Re-entry. Also, character.

July 21, 2009 at 5:42 pm (23ThingsN@, Emerging Leaders 2009, collection development, ethics, leadership, philosophizing, professional development, reviews)

Re-entry

The work doesn’t stop just because you go to a conference!  Between catching up on what I’ve missed, and the inexorable forward progress of projects and meetings, I’ve been a busy bee – far too busy to blog. It’s been a great exercise in applying all those leadership lessons from EL. Quietly and subtly, of course. :)

Today, though, with my official ALA report complete and good progress made on most of my major projects, I can afford a quick end-of-day check-in.

The key item on which to report is that this is the last week of 23 Things ‘n @, and while we’ll have to wait a bit for the exit survey results, the comments on this week’s post are, for the most part, positive. Here are my gut instincts on what we could do differently next time to improve the learning experience:

  • Cap registration.  Following 250 blogs and trying to make sure everybody felt supported / listened to was pretty darned exhausting, even for four people as awesome as the members of Team Celery Stick.  Smaller cohorts would allow us to give people more individualized attention
  • Offer various “flavors” of “thing” for each skill level.  Example:  When talking about YouTube, have the absolute beginners FIND a video, have the fairly comfortable folks EMBED a video, and have the really advanced folks MAKE and POST a video.  No value judgments – just OPTIONS.  A lot of really highly-skilled people dropped out, and while the program sort of wasn’t aimed at them, we have a responsibility to make sure our advanced learners get even more opportunities to advance.
  • Recruit graduates of this cohort to help teach the next cohort – not only would this spread the work around, it would give graduates of the first cohort the chance to enhance their skills by passing them on.

Just some gut thoughts.  I’ll have survey results/excerpts for you soon, I hope.

Character

It’s funny how, sometimes, there’s a theme to everything you do in a particular week.  During this ALA re-entry period, the theme in my work life appears to be character.  Or maybe it’s just because, for professional reading, I’m knee-deep in The Speed of Trust. Whatever the case may be, I’ve been paying particular attention to situations where integrity and other elements of character have come up, and been more aware of my own actions.

You’ll pardon me if that sounds cryptic.  There’s nothing specific I can put my finger on – I’m just noticing these things more – again, possibly an aftereffect of Emerging Leaders.  There seem to be a hundred thousand opportunities to demonstrate character/integrity at work, every day, especially during challenging economic times.

The Pennsylvania legislature, for example, continues to astound me with its blatant disregard for electronic resources.  Yesterday they passed a version of H.B. 1416, the most recent budget proposal, that completely eliminates funding for AskHere PA and the Pennsylvania POWER library.  Although it would be easy to hit the ceiling and break out the pitchforks and torches, I am determined to remain classy.  Ergo, rather than begin any partisan mudslinging, I’ll simply let you compare all the budget proposals on hand and draw your own conclusions. Needless to say, if this version of the budget ultimately triumphs, it’s a huge blow to library service in PA…and it drives me crazy that electronic resources are seen as “extras” or “pork” in the budget, when they’re actually a lifeline to thousands of people statewide.

But it’s not just the big issues; character is revealed in the little things, too. It’s in the way we talk to our colleagues, the way we share (or don’t share) information, the way we seek (or don’t) for win-win solutions. Everything that comes up in a day is grist for the mill, an opportunity to be classy or not so much.

And here’s the kicker: how do you choose to behave when there won’t necessarily be a reward for good behavior? Salary freezes and benefit cuts are the new normal, so it’s not like there’s a financial incentive to behave with integrity. If you take away the monetary rewards, and the future looks uncertain, what’s your motivation to show up, do a good job, treat your colleagues fairly, etc.?

As ever, I have no answers. I simply ask prickly questions! Some people have religious beliefs to guide their choices. Others have personal codes of morals or ethics that aren’t necessarily grounded in a higher power. What criteria shape your choices? What does it mean to you to be a librarian with integrity?

On a slightly more fun closing note, I now have 1/2 an intern to help me with my tasks! I say “1/2″ because she’ll be splitting her time with me and someone in another department. She’ll be here until the end of August, and she’s already been a huge help to me today – finished mailing out those Mango bookmarks, started weeding our LibraryThing account, and got a crash course in collection development with some catalogs I brought back from ALA (independent publishers, mostly).

From a leadership point of view, having an intern is fun-scary – I had to do a lot of planning to make sure she’d have things to do, and I want to be conscious of her having a good, well-rounded library experience (and not just do all the LAV scutwork – not ethical!). But it’s mostly a great opportunity to model the profession for somebody who is actually studying something else, and not necessarily going on to be a librarian.

So, I’ll probably have more to say about that as the month goes by. For now, though, I’m bound and determined not to blog until I get caught up on these darned EREC oommittee meeting minutes. We are now two meetings behind, and it’s not fair to blog when I’ve got actual accountability things to finish. What an incentive to be done, though!

Oh, and once it’s published, I have a thing or two to say about the last book review I wrote, and about book reviewing in general. You’ll see why…..

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Emerging Victorious

July 11, 2009 at 12:43 am (23ThingsN@, ALA Annual 2009, Emerging Leaders 2009, conferences, leadership, personal, philosophizing, presentations, professional development, theatre, website redesign)

For the win, as the kids say.  I’ve got the certificate and the pin.  I have emerged. 

It’s more like leveling up in an RPG or PVP.  Congratulations elven mage!  You have earned the requisite number of hit points.  Here are  more skill points to spend in the areas you see fit.  Also, have some tokens and gold.

All joking aside, it went well.  I’ve taken video of our poster session on the Flip camera I borrowed from IT.  Now I just have to figure out how to upload it.  That may have to wait until I’ve come home.  I love the Flip, though, and will be saving up for one asap.

The bulk of today’s workshops were spent reflecting on our experience, what we’ve learned, and where we’ll go from here, so I thought I’d touch on those elements briefly.

The EL Project Experience

I deliberately chose a project that was not in an area I normally work in:  marketing.  It’s something I’m very interested in, but don’t get nearly enough of an opportunity to dabble with.  The group’s task was to re-prioritize the marketing plan for LibraryCareers.org .  The original marketing plan was created by a prior Emerging Leaders’ group in 2007; our task was to reassess their work, in light of the time that had passed, and re-rank their priorities.  Of course, being the overachievers that we collectively are, we decided that it would be cool to actually start some of the tasks and try a few things.  You can read all about our work at our project page on the EL wiki.

If you’re cynical, you might be asking yourself, “Er, why are we trying to encourage people to become librarians right now?”  Even I can’t candycoat the notion that, in the short term, things aren’t looking so hot.  I, however, am committed to library science for the long haul.  People will be needed to keep libraries going.  Fewer people, probably, I”ll grant you.  But if that’s the case, then we want the absolute best and brightest.  Anyone who would like to engage in a spirited discussion on those points is cordially invited to comment.  You might want to check out my comments on librarians’ salaries, too, in my report – we have a LONG way to go, and we should NOT stop fighting for better pay  However, we HAVE made progress.  The data is there.  It just needs to be organized and presented in a comparative fashion, so folks can see the gains, however modest.

What I’ve Learned

This is, I think, the part that doesn’t mesh neatly with what the program’s creators intended.

I applied for Emerging Leaders during a very challenging period of my life.  I had just experienced two very personal losses, and my confidence was at ebb tide.  I was engaging in what has been a habitual pattern for me:  trying to compensate for personal difficulties with yet another professional success.  I thought that if I could just Be More Brilliant (patent pending), it wouldn’t matter quite so much that I had failed so miserably in other areas of my life.

This project, while utterly fabulous, turned out to be the assignment that convinced me I had to take better care of myself, or I was going to burn out in a hurry.  Between my normal project workload, the slowly blossoming library budget crisis, and the larger-than-expected enrollment in 23 Things ‘N @, the last thing I needed was one more project. And yet, I had taken it on.

So, basically, I had two choices. I could quit, or I could figure out once and for all how to take better care of myself so that I would have the strength to deliver on all the promises I’d made.

I started with sleep. 8 hours, whether I needed it or not, every night. That was a habit that took a while to build, but I could feel the difference once I’d created it. LAV with adequate sleep is so much more effective than LAV without sleep.

Next, diet and exercise. I’ve been vegetarian for about 1.5 years, and have been cutting back on dairy to see if I can transition to a vegan diet and still be healthy. I made a new rule for myself: I have to either walk TO work or walk home FROM work – no exceptions, no excuses. And I began a yoga practice that began paying off almost immediately, especially since it’s mostly restorative yoga – the last thing I needed was one more activity where I was striving instead of nurturing.

The next step was to add more fun things back into my life, so that I was more than my job. This was really really hard for me. I’m so very much in love with what I do, and it’s really easy for me to take on more and more library work–both paid and volunteer–because it means so much to me. But other things mean a lot to me, too, and I’d been skimping on them to the point that, when I started adding them back, I didn’t realized how much I’d missed them.

So, I’m writing a lot more now. Plays mostly, some poems. I’ve entered some of my work in a short play festival – I’ll let you know how that turns out – and I’ll be starring in a play a friend wrote, to fulfill a theater residency he won. I’ve become seriously artsy-craftsy, both at things I already enjoyed, like needlework and decoupage, and things I’d never tried before, like painting and drawing.

The result of all this personal tinkering is that I’m a lot more interesting to be around, I think. I’m also a much more effective librarian: I’m managing my time better, getting things done more efficiently and effectively, and taking a lot more of the normal daily stress and drama in stride (those of you who miss the dramatic goat farm declarations will be reassured to hear that they haven’t vanished entirely). I feel a million times more confident than I ever have, because I’ve gone a long way toward solving the biggest problem I face: how to balance LAV the fiercely brilliant and creative librarian with LAV the ridiculously lovable, comically flawed human being who, like everyone else on this dotty blue planet, is simply trying to make her way the best she can.

Quo Vadimus?

So, now what?

That’s a good question.  I honestly feel now like I could do absolutely anything.  So what do I want?

I”m pretty happy where I am, doing what I’m doing.  Pittsburgh rocks, Washington press corps snickering aside.  I’d like to stay here for the next 40 years, work my way up the food chain, and get the big gold watch when I finally retire.  It remains to be seen whether or not the economy will support this endeavor.

That being said, what I really want to do, regardless of what titles I may hold or official responsibilities I may have, is to create environments where people can be their best selves.  I want to help people become the best they can be.  I want to help them achieve their goals and then to go beyond those goals to tap potential theydon’t even realize they have.  I want to inspire, motivate, and induce side-splitting laughter when appropriate.  I want to be a good listener, the kind of person a colleague can come to when s/he needs advice.  I want to call shenanigans on bad behavior and take concrete steps to make it better.

Mostly, though, I want to be a good person, ethical and fair, kind and wise and loving.  If you can do that, I reckon, everything else falls into place exactly where it should be.

And with that, having discharged my official conference duties, I”m exercising the right not to blog.  I’m going to visit the exhibits, and see some panels, and attend some meetings, and reunite with classmates and old friends, and talk to random people on shuttles and in coffeeshops in the hopes of making new connections.  I’m going to walk around Chicago and soak up its utter fabulosity, and I’m going to start memorizing my lines for my play.

Mostly, though, I’m going to enjoy having emerged.  I make rather the fetching butterfly, if I do say so myself.

I’ll fight wih that video footage next week.  Take care, and be well.

Yrs, etc.,

the incorrigible alchemist

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Another 23 Things ‘N @ Interlude

July 2, 2009 at 11:58 am (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, innovation, professional development)

This is too good not to share – this week the 23 Things ‘N @ crew is studying YouTube and Flickr. Once again, folks went above and beyond, and here’s the empirical proof: another summer reading video, this time from the Community Library of Allegheny Valley, Harrison:

Good Grieg!

Have a safe and happy Fourth, everyone. I’ll try to get back on track next week, before we launch once more into the ALA Chronicles…

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Summer Reading 2.0

June 19, 2009 at 4:52 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, creativity, innovation)

I couldn’t leave us on the last post’s lugubrious note – not when there are so many cool things afoot.

For example, one of our 23 Things ‘N @ participants created an awesome video to show off her library’s summer reading activities. Observe:

Hurray for Scott Township!  And trust me: you haven’t lived until you’ve tried a Frownie.

So many things I want to blog about, so little time! What I really want to write about, though, is reading 2666. I’ve finally finished it, and I have some thoughts about the process of reading it, given that it’s a 900-page unfinished novel in a Web 2.0 world.

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My Alchemical Romance (Library Career Fangirling)

June 5, 2009 at 12:54 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, databases, personal, philosophizing)

Much of this week has been occupied with matters database-related.  Next week’s 23 Things ‘N @ module is dedicated to the role of databases in a 2.0 world – it’s a little more philosophical than some of the other activities, but what I’m hoping is that it will get a good conversation rolling, countywide, about these resources, and how we purchase, use, and promote them.

I’ve also been doing the negotiation dance to get Mango Languages up and running.  One of the challenges of working in teams and across departments is that you want to make sure all solutions are win-win, and that, if somebody has to “lose,” it shouldn’t be your patrons.  I have achieved my objectives, and Mango will go live countywide on Monday.  I am extremely grateful to everybody I get to work with for making this happen, and hope they’ll enjoy learning new languages, too.  I’m planning to start, myself, with Chinese, so that I can watch Firefly without subtitles. :)

So, yes, it’s been hectic this week.  However, the good feeling I get when I manage to accomplish objectives that will make our patrons happy is priceless, and worth any stress/drama it took to get there.  I’m literally sitting here, grinning like an idiot, because in how many professions do you get to work on things that are for the public good, and make people happy?   That’s really important to me as a librarian, and it’s one of the things that sustains me during the current tough economic times (the company and help of my sterling peers is another, of course).

In other words, being a librarian still knocks me out, all the darned time, no matter what.  I get this good feeling in my heart, like it’s growing and expanding, when a plan comes together.  I’m pretty sure I can’t be the only person in the profession who feels like that, but I wish I saw more of the sentiment in library blogs.  Or maybe I’m just reading the wrong library blogs.

Is anybody else still as much in love with the library profession as I am, despite the challenges?  If you’re moved to leave a comment, or write about this in your own blog, that would be fantastic.  If anybody starts singing “Kumbaya,” though, I will turn this meme around, and we will all go home with no ice cream. :)

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts, and hoping you have a pleasant weekend.  I’ll be back next week to talk a little more about library marketing and advocacy, since those twin bees have been buzzing around my bonnet for ages and ages, and are directly related to various projects I’m working on.

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Working Harder AND Smarter – Thursday Update

May 28, 2009 at 4:35 pm (23ThingsN@, Emerging Leaders 2009, Learning 2.0, Twitter, blogging, collection development, databases, leadership, news, professional development, social justice, traditional library services)

Did I say Wednesday?  That didn’t happen, clearly.  But, rather than let this blog become a bluesy litany of “where does the time go,” I’ll confine myself to a quick project update:

Collection development:  The one sane thing in my workday.  It’s nice to go through NYTBR and see you already have all the hot nonfiction either in the collection or on order.  Score!

Eleventh Stack:  Also holding steady.  Hit count is slightly down, but still above last year at this time.  It also mirrors last year’s slight decline.  I don’t mind fewer readers over the summer, as long as it’s part of a larger pattern.  Still, all the more reason to sit down and think of ways to kick it up a notch..

23 Things N’@:  Week 4 is all about wikis, and everybody’s happy!  The range of experience and abilities continues to educate me on how we can do this better next time.  Definitely a move to a tiered-activity system is in order, IMHO, something along the lines of beginner/intermediate/advanced, so that people have options to choose from according to their experience/comfort level. That being said, holy project success!

Twitter: I have mixed feelings about how this is going, and would like to write more about it at length.  Long story short, it’s an easily managed, low-maintenance project, but I don’t know if it’s achieving our objectives.  More time may be called for.  We shall see.

Database Stuff (CLP):  We haven’t met for a while because our new quarterly renewal schedule has made the committee process more efficient.  It’s time for 3rd-quarter renewals, though, and a look at 1st-quarter stats.  Plus, me being me, I have some wild and crazy ideas to throw at the committee to see what they think.  Secretly I want a database promotion task force.  I will pay for jackets that say “Database promotion task force,” if given free rein. :)

Database Stuff (EREC/ACLA): Good news!  The deal went through, and the county has purchased a subscription to Mango Languages.   Our patrons really miss Rosetta Stone, and for the life of me, I still don’t understand WHY they chose to stop selling the database to public libraries.  We are hoping, however, that Mango will fill this critical gap – language learning is very popular here, and the wait list for materials is very, very long.  We’re working out the hookup kinks as we speak – stay tuned, because you know I’m going to try to learn about seven languages myself. :)

Oh, and all that above about task forces and jackets?  Add a blog and multiply by ten, and you’ll get an idea of what I’d love to achieve at the countywide level.  Girl’s gotta dream…

Emerging Leaders:  You’re probably wondering why I have barely discussed this at all.  I’ve been meaning to, but now I don’t have to, really, because the fine folks at In the Library With the Lead Pipe have spread it all out for you in a nutshell.

Emerging Leaders has been like boot camp. I am getting a lot out of it. I am not sure that what I am getting out of it is exactly what the program planners intended, but such is life. :) It’s difficult to capture the zeitgeist of this kind of experience in medias res, so I’ll probably not even try until after annual, when it’s all over and done with.

Alternative Media Task Force/Event Planning: My other ALA project! The group process on this particular project has been amazing. We are putting together the Alternative Media Reception / SRRT 40th anniversary celebration, and it’s going to be awesome. Stay tuned for the official announcement, because you’re really not going to want to miss it.

And just because it’s not nearly busy or exciting enough around here, guess where the next G20 summit is going to be held? It’s going to be one crazy summer at Alchemy, so stick around…bonus points if you can identify the Sports Night references in this post…

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(Approximately) 88 Lines About 29 Bloggers.

May 15, 2009 at 2:59 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, blogging, creativity, humor, professional development)

This week on 23 Things ‘N @, the ultimate library reality show, our intrepid participants created blogs. Some were blogging for the first time, and others were taking the opportunity to add depth and breadth to their prior blogging experience.

In what may seem like a surprise twist to some, but not to me, a number of participants chose not to create a blog at all. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, part of the course does require starting a blog. On the other hand, folks who have concerns about privacy–and yes, Virginia, they do exist–have the right to opt out of any activity that makes them uncomfortable. And on that third hand, which most of us have not got, the sad truth is that between Pennsylvania’s library budget woes and the insane crush of increased activity the consortium’s seen since the economy went south, some of the participants simply don’t have the time to finish the exercise.

All that being said, those who did rise to the blogging challenge demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that Allegheny County is full of creativity, talent, wit, and humor. The blogs featured below are well worth a visit, and if you’d be willing to encourage the bloggers with a comment, well, that would be right kindly of you.

Suzy, The Little Librarian asks an excellent question about blogging.

Cathy Behm is having fun with fonts…

Kara’s Universe is off to a thoughtful, yet still creative, start.

Don’t Panic is not just good advice, it’s a great blog!

The tech-savvy bibliokaren goes to bat for Allegheny County teens.

Regina’s Reactions is off to a strong start with an interesting observation.

i’d rather be quilting is an excellent 23 Things metaphor!

Nonsenssikl Skript makes excellent use of the letter “K.”

Dani’s 23 Things Adventure demonstrates depth (and cool design).

Marilyn Jenkins poses the excellent question, Where in the World are we Going?

Flying Monkeys With ADD wins at blog naming…

…as does Lost in the Future.

You can Just Add Text with Megan Fogt…

Or get your Penny Arcade references fresh off the griddle at meg’s 23 things.

Team Celery Stick gets into the act with Daughter to College….

…and I Heart String Cheese.

Debi’s Readit Blog looks like it’s going to be about books (woohoo!).

23 Things for Dinosaurs tells it like it is…

…scottkids continues the motif…

and Sharon’s 23 Things shows signs of relief!

Helen’s Garden provides yet another lovely analogy (leafy green!).

Sha-poopie multi-tasks and works it.

Inside the Stacks is thoughtful and literary.

Natalie’s 23 goes above and beyond.

For a proud declaration, see I’m a Lifelong Learner.

Wilkinsburg/Marc sends you to a print source for clarification…

Take a peek at a normal day in the life of a librarian with library life, shelflisted.

In case you were wondering, Here’s Waldo!

Learning really is lifelong at Techie Grandma’s Blog.

I can’t even tell you how much it bugs me that time constraints forbid linking to some of the other fabulous blogs that bloomed this week. Feel free to drop by the 23 Things Blogs page on our official program wiki and do some exploring on your own.

Next week, the alchemist calls shenanigans! Stay tuned.

ETA/NB: There was a whopper of a lulu in the above, which I have since changed. This is yet another good reason not to try to tackle long posts on a busy day! Mea culpa, and my apologies.

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Where I Blog, and What I Blog For

May 11, 2009 at 5:51 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, blogging, humor, philosophizing, professional development)

Week two of 23 Things ‘N @ is off to a strong start. Responses from participants have run the gamut from “No way am I blogging, I’ll sit this week out” to some really creative, fun blogs. Team Celery Stick has learned once again that some things that are very obvious to us frequently need to be explained in a different way, or done differently. We’ve also discovered that a number of participants retain a fondness for Douglas Adams, bless his soul, wherever he may be. But who doesn’t, really? :)

I feel like I can’t really take a CE credit for this week’s exercise, because I’ve been blogging for a long, long time, starting in my pre-librarian life, with one personal blog, and working up to now with, heaven help us, a personal blog, a professional blog, and two group blogs. Mercy.

But just because you’ve done something for a long time doesn’t mean you don’t have anything more to learn. And professional blogging is very different from personal blogging. So I thought I’d give my reasons for professional blogging and muse aloud a bit about it.

To demonstrate that it can be done

Given my workload, there is absolutely no way I could write every day, or do justice to half the things that go on around here.  That being said, I wanted to demonstrate to skeptics that it really is possible to keep a professional blog and still get all your other work done.  From the day I started until now, I’ve managed to balance collection development, refdesk time, database stuff, and more meetings than you can shake a very big stick at with, on average, twice-weekly entries.  Keep your fingers crossed that I can keep that up, and rest assured that, if I can’t, I’ll take breaks. :)

To keep track of my professional accomplishments

Writing and tagging has been really helpful when writing up my self-appraisals, updating my resume, applying for programs like Emerging Leaders, etc.  It’s also something public that my boss and peers can look at when they wonder, “What’s she doing when she’s not at the desk?”

To explore things that don’t make sense to me

As the quiz in last week’s 23 Things ‘N @ activity revealed, I’m a verbal-linguistic learner.  Writing things out helps me make sense and understand them.  Blogging about projects I’m working on, or making observations about other 2.0 issues, has helped me clarify for myself what I need to do now or next in any given situation.   I also get feedback from my CLP/county colleagues and other library professionals, which is awfully nice, and helps me reframe my thoughts and get over “stuck” places.

To become a better writer

Given how easy it is to blog, why not up the ante?  It’s simply not enough to have opinions - one must express them artfully if one is to make an impact.  I’m not foolish enough to believe that the ramblings of one librarian mean a hill of beans in this crazy world, but I think that if you’re going to speak publicly at all, you might as well take the opportunity to hone your craft so that the people who stumble across your work have a better chance of benefiting from it.  When I blog, I try to say things in such a way that my reader will be left with, at the very least, a smile on his/her face, if nothing else.

To express an under-represented point of view about Library 2.0

I ddin’t set out to do this on purpose, and I certainly don’t fancy myself some sort of Scarlet Pimpernel.  However, I started noticing, as I was reading Library 2.0 bloggers, that my experiences and opinions weren’t exactly lining up on the same page.  So I figured I’d better engage with that.  I find myself disagreeing with the “rock star bloggers” more often than not, not to be a pain, but because my experiences here–and those of my peers, and those of our patrons–are often so radically different from what’s presented as “normal” that I can’t, in all good conscience, NOT say something sometimes.

Print, for example, is far from dead, especially here in Pittsburgh.  Teaching folks about blogging and RSS is laughable when many of them are still annoyed that we got rid of our floppy drives and went to USB drives.  And don’t even get me started about Twitter when we spend so much of our time teaching folks what a URL is, how to sign up for e-mail, and how to apply for jobs online.  If I had a dollar for every expression of techno-confusion and bewilderment I’m met with, I could retire tomorrow.

I’m not saying we don’t have power users, and I’m not saying librarians shouldn’t learn about these things, because we do, and we should.  What I’m saying is that the professional digital divide is starting to really scare me, and now I know how the kids in the so-called “lower” reading groups must have felt, back in the day:  the “Cardinals” were frustrated with the “Robins” because the former wanted to charge ahead, and the latter still needed some time.  The “Robins,” meanwhile, felt like there was something wrong with them because they weren’t “Cardinals.”  And it ain’t necessarily so.

So I’m committed to continue speaking about what’s true for me and my peers and patrons, and I’m really hoping that 23 Things ‘N @ will encourage other Allegheny County librarians to do the same.   The more diverse the library blogosphere becomes, the better off we will all be, as professionals.  And more speech–provided it is responsible speech–is always better than no speech.  Long maywe all discuss, debate, and ruminate!

I’m sure my reasons for blogging will grow and change as my career does.  I have no idea where I want to go from here as a librarian, and I suspect I’ll probably be writing about that in months to come – for example, the next logical step “up” from where I am now is (eek) management, but “up” is certainly not the only direction there is (I’m secretly hoping that, like a quark, my next position will be “charmed”).

Later this week, the post-play on the presentation I’m giving tomorrow, coupled with some thoughts on the diplomatic art of setting boundaries and saying “no.”

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Fashionably Late to the 23 Things Party

May 4, 2009 at 6:00 pm (23ThingsN@, Learning 2.0, Library 2.0, Twitter, humor, innovation, professional development, traditional library services)

The big day has finally arrived: 23 Things N’@ went live today, and as of right now over 280 people have registered. Not only that, but 44 folks have already started their week one assignment.

You might be wondering why I’m so giddy. After all, didn’t everybody already do this last year, or the year before? Haven’t we all moved on to the next splendid, shiny thing?

Well, no, not so much. Something I’ve tried to point out over the course of this blog (sometimes gently, sometimes not) is that Pittsburgh and Allegheny County are different.  We have power users, but we also have a lot of patrons who are still functioning at a less-than-basic level.  And although the unwritten code of the library blogosphere states that we’re never supposed to say this out loud, sometimes we really are too busy to incorporate emerging technologies into the workday, especially when we’re up to our eyeballs in reference questions that require multiple trips to the stacks, and simply cannot be answered in 48 hours or less.

[Yes, that means I haven't checked our Twitter account today.  I shall hold out my wrist for the wet noodle-lashing I so richly deserve. It also means I'm willing to put my MLIS on the line that the Stravinsky question I spent two days working on could NOT be easily Googled. :) ]

What that means is that, professionally, we’ve really had to slow down and think about what Library 2.0 means in a patron population where there are still a lot of 1.0 needs to fill.  As librarians, we have a responsibility to educate ourselves in all areas, which is why Team Celery Stick worked so hard to pull this off.  However, we also have a responsibility to make sure that, while we are leaping boldly forward, that there is No Pittsburgher Left Behind.

So, while I still like the image of us sauntering in the room a little bit late (clad, of course, in our fetching little Chanel suits that we scored at the thrift store on Ellsworth), I prefer to think of us as being right on time for ourselves and our patron needs.  If we’d done this when everybody else did, we would’ve deprived ourselves of the year of discussion and debate around these issues.  Now that we’re ready to move forward, I honestly can’t see anyone or anything stopping us.

Those of you who have never visited our fair city might be wondering what’s up with the ‘n@” part of 23 Things.  ” N’at” is a lovely little phrase peculiar to the Pittsburgh speech pattern, and I couldn’t begin to explain it to you if I tried.  You can, however, click here and here for, respectively, a scholarly and a fun explanation of why there’s no linguistic place on the planet quite like Allegheny County. :)

At any rate, while the program is going on, this blog is going to be quite Things-centric, but I promise I’ll try to write about other stuff too. See you later this week…

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