Comic book art

This is most likely the most beautiful comic book cover I have ever seen. (The story's pretty good too.)

Book signing @ CIL2007

For those of you that still don't own a copy of Blogging and RSS: A Librarian's Guide and will be attending Computers in Libraries in April, I will be doing a book signing at the Information Today booth. It will be during the afternoon coffee break on Tuesday from 2:30-3:15pm. See you there!

This isn't an alarm clock blog

But it may seem like one lately. This one's tag line is "wake up and smell the coffee". Yes, you can take that literally.

Coffee Blog

Coffee Blog
Originally uploaded by travelinlibrarian.

No kidding. There's a new coffeeshop in Murray, UT (a southern suburb of Salt Lake City) named "Coffee Blog". Talk about two great things rolled into one. Unfortunately I think they just recently opened and nobody has discovered them yet as I was the only customer and had the feeling I'd been the only one for several hours. The guy who served me was pleasant and the background music was enjoyable. I also have to give the place kudos for their honesty on the menu board as they described an americano as "espresso diluted with hot water". I ended up getting a very tasty pumpkin spice latte but didn't hang around as I was off looking for some dinner. If you're in town check 'em out. (There's a few more photos of the place in my flickr account. Just click on the photo to the right to get there.)

Airplane announcements

1. On a Southwest flight (SW has no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, ! people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"

2. On a Continental Flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."

3. On landing, the stewardess said, "Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have.

4. "There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane"

5. "Thank you for flying Delta Business Express. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."

6. As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Ronald Reagan, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"

7. After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in Memphis, a flight attendant on a Northwest flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."

8. From a Southwest Airlines employee: "Welcome aboard Southwest Flight 245 to Tampa .. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and, if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."

9. "In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child traveling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are traveling with more than one small child, pick your favorite."

10. "Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Southwest Airlines."

11. "Your seat cushions can be used for flotation; and, in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."

12. "As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."

13. And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Delta Airlines is pleased to have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"

14. Heard on Southwest Airlines just after a very hard landing in Salt Lake City the flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump, and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt."

15. Overheard on a n American Airlines flight into Amarillo, Texas, on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain was really having to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Amarillo . Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"

16. Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."

17. An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the Passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline." He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment. Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" The little old lady said , "Did we land, or were! we shot down?"

18. After a real crusher of a landing in Phoenix, the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Capt. Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we'll open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal."

19. Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of US Airways."

20. Heard on a Southwest Airline flight. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing and if you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."

21. A plane was taking off from Kennedy Airport . After it reached a comfortable cruising altitude, the captain made an announcement over the intercom, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. Welcome to Flight Number 293, nonstop from New York to Los Angeles . The weather ahead is good and, therefore, we should have a smooth and uneventful flight. Now sit back and relax... OH, MY GOD!" Silence followed, and after a few minutes, the captain came back on the intercom and said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am so sorry if I scared you earlier. While I was talking to you, the flight attendant accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee in my lap. You should see the front of my pants!" A passenger in Coach yelled, "That's nothing. You should see the back of mine."

Thanks G!

IL2006: Day Three Wrap-up

Last day of the conference and I woke up tired. That's not necessarily a bad sign as it was not unexpected. Plumes for coffee, by myself this morning as others decided to sleep in. (This also was not unexpected.) Morning keynote then off to the wikis souble-session. Lunch somewhere; I honestly don't remember where. (Oh yeah, it was the free lunch that I rushed through before doing my book signing at the Information Today booth. Duh!) Then back to the conference center for "social softwr" and blogging tools.

Liz Lawley's closing keynote was on gaming and I did ask her a question about her thoughts on what we're doing at the Second Life Library 2.0. I didn't blog it at the time as I didn't want to be typing as she was answering my question. What she said was somewhat unexpected yet thought provoking. Basically, she doesn't feel that SL is a game at all (I agree) as there's no "point" or "goals" for the "players". The more interesting point she made was that she feels that SL is "the AOL of virtual worlds". In other words, it's where companies and people will get used to things before moving on to the next stage, as may did with AOL before moving on to the Internet. Thanks Liz! I enjoyed your response very much and I'll be thinking about what you said for a while.

I then went back to my room for two hours to relax and watch the first two eipsodes of Torchwood(!). At 6:30 eleven of us met in the Marriott lobby and headed off for some great Sushi at Ko-To. (If you want spectacular sushi at reasonable prices without all the "fru fru" atsmophere, Ko-To is the place to go in Monterey!) $265 dollars later (plus tip) we were all stuffed and looking to head back to the Crown & Anchor. There more merryment was had, "goodbyes" and "see you in March"es were shared and I finally succumbed to the exhaustion, leaving about 10:15.

This morning I'm waiting to meet up with an OCLC researcher to talk about social software for an hour or so before heading back to San Francisco for a 2:30pm flight. I'm assuming that I'll blog about the meeting when I get a chance and will definitely post some final conference thoughts in the next 48 hours.

IL2006: Day 2 wrapup

Yesterday was just as fun as the rest of the conference. I started with my usual coffee and WiFi at Plumes followed quickly by the credit card crisis. The opening keynote with Clifford Lynch was not nearly as entertaining as the one with J.A. Jance was but, despite some people finding him predictable and boring, I enjoyed it. (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Two sessions later I was off to a very quick lunch fish & chips at Britannia Arms with Karen and Michelle. The rush was due to the fact that I needed to be back for my Flickr presentation with Michael Porter. Turns out that our three non-US co-presenters were not just from out of the country but were actually out of the country. They all had sent in pre-recorded talks during which Michael changed the slides at pre-determined times. Yes folks, this was a surprise even to me! However, it all worked out great and, since I was the last in line for actually presenting, it did make sure that three of the five of us didn't go over their allotted time. ;-)

Michael and the others did the high-level stuff about flickr and I did the "fluff". But all my stuff wasn't total fluff. There was an audible "wow" when I showed what the Westmont Public Library was doing with flickr and their new acquisitions.

I then attended the MySpace & Facebook session in which I learned a few new things that I'll be checking out when I get back. (Maybe I'll even get a Facebook account...) I had my power strip with me today and at one point there were eleven laptops in the room's front row with seven of them plugged into my powerstrip. I was planning on attending Meridith's RSS & Javascript Cookbook session but it turned out that most of what she was covering I'd done in my pre-conference so I decided to go back and collapse in my room for a while.

From 6-8pm was the speaker's reception up on the top floor of the Marriott. Great nibbles and conversation were had by (I assume) all. I did get a short vid of the Monterey Bay while the sun was still up. (The narration turned out horribly but I didn't want to bother to redo it.)

After the reception many of us ended up back at the Crown & Anchor for dinner, libations, and conversation. I finally gave up at about 11:30 and crashed back in the room about 12:30am.

As exhausted as I am this morning, I can't stress how much I enjoy going out with everyone. On one level, networking with everyone here and meeting new people makes the conference more worthwhile than the official sessions. For those of you that are here through tonight and haven't gone out with others yet, please do so. Despite how tired you'll be tomorrow, it is definitely worth it.

IL2006: Day 1 Recap

It was a totally full day as expected. I started by waking at 5:30am and heading down to Plumes for coffee & WiFi. Karen and Michelle met me there and then we all headed to the opening Keynote. J.A. Jance was an interesting choice but she told the moving story of her life and ended with singing. The standing ovation even had her get back up and sing another song! How's that for a totally unexpected keynote? I spent the morning attending sessions and those I've already blogged so I won't repeat them here. I caught up with Greg Schwartz for lunch at India's Clay Oven and headed back for another session or two. I finally caught up with Rachel Singer-Gordon and got her to let me into the yet-to-be-opened exhibitors area to get me a copy of my Blog/RSS book. It looked great! Information Today was now down to just 49 copies at the conference. At 3:15pm was my session with Lori Bell and Tom Peters on the Alliance Second Life Library 2.0 project. The room totally filled with folks standing in the back. The presentation went great and I almost lost it on stage laughing so hard when Lori started talking about the "sex and gambling" in Second Life and how InfoIsland was a haven from "all that" for some. We did have time to take a few questions and I believe we answered them to the audience's satisfaction. I then relaxed, checked my e-mail and headed off to the evening exhibitors reception. I caught up with too many people to name beyond the usual suspects. I also finally met Amy Reeve from IT who got my book through the final post-editing stages of publication. During the reception I saw at least five copies of my book sold and I'm sure they sold more than that while I wasn't looking. If everything goes well, they'll all be sold and everyone will come back for the book signing on Wednesday. Then I was of to Isabella's for dinner with the Second Life crowd. A few of the regulars showed up along with some newbies. One of them was Rowan who said she'd signed up for SL right after our talk and was interested in helping as soon as she gets off Welcome Island. Jenny Levine was also at the dinner and filled some of us in on many of the "quirks" of working at ALA. Then we crashed the gathering of the "Five Weeks to a Social Library" gathering down at the Crown & Anchor. There ended up being about 20 people there and I met many more new people. I finally ended up back at the hotel about 10pm to crash. (This morning my company credit card doesn't seem to be working. I need to make a phone call.)

Internet Librarian: Day -1

Sunday was wonderful. Up a little early due to the time change and off to Bay Books across the street for coffee and free WiFi. (The connection in my room, still wouldn't work.) Caught up with Karen Coombs for some breakfast at the Bagel place up the street and then some more coffee at Cafe Noir next to the theatre. (They've got 54Mbps WiFi but don't take credit cards so bring cash.) Back to the conference center to pick up my registration materials and badge. A quick check of the Internet connection in the room for my pre-conference worked first try so I could relax and have some lunch with the workshop attendees. There I met up with Karen Burns of the South-West Iowa Library Service Area, and two of her librarian/board members.) Of course, I'm in my white RSS polo shirt and we has mannicotti with red sauce for lunch. Back to my room to change my shirt and I was off the my pre-conference. On the way I caught up with Frank Cervone, Darlene Fichter, and Jane Dysart for a few minutes.

My RSS session went almost flawlessly. Right at the start the bulb in the projector decided it was too old but Bill Spence came to my rescue and replaced the bulb. I ended up with an almost full room of about 30 students and they all asked an amazing number of high quality questions. Finally, one gentleman in the front row raised his hand and said "since you've only got ten minutes left, could you just cover the highlights of the last five tools you still have to show?" I've never had a workshop go as quickly as this one did. Thanks to everyone who attended. (I'll post the PowerPoint later but the (ugly) test page that was created to demo many of the tools I covered can be found @ http://www.travelinlibrarian.info/rsstest.html.)

After the session I caught back up with Karen Coombs and Michelle a coworker of Kren's from University of Houston. A brief hi and chat with Jenny Levine and Karen, Michelle and I caught back up with Karen Burns and her crew for a Greek dinner at Epsilon. I was actually back to my room by 8pm, finished reading Bob Woodward's State of Denial and off to sleep. (Yep, that's why I'm up and blogging at 6:30am.

Photos are up-to-date in flickr and the opening keynote's at 9. cu l8r.

Internet Librarian, Day -2

It's Sunday morning in Monterey, CA and I've found my way across the street from the Portola Plaza Hotel for some free WiFi so I can finally uplaod some photos, a video, and make this post. Yesterday was an interesting day...

I woke up to snow in Denver and didn't notice it until I opened up my back door to head out to the car. The plane taking me from Denver to San Francisco had been sitting all night at DIA so a total de-icing was required. Somehow we let Denver 30 minutes late but got to San Francisco only ten minutes late. (Don't tell me those "estimated flight times" aren't being manipulated by the airlines to make them look good.) Anyway, I got my rental car quickly (thank you National Car Rental for giving me executive level in our program as I was totally able skip the long line @ SFO) and hit the road down to Monterey.

I decided to take the scenic route so I headed down US280 and cut over to Half Moon Bay on CA92 to take CA1 south to Monterey. Well, as the computer in the car told me when I got to Monterey, I'd averages 31.5 mph the whole trip. 100 miles took me about four hours. The two worst spots were CA92 where I never put my foot on the gas pedal, and Santa Cruz where everything was backed up again. The problem on CA92 was a large pumpkin patch and fall festival in Half Moon Bay that had traffic backed up for miles. In Santa Cruz, your guess is as good as mine.

The speed of the traffic did allow me to get some good pictures on the way (in the flickr photoset of this trip) and I did stop at Pescadero State Beech and got some great photos of the coast and a video of some waves coming in. (Posted to my YouTube account. Links at the end.)

I check into the hotel, got to my room, logged on to their DSL connection and agreed to pay the $9.95/day fee. I did a search, downloaded a file, typed in the URL to upload my vid to YouTube and everything stopped. Their system would no longer give me a valid IP address and despite a tech coming to help me try to fix the problem for 30 minutes, nothing was to be done. I don't believe it's my laptop (as that it's working here but not in my hotel room) and I desperately hoping that it'll work in the room where my pre-conference is this afternoon. I'll be getting to the room 1.5hrs early and meeting the tech there to see what happens. Cross your fingers everyone.

I then went to dinner with Karen Coombs (University of Houston) and Jason (Montana State University, Bozeman) for some Sushi, a great walk down to Cannery Row, coffee, and some spectacular conversation about conference politics, wikis, blogs, servers, and book writing. I wasn't up as late as I could have been but later than I should have been.

A full eight hours of solid sleep later, I'm up and taking it easy for the morning, catching up on the uploading and e-mail, and waiting to see what'll happen when I try to use my laptop for my session.

As promised earlier in this post, here are the links to my YouTube videos and to my flickr photoset for the conference.

Good news for us travelers

You can now bring a limited amount of liquids and gells with you on your flight! This includes, and it's about time, any liquids purchased inside security. (No more gulping hot coffee at the last second before boarding.) There are rules however, so you need to be aware of them.

Souls Alike

I have the greatest Best Friend ever! Wednesday I arived in Phoenix at 2:30 and had coffee w/ L. We then had some dinner and she took me to see the Souls Alike tour with Bonnie Raitt and Keb' Mo'. Keb' Mo' opened and played a full set. Bonnie joined him for one song at the end. After a short intermission, Bonnie Played a full set and Keb' Mo' joined her for a four song encore. As a special suprise, Jackson Brown showed up and joined both of them for a four-song second encore. It was a outdoor concert and the weather was absolutely perfect. We got back to her place about midnight, slept for about 4 hours, and I left for home at 6:35am Thursday morning. Now how's that for a birthday present?

Semi-free Wi-Fi Service For Customers

Caribou Coffee is now offering semi-free WiFi for their customers.

"Customers will have access to free Wi-Fi during the first hour, and then will be asked to make a minimum $1.50 store purchase, about the price of a small cup of Caribou coffee, for each additional hour to receive a Wi-Fi access code."

I like this idea. Give a certain level of free service and then make sure the user is supporting such service by requiring them to make a minimal purchase. I'm not saying that this applies to libraries but it's better than charging what most chain coffeeshops and airports charge.

Airport report

As promised, here's my first report on air travel under the new regs.

People seems to be getting the hang of the "no liquids or gels" policy @ security. A few people brought coffee or water into the security line but large trash cans were at the ID check for easy disposal. These cans were mostly empty and I did not see security removing any such items from carry-on baggage. Total time getting thru security at 6:00am: nine minutes.

Denver new stations on Friday were reporting (and showing) a new DIA policy that all liquids (a.k.a. bottled water) purchased in the airport (post security check) needed to be poured into cups. Those cups, and those received when purchasing coffee, were not allowed to have lids on them. It seems that this totally insane policy (it implied that items purchased inside the security zone were to be considered suspect) has been reversed. The coffee I just purchased does have a lid on it and many passengers are walking around with bottles of water.

As a result of people needing to check or just not bring liquids or gels, the is a noticable lack of full-size carry-on luggage in the waiting areas. So far I've seen just a single woman business traveler with a carry-on, and just a handful of men. This will make the overhead bin space much more usable for us regular folks.

Blonde Joke

Sent to me by my best friend, who's blonde...

A blind man wanders into an all girls biker bar by mistake. He finds his way to a bar stool and orders some coffee. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the waiter, "Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?"

The bar immediately falls absolutely silent. In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, "Before you tell that joke, sir, I think it is only fair -- given that you are blind -- that you should know five things:

1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.
2. The bouncer is a blonde girl.
3. I'm a 6 foot tall, 175 lb. blonde woman with a black belt in karate.
4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weightlifter.
5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler

Now, think about it seriously, Mister. Do you still wanna tell that joke?"

The blind man thinks for a second, shakes his head, and mutters, "No.. not if I'm gonna have to explain it five times."

Unclear on the concept

Today I won a prize in an online contest for Caribou Coffee. My prize was a free drink of my choice and I was informed that I would be notified via e-mail later in the day. Within the hour I received the confirmation e-mail which, I assumed since it was the result of an online contest it would contain the information needed for me to receive my drink. Instead I was informed that I would "receive your gift certificate in the mail 8-10 weeks after the end of the promotion. It will be mailed to the address you provided on the registration form. The promotion ends on April 7, 2006." So, enter an online contest, receive your prize (a coupon) about three months later. What's up with that?

CIL2006: Day two wrap-up

I ended up going to dinner with the "splinter group" of bloggers at Cafe Luna at 17th & P. Due to the size of the group in comparrison with the size of the restrauant, I ended up speaking with Dorathea of Caveat Lector and a friend of her's for most of the dinner. Other folks there included Greg Schwartz, Chris Zammarelli, and Meredith Farkas among others. (Sorry, I'm really bad with names.)

After dinner it was back to the hotel lounge once again for more talk. Stephen Abram held court, and many of us listend with great intensity. ;-) Topics included how to be approachable to patrons at the reference desk and the want to create an IM bot that would cue incoming messages allowing for just a slightly more effective reference via IM interface with the ultimate goal being consortial IM virtual reference.

As expected, I wasn't back to my room before midnight. Of course, I'd yet to iron my shirt for today, so that kept me up just a bit longer. Now that I've figured out where the WiFi is (and that it's working) I allowed myself to sleep an extra hour. Now, to find some coffee...

Catching up

I'm still in Evertt, WA killing some time in the coffee shop in the Everett Public Library. Luckily, there is an crystal clear 11Mbps WiFi connection that's allowing me to caffeinate and blog at the same time. I'll be heading off to Richland, WA (about 220 miles East of here) after checking out the library proper when it opens at 10 but I figured getting this thing caught up was a great way to spend a raing Washington morning. (Pics on flickr.)

Library 2.0 in rural upstate New York

Patricia Uttaro the director of the Ogden Farmers' Library in Spencerport, NY (half-way between my folks in Greece and my brother in Brockport, and home to an aunt,) has a blog. Now, if the director of a library that serves a population of approximately 3500 thinks it's worth her time to blog, what's your director's excuse?

Oh, and did I mention they're getting iPods to circulate? Check out what they're pre-loading them with:

"In addition, we will offer iPod devices for borrowing. Some iPods will be pre-loaded with a recorded tour of the Village and Town so visitors can find their way to places like Coffee Cabana, Grandpa Sam's, the Unique Shop, Union Street Primitives, and Afrikamba Curios. Also loaded on the devices will be a pre-recorded historic tour of the Village that can be used by local people and school children studying the Erie Canal. Other iPods can be borrowed long-term by people traveling along the canal."

Next time I'm back home, I'm going to make a point to stop by and meet Ms. Uttaro and thank her for being so progressive.

CAL2005: Wake Up Call: What Our Customers Are Trying to Tell Us if We'd Only Listen

Gwendolyn Crenshaw, Cori Jackmore, Susan Kotarba, & Pilar Castro-Reino (Denver Public Library)

• Handout: Sources Consulted
• Handout: Denver Public Library: Focus Group Findings – Executive Summary from Corona Research)
• Top five findings (paraphrased)
• focus group participants understood the need to change library service models in response to demographic changes
• differentiated service models would have a greater appeal to infrequent non-users
• preference of branch models matched the predictions of DPL staff
• current users reported that they already drive to their preferred library and indicated they would continue to do so if the neighborhood library changed
• increased usage would occur if DPL addresses physical and customer service barriers
• Maternalistic attitude – librarians know what's best for their patrons – no good any more
• New directions why?
• changing population
• changes in customer demands and usage
• emerging styles of customer use
• opportunity to more effectively target resources to emerging needs
• Key points for the library
• Denver's two largest groups are Hispanic families and Anglos without children
• Anglos are less than 50%
• Hispanic 35%
• Blacks 10%
• 50% are single or unmarried groups
• 80% of white households have no children
• 50% of Hispanic households have children
• Hispanics are the fastest growing population in Denver and the most children in Denver are Hispanic
• Foreign born population tripled form 1990 to 2000
• 50% of children born in Denver are Hispanic
• highest concentration of children are in the poorest neighborhoods
• many people in Denver are experiencing financial challenges
• New directions (DPL trends)
• Traditional
• book & text centered collections
• children's collections and programs
• adult reference
• English language collections and services
• new demand...
• popular materials and a/v
• children's/family services
• adult learning classes
• specialized reference and hard-to-find items
• combinations of English and Spanish language collections
• Web services
• Computing (zero to 468 public computers in ten years)
• Basic/traditional/core services (at all branches)
• customer service and care
• children's services, storytime, and summer reading
• collections for all ages
• circulation and delivery of requested materials
• computer access
• referrals to all the services DPL offers
• Six Service Designs
• central library
• western history
• book collection
• business and non-profit resources
• experts
• children's library
• computing center
• cultural programs
• contemporary library
• stacks of new books & a/v
• comfortable seating
• WiFi
• express check-out
• coffee
• learning and language library
• intergenerational environment
• bilingual staff
• Spanish and English collections
• English and Spanish classes
• GED computer instruction
• after hour computer labs (option being considered)
• family library
• children's books
• popular adult titles
• family video & DVDs
• homework help
• fun family programs
• books for babies and toddlers
• storytime
• children's library
• children's materials
• self-directed children's activities
• arts and crafts
• after school programs
• community outreach
• DPL online
• Access from home, school or work
• 24/7 availability
• research and homework resources
• downloadable books and music
• Process
• Since Jan 2004
• One size fits all no longer working
• It's been “an adventure”
• Started with city demographics
• There were a lot of surprises in those numbers
• Looked long and hard at usage patterns
• “targeted audience” branches
• Which branches were which was decided by the managers (yet they still get along)
• Some branches were already perfect examples
• “orphans” didn't fit exactly one category or another
• took geography into consideration
• one of each type in each quadrant of the city (worked out pretty well)
• reach each type within a three mile drive
• Managers self-selected their own clusters
• Senior librarians (on-site supervisors) were asked to self-select
• first and second choices
• most got first choices
• Most stayed where they were
• Once everyone in place then the hard part began
• what would each cluster look like
• template used to design the ideal
• “interesting experience”
• brought them together as a design team
• “collaborative”
• “What does the cluster want to offer?”
• took the ideal and then faced reality – how well are we doing to match that?
• Gap analysis
• Some clusters have further to go than others
• implementation plans
• it's an evolution, not a revolution
• There were concerns but overall the idea was liked
• Corona research (see above)
• Final report still needs to go before the library commission
• Experiments
• IMPORTANT: Children's services are still, and will always be, offered at all libraries
• Outreach to preschools
• felt very important
• had read-a-loud program
• volunteers to preschools to read
• book giveaways
• parent workshops
• what would happen if they went into every classroom in the city
• have added 20 sites in the past year
• goal to add another ten in 2006
• now do less to upper grades
• realigned staff to implement this experiment
• Additional after-school programs
• reinvigorated existing programs
• formal programs
• build environment where children just walk in and find activities to do intuitively
• minimal staff guidance and involvement
• Additional family programming
• private money from Mervyn's
• that company is leaving the area
• avg attendance = 40 people on a Saturday
• families love it
• more bilingual staff & staff with language skills
• concurrent programming
• adult/children programming (at the same time)
• Bookstore displays
• VERY successful and popular
• failed at the newest branch – dual purpose library (public & black history)
• Lessons Learned
• Should not have put the central branch development after developing the branches
• Communication is key (include staff more)
• Talked about the new stuff, but forgot to talk about the core services
• Didn't clarify the use of demographics and geography (not everyone understood the placement at first glance)
• This is a long and intense process (The Time Lesson) – should have spread it out to a longer time period at first

IL05: Day 1

If you're reading this, know that the free WiFi from Deep Blue is working as described in the conference materials. I'm sitting outside the Steinbeck Forum waiting for hte morning coffee, I've got a low but solid signal, and I seem to be running at 11.0Mbps. (However, since I'm the only one hear right now I've most likely got all of the bandwidth to myself.) I'm sure that that will change as everyone else starts ariving.)

Mmmm, coffee...

Today's Unshelved is nothing less than perfect.

Blog: Understanding the Information Revolution That's Changing Your World

Despite having been warned by Steven Cohen over at LibraryStuff, I decided to start reading Blog: Understanding the Information Revolution That's Changing Your World by Hugh Hewitt. Steven gracefully implied that this book was a bit right-leaning so instead of purchasing my own copy, I figured I'd check it out of the library first and buy one if I found it useful in the long run.

Well, I made it through the 12-page introduction. When I got to the following paragraph on the ninth page I decided that this book wasn't for me.

People don't trust the old media with anything like the old level of confidence. There are plenty of books out there that explain what happened, but it basically comes down to the left-leaning ideology that was always there and increasingly became so widespread, transparent, and arrogant as to repel half the country. If you wan to argue the point, this book isn't for you. Go watch your DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11 again. Trot down to the coffee shop to expound on corporate ownership of transnational media conglomerates. You don't have a clue, and you won't when the night is over. But you will be further behind.

I can read books with agendas as long as the agenda is up front. However, there is no need to make me feel like an idiot for my beliefs, especially in a book about technology! I've put the book on the pile to go back to the library. This is one book I'm glad I didn't spend my money on. (Those that know me know that this is a very rare occurrence.) I'm off to watch my DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11 at my local independent coffeehouse. I think my $19.99 will be better spent on a latte and pastries.

Coffee ≈ Job

Here's a great article from the Chronicle of Higher Education regarding the power of networking when it comes to looking for a job.
via Beyond the Job

Brit lib wifi

It seems that the British Library now offers WiFi for the public. Why, well take a look at the following reasons according to the press release :

• Laptop ownership amongst visitors was a staggering 86 per cent
• The average dwell-time in the building was six hours
• Users were leaving the library to go to a nearby Internet cafe to access their email
• 16 per cent of the visitors only came to the library to sit down, have a coffee and use the library as a business centre

With stats like that how could they not?
Thanks Rosario

Aurora coffee fest

I spent a significant portion of today outside selling books for the Friends of the Aurora Public Library. A few photos can be found on the FAPL Web site.

Traveling Music
by Neal Peart

Off the shelf

It's not that I haven't been reading, I've just not read anything in a while worth taking the time to post about. Well, last night I finished Traveling Music the latest book by Rush drummer & lyricist Neal Peart and I've just got to rave. This man can write! It's a travelogue about a three-day trip through the American West all the while writing about the music he's listening to on the car stereo. Interspersed throughout the book are tales of other times in his life and the music that meant something to him at that time. At over 300 pages his writing is so smooth that I finished it in three sittings. A perfect read for that cool Sunday morning outside a coffee shop. Ditch the newspaper and read this instead.

Note: Be sure to have a pen & notepad next to you while reading this. I found myself constantly writing down artists and album titles that he made me want to hear. I've not no fewer than a dozen CD requests into my library because of this book.

Stress level

Well, if you've listened to my audio post you'll know that United had me at the airport much earlier than needed. Then when I was finally able to check in, I opened my wallet to find that my driver's license wasn't where expected. Five minutes of extreme panic later I found it in the wallet but in with my library cards. How it got there I have no idea. Then my boarding pass and the departure screens contained no gate number for my flight. (Luckily DSM has only five gates to choose from for United.) Find my gate, check the e-mail. It seems that one person wants significant changes to one of my workshops that will involve compressing three hours of material into two, and filling the now empty hour with new material. Another e-mail informs me that some advice I gave in my security workshop on Tuesday has hosed a library's network. (I think that my she took a suggestion for securing a client and did it on her server...) As if this wasn't enough, 15 minutes later I was fidgeting with the only ring a wear and dropped it. Poof, it had disappeared. I ended up having me and three other people looking for it for ten minutes. One lady found it finally when the light caught the silver just right; it had rolled a good two yards and blended in with the carpet. On the plane... The guy in the next seat spilled his coffee some of which landed on my leg. (Luckily it wasn't that hot any more.) I need a vacation.

The coffee grounds are not the problem...

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 3:36 PM
To: All Employees
Subject: Kitchen Sink

The kitchen sink is no longer clogged. Please be sure when you dump your coffee that you don't throw the stir sticks down the drain. This is what was clogging up the sink.
Thank you

The coffee grounds are not the problem...

-----Original Message-----
From:
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 3:36 PM
To: All Employees
Subject: Kitchen Sink

The kitchen sink is no longer clogged. Please be sure when you dump your coffee that you don't throw the stir sticks down the drain. This is what was clogging up the sink.
Thank you

On the road again

Greetings from the Iowa State Library in Des Moines. I was going to blog yesterday but it turns out that even though I can get wireless access within DIA, it costs $9.99 for 24 hours of access and that's the cheapest it gets. (Never mind that none of the signs all over the airport that say "Get your wireless access here" mention the fact that they're charging an arm and a leg for it.) I must say that it was nice to boot up the laptop and see "wireless connection available" but it wasn't worth the cost to surf for just the hour before my flight.

Other things I learned yesterday

• Air Tran Airlines and ATA are two different airlines and, of course, their ticket counters are on opposite ends of DIA.
• If you're flying ATA out of Chicago Midway, you're going to have to take a shuttle bus to a completely different terminal on the other side of the runways. This for some reason seemed to confuse half of the people on my flight since we had to get our tickets taken from us, then wait in another lounge for the shuttle bus that would take us to the hanger where our plane was.
• According to one guy on the plane selling the Bible is different from selling other books for several reasons. The main one being that there "isn't any author personality issues that need to be dealt with."
• If you forget to put the O-ring back into your coffee mug, the lid will leak.

And no, I didn't do any writing yesterday. Ten pages is now on the schedule for this evening.

At least for today, everything's o.k.

yesterday I almost fell into my usual trap. There was something I wanted to do but I kept coming up with excuses not to go. It started too late. I couldn't afford it. It would suck going alone. Well, I answered tose concerns by drinking a pot of coffee, figuring that I could afford the $8.00 ticket price and just get over it. So I went to another Clumsy Lovers concert and had the most amazing time.

They're currently touring for their newest album After the Flood but didn't stick to songs just from that album. Besides, they've been playing many of the songs on the album for the past year or more so they were familiar anyway. They started playing about 11.15 and didn't stop 'till 1am. I danced the whole time including with a couple of nice ladies by the name of Lisa and Sue. (No phone numbers, sorry. I didn't even bother trying due to my upcoming travel nightmare in March and April.) But, that was me front and center having the time of my life.

In fact, I had so much fun that Trevor, their lead singer, snagged me when I was talking to their personl selling t-shirts and remarked on how I was "rockin'" and looking like I was having such a good time. He also wanted to know what I thought of the Climax lounge since that's not where they usually play while they're in Denver. (Insert basist's lame joke about finishing their set early along with fiddler's response of "Speak for yourself.")

Additionally, the opening band were some Denver locals named Rainville. They mostly looked like good 'ol boys and had a great blues-based rock and roll song. (I'm sure thier lead singer drives a pickup with a gun rack in the rear window.) I'm planning on checking out their newest album The Longest Street in America (a reference to Colfax Avenue just a few blocks North of my house.)

Overall, as usual, I'm glad I went. Now, if I can just get more than four hours of sleep tonight...

Off the bookshelf

The Enemies of Books by William Blades, 1880, "Revised and Expanded by the Author, 1902

I don't remember how I stumbled over this title, probably while reading one of Nicholas Bashbanes' books over the holidays, but I primeval sent out an ILL request for it. The book basically covers the things in this world that can damage books. At only 150 pages, it discretely covers the following 'enemies': Fire, Water, Gas & Heat, Dust & Neglect, Ignorance & Bigotry, The Bookworm, Other Vermin, Bookbinders, Collectors (the kind that collect just title pages for later republication in collections,) and Servants & Children.

Each chapter covers the obvious but also includes stories of libraries and collections that have fallen to each of the listed enemies. In many cases it also offers suggestions as how to avoid said problems. Here is one of my favorite examples; one of the ways to avoid moisture:

At the same time no system of heating should be allowed to supersede the open grate, which supplies a ventilation to the room as useful to the health of the books as to the health of the occupier. A coal fire is objectionable Oman grounds. It is dangerous, dirty and dusty. On the other hand an asbestos fire, where the lumps are judiciously laid, gives all the warmth and ventilation of a common fire without any of its annoyances; and to any one who loves to be independent of servants, and to know that, however deeply he may sleep over his "copy," his fire will not fail to keep awake, an asbestos stove is valuable.

Needless to say, I won't be installing any asbestos burning stoves in my house to assist in keeping my book dry.

Obviously long out of print I still recommend this item to anyone interested in the history of books, book collecting, and libraries. You'll just need to ILL a copy. Or, you can read it online from the University of Virginia. It just won't be the same though. This book's size alone makes it a small treasure to read while holding a mug of coffee in the other hand.

A near perfect Sunday morning

1. Wake at 6am
2. Load MP3 player with bootleg Prince, Sinatra's Songs for Swingin' Lovers & The Hooters' Nervuos Night
3. Hop on bike at 6:30 am
4. Ride bike for 2.5 hours / 30 miles
5. Shower and head out for coffee and a good book