#readit2011

From a recent PLN e-list post:-

After a very successfull 2010 Librarians Reading Challenge, the NSW Readers Advisory Group are inviting library staff to take part in our 2011 Librarians Reading Challenge.
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/2011+Librarian%27s+Reading+Challenge
and to join the Twitter Reading Group so as to engage with the broader online community.

2011 Librarians Reading Challenge
Each month in 2011, we are encouraging librarians to read items on a set theme and to then post their choices to the corresponding month on the NSWRA wiki. Your reading experience on the topic for the month can vary from books and blogs to poetry, plays or essays.
As well as discussing what they are reading in the library, some library staff will also be tweeting about their reading on twitter using the hashtag #readit2011 as well as specific monthly themed hashtags.
To take part you will need to be a member of the NSW Readers Advisory Wiki.
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/
Once you are a member you can go to the 2011 Librarian's Reading Challenge page and add your name.

2011 Twitter Reading Group
The Twitter Reading Group (and blog - http://readit2011.wordpress.com/) is an opportunity to run programs for the broader library clients and online communities. This is an online reading group, one that involves microblogging, blogging and taking pictures about reading. Through this program, we will be encouraging our clients to tweet, blog or post photographs about what they are reading. This is also an opportunity to engage with online users who are not currently library users.
For more information on the 2011 Twitter Reading Group go to
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/2011+Twitter+Reading+Group

Already #readit2011 has taken off on Twitter with January's #suagb (scare up a good book) theme. It looks to be a great year for reading - and for sharing online.

The decline of Delicious

Yahoo have recently announced that they're shutting down / selling off the Delicious social networking bookmarking service. For those who are big users of Delicious (I must admit to being an intermittent user) this is something of an "OMG, what do I do know?" moment.

So, thank you Mylee for sharing The Ultimate Guide to Moving Your Delicious Bookmarks. This neat 'How To' post from Edudemic gives some great advice....... all I need do now is decide between Diigo, Mister Wong, Pinboard, Google Chrome / Firefox, Xmarks, and Faviki ..... and learn some new tools and applications along the way - bound to be fun.

Rain

It's been a while.

I started a new job with Coffs Harbour City Library & Information Service on September 27th as Team Leader - Resources & Support and since then I've been navigating the learning curve and getting to know everyone here (not to mention the 85 kilometres of road between Grafton & Coffs Harbour).

Aside from a day here and there it has pretty much rained the whole time. But that's okay (except for being stuck at Blackadder Creek once or twice ...... whilst listening to Blackadder (Rowan Atkinson & co.) which seemed mildly appropriate). I've found that rain tends to slow people down and allow for a little introspection so it's been nice to have that time to talk to people, learn how Coffs does things, and apply everything I've absorbed from Central Northern & Clarence Regional Library Services. Which I guess is what has made the transition to Coffs so fluid. I'm also extremely grateful I haven't had to learn a new LMS, one yay for Spydus.

It's 5 years since I returned to the world of Public Libraries and it's been a very full 5 years at that. I'm grateful for much during that time - the mentoring provided by big-picture library managers (Kay & Sally), the friendship & fiendish mayhem of colleagues (PL & MB especially), and the sheer excitiement of what libraries can do (inspired by Ellen & her sheer passion for public libraries). I've played in the world of 2.0 & 2.1 (thanks to Ellen, Mylee, Leanne, Victoria & all the consultants at NSL-PLS) and I've been pushed & stretched to explore RA, Ref-Ex, RISG, etc and be excited by it all. I've established networks that have meaning and discovered new & exciting people thanks to Twitter & rss feeds.

So despite the lingering rain there continues to be sunshine in my office, I like sunshine but I don't mind the rain either.......... unless it floods and then I'll probably have a few issues......

Serendipity

Further to yesterday's post I felt it worth noting that thanks to my meandering following of Katrina Lantz I was directed to a #writeoncon online video workshop with Mark McVeigh, lietary agent which was both inciteful and informative for how one side of the publishing industry works. Opportunities like this (it was 10:30pm where he was in the USA) aren't always available to mere struggling library staff (in Australia) so the access to online content is invaluable and the fact that I only came across it through an act of serendipity rather rewarding.

The value of rss and twitter to my RA & Reference skill set

I was over at Sandy Fussell's blog recently and found a cute little button for the Top 50 Australian Blogs for Writers. Curious I followed the trail of breadcrumbs and was taken to Copywrite and an amazing list of blogs.

From a Collection Development point of view this is an invaluable resource.
From a Readers Advisory point of view this is even better. Not only do I have a quick pick list of Australian writers, I've got access to their blogs - ie, to the information about them, from them, about their books, etc. What's out now, what's coming soon, where in the world they happen to be right now, that sort of thing.
I realised that over the last 12 months my selection of rss feeds and twitter streams has developed to a more organised and focussed agenda. This got me thinking about the way I use Twitter and RSS feeds to inform my Readers Advisory (and Reference) skillset. I have feeds set up for various writers, including Sandy Fussell, Anita Heiss, and Stephen Fry. I also follow a literary agent and Amanda Palmer this way (this last one mainly because I've found this is the easiest way for me to read Amanda Palmer as opposed to via Twitter, Facebook, etc).

When I look at my twitter stream I'm following Sandy Fussell again, Stephen Fry also, Neil Gaiman, Katrina Lantz, Melissa Marr, Kate Forsyth, Diana Tixier Herald, The Reading Agency (UK), Waterstones (UK), Nancy Pearl, the British Library, GalleyCat, AusLit, Australian Literature, Penguin Books Australia, Random House Australia, Simon & Schuster Australia, Pan Macmillan Australia, Harper Collins Australia, and Aurealis Xpress .... thus far...... There are many other people I follow whose opinion and comment also inform my skill set but these ones I've specifically earmarked as worthy and useful for my personal interests and for the questions I find myself being asked. This list is certainly not finite and I most certainly see myself adding to and subtracting from it over time as I discover more authors and publishers and literary agents and booksellers whose comments and contributions I find useful and bring light to the day.

Back to the value of the Top 50 Australian blogs for Writers though. Here I now find a myriad of blogs to follow should I choose. What I really like about this list is the options it offers me: - here's the blog name - add them to your rss feed; here's the blog writer's name and what genre they fall into (whether they're a novelist/copywriter/screenwriter/etc so at least you know what perspective they're coming from and just who on earth they are); some Technorati etc stats (always good for understanding why they're ranked at the spot they are); and finally their Twitter tag should they have one 'cause maybe that's an easier option for you to follow them.

I can see me spending a lot of time with this list working out just who I want to follow and how. I'm sure to meet some new people along the way and learn so many new and exciting things to further enhance my continually expanding skill set for both Reference and Readers Advisory.

Can't wait.

Desiderata

Last night my family were trolling through old photo albums and out fell an old yellowed copy of a Desiderata dated 1692 from Old St Paul's Church, Baltimore.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons they have their vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others you may become vain and bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons ... than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is. Many persons strive for high ideals and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love, for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars. You have a right to be here and whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be and whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham and drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.
Be careful. Strive to be happy.

These words express such sincere sentiment to a life well lived and a life lived well - it's nice to be reminded of them. Oddly enough it puts me in mind of a poem by W.B. Yeats which my father often recited to me as a child and which I ended up studying at Uni (oh so many years ago now).


I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee;
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core




Be well.

There be faeries furnishing ur xml

I enjoy the beauty of statistics, they tell you things you didn't know, or verify things you did. They provide evidence one way or contradict another - glorious.

I also love the fun which Twitter adds to the information it shares - things like Tweet Stats.

This nifty little app looks at my twitter traffic and gives me stats back showing my activity, breaking it down into months, days, hours, etc. Exciting stuff for someone who likes stats (bizarre given that I generally loath library metrics, though I find it satisfying to create synopses of PLEG stats, go figure).

Who knew that I spend most week-day mornings in Twitter? (well, actually I did know that but here's the proof!!) Or that I do most of my Tweeting on a Friday??

This is a brilliant little app. I look at it and can straight away understand why my twitter traffic was higher in March, May & June this year. That would be the RA seminar, Reference seminar and Games seminar respectively. Nice to see the correlation.

Okay, back to work. It's Tuesday so obviously a slow Twitter day for me..... ha.

federal election 2010 - rant

A federal election has been called for August 21. When we started the year we had Kevin Rudd as PM at the helm of the Australian Labor Party, going into the elections we have Julia Gillard.
I think it's great that we have a female PM, don't get me wrong, I just don't like how she got there.
Prior to the election being called there has been much debate around the national broadband network (NBN), internet filters, and education. There's been debate about other things too but these are the ones that I have opinion about.
The NBN would be great, if it worked. Maybe then I'd get broadband connected at home.
Internet filtering is just plain bad (a much milder phrase than the one I'm thinking mind). Along side here is the whole rating of games fiasco - take a look at any gamer mag to find out why.
Our education system is weak. I took an active role in commenting on the Australian Curriculum, I think the idea of a national curriculum is great. What worries me is that my children have missed out on essential schooling skills because previous changes to the education system took them away - seriously, is there some particular reason why children can't be taught to spell correctly rather than good enough will do?
And in the midst of all this, what about libraries? Where do we fit in the grand election promise? have we actually raised ourselves to the point where we do matter? Teachers can strike, health workers strike, but when Librarians strike who listens?
I feel very disheartened at the moment about the state of all our major political parties. I've just finished reading a news item about the allocation of preferential voting. It's ludicrous. If my vote counts then I want it to count how I say, not in some predetermined fashion. I've been thinking about how I would vote in this next election and after reading through this news item I'm tempted to tell them all to take a hike. None of them are listening to the Australian population and I don't think that any of them deserve my vote.
The really sad thing is that it's not really me who will suffer, it's my kids and the future which is being strangled before they have a chance to explore it.
Another news item I noted was about the continuing brain drain from Australia - and they wonder why........
Rant over.

r u game? post event happenings

It's almost 3 weeks since the rugame2010 seminar in WoW and in that time it's been great to see the wiki grow as participants add in screen shots, an edited transcript, websites mentioned, etc.

On top of that it's also nice to catch up with what others have put together from their experience of this event (thanks Kim).

Overall, this was an exciting program for public library staff and has opened doors for more of the same. The success of the online session in World of Warcraft certainly validated the scepticism that some felt for such a venture. Too often as Librarians we feel comfortable where we are and don't want to explore new ways of doing things. Events like this, which to many would appear mundane, make us uncomfortable. We lose sight of its inherent value.

I look back at this event when I sat glued to my pc for 2 days following Twitter and think how I would most certainly go through that again for the benefit I got out of it. I cannot promote to enough colleagues the value of events like this which push the boundaries just a little.

Planning is now underway for next year's Reference @ the Metcalfe seminar and I'm very excited about the proposed program. It too pushes the boundaries of what's comfortable just a little and to be perfectly honest I think we need that push - really.

I'm also looking forward to designing a new shirt to add to the RISG collection on RedBubble.