The Invisible Web Weblog

Reference Services Review (RSR) is going to publish a special issue on learning landscapes and the new reality. Learning landscapes encompass the physical and virtual spaces where today’s library users encounter information and learn to use it effectively. Papers might focus on the following topics: The interplay of physical and virtual learning landscapes and what this means for teaching, reference, collaboration, and management – new learners, new faculty, and new roles; The impact of library/information commons’ spaces on learning, service design and delivery, collections, and library administration – planning, implementation, assessment, re-examination and evolution; Research on user expectations, needs and perceptions as next generation users interact with next generation information environments – what do library staff need to know to meet their needs? Other aspects of learning, working and researching at the intersection of place and placelessness where libraries exist in the di...

Today I had a workshop at the main library of our university about Current Awareness Services (CAS) and Selective Dissemination of Information (SDI) in academic libraries. In this workshop I tried to introduce a number of simple and practical steps that we can employ in our libraries to develop these services and provide our users with more relevant and pertinent information resources. I believe librarians should not necessarily wait for the advanced and perfect infrastructure facilities to develop these services. In contrary, we can put these services into operation through a number of creative and simple steps. As a result we will be able to make a positive difference in the level and usefulness of what we do.

Library & Information Science Research Journal has published a special issue about LIS Research in Australia. These are some of the papers in this issue: Informed learning: A pedagogical construct attending simultaneously to information use and learning, Beliefs, attitudes and perceptions about research and practice in a professional field, Fifty years of LIS education in Australia: Academization of LIS educators in higher education institutions, Australian PhDs by LIS educators, researchers and practitioners: Depicting diversity and demise, The contemporary librarian: Skills, knowledge and attributes required in a world of emerging technologies, The play's the thing: Theater professionals make sense of Shakespeare, Developing and sustaining a sense of place: The role of social information.

New Library World journal has published the 11/12th issue of its 111 Volume. The following papers appeared in this issue. Public libraries as impartial spaces in a consumer society: possible, plausible, desirable? Social networking in academic libraries: the possibilities and the concerns, Library design, learning spaces and academic literacy, Implementation of the Finnish University Libraries National Information Literacy Recommendation into academic studies at the Kumpula Science Library, University of Helsinki, Customizing an open-source tool to enhance information literacy, Reference tools in Second Life: implications for real life libraries, Project management in the library.

Today morning I was one of the speakers in the Research Week Seminar at our university. The title of my speech was: Evidence-based Library and Information Practice: A Link between Research, Planning and Decision Making . If you would like to have the slides, please email me.

My weblog has been noted as one of 50 excellent library science blogs worth reading. In this list my weblog is 48th. Also in another list of “ 100 Best Blogs for Library Science Students ” my blog is the 15th in the technology section.

Yesterday I had a busy day, as I delivered two presentations in two different seminars. In the morning I was one of the speakers in a seminar in Tehran called “Public Libraries, Life Long Learning and Popularization of Science”. The title of my paper was: “The Role of Public Libraries in Enhancement of Science Acceptance in the Society”. In the afternoon, I attended ILISA monthly seminar at the National Library to make a speech about my experience of visiting the Department of Information Studies and Interactive Media at Tampere University in August. The seminar was organized for LIS scholars and students to share their experience and thoughts about the usefulness of sabbatical and study leaves. Reports about these two events are available here and here .

The World Science Day for Peace and Development (WSDPD) is celebrated on 10 November each year. Today, for this occasion, in an interview with IBNA I talked about the key roles of public libraries in the process of popularization of science in the society. The transcription of this interview is available here .

In an interview with IBNA, I talked about the main criteria that we need to evaluate the success and goodness of a library in general. The full text of this interview is available here .

I have written a note in Atf magazine entitled "Where is the Best Library in the World?". It was published today and now you can read it here .

Today morning I had a half-day workshop for a group of librarians and archivists in Tehran about the basic skills that a reference librarian should possess to carry out successful reference interviews and deliver effective services to library users. In particular, I focused on essential techniques such as active listening, paraphrasing, clarification and confirmation that are very useful to supervise reference interviews.

The ELAG (European Library Automation Group) Conference discusses library and information management technology. Topics of the past conferences have included digital libraries, library portals, institutional repositories, web services, digital preservation and open source software. ELAG 2010 takes place in Helsinki with the main theme of “Meeting New User Expectations”. The sub-themes include: knowing our users, open linked data and library data re use, tweaking search results relevance ranking, fulfilment strategies, what’s in those libraries and how do I get to it, lending E-books, e-memory and discovery interfaces.

One of the modules that I teach this semester is “Library Materials and Services for New Literates”. This module discusses various methods that different libraries, specially public and rural libraries, may employ to provide appropriate services for new literate users. Regarding they level of reading abilities, librarians must make sure that in the library collection there are enough good resources for them. For example, we should collect some simple reading materials to encourage them to practice on reading. We also can rewrite and paraphrase some recourse in a simple style to make them more readable for new literates. I wrote a brief note in IBNA, suggesting a number of aspects that we should consider in providing appropriate reading materials for newly literate people .