Here are some goodies for my Libraryland Brothers and Sisters out there joining in the 365 Library Days Project fun!
Use ‘em on your web page, your blog, your flickr stream…wherever you like. Go nuts!
Feel free to add you own banners here if you are inspired to make any!
Here are mine:
I’ll be posting an update on the project this weekend with some numbers and side stories, but suffice it to say the participation level is pretty high! Libraryland never ceases to amaze! 365libs go, go, go! Library workers go, go, go!!!
Will you join in? What do you think of the idea? The group is up and ready to go, so why not learn more? Here’s the idea:
Let’s get as many libraries as we can to sign up for and actively participate in a customized, library friendly version of the 365 project. That would mean that if you decide to participate, you would commit to downloading at least 365 pictures from in, around or about the library you work in, for and/or with. Uploading a picture every day for 365 days in this case wouldn’t be practical for most folks, but committing to 365 images in a year could be done fairly easily. It could also have HUGE value for your library.
Just imagine what a valuable historic document you could create for your library with this project! And while you’re at it, at the end of your year commitment, you could contact your local newspaper and tell them about the project, where they could do a story and print selected pictures that you took over the year. Such a substantive advocacy project! It would demonstrate in very real ways, ways that get lost to many people in your community, that you and your library are doing important work every day of the year!
If you decide to take part, please add the photos you upload for the project into this group.
If you take part, please also tag the pictures you take for this project with the tag: 365libs
Finally, if you have any questions, I am willing to help. Drop me (Michael Porter, libraryman on flickr) a line via flickr mail or email me and I’ll help you get things running if you have any trouble.
Take pictures in/about/for your library! Share them! Join this community! Use this project and it’s collection as a powerful advocacy tool!
See you around the 365 Library Days Project Page!
PS-I almost never ask for this sort of thing, but this is a real community based project. So… if you think this 365 Library Days Project is a good idea, please give it a plug on your blog or in your conversations with your fellow library folks out there so we can get more libraries involved. The potential here from an advocacy perspective really is substantial!
More blogging. Here and on the other one too. What other one? Why
BlogJunction of course, the blog I now help author with a few of my new coworkers at WebJunction. In fact there are a couple of posts up there now that I just added. Want to know about the move or what it’s like to work with Dale, Betha, Chrystie, George, Liz, Mike and the rest of the WJ gang? What about how it’s been not having an Internet connection at home for three weeks? Three weeks?! That’s just crazy! What an exciting article THAT must be!! You know you must read all about it immediately:
Thanks for Letting Me Join You WebJunction! (Part I)
What I?ve Learned From Not Having the Internet at Home for Three Weeks. (aka Part II)
Here is a bit of why:
1. the Treo 650 isn?t sufficient as a camera/video phone.
2. camera/video phones have so much potential.
3. uploading video always needs to be easier before it?ll truly reach critical mass (this took several tries several different ways before it worked).
4. HI lib folks rock (one of the little reasons anyway).
We sure had fun talking, but will it be fun to listen to? Thanks to Allison and Steve at the Kankakee Public Library for working up this (not so) little ?BiblioTech? podcast. This is a very relaxed and hopefully somewhat inspiring library technology conversation. Even if the podcast thing isn?t your style, be sure to check out the KPL web site. It rocks the bells and they are the bees knees, baby. It truly was an honor to talk with them about LibraryMan, ?2.0″, ?getting things done?, and library tech stuff in general.
The KPL Podcast Page Is Here?
I am excited to let everyone know that I will be starting a new job next month. A very cool new job! And get this: it?s a job in one of my favorite library related organizations, working on projects that are near and dear to my experience and professional interests! It is a job with even more potential to positively impact our libraries and communities with practical technology AND, to nicely top it off, I?ll be moving back to my favorite U.S. city! So, without further ado:
I am very happy and excited to report that I will be moving on from my Training and Support Coordinator duties here at OCLC Western in Ontario so that I can transfer to the position of Community Associate at WebJunction in Seattle.
I?ve been a fan of WebJunction.org for years (before it?s inception even, when I worked at the Gates Foundation) and am honored to have this chance to help work with their amazing team. The potential here is just staggering and the opportunity to be a part of their forward motion is a huge honor (and responsibility). I can?t wait to get started!
I wanted to take a minute to thank all of my coworkers here at OCLC Western (and OCLC at large). My time here at Western has been invaluable and I truly appreciate the opportunities this position has presented. Additionally, many, many individual staff members have been remarkably generous, helpful, patient and good natured as we have worked together over the last two years. I?d like to thank each of you for being so welcoming and inspiring.
I?d also like to thank the member libraries and librarians who have made it possible for me to pursue the tools and ideas that have such potential to fuel our vitality and growth. If the librarians didn?t encourage the work, it just wouldn?t be there. Libraries and librarians inspire me every day and this new job at WebJunction is simply and naturally an extension of that point of view.
Friday, December 15 will be my final day at OCLC Western and Monday, December 18 will be my first day of work at WebJunction (whew!). I look forward to working with many of you as we all help WebJunction grow and evolve into an even more useful and practical resource and community center.
Are You a Public Access Super Star? Get your hard work recognized and win an award you can be supremely proud to publicize and display. I’ve said it before and it is still true, this WebJunction stuff is the way to go. If you haven’t already, check them out and join in. What a resource! A resource that will improve with your participation. Yeah, that?s right, YOU! And it really is Library stuff, all day, 24-7. It really is free too, absolutely no strings even remotely attached. C?mon folks, this is as hard a sell as you?ll ever get from me.
Do you know about The Digital Divide Network? ?There has always been a gap between those people and communities who can make effective use of information technology and those who cannot. Now, more than ever, unequal adoption of technology excludes many from reaping the fruits of the economy.? When I started working with the Gates Foundation US Library Program four years ago, the program was often conversationally referred to as a domestic Peace Corps for technology. The folks at The Digital Divide Network seem to work to help carry that mantle internationally.
Also found a great and familiar story written by Wanda Gardner, the Director or the Decorah Public Library. She talks about sustainability, community building and technology. My favorite Library issues! If only she talked about training too! 
I found these pages via a link from Kathleen de la Pe?a McCook (what a cool name!) and the latest issue of ALAET (A Librarian at Every Table). Kathleen sends out a short ALAET email just about every week that discusses Librarians and community building.
