Categories TTW Ephemera

472 posts

The default category. For uncategorized articles or articles that don’t fit elsewhere.

Boulder Teens

Tony Tallent writes: http://yestoknow.wordpress.com/2008/08/22/207/ Today I had the pleasure of attending a meeting with the Boulder Public Library Teen Advisory Board.  One of the things I realized during the meeting is how far Public Libraries have come in the past 10 years or so with their commitment to the Teens in our communities. The very fact that I was sitting in a meeting room chatting with this vibrant group of Teens talking about libraries, podcasts and how to make the library a better place for them is quite wonderful. Salute to BTAB! Check out what they’re up to at www.boulderteens.org I’m […]

ILI Turns Ten!

Brian Kelly looks back at ten years of his involvement with Internet Librarian International: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/the-ili-tenth-anniversary/ I was on a panel with him in 2004, the first time I attended ILI and then again in 2005. I’ll never forget his “skeptic’s view” of tagging because he playfully used my Flickr stream as an example of bad tagging! Pulling up my most used tags in Flickr he said to the group and me: “What’s a Jake, Michael?” I am excited to be attending and speaking at ILI’s 10th this year with Michael Casey. The gathering of people from all over the world […]

The Transparent Library: Lighten Up People!

Libraries—all libraries—should be fun, even in difficult times. Just scan LJ‘s recent Movers & Shakers (M&S) roster or peruse the library blogosphere to see library workers who have discovered that a sense of play and creativity, even what seems like frivolous experimentation, can result in useful services and solutions. M&S Tony Tallent, while at the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, NC (he’s now at Boulder PL, CO), devised “Drop Everything and Learn Day,” aiming at “encouraging staff to stay curious and inspired.” But some libraries, mired in hierarchical leadership structures, closed communication systems, and restrictive policies, drain the life […]

BANNED?: Children’s Knitting at the Library!

Via Knittinmama, a former student: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/ottawa/story/2008/08/15/ot-knitting-080815.html A six-year-old girl says she is disappointed after her knitting group was asked to leave an eastern Ontario library due to a new ban on arts and crafts. “I really had fun in there in the library, and I’m really sad that they stopped that,” said Kingston Currie, who used to spend two hours a week with the Itch and Stitch Club at the Long Sault Library in Long Sault, Ont., about 95 kilometres southeast of Ottawa. Pamela Haley, manager of library services for the united counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry, said the […]

Shanachie Tour Book!

http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/exciting-news-dutch-guys-are-releasing.html Kathy Dempsey writes: And you will not want to miss it. It’s called ShanachieTour: A Library Road Trip Across America. It features insightful writing by Erik Boekesteijn, amazing photographs by Geert van den Boogaard, and wonderful video by Jaap van de Geer. The book is all-color throughout and the DVD movie is a full hour long. The combo takes you on a coast-to-coast trip of U.S. libraries and landmarks. As the publisher’s site explains it:  “With its infectiously upbeat outsider’s view of American libraries and the many challenges they face, this book and video set is sure to galvanize librarians of all […]

Thanks Columbus!

I had a wonderful time speaking at Columbus Metropolitan Library, helping to launch Learn & Play @ CML. One very cool thing is that they have outside participants following along as well as staff from all over the system. I was most impressed with the team who put the project together. I customized a version of The Hyperlinked Library for them. The slides are here. Rock on, CML!

Future Proofing Libraries

LJ asked the Movers and Shakers to weigh in on “future proofing” libraries. One of my favorite responses comes from Char Booth: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6585850.html Social Capital The best way to future-proof libraries is not by electronically reimagining our most valuable attributes in a collective attempt to cheat obsolescence. Our insurance is going to come from a much more basic place—we have to turn inward, understand why libraries have been such fabulously lasting cultural institutions, and reflect on how best to transfer this to the modern information climate.  Libraries represent thoughtfulness, peace, and possibility, and we should strive to keep them as […]

Librarians & Daytraders

Warren Cheetham comments on an article at Read/Write Web: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting asdaytraders. As we move into an era where content creation and distribution become almost infinitely cheap, the scarcest resources will no longer be storage or bandwidth, it will be attention…. …In order to cope with the overwhelming complexity of our digital lives, we are going to increasingly rely on tools that help us manage our attention more productively — rather than tools that simply help us manage our information. It is a shift from the mindset of being librarians […]

59,000 Pages Read

http://sweetwaterlibraries.com/sclsblogs/readeronthesamepage/?p=794 Congratulations to the YA Summer Reading Group who read 59,000 pages -plus- this summer and more than met their challenge. In celebration SWL librarians dressed as requested by the YA Readers! We are going to Rock and Roll all night!