Megan McFarlane explains ALA’s campaign for library advocacy at the Library advocacy booth at #alamw11
Find the Free stuff at #alamw11! Use hashtag #ALAfree
The vendors at the conferences want you to come and check out their products and they usually try to entice you with free food, drinks, and other good stuff. The big problem is knowing where these events take place, so I am proposing a hashtag for all of us to share where we find the free stuff! So, whenever you find something free you can tweet about it and let some of these starving MLISers in on the goods using the hashtag #ALAfree.
If you are a vendor and want to let people in on the secret, don’t be shy about using the hashtag to entice these future customers to come and see your products and services with free good stuff.
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#ALAfree
Free Seminars for Librarians: Its time to learn something!!
So… I wrote a super snarky blog post yesterday that basically came down to complaining about librarians or library workers who claim they can’t do something because they don’t know how (we work in a library, everything you need to know is on the shelf, in our databases, or you should know how to find it). However, I decided not to post it on the advice of quite a few librarians. So instead, I’ll post this blog about an organization that presents a solution. I don’t like complaining but I do like solutions after all.
I’m going to put out a plug for an organization called InfoPeople who I have had many great experiences with but whose Twitter account I just found. From their website InfoPeople describes themselves as:
“A statewide LSTA project that functions as the training arm of the California State Library. Some other state libraries provide training via in-house staff. California has opted to essentially outsource training in order to leverage the maximum return on investment of training dollars. The Infopeople model provides a breadth of training topics and a depth of training expertise greater than any single library or library agency, no matter how large, could provide.”
While I do like this organization quite a bit, you might have noticed a tweet once or twice where I expressed my frustration with some of the trainings that they offered. This was more in regard to the fact that they saw a need for those trainings and not because the organization did something wrong. (Ex. A $75 training for Googledocs? Librarians should already know how to use this)
Anyway, I have been to some of their trainings and I enjoyed them and learned quite a bit. More recently I had a couple of experiences with some of the folks behind the organization and I have to say that they are all good people trying to do good work for libraries.
While they do charge for their trainings, they do provide quite a few webcasts and online seminars that are archived that you and your staff can see for free. Even though this is a California based organization, it seems that anyone can access the free webinars! What a great service to libraries! If you haven’t checked out their webinars you really should. One of my favorites being George and Joan: Thinking out Loud.
Here are some of their more recent offerings;
Re-energizing Your Preschool Storytime: New Ideas for Busy Children’s Staff
Top Tech Trends for the Non-Technical
Michael Cart Talks about Patrick Ness and Chaos Walking
George & Joan, Thinking Out Loud about Competition and Disruptive Technologies
Writing a Library Behavior Code – an Update
The New Medline Plus: An In-Depth Look
Michael Cart talks about the life and career of Sid Fleischman
George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud about the Space Between
Infopeople webinar at noon PDT today:
So if these don’t help you learn something new, check out their website because they have a whole lot more to offer. Don’t forget you can also check your library’s shelves, or its databases, or a podcast, or youtube, or google, or even wikipedia. Once again, I will restate what spurred this post in the first place and simply say – If you work in a library, not knowing something is no excuse.
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#Calibconf Battledecks! The slides, the video, and the AWESOME!!
The Battledecks event at the CLA/CSLA conference in Sacramento was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who came and supported (and hopefully enjoyed) the event, our amazing crew of judges, slidemakers, our gorgeous Vanna White, and of course the competitors. I also wanted to give quick background on Battledecks in libraryland and give some credit where it’s due. First of all, we all need to give a big THANK YOU to Janie Hermann who brought battledecks to library conferences in the first place at Internet Librarian in Monterey. She has been one of the great people that I have had the opportunity to know in librarianship. If you get a chance to meet her, everyone let her know how awesome she is. Also, I want to thank *Tiffany Mair for being so instrumental in helping open the lines of communication between all the folks that made this possible at CLA. The folks at InfoPeople for all of their support, Stacey Aldrich for pushing it forward and making it happen, and Holly Macriss for her overall level of awesome!! I learned a whole lot from this event and next year’s will be better and hopefully bigger!
Anyway…. The real reason you are here. The videos and Slides of Battledecks!
And… the Slides (note, 11 not 10 slides per deck. I forgot that I was sent some extra slides two days before the competition and snuck them in)
Here is a list of things I forgot to do this year that I will do next year… Start planning it earlier, triple and quadruple check the slides, use a high resolution conference logo, have better introductions for the competitors/judges/vanna white, remember to sync my iPhone music to play correct battledecks music by Ed Hermann, include a photo of the Battledecks Trophy in the intro slides, what else would you like to see?
*Tiffany Mair is awesome and graduating with her MLIS soon. She’s a big deal so hire her!
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An EPIC Uncon at #intlib10
This trip turned out to be a lot of work actually as we talked about all kinds of library stuff. As Toby said “We can’t help but librarianing.” So, while this video that Loida made doesn’t capture all the ideas we came up with for the next Internet Librarian it does capture a really great aspect of the trip. BTW, if it did capture everything awesome on that trip, it would be hours long. 🙂
Internet librarian “Pre-Conference” #intlib10
Friday
I have been inviting some of the librarians I’ve met at conferences and around my area to my boat for a day of sailing in the California Bay for a couple of months and Andrea, Lisa, and Nate took me up on it. Unfortunately, this was the one time my engine didn’t work. That was fine, there was no wind and it was raining anyway. So we sat on my boat having drinks made by my roommate bartender and her cousin (also serves as my crew) and I listened while the smart folks on my boat talked about all kinds of library related things until it was time for dinner in the yacht club where they continued to come up with all kinds of library awesome.
It would be difficult to explain some of the great ideas that came up on the boat and I won’t really try but it was a great creative thinking experience free from the constraints of library system’s rules and regulations. It was amazing to listen to these intensely smart folks talk about libraries on my boat. My big realization was that we need to do more to create these kinds of freeform opportunities for librarians to gather and socialize and just brainstorm possible innovations.
At the end of the night, most of us passed out on the boat listening to the rain on the deck and the wind in the rigging. I hope everyone had as great of a time as I did. Next year, “librarians on a boat” will be bigger and better. You’ll be invited, so don’t miss out!
Saturday
Unfortunately, on Saturday I had to work but that was fine because I love my library! So I drove my motorcycle through the rain to Monterey right after work in the dark and after finally finding my hotel and warming up, I found myself in the lobby bar of the Portola Plaza with even more library awesome! How is that possible? I have no idea. But once again a whole lot of smart library folks were blowing my mind with creative ideas. Some of these ubersmarties were Stephan Abram, Roy Tennent, Marshall Breeding, Lisa Carlucci Thomas, and Nina McPhail, who just sat around with some good drinks and once again said the kinds of things that need to be said about libraries. So, once again I just sat and listened and had my brains blown out with awesome bombs until I had to finally sleep.
Sunday
This was a tourist day for me and I went on an amazing drive with Lisa and Nina down highway one in the rain and checked out the pacific coast. If you’re reading this and you’re at the conference, I really suggest you take a couple of hours and make the drive south to Big Sur and see some of the gorgeous coastline in our great state.
Afterwards, my roommate (And bartender from my boat), who had heard about my conference good times, came down to see how the librarians party. We went out to eat with so many great folks and stayed out way too late (of course). Once again, being that we are librarians, there were many great discussions about libraries and librarianship in general and I heard some heated and intense debates between fantastic library folks on issues that I never even thought existed! I now have so many new things to think and lots of new motivations to get out and do something about some of the things I’m concerned about.
I simply could not have learned more (or had more fun) by attending the preconference. Instead, having my own little “preconference” where I sat and listened to the brilliant people in libraries say amazing things I was able to hear some ideas from people that could not have occurred in a structured or more restrictive environment. And… Of course it was awesome!
So you got the interview, now don’t blow it! 5 Tips for successful librarian interviews
I’m going to take a break from my redefinition of libraries blog posts and take some time for two posts of a completely different nature. The first is on being a successful interviewee and the second will be about what I look for in applications to get folks through the screening process. Here is the first on being a strong interviewee;
So I have been in management for most of my professional career. I have had to sit on both sides of the hiring table and I have some things to tell all you folks out there who have interviewed for positions or are looking to interview for a position. These are just some tips and tricks that I’ve learned that will help you become a better interviewee.
I know we all get a little nervous at job interviews and it’s easy to become quiet and reserved but sometimes that can come off to the interviewers as you not wanting to be there. I can’t even tell you how many people I have interviewed who I have had to question (in my mind) whether or not they actually want to be there because they were so quiet and subdued throughout the interview. I want you to show some feeling! Show some emotion! Get excited! You got the effing interview after all!! I am looking for someone who is excited about the profession and has a personality. I can teach you the skills to be a good librarian, but I can’t teach you the personality. So if you have it, you need to show it. Anyway, if you don’t, I’ll poke you with a sharp stick.
*Here is a side note to this tip…
I used to manage an Abercrombie and Fitch and some of our interview questions were –
• If you could invite three musical artists, dead or alive, to your birthday party, who would they be and why?
• Or, if you could live anywhere in the world and money wasn’t an factor, where would you live and why?
We asked these questions, not because we care what kind of music you like or where you would live, but to give you a chance to talk about something that you are passionate about and show us that you can be personable and fun. We were looking for someone who can talk to people in a fun way and interact with us (and therefore hopefully the customers) and we want to see your personality. I’m not allowed to ask these questions in an interview setting for libraries (I’ve asked HR) so you have to show your personality through the other questions we ask. Once again… I can teach you to be a librarian, I can’t teach you to have a better personality.
2) Answer the Freaking Question!!
If you only read to here and ONLY use rule number one and rule number two you will be above something like 98.9% of the interviewees. If you are excited and ANSWER THE FREAKING question then I will want to talk to you a whole lot more. Everytime I have sat through interviews I have had people who, instead of answering the questions, told me the things that they wanted to be sure to say in the interview and are just fitting it in somewhere. I don’t really care what you WANT to say, I want to hear the answer to the freaking question! Besides, we’re interviewing for a librarian position and if you are a librarian and not answering my questions, how are you going to be answering the patron’s questions when you’re on the job?
3) Use examples
We all love stories. I love a really good story and your really good story is going to give me some depth and understanding to your answer as well as give me a stronger understanding of you. In fact, I don’t even care if your story is drawn from previous experience as a librarian, from your previous experience as a CEO of BP, or the one time you had to walk your neighbor’s dog. I have hired people who have drawn from all kinds of professional (and unprofessional) histories and have related it back to the question in a meaningful way. To me, this means that you are going to be able to bring some new perspectives/ideas from outside the bubble of librarianship to my branch and that makes me happy.
4) But not too much
Whoa! Slow down kid!! One-two examples are plenty! I have had a couple of talkers interview for positions that I have had to cut off because of the time. I don’t need to hear EVERY story that relates to the question, just one or two. And… To review, relate the story to the question in a meaningful way so that you answer the question and do it in a way that shows that you are excited to be there. Don’t be worried if someone else has a better story or that you didn’t show that you have had 37 different experiences with what we are asking about. The person with a better story didn’t tell it as well as you told yours and I can give you 37 more experiences at my branch.
Saying something negative ALWAYS sets a tone in an interview room that you don’t want to have. We don’t want to squirm while you tell us an uncomfortable sob story. I know we ask questions like- What do you like least about blah, blah, blah. But that doesn’t mean to go off on a tirade about some horrible boss you once had or a bad customer or anything else negative. We are looking for what you like LEAST not something you HATE. You can say something like – Well, I know it needs to be done so I do it and do it well, but I don’t enjoy (__Insert here__) and I would rather spend my time doing (___Insert here___) because I feel that is more important because (___Insert here__). But, if you come to my interview and you answer my question with that boilerplate answer I’m either going to a) be disappointed that you didn’t come up with something new or b) just be stoked that SOMEONE is reading my blog or c) forget that I wrote this blog and not even notice.
These are just five things you can do to be a better interviewee but just these five things that I look for that will put far and above beyond so many other folks that you will most likely get a second interview. I know there are literally tens of thousands of you out there and that you have to get through the resume screening process to even think about getting an interview but I hope this will at least help you once you are in the room. Good luck out there team!
How Steampunk can Save Librarianship: Libraries Redefined (Part 2)
Because this parallel only occurred to me yesterday, I haven’t had much time to think about it. I put the thought out to twitter and received a positive response. In fact, Rudibrarian provided me with this definition of a steampunk movement within libraries – “Hi-tech futuristic gears keeping the old style functions of learning and research moving forward!” While I think this was a fairly accurate definition, I did take some liberties and changed it as follows to more closely fit what I am getting at-
Steampunk librarianship- Old style gears keeping the futuristic high tech functions of learning and research moving forward!
I hope she isn’t too mad at me for changing her words, but I couldn’t have come up with my definition without her. So thank you!
I would like to point out that I think a lot of our libraries are already working to achieve a successful melding of old vs new and I would love to see more libraries finding ways to more successfully meld the two. As I wrote this blog post I realized that I had actually visited, took pictures of, and wrote a blog post about a very successful steampunk library. This happened while I was at CLA in Pasadena last year and the title of the blog (while not being familiar with steampunk) was “Tour of a Library Cyborg.”
My Inspiration for the Beginning of a Redefinition of Librarianship (Part 1) #library
This is going to be the first of what will hopefully be a long set of blog posts. In the last couple of months I have been struggling with idea of libraries as a concept. It started with a presentation I did for our librarians in the library system where I work. The presentation ended with me questioning what it is to be a library. Here began a long list of experiences that are forcing me to rethink what a library is. I am going to begin by sharing some these experiences with you. The first is (while not really the first, but the most meaningful) was meeting Sarah at ALA Annual in DC. Sarah is the Itinerant librarian and goes by the name @librarian on Twitter.
The Itinerant Librarian was one of the most inspiring people I have met at a conference. This is a person who travels the world with a “library” in a briefcase. The story she told me is that previously she had no library experience and just thought one day that the world needed a traveling librarian. So, she left her home and had no job, no money, no financial support, no “real” library backing her up and created this “library” of books that she carries with her for people to check out. I truly regret not having my flip camera on me and recording the amazing conversation we had.
She explained to me that the concept of the library is that she goes to a coffee shop, restaurant, park, etc… and puts out the books she has in her briefcase on the table and signs people up for a library card. People can check-out the books as long as she is there. When she is ready to leave, you have to return your books and she moves on to the next place. When she needed a place to sleep she used couchsurfer.com to find a place to sleep and when she was hungry sometimes she had to each out of rubbish bins (she’s English and has a great accent and I could listen to her say “Rubbish Bins” to me for days on end). She has a uniform and the library has a set of rules and regulations that all the patrons have to follow to get a library card.
You can read the rules and regulations here at the “library’s” official website:
http://www.tipl.info/
And her blog (that is no longer being updated) here
http://itinerantpoetrylibrarian.blogspot.com/
Follow her on twitter:
http://www.twitter.com/librarian
When I refer to this as a “library” instead of a library, I mean that as a compliment. I mean that this isn’t a library as we think about them in the United States. The rules are different (better), the concept is brilliant, it totally challenged my concept of what a library is and can be, and her project has set in motion hundreds of thoughts and ideas for me.
Most importantly, it made me realize the importance of libraries as a concept and the little importance that a building, management, money, organization, rules, etc… have on what it means to be a library. In fact, this might be the most pure form of librarianship that I have encountered.
Blogged: Libraries and Online Social Capital in a 2.0 World
While I was playing around with SlideShare.com and finding all kinds of library awesomeness, I decided that I would post one of my own. This presentation isn’t finished and I want to write some blog posts to go along with it because I think I might be on to something.
Yeah, I know there is a large amount of text on this presentation, but that is so that it makes more sense without me speaking. When I finally get the courage to submit this to a conference to present I’m going to remake it without the text.
This presentation about the concept of Online Social Capital and how libraries need to be thinking about it when they are creating their online profiles. I haven’t read about anyone thinking about online social capital but everyone is kind of dancing around the subject in various ways. I hope that this concept helps to clear up the question of “Why libraries should be involved in online networks.”
I won’t go into too much detail in this post and I hope that you get the information you need from this presentation, but expect some future blog posts that expand on some of the key concepts here. Let me know what you think.
*I am a little frustrated with figuring out how to get the pictures in the presentation to load. Right now there are photos that say that Quicktime and a Decompressor are needed to view the photos. If someone knows how to get that to work I’m all ears.
PC Sweeney 