There is a lot going on this week. I will be participating in some of it so I may not be commenting on the rest of it. Computers in Libraries (wiki) is going on in DC. Blogwithout a library has a good post outlining how to follow along at home. Many people asked me if I was going. I’m not, though I would like to, because I’ll be at PLA in Boston, blogging for PLA. This was an excuse to check out what I’ve heard is a great conference, rendezvous with friends and family, and do a little conference blogging which I haven’t done much of before.
I was going to post this earlier but the entire ALA/PLA set of websites has been up and down for hours. When ALA.org briefly came back up, I noticed a new thing on the ALA website, buttons called “blogs” and “wikis”, right next to the RSS feeds. I don’t know if they have multiple wikis since both links don’t work right now (ALA seems to not have a staging area for their website) and I’m still unclear of the value of having an “official” ALA wiki when the unofficial ones worked so well, but it looks like someone, slowly, is trying to do the right thing and for that I am happy. Update: the ALA Blogs, RSS Feeds, and Wikis page is up. Apparently all three images on the ALA main page link to that page, which I hope will have a short URL soon. I sent them a friendly note suggesting that Firefox be capitalized properly and that they hyperlink the feeds as well as the blog URLs. They claim “New blogs and wikis are being added almost every day!” which I assume is weird marketing speak, but maybe they have big plans for that page which I think would be delightful.
Also new from ALA is their library careers website which helps answer a lot of “How do I become a librarian or library worker?” questions without all the empty hype about the job shortage. It’s nice and easy to navigate and except for the dreadful URL — librarycareers.org redirects to www.ala.org/ala/hrdr/librarycareerssite/. Which URL will people bookmark? The one in their browser window! Why can’t ALA fix this? — and is one more indication that someone there knows how the web works.