Truer words were never spoken

I'm sure I am only one of many in the blogosphere quoting Roy Tennant's recent column from Library Journal, but it's music to all our (library) ears.

Books need librarians
People who believe a random pile of digital bits is a sufficiently robust library have never been served by a librarian—either physically or virtually. Individuals who believe you can inspire a child to read by showing him or her a web site have not seen a child first make acquaintance with a book by teething on it.

Nor have they sat with a young child on their lap and read, furnishing a high squeaky voice or a low gruff one as the story demands. Neither have they watched a room full of children sit enthralled by a gifted storyteller librarian who brings the story alive and draws them into magic that will light up their lives until their last day.

Libraries are more than stuff

Read the full article http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6440594.html

So here's to all of you, who make our library real.

Too many books or too few readers?

Interesting news article, out of Kansas City, about a man, Tom Wayne, who burned books to protest what he says is a "diminishing support for the printed word."
http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/125677.html
Your thoughts? Do you see and hear less people talking about what they're reading?

Where did the week go?

It's been a frantic week for me and for many of you, I'm sure. Summer Reading panics and a Web 2.0 @ CCPL meeting, a survey to design, etc. I sent the survey out to all department and branch managers today. What are we surveying? We (the committee) thought that we needed to know, and see, what you're doing out there on the Web. If you have a work related blog, wiki, Flickr account, or something along those lines, we want to know. One, I'm sure you want some site traffic. Two, we're curious to see what you're doing. Three, we want to figure out a way to make these more readily available to the public, if they are a public and not staff only site. Rather a run on sentence there, but I hope you get the idea. Please help your managers with gathering info. We want to see what great things your doing!

Almost summer reading!!

Well, this time period either makes you excited and energized, or drives you a little crazy. It's Summer Reading time again, almost. I've been watching Pam Cadden, Andria Amaral and Cary Jones run around looking harried and seeing PR working their fingers to the bone. I know lots of you have been feeling frantic, too. We've got great themes, great artwork, great prizes. Let's hope that means great reading. So, rest up this week and over the long weekend. It's coming...

Library web stuff

If you like to look at library related websites, you may be interested in this
http://libsite.org/. It's a collection of sites from academic and public library sites, and has been up on the web for about a month. Nice screen shots of the web page, with annotation and tags. You can add comments. You might want to see if you thoughts match the recommendations.

SCLA Annual Conference Wiki

Take a look at this! http://www.scla.org/AnnualConference2007/HomePage
SCLA has a wiki about the annual conference. I took the liberty of posting both the Flickr account that you've seen on the Staff Intranet and the Stafflines one. They are asking for blogging librarians to post their names and a link to their blogs. I didn't post any of ours, not wanting to throw you out there if you didn't want to be so public yet, but I encourage you to add them to the wiki. You're doing some great stuff and I think you should be recognized. If you're interested, either visit the wiki or go straight to that page, http://www.scla.org/AnnualConference2007/BloggingSCLibrarians

From the John's Island Teen Scene blog:

Be sure to stop by the Reference Desk this week to see Ms. Donna's Outstanding Community Involvement Award! The award was presented to Ms. Donna on Friday, April 27, during the library's Staff Day.

http://johnsislandteens.blogspot.com

Congrats, Donna! And take a look at their great Teen blog.

Car for sale

Since this blog is for you, please remember it when you want to send out annoucements of items for sale, births, that wonderful summer vacation you just took, etc.

Need a car? Here's a 1998 TOYOTA 4RUNNER well maintained, 93k miles, black/tan, clean, Michelin tires, pwr windows, AC, CD. $8500. Contact Misty Jones at jonesmi@ccpl.org

Twitter, part 2

In playing around with Twitter, I came across TwitLit.

Name: TwitLit
Bio: Twittering the first lines of books so you don't have to.
SEE ALSO:TwitterLitUK -- TwitterLitCA -- TwitterLitNews
Location: The Stacks Web: http://twitterlit.com

It would be great fun to post some of these during Reading Wave and see who can identify them. Or better yet, pick you own first lines. Or, you could get your own Twitter account and see what happens.

Twitter, anyone?

Heard of Twitter? Did you know that there are libraries that Twitter? Yet another way to post bits of info for the public, Twitter is best known as a software that allows people to keep in touch with each other. Don't have to call, email, or even IM. Just post "I'm at *bucks, East Bay. Meet you at 3:30."
Want to see how libraries are making use of this? Victoria West mentioned the idea to me at Staff Day and libraries across the country must have heard her. Check out David Lee King's post, Twittering libraries. http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/05/09/twittering-libraries/

Dorchester 15th Anniversary celebration

Well, sad to say that I missed the festivities at Dorchester. I was languishing in bed at home, sick. I thought you would enjoy seeing these pictures, though. Great cake and a shot of some of the Dorchester staff and the folks who worked on their quilt.

Another new CCPL blog

The South Carolina Room joins the blogosphere. It looks great!
http://scroom.wordpress.com/

Looking forward to watching it grow.

North Charleston Arts Festival and more

2007 North Charleston Arts Festival Design Winner Kim Stryker

This week Dorchester, Otranto and Cooper River will be venues for North Charleston Arts Festival events. Be sure to check the calendar of events and take part. Great programs and you can't beat the price. It's the start of the arts season here in the greater Charleston area, with more to come late May and early June.

Also the week is the Dorchester Road Regional Library's 15th Anniversary Celebration. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post after tomorrow's event.

Have something going on in your location? Please send me information and/or pictures!! This is a blog for CCPL, not just a forum for my randon musings.

Not just technology

Quote from Barbara Kelly, Manage This! blog that I found via David Lee King's who the Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. www.davidleeking.com

"..it's not just innovations in technology that we need to be discussing. There are changes as well in our understanding of how people learn, use physical space, work together and expect to be treated that inform our library services and professional values."

Well put! And perhaps a relief to those that feel a little overwhelmed by all the tech talk.

St Andrews in the blogosphere!

St. Andrews has taken CCPL blogging to a new level. They have not only one, but several blogs that all flow off the main page. There's a branch blog by Vickie Gibbs, a book lovers blog by Kristin Bennett, an adult services blog by Lee Relyea, a circulation blog by Joan Van Rysselberge, a young adult blog, Kristin once again, and a children's blog by Kathy Sanders. I've been told that we have Kathy to thank and commend for all of this, so thanks Kathy! What a way to pull together branch activities and get the word out. You should feel proud of yourselves--I do!
http://standrewslibrary.blogspot.com/

Staff Day follow up, part 2

I meant to say a little more about the Web 2.0 @ CCPL committee, and lost my train of thought before I clicked on Publish. Sorry!

In pulling together the committee members, we took a look at who had attended all, or almost all, of the State Library's TechTracks classes, making sure that a Regional, a large branch, Reference and Children's services and training/TLC were included. Committee members are Amanda Holling--Reference, Jennifer Lively--TLC, Jennifer Sanders--West Ahsley, Melissa Christakos--TLC, Nancy Wilson--John's Island, Pam Cadden--Children's, Susan Bednar--Training, and Cynthia Bledsoe.

I know that there are many more of you who would like to be part of this committee, but bear in mind that this is just a starting point. We'll be asking for suggestions and information as we go along.

follow up to Staff Day

It's been wonderful to hear from you about Staff Day. I loved getting so many comments and knowing that you were reading the blog. Keep it up! All in all, it's apparent that having Staff Day off site was a resounding success and that everyone enjoyed the more informal setting.

If you haven't logged on to the Staff Intranet lately, http://www.ccpl.org/staff, check out the large collection of staff day photos at the Showcase. There's also a link to Michael Stephens's presentation there. It's a large pdf file, so you may need to allow a little time for it to load.

If you're just randomly searching Flickr, try these tags: CCPL, Charleston County Public Library, 2007 Staff Day. Those should lead you to not only the Staff Day ones, but others taken at various CCPL events and in several different Flickr accounts.

A small Web 2.0 @ CCPL committee will meet next week to brainstorm ways for us to implement various Library 2.0 activities. As you know,it's not all about technology, although technology permits us to extend our (already great) outreach. We'll be asking for your input.

Staff Day Photos

Uploaded on April 28, 2007by mstephens7

Michael Stephens has added some shots from Staff Day to Flickr.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/sets/72157600148447808/

Take a look. If you already have a Flickr account, make comments! If you don't, this might prompt you to sign up. Also check out the shots from Jamie, via the Staff Intranet, http://www.ccpl.org/staff, under Showcases.