Barbara Band, School Library Consultant, reflects on what it means for the future of school libraries in a post-Covid world. Sparked by ideas from an IFLA webinar, she considers safety and technology in library spaces, evidence-based librarianship and the value of school libraries.
Posted 1 June 2021
We are living in historic times! Cohesive library leadership at national and global levels is important to bring transformative change that benefits communities deeply impacted by COVID-19 and to establish a vibrant future for global libraries, writes international library consultant Loida Garcia-Febo.
Posted 4 May 2021
Internet librarians spend much of their working life in the present. However, two presentations at the 2021 NISOPlus conference brought home the importance of both looking back and looking forward. The speakers, one a Ghanaian librarian advocating for Indigenous Knowledge and the other a researcher from Japan investigating a future society enhanced with avatars, stimulated so many thoughts in my mind about the role of libraries, librarians, and our digital future.
Posted 4 May 2021
Katie Birkwood describes the transcribathon that the Royal College of Physicians archives team took part in, organised to make ancient texts readable both to modern eyes and for digitisation purposes. However, some of the advice in the 17th century books should probably be disregarded, such as bramble leaves and white ginger to ward off the plague and a shovelful of bees to treat hair loss.
Posted 6 April 2021
The Lubuto Library Partners, working in Zambia for the past 15 years, established three libraries focussed on the needs of children and youth, providing books, technology, and library programming, as well as serving as safe havens. The pandemic has caused Lubuto Library Partners to consider new directions post-pandemic.
Posted 1 March 2021
[Editor's Note: If you heard Yvonne Campfens' inspiring keynote talk at Internet Librarian International 2019 all about creating, innovating, collaborating and what we can learn from startups, you won't be surprised to hear that she has taken her own advice and joined startup OA Switchboard as its executive director. I asked her to tell us about this new venture.]
Posted 2 February 2021
Google Trends presents excellent opportunities for Internet Librarians to examine differences in terminology and popularity of search topics over time.
Posted 5 January 2021
Neil Dixon describes how he and his team at Anglia Ruskin University Library set up training workshops to explore the impact of AI on libraries, using fictional writing techniques.
Posted 1 December 2020
Deciding to go out on your own and start a library-related business is a huge step. Anne Welsh gives us some tips and resources based on her experience of setting up her Beginning Cataloguing business.
Posted 1 December 2020
Covid-19 caused libraries worldwide to close their doors. Seema Rampersad, chair of SLA's Task Force on Reopening Specialized Libraries, reports on their findings, including an event on how library professionals are coping in the pandemic and a coronavirus hub for relevant content.
Posted 3 November 2020
A new public library branch in the Alver Municipality Library System in Norway became a reality very quickly and in the middle of the Covid pandemic.
Posted 6 October 2020
Heather Hedden, a highly experienced taxonomist, shares her top four tips for creating a taxonomy.
Posted 1 September 2020
The global COVID-19 pandemic has upended our lives, both personal and professional. It has also introduced a new word into our vocabulary: Infodemic. Inoculating yourself, your library users, and your community against the Infodemic should be a vital skill for librarians worldwide.
Posted 4 August 2020
Jan Holmquist reports on a Danish project where four municipalities offered stressed-out, anxious, or depressed people the opportunity to participate in cultural activities to increase their feelings of well being.
Posted 7 July 2020
At the National Library of Estonia, the digital competence training program aims to make people feel less afraid of using different digital programs, tools and technologies.
Posted 7 July 2020
The pandemic has focussed librarians' attention on copyright. WIPO has some new initiatives that affect the situation.
Posted 1 June 2020
Marydee Ojala shares some search tips from the session she prepared for the (postponed) Computers in Libraries conference.
Posted 17 March 2020
NAISC-L (pronounced noshk) provides a four-step method for creating an Interlink. Information professionals are invited to participate in the final evaluation phase.
Posted 1 January 2020
Marilyn Clarke on the Liberate our Library campaign that's working to give a voice to marginalised and underrepresented students at Goldsmiths University of London.
Posted 20 November 2019
To use marketing to its full potential, you have to understand what your added value to your clients is. Eric Kokke on why marketing skills are crucial for information professionals.
Posted 17 November 2019
Kimberly Moore is a school librarian and digital literacy educator who helps students create electronic collections of their work.
Posted 15 November 2019
Driven by the desire to improve online communications with customers, the team at Barrington Library (Cranfield University) invited all library staff to peer review the online enquiries they had been answering. Lauren Vizor and Rachel Daniels share the story of what happened.
Posted 4 November 2019
AcademicTech is bursting with innovation and innovators. Yvonne Campfens, Internet Librarian International 2019 keynote, explores the drivers for success in this fast-moving sector.
Posted 21 October 2019
Using free software librarians in Sweden asked users to immerse themselves in a virtual environment and create 'a perfect library'.
Posted 6 October 2019
Martin White asks if Microsoft is inhibiting enterprise-wide information management.
Posted 3 October 2019
There are three keynote speakers at this year's Internet Librarian International conference, talking about accelerating innovation, harnessing the power of community and collaboration and celebrating the love of libraries.
Posted 9 September 2019
Gary Horrocks reports back from UKeiG's special event focused on AI in the information sector.
Posted 25 August 2019
Reading for pleasure is more important for children's cognitive development than their parent's level of education.
Posted 19 July 2019
Insights from Silvia Modig, MEP and President of the Finnish Library Association; publishing expert Yvonne Campfens on innovating like a start-up, and Kajal Odedra of Change.org on harnessing the power of community.
Posted 8 July 2019
Helle Lauridsen reports from the tenth NEXT LIBRARY event, held in Aarhus, Denmark.
Posted 23 June 2019
The British Library has a fantastic track record when it comes to mobilising its digitised content.
Posted 8 June 2019
Laura Palmer enjoyed the whirlwind of learning, networking, and tweeting that was the 42nd UKSG Annual Conference.
Posted 22 May 2019
International Museums Day is celebrated in May 2019. Kenn Bicknell considers the lessons libraries can learn from museums.
Posted 3 May 2019
A new international study explores how researchers find and use scholarly literature for their work and finds differences by age, discipline and geography.
Posted 29 April 2019
Eighteen information professionals from nine countries will help shape the 2019 conference programme.
Posted 8 April 2019
Martin White draws parallels between the work of World War Two cryptographers and the challenges of effectively mobilising information within today's organisations.
Posted 4 April 2019
Bryony Ramsden, of the UXLibs conference team, reflects on how inclusivity became an unexpected but critical theme of the 2018 conference.
Posted 21 March 2019
Melanie Holst describes 'A Million Stories'. The library-led intercultural storytelling project is the largest curated collection of unfiltered personal accounts from refugees in Europe.
Posted 11 March 2019
Two days of discussions about academic publishing covered China's role in OA, Plan S, value propositions, book publishing and much more. The event was not without controversy!
Posted 6 March 2019
Currently in-between homes, London's Feminist Library is one of the UK's most unique and resilient archives.
Posted 20 February 2019
The theme of the 20th International Conference on Grey Literature was 'Research Data Fuels and Sustains Grey Literature'.
Posted 7 February 2019
It's 2019 and ILI is back to celebrate innovative libraries and librarians in our 21st year. We take a look behind the scenes as the Call for Speakers opens, and speaker proposals start to come in.
Posted 28 January 2019
Catherine Parker of the University of Huddersfield, UK, set out to discover who is responsible for research support across 50 HE institutions.
Posted 25 January 2019
2019 is still new enough to adopt a more mindful approach to life and work. At an MmIT meeting, four speakers shared their thoughts about creating a healthy relationship with tech.
Posted 10 January 2019
Thinking like a games designer could help to deepen our understanding of what engages, challenges and motivates people to participate in library services and work with library resources.
Posted 12 December 2018
Michelle Breen reflects on The New Review of Academic Librarianship Conference 'Positioning the Academic Library within the Institution'.
Posted 30 November 2018
If anyone had told Marisol Moreno Ortiz just a year ago that she would be presenting at an international conference in the UK, she would not have believed them.
Posted 15 November 2018
Phil Bradley reflects on the lessons we all should learn from the shutdown of Google+.
Posted 23 October 2018
ILI - the library innovation conference - opened with a video celebrating its 20th anniversary.
Posted 21 October 2018
Two awards highlighting the best practitioners and organisations working with taxonomies announced at Taxonomy Boot Camp in London.
Posted 21 October 2018