Libraryman

I’m very honored and happy to share with everyone news of…drum roll….. my new job! While still at WebJunction, I now have a spiffy new title and more focused duties. I’m not saying that as the new Community Product Manager I’ll be able to do ALL this stuff:

Specific Responsibilities
· Grow our Online Community for Library Staff
· Build library field readiness for collaborative content publishing, social networking, and blended learning for staff development
· Grow customer awareness, use, participation, ownership, and satisfaction with all our programs, features, and services
· Wow the library community with practical, user-centered, user-friendly, fun-to-try, socially-oriented, and interactive features and tools
· Develop & Deploy a Robust Social Networking Environment
· Identify and segment relevant library staff audiences; evaluate and document tools and features of interest to each audience
· Develop and implement an overall social networking strategy, including collaborative content management, that addresses customer needs
· Solicit individual and organization input and feedback on social networking features, tools, and best practices
· Scan and engage the broader library, social networking, and online community environments for relevant tools, features, best practices, and mash-up opportunities
· Make Customers Happy & Ensure their Success
· Advocate for customer-centered, interactive tools and features across WebJunction; represent customers to WebJunction staff and organization partners
· Lead and manage customer focus groups, advisory committees, user groups, and related feedback sessions
· Identify social networking outcomes; ensure high quality customer experiences and satisfaction; adjust, refresh and create new features as appropriate
· Engage customers in effectively using social networking tools, making site contributions, and sharing their technology resources
· Contribute to WebJunction’s Overall Success
· Build team capacity to identify and meet customer needs
· Share knowledge and expertise on social networking tools, features, formats, and management processes relevant to successful online communities
· Lead and manage the development of functional tools and services you and our customers will use to build community across WebJunction
· Deploy social networking expertise across WebJunction; lead the team in creating effective, sustainable online community based on web-based, collaborative, interactive, and participatory software

…but I am REALLY going to try. If you ask me, I’d say it’s a very good fit. I am energized and excited to get on with the work (friends know I’ve been working on a lot of this already, but the new job definition and scope help in a lot of ways). Reading the above description you can tell that there are exciting things in store for WebJunciton and I can’t think of another job I’d rather have right now. Watch WebJunction in the upcoming 12-18 months for some pretty exciting new developments!

PS-The new Netflix ad says the have circulated, ooops, I mean, DELIVERED, over 1 billion titles.
PPS- Chumby is almost for sale to the general public.
PPPS-Completely unrelated and off topic musical plug: Can I go back in time to see this show please?

A blog post, an event page and a press release. Thanks Palo Alto! Or more accurately: Excellent advocacy work, Palo Alto! Sure, it’s my ugly mug up there, but the fact of the matter is they are bringing someone from outside into their community to help. Carefully selected bits of specialized knowledge and experience can be used to help inform decisions, facilitate brainstorming and can lend a hand to libraries trying to be transparent to the community they serve. Working hard to decide how to best implement what users/patrons really want is more important now than ever before and bringing in appropriate amounts and types of outside thought can significantly assists libraries in making important decisions about the technological directions they take.

So this is exceptionally commendable of Palo Alto (and really has almost nothing to do with me individually). Having said that, perhaps I should have highlighted someone else’s public library tech presentation to make this point? While not entirely common, there are other examples, and each make me equally happy and hopeful for that community and their library.

As far as Palo Alto goes, I really do hope lots of folks show up. It’ll be a great chance to cover some important issues, issue a challenge or two and get some back-and-forth going on things that are driving libraries (and society at large).

As further example, here is the text from the press release for the event:

10/25/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE #10/25/07
Subject :
Library Technology Expert Michael Porter to Speak at Palo Alto City Hall
Contact :
Mary Minto, Division Manager, Library (650) 329-2517

Palo Alto, CA – Library technologist, Michael Porter, trainer and author, will share his expertise November 8 from 7–9 p.m. on how public libraries use new digital tools to build communities. His presentation, “Your Library’s Future Has Changed: Technology, Content and Community,” will include a look at the web sites of innovative libraries that are using social networking tools and creative implementation to provide access to information and create connections in their communities.

Michael Porter is Community Associate for WebJunction, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assist libraries and cultural organizations in meeting their objectives through the effective use of web-based technologies. His professional focus is on technology, community, and training. He co-authors the “Internet Spotlight” column in Public Libraries magazine and is writing a book about effective electronic communities.

The talk will be hosted by the Palo Alto City Library, which is gearing up to develop a library technology plan by early 2008. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.

· Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 2007, 7–9 p.m.
· Place: Council Chambers, City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto

Visit the Library web site at www.cityofpaloalto.org/library for more information.”

Very nice! I look forward to seeing everyone in Palo Alto (and Sunnyvale and Santa Clara Co. too) later this week!

-Michael

It is party time ‘round Libraryman way my friends! And it’s a community party, which means that you are invited (see the next to last paragraph of this blog post for you invitation details). At this party, you get to tell me a story or two…..and I get to write. A book. For ALA Editions!

While I’m bursting to tell you about my first book deal ever, Jenni Fry, Editor at ALA Editions tells the story in a much calmer and more reasonable voice:
“At Midwinter (2007) in Seattle, no fewer than three people sought me out, one even stopping me on the street, to tell me that “Michael Porter’s got an idea” for a book. Never one to be too slow on the uptake, I made sure to talk with him at a reception we were both attending. Several conversations and one contract later, I’m thrilled to say that Michael (aka Libraryman) will be writing for us.

Just what is this big idea, you say? Michael will be interviewing and gathering stories from individuals and institutions that have become leaders in successful electronic community engagement. He will use these stories as the basis for real-world lessons that libraries can use to more effectively engage the communities they serve. The work will be many things: part historical snapshot of this transition period in library service, part motivational storytelling, part benchmarking, and part practical handbook.”

Of course, Jenni is being a generous friend and editor because as I remember the story, it was I who tracked her down, two minute book pitch/elevator speech on the tip of my eager tongue. Regardless of how it happened, they did actually sign the contract so it is now legal and everything. In fact, I’ve taken a couple of stabs at an intro. Here’s one that is close:

“This is a book about effective and practical electronic community engagement. It is a book bursting with valuable, moving, entertaining, exciting and often times unusual stories and ideas. The stories all have lessons that center on people engaging with electronic community in ways that make the players more human. Each centrally themed collection of stories concludes with lessons learned, ideas and action items you can put to use in your library, business or personal life.”

I hope you like it, ‘cause unless the ALA folks say no, that’s how the book will go.
Now I get to thank a few folks that made this happen and then I’ll give you the official Michael Porter invitation to the party. Here goes:
Thanks to Jenni Fry and Patrick Hogan at ALA Editions for making this happen.
A whole slew of thank you’s to Chrystie Hill, who has a book coming out very soon herself and who also really helped align the stars that spelled out Y E S to this book proposal.
Also, thanks to Janie Hermann, who unbeknownst to me, also smiled upon this project.

The biggest thanks however go to the audience for and major subject matter of the book, that is, the inspirational and motivational colleagues I am blessed to know and work with. Does it crack anybody else up that simply thanking all the Jennifers’, Davids’, Michaels’ and Karens’ out there in Libraryland covers half of us?  Seriously though, thank you for helping to make this the most exciting time ever to work in libraries. This project will succeed because of you. Which leads me to your invitation to the party!

Your invitation:
This is my first public request for both library and NON-LIBRARY stories of community engagement. If you have had a story the has sprung to life from a single, or series of electronic community building tools and would be willing to share, please let me know so others can learn from it in this book! The more dramatic, intense, moving, informative, useful, practical and entertaining are obviously desirable. However, the beauty of subtlety is appreciated here as well. Even sending a one or two paragraph summary of a noteworthy community engagement story in your life could be a genuinely helpful inclusion in the book. So please think about your stories and consider sharing them with this book’s future audience. You can e-mail them to me at: michael.libraryman at sign gmail.com

I have some good content, substantial ideas and leads already, BUT we really need lots of stories like the ones described above from all over. In fact, they do not have to come from just library staffers. Non-library stories of electronic community engagement will make up the majority of those exemplified and examined in this book. That means if you have friends or family with stories that could enhance this book, I would LOVE to hear them!

Finally, this is my first book deal, so I am especially excited. I believe there is real benefit for Libraryland in the subject matter and approach here, which makes the project really pop for me as a librarian, practical tech advocate and author. But frankly, I don’t plan on trying to write a huge number of books. That means I truly believe in the idea and will work hard to make this useful, practical and helpful for us all. So for me, it is a big deal. And while it is a very happy project with lots of interesting work in store, I would like to end this announcement by thanking my dear grandma, Irene Porter-Baer. Grandma passed a way a few years ago but she was always one of my best friends, closest allies and strongest champions. I wouldn’t have been able to attend college or grad school without her help, so this opportunity would not have come to pass without her. I miss her and think of her often. I also try my best to make a proud legacy for her with my work. It is just another motivation to make this book be the best I can make it for us all. So either in the books’ introduction or conclusion I will thank you folks in Libraryland, and I will also thank my inspirational grandma that I owe a huge part of this current opportunity to.

Now please send me your stories of electronic community engagement, people! 

PS-I’ll bet my editors are quaking in fear the the entire book will be as turgid as this blog post. Hey, at least I used the word “turgid”! <–Note to self, no emoticons in the book.

Some really fun things have been happening behind the scenes lately with the whole idea of “Libraryman” having a logo. Actually, its a bit of a beta test for some ideas I’m working on for library advocacy and marketing. Working with the Libraryman persona and going along with the theory that play and “me” (and that is me in a good, not selfish way) is often the best way to approach learning something new, today you get a happy little picture that traces the evolution of the Libraryman logo. Fun! Well, for me anyway.

There will be a post/story about how the latest Libraryman logos just happened to show up in my email one day last month. Sam Morrison is the person I have to thank for that, and he’ll get another plug in a longer upcoming post about branding, marketing and electronic community turned into something substantive.

btw, if anybody gets an itch to draw another logo, well, it would make my day. In fact, along those lines, just yesterday, my coworker Laura sent me this picture of her son Carter in his Libraryboy costume. What?! A sidekick! Oh, man! Just think of the books we’ll read and the Summer Reading Program outreach we could accomplish! Thank you Carter, you rock!

Suddenly, Michael realized he has now been writing the Libraryman blog for four years.

Most of the folks that read this are my colleagues and I am truly honored that you take the time. Over the years, things have evolved, but my intent in writing this blog has always been to share, inspire, proved occasional food for thought, update my friends and family on my professional comings and goings and, on occasion, to talk about PEZ. But you, my dear colleagues are the biggest reason I keep at it. You are inspiring to me every day with the smart, hard work you do to make real lives and real communities better though your work in Libraryland! I love you, (wo)man!

Along those lines, while it isn’t time to tell the story here yet, a remarkably lovely gift arrived for me just two days ago which coincidentally serves to mark the Libraryman Blog four year anniversary very happily. What makes it so perfect is that the logo came from an unusually inspiring electronic community connection that the work here often touts! Check it out:

See! It really is true that substantial, good, entertaining, fun, practical stuff comes from our efforts, often in the happiest and most unexpected ways. So thanks so much for the logo Sam, and again, thank you for reading the Libraryman Blog for all these years everyone!

Woo hoo and Holy Cow! I had hoped to hit 400 Bloglines subscribers at some point during 2007 and it just happened this morning. I know there are plenty of folks that sub and don’t always read, but still, having such a group of people subscribed to this RSS feed makes me feel very responsible for providing content worth the subs. If you are one of these folks, thank you very much!

PS-Feedburner has about 100 subs for libraryman.com last time I checked. I wonder about other library bloggers out there. Do you ever pay attention to this info? Do you ever post it?

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!”

A huge thank you to the folks who spend their time, thought and energy to read this blog. I try to make it a bit fun, a bit interesting , a bit unique and totally worth your time. I truly appreciate that you come here for content during your busy day. So it makes me concerned, then sad and finally mad when my hosting service messes things up and my site goes down.

After two major server failures and days of misleading, thinly veiled false promises and inaction called action by a company called iPowerWeb, I have moved the hosting of this site to another company. Or rather, I have worked with my kind and generous friend, Kris Bell, to get the site moved over. It wasn’t fun. It took work and a big hunk of time that neither of us had. And we are both disappointed with iPowerWeb. I appreciate the times when they provided reliable uptime. Those days ended however and their customer support, while there, did nothing but poo poo the fact that libraryman.com went down during two critical times for me professionally. Shame on you iPowerWeb!

With that, I make lemonade from the lemons they foisted on me (and you), I thank my amazing friend and colleague Kris Bell for his hard work on short notice, I also really want to thank you, dear Libraryland readers, for sticking around during the outages. Now, I take my sweet, sweet visual revenge:

btw, it is 11:25pm. I am still at work because I needed to start working on this the second I was done with my “work work” to avoid more down time. Shame on you, iPowerWeb. You should refund my money and buy me the crappy drive through tacos I have to go get for dinner. Pfffft!

Well, well, well! It appears that the Gremlins that visited libraryman.com last week have finally been run off to go pester someone else. In other words, the site is now totally back up (and even slightly improved). There have been a few blog posts that couldn’t be added over the last week and I really hope to get them up over the weekend. A couple pretty nifty things have happened ’round libraryman way!

In the meantime to give this post a bit of content, here is my updated upcoming presentation schedule (more are in works too. Wo hoo!). It seems appropriate to send out some genuine thanks to both the institutions that have hosted (or allowed me to:) speak with/to them. Also, a huge thanks to the overwelmingly patient, responsive and truly impressive audiences I have been so fortunate to engage with. It really is an honor each and every time and I always strive to do my best so your time and attention is honored. If you’ll be around for any of the following, I look forward to meeting you!

June

NWEG -Northwest Endeavor (Ex-Libris) User Group -June 7
Emerging Library Fulfillment: Challenges and Opportunities for Libraries and Patrons
Keynote - Spokane, WA

May

Brooklyn Public Library Emerging Technology Conference -May 7
Practical, Fun and Easy: High value emerging library technologies you can use now.
Keynote - Brooklyn, NY

Santiago Library System/MCLS -May 2
Socialibtech
Los Angeles, CA

April

Washington Library Association Conference -April 18-21
Libraries, Portable Electronics and Media Access Futures
Tri-Cities, WA

March

iEdge @ UW -March 28
Research Shapes WebJunction: Web Design and E-Learning
(with contributions from Rachel Van Noord and Chrystie Hill)
Seattle, WA
(Just took part in this one Wednesday and big kudos go out the the UW folks that put this surrisingly valuable, informative and effective conference together. I hope you continue to do it as it is a high value proposition imo).

*A gigantic thank you to the always helpful and amazingly savvy, Kris Bell for helping sort out what happened to the site and how to approach a solution. He also talked me down from my expletive riddled tirade, which was sorely needed as I was in the office at the time. (Not really!;). Anyway, thanks again Kris, you are solid gold.*

A happy announcement in the form of a one act play/conversation:

As David Lee King and Michael Porter approach one another, the air crackles with dorky electricity.

Michael: “Hey, have we met?”

David: “Ummm, yeah. Don’t you remember those Internet Librarian Conferences, or when we presented at the Seattle Public Library Staff Day last month? We went out to dinner. Twice.”

Michael: “Ohhhh! Riiiight! That WAS you, wasn’t it? Well I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. So what do you know, old friend?”

David: “I know you’d better start remembering things, Jack! Oh, also, we have some exciting news to share with LibraryLand.”

Michael: “Is this another one of those self promotion posts that you find on LibraryMan.com all the time?”

David: “Well, yeah, but this one is better. This one has me in it, too.”

Michael: “That would be better. You are a very handsome man.”

David: “And bright too. As bright as the day is long.”

Michael: “Hmmmm….. Of our many outstanding qualities, humility is our most admirable.”

David: “I’ll say!”

Michael: “So can we get around to the announcement yet?”

David: “I suppose so, though I can fill a blog post with witty schnozz all day long.”

Michael: “”One’s man’s witty is another man’s yawn.” I don’t know what that actually means, but people say that to me all the time.”

David yawns and stretches his neck.

Michael: *ahem* “So, the announcement?”

David: “Yes, yes! Well today Michael and I got a letter from Kathleen Hughes, who is the editor of Public Libraries magazine. She said:

“I’m happy to let you know that the Public Libraries Advisory Committee would love to welcome you (David and Michael) aboard as the new Internet Spotlight columnists. Your first column, for the March/April issue would be due on Jan 26. The column can be up to 2000 words.”

Michael: “Wow! That’s cool! We’re going to be the new authors of the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries magazine?! Didn’t Steven Cohen write that for years?”

David: “He sure did. And he did an awesome job, too.”

Michael: “So it takes two of us to fill his shoes?”

David: “They told us we had to bring our own shoes, ’cause we couldn’t fill Steven’s.”

Michael: “Well I love shoes, but that is a lot of pressure, man!”

David: “I know! We have the gig, but now we actually have to write good stuff.”

Michael: “Oh that should be easy for us. You are a very hard worker.”

David: “And handsome, don’t forget how handsome I am.”

Michael: “What you talkin’ about David Lee King?”

David: “Why don’t you tell folks exactly WHAT we’ll write about?”

Michael: “Oh, what WON’T we write about? Now is the most exciting time ever for library professionals, in large part because of “internety” things. So that’s what we’ll write about: practical, cool, thought provoking “internety” things.

David: “Dude, “Internety” isn’t even a word! You don’t really want to start off talking about nonexistent words, do you? What kind of precedent does THAT set?

Michael: “I told you that you were a hard worker! You’re already doing a great job of editing and we haven’t even written a word yet!”

David: “You’re right, aren’t you? I really am awesome.”

Michael: “Hear, hear! So anyway, about the Public Libraries Magazine gig, I basically expect this column to mostly write itself.”

David: “I heard the internet can do that now.”

Michael: “Well then that’s what our first column should be about!”

David: “That’s not funny. This is serious business!”

Michael: “It really is though, isn’t it? We’ll be able to share practical technologies and highlight internet tools librarians can really use in their everyday work!”

David: “Well I don’t know about everybody else, but you’ve got ME ready to use the internet!”

Michael: “Me too!”

David: “What?”

Michael: “Exactly.”

David: “I am so going to edit what you write.”

Michael: “Whew! Thanks goodness. I’m looking forward to it.”

David: “Me too.”

Michael: “So when will the first column show up?”

David: “In the March/April issue!”

Michael: “Will our pieces be in the May/June, July/Aug, Sept/Oct, Nov/Dec issues too?”

David: “Yeah buddy!

Michael: “Sweet!”

David: “Totally sweet!”

Michael: “David, you have to promise me our articles will sound more professional than this conversation.”

David: “Well of course! Thankfully nobody can hear this conversation so I think we’re okay.”

Michael: *clicks off tape recorder in pocket*

*************************************************************************
Thanks to librarianne/Marie K for the use of her DK and MP image used at the beginning of the article.

Thanks also to thelibrarianinblack for the use of her photo of Michael at CLA.

Thanks also to the man himself, David Lee King.

And also to Steven Cohen for setting such a quality precendent with his Public Libraries Magazine Internet Spotlight articles.

Finally, thanks to Kathleen Hughes at ALA for her excellent editorial and author selection skills. We’ll work hard to do you proud.