The Distant Librarian

Author: Paul R. Pival

  • NPR Online Auction

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Almost absolutely nothing to do with library support of distance students, but it is online, and it’s at a distance from me, and I think it’s a great idea, so I’m letting you know that NPR is having a week long online auction starting next week. NPR is one of the things I miss being…

  • Skype for DE?

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Could Skype be used instead of a toll free number for your distance students? I’ve been hearing about Skype for many months now, and the NY Times just ran a story on in, and it struck me that this would be a good alternative if you couldn’t offer your distance students a toll-free number. Or…

  • ALA | IL_Tutorials

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    Paul R. Pival
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    I’ve just discovered the ALA | IL_Tutorials site, thanks to a mention in the August CIT Infobits. This site contains links to 16 online tutorials, any of which would be appropriate for distance students. Some are much fancier than others, but all seem to cover the basics.

  • Chatango

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Just plugged this nifty-looking little Flash app into my library’s distance ed homepage (Library Connection). It places a small window on a web page that allows a visitor to immediately initiate a chat session. On my end, there’s a small desktop application that allows me to indicate if I’m available or not, and that also…

  • Making a Web Search Feel Like a Stroll in the Library

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Now this of course is perfect a perfect applications for distance students!  Though I wonder how well it will translate to less visual areas (the example is of an art collection, which to my one-dimensional brain would seem much easier to work with than, say, the ERIC database).  Sounds a bit like Grokker, too.  Hey,…

  • A journal in need of some library content

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    Paul R. Pival
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    I’ve been watching The International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning for a few months now thanks to the Watch that Page service, and each month I hope to see an article about distance library services, but don’t. My only current paper idea already has a publisher, but maybe you’re looking for a place…

  • blendedlibrarian.org

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Here’s a site with some potential – The Blended Librarian Web Site. I was surpised to read their definition of a blended librarian, because here at the U of Calgary we’ve started using "blended learning" to describe a situation where on campus (traditional) students also make use of a CMS like BlackBoard to satisfy some…

  • I’m still here…

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Was away on vacation last week – I’d forgotten how beautiful northern Montana is! This week I’m catching up and conducting interviews for our department (Library Connection). Finally going to get some additional help to support our 2,500 distance students; the department had been scheduled to increase in staff way back when we topped 1,000…

  • Minor enhancements

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    Paul R. Pival
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    Figured out last night how to get my subject categories hotlinked, so now when you click on the subject headings on the right side you can view the corresponding posts. Had forgotten to enable a setting to get those to work. Also learned about a hack that allows me to insert a search function on…

  • Compare and contrast – NOT

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    Paul R. Pival
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    So I’ve had an article sitting on my to-read pile for a couple of weeks, and when an article with a similar topic showed up I thought it would be an interesting chance to compare and contrast, as they promised to come to different conclusions. Ah well, at least my idea forced me to read…