Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Holidays!

Best e-wishes to all my i-friends.

Meilleurs Voeux


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Thursday, December 11, 2008

do you think people get it?

Stephen said to post it and I would not argue with Stephen (not on this anyways ;)





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Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Holiday Joy.

Hey, I have been sick and not at all inclined to get into the Christmas spirit.
I don't know what it is this year...
But it's hard not to when you work with Santa.




Ron, PC tech and all around miracle worker.



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Tuesday, November 18, 2008

This is broken

I am very disappointed that I must shutdown our "pay your fines w/paypal" feature in our OPAC. I was so proud to have gotten it working.
Alas, there seems to be a field size issue which makes the instant crediting of user accounts unreliable when paying multiple fines at once.

This must not affect many libraries and is either very complex to address or very low priority, and all the workarounds in the world cannot make me make sense of making my users pay all their $0.50 overdue fines one at a time nor would it be wise for us to pay the paypal transaction fee on each of these.

So I had to eliminate the service today.
It makes me very sad and it makes my glass half empty.





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Monday, November 17, 2008

ground breaking news

I was so incredibly pleased to read this. really makes my monday.

my webmaster has been getting his feet wet with drupal, and I have been encouraging him to get involved at drupalforlib
and I really really hope he does so we can explore a move towards SOPAC

more to come (fingers crossed)

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Thursday, November 13, 2008

blogging in my slippers


blogging in my slippers
Originally uploaded by rambleonsylvie

well, this one is good to

meme anyone?

Friday, November 07, 2008

A message 4 Obama


message4obama
Originally uploaded by rambleonsylvie

I'm pretty happy with this one.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

Zappos again

you know I love them, but
free audiobook with my shoes, be still my heart,
this library geek is sooooo smitten!

from an email they have permission to send me:
------------------------------------------------------------------
TRIBAL LEADERSHIP: COMPLIMENTARY DOWNLOAD
------------------------------------------------------------------
Courtesy of Zappos, download the Tribal Leadership audio book
featuring Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos.com, having a conversation
with Dave Logan, co-author of Tribal Leadership.

http://www.zappos.com/n/z/ref/81103l/kw/triballeadership.html




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Friday, October 31, 2008

my little push

since it's very hard to speak of PLAY at MPOW and since we are not quite ready for transparancy... (our staff blog is private, we don't twitter for work, use event pictures online etc) I have started a little tradition called friday fifteen, where I point the staff (using an email message)towards a fun 2.0 typey thing.
I try never to have it be about their day to day work but always to have it relate to something we could be doing, and I try to always have it be a fun thing.

here is an example

Subject: [Dept_lib] friday fifteen (halloween edition)

watch this

Note a few things (since the video is less than 3 minutes):

-Jessamyn West is cool.
There is no questioning that, Google her and find out.
-Banking is a hot topic.
Jessamyn wonders at the number of hits that a banking tag got her little you tube video.
What do you think about tags?
-Richard Brautigan is a funny writer, too bad none of his stuff is checked out...


-You meet the weirdest people while waiting in (or waiting on) a line.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

sylvie
"Our job is not to convince people they need libraries. It is to convince libraries they need people."
-Nancy Dowd, The M Word Blog.

and

Subject: [Dept_lib] friday fifteen
Ok,
-read this in 1 minute,
-look it up for 4 minutes,
-then really think about it for 10 more minutes…

It’s not like we don’t have the potential to exploit this idea around here!

(cut from the Librarian In Black Blog, reporting on a Future of Libraries Conference session)

“Innovations in Reaching Older Adults” by Richard Bray, Alameda County Library
He covered the popularity of wii gaming with seniors. The Pleasanton Library has a video online showing seniors playing the wii at the library. Gaming for seniors has really taken off in the last year, particularly at the senior centers or VA facilities. Games that offer physical or mental exercise are very popular. Libraries can and should take the lead as community brain fitness centers. This will help us attract boomers. He did caution against the hype of many brain fitness products. The Alameda County Library expanded its support for services for older adults. Each branch has a services for older adults coordinator. They have a committee that meets and creates programs and staff training. The classes for the public are all first given to branch staff. They average 45 people per senior-geared program. The library coordinates all of its senior work with the local senior centers. He also recommends doing a library training for each speaker or present at the library. They learn, give a better presentation, and then continue to promote the library's services in the future. His library developed a key program for seniors: Aging and Spirituality.


sylvie
"The market is astonishingly quick at responding to what consumers do (and incredibly slow at reacting to what we say)." -Seth Godin




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Thursday, October 30, 2008

call for help; or we want macs

I need assistance regarding support for mac deployment in public library.

As part of a branch expansion, we are planning a room dedicated to "multi-generational interactive technology"
What we envision there are a few "pods" of multimedia creation. We want to set up a podcast/music creating editing station, a movie making/editing station and a game creating/playing station.
What better tools to put there than macs? Remember we have a number of PCs available and will continue to offer those...

Now in the past, we have had help adding services thru private donors, dedicated organizations and either special prizes or funds made available thru grants. I'm afraid money is not my 1st line of expertise and I would much appreciate if anyone can help point me in the direction of potential sources or help.

1-I am waiting to hear back from the local mac user group here in the area.
2-I have looked into apple discount program but it only seem to apply to k12/higher ed institutions.
3-I already read on an apple support list that I should talk to the good folks at St-Joseph ;) which I will.
I am also thinking of contacting some local music studios to see if they would want to partner at least on the audio effort.

Does anyone out there know of any other potential contacts I should make?




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Wednesday, October 22, 2008

geek2.0 in a management1.0 organization

since this is my personal blog, I have the luxury to express many ideas that MPOW doesn't necessarily endorse. since this is my personal blog I also run the risk of getting myself in some trouble if i expose MPOW too much, or if I shine an unflattering light on it. I have done it before, I will do it again, and I don't really need high tech tools like a blog to get there, if you know me you know that.

the upcoming series is probably going to set new records in risk, exposure and all around trouble making but also, a new twist, of outreach, compromise and all around goodwill on my part.

for the last few years I have attentively listened to pioneers, champions and leaders in all things library 2.0 and done my best to both emulate them, and spread the innovation gospel all around, all the time, to all who would listen and many who didn't want to.

It has improved my work, my workplace and hopefully the services we deliver to the community. But it has been INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING as well.
It is frustrating mostly because many many people mean to help but don't, want to support it but won't, say they will get out of your way but don't. It is frustrating because management still tend to think of technology as a separate department instead of an intricate part of every departments, therefore, often sees technology innovation efforts as expandable. The first thing we stop, to save time/money/stress etc. It was very disruptive anyways, right?

I see other organizations thrive, innovate, expand their horizon and deliver extraordinary value to their customers. I think: "Man, they are so lucky that everyone is on board!"

...then I realized, there is an AL in every workplace.

...then I saw this great article in HBR on "the new volunteers" referring to content contributors.

...then I read that Helene Blower said at IL2008: "...know what is important to your management and administration and cater to that..."

so I decided to attempt to design 2.0 ventures from the point of view of our local management. cater to what I know is important to them...

right now, the easy one will be presenting cost saving projects.
that is the first obvious place where geek2.0 and management1.0 meet.

that will also be where I may be able to get open content creation added and given the same value as all the rest of the volunteer hours!

there is a lot of stuff to reconcile here, there is an incredibly wide gap to fill on topics like transparency and play... but I will do my best to approach all this from a new angle and discover new grounds to cover at the same time.

Please do not misunderstand me, I love my director1.0. I have a lot of respect for her. she is dedicated to this library's success, loves the staff and the community and is a very open minded person. But she is also a very "proven-traditional-management-style-and-traditional-library-services-equals-guaranteed-success" kind of woman. She is incredibly uncomfortable with the concept of PLAY. I think she mostly sees transparency as unreasonable sharing of the burden she has agreed to be responsible for. She feels responsible for all of us professionally. She is very good at what she does, and in these times of budget cuts and layoff talks, she obviously strive to deliver high quality services and keep staff focused on service delivery and customer care. I know she is just like much of the management in libraries today. Time to stop trying to make her something she is not and instead, start to bridge that gap between what she sees as success, and what I see as success.

So I'll take potential innovations one at a time, I'll lay out what the real life obstacles to it are (that be the risky part), and then I'll attempt to design new angles and approaches to implement them.

It should be fun, wish me luck.


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Friday, October 10, 2008

Neil Gaiman Video Tour

via BoingBoing...

It's true, Neil Gaiman is not only a talented writer, but also a spectacular READER.
He posts videorecordings of chapter readings of "The Graveyard Book", all readings are from his book tour.

Now, how wonderful a journey, from the author's mind to the page, to the reader's eyes and mind... back to the author's lips to the reader's ears, and eyes again and on and on, via the web.



I am also putting an 856 in the marc record of our OPAC and will be praying for serendipity... (but why not also, add a special Halloween feature of the title on our library's website...)


...even Techdirt picked it up!

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Wednesday, September 24, 2008

of tags, tag clouds and OPACS

Tags in your library catalog.
Many have asked: "would users do it?", "why would users do it?"
(and always: "wouldn't that be the end of the world?")

Darien shows great ways to kick start it:
Darien Sopac Tags

they are showing them off, creating a buzz, making it fun...
I have no doubt people will find why, how and when to tag library records in their opac


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Monday, September 22, 2008

text bytes

reading around last week, I loved:

"..if you enforce the intended purpose of something, it greatly reduces its use."
the effing librarian

______________________

"If you have the same problem over and over, maybe it's not a problem, maybe it's a fact."
Clay Shirky

quoted in a Blyberg twitter
_______________________

“don’t toss up a bunch of bibliographic citations when a decent URL will do. You’re online, act like you’re online.”
Jessamyn West

quoted at maisonbisson
____________________

"Sports is to war as pornography is to sex."
Jonathan Haidt

TED blog

________________________________

"...it takes 100 crazy ideas to find 10 worth funding experimentally in order to identify 1 project worth pursuing..."
Eric Schnell
probably, likely, I think quoted at TameTheWeb



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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Google Sketchup

Hey Hey Hey, thanks to Paul for pointing it out, no more core board for me:






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Friday, September 12, 2008

PayPal bust

file under "this is broken":

I set up a PayPal account for my library to directly collect fees and fines from the OPAC...
I create the account with PayPal, have it email me (and a few back ups) about deposits etc. The PayPal account is linked it to my employer's bank account.
Beside the fact that I was puzzled by the absence of a way to automatically transfer the $ from the PayPal account into the associated bank account, I now find out that all PayPal accounts have a $500/month WITHDRAWAL limit (yes that is what they consider that kind of transfer to be.) That limit can only be lifted by giving PayPal either a SSN or a CC#. Of course, MPOW doesn't allow me to use my SSN or CC for that purpose, and I now find out that PayPal cannot accept an Employer Identification Number in lieu of a SSN. Isn't that the SSN for businesses?
Anyway, I get the really stiff "nothing we can do" on the phone, "these are the 2 options for lifting limits", "can't you get a debit card from the bank?" la, la, la... There is only 1 level of supervisor you can talk to...

I really hope that bureaucracy does not force me to terminate this service before it even takes flight...

so bummed (did I already say that?) and now grumpy...
I miss Zappos!



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,

tinkering

I love to tinker, we are expanding a library to add a youth services wing, and there we plan a lot of really really cool things. one of these is a wifi cafe where we want to offer power (A/C) right in the booths. We debated how to best have powe outlet in an eating drinking surface. I tried to draw up my ides but I am not that good at it. I turned to coreboard and made this:
wi-fi cafe table
note the funny photocopy of an outlet glued to the surface made from this phototaken with my cellphone, emailed to flickr so it could be printed pronto.
I had fun. Hope the booths turn out good. Furniture folks will probably laugh at me but hopefully they get the idea and come up with a real no crumbs no coffee solution.
note the "wave" line exists in many forms in the building and other furniture.




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Tuesday, September 09, 2008

of learning

I LOVE TED Talks
"...be very careful of what you put in people's heads..." so true...


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Wednesday, September 03, 2008

my little brag

we finally have Paypal access thru the OPAC. it credits the user's account in Unicorn in real time. it wasn't hard, SD offers the option. really, getting the accounting side of it organized was the hardest part...
i know it's not much compared to what Gwinnett and Darien just did but hey, here's to a nice thing done. i shall buy myself a drink tonight.

update 9/5/08:
well, I never got to get myself that drink. It took a few days for the 1st user to discover/try and it seems like the PayPal IPN (instant payment notification) is VERY slow at times. All my testing was done in the early morning hours and I could see credit applied to my library account in Unicorn immediately. The 1st true payment took a whole hour to post. subsequent tests (mid-day, and afternoon) were just as disapointing... Then again this morning at 7, immediate credit appears. I hope this is not what SD and PayPal call "minimal delay"...
more to come




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Tuesday, September 02, 2008

The Darien Library Model

Blyberg Rocks! See for yourself

Darien Library Director Louise Berry:
...John Blyberg, Darien Library’s Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, has created our website and the connection to our online catalog using open source software, and at his initiative, we are making it freely available to all libraries, as a contribution to strengthening the role of all libraries in their communities.

Michael puts it best :
“This, friends, is huge - or it has the potential to be huge. The next step is for libraries - many libraries of all types and sizes — to explore this option, to try it out, to make it so…”



also read LJ article

update:
credit also must go to the team that designed this website. the way it's organized, the simplicity and the meat behind it is spectacular.
I just registered and played aroud a little.
Man, it is truly a great usability design.

update 2 the update (He DID do it all!):
Thanks Alan for the clarification. I have been a long time fan of John, and this only goes to confirm and further my admiration. You guys are lucky to have him on your team, we are all lucky to have him in our field.

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Thursday, August 28, 2008

brain dump

before all these thoughts fall out of my head:

-EXTRAORDINARY web page redesign at Gwinnett County, why isn't everyone talking about it.

-stupid hurricane season gives my twitches, and they are now available via RSS
not sure I want Hanna in my Bloglines...

-I MISS TRAINING! I gave 1 session yesterday and it reminded me of how much smarter and better adjusted teaching makes me feel. It's incredible what I learn from the people who actually use the software/talk to the customers everyday. Not to mention that when you teach it on a regular basis, the language gets in your head and you keep the good lines at the tip of your tongue all the time. I really do miss it.

-FURNITURE MATTERS. I mean, it's not as important as people, or as information, or as cake, but really, if you are going to get some new one, you should put some thought into it. this is so cool...

-what defines an expat? Is it where you chose to live, is it the home that you miss, does it matter if you could return or not? most of all, can I find an expat bar near by? ;)


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Monday, August 25, 2008

Hi-Fi, Sci-Fi....

couldn't miss out on this... Note joyful appearance of Michelle w/son Gideon




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Thursday, August 07, 2008

favorite vacation shot


favorite vacation shot
Originally uploaded by rambleonsylvie


this is one of my best vacation moments.

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

postcard

could not be having a better time,

carte postale


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Friday, July 18, 2008

unplugging

I am now officially on vacation. I will be offline except for my flickr compulsion and all I'll be posting will be happy pictures of sunny, yummy, loving and funny moments. like this one from 2006:
what I'm looking forward to:
...back in a few weeks.



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Library Day In The Life FRIDAY

email, bloglines, flickr...

Last minute Room Reservation online payment review/meeting
we have to solve the issue of adding tax or not and then depositing it appropriately when collected.
IT can solve this by creating 2 separate payment sites, we will link to the appropriate one on our room invoices
Yea!

clean some access and error logs in ILS so size don't matter while I'm away.

passed "wilson-award" on to Ron for all the manly work he does around here.


impressed by the goblin's whiteboard, I thought I'd post here how I spill out all ideas, important instructions, to-do lists and other invaluable stuff in my office:
the mess I'm leaving...
...more of the mess I'm leaving


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Library Day In The Life THURSDAY

as everyday, email, bloglines, flickr.

ILL documents review as I will "fill in" for another vacationner upon my return.This should not be a big deal since I did ILLs for years before...

wait on hold for paypal business support/open ticket on website

return all lib materials
clean finished reports list

suspend some maintenance/statistical reports I am the only one looking at.

meeting with unit to cover vacation punts, project status etc...
...
continue to wage a war against mosquitoes in my office (yes)
and hope they all starve to death while I am away.
...
late day massage to get kink out of neck before flight.


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Thursday, July 17, 2008

Library Day In The Life WEDNESDAY

PAYPAL TEST # 5 SUCCESS!
my account was credited in the ILS appropriately and immediately Yea!
Thanks to good SD client care help and to persistence.
Must complete automatic deposit/reports from Paypal set-up.
will be ready to launch when I return from vacation.
(along with libraryElf service, LibX toolbar and the Library's Flickr account)

meeting with capital projects for branch building expansion plan review
re: data and power for planned innovative use of AV (what else!)

take important lunch call for professional development

compile UUGI (Unicorn User Group International) circulation forum enhancement votes, analyze, rank and forward to chief moderator. ...man that was a big one!
Good thing done!

Received the "wilson winning service hoodoo doll" prize at work, take picture and blog to staff.
Be on the lookout for the next recipient to pass it on to before I leave...








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Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Library Day in the life TUESDAY

Paypal test #4,
log review, same issue, update call w/SD.

Update UUGI circulation enhancements polls/
consult with moderators for closing and other cycle arrangements
email users

turn on live video of political meeting to possibly hear of any surprise related to the budget? (sounds like they will wait for me to be away on vacation)

Attend SDI Web Video Primer by David Lee King
great one!

looked at budget to find cuts (just in case... argh...)

generate collection management lists for weeding

as always email, bloglines, flickr etc...

stayed late to put time into formatting the Blues Alliance newsletter. (done)

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Library Day In The Life MONDAY

Afraid it will look both "hum drum" and light weight, but here it goes, day one:

back up ILS

paypal test #3
8:30 am
troubleshoot with SD

book for troops email

write faq:suspend holds, Most Wanted program.

new org chart = adjustments to mailing aliases, sirsi reports targets

vacation adjustments to sirsi maintenance/monitoring reports.
email punt receivers.

update ILS email instructions
update ILS back-up instructions
update ILS contact info

general help desk calls: workflows support/Myspace problems/dead public computer, etc...


****plan efficiency study at Branch A in back room for week following vacation.
spend min 1 hour day/each day all week.


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Friday, July 11, 2008

"day in the life" project

an invitation from Bobbi Newman


blog about it, comment about it, wiki about it.. oh my!
I love this kind of stuff, both for the fun and for the practice it provides. I hope our staff will join in too.
Next week I will be preparing for my summer vacation so it should make for some interesting variety.
myoffice

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Monday, June 30, 2008

meet Bobbi Newman

I love my flickr feeds.
Daily, I scan hundred of photos tagged library. Today, one of them was a shared slide show for the Missouri River Regional Library detailing steps for renewing items online they also have one for placing holds. That lead me to the Librarian by Day photostream, which lead me to the Librarian By Day blog.
Bobbi Newman is the Digital Services Librarian at the Missouri River Regional Library. She obviously has a passion for all things Library 2.0 and for instruction, training and user services.

Reading thru her posts, I quickly discover that what lead me to her was only the tip of the iceberg and I can only encourage you to discover her work in the use of social networking and to read how she trains library users in blogging and photo sharing

I am looking forward to learn a lot from Bobbi, and to steal some of her great ideas. This is a blog that I should have been following all along; I will now. (I don't know how I missed it!?) She's definitely a Mover and Shaker in my book.
(Maybe next year?)

It doesn't hurt that we seem to have quite a few things - in common. Not the least of which being an appreciation for open minded cell phone signs.



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Friday, June 20, 2008

the year so far

not too scholarly or deep I guess...


but it's fun to play with wordle

Friday Fun



Cool Spider will follow your mouse...
Via the New York Statewide Summer Reading Program folks.

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Thursday, June 05, 2008

My libX

w00t!
I had promised that it would be on my short list after the SirsiDynix Superconference this year. I went to a great (GRRRRREAT) pre-conference session on catalog add-ons and Bernardo Gomez from Emory presented it there. (note: I heard Mack once say that if we created a sirsi API knighthood, Bernardo would be the 1st one in.)

Long, long ago, (1999?) we go iBistro and we had the option to add a link to Amazon in the form of a BUY NOW button to title records in our catalog which had a wait list.
I remember bitching ;) that until Amazon was willing to put a library button in their results, we shouldn't do that. (which is not the reason why PTB decided against it.)

Well here it is, not official yet, not even public outside this little forum. Probably still full of bugs and certainly not ready for prime time. A way for our customer to download the firefox plugin and have our library at the tip of their finger (mouse) everywhere they browse, all the time.

Best yet will be the library icon next to every amazon record (or NYT book review title), the ability to search for any term by simple highlight, right click; AND the fact that we will have it downloaded at ALL OUR PUBLIC PCs to allow all the good Internet users to access all the rest of the resources they might have been missing out on.

Can you tell I'm excited?

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Heaven and Hell

David Armano is VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass,
a professional services firm with a sweet spot for creating outstanding experiences.

His Logic+Emotion Blog is one of my all time favorites.
In this case, he makes the point so well. (as always.)

How does our library brand measure up?




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Thursday, May 29, 2008

Making your customer laugh

I loved this email I just got from CDBaby.

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow.

A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing.

Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy.

We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage!" to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Wednesday, May 28th.

I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year." We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Sigh...
--
Derek Sivers, president, CD Baby
the little store with the best new independent music
http://cdbaby.com cdbaby@cdbaby.com (503)595-3000


It put a smile on my face 1st thing this morning.
It came "FROM:CD Baby loves Sylvie (orders@cdbaby.com)
I wish I could write the "hold available notices" that way.

BTW,
check CDBaby out for genius stuff such as :


The Nouveaux Honkies








Swamp Chicken















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Friday, May 23, 2008

my i-friends

Today, Meredith Farkas blogged about online disclosure and "friendships". It's nice how she articulates a lot of the feelings I have had, both anxiety and joy, about my online presence and about all the contacts I have made in the past couple of years. In most cases, I am mostly an admirer, and I have been lucky enough to be able to converse, online or otherwise with a few of them. So it still feels to me like a "rock star-groupie" kind of thing. But I have grown fond of many for what they share, what they encourage me to share and for their willingness to help EVERYONE make some headway in their efforts to make their little/big library more open, more transparent and more responsive. These people are real to me, they set an example for me everyday and often I use their eyes to see further. Often I use their words to initiate change.

I did the same thing in flesh and blood 10 years ago when I got involved with the Unicorn User Group International and met system administrators and librarians I found so bright and inventive. I became a fan, then a friend. I would have not become the library geek I am without Selden, Mack, Karen, Jack and countless others. They gave me the confidence to develop my skills, and to become someone others can got to for help and who is involved enough to bring about change in that community. ...The same thing.

On that path, then and now, I got to fall in love with their dogs, meet their parents, eat their food, go to my hometown with them, pray for their babies...
I got to plan a revolution, joke around with them and, oh yeah, sometimes, really cool stuff happened to me too.
-heard from photographer (and Nelson ;) at 7:30 am, posted on flickr at 7:33 am, got it back in Bloglines from TTW at 7:38 am.

This is hot, it made my day.




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Friday, May 16, 2008

web2 Oh!

if you have ever asked "where do they find the time?"
If you think the LOLCATS are stupid...
If you play WOW in secret.

spend 15 minutes listening to this guy, all the way thru, it's worth it.
PS: if you know and love a 4 year old today, there is a big payoff.





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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Michelle's prayer

In case some of you still think that social networking is not about "real life"...

Thru social networking, (probably where library people and dog lovers intersect) I was lucky to "meet" a young woman with a fresh voice who was doing her best to turn ALA on it's head (or at least remind it it had one) and to really show that the virtual world is a gift, a great tool, and the best way to allow the next generation to participate in the classic institutions (and possibly change them.)

I have read Michelle Boule's great thoughts and innovative ideas on "A Wandering Eyre" for a while now. That is where I feel like I got to know her. When she left work on pregnancy leave, I followed her to "Defying Genetics" where she shared her journey in making a family.

Michelle gave birth to a beautiful boy on May 3, which happens to be the birthday of my oldest nephew Charles. Like Charlie when he was born, Michelle's son Gideon has been in the NICU fighting the good fight. I remember so well how we felt then, and from Florida to Texas, without having ever met, I have been praying with Michelle's family much in the same way now. "My" Charlie's is 11 years old now, Gideon will be 11 days tomorrow.

This IS real life, and real human beings are now able to share it thru the virtual means we have grown to see as our ways to feel connected as humans.
What I feel most like sharing now is Michelle's prayer:
"Lord, please help Gideon’s lungs to be just a little bit better today. Please help him to have no complications today and no infections. Please watch over his doctors and nurses. Thank you for blessing of this place. Thank you for this day and the perfect, precious child you have entrusted to me. Amen"



Hoping she knows I pray it too.

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Tuesday, April 08, 2008

UUGI day 3

whoo!
circ update

floating collection features are free, we'll need the with less money for materials.
NEW good receipts for holds ARE ACTUALLY COMING large font/vertical/character suppression etc. NEED JAVA, NEED 3.2 SYMPHONY
users are doing macros locally to achieve this and have been for long time
much good in holds queue manipulation also coming (3.3)

ecommerce

still no receipt thru cc/paypal arghh!
but ease of test and use and good compatibility with unicorn.

general

The idea is to open ILS to the world, thankfully not trying to cram the world into the ILS. I think I heard that they get it.

"the e-library IS iBLink" no one seems willing to say it that clearly.

my circ sharing session went very well, got great ideas and am encouraged that the user enhancement process is viable and effective.

jBistro
Joel Hahn rocks! If all of us had a Joel on or team, the state of libraries in this country would improve to levels we can't even imagine. Reminds me of John Blyberg for that reason.

So much more in my head, byt this laptop keyboard and bad chair are killing me.
Next is Steven Abram's closing session. Ill try to get a few candids there and tonight. going home tomorrow. will blog more from work next week.
My to do list id very very long upon returning from this conference. I'm excited.
check flickr
bye







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Monday, April 07, 2008

UUGI detroit day 2

Iblink update (do you know what an iblink is?)

SD will continue development of the iBistro iLink product as a PAC. this reassured a lot of folks, me included. Long story.
nice new features announced:
my account and renew my items same page
holds delivery by mail option
keep "all on this page"
online user registration, really, no work-around!
no hold button if no copies are holdable (!) yay!!
standard CSS

Automated calling update

new language field in user account will allow calls to be made in native language
new improved text to voice engines. yay again!

Ibistro customization

I got enough info to klug code to remove the annoying display stating items are "available in ONORDER"
this will be high on the to do list

other nifty stuff some cool guys are doing:

text call number to my phone from the catalog result
what's new selection page with nice variables (branch, format timeline...)
good stats on lib value based on user count checkout count and comparing local use to system use.
integrating google booksearch content API to opac.

having fun...



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Sunday, April 06, 2008

Detroit UUGI

Hey Hey,
quickly, more later:
Preconf was great. Nice to see multiple products "side by side" and compare.
SD enterprise
Aquabrowser
Primo
Vufind = coolest, AND FREE!

Best find (how did I miss this?):
LibX, puts your library logo next to any recognizable title isbn etc in ALL webpages in the user browser.
Imagine a link to your library record in every amazon page, throughout NYT article pages etc...!!!!
I Must Do This Right Upon Return!!!

Today previews were interesting and business meeting had some controversy. Keeping thins ineresting. Gotta go.

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Monday, March 31, 2008

SirsiDynix Superconference planning

I will be attending the SirsiDynix Superconference in Detroit next weekend and plan on blogging events, contents and general impressions each day.
It shouldn't be very had to do a better job at it than last year, as I was thoroughly overwhelmed with the task then. This year, I'll carry my copy of "Tips for Conference Bloggers" and try to apply it as best I can. also, thanks to great examples such as David Lee King, I should be better equipped this year.

TTYS ;)
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Tuesday, March 04, 2008

via "Le Soleil", a bit of women trivia

in honor of International Women's Day on Saturday,
a bit of trivia.
These people brought about real big change in women's lives. Find out what.

Gregory Pincus
Léonard Corning
Hermine Cadolle
Alva J. Fisher
Dr Earl Haas
André Courrèges
Édouard Robert

Answers (in french) can be found here.
I'll publish them in english in the comments later. UNLESS YOU DO?



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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

beauty, and brains

via Des Bibilotheques 2.0 (i'm so glad I can read french)
a fantastic library website, that includes:
visual search
RSS feed for new items,
Meebo chat
Top5 databases (great idea!)
blogs
and so much more...

Bright, colorful and intuitive.
so cool.

Chapeau La Mediathèque ESC Lille!

ESC Lille website or WOW 2.0
cheaters can view the english version of the site here


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Friday, February 22, 2008

my Tech-Nots

Following in the brilliant footsteps of Rochelle, Jenna, Laura and Jessamyn; here is a great li'l meme. It inspired me 'cause, well, I have a lot of things to confess myself.
I guess my theme would be "Monday to Friday Geek"
1- I do not own a computer. I tell folks I have 249 too many at work, I don't need one at my house. Sitting in front of one 40 + hours/week seems enough for me.
2- ...goes without saying, I don't have a high speed connection at home either. But it means that when I bring a laptop home to do work, I can only connect via modem and it just is no fun at all.
3- I refuse to record stuff from TV. I watch too much TV as it is, I am not going to start a backlog.
4- I love to watch TV. food network, animal planet, travel channel...
5- I have misplaced my mp3 player 10 months ago and I don't really miss it.
6- If work didn't make me carry one, I would not have a cell phone. I never call anyone on mine and rarely get incoming calls.
7- The only computer game I have ever played was some sort of pac-man wannabe on a Commodore 64.
8- I could probably go on and on... (better stop now)



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Monday, February 11, 2008

improve your resume

Improve your resume,
highlight your library use.

after reading Seth today,
and considering how much potential the "help job seekers" part of our mission has...
why not
-Use the "Let employers know you know how, include: registered library user since 19xx" line to improve our brand.





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Thursday, January 10, 2008

Library Resolutions


Library Resolutions
Originally uploaded by covs97

funny how things are the same everywhere.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

WorldCat in Facebook

So very cool for the new year:
Integrate WorldCat search into your Facebook account.
I did it, check it out!



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