Friday Fun: Google Street View "Outtakes"
You never know what Google Street View will find — some of it is pretty funny and some of it is downright embarrassing. Some random surfing today brought me to this article posted by the Telegraph in the U.K which also includes a slide show of more than a dozen street view images that have been pulled from the service following complaints or requests since the service went live recently in the U.K. and other European cities.
Not sure if the image with Paddington Bear in Trafalgar Square was pulled — I found it cute and appropriate. But then again, there is some question about whether Paddington was actually stalking the Google cam team.
How fun that they built in a Where’s Waldo game to the Street View as well — and even cooler that Waldo was found!
Of course, many questions could be (and have been) raised about privacy and the “Big Brother” aspect of street views… but that is a whole other post for a different day.
Focus on photography
I read a number of blogs that are not library related and sometimes I see things that I think other librarians and the general public might be interested in. Case in point, I read a great blog from Photojojo, which gives tips on things to do with your photographs, DIY projects. I’m a real photography person . . . I love taking pictures and getting the right shot, the right light, the right everything. (Have I ever mentioned that I am also a perfectionist?) And this Photojojo newsletter is right up my alley. It provides great, easy and cheap ideas for craft projects. Are you like me in that you have TONS of photos but no way to really display them or to have people see them?
Now think about your Library. Does your library have a photo club? Or teach classes on using digital cameras and need a project for the class to work on? Does your library have photos that you’d like to use but haven’t figured out the best way?
This site is a gold mine of ideas . . . think about using photos of teens from your latest teen program and creating something, like letting them create these glass jar frames OR letting the teens take pictures and use them to make these cool photocuffs. Immediately I think of teen programs but, of course, you could also do these projects in some of your children’s or adult programs, especially if craft events are as popular in your library as they are in mine. With Mother’s Day and Father’s Day just around the corner, think of all the possibilities of gift making programs using personal photographs!
Another recent idea is to use your photos for business cards. I did this a number of years ago using photos of the Bradley Beach Library (where I work) and they were always a big hit when I gave them out. What else makes your card stand apart from every one else’s? It also gives you a story to tell when you are handing your card over, the story of that particular photograph. You can customize your own cards at Moo, where they used to only have small calling card size but now have full sized business cards. I can’t wait to order new ones as soon as I figure out which of my photos to use!
What else can you do with photographs that your patrons have taken? Think about amateur photography exhibits or a photo contest, with a cool donated or purchased prize from a local camera shop or a web based photo site, like Kodak Gallery, Shutterfly, or Photojojo, just to name a few!
This is just a reminder that we need to be looking outside the library profession to get new and innovative ideas. The most successful and well-attended programs often come from ideas that no one ever expected to find in their Library!
OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT AT ALA at the CLENE Training Showcase!
OPPORTUNITY TO PRESENT AT ALA at the CLENE Training Showcase!
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/clenert/trainingshowcase
Do you have a staff training or staff development program you’re proud of? Would you like to present at ALA this summer?
If so, you’re invited to participate in the CLENE Training Showcase where you can share information about your program AND learn about the best practices of other libraries and organizations. The program is poster session style, and electricity and Internet can be provided if needed. Applications are due on April 1.
The Showcase will be on Sunday, July 12 from 1:30-3:30 pm. The planning committee looking for libraries, library organizations, presenters, speakers, and vendors to participate – anyone who has a great training or staff development program they’d like to share.
The Showcase normally attracts between 200-300 attendees over a period of 2 hours and there will be 20-30 presenters. It’s a really fun event with refreshments and lots of door prizes. Each participant has a 6’ draped table on which to put a portable table-top display unit, handouts or other related materials.
Please see CLENE Round Table Training Showcase website for more information. There’s a link on the main page for the Training Showcase Page with even more info about the Showcase, along with two online application forms – one for those wishing to participate and one for those want to be a sponsor or a donor.
There are a few photos from last year’s Training Showcase in Anaheim in the Dec. 2008 CLENExchange Newsletter as well as photos from previous years on CLENE’s Flickr page. If it looks like everyone is having way too much fun, it’s because we were!
For more information, contact either Pat Carterette, pcarterette[at]georgialibraries.org or404-235-7124 OR Melissa Lattanzi at lattanzm[at]neo-rls.org or 330.847.7744, extension 12
Hope to see you there!!
45 Billion Minutes!
A few fun facts from an interesting, but not surprising, article from PC Magazine today that reports on some findings as a result of recent market research done by Nielsen Online:
One in every 11 minutes online globally is accounted for by social network and blogging sites, the group found, or 45 billion minutes in total.
Blogs and social networking are consuming more online time than checking and writing personal email.
A search engine was used by 85.9 percent of the world’s population, followed by what the firm called “general interest portals and communities,” such as Yahoo, with an 85.2 percent reach. Software ranked third at 73.4 percent, with the member communities of blogs and email fourth, at 66.8 percent. Email came in fifth, at 65.1 percent. All categories showed gains from the year before.
Facebook remained the most popular social-networking destination around the world, and user attention rocketed by 566 percent from a year ago.
As well, this article provides some interesting and quantifiable data about a trend that we have all been observing — the movement of “old fogies” to Facebook (see my previous post) is driving the original demographic to leave:
Growth in social networking is being driven not by the young, but by the middle-aged. The category of men and women aged 65 and above moving to social networking grew by 7 percent, Nielsen found, while the 2-17-year-old category dropped by 9 percent. The most popular age group with Facebook in terms of growth is the 35-49 category, which increased by 24.1 million people.
This article gives terrific insight in to the shift that occurring online and gives some great data to justify the addition of digital branches and social networking features to a library system. The reach of social networking is extending and, like email before it, is something that library patrons of all ages are becoming comfortable using.
Source: More Time Spent Social Networking Than On Email (PC Magazine Online, 3/10/09)
A Little Link Love
Just a quick post to share a few articles and links that I have found interesting/useful/funny — and sometimes all three. These are in no particular order and with no particular theme.
Why Facebook is for Old Fogies: A humorous article from TIME with lots of truth mixed in about why adults want and need to be on Facebook. A great handout to add a little levity for classes on social networking or for any bibliography for a presentation. My favorite reason from the list:
10. We’re not cool, and we don’t care. There was a time when it was cool to be on Facebook. That time has passed. Facebook now has 150 million members, and its fastest-growing demographic is 30 and up. At this point, it’s way cooler not to be on Facebook. We’ve ruined it for good, just like we ruined Twilight and skateboarding. So git! And while you’re at it, you damn kids better get off our lawn too.
Building Your Base Toolkit: A great resource for those who do library programming from the New York State Library and hosted by the Mid-Husdon Library System. This site is designed to give libraries “tools for connecting with your community” and has lots of good marketing advice in addition to tips for running successful library programs. I am always on the lookout for new programming ideas and they have a lot of good ideas on the Creative Programming page.
Twitter Basics for Librarians: This post is meant to help libraries and librarians start using Twitter, but it could easily be adapted for any group or for a handout for a basic class on twitter at your library. This post also led my to discover Tweeters Directory: Librarians, twitter resource that I had not seen before (although I am undecided about adding my name as I like to keep my following/followers list small and hate to decline people).
Flickriver: My new favorite way to browse and explore flickr, but be warned that this site can be a giant time suck. If you want to have lots of fun, do a search for the tag “librarian” and sort by “interesting” — here are the results of this search. It is so cool that Cindi’s photos comprise 3 of the top 5 and very telling that many of the “interesting” shots comprise photos of the stereotypical “sexy” librarian image. Oh, and the “librarians in shower caps” mosaic ranks quite highly too! Of course, it is always fun to search for your user name too. The black background and not needing to click to get to the next image just makes the browsing so much better.
Best and Worst Blogs 2009: The second annual list by TIME “spanning politics, housekeeping, astronomy and everything in between”. I found a few new blogs to check out thanks to this list and was happy to see many of my favorites included. The Most Overrated Blogs list is short but right on the money.
ALA Council Passes Resolution Defining Core Competences for Librarianship
Core competences for librarianship were finally defined at the very recent Midwinter Meeting in Denver, where the ALA Council passed the resolution, and this Tuesday, ALA sent out a press release summarizing the resolution and providing links to the core competences site and a pdf. The document defines the basic knowledge to be possessed by all persons graduating from an ALA-accredited master’s program in library and information studies.
The core competences “stress the role of library and information professionals in promoting democratic principles and intellectual freedom, knowing and applying the legal framework guiding libraries and information agencies – including laws relating to copyright, privacy, freedom of expression, equal rights and intellectual property – and identifying and analyzing emerging technologies and innovations.”
I especially enjoyed reading from their press release the “identifying and analyzing emerging technologies and innovations” phrase above myself! 😉
Do take a look at the entire core competences doc for all of the details when you get a moment.
-Robert Lackie
Technorati Tags: ALA, core competences, emerging technologies, librarianship, Library Garden
Addios Críticas, You will be missed…
I was saddened to learn that after eight years, Críticas has ceased publication. The full Title–Críticas: An English Speaker’s Guide to the Latest Spanish-Language Titles— is the best description of the magazine I could produce. It was a published monthly on-line and covered everything—adult titles, children’s titles, books, movies, and audio, fiction and nonfiction. In addition there are articles and editorials covering everything from collection development to outreach and fundraising. Twice a year, print copies were distributed to subscribers of Library Journal. This was my go to resource for keeping up with the Spanish language publishing industry.
The Latino population in my area—actually in all of the U.S. is growing at a significant rate. According to the 2005-2007 American Community Survey three-year estimates, the number of ‘Hispanic or Latino (of any race)’ people increased 24% over the 2000 Census figures, to approximately 14% of the population of the United States. In New Jersey, the increase was approximately 20% over the same time period. More than ever, librarians need tools to assist them in serving Spanish speakers. Reed Business Information, the publisher of Críticas, said there are plans to have this type of coverage in their other publications Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal. So far, I have not seen any thing in these publications to reflect that statement. The loss of Críticas will negatively impact my ability to serve my patrons. Balancing privacy and patron control of personal information.
A colleague and I were discussing the recent Facebook TOS kerfuffle and she said she was fascinated by how much privacy people are willing to give away in exchange for a desired experience. I agreed that I am equally fascinated, and that it is vitally important for librarians to be on the vanguard of monitoring these trends, and educating our customers as to the possible risks of sharing too much information.
But I also think that librarians, at times, can be too knee-jerk about privacy issues, and I wonder if while looking at one end of the Facebook dustup (big corporation trampling on privacy rights) we might be missing some important lessons on the other end (big corporation letting customers control their own information in exchange for a highly engaging experience. And Facebook DOES give customers a tremendous, leading edge, amount of control. See: “10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know.)
We all know that people (myself, and probably you included) will share personal information in exchange for a quality experience. We share personal renting and buying habits in exchange for Netflix and Amazon recommendations. We share personal reading habits on GoodReads and LibraryThing to connect with others who share our interests and tastes. We share our credit card numbers with many online vendors in exchange for the convenience of “one-click” ordering.
We know all this, and we personally experience the benefits, but librarians still seem generally loathe to let our customers share their personal information in exchange for anything. We don’t just protect customer privacy, we paternalistically protect it from the customers themselves, rendering them childlike. Our privacy philosophy often reduces down to, “We know better”, or “You can’t be trusted with that–you’ll hurt yourself.”
Our choice to disallow customer control of their own information means that their needs for connection and social networking go unmet, which in turn creates opportunities for entrepreneurial companies like Library Elf, GoodReads, and LibraryThing (created by frustrated library lovers, I wonder?) to come in and fill those needs. Which is great, but why aren’t libraries creating and offering these experiences?
I worry every day about whether libraries will be relevant, three, five, or ten years from now. Unless we start allowing our customers to make decisions about their own personal data, AND start building systems that offer them a social networked experience based on their ability to selectively share their heretofore private info, I fear that libraries will grow increasingly irrelevant to our customers.
Stimulating Libraries…
As you know, the Federal Government is spending. Yesterday President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion stimulus package. According to the President, “It’s an investment that will create jobs building 21st century classrooms, libraries, and labs for millions of children across America.”
Of interest to me is $53.5 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (down from the $79 billion originally proposed). This money is being given to state governments to make-up shortfalls in spending on education and government services. I for one will be sending e-mails to my state representatives asking that they continue to fully fund the NJ Knowledge Initiative and provide some of this money for public libraries in New Jersey. (To find your NJ representatives, this is a really handy site: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/legsearch.asp).
For complete breakdown of the package and how it impacts libraries, the ALA has set up a very helpful webpage. I look forward to learning more about the specifics of the package and how it can help my library and my community, as well as all libraries.
An Open Letter to Visiting Professionals
Welcome!
Thank you for coming–we love to share our space and are happy to have you here. As in many libraries (and I suspect in yours), we have a policy here that states: No Food or Drink in the Library. We hate to tell our patrons no, but have no choice—this is a sensible policy as food and drink stain furniture and carpets and destroys library materials. In this age of the ubiquitous Starbucks cup, coffee cop is one of the worst parts of our jobs.
We try to enforce the rules fairly, but sometimes we do not see the offense. However, when you approach the public desk with a steaming cup of coffee in your hands, you should expect to be told about the policy. Please do not roll your eyes, sigh, or scowl—as you know, we are on the front-lines and just doing our job. When you follow-up with “I am here for the [Insert meeting name here]”, please understand that is the library equivalent of a celebrity exclaiming ‘Do you know who I am’. It does not change the rule which we are duty bound to enforce fairly.
Please keep this in mind when visiting another library—we understand your desire to have coffee while at your meeting. We understand you are careful and are unlikely to spill. We do not want to tell you no. However, we can not make an exception for you. It is unfair. It makes our job harder. Please do not ask. You see, the other patrons do not know who you are.
Thank you.
Library Garden 