Just Sayin’ : Books by Librarians/Information Professionals are Quinntessential Examples of User-Generated Content

While the headline isn’t true for all titles authored by librarians (and info pros), I believe it holds true when the topics involved are those that need to be experimented with, and then reported on. For example, Terry Ballard, systems librarian at the Mendik Law Library (NYC) has a new book about his experiences with all things Google. Terry’s recently published Google This! includes his (and other librarians’) use of Google to enhance social media. But, as you can readily see, Terry had to use the tools before he could generate the content. The same is true of my book UContent — Iit was necessary for me to experiment with each form of user-generated content before I could record my results. Certainly, books such as Peter Jacso’s Build Your Own Database and Ran Hock’s Extreme Searcher’s Internet Handbook (in its 3rd edition) possibly only come about because the authors have worked extensively in the subject areas before they “generated” the books.