NEW ARTICLE: PARTICIPATORY AND TRANSFORMATIVE ENGAGEMENT IN LIBRARIES AND MUSEUMS: EXPLORING AND EXPANDING THE SALZBURG CURRICULUM http://tametheweb.com/2015/07/13/new-article-participatory-and-transformative-engagement-in-libraries-and-museums-exploring-and-expanding-the-salzburg-curriculum/ Article in the new issue of the Journal of Education for Library and Information Science (JELIS)  - special supplement on international issues in LIS education. http://dpi-journals.com/index.php/JELIS/issue/view/310 "Participatory and Transformative Engagement in Libraries and Museums: Exploring and Expanding the Salzburg Curriculum R. David Lankes, Syracuse University Michael Stephens, San Jose State University Melissa Arjona, San Jose State University Abstract: During a program titled "Libraries and Museums in an Era of Participatory Culture," co-sponsored by the Salzburg Global Seminar (SGS) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), one of the discussion groups developed recommendations for skills needed by librarians and museum professionals in today’s connected and participatory world. The group focused on the concepts, knowledge, and processes that both librarians and museum professionals need to understand and know, realizing that participatory culture has ramifications both for traditional functions and emerging skills. The initial framework was an overview. This paper expands on the work started in Salzburg and calls for further discussion. By opening the conversation to the library and museum worlds, it is proposed that the two systems of education and continuing education will experience positive and possibly unexpected synergistic benefits." Stephen

Why You Should Care About Google’s New Open-Source Bluetooth Beacons http://gizmodo.com/why-you-should-care-about-googles-new-open-source-bluet-1717886196 "This vision isn’t new, of course — Apple said the same stuff when introducing iBeacons back in 2013. But Eddystone has the potential to catch on where Apple’s beacons fell flat: by open-sourcing the project, Google has left beacon hardware, firmware, and the user experience up to other companies; Google’s just providing the parts that let beacons talk to phones with the least possible effort." Stephen       Stephen

The Syndrome Syndrome and the Rise of the New World Disorders http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2015/07/heres_a_fun_tes_1.shtml "Below, you will find my guide to 14 of the most recently identified medical conditions. Study them carefully. If you have one of them, please check your health insurance policy immediately to see if it will cover the cost of the medicines you will soon feel compelled to buy. 1. FSGDD (Five Star General Distraction Disorder): The involuntary tendency of high ranking military officials to throw away their careers and share classified information with well-dressed socialites looking for diplomatic immunity so they won’t have to pay their parking tickets or wait on line at Wal-Mart. 2. CFSUD (Chronic Facebook Status Update Disorder): A debilitating disease that shuts down the immune system whenever a person’s need to change their Facebook status update supersedes their need to change their underwear, breathe, or have a meaningful conversation with another human being. 3. RAQS (Reflexive Air Quote Syndrome): The simultaneous extension of the index and middle finger, of both hands, to signal to anyone in one’s visual field that the word or phrase about to be spoken is either inconsequential, hyper-inflated, or attributed to someone from an opposing political party. 4. TGRES (Teenage Girl Rolling Eye Syndrome): The upward, lateralized movement of eyeballs in the presence of parents, teachers, or guidance counselors in the still forming cerebral cortex of teenage girls. Or like, whatever. 5. CPD (Compulsive Photoshop Disorder): A distortion of the visual field in which people, objects, animals, or natural expressions of Mother Nature are perceived to be deficient, requiring immediate digital manipulation. 6. MPS (Marital Projection Syndrome): A compensatory nervous system reaction triggered whenever a husband or wife believes so strongly in their own concepts of right and wrong that all they can do is criticize, judge, and wallow in self-righteousness for extended periods of time, resulting in high therapy bills, the sensation of walking on eggshells, and the cessation of sex for 30 days. 7. PID (Premature Intervention Disorder): The hallucinated belief by war-mongering American politicians that invading and occupying other countries for ridiculously long periods of time will increase national security, distract people from thinking about the economy, and lower gas prices. 8. VCD (Virtual Connection Dysfunction): The involuntary flapping of opposable thumbs, accompanied by the sudden, compulsive search for the nearest Smart Phone during early or late stage lovemaking. 9. RCOD (Remote Control Overload Disorder): A state of bi-polar catatonia triggered by the inability to make sense of all those tiny, misplaced buttons on one or more remote control devices, none of which correlate to anything in the known universe. 10. ITILLJDD (I Think I Look Like Johnny Depp Disorder): The irrational belief by men over 40 that just because they have a wispy mustache, slick their hair back, and have seen Pirates of the Caribbean twice, women will want to have sex with them. 11. MGITOGD (My God Is the Only God Disorder): A fanatical mindset in which one’s certainly about their own belief system can only be validated by making others wrong and, depending on the need for more oil, real estate, or power can lead to the death of thousands of innocent people. 12. FMYS (Four More Years Syndrome): The sudden, song-like repetition of the phrase "Four More Years, Four More Years" by straw hat-wearing, overweight, ridiculously optimistic followers of incumbent presidents at political rallies held in convention centers, state fairs, or parking lots. 13. CLS (Compulsive Like Disorder): The involuntary need to ask everyone you know to "like" your Facebook Page even if they don’t like it, don’t like you, or have already liked your page due to your incessant badgering and self-promotion. 14.BYHFSWAYTWSMLBBIAITHYSYACTHTLFSKOTOEWARLNEBATBOHND:(Blaming Your Husband For Snoring When Actually You, the Wife, Snore Much Louder, But Because It’s Almost Impossible to Hear Yourself Snoring, You Are Constantly Telling Him to Look for Some Kind of Treatment Or Else Wear a Ridiculous Looking, Nostril-Expanding Bandaid Across the Bridge of His Nose Dysfunction.) Just what it sounds like." Stephen

"A Decade of Critical Information Literacy: A Review of the Literature A Decade of Critical Information Literacy: A Review of the Literature By Eamon Tewell http://libraryjuicepress.com/blog/?p=5053 From Communications in Information Literacy, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2015) ABSTRACT As information literacy continues in its centrality to many academic libraries’ missions, a line of inquiry has developed in response to ACRL’s charge to develop information literate citizens. The literature of critical information literacy questions widely held assumptions about information literacy and considers in what ways librarians may encourage students to engage with and act upon information’s complex and inherently political nature. This review explores the research into critical information literacy, including critical pedagogy and critiques of information literacy, in order to provide an entry point for this emerging and challenging approach to information literacy. Full text: PDF" Stephen

50 Inspirational Quotes from Literature http://www.myprint247.co.uk/blog/50-inspirational-quotes-from-literature/   Stephen

Try this infographic to connect your YA readers to your history collections . . . Historical Inspiration for Game of Thrones: INFOGRAPHIC http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/historical-inspiration-for-game-of-thrones-infographic/107672 Stephen

Full Text Article: "A Library in the Palm of Your Hand: Mobile Services in Top 100 University Libraries"   http://www.infodocket.com/2015/07/23/full-text-article-a-library-in-the-palm-of-your-hand-mobile-services-in-top-100-university-libraries/ "The following full text article appears in the current issue of Information Technology and Libraries. Title A Library in the Palm of Your Hand: Mobile Services in Top 100 University Libraries Authors Yan Quan Liu Southern Connecticut State University Special Hired Professor at Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin, China Sarah Briggs Library/Media Specialist at Jonathan Law High School, Milford, CT Source Information Technology and Libraries Vol 34, No 2 (2015) Abstract What is the current state of mobile services among academic libraries of the country’s top 100 universities, and what are the best practices for librarians implementing mobile services at the university level? Through in-depth website visits and survey questionnaires, the authors studied each of the top 100 universities’ libraries’ experiences with mobile services. Results showed that all of these libraries offered at least one mobile service, and the majority offered multiple services. The most common mobile services offered were mobile sites, text messaging services, e-books, and mobile access to databases and the catalog. In addition, chat/IM services, social media accounts and apps were very popular. Survey responses also indicated a trend towards responsive design for websites so that patrons can access the library’s full site on any mobile device. Respondents recommend that libraries considering offering mobile services begin as soon as possible as patron demand for these services is expected to increase. Direct to Full Text Article (16 pages; PDF)" Stephen

The 37 Best Websites To Learn Something New https://medium.com/@kristynazdot/the-37-best-websites-to-learn-something-new-895e2cb0cad4 "edX — Take online courses from the world’s best universities. Coursera — Take the world’s best courses, online, for free. Coursmos — Take a micro-course anytime you want, on any device. Highbrow — Get bite-sized daily courses to your inbox. Skillshare — Online classes and projects that unlock your creativity. Curious — Grow your skills with online video lessons. lynda.com — Learn technology, creative and business skills. CreativeLive — Take free creative classes from the world’s top experts. Udemy — Learn real world skills online. →LEARN HOW TO CODE Codecademy — Learn to code interactively, for free. Stuk.io — Learn how to code from scratch. Udacity — Earn a Nanodegree recognized by industry leaders. Platzi — Live streaming classes on design, marketing and code. Learnable — The best way to learn web development. Code School — Learn to code by doing. Thinkful — Advance your career with 1-on-1 mentorship. Code.org — Start learning today with easy tutorials. BaseRails — Master Ruby on Rails and other web technologies. Treehouse — Learn HTML, CSS, iPhone apps & more. One Month — Learn to code and build web applications in one month. Dash — Learn to make awesome websites. →LEARN TO WORK WITH DATA DataCamp — Online R tutorials and data science courses. DataQuest — Learn data science in your browser. DataMonkey — Develop your analytical skills in a simple, yet fun way. →LEARN NEW LANGUAGES Duolingo — Learn a language for free. Lingvist — Learn a language in 200 hours. Busuu — The free language learning community. Memrise — Use flashcards to learn vocabulary. →EXPAND YOUR KNOWLEDGE TED-Ed — Find carefully curated educational videos Khan Academy — Access an extensive library of interactive content. Guides.co — Search the largest collection of online guides. Squareknot — Browse beautiful, step-by-step guides. Learnist — Learn from expertly curated web, print and video content. Prismatic — Learn interesting things based on social recommendation. →BONUS Chesscademy — Learn how to play chess for free. Pianu — A new way to learn piano online, interactively. Yousician— Your personal guitar tutor for the digital age. UPDATE: Full list including the best of your suggestions can be also found here." Stephen

The Top 10 Reasons Why the Top 10 Reasons Don’t Matter http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2015/07/the_10_top_reas.shtml "1. Reason is highly over-rated. 2. If you need more data to prove your point, you’ll never have enough data to prove your point. 3. Analysis paralysis. 4. You’re going to follow your gut, anyway. 5. By the time you put your business case together, the market has passed you by. 6. "Not everything that counts can be counted; not everything that can be counted counts." - Albert Einstein 7. The scientific method came to Rene Descartes in a dream! 8. Most reasons are collected to prove to others what you have already decided to do. 9. "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." - G.B. Shaw 10. I am, therefore I think." Stephen

The Three Types of Problem in the World http://www.onlydeadfish.co.uk/only_dead_fish/2015/07/the-three-types-of-problem-in-the-world.html "I rather liked this delineation of the three different types of problem in the world, featured in a paper on reform in the healthcare industry by Brenda Zimmerman of York University and Sholom Glouberman of the University of Toronto, and quoted in The Checklist Manifesto: Simple problems are ones like baking a cake from a mix. There is a recipe. Complicated problems are ones like sending a rocket to the moon. They can sometimes be broken down into a series of simple problems. But there is no straightforward recipe. Success frequently requires multiple people, often multiple teams, and specialized expertise. Unanticipated difficulties are frequent. Timing and coordination become serious concerns. Complex problems are ones like raising a child. Once you learn how to send a rocket to the moon, you can repeat the process with other rockets and perfect it. One rocket is like another rocket. But not so with raising a child, the professors point out. Every child is unique. Although raising one child may provide experience, it does not guarantee success with the next child. Expertise is valuable but most certainly not sufficient. Indeed, the next child may require an entirely different approach from the previous one. And this brings up another feature of complex problems: their outcomes remain highly uncertain. Yet we all know that it is possible to raise a child well. It’s complex, that’s all." Stephen