Stop Reinventing the Wheel

Abstract

This article details the development of the Library Instruction Wiki (http://instructionwiki.org): an effort to develop a web-based, knowledge-sharing resource. Though some library instruction is specific to a given institution or class, much of what instruction librarians teach is similar. Library instructors have repeatedly expressed the desire to share resources, ideas, and expertise. With the increasing presence of social software applications, the options for technology-enabled knowledge sharing have grown dramatically in recent years. The success of Wikipedia illustrates how wikis can be used to build collective knowledge-building projects. The authors describe the process of using a wiki to build such a resource. Drawing on research connecting communities of practice, information and communication technology, and knowledge management, the authors also examine the social and cultural challenges they faced trying to use communication technology with a dispersed network of practitioners. Implementation details including software selection and installation, customization, and marketing are discussed. A year after its initial launch, contributions to the wiki have slowed despite consistent and enthusiastic support for the concept. The authors examine possible reasons for this limited activity, and suggest next steps for this wiki and for further research.     

Changing the Tire Instead of Reinventing the Wheel: Customizing an Existing Online Information Literacy Tutorial

ABSTRACT

Information literacy instruction has become a core responsibility of many academic librarian positions in recent years. Online information literacy tutorials have gained increasing popularity among librarians struggling to keep up with the growing demand for this type of instruction. The availability of high-quality, open source tutorials has prompted some librarians to customize existing tutorials rather than build their own resource from scratch. This article provides an overview and checklist for librarians who are considering customization of an existing online tutorial as a means of meeting student information literacy needs.     

Reinventing the marketing machine

The rhythm of publishers’ marketing efforts is dictated by an entirely outmoded historic model of publication of seasonal lists. Publishers should recognize that market conditions that drove this cycle are long gone and adjust to the realities of the 1990s. Properly used, many of today’s technology tools can assist publishers in building and exploiting the “communities of interest” that are the stock-in-trade of every book marketer. Mike Shatzkin is co-chairman of the VISTA Editorial Board. His Idea Logical company produces content for Sportsline USA web sites. Address for correspondence     

Reinventing the medical librarian

The caliber of the librarian is a health sciences library's most important resource. This paper explores factors which have influenced who has, or who has not, entered the profession of medical librarianship, and discusses several attributes which the author considers critical for restructuring the profession to meet current and future needs.     

Reinventing access

In 1989 David Bearman threw virtual bombs at the practices of the archival profession. In Australia we responded to the emerging issues of digital recordkeeping influenced by Bearman’s challenging analysis. However, access has long been an area somewhat neglected within the Australian recordkeeping profession. Addressing this is core to reconceptualising the access function for the future in the digital environment.     

Reinventing Alexandria:

No abstract available for this article.     

Reinventing the public value of libraries

ABSTRACT

Libraries worldwide have had to re-think their purpose and adapt to changing community needs and expectations. They are no longer simply repositories for old books. Rather, they are vital components of a community’s social and economic infrastructure that connects communities and fosters creativity and innovation. This paper explores the changing role of libraries—and public value organizations more broadly—in creating positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes for individuals and communities.     

Reinventing the Herbert Hoover presidential library

Presidential libraries serve a wide range of customers including scholars, school children, tourists, seniors, and members of civic organizations, among other groups. Each of the nation's 10 presidential libraries faces a different mix of these customers, depending on the age of the library and its location. Opened in August of 1962, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library has recently undergone the process of “reinventing” itself to better serve its customer base. These efforts include revitalized museum programs, expanded scholarly programs, and innovative education programs. The results have been gratifying: increased visibility among the general public throughout Iowa and the Midwest, a renewed interest in the research resources held by the Library, and the discovery of the Library and its programs by new groups of customers.     

Reinventing a State Funding Program for Museums

While state funding represents a primary source of support for museums, its characteristics and significance have eluded recognition and analysis. Programs and funding mechanisms vary considerably among states, ranging from support for specific projects in museums by agencies that fund multiple types of cultural institutions to state agencies exclusively devoted to museums. The Museum Program of the New York State Council on the Arts, which supports all disciplines of museums, faced critical challenges to its leadership role as funding was restored following a period of severe retrenchment. It engaged in open dialogue with the museum community as it developed new initiatives and services to the field. The Program worked with service organizations to create new approaches for professional learning about museum practices, made revisioning permanent collections an overarching guidelines theme and challenged exhibition applicants to explore neglected topics. It also emphasized multiple interpretive perspectives, mutual engagement with communities and sequential educational activities that provide in‐depth learning experiences.     

Reinventing the Library's Message Through the Alignment of Research and Instruction

This article is about the Walker Management Library staff and services at Vanderbilt University's Owen Graduate School of Management and its primary audience, the graduate business school community. In the spirit of continuous improvement, new goals were set to increase the library's impact on the school and the end product, the graduate business school students. To do so, the library staff retooled specific practices on how we provided reference and instruction services. Through planning and experimentation, the library staff consciously redefined our message, methods of delivery, and did so in ways that other libraries can duplicate.     

Reinventing a health sciences digital library--organizational impact

What is the organizational impact of becoming a digital library, as well as a physical entity with facilities and collections? Is the digital library an add-on or an integrated component of the overall library package? Librarians see sweeping environmental and technological changes. The staff members feel exhilarated and challenged by the pressures to adapt quickly and effectively. Librarians recognize that a Web presence, like other technology components, must be continuously enhanced and regularly re-engineered. The Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is reinventing its digital presence to better meet the needs of the community. This paper provides a case study focusing on major changes in planning processes, organizational structure, staffing, budgeting, training, communications, and operations at the Health Sciences Library.     

版权再造:IP开发的三种模式

“IP”即版权.好莱坞的版权概念更注重对原创作品的“保护”,而国内兴起的IP概念则更强调对原创作品的“开发”.基于水平整合的现代娱乐业结构设计理念,文章提出围绕版权价值挖掘,先后出现和并存着三种IP开发模式:产品扩展模式、项目协同模式和众创模式.对应Ip被视作产品、项目和众创过程,IP开发从无核心到有核心最终到去核心,涵盖了行动、环境与当代神话.     

Reinventing (open) government: State and federal trends

Federal open records laws, executive orders on national security classification, and similar policy instruments in the states require that most records at government agencies be available to the public upon request—subject to exemptions which may entail review. Traditionally, this review has been accomplished by redaction (purging) of hardcopy. Resource limitations and increases in the number of requests demand a rethinking of the process. Offices are experimenting with optical scanning, onscreen purging, and online dissemination. Statutory and common law trends may soon require disclosure of database reports in electronic form, when so requested, rather than printouts. The dissemination of manipulable data of commercial value requires a rationale broader than the “citizenship rights” that justified the Freedom of Information Act. Online publication of agency-controlled records also demands careful planning of information systems and public networks. The issues discussed in this article are central to the establishment of an adequate policy for electronic freedom of information.     

Reinventing Privilege: The New (Gay) Man in Contemporary Popular Media

In recent years, the gay man/heterosexual woman couple configuration has become a genre unto itself in mediated popular culture, resulting in unprecedented mainstream visibility for gay men. Major mainstream films, such as My Best Friend's Wedding, Object of My Affection, and The Next Best Thing, showcase this combination as their centerpiece, as does the highly rated prime-time network situation comedy, Will & Grace. In this essay, I assess this particular performance of gay identity in order to discern what qualities render it – as presented in this configuration – not only acceptable but popular, given the heteronormative sensibilities that characterize the mainstream audience to which it is directed. I argue that, in these texts, homosexuality is not only recoded and normalized in these representations as consistent with privileged male heterosexuality but is articulated as extending heterosexual male privilege. In so doing, blatant sexism is reinvented and legitimized, and gay male identity simultaneously is defined by and renormalizes heteronormativity.