Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody

Just finished Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky. A good read on organizing without an organization. The point comes across repeatedly that the social web tools have provided the vehicle to make social change because the "barriers to entry" into an organization have dissipated to near zero. In other words free tools such as email, blogs, wikis, etc can be used to gather resources (people, and time) and focus their efforts (shared goals) and the ease of joining the "effort" swells their numbers at a rate faster than anticipated and gets their cause promoted faster than others.

I like the passage below as it related to libraries and information. It could serve as a headsup as we push the value of our services as we also need to get on the crest of this wave and ride it in to a place thats good for everyone.

"Professional self-conception and self-defense, so valuable in ordinary times, becomes a disadvantage in revolutionary one, because professionals are always concerned with threats to the profession. In most cases, those threats are also threats to society; we do not want to see a relaxing of standards for a surgeon or a pilot. But in some cases the change that threatens the profession benefits the society, as did the spread of the printing press; even in these situations the professionals can be relied on to care more about self defense than about progress. What was once a service has become a bottleneck. Most organizations believe they have much more freedom of action and much more ability to shape their future than they actually do, and evidence that the ecosystem is changing in ways they can't control usually creates considerable anxiety, even if the change is good for society as a whole."

Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates

From a December 10, 2008 News Release

The U.S. Census Bureau, with support from other Federal agencies, created the Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) program to provide more current estimates of selected income and poverty statistics than those from the most recent decennial census.

Estimates are created for school districts, counties, and states. The main objective of this program is to provide updated estimates of income and poverty statistics for the administration of federal programs and the allocation of federal funds to local jurisdictions. Estimates for 2006 and 2007 were released in December 2008. Beginning with the estimates for 2005, data from the American Community Survey are used in the estimation procedure; all prior year estimates used data from the Annual Social and Economic Supplements of the Current Population Survey.

Econumdrums

The trick will be to find this again when you get asked one of these questions. But Mother Jones Magazine has answered 20 vexing questions regarding which is the more eco-friendly option. Paper or plastic, manual or automatic transmission, idle your car or turn it off, vinyl or leather, and doing laundry at night or in the daylight, dishwasher or sink, paper towels or electric dryer, plus others.

Twitter and libraries

I never could make the connection between twitter and how we could make use of it in the library.
Twitter is the microblogging site where you can post comments in 140 character chunks. I have started to relent now that twitter "tweets" (comments posted on twitter) can be searched. Using their brother/sister/cousin website search.twitter.com you can search for terms used in tweets. As the events in Mumbai continued over the thanksgiving break, many reporters indicated that they followed events using twitter. The positive side of this citizen journalism is that we all can be heard, but with it comes the responsibility that accompanies that priviledge.

So again, how can it be used in libraries? It is a tool that can give immediate, real time, and unfiltered comments and reports on events and incidents from around the world. Perhaps it would be easier to attend the inauguration via twitter than it will be to actually get to the DC Mall.

Top 10s of 2008

Time magazine has compiled a list of Top 10 lists for 2008. Enjoy.

Hyperlinked Cliff Notes

Take a look at shmoop.com for a hyperlinked variation on the Cliff Note. But this site includes US History, literature, and Poetry. Lots of good info and fresh way to get directly to the stuff you want about a book, poem or period in US History.

From Librarians Index to the Internet
This website provides study materials for selected literature, poetry, and U.S. history topics. Titles and subjects include sections for summaries, study questions, website links, and related material. The website launched in late 2008 and is in beta testing stage; see the "Coming Soon" tab for planned subjects and a place to request topics for coverage on the site. Website "content is written primarily by Ph.D. and Masters students from top universities."

YouTube launches Abuse and Safety Center

A nice grouping of guidelines and videos on use and safety on YouTube and the entire internet.

From TechCrunch

YouTube has just launched a new Abuse And Safety Center meant to help make the site as safe as possible for families (YouTube is only meant for ages 13+, but kids still flock to the site in droves). While the site has previously offered safety guidelines, they used to be bundled in the same section as product help and had far less information. The new section offers tips from organizations including the Anti-Defamation League, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the National Crime Prevention Council.

After entering the Abuse and Safety Center, users are presented with a list of common issues, including Privacy Concerns, Cyberbullying, and Hateful Content. After selecting one of these items, the site displays a list of tips and guidelines from the aforementioned expert agencies, as well as a video guides in some cases. Most of the topics are directly related to YouTube, but they are also relevant to the web as a whole.

The new Center also offers a Help and Safety tool that makes it easier to manage irritating or malicious comments and also gives users more control over who can contact them through private messages. Users can now search for all comments left by a given user across their entire channel, allowing them to see if any commentors are making a habit of repeatedly harassing them on their videos. From there, it’s a simple process to delete multiple comments at once or ban that user entirely from the channel.

Whats the difference between a tutorial and a research guide?

Whats the difference between a tutorial, a research guide, and a online computer class? Currently in our digital library project we have a Classes and Tutorials category and a Research Guide category. But if you look at what is included in each of them, a video on how to research a stock could fit in either category.

What if we collapsed the categories into a single category? maybe something called "How to..." Let me know what you think. thanks

happy people read and unhappy people watch TV

A new study by sociologists at the University of Maryland concludes that unhappy people watch more TV, while people who describe themselves as very happy spend more time reading and socializing. Additionally, data from time use surveys, suggests that TV viewing may increase as the economy worsens and people lose their jobs.

See more at Context Crawler and the full story

OBR: online borrower registration

TLC has announced the availability of a new service called OBR: Online borrower registration. In other words, people can sign up for a library card over the web.

Here is how I envision it working, let me know what you think!

They enter all the address and contact info and get a temporary library card number. The temp number allows them to place holds but not use databases, etc.
The temp number expires in 7-10 days.

Patrons come to the library to pick up their holds, and they then get a permanent card with a permanent barcode number.

Patrons will need to provide appropriate identification to confirm the information that they provided on the web-self-registration page

Staff wins, because they don't have to type in all the contact info and the patron wins because they can register remotely for a library card.

Remarks at Learning Libraries Celebration

I was lucky enough to be asked to speak at the Learning Libraries V. 3 Celebration yesterday. Below are my remarks. Congratulations to Ginny Hyde, Regina Spiker, Nancy Sudine, Maryland Appel and Lisa McKenney!

I believe in you.
I believe in the power of humans to make things better for themselves and for others.
I believe we must grow and change as individuals and as organizations to stay relevant and healthy.
I believe in libraries as a path to help people make things better for themselves.
To say we are a learning organization is to say that we believe in what we are doing so much that we seek new ways to do more or ways to improve how we are currently doing it.
I believe the job of growth and change is too important for just 1 or 2 people to lead, we need every one of you to lead, maybe not all at once, but your time will come.

Libraries and other organizations will settle into traditions and patterns and standard methods to get things done, they seek out equilibrium. It’s perfectly normal.

I believe that Learning Libraries gives you the tools to disrupt the equilibrium.

Believe it or not, my job and your job are NOT to protection, direction, and order, our job is to create enough disruption that positive change and growth is the path of least resistance.

I believe that every one of you has the ability to do what needs to be done.

The question we face every day is “Am I willing to do what needs to be done?”

What are some of the things that make it hard for you and me to take the next step to act and make things better?

For you to invest yourself into making things better carries risk.
• The Risk of failure,
• risk of success,
• risk of disrupting the flow,
• risk of what you might find, or
• risk of being ostracized.

Here’s where you start to realize the power of emotion and its ability to trump logic.

Has this ever happened to you? You call out “I’ve got it!!?” And then you look out and see lots of skeptical faces staring back at you.

Not because it is a bad idea, but because they, the audience don’t know as much as you, only that something will have to change and we typically get uncomfortable when we don’t know how it will affect us.

When you try to improve things you will make people uncomfortable and that’s not an emotion that we typically enjoy.

Where does that put you as the one leading this change?
You might be seen as the trouble maker, the change maker, the outsider, not typically your comfort zone.

Now everyone is outside of their comfort zone. You as the leader and them as the one forced to change.

FACT: Leadership behavior and moving an organization forward requires making people uncomfortable.

Moving forward requires leadership behavior from you.

Leadership behavior means helping others to absorb the pain of loss and change at a rate they can handle to continue to evolve and move forward.

What’s another reason we must summon the courage to act and make things better?
Because to move an organization forward often requires choosing between contradictory values.

A Library Example: In Allegany County our motto is “Something for everyone…” so you could assume we want everyone to come in to the library.

Take this hypothetical statement example from a fictitious staff member.
“I feel so good when nice people come in and check out a book.” “But why do those rambunctious kids need to use the computers so much, and why are they here? most of them have computers at home. “

For the library to grow and stay relevant and healthy, do you think that one of these values needs to be change or adapt to the new reality or world around it.

Which value do we let go of to move the organization forward?

How do we harmonize those 2 mental models in our own heads?
How do we leave older values and traditions behind?

Then how do you say to the people who you have worked with in the past or have even supported your career that they must change.
Talk about a scary prospect.

I believe the best way to predict the future is to make it yourself.
I believe in libraries and the roles we play in our communities.
I believe we must grow and change as individuals and as organizations to stay relevant and healthy.
I believe the job of growth and change is too important for just 1 or 2 people to lead, we need every one of you to lead.
I believe that every one of you has the ability to disrupt the equilibrium and to do what needs to be done.

To stretch your comfort zones, the learning libraries principles of Systems thinking, mental models, personal mastery, shared vision, and team learning will give you the framework to be prepared for what needs to be done.

But to overcome that room of skeptics, I think our best line of offense is
“Look what we can do together.”

And remember I believe in you and congratulations.

Rural America At A Glance, 2008 Edition

Rural America At A Glance, 2008 Edition

Rural America At A Glance, 2008 Edition highlights the most recent indicators of social and economic conditions in rural areas for use in developing policies and programs to assist rural areas. The 2008 edition focuses on employment, poverty, population change, and demographic characteristics of nonmetro areas.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service and Reference Shelf

Facts for Features: The 2008 Holiday Season

Facts for Features: The 2008 Holiday Season

The holiday season is a time for gathering and celebrating with friends and family, gift-giving, reflection and thanks. To commemorate this time of year, the U.S. Census Bureau presents the following holiday-related facts and figures from its data collection.

From the US Census Bureau and Resource Shelf

Delicious @ the desk

I took a neat class this week called Delicious at the Ref Desk. It was all about using the social bookmarking site Delicious to create a network of useful web sites for use at library service desks. You can get a flavor of the opportunities by viewing the class blog. Annette Gaskins at Harford was the primary driver of this course. Definitely start with the "Social Bookmarking in Plain English" video.

I think it would benefit us as a small staff with diverse knowledge and abilities. Each branch would get their own Delicious account and include the others in their network. We each could add the web sites and apply as many tags (descriptive terms) as we want. Then we would make sure that Delicious opened on each staff machine. Staff could search for tag names within the network and retrieve a list of web sites to use to answer patron questions.

What do you think? It might be easier than creating a shared bookmarks file across the system.

SLRC's Sights and Sounds has created a Delicious site and so has Harford. take a look.
My delicious bookmarks are at http://delicious.com/jetaube

Quick links to free streaming tv shows

Gizmodo has provided links to your favorite TV shows (full length, free and legal).

"Our Internet TV remote has the best links to every prime-time show currently streaming online at full length."

Tween Visionaries web site at FCPL

Tween Visionaries (http://tweenvisionaries.org/) from Frederick County Public Libraries is a fun and colorful way for tweens to get their message out there in a way that they want to deliver it.

From the web site, "Tween Visionaries is a site by you, for you. If you are between the ages of ten to thirteen, and have something to say, share it here. You can write, draw, talk or present your feelings about a local or global issue. Explore, create, and enjoy!"

Books & Babies & Debbie

Three Cheers to Debbie and George's Creek for their Books and Babies Program!

Perkonomics - trend watch

Perkonomics - "a new breed of perks and privileges, added to brands' regular offerings, is satisfying customers' ever growing desire for novel forms of status and convenience." According to the latest issue of trendwatching.com , what are the exclusive offerings that companies offer to build customer loyalty and generate "buzz."

If you ask me, the library already has mastered the art of perkonomics. With your library card, look at all the perks you get: unlimited amounts of information, entertainment, and access to materials you could not otherwise afford, and much of it from your own home or office computer.

Maybe we need to work on making the library card less of an everyday thing and more of a status symbol.

What do you think?

OpenCongress.org

OpenCongress.org from the Sunlight Foundation summarizes bills in everyday language and monitors related news and blog coverage. Users can follow a legislator's voting record and submit comments on proposed laws. (from Oct 2008 Wired magazine).

The website posts

"OpenCongress brings together official government data with news coverage, blog posts, comments, and more to give you the real story behind what's happening in Congress. Small groups of political insiders and lobbyists already know what's really going on in Congress. We think everyone should be an insider.

OpenCongress is a free, open-source, non-profit, and non-partisan web resource with a mission to make Congress more transparent and to encourage civic engagement."

Congressional Earmarks

Congressional Earmarks (spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects) are the focus of the web site earmarkwatch.org. Accordign to the website, "

Here's your chance to investigate earmarks–those spending measures inserted by members of Congress into bills that direct taxpayer dollars to their pet projects. Are members using earmarks to meet pressing needs? Reward political supporters? Are they good public policy, or vehicles for pure pork? Every earmark is different, and we currently have over 3,000 of them online, ready and waiting for you to dig into.

The research framework we're providing asks you specific questions about the recipient of the earmark and the member who sponsored it, and provides links to the sources of information you can search for answers.

You will also have an opportunity to provide additional information from your own research. We offer some suggestions and ideas for additional information you can find, but feel free to follow your own instincts."

18 Money Management Sites

The Wall Street Fighter posted this list of Money Management Sites

Here's a monster list of 18 of the top Web 2.0 finance services currently available. This list covers new sites offering services in a variety of specialized fields ranging from online banking, personal finance, investing, business tools, shared bills and housing prices. Be sure to fully investigate all the features and security details on a site before signing your life away and deciding which one best fits your needs.

Is it Information Overload or Filter Failure?

What do you think?

From iLibrarian by Ellyssa

Author of Here Comes Everybody, Clay Shirky gave a much discussed keynote at yesterday’s Web 2.0 Expo in NYC titled It’s Not Information Overload. It’s Filter Failure. In his talk he posits that the problem is not the enormous amount of information which is now available, but that we don’t have proper filters for it. Here’s a link to his PowerPoint presentation and a video of his presentation. And here is more coverage of his keynote:

• Are you suffering from information filter failure? - ZDNet Between the Lines blog
• It’s Not Information Overload; It’s Filter Failure - Internet Evolution

test

just a test

Google News Archive Search

Google News Archive Search


Google, in partnership with a number of North American newspapers, ProQuest and Heritage, has begun digitizing printed newspapers, making them both searchable and browsable exactly as they appeared in print, including photographs, headlines, articles and advertisements.
From Resource Shelf

"You’ll be able to explore this historical treasure trove by searching the Google News Archive or by using the timeline feature after searching Google News. Not every search will trigger this new content, but you can start by trying queries like [Nixon space shuttle] or [Titanic located]. Stories we've scanned under this initiative will appear alongside already-digitized material from publications like the New York Times as well as from archive aggregators, and are marked "Google News Archive." Over time, as we scan more articles and our index grows, we'll also start blending these archives into our main search results so that when you search Google.com, you'll be searching the full text of these newspapers as well."
From the google blog announcement

Another chink in the armor of stuff you can get exclusively at your local library.

Listen Online: Top Political Speeches of All-Time

University of Texas professor Michael E. Eidenmuller has amassed a huge online database of speeches in audio and text forms. You can take a listen to your favorites at http://americanrhetoric.com/speechbank.htm"

Source: Resource Shelf and the Denver Post

Back to School

from Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week

These links from Back to School "provide resources for students, parents, and educators in preparation for returning to school in the fall." Includes links to sites on how to calculate a grade point average (GPA), school and library locations, financial assistance, school bus safety, immunization schedules for children and adolescents, and more. From USA.gov, the U.S. government's official web portal.

Can it be simpler than that?

From the page Something's waiting for Sean Connery way out there - washingtonpost.com:

As reported from the Edinburgh International Book Festival, when asked what his first big break was, Sean Connery responded.

"I realized after 70 years that my first big break was when I was five: I learned to read and write ... so that for me was the break."


Who know how many people you have inspired along the way! good job!

What if LATI were set up like Leadership Maryland?

A series of bi-monthly overnight meetings held throughout the state. Starting in September and ending in April, with the Showcase being Track of LATI presentations at the annual MLA Conference.

Day 1 could start at 2 PM and include the instructional portion (reference material review or policy review) (that way attendees could arrive before lunch and meet in small groups before class convened)

Day 2 could be a speaker or more instruction over at 1pm
Instructors and content can come from or be facilitated by the 3 Jennifer’s and the individual central Maryland library system staff development personnel.

Each LATI event should be assigned a CEU Value and after getting so many CEUs the person is a LA. If you attend all the events in the (it emphasizes the need to track and accumulate CEUs, for their post-LATI life)



Bi-monthly-events could include working a shift on AskUsNow, Night Owl, SLRC Maryland Room Ref desk.

Between bi-monthly events, LATI Participants would expand their horizon locally by attending a Local Library Board meeting, a Local School Board meeting and County Commissioners meeting.

Perhaps a speaker at the immediate following bi-monthly events could be someone from MANO talking about Board excellence

Community Services Locator: An Online Directory for Finding Community Services for Children and Families

from ResourceShelf by ResourceShelf

Community Services Locator: An Online Directory for Finding Community Services for Children and Families

Most communities have education, health, mental health, family support, parenting, child care, and other services that can help support children and families. However, locating those services or even knowing which services to look for is often difficult. The Community Services Locator is designed to help service providers and families find available national, state, and local resources that can address child and family needs.

Service providers can use the locator with Where to seek help: A Bright Futures referral tool for providers (2006) to help build a customized directory of community-based resources. The tool is also available in Spanish.

Source: Maternal and Child Health Library, National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health (via Child Welfare Information Gateway)

Productivity refresher

Merlin Mann of 43folders posted this nice refresher on getting things done.

take a look at Who Moved My Brain? Revaluing Time & Attention

the latest Olympic news, events, and schedules.

Did you know that you can find scheduled events and results using google?

In the google search box, type in the word "olympics" and your event to get a direct link.

DVD advisory tool

Amazon has a new series of pages that suggest "essential" DVD titles. They are organized by decade, genre, actor, actress, directors, sequels, biopics, as well as sliced 6 more ways to Sunday.

From the website: "What are Essentials?

Essentials, chosen by Amazon editors and writers, are the most significant DVDs from a genre, actor or director. They may not always be "the best," but rather a representative sampling. If you're interested in diving into a particular genre, or would like to explore the diverse career of someone you admire, then Essentials is for you. "

Consumer Reports adds blogs to their product reviews

Did you know that Consumer Reports magazine now has blogs for major categories of products like Cars, electronics, money, health, babies, etc. You can sign up for their respective RSS feeds as well so you don't miss a thing. At this point you don't have to be a subscriber to read these blogs.

Given the tight economy who wouldn't want to get the most for their money by consulting these product reviews first.

Another list of top Readers Advisory sites

iLibrarian reports on 25 Online Readers Advisory Tools

"The LibrarianinBlack has put together an annotated reference list of her favorite readers advisory spots on the Web with Sarah’s Reference Warehouse: Readers Advisory. This stellar resource provides many out-of-the-way destinations that may otherwise be missed, each with detailed descriptions. Here are her top five suggestions:

1. AllReaders.com
2. Bettendorf Public Library’s Young Adult Books in Series and Sequels
3. Columbus Metropolitan Library’s Picture Book Index
4. Database of Award Winning Children’s Literature
5. Downer’s Grove Public Library Author Read-Alikes

George's Creek SRC Worm Races

Enjoy the "fast paced" action of worm races during summer reading club at the George's Creek Library.

Take a walk with Google maps

from Read/WriteWeb by Frederic Lardinois

Google added walking directions to its Google Maps product today. The walking directions ignore one-way streets and Google Maps tries to give pedestrians the most direct and flat route possible. As Google itself acknowledges, the Maps database does not currently have a lot of information about sidewalks, pedestrian bridges, or if a specific street is simply too busy to cross. They are, however, working on improving these aspects of their maps.

Walking directions are available everywhere Google offers driving directions.

Google will only allow users to chose the walking options for routes shorter than 6.2 miles (or 10 kilometers). Because of the limitations in its database, it is calling the walking directions a 'beta' products, but, of course, that doesn't mean much when it comes to Google products.

HealthMap: Global disease alert map

Healthmap.org

According to a Discovery Channel news release,

Every hour, HealthMap, an infectious disease-tracking Web site, culls through news Web sites, public health list servs, the World Health Organization's online pages, and other Web sites in six different languages to pinpoint outbreaks of disease that real-world doctors can then act on.

HealthMap gathers information from the Internet and filters it, removing, for example, duplicated or irrelevant information. It can pinpoint an incident of bubonic plague in Siberia, for example, while ensuring that a "plague" of home foreclosures in northern California doesn't show up on the free access Google Maps.

So far the program identifies about 95 percent of all disease outbreaks, sometimes days before the World Health Organization or the Centers of Disease Control announce them.

Regional Publishers and Writers Open House coming September 6.

Get ready for the 2nd Regional Publishers and Writers/Artist Open House on September 6 at the Washington Street Library. We are again working with the Center for Creative Writing at Frostburg University and the Allegany Arts Council to bring this event back and link it ot the Arts Walk planned for that Saturday.

Possible discusison topics include:

• Current themes and trends in Nonfiction publishing
• Current themes and trends in Fiction publishing
• How has new media like Facebook and blogging affected getting published?
• Roundtable discusison on poetry today
• Roundtable discusison on short stories today
• Roundtable discusison on photography today
• Roundtable discusison on local art show opportunities today
• Roundtable discusison on fiction today
• Roundtable discusison on nonfiction today
• Roundtable discusison on "keeping your muse" staying focused in an era of multi-media, multi-channel, multi-tasking ADD world.

let us know if you think if other topic of interest to the community.

For the walkers and step counters among us

There is a fun new site called Walk Score. According to the web site "Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Living in a walkable neighborhood is good for the environment and good for your health. We help people find houses and apartments in walkable neighborhoods."

You can also use it when traveling, just type in the address of where you are staying and it can tell you what venues are in "walking distance".

Self Check Out project tips

As we explore how to install self check out machines at Wash St, South, LaVale and Frostburg I thought I would share this set of tips from an IT manager in Ohio on his blog "Geek in the Stacks."

Another Cool Car repair Web site

RepairPal gives you independent and unbiased repair estimates, user ratings and reviews, plus advice you can't get anywhere else. It's easy, accurate, and FREE!

Which car repair site do you like better and why?

Cool new auto research site

Driverside is a new web site that gets better the more people use it. Using it in its current form, you can research the current value of your vehicle, you can get an estimate for what a repairs to your vehicle should cost, you can find parts for you car, you can explore and research a potential new or used car purchase, and you can post an ad to sell you car. For example, our Red van is worth $3200 if we trade it in to a dealer, but it is worth $5500 if we sell it ourselves.

Good for those questions and patrons dealing with autos when the Consumer Reports is just not enough.

PolicyMap Demographic Data on Your Neighborhood

PolicyMap is a new website that offers more than 4,000 points of data about any location in the United States, including demographics, real estate markets, crime, schools, housing affordability, employment type, energy consumption, and public investments. It's powered by a new Application Programming Interface (API) from commercial mapping service PushPin.

I tried it out and its pretty neat you can retrieve the data using maps or by clickign your mouse or whatever. It would be useful if someone wanted to investigate a location if they were moving or had a school report about a particular place or area.

World Health Statistics 2008

World Health Statistics 2008 presents the most recent health statistics for WHO’s 193 Member States. This fourth edition includes 10 highlights in health statistics, as well as an expanded set of over 70 key health indicators. It includes, for the first time, trend data where the statistics are available and of acceptable quality.

Recommendation Systems = Reader's Advisory

I was reading an article from TechReview about Recommendation systems and it struck me that services such as Amazon's "Customers who bought this also..." are a lot like what we do when we do Readers Advisory. The difference is that Amazon and iTunes, and Netflix make recommendations using mathematical algorithms where we have traditionally relied on our own past readings. The goal is the same "based on what I am interested in now, predict what I may be interested in next"

Since we have a relatively small staff, maybe we should outsource a large portion of our reader's advisory work to Amazon recommendations?

The trick would be to refine the recommendation algorithm so that it can make good recommendations based on who we are (kid vs adult, mystery vs romance reader) and what we browsed vs bought.

Pandora and Slacker are internet music site that select and play music that they think you will like based on the name of a band or artists that you say you like already.

Maybe the first step to outsourcing/supporting readers advisory is to find the right recommender for each type of material. pandora for music, IMDB or rotten tomatoes for DVDS, and Amazon for books?

Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes: How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author

New from the Library of Congress: webguide

Lost Titles, Forgotten Rhymes:
How to Find a Novel, Short Story, or Poem Without Knowing its Title or Author

Locating a novel, short story, or poem without knowing its title or author can be very difficult. This guide is intended to help readers identify a literary work when they know only its plot or subject, or other textual information such as a character's name, a line of poetry, or a unique word or phrase.

A stretch or no stretch at all!

What do you think about setting the goal for FY 2009 to have an 8% increase in circulation over this year? That may seem big, but when you break it down, its very do-able, We are now averaging 39,112 circ per month. An 8% increase would only be 42,241 circs per month or an extra 3129 per month or 782 per week or 111 per day. Across 7 branches, that's only an extra 16 items per day.

John Venditta

John Venditta, Director of the Western Maryland Regional Library is moving to Chester County Pennsylvania to become their library director. John has been a great friend and partner of the Allegany County Library System in his 7 year tenure. Our recent accomplishments could not have been possible with out his help. To put it in musical terms (as he was a music major) he set the vibe that moved us all and we launched our adventures from that exciting platform. He also is just a decent guy who will always stand behind you, cheer you on, and let you take the credit (when he deserves a significant share of the credit.) Good Luck on your many adventures and successes to come!! May the accordion player always visit your table!

Great Time at the MLA Conference

Jack and I had a great time at the MLA conference. I only wish we could have served as the back up singers for Nancy's debut at the Polka Dot Lounge and Grill. Jack and I worked the vendor reception area, so we got to meet and greet the vendors who's participation makes the conference affordable for the rest of us. Actually, Jack liked it because he got dibs on all the chotchkeys before anyone else. I actually lost him for almost an hour. I found him playing on one of the AWE early Literacy Stations. (there goes parent of the year.) I also owe a big thanks to Mike Fiscus who presented with Lisa and I as well as helped keep an eye on Jack.

Making Podcasts with Audacity tutorial

photostory tutorial

printable paper

Ever needed graph paper and wished it was easier to print it out? Try

Free Printable Paper

Hundreds of papers you can download and print for free. We've got graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, and more.

http://www.printablepaper.net/

Amazon Blogs

Did you know that Amazon.com has lots of Blogs?

It starts with Amazon Daily. Amazon Daily is a blog—short for "web log"—that contains posts by editors from all over the company. Whether you're a die-hard fiction lover, a gadget geek, an avid collector of classic films or just a fan of what we sell, you'll find all sorts of entries that will interest you. Amazon Daily's home page contains all editorial posts (sorted so the most recent entries appear at the top); in the sidebar, they're sorted by topic, so you can browse one concept at a time instead of taking all of it in at once! Each post gives you the opportunity to provide private feedback to the editor as well as leave public comments for other customers to see.

They also just launched a new one focused on gadgets called enduserblog. www.enduserblog.com
From the bowels of Silicon Valley to the peaks of, um, Asian chip manufacturing plants, Amazon.com's Electronics editors scour the earth for the latest and greatest gear to bring to our customers. Keep checking back here for new product announcements, specials deals, and a whole lot more.

Another one consists of podcasts called Amazon Wire. Amazon Wire is created by the Amazon editors and features interviews and exclusives with your favorite artists and authors. We'll spotlight our favorite features and guests, and entertain you a bit along the way.

But they have others devoted to books and to toys, music, cars, movies and TV, cooking, video games, the green scene, plus many others.

County and City Data Book 2007

The County and City Data Book 2007 is a greta place to find out almost anything about counties and cities in the US.

Compiled since the 1940s, the County and City Data Book incorporates demographic and economic information about the United States from Census Bureau surveys, as well as information from other government and private organizations. The data cover topics such as population, housing, vital statistics, health care, social programs, education, labor force, wholesale and retail trade, and weather.

Geographic areas covered in the County and City Data Book include states, counties, cities with populations of 25,000 or more, and places with 100,000 or more residents.

Who moved my Cheese????

Rats, during my hiatus to rest my torn ACL, the YMCA switched out all their Nautilus equipment! The new stuff will probably be fine but I liked the old stuff and was comfortable with how it worked. Now I have to learn a whole new set of gauges and knobs. Now I have reason for tearing my ACL, it was to have change foisted upon me instead of me foisting change on others. Fair is Fair and it made me chuckle and reawakened my empathy for how difficult change can be.
thanks

Self Check out - comments wanted

What do you think of the idea of putting a self check out machine at each circ desk so that patrons could scan their own cards and items for checkout?

It would require lots of public training and patrons would still need to get help to pay fines, etc.

It could be a stand alone machine or it could be a standard pc with a web interface and scanner.

Think about how much better customer service woudl be if only one staff at a time was needed at the circ desk and the other could rove the floor assisting patrons and re-freshening our book displays, best sellers and new books sections.

let me know what you think from your perspective and how you think the patrons would like it ? thanks

Self Pick up of Holds - comments wanted

What do you think of the idea of moving toward self pick up of holds? In other words, put a hold pick up shelf in the public area and when a hold arrives for a patron, you notify them, then put the item in a bag such as this one and then place item the public holds pick up shelf.

The patron would pick up their hold, take it to the circ desk, check it out, return the bag to the circ staff for re-use.

What are your ideas and concerns from a staff and patron perspective?

Entice them to stay or let them go?

One aspect I have borrowed from the retail environment is that the "longer people stay in the building(or store) the more they are likely to buy (or borrow) something." So we have worked toward making all of our locations inviting, interesting, and welcoming.

But at a session at PLA last month, the presenters from San Jose California and Envirosell reported that 93% of library patrons entered and left the library within 30 minutes.

Maybe we should spend our efforts making it easier for the public to find what they need. Wouldn't that be better customer service?

Another statistic, the Richmond Public Library in British Columbia reports that 76% of their patrons prefer to help themselves and do not seek help from library staff.

What do you think we should do?

Turning the Page: Building your Library Community

Regina, Joni, and Jennifer joined me in last week at a conference sponsored by PLA and the Gates Foundation called Turning the Page: Building your Library Community. It was full of useful sessions on how to become a better advocate for the library.

The opening speaker was Kevin Carroll, who spoke of his Red Rubber Ball. Unfortunately, we were unable to get down in time to hear him. But his book "talks about finding your passion, whatever that is, and finding a way to turn that into your life. For many of us looking for our passion, this book serves as a reminder to never give up, no matter how silly it might seem to others. Don't take your ball and go home...Find it and play with it as much as you can!" (the book is on order for our libraries) Kevin also lists some of his favorite books at his web site. What do you think about resigning from your job as an adult?

Lots to think about and we will come back to this as we develop our "library story". The important thing to remember is that we do great things every day and touch people's lives in ways we may not even be aware of.
Thank You

PLA Note: Quote

"Your library is only as friendly as your crankiest staff member"
.... Karen Hyman, South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative

PLA notes: Minnesota jackets

As an aside, March is the snowiest month in Minneapolis. I resurrected my old Minnesota jacket for this trip and it seems that it is now the preferred jacket of Minneapolis's homeless population. And who can blame them, they like the same things I do, warm, long, water resistant and lots of pockets with a hood.

PLA Notes: Minneapolis's new central library

I visited the new Central branch of the Minneapolis Public Libraries/Hennepin County Library System. It was finished in 2006 and designed by Cesar Pelli. "A combination of transparent glass with imagery to represent Minnesota's water, snow, trees, and prairie grass." It features an eye catching canopy that projects over the Hennepin and Nicollet entrances. take a look:

PLA Notes: Kids mice

One idea that we can borrow from Minneapolis public is the kids mice on their kids computers. Take a looks at these.

FY09 Budget Presentation

The Library's Budget presentation to the County Commissioners on March 13, 2008.

Another danger of technology

From Yahoo News

Padded lampposts are being trialled in a London street to protect inattentive pedestrians.

A pilot scheme has been launched in Brick Lane after it was found to have the highest number of 'walking and texting' injuries in the country.

A study carried out by 118 118 found one in ten people has hurt themselves while focused on their mobile phone screen.

The charity Living Streets is so concerned that it has teamed up with the directory enquiries service to test a scheme to wrap up the nation's lampposts.

A poll will be carried out on Brick Lane to gauge the response of locals.

If successful, the concept will be rolled out in Birmingham, Manchester, and Liverpool.

UN Data: the Ultimate Research Tool

From Read/Write/Web and Sarah Perez

UN Data: the Ultimate Research Tool

Written by Sarah Perez / March 6, 2008 2:42 PM / 1 Comments

The new site at UN Data allows anyone to access the United Nations Data Access System. This online, easy-to-use database was created by the UN in order to provide current, relevant, and reliable statistics to the whole world, for free. Using UN Data, you can access statistical information on populations, demographics, trade, commodities, agriculture, employment, the environment, industry, education, tourism, and much more.

For many people, the first source for data is a Google search or a Wikipedia entry, however educational institutions and news agencies generally frown on using data from these sources, especially considering some of the inaccuracies found on Wikipedia not too long ago.

But now, students, journalists, and everyone else can access data straight from the source - the actual statistics published by the UN.

Using UN Data

Underneath the search box on the homepage are a few popular searches, based on what users are searching for the most. You can either click on those or enter in your own keywords to begin.

For example, to see data about a country, you just enter in the country's name and click "Search." The search result will take you to a landing page where some general information about the country is provided, like population, GDP, life expectancy, etc. You can click the link to "view full profile" to get the full details of that country's statistics.

To the left, is a box where you can apply filters to your search by specifying that you want to include or exclude certain information from your search.

Below the country's profile are all the search results for that country. Each result has a "Download" link to download the data, but there is also a handy "Preview" link which will open a small window displaying the data, so you don't have to navigate away from the page you're on to see if that data is what you were looking for. Another link, "Explore," allows you to delve into to related data sources around that topic.

You can do more than search for data on specific countries or regions, though. You can also search for data about global statistics, like greenhouse gas emissions or global solar production statistics (well, that's what I looked up).

What's great about the UN Data site is not just the ability to access this huge database of statistics (currently 55 million+ records), but the well-designed way that such massive amounts of data have been provided to the public. Anyone can use this database - school kids, techies, even mom and dad. This is one site that is definitely worth a look.

All Starbucks Close Between 5:30 and 9:00 P.M. on Tuesday to Perfect the Art of Espresso

According to their press release, All Starbucks Store will Close Between 5:30 and 9:00 P.M. on Tuesday to Perfect the Art of Espresso.

The release goes on "Starbucks conducts historic in-store education and training event for more than 135,000 store partners (employees) across the United States.
In-store event and media-related details include:

• The company will close each of its nearly 7,100 company-operated stores in the U.S. on Tuesday, February 26 at 5:30 p.m. local time to conduct a nationwide education event, designed to energize partners and transform the customer experience."

What do you think? training 135,000 people in 3.5 hours?

Students 2.0

Read an EBook Week

In honor of "read an ebook week," Epublishing Weekly has posted 30 Benefits of Ebooks. Read on ebook week is March 2 - March 8, 2008.

Summary: Maryland Public library RSS feed links

A summary of the result from my request for Maryland Public library RSS feed links.

Allegany has 3 RSS feeds that the public can subscribe to.

1) From within our catalog, to be notified when we purchase material (www.alleganycountylibrary.info)

2) A feed for upcoming library events (in our scrolling events box of www.alleganycountylibrary.info)

3) And a directors blog (not well known in the public yet) (aclsdirector.blogspot.com)

ESRL – What’s New at ESRL

http://esrlnews.blogspot.com/

Harford County

1. we have RSS capability through our catalog via the AquaBrowser… a customer and save a search and generate an ongoing RSS feed for that particular search

2. a “newly acquired” feed generated through AquaBrowser that looks like this: http://aquabrowser.hcplonline.info/aquabrowser/rss.asp

3. HCPL News & Events - http://feeds.feedburner.com/HarfordCountyPublicLibraryNewsEvents

Kent County Public Library Innovations

http://kcplinnovations.blogspot.com/

Montgomery County

1. Book Newsletters - (Find out about noteworthy books by genre) http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/nl_rview.cfm?x=376

2. Calendar of Events (Events at area branches and by program type.) http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/libtmpl.asp?url=/content/libraries/newsandevents/eventsrss.asp

3. Press Releases (An archive of MCPL's press releases.) http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/News/RSS/rssDeptPressReleases.asp?id=71

4. Weekly Shhhout Out Blog (Roaming librarians file dispatches from the world of information.) http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/apps/News/Blog/LibraryBlog.asp?BlogID=3

Plus other blogs from within these headings

Enoch Pratt Free Library

http://www.prattlibrary.org/home/rss.aspx

On the mdch.org site:

Our collections page is a feed:
http://www.mdch.org/collections.aspx

The site blog:
http://www.mdch.org/blog/index.aspx

Tag Cloud as Catalog

Take a look at Flinder University Subject Heading Cloud. They have created a tag cloud out of their LC subject headings. I am not sure but I assume the cloud is built from a count of actual searches in their catalog. Neat Idea.

Book Video Widget

Regina on her blog brought my attention to this new widget that, according to Simon & Schuster "so you can add great content to your blog or website from some of Simon & Schuster's best loved authors. Each week we'll be featuring two new authors with a video interview as well as book content."

Helene Blowers of 23 things comments, "The only thing that could make this widget better (well 2 things actually)...

1) it allowed for library branding/ co-branding

2) "Reserve a copy" was listed as a menu option."

Better Than Free

Kevin Kelly's Blog The Technium has a really interesting post called Better than Free. In it he states that the internet is a giant copying machine and it is a very good copier. "when copies are super-abundant, they become worthless." He then goes on to say that

"When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied."

He then lists 8 generatives that make something better than free. Near the end of the post, he summarizes trait that make something better than free

"In short, the money in this networked economy does not follow the path of the copies. Rather it follows the path of attention, and attention has its own circuits. "

Front pages from around the world

The Newseum displays daily newspaper front pages in their original, unedited form. The Newseum bills itself as the interactive museum of news. The site includes a news trivia game and offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.

DailyLit : Read books by email or RSS

According to the DailyLit web site:

DailyLit sends books in installments via e-mail or RSS feed. We currently offer over 750 classic and contemporary books available entirely for free or on a Pay-Per-Read basis (with sample installments available for free). You can read your installments wherever you receive e-mail/RSS feeds, including on your Blackberry and iPhone. Installments arrive in your Inbox according to the schedule you set (e.g. 7:00am every weekday). You can read each installment in under 5 minutes (most folks finish in 2-3 minutes), and, if you have more time to read, you can receive additional installments immediately on demand. Our titles include bestselling and award winning titles, from literary fiction and romance to language learning and science fiction. DailyLit features forums where you can discuss your favorite books and authors.

The service works well, I tried it but did not succeed in finishing Phaedra for the same reason I haven't read the book. I always felt their was something more important I should be doing.

The Expectation Economy

According to Trendwatching.com we are in the midst of a trend called the Expectation Economy.

"The EXPECTATION ECONOMY is an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service and experience on offer.

Their expectations are based on years of self-training in hyperconsumption, and on the biblical flood of new-style, readily available information sources, curators and BS filters. Which all help them track down and expect not just basic standards of quality, but the 'best of the best'."

Word of mouth now travels the world in a flash, making product launches instantly global, turning every new brand—big or small—into a potential 'player', and most importantly, rewarding exceptional performance with immediate interest and approval from consumers.

As we push library services toward a 2.0 model, we must be aware that the customer expectations have already been set by the likes of Facebook and Myspace. I wonder if that explains why our venture into Myspace did not get much public attention.

But on the other hand, I have received lots of feedback on MyLibraryDV. Our initiatives to offer downloadable movies from MyLibraryDV to our patrons, is an example where we want the library to be the place where customers first learn to watch and download movies (and set their expectations) before the marketplace of Netflix, iTunes, and other online movie rental places overtake us.

The report goes on to say that consumers in economies of abundance are increasingly spending their “play money” on goods and services that net them the experience, the indulgence, the excitement, the satisfaction they’re looking for at a specific moment. So for public libraries, how do we align our services and products to “net them the experience they are looking for at that moment?’ or better yet, how do we create that moment?”

Test widget

Atlantic Monthly web site going free

From the January 22, 2008 Editor's note.
Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors. We're pleased to bring The Atlantic before a broader online audience. We hope that the quality of its writing, the trenchancy of its insights, and the depth and thoughtfulness of its reporting will inspire many of our online readers to join the family by becoming print subscribers."

The magazine's printed content, including archives from 1995-present, is now free for the general public on its web site. Archives dating back to 1857 are available as part of a for-pay premium pass program, excluding articles from January, 1964 - September, 1992, which are left out for copyright purposes.

Street Space express workstation

What do you think of these as express walk up stations for our patrons. I saw them at CES.
They have no moving parts and can be networked to do most of what we need.

Library of Congress places photos on Flickr

The Library of Congress today launched a pilot project with Flickr -- of the ~14 million prints, photos and other visual materials at the LoC, they've uploaded about 3,000 copyright-free photographs from two popular collections to a new Flickr account. The big idea: get folks to tag 'em all. Why? Spokesperson Matt Raymond explains:

[M]any photos are missing key caption information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the quality of the bibliographic records for the images.

We’re also very excited that, as part of this pilot, Flickr has created a new publication model for publicly held photographic collections called “The Commons.” Flickr hopes—as do we—that the project will eventually capture the imagination and involvement of other public institutions, as well.

From the Library’s perspective, this pilot project is a statement about the power of the Web and user communities to help people better acquire information, knowledge and—most importantly—wisdom. One of our goals, frankly, is to learn as much as we can about that power simply through the process of making constructive use of it.

From Xeni Jardin on BoingBoing

Innovation= change that adds value

The Editor's comments from this months Technology Review reminds me that when we change how we do something or when we add new technology or techniques, that the reason is to make things better. We are not interested in changing because we can, we change because it helps our patrons, or it helps us help our patrons, or it makes it easier for us to do our job or the patron to find the info they want.

When you think about it, isn't that what web 2.0/ Library 2.0 is about, innovation? i.e. allowing patron's access to make things easier for themselves. Who better to make the catalog better than the public who uses it?

Generation Y is biggest user of libraries.

Thanks to Lisa for pointing us to this article showing that Generation Y is biggest user of libraries in the last year. The survey was completed by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

The article from Yahoo news says
"More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday.

Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.

"These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.

"Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.

Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.

More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library.

Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources.

Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.

The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72.

"We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future.

"Scroll forward 10 years and their younger brothers and sisters are now the most avid library users," Rainie said.

The survey of 2,796 Americans was conducted by telephone from late June through early September and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It was funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that offers federal support for U.S. libraries and museums.

(Reporting by Julie Vorman; Editing by Bill Trott)"