Thing 7 -- and that's it for the day.

I have successfully putzed away the better part of the day by looking at the Thing 7 tools. Now I'm supposed to take this information overload, sift, shuffle, collate, and bring forth something that sounds moderately intelligent? Ah, well, crazier things have happened.

Let's take it step by step.

E-mail. Where would we be without e-mail? It's brilliantly useful for communicating some things, but not nuance. I learned early on to never use an e-mail to communicate information that could be misinterpreted (of course, having learned this doesn't mean that I always remember). Person-to-person or phone will always be best for that.

And IM'ing, which I've done a few times, is even worse for losing contextual niceties. I would love to see GRRL offer some kind of IM reference. In that context, I think it's an amazingly good idea. However, I worry about branches being called upon to provide similar service. At our little branch we have only two staff people - myself and my very part time branch assistant - who answer patron questions. We're one of the slower branches in the system, but I still can't imagine doing any kind of competent job if I were asked to provide IM responses to patrons. First and foremost, we need to be getting out from behind our desk as often as possible. We need to be engaging the people who are in the library and finding out if they need reader's advisory suggestions, if they're finding what they need. We need to be building relationships and creating connections.

I did go onto the Google 23 Things group and post a reply to someone's comment about the 7th Thing. It was easy, but I don't know that I would be going back to check for new postings on that group if I was not knee-deep in the 23 Things project.

Text messaging... FWIW, and I readily admit that IANAE, but I find it obtuse, obscure and just plain ridiculous. IYKWIMAITYD (Lost? Try www.netlingo.com.) Are there ways that libraries could use it, such as holds and overdue notifications? Sure, that's a possibility, I suppose. But I really, really hate Text Messaging. IMHO.

Thing 6 - More gizmos

More fun with Flickr today. First off, a little Early Literacy trading card (obviously, using the terminology I had the most difficult time remembering).

And, a slideshow of the pictures from the Royalton library.



These gizmos were fairly easy to use, so no complaints there. And there might be some utility to them. I like the idea of the trading card, but then I don't have a color printer at work. Perhaps I could send the request through our HQ printing... I can imagine making up some SRP trading cards, and offering different ones every week of the program. I will ponder this more.

Last night I had the chance to talk about Flickr with my sixth-grade nephew. He's a bit book-phobic (bless his heart anyway) and his teacher allows him to do power-point projects instead of reading for an allotted time. He's always used Google image to find the pictures for his power points, so I told him about some of the fun stuff he could find and do mashups with on Flickr. We didn't have a chance to go online to look at Flickr together, but perhaps that will happen later. Regardless, it was nice to feel that I was applying what I'm learning here.

***

Caveat oops-or: I just played the slide show and discovered that the descriptions don't always match the pictures. I went back and tried to fix it and recreate the slide show, but it did the same thing the second time.

Thing 4 Question

So, I did upload 4 pics from the Royalton Library onto Flickr. When I sign in I can find them as "my photos" using the tags I placed (Royalton, Minnesota, library, libraries, 23thingsonastick). They're set to "public."

However, when I do a general search under these tags, my pictures aren't there. I checked the Flickr FAQ page, and I've done all the steps they suggest. Any idea why my pictures are so shy?

Thanks.

Thing 5 -- so fun!

Okay, banish the paranoid grinch to the basement for the day. Flickr's Big Huge Labs has some ridiculously entertaining toys. I can definitely see using the Warholizer again, and can think of several things to do with these toys. I can even think of one or two that might have something to do with the library...

In April we're planning a teen program on scrapbook journaling. I will definitely be talking to the teens about Flickr and the Big Huge Labs as options for them to play with their scrapbook photos. And, I'm sure they'll yawn and say something like, "yeah, but we know about all these other sites that are even more cool than those..."

I expect to always be at the bottom of this learning curve. But it's fun all the same.

Oh, and the story behind the "toesies:" I took the original picture in the summer of 2006 at a 15-year reunion of Peace Corps Togo and Benin volunteers. The toesies in question belong to myself, my partner, and one of our best friends who lives in Davis, California (and who we therefore rarely ever see). Jenny had treated my partner and I to our first-ever pedicure (not my last). And, if you knew my partner you would understand why that is just such a fabulously silly and entertaining thing!

Thing 4 - happy pics

Okay, easy enough to upload pictures onto Flickr. It makes me happy to think that if someone is looking to relocate to Royalton they might use Flickr and find that we have this bright, cheery library. (Of course, they might also see the library for Royalton, Vermont, but that's interesting, too.) I can see myself putting more pictures up to showcase library programs, FOL activities, etc.

However, I'm not sure how much I'd use Flickr for my personal photos. It just seems odd and strange to put my pictures out there in the public realm. My partner and I had dinner with a couple of friends on Friday, and we were talking about the generation gap around "public" and "private" information. We are all 40ish to 50ish, and we are all perplexed at how much personal information -- in the form of photos, profile interests, and more -- the avid Flickr'er's, Facebook'ers and MySpace'ers are willing to put on their pages. Put our pictures on the web... pictures of us, of our loved ones? You've got to be kidding! Is it safe? Is it secure? Is it appropriately modest social behavior?

So in that context, no thank you. However, to showcase the great little library that this small community is so proud of... well that's something I can get behind.

Also on Friday I had the opportunity to spend the day going back and forth between exploring the exhibits at the St. Paul Science Museum and spending time in the atrium reading over pages and pages of articles about Library 2.o, Web 2.0, etc. It was glorious. So nice to take a day to not just learn about some of this stuff but also to have time to actually think about it (and then go play with animation technology or look at dinosaur fossils).

One thing I found very interesting was an article about Beacon, a pesky little advertising program used by Facebook that keeps track of users' visits to certain web sites and then uses that information to target the first user's friends with very specific ads. One example: a little ad went out to a user's friends, and it said something like "Michelle gave Top Gun four stars" and linked to Blockbuster so that the friends could purchase the DVD.

The good news, according to the article, is that Beacon created quite the kerfuffle when it was released, and Facebook has made it easier to opt out.

The bad news, to my mind at least, is that advertising agencies and others are using their best and brightest minds to figure out how to plum the depths of a user's tags and preferences to keep track of the "virtual person" in order to sell the real person their stuff.

I guess that's the big irony/conundrum. There are some things about this Web 2.0 technology that are so transparent. It feels like a community of glass houses. At the same time, it is all so virtual, and the goals and tactics of the minds behind the technology can be obscured. Who is reading what I write (besides my friendly CMLE coach)? What technology is out there to figure out whether what I write is worth paying attention to? (I, for one, have doubts.)

Perhaps this is what is meant by the "radical trust" that kept coming up in the articles I read. I think I can give that trust to the person/family looking for information on the Royalton Public Library. And I'm happy to encourage and engage with her/him/them. I'll put happy pictures up on the web.

But would someone please tell me what's on the mind of the man behind the curtain?

Thing 3 and counting

Okay, bloglines has the potential to be very cool. Very user-friendly and easy to figure out, and that's a plus right away. Google left me perplexed (as it often does).

Again, I am dumbstruck by just how much is "out there" on the web. I can so easily see how a person could spend their life not having one... just peering squinty eyed at the screen and having a meltdown every time the power burps. I'm amazed by the sheer volume of creativity, rant and spectacle out there. And, I have to say, after having dosed myself with it, what I really want to do is go outside and get some fresh air.

Thing 2...point oh?

Okay, first off, let me announce my alliance with those who don't like the name Library 2.0. I DO, however, like some of the definitions I've read, about keeping libraries relevant, staying up on technology and giving our patrons and staff more "room" to communicate ideas. It's obvious, I think, for any library staff who see the public using our Internet computers that (especially) the younger generation is using technology to communicate, and that that in turn is opening up huge possibilities for how we can/should/could join the conversation or start one of our own.

However, I have to say that in the small town where I work (population under 1000) there are also quite a few rural/elderly/unemployed/poor folk who have not joined the online conversation and don't want to. What they want to know is why they can't apply for a job with a good, old fashioned piece of paper instead of a keyboard, why they have to create an email account just to get a brochure and why, ohwhyohwhy, that bloody mouse can't figure out if it wants to be clicked one time or two.

I can count on my work as a branch manager at a rural library to keep me enthused, entertained, and optimistic. It also keeps issues of the division between the haves and have-nots front and center. And this is not just my patrons that I'm talking about. We have one Internet station for public use. We have one computer for staff use. This is not enough on either point. My concerns do not go unheard -- I know that admin at GRRL recognized the need. But where will we find the funds? We're cutting thousands from our collection budget even as it looks like we may, in the not too distant future, have to re-purchase our video collection because the powers that be(and want to make more millions) have decided to go with Blu-Ray and let good ol' DVD become obsolete.

So yes, the possibilities are enormous. The ideas are exciting (I LOVE the idea of having a way for patrons to post their reviews of library materials on the catalog or elsewhere. How COOL would that be! And, wow, if I could find the time, how fun it would be to talk back to them). But I am worried about pursuing the new and the future so much that we become irrelevant on the other end.

Libraries can be the great equalizer, providing resources for those who have the least. At the same time, technology can make the world a bit schizophrenic when it is gets too much attention. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, West Africa from 1990 to 1993. I know there are cell phones and Internet cafe's there now (which blows my poor mind). I also know that while my life has become only more rich and blessed, many of my Togolese friends have died of malaria, malnutrition, inadequate health care or AIDS. I've looked at current PCV's blogs and You-Tube video essays and I realize that those cell phones and Internet stations haven't reduced the misery in Togo, only made it easier for the wealthy to ignore and the cynical to complain. I look at the economic situation in the US, the struggles of the working class and poor, and as much as I like new-fandango-gizmos (and yes, oh yes, I like them very much) I get itchy about how they call to us to follow them, put our hopes, energy and enthusiasm in their high-tech pockets. I get so very itchy.

Thing 1 done ... bumpily so, but done

I seem to have used all my Monday-morning creativity just figuring out how to get this far, come up with title/passwords and etc. Now it's the blank-page boogieman. Ergh.

Lesson 1: Drink coffee, exercise, wake up completely before beginning a new project. My, what a difference that will make, er, from now on. Will make the whole process easier for one thing, reduce chances for embarrassment for another.