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.)

PLA kicked off with keynote speaker John Wood, founder of Room to Read and author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World. On top of being engaging, energetic, and funny, he really is changing at least a portion of the world. In the eight years since Wood delivered the first load of books on the back of a yak (named Zach) to a remote Nepali village, his organization has established over 5,100 libraries in South/Southeast Asia and South Africa.

For a striking comparison, Wood displayed a bar chart comparing the number of stores opened by Starbucks around the world since 2000 with the number of libraries opened by Room to Read. At first, Starbucks held a strong lead over the fledgling non-profit, but in the last three years, the library effort has surged ahead. More than a frivolous comparison, it’s a challenge that Wood took on, one he dubbed the “Starbucks test.”

“If they can open Starbucks at a rapid rate, why can’t we open schools and libraries at the same rate?”

Photos of kids beaming with excitement shone from the screen; heart-warming stories were told of the priceless rewards that come from empowering kids and communities. It’s inspiring to see what can be done in so short a time. Of course, we gave him a standing ovation.

Sara Peté, 2007 Scholarship Winner

Former workshop participants and trainers are invited to apply for the scholarship.This is a great opportunity to showcase your library’s accomplishments in Spanish outreach as well as help inspire other librarians interested in creating and sustaining Spanish outreach services at libraries across the country. Check out more scholarship details, get the scholarship application, and read about last year’s winner, Sara Peté from the Olympia Timberland Library.

One major finding of the study is:
“Compared to those with broadband connections, people who do not use the internet or who only use dial-up connections have different problems and different search strategies when they face personal issues. We call this group the low-access population and they are less successful than those with high-access to the internet in getting the material they need to address these problems.”

The study goes on to report that this “low-access population”, comprised of 36% of the population who do not use the internet or have only dial-up connections, rely more on television and radio for information than those with high-access. Libraries should take note of this finding when thinking about marketing their services to populations on the low access side of digital divide. 

Although this study did not include Spanish speakers, we know from past reports from the Pew Hispanic Center, that Spanish-speakers are more likely to be part of the “low-access population.” Working with the local Spanish media to get the word out about library services is key to reaching this audience. For tips on working with the Spanish media check out the Resource Packet from our Spanish Language Outreach Program workshops.

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)

The Librarians is a dark new TV comedy about a suburban public library. Since libraries aren’t the typical fare for prime time TV, the news announcement, forwarded by Jim Weikum (Arrowhead Library System), caught my attention. http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=307003

The show is produced and broadcast in Australia. Thanks to the Internet and Australian Broadcasting Corporation, each week one could watch the latest episode in full online! (A high speed Internet connection is needed to view the episodes.)http://www.abc.net.au/tv/librarians/#/films/

First episode: Oct 31, 2007 (Available now for viewing.); Next episodes: November 7, 14, 21

I haven’t seen a full episode yet, but the photos, clips, and quotes from the interactive website are intriguing. http://www.abc.net.au/tv/librarians

“Love, betrayal, revenge. Strictly non-fiction comedy.”

“If a talking book remains unborrowed in a library, does anybody hear it? - Marjorie Jonas”

View the last episode or peruse the website and share your thoughts here. Is it a good thing or not that librarians are cast in this dark light?

- Mary Ann Van Cura, State Library Services
http://webjunctionworks.org/mn/blog/index.php/2007/11/07/the-librarians-love-betrayal-revenge/

This from Marylaine Block (to George by email posted here):
We are assured that the electronic nomination form is working, but if you prefer, you can supply all the information requested on the form and either fax it to 646-746-6734, or send it in an e-mail to Francine Fialkoff. The deadline has been extended to November 28.

So sorry to LJ - I hope you have a good turn out of do-overs!

Otherwise, IL2007 has also been fabulous - I’ve had a great time connecting with people that I haven’t seen for a while, as well as spending time with people that I know online better than I do in person. I always take a chunk of breakfast/lunch/dinner slots while I’m here at this conference to talk in person specifically with people that I’ve known or met online over the year before - it’s fun! This year I’ve met with Amanada, Jennifer, Josh, David, Robin, and a few others that I’ve maybe seen around before but really became ‘friends’ with in the last several months - either through facebook, twitter, or the WJ. Not to mention the folks that I know well, but don’t see very often - great connecting with these folks as well. Heck, even the people I see every day, I end up having inspirational conversations with. It’s such a wonderful source of new energy and innovation to get away from daily activities - get out there and talk to people (even the same people!) in a new context. THANK YOU to OCLC and WebJunction for making this an important part of our roles in the cooperative; it really makes a huge difference! “I love my online community” (and it gets bigger all the time) is the only thing I have to say about that!

One project I’m working on now (also with libraryman, and with cindi trainor (current WJ member spotlight) and michael sauers (traveling librarian)) that I’m super excited about is a series of interviews with “veteran” library professionals - the innovators of earlier times - that we can publish as primary resources (oral histories) and excerpt as a popular series, beginning sometime next year. It’s the most exciting project that I’m currently involved in, really, and it’s great to be here with colleagues - gathering new ideas (and names) for those interviews. Stay tuned for more info … I think there will be a lot of ways the WJ community can get involved in this project once it takes off.

I’ve also been encouraging anyone who’s interested in working in the social networking, community building, or learning areas to check out our open positions right now (on OCLC’s career site). See something you like? Please apply. Three positions are currently open in the Community area; we’d love to hear from you!

Back to conferencing …

No matter what type of library you work in or what kind of training you do, join our learning community to share tips and advice.

Compliments of the publisher, InfoToday, we will give away 5 copies of the book during the webinar. You just need to pre-register and then join the webinar to be included in the drawing. Over 100! people have registered, some who are new trainers and some with lots of experience, and I look forward to sharing and learning with everyone.

The Accidental Technology Trainer
October 17, 11 AM – 12 PM PT / 2 – 3 PM ET
Free via WebJunction’s Live Space
Register here (optional)

I’ll be back with more posts to keep the conversation going. Feel free to leave your comments and question here, before or after the session!

More soon,

Stephanie Gerding
Photo outside her home in sunny Phoenix where everything is in bloom

The WJ-IL home page looks great (check out the video and the toolbar -first WJers to do these!). We’re excited about all the ways the IL State Library has customized their WJ service for library staff there, and we really look forward to working with them to build out our online communities for library staff development. We expect our work with IL to not only push us forward with new tools and formats, but also provide a model for delivering online community services through a single spot for the whole state.

Congrats to the state library and especially to Dawne and Lisa - you’ve worked hard and it shows!! Welcome to WebJunction - we’re glad you’re here!