take a minute to thank Jessamyn West for her columns for the past two issues. Suffice it to say, she's an [...]

I recently gave a workshop for a lively group of librarians. Motivated to learn something new, they had plenty of good questions about practical applications of the ideas we discussed. [...]

'Physician, heal thyself,' I muttered as I found myself about to click the button to renew our library Flickr Pro account without giving it a second's thought. Just a few [...]

The beginning of the school year is always marked by an influx of directional and informational questions at my library, as new students hit campus and realize they don't know [...]

For me, summers pass in a way that, if not exactly lazy, is at least a little hazy. The academic library world slows a bit for vacations, conferences, and side [...]

I'm starting to get a little wary of handing over pieces of my heart to new technologies and services. I approach more cautiously, gush less loudly, eye a bit more [...]

As the communications person at my library, I spend a lot of time going back and forth between various online services. Most of my day is spent talking and listening, [...]

There have been a ton of articles, blog posts, and Twitter threads lately about what people did or did not learn in library school. Initially I was completely on board [...]

I'm not sure whether it's the change in daylight hours, holiday memory onslaught, or just really stereotypical New Year business, but I always feel so much more reflective in the [...]

This is the second half of a two-part series on augmented reality applications, so I feel like I owe you a 'Previously, on Tech Tips for Every Librarian ...' (If [...]

It can be a confusing time to talk about technology. On the one hand, we're constantly hearing about information overload and how people are drowning in the constant flow of [...]

'What we call little things are merely the causes of great things,' said French philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel. I like that thought and always hope that some small thing I [...]

Most libraries have Facebook pages. They're great for putting up hours and events and highlighting your collections, but unless you put in some special effort, every Facebook page looks more [...]

One of my favorite memories involves the summer reading program at the public library. It's fuzzy, and it's probably a mishmash of several summers all at once, but I can [...]

On the surface, managing a social media account such as Twitter for your library seems like a simple task. Typing 140 characters a couple of times a day, how hard [...]

I've been writing columns for Computers in Libraries for just about 2 years now. It seems to be the case that more often than not, I don't choose the topic [...]

A colleague of mine once worked in a library that had annual cleaning days. The library closed for the day, and everyone came to work in scruffy clothes, grabbed dust [...]

A new year--time for new things. If you're like a lot of people, you've recently made a whole slate of personal and professional resolutions for 2011. Jog 20 miles each [...]

'South side of 2nd floor is really quiet.' 'Stapler by the printer always out of staples.' 'You can have them set aside your books at the front desk so you [...]

I've looked back at the last few years of columns and found that we haven't talked about how to use Flickr very often. That's interesting, because I think that, of [...]

'Home, is where I want to be ...' I happily sing along with the Talking Heads. It's likely a gorgeous spring day as you read this in May, but there's [...]

In a perfect world, you'd have the funds to buy or subscribe to all the ebooks and ejournals your users want. You'd have a couple dozen Kindles and iPods, loaded [...]

Now that I'm an adult and working in education, I can freely admit my childhood shame--I loved 'back to school' time. And really, what's not to love? You get to […]

It seems the longer I stay in libraries, the less my job comes to resemble a 'normal' library job. Now I do mostly communications work, finding new ways to talk […]

First, a disclaimer: I'm not Jessamyn West. My name is Donna Ekart, and I'm a librarian and the communications coordinator at K-State Libraries in Manhattan, Kan. I like to think […]

The author offers guidelines on technologies that may benefit librarians and libraries. She believes that if done properly, Twitter adds a layer of possibility to conversations between librarians and users. She suggests a plan to start Twitter and follow-through including developing a simple description of a library's voice and talking to library staff, volunteers and board members for more ideas.

The author provides an overview of some library-related Web applications. Google employee Daniel Russell developed the game, A Google a Day, in which a new trivia question is posted daily and participants compete who can find first the correct answer using the search engine. The Library Use Value Calculator assigns a dollar value for each common library activity such as borrowing a book, reserving a meeting room and getting reference help.

The author discusses how librarians can take advantage of the location-based social networking website Foursquare. He suggests setting up an account specifically for the library using its reference desk or a more or less generic email address. If the library already exists in Foursquare, the librarian make it more useful by adding more data and tags to get passersby to walk into the library. The gaming side of Foursquare can also be used to make local minigames for those who attend you events and programs.

The article describes four ways by which libraries can use Flickr to promote their websites and their digital collections. Libraries are advised to use plenty of tags for the photos, include photo descriptions, make connections between photos and add contacts to make links with other area libraries and related organizations. Flickr can be used by libraries as a display and as a community collection.

The article discusses tips for librarians on publishing subject guides, research guides or study guides. First tip is to make web-based subject guide interesting to library users by including RSS feeds and chat widget. It is also recommended to make frequent posts, inclusive of resources on the Internet.