LibraryTechtonics

It’s very warm in the library this evening. Our air conditioning is out *again*, but our custodial staff has been excellent about keeping us as comfortable as possible with rented portable units, and keeping us posted on the status of the fix (the town is in charge of that bit). Currently, it’s 86.5 degrees and humid here at the Information Desk, but somehow it’s all relatively tolerable. (We’re closing tomorrow, due to the predicted severe heat.)

With the heat comes a certain level of general insanity. Patrons, staff, computers, everything just goes a bit wonky, slightly askew, or all-out mental. The staff is ever courteous and patient, and we all end up being a bit more entertaining than usual. Not a bad way to be when you’re in a generally bad way.

A man came in with five children, looking for the spiggot so that his daughter, a member of the local Girl Scout troop, could water our plants and flowers. While Kathy, one of the other fabulous reffers, was searching for the spig (none of us knows where it is), while the five kids in tow were hanging about in the library.

All the while, they whispered and shushed each other.

No joke. And not like they were making fun or anything, like they really meant to be very quiet in the library. Even the man spoke to me in a whisper, despite the fact that I spoke to him at a normal volume.

Two of the children, the man mentioned to me as the kids trompsed up the stairs to the Children’s Room, were from Florida, and his three kids were so *proud* of their library, they wanted to give the Florida kids a tour. So sweet, it makes your teeth hurt. But in the good way.

I’m a geek, so I like to keep track of technology trends for fun. Luckily, I can use my fun in my work (I *heart* multipurpose tasks!), especially by tracking trends that might just affect the library world.

Now that the official name of Longhorn, the codename for the next release of the Microsoft Windows operating system (it’s new name: Windows Vista), has been let out of the bag, the world has begun to have a little fun with it.

Joy of Tech #711, A meeting of Microsoft minds
[Joy of Tech comic 25 jul '05]

Apparently, a beta release will be available August 3, 2005 to “developers and IT professionals.” I’m wondering if techie librarians can get in on the action, too…

It was a big deal when Google Maps released its satellite photo feature. Now, you can have a “Hybrid” view of the maps, which will overlay a semi-transparent Map view over the Satellite view. It’s wonderful for directions, especially in the step-by-step view, and it’s really keen to see how the mapped roads fit in with the physical landscape of the area in the larger normal map view.

I’m not sure how long this feature has been around, but it’s ultra-cute.

The Bunny shows you a fancy way to stop spoilers.

And Unshelved has a deliciously evil plot to foil fanatics in the July 15-20 strips.

Ooo, and a cutey kids betting pool on what happens from The Joy of Tech. [this bit added 7/22 around 1:10p]

On a not-as-evil-or-fun note, last Thursday the Boston Phoenix published an article about the new Harry Potter book “Predicting your weekend reading“. I’ve never read any of the books, so I don’t know how telling or even accurate these predictions are, but I’m sure it might be interesting for fans to go back and see where the Phoenix folks were right, and where they were just plain crazy.

One of the initiatives that our new director at Reading Public Library has made clear is that she wants the public to see more pictures of the library, the staff, the events, the fun. As part of the Tech Plan madness, an assessment will be made of the current web site, which will include ways that we can best integrate photos without disrupting useability.

In the meantime, we have tons of photos, and we need a place to store them. And, well, I have a Flickr account, and I love it, so I gave the library one of the freebie accounts I received as a gift for being a beta member. Amy, one of the Reference librarians (who is also a Teen Librarian), had already set up a free account, and giving the free subscription to the library was a no-brainer.

So far, the account does have some photos in it, but very few of them are tagged or have proper descriptions and the like. I’m doing a presentation at the next Reference meeting about the service, so that everyone knows how to log in, upload files, tag and describe photos, and play with some of the sharing features.

Out of curiousity, I did a person search for “library” on Flickr, to see how many other libraries have accounts. I knew I’d find lots of librarians on there, and I was pleased to find a good number of libraries using the service. I’m contemplating a writing a bit on Flickr, and how public libraries are having fun with it. If you’re ever looking for a place to donate some money (if your library doesn’t have and has no interest in a Flickr account), consider sponsoring a Pro account for a library already on Flickr.