There is a video making the rounds in libraryland of a very cute 3 year old named Abby talking about what she wants from her library. If you haven’t seen it, I’ve embedded it below. I saw it when it first started making the rounds and thought cute, but clearly that child has been coached and so dismissed it. She isn’t telling us what she wants, she telling us what the person behind the camera told her to say. She is three, she has no idea what she is saying. But then it started to be retweeted, and librarians started holding it up as proof of something. Of proof we need to adapt and change for digital natives. Then I started beating my head against my desk. Because please, anyone can see this child is coached and this, THIS is your proof? If you showed this to me as proof your stance in an argument I would mock you. And you would deserve it. I don’t argue that we need to change it is why I work so hard on the transliteracy issue, it’s why I started the blog. The struggle to incorporate new technology into libraries is well documented
Libraries
What Makes a Library a Library?
Last week Sarah Houghton-Jan posted about a staffless library in Washington and asked the question “What makes a library a library?” Buffy Hamilton took the question to the masses and recorded them for this great video. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
How Did You Get Into Libraries? Share Your Story With The Library Routes Project
Have you seen The Library Routes Project? The idea is to share (blog or on the wiki) your library career path. Both the library roots – how you got into the profession in the first place, and what made you decide to do so – and your library routes – the career path which has taken you to wherever you are today. You can share either one or the other or both of them. I know a meme like this has made the rounds before, but the addition of the wiki makes it a great resource. (And nice compliment to The Library Day in the Life Project if I do say so myself) :-) I’ll be blogging my roots next Monday (12/7/2009), please join me! If you don’t have a blog you can create a page at the wiki & share your story there. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
Libraries and Transliteracy – the video version
I took my slideshow on transliteracy and turned it into a video. I was curious about how easy it was to turn a slideshow into a video (its super easy!) so I thought I’d try it. Most of my presentations aren’t meant to stand alone and so don’t really translate well to video. When I was putting the transliteracy one together I wanted it to be able to stand alone, so I thought I’d give it a try. A little self indulgent I know But anyway here it is. Learn more about transliteracy Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend
Is Good Enough good enough?
I don’t know, but it’s what I’m thinking about thanks to Jason Griffey Think about the services in your library, and the amount of effort and resources poured into making your services as good as they can possibly be. What if good enough is really enough, and instead we should be expanding our range of services instead of seeking perfection in any single one? How does that change the way libraries operate? He cites a Wired magazine article – The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine which he quotes …it happens to be a recurring theme in Good Enough products. You can think of it this way: 20 percent of the effort, features, or investment often delivers 80 percent of the value to consumers. That means you can drastically simplify a product or service in order to make it more accessible and still keep 80 percent of what users want—making it Good Enough… Aaron Schmidt responded in the comments This is great, mostly because just yesterday I was thinking about just the opposite! My thoughts aren’t fully formed but my basic line of thinking is that good enough services are probably wholly unremarkable and don’t leave
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