This is an interesting take on Web 2.0, but from a librarian’s viewpoint I found it doubly so. 

It’s a video - The Machine is us/ing us.  (which I came across via Stephen Downes)

I want to turn the progression of ideas around, though.  Yes the machine is using us, but “we” (and I’d like to see that read as librarians too) are teaching the machine.  And I think the machine still has a lot to learn from the library profession. 

In light of a discussion I was reading recently about tagging and subject headings, I think we as librarians are also learning from the whole process as we go. 

Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year 2006

The Australian School Library Association Inc. (ASLA) and Pledger Consulting Pty Ltd (LinksPlus/Weblinks) have pleasure in announcing the winner of the 2006 Australian Teacher Librarian of the Year Award – Carol Miller from Hamilton Secondary College, Mitchell, South Australia.This national award recognises and honours an exceptional Australian teacher librarian in a school setting whose professional practice has a positive impact on student achievement and information literacy. ASLA describes the role of a teacher librarian as having three key professional specialisations: Curriculum leader, Information specialist, and Information services manager

>>>more

I watched, with interest, the discussion among school librarians in America after the spate of attacks on schools recently.  They were having to consider locking their libraries.  Obviously school libraries, and probably school buildings, are very different from the ones I’m used to here.  I guess I knew that, but had never considered it in these terms before.  It is a huge issue, because so many describe themselves as having no walls and some had no doors.

I grieve for a situation where we have to lock our school doors, although “lock-down” practice has been a part of school life for several years now.    And I was heartened by the ironic humour that permeated the posts of the school librarians, as it always does.

But I will always remember the concept of a “library without doors” – tickles my imagination! 

http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2006/

Fri 1st – Sat 2nd Dec 2006

The John Niland Scientia Building,

UNSW [Sydney]

Announcing the International Keynote Speaker: Joan Frye Williams http://www.jfwilliams.com/ [Proudly sponsored by the National Library of Australia]

The NLS2006 committee is pleased to announce our International Keynote Speaker, Joan Frye Williams,internationally recognised library futurist and designer of innovative library services. As a technology consultant, planner and trainer, Joan will challenge delegates by asking them to explore ways that new service models can help us meet our users’ changing expectations in ways that add real value and preserve our role as library professionals.

Information is Not Enough: Shaping the User Experience will get Day 2 of NLS2006 off to a dynamic and exciting start and provide advice on how to keep customer satisfaction up and your own blood pressure down by providing a top quality user experience.

Visit http://conferences.alia.org.au/newlibrarian2006/ for more information.ectang at optusnet dot com dot au

I’m sure you were aware of the X and Y and the Millenial Generation, if that is what the Connected Generation (see below) is.  This article presents the Connected Generation in light of 10 “cravings” – useful to us as librarians, as StephenB comments …

a worthwhile read for us as we always need to find better ways to promote our services and resources to our new generations of library users.

Baby Boomers may still hold the purse strings, but these savvy 18-40-year-olds are changing the way all of us do business. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a rock band, a fashion designer, a nonprofit organization, or a sporting goods outlet, you and your team need to understand what makes the Connected Generation tick. Why the Connected Generation? They’re connected to technology and their social networks around the clock. They’re all but immune to traditional advertising and will only pull in the products and services that they want. In fact, this group of primarily Gen X and Y consumers has 10 highly specific cravings that drive their behavior.

Read on …

Update …

I clicked “publish” and then remembered Guy Kawasaki’s post from a few weeks back on

a panel with … six Silicon Valley young adults whose ages ranged from fifteen to twenty four.

in a post he called “Is Advertising dead?”  He quoted some fascinating ”factoids” about this group,  eg.

• How they use computers—and Microsoft Office!
• The surprisingly high degree to which they resent being “marketed to.”

and commented,

The bottom line message is that before you waste your marketing dollars, you should watch what the panelists had to say about these topics:

We will, we will… and we can add it to The Shifted Librarian’s  panellist responses … Here is just a chunk from a fascinating post. 

would you come if we offer library workshops? what kind would attract you?
second panelist – we find out information on the internet, so we wouldn’t come; for example, she learned how to knit on the internet; most wouldn’t come to the library and sit through a 60 minute session
third panelist – there are Flash programs and movies that you can download to your laptop to learn; much more about convenience; I don’t have to go the library to learn something, although if you give us candy, we will come

so you would use Flash tutorials online to learn how to use the library?
third panelist – oh, yeah; I would much rather do that; it’s easier for me; I could do that from my dorm room

do you think you need to learn more about the library or do you think you can get by?
third panelist – we’re very trial-and-error based; “I can guarantee you that if I don’t figure something out the first time, I guarantee you I’ll get it the third or fourth time”
second panelist -

would you be willing to ask those questions more over IM?
first panelist – don’t like face-to-face interactions; might use IM; many use phone; easier to get your thoughts together in email, too
second panelist – they did a survey at her library and most said email over IM; email, chat, phone, person as preferred methods
third panelist – email is more on your time; on chat I’m wasting your time; I would use chat for that but I would prefer email; I might use IM

in email, do you want answer or to teach you how to do it?
all – we just want the answer

But, in the end, it is our own users that we must consider first and foremost – ref the post by the Gypsy Librarian.  He commented on the observation that Joy made, when she was promoting their IM Service 

Most students said “cool!” There were a surprising number, however, who said “I don’t do that.”

I’m motivated to post by an article in this month’s Incite, the ALIA news magazine (I can’t link to the article, though, because it’s not included on the net).  The title was “What do an Apple store and a library have in common?”  Interesting that the Future of Public Libraries conference should have the architect of the Apple stores speaking.  Do we have something to learn from him?  It’s a direction that excites me.

Probably because I went into librarianship as an introvert, expecting to work in a back room.  Life in a one-person library soon put a stop to that and I learnt very quickly that I had to put personality into the job. 

This also meant that I watched with interest the discussion on LMNet (a discussion list for American teacher-librarians), recently, about the personality required in librarians by employers, and whether librarians should be “bubbly.”