I want to join...um...whatever their name is

A few days ago I went to an optional colloquia for several reasons.

1. I don't trust the weather and life and find its better safe then sorry when it comes to having to make x number of y meetings required. I'm not messing with that.
2. With my own school changing its name, I wanted to learn more about why all this hub-bub about name changes? Why was this organization was finally considering changing its own name?
3. I wanted to go to a meeting, see what it was like.
4. Despite the fact I am painfully shy, I wanted to try a little networking.
5. I was curious, and what better reason is there then that?

Well, after getting led through what felt like a labyrinth of halls, doorways, stairs in a variety of twists and turns I finally got there! (seriously, was this place built by a contractor with add? Quick, someone get me a ball of golden twine so I can get out!)



The talk focused on the fact that while people like to hold on to what's familiar, the most successful individuals, organizations and companies are the ones who change. Special Libraries Association was only meant to be a placeholder name until an appropriate one could be decided upon. Perhaps it is better to have waited, with the development of so many new technologies, libraries are not just books anymore. I feel strongly that Librarian does not do justice to describing what it is these people really do for the communities, companies, and organizations they work for.

The point that really drove home with me was that by closely defining ourselves as 'librarians' we have boxed ourselves in and are actually driving away potential jobs. Those working in the corporate environment see that employers don't realize our worth because we do not speak up enough, we aren't speaking the same language as employers and are missing out on a lot of great job opportunity's!

{ { { There is a corporate language that we need to be aware of, learn, and use! } } }

Librarian and Library are words that have not a negative stigma necessarily, but a stale and stagnant one. I prefer to tell people I am going to school to become an Information Specialist, or Information Professional. You would be amazed at the change in how I am received by people when I do this. Their perception of me changes immediately.

Information is a commodity to companies. Everyone wants the best information, the fastest, most secure, most reliable way they can get it. And most importantly, they want it in a form they can understand.

Isn't this the basic service that librarians have always provided?

~~~ It is stupid to fight the waves of change, you are just going to beaten to death by them. ~~~
THINK ABOUT IT

To learn more about their mission for redefining themselves from librarians to ... something else ... but still holding true to what it is a librarian does at heart, please go to the SLA Blog "Align in O9"

Did you know?

No,
I didn't,
and I'm still not sure I do.

This is about a rash of videos being shared around the world from YouTube entitled Did You Know?

The videos spout a bunch of facts technology related.

But where are these facts coming from I ask?

I just don't know and will be looking into this further, when I find something I'll update this blog, until then, you could check them out for yourself...

Did You Know?

Because we're bored...

we invent these sites, sites with no apparent purpose...yet.

Two of which I have recently come across are Cleverbot and Omegle, not entirely new ideas at all, just improved on with new technology.

I must admit that Cleverbot is by far one of the more interesting ai I've come across on the net as of late. It almost always makes sense, well, in some way. And when it can't it tries to joke, though humor is individual and can't always be inferred from its responses. Conversations are also often circular, you really have to take the initiative to steer the conversation although sometimes the bot will try, though randomly.

Omegle reminds me of old AIM Chats, before they became overly categorized, monitored, and difficult to access, ie., not fun anymore. On this site you are randomly paired with someone to chat with, and as expected it is already plagued with spam and xxx trollers. However, abuse Omegle too much, and they WILL ban your ip address, still, if you search the web for "funniest Omegle conversations" you will find some new/old chat humor with a twist that sometimes seem so well done you wonder if the two chatting are really strangers, or is it a clever screen shot edit?

So I suppose you could call them old ideas with an upgrade.

Every now and then sites like these pop up, and as they improve perhaps one day they will serve a greater purpose, until then, they are fun to play with.

OMG Captin Crawl Saved My Life!

Why?

Because it saved me a ton of green, that's why!

captaincrawl.com is a blog search engine specifically designed to search blogs for music files!
Often the blogs will be in another language like Spanish or Russian but after a little practice you can distinguish the download links and passwords. If you want to use this you will also need a copy of winrar which you can get here.

Its a free and safe download, tested true.

The free downloads often take a few minutes, or up to 15 min depending on your computers age, speed, etc. And so far none of the music files have be corrupted since they are being downloaded using the free -slow- version of legit sites in whos best interest it is to screen the files in the first place for malicious additives.

FREE is AWESOME!!!

So don't complain, just go do some laundry or something while that brand new cd is downloaded for free to your computer.

Rant about someone else's Rant

So we all went to see this fellow speak about leadership, or value, or something...


There's a picture of Peter Bromberg, looking all happy :-D Click it and you'll go to his website which links to his blog - Library Garden - which is located somewhere here on blogger, and which he so shamelessly plugged at the dinner (the food wasn't half bad, that said, it wasn't half good either... oh well, on to the talk)

His talk was about what librarians can do to keep their libraries needed by their communities.
He started out by giving a brief history about information and how some people failed at it because they thought they were only publishing it, disseminating it, or hording it.

I really enjoyed the part about the "Exponential Pace Of Change", and how the internet has made so much information available to so many that often, they really don't know what to do with it, much less how to make good use of it, or most importantly, find what they need.

I agree that libraries are less vessels from which knowledge is poured and more filters for those that don't have the skills, time, or want to put the effort into sorting it all themselves. Not that librarians sort through everything, though all information is sorted at least once by someone.(I think.)

He also used the metaphor of "Permanent Whitewater" to describe the changes we are all always going through with technology advancing so much faster every day. So hording knowledge doesn't work because before you know it, it may be irrelivant or divulged by someone else and made freely available on the web. In this kind of world, the role of librarians is to help direct people the right way by looking ahead at what kinds of information they will need, acting like guides as well .

He also talked about how important it is that libraries make sure they are important members of their community. That they are pleasant, useful places for patrons to come to. It is not enough to just make our services available, we must make an effort to draw patrons in, and keep them there not out of frustration but because they want to be there. He said that this is a tactic used by most peoples favorite businesses and that a library is like a business in that it is providing information management, filtering, educational and etc. services. We do not want to make the same mistakes as other businesses have by not changing. We can not be afraid of change.

This is why gaming is becoming more popular in libraries, because people want it and have responded to it. To all those libraries that say gaming has nothing to do with libraries, then please, remove all the computers, billboards, personal touches, maps, artifacts, and local lore from your facilities, and we will see how long you remain. A library is nothing without a community to serve. Remember, we are here to help them with their needs, and if you don't agree with them all the time, hey, fake it.

Wow, a new post! Isn't that dipity?

So I know I haven't posted in a while and I wanted to, so I'm posting about a fun site I found while looking for a collection of past internet memes...

meme = "cultural element or behavioural trait whose transmission and consequent persistence in a population, although occurring by non-genetic means (esp. imitation), is considered as analogous to the inheritance of a gene." - from the Oxford English Dictionary, take that you wikipedia bitches, lol, just kidding you know your great cuz your free, I will miss having access to the online version of the OED. :- ( *pout pout*

Or you could just go with, "an idea, behavior, style or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture." - from the Merriam Webster Dictionary



So I found a site called Dippity that lets you make interactive widgits, including a really cool sliding timeline, list, flipbook, map etc. that members can add to if the maker allows it. This tool is now one of the first links to come up when you do a search for internet memes on Google. Check out the MEMES!

Dippity is interesting to me because like Del.icio.us it lets you put all of your bookmarks in one place, in addition to letting you link to all your pictures, videos, social networking sites, etc. in a graphical format that I like. However, while viewing some timelines on Dippity is free, premium accounts cost $$$.

I have not joined Dippity yet, but I am thinking about getting the basic free account. I wonder what my information would look like, as friends update blogs, as news feeds come in, and as I upload images... I'm sure it would be interesting to see ...

Internet Memes on Dipity.

Some Rant Related Thoughts

I think I want to keep this blog active, somehow.

I want to continue to make a notes here of new technology, trends, or just stuff I find online. Once I started this project, I really got into it. I like checking it to see what the other librarians have posted in their blogs. I liked learning about new technologies, however brief. That said, there are definitely some things I would like to go back to and look at(and perhaps post about) in even more detail.

It was a relatively painless process (apart from the repeated creation of new accounts) and while some of the technologies aren't for me, it was useful to do more then just dismiss them and to take a look at what they can do so I could make a more educated decision.

I'd say that flicker was my least favorite, I'm just not that into photography. And while I may like YouTube, I would not like posting videos of myself there either. I use YouTube like I use hulu, for entertainment and educational purposes, not for viewing me. My classmates would like hulu, they should check it out. Tv for free :) I really hope that site grows.

A couple of my favorites were the image generators and Del.icio.us Bookmarking! I really love Del.icio.us because it was the most useful tool for me that we explored. I love being able to have access to any of my favorite/useful web sites and not having to write them down (too many to memorize now). It's so easy to add to and search. And for me, the image generators were a fun and creative part of the project. And usually I embrace creativity.

As far as if there were another program like this one, would I do it? Yes, I believe so, I suspect I am addicted to learning : D ... must learn ... new ... things!

"We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people to learn"
- Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005)

Like learning, it's good for you, similar to carrots. ; - )

Below is yet another video from Mike :)

And check out the Web 2.0 Search Engine !