Where have I been hiding?

Well...as the summer months came along, it has been a busy time at the library. Even as the fall started, while it may have been less busy than the summer, it still is busier than the year before which was busier than the year before that. And...one of the factors that kept me blogging was our library's 2.5 lessons which were one of the items that had to be suspended as the library evaluated its essential services and functions. That said, I enjoyed posting around this time of year last year with my favorite reads of the year. So stay tuned....I'll be posting that soon.

Playaway Pics Panel Presenters

Ok....as promised some more pics from ALA and my Playaway trip. Included in these photos are their booth in the exhibit hall, the presenters at the panel, and me with one of the founders of Findaway, the parent company of Playaway. Blake Squires.

ALA Fun

Hello, everyone! So, we had about 20 people at our panel discussion, called Playaway and Your Peers. Now granted, this was my first presentation, but I really enjoyed it. Here are some pics...

On the right is a picture of the other members of the panel, Yvonne Oliger, the director of Brown County Library in Nashville, IN and Kitty Pope, Executive Director of Alliance Library System in East Peoria, Illinois.

This is the view going up the escalator.....no seriously.....it was very exciting.



Below is a pic of one of the big banners of the exhibit hall. Playaway provided me with a guest pass where I talked to people that OCLS already has a relationship with and looked to see what some other companies are doing or exploring that maybe we don't have or have been considering or thinking about recently.

ALA Playaway with Your Peers

OK...my panel starts in just a few with Playaway here in Chicago. Hope to meet and greet a lot of people.

ALA/Chicago/Playaway

And now for something completely different....I will be attending ALA courtesy of Playaway this weekend. I fly into Chicago tomorrow and will present as a part of a panel called "Playaway with Your Peers at 10:30 on Sunday. If you are attending ALA, please come by and learn more about the format and say hello! It will be at the NW Room 5 of the Hilton Chicago. Yvonne Oliger, Director of the Brown County Library in Nashville, IN and Kitty Pope, Executive Director of Alliance Library System in East Peoria, IL will also be on the panel. I know my staff at Herndon were asking if I would be blogging, tweeting and fbooking about my trip and I'll know more once I arrive in Chicago tomorrow night. And my library system, the Orange County Library System in Orlando, also gave me an Itouch on loan to hopefully show some of our cool new mobile apps, social networking, and 2.0 and beyond stuff.....

Look forward to meeting new folks!

Alternate Search Engines

In trying the alternate search engines, I found that the results weren't that significantly different than a Yahoo or Google search. At the heart of the results of any search or information gathering will be credibility. And who is the ultimate definer of what that means? For instance, if we take the current situation in Iran, most of the "credible" or established journalists were being arrested, detained, or forced to leave the country. What the world is left with then is the twitter, fb and youtube postings from otherwise unconfirmed and perceived unreliable sources. But, the end user can read the posts, look at the pictures, watch the videos, listen to the chants, and ultimately make a decision. They don't need CNN or NBC to explain it to them. It's all right there.

Similalry, on a lighter note, TMZ broke Michael Jackson's passing. TMZ, which would be considered by most as tabloid at best.....but the lines get blurred when the information proves true.

A book I read recently, The Numerati by Stephen Baker, is a fascinating book about how our searches, tweets, and updates are being used to gather information about us as much as providing information. It is the storing and processing of this megadata that companies are hoping to better understand how we vote, how healthy we live, why we buy, or who we love.

Mobile Technologies

While the various mobile technogies are interesting, I am still a long way off from finding them essential to my daily life. Interesting? Yes. But an unlimited text and media plan is no small investment when I consider the other ways I choose to spend my money in any given month. I text friends, but only on a limited basis and again, rarely out of necessity. I'm guessing because I am not on the go outside of work (give me the beach, a book, or playing with the kids), it hasn't found its way into the fabric of my daily life.

That said, I am fascinated by watching how the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) is integrating various technologies. While many people find the organization and sport distasteful, it is still an interesting model to watch as it increases its popularity through YouTube (vlogs of the President of the company, Dana White....name one other sport whose President gives that much intimate access) and Twitters. At a recent event in Las Vegas, he Twittered that they were giving away four tickets to the pay per view (which is an "old school" use of technology and promotion taken right out of cable TV and WWE's playbook) in the lobby of the hotel. A guy raced down to find Dana White and his handlers with the tickets, and meanwhile, the whole thing was being recorded for later posting on their YouTube site. Really quite remarkable.

It's really the younger crowd that these technologies are trying to connect with, but there is such a thin line between what is new and hip and what is so yesterday. What is MySpace today is Facebook tomorrow. HDVD today, BluRay tomorrow. How do we stay trendy without putting all our eggs in the wrong technological basket?