While in the “office,” Adam Block started talking to us about his company called Off The Block. We tried to get the interview in the “office,” but we decided to step out into the hallway instead.
Greg’s (My boss) New Orleans Recommendations #ala11 #alatt
I got this email from our assistant director in the library system where I work. His name is Greg Bodin and he used to live in New Orleans and really knows all about where to eat drink and what to see in New Orleans. This list was really good so I thought I would share it with more than just our staff.
From Greg:
These are just a few recommendations. Having been to many conferences, one never really has time to see lots of things but I suggest these as worth your time while visiting New Orleans. Of course, please contact me if you have questions or would like other recommendations.
Things to see
The conference takes place at the Convention Center, which is in the Warehouse District. The Warehouse District is adjacent to the French Quarter, the Garden District, the Central Business District and Uptown. Lots of things are walking distance or an easy cab ride. I indicate if things are a bit farther afield. Below are things I enjoy.
Warehouse District:
Contemporary Arts Center
This is New Orleans’ main museum for contemporary art – also a really cool space.
World War II Museum
A really great museum – even if you aren’t a history buff.
Ogden Museum of Southern Art
This is one of my favorites – it is a collection of traditional and contemporary art from throughout the South.
French Quarter:
Jackson Square
This is the center of the City. While New Orleans is a very French city, it’s design and architecture reflects it’s time as a Spanish colonial city. Jackson Square is reminiscent of the plazas and zocolos in Latin American counties. Central to the square is St. Louis Cathedral. The Cathedral is flanked by the Prebytere (originally a residence for the Bishop) and the Cabildo (originally the main government building). On either side of the square are the Pontalba Apartments. All of these are worth a visit.
Moonwalk
Directly in front of Jackson Square, the Moonwalk is an elevated walkway along the
Mississippi River
You get a great view of the Mississippi and a pleasant walk that can take you from Jackson Square back to the Convention Center.
Algiers Ferry
The Algiers Ferry connects downtown New Orleans to the Algiers neighborhood across the Mississippi River. The Ferry is free for pedestrians and is a great way to experience the River.
Royal Street
A stroll on Royal Street is a lovely way to see beautiful architecture and do a bit of window shopping. Royal Street is the traditional shopping street in the French Quarter and is filled with art galleries and antique stores. Check out the beautiful Supreme Court Building on the walk.
Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street is best experienced in the evening. Even if you are a teetotaler it is worth checking out the spectacle. If you aren’t a teetotaler there are plenty of places to quench your thirst. Be warned that Bourbon Street gets touristy. If you want to go where the locals go, head to Pat O’Brien’s.
Historic New Orleans Collection
A wonderful little gem of a museum, archive and library. This is one of the principle repositories for historic New Orleans documents, ephemera, books, etc. I highly recommend it.
Uptown/Garden District:
St. Charles Streetcar
The oldest continually operating streetcar in the county. Both locals and tourists use and love the streetcar. I highly recommend getting on Downtown and heading Uptown for a ride. Warning: it isn’t air conditioned.
Magazine Street
This is the main shopping street for Uptown New Orleans. It is really long and filled with lots of cool stores and restaurants, ranging from funky to high-end.
Audubon Park/Zoo
One of the most beautiful parks and zoos in the country. You can also take a boat from the French Quarter to the Zoo and get a ride on the Mississippi River.
New Orleans Public Library: Latter Branch
Sadly, the New Orleans Public Library is a poorly funded institution that has suffered from years of neglect. Visiting New Orleans Public libraries will make you realize how lucky we are at the San Mateo County Library. However, a visit to the Latter Branch is always a treat. The branch is located in a beautiful old mansion in Uptown New Orleans.
Bars
French Quarter:
Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop
A great bar for ambiance. The building is one of the oldest in New Orleans.
Carousel Bar at the Hotel Monteleone
A fun bar in a beautiful old New Orleans hotel.
Napoleon House
This is one of my favorites in the French Quarter. You can’t beat the ambiance. Order a Pimm’s Cup.
Frenchman Street
This is where the locals hang out (as opposed to Bourbon Street). Lots of clubs and bars and lots of good live local music. Frenchman Street is located just outside of the French Quarter.
Decatur Street
There are two parts of Decatur Street – the upper part near Canal Street which is touristy and filled with tacky t-shirt shops. The lower part near Esplanade has numerous bars that are lots of fun and definitely funky. Molly’s on the Market and Coop’s are my favorites.
Uptown:
The Columns Hotel
A beautiful, old hotel on St. Charles Avenue. Have a drink on the front porch.
Restaurants
Warehouse District
Herbsaint
Really good New Orleans cooking that is walking distance from the Convention Center.
Emeril’s
This was Emeril Lagasse’s first restaurant in New Orleans and it is still a great place to visit.
Cochon
My favorite Cajun restaurant in New Orleans.
French Quarter
Café du Monde
An absolute must-see. The place to get coffee and beignets (French doughnuts). Great any time of the day or night. Filled with tourists but worth the experience.
Central Grocery
A take-out sandwich place. They invented the muffaletta sandwich.
NOLA
Emeril’s French Quarter restaurant.
Stella
Really good food – kinda pricey but worth it.
Stanley
Really good food – Stella’s cheaper sister restaurant.
Muriel’s
A beautiful restaurant on Jackson Square in the French Quarter.
Coop’s
Kind of a dump but really good food. One of my faves.
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Eat and Drink for Free at #ALA11. #alaTT #ALAfree
I’ve never eaten better than at an ALA conference and mostly I eat and drink for free! This is in large part due to my fantastic Think Tank team and the sharing of what’s happening at the conference. When one of use hears about something free we text each other and we all descend on the free goodies like a pack of vultures. Well… Now you can be a vulture too!
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. Mango Languages, for example, is keenly aware of the starving librarian and almost always has something delicious at their booth. However, the big problem is knowing where these events take place, so I am once again 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 librarians in on the goods using the hashtag #ALAfree. Who knows? You might find out about some of the cool new stuff that our vendors are offering too!
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.
#ALAfree
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Death to Grassroots Library Marketing!! Start a Library Franchise!
Ok, here it is. I’m absolutely and totally fed up with grassroots library marketing. Now, I’m not saying that some folks aren’t doing awesome things with it, I’m just saying we can do better. I think it’s about time that the library starting some real fundamental advertising and marketing. I mean the kind of awesome commercials you see during the super bowl or at the very least prime time television. Or, at the VERY VERY least, late night or midday commercials. But really, what I would love to see is one of those hour-long infomercials like you see for those products that slice and dice and make some kind of fries. But wait! There’s more! I would also like to see billboards, street signs, signs on buses and popups on the Internet and the whole litany of regular advertising in use by major corporations. Why can’t we do that?
Ok, I’ll tell you why. Its because we all work so far apart from each other and our networks aren’t tied together like a franchise where we can do real resource sharing, where our friends groups can work closely together, and where we can share costs on such extreme projects. I think it’s about time that we start these kinds of projects. That we start coming together as a profession to really start a library franchise with a brand name that we can plaster our cities, televisions, and intertubes with. Maybe then we can finally get away from this crap grassroots (read cheap) marketing, start playing with the big boys, and getting the word out to Joe Public about what libraries are and what we have become.
While we’re at it…. Can I beg you to please, at the very absolutely total complete least, knock off the eight and a half by eleven colored paper with clipart and comic sans font that so many librarians pass off as adequate marketing?
*added* I just recently discovered these library marketing blogs. I was going to write more but these folks pretty much cover it all.
Marketing Matters for Librarians
Marketing Ideas for Non-Profits and Libraries
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Rebooting Libraries Back to Issue #1
I was just thinking about DC comics idea to reboot all of their comics back to Issue number one. As part of the news they are also reissuing all of the #52 comics in the reboot in digital format starting with Justice League. Now, I was a HUGE comic book fan when I was kid, and my super hero of choice was Firestorm (also by DC comics), so this whole idea got me thinking about this concept for libraries.
What you have to remember is that, while they are starting the comics at number 1, they are not republishing the first comics. They are retelling the stories in different ways. There will be new storylines, new ideas, and bigger and better concepts. Or, as DC Comics co-publisher Dan DiDio told USA Today;
“We really want to inject new life in our characters and line. This was a chance to start, not at the beginning, but at a point where our characters are younger and the stories are being told for today’s audience.”
So basically, they are not doing away with the core of their product. They are not changing Superman’s powers, or the speed of The Flash, they are just re-examining the story that they are telling.
What if we could reboot libraries back to issue #1? What would we change about our story now? If we could rewrite our library’s stories for today’s audience and inject new life into our characters what would we say?
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ALA Advocacy Flash Mob and Freeze #ala11 #library
Budget cuts, library closures, layoffs, what’s the good news? Well, in 2006 after Hurricane Katrina the American Library association was the first group to hold a conference in New Orleans. To this day, my friends and family who live there have made comments about how amazing librarians are for bringing some semblance of normality back to NOLA for just a brief weekend. As an organization we have made some great impact on the community of New Orleans. So, while most of the cleanup is done from Katrina, and much of cleanup is underway from the BP spill we can show our continued support for the residents of NOLA and hopefully they will see the need to support libraries and librarians like you.
This is the ALA Advocacy Freeze. Where we get out of the echo chamber of the conference and show that Libraries and Communities can and should continue to support each other. The plan is to have a large convergence of librarians at Jackson Square at 5:45 on Sunday. All participants should wear some kind of library related t-shirt, pose in some position, or bring something that identifies them as a librarian. All participants will converge on the park grounds at 5:45 for the mob and freeze from 5:50-5:53 to show our large presence at ALA and show that we care about the community of NOLA and that communities should care about Libraries. Afterwards we’re encouraging everyone to get out into the restaurants and bars and make a ruckus in NOLA! #partyhard
Andy Woodworth’s suggestion for creating your own t-shirts with facts about libraries is epic. You can buy a fabric pen and a T-shirt at any hobby store or even a Walmart or Target for next to nothing. Just write a great fact about libraries and their support for communities across the United States.
If you’re not a DIY kinda person, there are also many great shirts available online through stores like http://www.cafepress.com/Libraryadvocacy. Purchases from this store go to fund other library advocacy projects. If you know of other great online stores or good clothing/designs please post them below!!
If you’re not familiar with a Freeze mob you can see many examples on youtube but here is another good one.
This is an off the books kinda ALA event. ALA is not involved in the planning of this at all. This is a #MIH happen event brought to you by the ALA Think Tank.
Facebook Event page to sign up!
Don’t forget to tell you friends to come out too!
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Dear Anatomy of a Librarian – You forgot kicking ass and being awesome.
I always find these kinds of graphics interesting. Usually though, its because I’m interested in their design instead of the information. In this case, I think that this graphic brings to mind more questions than it answers but it’s still pretty.
1) The average librarian makes 60+ a year? I’m now wondering how they came up with that average. Obviously, they are taking full careers into consideration and not just the entry level positions. In which case, I wonder how many years an average librarian has to work to reach the average pay? And that makes me wonder, what is the average career span of a librarian? By this, do they mean only those working as a librarian or are they considering library manager, directors, and other higher management as well?
2) The highest largest amount of librarians are between 24 and 54? Are you freaking kidding me? So the average librarian is aged somewhere in the average age range for a person who has professional level career before retirement? I would be far more interested if this was broken down into at least 5 year increments since you need an MLIS to be a librarian and so few people get post graduate degrees before 24 anyway. People also begin to retire after 54 so this 30 year age range makes this data completely uninteresting. Basically they are saying that people in the average working age range have jobs.
3) The left and right brain stuff is kinda interesting, but what is more interesting is what the crap is written in all those little subsections of this girl’s cranium? I mean, there could be anything in there! I think, at least its my guess, that this is where the how to clean the toilet, dealing with unruly patrons watching porn, and changing lightbulbs is listed in the graphic because I don’t see that anywhere else. The big stuff on the outside is everything I thought librarianship was going to be, and the I’m guessing the stuff on the inside is all the other stuff nobody tells you about.
4) The where they work part is actually interesting, I liked this part.
5) Brief history? No kidding… Franklin to Dewey? What about Carnegie!? This crap is only 150 years long and at its most recent it’s 130 years out of date!! Libraries have been around since 350 BC and this is the crap they decided to show? WTF?
6/7) Gender and recreational activities are also fairly uninteresting because it’s exactly what you would expect. But I want to add a section. I think that overall, librarians most significant recreational activity is kicking ass and being awesome! So where is that catagory?
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Emerging Leaders Running for Office!
If you were a past or current EL you can support your fellow Emerging Leaders by voting for them in the 2011 ALA Elections! I’d link all of their info but it looks like you can’t get to it unless you have logged in to the ALA site for voting.
Eileen Bosch
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Keri Cascio
EL 2007
Candidate: ALCTS Member at Large
Amber Creger
EL 2008
Candidate: ALSC Newbery Commitee
Mara Degnan-Rojeski
EL 2010
Candidate: ACRL LPSS Member at Large
Jenny Emanuel
EL 2007
Candidate: ALA Council
Angelica Guerrero Fortin
EL 2009
Candidate: ALA Council
Ed Garcia
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Wendy Girven
EL 2010
Candidate: ACRL ULS Secretary
Chris Harris
EL 2007
Candidate: AASL Treasurer
Arianne Hartsell-Gundy
EL 2010
Candidate: ACRL LES Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Megan Hodge
EL 2011
Candidate: NMRT Leadership Director
Tracey Hughes
EL 2007
Candidate: MAGERT Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Florante Peter Ibanez
EL 2007
Candidate: ALA Council
Susan Jennings
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council – NMRT Representative
Darcel Jones
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Robin Kear
EL 2008
Candidate: IRRT Member at Large
Kate Kosturski
EL 2011
Candidate: ALA Council
Portia Latalladi
EL 2009
Candidate: PLA Board of Director, Director at Large
Kirby McCurtis
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Elizabeth Moreau
EL 2010
Candidate: ALSC Newberry Committee
JP Porcaro
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Jacquie Samples
EL 2008
Candidate: ALCTS CRS Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Wayne Sanders
EL 2008
Candidate: ACRL ANSS Vice Chair/Chair Elect
Wendy Stephens
EL 2008
Candidate: ALA Council
Holly Tomren
EL 2009
Candidate: ALA Council
Jennifer Wann Walker
EL 2010
Candidate: ALA Council
Candidate: SLAS Member at Large
Janel White
EL 2010
Candidate: NMRT Vice President/President Elect
Michael Witt
EL 2008
Candidate: LITA Director at Large
Lynda Kellam
EL 2010
Candidate: ACRL’s Law and Political Science Section Secretary
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Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explosions (and other thoughts on walking away)
I recently came across a job opening in an organization far outside of librarianship. It involved a lot of the things I was passionate about as a kid and am even more passionate about as an adult. This position was for a sailing non-profit organization that takes children out on the San Francisco bay to educate them about sailing, marine sciences, and more. For those of you who don’t know I love sailing, I love teaching, I love working with kids, and I am kind of a fanatic about oceanic conservation. Anyway, talking about my love for this job advertisement is not the point of this post. The point of this post is the following video…
What does this have to do with libraries you might ask? Well, I was thinking about, and have been thinking about budget cuts, checked-out librarians that refuse to retire, passionate and newer librarians who are dying to get the chance to do amazing work in libraries but can’t find job openings, ALA’s ludicrous and ineffectual institutionalization, ALA’s and state organization’s unwillingness to act as an advocate for librarianship, librarian’s unwillingness to fight for librarianship, library closures, library reductions in staff and money, libraries lack of ability (or refusal) to adapt to a changing information world, vendors that overcharge and under-deliver products and services that library patrons can’t or refuse to use, the hostile political environment of the people who claim that freedom isn’t free but someone else should pay for it, and all of the other systems in place that are working to keep libraries from getting ahead. So, my thought was… At what point do we become cool guys?
At what point to do we say forget all this, blow it all up, and walk away? Is it really worth it? There are many librarians who are having the same thoughts, Justin Hoenke also started questioning what is important, Tiffany Mair (who you should hire because she’s way better than me at everything) just had to apply for a job at Starbucks, and there many other amazing (typically younger and newer) librarians who have the passion and drive to fight for our profession but are questioning whether or not it’s all worth it. There are many days that I don’t think it is. There are many days that I want to blow it all up and walk away, but not today… Today, it’s worth it.
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see what happens tomorrow.
*added info- Roy Tennant wrote an exactly right response to this. His advice is what is keeping many of us here. So if you’re reading this (although if you are, you’re probably coming here from his blog) and you’re feeling the same way, read his advice because it will keep you sane. If I didn’t have the crew of the Think Tank and some great Library Friends to keep me sane I would have quit or killed someone by now. Also, working for an amazing organization helps 🙂
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National Library Unconference Day (Will be EPIC!)com
So I’m not sure how many people know about this, but I hope that every librarian does. I’m talking about national library unconference day on May 22, 2012. This is your chance in you state, or region, or county, or library system, or just library, to hold your own unconference. What’s an unconference you ask? Well… I’ll let Allen McGinley and JP Porcaro explain it for me.
Personally, I love unconferences for a whole lot of reasons and there is talk of putting one together in my area (the San Francisco Bay Area) on the same day so I’m pretty stoked because some of the best experiences that I have had in librarianship have been at unconferences. For example, I met some amazing people, I gave my first professional “presentation,” I got the courage to talk to directors and high level administrators as equals, I learned about the programs and services being offered at other libraries, and I learned what kinds of ideas other professionals had about the state of librarianship and its future in the United States.
So this is our chance to have an excuse to #makeithappen in our locations. JP and Allen are basically calling for unconferences to happen all over the country on the same day. This will be a day of learning, sharing, and growing for anyone and everyone participating.
For even more information on the Unconference you can visit the 8bitlibrary website. If you’re a librarian and you’re not reading the 8bitlibrary blog, what are you doing on the internet?
PC Sweeney 