Posts

The Basics

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There are things we all take for granted and assume to be basic, shared cultural knowledge. The sun rises in the... east. Water flows... downhill. Fires are... hot. When giving presentations on library resources, I don't want to spend valuable time discussing what everyone already knows. The problem, as it turns out, is what we in library land assume to be basic, shared knowledge is not always shared as widely as we think. Case in point: I was recently hanging out with family and friends as we watched the super blood harvest moon lunar eclipse a few nights ago. The particular friend I was sitting next to as we sipped our beer and watched the moon do its thing is the president of a company headquartered in Florida but with production plants all over the country. As his position dictates, he spends a fair amount of time traveling. Also, as his position dictates, he's an audiobook fan. Seeing a seamless sales opportunity, I gave him the full rundown on our downloadable audiobo
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Some inspiration

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In Spokane's weekly alternative news publication, the Inlander, they do a number of awesome things.  One of the things they do is a weekly "Random Joe on the Street" type of survey where they ask a question on some given issue and record the responses.  Here is the column from 3/2/12: It's not Kassie's or Luke's or Dixie's or Heather's fault that they are off base.  It's mine.  More work to be done.
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Crisis? What crisis?

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Fine.  I agree that public libraries have been taking some pretty wicked shots to the chin for quite a while now.  We all know the litany of issues: decreased funding, increased number of formats to purchase, publishers being squirrely about granting us access to their content... and so on. All true.  All relevant. And nowhere close to being the full picture. Just last night a colleague from a neighboring library system and I did a presentation on library business resources for an entrepreneur/business plan class hosted by the local Chamber of Commerce.  To a chorus of many oohs and ahhs, we covered the content that we originally planned to cover. Comments ranged from "This is the best night of my life" to "I loooove the library" to "Who knew?!?" to "Get out!!!".  And then they wouldn't let us leave the room.  Beyond the library's straight up business resources they wanted to know about our ebooks. About our downloadable audiobooks.
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Thanks!

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A quick shout out to the folks at the Washington State Library for hosting me this morning for a First Tuesday session. If you'd like to watch the 1 hour presentation at your leisure, go ahead and link to it here . Thanks again!
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This pretty much sums it up.  If you find yourself sitting comfortably at your desk, day in and day out, you're missing out.
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Being big

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Although I have absolutely no scientific data to back me up on this assertion, I'm guessing that one of the top 10 reasons that librarians don't spend more time engaging with the public is the fear of being out in the public.  Kind of a weird trait for a public librarian to have, but there it is. So how do you work around that?  How do you get comfortable with being uncomfortable?  For starters, give this a try: http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html
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New York's Best Kept Secret for Entrepreneurs?

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The Atlantic magazine says this is it ( http://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/bank-of-america/archive/2012/09/new-yorks-best-kept-secret-for-entrepreneurs/262197 ) but I'm guessing that the NYPL could give the Field Center a run for its money.
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