I took the transcripts from What the Hashtag until about 12:00 today stripped out RT, library, librarians and day and this is the results.

For this one I took the usernames, stripped out spam and me, removed underscores so usernames wouldn’t get broken up.

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• Library Day in the Life Week in Review #libday4
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My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 5/21/2010 thru 5/27/2010. Ok I’ll confess right off the bat, I cheated, there are 12 links this week.  I just couldn’t cut them down. A couple of these deserve their own blog post so shame on me for not giving them the attention they deserve.

1. How (and Why) to Stop Multitasking - great article from Peter Bregman with some clear reasons why you should stop multi-tasking

A study showed that people distracted by incoming email and phone calls saw a 10-point fall in their IQs.

What’s the impact of a 10-point drop? The same as losing a night of sleep. More than twice the effect of smoking marijuana.

Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we’re getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don’t actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process.

Even better are the six things he learned the week he stopped trying to multi-task. I really need to do this

• First, it was delightful.
• Second, I made significant progress on challenging projects
• Third, my stress dropped dramatically.
• Fourth, I lost all patience for things I felt were not a good use of my time.
• Fifth, I had tremendous patience for things I felt were useful and enjoyable.
• Sixth, there was no downside.

2. RT @dmlcentral The Dalai Lama taps Internet and social media to engage in rare direct conversation w/ Chinese citizens – yep the Dalai Lama used Twitter.

3. Explaining racial differences in attitudes towards government use of social media – a brief article from the Pew Internet & American Life Project looking at racial differences in the use of social media.

4. 7 of My Favorite Timeless Tips from the Last 2500 Years

1. “As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.” – Andrew Carnegie
2. “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” – Carl Jung
3. “When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it’s always your choice.” – Wayne Dyer
5. “I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.” “It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” – Gandhi
6. “I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” – Confucius
7. “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

5. RT @kongtemplation: great interview tips for librarians from @lynnemthomas – Tips for Librarian on the job market: 4 tips from the interview stage – a must read for anyone looking for a job

Secret #1: If you have landed an interview, the search committee already believes that you are capable of doing the job as they have described it and as you have indicated on your CV and Cover letter.
Secret #2: Interviews really answer the question “am I willing to work with this particular person every day for the next 10 years?” for good and for ill, on both sides.
Secret #3: The search committee is terrified that you won’t like them, either.
Secret #4: We’re all hoping for The One. The Perfect Gig. The You-Can-Pry-My-Awesome-Job-Out-of-My-Cold-Dead-Hands connection. But mostly? Especially early in our careers, we’re looking for a job that will work pretty well for us, and the search committee is looking for someone to fill their job without making them regret their decision a year or two down the line.

6. “Quitting Facebook is pointless; challenging them to do better is not“ (Another blog post on the topic by moi) via @zephoria

People will not leave Facebook en masse, even if a new site were to emerge. Realistically, if that were enough, they could go to MySpace or Orkut or Friendster or Tribe. But they won’t. And not just because those sites are no longer “cool.” They won’t because they’ve invested in Facebook and they’re still hoping that Facebook will get its act together. Changing services is costly, just like moving apartments or changing jobs or breaking up in general. The deeper the relationship, the harder it is to simply walk away. And the relationship that Facebook has built with many of its users is very very very deep. When transition costs are high, people work hard to change the situation so that they don’t have to transition. This is why people are complaining, this is why they are speaking up. And it’s really important that those in power listen to what it is that people are upset about. The worst thing that those in power can do is ignore what’s going on, waiting for it to go away.

7. RT @VenessaMiemis: smart piece on the meaning of privacy in an information age by @doriantaylor – a must read!

8. good convo about tweeting during presentations Twitter, tweeting and ethics via @woodsiegirl – a great discussion about using Twitter during presentations and meeting on the
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CLIP) a UK-based professional organization for librarians.

9. 6 Reasons Why People Don’t Change, and What to Do About That – another great post from one of my favorite blogs. Here are the six reasons for how to overcome them read the full post

1. You don’t want to change.
2. You don’t feel courageous enough.
3. Your environment is holding you back.
4. You feel like giving up after one or three failures.
5. You don’t feel enough pain yet.
6. You don’t know how to practically make the change.

10 Why Controlling Bosses Have Unproductive Employees

…if your employees consider you a controlling person, even an unconscious thought of you can have a negative effect on their performance. If, for example, they were to happen to subliminally see, out of the corner of their eyes, your name flash for 60 milliseconds, you could expect them to start working less hard. Even if they didn’t intend to slack off.

11. yes! RT @uMCLE: Clay Shirky & Daniel Pink – a terrific conversation about TV, social networking & motivation – I’m a big fan of both of these gentleman and this is a great conversation

12. RT @zephoria: Pew Research confirms that youth care about their reputation. Report: Reputation Management and Social Media My comments:Pew Research confirms that youth care about their reputationSimilar Posts:

• Top Ten Links Week 23
• Top Ten Link Week 49: Dropbox, Tips for the Holidays, Privacy, Trolling, Tech, Speaking, PostPost and more!
• 10 Golden Rules of Social Media

As always conferneces are amazing and intense and I’m left with huge amounts to process when I get home. Here is what I’m thinking about (in bold) & the tweets that inspired it.

• Team Work - RT @jlborgerding: Three things needed in order for the team approach to work – Flexibility (Key!), Creativity, Innovation #cil2010
• Leading from the Middle – RT @lisacarlucci: “Gen X Librarians: Leading From the Middle”http://bit.ly/cil2010genx #cil2010 #genx
• Staff time costs, especially right now. Nothing happens by magic – RT @purlibrarian: Note to self: remember to count staff time costs when planning to adopt new technologies (invisible costs). #cil2010
• Easy is relative. Don’t make others feel bad by saying its easy. – rt @strng_dichotomy Don’t say it’s easy make it easy! Not everyone is comfortable with tech #LMS#CiL2010
• We really need a better catalog. Really.  RT @quinnrosie: “As soon as the user clicks the link to the catalog, they’re in the ghetto.” – John Blyberg. Um, yes. #cil2010 & The Library Catalog Ghetto – Why Apple & Google Win – And Libraries Don’t #CIL2010 - http://bit.ly/ZZMnX
• Innovation doesn’t happen by accident, we must create an environment where it can flourish. – RT @sarah_pants: RT @tminchew: Innovative staff members need to be given positions in the library where they can be change agents. #CIL2010
• Keep on eye on the other hand, ignoring it wont make it go away or less of a threat. – Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.” -C.P. Snow #CIL2010

I love the visualization you get from putting data into wordle.net,  so I put in the tweets from the first day to see how transliteracy faired. Not bad if I do say so myself.  :-) Many thanks to Matt & Buffy for helping create such a wonderful session.

Then for the whole conference

Orginals can be found at:

• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1915394/cil2010_transliteracy
• http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1915406/cil2010_full_conf_best

Similar Posts:

• Gen X Librarians: Leading From the Middle #cil2010
• Libraries and Transliteracy at Computers in Libraries #cil2010
• Information Fluency Keynote #cil2010

CC image used courtesy of holeymoon on flickr

My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 2/12/2010 thru 2/18/2010

1. Why are you for killing libraries? a thought-provoking post from Tim Spalding of LibraryThing questioning why libraries are embracing ebooks, especially when the ebook market is set to cut libraries out of participation.
2. RT @vonburkhardt: New blog post: Ambient Awareness in Twitter for Reference – good suggestions on using Twitter to connect with your community
3. The Future of Media: Framing the Debate – from the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy – “The Federal Communications Commission has launched an examination into the Future of Media and Information Needs of Communities in a Digital Age with a public notice that calls for public input through March 8, 2010.” public input – thats you!
4. RT @VenessaMiemis: people share news online that inspires awe, researchers find – from the New York Times Will You Be E-Mailing This Column? It’s Awesome, we much prefer to share good news than bad news! hurray!
5. Friday Poll: TED Attendees Talk Top Technology Trends – an informal poll from Mashable in which they asked TED attendees – ““What do you think is the most interesting thing happening in technology right now?”
6. 8 Things You Need to Know About Collaboration – great list including number 3. Collaboration is a human process – throwing technology at people won’t magically/automatically create collaboration
7. The 10 Top Reasons Why The 10 Top Reasons Don’t Really Matter - you gotta love a list that debunks lists plus it actually has some good points like number  5. “Not everything that counts can be counted; and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Einstein)
8. Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist for Readers – I don’t care if you love or hate ebooks, as a librarian you need to know about ownership rights, they are different from print books.
9. History of media technology scares, from the printing press to Facebook. – fear that the latest popular technology is a sure sign the world is ending isn’t new.   “Conrad Gessner, might have been the first to raise the alarm about the effects of information overload. In a landmark book, he described how the modern world overwhelmed people with data and that this overabundance was both “confusing and harmful” to the mind.  … he died in 1565.”
10. RT @theREALwikiman: RT @LISNews How close is the library to death? The Unspeakable Truth Ned Potter’s essay for the LISnews essay contest takes a hard look at the place of libraries in the future. Be sure to read the comments too

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• Top Ten Links Week 9
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cc image used courtesy of Leo Reynolds on flickr

My personally selected top 10 from the links I shared on Twitter from 1/22/2010 thru 1/28/2010

1. “Your Brain Can’t Handle Your Facebook Friends” – great article from Mashable using Dunbar’s Number to explain why you can’t keep up with more than 150 Facebook Friends. I’m guess that applies to Twitter as well.
2. Social Technology & an Innovative Intranet can Increase Employee Productivity give stats & examples, reminds me I need to finish my follow up post to Control is an Illusion You Need to Let Go
3. “from social media to social action: when awareness isn’t enough.” – remember while social media helps create awareness of issues, awareness does not equal action. No retweeting or sharing on Facebook does not count as action, despite what all the women who posted their bra color might think.
4. you buy wine, kids get books, its win win for everybody, even if its bad wine you can give it as gifts – nuf said
5. iPad is iBad for freedom – from Free Software Foundation – a must read if you care about DRM & open source & open access. While you’re at it read these: 8 Things That Suck About the iPad and The Problem with the Apple iPad like how I snuck 2 extra links in there?
6. Programme Transliteracy Conference 9 Feb 2010 - I am so sad I wasn’t able to find funding to attend this, I’ll be following closely online.
7. The Seth Godin Uber Echo Disaster! – I know I blogged about the echo chamber earlier this week, but I hope you’re still thinking about it.
8. The Relevance Economy: Why mattering matters. – an interesting read on the relevance of things, it is all relative.
9. google voice for iphone – RT @kenleyneufeld: Just tested and it works perfectly. Here’s a better link direct from god. – google voice is finally on the iphone
10. @curiouschild have you seen this? - monkeys are involved and my infatuation with Monkeys is well documented.

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• Top Ten Links Week 5
• Top Ten Links Week 14
• Top Ten Links Week 12

cc image used courtesy of Leo Reynolds on flickr

If you follow me on Twitter you know I share and retweet a lot of links.  I don’t know how you treat Twitter but if I’m not paying attention when something is shared I miss it. So I’ve been thinking I need a way to share those links ones on the blog.  I thought I’d try to blog a best of the best of Twitter blog post each Friday.

I really don’t want to do an automatic recap of my Twitter posts each week and force you to wade through all of my conversations, so I’ll be hand selecting the 10 best links each week.  I hope this is useful. Please feel free to let me know of any links you think deserve to be in the list!

1. New Year’s Resolutions – four New Years resolutions all librarians should be making. yes, really, even you.
2. Trends and Technology Timeline 2010+
3. Because it’s that good: 10 Exciting Ways To Waste Your Training Dollars
4. Jenica’s IOLUG speaker’s notes on online identity – you’re online you should be thinking about your identity, Jenica offers some great tips and information.
5. XO-3 concept design is here! this looks so awesome how could you not want one?
6. 5 Reasons Why RSS Readers Still Rock – even though I weeded mine during my break I still rely on it heavily, I just can’t be on Twitter every moment of every day.
7. 10 Librarian Blogs To Read in 2010 – because we all need more blogs in our FeedReader
8. The Future of Reading: Don’t worry. It might be better than you think. – great article a must read. My favorite quote “Always deny the apocalypse, John. You’ll usually be right, and when you’re wrong, no one will be left to say, ‘I told you so.’”
9. 8 Things Every Geek Needs to Do Before 2010 – I know it’s already 2010 but if you haven’t done these things you need to!
10. Quotable Facts About America’s Libraries - the new Quotable Facts from ALA is out. Did you know Americans spend more than twice as much on candy as they do on public libraries?

QMBJXWWWB9EPSimilar Posts:

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Whether you are teaching a class, helping a friend or just looking for information for yourself these guides from Mashable are a great resource.

The Facebook Guide topics include:

• Facebook 101: The Basics
• Managing Your Facebook Wall
• Using Facebook for Business
• How to become a fan of Mashable
• Using Facebook Applications
• Facebook 305:Advanced Topics

Twitter Guide topics include:

• Twitter 101 – The Basics
• Building Your Twitter Community
• Twitter for Business
• Twitter Guide Book To Go: PDF Download and Slideshow
• Sharing on Twitter
• Managing Your Twitter Stream

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• 5 Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook from ReadWriteWeb
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Voting ends Wednesday December 18th. Yes even you library people. You’ll find some great new blogs to read and trust me there are names in there you’ll recognize!

The Edublog Award Categories….

1. Best individual blog
2. Best individual tweeter
3. Best group blog
4. Best new blog
5. Best class blog
6. Best student blog
7. Best resource sharing blog
8. Most influential blog post
9. Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
10. Best teacher blog
11. Best librarian / library blog
12. Best educational tech support blog
13. Best elearning / corporate education blog
14. Best educational use of audio
15. Best educational use of video / visual
16. Best educational wiki
17. Best educational use of a social networking service
18. Best educational use of a virtual world
19. Lifetime achievement

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• Voting for the Edublog Awards is Open
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• Show Your Support, Donate

My Nominations for The 2009 Edublog Awards are:

Best individual tweeter – Marianne Lenox and her blog
Best new blog - Emergent by Design by Venessa Miemis
Best resource sharing blog – Librarian in Black
Best librarian / library blog – The Unquiet Librarian by Buffy Hamilton

Deadlines for nominations is Tuesday 8 December!  Then the voting begins, ending Wednesday 16 December! Award Ceremony: Friday 18. So make your nominations today! PS there are more categories than I listed.

Found out about the Awards on Information Wants to Be FreeSimilar Posts:

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CC image courtesy of Bill Gracey - Gone to Mexico on flickr

The issue of control comes up over and over again when we talk about the online world. It recently it came up at Internet Librarian in many different ways, including:

• How do I stop a staff member from wasting time on Facebook?
• How do we control what staff are saying online?
• Management wants everything posted online (Twitter, Facebook, blogs etc) to go through PR.
• We don’t want employees to be able to access social networking sites?
• What about privacy?
• We can’t allow just anyone to post a comment without approving it first.
• How do we know a student is who they say they are?

I have answers to all of these questions, but these questions aren’t what this is about, what they represent is, control. Or the illusion of control.

The desire for control comes from fear. Fear of change, of the unknown, of doing things differently, of a situation not created by us, of taking risks. It is human nature to fear these things, it’s how we’ve survived.  So is adaptation and times are changing, just as they always do, and we need to adapt.

In the internet age your image/brand no longer belongs to you. It belongs to your customers. The things they have always been saying are now online for the whole world to see. The content and commentary they post about you may rank higher in search engines than your site or content. You can’t stop them. Every attempt you make will be like fighting the Hydra, cut off a head, two will grow back. I promise.

Prevent comments on your website? They’ll start their own blog or Twitter account or website. Implement a filter to block social networking sites? They will find a way around it (and you’re cutting off your nose to spite your face).

Stop wasting time trying to get control, you might be fooling your boss or the board or yourself, but you are not fooling your staff or more importantly your customers. Better yet, when you stop spending time trying to get control or pretending that you have it, it frees you and your time to address the real issues.

Still not ready to let go? Think about these questions from Andrew McAfee :

• Are you ready and willing to let more internal voices communicate and shape your brand over time?
• If not, why not?
• Is it that you don’t trust your people, or your customers?
• Is it that you don’t want any negativity at all to appear on your digital properties?
• Or is it that you’re afraid there might be too much negativity?

Still not convinced? Or need to convince someone else? Try reading these:

• The Illusion of Brand Control
• Power And The Illusion Of Control
• M.I.T. Taking Student Blogs to Nth Degree
• Case Study: Setting Content Free at Ford Motor Company
• What you can control and what you can’t.
• Social Media and The Reality of Control
• On Social Media And Culture Shift
• Why the 54% of companies blocking access to social media should unblock
• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change

*Up Next – What you can do after you’ve accepted control is an illusion.Similar Posts:

• How to Monitor Your Personal Brand (For Free)
• How social media can hurt your library
• The Hazards of Leading Culture Change