I’ve been known to be critical of academia for often being largely uninformed about what is actually happening in libraries beyond their sphere of influence and in the wider world in general. There have been a few proud, shining exceptions to this in my own field, but from my front row seat (okay, perhaps [...]

Tamworth is a town of 2500 in the rural white mountains of NH. Yet, TheGoodPeasant, tamworth resident, took a video of the Cook Library’s 4th of July float and posted it on YouTube.
It’s not just kids or geeks. People in all types of places are using social tools online and they’re doing so [...]

This topic has been percolating for a long time, so I was psyched when Michelle contacted me with an invitation to participate in the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase. (Blogs, Wikis, Social Software Interest Group = BEST library acronym to date.) The idea, as I understand it, is to get some folks to produce some [...]

Congratulations are in order for Etsy and their entry into the big time. My mom’s a brilliant artist, with a number of brilliant artist friends, and there was a time, a few years back when one of my own friends and I hatched an Etsy-like scheme of our own. We got pretty far [...]

Whenever anyone is reticent to buy my “blogs = community” speech, I ask them (politely, of course) to read Julie & Julia. I’m so glad to see that I’m in good company!

“And why don’t I glow in the dark?”
I don’t usually follow casual friday being as serious a girl as I am. But this week, for some reason, I was inspired. Things in Rubbers brightened an otherwise trying Thursday afternoon, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to devote a whole post to it.
10,000 Reasons [...]

More library professionals should conduct their business meetings in crowded, mid-week bars. Extra points for community participation, if it’s in a small state capital on pub quiz night. Super duper points for not participating, but sitting in the middle of the fray with your open laptop and exposing yourself to heckling from other [...]

I haven’t yet jumped on the podcasting/vidblog bandwagon - originally I thought it was because I couldn’t see a clear or immediate application for online library services. But I just ran across the idea of placeblogging as a podcasted presentation - ‘here’s a topic I can get my head around’ I thought as I [...]

Last Christmas I was evangelizing about Flickr to a local library. I stole a photo from her Recent Photos page and uploaded it to my Flickr account to demonstrate tagging, commenting, notes, sets and all that great stuff. Important holiday festivities then beckoned and we drifted away.
I all but forgot about the photo [...]

For anyone who still doubts the internet becoming a community, just like our towns, workplaces, and bowling teams - those who regularly post on Wikipedia are now Wikipedians. Just like people from Chicago are chicagoans and Boston are bostonians. The language we use is important and its usage can tell us what’s happening [...]