Library 101 on T is for Training #31

Michael Porter, Lori Reed, Laura Botts, Jason Fleming and I had a great conversation today about Library 101 and the future of libraries.

Check it out here on the T is for Training website.

Newly Posted at ALA Learning– Promote Yourself: Get The Word Out About Staff Development!

I have just published my first article on the  brand new ALA LearnRT blog ALA Learning.   The article is entitled Promote Yourself: Get The Word Out About Staff Development!

It talks about how to promote yourself and your trainings.

Enjoy!

An announcement from the ALA Learning Round Table (And I play small role)

ALA Learning Round Table Chooses New Name, Retains Mission

by Lori Reed

The name may be changing, but the mission of the “Learning Round Table of ALA” remains the same. The American Library Association’s round table dedicated to quality continuing education for library workers has changed its name from CLENERT to LearnRT.

Under its new name:

• LearnRT will continue to promote quality continuing education for all library personnel, helping you network with other continuing education providers for the exchange of ideas, concerns and solutions.
• LearnRT will serve as your source for continuing education assistance, publications, materials, training and activities.
• LearnRT is your advocate for quality library continuing education at both the local and national levels.

In addition to the name change the Round Table is sponsoring a new blog/website, “ALA Learning” (http://alalearning.org), which will feature training and learning news, information, best practices and thoughtful discussion from leading trainers and staff development practitioners in the library field.

Contributing authors include:

• Peter Bromberg
• Maurice Coleman
• Betha Gutsche
• Marianne Lenox
• Bobbi Newman
• Lori Reed
• Paul Signorelli
• Jay Turner
• Stephanie Zimmerman

Membership in LearnRT is only $20, in addition to ALA membership dues. Among the many membership benefits, LearnRT members enjoy, through a unique agreement with the American Management Association, the following valuable AMA benefits: Preferred pricing on all AMA seminars-least a 10-percent discount. Unlimited access to AMA’s Members-only Web site – an ever-growing library of both timely and timeless information on practical issues of management. Access to case studies, how-to articles, trend pieces, best practices, profiles of leading executives and companies, best-selling book excerpts, author interviews and recent research results. Interactive self-assessments that reflect the abilities and knowledge of today’s high-value managers. Exclusive discounts and special offers on AMA products and services. Thirty-percent discounts on “Last-Minute Seats” at numerous selected AMA seminars announced each month.

To become a member of ALA’s Learning Round Table complete the ALA membership application: http://www.ala.org/ala/membership/joinrejoinrenewadd/default.cfm.

(Please note that we may be listed as either CLENERT or LearnRT in various places until the name change has fully circulated throughout ALA.)

For more information about LearnRT contact Pat Carterette, president of LearnRT, at  pcarterette “at” georgialibraries.org.

For more information about ALALearning.org contact Lori Reed, managing editor, at webmaster “at” alalearning.org.

Spotted: An almost bald guy on Adventures In Library Instruction Podcast

I had the pleasure of being the guest on Episode Number 5 of the podcast Adventures In Library Instruction: Flying Kangaroo Powerpoint with Maurice Coleman.

Thanks to the hosts Anna, Rachel and Jason for a fantastic time.  Hope to join you all again on podcast where I can be a guest not a juggler.

Adventures in Library Instruction Podcast Episode 5 Notes.

Link to Show Itself.

A “Call To Action” for the Louisville Public Library

On Tuesday August 4th, the Louisville Free Public Library’s Main Building was at the epicenter of a major flood in downtown Lousiville.

A picture of LPFL from the Courrer-Journal

I mean 3 feet of water in the basement in an hour major flooding.

Original estimates of the damage were in the around $1 million dollar range. Turns out that the damage is a bit more severe (recovery photo essay.) 

As in over $5 million dollar range.

The Louisville Free Public Library’s director did an interview with Library Journal about the aftermath.  The article features some incredible pictures of some of the loss.

So….

Here is The Call To Action:

LFPL needs help and Steve Lawson aka le carping nerdboy has set up a way to help in the name of the Library Society of the World.  Very 21st century via PayPal.  Take about 20 seconds and send something to LFPL.

If you are more of the paper/stamp/Supporting the US Postal Service type you can help by sending money to:

Library Society of the World Clubhouse, PO Box 7893, Colorado Springs CO 80933. Make the check payable to Steve Lawson.

If you’d rather donate to the LFPL Library Foundation directly instead of using Steve as a middle man, please do:

The Library Foundation
Attn: Flood
301 York St.
Louisville, KY 40203
(502) 574-1709

Thank you in advance for thinking of the good people of Lousiville.

This story was first broken in my corner of librarysocialnetworktrainingtechnology world by Louisville’s IT manager Greg Schwartz via his twitter and friendfeed updates.  Greg ( A stand up guy and host of the late podcast Uncontrolled Vocabulary) reassured everyone that they were no injuries but the damage was pretty severe.  In the photo essay you will can pictures of Greg watching the removal of the library’s network infrastructure damaged by the sudden flood.

Taping “T is for Training” in the Tower room

Taping "T is for Training" in the Tower room

Originally uploaded by Peter Bromberg

This is a shot of us taping an episode of T is for Training at the Princeton Public Library during Pres4Lib this past Friday.

Presentation for Libraries aka Pres4Lib conference

So, no conference for trainers that you can afford to attend and focused on libraries?

Why create one!

That is the spirit of the Pres4Lib conference happening tomorrow in a couple of hours at the Princeton Public Library and oraganized by a 4 pack of great folks from New Jersey.

If you want to follow the conference live via the intertubes you can look at the live streams listed on the pres4lib streaming page.

I hope you can follow the proceedings and join us in virtual spirit and in person next year.

A Tool for Tough Times: Library Savings Calculator

Many of the best things about the world wide web are things that are given away for the sake of making the world a better place.

Things such as the Library Savings Calculator. Here is the sample of how it works.  Your library’s customers can send you dollars and sense examples of how much value they get from your library.

In these difficult incredibly stressful times for libraries trying to justify their Return On Investment (ROI) to their communities, there is this great and FREE tool for libraries to use to justify their value to their community.

They usually charge for services to libraries receiving over 1 million in funding but it looks like they are giving this tool away!

THANK YOU to Engaged Patrons for providing this service free to all libraries.

Maryland Library Association Conference 2009

In a few hours, I will be presenting two items in a Pecka Kucha format for the Maryland Library Association conference in Ocean City MD.

The presentations are up on slideshare.

If you want to see what I see at the conference, I will be tweeting about it at http://twitter.com/confbaldgeek

I hope all of my fellow presenters have great presenations tomorrow.

Now off to bed.

Night all.

I know I don’t speak like this….A Japanese to Ebonics phrasebook

The world wide web has moved us closer yet there are some cavernous holes in wisdom out there.

Witness:

Blog post about Off The Hook:  Dictionary of African American Slang. Since the author found the book in England, I wondered if I could find it at Amazon.

Lookie what I found:  Available at Amazon.   Look for only $14.98.  What a bargain.

Wonderful.  Just Wonderful.

What can I say.  Seems as if I have talked the wrong way all of my 42 years here.

Read. Think. React. Share. The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians

This morning a small working group of forward thinking librarians, came up with a statement about the future of the Library and librarians.  Since that moment it has torn up the librarian blogosphere/twitterverse/friendfeed/delicious world.

With good reason.

It is eloquent, brilliant timely and succinct. A grand slam.  Bravo. It is also CC licensed so feel free to share.

The Darien Statements on the Library and Librarians

Written and endorsed by John Blyberg, Kathryn Greenhill, and Cindi Trainor

The Purpose of the Library

The purpose of the Library is to preserve the integrity of civilization.

The Library has a moral obligation to adhere to its purpose despite social, economic, environmental, or political influences.  The purpose of the Library will never change.

The Library is infinite in its capacity to contain, connect and disseminate knowledge; librarians are human and ephemeral, therefore we must work together to ensure the Library’s permanence.

Individual libraries serve the mission of their parent institution or governing body, but the purpose of the Library overrides that mission when the two come into conflict.

Why we do things will not change, but how we do them will.

A clear understanding of the Library’s purpose, its role, and the role of librarians is essential to the preservation of the Library.

The Role of the Library

The Library:

•    Provides the opportunity for personal enlightenment.
•    Encourages the love of learning.
•    Empowers people to fulfill their civic duty.
•    Facilitates human connections.
•    Preserves and provides materials.
•    Expands capacity for creative expression.
•    Inspires and perpetuates hope.

The Role of Librarians

Librarians:

•    Are stewards of the Library.
•    Connect people with accurate information.
•    Assist people in the creation of their human and information networks.
•    Select, organize and facilitate creation of content.
•    Protect access to content and preserve freedom of information and expression.
•    Anticipate, identify and meet the needs of the Library’s community.

The Preservation of the Library

Our methods need to rapidly change to address the profound impact of information technology on the nature of human connection and the transmission and consumption of knowledge.
If the Library is to fulfill its purpose in the future, librarians must commit to a culture of continuous operational change, accept risk and uncertainty as key properties of the profession, and uphold service to the user as our most valuable directive.

As librarians, we must:

•    Promote openness, kindness, and transparency among libraries and users.
•    Eliminate barriers to cooperation between the Library and any person, institution, or entity within or outside the Library.
•    Choose wisely what to stop doing.
•    Preserve and foster the connections between users and the Library.
•    Harness distributed expertise to serve the needs of the local and global community.
•    Help individuals to learn and to use new tools to create a more robust path to knowledge.
•    Engage in activism on behalf of the Library if its integrity is externally threatened.
•    Endorse procedures only if they guide librarians or users to excellence.
•    Identify and implement the most humane and efficient methods, tools, standards and practices.
•    Adopt technology that keeps data open and free, abandon technology that does not.
•    Be willing and have the expertise to make frequent radical changes.
•    Hire the best people and let them do their job; remove staff who cannot or will not.
•    Trust each other and trust the users.

We have faith that the citizens of our communities will continue to fulfill their civic responsibility by preserving the Library.

CIL2009 Fill Post Previewette

Yes, there will be more blog posts about CIL 2009.

About the incredibly rich formal learning.

About the truly sublime informal learning and knowledge sharing that happened.  Mostly during the lobbycon/tablecon/carpetcon sessions.

About the renewed strength of my personal “worldwideweb”.

About the increased knowledge that is my conference takeaway.

About meeting friends by saying “Don’t I know you from the Internet?” Then bonding with same.

About bragging about my friends giving fantastic presentations all over the conference. And wishing that I could have cloned myself to be at everyone. Thank goodness for slideshare.  If I know you and you presented, yes I am talking about you!

About being lucky to attend such a great conference. Thanks to MPOW Harford County Public Library.  A rockin’ library even in these tough times.

About being able to produce a LIVE version of the T is for Training Podcast!

If you can’t wait for the full report, just go to my conference twitter feed at http://twitter.com/confbaldgeek to see my 337 or so updates from the conference, which made the tagcloud for the conference. I hear that Internet Librarian is much the same but with many Left Coasters for a different prospective.  I would like to go but may need sponsoring help. <g>.

So look in this space in the next few days for better reports from CIL2K9.

TTFN

baldgeekinmd

Special T is for Training 6:30 pm

Tonight at 6:30 pm we will be doing a special CIL Live edition of T is for Training

If you are here, come on by the conference center over flow room…the theater looking thing between Potomac and the Ballroom.

If not..There is a new live widget. Ask us questions. Comment on the show. Say Hi.

Thanks to Library Thing and Information Today for providing space and a microphone.

Day the First: CIL 2009

The first day and the previous day here at Computers In Libraries has been great. The wireless, while not perfect, is a marked improvement from last year.  The two session presenters were engaging.  The resource sharing and networking were as usual fantastic.

This year I am tweeting the sessions attended and will write fully annotated posts later this week.

To follow me daily here at CIL:  follow @confbaldgeek  on twitter for all of my tweets from the sessions.

In addition, today (Tuesday) we are going to do a live podcast of the show T is for Training

More tomorrow.

Good night from downtown Alexandria.

CIL Here I Come!

I am now able to attend the sublime Computers in Libraries Conference held just outside of DC this coming Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

I will be blogging about the conference, attending many sessions, meeting a bunch of my T is for Training cohorts f2f for the first time, and renewing other friendships admit tons of good presentations.

Subscribe to my blog, if you have not already, and follow me on that new hot service called Twitter.

I have created a special account just for conference posts and insights.

Follow the user confbaldgeek to keep up with my activites at the conference.

See you on the interwebs.

I’m A Shover and Maker. Check it out!

I’m a LSW Shover and Mover and so are you.

This my profile.

Check out the inspirational cast of Shovers and Makers.

They rock my socks off.

Congrats to the 2009 Movers and Shakers

Each year Library Journal publishes a list of those library world staff members recognized for moving the world of libraries forward.

You can see the official gallery here at Library Journal.

A heartfelt congratulations to all of the winners.  You all do the library profession proud by the work that you do every day.

On a personal note, I am honored to claim several of the 2009 M and S’s as web and real life colleagues.  Lori Reed, (a T is for Training regular,)  Sarah Houghton-Jan,  Jenica P. Rogers-Urbanek, Michael Porter and Lauren Pressley are all aces in my book.

Next week, the Library Society of the World’s Shovers and Movers award winners will be revealed.

Bobbi Newman (future M&S winner, IMHO) publishes a blog post linking to all of the resources of the winners. You can find that here at her blog Librarian By Day.

Again my congratulations to all of the winners.

My Tweeps (aka People who follow me on twitter)

Created At Twitter Mosaic http://sxoop.com/twitter/mosaic.pl via

Thanks for the point to by Libraryman

A Temporary? Farewell to a Friend

Greg Schwartz of the Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast has decided to put the show on a priority readjusting hiatus.   He is truly doing the right thing by focusing on his family and hearth.  I think that the title of the last (for now show) A Startlingly Poor Grasp of Basic Economics serves as a tribute to the quality and honesty of discussion often featured on the podcast.  His show was the right open fourm at the right time of national library professional social networking.

While it is a sad day for those of us fellow podcasters,  I suggest that you give a listen to some of the shows.   Just about every week, UnVocab focused on a smorgasbord of topics directly related to libraries, library science, knowledge and information management, censorship via a very freewheeling discussion with from a wide sampling of library professionals.

I will speak for myself when I say that without Uncontrolled Vocabulary, there would be no T is for Training and that would stink.

So, thank you Greg for giving the library community your time and skill.  I wish you luck reshaping your prioroites and taking care of your family.  I raise a freshly made margarita in honor of your choice.

I also hope that those UV shirts don’t become relics and that the show comes back in some form in the near future.

Come back soon, Greg.

Politics Quiz

Seems like I am a “left social libertarian. Left: 6.72, Libertarian: 4.08″

Yep.  I am shocked, shocked I say.

My Political Views
I am a left social libertarian
Left: 6.72, Libertarian: 4.08

Political Spectrum Quiz