Super Turbo

How Many Librarians Could Do This?

2009-02-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

Originally posted to the SELCO Librarian Blog
I find the premise of this article, from a librarian that decided to forgo purchasing books for an entire year, fascinating. One of the things that surprised me most about entering the library profession was the number of librarians that needed to "collect" books even though they were in charge of collections and surrounded by books all day. One of my favorite parts of the library goes beyond the fact I can get the material of my choice easily-- it's that I can also RETURN it. I get the pleasure of reading or watching the material, but there is also a limited time it will remain in my house before its on its way to someone else. The return concept has especially been reinforced now that I'm a parent of a two-year old. Nothing makes me happier than returning a Barbie movie to the library with the hopes that I will never have to see it again. The same thing holds true with books. As much as I love Max and Ruby, I was thrilled to move from Bunny Cakes to Bunny Money with a simple trip to the library. As a result of my desire to have an "end date" on my materials, I find the idea that anyone would look at Amazon before a library catalog utterly intriguing. I know I'm in the minority, but it was interesting to get a glimpse into the other side. If you are a collector and a librarian, this might be an interesting challenge. As the writer points out, being a regular library user does give you insight on the experience our patrons receive.

I didn't put this on the blog of the company I work for, but I will here on my personal blog: if you as a librarian don't regularly borrow from a library, why do you expect your patrons to?

Merchandising

2008-07-06T19:54:00.000-07:00

So maybe it's the fact that my walk tonight was just me and Turbo. And poor Turbo wasn't going fast-- the humidity gets to him.

For whatever reason, I started to think about push to merchandise libraries like bookstores phenomenon. I've had this nagging doubt in the back of my head ever since I was first acquainted with the idea. Tonight it stopped being wisps of thoughts swirling around my head and turned more concrete.

My problem is that it thinks of libraries purely as a business, with our capitol being purely circulation. While it IS true that many cities and counties use circulation data in their funding decisions for libraries, it is not as simple as 1 circ = x dollars. The circulation data is primarily used to give an overall picture of use.

At PLA, I heard Cathy De Rosa give a talk about an OCLC study on library referenda and how the patrons that are most likely to vote to fund libraries are not the primary users, but the users that have had a library experience that really changed their life. Circulation really isn't a good measure of that kind of experience.

I'm not knocking the value of having a welcoming, comfortable space-- I see the need for that, too. But I don't think that extra book someone is grabbing off a display on their way to checkout is what is going to make or break libraries. Changing people's lives will. That is not the corporate goal of Barnes and Noble or Borders-- number of units moved is. Can we now stop pretending like they are our competition?

Found with a Google Alert

2008-05-01T08:30:00.001-07:00

I love this article about undergrads in the British Library Reading room on so many levels.

Thing 23

2008-04-15T18:45:00.001-07:00

I loved this project-- I thought it was a great idea.

That said, I'm so relieved I'm done. Now I can go back and work on commenting on some other blogs. Monitoring the blogs while trying to complete the 23 things was a bit overwhelming for me.

I wish we could find a way for this community to stick around longer, and I hope it does. I really liked having the blogs of members to read and learn about who they were, how they learned, and what they were like when they weren't around a table discussing traditional library issues.

I hope we can continue the momentum.

Thing 22

2008-04-15T18:39:00.000-07:00

I resolve to give myself 15 minutes every day, guilt free, to try something new. I resolve to get back to some tech-oriented blogs and podcasts to help inform my knowledge and guide me to new tools.

I hope we have more opportunities like this one to try out new things. Without an incentive, it is too easy to concentrate on a task list and not focus on the new knowledge.

Thing 21

2008-04-15T18:38:00.001-07:00

Fine. I'm pulling rank here. I created the Ning account for 23 Things. I'm considering that enough work for this thing to be done.

Done.

Thing 20

2008-04-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have a confession to make-- I think I'm becoming a Facebook addict. I have started checking it several times a day, just to see what people are up to.

My involvement started small-- creating a profile to sort of show a coworker. Then I found one of my friends, and another, and another. The next thing I knew, I was doing almost all of my communication with my babysitters in Facebook. Then my relatives started talking about Christmas, getting some anticipation going before the big event. Then more people I knew started using the status updates, and I had to visit the page regularly to see how their status had changed. Yes, I see the appeal.

I also see how many places are using this to build events-- from races, to social causes. There is great potential here for the right person to tap into and create some good promotional buzz.

Thing 19

2008-04-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

I love podcasts, especially those offered by NPR. I never seem to be in my car or at home at the right time to listen to a whole hour of some of my favorite shows. I love to receive Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me and This American Life through iTunes so that I can listen to it as I fold laundry or make dinner, or putter around the house-- all at my convenience. I also regularly watched Mobuzz TV to keep thinking about newer technology for awhile, but I seem to have trailed off on that after a couple of host changes. Maybe I should go back?

Thing 18

2008-04-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

I'm putting this video in, since my daughter asks to watch it semi-regularly and I appreciate the break it gives me from the Wiggles.

I do generally like Vimeo better, though for its much better video quality. It doesn't have nearly the content of YouTube, though.

Thing 17

2008-04-15T18:10:00.000-07:00

I really like all the elements that exist in these ELM resources and I wish more people knew about them. I already use the RSS feed and journal alerts in EBSCO, since it contains the resources that are the most relevant to my day-to-day work. I hope others find things they love here, too.

Thing 16

2008-04-15T18:05:00.000-07:00

Clearly, I was a procrastinator in school, so something like the Research Project Calculator could've helped, if only to tell me how behind I was in the project. In fact, I might try to use it the next time I have a presentation I need to give, to keep me on task.

Thing 15

2008-04-15T18:02:00.000-07:00

I tried Puzzle Pirates for this one. I poked around a few places, tried bilging, and worked with a team on moving my ship. I didn't make it far enough to launch any attacks or anything.

Later, a coworker asked me if I'd changed my character's outfit. I told her I hadn't, and she encouraged me to go back. It took me a little while to convey to her why I was refusing this simple task-- I could so totally get addicted to the game. My IM, Facebook and Flicker addictions are enough for now.

Thing 14

2008-04-15T17:56:00.000-07:00

I tried out LibraryThing a couple of years ago. I like the stuff they have there, but not so much that I've been active in the site. In fact, I remembered my username and password, but I didn't have any items remaining.

I'd heard about this happening before, and it is one of the things that makes me nervous about the use of LibraryThing as a replacement for a catalog-- it is meant to be just like all of these other social networking sites, meaning they can't store your content forever and once you catalog things on their site, they are the ones in control of the information.

I am much more interested in the LibraryThing for Libraries and stopped by the booth at PLA to talk to them about the content they can add into your catalog.

Thing 13

2008-04-15T17:31:00.000-07:00

I've been using MyYahoo for a couple of years, but it is starting to show its age. I tried iGoogle and it seems to have some potential, but I'm not totally sold yet. I was greatly amused at how much higher quality the content on the "technology" page seems to have over the "art" page.

I've tried Google calendars before. If I had sole choice, this would be the take away tool I'd use. I can't ever seem to get our family organized, figuring out who is going where on what day. I like that I can export Outlook to Google (although it has got its flaws) and I wish we used it more at home, but I can't get us away from the paper calendar in the kitchen. I think the same might be true of the to-do list. They seem easier to use than sharing a task in Outlook, but their true use probably lies in getting someone else to play with you.

Backpack looked like it had potential, but would require some start up time and you wouldn't know if it was worth it until you had a couple of weeks into it.

Thing 12

2008-04-15T17:08:00.000-07:00

I found these news sites vaguely interesting, but I don't see myself using them soon. First, all four sites had completely different stories-- so it seems like it would continue to be impossible to keep up. Secondly, just because there aren't formal editors doesn't mean the content isn't being edited or chosen, or subject to political influence. I've heard stories about what a group of dedicated users of these sites can do-- say Ron Paul supporters burying any information that shows that he does follow the Republican line on a number of issues-- in order to influence other users to see the news through their own lens.

I chose to Digg this story because there should be more press about Children's Literature.

Thing 11: Del.icio.us!!!

2008-04-15T13:57:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite tools in all the 23 Things. I've been using it for a couple of years, and I adore it.

I'm a browser-- I kind of browse around at different sites, follow some links, find something interesting, and maybe never make it back. I would never bookmark every site I find interesting, because I just don't find it manageable. However, if I can tag those items and return to them by keyword, it makes dog-earing them manageable. Currently, I have nearly 600 items tagged. I obviously don't go back to all of those sites regularly, but I have revisited enough of them regularly to understand the true value of this concept. Often, the sites I think I'm looking at temporarily end up being the things I visit them most.

Thing 10

2008-04-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

The best part of the wiki concept is its use for the collaborative stuff we all work on. I talked to a library that is using a wiki to store all the library forms and various pieces of building-wide information they want all staff to know about. Hearing that made me think about all the notebooks we used to have at our reference desk and how hard they were to stay up with. A wiki sounds like a much better option. I edited the 23 Things wiki for this exercise, although I have edited other wikis in the past, as well.

I don't think banning Wikipedia is a good idea. I enjoy using Wikipedia for basic, entry level information before I travel on to more authoritative sources. User education seems like a much smarter alternative.

Thing 9

2008-04-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

My preference is for Zoho Documents. It seemed like there were more features and a slightly easier to use interface.

The changes on the document were sort of interesting and reflective of the years we've had to evaluate and reflect, but may still be too tied to our own generation's mentality.

Thing 8

2008-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

My favorite practical tool so far is Slideshare-- I've already gotten the chance to view and borrow some slides from that site from various presenters I've seen in the past few years. I looked at the other slides sites, too, but they looked like their target audience was people that may not have powerpoint at home. I found Slideshare easy to use and I would recommend it to others.

I sort of enjoyed the picture flicks I've seen on other people's pages and I could see using it for the purposes that were suggested, so I'll have tuck that away to remember for later. I'm sort of curious about the origination of the eFolio, since I remember a friend in college getting into grad school by distinguishing herself with something similar-- and then working on a project to develop something like that for more people.

Thing 7

2008-04-07T11:41:00.000-07:00

E-mail is one of the key tools in use in our organization. We work with libraries in 11 counties, so e-mail makes a convenient way for us all to keep in touch. I know sometimes the sheer quantity of e-mails can be overwhelming in an effort to keep everyone informed. Sometimes e-mail can also be misread or misinterpreted to cause more harm than good-- but so it goes.

I love the idea of alternative forms of reference-- especially as a user. I would love to be able to connect to my public library from my laptop or with a text message whenever I felt like it.

And, yes, I do use IM. Too much for my husband's taste, in fact, but it is a mode of communication that I enjoy using. It's value was most aptly demonstrated when it allowed me to stay connected through the first year of being a new mom-- when you feel like you can't make any solid plans for socializing, because you aren't ever sure what your life is going to contain next.

I've also attended Webinars-- one from Minitex on their databases, some other professional development Webinars, and various training Webinars offered by our vendors. They can be useful, if taken correctly. When I take Webinars, I need to remember to give them the same concentration that I would during a person-to-person training session.

Erdrich

2008-03-30T20:10:00.001-07:00

I've read some Erdrich before and have always found her charming, so I took the advantage of getting to hear her speak at PLA last week. I found the letters she shared charming, and I have one of her books (about the first year of motherhood) on order through the library system. In the meantime, I've been thinking a lot about a quote from one of her own books that she shared:

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. You have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself you tasted as many as you could."
— Louise Erdrich (The Painted Drum)

Thing 6

2008-03-16T13:23:00.000-07:00

I did this one before, but it had a typo, so I took it down. I tried it again, basically doing the same thing: creating a card for one of Adele's favorite bands. I've seen the various ways that libraries are doing using these, and love it. I think librarians sometimes need to kick back and let the whimsy in stuff like this take over, rather than over think it. I mean, how easy is this to do? Why not use it?

Thing 5

2008-03-09T18:07:00.000-07:00

Done.

I've used many the FD tools before, especially for combining two images into the same Flickr image. I played with Splashr, too, for this project. I can see more professional uses for that than I can personal ones-- it seems like it would be a fun way for sets of photos to be displayed for a discreet project like the Rural Sustainability project.

Thing4: Flickr

2008-02-27T19:24:00.001-08:00

Huh. I've been using Flickr since the birth of my daughter 2 years ago. We have friends and relatives from all over the country that like to see what she's up to, at their convenience, and Flickr is a much better tool for that then sending e-mail to all of the people on our distribution lists-- especially when you take into account that those e-mail addresses can change. I thought I was pretty familiar with Flickr until it came to this assignment-- when I realized Flickr had made some changes.

I follow several professional photographers' photostreams as they take pictures of their own children and post them. Several of them have complained about the way that people were stealing their photos from Flickr-- some going so far as to delete their accounts in entirety. Completing this assignment, I was surprised to see that the Blog This feature does appear to be turned off for all photos that have all rights reserved-- but it did appear when I was looked under the Creative Commons photos. Flickr must've instituted that as a way of dealing with the complaints.

Either way, I found a Creative Commons photo that ACPL posted of a therapy dog.

Thing 3:RSS

2008-02-27T19:02:00.000-08:00

I love RSS-- it's one of the tools I took away from Internet Librarian and started using right away. I've had a "My Yahoo" account for about 2 years, and have been stubbornly holding on to it, despite the hint from colleagues that it was past its prime.

To monitor the 23 Things bloggers in the SELS region, I started using Bloglines and I'm starting to see why everyone else I know has been choosing Bloglines over other options. My Yahoo has been upgrading both to offer the same features as Bloglines and to match their Yahoo 360 product, and honestly, I'm starting to find these upgrades to be annoyances rather that useful-- I think part of the My Yahoo charm for me was that it was an older interface. I plan to investigate some other aggregators later-- I'd like to see some of the ones Firefox has as add-ons and Google Reader, but I am going to resist change here and not rearrange all my feeds until after the 23 Project has been completed.

Notes from Advanced Composition

2008-02-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Not part of the 23 Things, so you can skip this if you're there for that.

I enjoy the act of writing, the arranging of words in a sentence and then on a page. However, I've never been a creative writer or even, really, a writer about anything personal. This here is an exception I'm making because I do try to challenge myself and reach out for the uncomfortable once in awhile. This post will probably be a rare exception to my usual professional and library related posts that may relate stories as they happen to me, but rely mostly on anecdotes or research.

Why do I find creative or personal writing so difficult? I tried my occasional times as a youngster, but I still remember the dismay on the face of one of the people I showed my writing to. I might have been 10, but I still knew when I reread the 4-5 sentences I'd shown her that I had too much of a filter-- I can't remove myself. Everything I write is so subject to a time and place that it is painful to read if you are not of that time and place, inhabiting this body, this mind, these feelings. Even then, it's pretty suspect.

With that knowledge in place, I also find writing too permanent. I'm having a hard enough time with my evolution over the years; the documentation of that change is maybe something that is too much for me. The inability to closely examine my feelings or thoughts at a particular time may be a personal weakness or it may be what allows me to go on-- I need to believe that my experiences are strengthening me and teaching me something and I can't handle all the proof shoved in my face that I am still the same foolish girl that started out in this world, living the same life that millions have before and will in spite of me.

After discussing creative writing recently, I did go and find some poetry I wrote for a seminar class that I had in college. I had tried to get excused from the class because I knew that a component was writing poems, not just reading them, but I failed in that endeavor, so was forced to do some creative writing for the first time. I had remembered the bulk of the first poem I wrote for the class because I had those lines composed hours before the rest of it was complete. Ten years later, the poem was possibly more awful than I remembered, and it included some classic naivety masquerading as bravado that I can't believe I managed to defend in critique. I think my professor must have been too engaged in wryly pointing out that my poem complaining about my lack of rhythm was composed in fairly accurate iambic pentameter.

In contrast, the semester immediately preceding that, I unexpectedly fallen in love with Advanced Composition. I wasn't even sure I was comfortable with that depth of writing, but I quickly learned that it was the type of writing I was already doing. I am still grateful to that professor for the advice he gave me and the amount he improved my writing.

One of the signs I was more successful at composition involved the section of the class dedicated to vocabulary words. Our professor introduced these words into the class as means for students to improve their grades in the event that their hard work never resulted in a grasp of composition basics. Towards the end of the semester I met with my professor to discuss my work in the class, and he frowned slightly while he informed me that I was one of the first students ever to have my grade lowered by the vocabulary tests. If I had been graded on writing alone, I would've faired better. I guess most people that know how to write are better at memorizing flash cards than I am.

Library 2.0--- edited to add: Thing 2

2008-02-04T15:30:00.000-08:00

I am trying to avoid going the easy route on my library 2.0 post by posting something banal-- although it is awfully tempting to post a generic sentence without putting a lot of thought into it.

My thoughts, though, fall somewhere between the hopeful posts listed on the page for Thing 2 and the newer Library 2.0 post on Blyberg's blog. I do have one basic problem with Blyberg's blog post that is required reading on the 23 Things page: the assumption that libraries aren't relevant. Circulation has, for the most part, steadily increased since 1990. How is that proving our irrelevance? But somehow, all the library literature out there acts like libraries are some decaying being. That bothers me. We fail as librarians in buying into the hype that libraries are dying on the vine, without actually looking at the situation very critically. I think that is one of the main failings of Library 2.0-- it's all about poking holes into institutions that may, yes, sometimes need a finger in their direction-- but it seems to be poking those holes at random with no real evaluation going on.

I don't think I'm alone in this frustration. I think a lot of librarians have tuned out of Library 2.0 for that very reason-- it's calling anything that came before it a failure. Libraries were not failing before this buzz word came into being. They were reexamining their place in the world-- as most institutions do.

That being said, I am cheerleading for this program, pretty much to anyone I can talk to. I don't think libraries were broken-- but I always think we should push ourselves a little bit. I've had the conversation a couple of times recently that some of the things I've enjoyed most in life were things that made me really uncomfortable, at first. I didn't know that I had the right rapport with children to work with them as a career-- but I ended up loving it. I wasn't sure I was technologically competent enough to move into an organization where I would be working pretty exclusively with tech staff-- but it has been endlessly rewarding. Libraries can challenge themselves to dip their toes in the waters a bit, too.

There are lots of excuses to avoid getting a little uncomfortable the biggest being that it doesn't appear library's primary patrons-- some people say boomers-- are using a lot of 2.0 technology yet. Then again, maybe libraries just don't know they are, because they haven't asked. Either way, acquiring this knowledge isn't that painful. And it makes it easier to assess what is actually out there, happening in your community.

Besides, I'm having fun. Aren't you?

1st Thing done

2008-01-24T13:25:00.000-08:00

I feel like I should've received credit already, just based on all the comments I've left everywhere!

I've been using Blogger for a couple of years, so this didn't seem like that much of a challenge-- although I had never added my avatar before. I'm not a fan of avatars, though, generally. The one I have looks like she could get knocked over in a stiff wind, but my only other option was "plus-sized" which would've limited my customization options. I also object to the lack of pugs, but anyone that knows me won't be surprised to hear that. I did name my blog after my pug, after all. I generally would rather use a picture or other type of art as my representation-- sometimes it's cheesy, I know, but it's not like the yahoo thing is realistic, either.

I think these things are going to be fun, and I hope that we do build up a community that supports each other and enjoys going through this process together.

It's Official--

2008-01-24T08:17:00.001-08:00

23 things begins for me today.

Man, I've got libraries on the brain...

2007-11-13T20:30:00.001-08:00

So I went to the gym tonight as part of my "get out of the house and back into exercise" plan. I took my handy, dandy subscription of Runner's World this time instead of the Costa Rica guide books I've taken before. Between articles, I looked up to see a youngish (late 20's/early 30's) guy climb onto a bike a few down from me, and I noticed he had a book. A library book! Of all the places to spot a public library reader, I was surprised to see it there and by that type of guy.

And it made me think. One of the reasons I began to only half-read many of the library blogs I was initially attracted to is that they continue to make the library world sound like it is in some sort of crisis. Certainly, many of our libraries are in a funding crisis. But when did we begin reacting to that crisis by pointing to any news report negatively portraying libraries and insisting that libraries no longer serve our patrons? To those uninformed writers suggesting that they are unfriendly, dirty, unhelpful places to be and that all our users are abandoning us for Barnes and Noble? (Especially when there is no data to support that.) When did we begin writing about every individual library failure as indicative of the whole library community? And then insinuate that that is why any and all referendums fail?

I'll let you in on a secret: people still visit libraries. People still love libraries. But in our effort to convince ourselves that we are still important, we forget that. Until we witness what anyone would've guessed was a meathead, enjoying his library book on the stationary bike at the gym.

And I will point out here that my local library doesn't have a special outreach to local meatheads. Or males. Or 20-30 year olds. I love the staff members I'm in contact with that work there. But, for the most part, they aren't doing anything I don't see other librarians doing. They have been largely the same institution with the same services that they've been the 20 odd years I've visited them. Yet I am always amazed at how busy the library is. That library is used, even by the local college crowd. So maybe we need to work harder at talking about how libraries work, rather than being so quick to judge the very, very rare times they fail.

Further Library insights gathered from my husband...

2007-10-10T12:23:00.001-07:00

Last week, I got a call from my husband. I'd suggested that on one of his days alone with our daughter a visit the local library's storytime would be fun.

He called to tell me, 1) that I'd not gotten our overdue materials taken care of and 2) That he was the only guy at storytime and he felt like he'd been the only guy EVER to visit storytime, based on the reaction he received.

I thought it was pretty funny. Generally, when I was still doing them, my storytime parents were moms, but we did have some dads. I do generally think of them as "storytime moms," though.

Anyway, later that night, he and I were discussing it further and he revealed that he'd attended the storytime in all camo, save for his blaze orange hat. Hmmm... sure it was the fact that you're male that got stares?

Things a librarian should know...

2007-10-10T11:28:00.000-07:00

I grew up as a library user and have always loved them. I am a constant user of libraries, albeit not always a good one. (The libraries do eventually get their books back, I promise.) I've always used it for my own recreational reading and often for research. I love libraries so much I became a librarian, including spend 5 years as a children's librarian. I even remember listing the value people get from being able to read more books than they could possibly own as one of the primary services libraries provide to their communities in a recent survey.

Yet, it was somehow a surprise to me a two weeks ago when my daughter's interest in reading was renewed with a library visit. You see, I have always given the standard answer about children needing a wide variety of books. I've always known that. But when I got pregnant with my first child, you can guess what people gave as a shower gift to a known book lover. We got soooo many books and those books have been loved. Both my husband and I were amazed when, at about 16 months, my daughter seemingly became a voracious reader overnight. We had read to her before, but suddenly she began walking over with a book, sitting on our laps and asking for book after book until 30 minutes or more had passed. Then, at about 18 months, it stopped as quickly as it had begun and she just stopped bringing them. We even asked her about reading, but she kept choosing other things.

I mentioned my disappointment with this transition to my husband. He reasonably suggested that we visit our local library, the Winona Public Library, and so we visited that following Saturday and picked up 5-6 books. She found one of those books she really liked, then another. We read those for a couple of days, then she then returned to her book shelf, and it's like she never left. She has become a reader again.

Of course she needs variety, even beyond the 50 or so books she has. I should know this. She has read From Head to Toe so much, you don't even need to read a word before she begins doing the action suggested on the page.

It looks like I will have company on my regular library visits.

Long delayed flood post

2007-09-06T18:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to my hometown, the place where I went to kindergarten-high school, and helped strip the Legion down to its studs. Most of the town has been wiped out by a sudden 11-15 inch rainfall that occurred 17 days ago. It's been difficult for me to see the town where most of my early memories were made destroyed and to think of of the devastating losses suffered by many of the people who've helped shape my life. My parents still live near the town but, luckily for them, my family managed to escape any damage.

I've caught the 2.0 bug and really have enjoyed the social networking opportunities available. However, I'm beginning to feel that there are limits. I had chalked up my memories of how pleasant people were in SE Minnesota to a childish nostalgia. When I moved back to the area nearly two years ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the polite attitude was real and hadn't changed. At least in person...

I kept up to date with the news about the flood via the Winona Daily News because most other media coverage focused on the four people that died on area roads without presenting a more comprehensive view of SE Minnesota. One of the features of the Winona Daily news has been their incorporation of 2.0 technology into its online edition with comments and blog posts. The comments that I read on the flood coverage were like pouring salt on a wound. The comments section is littered with nasty political discussion, personal attacks on flood victims, and know-it-all comments about how people should know enough to have flood insurance.

Please understand. This stuff is part of the discussion of a democracy. But there is a time and place for every discussion and holding off the two months it takes for people to deal with the bulldozing of their houses, the stripping down to studs, the lack of a clean water supply, and all those other survival issues may be more appropriate. Certainly, even in two months personal attacks will still be inappropriate, but the larger discussion could still continue.

As saddened as I am by this development, I'm not really surprised. I rarely read any of the letters to the editor in my hometown newspapers because they are so negative and divisive. However, the comments section has increased the anonymity of the comments and the number of people who do comment. Is this a 2.0 flaw? We've known for awhile that people tend to be less reserved online. How can we incorporate comments without enabling such bitter attacks on relatively innocent people?

A side note: As a librarian, I am proud of the way the libraries in these flooded communities have responded. They have become the command centers for the town, stepping up and serving their communities. Maybe I should wait two months to say this, but: let's hope towns and government remember the crucial role these libraries have played in these past few weeks.

Golden Compass

2007-08-10T19:53:00.000-07:00

I went to see Stardust today on opening day. I generally love Gaiman and this is certainly one of his works that is best suited for the big screen and general audiences. I loved it. It is quite different than the book, so it was interesting to look at my watch and think "what are they going to do with the next 45 minutes?"

I'm pretty excited to see Beowolf now, and it wasn't really on my radar before.

But even more than that... I'm really starting to itch for the Golden Compass. I loved the books and would've named my daughter Lyra if I could've pulled it off. So I really had a good time creating my daemon below. We'll see if other people fill it out and my daemon changes. :)

Daemons

2007-08-10T19:51:00.001-07:00

Best vacation quote

2007-06-21T07:03:00.000-07:00

"Can't you librarians do something about Mapquest?" as we decipher cryptic directions.

IL2007, here we come...

2007-05-20T19:33:00.000-07:00

I found out last week that a proposal that I submitted with a coworker, Mary Beth, got accepted for Internet Librarian 2007. This will be my third straight year of attending. Look out Monterey!

What about the the Springfield Public Library?

2006-12-20T19:23:00.000-08:00

If you have met me, or more accurately, my husband, you know we are regular fans of the Simpsons. As I was watching it recently, I realized how many times a Simpson character visits the library. More accurately, I noticed how many library references there are on the Simpsons. I looked to see if there was a listing of how many times the library is mentioned. I didn't find it. I did, however, find a list of every time the Internet is mentioned. So someday I can create a similar list for the number of times libraries are mentioned. I'm guessing it's roughly the same length, since I can think of at least three examples off the top of my head...

Another blog

2006-11-27T11:58:00.001-08:00

In case you're interested, I have started another blog specifically for information about running in the Winona, MN area.

IL2006

2006-11-02T16:36:00.000-08:00

I just returned (well, a week ago) from Internet Librarian 2006. It was interesting to revisit the conference after having been in my position for a full year, being more comfortable with my traveling companion, and being in touch with all the "cool kids" via their blogs all year.

If you've been reading this blog consistently (and I think that's pretty much just you, Jennifer) you'll remember that I started this blog after Internet 2005, because I came back so fired up about all the technology that we librarians should embrace. (And then I abandoned the blog to have a baby.)

Well, I'm still fired up and going to the conference reminded me of the fact that we need to stay on top of things. But...

Well... Either my skills are improving or last year was anomaly because I had been so clueless about all this stuff before the 2005 conference. This year I truly felt like I could've presented some of sessions. And maybe that's enough in itself. Or maybe I need to find away to know about this stuff without waiting for a yearly conference, so I can be the presenter.

Anyway, see the Impromptu Librarian for summaries of most of the sessions I attended. She had a laptop, and mine just got ordered today...

Blissed out when I shouldn't be..

2006-10-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. God.

One of my favorite publications ever, the Onion, just published a blog post about a controversy regarding book banning in Missouri. The author, Noel Murray, makes some eloquent statements about the role of libraries in the community which reads just like anything you'd find in a journal from the library world. Because he's normally writes about pop culture, and has no obvious connection to the library world, this post is stunning to me. He really nails all the stuff librarians like to say about themselves, but is rarely heard from outside our insular library world. We need more of these voices!

Too bad we only elicit such praise when such censorship occurs.

Why it's not right that search engines save your search terms...

2006-10-03T08:41:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I opened up my local paper, to discover an AP story about the disgraced senator from Florida, Foley, and his contact with 16-year old pages. It was illustrated with a picture of former president Clinton.

While I am by no means Clinton's biggest supporter, (I voted third-party rather than for him or Dole) I considered writing a letter-to-the-editor about how inappropriate it was to compare Clinton's issues with Foley's. After all, Lewinsky was old enough to consent. Except, what is Florida's age of consent? I don't know... and I'm too afraid to do a Google search, since that information will then be stored in Google's database, making me look like a creepy person who is looking to justify some unseemly actions, rather than a concerned, but happily married citizen.

I guess I should start looking into the Dutch search engine mentioned on NPR that refuses to store such info... If only I can find the NPR article...

running stuff

2006-10-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Edited to add: This is getting a lot of hits right now in people's search for Goodview Gallop Running results. I understand. I will post a link to the 2007 results on my other blog Winona Running and help you find the 2006 Results.

So enough on parenting. Back to my latest, and oldest obsession: running.

I looked and looked online for the results of the Miller Lite/Milwaukee Public Museum Dinosaur Dash from 2001 & 2002. However, since the race is now defunct, so is access to the results. However, I eventually remembered I did have a print-out of my 2001 time. Yeah! It sort of reminds me of those times I told middle schoolers "Believe me, you may think Internet research is faster, but you'd be surprised..."

Turns out my time was 23:39.6 in 2001 dash. I think my time was slightly, although not much, faster in 2002. It was a USATF certified course, which makes me think my 22:38 5K in Waukegan was both 1) not a one-time fluke and 2) legit. I'd been thinking that because 23:40 was the fastest time I ran as part of my college's cross-country team, the Waukegan 5k must've been off. I was being trained by a coach, after all. I guess I wasn't training as hard as I should've been. (I wasn't that into running long distances at the time.)

Now it makes my 27:26.0 in the Goodview Gallop seem really slow. I would love to find another 5k to run this fall so I can see if longer runs have improved my time. I looked at Runner's World, Running in the USA, and other sites. Any suggestions?

more on parenting...

2006-08-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

Ever since attending Internet Librarian in October 2005, I've been trying to get a grip on the concept of Web 2.0 and social networking. As with most things, the best way to understand this phenomenon is to experience it firsthand. As a result, I've been putting myself out there a bit by creating this blog, a del.icio.us account, and posting pictures on flickr. I'd like to experience this more fully, but have been limited in the amount I've been able to participate by the increased demands I've experienced as a parent.

Paradoxically, one of the best discoveries I've made is the vast amount of networking happening between parents of young children. We are all dealing with this major life change, finding ourselves limited in ability or time to get out of our houses, but not yet willing to give up the social nature of our lives. In fact, we're all sort of desperate for the sympathy that we can only find from peers. I can't believe the sheer volume of parents out there in the social networking environment, trying to keep connected to someone-anyone- who shares our experiences.

While I consider this, I think back to a workshop I attended this past spring discussing libraries role in the 2.0 world. A librarian made an offhand comment about how this phenomenon really didn't serve the community, since it mostly served to connect people from disparate locals. Because of this, it really wasn't building a community in the traditional sense-- the community that pays library taxes. I beg to differ. I've been in contact with several other parents in my town of under 30,000, sharing our experiences as we watch our children grow.

What does that mean for the library? I'm not sure yet, but I wouldn't assume that all social networking our patrons engage in is happening beyond our library's borders. How does one stay at home parent find another in a world were moms no longer gather at the playground? How does one stay-at home-dad find another when all the media focus goes to stay-at-home moms? (I'll get into the rant about the proclaimed "death of feminism" implied in articles about stay-at-home moms another time.)

Anyway, some of my favorite places to observe other parents from afar, some of these local and some not:

http://www.electricboogaloo.net/wordpress/
http://www.flickr.com/groups/littleonesbw/pool/
http://enntea.livejournal.com/
http://pumpkindiary.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedfoo/

Finally, if the way I celebrated my daughter's six-month birthday getting my husband to watch her, then running 5 miles, does that make me a bad parent? hee..hee...

Parenting Reference

2006-08-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, I became a mom in February So far, my experiences have been all those cliched things people say about being a parent- both about how wonderful and how difficult the experience is.

One of the difficulties that I've been experiencing has had to do with my dependence on information science. I am a born researcher. I look up everything I can. I compulsively check Consumer Reports (now through EBSCO) before purchasing any new appliance. I often research the background for any historical fiction books I read. Once, when a married couple we are friends with got in a disagreement over what type of boat they'd need were looking at and what equipment they'd need to water ski, my husband turned to me and said, "We would never have had that fight. You would've looked up the information and seen what the best options were." No one can always be right, but I'm generally confident I've made the best decision I could've at the time, and that's good enough.

How does this have to do with parenting? Well, it turns out there is no definitive reference on the subject. Or rather, there are so much information about parenting, most of it conflicting, that there is no answer. And that is driving me crazy. So many questions run through my mind every day. Attachment parenting or Ferber? Would it be better to cosleep and create a warm, loving connection to sleep? Would it be better to teach her to use a pacifier so that she can sleep on her own or is it going to cause a problem with nursing? I try to read to find the answer, but it seems any route you take, you can find a book that will back up your particular view in any instance.

So why research parenting info at all? Well, I do occasionally find a nugget of truth. Plus, there's feeding that research addiction.

Well, time to look at reviews of camcorders...

More stuff to check out

2006-07-10T14:22:00.000-07:00

This time, the all-Minnesota edition.
Prairie Home Companion: It's only a show on audiobook

Eccentric Islands
Welcome to my Planet by Olson
Children of God Go Bowling
whatever Erdrich is up to

Everything's coming up Milhouse

2006-06-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on his birthday, my husband was offered his first full-time teaching gig. I am so very happy for him. His birthdays always have a kind of magic that most lack.

books in the latest LJ that appear interesting...

2006-06-09T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Revolution will Be Accessorized
Song for My Fathers
Love Jesus, Hate Church
West with the Rise: Fly-Fishing Across America
Nervous Water: Variations on a Theme of Fly Fishing
Black Maestro
When the Astors Owned New York
Friendship: an Expose
What Did I Do Wrong?

LOST- the blog version

2006-04-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

I just heard a report on NPR yesterday about how many blogs Technorati indexes and how many of them get abandoned. Their definition of abadonment: not updated in the past 3 months. I guess that makes this blog abandoned. Oops. I think about posting often, but it always seems to fall behind laundry in my priority list. But I promise I'll post a new parenting blog soon.

hunkered down

2005-11-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

I'm finally getting moved into my new area. Closed on the house, and about 60% of the boxes (the most important stuff, anyway) is taken care of. Meanwhile, it's time to prepare for yet another possible Minnesota snow storm.

So I've been spending a significant amount of time in the past few months contemplating information literacy.

I've caught myself with the same information gather habits I feel the need to correct in others. I told a bunch of people during Thanksgiving weekend that P.D. Eastman and Dr. Seuss were one in the same. One of the people I worked with as a Children's Librarian had assured me it was true, and, well, their stuff does look remarkably similar. Of course, if I had done a quick search in Contemporary Authors, I would've known the truth immediately. But I didn't. I had taken her word for it. And the truth is I believed that P.D. Eastman and Dr. Seuss were the same person, but they were not.

And that was taking information someone I knew. Someone I trusted to be informed because most of the time she is.

But this leads into other encounters with I've had with friends and relatives over the remarkable number of forwards that warn of some terrible fate. Like the rumor that you can get sick from rat urine on unwashed soda cans. Or that you will be shot if you flash your headlights at a car that is driving with them off. And I keep saying check Snopes (www.snopes.com) before you forward this stuff on, thinking you're improving my safety. Not that the forwards hurt. They don't. I can shrug them off. And I mostly do.

But sometimes they worry me. Not for whatever thing the forward is cautioning me against this time. But for two other reasons. First, they seem to be part of a movement that seems geared toward all of us going home, locking our doors and trying to avoid the rest of the population because of the horrible stuff going on in the world. Now, I realize that's an oversimplification. But I hate the increasing number of news stories aimed at making you afraid.

The second thing that concerns me about the forwards is that it proves to me that people who are otherwise highly informed still use poor quality information because this information is easy to access. How do we get the word out to the general population about effective information gathering if we can't even get our friends and loved ones to do so?

And that's what I've been thinking about...

more stuff on Internet Librarian

2005-11-02T16:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still buzzing off of Internet Librarian, and I'm glad I've found a number of blogs that I can use to refresh my memory, renew my enthusiasm, and give me further technology questions and ideas to consider. I'm starting to understand why bloggers feel powerful, besides the reputed the taking down of Harriet Miers and Dan Rather. (Probably subjects for a different type of blog.) And the power comes from just how easy it is to gain access to information, and the people that provide it.

Only a month ago, I started a position as a trainer in an Information Services department for a multitype consortium. A mere 6 weeks ago, I was the head of a children's department where every day, one 14 year-old boy or another would come to the library to do something on a public access machine I hadn't even considered. And, most of the time, it was something pretty cool. So now I've got to rethink my role with all of this technology, and decide how best to follow the curve, and not feel like I'm drowning in the amount of new stuff there is to learn each and every day.

I've also been taught a valuable lesson in social computing. To be honest, I wasn't sure that Liz Lawley's presentation was for me. But, in retrospect, it was probably one of the most important presentations for me, for the simple reason that it hadn't been something I had been thinking about. I came back from the conference and immediately looked up everything she talked about including her blog. And, now, a week later, I'm getting teased by coworkers about the value of social computing as it relates to me specifically.

I created this blog mostly so I had some experience creating a blog, so I could show librarians just how easy it could be to update their sites and keep their public informed. Turns out that my little experiment has now gone public, at least for the technology in libraries people. I had no idea that my little experiment would first get a response from Aaron Schmidt and then from Michael Stephens. Both of these guys are what I wish I could be, if I ever managed to get ahead of the curve.

The big question remaining: what type of search did Aaron Schmidt do to find me? What perverse combination of pugs and the library world lead him my way? I hadn't done any of the tagging suggested by Liz Lawley as of yet... So how?

Where Turbo shows his true identity

2005-10-31T18:24:00.000-08:00

OK, so I didn't actually think anyone was going to see this site right away so I posted some lame picture, and now I have to go back and post the picture that will demonstrate just how super Turbo is. But now it'll seem that my life is my dog. Maybe that's true, but I sure didn't think I'd get exposed this early...

2005-10-28T11:18:00.000-07:00

The "super" Turbo for whom this blog is named. He doesn't always look this mellow...

IL05

2005-10-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

Well, call me a follower. After hearing about blogs and social computing at the Internet Librarian conference the last few days of October 2005, I came back ready to try any and all things new. I was advised that the best way to channel my energy was to try blogging. So here I am.