Moving on up….

Please adjust your RSS feeds…I will now be blogging at SarahGlassmeyer.com

OPENING KEYNOTE: Friending Libraries: The Nodes in People’s Social Networks

• Starts by asking who’s going to tweet his talk, and then explain twitter/hashtags/etc to those not in the know.
• showing some of the backchannel snarky comments about himself from previous CiLs and other conferences.

Ecosystem changes

• Data from 2000 – 46% on Inter net, 50% with cell phone, 5% with broadband, very few with wireless and cloud access – Internet use = slow stationary connections built around my computer
• 2008 – 75% on Internet, 82% cell, 57% broadband, 62% wireless internet use = fast mobile connections built around outside servers and storage
• Information volume grows, variety increases, velocity increase.  Times and places to experience media enlarge, can choose what you want and when – life of continuous partial attention (multi-tasking)
• More compelling media – 3d, interactive worlds
• “The Daily Me” – can get more relevant information by editing/gatekeepers your sources (e.g. RSS feeds that you select)
• More content creators, more opportunities for voting and ventilating.
• “Real social networks” are more vivid.

Homo connectus – different sense of

• info access
• access to themsleves
• time use/opportunities to play
• personal efficacy

New Tech-User typology

• 39% motivated by mobility – have wireless, have more content creation, drawn into more deeper use
• 61% not into mobile lifestyle and it’s peripheral to their lives.

Motivated by Mobility – 5 groups

• digital collaborators (8%) lead the pack in assets, actions, attitudes towards technology – geek squad – mostly male, ~39 yrs old (gen X), suburban, married, parents busy folks with busy lives – serve them by being a place for them to jack into internet, place to collaborate and share, ask them for help in getting feedback on your projects – influencers
• ambivalent networkers (7%) express worries about connectivity; and some find that mobile devices are intrusive – want to take break from technology, but don’t feel like they can – obligation – ~29 yrs old, male, more students, 83% cell texters, NOT email users – serve them by being a sanctuary, offer gaming, help them figure out SNS etiquette, help them navigate information overload.
• media movers (7%) social exchanges are central to this groups of ICTs (rather than work related), not content creators, ~34 yrs old, 87% own digital camera, 90% online health seekers – the people that send you YouTube videos – help them by finding places to store, share and curate their creations
• roving nodes (9%) thinking working little league mother, could not give up cell phone, not content creators..way too busy.  first majority female group 100% have cell phones, heavy internet use, say tech gives them control – serve them by helping them to be efficient as possible – manage information and avoid overload – would greatly appreciate learning about cloud applications – calendaring, social bookmarking, email, etc.
• mobile newbies (8%) – just got a cell phone in past year and it was a life changing experience .. but use cell phone like cell phone, not internet access.  ~50 year old, female, just 39% Internet users, don’t create content – serve them by coaching mentoring tech support offer pathways to the wonders of hte web.

Stationary Majority

• desktop veterans (13%) online life hit a zenith 3-5 years ago, not into mobile, heaving internet users at home andwork – serve them by staying out of their hair and offering computers with good connections, may want connet
• drifting surfers -just not into technology, teenagers dominate computers in their families, attitudes towards tech has worsened in past – really into traditional library services
• information encumbered (10%) of pop begrudging serve them by not forcing anything on them, will appreciate classic reference skills, offer sanctuary
• tech indifferent (10%) less than 50% internet or cell phone users – serve them by offering basic tutorials, libraries might e only lifeline to digital age
• off the network (14%) no internet or cell phones, some used to have computers, but walked away, like their old stuff – resource issues due to economics – serve them by the traditional library services providing “old media”

Friending libaries are 5+ thingsw

• pathways to problem solving information
• pathway to  personal enrichment –
• pathway to entertainment
• pathway to new kinds of social networks built around people, media and institutions
• pathway to the wisdom of crowds, so you fill your own future here

Challenge: use your hashtag and find more ways during the confernece to nodes to people in their social networks.

Giving Props

Today is Ada Lovelace Day.  Who was Ada Lovelace?*  She is one of the first, if not the first, computer programmers.   Which is cool enough, but when you realize that she’s (a) an early woman pioneer in a male dominated field and (b) that, oh by the way, she did this in EIGHTEEN FORTY THREE…well, you might say that Ada Lovelace is, in modern parlance, FULL OF WIN.

Ada Lovelace Day is a day set aside by bloggers to recognize women in technology.  So, I’m supposed to highlight a woman in technology that I admire and blog about her.  Well, I don’t know if it’s because my area of technology (librarianship) is a field that women have  long been successful in or the fact that I am hesitant to single out just one woman, but I have a real embarrassment of riches when it comes to picking someone.

• From UK, I can think of Stacey Greenwell and Beth Kraemer who, aside from being really excellent at their jobs and are publishing and presenting machines,  have been awesome mentors to me with the tech stuff, as well as with the navigating tenure track madness.
• From Law Library World, three names that come to mind are Meg Kribble, Bonnie Sucha and Debbie Ginsberg, who planned the Web 2.0 Challenge last year.
• From the rest of Library Land that I’m in contact with….well, I’m definitely not going to try to even single out a couple names.

I guess another part of my inability to recognize only a single person is that I don’t think there’s enough recognition in Library Land for all of the nifty things that people do.  I’m not talking just in our normal jobs. (“I just found you a document from an International Agency known to maybe ten people in the world, two of which are standing in this room right now,  and you DON’T EVEN SAY ‘THANK YOU’????”)  I mean, there’s a lot of people going out of their way to advocate for change,  try out new things and otherwise make life easier for their fellow librarians and patrons – often on their own time and without any monetary benefit at all.

(Recent example?  Tom Boone’s ScheduAALL 2009 conference scheduling page.  I can’t even explain to you how much annual meeting stress that thing has reduced for me.  He’s a dude, but whatever…awesome job, Tom!)

There are avenues for recognition….most notably LJ’s Movers and Shakers.  But that’s only 50 or so people out of several hundred thousand librarians. (I also note that this year there was not anyone  from Kentucky nor were there any law librarians.)  The LSW, an organization that I am proud to be a part of, has inaugurated its Shovers and Makers to highlight those other thousands.  Go check out both of those lists and be inspired by what librarians all over the world are doing.  And while you’re at the Shovers and Makers site, nominate yourself….I did.

On a somewhat related note, the stars have aligned, the travel gods have smiled upon me and starting next Friday I will start a whirlwind conference/meeting trip.  I can’t wait!   Here’s the schedule:

• Friday, March 27: Drive to Bowling Green, KY for the KY-GODORT annual meeting.  We’ll also be celebrating WKU’s 75th Anniversary as a FDLP library.  (Shut up.  Gov docs are awesome.  Don’t fear the SuDoc, people.)
• Saturday, March 28 – Tuesday, March 31: Flying to DC for the Computers in Libraries conference. (The conference where I sort of “found myself” and my Web 2.0 niche in 2007, and I’m really excited about some of the programming this year.)
• Wednesday, April 1 – Friday, April 3: Drive to Barren River, KY for the KLA Academic and Special Library/SLA Kentucky Chapter Joint Spring Meeting. (My first event as an SLA member…)

Unfortunately, I think I stretched the goodwill of the travel gods and will not be able to attend the Library 2.0 Symposium at Yale on April 4.  But I am going to keep checking travel sites…I only confirmed plans for two of the above three within the past week…so who knows what may happen?

You’ll notice that none of these events are law library centered.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my law library peeps (and will be attending AALL, SEAALL and ORALL), but I find there’s something really energizing and educational about talking to librarians from other disciplines.   They seem to be able to try things about two years ahead of law libraries.  And besides, today’s college freshman is tomorrow’s 1L…it’s good to know what they’re being taught and come to expect about libraries since they’ll be our problem patrons soon.

Anyway, I cannot wait for next week.  For one thing, I am in desperate need of a break from work. My joie de vivre is getting harder and harder to hold on to.   Due to some budgetary issues, I’m working essentially two jobs right now and still trying to remain active in the profession.  Burnout…I haz it.

Secondly, I will not be attending these conferences and meetings alone.  My boss likes to kid me that all of my friends live in my computer.   While not exactly true, most of my friends are scattered around the country and we have to use technology to keep up with each other.  But next week, I get to see them in person!  Yay!

I am fortunate  in that many of my friends are not just awesome people, but they are awesome librarians.    They are Movers and Shakers and Shovers and Makers, from the Empire State to the Golden Gate.   So in addition to learning a whole bunch (and I’ll be blogging and tweeting as much as I can to share the love with y’all), I’ll be hanging out and recharging the ol’ batteries with some people that I’m absolutely crazy about.

*She’s also Lord Byron’s daughter, which is a nifty side fact, but I didn’t include it above because I didn’t want to distract from her awesomeness.

Tagalus – A Hastag Dictionary

Whenever I tell people about using Hashtags on Twitter or Flickr, I’m generally asked “Who decides those things?” The answer is that there are some standard naming conventions that have arisen and basically the hive mind goes into action and everyone sort of comes up with the same hashtag, although there are sometimes disputes.

I can’t imagine why that answer isn’t satisfactory to everyone that I give it to.

Well, now there’s a new “authority source” for hastags….Tagalus. It’s a hashtag dictionary that anyone can add to. Now people can “claim” hashtags if they’re organizing an event or, if they see a hashtag that they’re unsure of, look it up here.   The aall2009 hashtag wasn’t defined so I filled that in.

The New New Facebook

Facebook has been rolling out a new design this week.  It hit the Kentucky network on Wednesday and frankly, my dear, I am not impressed.  Briefly, what I dislike about it….

1. My profile page gives equal visual weight to status messages, commentary on the links I post and wall posts that my friends leave.
2. The avatar pics from my friends are now rounded.  I hate rounded corners.
3. The “home page” does not distinguish between status messages, links (the former posted items), and application activities.  Also, there is not way to separate out these distinct functions.  So, the fact that Friend X threw a sheep at someone I don’t know (a fact I could really care less about) is now taking attention from Friend Y posting a pertinent news story (something that I do like to follow – my FB friends shared links is where I find some of the most interesting things!)
4. There’s a pointless side bar that shows “highlights” but I have to really look hard to see what’s a posted item, what’s a group, what’s a note, etc.
5. Notfications, group invites and friends requests are hidden along the top, and easily missed.

However, thanks to the wonderful power of RSS feed readers, I can still get at what I want without having to take the time to sort through the noise created by the re-design.  Instead of going step by step, here’s a powerpoint show that explains what you need to know:

Government 2.0 Club

As the Washington Post and Mashable have reported, the Obama administration is having some trouble implementing an open, collaborative, transparent government within the exisiting government information structure.  Never fear, though, because some geeks are on the case….meet  the Government 2.0 Club. From it’s website:

Government 2.0 Club is a national organization that brings together leading thinkers from government, academia and industry to share ideas and solutions for leveraging social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies to create a more collaborate, efficient and effective government — Government 2.0

It doesn’t explicitly say it, but I’m counting “librarians” within this group and I hope some of us get involved.  After all, we know how this information is used.   It looks like the website will be the main conduit for information sharing, but there will be unconferences, such as the upcoming camp in March.  (Which has already filled up, but even if it weren’t, I somewhat ironically couldn’t attend because I have a KY-GORDORT meeting that day.)  So watch those spaces for more information and get involved, if you can.

The Law Librarian on Blog Talk Radio

Tomorrow I’ll be firing up the old Hamburger Phone and participating in Richard Leiter and Brian Striman’s “The Law Librarian” Internet Radio show.   I’ve never done something like this before (although I do tune into  Greg Schwartz’s Uncontrolled Vocabulary) so I’m pretty excited and nervous about how this will all turn out.   Will I freeze up?  Will I monopolize the discussion?  Will I accidentally say the “F-word”?*  It’s all up in the air!

Here’ s a cut/paste of the email sent out earlier today with the deets:

“The Law Librarian, a live internet radio talk show hosted by Richard Leiter and Brian Striman on BlogTalkRadio will air tomorrow at 2:00PM. The show will also be available as a podcast.

The panel tomorrow will be Lee Peoples, Oklahoma City University; Sarah Glassmeyer, University of Kentucky; Brian Striman and me.

Tentative topics for tomorrow are:

1. Law Librarianship and China

2. Government 2.0 (http://www.whitehouse.gov, and more….)

3. The Twitter Revolution (http://newthinking.bearingpoint.com/2008/11/20/govtwit-directory/) including Twitter clients

4. We want to hear from FIRM Libraries about how downsizing is effecting our private colleagues

5. The new eJounral, Legal Information and Technology

6. And any other topic that callers and chatters care to suggest.”

So, please tune in and, if you can, call in or join the chat.  The more people that participate, the more interesting the conversation can be.   The fun starts at 3pm Eastern, 2pm Central, 1pm Mountain and High Noon Pacific.   All of the details about how to do that can be found at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thelawlibrarian . And, of course, if you can’t participate, you can still download the show later and listen while you’ll workout or whatever.

*NOTE: I actually very rarely use profanity…it really only seems to happen at the most inopportune times. Like, oh let’s say hypothetically, when one stubs one’s toe on a table in a quiet, crowded law library reading room.  You know.  Hypothetically.

The Web 2.0 President

Well, unless you have spent the last few months under a rock, you know that Barack Obama was inauguarated today as the 44th President of the United States.  (I’ll pause a moment so all of the Democrats reading this can give one final “WOOOOOoooo!”   Ready to go back to the blog now?  Okay.)   Obama the candidate utilized Web 2.0 in some interesting ways*, most notably I thought with the MyBarackObama social networking service on his website, and Obama the President (“WOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooo!”) is going to continue the trend.

The new White House website premiered today and it prominently features a blog.  The other cool thing about the new White House website?  Without getting too technical, there’s something called a robots.txt file that prevents search engines from indexing and archiving a website.  The new White House website has many, many fewer limits on search engines.

So, as a Web 2.0 enthusiast, I am going to be very interested to see what other Web 2.0 (and 3.0) services the Executive Branch utilizes.   And it won’t be just official acts, either.  The last I heard, President Obama (“WOOOoooo!”) is refusing to give up his Blackberry.  And the adorable Obama girls will be going through their a significant chunk of their teen years in the White House….awkward, ill-advised self-taken pictures appearing on the Internet are almost a matter of “if” not “when.”   He may not be using the bully pulpit function of the office, but through the actions of Obama and his administration, non-techie Americans are going to be introduced to Web 2.0.

*Some other examples of Web 2.0 utilization by Candidate Obama: YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter .

ch-ch-changes….

Is it just me or does it seem like everyone is switching jobs lately?

Well, it looks like I can be counted in that list too.  No, I’m not leaving Kentucky.  Contract renewal letters came out at the end of this week and it looks like they’ve decided to keep me around for at least another year.  (Actually, I technically got a promotion too, so yay.)  However, due to a retirement and a sabbatical leave in my library, my job duties are going to be switched up a little.

Starting next semester, in addition to some slightly increased reference duties (due to the sabbatical), I’ll be handling Interlibrary Loan services.  Be prepared for lots of lame “License to ILL” or “I’m sick of ILL!” type jokes.  I’ve never done ILL before, so I’m excited about learning a new skill, especially since one day I would like to try for a Head of Public Services type job and this means I will have experience in all areas of PS.

We have a pretty hopping ILL service, since we have two journals, productive faculty and not an overly-large collection.  So, as a practical matter, this means that I’m going to have to dial back some of my Web 2.0 experimentation, writing, presentations, etc., at least until I get a handle on my new workload.   I’m also probably not going to be able to teach 1L Legal Research next fall, which really bums me out, but not as much as going insane from working 20 hour days would bum me out.

Oh, remember my law student survey idea?  It’s okay if you don’t, but I haven’t forgotten it.   I’ve been working on it when I’ve had time.  Originally, I was planning on trying to get as many law students around the country to take it (in print), but that is definitely going to have to be dialed back.  I wouldn’t have time to get the materials out nor analyze them when they come back.  If you have time and want to try this yourself, there will be no hard feelings on my part.  I’m more interested in the data than getting a publication credit.

Instead,  I’m doing a guest lecture on Web 2.0 technologies for our Advanced Legal Research course later this semester, and I think as part of that I’m going to survey the students.   That should yield me about 30-40 responses, and will be a good measure of the survey instrument.  Then, over the summer when things are slow, I can work on scaling it up for the Fall, going through the Human Test Subjects paperwork, etc.

I also have another new assignment that I’m pretty excited about.  I have just been named webmaster for ORALL and will be completely redoing the website over the next few months.   I’ve been requested to add in some Web 2.0 elements to it, such as wikis for pre-conference networking, so that will be an interesting challenge to see what I can fit in, while not putting stuff in just to do it.  (Which is my basic tech philosophy anyway.)   I have some web development experience, but nothing official like this, so as with the ILL gig, I’m excited about expanding my skill set.

This is probably my last blog post for 2008.  I hope everyone has an enjoyable Holiday of Their Choosing and a Happy New Year.

Sixth Photo Meme

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Originally uploaded by Sarah_G

I was tagged by Jim Milles: go to flickr, go to page 6 of your photo stream, and post the 6th photo.

This is a self-portrait I took at a Sarah Palin rally I attended in Ohio the weekend before the election. I think my expression sums up how I felt about it.

I hate tagging people on memes, but if you want to do it, knock yourself out. Put a link here so I can check it out.