spring is springing fo sho

it's been a helluva week and it's only Wednesday!

dad survived surgery; grandma Terry survived a heart attack; I passed comps; I'm having a vacation day tomorrow to take advantage of the incredible weather and clean up my yard while I have dad's truck since he's recovering from his surgery; I saw my good friend Kate Kelly for the first time in her professional position as the Tahlequah Chamber of Commerce Tourism Director (freaks me out a little) you can see her, too redfernfestival.com (be sure to let the video load); I had Starbucks once and Qdobe 2x; I helped a friend with a door and met her fab little dog; I have great neighbors; I have the best co-workers; I had great conversations about tonic and it's future; the list goes on and on and on

Yup - it's been a helluva week and it's only Wednesday

this is too sweet

Kathryn Lybarger, as part of Blue 2.0, made the sweetest little video ever. It suits her, too. She's a woman of few words but mighty when she uses them. The creation reflects the creator.

Blue 2.0 - the final episode

So....I believe the last thing that's required for Blue 2.0 is a flickr account, a podcast, and a YouTube video review.

Here's the short and the long of it......

Flickr = http://www.flickr.com/photos/tahlequah8/

Podcast = http://www.wuky.org/tonic choose any podcast that lists me in the blurb (I suggest going through the literary archives and listening to the 3 part Rita May Brown interview - it was one of my earliest and still one of the best.

YouTube =


a blast from the past. See if you recognize anyone you know. :-) That's really the only comment I'll make. Prolly the only one I need to make.

Blue 2.0 update

I've been a bit pre-occupied of late but am taking the opportunity to update a bit on our Blue 2.0 requirements.

MySpace: I've had an account for well over a year - probably 2, in fact. It's been long enough that I can't remember when I did it. Here's the URL: http://www.myspace.com/kopana I use my Blogspot blog for blogging, not MySpace, and I never did much of it there either. Until recently, and I've said this before, I just didn't see the point - my life is extremely busy. So, I'm busy living it instead of writing about it. However, there are certain things a blog is great for but....not on MySpace.

Here's the deal - I don't like all the ads and I don't like that I have to login all the dang time. I don't really care for all the cutesy stuff either - the little emoticons and moods and all that. However, I do think it's a great place if you're a musician or other artist that needs a web presence and you don't have the resources to have your own domain - for whatever reason. I also think kids love it and love hanging out with each other in this virtual space. Personally, I'd rather go out for dinner - it surely tastes better than licking the screen but...to each his/her own I guess.

Anyway, I've got a few friends but I haven't gone out of my way to collect them. I know people who just horde all these friends like it's the next big thing and, I guess for them, it is. It just never took over me like that.

Then there's Facebook - I feel the same way about it as I do MySpace. I hate to sound so poo poo about it all but I just do not have the time to devote to either one to the degree that so many people do. But I'll tell you the truth - my biggest issue with both of them is the whole logging in, logging out business. See, with Blogspot it's simple because I used Firefox's Scribe add-on to publish directly to the blog and never have to login. Oh sure, I could do it with MySpace, too, but Blogspot looks better - but wait, we were talking about Facebook weren't we?

Yeah, well, I think I've said all I should say about either of them for fear my friends will leap out of the screen and choke me. But please don't Poke me - that damn superpoke stuff gets on my last nerve. I have a friend in VA who tries to Superpoke me all the dang time, throw tire irons at me, send Santa to flip me off, God knows what else - I got so tired of being poked I just stopped playing. Remember what I said about not having time for this?

I just sound like a total stick in the mud, don't I? I swear, I'm not. I'm just busy.

I did Classmates.com so many years ago I don't have a clue what my name or password are now - which should tell you what I thought of it.

As a third alternative, I signed in to Linkedin - I've come across a few people who are "linkedin" just recently and find that it could be a really, really useful tool. As long as they make it easy and quick, I'm good to go. In fact, here's the url: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kopana

I like it! I'll probably try Ning and Orkut later when I'm not so tired. But now me thinks there's something good on the History Channel (And why, or why, can't we get History International in Lexington without paying out the nose for it? It's sooooooooo good)

enough already

re-inventing the library

Yesterday I had a very engaging conversation with two co-workers. One has been a librarian for 20+ years starting in reference; today she's directing the efforts of Preservation and Digital Programs. That trajectory of positions may not, on the surface, make much sense but, given the changing landscape of technology in libraries, it makes perfect sense. The other is the head of Digital Programs proper who has worked diligently over the last 8-10 years, sometimes as a one-man show, to build important, lasting content for the digital arena. So it was with great interest that I listened to these two very different people, who take very different approaches to both content creation and management, be a somewhat united front in the face of problems libraries face in how to better engage users and, perhaps more importantly, remain relevant in the face of the Googles of the information world.

This morning, I read a recent article in the Educause Review from Peter Brantley, Executive Director for the Digital Library Federation (DLF), wherein he said, verbatim, what one of my co-workers said--which just happened to be the thing that stuck in my mind from yesterday's conversation:

"No one goes to libraries to find things anymore."

Sounds fatalistic, doesn't it? But it's true -- sad, but very true. The whole of Brantley's thought says (which is not quite as verbatim as the co-worker's single sentence but pretty darn close):

"Digital library collections are useless unless they’re seen. No one
goes to libraries to find things anymore. That is the rightful business
of search engines; it is what they do well. Libraries must work to make
their collections easily discovered by people—not just by sophisticated
librarians. They must be able to open up access to their collections
through many different doors. Libraries must be available everywhere."

Brantley says a lot of other interesting things - things that will surely piss off a lot of traditionalists. But part of our conversation yesterday not only involved where libraries need to go but why we haven't done it yet. Brantley doesn't answer this question quite as pointedly as yesterday's conversation --He sort of tiptoes around it-- but our talk shot straight to the heart. The most intriguing pontification I heard is that librarianship offers a home for certain personality types; those who are forward thinking, adaptable and welcoming of change; and those who hate change even at the expense of their own demise. The latter may be why Brantley says;

"Those of us in the library field have not done a good job of letting go
of the way that we have defined ourselves in the past. We have not done
a good job of redefining ourselves in the world today...And we have not
actively innovated in important areas that will help define our
existence and our own preservation in the years ahead."

The one thing Brantley says, and what I have believed from the start of my journey in digital libraries, is that the relationship with IT, whether it be campus IT or library IT, is the relationship to foster; besides funding, it is the single most important facet of library livelihood in existence today, though, sadly, it is the relationship that has lagged the furthest behind all others (probably because libraries have such a hard time changing from who we were to who we need to be).

I can't speak to other libraries and their IT situations but it has been my experience that IT is the single most detrimental force holding back the forward motion of library digital initiatives. I'm not talking about "digital libraries" as the textbooks define it but, rather, the library as an information entity in the modern world. You can have all the forward thinking, innovative, smart ideas you want but a lackluster, stubborn, unimaginative, understaffed IT department will bring forward momentum to a screeching halt with one fell swoop. I've seen it happen. People get mad, they get their feelings hurt, all the personal crap comes out and still nobody stands up and talks about the elephant in the room. You have to have an IT department that is innovative, properly staffed, and knowledgeable about today's library environment or you're gonna get run over, plain and simple. Libraries, on their own, can not make the technological changes they need to survive. It takes IT expertise to turn ideas into reality. Most librarians aren't programmers and, those rare few who are, don't have time to both shepherd their jobs and invent/create necessary technologies!

Finally, Brantley says:

"...these are not “library problems.” These problems are shared by IT
communities. They are shared by publishers. They are shared by search
engines...solutions to these problems will come about through the ability of
libraries to collaborate among themselves and also with IT communities,
publishers, search engines, for-profit content providers, and others.
These are collaborative problems, and they will be solved with
collaborative solutions."

But, as a librarian, I think they are library problems first and foremost. All these other entities Brantley mentions are commercial at their core and, as such, they work for profit. And profit fuels a LOT of innovative thinking. Libraries are primarily non-profit beasts with little or no monetary incentive to move forward. In fact, we usually face budget restrictions that make innovation hard to damn-near impossible. So we have little choice but to get it together; learn to play with everybody and each other or in 10 years time we'll all be looking for jobs at Google.

Now I sound fatalistic. Truth is, I have faith will pull our heads out of our behinds ane do great things. After all, librarians are some of the most ballsy, innovative people going -always have been - should always be! Maybe we ought to add that to our Code of Ethics:

1. Equitable Service and Access
2. Intellectual Freedom
3. Right to Privacy
4. Respect of Intellectual Property Rights
5. Respect Colleagues and Co-workers
6. No advancement of private interests @ the libraries expense
7. Personal beliefs separate from professional duties
8. Continued professional development
9. Constant innovation and collaboration

Just one girl's opinion :-D

mensa invitational 2008

this from an email forward (printed here by permission from no one). If it's old, sorry, it's new to me and made me laugh out loud. #2, of course, is my favorite (though it is NOT new - I've heard it before...apparently the mensa who came up with it isn't as smart as the hillbilly he/she would like to be)...

The Washington Post's Mensa Invitational once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners. Read them carefully. Each is an artificial word with only one letter altered to form.

1. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
2. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
3. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
4. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.
5. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
6. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
7. Inoculatte : To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
8. Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.
9. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
10. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's, like, a serious bummer.
11. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
12. Glibido: All talk and no action.
13. Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
14. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
15. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
16. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
17. Ignoranus: A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

stress over an interview

so, I've been reading a book on management (yes, I know, it's very compelling literature). I stumbled onto something kinda weird. There are several different strategies for doing an interview - structured, unstructured (makes sense), group and board interviews (they make sense, too) and then there's... the "stress strategy".

Some company out there actually takes this approach....

The interviewer assumes a hostile or antagonistic demeanor to purposely stress the candidate. Now, call me crazy but, what the hell kind of company would do that? What kind of business would benefit from hiring some fool scared enough to sit through it? And what kind of glutton for punishment would actually work for a place like that? A co-worker and I debated briefly today about the discovery and we simultaneously said, "BOLT!" (I actually said something much worse)

I never claimed to be the best manager in the world but God help me if I ever get so cocky that I think intimidating a candidate is good management. That's just not a nice way to be. My grandmother would be very disappointed!