“I heard about the library-passport program and thought it was really cool,” said Thompson, 28. “I love going to my library. It’s such an incredible resource. My goal is to get people excited about visiting their local branch.”

Thompson had originally planned to visit all 28 branches of the Seattle Public Library system in one day, but freezing temperatures and early library closures shortened his list. Besides the 11 branches he was able to reach before snow forced them to close, he also visited 6 more branches which he photographed.

Seattle Public Library created the Library Passport program to celebrate the completion of its Libraries for All program, encouraging library patrons to visit the new and remodeled library branches.

To read more about Sam Thompson’s library marathon, see the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s article, A marathon task: Runner logs 50 miles visiting library branches in one day. Also see SPL’s recent news release on other locals’ programs centered around the Passport.

I was also led to this more librarian in-joke costume. Sheesh, good thing it was the concise AACR2!

Can you match that? Show us what you got.

The key value that is the focus for 2008’s event is “online participation in democracy,” in acknowledgement of the Internet’s substantive impact on this year’s U.S. presidential election. The big day is this Monday, September 22.

Go to their simple yet cool website to learn about the scheduled events around the world and how you and your library can participate. I would suggest contributing to the e-Democracy Time Capsule (hurry, only a few days left to add content!).

You can also check out Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s press conference from the WWW2008 conference held in Beijing, plus his “global message” (kinda like Santa Claus?) videocast from 2007.

1. It’s not about technology. WJ is successful because we have great people and we work with great people–and those people make great things happen. That is our not-so-secret weapon.

2. Hang in there. There are few virtues as valuable as persistence. There have always been and will always be tons of new and creative initiatives in libraryland: I think what sets us apart is that we just keep at it and keep at it and find ways to keep it stable and keep it going. I love that!

3. Take the middle path. It’s not content or community, it’s not big libraries or small libraries, it’s not folksonomy or taxonomy, it’s not top-down or bottom-up. Balancing seemingly irreconcilable opposites is one of the main keys to our character and our strength.

4. If it’s going to be difficult, it might as well be fun. Humor has saved us from ourselves over and over again. This is a high-stress business and it helps enormously to find and enjoy the absurdity of it all. I am so grateful for the amazing collection of funnybones that I’ve been privileged to work with.

5. We’ve only just begun. As our Seattle staff has grown from 3 to 30 and our network of partners has exploded exponentially, it’s become ever clearer that WebJunction has the potential to represent and support the consciousness and vitality of the library world in even greater ways than we have so far. Building on our considerable success so far to realize WJ’s potential as a comprehensive platform for library staff–that’s what keeps me excited and motivated and passionate about WJ.

OK, I am an old-timer so I will maunder on a bit more, as old-timers are wont to do. Here are a few select memories from my five years at the WJ:

2003. Writing my first Crossroads newsletter in June 2003 a few weeks after I started at WJ (Web-what?), and getting markup from Chrystie Hill on my copy, in which every instance of the word “you” was crossed out and replaced with the word “we”. The beginning of my online community education.
2004. Putting the one-year anniversary cupcake on the site in May 2004, one of our first custom home page graphics, I shudder to admit, but at least it was a small step toward the much more graphically dynamic site we have today.
2005. The first OCLC blog salon at ALA 2005 in Chicago, when it seemed like we really hit a new critical mass of awareness and interest. There were people who actually recognized what we had started writing on our baby-infant blog. (And I got inspired to write my very first parody song ever, “The Blog Party“.)
2006. Getting a fresh round of funding, validating the work we’ve done and propelling us into the future. “You mean we’re for real?” Boy that feels good.
2007. Presenting the Government Documents librarians workshop in Denver in spring 2007, and seeing the palpable excitement in a room of a whole new type of mostly non-WJ-savvy users about the possibilities for the site. Something clicks: hmm, maybe this really is real.
2008. Welcoming an influx of dedicated, professional, committed staff who see WebJunction as, yep, a real thing, not just an idea. This is great–they actually know what they’re doing AND they think WJ is a cool place to be? Wow, that is an accomplishment!

And the best is yet to come…

1. Five partners who wrote and received the original grant from the Gates Foundation to create WJ: Benton Foundation, Colorado State Library, ISOPH, TechSoup, and OCLC.
2. Five days before submission of the proposal when Mike Teets and I met in Dublin to organize all the pieces created by the partners. I kept wandering the halls of OCLC saying, “There’s something missing” until it finally came to me in a dream. Mike ended up chasing a fed ex truck in the rain to make sure the paper copy of the report got to Seattle on time.
3. Five days before launch in May, 2003. Don’t ask. Some of us survived.
4. Launch event at the Library of Congress. And the staff party that followed.
5. The go live moment when people, real people, started signing in and using WJ. We discovered that DC had been omitted from the states list.

We invite you to share your memories of WebJunction from the distant or not so distant past. Comment here in the blog or add your list of five to the memories discussion thread.

In honor of the occasion, we thought it appropriate to share some of our memories, invite you to share yours, and generally enjoy a fun week of both looking back and looking forward.
Where shall we start?

First of all we have a little recap of WebJunction history. We take you from the the WebJunction launch in 2003 at the Library of Congress to updates on some of our favorite programs and events.

We’ve also thought it would be fun to share our personal memories of WebJunction and related library experiences. We’ve created a discussion forum where we hope members will share some of their favorites. Already we have well wishes (thanks Maddog!) and a few WJ team recollections. Please add yours!

Also this week WJ staffers plan to share some of our personal “top fives” on the blog. The scuttlebutt I hear around the office hints at topics like favorite programs, shoes, WJ member milestones, memorable meals, conference swag, stories and more. I can’t wait to see what surfaces.

If you’d like to get in on the action and share a five (or two), I invite you to either drop us a note in the blog comments or add your list of five to the memories discussion thread.

It should be fun week. Stay tuned!

All you need to do is stop by a participating comic store and make your free pick from a selection of titles like Archie, Superman, Hellboy, World of Aspen, X-men, Tiny Titans and many more. Seriously. These are free. I know you are thinking: “What’s the catch?” Nothing is free, right?

Well, apparently this is. Thanks to some major discounts from comic publishers, the past few years have allowed thousands of comic retailers in the US, Canada, and internationally to give away millions of comics to happy readers.

Hard to believe but this year is the 7th Annual event. Retailers decide at what level they want to participate and can set their own eligibility rules, but the basic premise boils down to free comic books for readers on May 3, 2008. For full details you can refer to the FAQ, check out the Free Comic Book Day, website, or see what the good folks at I Love Libraries have to say.

Whatever you do, don’t wait too long. This is only happening on Saturday. Check out the Comic Shop Locater to find your nearest store. Then get out there and get your (or send your patrons out for their) free comics! Because in my book free comics beat free cones any day!

It is with great sadness, but lots of well-wishes for a bright future ahead of her, that we bid farewell to Program Director Liz Kellison. Liz was our first Content Manager and the third WebJunction employee EVER. She’s been with the project since before it began – quite literally! – as she was one of the authors of our original grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with our Executive Director Marilyn Mason. Largely responsible for the initial vision of our service, Liz is famous around the office for promoting “read, learn and share” – i.e., bringing together courses, discussions, and articles all together on a single WebJunction page. Liz has been fun to work with, inspiring as a leader for us and for libraries, and a tireless advocate for our programs and the people we work with. We will miss her dearly, but hope you’ll join us in wishing her well in all her future endeavors. (sniff. sniff.)

You’ll get no argument from me on the the premise of this campaign: “Libraries Work Because We Do.” I love my library and all my library friends and invite you to pat your co-workers, friends, employees, or (even yourself) on the back today.

If you have an library appreciation /awareness event in the works, we’d love to hear about it. If you don’t, well, never fear; ALA/APA has your back with some quick celebration ideas. While you are on their site, take a gander at the map of library stars. You may find someone you know.

Finally, don’t forget to share your plans for this and other events you are running during National Library Week! We’d love it if you’d share your thoughts in the blog or our Library Week discussion in the WebJunction community forums.