My last fall trip is just now over. I’ve been sitting in my house for, I don’t know, twenty minutes or so, and I’m very happy to report that the trip and the talk went very well. For the first time I tried pulling together some of the ideas and research for my (extra-curricular) Libraries Build Communities project into a talk about the community building we do at WebJunction – the two are obviously very connected for me but not necessarily for everyone. But guess what? It worked! I was relieved and pleased that it seemed to be the right mix of community building for library staff and community building for patrons. Viola! Connections made!

I left out the Putnam stuff I’ve been talking about in some of my recent presentations and instead focused on our community building roots and how in-person community building and online community building share the same principles and practice; then I connected what our patrons are doing with web2.0 tools to what library staff are doing with the same, and with projects like WJ.

I was a little nervous about the mix, with only one hour for a joint presentation with my co-presenter, Mala, the team lead for WebJunction Arizona, but at the end of it all, one of our audience members come up and says something like: thank you for your overview of social networking and what it means for WebJunction; now I understand why this stuff is important. I work in a rural library and I’m trying to help my community understand how to use this stuff and understand what it’s all about; this was really helpful.

Does it really get more libraryland luscious than that? Maybe. I’ll be here for it if it does. I only posted a few pictures from this very short visit, but you’ll find them here. Many, many thanks to the organizers of AzLA for having me. I had a great time and it was wonderful meeting and talking with so many of you and your library staff in Arizona.

(reposted on Libraries Build Communities)