Category Archives: Data and Databases for Information Professionals

Write for my series on computing for info pros!

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Hello, everyone. I hope this spring is treating you well so far. Here is an update on a few of my writing projects.

I’m seeking authors for my edited series, Computing for information Professionals. The series will be published by Facet Publishing, which is the publishing company for the UK’s Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). For those of you outwith the UK, CILIP is similar to the American Library Association, but it encompasses all information professionals, whether they work in a library or another setting.

Here is the flyer about the series for information regarding scope and so on: Computing for Information Professionals. And here is the web page for the series.

In addition to editing this series, I’m also writing a book. You can read more about my forthcoming book, Mastering data and databases for information professionals, at http://www.facetpublishing.co.uk/title.php?id=301171#.VveeZeIrLIU. Or, if you don’t feel like clicking, here’s the cover, which is one of the most exciting parts:

9781783301171

This book will be the first in the series, If you feel any inspiration for writing a book that helps information professionals learn about anything relevant in the range of computing/technology and how they can use it in their work, please get in touch with me at diane.pennington@strath.ac.uk or leave a comment below.

I recently wrote a post for CILIP’s blog called 5 technical skills information professionals should learn. I am also working on an article for CILIP Update about linked data, which should be published in the May issue.

I look forward to hearing from you and all about your great book ideas!

 

A new world and a new blog!

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It’s been a while since I’ve blogged on my own blog, but I think it’s time! I have so much to share with anyone who might care… a new job in a new (to me) country, exciting new research projects coming up, a new book, and a new book series!

My new series will be called Computing for Information Professionals. After I submitted my proposal for my forthcoming book, Data and Databases for Information Professionals, to Facet Publishing, they not only wrote up a contract for the book, but they also talked with me about editing a series! I was so excited about the possibility! I’ve edited two books (Social Media for Academics: A Practical Guide as well as Indexing and Retrieval of Non-Text Information) as well as special issues in the ASIS&T Bulletin, but an entire series?! I can’t wait!

The premise behind my book, and the series, is deceptively simple: help information professionals learn how to do things with computers that they need to do. But the books won’t provide too much info, such as you’d find in a computer science textbook – or too little info, as you’d find in a 75-page introductory guide. For example, in Data and Databases for Information Professionals, you will not learn relational algebra, but you will learn how to create and work with relational data, semi-structured data, and unstructured data, and you will learn how data and databases work within library and information settings. (Hint: data and databases are hiding everywhere!)

My various experiences with databases are informing my writing for Data and Databases for Information Professionals: experience as a corporate database administrator, systems librarian days, teaching both basic and advanced classes in databases to library and information science students… oh, and I’ve been working with relational databases since Access 2.0 was all the rage in the mid-90s!

I’m still looking for authors for the series, so if you have an idea for a book, let me know. I’ll let you know how the writing is going on this blog, and I’ll blog about whatever else is of interest to me within library and information science. Watch this space – it’s about to get fun!