Month: November 2004

ALA job ad

Posted on by jessamyn

I’m not sure exactly what an Internet Administrator is, but ALA is hiring one. I am really really curious what this job pays, especially given the quirky description.

This position will provide user support for 24/7 mission critical applications needed to run a large diverse Web site and other Internet-related services, to include using remote administration and alerting tools to provide on-call support as needed, as well as responding to user requests for information. Primary responsibility will be to respond to user questions about the association’s Web site and online services. [emphasis mine]
Posted in ala

examples of “on the fly” reference

Posted on by jessamyn

One of the things I am known for, for better or worse, is doing “on the fly” reference work at places like Burning Man, the WTO and the DNC. I’m happy to be one of the inspirations for the Radical Reference project that bloomed during the RNC and is still going strong. Since I had an extra day off this week in addition to my usual two, I’ve been doing more of this. I thought I’d share a few examples since the more we equate our problem-solving and information-finding skills with our chosen field of librarianship, the better it will be for us and our profession.

  • helped Alison Bechdel get her RSS feed working on her Dykes to Watch Out For blog via IM
  • After getting an email that told me that the ALA-WA office’s library copyright web site had been hacked, got on IM to a few people to spread the word, found someone who knew how to fix it, he called them, and helped them log in to their hacked site and take it down.
  • Someone posted a question on a web site I frequent about getting a back issue of a magazine from someplace more quickly than from the publisher. After some savvy reference interviewing, I figured out that she only needed one article from one magazine. I found it using Expanded Academic Index [available online from my library] uploaded a pdf and gave her a link to it.

My point, and I do have one, is that this isn’t just me who is able to do this. Many librarians can. They save people time, money, frustration, and face. We should be communicating that every chance we get, so here’s me, doing that.

do you believe me more if you paid for my advice?

Posted on by jessamyn

Everyone needs to make personal decisions about how much weight to give a particular piece of information, particularly if that information conflicts with something you think you already know to be true. I often put it this way “You love your boyfriend and hate the Yankees. Your boyfriend loves the Yankees. Do you re-evaluate your boyfriend, or re-evaluate the Yankees. Or both? Or neither?” Put another way, if the New York Times prints something that goes counter to your beliefs, do you believe them because they’re an authority? What if it were Wikipedia? What if it were an Indymedia site? What if it were your neighbor, or me? In any case, articles on this topic fascinate me. The Harvard Business School has published one recently called The Hidden Cost of Buying Information where Francesca Gino’s research strongly suggests that people overweigh the value of information that they have paid for.

Gino’s results are based upon an experiment where subjects were asked to answer different sets of questions about American history and were provided the opportunity to receive free advice as well as costly advice—the same advice, as it turned out. Gino’s conclusion: When the advice is costly, subjects are more inclined to take it into consideration and use it. And that conclusion can have profound consequences for consumers, managers, and organizations in their decision making, she says. [lisnews]