Great Translation Resources for Your Library

From Libraries and Autism come some GREAT resources to help you communicate with diverse populations. Check out this page for some great resources, especially the Library Special Needs Communication Guide - a non-verbal communication tool. Here you'll find the English word, a pictorial representation, translation to Spanish, and the finger spelling in Sign. Please check this stuff out and make it available to front line staff in your library!

Library Programming Idea - What to do with Old CDs and DVDs

Go over and read this post from Techsoup filled with information about what to do with old CDs and DVDs. And check out this Lifecycle of a CD poster. Lots to learn about these future coasters for your cups...

ALA 2008 - Virtual Library 2.0 Cafe Webinar on Saturday

I will actually be in Anaheim CA for ALA on Saturday... virtually that is. The great folks at WebJunction were kind enough to ask me to help by being one of the table hosts for their Library 2.0 Cafe. I was sad to tell them I could not do so as I was not going to ALA. But then, they asked if I'd be willing to help them out virtually. How cool!

Read the WHOLE post all about how this will work on BlogJunction. I really think this is going to be an exciting experiment and I hope some of you can join in. I will be helping out in the Wimba Classroom by moderating and facilitating all the chat coming in.

They put together a nice menu and glossary you should check out. Also, their wiki has the coolest stuff. My favorite, a link to Web2.0 Top 100 resources which is awesome!

Okay, last thing... I stumbled on something called Wordle today which is "a toy for generating word clouds from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text." So, to give you some eye candy to bring you virtually to this Cafe with me, I took the glossary mentioned above and put all the text from it into their generator. Here is a "picture" of what will be discussed at this cafe (click it to see a larger version). Now come on - you DON'T want to miss this...



"See" you there!

YouTube for Nonprofits

Watch this video to prove that YouTube isn't just about "dancing cats"! Get more information at their Agent Change site for nonprofits.



Thanks to techsoup's post about this.

Kansas Spanish Language Outreach Project

I've been following what other people in other states have been doing for their Spanish Outreach workshops. Here is a great link to some hints on Spanish Collection Development. Check it out.

Build a House with Weeded Books

Don't know what to do with all of the books you just weeded? Why not get creative like they did at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County? Check out the house they built. Just look at the expression of joy in those kids faces - what a great idea. Thanks Library Trainer, Lori Reed, for sharing these heartfelt photos.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Well, it was quite a production here at the System Office back on 5/9/08. Renee Christiansen, Youth Services Coordinator, received the Very Hungry Caterpillar costume. You should have seen all of the stuff that goes into this costume PLUS a big manual. There was a fan that pumped air and sticks to keep the antennae up. It was something else.

(UPDATE: Since so many want to know...this costume came from Costume Specialists. Check it out.)

First, some VERY poor quality videos from my OLD cell phone. First, the attempt to get INTO the costume with Laura's (from Special Services)help:



Next, John Ditmore from IT tries to help get the thing inflated. Help, I'm melting...



Finally, success as the Caterpillar fills with air. The back of the costume sits on a little dolly with wheels, look at it go...



Apparently, we were one of the first to use this costume and it was quite a success. Bye bye Very Hungry Caterpillar, aren't you cute!?

Quote of the Day

“Some people say information is power. Baloney. Information SHARING is power!”

Spoken by Vint Cerf (father of the Internet) at SLA 2008. Thanks to BlogJunction for delivering this great quote my way. You'll be seeing it in my email signature. Read the whole post here - sure wish I had been in the audience!

Motto For Learning Librarians

I was in a planning session online today for WebJunction's Library 2.0 Roundtable session at this year's ALA conference. Hopefully I'll be able to contribute virtually during the session. This will be cool and I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, during the session, Louise Alcorn, Reference Technology Library from West Des Moines Public Library shared her motto with the rest of us. I LOVE IT:

"When librarians work together, our superpowers increase exponentially!"

So unite everyone, overtake the world of information. Do it now!

Social Media in Plain English

CommonCraft has done it again. Their instructional videos are wonderful. Go check out their latest one: Social Media in Plain English. As you watch it, think libraries and programming instead of ice cream - it works!!

Duke Street Business Center is on Facebook

I love when web2.0 hits home! Congrats to Stacey Rae Brownlie, Business Reference Librarian at the Duke Street Business Center at the Lancaster Public Library for creating a Facebook Page for the center. Now hurry up and become a fan. I'm proud to say that I was the first fan. Truly, this has made my day. Note: you must be on Facebook to become a fan, why not join? Add me as your friend by going here.

Geek Chic

Well, I have found the site I will go to when I strike it rich, Home Decor for Absolute Geeks. Though I don't consider myself an ABSOLUTE geek, I do have many geeky qualities. The magnetic curtains and ridable vacuum cleaner really put me over the top!

Tag Galaxy

Go over and take a look at the Tag Galaxy... it's okay, I'll wait.

Isn't that AMAZING? I typed in the word "library" and related tags came floating by like planets orbiting the main tag. When I hovered my mouse over the main planet (tag=library)it told me 303,215 photos were available. This all comes from flickr tags. So I refined my search by clicking the related tags. So then I clicked on the "public" related tag. 26,566 photos are available for the "library + public" tag. I kept refining and ended up with "library + public + architecture + building + city + downtown" and ended up with 37 photos. These pop up around the planet and then I could click on each one - eventually it gives me a link to that flickr page. This is a beautiful interface. I wish they provided a link to explain who did this and how it works. What a cool way to search for flickr photos!

Try Pecha Kucha

Here's a great programming idea for libraries - a Pecha Kucha night. I first heard about this when I was catching up online with the presentations done at this year's Computers in Libraries conference. One of the presentations was called Session C205 – 2.0 Pecha Kucha—Conversation Face-Off! The session description stated:

"Pecha Kucha is Japanese for the sound of conversation and represents a fast-paced series of presentations. Each of our panelists has 6 minutes and 40 seconds along with 20 images to express their opinion about 2.0 technologies. Each takes a view—IM, podcasts, wikis, videocasts, Facebook, and, of course, the skeptic. See if they can do it and then join in the conversation about 2.0 technology tools and tricks."

You can view the presentation here. Very cool idea.

So I started looking around, and libraries are now using this innovative idea as programming in their libraries. Pick a topic, invite people from the public to present following the rules, and there you go. Would be a very fun event! Read more about it here and here.