Happy Hanukkah from Everyone at LibraryGarden!

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

You too can make a fun, funny, free greeting card at Jib Jab. My sister made several the other day and then I just had to try it! All you need is your Internet connection and some digital photos - it's actually very easy and the site guides you through just a few quick steps. Try it!

We all here at Library Garden wish a happy and healthy holiday season to everyone, no matter what you celebrate, or if you don't even celebrate, and all the best wishes for the upcoming new year!


Okay, one more, I just couldn't help it! Be sure to turn up your volume! :)

Non-Crappy Starring You! eCards on JibJab

Slam the Boards!

Today is Slam the Boards day - many librarians will spend some time today on "answer boards," like Yahoo! Answers, Can'tFindOnGoogle, AnswerBag, and others, answering questions and making it known that the answer has been provided by a librarian!

This has even been picked up by Library Journal, where you can read more about the origination and background of Slam the Boards!

There is a wiki here where you can officially list yourself as a participant and get more information. You can, of course, participate without signing up anywhere. Just go to a public answer board and sign up there (some require that you create an account and log in, etc.) and start answering questions!

There are a lot of good tips on the wiki about how best to participate, remote library resources, and some comments/suggestions from Jessamyn West on this (and a caution with which I agree.)

There has also been discussion and some debate over on the Yahoo! Answers blog. There are some detractors from this idea but I think that if we think of it as just adding our voices and being where the information needs are we can contribute while doing a little self-promotion and marketing. We're not out to beat or better the answer boards, but (in my opinion) to add ourselves as an option where people may not have thought of libraries before.

Be sure to let everyone know that the question was answered by a librarian at the end of your answer and remind them to think of their library as a resource. There are some suggested signatures and tag lines on the wiki such as The Library is a resource, not a building. Librarians are where you are - online! (I really like that one). You could put your library link, a link to find a local public library, or a link to a library's virtual or IM reference service.

The point is not to put those answer sites out of business, or annoy them, or take them over, or to do anything negative, but to be where the people and questions are and to let people know that librarians are "answer boards" all day, everyday. I think putting the idea of libraries into peoples' heads at times when they might not automatically think of them on their own is a very interesting idea.

Even if you only have time to answer just one question and mention that you are a library person that will be one more for today!

If you can't do it today, do it another day. Many librarians already do spend time on these sites answering questions, like on AskMetaFilter. And, there are many library services/sites already doing it - here in the Garden State, we have the wonderful Q&A NJ (which, by the way, rocked the MTV Video Awards last night with their awesome commercial)!

There is also a space on the wiki to discuss this event after today. If this event is successful, it may be repeated. Hey, maybe you'll form your own plan to do this as an "event," for a day, a week, a month, or maybe you'll just enjoy it and find you want to be a regular answer board person.

Get slammin'!

Help Shape the Future of Libraries in NJ!

From an e-mail from Peggy Cadigan, Consultant for Innovation and Communication, at the New Jersey State Library. (I'm so happy to see this come out of the futures conference that was held - my app is already in!)

Subject: Participation in NJSL Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future - applications needed by August 15, 2007

Norma Blake, State Librarian, has instituted a "Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future" to continue the groundbreaking work begun by the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference. The State Library recognizes that it is imperative to have input from the people who are shaping the future of New Jersey's libraries.

This is an open invitation to anyone currently working in a New Jersey library who has an interest in the future of libraries to apply for a possible appointment to the Task Force. The Task Force will comprise members from different types of libraries and from different job titles. Applications will be reviewed by a panel selected by the State Librarian and appointments made following the review process. The goal of the Task Force will be to make recommendations about how libraries can respond in the future to the information received at the conference and the challenges presented. How can local libraries and the State Library respond to projected demographic changes, growing diversity, an aging population, and technological advances?

We expect that this task force will require a short-term commitment. It is expected that the task force will meet once a month for six months, beginning September 2007, culminating in a report to the State Librarian by March 2008. The report will be presented at the April 2008 NJLA Conference.

If you are interested in serving on this panel, please complete page two of the application which can be found at https://mail01.palsplus.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.njstatelib.org/News/Blue%2520Ribbon%2520Panel.pdf and return it by August 15, 2007 to:

Peggy Cadigan
Consultant for Innovation and Communication
New Jersey State Library
185 West State Street
P.O. Box 520
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0520

You may send the application as a word document e-mail attachment or fax it to: 609-633-3963.
Contact Peggy Cadigan with any questions. 609-278-2640, Ext. 113 or 609-292-4161, pcadigan@njstatelib.org

Pimp Yourself

Please don't be offended or turned-off by the title.

I know there have been a few occasions where "pimp" this or that has been a problem, but just try to get past that for a moment and consider this ....

The other day I attended a wonderful workshop and one of the suggestions in that workshop was that as librarians we need to stop being so quiet and shy about ourselves and start boasting about ourselves, our libraries, our profession, etc.!

Well, I have heard this before and embrace it wholeheartedly!
However, the group attending this particular workshop seemed especially uncomfortable with this suggestion.

The specific suggestion made that really got them squirming was to "use your credentials on everything."

I personally LOVE this and started doing it as soon as I had heard it.
I put my MLIS on everything I can - in my e-mail signatures, when I sign things, on my business cards, etc.... Some may think it is even excessive, but I don't care! I paid for the MILS, I earned the MILS, I have an MLIS and it does mean something!
(I was in the first class of students who graduated from SCILS at Rutgers with the additional vowel "I" - it stands for Master of Library and INFORMATION Science - boy, do I LOVE having that extra "I"!)

Several attendees really seemed aghast about this and I was sort of surprised. I can understand that it may go "outside your comfort zone" to boast about yourself or your library, but adding a few letters to the end of your name!?

Other professions do it all the time and no one thinks anything of it! Or, they have a prefix to designate their qualifications and/or professionalism, i.e,. "Dr.", "Esq.", etc.

We as librarians need to do this as well!

Sometimes this suggestion is met with, "Well, no one knows what that stands for anyway!"

GREAT! That gives you the chance to TELL THEM what it stands for, what it means, why you have it and what it means YOU CAN DO!

C'mon, as far as "pimping things" goes, this really is one of the easier ones (and free too!)

I challenge everyone who doesn't use their credentials to make a commitment to doing so as a "first step" toward becoming more comfortable BOASTING about how awesome we are! (Cuz we are!)

STEP ONE: STOP CALLING THEM DATABASES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A friend of mine has said many times that she believes we in libraryland need to stop calling databases databases, and I have always agreed, but I have not done anything about it. I haven't written about it, talked about it, blogged it, mentioned it, or thought about it any more than that.

When I hear the word "database," and if I didn't know what it was, it conjures up for me some really complicated spreadsheet system or, well, database, that is way too complicated for me to figure out and use, and that is TOTALLY BORING - not exciting or attractive to me in anyway, doesn't sound useful to me and doesn't make me want to use it or care to find out how to use it at all!

Well, yesterday this flew out of my mouth (or my fingers rather) in a twit over on twitter when someone mentioned they were changing their database descriptions to try to at least better reflect what they were to try to get their students to use them.... I put out my thought that if we really want to become more "2.0" and more valued and user-friendly, we need to stop calling databases, databases and do it now! More like do it yesterday!

This created a nice little chat discussion on twitter about what we SHOULD call them and that led to another nice little discussion about what they really are and what the users think they are and want to call them.

I want to thank Rochelle, KGS, Pete Bromberg, Library_Chic, cindi, wanderingeyre, awd, and everyone else for that twit yesterday. I am using the verb to twit as in a chat, to chat here ...

This was also a great example of a nice use of twitter.... a quick IM-like conversation between a few people that was captured in the twitter program for me to go back and look at today.

It wasn't an IM session - that in most cases would be between two people and wouldn't necessarily automatically have been captured for me to refer to today. It wasn't a chat room, it wasn't e-mails, it was a quick conversation among some professionals that was saved as it happened. We commented back and forth while doing other things on this topic - in the 140 character limits of twitter - so we had to be brief and concise - no waste! I thought it was great!

Today I could go back and refer to all the suggestions and thoughts and questions and compose this post over here on Blogger.

So, to get back to the issues of the databases.... Really now, what can we call them so that people

1. Want to use them
2. Get the idea of what they are
3. Don't be made to feel stupid (see the excellent post on this over at Tinfoil Racoon's blog)
4. Don't feel intimidated or turned-off by them
5. Find out the value of them

The twitter conversation went something like this:

Databases are mentioned.
I say we need to stop calling them that.
Someone says, then what do we call them? "...those article thingies?" *
We decide to "brainstorm" this

Someone says "Find good stuff with these search tools"
I say "yeah, search tools, electronic resources - still "eh" on those"
Someone adds, "search tools for [discipline(s)"]?

This causes me to start wondering if the databases are search tools or the resources within them? "but is the database the search tool or the gold in the mine!?"
Another adds, " "library resources"? "resources to use in your research"? "

Then, of course, we got a little silly with:
"crap that your professor wants you to use so just do it already"?

And then in response to "tool" vs. "gold mine" we got to
"The trick is the meta-search of multiple indexes and then cross-linking to the full text in their respective happy places "

Which resulted in
"tool to find happy place of needed articles" ;-)

and

"that's the problem. Catalog = search engine, inventory control, or lipstuck pig? Database = search or result or full-text?"

At one point, the brilliant KGS characteristically asked, "why don't we ask the user?" and
someone replied, "*has* anyone asked the user what to call it?"

Then a few "gasp! ask the user!? oh no!" comments and jokes twitted by and then we continued questioning "well what is the database TO THE USER, not TO US!?"

Someone comments that their kids say the databases are websites, "database, electronic resource, etc="website" "

Which gets a reaction of "knee-jerk reaction "no it's not!!"...but really, isn't a database just an iteration of a website? at least to the user? "

We get a little silly again:
"goldmines of knowledge" is suggested
"Goldmines of knowledge = databases, I love it. Is hilarious and descriptive"
"what to call databases: Stuff you need to convince your teacher you used more than wikipedia "

"Infopools, factipiles, report'o'calls" (some of my personal faves!)
and finally,
"Put on your hipboots, kids and wade into our authoritative, full-text Sludgepits o' Knowledge"


Okay, okay we were getting a little out-of-hand toward the end, but you get the idea....

So, c'mon everyone: What are we going to call these things that are expensive, incredibly powerful, valuable, under appreciated, under marketed and UNDERUSED!?

I KNOW we can do better than databases.


STEP 2: Get everyone on board calling them by their new name........



* I have decided to not cite who said what in case anyone wouldn't want their terrific twits shared with the world - I am not trying to withhold credit, but protecting against exposing anyone - if you want to claim any of those - go ahead - and/or tell me and I'll give you credit where credit is due! ;-)

Congrats to Amy!

An announcement from Connie Paul, Executive Director, Central Jersey Regional Library Cooperative:

Amy Kearns, will begin as (CJRLC)Program Coordinator on July 30, 2007! Currently the head of reference for the Paterson PL, Amy is a blogger, a trainer, a techie, and a library enthusiast. She has been very active in the Highlands RLC... She is eager to get to know our members (she knows many of you already), and we are delighted to welcome her.

A huge and hearty congratulations Amy on this exciting new position. Looking forward to working with you on continuing education initiatives! - Pete

The "New" Librarian in the New York Times and The Sun

A couple of articles to share today, both similar, on the "new" librarians... one is in The New York Times, A Hipper Crowd of Shushers, and the other is in The Sun, For New-Look Librarians Head to Brooklyn.

What do YOU think of these takes on "us"?

We ARE Change Agents!

Man, this is cool!

Helene Blowers got it at the ALA conference!

SRP 2007!

If you happen to feel jealous of those kids doing summer reading programs (and/or maybe jealous of their parents and/or children's librarians), here's your chance to get involved with some summer reading!

Some folks are doing an online Summer Reading Program! It's a blog, and there is a MySpace and a facebook for it - you can join and post your goals for summer reading, your books and your reviews. It's very casual and I think it looks like fun.... If you are already reading and posting books/reviews, etc., you can just keep posting there and you'll be linked on the SRP blog.... or you can send reviews to the blog.

Have you/could you consider setting up something like this for your patrons!? It's pretty darn simple, quick and easy (AND FREE!) to do and requires really very little work from YOU!

Think about it ....

I have joined as libraryamy (my gmail id) and created the facebook group. See the blog for blogger and MySpace info.

Happy reading!

Friday Fun: Mental Floss Quiz of the Week!

I really love this magazine, Mental Floss, that we get here are the library... in fact, it says right on it... "Where Knowledge Junkies Get Their Fix!"

Actually, my director loves it too and so do some others around here so it is quite a trick to actually get your hands on it. I think if I ever have to I will end up subscribing to it...

Anyway, they also have a mailing list and they sent out this Quiz of the Week: Discontinued Ben & Jerry's Flavor or Band I Found on MySpace!?

It's pretty funny and I love the way they have the answers for you after you take it, complete with links to actual bands found on MySpace! ;-)

Enjoy!

I only got 5/10 though. My director got 8/10! WOW! How well can YOU do!?

Multiple Tools = Multiple Work!?

The always smart and thought-provoking Claire over on the PALS Plus 2.0 blog wrote about "living in interesting times," referring to living in these times of great change that are taking place right now and how much fun and frustrating it can be!

Specifically, she talks about how to choose the "right tools" to accomplish things. She wants to announce the PIMP MY BOOKCART contest to PALS Plus libraries and figures that right now, the best place/way to announce it is still using "1.0" methods, i.e., group e-mail. However, PALS Plus will be launching a "Fall Into 2.0" program and perhaps by October, and most likely (hopefully!) by next June's contest, there will be other, multiple ways that she can get the word out and be assured that everyone will see it.

I started thinking about this.... My first reaction is "put it out there in as many ways as possible" because I feel that this philosophy is what sort of underlies a lot of 2.0 stuff - make things accessible in many different ways in case some people access you in those ways. Make it easy and convenient for them to get it, in ways they like and use. In other words, be where they are, put it where they are.

So, that would mean, have it posted on a blog, with an RSS feed, AND send a mass e-mail, AND post it up in flyers for the pre-2.0 and barely-1.0 folk, put it up on facebook, etc., and make a flickr account with pictures, and, and, and ...!?

BUT THAT got me thinking, oh my gosh - is putting stuff out in MULTIPLE forms creating MULTIPLE work for US!? Now, in some cases no. Once you have these things in place they sort of take care of themselves, meaning, if she posts it to the blog, it will have (most likely) an RSS feed and anyone subscribed will see it. Also, if she uses feedblitz and anyone is signed-up for that, they will get the e-mail notification. That still only requires ONE post. One post and many ways to be made aware of it. In fact, RSS takes care of a lot of things - anything you can do that has the feed makes it a one-stop-job. If she did put something on flickr, there's a feed for that too, so now we have TWO places and still only TWO things to do, but resulting in several means of people being "told" about it.

No wonder people make the point that RSS IS 2.0 - it is the backbone of the whole thing!!!!!

The 2.0 forms actually really do and should cut down not only on the time and effort required by those who take advantage of them, but also for the creators.... Hanging up flyers and putting memos in individuals' mailboxes at work - decidedly two pre-2.0 (even pre-1.0?) ways to do things - requries A LOT more time and effort to do than ANY of the 2.0 tools do, even if you choose more than one.

So, sorry, Claire, no answers here, except for my idea (and concern) that things should be put out there in as many ways possible - without overburdening the putter-outer.

And, I agree, eventually the "better" tools will last and the not-so-good or not-so-useful will naturally fall by the wayside. But, I think it will always be "interesting times," and there will always be the next thing coming down the pike . . .

Support Emergency Legislation to Remove Municipal Libraries from the Levy Cap . . .

Go! Do it! NOW!

Support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap . . . THERE IS A VOTE TOMORROW!

I just wanted to share the link to look up your legislator - it is EASY! You can look on the right side by alphabetical list, municipality, district, etc...

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp

You get your district and you click on that to see the people and contact info.

I JUST CALLED them - I have always e-mailed in these cases but today I CALLED because I had just been in one of the webinars on WebJunction for the Spanish Language Outreach Program with some people who talked about advocating.
PHONE CALLS ARE MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE than e-mails!

It only took me about 5 minutes!
The people are nice!
They want these calls.


I identified myself as a librarian living and/or working in the district and asked for them to support the emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap. I said there is a vote tomorrow.

They already knew what I was talking about!
They took my name and seemed very interested to hear from me.

You either leave a message or talk to an assistant who takes the information.

REALLY - it took me less than five minute total for me to call three people!

PLEASE CALL!

Original message from Pat Tumulty:

CRITICAL UPDATE, MUNICIPAL CAP LEVY EXEMPTION.

We need your assistance right now to contact your NJ State Senators. Not tomorrow. Right now. Please ask your state senator to support emergency legislation which would allow an adjustment to levy cap calculations for local public library funding.When the new municipal cap levy legislation was passed this year, municipal libraries were included as part of the calculation for the levy cap.

This, unfortunately, created an inequity for the 245 communities which support municipal libraries. Communities which support county libraries have library expenditures excluded from the municipal levy because county libraries are funded by a dedicated tax and, therefore, outside the levy cap.

New Jersey League of Municipalities, the New Jersey Library Association and the NJ State Library have been working for a month on what we hoped would be a solution to this issue by adding language to state budget bill. Unfortunately, we were told last Friday, that this solution would not work and that we would need legislation. We must correct this inequity before July 1 because urban communities begin a new budget year on that date and would become subject to the levy cap. All other communities will be impacted with the budgets beginning on Jan. 1, 2008.

The Assembly, under the leadership of Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, will consider emergency legislation to exempt municipal libraries from the cap legislation TOMORROW- Thursday, June 21.

We have every indication that there is support for this legislation.We are less certain of Senate approval, and we have learned that the Senate will cancel next week’s scheduled meetings and recess for the Summer. Therefore, it is imperative that this legislation pass tomorrow.

We must have this emergency legislation enacted in the Senate before the Legislature goes on summer break. Please contact your State Senator’s legislative office today and tell them you support emergency legislation to remove municipal libraries from the levy cap and that it must be enacted before summer recess.

Pat Tumulty, Executive Director
New Jersey Library Association
ptumulty@njla.org
609-394-8032

You Don't Need Physical Proximity to Feel Close

I am sitting here at work in tears.

I have just seen and read about Michael's dear dog, Jake. I had been watching his decline through Michael's posts on flickr and knowing that eventually this post would come. Then I read Karen Schneider's perfect post about pets, and unconditional love and social networks, and I just have to share.

We really can be one large community.
I have only met Michael once in person, but I feel that I "know" him somewhat through the Internet - his posts on flickr and his blog, his generousness, intellect and humor that truly come across no matter what medium he uses to communicate. And, especially as a dog lover/owner I certainly could "know" his relationship with his dog, Jake, and feel such pain for him at this time. I wish there was something I could DO. But I am hoping that Michael and his family and his other dog, Charlie, can feel us all around him, even though we are not physically present with them, sharing their sadness and caring so much for them in these ways that we can - posts, emails, instant messages, etc..

The Internet can be an amazing thing. I wish I could tie this all together better somehow, and make some more profound point that I feel is here but just out of reach, but I feel too sad to do it right now. Anyway, Karen really said it best and said it all.

Not Attending ALA? Here's an Alternative...

This is posted many places but I want to be sure that no one misses it!


Not able to attend ALA but still want to find out what's going on in cutting edge technology and social software!? Well check out the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase...

From their page:

The Social Software Showcase is an online unconference occurring around and during the time of ALA Annual 2007.
On this wiki, you will find eleven wonderful presentations on cutting edge technology and social software by librarians and leaders in the field. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations here in this space.
We will also be having a face to face roundtable discussion with some of our presenters at ALA Annual in Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room. If you are in D.C. please come and join us.
This wiki will be a work in progress as we iron out a few things, including the embedding of the presentations. But we'll be ready and running before ALA! [end]

This is a revolutionary way of presenting information! Please do check it out.

The presenters include the VERY excellent:

Michael Casey - Library Crunch
Michael Porter, aka Library Man! - Library Man blog
Jessamyn West - Librarian.net blog
Karen Schneider - Free Range Librarian
Her post on this.
AND MORE!

You can read another excellent post on this for some more information on the Information Wants to Be Free blog here.

The Bigwig Social Software Showcase is here .

Check it out! :-)

Happy Weekend!

Back to the Future

The follow-up meeting for those who attended the Mid-Atlantic Futures Conference takes place tomorrow morning at the Princeton Public Library. I'm really looking forward to it and I'm really excited about it. No doubt Pete, myself and others will have much to say!

You can finally check out the hand-outs and materials, etc. from the conference here!

Amy's 8 Things

(Hmmm I kinda like the sound of that)!

So I have been tagged here and on the PML blog - do I have to come up with 16 things or should I just refer you there!? ;-) EDIT: Okay I managed to come up with 8 more - if you're really bored or interested check them out! ;-)

Well, I'll do 8 here and then see what happens:

1. I like to keep my fingernails really short because I can't stand typing on the keyboard with long ones. I spend so much time typing that it really is an issue for me and I can now hardly stand for them to be much longer than the very end of the tips of my fingers. This is okay though because I also pretty much prefer them this way and like the way they look. I also like to paint them dark red.

2. When I was little we had a tire swing in the backyard, hanging from a very large, old tree. I used to play outside on that tire swing all by myself for hours! One thing I would do was to "broadcast" my own radio show while I swung around (weird).

3. I have worked in the following places: a 5 & 10 store; CVS; a Mail Boxes, Etc. (no, it wasn't a UPS Store back then); a Manhattan publishing company; the Clifton (NJ) Public Library; and now at the Paterson (NJ) Free Public Library. It NEVER occurred to me to become a librarian, not even once, for one second, even though I went there ALL THE TIME, until about the year 2001.

4. I used to have a really weird habit of washing my feet before I went to bed. I just hated the idea of putting dirty feet into my bed. I don't know why I used to do that, and I don't really know exactly when or why I stopped doing that.

5. I don't really like to cook. My husband doesn't really like this fact about me.

6. I have never, ever, ever smoked a cigarette. Not even one puff once to try it. Never.

7. The first car I ever owned, which I bought myself, was a used Nissan Sentra. Stick shift. I didn't know how to drive stick. I couldn't even drive the car home myself. While learning to drive it, I once drove it right through the garage door! The only person who finally succeeded in teaching me how to drive that thing was a friend of my mom's. She was also my brother's Pre-K teacher and also then became a librarian!

8. I used to be a soccer superstar!

And, I'm not tagging anyone else. I hope that won't bring me 8 million years of bad luck or something...!!??!?

You Don't Have To

Feeling overwhelmed by everything?

I sure have lately! Finding facebook and loving it somehow pushed me over the edge. I thought of myself as "keeping up" and "in the know," and then somehow I found myself feeling as if I'm drowning in the sea of incredible, new and fun tools, unable to get a breath!

I was talked down by this post from The Shifted Librarian (Jenny Levine). All I can say is, Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jenny. Your timing couldn't have been more perfect (sorry for that word ha ha.)

Please, for those of you feeling overwhelmed, I highly recommend you read it. Now.

You can't do it all, and admitting it is okay. This online stuff, it's
great. We *love* living in this time, right? It's fun, it's constant learning,
it's empowering and alluring if you love learning and information. All of those
tools at our fingertips to learn about and play with, all to help people. It's
beyond cool.

But it's not your life, nor should it be. You have to learn to let some of it go and then be okay with that (which is the hard part). Michael Stephens talks a lot about how librarians need to let go of the "culture of perfect." For the younger bibliobloggers I will add that you have to learn to let some of the pressure go. You physically cannot keep up with it all, so beating yourself up over failing to do so is pointless.

What are the library students of today learning?

I have been thinking about this a lot lately and starting to talk to some people about it. I am happy to have found out that Leslie Burger, current ALA President and Princeton (NJ) Public Library Director is also interested in this and is looking (I believe) into ways of assessing and addressing it.....

I just wonder what our current library students are learning and if they are learning about Web 2.0 technologies, customer service and the importance of these things to libraries. If we are spending time and effort to "catch-up" our current librarians, unless we are producing librarians who are "up" on these things, we will be fighting a losing battle.

I have been out of library school since 2003 (and that is even longer ago really than 4 years when you take into consideration how technology and the world changes even faster and faster as time goes by). None of these Web 2.0 things were being talked about then, but they really weren't on the radar then. I had some wonderful professors. I am sure that there are some wonderful professors now who are teaching these things or who are open to them - maybe the library students are teaching them in some cases! - and I am not disparaging library schools or professors. I just don't want us to focus all of our efforts on the current librarians only to find that the "new" ones also need such "catching-up."

You might assume that all "new" librarians are "young" librarians. But this is certainly not the case, just as it isn't the case that all "young" librarians and people know and embrace all of the Web 2.0 technologies and approaches or realize their necessity in the library world.

A colleague shared this (and he can identify himself, elaborate, or not, I have altered the quote a bit for privacy, and hope he doesn't mind):

I did a talk for (a class) as recently as October 2006. By show of hands, maybe 2 out of 30 in the class had any idea what RSS is, or read any library blogs.

I found this upsetting (because) RSS IS an information literacy technology. Perhaps it is THE single best technology for allowing us to manage the flow, display, sharing, and consumption of information. As promoters of information literacy, librarians should be ALL OVER THIS.

You know, you could say that perhaps they are using RSS and don't know it, like many "lay" people who are using it but if you ask them they have no idea that they are! Although I think the point is they should know... However, the part about not reading library blogs is just inexplicable!

I posted about it on another blog and got an interesting reply from a library student:

LibraryNation said...
I'm in library school right now and I'd have to say that there's a division of thirds in regards to the level of skill we future librarians have: a third of us are really up to
date on technology, web 2.0, and the like; a third don't know a lot about these
things, but really want to learn more and take all sorts of tutorials and short courses from our IT lab (staffed by fellow students) to expand their knowledge/understanding/use of these technologies. The last third don't have much interest in learning about these technologies, or perhaps don't even know that this is something they should be teaching themselves... something that's vital. Kind of like marketing ;)
... And maybe you're right about needing to educate our professors. I think they also fall into the three categories: those in the know, those who want to be in the know, and those who think it's relevant/unimportant or are unenlightened.

Let's make sure we take an even broader view - look at the even bigger picture - and make sure that the librarians of tomorrow coming out of library school will truly be librarians of tomorrow and not librarians of yesterday!

(Maybe things aren't as bad as I fear - can anyone help me out here?!)

UPDATE 05/29/07:
I received this message from Leslie Burger -

I’ve just appointed an ALA presidential task force on library education to
take a look at what is being taught in library schools, consider core
curriculum, and how the LIS curriculum needs to match what we need in the
marketplace. ALA Past President Carla Hayden is chairing the TF which
reports back to the ALA Executive Board with the recommendations at the 2008
Annual Conference.

World Cafe Power Point

At The Futures Conference, Peggy Cadigan and Barbara Cole stayed up all night working up this great powerpoint to capture all the great thoughts and comments that came out of the World Cafe that took place after a great day of presentations!

Take a look here!

(Great use of SlideShare.net too!)

The World Cafe was a chance for everyone to socialize and talk about what we had experienced throughout the day. We were in small groups and talked aabout a question that was posed something like, "If you die 100 years from now what will be different about the world you leave compared to the one you came into?" And one other one I can't recall right now - help me out someone!

FYI if you look at the pictures, the World Cafe pics are the ones that show lots of glitter and stuff on the tables and tables named after books and/or movies, and all those newsprint papers hanging up with all our doodling, drawing and brainstorming on them! It was fantastic and excellently created, organized and run by Peggy and Barbara! Kudos!

The Ultimate Question and One More...

I just came across this article in OCLC's NextSpace No. 5 (from Dec. 2006 - Yikes! Where was I!?) Are You Asking the Ultimate Question? which talks about a book by Fred Reichheld, The Ultimate Question.

This article talks about how the most important question to ask of your customers/patrons is "Would you recommend us to a friend?" In fact, the argument is made that this need be the ONLY question if you survey. Yes, a one-word survey!

I actually heard this recently when I toured a hospital in Paterson - they have this question stated explicitly as a goal - "Would you (in this case the employee) recommend this hospital to your friends or family members?" A pretty good question to keep in mind! I think it is a good thing just to ask ourselves to make sure we are providing a level of service that we would be proud to offer to our own circle.

Which reminds of something I heard recently about the bathrooms in some public libraries - the staff wouldn't stand for having to use them and have their own bathrooms which are in much better shape, but they expect their patrons to use them all the time!? This is like a "home" and the patrons are a guest in your home - is that the bathroom condition you would present to your guests at home?

Anyway . . .

Fred Reichheld is saying that the answer to this one question could determine the future of your business or library.

With something that is this "old" (the book came out in January 2006) I always worry that someone else has already addressed this, but it is totally new to me and I think very important for libraries.

Nonbusiness organizations also have customers; they need to delight the people
they serve, and they too can benefit greatly from the use of one simple metric.
- Fred Reichheld in NextSpace No. 5.

Wow! DELIGHT the people they serve! What a novel idea! So how does this one question work?

You ask a question such as, "On a scale of 1-10 how likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?"

Promoters score 9 or 10 - are loyally enthusiastic, keep coming and urging others to do so

Passives score 7 or 8 - are satisfied but easily wooed away

Detractors are the rest - UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS, feel ignored/mistreated, plot to get even!

Sometimes a follow-up question is asked to gain more insight. "If you would not recommend us, why not?" (Those answers might be hard to face!)

Ironically, customer loyalty provides companies with a powerful advantage - a
battalion of credible sales and marketing and PR troops who require no salary or
commissions. Yet the importance of these customer promoters is overlooked. -
Fred Reichheld, NextSpace No. 5.

We already know the power of negative experiences in stores or libraries and the studies that show that if a customer has a bad experience they are likely to tell (something like) 12 people! If they have a good experience they don't tell nearly as many. It takes way more positive experiences to overcome one negative experience. We need to create as many positive experiences, and positive, PROMOTER-users as possible!

I recommend you read the article if you're not familiar with this - it also contains information on the OCLC report Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources. Steve Hiller also provides a lot of information in this article.

I plan to check this out some more and do some reading on the blogs related to this idea. I think it would be fascinating to do this type of one- or two-word survey and see what we get!

One other question I want to bring up here is "What business are we in?" I used this today when a volunteer came to me with yet another ripped magazine cover, very distressed. I told her that we aren't in the business of preserving magazines perfectly forever. We are in the business of providing magazines to be read. True, if one person destroys a magazine they are obstructing others from having access to it, but some ripped and torn covers is not really the priority of our business.

So I say, ask yourself, "What business are you in?" and then ask yourself and your customers, "Would you recommend us to a friend or family member?"

EDIT:
Okay sorry I'm having trouble in the comments but the link for the new forum on Net Promoter is:

http://netpromoter.groupee.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2731073251/m/6701054452

Sorry I couldn't edit or delete those messed up comments b/c I didn't install greasemonkey yet per Peter! :-)