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And then there was ipl2
In the beginning (probably about 15 years ago) there were (at least) two wonderful web directories in the garden. And librarians rejoiced.
For years we relied on Internet Public Library and Librarians’ Index to the Internet for their careful organization, their annotations, their lovely pathfinders, their authoriative choices, their fabulously useful updates. They kinda walked on water. And it was good.
Over the years search engines multiplied. One begat another. Two steadfast directories survived the flood. (Well, at least two.)
Then, they got to know each other.
And then they begat a new teaching, and learning. and question-answering environment.
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<!–{PS.ipl2: Information You Can Trust, now in beta and officially launching in January, is a merger of those two respected virtual collections. Housed at Drexel University’s iSchool, and involving a consortium of colleges and universities with information science programs, ipl2 will have more of a 2.0 flavor than its ancestors, with an emphasis on its social networking presence–on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube.
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The new site will be structurally different, but much of the familiar content will live on. My own personal favorite features of both directories will remain–the IPL Pathfinders (check out newspapers and magazines and Special Collections, for instance) and the LII Newsletter, which will resurrect as a blog (although I suggested Diigo might work nicely as a bookmark-sharing platform.)
I spoke with Eileen Abels, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Drexel’s iSchool, who currently oversees the project. She points to the hard work of Alison Miller, the full-time staff member in charge of reference, and Michael Galloway, manager of Digital Collections, both of whom are responsible for the January launch. The group welcomes feedback and input on its recent efforts.
The project is dependent on its volunteers and is currently seeking librarians to help with the question-answering service, Ask An ipl Librarian Library professionals are also needed to provide the grad students participants feedback on their work. The site explains its volunteer reference efforts:
To date, thousands of students and volunteer library and information science professionals have been involved in answering reference questions for our Ask an ipl2 Librarian service and in designing, building, creating and maintaining the ipl2’s collections. It is through the efforts of these students and volunteers that the ipl2 continues to thrive to this day.
I am eager to be a disciple. Look for more following the January launch.
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About Joyce Valenza
Joyce is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at Rutgers University School of Information and Communication, a technology writer, speaker, blogger and learner. Follow her on Twitter: @joycevalenza
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