Reflection

Reflections of... the way web's gonna be
Reflections of... the stuff you're teaching me...

OK! OK! Deadline tomorrow! Did I do everything?

Blog! That would be this thing!
Flickr, mashups, and image generators! Way too much fun to be work!
Blog readers and RSS feeds! A dizzying amount of news in 20 seconds!
Facebook! Now suddenly a new essential part of my life!
Ning! Well, I looked at it.
The IM monster has eaten my laptop! I have now taken an advanced class on Twitter at the NTRLS conference so I can learn more on how to use it effectively!
Tagging - electronic subject headings for folks.
Delicious - favorites follow you everywhere.
DIGGing for treasure and finding fool's gold.
Librarything - free school library catalog.
LibWorm - interesting information about the library profession I am not actually allowed to read at work. But I can Twitter and Facebook. Really silly.
Wikis - A Wikid encyclopedia and I can do it, too!
GoogleDocs - free word processing and powerpoint for everybody!
Itube, Wetube, we all scream for self-expression on Youtube!
Podcasts - beats a tape recorder any day. Now teenagers can be sillier for a much larger audience.

And the crux of the matter - developing the 23 things at my library. Well, now let's think about practical applications for the future. What am I going to use professionally, what am I going to use personally, and what am I going to ignore?

Our profession is changing, dramatically, and the way people access information is changing dramatically, too. There was a time when librarians were the only people who could find any information about XYZ topic, hidden away in a huge tome that most people did not even know about. We read books. We listened to albums, but the chances of publishing content ourselves for the enjoyment or edification of others were slim.

Well, the question is no longer about finding information for people. They can Google it. Now, the question is about finding the RIGHT information for people, for sifting through the mounds and mounds of twaddle and yammering and scams to determine what is accurate, what is pertinent, and what is valuable. It's also about empowering our patrons to use the Web to their fullest advantage, rather than just playing games or checking out dates on Myspace. It's about publicizing our own services in way that people might be more likely to see them. The possibilities that arise from this exercise:

I could make a blog for my library in which I have inserted links to the NYT Bestseller List on the side. On that blog might be a podcast in which I tell a story. In the meat of the blog we might show a youtube video of the performer who came to the library last week - or will be coming next week! Then we advertise the class we will be giving on writing your own resume using GoogleDocs next month, and we add that we've got a twitter account and will be passing along updates on all these events as they come up, so follow it! I've got tags to all these things linking them to my own library, and I tell all my professional colleagues using Facebook and Ning. Then, just to insert some humor, we have the Mashup of the Day, featuring a tongue-in-cheek "motivational" poster or a funny photo doctored like my Attack of the Rogue Mutant Hair.

Librarianship. It's not just about book circulation anymore. Once we were miners, searching for a rare substance - information. Now we are trying to tame a valuable beast - information run rampant. We've got to either learn and use the new tools to harness this power, or risk becoming obsolete.

Thanks for the new saddle and bit.