Category: hi

Hi. I just wanted to toot my own horn briefly and talk about two things happening at my library. One of them is a fines reduction program that we are running with the local food shelf. They are having a Rock and Roll for Hunger food drive with some bands and a voter registration drive next weekend. We are one of the collection sites for food and, this is the good part, offer people twenty cents off of their fines for each non-perishable food donation they bring in, up to two bucks. Slick huh? The next project isn’t mine but involves our library. The Department of Libraries Regional Co-ordinator has been trying to get the libraries in our region to work together more. To that end, she created the Rutland County Fall Tour of Libraries over two consecutive high-tourist weekends here in the Land of Amazing Fall Colors. The tour highlights the history of the library buildings, is self-guided, and offers refreshments at some stops. I’m out of town this weekend but may try to do it next weekend. It’s the sort of thing I’d be doing anyhow, really.

Hi. I’m working on a short light-hearted article about OPAC improvement. I’ve set up a wiki for collective brainstorming. If you’ve got ideas for what you’d like to see in your OPAC [short and sweet please] email or IM me and I’ll let you in on the wiki. Meanwhile, ironically, I’m in the process of gutting my librarian.net inbox which had reached embarassing proportions lately. I can always tell when I’ve been out of town because there’s a spate of unanswered messages in those date ranges. If you sent me an email before August and you haven’t heard back from me, you might want to ping me again. To those who requested postcards, I’ve found a novel way to fulfill your request which should be in the mail this week.

Hi. I gave my talk on “emerging technologies” to the Librarians of the Upper Valley [LUV] in Newport New Hampshire today and it went well. You can read my presentation here. You’ll notice that emerging tech isn’t really the same here as it might be in your locale. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the librarians I spoke with used email, and many of them had what I would consider to be a healthy skepticism for the licensing and marketing of ebooks and other tech initiatives even though I would consider them as a group “tech-friendly.”

Hi. An update on my ALA status for anyone who is curious. I was invited to serve on the Membership Committee of ALA which sounded good to me. I found out that I had been appointed to this committee when I found myself subscribed to the email list without my knowledge or permission. Judging by the responses from other people who got signed on — along the lines of “why am I on this list?” — I wasn’t the only one who found this an odd tactic. Upon further investigation, I discovered that I was on the committee as a “virtual member” or an e-member. This is usually a position reserved for people who can’t make conferences where a lot of the committee work occurs. E-members can’t vote. Since I do make conferences and in fact have to make conferences, I was curious as to why I had been assigned a non-voting position on the committee [though I have my suspicions, ALA is rarely as nefarious as I suspect they are being]. I asked around a bit and a few people mentioned that I was a virtual member because I’m good with computers and technology, which was an interesting non-answer but I think translated into “nobody knows.” After some discussion with other councilors, I decided to resign from that committee [too late to keep my name from being printed in the handbook as a member] and took a position with the Committee on Membership Meetings, a newish committee instead. Sorry there are no links to what I am talking about, I can’t bear to use the ALA web site search engine one more time.

Hi. The Wired article link has been doing some travelling and I am getting some very odd email in my inbox. My favorite email from today would have to be the one that said “The idea that there is a coterie of guerilla librarians running around this world demanding freedoms, and liberties too often taken for granted is enough to make me smile.”