a panel you should vote for at SXSWi

the lovely Cecily Walker has proposed a panel at SXSWi and i think you should vote for it.
not just because i’m part of it and really want to visit Austin.
and not just because i’m part of it and really want to geek out in Austin.
you should vote for it because Cecily and i want to talk about tech in libraries to techies, and to tell techies how awesome it is to work in a library and maybe, just maybe, they might like to give it a go.
the panel is called “can i reserve this book with my iphone” and you have to create a free account to vote for it. once you’ve created the account, there are tons of other cool panels which you can vote on – touching on a bajillion different aspects of technology. get your vote on!

it’s official: i’m jambina

so facebook has begun offering vanity URLs to folks (’bout time, i know). though i hadn’t planned on staying up ’til 12:01am EST, it turns out that i like air conditioning, beer, and television, and the triumvirate were available tonight in DC.
so once i had decided to get a URL with facebook, i had to decide on the name. amy.buckland? amybuckland? amyb?
in the end i picked “jambina” which has been my online identity for a number of years (except on youtube – dunno who that is).
now it’s never been hard to find out who jambina is, but it’s still a bit jarring that i have now associated that name with my facebook identity.
but i see this as a good thing.
i’m proud of my online identity. i participate in much of the conversation out there, and think that on most occasions, i have something of value to say. [this is the point in the post when i realize that someone out there will find something horrible i have said/done online and post it in the comments. such is life.] so i have no reason to be wary of this jambina/amy link.
i think.
do i?

fun thing: picnik

i am addicted to modifying photos using picnik – especially since every social network requires you to have some kind of avatar for you profile.

picnik is free and doesn’t require you to register (though there are some perks if you do). you can crop and rotate and fix colours (you can even use curves), as usual, but picnik also allows you to add filters to your photos, text, funny pix, and frame things in a bunch of different ways.

so you can make a boring picture like this:

look like this:

(there’s lots more you can do – i just wanted to give you a rough idea. this was cropped, rotated, had the Orton-ish effect applied, speech bubble and text added, and i gave myself a loverly ‘stache.)

lady laptops

i’m not sure how i feel about dell’s foray into lady laptops – Della.

i mean, i really like pretty things, and i am always attached to an internet-enabled device, so i am not averse to lappys that come in something other than ibm-black or apple-silver. (and yes, the Vivienne Tam HP Mini would make me giddy.)

i think what really got to me were the photos on the site.


exhibit a

who doesn’t bring their lappy to the beach? with their BFFs?
and make sure their lappy matches their sarong.
also, vacation FAIL.

exhibit b

oh puhleese, there’s no way you’re getting a wifi connection out there.


so women with laptops are all havin’ fun with their sistahs or communing with nature.
got it, i think.
wait, huh?

new template

i’m playing with new wordpress templates so you might see a few changes over the next little while (unless you are just getting the feed from this site, in which case, welcome to same-old, same-old).

lemme know if you love/hate any of the changes.

Second Life at SLA 2009

i’m very excited to be giving my first Click U workshop at the upcoming SLA conference in Washington, DC.

Click University — Informing Avatars: Exploring the Possibilities of Virtual Worlds
Through a hands-on workshop, participants will have the opportunity to learn about the possibilities of virtual worlds, enter Second Life to create an avatar, and explore possibilities for their organizations. Discussions will revolve around the possibilities for organizations in virtual worlds, the pros and cons of developing a VW presence, and the importance of being aware of this technology.
Sunday, 14 June 2009 8:00AM – 12:00PM
Price: US $229 member / US $349 non-member / US $229 student member

it’s going to be a basic introduction to Second Life, and i expect it to be lots of fun (except for the start time – i hope there’s coffee!)

i hope to see you there!

(note: early bird registration closes April 3, 2009.)

cil2009 – an anniversary of sorts

just arrived at CiL after a pretty bumpy ride on what must have been air canada’s teeniest plane.

off to a good start as i finally got to meet the awesome Karen Schneider while waiting for our shuttle to the hyatt.

this time last year, i was still in school and decided, on one crazy afternoon, to attend CiL. everyone was tweeting about it and it just sounded like a great place to talk to real live librarians about tech in libraries.

i got a gig coordinating the quickie talks in the exhibit hall in exchange for free registration. the lovely Krista let me bunk with her despite not knowing me (at all). and all the tweeps were wonderfully welcoming to me and let me be their groupie for the entire conference. it was incredible.

one year later a lot has changed, but i am still as excited as i was last year (and i’m still bunking with Krista, and i still feel like a groupie). it’ll be different  now that i have a gig and can critically assess ideas and their usefulness at mpow (as opposed to last year when i was just taking it all in becaues i wasn’t sure where i would end up working). i’m really looking forward to stealing everyone’s ideas learning about new services and possibly implementing them chez moi.

oh, i’m also REALLY looking forward to getting my hands on a LSW Shover & Maker button!

do things that scare you

such as present at a workshop where you’re on the slate with seasoned veterans like Stephen Abram and Michael Stephens.

i would say that i am fairly comfortable presenting in front of a group. we do a lot of teaching at my branch, so i have had a lot of practice explaining somewhat complicated things to folks.

i also read up on presenting (slide:ology and presentation zen are two recent faves) and while i don’t consider myself as proficient with powerpoint as Larry Lessig, i certainly don’t force my audience to suffer “death by powerpoint”. or as Dorothea puts it, “i don’t think i’ve ever wasted the audience’s time”.

so though i’m okay speaking to  people, and know that my presentations are, for the most part, not-so-bad, being asked to speak at this workshop was still scary.

scary because…

• both Stephen and Michael know how to engage an audience.
• i wasn’t presenting at some far-off  conference to peeps that i will only ever see again at another conference. i was presenting to local librarians and library school students – my colleagues and friends!
• i didn’t get to rehearse nearly as much as i had hoped (note to self: your procrastinatory skills are epic. you must fix this).

but scary is good. scary makes you try harder. scary makes you prepare better (plz to disregard my 3rd point above). scary makes you try things. scary pushes you to do something!

and then the next time you do it, it’s less scary. and then the next time, even less scary. and so on, and so on…

so how have you scared yourself lately? (alright alright, use “challenged” if that sounds better in your head.) i am well aware that it is easier to say you are going to do something new than to actually do it.

what if a double-dawg dare you?

take your 25 things and…

… listen to this podcast.

Standard Podcast [ 4:16 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (284)

(thanks to my associate producer jason for advice)

UPDATE: thanks to the always-awesome jason, i fixed this. should work now.

print vs online

(sometimes print really is better.) cc licensed flickr photo shared by inju

CBC’s Spark (i love Nora Young!) had a recent episode discussing the value of offline formats of communication: basically, stuff printed on dead trees.

hearing about Ben Tennett’s project Things Our Friends Have Written on the Internet, where he selected blog posts and published them as a newspaper, made me think about the things that i prefer to read in print. (bias: i worked in the newsroom of a major metropolitan daily newspaper for 8 years, so i like pretty much everything about newsprint, from the smell to the inky fingers. also, i am an EXPERT at refolding a newspaper so that it looks unread. talents, i haz’em.)

thinking about my love of newsprint, i looked at all the paper on my desk: memos, catalogues, course outlines, to-do lists, and a bunch of pieces of paper which i don’t remember putting there but which have magically appeared on my desk.

• how many of these bits and pieces could be delivered in a different format?
• maybe more importantly, how many of these pieces of paper should be delivered in a different format?
• would i treat them differently if they weren’t printed and in a pile on my desk?
• with my inbox (all of them) already overflowing, do i want previously-printed items to be delivered electronically?
• do we feel differently about things we read in print? things we read online?

while blogs serve many purposes within an organization, they can’t do it all. i worry that some of us are jumping on the blogging bandwagon because we think that it will solve all of our communication problems.

how often does your organization evaluate your communication needs and address which can be met best with online vs print information?