Connecting Librarian

I haven’t blogged much since I’ve been back, mainly due to the overload I did whilst I was away. Since then I have been extremely busy at work too. We have had a lot of change going on and a lot more to come, so there has been extra meetings and training etc. As a result of all this, I have been percolating over this post for a bit. This is pretty unusual for me, as I tend to be a “get it all down in one session” blogger. This one has taken several days and several iterations to get it here. So here goes.

I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately from librarians who are trying to deal with the same sorts of things I have. I first noticed it at Librarian in Black when Sarah started talking about trying to keep up with all her online profiles in “Sarah’s social network presences“. Meredith at Information Wants to be Free picked up on what Sarah had said in “Couldn’t have said it better“. I know the feeling! I don’t have that many profiles online, hadn’t gotten around to it yet, but I have had to start a spreadsheet just to keep track of all my login details for all the web apps I am using or intend to use in future. Thank goodness that there has been some streamlining of these with Google and Yahoo buying up things like Blogger and Flickr.

Then there are the feeds. I know this has been an issue for most blog readers and for many years too. For me, its only become a recent issue. When I first started reading blogs about 4 years ago, I started small and never thought I would go much higher than the 20 I ended up with then . Small and manageable and still giving me what I thought I needed from them. I added some out of my field, just to get a bit of the wider picture, then found more Australian blogs so feeling patriotic and interested, I added them to my feeds. My current list sits at 110, which includes the feeds for the blogs I contribute to (3 besides my own). I do that so I see how other people are seeing them. That list has been weeded down some recently and I plan to weed it down more. I survived whilst on my study tour with my only 24 feeds in my reader and although there were some that I missed, generally I survived. As many bloggers have pointed out, if there is something special out there, another blogger will draw your attention to it.

Another post which added fuel to the fire on this whole package for me came from Emily at Library Revolution. “Librarians keeping up and making time” talked about how a fellow librarian didn’t understand how she kept up. Ultimately, its a personal responsibility, one that doesn’t finish when the work day does.

Which brings me to the bleeding edge part. One of my managers said to me again recently that I was on the bleeding edge of what is happening in libraries and that makes me a valuable asset to the library. When she first said it, I took some pride in it, but now I am not so sure.

I love being a part of the blogosphere and discovering all the new things that libraries are doing, but in the past year I have been feeling more of a responsibility to do so, for my library and not just for my own interest. Having that expansion means that my frustration with being one of the only ones out there on the edge at my workplace is magnified. Now that’s my issue, as I took on more than I should, both in keeping track of whats happening and feeling more responsible for it than I should. As Emily at Library Revolution has pointed out, its each librarian’s responsibility to stay informed – whatever that level is. So for me, it’s time to take stock.

I love my work and I am passionate about Library 2.0, but I don’t have enough time to be on the bleeding edge of everything that it encompasses. We have so much change going on at work and that can be a very painful process for some to go through and painful for people like me to wait for them to catch up. I understand that, but it still doesn’t make it any easier to handle. Others are experiencing the same I know. CW and Kathryn had a F2F meeting of interested librarians in Western Australia, where they discussed the same issues.

So I will do what I can. First I will set myself some realistic goals – both at work and at home. (besides my family coming first regardless – which unfortunately hasn’t always been the case recently) That will probably mean cutting back on more feeds, really thinking about new technologies and what they will mean for me and my workplace before getting involved and more. I hope to write an article of how to keep current, maybe to get published in a local journal, but also to distribute to interested librarians at work.

I am determined to manage this and regain my optimism, which has been slightly lacking of late, by taking some positive steps forward and thereby hopefully regaining all of the passion I have for my work and my professional interests. Wish me luck!

Welcome to the Carnival! This week we have a plethora of great rides for you to check out and enjoy. We will begin with our Carnival submissions. Many thanks to those who sent in some great links!

The Carnival starts with Jodie Schneider, who points to a post from Cataloguing Futures. “Why Web 2.0 is leading back to full cataloging” highlights snippets from a Library Juice post, which posits that the best outcome is cataloguing and tagging together. Chris Zammarelli highlights a post at DIY Librarian entitled “The Plane Speech” – which gives advice on what to say to the person with whom you get chatting and asks aren’t libraries obsolete? He also points to Notes about Libraries where Claire summarises the key talks from the London Librarian and Archivists Group in “All Change LMLAG Conference”.

therapydoc highlights one of her own posts at Everyone needs therapy, entitled “Commencement”, which explores how when after attending many graduations, she finally sits through a whole ceremony and realises how boring they can. But can anything be done to change that?

If that isn’t enough to give you your fill of fun, then here are my picks for the Carnival.

Great post from John Blyberg at Blyberg.net entitled Buzzkill 2.0 – I’ll let you read it to find out more. I loved Karen Schneider’s post at Free Range Librarian, “That’s OK lady, nobody thinks you’re interesting, either” where she lambasted a journalist for their review of Twitter, because of their sloppy research and overuse of assumptions – very entertaining!

Sarah Houghton Jan from Librarian in Black posted “Sarah’s social network presences, and the dilution thereof” which talked about whether its worth all the effort to maintain a wide range of presences online. This has also been on the mind of Meredith at Information Wants to be Free (amongst others – myself included!) She also ponders the issue of archiving her blog in Blog Backup (a concern of mine too – too much to think about!)

Great excitement in library land with Danbury Library being the first to use Library Thing for Libraries – go check it out! (try searching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and look at the tags at the end of the record). And to finish, a video. Andrew Finegan, the Librarian Idol, produced his “Libraries in 2010″ video for a Libraries Interact competition for Australian Library Week. It won! You can check out the other entries at Libraries Interact.

Hope you enjoyed the Carnival and don’t forget to get your submissions in for the Carnival of the InfoSciences #73, which will be hosted at Libraryola. Thanks for dropping in!

I was very priveliged and excited about attending Australia’s 1st L2 Unconference, hosted here in Melbourne by Yarra Plenty Regional Library Corporation. It was a day where the attendees (about 60) set the agenda, based on the idea of Library 2.0. There were some great conversations, exchanging of ideas, thoughts provoked, inspiration given, new connections made through networking (and old ones reestablished) and so much more.

Representatives from school, special, public and the State Library of Victoria were all in attendance with the commonality being an interest in using Library 2.0 technologies in our libraries. Knowledge of Library 2.0 ranged from an awareness to expert, but the benefit for all came in the sharing and in the ideas that came from this.

The day was split into four sessions, with a number of options in each session and the ability for one to change to another topic if the one you attended wasn’t right for you. I don’t think anyone changed. There was plenty of enthusiasm, everyone was listening as well as contributing and everyone went away wanting more.

The topics I attended were wikis – how to create one and what to use it for – OPACs and mashups – how to create a simple RSS feed mashup from multiple sources (can’t wait to try that one out), Second Life – which I facilitated (lucky me) and Tagging – uses, problems, benefits etc.

Other sessions covered Learning 2.0, literary blogging, virtual reference and reference redesign amongst others. It was an awesome day and we want another like it soon to cover the sessions we missed and anything new that comes up in the meantime.

The session I did on Second Life seemed to interest those attending, although I am not much more than a beginner myself. My presentation was greatly assisted by some demo videos from YouTube (thanks Denise for finding those), from the use of Kathryn Greenhill’s slides from her National Library presentations (a lifesaver Kathryn, thankyou!) and from the presence in Second Life of some of those attending the session, who I was able to interact with.

The L2 UnConference blog has been opened to comments, so check out what other attendees are saying for a bigger picture of the day. Can’t wait for the next one!

About a month ago, there was a flurry of posts in the biblioblogosphere, related to an article in the Lawrence Journal-World. In response to a debate on whether Lawrence should get a brand new library building , triple its current size, Mark Hirsched wrote a piece “Libraries are limited, obsolete“. Wow, did it get a response.

I recommend you check out the original article, when I checked, there were over 60 comments.
You should also check out the following responses in the biblioblogosphere:

• Going to the boneyard - at blyberg.net
• Libraries=obsolete?? – at What I learned today (with a nice quote in the comments)
• Ten things I know about libraries in 2006 – at Tame the Web
• Libraries are obsolete — No sir, I beg to differ – at Librarian in Black

I got hot under the collar when I first read it, as did many other librarians. However, John Blyberg put an interesting spin on it, which got me thinking. Although his criticisms are unfounded (in soooo many ways), here is the voice of a non-user speaking loud and clear. What can we learn from it?

I was pleased to see that many of the comments on the article came from both sides of the argument, including users and librarians. It would be even better if a major article could appear in response to the original, with the same prominence – thereby offering both sides of the story in a major way, rather than just the response as a byline.

I don’t know the situation in Lawrence, but from reading the comments attached to the original article, it seems that some people believe its too much money and that rather than having a large central library, either the existing one could be overhauled or new smaller satellite libraries in outer areas could be built instead, taking the library to the public rather than expecting them to come in. More libraries at point of need – it may not be financially feasible, but it could be considered.

The usual concern about the public not knowing what libraries can do for them comes up everywhere throughout this process. They know we have computers but not the resources they can access (besides the internet), through them or from anywhere with their library card. That is an issue that I don’t think anyone has been able to resolve and unfortunately I don’t have the answers either, but we have to keep trying.

Mark Hirschey says he has devoted his life to education, does that mean he hasn’t noticed that students are using the Internet, with its often unreliable sources as their only source of information for research. Several librarian bloggers have posted recently on students who have used Wikipedia exclusively as their research tool – including a uni student preparing a theses proposal (See Ruminations). A recent C|New News.com article also expressed the need for libraries in this instant with the article “Most reliable search tool could be your librarian“.

I’ll let you read and think on the rest. Most of my concerns are addressed by the other blog entries I have referred to. In the meantime, I will re-read Mark Hirschey original post, to find out what else we can learn from our detractors and brainstorm about how we can adapt our services to meet the needs of each of our community’s and also to let all our public know, not just our current users, of the treasures available from and within their local library.

The title of this post comes from the post that inspired this stream of thought. In the September 15, 2006 Library Journal, Sophie Brookover talked about her profession as it fits with her family. Sophie blogs the well-known and well-regarded “Pop goes the Library” which talks about pop culture and libraries.

Sophie’s article “Priorities and Professionalism” discusses her change of life status, having married and now having a baby. From being a full on professional, with her fingers in many pies, she now finds herself wanting to slowly extricate a great number of those fingers, whilst still keeping her hand in. The article is well worth the read, I recommend you check it out.

I can relate to Sophie’s situation, but at the slightly other end of the scale. I never got involved in the profession like she did before I married and had children. I did a paper at the RAISS conference in 1999 and then was on the organising committee for the 2001 RAISS conference, but apart from that I was pretty much a lurker – to borrow a blogging term, watching it all from the outside.

However, I have my 2 children (and no more), the oldest at school, the youngest at kinder and I find I would like to be more involved in my profession, but I am still having the same battles that Sophie is having. I have worked half-time since my eldest was born and don’t think that will change for the foreseeable future. I work because I enjoy what I do, but the part-time for me is a balance between family and profession. When I am not at work, I get behind my children and husband in things they do – school library, kinder committee, church and my husband’s business. And on top of that I am still a wife and mum as well as a librarian.

How do I get involved, when the activities of my profession outside of my work are mainly in the city and I am on the outer edge and have 2 children and a husband to consider. You get the idea that I don’t get to go to them much, right! In fact, I can’t remember the last one I attended out of work time! I am fortunate that my workplace sends me to some first rate sessions that brings me in contact with others in my profession, but although it may be enough for some, its not for me.

So what can I do, to contribute to my profession, both mine and the wider one, whilst still maintaining my family as priority. Blogs have been my first step, reading them initially and then writing my own, for myself and for others. (thanks for being an other!) My next step is to post more frequently I hope, to go from monthly to weekly even if its only just a short post. Where to go from there, I am not quite sure.

Its small, but its a start. And I guess its going to be an ongoing challenge for a while too – this balancing act I want to manage. But for those who know me, if my plate wasn’t full, I wouldn’t be happy.

Any thoughts or suggestions you could offer on my next step would be much appreciated.

I am so busy at the moment and haven’t the time to write posts about each of these worthy reports, so here’s a brief overview on each – it may be worth your while to check them out more fully.

“Public Libraries and the Internet 2006” – from the Information Use and Policy Institute, looks at the state of internet access in public libraries in the US, how it has changed since 1994 and how libraries expect to see it change in the next two years. There’s a lot more there, so check it out.

“Cites and Insights: Crawford at Large” is a favourite of mine. Walt Crawford produces a regular extravaganza of information, analysis and criticism on a wide range of topics relating to Libraries, Policy, Technology and Media, averaging at about a 26 page pdf file. Its always on my reading list. If you are particularly interested in library blogs, then you should check out Walt’s Looking at Liblogs issue – it even included Connecting Librarian!

“Teen Market Profile” – is an interesting exploration of American teen consumers, from the Magazine Publishers of America. The profile is based on the work of Mediamark Research and provides a profile on teens as consumers – who they are, what they buy, how they think and how to reach them. Important for libraries to know too.

“Long Overdue – a fresh look at public and leadership attitudes about libraries in the 21st century” – comes from Public Agenda, under the auspices of Americans for Libraries and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It looks at how Americans see their libraries in the 21st century, with a special look at the view of public officials. It identifies both strengths and challenges for public libraries. There is plenty here for public libraries in Australia to learn from.

“Supporting students: the educational contribution of Australia’s public libraries” by Dr Alan Bundy for the Friends of Libraries Australia (FOLA). It researches the increasing use that students of all ages, are making of their public libraries, the impact of that use and makes recommendations for service options which libraries can provide, but only with further government support. FOLA has done a series of reports on how libraries support different sections of our society, which are also worth checking out.

All worth reading, but will take a while to do so – Enjoy!

I had the great delight of being able to attend a talk in Melbourne, given by Stephen Abrams on Friday just gone, entitled Web 2.0 and Library 2.0: competing in a Google World – hosted by CAVAL. Although it was over 3 hours long, I took even more copious notes than I usually do, so this will be long. As they are notes relating to where I am at, I apologise if they don’t make a lot of sense out of my context. As this post will also be a combination of what Stephen said and a little of what I am thinking, I will differentiate it by putting my thoughts into italics. Here goes:

Broadband is becoming more widespread – in Toronto, Canada, it is available for free through their power lines! As this spreads even further, it raises a threat to libraries as destinations. What are we doing about that?

Google is great for the who, what, where and when questions. Libraries are better for the how and why questions. Our quality of information and our intervention through the reference interview, helping the user to better define their information need, beats a general internet search every time. How do we communicate that to our users and potential users?

Video games, which are contentious in libraries world wide, are important to libraries, not only to attract young users, but because that type of interface is how we will interact with computers in the future. If people aren’t learning to use them now, they will have to do a lot of catching up later. Add the strategy, information and research that goes into some of these games and it becomes more than a mindless distraction.

Be smart in how you do information literacy. One library did a session “Pimp my MySpace account” and in the midst of glamming up the graphics, adding plugins etc, subtly taught on privacy (ie. do you really want that photo to come up when you are running for Supreme Court justice?)

There were more changes in the mid 20th century, than there have been in the last 15 years – electricity, refrigeration, commercial flight, television, moon landing, computers started, etc. However, although the last 15 years has been relatively slow in terms of change, its now going to get a lot faster.

SHIFT happens!

Libraries have been cataloguing websites, but can’t keep up with the changes. Should we be doing that? (Stephen thinks not)

We need to move forward, success in the past does not guarantee success in the future.

Virtual services from a library need to work as a branch, with branch staff etc, meeting the needs of the virtual users. What are their demographics, their languages etc. Toronto’s website is now available in 27 languages!

Books are not at risk – publishing and book sales are still increasing. Libraries may be.

Changed priorities ahead – no stopping at any time – we need to keep moving, keep innovating.
When we study something to death, death is not our goal! Experiment by doing!

Why should people use a library when there’s Google? We are not information professionals, but knowledge professionals. We help to link the user to the information, thereby assisting the process of making knowledge. We have to teach how to find, not to search. Libraries have to put themselves at the point that users come in (ie. lesson level on a uni website).

Isn’t this just the best time to be in libraries?
What do we do best? – create an experience, improve the quality of the question and support community and learning. Librarians like to answer questions, unfortunately for us to be approached means that the user has to admit that they don’t know something and that is hard!

Questions to consider:
1. How will libraries address the localisation of search?
With the introduction of Google Maps, Google Scholar and Msn near me, that local advantage that libraries have is being threatened.
2. How will libraries address the need for scholarly search?
MS Academic has 120 databases. Need to be focusing on tools, toolbars, virtual reference, connecting through social networks, OPEN URL compliancy etc.
3. How will libraries inter-operate with blended learning alternatives?
Live Meeting, Web CT and Blackboard are beginning to aim at public libraries. We can use them to help users upskill – continuous learning – facts are changing!
4. How will libraries evolve to include next generation communication devices?
Wireless through powerlines. Mobile phones becoming even more prominent. XML is important as it senses the device it is being sent to and reformats appropriately. Portals and portlets.
5. When will libraries deal with Millenials and post Millenials?
They have bigger brains and IQs. Characteristics are as much about upbringing as environment. Eyes move differently around a screen than boomers and xers. Use Jakob Neilsens rules on websites, will meet both needs. Websites can use more info density, don’t need lots of white space. Boys read more than girls if you count games. Up to 18, girls do more literature reading, whilst boys do more episodic reading (ie. games), after 18 it reverses. There have been changes to all age groups – young adults, seniors, working class/poor – the general public is not so general anymore. As there are different intelligence and learning styles (7), interfaces have to support the widest range of these.
6. When will libraries focus more on the user experiences and less on what staff needs?
Whose pain is being assuaged? Use products to free staff to do other things that support this goal. Tools include: federated and targeted search, Open URL, Portals, blogs and RSS, virtual ref etc.
7. When will real questions of governance and productivity be addressed?
Its about relationships – IT, web design, HR systems, registrations systems,
Its about sharing information – knowledge management
Its about cooperating – instant messaging, texting
There are more millenials now than Boomers – need to get them now!
8. Where will we find risk takers, innovators, etc?
Social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace. Need to have a presence there. Growth in Australia on MySpace and Bebo rivals that in the US.
9. What are the benefits of Web 2.0 for libraries?
Need to help invent the future by being a part of it or it will just roll over the top of us and leave us behind. Use the technologies as a tool for what we want to achieve, not as end in itself.
10. Where we find the vision?
Focus. Great expectations, the future is already here, its just not widespread enough. Librarian 2.0 plays!

So that’s what I noted. The even greater benefit was the ideas, thoughts and inspirations it generated, which will hopefully outwork to things that will be of benefit to my library service and our users.

Teens are an important audience to public libraries and one of the harder groups to reach. I have said it here before and I will probably say it here and other places again.

Let me say first that not all teens that come into our libraries are problems. We have teens that we employ as shelvers to work after school getting books back on the shelves and we also regularly have high school students doing work experience in our libraries and most of these teens have been great. Quite a few have gone on to become part time library officers and still work in our libraries many years later. We also have regular teen borrowers, who have good relationships with the staff and have never caused a hiccup of any sort. Unfortunately, they are not the ones who first come to mind when talking teens and they are not the ones that the rules are introduced to deal with.

However, we do have problem teens, that are a pretty constant issue for us, so it was interesting to come across a couple of blog posts that have come really close to home for me, with their experiences of teens in their libraries. Its scary when you read something like this and realise it could just as well be you writing it about your library and experiences. (or close to it anyway).

The first comes from Real Public Librarian who talks about the issues of having a totally inclusive youth library in “Youth in libraries – are you really ready to welcome them in?” You would think the answer is obvious, teens are future users of public libraries, so of course we are – but its not that simple. Deb works in such a library and hypothetically talks about the problems of balance that she and other public librarians (including myself) have to deal with on a daily basis. That balance being between welcoming all teens and the assorted behaviours that come with them and not alienating some of those teens and your other users. Very thought provoking post.

Then from Happyville Library and the witty and insightful Happy Villain comes “Self help for Happy Villain“. Happy Villain outlines one usual day with the assorted teen crowd that has invaded the library, yet again and all the demeanours and misdemeanours that go with it. This post is doing the rounds at my library and there are staff who aren’t laughing when they read it, instead they are nodding their heads in sympathy and understanding.

I can relate to Happy Villain’s predicament, there are times when I feel similarly after having to deal with teens all day. However, that doesn’t mean we close our doors and our services to them. In fact, we have turned the PCs to our advantage with teens, with a number of successful gaming nights being held at several of our branches, which have drawn new teens into our libraries. Going back to Deb’s experiences however, its finding the balance, that brings teens in with their baggage without alienating too many other people.

I know its hard for teens, but its hard for the staff too. Each group expects respect and its not always forthcoming. Our manager has come to a kind of understanding with a key group of teen offenders and we have good days as a result – even the bad days can be managed to a certain extent when you have that understanding to fall back on. Input from our Council youth workers has also been helpful for staff. Still, its hard sometimes to respond evenly and fairly to some of those teens, even when they have a good day, because of all the bad experiences we have had with them.

Amazingly, despite this sometimes acrimonious relationship between certain teens and staff, they still keep coming. Maybe they have nowhere else to go or nothing else to do, it could be that despite the staff they feel like the library is OK – realistically, its probably just that they can’t get internet access freely and easily anywhere else in the local area and they will put up with whatever they have to, to get that access.

As a lot of issues with teens in our libraries come from the use of our public PCs, it doesn’t hurt that we have a PC booking system coming in the next few months. Hopefully, that will eliminate or at least greatly reduce, the aggravation resulting from how these teens use our PCs – at least from a staff perspective. The staff have a something to look forward to, an end in sight and they can’t wait. The teens should be happier too in one respect, they won’t have the staff all over them about breaching the conditions of use! Whether they see it that way, is another thing!

Once they are limited with the PC hogging, will they find other ways to be disruptive? We have had our fair share of vandalism, pranks and bad behaviour not related to the PCs. Will they move onto other things in the library once their PC booking is over, like reading magazines, or gasp! borrowing! We have a great (under-utilised) teen collection of books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, audio and graphic novels etc. Or will they leave as soon as their time is up? The PCs are by far the biggest drawcard, both for teen library use and teen bad behaviour. Only time will tell what the effect of this change will be and whether all groups involved will be happy(?) with the results.

I have been reading a lot of blog posts and articles on what should be taught in library schools in the year 2006, but this has also been expanded to include skills that all librarians should have now and things we should be doing.

The skill sets vary greatly, although as expected there is a lot of emphasis on technical/internet type skills. I found it all very interesting, so here’s my thoughts and links to those posts.

CW at Ruminations talks about “Connecting“, making connections with other people and going outside your comfort zone. She talks about Michael Stephens list of tips for new librarians, but points out rightly, that some of them would apply to all librarians. They include:
Read far and wide, Work and play nice, Manage yourself in a professional way, Avoid technolust(I have to watch that one), Listen to seasoned staff and Remember the big picture. All great advice for anyone in the profession, new, old or otherwise. Check it out for CW’s views and links back to Michael Stephens original post.

Meredith Farkas from Information wants to be Free, blogged about her views on library education, after finishing a chapter on it for a book she is involved with. Her blog post
Skills for the 21st century librarian is her thoughts on what should be taught at library schools, but again I think they translate to all librarians – some of them not easily though. She recommends basic tech competencies: ability to embrace change, comfort online, troubleshooting technologies, easily learn technologies, keep up with new technologies. Her higher level competencies include: project management, evaluating library services, evaluating stakeholder needs, vision for online library service, comparison and critical evaluation of technologies, marketing.

I think the basic tech competencies is where I see the most resistance with some staff at my library service. Whether it is out of fear, weariness at the amount of change we have and are experiencing, or some other reason, I don’t know. All I know is that this is where we are headed and so all staff will need to have at least a measure of these skills to enable us to best serve our users.

On the other hand, I would love to have learnt about the higher level competencies at library school – all my achievements in those areas have been on the job – for better and worse!

Meredith then followed this up with
Further thoughts and comments, which arose from the initial post. Thoughts included: was a qualification necessary, the need for customer service training, pushing ourselves out to the community, as a service provider and as a profession. They are not necessarily library school subjects, but they are all something that librarians need to further themselves in, whether independently or through their workplace or professional assocations.

Karen Schneider, the Free Range Librarian picked up on Meredith’s post and offered some thoughts of her own in her post LibraryLand Skills. Librarians need to have cunning, impatience, pessimism, fiscal horse sense, cajones, feistiness, stubborness, high grubbyness tolerance (lots of scut work) and luck. They may sound like negatives, but when you read what Karen intends with each one, they make perfect sense.

I would add my own here now too:
Perseverence – it takes a long time for things to get through. Sometimes your timing is not the right time for the organisation. If you can stick with it, keep advocating your cause (in a positive, best for the organisation type manner) your time will come.

Optimism – I’m an optimistic sort and I never would have made it this far in my work if not for my optimism. There would have been times where discouragement and lack of progress would have gotten the best of me. However, I always believed that things would improve and they did.

Self-improvement – has to be a focus of yours. Regardless of what training your workplace sends you on, you need to be doing things outside of work to expand your knowledge, to keep ahead of the curve. A lot of what I have learned in recent years has been through reading blogs, doing book reviews, listening to podcasts etc – all done in my own time and at my own initiative. That doesn’t negate the responsibility of your workplace to train you – but they have limited resources to do so. Besides which, its fun!

Would love to hear any other words of wisdom you have out there.

I have a pile of things that I have been meaning to blog about for some time, but things have been so hectic of late, that it just hasn’t happened. Rather than leave them on the boil any longer, I thought I would blog a brief bit on each one and leave it to you the reader, to decide whether you want to look at it any further. They are in no particular order.

If you want to know about bloggers, then Pew/Internet is your source. They released the results of a study “Bloggers: a portrait of the new storytellers” in July of this year. The full report is quite long, but the summary of findings at only 5 pages, is enough to give the gist of the report. The study was based on “a telephone survey of a nationally-representative sample of bloggers”. I found it interesting to see where I as a blogger, fit into their results.

Jessamyn West, of Librarian.net fame, did a great write up for Web Junction – “Those darned users“, on public access computers (PACs) and the best way to manage them in the library environment. It is short and full of good practical advice of getting the best of out your public PCs, both from a staff management and a patron use view.

The difficulties of being a manager are very eloquently expressed by T.Scott in his blog article “Decision making“. He talks about his experiences as a manager, trying to balance staff and work priorities and how realistically it doesn’t always turn out best for both those groups. A great reality check and reassurance for all managers out there.

One that I came across today through Digg. “RFID acts a life saver for miners” talks about a mine operation in Sweden, which has all its miners tagged and with readers distributed throughout the mine so they know where each one is at any given time. A fascinating use of this technology. Makes you wonder what else it could be used for.

There has been a lot of discussion and concern about how the short cut language used in text messaging and instant messaging. A study has been conducted over 2 years, on 71 Canadian teens and their more than one million words of text messaging. The result – only a small part of the text language is being shortened and it is being done in such creative ways, which could strengthen language skills. Check out the report at the Toronto Star newspaper “Texting doesn’t hurt grammar: Study“.

Finally, an article from Jack Maness of the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, “Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and the its implications for libraries.” He tries to define what Library 2.0 means, as there is no real definition as yet. It will be interesting to see if his definition and theory get taking up as the standard.