The Great Librarian Write-Out!

Posted on by pcsweeney

It’s time for librarians to get out of the echo-chamber of librarianship and get some good words out to the people. So I’m proposing an award (my own personal money) of $250 for the best library-related article to be published in a non-library magazine or journal. Yes, that’s right… My own personal money!! That’s how important this is to me!

There are thousands of amazing writers in our profession who write their own blogs and write for our professional magazines and journals, but rarely (or never) do I see an article written for the public in a major national magazine about how libraries help society in some great way. I don’t think there has ever been a time when such articles should be appearing amidst the news of library closures, resource cutting, and layoffs. Its time that we got the word out about libraries to as many people as possible!!

It seems to me that there are hundreds of topics for articles that could be written that would be applicable to the content of a major magazine. Off of the top of my head I’m thinking

-Saving Businesses Money (or starting a business) with Library Resources
– Forbes
– Entrepreneur
– Fortune
-Business Week

-How someone learned about their cultural identity at the library
– Ebony
– Latina
– Out!

-Pet Care information
-Dogs
-Cats
-Bark!

But this is only scratching the surface of the possibilities. I could keep going but I think you get the idea. If you want to participate and win $250 for your article published in a non-library journal or magazine, here are the criteria;

-You must be in some way related to the library profession, a library vendor, a patron, a friend of a patron, or at least heard of the idea of libraries at one point in your life.

-It must be a pro-library article speaking positively about the benefits of libraries in some aspect of society and addressing the need for folks to get up and go to the library for some reason or another.

-The article must be printed between February 15 2011, and the first day of the ALA Midwinter Meeting on January 20th 2012

-It must be published in a non-library related magazine or journal with a national (United States) or international circulation. More points will be given to an article in a magazine with the largest circulation, and you will receive bonus points for a feature article.

-You must submit, your name, the title, and date of publication (for verification) by emailing us or commenting below.

The articles will be judged by the members of the Think Tank at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Dallas Texas in 2012. The winner will be announced January 24th 2012.

If you want to help us up the ante for prize money let us know by commenting below or sending us a message. Also, any money raised through our Café Press store will go towards added prizes and awards and other library advocacy projects as well so feel free to shop away! http://www.cafepress.com/libraryadvocate

Please be sure to sign up for the event on Facebook!!

*This event is brought to you by the members of the Think Tank.*
JP Porcarro
Allen McGinley
Jenn Walker
Tiffany Mair
Andrea Davis


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My #Library Outreach Idea to Local Businesses

Posted on by pcsweeney

I read a great article about businesses starting their own libraries of business books in the office and it spurned a thought that I wanted to share with anyone in a community with a large number of businesses. It’s pretty simple and I’m not sure it requires an entire blog post dedicated to it, but I need to write something here anyway and I want to write this idea down before I forget it. Basically the idea is circulating business book bins. (Self-explanatory! That might be all you need to read here. But if you want more, please continue)

So, you know how libraries circulate those subject specific boxes for schools when the school is doing a big research topic on something like reptiles? Well… What if we did the same thing, but for local businesses? These bins, or boxes, or bags, would be filled with books and resources for businesses big and small to circulate to employees. Each bin could have a different subject in it such as marketing, leadership, management, etc… In fact, we could even have bins for folks who are starting up their own businesses that could be filled with books about start-ups that could include things like NOLO Guides and books on business plans and models. *Thus the library could be the source for renewed entrepreneurship in America, eventually saving the American Way and Dream, the American economy, and in fact, America itself!!

Anyway, I think it would work something like this. The library would put together these various bins and send letters to local businesses advertising this new service listing the various business topics. Each bin would have a collection of books on a specific topic, but only the bin would need to be barcoded because they’re checking out that subject collection in total. There would be a list of materials with a checklist included in the bin to ensure they all get returned. The business would call the library and request a specific topic bin and the library could drop it off. I would love to have the business determine the length of the checkout (which leads to another blog post on check-out lengths later) so they could ensure that they have enough time to have each of their employees read the material. This would be important because businesses of different sizes can have any number of employees and it would take differing amounts of time to circulate the materials throughout the business. At the pre-determined due-date the library would pick up the bin of books. And that’s it. Super easy.

Of course, we might have to make someone from the business come to the library to get the bin instead of going there. I understand those kinds of time constraints. But! I think that, by going to the business, we have the opportunity for a new kind of outreach like we do in schools where we can have a stronger presence in their organization. When we go to the business we can do a small presentation to the staff on other resources that the library has to help them with their jobs. This would almost be exactly the same thing as a school visit but for adults!

Ok… Here’s the part where you tell me what you think… And go!

*Alright, maybe I get a little carried away. But I still believe that libraries are one of the most important institutions in the United States and do actually have the power to vastly improve the state of the country.

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All the #alamw11 Videos in order

Posted on by pcsweeney

Here is the story of the Think Tank Crew and our experiences at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in 2011.

I originally uploaded all of these videos in a fairly random order because of time and editing constraints. So, in order to tell the story in a more significant way, I decided to list them chronologically here to give you the full story and here it is;

On the way to #alamw11 Andrea and I had to stop and buy a digital camera. We were going to buy a flip until we got talked out of it. This guy was awesome, one of the most knowledgable folks I’ve ever met. He knows way too much about e-readers, cameras, and all other tech. Andrea had an amazing conversation after leaving Best Buy about the need to have these kinds of characters presenting at Library Conferences. This guy even throws in a little bit of gaming in libraries.



Andrea and I finally made it to San Beardiego and stopped by the airport to pick up the Think Tank folks. We had a special visit from Flat Justin too!



Megan McFarlane explains ALA’s campaign for library advocacy at the Library advocacy booth at #alamw11



I ran into Kirby McCurtis at an after hours social at ALA MW 2011. She talked to me about why she is running for council and what being involved means to her.



LibrarianJP discusses the importance of his kicks and librarian fashion at ALA conferences. Don’t forget to check this video to the end. Its my favorite vid of #alamw11.



The Think Tank folks were up way too early on Friday Morning. Tiffany Mair had to get to Emerging Leaders, JP and Allen had to get to the Unconference and Patrick and Jenn had to get to meetings. Why are these things always so early? Andrea had nowhere to be so she just got up for no good reason.



We ran into Maureen Sullivan on the way out of the convention center at #alamw11 and she talks about running for ALA president.



I sat down at ALA council and spoke with Michael Porter at the ALA Council Session about his campaign for ALA Executive Board. He also talks about why it is so important that you get involved and run for ALA Council!



During a break during the second council session of #alamw11 I met up with Sol Gomez who is a 2008 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, an Emerging Leader Graduate, ALA Councilor, and all around good guy. Sol talked to me about why is decided to be on ALA Council and his work with Reforma.



Tom Wilding gives me a couple of minutes in front of the camera to talk about ALA Council.



At the 2011 American Library Association Midwinter meeting, the crew of the Think Tank infiltrated the conference with a guerrilla guitar lending library just to see what would happen. We invited all kinds of folks to “check-out” a guitar for a few minutes or a few hours. Many librarians and other good folks sat and played. As it turns out, our profession is filled with talented musicians. This video is the mashup of many of the patrons of this guerilla library.



We had a lot of great people at the Think Tank House on Saturday night and built a small library community inside the house. We were all library family and we made some great connections, had some good ideas, and brainstormed a lot of awesome for libraries in general. Unfortunately, the next morning the house was a mess and we had to get to sessions and meetings. But it was all totally worth it. Although it might not look like it, we learned a whole lot from some of the smartest people I have ever met at an ALA Conference. We didn’t film a whole lot that night so we thought we’d at least get some footage of the morning after.



This is the video that shows the story of how the trip south occured. It originally spawned from a idea to bring Camper Con to ALA. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get that together in time so the Think Tank crew did the next best thing… Rent a Jeep Wrangler, head south, and MAKE IT HAPPEN!



On the road trip to the south, The Think Tank set up a guerilla Beach “Library” and assigned JP to the ” Help Desk.” JP gives a tour of the library to Justin Hoenke who we all miss here at #alamw11.



I spoke with Librarian JP on the Beach at #alamw11 while we were taking a Think Tank road trip to Mexico about why he became a librarian. This is truly heartfelt story about JP’s history in librarianship.



The Think Tank crew took a road trip down the Pacific Coast and stopped along the way at a beach just north of the border. I asked Allen why he became a librarian… Awesomeness ensues….

On Saturday we all decided to take a drive down to Tijuana in a rented jeep and experience some of the world. We met some great folks and had some playtime outreach with some of the local kids. #alamw11.

Just before she left, Andrea Davis says goodbye to the Think Tank and what her experience meant to her. She also talks about the importance of making it happen at other conferences. Those of us at the Think Tank highly encourage more professionals to create these kinds of collaborative, educational, and entertaining spaces at conferences for sharing ideas and creating opportunities!



On Tuesday morning after #alamw11, Librarian JP and I ran into Alex Walker and got his thoughts on ALA, his career prospects, and of course… The infamous Lady GaGa video that he was a part of.

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Starting A Library Guitar Collection

Posted on by pcsweeney

In case you haven’t heard (read) me mention it on Twitter or Facebook I’m putting together a collection of circulating guitars for my library. If anyone is interested, here is some background on this project, what I’m planning, and how we’re moving forward.

    History

Fender DG-8S Acoustic Guitar Value Pack While working at Lincoln Public Library my director and I had a discussion about various innovative collections we could start at the library. We had a great space and some good ideas but we weren’t sure how to implement them. Some of our ideas included video games, tools, and other musical instruments. The biggest barrier to us starting this collection was that we just simply didn’t have time. We were running a 40,000 square foot joint use building with a huge circulation number, a large amount of acquisition and cataloguing work, and just about everything else that comes with not only a brand new building, but a new staff and a new library system. Did I mention there were only 2 full time staff members? Anyway… Those are the reasons that Lincoln Public Library doesn’t have a guitar collection.

The good news is that East Palo Alto Library in the San Mateo County Library system where I now work will have a collection of circulating guitars. It was all made possible by my involvement in the Eureka! Program that is allowing me to apply for a five thousand dollar LSTA grant. This grant will be the seed money to start my collection. What follows is the VERY rough draft of some of the information that I compiled for the grant.

    Basic description of the project

The East Palo Alto Library will create a collection of guitars as well as offer two 8-week beginning guitar group lesson programs to include both those individuals who already own guitars and those who have checked-out the EPA guitars. There will also be 4-6 one time programs throughout the year that are focused on music. These will include performances, movies, artist visits, and game nights (Rock Band).

    Background

The project was identified as a need due to the lack of music programs for youth in the East Palo Alto community. Music classes are no longer offered at local schools and there are no local businesses that offer music lessons or sell musical instruments. The economic status of a large percentage of East Palo Alto residents makes it difficult to gain access to expensive music lessons as well as the instruments themselves even if such businesses did exist within the community.

However, this community has a long and rich history with music as well as a cultural identity in music. East Palo Alto is home to one of the largest populations of Pacific Islanders in the continental United States and Polynesian music has played a significant role in the culture of East Palo Alto with performances by local groups at churches and various community gatherings. There is also a significant Spanish speaking population that performs various forms of Spanish music. The African American Population in East Palo Alto has had a significant effect on the music since the early 1950’s when this population became the most prominent. Each of these stylings of music has led to a blended genre of music that is being performed locally by such bands as the Vintage Music Collection and the Hip Hop Orchestra. (Two groups brought to my attention by Sereptha Strong who is one of my librarians named)

These are not the only groups in East Palo Alto. In fact, there have been a number of self-taught musical groups that have arisen from within the community. The most prominent of some of these groups are primarily rap and hip hop groups such as Totally Insane, Sean T, S.I.C, Mac & AK, The Youngen, Chunk, Bigg Rigg, Band-Aide, Scoot Dogg, Ad Kapone, and Mac-10.

Many families gather to play instruments that have been handed down from generation to generation, and there are some residents who offer their backyards to local performers as a stage. There are also few homemade musical venues such as the House of Bigger Girls and some churches allow musical performances.

Moreover, music has been cited as a way for youth to express themselves in a positive and creative way. There have been numerous studies that have shown that music can act as a deterrent to violence. This, coupled with the understanding that EPA was the murder and violent crime capital of the United States throughout the 90s shows that there is an inherent need for a musical outlet.

    Anticipated outputs and outcomes

For the Community
Patrons who check-out guitars and participate in the 8-week group music lessons should have a basic understanding of tuning, parts of a guitar, major and minor chords, a few chord progressions, a number of strumming and picking patterns, a number of scales, and few basic songs.

Many other larger community benefits of music have been identified however, the measurements of such benefits can be difficult to quantify. A list of the potential benefits to the community with supporting documentation can be found at;

http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/benefits.html

Some of the outcomes listed from various studies include

  • Improved reading comprehension
  • improved math grades
  • Improved standardized test scores
  • Improved social Skills

    • Many of these outcomes are difficult to measure, and in no way am I making the argument that this program alone will have the ability to accomplish all of these things in a short 8 week program. However, this program could be a small contributing factor in the growth and improvement of our community.

    For the Library
    Increased Circulation
    Increased level of programs and services
    Increased number of partnerships with EPA organizations

      Some identified community partners

    We have identified a number of organizations that have expressed interest in partnering with the Library to provide these programs. There are a few local bands/artists who would like to volunteer to teach group lessons. Other organizations who have expressed interest include

  • Sassy
  • JobTrain
  • YMCA
  • Ravenswood school district
  • Stanford

      • Budgeting

    This is the part that I’m most excited about right now. Just the fact that I’m thinking about the budget because I’ve made it this far gets me pretty excited so here is how the money will break down.

    The majority of the grant funding will be used to purchase guitars and supplies. We would prefer to find ways to have the guitars donated to the program. However, guitars may need to be purchased. Guitar starter packs from Guitar Center typically range from $150-250 depending on quality. I would like to begin the collection with 15 guitars and spend approximately $3,750 of the grant money on these guitars. That means I can spend about $250 on each guitar. I wanted to make sure that this was even possible and that I could even get a halfway decent guitar for this price so I walked across the street from my house to Guitar Center on Sunday (Guitar Center’s close proximity to my living space has not had a beneficial effect on my finances BTW) and started to ask them some questions about what kinds of discounts I could get if I bought 15ish guitars with a starter pack from them. I don’t want to say what the discount is, but the unofficial offer was very significant and might allow me to do even more. However, since the offer was unofficial I’m going to keep my $250 estimate and hopefully wind up with more money in the end to offer more classes or more learning materials.

    Happily playing guitar badly in my front yard in Santa Cruz
    Next I need to buy some of the supplies that I need to display the collection and to keep the collection going. These are just basic necessities like extra strings, picks, straps, and other general maintenance supplies. I think I can get enough for the first year with around $300. But then I still need to purchase a way to display the guitars and I think that I can get wall mounts (before the discount that I’m going to ask for) for around $20 each so I need about $300 for that. So now I’m up to about $4,350

    What I have left over is about $650 that I’m going to use to refresh our music learning collection. I want to purchase books, dvds, cds, magazines, etc… that will help people learn on their new instruments. I should also mention that the starter packs come with an intro to guitar DVD and I think that I will keep that DVD with packs when the patrons check out the guitars.

    The last purchase that the library will be making will be the cost of the instructors for the program. I don’t want to take this money out of the grant money because it is an ongoing cost. So I’m planning on paying a guitar instructor about $30 per hour for the group lessons and I have already found some teachers who are willing to do it for that price. Even more exciting, I’ve found some teachers who have offered to do it for free! However, I’m wary of these offers because I’ve my previous experiences with flighty volunteers and I don’t want the students to miss out because the guitar instructor is a flake. So I’m budgeting $480 for two one hour, eight week group lesson sessions. I’ll let you know how that goes.

      Fines and Fees

    Just so you know, I’m totally against fines and fees. However, we do need to be able to maintain our strings and picks and we do need to repair any damages to our guitars, and I need to ensure that we get these guitars back. So, depending on what kind of price I can get on all of these things, I will be charging some kind of fine/fee structure that is yet to be decided.

    While I don’t have the grant approved yet, I am very excited about even the possibility of having a funding source for this collection. If, in the end my grant is not awarded to me, I at least have the foundation for writing more grants! Not matter what happens with the grant, I’m pretty sure I can get this off the ground in a number of ways.

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    #Calibconf Battledecks! The slides, the video, and the AWESOME!!

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    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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    Things to be excited about at #calibconf

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    Having grown up in the greater Sacramento Region, I thought I’d give some of you out-of-towners, some tips and pointers about what to do, where to go, and all of that. Sort of like a mini tour guide. I hope you have a great time in Sacramento. I know I’m going to enjoy being back in my hometown!

    Restaurants/Bars
    Sacramento is home to some of my favorite restaurants and bars and the list just keeps getting longer and longer. Here is a my short list of delicious food options and some recommended menu items.

    Tapa the World
    Tapas the World has some of the best tapas I have ever had. I wholeheartedly recommend that you do two things while here. The first is that you must absolutely try the olives. The bright green ones melt in your mouth like butter except they are far more delicious. The second thing you need to do is be adventurous and let the waiter know that they should surprise with 3-4 of their favorite tapas. I have done this everytime I have been here (I go here a lot) and it has yet to fail me. Most tapas are under 10$ anyway so you won’t have to worry about huge bills at the end.

    Kru
    This is probably my favorite Sushi restaurant in the entire world right now. The sushi is fresh, the restaurant is clean, and the servers are great. What else can I ask for?

    Two things to try, the Sweet Potato Beer and the preserved wasabi root. The sweet potato beer is incredible! I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s a dark beer with a taste like a wheat and if I never drank another beer in my life… The preserved wasabi root is a variation on that traditional wasabi paste you get everywhere. But this has a fresher and cleaner flavor to it and I now can’t believe anyone ever served wasabi as a paste from a tube.

    Fannie Annes
    Three words… Peanut. Butter. Burger. It’s actually called a jiffy burger and the ingredients are: Peanut Butter, Hamburger Pattie, Bacon, Cheese, and of course a bun. This is not a meal for the faint of heart and if you know anything about healthy eating this is not a meal for the unhealthy heart. I’m pretty sure this burger will kill you if the deliciousness doesn’t!!

    Places to See

    Train Museum
    Located in Old Sacramento, the California State Railroad Museum is a complex of historic facilities and unique attractions. Widely regarded as North America’s most popular railroad museum, there is something here for everyone! Throughout the year, experience lavishly restored trains, engaging exhibits, and unique special events.

    Old Sac
    From the website – The unique 28-acre National Historic Landmark District and State Historic Park is located along the beautiful Sacramento River. Bustling with activity, the district is alive with shopping, dining, entertainment, historical attractions and world-renowned museums set within the time of the California Gold Rush and the Transcontinental Railroad.

    Capital Building
    Catch a quick glance of the Governator! The Capital Building has been the home of the California Legislature since 1869, the State Capitol underwent a major renovation that restored much of the building’s original look. You can tour the restored historic offices of the Secretary of State, Treasurer, and Governor of the State of California. The building features exhibits and tours – and while the website says that you can “possibly an opportunity to watch the legislators debate a bill or cast a vote.” We all know the sad truth behind that one. I won’t comment here.

    Second Saturday
    Second Saturday in Sacramento is a fiasco to say the least. But it is also a great time if you know a few of the great places to go. Originally this night was a celebration of all of the great art and cultural activities that take place in Sacramento. For the most part (or at least the early part of the night) this is exactly what this is. However, as the night progresses the bars stay open longer and more and more people crowd the streets in what is becoming one of the great gatherings of people in California. Most of them are young and drinking heavily so if that’s not your scene, check out the galleries and restaurants early and watch the insanity from a quiet place.

    However, if you are into the night life, this will be a fantastic night of good times for you. While it is the LGBT district of Sacramento I highly recommend the K and 21st intersection. The bars are great, the dress code is relaxed, and the people are a lot of fun!

    A few of the New Libraries to See
    There are quite a few new libraries around the Sacramento area and I would encourage you to take a tour of them when you get a chance. But I’m sure you will hear about them from the Sacramento Public Library folks. So, instead I will send you further out to explore the new Lincoln Public Library at Twelve Bridges and the new Martha Riley Library in Roseville. Both are fantastic in their own ways.

    However, if you do want to stay in the Sacramento Area and see some new libraries and don’t hear from Sacramento Public Libraries, I guess I should mention them. So be sure to visit their new LEED-certified branches: Robbie Waters Pocket-Greenhaven, North Natomas, and Valley-Hi. But really… All of the Sacramento Public Libraries are great and I’ve been to most of them.

    Special Events At the Conference

    Reggae night
    On Friday night you should check out the Reggae night at the Capital Garage that Tiffany Mair is putting together. This is an off-the-books event and should just be a whole lot of fun!

    Unconference
    The unconference at the Pasadena CLA was my favorite part of the whole conference. This is a loosely organized area where people can meet and talk about shared interests and ideas. Last year they met with new librarians and talked about finding jobs, social media, and many other topics. If there is something that you want to talk about you can even organize a meeting of like-minded folks and have your own conference session!

    CYRM Banquet
    The California Young Reader Medal is one of my favorite awards of all time. The books are chosen by librarians and children so they are always fantastic read-a-louds. When I was a school librarian (best job ever!) these were always my go-to read-a-louds and the kids always loved them. I can’t say enough wonderful things about CYRM so I won’t even try, but check them out.

    Battledecks
    Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t give a little shout out to my own event at CLA/CSLA. This of course is Battledecks. If you’re not sure what it is, the title links to my other blog entry that fully describes the whole event. It’s the same time as CYRM and both events will be EPIC so whatever you attend you won’t miss out!

    I’m excited to see you all there, so go ahead and add me on twitter and/or just about any other social network. My screenname is always pcsweeney and you can find me anywhere that way. Find me and tell me about what you are excited about at CLA! If you’re not online, lets sit and have a drink and talk libraries for a while. See you there!

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    CLA BattleDecks: Battle Royale #calibconf

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    This fun and exciting program will challenge some of the best Library Presenters in California to show their skill and test their mettle!

    Presenters will battle it out to give the best improvisational presentation based upon a set of 10 often humorous, unrelated, and hand-created slides that they are seeing for the first time live on stage. The presenters will face tough judgment and scrutiny from an unbiased and inscrutable team of judges. The best presenter will be determined based upon a variety of criteria but most importantly on their overall level of AWESOME! The most awesome presenter will walk away with the pride and honor of being crowned CLA/CSLA Battledecks champion of 2010.

    Awesomeness, entertainment, and hilarity, along with a healthy dose of learning, is guaranteed for all!

    Here is a glimpse into one of the original Battledecks competitions from SXSW.

    Here are some quick glimpses of Battledecks, Librarian Syle from ALA Annual 2010.

    Following the state library reception at 7pm in the Convention Center Main Deck from 7-8 pm (the same time)

    Contenders for the title: (Could it be you? Volunteer!!)
    1) Jose Aponte
    2) Andrew Carlos
    3) Lori Bowen Ayre
    4) Joan Frye Williams
    5) Jill Sonnenberg
    6) Sam McBane Mulford
    7) Julie Farnsworth

    Judges: (Could it be you? Volunteer!!)
    1) Stacey Aldrich
    2) Rivkah Sass
    3) Rosario Garza
    4) Gene Ambaum

    Emcee: Patrick Sweeney
    Timekeeper/Vanna White: Tiffany Mair
    Slidemakers: Patrick Sweeney, Lori Easterwood, ______
    Logo (coming soon): __Anyone a graphic artist?____
    Halftime Entertainment: A set of some the best Library Related viral-videos on the Web!

    Prizes: (To be Announced)

    For more information or to view the event on Facebook

    Are Guerrilla Libraries Saving the Soul of Librarianship? Redefining Libraries (Part 3)

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    For this third edition of the redefinition of librarians I would like to point out that there are quite a few librarians (and non-librarians) creating libraries in areas where other libraries can’t (or refuse) to reach. These are normal people who believe so wholeheartedly in the benefits of libraries that they are going out into the world and creating libraries. These people are the Johnny Appleseed of librarianship and without their work many people wouldn’t have the opportunity to have access to a collection of information or literature. These are also not collections that are maintained or controlled by an entity or a formalized organization. They are more like an anarchist’s library as many don’t have any rules, regulations, or memberships. What is great about this is that I have noticed more and more people taking up the cause as libraries around the country falter and I’d like to point out a few guerilla libraries that have been put together around the world.

    Mick Jones Library
    Mick Jones of The Clash and various other bands has created a Rock and Roll Library. This library features rock memorabilia from his own personal collection and contains nearly 10,000 items. From what I gather this is not a quiet library (it is rock and roll after all) and since its punk, you know it will tear down the walls of the library and scream with a rebel yell at the establishment.

    Telephone Booth Library
    Here’s another one from the UK. This is one of Britain’s old red phone booths like you see on Harry Potter. It has been recycled into one of the country’s smallest lending libraries and only stock around 100 books. Since this library employs zero librarians, the Villagers from Westbury-sub-Mendip in Somerset can use the library 24 hours a day. The library’s “Patrons” simply replace the books they take, with books they have read thus keeping the library’s collection well stocked.


    Payphone Library

    Of course, America has its own version of this but maybe it’s not quite as elegant. It does work however. The concept is basically the same in that it’s an old public phone that has been re-commissioned into a self-service library that is available to the local community 24 hours a day.


    Ikea Beach Library

    Alright, this one really gets me mad. It was set up by Ikea to celebrate the 30 year anniversary of the Billy Bookcase. I’m mad because absolutely love it and it should have been done by someone other than Ikea. I would however, like to point out that I LOVE Ikea so don’t think I have anything against them. It’s just that I really feel like a guerilla librarian or even a regular library really dropped the ball on this one. But maybe we can get some folks to replicate it somewhere else in the world. Or… There’s an Ikea right down the street from my library actually. Hmmm…


    Library In a Locker
    Here is a kid that is full of awesome! Apparently when he found that his school library had a bunch books that had been banned, he decided that he would offer these books from his school locker library. Here is his quote “…I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it’s the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on…”


    CSULA Guerrilla Library
    For my last entry, here is another set of kids with their own Guerrilla Library. The California State University in Los Angeles, due to budget cuts, closed its library during FINALS!! Does anything sound more asinine that that? I don’t think so, and neither do the students at CSULA. So they built their own library to study for finals and they did it Guerrilla style!


    Books and Beer
    My Last one is my favorite but it isn’t really a Guerrilla library as I have defined it here because its done in cooperation with a city and a library system. This library is a pub in the Yorkshire Dales may be a vision of the future for many communities. The awesome villagers of Hudswell have bought their local pub to save it from closure and have now set up a small library in part of the bar! There is nothing I love more than reading a good book with a beer in a good bar! I mean that seriously! Here is the video

    Now I ask you… If libraries are going away, or aren’t necessary, why is it that so many people take the time to create their own personal libraries at home OR take the time and effort to create guerrilla libraries in their communities? I’ll tell you why! It’s because people still love libraries in all of their forms and won’t let the man hold the library back!

    Blogged: Libraries and Online Social Capital in a 2.0 World

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    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.

    Blogged: WHY Social Network in the #library: or Twopointopians Vs. Onepointopians

    Posted on by pcsweeney

    I was recently reading a blog that is written by an onepointopian librarian (which is comically ironic in and of itself) and they made a couple of arguments against the use of social media in libraries. Well, as a twopointopian librarian I had to take them up on their challenge to basically explain WHY libraries should be using social networks and also to refute a number of the points that they made in their post. So here’s my best shot at it…

    There is the argument that most libraries have only a few hundred “friends” in social networks and thus the program is unsuccessful. However, how many library programs have attracted a few hundred participants? I think most libraries would call a few hundred participants a joyous success.

    Along the same train of thought, they argue that NOBODY is “friending” the library. I have been around libraries and librarians who complain about nobody friending their library’s page. Most often, I have noticed that each of these people suffer from the delusionary “if you build it, they will come” school of thought. So to this I reply, would a library develop a program and not promote it? Having a large number of “friends” takes a lot of work, just like having a lot of participants in a library program. You have to go get them. I don’t think any librarian decides to have a program and then neglects to tell people about it and hope people show up. However, I have found that when a onepointopian develops a facebook page, once its complete, they simply sit back and complain that they have no one friending them and then pat themselves on their back for having no participation in their program, thus proving them right. Likewise, if I made the argument that nobody goes to storytime, then make a storytime program, don’t tell anyone and nobody shows up to it, would you argue that I’m right? Or would you fire me?

    Outreach. Onepointopians argue that using the statistics about how many people are using social networks to argue for its implementation in libraries is irrelevant. However, libraries perform outreach to their communities at schools, churches, youth groups, and many other places with far fewer participants. In fact, some libraries employ someone fulltime to perform outreach to organizations that only have a couple of dozen participants in the crowd.

    Social Capital. This is something that I have been thinking about quite a bit lately. I’m very interested in the idea of online social capital (future blog post to come Wednesday). Already we use social capital as the answer to the question- why do libraries go to schools, churches, and other community groups? I would argue that they do this to raise awareness and support for the library in the form of social capital. The same holds true for utilizing 2.0 technology as a tool for outreach.

    And finally, it’s an opportunity for dialog. Having a place on the web where patrons can ask questions and converse with the library in a dialog allow the library to receive feedback on programs, services, and needs. Oftentimes, I have heard onepointopians complain that their twitter account doesn’t generate any meaningful dialogue. But if I only tweeted when I blogged something, or when I did something, nobody would talk to me either. The library should be using twitter to begin the dialogue. They can do this by asking their followers questions, congratulating them on things they tweet about that they are proud of, expressing condolences for tragedies in their life, and basically interacting with them in a more meaningful and social way that makes them really believe that the library cares about them and their well-being. And, that’s only where the dialog begins…

    I hope that this helps to clear up any of the confusion, if you feel I’m wrong you can complain to Library Journal. Apparently they care.