Feel free to submit stories, vote, create a profile, interact with other LibraryXO users, comment, and make suggestions on how to make the site better. It’s a work in process and sure to change in layout, design and content as users begin to make it their own.

I’ll probably have an official launch in a couple of weeks… any excuse for a party.

Technical details: Pligg engine using MySQL, PHP, & CSS etc., hosted on LaughingSquid.net.

It works great so far, the AJAX with a little Flash thrown in, is rockin! Any visitor to your web site/blog can IM you if you’re online.

This is a great little web application to keep you stay connected with folks who visit your site. If we could only get libraries to sign on, our patrons wouldn’t even need to sign up with an IM service. Imagine a patron visiting our home page and getting directions on how to log into a database, or find a certain book (or a morbid books & more list) from a live LOCAL librarian.

BTW, thanks F.Love, for the reminder on the booklist. Not sure if it’ll fly in the library but I’ll give it a try.

Privacy is the other issue. Ideally the library world will develop or license a suite of in house applications, like Zoho Writer or Writely, that handle word processing, can output doc, pdf and html files, and run on library servers. With how easy these types of applications are to develop and use, and how ubiquitous they will become, profiteering from these types of apps will be difficult. Regional library systems could possibly buy into development and maintenance of the servers and platforms for their users.

Eventually, everything from photo editing to DVD authoring to could be done on the web. Hopefully, library catalogs fall somewhere in between.

If I were going to flesh this out, which I still might, I would explain each one and what skills are involved and why they were important. The bottom line is that I desperately want to share my knowledge and train my fellow librarians. When we are faced with important decisions about how we are going to serve the public, we must have the confidence and knowledge to push for the right computers, the right networks, and the right tools to be relevent and to do our job of providing access and guidance.

• USB Flash Drive – 512 MB
• A computer with built in USB (points for a laptop with wi-fi card) & updating security/anti-virus/anti-spyware software
• Cell phone w/ texting & email service
• Web space, web site or a blog, or all of the above
• Free web email accounts
• Instant Messaging
• RSS reader(at the least Bloglines)
• DSL or any reliable high-speed access to the internet from home that is not dial-up
• CD or DVD writing ability
• Digital Camera
• iPod

Small and medium sized business and non-profits could really benefit from having their materials cataloged and shared via the web. The Alzheimer’s Association of Northern California has a lending collection of materials of interest to caregivers and family members. If the public library could access their catalog online for example through Library Thing it could help us locate materials of interest for a patron or help build our collection. The best part is that it becomes a shared, public resource with subject headings. We’ll see if anyone goes for this program idea.

I attended a very well organized, useful, and fun workshop titled Rethinking Library Collaboration and Partnerships in San Francisco held by InfoPeople. The workshop instructor, Joan Frye Williams, knows her stuff. The class reminded us of the strengths that the library has and really emphasized leading with our strengths when we are ready to approach folks with partnership ideas. Libraries tend to come across as beggars and not really partners. By sharing what we do have to offer puts us in a better position to negotiate collaborative partnerships. The rest of the class and the framework built on those concepts and really created an easy framework (built around a courtship metaphor) for how to find likely partners, get to know them, and start a partnership. What I really liked was that all of the exercises were not just exercises but actual processes that were part of the larger goal. This is where the modern librarian needs to be headed and I suggested that we get her to speak to a group of students and she was all over it. In all honesty, this is how all classes should be taught.

Libraries should really communicate these values on an ongoing basis to their staff as well as the public. For staff, I can’t think of any better way than a staff blog where can communicate what’s going on, the routine as well as the innovative, and how everything should be inspired by our mission and values. Plus it’s a great tool for distributing the workload of distributing information.

For the public, we should really share our values in simple and concrete ways by advertising everyday our commitment to customer service, to privacy, intellectual freedom, innovation, reading, literacy and literature. Maybe highlight one value per month by having it on a poster in the library or sandwich boards in front. How about a mascot with a sign dancing on the corne r. (I see an ironic, catchy, maybe edgy commercial) I think a lot of people might disagree and think that this is a boring idea. Yet, this is what we are about and whether we like it or not we are competing to be relevant in the information service industry.

Back to my personal library mantra:
The library is the first and best place in the community for information, reading and literature.

Coffee Beer… did we hear someone patent a “fermented coffee beverage?” Sounds more like a gimmick.. I’ll still try it though.

The PLS department treated me to lunch at the California Cafe in Los Gatos today. I didn’t know they had a Bento Box for lunch. It was a very eclectic mix: Vegetarian fried gyoza, asian chicken salad, half an open face crab melt, and beef fajitas… Not bad but an interesting mix. A big thanks to all my PLS coworkers, I’ll miss you.