Nebraska is special

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Olbermann: Fox ’slime machine’ promotes Nebraska base closing rumor

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Senator Ben Nelson and the Insurance Industry

Last week, [we] called on Senator Ben Nelson to support President Obama's health care "public option" -- and to oppose the health and insurance interests that gave him over $2 million.

The good news: we made big progress! We got covered in the Omaha World-Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AP, and many other places. This pressure caused Nelson to say he is now "open" to the public option after initially calling it a "deal breaker."

The bad news: Nelson keeps actively siding with insurance interests. Every time he says he's "open" to a public option, he qualifies it by saying it cannot "erode" private insurance. In other words, the public option can compete for customers as long as it won't win. That makes no sense.

We need to break the link between special interests and Congress. That's why people across Nebraska are joining the Change Congress "donor strike" for political reform. Can you join today by clicking here? http://change-congress.org/nelson/

Across the nation, thousands of people have pledged not to give a penny more to any member of Congress unless they co-sponsor fundamental campaign reform. Already, Nelson has lost access to over $21,000, based on the past contributions of his constituents.

The bipartisan Fair Elections Now Act would create a new system of "citizen-funded elections" for Congress - public funding plus small donations. This would allow politicians to spend their time working for folks back home, not pandering to special interests. And it would help taxpayers by liberating politicians to slash billions per year in corporate welfare.

Nearly 70% of Democrats and Republicans support this. But Ben Nelson is not yet on board.

Let's make clear that insurance companies, health care companies, HMOs, and other special interests shouldn't come before the people of Nebraska in our democracy.

Can you join the Change Congress "donor strike" for political reform today? Just click here!

Thanks for helping to change Congress.

Sincerely,
Japhet, Stephanie, Adam, and Monica

P.S.  We're looking for Democratic Party officials and government officials who support the public option. If that's you, let us know by responding to this email! info@change-congress.org

There's Still Room for You @ Library Camp

There are still plenty of seats available in Library Camp Nebraska one week from today. Sign up now! It’s totally free and totally fun!

Potential topics to be discussed currently include:

• The Social Web in the library
• Cheap and free tech tools
• Copyright & Creative Commons
• Public programs
• High Tech / High Touch: are they mutually exlusive?
• Get your free Web presence (for libraries that don't have one already)
• Privacy in a Social Web world
• Wildly impractical, expensive ideas for your library
• Alternative searching techniques (or, what's new & cool in the world of searching??)
• Ideas for library marketing on the cheap
• Ideas for new granting agencies/funding sources and/or grant success stories
• Demythologizing the "information wants to be free" (while information may want to be free, it aint cheap to provide it...)
• Community Outreach
• Mentoring
• Instruction
• Expanding the role of the library on campus (PR/marketing/collaboration)
• Exploring the future of library workers: What's the greatest need in Nebraska?...support for Master's level v. pre-professional training?

Full details @ http://librarycampnebraska.pbwiki.com/

First list of closing Starbucks released

Wondering if your local Starbucks is on the chopping block? Wonder no more. Consumerist has the list. For those of us in Nebraska, the only one closing so far is the one in Bellevue.

#11527 - hwy 370 & 36th
3811 Twin Creek DR
Bellevue, NE

The Nebraska Sky

I've posted a lot of photos of the sky here in Nebraska. Despite having live in Colorado for almost 10 years, and having visited most of the rest of the country, I will say that the sky here in Nebraska is the most impressive I've ever seen. This past Friday I was driving home from Holdrege, NE and saw some mammatus clouds ans was able to snap off a few photos before they disappeared. Here's the best one:

There are a few others in my flickr account you can get to from the photo in this post. For some even better photos, check out these photos from 2004 taken in Hastings, NE (just down the road from Holredge) from the UNL High Plains Regional Climate Center. (I'd discovered these just last week. Had I not, I wouldn't have know what I was looking at.)

Hastings, NE

After a great Chinese buffet lunch with the directory of the Hastings College Library, I'm not now teaching Blogger.com to area librarians.

NLC Vendor Day 2007

Yesterday several dozen librarians from throughout Nebraska joined NLC staff and about a dozen library vendors at the Cornhusker Marriott in Lincoln, NE for the second annual NLC Vendor Day.

Overall I'd say it was a success. All of the sessions were well attended and many great questions were asked of the vendors about their products. Both of my sessions, Second Life and Hot Topics in Technology" were also well attended.

More specifically to me, my use of YouTube as presentation platform seemed to go over very well. All of the feedback I received indicated that it worked well and gave everyone an idea of what it was like to be in Second Life without actually going there. (That, and I didn't use PowerPoint at all so that's a guaranteed plus.)

From the presenter's persepctive YouTube did leave a bit to be desired. Due to the fact that all YouTube video pages force you to scroll to see the whole video window and each time you move to the next video in a playlist you have to re-scroll, I decided to use the playlist that I embedded in my blog the previous day. This way I could scroll down once, click play, and let it run, pausing when I needed to address something specific. Unfortunately, I didn't test this plan fully in advance. It seems that embedded playlists will play the first four videos and then force you to click over to the YouTube site to play the rest. (For purposes of ad revenue I'm sure.) So, due to this I was back in YouTube, scrolling to align future videos on the screen. It wasn't a complete breakdown of the plan but it did catch me off guard, something I try to avoid during a presentation.

The only other comment I would make about this method of presenting is not to go over the 30 minute mark when showing video. I pretty much kept to exactly 30 but I started to get the feeling at the end that if I'd gone any longer I would have started to loose some of the attendees.

Overall I'd give the day a 9 out of 10 and my YouTube experiment an 8 out of 10. (My photos from the day can be found by clicking on the photo in this post.)

YouTube as Presentation

Tomorrow is the Nebraska Library Commission's Vendor Day and as part of the festivities I get 30 minutes to introduce Second Life. So, with the discovery of the video I posted earlier today I decided to take a different approach and assemble 30 minutes worth of YouTube videos and use them. (I'll most likely cut short the Vega song short as I'm using it more as an intro to the video on building her SL guitar.) I've still got handouts but I thought this would be an interesting experiment. The videos are presented for you below and I'll report back afterwards as to how the audience liked it.

Blogging 101, take 3

And this morning 13 more Nebraska librarians are writing their first posts to their new Blogger blogs. No mutiny in sight.

Blogging 101, Take 2

10 more Nebraska librarians are now writing their first blog post. (Whoops, make that nine.)

Blogging 101

Right now I have 10 Nebraska librarians writing their first blog post. Pretty soon they'll be writing their second one.

DMV, part one of n

I finally had the cash and the time to get out to the DMV this morning. In total I have to get the car inspected by a Sheriff's Deputy (to make sure it's not a stolen vehicle,) get a Nebraska title, register the car in Nebraska, and get a new driver's license. I didn't expect to get it all done today but...

The inspection was quick and easy. Basically, just a computerized VIN search which cost me $10. Then off to get a new title. Trouble is, my ex (we divorced in 2002) was still listed on the title. Why hadn't I fixed this before? No clue. It just hadn't dawned on me as something I needed to do. So I took all my paperwork including proof of the divorce over to the next window and I was told that wouldn't work. I needed something from the divorce decree that established she'd given up all rights to the car. Or, I could get her to sign a power of attorney for the car. Back home I went to look through my files.

I found an "Affidavit of gift of motor vehicle" in my divorce papers which to me, since it said "the transferor has transfered and conveyed to transferee, all of transferor's right, title and interest in and to the... motor vehicle." [emphasis added] Sounds good to me, but when I got back to the DMV I was informed that that would only save me some money on taxes or some such and "that may be the way they do it in Missouri [where the divorced occurred], but that won't work here."

So, I'm back to faxing the form to my ex (this isn't really a problem, it's just an annoying and delaying bureaucratic step in this whole process) so she can sign it, have it notarized, and fax it back to the DMV. I then get to go tomorrow and try to get my new title and registration.

University of Nebraska won't play along

I can't say that living in Lincoln is going to turn me into a Huskers fan but this news has started to turn me into a fan of someone on campus. Turns out that University of Nebraska will bill RIAA $11 for each threatening letter received from the RIAA. The RIAA has backed down!

Nebraska Library Map - Attempt #1

Here's my first attempt. A bunch didn't make it through the Geocoding process, I'm not sure I like the paged interface with this system and I didn't realize the import process would put everything in reverse alphabetical order but, it did work more or less.

Snow in Lincoln

I noticed this before but now that I actually live here it's totally blogable. People in this town are obsessive about snow removal. Yes, this is generally a good thing when it comes to the city streets. In fact, I'm totally impressed when it comes to the city removing snow from the public roads. The obsession comes into play when it comes to folks removing snow from their driveways and sidewalks. I grew up along Lake Ontario in New York, and lived in Denver for the past ten years. I know snow. It snows, people dig out. If you can drive on it, it's not worth the trouble. Here in Lincoln, by 7am the snowblowers, shovels, and brooms (yes, brooms) are out and my 9am, I'm the only house on the street without a clean driveway and sidewalk. Talk about trying to keep up with the Jones'. However, when I cam home from my first day at the office on Thursday, planning on shoveling out my driveway before making dinner, I found that one of my neighbors has taken their snowblower to my driveway. Now that's being neighborly!

Catching up

Yes, as has just been point out in a comment to my last post, today is catch-up day for me. I start my new position as the Technology Innovation Librarian for the Nebraska Library Commission tomorrow so today's to-do list includes cleaning out my inbox, figuring out where to park (everything within a 10 block radius of the office is paid parking), and, yes, cleaning out my to-do list. Expect several more posts from me today on various topics and I prepare for tomorrow.

E-mail me in Nebraska

My NLC address now works: msauers[at]nlc.state.ne.us

"The Move" updates

I'm back from a weekend trip to Lincoln to find a place to live and it was, I must say, an unqualified success. Not only did I find a place to live but I'm getting a house, not an apartment. The price was amazing, it's enough space, and it's only 3.1 miles from my new office at the Nebraska Library Commission.

Today I'm home most of the day to deal with canceling services here at the old house (Internet, cable, tv, water/sewer, and trash) and waiting for the buyer's mortgage broker's appraiser to make an appearance. (Though it looks like I won't be home for that but that's not a problem.) It does turn out that I need to replace the roof and the 30 year-old furnace for the buyer so I'll just need to grin and bear it when it comes to that expense.

So, assuming nothing goes wrong here's what's coming up:

• January 26: Close on the selling of the old house and have the movers pack my fragile items. (I'm packing the rest. NO ONE packs my books but me.)
• January 27: Movers pack all my stuff (with a few exceptions) into a semi and drive off.
• January 29: Close on the house in Lincoln. (I'm hoping I don't actually have to be there for that.)
• Feburary 3: Stuff arrives in Lincoln. I will need to be there to receive it.
• February 15: Last day at BCR
• February 16: Drive out to Lincoln. (I think buying a seat on a plane for my car might cost a little more than I can afford.)
• March 1: Start at NLC

Updates as warranted of course...

Library Website Hall of Fame

The Library Success Wiki has a Library Website Hall of Fame section. Two BCR region libraries, Denver Public and BYU, have made the list. None from Nebraska though. I'll put that on my to do list.
Thanks Rosario

It must be official...

...as the Nebraska Library Commissions has officially announced my appointment.

Special announcement (Yes, read this one.)

As you may have noticed I haven't been blogging much for the past week and what I have posted has been of little consequence. Well, that's because things are changing in my life that are taking up a lot of my time right now...

I am happy to announce that one week ago yesterday, I officially accepted an offer from the Nebraska Library Commission to be their Technology Innovation Librarian starting 1 March 2007. This means that I will be finishing up a 9.5 year run at BCR in mid-February and moving to Lincoln, NE.

This all that The Travelin' Librarian will continue to travel just not as much, not as far, and mostly by state car instead of United Airlines. (So much for earning premier status...) I still plan on presenting at conferences and, as I understand it, will not be prohibited from accepting other speaking requests outside of Nebraska. (Normal scheduling issues still apply.)

I accepted the position for several reasons. First, the lower amount of travel. Yes, I enjoy traveling but after more than nine years it does start to take its toll. Second, I'm feeling a bit stretched thin with having to cover an eleven-state region. Believe me, I love having worked with all of you in the BCR region but focusing on just one state allows me to work more closely with libraries on special projects and to focus my efforts. Third, there's nothing more Library 2.0 than having the title "Technology Innovation Librarian".

So, please bear with me over the next three months as I blog about movers, packing, and getting my house sold. I'll try to keep up the tech and library posts as much as I can but some of that may have to be put on the back-burner for a little while.