Speaking of technology competencies . . .

WebJunction has a survey up and running to "define technology competencies for the field and to connect them to learning opportunities." You can take the survey at WebJunction Technology Competencies Evaluation - it's up and running through May 20, 2009. You can also see the list of competencies that WebJunction has created and tied into the courses they offer.

I think it will be interesting to see how respondents rate themselves on the various technology tasks included in the survey.

5 Things I Didn’t Realize I’d Be Working on…

5 Things I Didn’t Realize I’d Be Working on… - This is an interesting post on the ACRLog that covers five responsibilities the poster didn't expect to have when entering library work. Though aimed at academic libraries, I think that the "unknowns" (all technology-related) illustrate a pretty common phenomenon among library workers: there's always some new technology that our library, our patrons, our parent organization, our community movers and shakers are using, and we need to help support it.

"Mobile platforms" is bound to be one that we'll all run into eventually (if my thoughts on mobile library use are on track). "Unofficial student technical support" is probably something that most libraries see - helping (whether students or other patrons) handle operations in MS Office applications or other quote-unquote non-library operations.

Are there surprises (technology-wise) that you face in your library?

Kindling yet?

Well, I found this post on Gerrit van Dyk's Shaping Libraries blog very interesting because my library has just taken the plunge and purchased a Kindle 2. It gives some hope to library checkout of the Kindle, assuming that Amazon is contacted and allows you to do so (given the fluidity of their terms of service agreement).

We're not to the point of checking our Kindle out yet, but we're building to that point and choosing titles.

Is anyone using the Kindle at their libraries? How about the Sony Reader?