I did a concise talk on The Social Library, looking at the social nature of information and the library itself, as well as some of the tools and technologies available to stay in touch with library users. Amanda Goodman was kind enough to make her notes available online (PDF), so if you want to skip straight to the links I talked about, check her notes out!

Then I had the pleasure of listening to Charlie Bennett and Ameet Doshi present Library on the Radio, a presentation all about their radio show Lost in the Stacks that plays every Friday on WREK from noon to 1pm.  What I loved about their presentation was that they emphasized connecting to the folks around you to make amazing things happen.  If you aren’t already listening to Lost in the Stacks, check it out!  It’s badass!

All in all, it was an amazing pleasure to be a part of the Wednesday Webinar series.  Big thanks to Buffy, Sarah, and Pat for making it happen.  And thanks to everyone for showing up, and I hope you walked away with some new information!

The rest of my trip will be spent visiting with my sister, to see her all beautifully preggers before she delivers my new niece in late May!

I’m very proud to be a part of this series, as it aims to provide librarians with a ground-up approach to a variety of topics.  It brings together big names in the library technology field (which I’m positively blushing to see my name included alongside!), and provides material both for beginning library workers all the way through experienced practitioners:

So order a copy for your library (or yourself!), listen to the companion podcasts and add your notes to the companion wiki!  I’m looking forward to interacting with readers on the wiki and right here on my blog!  So go check it out!

Firland Foundation will match 1:1 up to $25,000 in total donations made to PIH through Feb 28th.

The Firland Foundation (www.firland.org) has been working with Partners in Health over last few years, funding TB-related needs in their Haitian clinics. We are providing a match of up to $25,000 in unrestricted funds for PIH. Please help meet the tremendous and urgent need in Haiti by clicking on the link to donate directly to PIH.

The Firland Foundation provides meaningful employment for people with disabilities in a sheltered workshop producing high quality machined parts. Income from the workshop keeps it self-sustaining, and provides the resources for grant making. We fund grants directed toward research studies, clinical projects, educational programs, and advocacy efforts intended to improve the management and control of tuberculosis and other chronic respiratory diseases.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If you missed the chance for the matching campaign, can still give to Partners in Health.

If you want to choose another charity, GiveWell, the independent charity evaluation organization has set up a page to evaluate Haiti earthquake relief charities.

If you don’t have any money to give, you can always give your time and skills!  Just go to VolunteerMatch to find an organization that can use your time and skills!

Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your generosity, words of encouragement, and inspirational response in this time of need!!!!!

We looked back on 2009, looked forward to 2010, and looked *way* forward to the future of technology and how it’s going to impact libraries.  There was, of course, lots of talk about training, instruction, classes, and the perils of the audience’s eye-roll.

Having never listened to audio interviews of myself before, I discovered that I apparently really enjoy the word “really”.  I hope you enjoy the podcast.  Really.

A lot of people worked very hard on the website usability studies and redesign, as well as its constant maintenance.  These folks include Sherrida Crawford, John Taylor, Becky Murphy, Vince Spezzo, and all the folks who write content for the website (especially our steady bloggers Laura Wright and Maureen Puffer-Rothenberg)!

Congrats folks on all the hard work!!!

I had a great time at the conference, presented It’s All About the User, met a lot of cool librarians, and had some inspiring conversations! Thanks again for a great time!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I got to speak on gaming and libraries, something that I had not spoken on before.  Although we do gaming at MPOW as part of our marketing and outreach services, I had never delved into the topic.  Once I got started, I learned a lot and started making some connections between different ideas.  For example, I will occasionally play with social norms, doing such things as breaking the boundary between public and private space, speaking in non-gendered terms, etc. (you know, just for fun!).  These and other ideas are explored in my presentation:

Some of the resources that I talked about that weren’t linked in the presentation include Jason Griffey’s work on ARGs, and various TED videos, including Susan Blackmore on temes and Kevin Kelly.