Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Merry Christmas in November rant

Does anyone else think that stores get into the Christmas thing way too early? Don't get me wrong - I love Christmas.

Opening presents, getting stuffed on food, peace and goodwill to all - what's not to like?

But, seriously, people, get a grip and don't play Christmas music until AFTER Thanksgiving! I kinda feel sorry for Thanksgiving - it's like the red-headed stepchild of holidays. I think we need to demand Thanksgiving Carols and Thanksgiving Trees. And by the time I actually GET to Christmas - I'm glutted with the overabundance of sentimental commercialism, the smell of fake pine, and chirpy little salespeople who get paid squat to push their products on you.

But what do I know? I'm the weirdo that prefers warm sunshine and beaches for Christmas, not messy, icky, dirty snow we like to think is "white."

I'm also probably considered anti-American because I don't I don't like baseball OR apple pie.

Go figure. (I think I need some anti-cynicism medicine this morning.)

Tag, YOU'RE IT!

Cue "pontificating" music - as I settle down in to lecture mode:

Tagging can be a very useful tool... oh, nevermind the pompous language... let's start this little post over again...

I like the idea of patrons "tagging" library materials. For Pete's sake, the ordinary patron has no clue about "controlled vocabulary" or official LOC language so, oftentimes, they put in how they think of searching for an item and it yields zilch results in the catelogue. Now, wouldn't it be nice if Infosoup or other catalogues were enabled such that a patron, when they see an item they want, can "tag" it so next time they're looking for it, they can put the tag word into the search bar and it would yield the item! It'd be pretty helpful for OPAC searching - as patrons aren't always very knowledgeable on how to find things. (I'm still not all that great at advanced keyword searching - much less Sue Jones or John Smith. (Both of whom are my BEST friends... ;0 )

As for tagging being unsettling - on the contrary, the wild uncontrollableness of it is liberating! No restrictions, no goofy Sears headings... none of that "by the book" stuff... how wonderful.

I am now waiting for the rotten tomatoes from the cataloguers....

(Not so) Deep thoughts about Flickr

Flickr or Shutterfly are extremely useful for library events, especially those with a lot of child participation. Kids love getting their pictures taken - and it is a GREAT way to advertise your library and services by showing patrons - young and old alike - having fun at the library. Potential cons? People are pretty leary about having their personal information (including photo) on the Internet for all to see. A possible way to circumvent this is simply posting a picture of patrons involved in library usage without any personal identifiers... such as name, last name, etc.,

Any additional potential issues can be addressed by drafting a sensible "personal photo usage" policy which patrons can read before agreeing to have their picture posted.

Another bonus? You can do a lot of fun stuff with Flickr... can't wait to fiddle with it some more... maybe put a mustache on my stogie picture...

Relaxing in Texas

When my mind is overworked with Project Play, I sometimes need a bit of a change of pace....

My favorite quote of all time

"Eagles may soar but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines." A fabulous quote - especially in the business world. On that inspirational note, I wish you all a great WLA and weekend.

Help me out! Take my survey

Just something I did while playing around with survey monkey. So I couldn't think of a deep question like "what ideas do you have to solve world hunger?" - my brain is on information overload. I blame my RSS feeds. 

I'm curious to see answers to my survey, though: Click Here to take survey

Feedback -pros and cons?

I'm the type of person that actually invites feedback. To me, there's almost nothing negative to be gained from people commenting on your blog. Even the more negative posts will have something useful in there - and people who truly want improvement will often provide insights that I've never considered. 

I'd like to have a feedback "thingy" on a library blog so that patrons can comment on what they read. It's pretty poor customer service if you don't know what your patron needs - and feedback is a good way of finding out what's on their mind. It drives me absolutely NUTS when businesses pay no attention to what their client wants or needs - having more feedback on blogs would be a great way for libraries and companies to improve services. Just my not-so-humble two cents...

One possible con: there still is a fairly large segment of library users that are computer illiterate - so there needs to be ways to reach them too and invite them to be brave and comment on a blog. Any thoughts there? 

Let me know what you all think - I'm still learning as I go... so I could be way off the mark here - but I don't think so. 

Welcome to my blog!

This is my first time doing my own blog - please check in for the latest library "gossip" - good reads, good news, good jokes and insightful, witty and thoughtful commentary on current events.