Library Stuff

Steve Matthews picks up on my post yesterday about the high number of librarian bloggers as compared to other professions and says:

“[E]ven if Librarians are only ‘one of the largest groups’ blogging, that’s cool! And coming from a profession that’s needed a kick in the ‘ol profile department for a while, the trend of Blogging Librarians may just represent our branding emancipation! We need to establish ourselves as a smart tech-info-business-savvy group, and we’re doing that, via the blog. The same way Lawyers are adding the human elements of trust & understanding to their profession, via the blog.”

Yup!

Today, Ask rolled out RSS Smart Answers, a quick way to read the latest posts from a blog when an Ask.com web search is performed for one. Lovely.

So that’s what Gary wanted to show me when he e-mailed me yesterday. I was wondering. Also, it must be noted again that Gary Price is doing wonders for librarianship at his role of Director of Online Resources at Ask. I love that title!

Many have asked where I find all of the librar* blogs that I post on the lists. Easy. I spend 12 hours a day scouring the web for them. What, did you think I did it any other way?

Actually, I find many of them on blogrolls from other librar* blogs. I have about 400 in an OPML file and subscribe to over 300 of them. Sometimes they also mention other librar* blogs on their blogs. It’s the circle of life.

I also get many submissions.

Last, I use Technorati (Well, since PubSub isn’t around anymore, what would you expect I would use – they kicked our butt in this space) to find links to not only Library Stuff, but to other librar* blogs that get mucho link love.

And that’s how I do it. Now you can do it too.

It might be a stretch, but I hope to make it to Library Camp East 2006. Darien is not that far from where I live (just a hop across the LI Sound, and I really want to meet some of these awesome folk like Mr. Blyberg and see people that I haven’t chatted with in a while (the downside of not traveling as much). Plus, to see Alan Kirk Grey again will be a thrill.

If you are on the East Coast, think about attending. I sure will. I’ve always wanted to attend an unconference.

Update – I’ve signed up, but probably won’t be able to attend because I will be doing a full day training the day after. I can’t miss work two days in a row. It just won’t happen. (Grumble)

Barbie just passed along a blog called Live from an Israeli bunker:

“A live blog from an Israeli bunker via laptop and wifi. Provides a unique and unprecedented insight into the rapidly escalating situation in the middle east. Experience the events thru the eyes of the people who live them, and perhaps get an idea of how it’s really like over here. This is much more human and accurate then the major news channels.”

I’ve been very saddened about what is happening in Lebanon and Israel. We visited Israel after graduating high school and have pictures from the Lebonese border (This was right after the Persian Gulf War, so it was relatively quiet at the border in the summer of 1992). I’m not getting into politics here, just wanted to note this blog for those interested. The pictures are stunning and disturbing.

The Skokie Public Library has a Flickr account and is creating READ posters. The great part about these posters is who posed for them. Senator Barack Obama, Senator Dick Durbin, The Mayor of Skokie George Van Dusen, and more! Way to go Skokie PL, working the community, political, and marketing angle in one fell swoop!

Speaking of the Skokie Public Library, their What’s New page screams out for an RSS Feed.

One last Flickr note: Many of you have been e-mailing me links to your library Flickr accounts. Lots of you. Tons of you! I’ll do a round up this weekend, so send them to me by Saturday night if you want your library included.

There’s lots to say about this article from the Manawatu Standard about the arrest of a librarian on drunk drive charges:

1) The subtitle states, “When it came to breath alcohol readings, the assistant librarian was top shelf.” – very clever!

2) From the article: “He said she was returning from an extended lunch when the accident occurred.” – I hope she wasn’t on lunch from work!

3) Here’s the kicker: “As she was a part-time librarian, she had little ability to pay fines. She could, however, do community work.” – Wowza! I’m going to try that line when I get pulled over. I can picture what I would say…

…“I’m sorry officer, I can’t my fine. You know I’m just a librarian, right? I have 5 cats at home that need to get fed”.

Interesting figures from the Guardian on Internet particpation:

“Bradley Horowitz of Yahoo points out that much the same applies at Yahoo: in Yahoo Groups, the discussion lists, “1% of the user population might start a group; 10% of the user population might participate actively, and actually author content, whether starting a thread or responding to a thread-in-progress; 100% of the user population benefits from the activities of the above groups,” he noted on his blog in February.”

This make sense. As the new Web takes form (we’re not even close folks), these numbers may change. What will be interesting is if they don’t. Will 2.0 be as participatory as we think it will?

Pew is out with a new report today on bloggers (Pew’s got RSS Feeds, if you’re into their work) which will make for interesting train reading tomorrow. From the first page.

“Blogs, the survey finds, are as individual as the people who keep them. However, most bloggers are primarily interested in creative, personal expression – documenting individual experiences, sharing practical knowledge, or just keeping in touch with friends and family.”

We also learn that there is a “small proportion” of professional blogs, which really interests me the most. Is this because of the gazillion MySpace blogs (did they count those?) or because most don’t see blogs as enhancing the work they do as professionals, which, of course, they do.

Most of us work 8-10 hour days. Why are we not blogging about that stuff? Maybe I’ll find out in the report when I read it.

BTW, librarians have, by far, the most professional blogs. My conclusions are by no means scientific. When I was at PubSub, I looked at this stuff all day (Oh, what a wonderful service we could have provided to the industy – ho-hum). Second would have to be the PR bloggers. Third. Maybe the legal profession.

These lists are by far my most popular themed posts ever (and I’ve been blogging for almost 6 years!). I’ve been getting at least 5 e-mails a day from librarians all over the world asking to be placed on the next list post. Of course, I will do just that. It’s so great to hear from you guys. Keep sending in your librar* blogs.

What blows my mind more is that even though these posts are not being written about or linked to by any of my librarian colleagues (I’m not complaining – I’m just saying), the posts continue to gain in popularity. Which means that my blog continues to be read by a large number of librarians. So, thanks!

Also, don’t forget to add your blog to LISWiki, which continues to grow at an astonishing rate.