Friday was the annual Bike to Work Day in Seattle. It’s part of a Bike to Work Month program that last year saw 7,500 local cyclists pedal more than a million miles. This year WebJunction fielded a team of 12 bike commuters willing to brave the iffy Seattle weather on two wheels. Early 2008 reports show a record setting pace across the entire contest.

A few of us at the office are year-round bike commuters, a few ride when the weather is good and time allows, and the remainder on team BikeJunction are using this month to try bike commuting for the first time. Not surprisingly we report varied reasons for participating:

• Fitness
• The sheer joy of it
• Traffic Congestion
• So we can eat ice cream
• Gas Prices (!)
• The environment
• Bragging rights
• And more…

By now you are probably wondering what this has to do with the stuff I normally write about on BlogJunction. Well, since I’m a community dork, it’s fairly easy to tie everything to community. Even with our different riding motivations, skill levels, and experience, we’ve developed into a small but vibrant commuting community. We support each other, offer route tips, provide encouragement about big hills or bad weather, and act as sounding board for major life decisions—like new bike purchases.

When you look at our support roles, it’s easy to see our group of bike commuters isn’t much different than any other community. We have information needs and interpersonal needs and depend on real human interaction (virtual or f2f) to help us through those needs.

I’ve noticed cyclists are especially drawn to community. In our spare time my wife and I blog quite a bit about our family cycling activities. I can tell you first hand that cyclists are avid online community engagers. I’m not sure the bonding need comes from the bike-versus-car thing, the gear culture, or what (though that would be a great paper. Anyone?). Whatever it is, it’s strong.

I’ll be interested to see how the BikeJunction community matures after this “official” bike month. Will we still feel like a community in the fall when the rain returns and our numbers decrease? Will the remaining members stick together?

My guess is we’ll rise and fall somewhat like a “conference community.” At conference time (ie, the peak bike commute months), we’ll be strong and vibrant, with our numbers and activity fading during the off months. Come spring we’ll probably ramp up all over around the remaing “core.” That’s my five-minute theory, anyway. I’ll keep you posted on how it shakes out.

Do we have any WebJunction members who bike commute with others in your branch, office, or neighborhood? Have you seen the cycling community angle up close? I’d love to hear about it.

I thought it might be fitting to end the Happy Birthday celebrations this week with a link (right here? from the blog?) to a clandestine view of the new WebJunction home page. Cleverly titled “sneaky peeky” this is the view that WJ staff have themselves been playing with in our “sandbox” for the last couple of weeks. It’s not nearly ready for beta release yet, but as you can see, My WebJunction is right there at the top of the page, along with our fancy new brand, just waiting for me/you/us to populate it with whatever i/you/we care about. It’s gonna be rockin’ and we can’t wait to start evolving this with more than just a few of us with our eyes on it.

Next week we get together with all of our current community partners for some good old fashioned f2f training, and this will be our first chance to show off and gather input on the new system with people outside of the WJ staff. Next? Our WJ Advocates will get a sneak peek and they’ll tell us what they think. Then? Well, by that time I think we’ll all be ready for a broader audience. And that’s where we all get to tell each other what we think. And it will grow from there.

Stay tuned…

I admit it. I like shoes. They’re fun. It’s one of my little things that keeps me going - when otherwise things might feel a little blah, a cute pair of shoes (on me or someone else) literally makes my day. Voila!

Personal faves from around the office? Kathleen (yellow sling-backs or teal clogs, I can’t decide). Jennifer (the ones that go perfectly with the plaids!) Dave (the old ones). Rachel (black sandals or red patten flats, I can’t decide). Michael (I can’t decide). Laura (plum ankle straps, hands down).

For WebJunction’s birthday, I decided to highlight my five favorite WebJunction moments *that have to do with shoes*. Whatever does this have to do with supporting libraries, you ask? Read on…

1. The photo you see here is me, Rachel, and Laura from the audience at CIL 2007. We were listening to the librarian from the National Geographic Society library talk about some cool 2.0 stuff they were doing with their intranet. Thanks to Rachel, we visited their library later that day.

2. This photo gives you a glimpse of one of our card-carrying shoe-lovers here around the office, and one of the 365 Days at WJ set that we started last year (before we started really planning for the new WJ in earnest, which is why we haven’t kept it up…shame on us!)

3. On the way to Midwinter Meeting in San Antonio 2006 I found myself without anything to wear but tennis shoes because my luggage had been lost on the way by United. Luckily, the conference center was practically attached to a mall and I was able to get some cute metallic silver flats to wear to my fancy dinner with Patrick Hogan. These shoes remind me of the shoes Sharon Streams is wearing this very minute! (This is also the blog post where I suggest that OCLC pick up Library Thing. Hmmm.)

4. When visiting the bay area just before the Online Community Uncoference in 2007, I sent a tweet about a cute pair of shoes I’d just bought. Colleague Dave Ungar (located in Dublin) picked it up and asked for a picture, which I posted on flickr. Several days later, our online exchange culminated in a spoof on some secret brand stuff another colleague had going on at work. You cannot hide on the tubes!

5. Finally, Michael Porter blogs his first (or was it second?) post at BlogJunction after accepting a transfer here from OCLC Western. In the post, libraryman admits to having purchased shoes from his WebJunction desk’s internet connection. It was after-hours, so we gave him a pass, but it brings me to my point about what any of this has to do with libraries…

We all work in or around libraries. We often struggle through the same challenges and share similar joys or successes. But we often don’t know each other personally, mainly because we work in diverse locations, and not just geographically. We can get together at library conferences, meetings, trainings, workshops, or other convenes, but even that’s limited by our niche in the library space, or our availability to physically get together; it’s never all of us.

Connecting online is relatively new to our profession, considering our extremely long history of shared professional practice. But by now most of us have felt the power of making those connections. Together we support and rely on one another, on everything from printers to politics. Once you’re online (not under-estimating how difficult that can still be) it’s possible to cross the boundaries that typically keep us from connecting with one another.

One key to making meaningful connections possible online has been revealing who we are as the people behind the text and even the avatars. When we open up and talk about otherwise superfluous things like shoes, we show that we are real people, and we build trust and connections that support the rest of our work, and perhaps more importantly, connections that will likely last far beyond our day jobs, whatever they be.

Happy Birthday WebJunction. Here’s to many more…

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!

Today, I think we found (at least part of) the problem. At some point, probably in the wake of one of our many spam attacks, BlogJunction was inadvertently configured to require readers to log-in before commenting. Anyone who even tried received a not-so-subtle go away message:

Now, maybe this wouldn’t be such a huge deal if we were using wordpress.com or blogger.com. Zillions of people have accounts for those. However, this setting required a BlogJunction-specific account, effectively reducing the number of potential comment makers to the high teens.

Yikes!

Worse yet, the log-in page provides no mechanism for creating an account and (some of you probably know this by now) your regular WebJunction account doesn’t work here. Who knows how many of you tried and failed to fill out that account box.

By urging you all to an impossible task (over and over again), I’ve committed a major user-experience faux pas. I apologize for that. I care deeply about building a dialog among WebJunction members and hope (at least moving forward), the blog can once again be an integral part of that.

So, at the risk of still not attracting any comments (at which point we can just chalk it up to the writing and forget my little confession about the technical boo-boo), I invite you back into the conversation. Have the BlogJunction comment settings ever kept you on the sidelines? We’d love to hear about it.

PS — comments will remain moderated to give us at least a fighting chance against the spammers, but I promise we’ll approve your comments quickly.

At a Friday luncheon, I heard Nan Kari speak about her work with the Jane Addams School for Democracy, a civic engagement and democratic education initiative for immigrant families and college students located in St. Paul’s multi-cultural West Side neighborhood. Kudos to hosts Libraries for the Future and Diantha Schull for continuing to draw libraries into thinking about Library Placemaking and the development of libraries as vital civic places.

Have you engaged your civic skills lately?

Nan Kari began her eloquent presentation with observations about a shift in American civil life. She notes that the values of the market place have permeated the ways we choose to prioritize our time and resources, and as a result our civic skills have begun to atrophy. We have become more accustomed to experiencing public life at the mall (an interesting juxtaposition considering the appearance of library branches in a number of suburban malls) than in the democratic process. There are many ambiguities and dynamics surrounding this shift (including some positive impacts, on youth—seen in the numbers in this year’s caucuses and primaries—and increases in entrepreneurial civic engagement), but ultimately, there has been a shift away from inquiry and engagement around our authority as citizens.

Before Nan detailed the School’s advocacy for community engagement, she defined citizenship in 3 ways, acknowledging that they overlap and co-mingle in the real world:

1. A civics view of citizenship in which democracy is mainly reflective of government.
2. A “communitarian” view where civil society is manifested in shared values and strong community.
3. And one in which citizens are public problem solvers and co-creators of the community commons. Here authorship resides among citizens and democracy is an unfinished work that needs to be taken up by all citizens.

Case for Community Commons

If you know me at all, you’ll know that I was nearly leaping off my chair by this point, very excited to hear more especially about how to apply these precepts to our work. As Nan began to share about her work with the Jane Addams School, she spoke of the opportunities for us to develop libraries as “democratic spaces” (both social and physical) where a diverse mix of people interact, engage in dialogue, solve problems and exercise civic engagement that builds and sustains public goods and resources. She used the new Minneapolis Public Library (where we met) as a way to talk about democratic spaces being shaped by physical elements and the need for civic imagery, accessibility and flexibility. Working with an online community, I recognize these as parallel principles of web design (UI, IA, flexible tools etc.) but certainly see how these apply to physical spaces in libraries, especially those with meeting rooms and other public gathering spaces which can be opened up to serve needs identified via the community commons. But whether we’re looking to present our libraries as core to civic engagement in virtual or f2f communities, I think this next bit hit me the hardest.

Deprogram the space

In libraryland we are busy working to design programming and services that meet the needs of our users. In order to provide a truly democratic experience for their diverse community, the Jane Addams School chose a different approach, in order to “pull the circle open.” The tendency to fill up spaces with programming and services can leave little or no room for civic engagement. They found that when you stop programming all the spaces, the “tapestry of lived experiences” are welcomed into the community, bringing their cultural learning into an environment where everyone is considered both a teacher and a learner. The Jane Addams School “facilitates” the use of the spaces, but the participants organize themselves into “learning circles” based on their interests and objectives. Nan admits that this is not a clean process, quite messy in fact, but they all recognize that the learning that comes from the experience is expansive and not just academic. Participants become part of the “Crossing Borders Leadership Team,” a citizen-based committee which further facilitates the creative engagement.

Changes can happen when people work together

I know there’s a lot in here, even without the fantastic pictures (check out their site!) and details that Nan shared from her work but the message is certainly timely. While we need to continue doing all that we do to provide information, resources, services, and programming, we need to be equally accountable to our communities as space facilitators ensuring platforms for collaborative inquiry and public creation. I can’t think of a more fitting mandate for all of us in this, the community that is WebJunction, as we move through this year. We are in the process of developing a number of exciting enhancements to the site, all part of our ongoing goal to facilitate a highly engaged online community for library staff. We’ll continue to look to you, the WebJunction community, for your participation and leadership in the co-creation of a “community commons”—as we refine and sustain the tools for facilitation and as you continue to share your strategies that ensure libraries remain core to civic engagement. So yes Paula, we are meeting about change.

Everyone listed following the jump will be at the show. You’ll find our email addresses, plus some topics we’re especially passionate about. Or stop by our spot in the OCLC booth (#617) if you don’t see an email. However we connect, we’d love to meet at PLA 2008!

WebJunction Team at PLA 2008

• Zola Maddison, Community Services Consultant, maddisoz AT oclc.org. Love to talk about Community Partners, building communities and partnerships, library successes & challenges, and international libraries.

• George Needham; Vice President, Member Services, OCLC; needhamg AT oclc.org; I enjoy discussing what *you* want from WJ and from OCLC.

• Emily Inlow-Hood; Community Special Projects Coordinator, inlowe AT oclc.org; content sharing, webinars, building communities and partnerships, international libraries.

• Jennifer Peterson; Community Programs Manager; interested in talking to WJ Members especially Advocates and those who want to share stories and resources with the rest of the WJ community.

• Michael Porter; Community Product Manager; on-line and at meet and greets all over the place, all week. Interested in talking about libraries, practical emerging technology, gadgets, gaming, presenting and PEZ.

• Laura Staley; Project Coordinator, Spanish Language Outreach Program, staleyl AT oclc.org; outreach to underserved communities, services to Spanish speakers, communities of practice, webinars.

• Michael Shapiro; Partner Development Manager; shapirom AT oclc.org. Interested in discussing ALL OF THE ABOVE. It’s an exciting time here at WJ and only getting better. I’m interested in exploring and understanding what excites YOU about WJ and sharing that with others.

• Linda Lewis; Portal Services Product Manager; lewisl AT oclc.org. Would love to hear your views about ideal platform, feature set, support structure for communities of practice and library-centric portals.

• Rachel Van Noord; Community Services Manager; vannoorr AT oclc.org; community building and partnerships, the cool stuff you’re doing in your library, what you want from WebJunction.

• Jim Malzewski; Project Coordinator, Rural Library Sustainability, malzewsj AT oclc.org; services and resources for rural and small libraries, The Association for Rural and Small Libraries, webinars.

• Dale Musselman; New Product Development Manager; musselmd AT oclc.org; all aspects of training, staff development and talent management. Especially interested in talking with libraries who are doing online learning and working with competencies.

• Betha Gutsche; Curriculum Developer; gutscheb AT oclc.org; all things competencies-related, staff training, e-learning, and talent management.

• Marilyn Mason; Executive Director; m.g.mason AT earthlink.net; I enjoy discussing what *you* want from WJ.

• Kit Greening, Partner Development Manager; greenink AT oclc.org.
  I am interested in hearing what is going on at your library and your feedback on WebJunction. We have lots of new developments coming! Tell us what you would you like to see from Web Junction and what we can do for you.

And while unfortunately I can’t attend this year (I’ll be glued to my feed reader for updates), I’d love to talk with anyone from the library community. Here’s my info:

• Kevin Briody (my WJ bio); Director of Marketing; briodyk AT oclc.org; blogging, marketing, how libraries use community sites, offline community building (user groups and related), sponsorships, partnerships, and more.

Enjoy the show!

Kevin & the WebJunction team

We’ve created a discussion thread in our community forums, but it’s begging for your contributions; please chime in. We also welcome your comments here in the blog.

If you are still looking for ideas, you can try the WebJunction African American Resources pathfinder or peruse shared ideas in the discussion forum.

Remember, this forum can be a great programming resource for next year. Even if you don’t have time to contribute right now, you can still share what you have done to help people planning their 2009 celebration!

You still have a couple hours yet to make a special V-Day post in the Why I love libraries or Why I love my job WebJunction community discussions. We’ve had some great stories shared so far, and would love more.

For those of you with, ahem, other plans this evening—don’t despair. The whole of February (an extra day this year!) is Library Lovers’ Month, You’ve got plenty of time to read and share.

PS — don’t forget to keep tagging content in del.ico.us and flickr with “wjlove.” More on that project at the end of this post.

If you haven’t popped over to the WebJunction Community discussions yet this week, you are in for a treat. Folks are sharing their love for libraries

As combination Valentine-nod to libraries and celebration of Library Lovers’ Month, we’ve opened a discussion asking people to share why why they love libraries. We’ve also restarted an oldie-but-goody discussion on why you love your job. If you have a few moments, please share your thoughts with your library colleagues.

If you are in more of a spectator mood, then be sure to check out some of library love links we’ve surfaced in del.ico.us. What we’ve done is apply a tag (wjlove) to a few sites that fit the Valentine’s Day/Library Lovers’ Month theme. The link to that tag runs a query that returns all the sites the delicious community has tagged with wjlove.

Once you’ve perused our initial compilation of tag-worthy sites, we’re sure you’ll want to join in the fun. Do you know of a site that expresses the themes of “love” and “library”? Then share that love by spreading around the wjlove tag.

By the way, we’re doing the same on flickr. The wjlove tag there should surface some library-love photos, but we need more (so get taggin’!).

For newbies, this exercise makes good-excuse-#367 to try out this tagging thing: Create a del.ico.us account and go for it. We want to see your library love!

photo credit: WJ’s own Libraryman