Techlicious.tv is a site that I almost dashed right past, but then things started to catch my attention.  It is a blog that offers really handy tips for Firefox, Windows Vista, and lots more.  I have already downloaded a new plugin to try out and am going to tinker a little with my Vista to see if I can get some of those tricks working. 

This is definitely worth checking out if you are running Firefox or Vista or just want a place to find some great, handy tips.  Heck, you could even take advantage and look like a top geek if you just share some of these with colleagues!

Feedzie is a search engine that searches audio, video or feeds for keywords.  It is a podcast and vodcast search.  You can navigate by tag cloud, or type in the specific keyword you want.  I find the tag clouds fascinating to browse, but frustrating to use for navigation.  If you are looking for anything specific, make sure you type in your term rather than floating through the clouds to find it.

Poets as Peacemakers, Poets as Healers
Presented by Ellen Kort

Started by reading a poem for the Neenah Public Library

Mary Walters poem on spiders and the WWW

Tom Montag – one of her favorite Wisconsin poets and writers
    Tells us that poetry is for all of us.

Poetry is an act of peace.  Poetry and peace are connected.

Why aren’t more poets writing about peace?  Good question.

She shared two poems read at Poets Against the War.  Powerful poems always make me weep.  These did that.

Spoke on importance of reaching children at a young age, or it will be too late.

Physicians are starting to use poetry as part of their healing work.
    “We are going to spill words on paper today.”
    Golly, we all need to approach our own writing this way!

Note to self: Kleenex must be packed for Ellen’s programs!

Share poetry!  If not your own, share others’.

Alright!  If anyone is listening!  Head to the next poetry program!!

In the “Palm” of Your Hand

Presented by Robert Wagner

Handouts Online

Tungsten TX

Use of Palms in classrooms where teachers can check in on progress, comment back, etc.  Plus kids can upload their content to share.

iPods?  Could be the way to go, students are already aware of it.  iPod Touch – coming out in November.  Software can be downloaded by students from iTunes. 

Marian is changing over to iPods in May. 

PDAReach is for Palm to demo on a screen.  Sweet.

Palms come with basic software. 

PalmReader:  language arts teachers – downloadable free books – text is a little larger than newspaper print.  Recommended for people having reading troubles.

Palms can beam business cards from one person to another.  In jpg format.

Palms use graffiti where you can write on the softpad to form letters.  Or you can use a keyboard, ABC feature.

Palms use SD cards, & you can plug in headphones.  Cards are used to store photos, movies and music.

Connect with USB to PC.  Newer ones will charge over the USB.  Will also sync with Macs.

Documents to Go – Document software for Palms

Prefs – Brains of the Palm.  Change date & time; other preferences.

All programs have menus accessed by using the Menu button.

Tasks:  set alarms as reminder for tasks;

Planning:  can’t see things clearly on a monthly basis.  He still uses both Palm and paper.

Very different applications in schools and libraries.  Where they want to watch their students, we want openness and not watching.  Very interesting.  While this might be helpful in schools, I wonder what we would use it for in a public library…  On the other hand, looking at the iPod Touch may have sold me on it…  But not for the library.

Who’s blogging this?
    Lovely to have a speaker aware of bloggers in the audience. 

5 Hallmarks of Digital Ecosystem

1.  Media and gadgets are ubiquitous parts of everyday life
    Home media ecology is a now a snarl of connections.  The web itself is now a storage     device for people.

2. The Internet/Broadband is at the heart of the digital revolution.
    Broadband access changes the way that people use the Internet.
    96 million with Broadband at home now.
    142 million use the Net

3.  New gadgets allow people to enjoy media anywhere they want.  Wirelessness is its         own adventure.
    88% of college students have cellphones
    81& have digital cameras
    63% have MP3 players
    55% own video cameras
    55% own laptops
    27% have a PDA or Blackberry
    77% play games online
    Conversation continues between different media and ways of interacting for teens.

4.  Ordinary citizens have a chance to be publishers, create content.
    55% of online teens have their own profile on sites like MySpace or Facebook
    2/3 of them use ways to protect themselves online
    20% of online adults have such profiles
    What they do:
       61% send group messages to all friends
       82% send private messages to specific friends
       33% give e-props to their friends
       84% post messages to a friend’s page
       76% post comments on a friend’s blog
   
    Content is done using digital images as well as words
    39% of online teens share their creations online of all types
    22% of online adults have done this
    33% have created or worked on blogs or webpages for others
    13% of online adults do this
   
    33% of college students blog – also on Facebook, but kids don’t consider that                 blogging.  So number is probably higher.
    54% read blogs
    12% of online adults have a blog
    35% read them
    Numbers are probably higher in readers as well, they don’t recognize the division         between sites and blogs.
   
    27% of online teens report keeping a personal webpage
    14% of online adults have their own page
   
    26% of online teens say they remix content they find online
    9% of adults do this

    19% of teens have created an avatar
    9% of adults have done this

    15% have posted videos on YouTube
    9% of adults
   
    Content creation by age.  Perfect downslope as users get older.

    Teen bloggers are writing for a very small and narrow audience.  Teens are often not     aware that parents and employers will find this because they see it as fairly private     and narrow.

    More young women blog than men.

5.  Different people use these technologies in different ways.
    Studied 3 things:  assets, what they used, and attitudes
    Sorted people into 10 groups
       Omnivores:  8% of population – high, high end users
          Early adopters and influencers
       Connectors:  7% of population – female oriented; African-Americans; upscale                   socio-economic group
       Lackluster Veterans: 8% of population – have gadgets; don’t tend to use for free             time.  Bothered by being connected and interruptions.
       Productivity Enhancers: 8% of population – use tech for work; don’t have time for             fun
       Mobile Centrics: 10% – love their cell phones; don’t have broadband at home;                 single
       Connected but Hassled: 10% – connected but don’t like it; tech is not fun, but                 stressful.
       Inexperienced Experimenters: 8% – in 50s; women more than men; no broadband             at home; like the gadgets they have; willing to try gadgets with coaching
       Light But Satisfied: 15% – older; white; traditional media occupies their time;                 tech doesn’t do much for them
       Indifferents: 11% – find connectivity annoying; time pressed; information overload             despite not being pressured
       Off the network: 15% – have neither Internet or cell phones; oldest age group; off             the grid; poorest group
             Say they don’t want it and don’t need it

Find out where you fall!

I’m a Connector.

Information omnivores are also part of the public Internet equation.  Not just bridging the Internet gap.

6-8% of the population say that they use the public library as their main place to access the Internet

44-45% of people have not visited a library in the last year!  How do we reach these people?? 

Large low-tech crowd – 49%

Small technophile group – 8%

This will change over time.  But a large percentage of people are not Web 2.0 focused.

What all this connectivity does to us:
    Changes our relationship to information
    Changes our relationship to each other

    1.  Volume of info grows: Long tail
    2.  Velocity of info increases – Smart mobs emerge
    3.  Venues of intersecting with info and people multiply – place shift and time shift         (TiVo)  
    4.  Venturing for info changes – search strategies and search expectations spread in         the Google era
    5.  Vigilance for info transforms – attention is truncated AND elongated
    6.  Valence of info improve
s – relevance; create your own news feeds
          StumbleUpon mentioned by audience
    7.  Vetting of info becomes more social; people ping their social networks
    8.  Viewing of info is disaggregated and becomes more horizontal
          New reading strategies emerge as coping mechanisms
          People scan abstracts; looking for broader ideas, not deep reading
          More headline reading
    9.  Voting on and ventilating about info proliferates
          Tagging, rating, commenting, etc.
          Collective intelligence emerges
          Question of how you build trust online – reputation system has become                         embedded
    10.  InVention of information and visibility of new creators is enabled
          Both exciting and frustrating

This was a very fascinating, energetic and smart presentation.  Filled with humor, he managed to make statistics fascinating and telling.

Action items

• Think of yourself as a news node and less like a reference source
• Think of yourself as a social network node for people – people are personifying what they find online
• Think of yourself as an information hub — an aggregator and linker
• Embrace multi-modal multi-plexity in media – channels of info intertwine and blur
• Experiment with Web 2.0
• Listen to your youngest employees; they are digital natives
• Monitor the pushback against technology as a time sink and interruption enabler; participate in the new conversations about etiquette
• Be confident in what you already know about how to meet people’s reference and entertainment needs! 

Hurrah for the last point!  Thank you!!!!  I love that we ended on the fact that we have skills that directly work – still.

Age of Uncertainty
    9/11
    Divided society – have and have nots
    Boom and bust economy
    Unsafe toys from China
    Fiscal constraints
    Erosion of trust in public institutions
    Outsourcing of jobs
    Headline driven public policy
    Climate change
    New Orleans
    Chaos in Arabia
    Collapsing bridges

Permanent uncertainty gives us energy in life

Chinese character for crisis has both danger and hidden opportunity as part of it

Resilience
    Told story of Antwone Fisher, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman & Viktor Frankl
    What allows them to react in such a way to such horrific situations?
    We all have within us a capacity to react this way.
    Transforms helplessness into power – do not see themselves a victims, but             leverage themselves for change

Resilience at work is needed because of rapid changes, increasing pressure, outsourcing, downsizing, etc.

Life is suffering.  Cause of suffering is failure to let go of the past.  Attachment. 
Perspective can shift to looking forward with hope and optimism.

Resilience allows us to move on, give up what we can’t hold on to, and embrace with hope the uncertainty of tomorrow.

The presentation really took off when he started talking about Journey Through Change.  I really liked the emphasis on change, challenging yourself and breaking out of comfort zones.  Very important stuff! 

Libraries are victims of their own success.  We taught people well enough for them to do it themselves?  Reclaim and reinterpret our roles.  – Hmm.  Not sure this made much sense to me.

Control your destiny or somebody else will.  Definitely!

Resilience is a mindset.  Shapes our response to stress.  We always have choices.

Develop your resilience:
    Self-Assurance
       View the world as filled with opportunity.
       Positive self perception.
       Do the thing you think you cannot do.
    Personal Vision and Purpose
       Know what you believe in.
       Clear vision of what you want to accomplish and achieve.
       Don’t wait for others to get it right.  Do it yourself.
    Flexibility
       Aware of and sensitive to changes in the environment
       Be open to new ideas
       Challenge yourself and your views
       Able to shift gears in response to what is happening
    Organized
       Create structures and stability in sea of chaos
    Problem solver
       Think critically and reflectively
       View problems as challenges and opportunities
       Anticipate setbacks
       It is the courage to continue that makes the difference.

There was too much covered in too short a time.  Blasting through these theories and points was disappointing.  I think we could have cut the brainstorming time and spent more time with the points being made.  Of course, this could be because I don’t have a table or group. 

Assume a can-do attitude – Courage to Be Happy by Sylvia Boorstein

Find your voice and speak truth.

The Four Agreements

Be impeccable with your word.
Don’t take anything personally
Don’t make assumptions
Always do your best.

Leadership

Make sense of the world for other people
    Create shared meeting
    Test and experiment
    Use metaphor and stories

Relating
    Display compassion
    Listen without judgment

Visioning
    Be passionate
    Believe in something
    Walk the talk, live the dream

Inventing
    Teams and teamwork
    Translate relationships into strength

Wish there had been more on leadership, and less on resilience…

Thank you everyone who attended my program on Library 2.0 yesterday! I have uploaded my PowerPoint slides to SlideShare. You can just click here. Feel free to share, borrow, and use my ideas.
Remember, I am always happy to talk about Library 2.0, management, or many other things! Feel free to email (tasha (at) menashalibrary.org) or AIM: TashRow.

INTRO

• Parent in Texas objecting to teacher giving 9th grader a Cormac McCarthy novel – wants all McCarthy books classified as harmful to minors
• Banned Books Week – our freedom is fragile and must be protected
• Most books are not banned because communities stand up and say NO
• 500-600 challenges each year in last 25 years
• Only 30 books banned last year – compared to 100s 26+ years ago
• Patrons must be able to choose what they want to read – providing a broad range of ideas and info
• It is not “my” library – it is the public’s library
• Broad range means that people will disagree with it
• Remember, complaining is OK.  They are exercising their 1st Amendment rights
• Anything legal is legitimate to have in a library
• We don’t serve the loudest or most powerful – we serve EVERYONE, not just the majority
• 1st Amendment – 45 little words – Unique because it guarantees rights and lacks proscriptions of rights
• BUT speech does have consequences.
• 1st Amendment is important – the mechanism to govern ourselves
• Format doesn’t change our role – just gives us a new arena to play in

HOT ISSUES

DOPA (Deleting Online Predators Act)
Requires schools and libraries to block access to social networking sites – would block MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, LiveJournal, etc.  Including class management software.  Also, IM, wikis, blogs, etc. 
Seeks to eliminate the virtual world our youth exist in. 
Penalty for not abiding is loss of federal funding.
Local decision making, not federal law should be used to decide these things.  DOPA is redundant and unnecessary.
Targets the communities who need the funding – though these are the same kids who cannot access these sites at home.
If we push this off to homes, there are no qualified professionals to aid in teaching children how to protect themselves online
North Caroline looking at requiring age verification of children.  HOW?!

Cyberbullying
Kids must have authority figures to trust with this
Don’t respond to hate mail
Don’t respond to chat or IM that makes you feel uncomfortable
Find someone you trust and show it to them
Kids do trust librarians and teachers
We are in a position to help
Urge kids to talk to parents about it

Illinois Library Association
Safe blogging – teens
Dealing with cyberbullies – kids
Social networking – parents
Click on link above for downloadable versions

Cambridge University Press Suit
Cambrdige Univ. Press folded and recalled books
British libel law is different than US law
Libraries do NOT need to turn over the books, unless there is a decision by a US court
Libraries hold title to their copies, which they can do with as they please
Libraries urged to purchase more copies due to the interest

Yale University Press
Kinder USA sued
Yale filed an anti-slap suit
Kinder USA withdrew challenge

Top Ten Banned Books of 2006

Kids need to read about these things to decrease their angst so they can cope on a day-to-day basis.
Many modern classics are on the list.
When censors condemn these books, they are saying more about themselves than the work. 
By removing books with gay themes, censors are telling people with homosexual friends, family, or they themselves do not have a right to exist.
Books return to the list year after year, showing that censors are not making headway.

Librarians are key in the battle to protect American values.  Right to access information freely without government watching us.

**********************************************************

More than a few moments where my eyes filled with tears.
“I found myself at the library.”
Goodness, there is power in what we do, what we offer.  What a great way to be reminded of it.