Article from California Newspaper: "Libraries Evolve into Information Clearinghouses"
What a POSITIVE article about public libraries. Great to read.
We really like the headline, especially the use of the word clearinghouse. It lets people know in a single word that libraries offer a variety of information services, resources, and tools plus the professionals that can train and assist in their use. Perhaps it's a term we should be using more?
Merriam-Webster defines clearinghouse as, "a central agency for the collection, classification, and distribution especially of information; broadly : an informal channel for distributing information or assistance." It's not a perfect definition but it's close and with some tweaking it be even better.
The article focuses on three libraries in the San Diego area.
Libraries, long recognized as book lenders, are evolving along with changing reading habits and new technology to become information clearinghouses, offering services as diverse as free passes for museums, e-book loans, housing clinics and live performances.
"Informing, educating, inspiring, these are all part of our mission and this fits in beautifully with that," said San Marcos branch manager Angelica Fortin.
+ Several articles in the San Diego County Library System offering "Housing Clinics" and "Job Cafe."
NOTE: More about BiblioCommons in the item posted directly above this one.
+ The Library as community center
+ A bookmobile with wireless access and "resume counseling."
"We're realists, we're pragmatists," [San Diego County Library Director Jose] Aponte said. "We've built a library that we think focuses on community needs in a variety of different contexts."
A family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success. Read more »
Recently I have found myself cooing over visualisation maps (and heat maps) of health and well being resources. The content rich data is overlayed with mapping technologies, and some interesting themes and patterns are emerging.
A lot of the talk around social media in the last year has been around information overload. Social media has provided us with new and exciting ways to create content. But it has also meant learning new ways to manage and engage with social media tools. Are we teetering on the edge of an information overload precipice?
Information overload is a figment of your imagination. Or a failure of your filter. Or a symptom of your technological submissiveness. Depends on who you ask.
What if you had to sort through 3.5 million articles and social media posts a day and try to pull out the most relevant items for your organisation? What if you then had to cobble it all together into something readable for your top groups and executives in your organisation?
Alacra Compliance saves time by aggregating information from both free and fee-based sources and enabling users to conduct an accurate federated search across these sources (coined “simultaneous search” by Alacra).
FreePint Family
Quilting big data threads
The fallacy of information overload
Information overload: fact, fantasy or filter failure? 
