National Library Unconference Day (Will be EPIC!)com

Posted on by pcsweeney

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?

The best 8 Tweets from Wednesday at #il2009 (or at least my favorite)

Posted on by pcsweeney

I think we’re starting to wind down this conference. Either there weren’t as many great presentations or all the twitterers have gone home already. I felt like there weren’t as many great tweets or thought provoking ideas put out as there were the other two days. Once again, these are my favorites from Internet Librarian 2009.

@grrb Use peer pressure and donuts to inspire staff to use new technologies.
I would also try to use beer as that seems to help get those creative juices flowing. I always seem to learn the most at a conference while out drinking with colleagues.

@desertlibrarian as with any other shiny new toys & tools, make sure you have a need and purpose for a sandbox before devoting time and resources
Yes, please don’t let the sandbox be like Second Life. Don’t invest in a waste of time and resources.

@theanalogdivide Sony at dawn of transistor – used word that detailed its real use. “Pocketable radio” sold 1.5M units in Japan alone
Hmmm… That’s a great thought. Should we rename libraries? Ah, I fear we’re too late for that. Maybe we should have thought of a better name for it a couple hundred years ago.

@degreesofshine Play with the technology! Its practice, its play and its fun! Its okay to be silly!
Always, always, play. That’s just a great life rule!

@Carravagio Reward both success and failure, but punish inaction. Innovation comes from quantity
Inaction has been the death of libraries for far too long. This needs to be fixed now!

@Cindy_Shamel Library 101 merits a look. Awesome video launched at http://www.libraryman.com/library101
If you’re not familiar with Library 101, I can’t say enough great things, so I’m not going to try. Take some time, learn and contribute.

@Zuma_Rain can get the ‘good stuff’ from the other sessions by reading others’ tweets (I LUB DIS)
Can I say that Twitter has changed everything I have thought about conferences?

@htomren when dealing with change, your level of positivity or negativity affects everything. Buddhist quote: “lean into your discomfort”
For all you manager… When presenting a change, just be positive. Actually, as a manager always be positive! No need for negativity, EVER.

Twitter Summary of Internet Librarian 2009 #il2009 #library

Posted on by pcsweeney

*note* This is an updated post. I got to some more reliable internet access and added the links and formatting I wanted. Its a little better now. Thanks to everyone who RTed the original!! *note*

I was going to try to write a Blog summarizing my thoughts on the first day of Internet Librarian but realized this was already done for me on twitter. So instead of re-writing everything that people are already saying… I’m posting SOME of my favorite tweets from #il2009 on Monday, October 26. On some of them I have added my own commentary and I removed the #il2009 hashtag, but I left the twitter name of the person who tweeted it. Don’t be shy about following these folks. They’re good people and have my patented seal of approval!

@mamccallister Word. RT @rphulser: “If u don’t like change, ur going to like irrelevance even less.” Gen. Eric Shinseki as cited by @rtennant
I couldn’t agree more with this statement and I’ve been politely yelling about this since library school.

@LibTechSucks All this silly dithering about twitter. The only way to converse is in leather chairs with some Oban 14yr.
Ok this character’s tweets are getting funnier but only because I kind of agree with this one. I’m a big fan of a big leather chair, a good stiff drink (on the rocks) and some good folks to talk to.

@infogdss29 Put chat windows in the locations (online) where people get frustrated
Also, can I add? Put all kinds of windows in the locations online where the patrons are, or (use my catalog search widget video) and let the patrons put the library where they are.

@walkingpaper great quote- @davidleeking: “i’m a librarian. people stop to ask me questions in the grocery store. Why not let that happen online?”
Why not let it happen everywhere? It makes me think we’re kind of like doctors in this sense. “oh! You’re a doctor? Hey, listen… I got this rash…”

@kristenyt Wii has changed the way people interact w/ computers. What’s the future in physical computing?
This is a great question… I’m going to think about this one for a while.

@ahniwa Use events networks like Eventful, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Craigslist to create awareness of library events.

@kristenyt Users know library has the best content, but want a more convenient access point – single search box.
This is very true… Why do libraries have the worst search boxes? I think we need to be doing a little more market research.

@varnum John Law: Users know that libraries have the best research content & resources The library is NOT the easiest place to start.

@john_fereira A picture is worth a 1000 words. Take as much time as you would to read 1000 words to look at a visualization.

@varnum K. Godfrey: Nielsen Report says YouTube’s largest user group is 18-24 yr-olds. This is our demographic. Why aren’t we there?

@infogdss29 dear librarians, pls stop being snobs about freeware kthxbai – link 2 open access open source zero cost resources… FREE ?= inferior
This is absolutely spectacular! Can we please STOP PAYING for databases already? I think we’re beyond that point.

@gretchenhams RT @pollyalida: “Rejoice in failures – it means you’re pushing the boundaries” sarah houghton jan – live that.
Sooo true. The only time I really learn something is when I fail at it the first time.

@Rudibrarian when working with nextgen, you have to know where your students are, work with them in the formats they use.
….And go to where their formats are.

@buffyjhamilton Website design principles: simple/clean; tighter integration of website and catalogue; expose/repackage library services

@AspenWalker Cloud collaboration: thebigpic.org is user-friendly and fun project management option. it also syncs with google calendar.
I’m going to have to go figure out this new “Cloud” buzzword. Apparently it’s derived from the concept of cloud computing in which multiple systems work on a common project? Sounds like the new management “thing”

@AmbivaTwit cloud computing: not replacement for actual assembling of humans in lib but will impact how we think about lib spaces.

And of course… My favorite Tweet
@Tombrarian : @librarianbyday has a box of monkeys