TWIT

I just finished listening to This Week In Tech's latest podcast (#144) titled "The FBI vs. The Internet" - Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive spoke about a national security letter given to the Internet Archive. This was most interesting to listen to and pertinent to libraries as you can hear a real example of what the government is capable of doing these days. Read all about this in Wired's story "Senators Ask FBI to Explain Flawed 'National Security Letter' to Internet Archive"

Fearless Employee Workshop

This came through the PADLC (Commonwealth of PA: District Library Centers) listserv this week. Sounds good, maybe you can go? Pat Wagner is a great trainer, check out her site.

Join us for an exciting workshop, "How to Be a Fearless Employee: Risk, Influence, Vision, and Choice" given by Pat Wagner on Friday June 20, 2008 from 9:00-3:00 at the Casino at Lakemont Park in Altoona. Deadline to register is June 4, 2008.

The following handout includes workshop agenda, registration, and cost information. For further information or questions please contact: Mary Lou Repsher, repsherml@cclib.lib.pa.us; Amy Horell, dlc@altoonalibrary.org; or Tracy Carey, tcarey@schlowlibrary.org.

How to Be a Fearless Employee:
Risk, Influence, Vision, and Choice

Presented by Pat Wagner,
Pattern Research Inc.

Friday June 20, 2008
9:00-3:00
The Casino at Lakemont Park
Altoona, PA

What does it take to be a fearless library employee:
someone who is confident, friendly, productive, calm,
positive and good humored, despite a rapidly changing
library workplace?

Join us to learn how to improve your ability to:
* Deal with uncertainty *
* Influence the future direction of your library *
* Create new opportunities *

2008 Multi-District Workshop
Presented by Altoona, Central PA, and Johnstown District Centers
Sponsored by Commonwealth Libraries of PA with LSTA funds.

For directions visit www.casinoatlakemont.com

2008 Multi-District Workshop
How to Be a Fearless Employee

Name:_____________________________________________________________________________


Email:_____________________________________________________________________________


Library:____________________________________________________________________________


District:____________________________________________________________________________

Cost is $22.00 per person. Registration deadline: June 4, 2008

To register, mail form to: Mary Lou Repsher, Cambria County Library, 248 Main Street, Johnstown, PA 15901

Please make checks payable to Cambria County Library.

For more information contact:
repsherml@cclib.lib.pa.us

New Way to Tell Stories Online

Helene Blowers posted about this unique site that offers a digital way to tell stories. The Hard Times story is amazing. I think this way of "reading" really reaches a visual learner like myself. Interesting statistics to make your mind race about what the future holds for us.

Hot Dog Cart Goes Reference

What a cool way to reach the users where they are. See the Ask Cart at Penn State at Berks Thun Library.

From the site:
"The ASK cart (actual hotdog cart) is a mobile library service offered by the Thun Library to provide reference assistance. Designed as a simple, effective and fun approach to faculty and student outreach, the Library Dude aka Billie Walker and other librarians offer on-the-spot information and/or reference assistance outdoors.

Equipped with wireless laptop and various goodies (highlighters, candy, etc.) the librarians at Berks are increasing visibility and awareness of reference service (one-on-one consultations, specialized databases, etc.) and library resources (podcast, bestsellers, etc). So when you see the ASK cart please give a shout-out to the Library Dude!"

Thanks to Jenny Levine for posting this via Sarah Miller on Facebook.

2008 31 Day Comment Challenge

I don't get a lot of comments on my blog. Mostly because I haven't taken the time to learn how to write a blog to bring about comments and because I don't do a lot of commenting in the blogosphere. But, please, feel FREE to comment at any time on this blog :-)

The other day I received some comments on my Twitter post. Thanks Lori, Marianne and Diane. Turns out they are all participating in the 2008 31 Day Comment Challenge. Diane just posted an Animoto flick of all the places she has been thanks to the challenge. I was pleasantly surprised to see this lil' ol' blog near the very end of the clip. Don't blink, because you might miss it! Thanks Diane! I took a screenshot for you in case you missed it:

Plant Some Trees While Searching the Internet

Ecocho Search engine (powered by Yahoo) pledges to plant two trees for every 1,000 searches made on its site (using funds raised by ads on the site). Thanks to SmartComputing for pointing this one out.

ATTN all Star Wars Fans

Thanks to Joshua for tweeting a link to this. I really know a geek lives inside of me by my reaction to an R2-D2 DVD Projector from NIKKO. If you don't want to sit through the cool video, read the specs here. R2-D2 is just too cute, I WANT! Anyone have $2900 they can spare?

Find People on Twitter

Are you using Twitter? I've been using it for almost a year now. At first I thought, "I really don't care when so and so is getting a latte!" But now I can see all of the benefits. Now that I have built up quite a network of library and technology professionals, when I have a question, I can just throw it out to my Twitter network and within minutes I usually get an answer or some advice. It's wonderful.

Today, Jeremiah twittered about a cool tool to find people to follow on Twitter. It's called, Who Should I Follow. I decided to check it out. WOW, it works really well. My list included many library professionals that I don't yet follow. Nothing on the site explains how this "magic" happens but I assume it looks at who I am already following and then looks at who they follow and brings back the people that match best. Pretty cool. If you use Twitter, check it out. If you don't, why not take the plunge?

Want to learn more about Twitter. Check out CommonCraft's great video explanation.

Richard Dreyfuss on Civic Engagement

I have to admit I'm a big Richard Dreyfuss fan. You know, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Mr. Holland's Opus, The Goodbye Girl, American Graffiti... So, when I heard he was coming to speak at my alma mater, Millersville University, I HAD to go! Then I found out what he was going to speak about: civic engagement. Hmmm, I had no idea what that meant, but hey, I want to see Richard Dreyfuss. So I looked it up on wikipedia and decided to go.

He spoke last Thursday night (4/24/08) and our local paper did a nice write-up. I was so far back in the audience I didn't even notice his bandaged head and hand; hope he's okay. I felt a little sheepish sitting there in the audience with my camera, Close Encounters Special Edition DVD and sharpie hoping for a picture and autograph when the focus was to be on civic engagement and the Walker Center and CCERP (Civic and Community Engagements and Research Project.

I was totally blown away by his talk and felt inspired to run out and scream in school hallways to TEACH CIVICS and TEACH IT WELL! You see, I HATED any type of history or civics classes in high school and did not do well in them at all. Looking back, I think the teachers I had just weren't excited about it either. But, man, if Mr. Dreyfuss had been my teacher, I may have gotten into politics (NOT). Anyway, I just wanted to share his initiatives with you and hope I can inspire my daughter to pay more attention to this stuff when she's learning it. Hopefully, I'll learn it too! You
can find a bunch of information about all of this by just doing a Google Search.

No, I didn't get to meet him :-( But using my pathetic little camera I took a poor video of him, but what he says in the clip is great. Turn up your volume and you may be able to hear it too.

Happy RSS Awareness Day

It is a day to celebrate RSS = Really Simple Syndication. If you don't know what RSS is and you're not using it, PLEASE go to RSSday.org. This site quickly explains it to you. Never again will you have to go to websites and search for new content. Have it brought directly to you - just like your morning newspaper.

Common Craft has a great video to help you learn about it too: