I know, I know, it's been a long time. I won't even bother to say that I'll try to post more frequently.

Jumping right in....here's what's on my mind. Most librarians I know are doing a great job helping patrons find the materials they need. Lately I've been thinking about teenagers and their horrible lack of Internet searching skills and what librarians can do to help this. If even half of our interactions with these kids can include a quick instruction on Google searching, database searching, heck, even letting them know that databases are available, then we would - slowly - make a difference. It's too easy to spoon-feed these patrons. It takes a lot less time to do it ourselves, but in the long run, it will make our jobs easier and more rewarding if we teach these skills.

Social networking......love it hate it

So I'm sitting here on a Friday afternoon waiting for a girlfriend to come join me in a glass of wine and I'm thinking about my love/hate relationship with social networking. I just can't wrap my head completely around the concept of living that publicly. I don't have it in me to post "going to grocery store now" or "having my third cup of coffee". It's not that I'm ashamed of my life, I just don't think anyone really cares what I'm doing. And I'm wondering if it's just a personality issue. I am by nature a private person. I'll tell my closest friends anything they want to know but I tend to want to keep my little business to myself. Do the people I work with really need to know every move I make on my days off? Do my friends want to know all the things I do when I'm at work? I doubt it.

At work I've got the library Facebook page up and running. Everyday it seems we get new fans. I Twitter regularly with library events and as with Facebook, our following grows daily. And I always get excited when I track the numbers. But shortly after the excitement comes the feeling of, "so what". I need to figure out why this is important to the library. It is increasing community awareness, but weren't those people aware of us already? Are they just blindly jumping on the social networking bandwagon without truly understanding why they're doing it, like me? I'm waiting for an epiphany here. If someone can enlighten me please do....

Inauguration Day

It's hard to put into words the feelings I had throughout the day. I woke up early, even by my standards, and before I even realized what day it was I felt a sense of urgency, like something very important was going to happen. This is one of those days that we will all remember for the rest of our lives.

I was fortunate to be involved with the Inauguration Watch Party at the library, helping with set-up, milling about talking to members of the community, and assisting with blogging. There were people from all generations - toddlers to octogenarians - and as has happened so often in the past few months I was so proud to be living in this country. It was so moving to see an elderly man, and a woman whom I assume was his daughter, pass a hankie back and forth while watching the ceremony. The level of emotion in the room was palpable, people were cheering and clapping and as President Obama was taking the oath of office I didn't see a single person who wasn't deeply affected by his words.

If nothing else comes from this presidency I hope these feeling of community, of hope, of actually having a future we can look forward to last. The mountains we, as a country, have to climb are enormous but I truly believe that we are now, finally, in good hands.

Tech talk series will be continued....

Yes, it's been a while and again I'll make the promise to be better at this. I've decided to change the focus of this blog, or more accurately, take away any focus and use it to talk about anything and everything instead of just tech stuff. Last night was my last Tech Talk presentation, although there is one more scheduled for next month I won't be doing it. We're bringing in an actual presenter to talk about digital photography something even I couldn't "wing" if I wanted to. I have, however, decided to continue the program throughout the year. We'll meet monthly and leave the topic open to the participants; they'll bring their questions, discoveries, etc and we'll go from there. Feedback has been great so far and I think, even though attendance is somewhat low, that there is a need for this forum and over time the group will grow.

Yesterday I registered for my next class, Information Seeking Behavior. This is the third time I've signed up for it - for some reason it scares me and I keep dropping it. Time to bite the bullet though and get it over with. The torture starts on the 26th, so I'm planning on reading for pleasure as much as possible between now and then, knowing that there just won't be any time for that once the class starts.

At work we're gearing up for the Inauguration Watch Party. If you're in the area please come - it will be a day to remember. We're setting up blogging stations and have arranged to have some press coverage so aside from the fact that this will be one of the most important days in the history of our country it should be a great opportunity for the library to get some good PR.

And finally, my latest favorite Firefox add-on: is.gd. Turns long urls into small, manageable ones very easily. Try it, you'll like it.