School Librarians/Networks DO make a difference!

Well, that's not exactly news, but here's a great report from Colorado that documents the relationship in some clearly written ways. "Last month, site-based management teams at 11 elementary schools in Kalamazoo, Michigan, chose to cut their budgets for the 2000-2001 school year by eliminating the position of school librarian. Did they make the right decision? A new study indicates that what they made was a big mistake!" To learn more about this study and its results Point your browser to http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin178.shtml

Blogs will change your (Profession)!

Blogs Will Change Your Business
Business Week, May 2, 2005
Go ahead and bellyache about blogs. But you cannot afford to close your eyes to them, because they're simply the most explosive outbreak in the information world since the Internet itself. And they're going to shake up just about every business -- including yours. It doesn't matter whether you're shipping paper clips, pork bellies, or videos of Britney in a bikini, blogs are a phenomenon that you cannot ignore, postpone, or delegate.

My Thanks to Northern Light's Market Intelligence Centers for pointing me to this article.

A word about our textbook

At first glance some may feel the text is more than we need to get a good handle on networking for school library media centers. Well, it is. However, in reviewing over 50 potential networking textbooks over the past four years of this class I've yet to see anything that comes close to a combination class textbook and reference work for ongoing education in this critical field. As networks move from distant and large-scale operations, to day-to-day elements in our personal and professional lives, understanding where we are now and where things will be in the next few months or years is critical to everyone...librarian, teacher, administrator, et al. There are many sections of the book we will only touch on or cite for future reference. Please stay tuned to our class website to be sure you're spending your reading time on things we're going to actually use this term. For example we're not going to spend more than a minute or two on chapter one and only a few minutes on the whole OSI concept. I do want everyone to know where to find such information if they need it later and in good measure that's why I choose this textbook. More during our class sessions.

Welcome!

I'll try to put up as much information on this site as possible. Most questions I get from students will be answered here so that everyone benefits from the interchange. Please feel free to respond to the my postings if you wish. Enjoy the class!