and it’s really REALLY important that everyone read it.
i’m going to spend some time with it (me = not so good with legalese) and then post some thoughts.
you should do the same!

Copyright Bill C32

cc licensed flickr photo shared by sashafatcat

libpunk was a term coined by kathryn stemming from jim’s term edupunk. she has a killer definition on her blog – so go check that out.

i took it to mean “building libraries out of whatever you have handy”. be that wordpress, scraps of paper, or just a really smart dude who is willing to connect folks to information. voilà – library!

i have to say that i’m less concerned with the mechanics of libpunk. you don’t need to hate corporate ‘Merica to be libpunk. some library vendors give a damn. you don’t have to hate tenure, conferences, or the boringest parts of your job to be libpunk

what you have to be, to be libpunk, is willing to critically evaluate everything and look for non-libraryland answers that suit your needs. other folk have solutions to our problems, just as we likely have solutions to some of theirs.

i see libpunk as the opportunity to break-free from libraryland-only talk. break-free from reinventing the wheel. break-out of silos. break-up with partnerships that don’t help our users. but mostly, BREAK THINGS AND MAKE THEM BETTER.

heading to Monterey today to attend Internet Librarian. not only do i get to catch up with my friends, but i get to hear about all the awesome ways libraryland is taking advantage of the web to better meet the needs of library uses.
tomorrow is the first ever LibraryCamp at IL and i’m really looking forward to facilitating that with Jenica Rogers.
i’m also giving a talk on cloud computing with Kendra K Levine and Laura Harris.
finally, i am participating in BattleDecks on tuesday night with folks who are wicked fun.
this is gonna rock.

cc licensed flickr photo shared by kendrak

Internet Librarian is holding it’s first unconference/library camp/barcamp session – and you should be there!

Jenica Rogers and i will be facilitating Library Camp Monterey, the morning of October 24, 2009 in the Monterey Public Library, and we’d be thrilled to have all of you join us.

This will be an interactive discussion about people, technology, and libraries. Bring your war stories and your questions and be prepared to share as this is definitely NOT a “sage on the stage” event. (PowerPoints are forbidden!) This unstructured conversation may range from web development to info commons to everything in between, in all types of libraries.

Head over to the wiki to add your name and any topics that you’d like to discuss.

See you October 24th!

i’m in town for the SLA Centennial Conference. i love the SLA conferences – it’s always wild to meet librarians who work in “non-traditional” gigs. this year i’m on the boards of two divisions – IT and Academic – so i’ll be getting my first glimpse at the inner machinations of things.

more soon!

there are still spots available for the ETIG library camp this coming May 29, 2009 in Montreal (hosted at my loverly place of work – McGill Unversity).
so come hang out with Jessamyn West, John Fink, Jason Hammond, and a bunch of other really awesome folks for one day.
it’s cheap (40$).
we’re going to talk about fun things.
and there’s a surprise gift for those who attend. (seriously, there is. i’m not just saying that.)

hope to see you there!

so despite being a librarian, i read very few books. i get most of my information from blogs, magazines, journals, podcasts, and talking to people (some of whom are writing books). some days i think this is a huge failure on my part, and i remember hearing something about multitaskers actually being unable to focus on anything for longer than 5 minutes…

i own Clay Shirky‘s Here Comes Everybody – but i read maybe a few pages at a time, because they are just so dense. (i’m not the only one that feels that way. one of the Media Hacks guys – Mitch Joel maybe – faces the same issue.) and i have a copy of Seth Godin‘s Tribes (bit of a fangirl since seeing him speak at SLA last year) but again… yet to break the spine on the book.

but TED just posted Seth Godin’s most recent chat about tribes, and it rocks as much as i hoped it would. at the end he posts three questions about leading a tribe.

1. who are you upsetting? if you’re not upsetting anyone, you’re not changing the status quo.
2. who are you connecting? cuz that’s what a lot of people are in it for.
3. who are you leading? cuz focusing on the leading is where change comes from.

i need to think about a few things…

In order to be really good as a librarian, everything counts towards your work, every play you go see, every concert you hear, every trip you take, everything you read, everything you know. I don’t know of another occupation like that. The more you know, the better you’re going to be. – Allen Smith, PhD

i found this quote via a shared item from my friend Wendy Brown (who took me bowling once at this awesome place in Jamaica Plains), but it’s originally from the Bilingual Librarian blog.

i think this may be a reason i am so happy in this profession – everything matters.

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?

got my akoha cards tonight care of the always rockin’ Patrick who got to go to PodCampMontreal while i was working (yay work but BOO schedules).

srsly, check out Akoha

get ready to play it forward, peeps.