Librarian by Day

It looks like there is another Library themed meme making the rounds, this one started by Meredith Farkas at Information Wants To Be Free, I spotted over on David’s blog weeks ago but never imagined it would get around to me. Both The Bald Trainer & Beth Tribe tagged me for this one, so I better get on it.

Q1) How or why did I start to get into blogging?

I’d had a personal blog for a while and in fact I’d started this blog at one point then deleted all the posts in July of 2007 to get a fresh start.  I started this blog as more of a record for me, as I said in one of my very first posts, as a record of my adventures in libraryland.

Q2) How did I gain an audience?

I’m not sure.  As I look back over some of my older posts I cringe a little.  Some of what I thought were my best posts got very little attention (hey look! There’s the first time I said “if you build it they will come – or maybe not”, I say this in most of my presentations)  I’d like to think it’s been by providing useful information combined with my wit and charm.

Q3) What advice would you give to new bloggers who want to make a name for themselves in the biblioblogosphere?

Don’t be afraid to let your personality show through.  Think about the blogs you read and why you read them.  Know who your audience is, libraryland is really big, it’s hard to aim for everyone.  It’s ok to have an opinion, and it’s ok to change your mind later about your opinion. Be honest.  Be kind.

Less than two weeks ago I blogged about an exciting new idea – Akoha.  I was enthusiastic about the idea, in fact I love it. I love the idea of doing good and passing it forward, call me optimistic, call me naive, but I think this idea has merit.  So I blogged about it, I was a little surprised when I was contacted, asking for my address so I’d have a pack of cards to hand out at my upcoming conference.  But I was astonished yesterday morning when I arrived at work to discover not a just a set for me, but 20 sets, 19 to hand out!

Initially I stated – “If you’re wondering what this has to do with Libraries or the Social Web, my usual topics, the answer is nothing.” I was wrong. Oddly enough yesterday morning before I even got to work and discovered my cards, came across the Akoha Challenge and sent out a twitter message about it.

So I’m changing my statement – If you’re wondering what this has to do with libraries or the Social Web the answer is everything!  Akoha is all about doing good, libraries are all about doing good.  Hey most of us wouldn’t be working in one if we didn’t really believe in the good they do.  A lot of libraries have now included gaming in their missions – Akoha is a game, even cooler it’s a big game and an online game.  Oh wait, it get’s better, the Akoha Challenge -

After the Akoha community completes 25,000 missions, we will sponsor a Room to Read school in Nepal on behalf of our player community.

If you love the idea too and want to play along leave a comment, email me, talk to me at one of my upcoming conferences, I might just have your deck with me.  ;)

In many of the articles I read about the Social Web, especially Twitter, the author laments that they don’t care that I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch, or what I thought of the latest American Idol. I’ve long felt that these writers are missing the point and this week I came across two sources that articulate this better than I could have.

The first is Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody, he makes the point that with new advances in technology people mistake broadcasting media (1 to many) for communications media (1to 1).  New tools allow people to use broadcasting media for communication.  He gives this example – if you read a blog of someone you don’t know and see that they got wasted last night and today when shopping for clothes you think what’s the point? Who cares? Yet if you went to a food court in a mall and eavesdropped on the same conversation it would be clear that you are the weird one. We’re so used to the old web that we think if we can read it, it’s targeted towards us and with the new Social Web this just don’t hold true anymore.

The second is this article from The New York Time Magazine.

“It’s an aggregate phenomenon,” Marc Davis, a chief scientist at Yahoo and former professor of information science at the University of California at Berkeley, told me. “No message is the single-most-important message. It’s sort of like when you’re sitting with someone and you look over and they smile at you. You’re sitting here reading the paper, and you’re doing your side-by-side thing, and you just sort of let people know you’re aware of them.” Yet it is also why it can be extremely hard to understand the phenomenon until you’ve experienced it. Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.

Both of these illustrated the point that just because you can read it, doesn’t mean it’s intended for you.  If you precieve something as blather, you’re probably not the target audience. This is a new occurrence that has developed with social web tools. The line between what’s public and private becomes blurred.  If you come across the blog of someone you don’t know and start reading it are you violating their privacy?  It’s out there for anyone to read.  What if they only started writing it to keep their family updated, and you’re not the intended audience?

spotted this over on BaldGeeks’ blog and had to play along

or the Librarian’s Apprentice

While browsing my FeedReader this morning I came across this post about Akoha.  Akoha is a game, not on your computer, or your Xbox, but a game with cards.  Cards that people hand to you and you hand to others that allow you to play good deeds forward.  When you get a card, you log on to the site and tell the story of how the card got to you, then you play it forward, passing the card to someone else.  

If you’re wondering what this has to do with Libraries or the Social Web, my usual topics, the answer is nothing.  This is an idea and a philopshy I am incredibly excited about.  The potential it represents is thrilling!  I’ve signed up for the Beta and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll get my cards before MLA, Internet Librairan and ICoLIS!

Learn more

• Akoha: A New Way to Do Good Deeds
• Gaming: welcome to the read world
• TC50: Akoha Makes the World a Better Place
• Akoha on Facebook
• Akoha on Twitter