What I Learned Today…

Web 2.0 and programming tips from a library technology enthusiast, What I Learned Today… covers blogs, rss, wikis and more as they relate to libraries.

Monthly Archives: June 2006

Are you who you think you are?

June 2nd, 2006

Meredith had a long post a couple of weeks ago that I saved to read when I had time – apparently I’ve been busy. I just finished reading it and I couldn’t help thinking “She’s talking about me”! While I did not (and do not) suffer from fear when participating in public speaking (my fear came when I had to have a conversation with someone new) – everything else was right on the money.

[Meredith] never believed that any of her ideas or insights were worth much. Meredith never felt like she fit anywhere. She had friends, but, because she didn't think she had much to offer, she was uncomfortable among crowds and was scared of meeting new people. As a result, she avoided parties and didn't join any groups in college.

I have been attending Computers in Libraries for 3 of the last 5 years and I was lucky enough to attend Internet Librarian last year. At all of those conferences I kept to myself, talking to the few people who sat next to me in sessions (if they talked first) but never making a connection. I attended one dine around and let everyone around me talk – only jumping in when asked. Then after Internet Librarian 2005 I decide to start What I Learned Today… I thought it would help me keep up with all of the great new tools I was reading about – and like Meredith I figured, what’s the worst that can happen? No one will read what I write (I should mention here that I started off as a Creative Writing Major in college – and a few teachers sort of ruined writing for me – so I switched to Literature – and then added Computer Programming). But people did read – and responded and quoted and linked to me – and then when I went to Computers in Libraries this year I was determined to throw myself out there and see what happened.

I had people coming up to me and asking where they knew my name from – I got to talk to people I had been watching at these conferences for the last 5 years (never approaching them) – and most importantly – I had fun!!! So much fun that I can’t wait for October so I can see everyone again at Internet Librarian – where I will be presenting at my first national conference.

So Meredith, you’re right, you’re not the only one out there with doubts. Thanks for sharing – it’s great to learn that someone so confident in writing has fears not too unlike my own.

Touched a Nerve

June 1st, 2006

Most of you (over 1000 of you) have read my post on the State of our ILS. Well I recently found out that at least one of those people was from Innovative!

2 people from my library were able to attend the recent IUG (Innovative Users Group) conference in Colorado. While at a big event one of them was approached by an innovative staff member. He mentioned that someone had sent him a blog post to read – and he was surprised to find out that it was written by someone who worked at Jenkins – apparently he wasn’t pleasantly surprised though.

What’s my response to that? GOOD! You shouldn’t be happy – in fact I hope that your unhappiness gets some action out of you.

John Blyberg wrote a post yesterday (somewhat unrelated) where he says:

Many of you who follow what I write here know that’s a contentious issue for me, but I’ll keep my hackles down for now and simply remind everyone that this is another reason to demand a few basic rights from our vendors.

I agree and I feel his pain! Most people here know that they don’t want to get me started on the subject of our catalog – I just go on and on and on – and I’m going to keep going on and on and on until someone out there does something about it. So if anyone from Innovative is reading this – pay attention to what your users are saying – and DO SOMETHING!