Top 8 Tweets from #cla09 #library

All-time 8 best tweets from the California Library Association #CLA09

The CLA conference was an interesting weekend of technology deficiency and lackluster participation from both the venders and presenters. Unfortunately there was a sadly insignificant amount of tweeting going on and this is probably due mostly to the fact that there was no Wireless Internet available anywhere in the workshops. However, a HUGE thank you must go out to @strategicimp for providing the one wireless area at the conference and for providing (in my opinion) the best part of the conference, which was actually the Unconference.

I won’t go into too many details, but truly, I’m not sure what I would have done had that area not been set up. There were a couple of good discussions and quite a few great librarians (and librarians to be) hanging around the unconference “stealing” the internet and networking with each other. I hope they continue this event next year and get even more participants.

Although the tweets were few and far between I did manage to find a couple that I thought had some significance. The following are (in my opinion) the top eight tweets from #CLA09 and most came from the movers and shakers presentation that I had to miss.

@derekwolfgram “sometime you just gotta do stuff, and it pisses people off” -Lisa R

@joycenlee Think about how to leverage your past experiences. Just b/c they’re not directly related doesn’t mean they’re not relevant.

@jdscott50 “Gain a broad perspective of the organization, own your job, your role, be accountable, create mentor relationships.”

@tiffanylora “Leaders motivate others to create their own vision and together we can affect change.” ~Cindy Mediavilla

@sudofonik Think and be positive; don’t assume you won’t get an interview. There might only be a handful of applicants

@kgould “policy is the history of bad behavior” (the Unshelved guys)

@strategicimp focus on the experience u want to create – them design services and environment to make them real. ABA !

@bibliotechnical: Step 1 for digital collection make friends with political figures in community

There were some other good ones, but there were some even better tweeples present at CLA. While I couldn’t list great tweets from every single one of them I did want to mention that the following listing of librarians on Twitter are awesome people for twittering about the conference and being cool! I was just going to make a list on Twitter, but that feature needs some work and you should probably just follow these kickass folks anyway so….

@Ddegrandchamp
@Frances_J
@leshaner
@amapolaroja
@SofiaDistracted
@tiffanylora
@derekwolfgram
@sudofonik
@msmith003
@SusieOhQuinn
@kgould
@GraceMellmanLib
@saclawlibrarian
@shanndev
@patoney
@CaliMel
@unpoete
@RubySlppers
@lifeinoleg
@maromatic
@gdhansen
@friedicecream
@julianyoko
@kbuxton
@KiyomiD
@joycenlee
@judybatt
@alli_librarian
@hbdanielle
@Zorrah
@HeyDiggy

And if I left you out of my CLA tweeples list, it was a mistake. Let me know that you were there and tweeting and I’ll add you in! Good times team

A Tour of a Library Cyborg! #library #cla09

After the Library Planning seminar on Friday we had the opportunity to tour an amazing historic library in downtown Pasadena. This is a marvelous library was dedicated in 1927 and remains with the same look and feel of the year. It is a beautiful building and while I could go on and on about every room, I’ll spare you the details and the long drawn out blog entry (that this library actually deserves) and just give you the highlights of the building.

The entrance to the library is located at the dead end of Garfield St. making for a spectacular view of the library from the street into the main entrance. Walking up the steps leads into a small atrium or patio area with great stonework, a fountain, seating area, and beautiful classic architecture of the time period that the library was built in.

Main Lobby of Pasadena Library

Even more fabulous is the entrance into the library itself. Walking through the timeless dark wood doors and into the main lobby I felt as if I was yanked from the 21st century and thrown back the mid 1800s. I immediately wanted a pipe and coat and simply discuss the pressing issues of the century with other sporting fellows over the latest edition of the New Yorker.

Front desk of Pasadena Library

beginning. But I was sharply brought back to reality when I noticed the computers on the circulation desks and the patrons with laptops shining under the old time lamplights on the worktables. It was a marvelous blend of olden Americana and modern amenities. I was fairly thrilled from the

Cyborg OPAC

As I walked around the building I became more and more aware of the technology that was almost grafted into the building in an almost cyborg (think “The Borg” from Star Trek). It was done throughout the library in a brilliant way. I’m going to have a hard time describing each of the places that I found that had computers and technology built into the soul of the library itself so I’ll just post the pictures.

Peter Pan Fireplace

My next favorite room was the Children’s area of the library. Again, the building was showing its classic design and attention to details that I had noticed in the rest of library. As I walked in I was greeted with marvelous vaulted ceilings with hanging lights that accented the room even though they must have been installed many years later as I’m not sure that the original lights could have possibly remained functional. There was a giant fireplace of the variety that I’m sure Hansel and Gretel would have pushed the Witch into that was decorated with figurines carved into the stone.

Peter PanFireplace

At first I was a little worried about little naked children carved into a children’s library features (this would never pass nowadays) but as I looked closer I realized it was Peter Pan!! There was Captain Hook, the Crocodile, the pirate ship, Wendy, Peter, Toodles, and everyone! Absolutely gorgeously carved into the details of this fireplace. I hope my photos do it justice (but I’m sure they don’t).

Of course, to be fair… I do have to make two complaints mostly because nobody’s perfect. The first was simply regarding the children’s collection. I am a HUGE fan of the importance of weeding a collection and their children’s picture book and early reader collection must have a mean date of the early 80s. Of course that’s just speculation because I don’t have the data, but if you look again at the pictures you will notice that the shelves are packed end to end with books with no space for meaningful in-shelf displays or even comfortable browse ability. Many (I’m going to maybe say most) of the books were dirty, torn, old, grungy, dirty, and basically on the borderline of being unsafe due to various contaminants. So my only change would be a massive fundraising by the friends to replace and HEAVILY weed the children’s collection. To be honest, I would almost eliminate 65-70% of this collection with plans to buy back 35-40% with the Friends fundraising and the extra space would be used to “sell” the books from the shelves with more meaningful in-shelf displays. But what a problem to have? Too many books?

Chickens On Computers

My second was the computer center located in the basement. I can’t be too hard on the situation as they are dealing with a historical building and they’re providing a service for a high-demand need in the best way they can. However, the poor people are squeezed into the room like a bunch of chickens. There is no room for side-by-side collaboration and in retrospect (I didn’t notice it then) there were NO TEENS in the computer room. Who has that problem in their library? But I think, once again, these issues are stemming from the problems associated with the building and they can’t be blamed with the situation they’re in.

Overall, I loved this library and the kind of classic, warm feelings it seems to cultivate in my librarian soul. Aside from the two (almost non-problems) problem areas this was a fantastic space to tour and if you get a chance to take a look, I suggest you stop by. I’ll leave you with a picture of this device I found in back of the library that I’ve never seen before, but if you can identify it and let me know it’s (I’m sure sinister) purpose is, I would appreciate it. Thanks team.

What is this Thing?

Best F#$%ing Chairs Ever! #library #cla09

Spiderman was here...

I’m not sure why nobody has ever thought of this before!? Or, maybe they have and I just never saw it. In either case, these are the best F@#$% chairs of all time! If you’re tired of patrons stringing their laptop wires across the library floor creating a tripping hazard for your staff and other patrons then you might want to take a look at these chairs. They have built in power and Internet ports so that when your patrons sit in them, they can just plug in their power and Internet right into the seat they’re in. I see many people using laptops in the big comfy chairs around the library and don’t always use one of those tables with the plugs and network ports and instead string their wires across the building.

This one big problem as I see it, is needing to run power through the floor to get to the chairs, but I think this can easily be solved by having the chairs in zones next to walls. It’s fairly easy to run power and data lines along a wall and the chairs can be networked together in a row to get power to the chairs further away from the wall. These spaces can create nice user-friendly spaces that don’t look like Spiderman just came swinging through spraying webs across the library. (as a side note, does anyone know what happens to all those webs that Spiderman leaves behind in New York, what do you think the cost to the city is on something like that? Is it a biohazard? Did they have to create some municipal department to deal with the disposal? Where does the funding come from for an operation like that? Ok… Anyway…) I think these chairs solve a number of power and data problems that our patrons face while sitting in the comfortable “3rd space” areas we are trying to create in some of our librares.

Data and Power in the Arm of the Chair

Power and Data on Side of Chair

Best F#$% Chairs ever are available through Community Furnishings at http://www.communityfurniture.com/

Planning Libraries, Tweetups, and Unconferences at #cla09

After quickly learning that there would be no wireless access at the California Library Conference, I dug in to accept that I would be working almost entirely from my iPhone. I suppose that this is fine considering our current financial situation, but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of professionals whose job is to provide information access, and then not be able to access information when we gather in large groups. Oh, well I suppose it is, what it is. And there’s always next year.

So, I spent the first day in the “Planning Library Space” full day institute by the Cohen and Associates. Besides being highly informative about some of the aspects of gaining support for the construction of a new library, there were quite a few great ideas about designing a library as a space. Some of the best ideas from this seminar were:

• The library is a stage, how do you want patrons to feel about the performance?

• Create collaborative workspaces to encourage an exchange of information in libraries

• Walls in libraries to separate different service areas creates barriers to service

• Develop “Living Edges” in library designs

I’m excited to get back to my library and take a look at our space and see what else needs to be done. Unfortunately that list is getting longer and longer but gets me all excited.

After the seminar I went to attend a tweetup in the unconference. A tweetup is a gathering of people who are using twitter and an unconference is… Well… I’m not sure. But I did get a free drink out of it and met the 4 or 5 people at the conference who are twittering about what’s happening at CLA this year. I’m hoping that Saturday or Sunday more people start twittering so I can see what I’m missing at other sessions.

Overall, regardless of the lack of Wireless Internet, this conference has started out fairly well.

The best 8 Tweets from Wednesday at #il2009 (or at least my favorite)

I think we’re starting to wind down this conference. Either there weren’t as many great presentations or all the twitterers have gone home already. I felt like there weren’t as many great tweets or thought provoking ideas put out as there were the other two days. Once again, these are my favorites from Internet Librarian 2009.

@grrb Use peer pressure and donuts to inspire staff to use new technologies.
I would also try to use beer as that seems to help get those creative juices flowing. I always seem to learn the most at a conference while out drinking with colleagues.

@desertlibrarian as with any other shiny new toys & tools, make sure you have a need and purpose for a sandbox before devoting time and resources
Yes, please don’t let the sandbox be like Second Life. Don’t invest in a waste of time and resources.

@theanalogdivide Sony at dawn of transistor – used word that detailed its real use. “Pocketable radio” sold 1.5M units in Japan alone
Hmmm… That’s a great thought. Should we rename libraries? Ah, I fear we’re too late for that. Maybe we should have thought of a better name for it a couple hundred years ago.

@degreesofshine Play with the technology! Its practice, its play and its fun! Its okay to be silly!
Always, always, play. That’s just a great life rule!

@Carravagio Reward both success and failure, but punish inaction. Innovation comes from quantity
Inaction has been the death of libraries for far too long. This needs to be fixed now!

@Cindy_Shamel Library 101 merits a look. Awesome video launched at http://www.libraryman.com/library101
If you’re not familiar with Library 101, I can’t say enough great things, so I’m not going to try. Take some time, learn and contribute.

@Zuma_Rain can get the ‘good stuff’ from the other sessions by reading others’ tweets (I LUB DIS)
Can I say that Twitter has changed everything I have thought about conferences?

@htomren when dealing with change, your level of positivity or negativity affects everything. Buddhist quote: “lean into your discomfort”
For all you manager… When presenting a change, just be positive. Actually, as a manager always be positive! No need for negativity, EVER.

Internet Librarian and Rockin’ Battledecks video.

One of the most entertaining (and strangely informative) parts of Internet Librarian in Monterey 2009 was Rockin’ Battledecks on Tuesday night. This video is just bits and pieces of everyone’s battle. I missed filming the winner, but it was Amy Bucland who did an amazing job. To be fair, everyone’s presentation was spectacular and fun!

Throughout the conference I was most impressed with the level of presentation abilities in just about every one of the sessions and I’m inspired to find something to present and see what I can do. Battledecks only highlighted the level of shear talent that was present at this conference. hope this becomes a part of more library conferences.

Sorry for the video quality, I have been putting off buying a Flip camera… I guess its time to spend the extra money. Luckily Aspen Walker (@AspenWalker) who invested in a Flip filmed the whole thing on her camera and you can check it out here

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Second Half of the Cream of The Crop Tweets from #il2009, #library

And… The last set of best of the best tweets from Monterey Internet Librarian 2009 for today. This second half of the day didn’t seem to be as exciting as the first half. Maybe all these librarians are wearing down at the end of the day and after lunch? But overall, I’ve been pretty excited about all of the great ideas that are coming out for #il2009.

@lisacarlucci great idea – UHouston collaborated w prof teaching iPhone app dev; now class is building apps for the library
This is an outstanding collaboration to get the work done. But how about an Application competition?

@craftyLib Great nugget from optimizing web presence is you get more honest results by watching users test than asking what they want
People are more honest from their actions instead of their words? I think my grandmother used to say something like that! I totally agree and never thought about applying my grandmother’s wisdom this way.

@Carravagio Wants this new Worldcat app that uses barcode pictures to find nearby libraries that own the item
This is going to be awesome at Borders or Barnes and Noble! If only the Worldcat search results page was even mildly intuitive or easy to use.

@grrb Promotional badges for library products and services on your webpage look like banner ads, and’ll be ignored like banner ads.

@Carravagio Why haven’t I heard of this before? http://www.boopsie.com/home/ Too cool!
This is an awesome way to quickly and cheaply make phone apps, but they do want you to pay for it. It looks to me like you can’t design or build them yourself like you can do with widgets on widgetbox.com

http://twitter.com/gretchenhams: ppl huddled around outlets w/their devices r like the 21st century Smokers Circle.
You crazy internet librarian addicts!

@gretchenhams Nothing against marketing but idea of using prizes as bribes to get people to sign up bothers me on a personal level

@buffyjhamilton: Here is a neat app called “Margins” http://bit.ly/2GyheA
This is a fun app, I’m getting it as soon as my phone charges. Stores info about the book that you are “writing” in while studying. Easy and fast way to reference your notes later.

@lisacarlucci “if we are only teaching keyword searches in info lit sessions, we are going to be seen as hopelessly out of date”

@shifted I love that http://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/ has “more cowbell” on the home page!
There are quite a few discussions about creating a sense of “whimsy” in libraries, or breaking down the stereotype that libraries are stuffy sophisticated places. What a great place to break that down on the homepage of the library.

@jenica26 Action verbs for website, like Visit and Research. User-focused verbs; Borrow rather than Lend. Makes “inviting” online space.

@weelibrarian: “you won’t know what your users want if you don’t know what they already use.” start here.

Best and Most Tweeted Tweets from the 1st Half of the Day at Internet Librarian

Due to yesterday’s larger than expected success with blogging tweets, I did it again for the first half of today’s Internet Librarian. These are the best (in my opinion) and some of the most re-tweeted tweets from this morning’s sessions. I was in the mobile library sessions and I think everyone else was in here too which explains why these were so Mobile Library heavy. The original tweets are bold and my thoughts are in regular text, if I had any.

@kristenyt Making the private and passionate experience of reading public…and then returning it to the private

@jdysart Great quotes -universe made of stories not atoms; making the experience of reading public; libs as lively places of ideas
Makes me think of coffee shops in the dark ages that played a part in spurring the renaissance

@gretchenhams Don’t just give people what they want, give them something that surprises them & better yet, yourself!
YES!! Now what… This is such a great concept, I have to figure out what to do with resources that don’t quite equal those of NYPL’s.

@AspenWalker C203: we use phones for so much. Why aren’t our library websites optimized for mobile viewing too?
Of course.. Very self-explanatory very much makes me think… what were we thinking by not optimizing our websites for mobile web

@john_fereira Jason Clark: “Twitter makes stuff better.”
I just think this one is funny and for this conference at least, very very true.

@vkline RT @gershbec: We screwed up our regular websites, so mobile is a second chance to offer a good impression

@gretchenhams new interface, way ppl touch screen needs 2 b considered, don’t clutter, keep enough space 4 fat thumbs
This is also just good advice for any of our websites.

@Rudibrarian website users think about what they need; don’t make them think abt what to click or where to look. Allow intuitive use!
Don’t make anyone using the library think more than they already have to in order to use the library.

@buffyjhamilton Toby Greenwalt’s bookmarks for “The Shoutbomb Gateway: Mobile Service from the Ground Up” http://bit.ly/OjpBJ
Just a solid link and good info to have.

@AspenWalker @Griffey Honeywell kitchen computer circa 1969. First home computer. $10,000. Came w/ 2 week programming class. A cutting board too
LOVE IT!! I Want one

@Library_Boy Augmented reality: effectively marking up the real world. What role will libraries play. Privacy implications?
Augmenting reality is just such a fascinating concept and I hadn’t heard much about it until just now. Read up! Its totally amazing.

@lorireed “ERATE isn’t worth it” for filtering. Have to figure in other costs…staff time for research, install, maintenance
I just like this, because I’ve thought this for soooo long. What a waste of time L

@jcasabona RT @kristenyt: .@griffey on privacy concerns with geolocation- “Get over it. Privacy is dead.”
Ok librarians, these are fighting words, let’s see some blood J

@lorireed Ex. of sites blocked: WebMD, wikipedia Hustler entry, WWII history site, Natl Geo images of beavers
So many other great sites are blocked too. How can we work around this? someone smarter than me needs to be able to figure it out.

@JustinLibrarian RT @strnglibrarian: “the future is already here. Its just not evenly distributed.”
Digital Divide anyone?

Battling Internet Librarian Vloggers #il2009 #librarian

Drat! My Vlogging ability was no match for hers. Unfortunately, I was defeated by her mad interviewing skills. Although, to be fair, my video was up first

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Twitter Summary of Internet Librarian 2009 #il2009 #library

*note* This is an updated post. I got to some more reliable internet access and added the links and formatting I wanted. Its a little better now. Thanks to everyone who RTed the original!! *note*

I was going to try to write a Blog summarizing my thoughts on the first day of Internet Librarian but realized this was already done for me on twitter. So instead of re-writing everything that people are already saying… I’m posting SOME of my favorite tweets from #il2009 on Monday, October 26. On some of them I have added my own commentary and I removed the #il2009 hashtag, but I left the twitter name of the person who tweeted it. Don’t be shy about following these folks. They’re good people and have my patented seal of approval!

@mamccallister Word. RT @rphulser: “If u don’t like change, ur going to like irrelevance even less.” Gen. Eric Shinseki as cited by @rtennant
I couldn’t agree more with this statement and I’ve been politely yelling about this since library school.

@LibTechSucks All this silly dithering about twitter. The only way to converse is in leather chairs with some Oban 14yr.
Ok this character’s tweets are getting funnier but only because I kind of agree with this one. I’m a big fan of a big leather chair, a good stiff drink (on the rocks) and some good folks to talk to.

@infogdss29 Put chat windows in the locations (online) where people get frustrated
Also, can I add? Put all kinds of windows in the locations online where the patrons are, or (use my catalog search widget video) and let the patrons put the library where they are.

@walkingpaper great quote- @davidleeking: “i’m a librarian. people stop to ask me questions in the grocery store. Why not let that happen online?”
Why not let it happen everywhere? It makes me think we’re kind of like doctors in this sense. “oh! You’re a doctor? Hey, listen… I got this rash…”

@kristenyt Wii has changed the way people interact w/ computers. What’s the future in physical computing?
This is a great question… I’m going to think about this one for a while.

@ahniwa Use events networks like Eventful, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Craigslist to create awareness of library events.

@kristenyt Users know library has the best content, but want a more convenient access point – single search box.
This is very true… Why do libraries have the worst search boxes? I think we need to be doing a little more market research.

@varnum John Law: Users know that libraries have the best research content & resources The library is NOT the easiest place to start.

@john_fereira A picture is worth a 1000 words. Take as much time as you would to read 1000 words to look at a visualization.

@varnum K. Godfrey: Nielsen Report says YouTube’s largest user group is 18-24 yr-olds. This is our demographic. Why aren’t we there?

@infogdss29 dear librarians, pls stop being snobs about freeware kthxbai – link 2 open access open source zero cost resources… FREE ?= inferior
This is absolutely spectacular! Can we please STOP PAYING for databases already? I think we’re beyond that point.

@gretchenhams RT @pollyalida: “Rejoice in failures – it means you’re pushing the boundaries” sarah houghton jan – live that.
Sooo true. The only time I really learn something is when I fail at it the first time.

@Rudibrarian when working with nextgen, you have to know where your students are, work with them in the formats they use.
….And go to where their formats are.

@buffyjhamilton Website design principles: simple/clean; tighter integration of website and catalogue; expose/repackage library services

@AspenWalker Cloud collaboration: thebigpic.org is user-friendly and fun project management option. it also syncs with google calendar.
I’m going to have to go figure out this new “Cloud” buzzword. Apparently it’s derived from the concept of cloud computing in which multiple systems work on a common project? Sounds like the new management “thing”

@AmbivaTwit cloud computing: not replacement for actual assembling of humans in lib but will impact how we think about lib spaces.

And of course… My favorite Tweet
@Tombrarian : @librarianbyday has a box of monkeys