Luckiest People On the Planet
Just read a great post Library Alchemy! It’s the first in a series of the August Wilson Leadership Academy (Patent Pending). She reviewed and discussed Susan Scott’s Fierce Leadership. The book sounds like something I’d like to read. But the best part of the post is near the end when she gets into the discussion. Below is my favorite quote:
We are not corporate, in the sense that what we do is not about engendering profits. Success, in our realm, is measured in lives changed, via refdesk ticks, the number of people at our programs, the number of database accesses, etc. Those metrics speak to supporting democracy and transforming society. We are the luckiest freaking people on the planet, because we don’t just crank out widgets. We don’t pollute the environment, either – in fact, whenever we do our jobs, the world is generally a better place than we found it.
January AWLA (PP) Pick: Fierce Leadership « Library Alchemy.
All I can say is “Amen!” I need to do a better job at remembering that being a Librarian is a unique and noble career. Where else can I help people from all walks of life with a vast array of information needs on a daily basis? What other job actually encourages me to learn something new EVERY DAY? I, as a Librarian, have these opportunities. It is up to me to take advantage of the offerings my profession provides.
It is easy to sit back and let the day-to-day little stuff get us down. I know it gets me more often than I’d like to admit. But every now and then I get to help someone at the precise moment when he/she is in need of a little extra boost and that little boost gives him/her the insight or the added piece of a puzzle that solves the problem they have been working on. Those are the times when I remember why I chose this profession and why I’m happy I did.
Great Quote
A very good quote and something to think about as I work at becoming a better librarian.
Really. People will notice, though not necessarily consciously, if we take the time to think about them when we’re developing our services. The secret here is not to think of library patrons, users, or customers: we need to think of people. We need to consider their lives and what they’re trying to accomplish. This act, which can only be done by cultivating the skill of empathy, is the most important—and perhaps the most difficult—part of user experience design.
Aaron Schmidt
via New Column Launch: The User Experience – 1/15/2010 – Library Journal.
Upgrade
Lately I’ve been involved in explaining social media to people in county administration. Its been a very rewarding experience and I’ve learned a lot about my county, the people who run it and myself.
One realization about my self that I’ve come to is the need to upgrade my computer skills. I am no slouch when it comes to navigating a pc, far from it. I’m one of the first people called in my branch when someone is having difficulty with a computer. Most of the time I’m able to solve the problems I am presented. Luckily we have a very good library IT department who can fix anything I can’t
Where I need to upgrade is in the area of creation. I am not a programmer. Not sure I’ll ever be one, but right now I know very little about how programming is done. This is an area I need to strengthen. By not knowing more about how software is created I feel I’m at a disadvantage. As I progress through my career having a basic understanding of programming will become more important. I’d like to be able to create something useful for me and my colleagues one day. I don’t know what it would be but right now everything I use is created by someone else.
So, to go about this new initiative, I’ve looked into the local community college. It looks like a good place to start. I’ll also try to teach myself by using the library’s collection. Let’s see where this takes me.
Outreach?
Recently Jamie LaRue spoke at my library’s staff development day. He was very interesting and had many good ideas. I enjoyed his presentation very much and am happy that he was able to come and speak to our staff.
During his presentation he mentioned a few things that have been bouncing around my head for a few months. He was able to explain them very well and I’m very happy that our administration was there to listen to him.
Something he discussed that I really like is the idea of having reference librarians out in the community. Call it outreach, roving reference or whatever but the idea is that the library can do some really positive things if we get the librarians out of the building and helping in the community. The example he gave was of one of his librarians helping a local downtown revitalization group. The librarian was originally humored and thought of as not needed. But by listening to the group’s discussions then demonstrating the library’s ability to help in a real way she is now an integral part of the group.
This type of reference service is something I’ve been thinking about recently. After reading this post from In The Library With the Lead Pipe and listening to a few presentations by R. David Lankes the idea of getting librarians out of the building and helping community organizations has really struck me as something we should be doing more of.
One of the places I think my library can begin this type of service is by assigning a librarian to the Deputy County Managers. The county has 5 of them and they coordinate all the departments in the county. By assisting these 5 people we will be able to get a good idea of what is going on in the county; what the trends are, who the “important” people are, and get a bird’s eye view at the issues affecting our community. From here we should be able to contact leaders outside of county government and begin assisting them with the issues their organizations face. It will take a long time and a lot of work but I think the benefit to the community and the library will be great.
- The library will be seen as more than just books and story time.
- Librarians will be able to showcase their skills as information specialists and use that knowledge and those skills more.
- Community leaders will receive specialized service from an information professional and will have more time to focus on their organization.
This is really just an idea for me right now. Details will have to be thought through and I’m not sure how to get it started but will begin working on it soon. We have some smart people in administration who should see some value in this idea. I should probably stop writing and get on the phone.
Hamthrax
In a post from ars technica about a (not at all funny) phishing scheme concerning swine flu they included this bit of art.
oranchak.com
That’s funny.
The dark side of the internet
Just read this article and am intrigued.
Here are some quotes:
“The darkweb”; “the deep web”; beneath “the surface web” – the metaphors alone make the internet feel suddenly more unfathomable and mysterious. Other terms circulate among those in the know: “darknet”, “invisible web”, “dark address space”, “murky address space”, “dirty address space”. Not all these phrases mean the same thing. While a “darknet” is an online network such as Freenet that is concealed from non-users, with all the potential for transgressive behaviour that implies, much of “the deep web”, spooky as it sounds, consists of unremarkable consumer and research data that is beyond the reach of search engines. “Dark address space” often refers to internet addresses that, for purely technical reasons, have simply stopped working.
Michael K Bergman, an American academic and entrepreneur, is one of the foremost authorities on this other internet. In the late 90s he undertook research to try to gauge its scale. “I remember saying to my staff, ‘It’s probably two or three times bigger than the regular web,”‘ he remembers. “But the vastness of the deep web . . . completely took my breath away. We kept turning over rocks and discovering things.
In 2001 he published a paper on the deep web that is still regularly cited today. “The deep web is currently 400 to 550 times larger than the commonly defined world wide web,” he wrote. “The deep web is the fastest growing category of new information on the internet … The value of deep web content is immeasurable … internet searches are searching only 0.03% … of the [total web] pages available.”
Meanwhile the search engine companies are restlessly looking for paths into the deep web and the other sections of the internet currently denied to them. “There’s a deep implication for privacy,” says Anand Rajaraman of Kosmix. “Tonnes and tonnes of stuff out there on the deep web has what I call security through obscurity. But security through obscurity is actually a false security. You [the average internet user] can’t find something, but the bad guys can find it if they try hard enough.”
Ten years ago Tim Berners-Lee, the British computer scientist credited with inventing the web, wrote: “I have a dream for the web in which computers become capable of analysing all the data on the web – the content, links, and transactions between people … A ’Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines.” Yet this “semantic web” remains the stuff of knotty computer science papers rather than a reality.
It seems likely that the internet will remain in its Gold Rush phase for some time yet. And in the crevices and corners of its slightly thrown-together structures, darknets and other private online environments will continue to flourish. They can be inspiring places to spend time in, full of dissidents and eccentrics and the internet’s original freewheeling spirit. But a darknet is not always somewhere for the squeamish.
I knew there was a lot to the web that I didn’t know about but I had no idea that it was so vast. Read the article, its very interesting but tends to paint a not so rosy picture of the ‘dark web’. I’m interested in checking this it out but maybe a bit squeamish.
Will my curiosity be happy not knowing or will I have to take a look?
Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction
I’ve recently gotten a wave invitation and have been looking at a lot of videos that describe wave and I really like this one.
YouTube - Google Wave Cinema: Pulp Fiction.
I’ve got a few invites left if anyone wants one.
Many thanks to Chris Brogan for pointing me to this.
Thanks to the people who took the time to make it!
Tree of Knowledge
Flying Skunks Logo Unveiled | Tobacco Avenue
Flying Skunks Logo Unveiled | Tobacco Avenue
I actually like the “Flying Squirrels” as a name. I hope they can have races with Rocky and Bullwinkle!
Oh…and I’m testing the “Press This” bookmarklet too.
Holidays
our tree
Hope everyone has a happy holiday season. I know I will.
I’m going to be rejiggering this blog during the next year because I don’t want to write a library blog.
There are lots of people doing this already and doing it very well. I really have nothing more to add. This space will probably become more of an anecdotal blog, geared to my general interests…with a library slant.
I want to write more so hopefully by widening my scope I’ll accomplish that. I really enjoy blogging although I do it irregularly. My goal for the next year is to put something up at least once a week. Even if it’s just silly.
