Friday, May 14, 2010
Thursday, April 01, 2010
Kick Start (er....)
hiiiiiiiiii
I tried watching some of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars on the Disney Channel the other night but just couldn't do it. I was too stuck on making sure she was wearing the right shoes (the Uggs in one scene almost made me cry, but she did switch to Chuck Taylors later). How could they do this? How dated must Ms. Harriet seem to today's kids?
As for dee library. Wells. Yah. I work at a library. It is full of interesting people. I went on vacation and met more interesting people. I'm looking forward to MOVING TO CALIFORNIA and meeting more interesting people. The catch is:
*I am a really good public librarian
*I have worked in public libraries for twelve years and have gotten a degree I wanted to take me out of public services and into tech services
*I still love writing, event planning, technology, new media, the music industry, intellectual property law and copyright law
Now loop this all together. Force me to apply for some cool jobs. Tell me where they're at, in the SF Bay Area of course.
I titled this post after a really cool website that is allowing all sorts of people to get funding for their projects. Kickstarter allows you to post your proposal and then seek funding with all starts of rewards for your patrons. My friend Jed recently got money to make a new album for his band My Teenage Stride and I'm getting a copy. Which is awesome because I would buy it anyway, so I just pre-ordered it and there it is.
More rambling then, I noticed the slogan for his MySpace is "I Can't Go On I'll Go On" which was the name of the band in BandSlam. Now, before I saw it I thought it would be the teen rock movie to end all teen rock movies (one problem there, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is coming out this year). I flipped through Bandslam: Will's Guide to Rock and was hecka impressed at the band names he drops (Stars? Neutral Milk Hotel?). Now I'm getting to far away from the library focus and back to obsessing about bands, sorta....but teen pop culture, comics, new media funding etc. is something librarians should be more aware of.
We're doing a library funding campaign again...Support Our Shelves/ Proud to be Shelf-ish. Donate, or tell me what YOU think of the campaign.
I tried watching some of Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars on the Disney Channel the other night but just couldn't do it. I was too stuck on making sure she was wearing the right shoes (the Uggs in one scene almost made me cry, but she did switch to Chuck Taylors later). How could they do this? How dated must Ms. Harriet seem to today's kids?
As for dee library. Wells. Yah. I work at a library. It is full of interesting people. I went on vacation and met more interesting people. I'm looking forward to MOVING TO CALIFORNIA and meeting more interesting people. The catch is:
*I am a really good public librarian
*I have worked in public libraries for twelve years and have gotten a degree I wanted to take me out of public services and into tech services
*I still love writing, event planning, technology, new media, the music industry, intellectual property law and copyright law
Now loop this all together. Force me to apply for some cool jobs. Tell me where they're at, in the SF Bay Area of course.
I titled this post after a really cool website that is allowing all sorts of people to get funding for their projects. Kickstarter allows you to post your proposal and then seek funding with all starts of rewards for your patrons. My friend Jed recently got money to make a new album for his band My Teenage Stride and I'm getting a copy. Which is awesome because I would buy it anyway, so I just pre-ordered it and there it is.
More rambling then, I noticed the slogan for his MySpace is "I Can't Go On I'll Go On" which was the name of the band in BandSlam. Now, before I saw it I thought it would be the teen rock movie to end all teen rock movies (one problem there, Scott Pilgrim vs the World is coming out this year). I flipped through Bandslam: Will's Guide to Rock and was hecka impressed at the band names he drops (Stars? Neutral Milk Hotel?). Now I'm getting to far away from the library focus and back to obsessing about bands, sorta....but teen pop culture, comics, new media funding etc. is something librarians should be more aware of.
We're doing a library funding campaign again...Support Our Shelves/ Proud to be Shelf-ish. Donate, or tell me what YOU think of the campaign.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
How the Referece Survey Should Be Tallied
Yes the LibCamp NYC 2009 unconference was a long time ago. What always strikes me is what I'm still talking about a year later. People are generally too cryptic in their immediate tweets (even though I presented about Twitter) and I don't like to mess up my Twitter account with too much non-personal stuff.
Yes, I'm one of those Twitterers who thinks it should NOT be used for personal branding. In fact, people who believe in marketing themselves sorta fall in the same likeability as evangelists and QVC hosts in my book. I'm very very suspicious of you, because I see your motivation.
However, what I wanted to talk about was an idea that was buzzing in my head since the unconference session "How Should We Handle the Dinosaur Known as the Reference Desk?" The answer by the way, was give more options to university students because they don't like it, but public library patrons freak out and still depend on it so don't rush to take it away.
Someone (stranger in the audience, if you ever stumble across my blog I will give you full credit) brought up their super smart library doesn't just tally the number of reference questions and call it a reference survey, but actually breaks it down by type:
reference
directional
technology
circulation
Wow! Four columns (or boxes, or whatever you use for your reference survey) and you learn SOOOO much. Like how bad your signage is, what time of day you might want to offer computer classes, and if your patrons understand your borrowing policies.
On a whole I'm pretty disgusted with library statistics. I think the way funding is tied into statistics makes us focus on all the wrong things (ie number of books checked out versus having the right books for the right reader) and competition between branches and library systems (instead of focusing on local needs). Taking more complete statistics would also help with correctly staffing the building. Right now I'm in the dark as to what the use of a "one mark for every reference question" is except apparently for funding and to write articles about the rise and fall of reference.
Folks, it's not about the fun of being a reference librarian. Or the frustration. It's about the patrons. Why do so many libraries neglect to take this opportunity to get some useful data?
Yes, I'm one of those Twitterers who thinks it should NOT be used for personal branding. In fact, people who believe in marketing themselves sorta fall in the same likeability as evangelists and QVC hosts in my book. I'm very very suspicious of you, because I see your motivation.
However, what I wanted to talk about was an idea that was buzzing in my head since the unconference session "How Should We Handle the Dinosaur Known as the Reference Desk?" The answer by the way, was give more options to university students because they don't like it, but public library patrons freak out and still depend on it so don't rush to take it away.
Someone (stranger in the audience, if you ever stumble across my blog I will give you full credit) brought up their super smart library doesn't just tally the number of reference questions and call it a reference survey, but actually breaks it down by type:
reference
directional
technology
circulation
Wow! Four columns (or boxes, or whatever you use for your reference survey) and you learn SOOOO much. Like how bad your signage is, what time of day you might want to offer computer classes, and if your patrons understand your borrowing policies.
On a whole I'm pretty disgusted with library statistics. I think the way funding is tied into statistics makes us focus on all the wrong things (ie number of books checked out versus having the right books for the right reader) and competition between branches and library systems (instead of focusing on local needs). Taking more complete statistics would also help with correctly staffing the building. Right now I'm in the dark as to what the use of a "one mark for every reference question" is except apparently for funding and to write articles about the rise and fall of reference.
Folks, it's not about the fun of being a reference librarian. Or the frustration. It's about the patrons. Why do so many libraries neglect to take this opportunity to get some useful data?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)