My personally selected top ten from the links I shared on Twitter 10.22.2011 through 10.28.2011. In no particular order:

1. Amazon adds Whispersync for personal ebooks · Hidden Peanuts

Amazon is declaring that they don’t care where your ebook comes from, they just want you to read it on their platform (as long as it doesn’t have DRM mucking things up anyway).

2. great post! -> Amazon, Libraries and Ownership in the Digital Age | Guy LeCharles Gonzalez

The ebooks being borrowed by Amazon customers aren’t the same ePUB files being licensed to libraries via Overdrive, they’re Amazon’s files that they’re allowing their customers to access via a marketing partnership with local libraries.

3.  new ebook payscale? -> Paying for first Some speculation from Seth Godin

Here’s a bit of speculation:

Soon, there will be three kinds of books on the Kindle.

$1.99 ebooks. This is the clearing price for virtually all ebooks going forward.

$5 ebooks. This is the price for bestsellers, hot titles and books you have no choice but to buy because they were assigned in school.

$10 ebooks. This is the price you will pay to get the book first, to get it fast, to get it before everyone else. There might even be a subset of books for $20 in this category.

4. no matter how many kindles are registered to your act, books can only be on 6 devices, delete after reading if sharing This is something I tracked down personally. Believe it or not I have more than six devices to register to my Amazon Kindle
account. The 6 device limit is annoying because I never know what device I might want to read on based on my situation. I was able to find out you can register more than 6 devices but you can only have most titles on 6 at a time. So only load it on those you need to read it on. This works for me because I’m trying to keep my actual Kindle for reading for entertainment versus school work. Also if you and a family member share an account you can both read the same book at the same time as long as you remember to turn off whispersync.

5. Amazon Embraces HTML5 for New Ebooks via@ericrumsey 

KF8 is an improvement over the current Mobi 7 standard, with new features that allow publishers to create richer formats and add more advanced design elements. The emphasis on visuals will play well on tablets and advanced ereaders. Amazon touted KF8′s ability to produce better childrens picture books, comics and graphic novels.

The new format is currently limited to Amazon’s newest device, the Kindle Fire. The rest of Amazon’s readers and tablets will get full KF8 functionality in the coming months.

6. interesting -> Let every book be published digitally. Those found worthy may deserve another publication in print I don’t agree with this and worry about the role of libraries, but it is an interesting read.

Perhaps the e-book is that perishable material. In my vision, let every book be published digitally, the more the better. Those books found worthy may deserve another publication in print. The stores and shelves of print books would shrink, cleared of fluff, distilled to the very best works.

7. Smashwords – School Libraries: What’s Now, What’s Next, What’s Yet to Come – A book by Kristin Fontichiaro A free ebook in pretty much any format you could want

A crowdsourced collection of over 100 essays from around the world about trends in school libraries written by librarians, teachers, publishers, and library vendors. Edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton. Foreword by R. David Lankes. Photographs by Diane Cordell.

8. great tips! How to Effectively Manage Your Time via @vonburkhardt As someone who has taught time management workshops I love seeing tips like these!

9. How to Create a QR Code In 3 Easy Steps | The Daring Librarian – great guide from the fabulous Gwyneth Jones

10. 10 Tips: Managing The Year Of Diminished Career Expectations given the current economy and that as long as I have been a librarian librarians have complained about the lack of jobs this seems very timely.Be sure to read the article for a more in-depth look at each one.

1. Use positive affirmations to get yourself through the day.
2. Teach yourself one new skill a month.
3. Start blogging.
4. Polish your resume.
5. Help a co-worker.
6. Think about what you really want to do when you grow up.
7. Write a job description for your dream job.
8. Network with people who have the job you want.
9. Seek out a career coach to help you examine – and possibly reset – your expectations.
10. Do something for someone else.

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• Top Ten Links 2.3 – All About Ebooks
• Top Ten Links 2.16: TED Auditions, LISEvents, Piracy and The Sad, Beautiful Fact That We’re All Going To Miss Almost Everything
• Top Ten Links Week 29- Logo Contest, Speaker Tips, Finding Time, The Value of Privacy, and More

My personally selected top ten from the links I shared on Twitter 7.2.2011 through 7.9.2011. In no particular order:

1. Comcast targeting digital divide - If you’ve heard me speak or read my writings about the digital divide you know I applaud the FCC’s National Broadband Plan to ensure that high-speed internet access is available to everyone. But that I also express concern that just making it available doesn’t solve the problem, there are still the issues of the affordability of the service, the affordability of the hardware to use it and the skills needed to use it all well. Comcast is addressing the first of these two issues.

In an attempt to bridge the nation’s digital divide, the country’s largest Internet provider soon will offer discountbroadband access to help low-income families get online.

The service, called Internet Essentials, costs $9.95 a month for households that qualify. Also as part of the program, subscribers will be able to purchase a computer for $150.

2. Digital Divides & Digital Literacies: An Ongoing Report | The Young and The Digital #digitaldivide. In this interview S. Craig Watkins, author of The Young and The Digital, talks with Tony Cox about the Digital Divide. Great stuff can’t wait to see/read/listen to more!

Earlier this week National Public Radio’s“Tell Me More” aired a conversation that I shared with Tony Cox about the digital divide. We talked about the ways in which the digital divide is evolving and how the shifting digital media terrain, especially the steady adoption of technology by a growing diversity of young people, is redefining how we think about issues related to technology, diversity, and equity.

I am exploring these issues in a series of new projects that I will be reporting on over the next year.  The projects are designed to examine the digital media lives of diverse young people and how, among other things, their adoption of media technologies are redefining what it means to be a young learner or citizen.

3. The MacArthur Foundation and IMLS offer $4 Million in Grants for Learning Labs in Libraries and Museums. 

These grants will support the planning and designing of up to 30 Learning Labs in libraries and museums throughout the country. The Labs are intended to engage middle- and high-school youth in mentor-led, interest-based, youth-centered, collaborative learning using digital and traditional media. Grantees will be required to participate, in-person and online, in a community of practice that will provide technical assistance, networking, and cross-project learning. Projects are expected to provide prototypes for the field and be based on current research about digital media and youth learning. There will be two project deadlines for this grant program, with the second deadline planned for spring 2012.

4. A Fifth of My Time by @LizDanforth Via @ellenforsyth @janholmquist Love this post by Liz Danforth and I’ve already ordered the book she mentions, 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think. I have a couple of big projects I’ve been putting off tackling and I think thanks to Liz and her post and suggestions they might actually become a reality.

5. RT @alalibrary: “Every day that America’s 16,000 public #librariesare open, more than 300,000 people search for #jobs“ via @shifted – Great quote from the article The Sound of Libraries Suffocating.

6. 23 Things for Professional Development: Thing 3: Consider your personal brand #cpd23 If you’re not following along with the 23 Things for Professional Development you should be! It’s an international effort with some amazing contributors. Sure some of it maybe old news to you but there is plenty of new perspective like this one on personal branding -

Thing 3 is about your personal brand. We’ll consider how people see your online brand, what brand you would like to convey, and how to match the two.

I have a couple of confessions:

7. before you hand over your phone, PC or other digital device Know Your Rights!  essential advice for any digital citizen or anyone who loves their phone

Your computer, your phone, and your other digital devices hold vast amounts of personal information about you and your family. This is sensitive data that’s worth protecting from prying eyes – including those of the government.

The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution protects you from unreasonable government searches and seizures, and this protection extends to your computer and portable devices. But how does this work in the real world? What should you do if the police or other law enforcement officers show up at your door and want to search your computer?

EFF has designed this guide to help you understand your rights if officers try to search the data stored on your computer or portable electronic device, or seize it for further examination somewhere else.

Because anything you say can be used against you in a criminal or civil case, before speaking to any law enforcement official, you should consult with an attorney.

8. How to Get Long Life Out of Laptop and Cell Phone Batteries

Like all batteries, rechargeable batteries wear out over time. Dell says that a full life span for a garden-variety lithium-ion laptop battery is18 to 24 months. A cell phone battery can last the same length of time, and is good for approximately 400 recharges. The average life span of a cell phone, however, is only 18 months, so a single battery should last the lifetime of a mobile phone.

9. Should We Shrink Wrap Our School Libraries? & Transliteracy brill post by @steelepierce #TLChat via @gwynethjones

In the library U-Scan line, the customer in front of me was perhaps four years old, not much taller than a toddler. Fascinated, I watched as she scanned her stack of picture books.

She stands at the intersection of physical print and technology. What is reading going to be like for her as she grows up? How will literacy be different in her world to come? And how will schools prepare her for that?

10. A Special Issue of NISO’s Information Standards Quarterly Focuses on eBooks (incl. 2 articles abt libraries) #ebooks

Direct to Full Text of Spring 2011 Issue (Vol. 23 No. 2)

• Table of Contents
• Full Text (PDF)

Articles Include:

• EPUB 3: Not Your Father’s EPUB
  by Bill Kasdorf

• Ten Questions and Tentative Answers about the State of E-book Publishing for University Presses
  by Marlie Wasserman

• E-books and the Public Library: the Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library Experience
  by Mollie Pharo and Marcia Learned Au

• Drinking the E-book Kool-Aid in a Large Academic Library
  by Wendy Allen Shelburne

• Standard Spotlight: The Challenge for Standards in the E-book Supply Chain
  by Mark Bide

• Member Spotlight: E-books on EBSCOhost: Combining NetLibrary E-books with the EBSCOhost Platform
  by Michael Gorrell

• The Evolution of Accessible Publishing: Revising the Z39.86 DAISY Standard
  by Matt Garrish and Markus Gylling

• NISO E-books SIG
  by Todd Carpenter

From the Noteworthy Section of ISQ

• NISO Issues Journal Article Tag Suite Standard for Trial Use

Read the Complete NISO Announcement and Summary

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Last week after my There Are No Magic Beans post one of my favorite librarians, Daniel Cornwall, emailed me with some concerns about the post.  I emailed him back and we had a good discussion.  With his permission* I’m posting a revised edition of our conversation here. I’m sure he is not the only person who had one or all of these thoughts.

… I’m concerned that posts like these are going to have the opposite effect you intend. In concept I’m with you. People have to drop the expectation that they need do nothing after their shift ends (when I finish typing this note, I’ve got homework on digital repositories to do for Best Practices Exchange 2010). We all need to be lifelong learners even if we don’t want to be.

People already say and think those things about me. I don’t think one post is going to sway them one way or another. In fact based on my interactions with people like that nothing I say or do will change them. I can only hope they retire or find a new profession.

I think essentially telling people to grow up, stop whining and get back to work confirms whiny people in their belief that people just don’t understand what their lives are like. That it’s easy for a Bobbi Newman (and, in the world of govdocs, a Daniel Cornwall or James Jacobs) to do librarianship 24/7, but “some of us have lives – blah, blah, blah.”

Can I just say how much it pisses me off when people say something about “having a life” when it implies I don’t (or Daniel doesn’t). I have a life thank-you-very-much. One I’m pretty happy with actually. Granted it doesn’t include parking my butt in front of a tv for hours at an end, but I’m ok with that. I don’t do librarianship 24/7 but I do live my life with purpose aligned to my larger goals.

Nobody said it was going to be easy. Most things worth doing aren’t. I’m not interested in babysitting non-starters. I hope to provide motivation and ideas for people who already have some motivation. But the people who have heard the message and know there is a need and choose to spend their finding reasons not to it, nothing I say or do will change them.

Oddly enough I wrote that post in July and posted it the morning before TEDx Atlanta but I’m only more certain of it. I saw speeches from people who accomplished incredible things, things people told them they couldn’t do or that were impossible. They didn’t waste time trying to persuade the non-believers.

At the risk of suggesting something you might have already tried in the past, it might be more effective to highlight the ways that people make time to learn more or solve their problems. Ask your fan base for how they do it. I’m finding that my time on my stationary bike in the morning is good time for professional reading or networking with Facebook. Although today I watched Stargate Atlantis on my iPhone, but you get the idea.

Other suggestions might be material from WebJunction or any other number of sites that have resources of interest there for the taking. Empower people to make their lives richer and maybe they’ll take you up on it.

I think all of those are great ideas! Go for it! There is value in it and someone needs to be doing it. There was a point when I thought and did a lot of those things. It just isn’t how I’m interested in spending my time anymore.

Or keep whining. But if folks like us won’t stay positive, who will?

I actually see the original post as positive. I  have worked long and hard to get where I am. I didn’t get here by whining that I didn’t have enough time. I found time, I taught myself. I’m a firm believer in hard work and taking responsibility for your own actions. There is so much I love about being a librarian and what I do. I’m tired of allowing a few to drag me down, I see that post as a declaration of that.

*Please note my comment policy states I reserve the right to post emails regarding blog posts. Similar Posts:

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My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 3/19/2010 thru 3/25/2010

1. Youth in Nigeria leverage social media to organize and document massive rally against government via @dmlcentral:

Twitter users Gbengasesan and Bubusn posted pictures of the march, and live footage of the event was available at ustream. The demonstration had an online presence unprecedented in the history of Nigerian protest: Facebook, Twitter, and Nigeria’s extensive blogging networks were all mobilized in support of the event (of particular note were the Facebook group Save Nigeriaand the demonstration organizers’ website Where is Yar’Adua?).Nigerian Curiosity even reported that the hashtag#enoughisenough was the number three trending topic on Twitter (though she pointed out that not all the tweets referred specifically to the demonstration in Abuja).

Many in the online community expressed their support for the marchers.

2. Overdrive’s New Program for Visually Impaired Readers – the first thing I did after reading this is email my Overdrive rep and tell him we want to sign up! LEAP allows your library patrons to access and use Bookshare.org, a service limited to students.  The partnership between Overdrive and Bookshare will extend Bookshare services to patrons of libraries who provide Overdrive service to their patrons.  There is no additional cost.  If your library offers Overdrive service email your rep and tell her you want to sign up for LEAP!

3. for those who think Google is the devil - How I Became (Mostly) Google-free in About a Day - I’ll confess I think Google owns my soul or at least has a lien on it, but if you’ve been thinking of kicking the Google habit this is a must read.

4. watch this! SMS for Life – Common Craft – great explanation as always

5. On stereotypes and the echo chamber - great post from Kate on the echo chamber in which she notes

I’m sure no one’s missed the irony of all of us talking about the echo chamber to each other

6. Broadband access for all is essential to meeting the information needs of communities in a democracy – Eric Newton comments on the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and  The Knight Foundation report Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy

In the digital age, countries without high-speed broadband will be left behind, their citizens able to vote but not knowing why they should; able to work but not knowing how to find a job online.

7. User-Centered Innovation Is Not Sustainable

User-centered innovation has helped conduct us into an unsustainable world. The reason is sustainability is not embedded in the anthropology of our existing culture, society, and economy.

8. The most important things in libraries are people via  @LISNews

9. Six reasons to be skeptical of the Net Gen label & stereotypes - if you are talking or thinking about digital natives or the digital generation this is a MUST read.

1. It exaggerates the gaps between adults and youth.
2. It hides more important intra-generational differences.
3. It ignores potentially important socio-economic and cultural differences.
4. It ignores important second level digital divides.
5. It is based on unfounded assumptions about current approaches to teaching.
6. The evidence doesn’t support most of the key Net Gen claims.

10. Work Smart: Do Your Worst Task First (Or, Eat a Live Frog Every Morning) via @dmlcentral – you know how much I love time management and productivity tips

Creative Commons licensed photos used courtesy of bowbrick on flickr. Similar Posts:

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I am taking the next two weeks off. Your regularly scheduled blog posts will resume on January 4th 2010. Why?

The short version – It’s the holidays, things are slow and it’s always good to take a break.

The long version – I need time to regroup and realign my priorities.  Lately I’ve been scrambling like mad to keep up, I feel like I’m letting everyone around me down, including me. There are emails I haven’t returned, emails I haven’t written. I feel disconnected from my friends on Twitter and Facebook. Work takes up a large part of my personal time. I’m beginning to feel a little dazed and confused, like I’ll never be caught up. This is a red flag for me, time to take two steps back and regroup. I was already considering it when I downloaded What Matters Now from Seth’s blog. As I read through it this week so many passages struck a chord, professionally and personally. It confirmed what I was already thinking, I need to pause and regroup.

I am publicly declaring my holiday for two reason, the first so regular readers will know I haven’t disappeared, I haven’t run out of things to say (never!) and I will be back.  Second, publically declaring it will help me stick to my plan, I’m not going anywhere so nothing external will change, but I need to slow down and take a breathe. That means no feedreader (and when I get back they ALL get marked as read), a more personal focus on Twitter and Facebook. It will be hard not to click on links posted by others so I may have to give up Twitter too. Disconnecting will be hard, but I also know how much I need it. The end of the year is a perfect time for reflection and regrouping, though I don’t do New Years resolutions.

So what will I be doing? reflecting, prioritizing, hopefully recharging, clearing my head, goal setting, deciding on boundaries and limits, reading, writing and thinking. So I leave you with these things to ponder for the next two weeks between turkey and presents and confetti and champagne

From What Matters Now:

• “…constantly we fear we are not doing enough.”- Ease, Elizabeth Gilbert
• “The echo chamber we’re building is getting larger and louder.” – Connected, Howard Mann
• “Leadership is more than influence. It is about reminding people of what it is we are trying to build – and why it matters.” – Vision, Michael Hyatt
• “Be honest, be authentic, and speak from your passion.” – Speaking, Mark Hurst
• “Just because you win a hand doesn’t mean you’re good and you don’t have more learning to do.” – Poker, Tony Hsiech
• “…the ability to draw lines and boundaries within which we protect and preserve the mental and emotional space to do our work and to be true to ourselves.”  Tough-mindedness, Steven Pressfield
• ” You are immortal. The result of everything you do today will last forever.” Forever, Piers Fawkes
• “What IS working, today, and how can we do more of it?” Change, Chip and Dan Heath
• “Forget about working on your weakness -> focus on supporting your strengths.” Most, William C. Taylor

From elsewhere

• Want to Innovate? Stop Working So Hard
• 11 Refreshing Ways to Bring Out the Awesomeness in Life
• How To Level Up
• Coding Simplicity: How to Avoid Feature Creep in Your Life
• How To Focus On What Truly Matters
• Simple Living Manifesto: 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life

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These videos are from Chris Brogan’s Over Night Success Series. There are 9 videos total covering topics such as Grinding vs Clocking – Time and the Overnight Success, Pity Party, Small Talk is Big, Belief Systems, The Competition, What it Takes, No Excuses & A Call to Arms. These videos are great even if you aren’t an over night success, even if you aren’t a success.

These 3 are my favorite (although it was hard to pick)

Take time off – I’ve said it before you need your down time but I’m always happy to point out when others say the same thing.  :-)

Don’t believe the hype – I included this one because Chris says – by over night success I mean 10 years of hard work.

Here’s another bag of money – on excuses. We all make excuses that become between us and our goals. Decide what your priorities are. Stop making excuses.
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I’ve been talking and thinking about time management a lot lately (the fabulous Brenda Hough and I are doing a prefconference workshop about it at Internet Librarian) so when I saw this from Zen Habits I knew I had to share it

Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List: a very brief summary

1. You can’t change the subject lines
2. There might be multiple actions in each email
3. You can’t re-order the emails (usually)
4. You can’t prioritize your to-dos
5. An email inbox contains distractions

Go read the whole thing for explanations and suggestions on tools to use for a to-do lists.Similar Posts:

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Nina Smith created this awesome graphic to go with her post How much time does Web 2.0 take?  One of the most common questions or protests new comers to web 2.0 have is about time.  Nina shows how much you can accomplish based on your time commitment.  She’s broken it down nicely in the blog post, too.

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Yesterday I attended a MaintainIT webinar – Using MaintainIT Resources for Technology Training, where they shared some useful information and links.  One of the sites was Infopeople, a nonprofit that archives their presentations and handouts and makes them available under a Creative Commons license!

As I was exploring I came across materials for a previous workshop - Stress Management in the Library Workplace.  There are a lot of workshops listed but since my post – Library usage will go up during a recession – management are you really prepared? is still getting a lot of hits, I thought I’d share this one specifically. You can download the PowerPoint presentation, some exercise and these handouts:

• The “Bakers Dozen” – How to Reduce Stress
• Relieving Stress through Exercise
• Stress Relief through Nutrition
• Stress Relief and Sleeping Habits – 10 Tips for Better Sleep
• Symptoms of Stress and Causes of Stress
• Seven Quick Tips for Time Management

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I’ve seen some interesting conversations pop up online lately about FriendFeed vs Twitter, if spending time on Friendfeed killed your blog, (or not) that feedreaders are dead.

Here is the thing, most of us don’t have that much time to spend online, networking, learning, creating content, whatever.  I remember Helene Blowers talking about taking 15 minutes each day to read blogs, to stay informed.  I gave myself 30.  There are only so many hours in the day, and so many of them are taken up with other things, so really it doesn’t leave me much time to spend online (we can’t all be Robert Scoble).  So sacrifices are made.  I know where I spend my 30 each morning.  

But I want to know where do you spend yours?  You’ve got 30 minutes today, only 30 minutes where will you spend it?

[polldaddy poll=1357900]
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