PLA reflections

Today is my first day back to work after attending PLA 2008 in Minneapolis. This was my first conference experience where I didn't come home with a huge to do list or a fire in my belly about - what we need to do NEXT. I wondered if I should have gone to the conference. I attended all kinds of sessions - in and out of the world of reference -- and after some reflection - I realized, we are doing things right - we are on the right track - we are trying things - changing things - trying to start a conversation with our customers and making our library more social.

I was pleased there wasn't any vocabulary in the sessions I attended where I wasn't aware of the technology or the social networking tools that were being discussed ... some of which were because of this 2.0 project.

thing 17 / pb wiki

I logged on to the NLC wiki - added my blog to favorite blogs and added The Dish to the favorite restaurant page. For my money - it is THE place to get your burger fix.

I was so pleased to see everyone's picks for good restaurants were ALL located downtown.

Regarding editing wikis - it's easy to edit an entry that is already going -- all you do is mimic the mark up that is already there. I was only willing to add to pages that were already created - I'm not sure I'd want to start a new entry all together. I have edited an entry for Nebraska on the wikipedia and then checked the coding to see it was me who edited it - very cool.

thing 16 / wikis

I've always thought wikis were great fun - - as a part of the social web, this is one of my favorites. I've worked with wikis before and find entries on the wikipedida helpful in reference. I might be one of the few reference librarians (?) who think it's a great tool and use it when answering questions - it certainly has its strengths.

I just came back from the PLA conference and Joe Janes said something to this effect - if you don't like wikipedia, fix it. There are lists of entries that need to be created - who better than librarians to write them? Akin to "don't vote? don't bitch." - 'nuff said.

thing 15 / On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

Rick Anderson: "Libraries are poorly equipped and insufficiently staffed for teaching. Ask yourself what your patron-to-librarian ratio is ..."
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm

Michael Stephens: "Librarian 2.0, then, is the “strategy guide” for helping users find information, gather knowledge and create content."
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm

Dr. Wendy Schultz: "Library 3.0 "...People will collect librarians rather than books"

Dr. Wendy Schultz: "Library 4.0, the neo-library: This will be the library for the aesthetic economy, the dream society, which will need libraries as mind gyms; libraries as idea labs; libraries as art salons ... Library 4.0 will add a new mode, knowledge spa: meditation, relaxation, immersion in a luxury of ideas and thought"
http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm


-- these were the quotes that jumped out at me as I read the 2.0 readings. Sometimes I see clear analogies to the '80s scare that videos would mean the loss of movie theaters ---but then there are big layoffs at our performing arts center and I realize people are staying home. There are always those Harold Hill sorts who will be singing a song about how "we got trouble" - but as in all things balance. According to our statistics, NLC Reference services have steadily increased in the past few years, imeaning people need now more than ever, teachers to help them navaigate all the new vistas of technology. It will always be our job to be information hip and ahead of the crowd. When Rick Anderson talks about lack of library/patron ratio - I think that only applies to classrooms but make no mistake, we're still teaching, just on the spot in fits and starts. I really like the library 4.0 definition above . In the year 2015, I'd like to change my job title to Minder of the Mind Gym or Art Salon Curator or Information Master of Meditation.

thing 14 / Technorati

When I searched: “Learning 2.0” in Technorati I got other people's blogs from Week 6 or Thing #14 - or whatever their library had labeled it for the same assignment. I liked seeing what other people said outside of our library. I didn't see any from NLC but cool all the same.

Then I tried some other searches and for someone who is used to more advanced search options, I wasn't crazy about the inability to narrow result sets in Technorati. Also - when I thought I was searching blogs, I was actually searching posts -- and that was confusing too.

I tried searching the PLA blog and searched PLA and then PLA Blog - the right result came up as 36 in Technorati. When I searched PLA Blog in google, it was the number one result.

This caused me to go to down the hallway and talk about it with Allana, Susan, and Shannon. That was a good way to learn what they knew about Technorati and helped me verify my own opinions.

Trying to index ALL those blogs would be a monumental effort. Until there are more refined search options, I can't think of how it would be helpful for me right now.

thing 13 / del.icio.us

I worked many hours on the reference del.icio.us account. What we were hoping it could accomplish in terms of managing our many selected sites; the access database accommodates more easily for me - especially since it can manage the database for errors and some other administrative features that are handy. For my own personal bookmarks, I can easily see applications. The serendipity of seeing who else links to something and how they've tagged it would lead me to another pinball session of learning and reading - at the end, not quite remembering where I started. I see benefits but I'm not buying yet.

electronic consumption?

Today I created two more accounts -- for librarything and rollyo. To go along with my blogger, hotmail, gmail, ICQ, AOL, yahoo, meebo, flickr, twitter, blogger, second life, wiki accounts -- whew -- you get the idea and I'm really a luddite all things considered! I don't have a myspace or facebook page - figuring -- isn't it good enough that people can find me with a good ole google search? We talk about our ecological footprint in terms of energy consumed but I wonder if we each have an electronic footprint as well? How much space does each of us consume “out there?” Not to mention the information that the good ole government posts about me like my property value. There is information out there on the subject but it seems focused towards a generation of college-bound Internet users who don't seriously consider how much information can be assembled about them before they ever attend their freshman orientation. Mark my words; I see a day when they'll be offering genealogy classes on how to trace your family's social networking history.

thing 12 / rollyo

After learning about federated searching and its pros and cons - I wondered how I'd feel about this. I searched "nebraska" in all the rollyos provided - same results in each set. I searched some additional rollyos: Food and Dining, Reference Search and Ask Mr. Fix-it - ehhh, the results weren't impressive - I like plain google better.

Lastly, I created a Rollyo for movies in Lincoln with four sites - Douglas Theaters, The Ross, IMDB, and the Oscars. After I created the site, I searched for "honeydrippers" - a movie I know is showing at the ross. No results came up for that title. Gotta say - two thumbs down. Should I have done something differently? My thinking is that combining sites looses the ability to find what is best on each site. For optiumum results, search each site individually.

thing 11 / library thing

A while ago, I started keeping lists of books I'd read and movies I'd watched in an excel spread sheet. I keep track by author, title, and date of consumption. It's been helpful in not re-consuming the same product twice - so librarything has great appeal. I also have a huge DVD and CD collection and have crudely cataloged them at home. Sadly, my collections are too large for the free portion of the program - and I confess, I'm rather used to my system. That said, I did create an account (which was a snap) and cataloged the last ten books I'd read. Very interesting to see how many other folks had cataloged the same books as me. For the Austen books, there were too many versions to select from so I simply took the top listing - probably not the most effective way to do things.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/librarianlisalincoln

Librarything doesn't take itself too serious - here were my two favorite quotes:

"The UnSuggester will give you humorous recommendations of books you probably wouldn't enjoy." - reader's illadvisory :)

"Users (informally known as thingamabrarians, a term coined by contributor RJO)"

thing 10 / generators!

I played with several generators and had done so before but didn't know what they were called. Because of the difficulty I had uploading a picture to my blog, I selected text generators. I tried a find your hogwarts house generator by answering 10 or so questions but then the advertising kicked in and I left before my result was provided. My pirate name just didn't fit - so ... here are my best results and links:

Peter's Haiku Generator
Jam waggles custard.
The bottom squirters jingle.
A squirter giggles.
(Haiku w/silly vocabulary)

Priests kindly nail ice.
Smouldering, bad angels lurk.
Cold winds twist shadows.
(Haiku w/noir vocabulary)

And from Slognizer:

Saved by librarians!
Nebraska - today and tomorrow.
Do you know books?
coffee, i want it all.
jane austen for president.

and now for something completely different

A friend sent me this link:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87777150
-- which is a segment from NPR called "This I Belive" -- I took a stab at my own version:

this i believe

Work is not your identity. When I got my first job out of graduate school, I remember being introduced as Lisa the librarian. I always thought, wouldn’t it be fun to be introduced in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with my vocation? For example – this is Lisa – who’s trying to perfect her alfredo sauce or -- this is Lisa who is reading all the Jane Austen novels. In the U.S., work equals human value. Giving more than 40 hours shows devotion to your employer. On the home front, weekend activities should be a list of labors, not navel-gazing sloth. When I'm not at work, I foster relationships, entertain myself, and maintain my home to be a place that restores me. I am always surprised by people who say they’ll never retire. I know work is an important part of life and I am grateful for the job that I’ve been given. Still, when the time comes to no longer be a slave to my alarm clock, I have a pretty good idea that I’ll be able to set a worthy agenda for those 40 hours. I’m not ashamed to say I’m looking forward to that.

thing 9 / add feeds

... so you realize, I'm gonna have to WEED now!

I liked searching for blogs. I tested out some wierd subjects and didn't find what I was looking for - so it's not all out there or rather no one's blogging about it yet. Here's what I added:

Jane Austen's World
The Old Foodie
Nebraska eGovernment Headlines
Virtual Reference
University of Nebraska Press

There are some places I would like to provide RSS Feeds that currently do not - let me know if NET or LCL begin providing this info.

thing 8 / RSS and bloglines

I created a bloglines account a while ago. Checking my feeds is an enjoyable task and I like the one-stop shop approach to catching up on things of interest. I subscribe to a mish-mash of blogs so there's always something to suit my mood. I did the extra step of subscribing to all my co-workers blogs that makes it easier to check them. Some of my favorite blogs are the Librarian's Guide to Etiquette and Free Range Librarian. On the non-librarian side of things - I like Car Talk and Cool Tools. Combined Library Job Postings is one of the ways we fuel our job site.

Living in a small home has made me fairly fastidious about weeding - and this applies to blogs. When I subscribe to a few new ones (which I have today) I'll take out some old ones that I find I consistently read last or have lost interest. More isn't always better - in the world of blogs, more is just more to read.