In our industrialized world, people are now afraid of apples. Afraid of buying the wrong kind. Afraid of making a purchasing mistake or some sort of pie mistake.

And they’re afraid of your product and your service. Whatever you sell, there are two big reasons people aren’t buying it:

1. They don’t know about it.

2. They’re afraid of it.

If you can get over those two, then you get the chance to prove that they need it and it’s a good value. But as long as people are afraid of what you sell, you’re stuck.

If you like what you read, post a comment to his blog to encourage him to write that Part II he mentioned!

Need a primer on twitter? Read this article: “Twitter: A Beginner’s Guide.”.

My colleague Zola Maddison mentioned to me today that she thought we ought to publish the patron stories behind or alongside the library staff stories we tell at WebJunction.

So, what if when we talked about what Rachel does for her library in the Mission Branch of San Francisco Public, we could also hear the voices of some of her patrons talking about how her library services have changed and enriched their lives?

That is why we do this stuff, afterall.

Zola’s comments came after a whirl-wind hour of Knowledge Cafe-ing, hosted by Betha and Emily, based on their time at SLA this year. At the end of that session we were talking about actions and outcomes from the Cafe. ‘Just let it change you,’ I said, ‘let it influence our work’. But what I think I may have meant was more simple than that, even: ‘just let it remind you’.

My coworkers here at WebJunction are a patient lot. They work hard every day knowing that at some point there is a very real possibility that I will march right up to them and start talking about, of all things, PEZ dispensers.

I know that sounds strange, but don’t be fooled! These PEZ discussion really are about work (most of the time anyway), work that is about to happily culminate in the dissemination of our very own WebJunction PEZ dispensers! That’s right; you may soon be one of the roughly 120 WebJunction members that will soon be the proud owners of some very spiffy, very limited edition (only 150 were made), highly collectible WebJunction PEZ dispenser. This could mean you! So how do you get one?

First, everyone should know that this special little PEZ was designed primarily as a giveaway for this year’s ALA Annual Conference. So, if you attend our big WebJunction event next Friday, June 22nd and are one of the first 100 WebJunction members to bop around the room partying, visiting, learning and answering a very short question sheet, you will get one of these super spiffy PEZ dispensers. So if you are especially keen on acquiring a WJ PEZ, arrive early and join the party! *Just a note, we do have lots of other activities, games and giveaways planned for this giganto event. It will be so much fun that, believe it or not, even without PEZ it would be a pretty fab party.*

Sadly, large numbers of limited edition custom PEZ dispensers are cost prohibitive so we only have so many to go around. We also know that a very large number of our members cannot make it to our party at ALA. Sooooo…. If you are a registered WebJunction member currently working in, for or with libraries and you really, really want one, you have a chance. We have set 20 dispensers aside and will hold a drawing for them shortly after our return from the conference in DC. There are some requirements that you’ll see on the drawing sign-up page but as long as you meet them (and you really, really want a WebJunction PEZ dispenser) feel free to register. The link to sign up for the giveaway is here  **UPDATE**  We’ve given away all of our PEZ dispensers for this event and want to thank everyone for participating.  We hope you are enjoying your WebJunction PEZ!

Here are the WebJunction Reception/Party details:
Venue: Renaissance, Washington, Grand Ballroom Central
Location:999 Ninth Street NW, Washington, District Of Columbia
Date: Friday, June 22
Time: 5:00 – 7:30 PM ET
Required Dress: Your sassiest librarian outfit. (Or business casual)

And just in case you wondered, my own personal obsession with PEZ is nicely documented by following this link. Additionally, Chrystie and Rachel can attest to the majesty of the Burlingame Museum of PEZ Memorabilia, which printed these custom “fantasy” PEZ for us and which we also recently visited while in the Bay Area for a Community Unconference and a meeting at the RLG offices. A grand time was had by all!

At the PIÑATA DE RECURSOS/RESOURCE PIÑATA Exhibit, guests will view the materials and take ideas back to their libraries.  We will also post all of the materials on WebJunction after the event (stay tuned!). Submissions can be from all types of libraries and we welcome all Spanish language library materials.  Contact Elena Tscherny for more information about submission guidelines and deadlines.  

We hope to see there!

People in the libraries and librarians group in Flickr from both Spain and Australia did voiceovers for their portions of the program. They talked over their demonstrations – which were done in PPT, I think, but maybe there was some flash involved. It was so simple, but a nice big photograph of each speaker as they began, along with name and title, and Michael gave his audience the feeling of meeting someone online. Impressive! It has me thinking about how we (the WebJunction community) can bring our members into these types of conference or meeting settings without even physically being there. Next time we have a member reception at ALA or something, why not let WJ members who can’t or won’t be there tell their library’s story in a similar way? Any volunteers?
Though this one may be my favorite, it’s one of a thousand new ideas I have after being here. Lucky me – lucky us. Now it’s just a matter of sorting through them all!