Everybody Chat

Library Voice has an excellent post, and step-by-step directions, for setting up Pidgin to work with your Meebo Me Widget.

Like Chad at Library Voice says, this is a great combination if your library uses a Meebo Me widget on the library webpage, and also runs a separate software client (or clients) for IM reference. We're not doing IM ref yet, but I wanted to give it a try because while I love Meebo, and I especially love my Meebo Me widget, I have found that I a.) sometimes close the Meebo tab by accident and then forget to log back in, and b.) have a fussy internet connection that sometimes spazzes out and momentarily "interrupts" - which is just enough to disconnect my Meebo tab (and sometimes I have no idea this has happened).

So, I downloaded Pidgin, grabbed the plugin, followed the directions (easy), and voila! - I am now running Meebo through Pidgin, and I don't have to have the Meebo page open at all. Very cool.

The one thing I have noticed is that there is a very slight lag with the widget when you are viewing the blog; in other words, when you first visit Cool Librarian, the widget is likely to say that I am offline. But if I am online and running Pidgin, it WILL change my status to available if you give it about 10 seconds to catch up. When actually chatting with a widget user, I haven't noticed any lag at all.

This is actually the first time I have used Pidgin, and I like it. It operates with many IM platforms, is fully functional, open source, etc, - it's great. But, and this should come as no surprise, I think it's ugly (and, apparently, unskinable). There's a blog post about this, and if you are in the mood for some of the most obnoxious Linux fanboy yapping around, read the comments. I only mention this because, as I read the comments, I wondered if this is why some people think the "library 2.0 cult" members are so awful. Do we sound like this? Gawd, I hope not. In any event, I am completely unapologetic about the fact that I like my apps "pretty." But, I'll live - the Meebo and Pidgin combo gets a big "thumbs up" from me.

The Cart Before the Horse

There's been a lot of animated (heated?) discussion lately about library 2.0, technology, and patron services - mostly due to the recent posts of the Annoyed Librarian. Some of the discussion has deteriorated into flames being tossed about, and a lot of the discussion has been insightful, well-crafted, and thought provoking.

One of my favorite posts comes from Meredith Farkas, where she talks about tech lovers - herself included - putting the cart before the horse in terms of technology in (some) libraries:

I remember when I came to Norwich over two years ago, eager to implement blogs, wikis, etc. And a lot of the initial things I tried to implement failed. Why? Because I put the tool before the need, I didn’t consider the fact that my colleagues may not want to use these tools, and I didn’t really consider the maintenance burden these tools have.

This is a perspective I have wrestled with myself, and I find, and have to admit, that I have done the same thing.

I have been pretty unsuccessful at implementing very much in terms of 2.0 technology at my library (for various reasons, but most notably the fact that I only work part-time, and there's only so much I can do and take on as my sole responsibility), but one thing I did take on was the maintenance of the library's blogs. Our main blog was put together by our former director, and I then created a teen blog, and a teen book review blog. None were even remotely "successful" in terms of patron use.

My goal was simple: to post news, upcoming events, and new book lists for our adult and teen patrons in an easy-to-access place. I was told, point-blank and from the get-go, "No one is going to read the blog - why bother?" And, unfortunately, that assessment was correct. Once I realized that few of our patrons even knew what a blog was, never mind the concept of RSS, I tried to market them via flyers and my ever-popular bookmarks (which fly off the circ desk). Still, no one shows any interest in the blogs, and all have (from what I can tell) fewer than five subscribers - one of them being me.

My excitement in the technology, and my desire to help move my library "to the next level," clearly trumped the patrons' desire - or need, it seems - to read our blogs. Naturally, I have found this frustrating, especially since I still truly believe that if I could somehow effectively inform the patrons of the technology and how convenient it is to use, that I would certainly win over at least a few people. But, I simply am not afforded the time/opportunity to do that.

So, I persevere, partly because I'm stubborn and unwilling to concede "defeat," and partly because I still hope against hope that it will catch on. Although, I do think that if the blog feature were truly incorporated into the web page (ala Joomla, Drupal, Scriblio, WordPress, or even Blogger, for that matter), it would work; patrons do visit our web site, just not the blogs. But again, unless I decide to design a new site during my off-time and out of the goodness of my heart (read FREE), I don't see it happening anytime soon. And maybe that's ok.

Oh, well, I tried. I may have tried "wrong," but I tried.

Random Reference Tool - Zamzar

The other night while at the ref desk, one of my regular YA patrons ran into a little snag; he was meeting with his tutor, and he needed to print out a couple of essays. Problem was, he composed the essays using MS Works (which comes free with most Windows computers), and he couldn't open it on our computers, which run Word. Now, you should be able to convert the file using Word and its conversion setting, but for reasons unknown (security? converter not loaded/accessible?), this didn't work for us (and he didn't have time for me to screw around trying to figure it out).

After a quick search I found, and decided to try, Zamzar, an online file conversion tool. And although there's an "email step" that the service could well do without, the files were converted without too much fuss. Crisis averted.

Zamzar covers a wide variety of file formats, and since it's free and operates online and doesn't interfere with your hardward/software/security config, you might want to keep it in mind for patrons using your public access machines.

More Talk

For those that don't subscribe, there's a new post up over at Library Talk. Check it out, and please join in the conversation.

It's not dead!

A while back I wrote about my trials trying to install Ubuntu on my old, crappy lappy, and I reported that I had killed the machine. So, for the past few months I have been drooling over various and sundry new laptops, knowing full well that I cannot afford chalk, never mind a new laptop, on what I make.

So, last night I pulled out the hulking monster and fired it up. Last time I did this, the display was all eff'd up, I had no drivers, and it just shut down randomly. Last night, stupid thing booted up fine. I still had no drivers, and after screwing with it for A LONG TIME, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong (duh, those check marks don't mean the driver is installed, they mean that THAT driver SHOULD be installed), I used the disk my good buddy sent me (thanks, buddy!), and voila - it's running fine. It still won't load Ubuntu or Freespire, but, whatever, it works.

I still hope to be able to in stall Linux on it at some point, but in the meantime I am going to set it up with Open Source and free software. This is a step I have not yet taken with my desktop (mostly because it's my main machine, and I NEED it to do what I need it to do, and I'm terrified I'll break the damn thing). But, if things go the way I hope, I will probably spend the next rainy day loading Ubuntu or Freespire (Freespire is pretty cool) on the main computer and creating a double-boot configuration. Yeah, wish me luck with that!

Hey, anyone out there have a junky Dell Inspiron 1100 (no laughing! I'm poor!) that has bit the dust? Can I have the RAM out of it?


----------------
Now playing: Duran Duran - Come Undone
via FoxyTunes

Warning: Your librarian may be a freak.

Ahhh, summer. I love summer.

One of the things I love about summer is driving, windows down, sunroof open, music LOUD. And let's not forget the singing. And dancing while driving. Yeah, good times.

So, here I am on my way to work, windows down, music blaring, and traffic crawling (I work on the main route to the local beaches). I am listening to, of all things, the "Back in the Day Cafe" on the hip-hop station (I almost never listen to hip-hop/rap - except when I am driving for some reason), and "I Wanna Sex you Up" (do you even remember that song?) comes on. Now, mind you, this is not even a song I like, but it's hot and sunny and I am in the throes of summer joy, so I'm singing and dancing and grooving - and then I hear it: "Hi, Jessica!!"

I look to my left, and there are two of my favorite little YA people (ages 12 and 10) in the car next to me. Waving. Laughing. And their GRANDMOTHER (a little white-haired Q-Tip of a woman) is driving them. Grandma is laughing. Then I laugh.

I turn down the music and say, "Boy, this doesn't look very librarianish of me!" The girls giggle and tell me that they are on their way to the library, but not my library. "But we love you best!" they yell as Grandma roars off when the light turns green.

I turned my music back up and continued grooving on my way. Made my day, those kids did.

She has some questions for you!

I'm sure you've noticed that I am not the most consistent blogger. Summer is my favorite time of year, so I'm less inclined to spent all of my time in front of the computer. I went on a short vacation to Block Island. It's been hot, so I've been outside a lot. I've been reading like crazy. Lots of playing and lying about. And, oh, that job-hunting thing.

I am playing catch-up with my different blogs, my email, and etc. In the meantime, Meredith has some questions she's like to ask you - go take her survey!

Feed Me

Seems there are all kinds of gadgets and widgets you can use if you'd like to add feed content to your blog or site. I haven't added any feed to my sidebar - yet; I'm trying to decide what type of content to highlight.

A few weeks ago I wrote about Feevy, which I have been using on my library's two teen blogs and our main blog. I think is a great tool for just this sort of set-up, and I thought that perhaps it would be nice if readers of the main (read: adult) blog could see at a glance what was going on in the teen blogs (without me having to constantly cross-post). Of course, no reads any of our blogs, but I do like to keep myself busy. Feevy's a good choice if you want something with a little (pre-determined) style in your sidebar.

Jessamyn re-styled her blog, and gave us the heads up on Feed2JS (Feed to JavaScript) which she is using for her reading list and the latest Ask MeFi questions. Seems simple enough, you can host it on their server, one of several mirror sites, or your own server, and you can style it as you like. And, I just noticed that the code was created by Alan Levine, the guy who created the Multipost Bookmarklet Tool that I just blogged about. Cool.

If you are looking to place some news on your site, but don't feel like cobbling together the sources for yourself, then you might want to take a look at Moreover. I first saw Moreover at this site; it was also the first time I saw a live feed in action on a site. Moreover is a company that offers news solutions for websites, blogs, and publishers (like the NYT), but it also offers some free (ad supported) services for non-profit blogs. With Moreover you can choose the type of news content you want and generate a simple feed. Or, if you want to easily display it on your blog, Moreover works with FeedDirect's Webfeed Wizard. If you are a newsie, you might like this arrangement.

And, for the ADD among us, there's SplashCast. SplashCast positions itself as adding an "online TV channel" to your blog, and it focuses on "media" content (rather than just plain text, I guess). You can use rss feeds from places like Flickr and YouTube, you can create and add your own video/pics/audio - seems like there is plenty you can do with this. I think this service would be well-suited to teen library blogs, and regular library blogs that had lots of audio-visual content to broadcast. Right now, I'm finding the service slow (which could be because it's gaining in popularity), and the site a tad overwhelming; you might have to cruise around quite a bit before you really get a handle on what you can do, and how you can do it. But if you can figure it out, I'll bet you could do some very cool stuff with it.

And, naturally, there are the widgets that come with the major blogging platforms. If you are looking for seamless styling, using one of the widgets designed specifically for your blog tool may be the fastest and easiest way to go.

Sigh

We have a policy at our library that a patron cannot check out a book (or anything else) without their card - no exceptions, ever. No, we will not look up your card. No ,we will not do it just this one time. NO! The circ people adhere to this policy like it's the Holy Grail. Naturally, I have an opinion on this policy, and even suggestions about how it could be handled a tad differently (and perhaps maybe with a smile - but that's just me), but I do not work circ, and my opinion means nada.

OK, so, as you can imagine, patrons are constantly upset about this policy, and many have asked that we use cards that attach to their keys, like the ones you routinely get at the supermarket for your discounts and such. Most places give you three cards - two keychain type, and one credit card type. People want these keychain cards.

Our consortium recently adopted a new name (thank God), and with this new name comes new cards. I asked one of the staff people (SP) tonight if we were getting keychain cards:

Me - "Are we going to get keychain cards in addition to regular cards?"
SP - "No."
Me - "Because I have had several patrons ask for those...."
SP - "No. Those are gross. I don't want to handle people's keys."
Me - "Well, yeah, but, patrons seem to really want them."
SP - "We're not getting them."

Allllllriiighty then. Business as usual.

First, let me state that I am a germ-o-phobe of the highest order, and the "yuck" factor is not lost on me. But, um, folks, we handle books all day. Books that have had God-knows-what done with/to them. Books that have been in the hands of many many many people, in the course of one day alone. So, uh, the yuck factor is a non-argument, as far as I'm concerned.

What drives me crazy is that this kind of thinking is standard operating procedure around here. What the patrons want is rarely given much weight - it's always what's easiest for staff - and worse yet - what is easiest for one or two particular staff members. I did not hear that anyone had any input into this decision to not get kaychain cards. I can bet that none of the professional staff had any input. And in fact, I can bet that this decision was made by one person (maybe two). I'll eat crow if I'm wrong on this, but I bet I'm not.

Stuff like this drives me crazy.

SHHHHHHHH....

I just got shushed! By a patron! While I was helping someone at the public access computers! She actually went, "ssshhhhhhh...." She was supremely annoyed that I was helping the person sitting next to her. I think I glared at her.

Oral History, Anyone?

You have got to check out Voice Thread! Talk about a great way to create an oral history, a travel log, a family-oriented audioblog -- you name it. I'm just sitting here thinking about how teachers and librarians could use this with teens as a way to connect them with their family history, and talk about a nifty tool for some intergenerational programming. I also think this could be a good tool for those who would like to try an alternative to traditional screen casting.

Be sure to check out What is Voice Thread, anyway?, and the basic tutorial, here.

Here are some threads you might find interesting:

Classroom 2.0
My Facebook Experimentation
wikipedia
Vassar Island in Second Life
Online Teaching and Learning

OK, I MUST stop now (why do I think I'm going to blow a good chunk of the day playing with this?). Have fun!

Cool

The NYT article on "hipster" librarians certainly has lots of people talking. Some enjoyed the article, and others, not so much.

I read the article and thought it was typical; I agreed with some of it, and found some of it vaguely annoying. I wondered why, when you Google "cool" "+librarian" and my blog comes up at the top of the list, no one ever interviews me about what it means to be a cool librarian.

Seriously, though, the article did get me thinking about the fact that I have "branded" - for lack of a better word - myself as the Cool Librarian, and I wonder if people think I'm a jerk - or worse yet - "pathetic" - for doing so.

So, for those of you who have wondered about that, the explanation is quite simple - and sadly, rather boring: it's the handle I chose for myself when I became an obsessed geocacher (arguably one of the most "uncool" hobbies around). I was in the middle of grad school at the time (2003), and I was just dying to start my career as a librarian, and to be known as a librarian. And a cool one, at that.

I decided to become a librarian after working as the director of a non-profit adult literacy program, and my office just happened to be housed at a local library. And here's the "funny" part - the librarians at this particular library were all substantially older than me, couldn't clear a paper jam to save themselves ("Jessica, the printer thing is broken again!"), and had cardigans in every color - and I thought they were the coolest people around.

"Miss Mary," the children's librarian, would go home after work each night to a single cigarette and a glass of wine in her hot tub. "Linda" loved to dish the dirt on everyone, but was genuinely sweet to our several severely mentally-ill and often patience-trying patrons. "Charlotte," who didn't have an MLS but had worked in the library for years, could (and would) catalog my ass if asked to. And at 83, "Mildred" was nearly stone deaf, but came in to work with a smile on her face each and every day. These women weren't hip, wouldn't know tech if it bit them on the head, and were the reason I called URI and said, "I'd like some information on your MLIS program, please." Damn cool, all of them.

Yes I have tattoos. Yes I have a nose ring. Yes I'm a bit of a techie. And yes, I think that those things give me an aura of coolness - to some people. But I was all that (and a bag of chips) long before I became a librarian.

I feel like a COOL LIBRARIAN when a patron pays me a compliment on my job performance (or, hell, my shirt); when I track down that elusive bit of info; when I make a teen laugh - and not just at me; when I say, "YES! I think I can do that for you" when I'm not really sure that I know what "that" might entail; and when I speak my mind, no matter how unpopular my position, because I want my library to rock.

That's my story - and I'm sticking to it.

Tech Competencies and the Growing Divide

WARNING! This post will not have any answers, just simply bring up more questions. I'm good like that.

As I am continually bitching about the frightening lack of tech skills not only in my own library, but in the entire state, I read with great interest the "Minimum Competencies" list posted at Library Revolution, and the "Basic Competencies of a 2.0 Librarian" over at David Lee King. I am relieved to say that I only missed one competency on each list - I wasn't sure of "obtain an IP address" as that could mean a couple different things (and even then I still wasn't sure I could do it unprompted, so I looked it up, practiced, and now it's in my skill box), and on David's list, I am completely void of "basic console gaming skills."

The first thing that struck me about the lists is how different they are in terms of skill-level. Yes, I get that David's list is geared towards "2.0 librarians" and Emily's list is more of a general basic computer skills list, but, still. Actually, I think that the fact that they are so different is very telling; obviously, as a profession, we have people who don't have even the most basic of computers skills (while I think our professional staff has mastered Emily's list, I doubt that many of our support staff has), and we have people who have been online for years.

If we want to meet in the middle, and perhaps be even broader than either of the above lists, we have the 20 Technology Skills Every Librarian Should Have (plus Jenny's additions) list that Jenny Levine posted nearly two years ago. I think this list still holds up well, is librarian-specific, covers a broad range of skills, and is reasonable.

But, no matter what list you like, or create for your own staff (because as we all know, different libraries have different needs), the big question is, "How do we get non-tech staff to understand - and care - that these skills are needed in order to perform our jobs well?" Unfortunately, I don't have an answer for this - but I think it is the most frustrating aspect of the job for anyone with tech skills who works in an essentially non-tech library.

Is mandatory professional development/re-certification the answer? I don't know how it works in other states, but here you get your MLS/MLIS, and, um, that's it. There's no recertification process, and, in many cases, some libraries don't push prof development due to a lack of funds (I was unable to attend ALA this year because the library couldn't afford to send me, and on my $225 a week pay, I couldn't afford to send myself). And some libraries don't push development because of the sheer unwillingness of some staff members to learn anything that they think is "useless," "unnecessary," or simply "beyond them." So, what we end up with is professional librarians who got their degrees not only before "web 2.0" and "library 2.0," but before computers were commonplace, who haven't either wanted to, or had had the opportunity to "keep up."

Yes, I am purposely painting with broad strokes here, but this is exactly where things get sticky - if not downright hostile. I don't believe I am exaggerating when I say that there is now an entire legion of "traditional" librarians who are odds with the "new breed" librarians, and vice-versa. Non-tech librarians don't want to hear us tech librarians go on and on about things they have no interest in - and worse yet, things they feel are irrelevant to their jobs as librarians - and we tech librarians get unbelievably frustrated when our libraries ban things like MySpace (like my library does, and let me tell you, I get sick to death of policing the terminals because any kid who wants to get on MySpace knows exactly how to jump our filters), and are told that we need to keep our mouths shut because we haven't yet earned our chops.

Personally, I think there's a serious lack of communication between the two "sides." Though I have never, ever, heard (or read) any of my techie librarian friends say the traditional library arts (print reference, reader's advisory, subject headings, etc) are "useless" or "unnecessary," I've heard (and read) several non-tech librarians say they we don't value these things; I think that's an incorrect assumption. However, I think as tech librarians, we do need to be careful with our tone, and realistic with our expectations. If a person has had little experience with computers or the internet, it is safe to assume that it will take a while for that person to get up to speed. What comes easily to us after years of noodling around online may take a whole lot longer for a tech newbie to master - and we techies need to keep that in mind.

Which brings me to my last point/observation: this divide is not a "top-down" problem in most cases, and I believe that that reality only adds to the hostility/frustration cycle we currently have going on. What we have is new (and this often translates into "young") librarians coming into jobs with (oftentimes) a more well-rounded skill set than some of the veterans. It's rarely a good thing when a boss or superior discovers that their subordinate is better-equipped for the current demands of their jobs. It stinks to feel like the new kid on the block could displace you, and it also stinks to feel like people dislike you because you "know too much."

So what's the answer? Hell, I don't know. Personally, I think we need better communication between the two camps, we need to push professional development (of all kinds) if not outright recertification, we need to rid ourselves (all of us) of the chips on our shoulders, we need to understand that we can learn from each other, and we need patience.

Because the bottom line is this: today's patrons want and need services of a traditional, and a technological, nature. And the sooner that everyone gets on board with both aspects of the job, the better it will be for our patrons, our libraries, and our careers.

Bookmarking Part II

Wow, according to comments and email, there are many more "folders" fans than I would have guessed! So, I spent a little time going through the lists I created, and looking at some new sites, to see if there was anything out there that wasn't simply a re-hash of something else already out there (which is how it goes in 2.0 land).

So, for you folders folks, I highly recommend Netvouz. Netvouz lets you create folders, people! It also tags, has a decent social set-up, and clean interface that is similar but a touch nicer to look at than delicious (if you care). You can import your bookmarks from any service that lets you export them to a file, which is nice. One word of caution: if you are exporting from a service that does NOT have folders, you will either have to create and move links into folders after you import them (a pain if you have a lot of links), OR you can create the folders first, them import your links in groups (easier in my opinion). In any event, you'll have to noodle around with the service a bit to get the hang of creating folders and such, but if its folders you want, folders it's got. Runner-up: Backflip. Yep, Backflip is still around. Kinda old school in the looks department, makes you jump through a few hoops at sign-up, does NOT support tagging (really), and the social aspect is clunky at best - but if you just want to store your "favorites" in folders, on the web, you might want to check it out.

I checked out a couple of other bookmarking apps, but didn't see anything too new or exciting - though I will add Raw Sugar to the list on the Social Software page, because I forgot to include it the first time around, and it is a pretty popular tool. Yahoo has jumped on the bandwagon with its MyWeb - nothing new here (yet - it's still in BETA), but a good addition for those who use Yahoo as their online base of operations.

I also checked out Tumblr after reading Kaijsa's comment. Tumblr is actually closer to Linkwalla than it is to the other social links sites, as it creates a links "blog" rather than just a list. Tumblr's floral icon is reminiscent of Magnolia (hmmmm), and it's easy to use. Probably not for everyone, but like Linkwalla, I think the concept is interesting.

Lastly, Linkwalla's creator, Ben Brophy, turned me on to a nifty little tool that allows you to post to several services with a single click - nice. I'm not sure that the service is actively supported at this point, but if your bookmark sites are on the list, it's a great tool to have in the box.

Bookmarking

Even though the whole world uses delicious, and even though I posted a list of some of the popular bookmarking sites out there some time ago (on the Social Software page), I have remained faithful to my beloved Spurl. And now, sadly, Spurl has been "abandoned," and I must find some sort of replacement(s). Sniff.

I know that many of you have probably never heard of Spurl, so great is the hold of delicious on most long-time techies. I discovered both at the same time, and chose Spurl because of one important thing - it did EVERYTHING I wanted it to. It organized my stuff into a FOLDER TREE dammit, and I don't care how lame that makes me, I LIKE my folders. Spurl ALSO tagged, searched, shared, had a cool "Spurl bar," and it allowed me to post directly and simultaneously to delicious - it was my favorite tool.

Spurl has been abandoned for a while now, and it's only a matter of time before it's just not there anymore. So, I have been trying to find a replacement - and let me tell you, it hasn't been easy. Most of the social bookmark sites do not have a folder tree, or any other way to arrange things in a more visual or hierarchical manner. Most simple bookmarking sites do not have a good social aspect to them. I have, naturally, tried to rely solely on delicious, but, sorry folks, I just simply do not like it. It's ugly. I can never find anything I want fast enough. It's ugly. The social part rocks, but....

Now, Magnolia - there's a visually-pleasing site. Perhaps it's because I am female, perhaps it is because I was raised by artists, but this is important to me. Naturally, it doesn't have the folders I'd like, nor does it have delicious' social reach, but it does have a nice "group" feature, and I do think it's poised to be one of the top social bookmark sites behind delicious. But right now, delicious is still the best, in social terms. What to do?

Enter Linkwalla, a nify little AJAX app created by a librarian, of all people! Using this will allow me to easily, and seamlessly, save my links to Linkwalla (for easy blog-listing, if I so desired), delicious, AND Magnolia. All at once. Yay. Linkwalla's "mini-blog for links" positioning is interesting in itself - check it out.

Well, that worked nicely.

Because I have been happy with Firefox, I have not checked out (extensively) many of the other browsers that are out there. The other day, however, I finally removed IE 6 from my computer - completely forgetting that this is the browser my mom uses when she comes over to play on the computer. Firefox, with the zillion tabs that I have set to open automatically, proved to be a little "much" for her (and she kept closing out all my tabs by accident), so I looked around for an alternative (since I simply refuse to load IE 7 on my machine).

I decided to try FlashPeak's Slim Browser, and it's proven to be a perfect browser for Mom, and my computer. It's light, has tabs (if you want them), skins, pop-up killer, search, etc., etc. Did I mention that it's light? It's not a resource hog, and I think it would make a great alternative browser on library machines that are getting old or are simply a little light on RAM. I love Firefox, but it's a killer on old or slow machines. You may also be able to get Slim Browser on Gates library computers - and, according to my IT person, it's a bitch, if not impossible, to get Firefox to run on a Gates machine (go figure) (and, funny, but IE7 is also not fully functional on our Gates computers).

It's a Windows app, so I'll be bummed to lose it when I finally jump to Linux on the desktop. But for now, it's doing a great job for Mom.

Let's give it up for Maine!

Maine has become the first state to pass legislation on net neutrality. And people are pretty happy about it:

“Maine is the first state in the nation to stand up for its citizens’ rights to a nondiscriminatory internet,” said Senator Ethan Strimling, the original sponsor of LD 1675. “The rest of the nation should follow suit and study what can be done to protect net neutrality.”

Shenna Bellows, Executive Director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union said, “Maine is once again leading the way in protecting the rights of its citizens. This resolution will help re-establish the internet as the free and open arena of democracy it was always intended to be.”

Tony Vigue of the Community Television Association of Maine said, “This important legislation puts Maine first in affirming that Internet providers should not be allowed to discriminate by speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.”

For more info on net neutrality and to grab a badge for your blog/site, visit Save the Internet.

I really could have used this!

Still in school? Research librarian? Writer? Teaching bibliographic instruction? Then you may want to check out Zotero, a nifty download that works with Firefox (and Netscape Navigator 9 and some versions of Flock) to keep track of your research sources. Zotero captures citation information, allows tagging, saves searches, exports formatted citations, saves and searches, allows note taking, and more. It's free and open-source, so expect changes, additions, and updates along the way.

I remember giving myself a crash-course in EndNote for a huge bio-bibliography I did on Kate Chopin - I think this project would have been easier with a tool like Zotero. Very cool.

I Made You a Sign

Last week, I had my very first library wanker - always a special time in a girl's life. Now, after reading some blog posts on this very topic, it seems customary to either call the police, or call security (if you have it). But what do you do when the offending patron is a kid?

As for me, I ran to the back room to poke out my mind's eye. After I stopped chanting, "Ewwww! Ewww! Ewww!," I went out to say something to him (something like, "You're going to go blind!" I guess), and, thankfully, he was gone.

I warned my co-workers, and now we just make it VERY obvious that we are keeping tabs on him - that seems to be doing the trick.

Do you have a wanker? Please feel free to post this sign.

Thanks, but no.

Well, the latest job I interviewed for was yet another no-go. Sigh.

I don't think I mentioned it here (or maybe I did) - it was for a YA and Reference position at one of the small local libraries. Close to home, full-time, decent pay, nice facility. I'm not sure what happened here, but I was not overly optimistic; the interview was short, and I didn't feel like I "connected," though I tried. Interviewing has never been a problem for me, but there wasn't any spark in this one. Guess I wasn't the fit they were looking for.

But, let me tell you, if I hear through the grapevine that they "regret" the decision they made, I'm going to scream. Why do I say that? Because as of last week, I have been told on THREE separate occasions that a library that has passed me over either "regrets" their hire, or in one case, "wishes they had hired me." No joke. And while I appreciate the sentiment, it doesn't really do me any good. And in the case of the academic position I wanted so badly and feel that I would have been a GREAT fit for, that news is nearly heart-breaking.

Sigh.