Libraryman

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep…..This just in…. Jenny Levine, Aaron Schmidt and I will be hosting an Open Gaming Event after the Sunday preconference on, well, gaming, that Jenny and Aaron are doing. We’re happy to say that this is being brought to you, in a fairly informal way, by ALA and WebJunction, courtesy of Information Today. Cooperation is Goooood.

Here are the details:
This Sunday, Oct 28, starting around 4:30 p.m. in the Colton I room, we’ll have Guitar Hero (PS2), Dance Dance Revolution (PS2), and Wii Sports going for open play. This is your chance to beat your favorite blogger at any one of these games. I have been honing my Guitar Hero chops and will be happy to take on all comers, though Jenny, Aaron and I are mostly there to watch help and watch you all have fun.

We’ve got the room until 7:00 p.m., and as Jenny says: “I can pretty much guarantee a lot of laughter, finger wagging, trash talking, and general merriment.” Oh, and Flickring, too, since we’re also counting this as a Flickr and Twitter meetup. Heck, why not throw video in there too? You know it goes without saying that we will be hitting the town after the session, right?

I’m bringing a prize for the greatest Guitar Hero of the evening. Rock!

It is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Funny how flickr and social tools connect beyond their intent, eh?:

Avast! flickr be boarded by pirates and we be made interesting!

What an amazing day for the Libraries and Librarians Group on flickr! Today we passed both the 1,500 member mark and also now have more than 10,000 images in the pool. It’s all authentic and It’s all you, libraries, librarians and library lovers! Link:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/librariesandlibrarians/

The screenshots below document the happy events, both of which happened today:

1,500 Members:

10,000+ Images:

Thanks to everyone that has joined and contributed to this amazing global community

PART I:

Woo Hoo!!! This weekend, the 365 Library Days Project (tag: 365libs) turned two months old! Amazingly (library folks are truly amazing), there are 297 participating libraries and already a library was written up in it’s local paper! All the person running their 365 Library Days Project did was call the paper and tell them they were working on it and they wrote it up! Wow! It works!

PART II
This an uplifting story for sure, but in ten months (or any time we like, really), the goal is to be able to start using the 365 Library Days Project as a more formal advocacy tool. Along those lines, an initiative has just begun to develop a Press Kit that we can give to media outlets and also a set of instructions/hints we can use to get the most value out of the historical document you are making as you participate in the 365 Library Days Project. Here is a link to the page where you can contribute to this phase of the project. Text of the original post is included too, so you can see what’s up:

Time To Write Our Press Kit and Instructions *this is a link*
“This weekend I started to write the press kit that libraries could just print out and give to their local newspapers, tv and radio stations to get attention to their 365 Library Days Projects. THen I thought, hey, there are almost 300 member libraries participating here, why don’t we make this a community project.

So, let’s do it! It seems that we will need to write:
1. A document we can give to media outlets.

2. A document we could give to library boards/governing bodies explaining the project and it’s value.

3. An brief, concise instruction sheet for librarians/staffer that explains how to use the two docs above most effectively.

So how should we write these? Perhaps we should start a wiki and do it there? Anyone have ideas or want to set that up for the group?

Also, if you need more proof of concept for the 365 Library Days Projects, as of this weekend we are just two months into the launch and there has already been one participating library that has received a write up in a local paper!

Please chime in here. You are the experts! :)”

PART III
Finally, for the past two months, every time the 365 Library Days Projects got a legitimate plug from a participating library or a blogger, I’ve saved it in my del.icio.us feed. It’s grown to be an impressive collection of 38 links from folks on at least four continents with posts in five languages (if my count is correct). AMAZING! Here is a screenshot and a link to those posts:

Thanks everybody! Please contact me if you have any questions or if I can help you move your project along! Keep snapping these valuable photos in your libraries, keep having fun with this, good luck and see you around the 365 Library Days Project page!

Do you have one or two Internet tools/sites that you *really* love?

I’m writing an article about Library folks that have found an Internet tool (or two) that has really captured your imagination and attention. I need to gather 5-10 stories. If you share you idea for the article I’ll cite you and give you and your library a happy little plug in a major Libraryland publication (unless you would rather be anonymous of course).

My paragraph long “Internet Spotlight Tool” write up looks like this:
“My “Internet Spotlight” would have to be flickr (obvious to lots of you, I know:). Flickr helps me communicate visually, which I enjoy greatly, allowing me to record and share highlights and beauty from everyday life. This same visual communication tool also helps me share Libraryland info. For instance, I use pictures I’ve uploaded to flickr to populate my blog with photos. Perhaps most importantly though, flickr lets me connect with other people in Libraryland. One huge way flickr does this is though groups. Flickr lets me participate in and even create interest themed groups. In these groups I can connect with like minded people to communicate, share, inspire and work toward mutual goals. The Libraries and Librarians Group and the 365 Library Days Project Group (an ongoing library advocacy project that you too can join in on) are the best examples of this for me.”

That took me about 10 minutes to write and will now be put in print. Why not take 10 minutes yourself and send me your story too? Purty please? Feel free to leave your story in the comments and/or email the story too at michael.libraryman *At Sign* gmail *Dot* com.

Thanks everybody!

Have you heard about the Ikea Hacker web site? It is themed around real projects people have completed that creatively use IKEA products. There are some pretty interesting projects posted on occasion and it can be a really fun and inspiring diversion if that sort of thing is your bag. While this isn’t *exactly* library related, if you count the fact that I finished my recent decorating project at the new place specifically for a party I hosted for WebJunction folks, well then it counts. Regardless, I am pleased as punch that the folks ’round Ikea Hacker way decided to post one of my very own Ikea hacks. There are actually several hacks in the single image posted, which makes it sort of like a “Where’s Waldo” for the Ikea dork set. If you are so inclined, here is a link to the post. Enjoy!

PS-Added value to this story: The connection to the image and the Ikea Hacker site was made through a group on flickr. Social software in action again, y’all!

Seriously, this blog post includes six or seven individual things (some fairly unusual) that I really wanted to post over the last two weeks. Strap yourselves in! (or hit your back button I suppose). Here goes:

One big cheer for reliable web hosting. Yeee Haaa!

Thanks very much to the folks at the Santiago Library System and MCLS for hosting the impressive “Generation Tech” day at the Nixon Memorial Library. Just because I know my mom is going to read this, here’s a very generous quote from the conference blog:
“The heart of the Generation Tech conference was the animated presentation by Michael Porter… . Vital decisions are being made today, he stressed, ones that will impact the patrons of the future. Porter acknowledged that “technology is not always the right answer” to every problem but that libraries are misguided if they simply let private organizations provide the kind of information services they are used to offering.”.
Rest assured, my mother will scold me for a lack of humility for including the above. There are a bunch of pictures here, though this is one of my favorites:

Thanks also to my flickr/Libraryland friend Sarah Mae, who was kind enough to drive to Yorba Linda and have a meal with me before the “Generation Tech” gig. It was great to meet you in person SMRML!

There are also a bunch of shots up from my trip last week to NYC for the Brooklyn Public Library’s Emerging technology Conference. I want to thank all the folks who worked so hard to put this together and also to Nick and his library pals for hanging out over bbq afterwards. Thanks also to my portrait averse though very pleasant and fun flickr friend Norma for spending Sunday afternoon with me. Don’t we both have good taste, Normah? I heart NYC, Giant Robot and Pressed Toast.

Shifting gears, if you are going to be looking for an amazing job any time soon, check out Chrystie’s recent post to BlogJunction, where she drops some interesting hints. *ahem*

Now in the home stretch of this ultra-mega blog post, for those who care and didn’t notice it, I took part in the 24 hours of flickr project last week. Quite simply, the goal was to document an entire 24 hour period in pictures. During my 24hrs of flickr I went to bed too late, got up too early, flew from Seattle to NYC via Cincinnati and ended my day in Times Square. It’s a project I’ve wanted to tackle for years and while it was a lot of work on a day when I was pretty wiped, it’s nice to have the document, all of which you can view by going here. It’s pretty PG stuff, but there is a picture of me in the shower. Run away! Run away!

And another thing! On a completely unlibrary related subject, I can’t stop listening to this song. I know, I know, it isn’t high art, but doesn’t it make you want to dance?

Let’s see… what else… Oh! I have a bad cold. *ahoo!*

Finally, I am very happy to drop a big ole’ hint here that it looks like I may have a very happy professional announcement to make here on the libraryman web site within the week. It may be time to break out the champagne and the pencils!

PS-I have listened to the song linked above 1,2,3,4…six times while writing this post. “Perfection!”

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!

Well now we’ve gone and done it. No more hiding the silly presentation jokes from the general public any longer. You see, Steve Lawson and I just finished our flickr presentation that was our contribution to the Five Weeks To A Social Library series that is in full swing right now. Even though we just gave our presentation this afternoon, you can already listen to it and view the entire archived presentation here. Wow! That was fast! Thanks Tom Peters! (Be warned that the video/slides will not work if you use Firefox, just IE.)

Thanks very much to all the organizers and also to everyone that attended. Steve and I worked pretty hard to present valuable content in a manner that would be both practical and entertaining. Feel free to take a look and see for yourself.

Thanks again to all the folks that attended and also to all the Five Weeks To A Social Library organizers Thanks also Meredith Farkas, Tom Miller, Karen Coombs and Steve Lawson, (my most excellent co-presentor). It was fun!