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!!!!!

I spent a hefty chunk of my savings on presents this last Christmas, and I don’t regret a minute of it. I was planning on building my savings back up this year, but I think the folks in Haiti (and other poverty-stricken areas in the world) can use that money a lot more.

So do it! Give a dollar, twenty, or a hundred. For the next month and a half, I’ll give whatever you do. Click the link and give.

UPDATE (1/16/10 12:06pm): The generosity that I’ve seen is astounding.  People have donated in lieu of going out for dinner.  Folks who have been jobless for months have scraped together a donation.  Friends who have already given have found a way to give again.  I mean, for goodness sake, my Mom handed me her grocery money!

So, yeah, I’ve pretty much spent the last few days crying off and on, both in mourning for what the people of Haiti have faced and yet to face, but also in rapture and celebration of the generosity that you’ve all shown.  I didn’t expect that we would raise this much, this fast.  But when you trust your heart, amazing things happen, as you all have shown me.

Please continue to spread the word.

Thank you, all.  So very, very much.

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.

When we make mistakes, fail, or fall short of others’ expectations of us, we say that we’re “only human.”  The literal message of those two words is this:  “There are limits to what human beings can do, and and I have just reached that limit.”  In effect, what we’re saying is that what is being asked of us is impossible.

But that is rarely the case.

When do we really pull out that phrase?  Not when we’re face to face with the impossible, but when we’re face to face with the uncomfortable.

When arguing with a loved one.  When being asked to do more than we’ve done in the past.  When being asked to push harder, reach deeper, and sacrifice more than we have before.  When we are pushed to the limits of our comfort, not the limits of our ability.

And yet, only when we are pushed past comfort to the true limits of our ability, do we see what we’re capable of.

So, as I continue to share my experiences on this blog, I’m going to push past my comfort zones.  I’m going to share the hard-earned gems of wisdom that I’ve gained through years of struggle, staggering defeat, and occasional triumph.  You may laugh, cry, wince, or even judge me, and that is fine.  I won’t let fear stop me from allowing others to learn from my experiences.  I hope you read something here that will help you, as I endeavor to share everything that makes me gloriously human.

But what do I do now, as an adult?  I read books.  I subscribe to blogs.  I watch vidcasts.  I immerse myself in a world of information that’s waiting at my fingertips, all about drawing.  You know what I’m doing when I’m absorbing (or ignoring) all that information?  I’m not drawing.  Merlin Mann has had a few choice words about the perils of drowning yourself in information, and I’ve fallen prey to all of them.

The one that has plagued me the most of late is this fear that I’m just not an artist.  Period.  But I have to turn right around and tell that fear to shove it, because I am an artist…

You are an artist

I create.  You create.  We all do.  What makes us uniquely human is our ability to create.

But there are lots of people out there who are more than happy to tell me that I’m not an artist.  That what I do isn’t art; that what I produce isn’t good enough to be considered art; that even if it is art and is good, that it isn’t the kind of art that I should be doing.  And at the very top of that list of critics is me.

Every artist is plagued by “not”.  Not good enough, not the right kind, not enough of it.

But I know that I’m an organizer.  That’s one of my skills, and for me, it’s an art.  Granted, I can become a bit obsessive about it on occasion, but for the most part organizing things makes me feel relaxed and happy.  And at the end of an organizational project, I can look at all the neat lines, clearly labeled boxes, and wide empty space free of clutter and pat myself on the back at a job well done.  It makes me feel good.

Where’s my Olympic medal?  Where’s my gold star?  My Pulitzer?  My Nobel?

They’re not there, and that’s just fine.  I’m not doing it for awards, I’m doing it because I love my craft.  I can spend a few hours on Wikipedia tagging articles with the appropriate metadata, resting assured that in my tiny little way, I’ve helped increase the level of organization in the world.  I can also lend my skill to others, and watch as a folks adopt my organizational methods for themselves because they see how easy it can be.

Whatever it may be, your art is worth celebrating

So I’m an artist.  And so are you.  And together we can tell Fear exactly where he can shove it, because we rock at our art.  It may be research, or cataloging, or project management, or reshelving books, or being a mom, or listening, or telling jokes, or bookbinding, or laughing, or standing up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.  There are trillions of arts out there, and I want you to celebrate yours.  And keep on creating your art.

Am I meeting your needs as a ___________ ?

Whether it be as a boyfriend, brother, son, friend, uncle or whatever, asking this simple question once a week has saved me a world of heartache in the long-term.  I’ve been doing it for months now, and it’s changed a lot of things.

A moment of reflection…

With everyone rushing around, filled with road rage, stress and angst (trying to get to tai chi or yoga class!), sometimes it can be difficult to pause and reflect on our relationships.

Asking if you’re meeting the other person’s needs will give them a chance to stop in their tracks, pause, and think about how their relationship with you is going.  Do they have any needs that aren’t being met?  Did you promise to take out the trash and forgot?  Did you say something in jest yesterday that actually hurt their feelings?  Now is their chance to let you know.

…can take a while

And they may not let you know right that minute.  So if that evening or the next day you get a call, don’t be surprised.  Some folks (like myself) take time to process conversations, arguments, and deep questions.  Asking a question once a week is a way to keep the conversation about the relationship going–not a way to “get it over with.”  Being honest and earnest about your desire to make sure that your loved ones’ needs are met will quickly unearth any deeper communication issues.

What it’s like

Every Wednesday at 12:30pm an alarm goes off on my phone: “Check in emotionally.”  I send a quick text to my loved ones, and usually within minutes I receive a text back lauding me with praise.  It’s a nice side-effect, but it’s not the purpose–a short “yes” is enough to ensure that they got the message and that there’s nothing pressing that needs to be discussed.

Occasionally I’ll get a phone call that starts out with “Well, since you asked…,” and the conversation starts up.  Sometimes Wednesday at 12:30pm will fall right in the middle of an ongoing fight or lingering hurt feelings, but I’ll ask without fail.  It’s more important to me that I know the truth and that they know I care, rather than to protect my own bruised feelings.

Awareness is catchy

Once your family and friends get used to the routine, they’ll look forward to it and miss it if you accidentally forget.  You might get a pouty voicemail asking why you didn’t do the weekly check-in!  And trust me, soon enough they’ll be responding in kind, asking if they are meeting your needs.

So go ahead and take a few seconds to check in witht he ones you love!  You’ll be delighted with the results.

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!!!

• GIL-Find — An installation of the VuFind social catalog interface.  It’s currently being tested at several institutions across the state, and ours is one of them!  The students love it, and it’s way more functional than our Voyager catalog (relevance ranking and persistent links!  w00t!).
• Vtext — A DSpace digital repository for VSU.  It’s stable and running, now the fun part:  marketing to faculty!
• I built Odum Library Search applications for Facebook and MySpace as part of a forthcoming writing project.  I’ll talk more about it when it comes out.
• Pagan Archives Network — I’m working with several Pagan Studies scholars to develop a web-based finding aid for primary and secondary resources.  It’s still in development, but a few Pagan librarians have already started to volunteer their time to develop taxonomies and work on finding/inputting collections!
• SaveTheMantas.org — Volunteering as a researcher, pulling together research and photos for their site.  Give them a tax-deductible donation!
• And last, but not least, I just did a re-design of clifflandis.net using the Go Green template.  I hope you enjoy!

Robin Hastings has joined the long list of illustrious writers for this series with her report Collaboration 2.0. She is the Information Technology Manager for the Missouri River Regional Library in Jefferson City, Missouri, and she has a long list of presentations and publications that further validate her expertise in the realms of cloud computing for libraries. In this report, Hastings walks readers through the basics of online collaboration and cloud computing, followed by a description of the Library Society of the World, to show an example of cloud computing in action. Next, she provides explanations of the different styles of technology-aided collaboration, as well as a host of Web 2.0 tools that can be used to foster collaboration. Last, examples of groupware (collaborative software suites), examples of collaborations, and further resources are given.

As with other LTRs I have reviewed, Collaboration 2.0 is a clear, concise, and easy-to-read introduction to the concepts presented.  Hastings looks at Web 2.0 tools from the perspective of someone looking to foster ease of communication and project-based work in libraries.  Tools such as Facebook and Delicious, traditionally used for social purposes or personal productivity, take on a new light when viewed through this lens.  I don’t want to give away all of the richness of the report, but a couple of features are worth pointing out.

When introducing the collaborative tools, Hastings provides information about (and links to) the Terms of Service for each. This is valuable information to provide in a report such as this, especially for busy librarians.  There are those of us (myself included!) who may not pause to realize that the wiki tool WetPaint claims a Creative Commons license for all displayed content–including your content! The ToS summaries provided in the report enough to warrant taking a look at the work! Hasting’s summaries can be further complemented by subscribing to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s recently released Terms of Service Tracker.

The report has few omissions, and those that exist are clearly explained. Hastings only provides a short introduction to the social/psychological concepts behind collaboration; readers expecting to find pointers on encouraging buy-in from team members, managing conflict in collaborative groups, or best practices for getting administrative approval should look to the report’s resource lists for more on these topics. Also, since the writing of this report, several tools have emerged or evolved that should be added to the list of available tools. Dropbox has emerged as a synchronizing and sharing tool that can prevent team members from having to mail documents back and forth, while still keeping documents on their hard drives and maintaining a cloud copy at the same time. Zotero has recently added group libraries, making it a great addition to the report’s list of bookmarking tools.

Hastings had a unique challenge in selecting from the innumerable Web 2.0 tools available, and choosing only those that met the needs of librarians working in a collaborative environment. Yet she did so well, provided concrete examples of these tools in use, and clearly explained the benefits and problems associated with each tool. I recommend this report to any libraries looking to streamline their internal and external collaborations. As these tools for collaboration continue to grow and change, I honestly hope that we see another report from Hastings, following up on the success of this one.

(FULL DISCLOSURE:  I am mentioned in the report, since Ms. Hastings put out a call for collaborative usage of Web 2.0 tools, and I supplied a story that was included.)