Internet Librarian: Day 3

Lemme just say: Holy Cow! I'm so glad I've finally had a chance to see danah boyd in action - her keynote this morning was amazing! So much to think about, so many new perspectives - it was full of awesomesauce, to borrow a phrase. I didn't have a chance to blog her talk, but others have - it's worth checking out!

The rest of the morning was the last of the CyberTours. Thanks to all the speakers this year!

Got to attend my first Pecha Kucha session (20 slides, 20 seconds each) - on marketing, trendspotting, organization - very cool format, very challenging! Also quite entertaining depending on the speaker. Stephen Abram made me laugh, Nancy Dowd made me sniffle a bit!

And now, The Steven M. Cohen Show on What's Hot with RSS. His presentations are always lively and there's always a new tool to check out. I consider him the master of feed reading so seeing what he uses to get through his 1000+ feeds is always illuminating.

The conference closing keynote is Liz Lawley, and for once I get to hear her speak! (Last couple of years I was always on the way to the airport when she was speaking.) Technical/Tangible/Social - full of yummy Internet-capable tools and toys and now I want them all!

This wraps up another great conference in Monterey. I'll be posting more later as I dig through links and tools and references, and find/post pics and videos. Internet Librarians FTW!

Internet Librarian: Day 2

Today is all about the CyberTours! Come to the exhibit hall and check us out!

Internet Librarian: Day 1

Monday in Monterey kicked off well; kudos to Pino's for their coffee and great service!

Tom Hogan opened the conference with a great list of responses to last year's question "What do you call a non-Internet Librarian?" Top ten answers are:

#10 - Shelf-Pointer Librarian
#9 - Analog Librarian
#8 - Legacy Librarian
#7 - Unplugged Librarian
#6 - 3x5 Librarian
#5 - InterNot Librarian
#4 - Retrobrarian
#3 - {Supervisor's name here} Librarian
#2 - Wallenda Librarian
#1 - Librarian 1.0

Much laughing in the room!

Keynote: Howard Rheingold was interesting, entertaining and thought-provoking about mass communication as a mode of knowledge. Talked about OhMyNews in Korea, the Penguin Revolution in Chile, reaction to the Spanish train explosions - and the Danish protests in Syria after the cartoon incident. (Flash mobs, or smart mobs, are not always positive things.) I'll be looking up his book, Smart Mobs.

Next up for me was Super Searcher Shares with Mary Ellen Bates. Learned about some new aspects of known search engines, plus some new search tools. Searchme, SiloBreaker, Loki, Twing, and more...

Fast & Easy Site Tuneups was next, from Jeff Wisniewski. Pretty much a F2F presentation of his article of the same name from the June 2008 Computers in Libraries (so check it out for his very good suggestions).

As always, Cool Tools for Library Webmasters was great! I always come away with something new to try out from Darlene Fichter and Frank Cervone. This time around, I'll be checking out VisCheck, ImageFlow, Browsershots, and some of the online CSS repositories.

Steven M. Cohen, once again, did a great show with Tips for Keeping Up. I will definitely be checking out some of his suggested tools - I use about two-thirds of them and want to see what I can do with the rest!

The day (well, except for the social bits!) ended at the Opening Reception, where I was able to score a copy of the ShanachieTour book, signed by the DOK guys. (Not sure who they are or what they do? Read "Discover Innovations at DOK".)

Weather report: Today was cool, crisp and sunny - a beautiful day! It hit 92° back home today; I don't think it got above 60° or so here in Monterey.

PAM International Membership Award

Do you know a great physics, math, or astronomy librarian in a developing country? Tell us about it! Nominations are now open for the SLA Physics-Astronomy-Mathematics Division's International Membership Award; the award provides a two-year membership in SLA and travel to the SLA Annual Conference. Read more, including nomination deadlines and contact information, on the PAMblog.

Recently Read: "Between the Stacks"

I haven't posted book reviews much here before, but I think that might change. I just finished "Between the Stacks", by Barry Bowes (Landesman, 1979) and quite enjoyed it. Set in a public library in the UK, it follows the trials and tribulations of the staff at the Pike Lane library, told from the viewpoint of the (interestingly unnamed, throughout the book) senior assistant. It's quite amusing, while also illustrating the frustrations of the reference interview, being the unpaid babysitters, and many other well-known PL issues. The issues at Pike Place frame an introspective journey by the main character, who's trying to evaluate his future, both personally and professionally.

It's not an easy book to come by; there wasn't a copy anywhere in my state (thanks, ILL!). Amazon has a few used ones from international sources, and I'm pondering placing an order, but we'll see. Even Library Thing, with its gazillions of books, only shows four copies. If you do have access to it, though, give it a read!

Ssh.

Found via LISNews, this video of poet Jon Goode reciting his poem "The Librarian" just gave me goosebumps. Yes! Not just an ode to the power of librarians - the power of ssh - but a philosophical musing on honor, infidelity, war, and much more. Give it a watch.



(yes, I'm catching up. And yes, I'm a weather wimp: highs only in the low 70s last couple of days, I wore a coat to work this morning!)

The $900,000 Librarian

Holy cow! A collector at a recent Christie's auction in New York spent $902.5K on a photograph by artist Cindy Sherman". Read the article over at Forbes.

"Sherman poses as a librarian, gazing beyond the shelves of books that surround her. [...] There is a certain kitsch appeal to the black-and-white photos, but the underlying message is more serious and draws attention to female stereotypes in our society."

via LISnews