LibraryTechtonics

I’ll be at the Massachusetts Library Association this week, but only on Wednesday. I’ve been invited to write for the conference blog, which already has some very interesting content up. If anyone wants to have coffee or catch up at the dinner (I’m all sorts of psyched to see Tom Ashbrook speak, because I’m an NPR geek), lemme know.

Also, is anyone heading to MLA from the Boston area on Friday morning? I have a friend who needs a ride…

Earlier this month, Simmons ASIS&T Chapter Chair Alison Cody contacting me to participate in an even they call Speed Geeking. The idea is that each library geek gives a quick schpiel about who they are, where they work, what they do, so you meet a new geek every 10 minutes. After the intros and such, there’s grouping, mingling, and whatnot, where people can ask you specific questions one-on-one. It’s like speed dating, but with geeky stuff.

This, my friends, is brilliant. I don’t know who came up with it at ASIS&T Simmons, but I’m officially a fan. This fits in with my dream of doing PodCamp-style LibCamp unconferences all over the state (or even all over New England). I like it so much, I recommended it to Andrea Thorpe (who I spoke to Monday), about using it in the continuing education workshops as a way get to the specific questions, as well as reduce the impact of that one person who holds up the entire Q&A with their super-specific, attention-heavy question that really should be asked after the session is over.

I think this would be a nice add to regional conferences, or even as a regional reference roundtable meeting special fun thing. It brings the info up front while it’s still relevant, it’s generally free (I’m not getting paid, but the parking is being covered, and I’m glad to do it), and it’s something that can be done locally at a low cost to networks without having to wait until the next big conference.

As part of the Cambridge Science Festival (which I’ve been thoroughly enjoying all week so far), the Museum of Science is hosting a talk titled “The Art of Living a Second Life” TONIGHT, Wednesday, April 25 at 7pm:

From the Cambridge Science Festival Wednesday schedule:

Second Life is a highly imaginative, online, 3-D rendered environment populated with avatars (graphic representations of people). In Second Life you can teleport, fly, do not age, live in a house, go to clubs, take classes, make and view art, or just “hang out.” Spanning more than 42,000 acres in real-world scale–larger than metropolitan Boston–Second Life is second home to over 2 million “residents,” many of whom collaboratively create its content. It is a place where real business is conducted using virtual dollars that can then be traded in the real world. Join a discussion about the creative, social and economic implications of Second Life. Participants include Wagner James Au, embedded journalist in Second Life, Pathfinder Linden, Community Manager for Linden Lab, John (Craig) Freeman, artist in Second Life. Moderated by Eric Gordon, Assistant Professor of New Media, Emerson College. Book signing to follow. Seating is limited. First come, first served. Tickets are available to the general public in the Museum lobby beginning at 5:45 p.m. the night of the program.

If you think you’ll be there, lemme know. You can send me email, DM me on Twitter, or write on my wall in Facebook.

I was able to finish training the Netguides back in February and March, which included an overview of the program, customer service training, and an overview of our database and web site resources that the Reading Public Library. I’ve uploaded the customer service training slides to SlideShare, to try out the service. I might continue to upload stuff there from my other presentations (on a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license). However, if you don’t have the bandwith to use SlideShare, send me email, and I can send you a file format that would work for you.

So far, everything is super for a first time run of the program. I experimented with the on-call shift hours by moving them around a bit for the first month, and with some help from my boss, we’ve decided that on-call shifts should always happen on specific days (we picked Wednesday nights and Saturday afternoons), so that if someone doesn’t want to make an appointment, they can just come back later.

Having the Netguides in the computer classes has been *excellent*. In the Geek Out, Don’t Freak Out class, almost everyone has a helper (or a helper they share), which moves the class along nicely, but still keeps it chatty and social between patrons. In the computer classes, which only seat 6, I have 3 Netguides, one between each two seats. It’s a bit noisier (I need to work on training them on being a bit quieter so that I can continue talking when they are helping someone), but overall, it’s been great for the patrons, and again, it moves the class along better instead of having Marie and myself running up and down the class to help different people.

When I first put out the appointment request bookmarks (an idea I borrowed from the Russell Library in Middletown, CT), I hadn’t done an advertising push, I just put them out to see what would happen. I got 4 requests. After I introduced the Netguides in my first class, and mentioned they would be available by appointment, I had 12 appointment requests to place, and the requests keep coming. I’ve also created a Netguides page on the library web site, complete with an appointment request form, so that librarians and patrons can use the form to email appointment requests directly to me.

It’s been challenging, but in a good way. I’m:

• Managing 12 student volunteers
• Scheduling appointments, shifts, and class assignments
• Keeping track of Netguide availability
• Getting feedback from patrons and the Netguides in the form of evaluations
• Wishing I had more time to do it all, between desk shifts, teaching classes and class prep, computer troubleshooting madness, and continuing education

More later!

Yesterday I had a wonderful 40-minute conversation with Andrea Thorpe with the New Hampshire Library Association. She had contacted me through my friend, colleague, and grad school mate Steve Butzel (Steve, what’s that other blog URL? I can’t find it…) about doing some continuing education workshops on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 with a special focus on rural libraries (a sort of how to and how to cope for libraries that, indeed, have dial-up, a $100 book budget, and 10 *volunteer* staff). I’ll be working with Andrea and Jessamyn West (and possibly a third librarian).

So we’re talking, and I did the quickest redux of Twitter ever, then talked about the gap in cultural understanding between librarians and social software natives, then got on my issues with what is termed “continuing education” in librarianship but doesn’t really do much, and so on. I apologized for sounding so crazy excited to be talking to a librarian who wanted to put together a program on this stuff, because it’s important, and in order to get a move on simply asked other people who would know stuff instead of just continuing to sit on it because she wasn’t sure how, *plus* being so interested in learning about Web 2.0. While she said there was nothing to apologize for, I still wondered out loud, “I guess this means I should just write more.”

The “but” here can be partially explained by a comment that Rochelle Hartman made in the recent March 2007 American Libraries article “Mattering in the Blogosphere” :

“At this point, I think that the biblioblogosphere is a little insular and echo-y, and is heavily weighted toward promoting technology in libraries. I would love to see more blogs that deal with old-school library practices, such as readers’ advisory. I’d also like to see more critical writing — if something is great, tell me why! If you disagree with something, give me your well-crafted arguments. If someone disagrees with you, don’t take it personally, be gracious and start a discussion.”

I think once it started to feel too insular, like I was losing the other interests in my life because I was so focused on keeping up with librarian blogs, I started to pull back. For a time, I also felt like it was becoming cliquish (I still kinda feel like it is), which doesn’t sit well with me, because I’m pretty equal opportunity. I’m also way more likely to want to create original content instead of getting on the topic flavor or web link of the day, and when I was starting to see all too many ripples of the same link, topic, or story, with just an “I agree” post and a link flooding my Bloglines account, I took an even bigger step back, without really noticing.

Taking a step back means I don’t really know what anyone else is writing, so I have no idea if someone else has written about it already, and said what I said (or want to say). However, stepping back consequences are also a blessing, allowing me remain just outside the echo, with a little more space to think and have my own ideas. That, and the influence of the non-librarians I’ve been hanging with lately (especially online) has given me a more progressive approach to and awareness of many things. I like that.

I’ve also received feedback that I seem to wait and post long write-ups, which also end up being really good, so I thank readers for the kudos. However, having a usability background, knowing that the trend towards small-snippette reading is growing (see: Twitter, Facebook status, text messaging, etc.), and constantly being reminded by Chris Brogan that short is beautiful, I’m trying to get on the front loaded side of blogging, which might actually get be back to a better clip of blogging pace.