The Feel Good Librarian points to: http://fulton.blogspot.com/2008/11/go-ahead-make-my-day.html Yesterday I received an envelope in my mailbox here at the library. I didn’t recognize the name on the return address. Inside was a picture of a young boy I didn’t know. His name was on the photo along with a message from his parents welcoming him to their family. Mystified, I opened the enclosed card. A handwritten message read, “Thank you for your notary services. The final documents enabled us to finish the adoption of our wonderful son. We are so glad to have him home and are grateful to the many […]
Categories TTW Ephemera
472 posts
Chelmsford Library Revamped: In the place formerly known as the library, students perch on long-legged chairs and huddle in purple and black booths. Once a week, they drink coffee and discuss books in the Java Room. They watch a history lesson, school news, and CNN on a 58-inch flat-panel “digital kiosk.” Just don’t call it the library. The new Learning Commons was born from the old Chelmsford High School library, until recently an area so notoriously shabby that school officials conspired to keep superintendent candidates from glimpsing its electric yellow walls and duct-tape-scarred floors. But the school district’s head of […]
File under keeping up with your students’ technology use. Brian Mathews reports on investigating how his library could better support the technology needs of students: http://theubiquitouslibrarian.typepad.com/the_ubiquitous_librarian/2008/12/tell-me-about-your-laptop-what-libraries-can-do-to-provide-support.html I am not talking about IT support, although that is offered by people in our building, but rather about the types of software, gadgets, accessories, tools, furniture, or supplies that would help people to be more productive. So I asked them: Recliners and more ottomans More outlets More headphones for check out Power strips Extension cords Book stands / paper stands More small cubical-like spaces Wireless keyboards Wireless mice Laptop docking stations Comfortable chairs with […]
Check your ego at the door. Good leaders don’t surround themselves with “yes” people. And good leaders know that if their message is not being heard, or it’s being heard incorrectly, then the fault does not lie with the listener but with the speaker. Stop worrying about the snarkiness of survey responses and start worrying about the meaning behind those negative comments. Be sure to listen through the criticism. Behind relatively unconstructive criticism may lie a real concern. Show those critics you can listen, and show them that you’ll respond. Recognize and grow your talent. Talented staff reflect better on you. […]
At the Skokie Public Library Twitter has become a nimble, extremely quick, and easy to use internal communication device. A small group of Skokie employees use Twitter to bounce ideas off one another, solve simple issues such as “how do I check something out to missing,” and even answer reference questions. What makes me excited about this use of Twitter? First it came about totally on its own, nobody planned to use Twitter as a means of communicating. Second is the mass effect of Twitter. I can send a question to many and not have to worry about one particular […]
I’m always on the lookout for innovative uses of social tools in libraries. This weekend I got an email from John Wohlers, Library Technology Assistant, Waubonsee Community College, detailing his experiences using Twitter at his library. John writes: I thought you might like to know yesterday at the request of one of our librarians, I added a link to his twitter account on our library’s staff information page. Nothing big there of course… But then I decided that just the link was a big boring… So, I took a look at the API for twitter, and using it I then embedded […]
From the comments on the Question post.
Seth Godin called up on the Tribe to write a book together in response to his book Tribes. Take a look: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/TribesQA2.pdf There’s so much gold here, I can’t choose a snippet to share. Take a look. This would be an excellent discussion point for staff meetings and long range planning. Maybe the new long range plans for some innovative libraries will be: How can they lead the tribe?
Amanda at blogwithoutalibrary.net writes: This is from a design/marketing/communications company’s website. I love how they’re not afraid to showcase ideas that didn’t fly: Think of this as the final resting place for ideas that – for one reason or another – lacked sufficient postage. The road to change is littered with them. You can’t have innovation without failure, right? I’d love to see libraries celebrating their failures more. If you know of a library that does this, let us know in the comments! Good stuff. And certainly part of a more open, transparent institution. One commenter ponders that it might not […]
We just opened an amazing room for early literacy at the Waukegan Public Library. The impetuous for the room was a survey conducted by the United Way on Kindergarten Readiness in Spanish and English. Cut to the chase—the children of Waukegan are entering school unprepared, children are not doing well in school and several schools in Waukegan are on the No Child Left Behind watch list. Within 6 months we had architectural plans to put in a stimulating, engaging, room for preschoolers featuring multiple places to explore with hands-on learning. There is a pretend play theatre, arts and crafts center, […]