Halloween has become overcommercialized

In The Know: Has Halloween Become Overcommercialized?

Thing #7: Searching for RSS

I can't remember the last time I actually searched for an RSS feed. Granted, I'm not the typical participant in this project but I look at it as a "you'll be out here some day too" scenario. Once you're hooked on RSS, you'll notice it virtually everywhere. It's hiding in search engines like Google News and PubMed. It's attached to practically every blog and online newspaper in existence these days. And, if there isn't a feed for the site you want to follow, you can use a service like Page2RSS to make a feed for you. Just keep your eyes open and the RSS will start to fall into your lap.
Image via OpenSource Vector Art

Thing #6: RSS

My thoughts on RSS. Well, I have written a book teaching others how do use it so I guess you could say I'm a fan. Seriously though, I'd say RSS has completely changed the way I receive information. Every time I get handed some monthly newsletter, wether print or electronic, I've pretty much already heard about everything the newsletter has printed. (Ok, not the ultra specific stuff but if it talks about larger issues or new tech, chances are I've already read about it.) Those that say there's not enough time to read all that they could subscribe to, I have the following suggestion: For every few RSS feeds you subscribe to, drop something that isn't RSS. Or, if you can, find the RSS version of something you read in print or via a specific Web site. (Your newspaper for example.) Quickly you'll see that you're spending the same amount of time yet receiving more information in that same amount of time.

Kinetic Brew

Last week I blogged about a sign I saw on O Street for a new coffee shop named Kinetic Brew. Seems that on Friday's they're doing a "name your own price" sale. After Fluxus left some comments encouraging me to stop by (especially today) I gathered up my coffee cohorts and headed down the street.

We chatted withe Jeremy the owner a little bit and he said that this was just the third week he'd tried it and so far it had been going quite well. Most people, he said, were confused by the concept and insisted on paying the list price for their drinks. I'll admit that the three of us all paid below list price but as a result he's definitely earned three new customers.

Since today is also Halloween, he was in costume. And what a costume it was! This thing was totally tricked out with both lights and sound. I think next time I'll bring more cash and pay double for my drink just because of the costume.

  

Thanks Jeremy! We'll be back.

An interesting commute

Wouldn't have posted this except for the scene in the library.

Dance off!

Robots Attack!

Barney Fife & the Constitution

How many of you start singing the Schoolhouse Rock version after about 30 seconds?

Watch music videos again

Instead of showing music videos on MTV (there's an idea), you can now watch the complete MTV archive of videos online. And yes, you can embed them too.

 

If you've not sent your fan mail to Ringo already, it's too late

Obama campaign goes viral

Actually, in this case they used a video that previously went viral online and adapted it to their needs. I’ve got to say, it’s but amusing and creative.

Rachel loves the Twitter

On Twitter she's @Maddow.

Thing #5: IM

Now that I'm back in the office after two weeks of conference it's time to get caught up with Nebraska Learns 2.0. Today: IM.

Instant Messaging is something that I find I don't use all that much. Granted, all of my co-workers in my department do so I find myself using it more and more. It's not that I don't like IM, I do find it useful from time to time, but I just forget to log in. Then, while logged in (via Meebo of course) I forget to set my away messages when I leave my desk. I'm trying folks, I really am.

Maybe my problem with IM is that while logged in, if someone sends you a message you're expected to drop everything and respond immediately. With e-mail and twitter I can respond when I want, not when they want.

On the other hand, I do see the usefulness of IM especially when it comes to reference services. I've even used MSN messenger on my smartphone to contact the Commission's reference desk to ask a question.

So, my rambling on this topic just shows how mixed my feelings are. Hopefully it'll click in my brain one day and I'll never want to live without it again. Then again, maybe not.

Reflections on Internet Librarian 2008

I've now been home from IL2008 for about four days and I'm finally caught up with everything. Well, everything except for the much-needed blog post about the trip. I didn't blog much while there, but I did Twitter a bunch. So, as a result, here's the one long blog post about the experience this time around. So, in no particular order:

Michael's engaged?

No, I'm not engaged. At least, not officially. For those of you that have been wondering here's the story: My girlfriend Mary jokes with me that she's "too old" to call me her "boyfriend" so when she introduces me she calls me her fiance. I have absolutely no problem with this at all. Eventually, we do plan on getting married but we figure we should at least live in the same state first. (She's still in Colorado for reasons I won't be getting into but it looks like she should be in Nebraska no later than this coming summer.)

During my Creative Commons presentation last Monday I, for a reason completely unknown to me, instead of saying what I usually say, "Mary, my girlfriend does the cataloging for this project," I instead said, "Mary, my fiance does the cataloging for this project." Honestly, I didn't even think about it, it just happened.

Well, Iris and Cindi were in the audience and immediately did a double-take. Cindi then got on the Twitter. Here's the result. (Read from the bottom up.) All happening while I'm still on stage completely unaware of what I'd done. While answering questions after my presentation someone cam up to me, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "I just wanted to let you know you're the talk of Twitter right now." "For what?" I asked. "For announcing your engagement. Congratulations!" I paused and then started laughing.

So, that's basically the story. I ended up explaining it to many people the rest of the conference and had people I didn't know congratulating me on my engagement the rest of the week. Christa and I even ended up working the story into our Twitter presentation on Wednesday.

Moderating the Social Web track

At CIL2008 I had my speakers write their bios as haikus. This time, LOLCats. You can view them on SlideShare. 'Nuff said.

FriendFeed & SlideShare

Due to changes in how Twitter worked I ended up having to pretty much move the tracking of the tweets from the conference to a FriendFeed room. Overall I think it was a success. Any future tweets labeled with the #il2008 hashtag will appear there but the individual twitter accounts that were there during the conference will no longer appear since future content will be irrelevant.

While at the conference I created a SlideShare event to group the presentations. No, I'm not trying to replace the collecting of presentations on the conference site, I just thought it would be fun to play with. Folks have added some presentations and I've added a few others that I found.

BTW: There's already a FriendFeed room and SlideShare event for CIL2009.

Two links from Liz Lawley's presentation

During Liz's presentation she mentioned my Library Signage flickr group and I mentioned the AirPower wiki. You now have links to those resources.

Small groups & conversations

In the past I've done the huge groups of people taking over a restaurant thing and have enjoyed it. However, this time I thought the group just just getting a little too big. So, despite doing that one (as the previously linked photo shows) I instead decided to try to stick to groups of six or less. Generally this was a success and I think I had a better conference because of it. I was actually able to talk with people for long periods of time instead of shouting toward people for short periods of time. During one conversation topics ranged from changes at OCLC to saving civilization as we know it via libraries. Now that's good conference conversation. Yes, karaoke looks like it was a lot of fun but I think I got more out of keeping it small.

Thank you note

During Colleen and Rudy's presentation I was handed this note. Wow! I never did get you name but thank you very much. You don't know how much us presenters wonder some times just how much of an impact we're making and something like this can make someone's conference. It made mine.

Lunch with my publisher

On Tuesday I had lunch with Charles Harmon of Neal-Schuman, Inc. and received some great news: there will be a UK edition of Searching 2.0. Also, since returning I've received the author queries (notes from the copy editor asking for clarifications,) and have returned most of them to her. Just two more chapters to accept/edit the edits and then it'll be off to layout and typesetting. At this point it's scheduled to be released in February 2009.

On the sofa

Tuesday evening I was interview by the Shanachies on their sofa before 400+ people. I has happy to finally have this opportunity but I was not prepared for it. (All the other interviewees were given advance warning.) In the end I was a little too pessimistic when asked about the future of libraries. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify what I said.

First of all, I don't like predicting the future so I always freeze a little when asked to do so. Second, I don't think libraries are ever going to disappear. Change, yes. but not go away all together. However, with the economy heading in the direction it is right now I think we may need to take a second look at much of what we're doing right now and regroup to defend ourselves against the cuts that are sure to come. Grand ideas are good and needed but we must not forget the small/rural libraries that are already under-funded if we are to survive. I just don't want us to loose sight of reality when dreaming the big dreams. The next few years will be tough ones for libraries and we shouldn't forget that.

Suggestions for future conferences

You probably don't know this but moderators get to have lunch with conference chair Jane Dysart on the day they're moderating. The topics of discussion is usually what we think of the conference this time around, what speakers have done great and should be invited back, and who, maybe, should not. She also wants to know what we think should be dine differently in the future. I had two suggestions.

First, schedule a live recording of Uncontrolled Vocabulary as an actual conference event. Set up a table and some microphones and do it live a la a live recording of TWiT or Diggnation. Maybe even take questions and comments from the audience. I think it would be a blast.

Second, panels. On each day, in each track, have one of the sessions be a three- to four-person panel on a topic. The moderator would ask the questions and the panel can answer. Also, be sure to leave enough time for the audience to ask some questions and maybe have the panelists ask questions of each other. Be sure to not schedule panels in two tracks at the same time so someone could, should they choose to do so, just attend panel-based sessions all day.

Both ideas seemed to be liked by Jane. We'll see what happens at CIL2009.

CC needs 45 minutes

Speaking of ideas for Jane, I keep pushing her that I need a full 45-minute session to explain the importance of Creative Commons. Both my previous 15 minute cybertour and the 20 minutes I had this time around were well received but I didn't have enough time. Jane thinks that the session needs a "better title" than "Participating in the Creative Commons" before that will happen. Please post any and all suggestions in the comments. Better yet, e-mail Jane and let her know I deserve a full session. ;-)

Hey, that’s me

My photos from the conference have been posted to flickr. IMHO some of them were spectacular. Particularly this one and this one. While on the plane from Monterey to Denver I was sorting through them and heard from across the aisle "hey, that's me." I'll just add that as a result of that conversation us folks running Nebraska Learns 2.0 now know that we're not the only ones with particular problems.

Final thoughts

This conference was just as much fun, and as much work, as it has been in the past. However, I can see that my focus and what I'm trying to get out of conference is changing slightly. The smaller groups were definitely a plus. I'm also noticing that it seems like I'm moving from being there for myself to being there to help others get as much out of the conference as they can. Wether it's presenting, moderating, or meeting with new people and turning them into new friends and new colleagues.

I believe that each of us gets what we need out of a conference such as Internet Librarian. If you don't feel you did, think about what you did and didn't do while you were there and try a different way of looking at things and participating next time. Eventually you'll find your groove.

OpenSource pricing

Taking a cue from some recent attempts of bands trying the "set your own price" model of selling (I'm assuming) a local bar/coffee house had this sign out at lunch time today. I'm thinking of going back to talk to them after work but I'm still exhausted from conference so I might not get to it 'till next week. (Yes, a very long post about IL2008 is on the way.)

Screencast-o-matic

My first attempt at using Screencast-o-matic for a basic how-to tutorial. In this case, how to find, copy, and past a blog post permalink for the Nebraska Learns 2.0 program.

Head over Heels : Literal Video Version

New IL2008 Feed Instructions

Well, due to Twitter changes, the feed I gave earlier will not work. So, we're going to have to move everything over to the IL2008 FriendFeed room. So here's the new instructions:

• If you're attending send me the info for whatever feed you want to appear in the room. Going to be posting via Twitter, send me your Twitter name. Or, just use the hashtag #il2008 and your tweet will automatically appear in the FriendFeed room. (All of this assumes your Twitter account is public.)
  
• If you want to read the content of the FriendFeed room you can do so by either going to the room's Web page or subscribe to the room's feed.

So anyway....

Next week at the Nebraska Library Association conference I'll officially become the Information Technology and Access Round Table (ITART) vice-chair/chair-elect. (Vice chair for 2008-9, chair and therefore NLA board member for 2009-10.) So, for those looking for different blog content you might want to check out the ITART blog. I'm attempting to write one short post every day I'm in the office, mostly on tech tips and tricks. Other bloggers will be joining me in the forthcoming months and a redesign of the blog is also in the works.

The Democat Librarian

Source image: www.flickr.com/photos/92518741@N00/1507196484/
In response to: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5543214&postID=5263685707070747128

The Read Menace

Michelle Obama on The Daily Show

Originally broadcast on 8 October 2008

There's a Floppy Disk on the Floor

Google allows book embedding

I know this is not exactly new but I figured I'd give it a try with one of my titles.

IL2008 Twitter feed is up and running.

If you're going to be at IL2008 and want your tweets to appear in the conference Twitter feed head over to www.twitter.com/il2008 and follow the instructions. (Basically, e-mail me your Twitter username and follow the account.) If you aren't attending and want to read the conference Twitter feed you can do so via the RSS feed.

Sarah Palin, Guardian of the Northern Frontier

A Keith Olberman Special Comment

From last night:

Nebraska Learns 2.0 - It’s time to start learning!

Cross-posted from the NLC Blog:
It’s time to start learning! The Nebraska Learns 2.0 program starts today. The program is made up of 23 short online lessons called Things. The Things are designed to encourage staff to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.

In addition to learning new Things everyone who completes all 23 Things by January 30, 2009 will have a chance to win one of nine 8GB Creative Zen MP3 Players. These prizes have been made available through generous donations from ITART, NEMA, and NLA. Also everyone who completes the program before the deadline will receive 15 CE credits. More information about prize eligibility and CE credit can be found on the Nebraska Learns 2.0 website.

Here are a few things you may be wondering about.

• You do not need to register. However, to be eligible for prizes and CE credits you do need to blog your progress. Instructions on how to do this will be included in Thing #3 and Thing #4.
• There is no cost to participate.
• ALL Nebraska librarians, library staff, library friends, library board members and school media specialists can participate. (Other folks are welcome to follow along; however, we will not be offering any official technical support nor will you be eligible for the prize drawings or CE credit.)
• This is a self-directed learning program. No in-person classes will be offered.
• Have more questions? Check out the FAQ on the Nebraska Learns 2.0 website.

To start learning go to the Nebraska Learns 2.0 website: http://l2ne.blogspot.com/2008/09/thing-1-discovery.html

23 Things @ SAPL

Nebraska's 23 Things program starts Monday. I wish we were talented enough to put a promo like this together:

Maybe in Ohio, but not in America!

Don’t Vote!