Virgin Mobile uses a Flickr photo for an advertising campaign.

The  Flickr photo is licenced under the CC-BY-2.0 licence, but Virgin doesn’t seek model release from the woman pictured in the photograph.

Lawsuit ensues.

There’s a discussion about the photograph here, by the photographer of the bus shelter advertisement.

Some different ideas about what librarians need to know about technology:

• Library Revolution’s “Librarians & Technology: Minimum Competencies“
• David Lee King’s”Basic Competencies Of A 2.0 Librarian” & “Basic Competencies Of A 2.0 Librarian, Take 2“
• The Shifted Librarian’s “20 Technology Skills Every Librarian Should Have“, written in 2005, but seems to hold up well

There is also a webinar on 25 July, 11:00am (furiously does the maths to figure out what that translates to for Melbourne players) about core competencies for library staff.

The company I work for recently switched over to VOIP for all their remote employees. Now I have an Engin box, a router & no need to add up my business-related phone calls at the end of each quarter.

To be honest, though, I didn’t know much about VOIP before the IT guy came to my house and installed it. I had a hazy idea it had something to do with Skype. (It doesn’t, necesarily.) I spent a few hours doing a little digging and came across this “everything you wanted to know about VOIP but were too scared to ask” type article on the Whirlpool forum. There’s also the VOIP Stuff website, which cleared up most of my confusion.

As far as I can tell there are three different ways to set-up VOIP. It depends on whether you want to invest in software or hardware.

Software
1. Download software (e.g Skype), buy yourself a headset with a microphone & you’re away with little upfront cost. Skype-to-Skype calls are free. If you are calling users with a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line, then you will need to pay per call and the quality can be pretty bad. You can only use Skype when your computer is turned on.

2. VOIP with a softphone (which is software). You can call users on their POTS. With this option, like Skype, you need to have your computer turned on to make calls.

Hardware
3. This option is good for people who want to use their existing phone handset and access VOIP when the computer is off. Invest in hardware (the box, and probably a router) and pay for a monthly plan. The monthly plans vary and may include additional call costs. The call quality will increase when using hardware specifically made for VOIP.

This list of VOIP providers by Market Clarity details all of the VOIP options available to Australian users.

One of the advantages of using Engin (or another hardware-based VOIP service) for business calls is the voicemail feature, where you can opt to have an email alert sent to you when someone leaves a message, without actually having the phone plugged in.

One of the disadvantages of VOIP I’m finding at the moment is that it chews up a load of bandwidth, so talking on VOIP and downloading stuff from websites at the same time is out of the question. At least with the connection I currently have.

But the biggest advantage I can see is the cost. The VOIP box has more than halved my quarterly telephone bill. And if I was paying for my business call costs this would make me very happy. As it is I’ll deflect most of this happiness to my employer.

Dumb Little Man has written a post about how to use Google search to find what you are looking for.

A series exploring information in the digital age,  presented in association with the Australian Library & Information Association.

A podcast of the lectures is available for those of us who work during the day.

With all career moves it never ever hurts to have some relevant volunteer work under your belt. On the Go Volunteer website there is a (volunteering) opportunity for someone to work in the Braille Production Department of the Information & Library Service of a not-for-profit organisation (I can guess which organisation, but I haven’t had confirmation yet). I sent off an email enquiry last week. Maybe I’ll hear something soon.

I am interested in accessible & adaptive technologies for people of different abilities. If a librarian tries to overcome the barriers between patron and information, then this technology acts in similar way to overcome barriers blocking access to information.

The decision to go back to school has been a decision made carefully. This time. I have gone back to school on a whim several times during my 20s, when it didn’t matter if I had just enough money to pay the rent, and it didn’t matter if I didn’t finish the course or if the course didn’t lead anywhere.

This time I spent a lot of time reading and asking questions and figuring out the budget and wondering if it might just be better to be quiet, get a full-time job and clock in.

During my research into all things librarian career in Australia, I came an article, written by a LIS student in Sydney. Librarian Careers Information: Resources for Prospective Librarians (Australia is a very helpful article, but sets a somewhat bleak forecast for the employment prospects of a LIS student.

“Library Assistant - I have consistently been told by people working in different types of libraries that there are often ~100 applicants for every Library Assistant role. I’ve also been told that it’s very difficult to gain a position without previous experience as a Shelver while at high school, a track record of previous paid/voluntary work in a library or plenty of face to face customer service experience. …” etc

I’m not sure whether to listen to the warnings within this article, especially the comments section, but at this stage I’m hopeful. You have to start out positively or there’s no point in starting at all. (Foolhardy? yeessssss)

After spending the last year working here & there, I have decided to go back to school and qualify as a librarian.

While my friends tell me that a qualification in shooshing people and stamping books seems unnecessary, I am looking forward to learning about data management, classification, making information accessible and helping customers find their way through what is becoming a tangled maze of technology and typing.

Once upon a time I thought I wanted to be a web designer, but I missed working with people. Now I want to help people find information and not argue with clients about whether their logo is big enough (It’s already too big!) or why their website looks different on different screens. I hope to be asked much more interesting questions during the working day. (Am I hoping too much?)

I’m keeping this blog as a journal for my own reference, and also hopefully, down the track, a way of contributing to some of the conversations I have read between librarians online.