Staff day

Well, I'm home and showered and trying to assimilate what went on today. What a great day! I loved being out at James Island County Park, playing with co-workers (remember play was one of Michael Stephen's words for the day) and hearing Michael speak. It was my second time to hear him and I feel incredibly fortunate. Still lots of good new bits along with such an energizing presence. Make you want to run out there and take on all sorts of new things. He's got us on his blog--take a look. www. tametheweb.com

We'll be following up Staff Day with a committee that we're calling Web 2.0 @ CCPL. Can't wait to hear what you had to say in your evaluations, but please feel free to comment here, too. It obvious that there are more bloggers out there than I've heard about. Please share--I'd love to see them.

Two days

Two days to Staff Day. Please, please, please take a look at Tame The Web, if you haven't already. http://tametheweb.com/. Michael Stephen's talk promises to be engaging and thought provoking.

In looking at his blog today, I came across a great piece of writing from Roy Tenant. He's been writing on library issues for years and has recently joined the staff of OCLC. So, here's the thought for the day, courtesy of Roy. http://roytennant.com/

Any way you look at it, these are amazing times for libraries. In our time we have witnessed a revolution in information access not seen since the invention of the printing press. Thanks to the Internet, the answer to many questions that pop into your head are but a mouse click away. With massive digitization projects now in full swing, books long sequestered in dusty stacks are becoming much more discoverable and reaching much larger audiences. As librarians, we are being called upon to reinvent what it is we do and how we add value to this drastically reformulated equation.
I love it. But then, I thrive on change. Since change is life, shouldn't we all?

Hurrah for Metro Ethernet!

I'm so excited. The new path to the Internet via the new and faster circuit has been established. The change was apparent immediately and it's welcome.

So, maybe I can investigate Second Life now??

Flickr

I learned a few new things about Flickr last week, when I was working on uploading the picture from the Children's Department. I had an account for Staff Lines, and had uploaded several pictures, but I hadn't joined a group or added pictures to a group. After some on the phone help from Curtis at the State Library, I was successful. In case you don't have someone to call, or want to do some reading on your own, take a look at Newbie's Guide to Flickr, http://www.webware.com/8301-1_109-9703620-2.html. Josh Lowensohn writes: “Flickr is a popular photo-sharing and hosting service with advanced and powerful features. It supports an active and engaged community where people share and explore each other's photos. You can share and host hundreds of your own pictures on Flickr without paying a dime. There’s also a pro service that gets you unlimited storage and sharing for about $2 a month, making it one of the cheapest hosting sites around.”...

And, if you want to see some staff photos, take a look at the Staff Lines Flickr account. I have some more from Otranto I need to upload, not to mention all the ones you can send me! http://www.flickr.com/photos/staff_lines/

Honorable mention

On April 13th, I wrote about the State Library's photo contest for National Library Week. Here's one of our entries and it won an honorable mention. Winning libraries were Lee County Public Library, Greenville County Public Library, Richland County Public Library, with honorable mentions for Richland County Public Library, Conway Library, Florence County Public Library, and Charleston County Public Library. Thanks to the Children's Department at Main for sending it to me. If you'd like to see the winning photos, visit http://www.statelibrary.sc.gov/docs/library_week/announcement.pdf

The State Library plans to sponsor another "National Library Week Day in the Life of South Carolina Libraries" next year, so start thinking about what other great shots we can enter for 2008.

New study reveals 1 in 3 Internet users make purchase decisions influenced by social networking sites

I recently recieved an email newsletter from OCLC that included a summary from a news release. According to a study by iProspect,

"The power of social networks appears to be growing. A new report from search engine marketing firm iProspect® finds that:

• One in three Internet users make purchase decisions influenced by sites that contain social content, with Amazon.com being the most influential of all.
• One in four adult Internet users regularly visit the most popular social networking sites, including MySpace, YouTube and Amazon.com.
• Visitors arrive at social networking sites primarily through direct navigation, Google search, Yahoo! search, and links in emails (in that order).
• Internet users visit social networking sites for a variety of reasons, including entertainment, connecting with others, researching a product or service, and purchasing a product or service.
• While social networking sites are a growing and important online channel, all three major search engines have a much higher percentage of total U.S. online population visiting their sites on a daily and weekly basis.

iProspect defines a social networking site as one that allows Internet users to add user-generated content such as comments, reviews, feedback, ratings or their own dedicated pages. "

Many of us probably don't think of Amazon as a social networking site, but their definition makes sense. Sort of widens the application, doesn't it?

You can view the news release at http://www.iprospect.com/media/press2007_04_10.htm

Photo contest--let's enter!

The SC State Library Staff can't make it everywhere, so let's send in our pictures. If you haven't posted to Flickr, or would like help, feel free to send your photos to me.

Help celebrate National Library Week in South Carolina!
WHAT: During National Library Week 2007 on the days of April 16-18, South Carolina Library Staff members will take a wide range of photographs of librarians working, meeting, teaching, and doing all that librarians do in a given day. We encourage you to be creative in taking photos that capture the essence of South Carolina librarianship and are visually
attractive. Winners will be recognized on the SC State Library’s web site and during the 2007 SCLA Annual Conference in the fall in Columbia.
WHEN: April 16-18, 2007. We suggest that you capture images at all times during these three days. Photos must be submitted via Flickr.com and tagged with NLWdayinSC2007.
*There is no need to pre-register to participate in the project. See guidelines below for more submission details.
WHERE: Wherever you work! Wherever SC Librarians are!
Suggested photographic subjects:
·At the circulation desk
·Working in technical services
·Drinking coffee at a staff meeting
·Assisting a patron in the stacks
·Shelving books
·Teaching a Library 2.0 class
·Try to capture images from your workplace at different times of the day.
Photos may be submitted in the following categories with one winner chosen from each category and one overall winner honored:
1.Librarians as Teachers and Trainers
2.Librarians as Trailblazers in New Technology
3.Most Humorous
WHO: The contest is open to all SC Libraries of all types. Professional photographic skills are NOT required.
HOW: Use whatever photographic equipment you have available-from digital cameras to 35mm as long as you can post them to flickr.com. We welcome color and black and white images.
For more information and detailed submission guidelines, please visit:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/nlwdayinsc/

Synchronicity

Ever notice how events or ideas cluster? You hear about something and start to notice it everywhere? Sometimes it's a new idea or concept and sometimes it's a concept you've used in the past and haven't even thought about for a long time.

That happened to me this week. Tuesday I attended a meeting to unveil the Charleston Youth Master Plan Initiative. The City of Charleston was selected to participate in the National League of Cities MetLife Foundation City-Schools Youth Planning Initiative in the fall of 2005. They developed a team, including Pam Cadden for CCPL, and embarked upon an 18 month process to research youth development, and led numerous sessions to illicit feedback from the community on the life and needs of youth in our community. The meeting announced to numerous community agencies and leaders that our involvement was needed to develop and implement a plan from the information they've gathered, in order to improve the lives of youth in Charleston county.

Yesterday Jim Letendre and I went to the State Library to attend the Community Analysis Workshop for Public Libraries , led by Jo Haight Sarling from Denver Public Library and Debra Van Tasset, from Louisville (Colorado) Public Library. They walked us through a particular process of community analysis and shared their successes with the process.

Both the workshop and the Youth Master Plan meeting shared this: we need to hear from communities and from the individuals in the communities what their lives are like, what their dreams are, what they want and need, before deciding what services should be offered. Makes sense, of course, but it's hard for us to take the time to research intensively before acting. Librarians want to help and it's our nature to jump right in to offer what we think will meet the needs that we see. Lesson for the week is to ask first!

Why I've been absent

I'm regretfully very tardy about adding a new posting. I've spend most of the week, plus many hours in the weeks before, working on a grant for CCPL. It's a National Endowment for the Arts grant called The Big Read. If you're not familiar with the grant, it's a one book, one community project with the big bonus of giving us money to implement it. Many of us have wanted to do a project like this, but it's a little daunting. This grant give us, aside from the money, a list of book titles to choose from, eliminating the complex process of trying to pick a title for the entire community, and a push to go forward. From that list, our CCPL committee has selected Their Eyes Were Watching God. I'm truly excited about the possibilities and we have an impressive number of groups and community agencies who have agreed to work with us to make this a significant event for Charleston. The program is slated for September--Oct 14, 2007.

The grant is due April 12th, so Monday I'll be at the computer and the copier, running copies. We will hear by the end of May if we've been awarded the grant. You'll most certainly be hearing much more about this if we are selected.

After this I should be able to breathe again, check my Bloglines account, and get geared up for Michael Stephen's upcoming visit.