Idaho Commission for Libraries

November 5 -7, 2007, The Westin Seattle, Washington

Six ICFL staff and 4 members of SPLAT (Special Projects Library Action Team) are attending the Pegasus Conference to learn more about Systems Thinking.  Check back to read about our experiences.

Through American Libraries Direct this morning came a link to an entry in the “Information Wants to be Free” blog. The entry is entitled “Libraries in Social Networking Software” and it discusses the recent issues with MySpace and Facebook. While several articulate points and mindful pros and cons are covered, two concepts stood out for me.

The author asks the question – “Are Facebook and MySpace bad?” The answer is that problems that are arising with social networking opportunities are problems that have been around in other online venues. She goes on to share ideas for educating parents about online social networking and being involved with their children in this arena.

Here is an article recently published on the Red Herring site (from the April 10th print issue) — The Future of the Internet: in a decade, the Net will dig deeper into our lives*.

Hi all - thanks for participanting and blogging! The winner of the drawing for the iTunes card is Leslie McCombs at Ada Community Library. Now if someone would just buy her an MP3 player to go with it ;) Glenna Rhodes, Boise Public Library.

Libraries have always wooed particular segments of their community. Sometimes it is a conscious effort done by assessing who the library needs to connect with so they can create a mutually beneficial relationship (the small business community, for example). Or libraries may offer a traditional slate of services that may or may not match their community needs and consequently may not create strong library advocates.

Professionally, and personally, I would always advocate making conscious choices but first we need some facts! To better understand digital natives and have them become our next generation of library stakeholders check out the website listed below. (Thank you Marcia Beckwith, Boise School District, for sharing this site.)

Hi all - it was a great conference (ILA SW Region 3) today at Eagle Academy! I loved that it rained so we weren’t all wishing we were outside ;)

But down to business. I’m sure you all went home and immediately told your families or significant others that you couldn’t possibly make dinner because you had to think and strategize about how we can save Libraryland from apathy and entice the Millennial Generation into our virtual and real doors. You know…those digital natives who will soon “rule the world”.

What are your ideas about how we might alter the landscape of our libraries to make them meet the expectations of this generation? A generation that according to Stewart Bodner wants things to be “cheap, fast, and good” and that “convenience trumps quality”. Can librarians make quality convenient?? Can we addresss their desire for fast paced, collaborative, high tech mobility within the library space?

The April 8th ILA Southwest Regional Conference will be discussing “digital natives”. All digital immigrants will be encouraged to blog their comments and ideas about how libraries can reach this group. Watch this blog for more information from the keynote session and take advantage of this worry-free opportunity to be a blogger ;) See you Saturday!

Glenna Rhodes, Boise Public Library

Paul Dirac shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger in 1933 for his work in the mathematics of quantum mechanics. No, I’m not going to bore you with the math and I’ll try to keep this simple (so that I understand it too).

After the discovery of the positron in 1932 (confirming Dirac’s prediction in 1928), Dirac postulated (among many other things) that positrons are noticed because they are the ABSENCE of an electron. This can be compared to a fish, which doesn’t notice the water but does notice the bubbles (the absence of water).

We live in a sea of information and, like the fish, don’t notice it (and like the fish we use it without noticing it). We take notice of information only 1) in its absence and 2) when it disagrees with our preconceptions.

Think you’re going to have to wait until 2014 for Googlezon’s EPIC to emerge? (See Memo’s post about the “Googlezon Video”.) Not anymore.

Check out Newsvine for a look at the shape of things to come. Here’s a clip from the site’s welcome page: “Welcome to the Newsvine collective. A place where anyone can read, write, and influence the news.” Sounds to me that this is something libraries should definitely be interested in.

The site’s in private beta right now, but I happen to have a fistful of invites available. If you’re interested in trying Newsvine for yourself, send an email to me (grifflet@gmail.com) and I’ll toss you an invite (as long as I still have some to spare).

Here’s more on how people view libraries. We have our work cut out for us. (in case you lack time to read the entire report, look at the conclusion and then work your way back).

OCLC Perceptions

–Lynn Baird