TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke serves up a mighty fine guest post at Heather McCormack’s blog:
For an example, I’m going to turn to Twitter. Just two years ago, I was a librarian in South Jersey tinkering with tweets, not knowing at all what I was doing. I took it upon myself to understand the strange little-big world of hyperlinks and handles. There were days when I didn’t get it and tweeted too much or avoided it out of a lack of confidence. But I kept pushing and experimenting. What finally happened reveals the true beauty of the DIY concept: suddenly (so it seemed), I had built a community that shares my goals, a mini revolution in my web browser. Today, I’m connected to a couple thousand amazing people who inspire me to do my job better.
Feeling powerless for more than five minutes is pretty much inexcusable now, though I still do it. It seems ridiculous, but “giving up” always seems to result in more confidence in myself and in my initial investment in social media. Flash-back to two weeks ago: I was in a terrible headspace. An average of fifty to sixty teens were flooding the library in the afternoon, and I was at a loss of how to manage the wrecking ball of awesome that is adolescent energy without driving it away entirely. Being a staff of one most days, I felt overwhelmed, tired, and confused. Then I remembered my online support system. I tweeted for advice, and they bestowed upon me a treasure trove of the stuff along with the digital equivalent of a bear hug.
I urge you to read the whole piece and reflect on this fascinating concept – can punk rock help librarians find their own way?
punk= one-way dead end street and a dead horse.
DIY= vibrantly alive and full of diverse life.
punk rock can’t help us: DIY can! Still, I love your message here!
Michael, you realise punk started as a reaction against bands like Fleetwood Mac?
Joking aside, I agree with Joe: punk was great at the time, but it’s dead now. Fetishising punk, now, seems like the exact opposite of what punk was about at the time. But I’m 100% with Joe on the value of DIY, and the message here. Thanks for the link.
[...] Michael Stephens links to an interesting guest post on The Nowhere in the Middle, in which Teen Librarian Justin Hoenke discusses how librarians can save themselves with “the principles that gave rise to punk rock“. Those lessons? [...]