misc.joy » Library

Wired on the iPad, My Experience

kenley — Fri, 28 May 2010 03:58:20 +0000

As you may know, the June 2010 issue of Wired magazine is available as an iPad version. It will cost you $4.99 to try it out. I’ve been a subscriber and reader of Wired since its founding in the mid-90s, and continue to be a subscriber. I had already read the print version of the June issue before the release of the iPad version, so in reviewing the new product I primarily looked for added features. Here are my thoughts.

Right from the “cover” you are able to interact with the content by watching a commercial for the new Toy Story movie. That interactivity is scattered throughout the magazine in the form of sounds, animations, videos, etc. There is definitely added value in the iPad version for things that could be provided (in some cases) in the print but are limited by size of the print publication. For example, in the images below you have the Japanese and English translation for a comic strip but in the print version you only had the Japanese.

Access to these two versions were made available simply by selecting the strip and it would toggle between the two. Other examples of interactivity came from animations built to illustrate a story. For example, the history of Mars exploration or building of a lego car or designing a pop-up book.

Finally, and probably one of my favorite elements, is the embedding of music. I enjoy reading about new music or artists being highlighted in Wired. Usually I’ll look them up on MySpace or MOG but with this version of Wired I can hear the tracks right within the reading experience. Further, in the story on Trent Reznor we could experience the building of a track from samples. Definitely something not available in a print publication.

Critique

The cost. While $4.99 may seem reasonable for a one-off purchase, I don’t believe I’m willing to pay $60/year for a subscription to the iPad version. Right now I pay $12/year for the print (which is probably an indication of the magazine publishing industry!). It will definitely need to be somewhere in between. I would give up the print (as I don’t really need both), but the price would need to come down some. Still waiting for the pricing model.

The download. The issue was about 500mb and it took 10-15 minutes to download on my home wifi. Unlike the recent Vanity Fair issue (same publisher as Wired – Conde Nast), the interactivity is built into the issue itself. This does allow for offline interaction (a bonus), but a large download (a negative). Being able to access the content while offline is critical so the download is necessary.

Navigation. Easy and clear. Can be used horizontally or vertically. Slider to scan through all the pages or utilize the table of contents. Left to right and top to bottom reading experience. What I’d like to see in the future is the ability to email a link of an article – build in a bit more of a social media experience.

Overall, I’m pretty impressed. It was easy to read and provided a new reading experience. I look forward to more issues and other publications joining the fray. Maybe next month I’ll try reading it on the iPad only.

To Check-In or Not to Check-In at ALA

kenley — Thu, 13 May 2010 15:57:05 +0000

I’ve been pondering the use of location-based social networking tools. For ALA Midwinter, there were a handful of people using these types of services. But, with the huge media coverage after SXSW Interactive this year, I’m expecting more adopters in Washington D.C. for ALA Annual. In fact, ~~we may see some contests organized by ALA staff using one of these services.~~ ALA Staff will be doing some things with Gowalla because that company has been responsive and interested in doing things with the Association. If you haven’t grabbed Gowalla yet, give it a try. Here’s something small to consider before you go…Washington DC Trips.

I’m giving my heavy use of Foursquare and Gowalla until the end of June. Part of my decision to continue using the service will depend on the ALA experience. Though I’m somewhat impartial to Gowalla, I’d like to use the service most widely used by ALA attendees. Please help me out and share, retweet, post of Facebook, etc.

Which service will you use, if any, in Washington DC for ALA Annual?

For the record, my user name on all the above services is kenleyneufeld.

Revisiting Books

kenley — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:07:57 +0000

On my 1-hour flight home yesterday, I used Instapaper Pro to go back and read a web essay from last month by Craig Mod (and type this post in the WordPress app). The essay is called Books in the Age of the iPad.

It seemed important to revisit the article now that I have an iPad and to see if I read the ideas any differently. Two quotes stand out:

When people lament the loss of the printed book [what are] they talking about. My eyes tire more easily, they say. The batteries run out, the screen is tough to read in sunlight. It doesn’t like bath tubs.

and

In printed books, the two-page spread was our canvas. It’s easy to think similarly about the iPad. Let’s not.

This raises two concepts. The reading of print material in the digital format and how the digital for at could look in the future. I read a lot of digital material, but have not ever read an entire novel or book digitally. Portions yes, but not the whole thing. I have loaded on my iPad, You Are Not as Gadget, that I hope to read soon. I’m intrigued and not fearful of digital novels and non-fiction.

I’ve had the iPad almost a week. I’ve done some reading of long pieces. Most of it is fairly traditional in nature. Read, “turn” the page, read some more. Much like the book reading experience. That’s all good.

I like the second concept that Mod presents in his essay. The idea to repurpose and reconceptualize the medium, and even to allow and build value for the print medium too. The ipad does not change anything yet, at least not with its ibook app. It is a nice interface, but it does take what we know and simply make it digital (with some minor tweaks). I look forward to what other producers and artists can create.

I encourage you to read Mod’s piece and reflect. What kind of reading experience do you value? I always thought we’d keep the paperback because it’s cheap and disposable but maybe that content is better suited for the digital environment? For librarians, we’ve already seen this transition for magazine content. Does the iPad pushes further into the digital?

SXSW Interactive: Authors & Keynotes

kenley — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 14:18:53 +0000

This is Part 1 of my SXSW reports. After an introduction, the focus is on authors and keynotes.

I’d heard of South By Southwest (SXSW) for many years; the music festival, that is. However, in 2009 I heard about Interactive Conference that precedes the Music Festival when a few librarians reported attending. I’ve always wanted to attend the music festival, but didn’t feel it was justified in mid-semester given the time and the cost. The Interactive Conference, with its focus on technology, was clearly work related and worthy of investigation. Despite no travel funds, I registered early (paying $395), bought a plane ticket with miles, and arranged to stay at a friends house. Low cost and worthy endeavor.

The trip and conference were well worth the time and I came away energized by the technology community. The conference was certainly different from a typical librarian conference, particularly given the primary demographic – young, hip, technologists in a party atmosphere. I wanted something different to shake my brain up a bit; to give me a new perspective. Also, I wanted an event where I didn’t know many people and didn’t have any committee meetings. SXSW paid me back well.

The Buzz

For those of you who don’t know, SXSW is where a little company called Twitter essentially had its history changed in 2007. In each subsequent year, Twitter has continued to be the darling technology product but this year began to see a shift toward location based services such as Gowalla and FourSquare. The buzz on the street was all about these location based services – and 2010 will be the year of location. Certainly Twitter was heavily used throughout SXSW, but looking forward we may see a different horizon. The second major technology shift observed for 2010 may be the rise of the tablets, beginning with the iPad release next week. We can expect a couple dozen tablet products by the end of 2010 that may dramatically shift the computing world.

Book Readings

The book readings occurred in a central location and was sponsored by Adobe and the librarian in me just felt like a few analog activities were required. These were short sessions (20-minutes) and the author typically discussed the new title or did some reading from the book followed always by Q&A. These were good sessions for me to attend on the first day to help get my feet wet and experience a bit of the SXSW audience.

All the book readings were very interesting and seemed to be worthy reads. In the end, I only purchased one title (especially since it isn’t available yet outside SXSW).

The Young and the Digital by Craig Watkins
Upstarts! GenY Entrepreneurs Are Rocking the Business World by Donna Fenn
DIY U: Edupunks, Edupreneurs and the Coming Transformation of Higher Education by Anya Kamenetz (this is the book I purchased and am currently reading)
The Backchannel by Cliff Atkinson
The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

A few take-aways from these sessions

What does it take to get professors to use Open Courseware? Appeal to their vanity; upload your materials to shared environment then you reach a much broader audience. It’s not just about free and open textbooks.

The Pocket School: Mobile Education. Student centered where learners seize control of their education.

Happiness can sometimes feel abstract as a goal. A good place to start is with your own body. Are you getting enough sleep?

Sleep. Exercise. Reduce clutter. Make your bed (#1). Imitate a spiritual master. Mindfulness of present moment. 1-sentence journal.

Keynotes and Speakers

The conference had four keynotes and I attended a couple more speaker sessions. I heard danah boyd, Valerie Casey, Evan Williams, Daniel Ek, Jaron Lanier, and Bruce Sterling. They were all excellent with one exception – Evan Williams keynote interview. Ironically, the Twitterverse was the primary vehicle used to express major disappointment when the keynote bombed.

This is the second time I have heard danah boyd speak. She is intelligent and clearly research orientated. She is a fast thinker and has been an innovator in social media research. Her talk was on privacy – privacy is about having control over how information flows. She highlighted two recent privacy failures: the launch of Google Buzz in February 2010 and the Facebook changes in December 2009. One observsation was it is easy to be private in physically public space but not so easy online – public by default and private through effort doesn’t easily translate to the online environment. Taking public data and making it more public, such as the Google Buzz example, is a violation of privacy (based on our social norms).

I loved Valerie Casey’s talk. She is a founder of the Designers Accord and she spoke of integrating sustainability through systems thinking. This is the second or third time I’ve heard about systems thinking in a talk and I continue to be intrigued by the concept. Ms. Casey challenged this audience and said that the interactive community has been largely absent from the discussion of sustainability and that it is time to take a greater leadership role in the future. The goal of Designers Accord is to shift the conversation away from the negative Kafkaesque narrative that is predominant. Further, sustainability in mainstream media trivializes the issue. It isn’t something that sits outside of what we do. Consider being located at some point along a string along with everyone else – anytime one of us does something on the string, there is a consequence.

Leadership requires systems. A system is made of elements, interconnections that are highly organized to achieve an overall goal or purpose. What would happen if we focused on cultural sustainability instead of capital? What if social media was really about social impact?

These were the two “thought” keynotes. Two other thought sessions were speakers Jaron Lanier and Bruce Sterling. If you’ve read anything by either author then you get the drift of the discussion. Jaron suggested to the audience to stop tweeting. Don’t blog. Just turn off the gadgets.

The “tech” keynotes were actually interview based. The first was with the Twitter cofounder and the second was with the cofounder of Spotify. Spotify is a new kind of music listening service that isn’t available in the United States yet. If we ever get Spotify in the U.S., it will rock our world (literally). Everyone in the audience was expecting an announcement of some kind but we were disappointed. The best thing that Daniel Ek said was we need to make music like water – music is the most social object out there – genres don’t say anything anymore and we need the social to be able to “browse” ten million tracks.

Despite the general failure of the Evan Williams interview, I still had a couple take away moments. Twitter is an information network, not a social network. Openness is a fundamental tenant at Twitter. Openness lets people come in and use/make what Twitter will become. By expanding SMS services, Twitter becomes an extremely powerful tool by letting anyone with a cell phone the ability to publish on the internet.

Make Library Conferences Better

kenley — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:02:56 +0000

I’ve been attending library related conferences for the last 16 years -- mostly ALA. I attend to connect with colleagues, contribute to the associations, or attend programatic activities. Recently I attended SXSW Interactive in Austin, Texas and I came away with many ideas on how to improve the conference going experience. SXSW Interactive was five days long at The Austin Convention Center, the Hilton, and the Radisson -- so relatively small if compared with the American Library Association events, but not if compared with ACRL National Conference, LITA National Forum, or Internet Librarian.

Let’s start with registration. I registered online about six months before the actual event. It was intuitive, easy, and clear. What was different? They integrated a social network tool. Every registrant became part of a community where you could add friends and share short Twitteresque messages. I could search for other conference goers based on geography, business, interests, etc. Totally awesome networking tool. Secondly, as part of registration we were encouraged to upload a photo that would then be included on our attendee badge (if we forgot or didn’t take this step, a photo was taken upon arrival). For the record, early registration was $395.

Because badge pickup involved photos, one had to wait a minute or two for the badge to be retrieved and/or to have a picture taken. This allowed for a higher energy level at registration as people’s names were called out after the badge was ready. High energy is good and sets a tone. Happiness! The attendee badges also included personalized QR Code (Quick Response Code) for easy sharing via iPhone app. Despite this option, I saw most people sharing business cards.

Signage around the Austin Convention Center was ubiquitous and customized to the event. Other conferences do this as well, but what was different at SXSW? Each panel or speaker had a table plate in large bold letters (last name only) so it could be seen from the entire room. Secondly, a table tent with the session hashtag was also included for easy tweeting and following the backchannel. Excellent!

The schedule was available online, iPhone app (64% attendees were iPhone users), and in print (upon arrival). I was so impressed with the online schedule I made a video -- SXSW Schedule Tool. The technology behind the tool was developed by The Social Collective. Big bonuses with the schedule tool: when you mark yourself as attending, you can see all the other attendees who have done the same.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV3maHr7YFc

When viewed on the iPhone app, it tells me that x number of my friends (see above) are also attending. Changes in the schedule are sent via email notification if you’ve marked yourself as attending. All the days followed the same block schedule -- first session at 9:30am with 30-minute passing times between sessions. Consistency is very nice. Finally, in addition to the hashtag table tent, the hashtag was also included in the print and online schedules. Awesome!

The technology was superior, as it should be. Free wifi was abundant, including on the trade show floor and hotel based sessions. The satellite wifi routers were abundantly clear and added throughout the event. This is a no-brainer. In addition, a charging station was availble in the main lobby hall (sponsored by Chevy Volt) and power strips were scattered throughout the convention center. In this day, power is essential.

Final comments. Within 2-days of the conference ending, I received an email acknowledgement and request for completing an evaluation. The conference planners will add my name to a drawing for a free registration for next year if I complete the evaluation. How cool is that?

Final, final comments. SXSW Interactive is a party atmosphere, but also provocative, intelligent, and thoughtful. Many parties happen at night and alcohol is not uncommon in the conference sessions (and a party tent is open most of the time). Swearing from the conference speakers is not unusual. Of course, this is also a conference where 80% of the attendees are under the age of 40 (I’m older!). Nonetheless, there is much we can learn from this and my hope is we can use some in our library related conferences.

What do you think? What experiences do you have from other conferences?

I Am Not A Gadget: A Buddhist’s iPad Dilemma

kenley — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 23:17:04 +0000

Next month the iPad will be unleashed on the world and I want one. First question, how can I justify the cost against a household with a fixed budget. Second, balancing the desire to reduce consumption and the need to stay current with technology. Third, the balance of ubiquitous computing and family harmony. Finally, the environmental cost of technology.

When is enough enough?

Though I definitely don’t own a great deal of gadget technology compared to many others, it still feels like quite a bit. Specifically, I own a 2004 iPod Click Wheel, a 2008 iPhone 3G, a 2009 Flip HD, and a 2009 MacBook Pro. What does adding an iPad to the mix create?

Each piece of technology comes with its own environmental impact in the production, ongoing use, and ultimate disposal. Aware that I am only one consumer, collectively we consume and waste a great deal. It seems that we often consume without thought or awareness and we easily succumb to desire through marketing and possibly an underlying unhappiness.

My Buddhist practice asks me to be aware of my actions in body, speech, and mind. This action includes my consumption. I have taken the both Five Mindfulness Trainings and the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings as my guides to living. These trainings represent the Buddhist vision for a global spirituality and ethic. They are a concrete expression of the Buddha’s teachings on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the path of right understanding and true love, leading to healing, transformation, and happiness for ourselves and for the world.

In the training on Nourishment and Healing, I am to be “aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption” and “am committed to … practicing mindful … consuming.” In the training on Simple Healthy Living, we are “committed to living simply and sharing our time, energy, and material resources with those in need. We will practice mindful consuming…”

Fully aware that these are not commandments, but rather ideals to aspire to, I don’t want to get too caught by the vows either. The idea is to bring awareness to my actions. The real “clincher” of these trainings are to “contemplate interbeing and consume in a way that preserves peace, joy, and well-being in my body and consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family, my society and the Earth.”

Cost. My first question above regarding cost is the least important and easily remedied. I make a decent living and just received a retirement refund from another institution in the amount of a new iPad. Check!

Professionally. I work with technology. I teach technology. The impact of technology on my profession is significant, particularly if we consider the ongoing migration from print to electronic formats. It could even be that the library continues to shift dramatically in the next 20-years. Understanding and knowing technology enhances our profession’s ability to respond to these shifts and its impact should not be underestimated. Though I could easily digress into the mindfulness training on right livelihood, I will not muddy the water further. As a leader in my profession, I need to maintain currency and awareness. Check!

Family Harmony. For me, there are two issues with buying the iPad as it relates to the home. First, adding another device to home environment already cluttered with technology and secondly, the potential to continue to degrade interpersonal relationships in the household. The iPhone already has developed a central role in my daily activities both at home and at work. Finding a balance to provide harmony has been challenging and I am concerned the iPad may make it even more difficult. That said, there is the potential to draw us together at times using the technology. This is a great unknown. It could be that it is simply banned from the house as the television has been for the last decade. This obstacle is one that needs further consideration and an easy solution is not apparent aside from simply not buying the iPad. No check for this one.

Environment. From an environmental perspective, the iPad is designed with arsenic-free display glass, BFR-free, Mercury-free LCD display, PVC-free, and recyclable aluminium and glass enclosure. This is good. Nonetheless, no matter how environmentally sound a product is created, it is still another “thing” created and put into the universe. It will have an impact, particularly if millions of people purchase an iPad. This type of technology also has a certain level of planned obsolescence. For example, speculation already exists that the next version will include video. Why not now? Will I need to buy another iPad when v.2 is released? There is no way to truly wiggle around the environmental cost of the iPad. However, keeping technology operating and long lasting is one method to lessen the impact. Obviously it can’t be like a vehicle (I drive a 25-year old vehicle), but it could be designed to last 5-8 years. Not very long. No check for this one.

Ultimately, this is an exercise in deep looking; exactly what the Mindfulness Trainings and my Teacher asks us to do. I will continue to ponder, consider, argue, reconcile, meditate, and discuss until the moment a decision is made.

What are you planning in regards to the iPad? How do you make decisions about technology consumption?

Note: The title of the blog post is a play on a new book by Jaron Lanier called “You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto” – thanks Jaron!

Library Director: A Day in the Life

kenley — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:43:38 +0000

Though I missed the first few Library Day in the Life last year, I thought I’d participate this year using Twitter as my primary tool of tracking. This year the selected date was Monday, January 25, 2010. This so happened to be the first day of the spring semester at Santa Barbara City College. Not a normal day.

My day started at 4:00am, followed by 60-minutes of sitting meditation at 4:30am. I started sending tweets at 6:10am.

Here follows my Library Day in the Life as the Library Director:

Driving the @SantaBarbaraCC van pool from Ojai. 06:40 from Tweetie

First day of the spring semester; should be pretty mellow. No scheduled meetings. 07:50 from Tweetie

@brewinlibrarian cheap headphones are way better than cleaning. Buy from geekbro.com -- $1/ea, item #728054 08:02 from web in reply to brewinlibrarian

30-minutes at the Reference Desk and now software updates on MacBook Pro. http://post.ly/KTb0 08:11 from Tweetie

An office view. Just the way I like it. http://post.ly/KTf9 08:18 from Tweetie

An Office View

An office view. Part II. A very lucky Library Director.http://post.ly/KTkM 08:18 from Tweetie

Do you scan twitter for mentions of your institution? I use Twitterspy in my Gmail to alert me & add users to @lurialibrary. 08:30 from TweetDeck

@Cespur I can take most questions about SBCC, but may refer the person to the right location for the answers.08:35 from TweetDeck in reply to Cespur

Reading email & Twitter. Installing latest Chromium build while students & staff drop-in. 1 person out today. Making coffee. 09:38 from TweetDeck

A variety of needs, details, and people keep me on my toes, but need to remember to remain calm. Meeting with Outreach Librarian. 09:50 from TweetDeck

Reference desk. Mostly questions about textbooks. Inquiries coming in person and through our IM service. 10:43 from TweetDeck

I really really LOVE Fluid (OSx only) in conjunction with Fever. Can track my RSS feed right from menu bar. Fast & easy.10:54 from TweetDeck

Repairing computer furniture, with screwdriver even! Is there no limit to what the Library Director will do? 11:06 from TweetDeck

Balancing some over expenditures in the library budget. Ugh! 11:57 from TweetDeck

Checking in with my online class; answering student questions. Listening to Donna Summer. I Feel Love. 12:44 from Posterous

Taking a mindful walk outside; an important part of any work day. See you in a bit. 13:23 from TweetDeck

Number crunching. How much money remains in our book and database budgets? Consumed about 45-minutes.14:25 from TweetDeck

Revising faculty equipment requests spreadsheet for ranking by Planning & Resources committee on Tuesday. 14:50 from TweetDeck

Major sidetrack. Multimedia installers completed with new projector config in classroom. Testing & training. Rearrange.15:53 from TweetDeck

Reviewing minutes and documents for SBCC Distance Education Workgroup. 16:17 from TweetDeck

The van pool is departing -- gotta love a schedule. Leaving a few things unfinished, but that is the norm. 16:32 from Tweetie

Finish up the email I was drafting at work. — at Ojai Coffee Roasting Co http://gowal.la/s/2LVp 17:24 from Gowalla

Took a few hours off to be with family, eat dinner, etc. Putting kids to bed now, but starting to review my online classes.21:14 from TweetDeck

New blog post: Social Media -- What does that mean? http://j.mp/8emqwY #MAT149 22:00 from Twitter Tools

www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0ctxIfOQKY

Finished checking in with classes. 18-hours later, here ends “Library Day in the Life Project” Round 4. Time for a book in bed. 22:14 from TweetDeck

Foursquare, Libraries, and Librarians

kenley — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:21:19 +0000

About a dozen attendees at the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston used a location based social network from foursquare (launched in March 2009). In some ways, it felt like the first time Twitter reached the ALA scene a couple of years ago. Pushing the boundaries and testing new technologies is one of the things I enjoy. More importantly, I enjoy discovering new ways to engage with my customers.

Foursquare is a combination of Twitter, gaming, and Yelp (in fact, Yelp launched it’s own similar product while in Boston). Users “checkin” at venues using text messaging, web site, FoursquareX desktop application, iPhone, or Droid app.

Other similar applications that I’ve been testing include Gowalla (fantastic UI), Brightkite (older service, but never took off), and the newly released Yelp (huge user base).

When a user checkins to a location, options include pushing the checkin to Twitter, Facebook, or keeping it just for foursquare users. With the checkin you may leave a short comment. Using one the applications you can see other foursquare users who are in the same location or close vicinity so you could connect physically with the others if desired. There is some level of serendipity to using the application because you can meet new people or leave messages for others who checkin to the same location.

For example, one morning I checked in to the convention center venue and one of my foursquare friends had left of message to join him in one particular program. All users who checked in that morning would see the same message. Networking with my friends using a combination of Twitter and Foursquare enhanced my experience at Midwinter and added a new level of fun to the experience.

Example of Foursquare Tweet

In addition to pushing to my Twitter or Facebook feeds, I can have friend checkins appear in Twitter as a direct message. This allows for even closer and immediate contact with friends. Part of the application feature on a mobile device is see the venue in Yelp and/or see all the Tweets posted in venue region.

The game part of the foursquare allows users to collect “badges” for certain types of checkins. For example, I received the Overshare badge for checking in 10+ times in less than 12 hours. Users can also become the Mayor of a location by checking into the same location more than three times (until someone bumps you). You can still play the game without disclosing your location to the public by not pushing the checkin to your foursquare friends. When you do this, your checkin will appear as of the grid.

A warning for new users: don’t push all your updates to your Twitter or Facebook stream. This can quickly become annoying to your Twitter friends. Choose selective posting to Twitter and always include additional comments so it is not just the location information. I also recommend turning off Twitter push for mayor and badge changes – you can still do this manually if you like.

This coming semester I will attempt to engage my library users in this game. The idea right now is to generate a contest where students checkin to the library using foursquare and give prizes for Mayor and/or specific Badges. The prize could be a reserved seat in the library, priority reserve access, etc. The idea is still forming, but the possibilities are endless.

Example of Foursquare Badges

What potential do you see for location based social networking? What do you think might work in your library?

Follow me on foursquare.

Participation in American Library Association

kenley — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 16:49:09 +0000

I just received my American Library Association (ALA) membership card in the mail. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a member for 17 years.

As the Midwinter Meeting approaches, it is a good time to reflect on membership and the Association. In all the years of membership, I have attended almost all the Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting events and it has kept me engaged and involved in my profession. I have been able to contribute to our Association and profession and, in return, I have a solid network of librarians to call upon and an organization that supports and advocates for the work that we do.

It took about 7-10 years of participation before I found a groove in the business of the Association. That may seem like a long time, but it took that long to find my calling and direction with my own professional goals. I started as a high school (technology) librarian and therefore was involved with AASL, initially serving on several committees, and LITA. In 2001, I switched to community colleges to joined ACRL and the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS). It was a good landing and in the last nine years have served on many organizational committees and taken on several leadership roles, primarily within ACRL but also in ALA level committees.

The business of the Association can seem mundane to some and the fiscal cost of participation can by high (roughly $1250 bi-annually), especially if librarians pay their own way as I have for most of my career. Since becoming active in the business aspect, the opportunities to participate in programmatic activities have become limited. It is not unusual for me to have meetings nonstop from Friday afternoon through Monday evening. This is the cost of active participation and I don’t regret the time. I usually spend about 2-3 hours in the exhibit hall each conference or meeting, but that need has diminished as well.

I’m heading to Boston on Thursday morning. The Midwinter 2010 schedule feels a bit lighter for this meeting, mainly because I am no longer Chair of CJCLS. It is also an opportunity to network further and let people know I’m a Candidate for the ACRL Board of Directors.

If you are new to ALA and the Midwinter Meeting, step in and visit any committee or section meeting that you might have an interest; most meetings are open. I also recommend getting to the meeting a little early and introducing yourself to the meeting chair. When I was chair of committees, I always appreciated knowing who was present and what their interest was with the group. Further, don’t feel bad if you need to leave early or if doesn’t turn out the way you thought. This is important for new participants to feel comfortable exploring and learning more about the work of the Association. One method the Association uses for finding committee members is through the recommendations of committee chairs.

As mentioned earlier, I have benefited from my active participation in ALA. If you are interested in the Association, I recommend finding a niche to demonstrate your interest. Even though virtual participation is growing, which is good, presence and in-person networking can go a long way to getting involved with the Association. Further, my involvement has greatly benefited my own professional goals and the needs of my employers. If you are a committee member, follow through is critical.

It’s not all roses, and it can seem overwhelmingly bureaucratic at times, but what can you expect from an association with over 66,000 members? Be patient. Be happy. Be involved.

Check out my calendar, and I hope to see you in Boston.

Where are we going with social software?

kenley — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:52:28 +0000

On my drive from Ojai to Fresno last night I listened to the recent Library 2.0 Gang episode on Social Software in Libraries. A great conversation well worth the 45-minutes.

Further, this week I’ve been setting up a WordPressMU and BuddyPress installation at classes | kenleyneufeld to be used for online instruction and my new course on Social Networking and Social Software.

First the “ouch” from the library gang. The realization that not enough assessment of our social services has taken place in the library environment. There has been anecdotal success but nothing concrete has been reported. In the past several years I’ve simply thrown stuff up to see what stuck and seemed a functional service. It’s worked reasonably well but as a Library Director I see a greater need for assessment. Assessment is Goal #1 in the coming year.

I was also inspired by the conversation to add a bit more personality to our social toolset in the library. We do this a bit, but we could do more. I’ve been hesitant to engage in true conversation with the @lurialibrary account, preferring to focus on information dissemination. Thank you Meredith Farkas for suggesting to add more conversation and personality. Conversation is Goal #2 in the coming year.

Since 2006, we’ve had our Moveable Type (MT) blog operational as the primary web site at Luria Library. This past year, I’ve been reflecting on our next shift for the web site. As a small operation without significant resources (both fiscally and technically), the task of making these changes typically fall up me and therefore change can be slow.

Given the work I’ve begun with WordPressMU/BuddyPress, and given the inspiration from the Library 2.0 Gang conversation, I’m thinking about a migration away from MT to WPMU/BP.

It is a powerful tool that could allow for connections and conversations to take place within the library domain. Discussion areas, Twitteresque tools, Facebook-style friending, and blogging all exist with the toolset. Further, blog creation with WPMU/BP is so simple and integrated, the library could end up being a host to campus related learning blogs for students and faculty. I’m already asked to help with this and the connections to learning and knowledge creation is a natural place for the library to participate.

I’m excited by the possibility, though a bit nervous about implementation. Further exploration and possible implementation of WPMU/BP is Goal #3 for the coming year.

Where are you going with social software in the coming year?