Awesome Friday Library Fun! #library #ala10

Posted on by pcsweeney

Alright team… Say you’re sitting in your office or at home and need to waste about 30 minutes on some library “related” videos. For this, I have just the thing you need. May I present Silent Library? Silent library is a Japanese game show set in a library where contestants must partake in humorous antics without making any noise. Because… Ya know… They’re in a library. I’m pretty sure that it’s the least complex game show of all time and it will only take you a couple of seconds to figure it all out but this first video will give you the general idea.

This is my favorite one…

But for more hilarity and library antics here’s the link to the youtube search results for Silent Library. Have fun team.

Obligatory Twitter Blog Post: What Twitter has Done for Me – Thanks!

Posted on by pcsweeney

I was just thinking, as I was reading through the tweets from all you lucky librarians who are at PLA right now, that Twitter has so significantly changed my conference going, and professional experience that it deserves a little blog post tip of the hat. So while I know that there are probably a least a hundred thousand blog posts about Twitter going around the web right now, I hope that I can at least share my experience and what benefits it has brought for me.

Good times
First and foremost, I tweet therefore I have a good time. While at the first couple of ALAs, CLAs, and various other LAs in my pre-twitter life, I found that I had no idea where the fun and exciting people were. I didn’t know what was going on where, who I should be hanging out with and of course I had no idea where to go for all the after conference fun. So, I got an iPhone, started to tweet to find other librarians, built up a network of folks who seemed to be having a good time at the conferences and then I basically stalked them and followed them (in real life) to where the good times were being had. Every conference that I have been to since then has been amazingly fun and exciting and I’m surrounded by good people who are excited about the profession and having a good time.

Running for ALA council
At ALA midwinter this year I was following the council twitterers and on a break decided to peak into the Council Sessions to see what was going on. I had never seen a council session and embarrassingly had no idea what council was responsible for or what they did. It turns out… They’re responsible for lots of really interesting things that are directly responsible for what I am passionate about in librarianship. These people were basically deciding what my professional experience was going to be like. I don’t like other people telling me this and at the unmerciless hands of @awd, @infowidget and @tadawes I was gently encouraged to run for ALA councilor-at-large. So vote for me.

Beer and burgers with John Berry
I cannot even begin to describe this experience here. But have to say that it was all because of fellow twitterers @natenatenate
@phromberg, @hadro,
and @gcaserotti.

You can read about that whole night at this blog post .

Right places
As I mentioned earlier, following the twitter feed has allowed me to continuously be at the right places at the right times at conferences. By seeing what sessions that the most interesting tweets are coming from, I can make adjustments in my schedule. I even found that before a good session begins there is a flurry of posts in excitement. I haven’t had to sit in a dull or boring session since.

Networking
Besides the sessions, I have been to amazing pre-conferences, un-conferences, and conference socials as well as the amazingly fun Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and after dinner tweet-ups. This has been a cornucopia of meeting new librarians who I have become friends with and who I am excited to work with. I have met so many amazing librarians that I can’t list them here, but I’ll give you a start-
@janieh,
@buffyjhamilton,
@lorireed,
@ashuping,
@libraryfuture,
@gershbec,
@jaimebc ,
@oodja,
@thatandromeda,
@theanalogdivide,

You should check out who I’m following and you can find them all!

My career
One of the great things about this profession is how much we are all willing to help each other. I have found out about jobs that others have wanted and sent them on, and I have had people send some to me via Twitter. I have gotten all kinds of managerial tips from twitterers like @ pat2pattern and from many others.

Brainstorming
I think this might be my favorite aspect of the twit-o-sphere. It seems like whenever someone has a good idea, they put it out to the rest of us and we can discuss, debate, and sometimes argue over various points that we might disagree or agree on. For example, we discussed police and library funding and it spurred @amandamcneil to write a great blog post response. And I think that’s the way it’s supposed to work sometimes when 140 characters just isn’t enough. So it’s become a great whiteboard where people write their ideas to share and can disagree and then take the debate off twitter to their blogs.

Blogging
Hey someone reads my blog posts now! That’s a pretty nice feeling. But I also get an announcement whenever other people write their blog posts or when someone new starts blogging who I didn’t know about before and it’s always nice to read a new blogger.

For the future
I won’t say what’s coming for the ALA Annual in 2010 but you should be checking out http://www.8bitlibrary.com in the coming months for details and other awesomeness. I absolutely acknowledge @justinlibrarian and @librarianjp for their great efforts in making ALA Annual something to really look forward to.

So what should you do? I would suggest that you get in on the dialogue and make your twitter account. It might take a while to make it fun, and the first couple of tweets while be boring and pointless but the effort is absolutely worth it and it pays off in the end. So, please join your potentially new friends in making Librarianship even more awesome and don’t forget to let me know when you join us so I can follow you!

Death to the Library Card!

Posted on by pcsweeney

I’m wondering if libraries should stop using library cards. I have quite a few reservations about the use of library cards and whether or not they actually solve all the problems that everyone says that they do. From my understanding (and I could be wrong) we only use library cards as a method of access to our patron’s accounts and as verification that they have an account and/or are authorized to use that account. They are simply a way for patrons to access their records, place holds, track checkouts, and it’s a way for staff to do pretty much the same thing. Am I missing something else that’s dramatically important?

There are so many problems with this whole process that really drive me crazy. Some examples are;

  • • Patrons forget to bring their card
    • Printing library cards is expensive
    • Creating a library card takes up staff time
    • The account (usually some number) is assigned to the patron via the card
    • They take up space in the library
    • They take up space in the patron’s wallet
    • Don’t we already have to carry around enough cards?
    • The assumption that the user is the owner of the card or has permission to use it all

    • But, I have a solution to this whole problem. What if we allowed patrons to create their accounts online via our websites? I imagine that this would be done much the same way that you sign up for a Facebook or other online account. These accounts would be user-generated with a username and password that the patrons created themselves. The patron would enter all of their own information and save staff the time of boring data entry. This way, they could remember their username and password and use this when they check-out materials at the self-check machines. They could sign-in to our websites with this information and place items on hold, pay their fines, renew items, etc… Patrons wouldn’t have to carry around extra cards or have to remember long meaningless strings of numbers that we assign them. Nor would we have to worry about lost or stolen cards.

    But how would we know they aren’t creating fake accounts? To this, I also have a solution. When a patron created their accounts online with their personal information and the username and password they want, they would be prompted to visit the library with the proof of address and ID to verify and activate their accounts. When they came to the library they would sign-in and a librarian would verify all of their information and they would have full access to the system.

    Or if you want to speed up the process, the patron could enter their credit card information as a way to verify their account. The benefit here would also be that when the patron has late or printing fees it would be automatically deducted from their accounts. This would eliminate the added aggravation of large overdue accounts and lesson our reliance on debt collection agencies or possibly even (eventually) print management software.

    From then on, when they sign-in to a computer in the library, renew a book, or check-out materials, they would be using the username and password that they created. The patron could easily manage their own account online and update addresses, emails, phone numbers, and all of the other important aspects of online libraries that I talked about earlier. No more cards!

    However, as I was catching up on my listserv I noticed that there already was a similar discussion about library cards and a couple of points were brought up in their defense. I will see if I can answer each of them thoroughly.

    Cards teach responsibility:
    I have heard the argument that library cards teach patrons and especially children an important lesson in responsibility. However, I would say that learning and memorizing user names and passwords in this digital age is just as important of a responsibility. Banking is done online, shopping, and many businesses are managed online or use passwords and usernames for many of their day-to-day activities. I have about 23 passwords that I have to know and I use about a dozen of them everyday.

    Forgotten passwords:
    But what do we do if a patron forgets their password? I imagine it would work the same that it does for forgotten email account passwords.

    Hackers or identity thieves:
    The user can come to the library and show us their ID to access their account and we can fix the problem the same way we do with stolen library cards. Also, I really love how much librarians are convinced that the greatest possible thing someone can steal is a library card and there are probably millions of people desperately trying to get one of these magnificent pieces of plastic! We just can’t imagine someone not wanting to steal something so great as a library card. Or maybe we just really wish it were true. Either way, I always wonder if there is such a huge demand for black market library cards that it justifies out level of concern? I hope so…

    Don’t know how to use a computer:
    This is really the big issue. And one I really get. So I would say that for those folks who don’t know how to use a computer, the library card application would be a great way for them to learn. At the very least we can fill out the online form for them and give them their username and password. So maybe this isn’t as big of a concern as I first thought.

    I would love to hear anyone else’s thoughts about library cards. Maybe I’m missing something really important? If I am, let me know.

    Yet Another #libday4 Blog Post…

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    I noticed this day in the life of a library thing going around on Twitter and thought I’d take a couple stabs at it and see what happens. However, while I love being a librarian I don’t really think it defines me, nor do I think it defines all of us librarians out here. So I’m going to include my whole day and not just the part where I’m a librarian.

    Unlike most folks, Mondays are probably my favorite day of the week. I’m well rested, I don’t have to be at work until noon because I work the late shift on desk, and I get my week all set up. So the day started around 7ish because I completely lack the ability to sleep in (even on weekends, when I feel I should). I typically don’t get out of bed for a while and this morning was no different. Instead I lay around and catch up with all the blog posts from the East Coast librarians, check my Facebook account, scan through some tweets, and finally get out of bed after thinking really hard about writing a blog post of my own.

    This morning I went to the gym after not going for the last month which was really nice. I figured out I could read while using the elliptical because there’s a place that holds my book fairly securely. Today I was reading “Cape Horn: The Logical Route” by Bernard Moitessier and this book was blowing my mind (for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m a big sailing fan). I almost didn’t get off the gym equipment because it was so good. I’m not a book reviewer so I won’t try to say much about it except that if you’re a sailor, you should check it out at your local public library.

    After the gym I walked back to my apartment reminding myself that I need to cancel my 24 Hour gym membership because this gym is in my apartment. But of course I haven’t done it yet. Instead, I sat around for a couple hours and played guitar a little louder than my neighbors would appreciate I’m sure. I also thought real hard about kicking my roommates cat around (I’m NOT a cat loving librarian) but I decided we can just maintain our uneasy North Korea style truce instead. Besides, he has stayed to his side of the room for most of the morning. But, I KNOW he’s planning some kind of tactical assault and I still don’t trust him.

    Anyway, after our stare down I did all of the get ready for work stuff and finally made the drive in to the library where I am the branch manager of a small library in East Palo Alto. Because its Monday, I had a couple of specifically managerial tasks to complete like approving time cards from the last week, signing reimbursement forms, approving trainings, and reading through some of the stuff in the Branch Manual because I’m fairly new to this library system and I’m still learning a lot about everything that goes on here. I also spent a couple hours answering emails, planning the redesign of our staff workroom and coordinating a couple of aspects of that large project. And finally, I did some research for the guitar class program I want to hold here in the summer. Throughout this time I also check Twitter frequently because everyone I follow is a librarian and there are so many librarians doing amazing things and I like live vicariously through them by reading about it in the twiterverse. The other big project for me is that I am running for ALA Councilor this year. So, to make it official, I walked over to the post office and dropped off my petition and submitted the rest of the forms electronically.

    What is nice about this job is that my staff speaks Spanish and most of the patrons here speak Spanish too. So I always try to squeeze some time in to study a chapter or two of a Spanish textbook that was dropped off at the library. I also have my headphones on and a Spanish audio book called “Cajas de Carton” playing while I do my work. I always think I’m doing pretty well until someone who really knows how to speak Spanish starts talking to me and I realize I’m not very good at Spanish at all.

    So now, I’m spending the last two hours of the evening on the reference desk, answering patron questions (in Spanish when I can), ordering DVDs, using our online Spanish Language tutorial, and straightening up the library shelves whenever they need it. So far… A pretty fun day! And I still get to go home and play some more guitar and listen to some good music with my roommate.

    Patrick “PC” Sweeney for ALA Councilor at Large #libday4

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    On the last day of ALA Midwinter I thought I would check out the Council Session that was going on that morning. As I stood in the back of the room I watched the session and got a much clearer view into the inner-workings of ALA. While there I sent out a couple of tweets regarding decisions that were being made and much to my surprise I got responses back from councilors who were on the floor of the council right then. It was fascinating to interact with the councilors as they sat through the session and made the decisions that would guide our organization. However, I was a little disappointed because it seemed that, while I did get responses from almost a dozen councilors, this was just a very small percentage of the officials in the room and these were the only ones online that day. It seems to me that the organization can open itself up and use some of these new online tools to communicate and respond more freely with the concerns of the members.

    So, with the “gentle encouragement” of Aaron Dobbs, who tweeted that I should come over and say hi, I am going to try to run for ALA Council and hopefully add to the voices and open the dialog with ALA members through online resources. I submitted my form electronically and I have sent my petition in the mail. In case anyone else is considering trying their hand at running for council, getting the petition signed is easy (you only need 25 signatures) and filling out the form is completely painless (basically, just a summary of my resume) and you’re on your way. For anyone interested here is what it all looks like. I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on running for ALA Council.

    Degrees and Certifications:
    Sacramento State University, BA Philosophy 2003 San Jose State University, MLIS 2007

    ALA Activities:
    ALA Emerging Leader 2008
    ALA Committee on Professional Ethics: Intern 2010
    California Library Association ALA Student Chapter
    LLAMA
    PLA
    LITA

    Offices Held in ALA-APA:
    ALA Student Chapter: Co-Chair, Web-Coordinator 2006

    Honors and Awards:
    SJSU Student Association Award for Online Educational Outreach

    Accomplishments:
    As Library Coordinator of the Twelve Bridges Library I was given the opportunity to assist in the planning and development of the construction of a 40,000 square foot joint-use library (public, high school, community college) and managed the redevelopment of its website.

    As a 2008 Emerging Leader I was given the opportunity to work with an outstanding team of new librarians to develop a mentoring plan for RUSA.

    As ALA Student Chapter Co-Chair and Web-coordinator I was able to learn manage an organizations website to increase its visibility and value on the web.

    As an elementary school librarian I was able to see firsthand the importance of the role of the school librarian and the services that libraries must provide to children and teens.

    As manager of a volunteer program of over 250 retiree volunteers I was able to gain an understanding of the need to provide library services to the growing force of retired Americans.

    Links:
    www.pcsweeney.com
    www.twitter.com/pcsweeney

    Professional Concerns:
    With the emergence of new technologies, growing information access points, and the loss of institutional knowledge through the retirement of large numbers of professionals, the ALA Council must be ready to critically analyze the changing forces of the organization and place ALA in a position to adapt to those changes quickly and efficiently.

    As a Library Branch Manager, I have had opportunities to evaluate the change present in my profession. I participated in the construction of a state of the art library and implement programs and services that are reflective of the role of libraries as community resources. I am engaged in learning and evaluating new technologies that patrons are using to adapt their use to library organizations. I have worked with diverse groups of patrons to create services that suit their changing information seeking behavior. And finally, I have managed organizations to increase their visibility and value within communities.

    Blogged: Beer and Burgers with John Berry at Bukowski’s in Boston (who says alliteration is dead?)

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    ALA midwinter brought about many great experiences and I met amazing people who I have admired for a long time. I saw a couple of great presentations, finally met many of the great people that I’ve been following on Twitter, and networked with people who are challenging me to be a better librarian. However, as the post #alamw10 excitement wears off, I’ve been struggling to find something to write about. While many of my experiences were fun and exciting and everyone I met was amazing, one of my favorite experiences was sitting with a man that some people in the profession love and a man that has ruffled more than one feather in the library profession; John N. Berry III

    Before the conference I really had no concept of who John Berry was. I definitely knew his name, I’ve read his blog, read some his articles in library journal, and definitely know about him from some of the musings of other librarians, writers, and bloggers who have expressed both love and contempt for the man. But really, I never took the time to see who he was, had no idea what he looked like, why he is such a prominent figure in American libraries or why anyone even knows his name beyond his blog and articles. In any case, I hope you understand how embarrassing this is for me to admit that I didn’t know who he is now that I do know.

    So, when I had the opportunity to meet him at the Emerging Leaders Reunion and Social at J.J. Foleys I was a little confused. One of the fantastic people who I had met at previous conferences was talking to an old man at a bar and when I came to say hi I was told, very solemnly, that THIS was John Berry! I was told this as if I should have some idea of who he was. I really had no idea who he was, not putting the blogger/writer (whose name I did know) together with the old man sitting at the bar (who I didn’t know) drinking hard liquor and happily chatting with everyone around him. So I stood there at the bar and patiently half-listened to him talk about whatever it was he was talking about at the time. After a little while he told me I should go to the reception for the Librarian of the Year that was happening the next night. Well, I smiled and nodded and pretended to put the information in my phone and walked away to meet some other of the Emerging Leaders at the social and didn’t really think about it again.

    At least until the next day at the Tweet-up for YA and Children’s librarians when I saw him walk by and someone in his entourage turned to see me looking at him and said “Yes! THAT was John Berry!” Again, as if I should really know who this man was and admittedly I should have known by now. But I didn’t know and I was getting pretty curious as to why everyone else in the world seemed to know who he was. Luckily, I had yet another opportunity to meet him.

    That night a few of the people I knew at the conference told me that they were going to the Librarian of the Year social and since I had heard about it from so many other people at this point, I thought that I might as well go. Because so many people had told me about it, I was surprised by the low number of librarians present. It turns out that this was a fairly exclusive party and in all honesty I really had no business being there at all. In fact, one of the people at the party made it a point to figure out why I was there, and when I could produce no real reason she glared at me as if I had just crashed a reception at the white house. So I stood, off to the side, trying very hard not to get kicked out, and there was Mr. Berry talking to >Josh Hadro who is the associate editor of Library Journal and Nate Hill who runs the blog for PLA (who I name here because I feel I should thank them specifically for this opportunity). Luckily, before I could really embarrass myself these two good folks filled me in as to who exactly I was talking to and finally everything made sense, except for why I hadn’t put together who this man was before I started talking to him.

    As the night progressed I had the immense opportunity to really meet John Berry. We talked about my thoughts on Library 101, who should be asked to write for Library Journal (as if I have any idea at all), who we all thought the Annoyed Librarian might be, and generally what we all thought of the profession as a whole. He challenged my opinions, joked and poked fun (in a good way) at my inexperience in librarianship, said some things that I know where just said to ruffle some feathers and make the conversation interesting, and throughout the entire time he was more than an interesting person. So when we had the opportunity to move the conversation and eat burgers and drink beers at a dark hole in the wall called Bukowski’s (thanks entirely to Nate) I jumped at the chance. And, for the next two hours I sat transfixed by stories and opinions about everything from librarianship and politics to Allen Ginsburg, Malcolm X, and so many others that I lost count or reference. I’m not going to pretend I can remember or retell any of the stories he told us that night and I’m ashamed to admit that I don’t remember every word he said but he was wealth of institutional knowledge and it was a night of live oral history as I’ve never experienced.

    So, while you may have your own (good or bad) opinions of the man from his blog posts and articles I encourage you to take the time to meet him (buy him a drink) and listen to the story of librarianship as told by John Berry. I just hope someone takes the time to write a book about this historical archive of our profession.

    The Unabashed Fervor Surrounding #alamw10

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    The unabashed mounting fervor surrounding ALA midwinter is about to crash down on Boston like an Avalanche. I’m not going to lie, I’m one of the conference fanboys, but I feel like this conference is already off to a kind of insane beginning. As I’m watching the twitter feed it seems to be exploding with just about every kind of activity that makes these overly large conferences such a good time. I’m going to share with you some of this craziness in case you’re missing it.

    1) Librarian Tattoos
    Inspired by Andy Woodworth’s campaign for a Ben And Jerry’s Library Flavored Ice Cream, there has been a call for all librarians to get tattoos at ALAMW. Or, as the creator of this campaign (Justin Hoenke also from 8bitlibrary.com) has called the campaign – “Project Brand Yourself.” Yes, this is as crazy as it seems. Librarians are going to descend on Boston area Tattoo parlors and get branded with the library logo. Now, I’m a big library fan and I would love to just go and watch librarians get branded with the library logo, and I even want a tattoo, but I’m not sure this is going to be my first. If you get one, let me know when and where so I can watch or at least post a photo. I support this project and support everyone who gets a tattoo. Go get’em!

    2) The Socials
    By following the twitter hashtag #alamw10 I’ve decided that librarians drink the highest amount of alcohol per capita vs. just about any other profession anywhere. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the socials and happy hour events going on at ala. It’s going to be hard on my liver.

  • LITA Happy Hour
    YALSA Happy Hour
    GODORT Happy Hour
    ALA Emerging Leaders Meetup
    ALAMW Tweetup for Newbies
    ALA After Hours Social
    LibraryThing Party

    • 3) The Twitter Feed itself
    Already, the hashtag #alamw10 is on fire with content and information. I’m excited to see how this plays out over the course of the conference. It’s possible, that like #CLA09, the feed will die out once the conference begins but with the number of power tweeters attending this conference I’m not sure that will be the case. If you’re new to Twitter or just need some good folks to follow for this conference, I’d like to recommend a couple to you (there are far too many to list them all, these are just a few);

    @libraryfuture
    @griffey
    @JustinLibrarian
    @theanalogdivide
    @oodja
    @gcaserotti
    @pollyalida
    @itsjustkate
    @vonburkhardt
    @JanieH
    @TiffanyE
    @buffyjhamilton

    And of course the Official Tweet of ALA Midwinter
    @alamw

    4) Bloggers
    With the high number of power tweeters comes a high volume of power bloggers. What’s nice about these folks is that they almost all have a Twitter account and you can find them via the conference hashtag. One exception, of course, is Annoyed Librarian, but nobody likes her anyway. But, in case you’re not a twitterer I’ll give you some of my favorite bloggers just in case. Here they are (in no particular order);

    http://www.8bitlibrary.com/
    http://lyndamk.com/
    http://libraryman.com/
    http://agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com/
    http://www.jasongriffey.net/wp/
    http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/
    http://ashuping.net/media.html/
    http://www.theanalogdivide.com/
    http://hoodandhat.blogspot.com/
    http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/

    5) The Conference
    Of course, let’s not forget the reason we are all here in the first place. This conference is huge. Perhaps this conference is not as big as ALA annual but it is still very large. ALA reports an average attendance of 11-12 thousand librarians. While this conference is mostly a business meeting, there will be some really great institutes, meetings, discussion groups, and other events covering everything from web 2.0 to such staples as Library Management. With so much going on it’s hard to decide what to do first. But everything you need to plan your ALA conference is available online via Twitter, Facebook events, Organization Blogs and websites, and at ala.org through their event planner, and ALA Connect. Take some time and check them out.

    6) ALA Secrets…
    For those of you who want to know what really happens at ALA midwinter, or those of you with secrets to share I’d like to introduce you to alasecrets.com. You can submit you own secrets, trysts, misdeeds, and misfortunes at the conference anonymously for the rest of us to live vicariously through. This twitterfeed is absolutely entertaining and so are many librarian’s reactions to it! I love that it causes such a stir that it was hacked and brought down at the last conference. I hope that everyone can be cool and have a good time checking out what’s really up with librarians (even if we’re lying about it).

    Have fun team!

    My Favorite #library Tweets from 12/11/09-12/18/09

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    Here is my second attempt to collect the collective wisdom of the #library hashtag. Some of these are just funny, some are just good information. I do want to mention that I left out two tweets from this list because I’m pretty sure everyone has already seen them. The first is the “Afropicks” from PW and the second is the 99 year overdue book. I think we’ve all had enough of both of these.

    @ilikeyourshirt: oh hey englsih homework i didnt finish last night
    I don’t usually like to make fun of people here, but this was too funny! Judging by this tweet, I’m pretty sure this guy REALLY needs to do this homework. Not that my English is any better though.

    @tiffanye: Trying to catalog books but SO distracted! Friday may not be the best day to catalog?
    Is there EVER a good day to catalog? It’s the one thing in librarianship that I dread whenever I have to do it. But good luck to you!

    @MiniBookBytes: Westminster police throw the book at late library patrons: http://bit.ly/7W5cvN
    My favorite part of this is the quote from the police chief who says “Now that [the police] have nothing better to do…” I wonder… if they got rid of one of the unneeded police officers, would that cover the amount owed to the city by the library fines?

    @lisaburscheidt: Am being given a lift through snow 10 cm high and rising. Hello traffic jam! We should have closed the library early. Bloody hell.
    Mostly, I just love when people say “Bloody Hell.” I need to work on my accent so I can pull that one off.

    @somnath4life: http://bit.ly/5eaS3q Sweet the burnaby public library website has a new design!
    This is a good blog based web design. Clean and simple. I like it.

    @interactiver: “I want to learn computer programming.” “Ok, which language?” “English.” “How about Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Computers?” “Ok.”
    HAHAHA!!!! Yeah, I think we’ve all gotten something like this. I just love how some reference interviews turn out.

    @mcmusic1212: taking a #dump in the #library
    My first question is- Is it necessary to hashtag dump?
    Me second question is- Where in the library?

    @nicolepugh: Check your local public #library for these! (and more): RT @Cool_Running Winning Books for Active People: http://bit.ly/activebooks
    I like that she found a tweet about books and then RTed the list reminding people that there were available in the library. Something I need to do more often when I find blogger’s lists of books.

    @pr_library: Augmented reality for LibraryThing Local http://bit.ly/71vdlY
    I’m going to have to go get this app. I’m so excited about this whole augmented reality idea!

    @dmguion: How to search in an online #library catalog http://bit.ly/4ER5ku
    Good article. I’m going to email this one around to some folks I know.

    @: I think phone apps created by the #library is a wonderful idea. Good work #DCPL
    Every library needs their own iPhone app.

    @esperanca: Love this: Phone box turned into a #library (BBC) – http://is.gd/5obiJ
    This is fun and very cool. I wish we had phone boxes in The States.

    Leadership is Just Like Beating Schoolchildren with Bags Full Of Kittens #library

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    Why is every seminar on management always called “A New Approach to Leadership?” Just once I’d love these “consultants” to be honest and call it “The Same Thing you Heard Last Time You Were Here, but We Repackaged It and Now You’re Buying the Same Thing you Bought Last Time for More Money. Thanks, I Can Now Pay for My Kids New Porsche.” Ok, well, I guess the reason that they don’t call it that is because it’s just too long. No, I’m kidding, the reason they don’t call it that is because they buy their kids Maseratis not Porsches because we pay way too much for consultants. Anyway, the point I’m trying to make here is that every seminar is exactly the same and nobody really seems to know what leadership and management is all about.

    In case you don’t believe me, I been to far too many of these seminars and workshops and I’ve read a far too many books on the subject. So, through all of this, here is what I’ve learned so far;

    Management is a circus
    Leadership is like a captain of a ship
    Leadership is like being a firefighter
    Leadership is like the conductor of an orchestra
    Management is a game of baseball
    Leadership is like being president (specifically, Lincoln)
    Management is like being Ben Franklin
    Leadership is like being an architect
    Leadership is an art
    Leadership is like a tribe

    Apparently, there are rules too…
    There are 101 rules of management
    There are 13 irrefutable rules to management you can’t break
    There are 12 rules of management
    There are 7 rules of management
    There is only one rule of management
    Break all the rules in Management

    (Of course, if you don’t believe that each of these exist, I suggest you look’em up on Amazon. I’m not kidding, each of these are there)

    However, this whole rant started because I recently went to another leadership seminar because, despite all of this, I still absolutely love going to these seminars. Just like all the previous seminars I’ve been to, this one found another way to relate leadership and management to yet another profession that’s slightly related to management and leadership and still far enough removed that you wouldn’t think of it as a profession related to leadership and management. Which I think is what these seminars are really supposed to do. That is, find two unseemingly related professions and then point out exactly why they are the same or define some aspect of a profession in terms of a set of rules and then encourage you not to follow those rules.

    That is, of course, not to say that this one wasn’t especially informative because I learned two very important pieces of information. The first thing that I learned is that I could definitely write a book on leadership and management if only there was one profession left that hadn’t been related to leadership and management. Which is good if I find one, because the second thing I figured out is that they let any idiot write a book on leadership and management. I could be that next great idiot! So, I’m going to start working on this, because I’m pretty sure that being either a leader or a manager is just like beating school children with bags full of kittens. In any case, the title of this book will be “Leadership and Management is Just Like Leadership and Management. Now Don’t It Screw Up.” I’m excited to see you at my next seminar!

    Friday Favorites: My Favorite #library Tweets from 12/07/09-12/11/09

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    As I’ve been perusing the twitter feed for the hastag #library, I’ve noticed that there are some great ideas on here and I want to collect as many of them as possible. It just reminds how many librarians there are out there who are much smarter than me. These folks are doing some great work and showcasing a lot of it on their twitter feeds so I thought I’d like to share some of my favorites from this past week. There were a whole lot of other great posts out there besides the ones marked with the #library hashtag but I limited it because this post would be far too long had I not set some kind of limitation on it. Some of these posts are funny, some are informative, and some have links to even more information if you’re interested. If people like this, I’ll try to do it every Friday!

    @Renato71: They’re building the new library here in #helmond http://twitpic.com/t24tg
    I love new about new libraries being built! It seems like Library Journal is filled with a lot of doom and gloom news about libraries closing right now and posts like this make me happy

    @Jason_Scroggins: The Library Study at Fresno State: http://bit.ly/4XIRfp
    This is a very complete study on library spaces and usage at Fresno State via a design anthropological perspective. This study is so complete, in fact, that it is longer than 140 characters and thus I haven’t read it, but I’m thinking really hard about reading it.

    @interactiver Thanks for the nifty craft ideas! http://www.onehourcraft.com/?p=168
    There are some great one-hour craft ideas that are a boon to library programs available here. They are cheap and easy, just the way we like’em!

    @wawoodworth: Blogged: The search for the next big thing, ctd. http://bit.ly/8Y9yGu
    Yet another great post from the Agnosticmaybe.wordpress.com blog. If you’re not reading it…

    @dmguion: How to take the fullest advantage of resources http://bit.ly/7qef2R
    This is a great blog post that would be more suitable for our patrons to read than us librarians. If you’re in a position to get this post out to your public, then I think it should be done. There is a lot of good information here about the ways that your patrons can take advantage (in a good way) of your library.

    @tamahoc: excited about the soon-to-come new city centre http://bit.ly/7rst9r
    Excellent information the economic value of a new library in a community and what that library will bring its residence in $$$. Most of the information comes from the Urban Institute. (not to be confused with the Urban Libraries Council)

    @tamahoc: rethinking the restroom question at the http://bit.ly/70WQMl
    I just always a big kick out of debates that are going on in the reference sector of librarianship. RUSA always makes me smile and giggle a little

    @brothadave202: oh shit..my battery bout to die..time to hit up da Library
    Way to use the library brothadave! Thanks for stopping by, even if it’s just to charge your batteries. While you’re here, by the way, we also have books! Just FYI…

    @justhvk : Should you become a librarian? http://justhdoit.freeblog.hu/archives/2009/12/07/Should_you_become_a_librarian/
    SUPER FUNNY flowcharts always make for a better day!

    @CoffeeTimeRoman: Every librarian needs to see this: How libraries can adapt to changing users & environments http://bit.ly/5DRB6o
    This is a good slideshow, some good thoughts

    @tiffanye Top 5 library commercials on youtube: http://bit.ly/5YrdTs // Number 2 is my fave! Which is yours?
    Oh good, more ways to waste time on Youtube! I’ll always oblige. There are some good ones.

    @cougarlibrarian: The balls on our library Christmas tree are big and unbreakable. Just like the balls of our #library staff.
    HAHAHAHA!!! ‘nuff said…