Hi to all those still here!

I set up a new blog-- yes., the addiction has taken hold. I can't promise my own random readings and responses will spark as much discussion as the class readings, but please visit and comment!

After reading and watching screencasts for week 5 I really got to thinking about what it means to be a new librarian who is trying to implement change. I am in my first professional position and luckily I work in a library that is open to new technologies and wants to remain as current as possible, but I hear from friends who are new in their libraries who find a very different type of climate. They work in libraries where change is looked at with suspicion and new ideas, especially from a new librarian, are not taken seriously. Reading Karen Coombs article (which I forwarded to said friends) really helped me (even in my friendly-to-change library) clarify what makes a new technology embraced. First of course, make sure the social software if fool-proof and easy - all the technologies we have learned about in this class fall into this category, which will be much to our advantage in the coming years as things like Blogger, wikis, bloglines and del.icio.us become even more prevalent. Of course proper training goes without saying. Promoting the benefits of change and how it will help make the library more useful and how it will make the lives of the librarians who work there easier is of utmost importance too. But another tactic which I mentioned in our web chat on Thursday last week was the importance of gaining allies in your move for change - as a new librarian it can be highly beneficial to get one of the more experienced librarians on your side. With someone who is more established in the library culture you can go much further, plus you can both learn from each other!

• What were your favorite experiences in the course?
• Our Wednesday night group meetings
• The Opal exchanges
• Communicating with other librarians

• What technology did you find most interesting for your personal use? What technology did you think would be most useful professionally?
• for my personal use: Flickr, I had used it a bit, but will use it much more now.
• For my professional use the wiki has already become indespensible.

• Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
• I now understand how my students feel about their on-line friends.

Here is a link to my final project which I published on the wiki:

http://www.sociallibraries.com/course/wiki/index.php?title=Holly%27s_Final_Projects

My friend Aaron Scmidt recently became the director at the North Plains Public Library, a very small public library in Oregon. On his blog, Walking Paper, Aaron writes about how he has used social tools to develop his library's Web presence because they were easy, free and made the most sense, not because they were "cool":

One thing that was great about the process of developing this small website is that it was not a case of thinking of a neat new way to make a library website. WordPress was just the tool that made the most sense (though of course it isn’t ideal). Another web technology found its way into the library’s work flow for the same reason. Using a Google Spreadsheet to organize the collaboration of multiple employees that are infrequently in the same room works so well. No longer do multiple staff members need to keep track of multiple documents that get revised monthly. It is all centralized for us to access at will. Ideally everyone would have their own google account, but for now staff are sharing the library’s main login. Simple.

What were your favorite experiences in the course?

I loved the online chats. They really helped me with questions and in getting to know more of my fellow participants. In addition, the screencasts rocked and I hope to use Drupal for our staff as well.

What technology did you find most interesting for your personal use? What technology did you think would be most useful professionally?

Drupal...and I say again Drupal for our staff and the tutorial I am building, but the aggregator and RSS feeds coupled with social tagging I plan to see all of our Reference Staff using them...muwhahahahaha! (But I know some are already Halle and Francesca and Gina!)

First, let me begin by saying thanks to the all of the organizers of this truly inspirational program. *applause* Second, to my chat group I say World Domination begins now costumes required…no capes. Third, let me just say how much I have really appreciated being a part of this fantastic course. It really motivated me to start utilizing these tools for our library system, not just for my own fun ;)

It is an information-rich world in which we work. It’s easy to feel run over by the scads of new and improved techno-intel-mashup-supertool-software-coolness that keeps exploding on our computer screens….or in our aggregators :) To quote Jess Shera, it is “Knowledge knowledge everywhere and not a thought to think.” But you see… that is where we come in: The Few the Proud…the Librarians. :) We utilize the knowledge and the thoughts and turn them into pathways, answers, relevance for our patrons to connect to the community and the world. Social software tools help us do that. So we take the red pill, because the story is just beginning and we don’t want to sleep anymore. We like the rabbit hole, so we are to be the Hitchhiker’s Guide, the Cryptographers of a new age. Instead of keeping secrets, we are learning them and utilizing the tools that open the pathways to so much more that rabbit holes. If information is power, then this class empowered and instead of sucking water….this class sucked life into the possibilities and the potential of 40 plus information professionals who will never be tempted by the blue pill…ever again.

A message came across one of my library listservs this morning:

A teacher in the Metronet Information Literacy Project has been targeted on
a Facebook site. The offending student deleted the page, using his cell
phone,
while a school administrator was speaking to the class. The teacher is
quite upset and contacted me for information in how to proceed.
I am aware of 1st Amendment issues, etc. and of the controversy surrounding
what schools can and cannot control, but am wondering what policies
folks have in place and how these situations are being resolved.

West Deptford Free Public LibraryReading Rocks Book Club 1.      Blogging technology is available to anyone using a computer with Internet connection. This technology is available at our library as well as the neighboring school and many of our residents.2.      The Teen Blogging Book Club would give teens the opportunity to read book reviews posted by the young adult librarian as well as peers.