Thing #31: What is the Future of Libraries and Librarians?

The presentation New Librarianship by R. David Lankes was a little long to listen to all in one sitting here at the library but nonetheless very interesting. There were some really great ideas/points that he made. Nothing was super revolutionary or new to me, most of what he said, you have probably heard something like it if you have taken any library science classes within the last five years. One thing that he probably could have gone into more was funding and how it needs to be increased inlibraries and how to improve libraries while also having limited funds.

It is always great to hear that libraries won't be obsolete any time soon and the idea of an ideal future vs a predicted future may help people have optimism is the profession versus the fatalism of just doing the same old same old everyday.

A great part was where he talked about how to keep people in the libraries when the recession ends and points out what many have probably see that use statistics do go up when computers are added to the mix of the library.

The most intriguing point he made was about knowledge and that it is not a thing it's how we understand something like with the example of the geologist and the rock. This philosophy is encompassed by his quote, "The mission of librarians is to improve society through facilitating knowledge creation in their communities."

Overall a pretty entertaining presentation that gives you something to ponder about the way you see libraries and maybe yourself.



Write a blog post responding to the video. Do you agree with Mr. Lankes? Is he way off base? What do you think?

Thing #30 Webby Wonders

Looking through the Webby Nominees and Winners was pretty entertaining. This eclectic list is full of something for everyone. I chose a site from the Youth section because it looked like it would be a lot of fun to explore. The nominee I chose was Marvel's create your own superhero at http://marvel.com/create_your_own_superhero.

Making your own superhero is indeed a lot of fun. I liked how easy the site was to use and that if you sign up it will save the characters that you make and you are able to download the characters. The template is easy to follow and you just go step by step until you are done making your hero. I could see this site being benefical in many library settings. The easiest place to use it would be as an activity in public libraries with patrons from children to teen. It could also be useful in all library settings as perhaps a fun team building activity. You could do this by saying make your version of a superhero and then explain about why you made them and what powers they would have etc. I made a whole superhero library team.

Overall the Webby Awards are a great idea and a place to find sites you may have never gone to before and http://marvel.com/create_your_own_superhero is a fun site whether you use it personally or in a library.

Thing #29 Book-Based Social Networks

I chose weRead as the Book-Based Social Network that I would join. It is a pretty interesting site and also easy to use. The profile section was simple to set up and the features like adding favorite books and books that you have read are easy to understand. It will even recommend more books for you to read.

Some interesting features of weRead is the never ending quiz which sounds like exactly what it is, a never ending quiz and their collection of books that you can read online.

I believe that services like weRead and all the other Book-Based social networking sites could indeed complement and not compete with programming offered by libraries. If anything it is a way to expand a libraries reach with patrons. It allows more of a personal feel or sense of community around what people read. Patron's could see a librarian's favorite books and the library can see what the patrons are reading and would like to read. It would make things like setting up book groups easier and reviews are readily available. Overall I see these services as a supplement to the library and not competition.

Thing #28 Google Reader

Google Reader is a very handy tool when it comes to organizing the information that you want to see everyday all into one easy to access place. I have used Google Reader since one of the earlier thing activities and have seen that it can be very helpful.

Google Reader would be very beneficial to libraries because it could allow patrons to be updated easily about what's happening at the library and for the library to be updated with the potential RSS updates of different organizations or patron groups.

My favorite feature of the Google Reader is the Send to feature. It is a great feature because it allows you to pick from a wide range of places to send whatever you find interesting like Blogger, Facebook, or Twitter but you can also add in other places to send what you want to share.

I'm subscribed to Books, News, and many different blogs and web comics.

Overall Google Reader is a great tool to organize what you wish to read on the web and to find new things to read about topics that interest you.

Expat Gentleman Seeks Companionship, from a great comic called The Abominable Charles Christopher. (using the send to option on Google reader)

Expat Gentleman Seeks Companionship: "

Thing #27 Facebook

I have had a facebook account for a while now. I think I first joined in college so I could keep in touch with the Forensics team and other students for class projects. There is always something new to do/learn about, all the different applications are a lot of fun. Facebook is indeed a great place to connect with people and share information. You can do a wide range of things on Facebook including: reconnect with old acquaintances, learn new things about people from what they post, and join groups that support just about any cause that there is.

I have joined many different facebook groups some for organizations, some for just fun, and more because they are a cause or something that I am interested in. I joined the Librarians and Facebook group because it looked to be pretty informative.

Our library could definitely use facebook to our advantage and it would likely allow us to better promote our services to students because they are very technologically apt but not prone to asking questions. Maybe being online would bring in more questions. Sadly though we would first need the approval of the college to start a facebook profile/group. So it is a good idea with a lot of potential but it is not quite yet a reality here.

Using a social networking site like facebook would allow libraries and patrons to interact more and make things like promoting new books or databases much easier.

Facebook is a great site because it can help you or your library make connections or keeps connections that are already there thus allowing communication to remain open.

Thing #26 WorldCat

Learning about the social part of WorldCat was indeed interesting. Using this feature of WorldCat allows more social interactions and makes the catalog feel more personal especially with the ability to add the WorldCat search widget to your blog or facebook.

Creating lists is a lot of fun I made one about gnomes. After making one list I went ahead and made a couple more. Having the lists be search able is also a great feature because you can see what is out there or add your own information. Watching lists is helpful so you can keep track of changes and get new information.

This aspect of WorldCat could be very useful to libraries and library patrons. The best feature for librarians and library patrons is the ability to make lists. I know these lists were helpful to me and would likely be helpful to library patrons or librarians who are searching for materials. Searching through lists may show someone a starting point to what they are researching or may even lead them to a new idea. Another use for libraries would be using lists to show patrons the wide variety of resources available on a variety of themes or topics.

Overall trying out the social aspect of WorldCat was informative, educational and even a little fun. This thing could indeed be very useful in any library setting.

Thing #25 Google Maps

The address 1445 K St. 68509 is the Nebraska State Capitol. Using satellite view you can indeed zoom in close enough to see the color of the cars parked around the capitol. Using the different features is relatively easy and lets you get a great view of a lot of different places especially when you use Street View because the picture is very clear.

I really like the get directions feature of being able to choose how you are getting there: by car, walking or public transportation. It’s pretty entertaining seeing just exactly how long it would take to walk to some places you would normally not walk to. I am the kind of navigator that gets lost very easily. I think the Street View option is the best because you can use buildings as landmarks which makes it harder to get lost.

I found my library by typing in the words, metro community college Elkhorn campus library. The marker for the library was placed correctly because it was edited by Kristen who also works here. In the information window I edited it to include the name of the library and the proper web site address so now it goes to the libraries web site instead of just Metros. There are three of us here taking part in Nebraska Learns 2.0 so I will let one of them claim the library.

Overall Google Maps was easy to use and would be a great tool to recommend to others. The feature I liked the best was Street View because I like to see what’s around before I drive somewhere. There are plenty of ideas that would be good for customized maps like how to actually get to the library and for any place that would need more publicity. I didn’t embed a map on the website because I don’t have access to change the website. I think the library could use Google Maps to promote itself more and for the patrons themselves for whatever maps or directions they need. I know if someone is looking for directions or maps I will recommend Google Maps because of all of the different options it has compared to other map or direction based sites.

Thing #24

I used Twitter Search and Google Alerts for this activity trying to find out information about Elkhorn, Metro Community College, EVC, and a lot of other combinations. Setting up the feeds themselves wasn't hard at all but for the most part I came up with a whole lot of nothing. This just shows that Metro and the Elkhorn Campus Library need to have more of a presence on the web. Twitter search was pretty helpful but Google Alerts seemed to be all over the place when it came to results. So I finally narrowed down what I was searching, my job title, Library Assistant.

Twitter Search brought up a lot of interesting comments when searching for Library Assistant. A comment posted on May 15, 2009 by Amy McDonald said, "library assistant. the swearing must stop. let shhhushing commence." Another interesting comment about library systems and the potential pay they receive was said by Adrian Villagomez on May 7, 2009, "was the front runner for a library assistant position, but i passed so i can make some real $$$ as a bartender, who wants a drink?"

The Google alerts were not extremely helpful and they repeated stuff a lot, most of the time it came up with results but not for the right library or college. One thing that I found and replied to was as series of articles by Lisa Philpotts called So What Exactly Do You Do?, she provided information about many different aspects of libraries and library related jobs. These posts can be found at http://bsn2mls.wordpress.com/2009/05/18/so-what-exactly-do-you-do-part-4-academic-health-sciences-library-tech/.

A way in which I would recommend people use these searches is to find different jobs. I was surprised at the large amount of post I found through Twitter Search that were job posting, that just goes to show you that you can find a job or at least the possibility of one almost anywhere. Many of the results I found were job posting, some blogs, random newspaper articles overall a wide collection of information just sometimes on things that I don't need to know about.

These tools would be very valuable in marketing out library seeing as there were not many results at all about this specific library. Using these tools would let the library successfully reach all of it's patrons including the online student. Using tools like Twitter, Flickr, or other social sites like Facebook would most likely improve the patron library relationship. Now we just have to wait for the college's approval to implement these tools. Hopefully this happens sometime soon seeing as the students here are very technology based.

Lifelong Learning Video

The lifelong learning video, 71/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners was a well done tutorial which accentuated some habits that lifelong learners should have. The presentation was very positive and an effective way to look at learning. I did highly disagree with one statement though, "Don't say it or think it unless you want it to be true." My view on this is that a statement like this makes it sound like people should not have opinions or speak about what is on their mind. Wanting something to happen and talking or thinking about it does in no way mean that it will automatically come true.


There were also some very valid points made about lifelong learning and learning in general. Having confidence in yourself and as a learner is always important. The presentation also emphasized the fact that attitude is everything, which is very true and can influence how someone even views learning in the first place.


The hardest habit for me would have to be Habit 3: View problems as challenges. Seeing problems as challenges versus something to learn from is usually easier to do in retrospective. I am becoming better at viewing problems as something to learn from but sometimes it is hard to get around the challenge and see the lesson to learn.


The easiest habit for me is Habit 7 1/2: Play. As cliche as it is for someone that works in a library, I love to read. My imagination is very active and helps me think outside the proverbial box to find solutions. I like to explore new technologies and learn new things.