I’m one of those people who has a hard time waiting for people’s birthday to give them presents. Whenever I try to surprise my husband with something, I always end up telling him about it early. I can keep other people’s secrets, but I’m terrible at keeping my own. So I’ve felt like the cork in a bottle of champagne trying to wait until it was totally official to tell my friends and colleagues my good news.

The news is that I’m moving on to a new job in a new library in a new state on the other side of the country. EEK! Starting in late April, I will be the Head of Instructional Services at Portland State University in Oregon. I’ll be working with a terrific team of liaison librarians to provide instruction to a student population that is almost 10 times the size of Norwich! There are some unique instructional challenges at PSU that really attracted me to the position, and I got the sense during the interview that the time was right for creating meaningful change in instructional services there. I couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with such a change-oriented, user-focused and dedicated group of professionals and I’m looking forward to the new challenges this position will bring. Being on the tenure track should be… interesting… but I’ve had a lot of research and article ideas percolating in my head for years that I’ll finally have the impetus to pursue.

The moving part I am looking forward to far less. While the whole family is really excited about moving to Portland (ok, Adam and I are; Reed at 22 months, doesn’t have a clue what’s coming), it’s going to be difficult to leave Vermont and the logistics of moving across the country with a toddler are just miserable. I’m even letting my husband pick out our rental home in the middle of February since someone has to stay home with the little guy. For a control freak like me, this whole moving thing is a major exercise in letting go. I know living in Portland is going to afford my son so many opportunities he simply wouldn’t have had in Vermont and it’ll be fun to live in a place with a renowned restaurant scene, lots of parks, major cultural opportunities, and 15 Targets (the closest one to us now is over 100 miles away!). Vermont is a wonderful place, but the career opportunities here are extremely limited and I knew that if I didn’t leave Vermont now, I’d have to leave at some point in the future. Better to go when Reed’s not even two than when he gets into school and gets attached to friends and his life here. Portland seems like a good place for Reed to grow up. Having a child has had a huge impact on my career trajectory and choices — how could it not?

I was extremely lucky to start my career at Norwich (especially since my dream job was to be a distance learning librarian and who gets their dream job their first time out???). I’ve gotten experience in so many aspects of librarianship (public services, distance learning, curriculum development, budgeting, supervision, collection development, working closely with faculty, outreach, systems, emerging tech, committee work, statistics gathering and analysis, project management, etc.). It’s been great to have a Director across the hall whose door is open to me anytime. It’s been refreshing to work at a place where staff are so open to change and where the biggest barrier to getting things done is often your own energy and time. I think working in a small library is perfect for a first job, because you get to do a bit of everything and really figure out where you want your career to go in the long-run. I dreaded teaching when I got into the profession; now it’s my favorite part of my work. I never thought I’d want to be an administrator; now it’s my long-term goal. At a larger institution, the distance learning librarian my never get to teach face-to-face classes; I was thrown head-first into it. And thank goodness for that! Working at a small place made me more flexible, collegial and focused on what’s best for the library/patrons rather than on the cool projects I wanted to do. I wouldn’t be the person I am today professionally if it weren’t for my experiences at Norwich. For so many reasons, moving on will be bittersweet for me.

So Portland (and Oregon) librarians, I can’t wait to connect with you! I already know of some really cool librarians in Portland and in the Oregon State University system, so I couldn’t be more excited about contributing to the profession at a local level and making friends with some fantastic librarians. Adam and I never really thought we’d live on the West Coast, and we don’t have any family out there, so the idea of moving to an unfamiliar city far away from our previous life is quite daunting. I’ve had second thoughts about such a big move a hundred times over the past month, but I feel in my gut that this is going to be the right place for us.

I’m looking forward to heading out in early April toward the beautiful Willamette River Valley. Hopefully we won’t shoot any bison, break a wagon wheel, or get typhoid along the way.

We are sadly losing our beloved Distance Learning Librarian to her family (but good for her!), so we are again in the position of looking for a new Distance Learning Librarian. The position reports to me and I’ve had a wonderful time mentoring our current DLL and growing in my role as a manager. I look forward to finding another creative, passionate and service-oriented librarian who will take our services to distance learners beyond what I’d ever imagined. If you’re interested in the sort of job that allows you to do a little bit of everything, to take on leadership roles in projects, and to really have a hand in shaping the future of the library where you work, check out the ad below and consider applying.

Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University, Northfield, VT

The Kreitzberg Library at Norwich University seeks an energetic, tech-savvy and service-oriented librarian to join the library team in developing and providing services to our distance learning population. Norwich University enrolls 1300 online students in 10 master’s degree programs.

Position Description: The Distance Learning Librarian develops procedures and implements programs for library distance education services. Develops and maintains library web presence, web technologies and instructional materials for distance education. Serves as a liaison to campus units involved with distance education. Provides support to distance learners and faculty teaching distance education courses. Coordinates activities of library staff in their work associated with distance education. Collaborates with faculty, library staff and departments to develop collections and services to support distance education programs. Participates as a member of team providing reference and instruction in a broad range of subject areas. Some evening/weekend hours required. Reports to the Head of Instructional Initiatives.

Qualifications:

Required Qualifications
• ALA-accredited master’s degree in library and/or information science
• Knowledge of current and emerging trends in instructional technologies
• Demonstrated ability to design web pages using HTML and CSS
• Ability to speak and write knowledgeably and effectively
• Strong customer service orientation
• Ability to work with various stakeholders and in team environments
• Excellent organizational and time management skills

Preferred Qualifications
• Demonstrated experience in learning and applying new technologies
• Experience with online course management systems
• Experience developing online tutorials
• Experience providing reference assistance and instruction
• Knowledge of scripting languages and database design

Salary: Minimum salary of $40,000, commensurate with qualifications and experience. This is a faculty rank, non-tenure track appointment commensurate with academic achievements. Compensation includes a benefits package of medical, dental, group life and long term disability insurance, flexible spending accounts for health and dependent care, a retirement annuity plan, tuition scholarships for eligible employees and their family members, and generous professional development support.

Deadline: Review of applications will begin on Feb 2, 2009 and will continue until the position is filled.

To Apply: Send a cover letter (including the URLs of any websites you’ve designed), resume, and the contact information for three references to jobs@norwich.edu

Environment: Norwich University enrolls a civilian and military student body of 3,300 FTEs in undergraduate, professional and graduate programs. Most of the graduate programs are offered exclusively in an online environment. The library is a beautifully designed, sixteen year old facility with six floors. It contains more than 175,000 volumes and receives nearly 33,000 periodical titles in print or electronic formats. The library is part of a statewide library network and participates in several consortia.

Northfield, a New England village with population of 5,800, was founded in 1781 and is ten miles south of Montpelier, the Vermont state capital. It is 150 miles north of Boston and 100 miles south of Montreal.

More Information on Norwich University:

Institutional Profile
http://www.norwich.edu/

Kreitzberg Library
http://www.norwich.edu/academics/library/

School of Graduate Studies
http://www.graduate.norwich.edu/

Official Vermont Tourism Site
http://www.1-800-vermont.com/

I often tease my husband about his need to always be involved in a project. He’s always got to be working on something outside of his “day job”, whether it’s cleaning out his storage room (better known as the troll room), digitizing his parents’ slides, digitizing all of our documents, or creating the most awesome whole-house DVR system ever. Usually there are things that I’ve asked him to do that he abandons for doing his projects, which is why I feel I have license to tease him about it frequently.

The more I think about it, though, the more I realize how much he’s rubbed off on me. For the past three and a half years, there has barely been a moment when I haven’t been involved in some project or other. It started with the ALA 2005 Chicago Wiki, went on to Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, then the book, then HigherEd BlogCon, then Five Weeks to a Social Library, then the crazy speaking schedule, then teaching at San Jose State. This summer was the first time I felt like I had time to take a breath. And it was really nice. I finally had time to get my house in order. We’ve lived here for three years and I’ve barely had a moment to get things organized how I like it. So I really focused on that and on culling my collection of junk I don’t use anymore. It was nice to focus on home and family.

My next project is one I’ve been planning on taking on for a long time, but was waiting for the right moment. While it took a lot out of me, I really enjoyed the whirlwind of the past few years and don’t regret a moment of it. I love speaking at conferences, writing, teaching, etc. and I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing those things. But I’ve gotten to the point where I’m ready to slow down. I’m at the point where the thought of speaking in far-flung places like Chile and London just don’t seem as appealing as they once did (and you don’t need to tell me I’m stupid for turning down those opportunities; I’ve already heard it). I just really like being at home.

So after ALA Annual, the time seemed right to start on our next project: a baby. And I’m happy to say that we’re right on schedule with this project, expecting a miniature version of me and Adam in early April, 2009. We couldn’t be more thrilled! And while I’m really going to miss seeing my friends at ALA Midwinter, Computers in Libraries, etc., I’m ready to make sacrifices for my little one. I may actually be at Annual since Adam’s family lives in Chicago, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned from friends who are parents, you never know what life will be like after baby, so I can’t make any promises.

If you’ve noticed that I haven’t been posting much over the past few months, this is why. I’ve been feeling pretty miserable — nauseous and exhausted beyond anything I’ve ever felt. I’m not complaining since feeling like crap in the first trimester is usually a sign of a healthy pregnancy, but it’s been difficult even to put in a full day at work, much less do anything beyond that. I’m coming out of the first trimester now, so hopefully I’ll be entering into those halcyon days of high energy, good appetite, and “glowing” (I wonder what I’ll look like when I glow). Hopefully that will lead to better posting frequency, but again, no promises. If I’m not feeling inspired, I’m not going to write “filler.”

Needless to say, the blog is going to continue. I am not leaving my job or my engagement in the professional dialogue. I’m sure I’ll be less involved for a good while, but I plan to go back to speaking and writing (though with a drastically reduced schedule) and will definitely keep up with the profession.

With my new focus on home and non-library-related projects, a brand new blog has been born. /var/log/farkas is a collaborative project between me and my husband, Adam. I’ve been bugging Adam forever to get his own blog, because he has such interesting insights on technology (he’s really the brains of this operation) and does so many cool organizational/productivity projects that others might be interested in replicating. I also have been wanting a blog to post about things that aren’t library-related but still interest me, be they technology-related or not. I don’t want to have a “baby blog” or a “mom blog”, but I wanted to have a space where I could post some news about my pregnancy and the baby so I don’t annoy the heck out of 99% of the people who read this blog. So I’d say that the blog is about everything Meredith-related other than libraries with a heapin’ helping of Adam’s absolutely frightening brilliance and great sense of humor thrown in.

It was a hard choice to decide to have a baby when I feel like I’m on an upward trajectory, career-wise. But what I realized is that there is never a perfect time for a baby, and you can spend your entire life waiting for that “just right” time to come. And when I saw the baby moving around on the ultrasound last week, it was very obvious to me that this totally beats a speaking gig in Chile, London, or even on Mars.

I need to ask a favor of you, my kind and generous readers.

I recently offered to redesign the website for the Brown Public Library in Northfield, VT, which is definitely due for an extreme makeover. Since one of the most important requirements is that it is easy for someone who knows no HTML to edit, I thought that a WordPress blog might be the ideal solution. I love Drupal, but for a small library’s website, it’s like swatting a fly with a bazooka. I’m so familiar with WordPress since I’ve been using it for 3 1/2 years in various capacities. And I already have two WP blogs that I have to upgrade for work, so a third won’t make my life much more difficult.

I was wondering if you knew of any really good examples of libraries that are using WordPress for as their website. I know of a few, but I’m sure there are a ton out there that I know nothing about and that could provide me with great ideas for making the BPL website something special. So, if you do know of any, please share them in the comments.

I’m really excited about this project. Public library websites are so different from academic, and I’m looking forward to playing in a new sandbox. It’s also just great to engage more with my local community. I absolutely can’t wait to get started!

My father-in-law — who was big on the lecture circuit before he retired from optometry — always says that you are valued as a speaker in direct proportion to the distance from your home. So, the further away you are from home, the more you should be valued. If that’s true, then speaking locally is more of an honor in many ways than speaking on the other side of the country. So I feel extremely lucky that my next two talks are going to be given in Vermont, in one case, two minutes from my house!

This Wednesday evening (7pm), I’m giving a talk on Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries at the Aldrich Public Library in my hometown of Barre, Vermont. The talk is free, so anyone in the area who wants to come is welcome. It’s an interesting presentation for me (and a little scary) because the intended audience is not librarians, though some will probably show. The talk is actually geared towards the public as it’s the first in a lecture series on the future of libraries. I was extremely flattered to be asked to speak at my hometown library and hope I do them proud. I’m particularly excited to go to the third talk in the series on the Espresso Book Machine that the Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, Vermont has (first indy bookstore in the US to have one — go VT!).

On May 14th, Jessamyn and I will be giving a talk at the Vermont Library Association’s Annual Conference on Top Web Trends. While we’ve seen each other speak, we’ve never actually given a talk together, so I’m very excited about that.

As much as I enjoy gallivanting around and giving talks, it’s really nice to give a talk and still be able to come home to my husband that evening. I have some awesome trips coming up this year (Puerto Rico and Iceland being the biggies), but I’m now a lot more selective about what I do. While I do enjoy speaking, it can be exhausting especially when you’re also balancing a full-time job, writing, teaching a graduate-level class, and oh yeah, having a life (as if). Balance is one of those things that has been in short supply over the past few years and I’m determined to change that. So I’ll be doing a lot less speaking and will focus more on projects I can do from home.

In spite of the fact that I’ve had one of those all-day sinus headaches, I’m walking on a cloud. Starting April 1, I’m going to be the Head of Instructional Initiatives here at Norwich, which means that I will lead and coordinate all instruction (and most assessment) work at the library. I’m also going to have supervisory responsibilities. What’s so crazy is that nearly every job I was interested in elsewhere was just like this. I am so passionate about instruction and it’ll be good to have someone coordinating instruction who is focused both on in-person and virtual instruction. I know instruction is the thing my Director is most passionate about as well, so I really appreciate her faith in me in offering me such an important leadership position. I am really excited about the new opportunities and possibilities that will come with this promotion!

This means that we’ll be hiring a new Distance Learning Librarian who will be reporting to me. I assume we’ll get an ad out pretty quickly and I’ll point to it on my blog as soon as it’s out. I’m so excited at the thought of getting someone in here with great new ideas and a technology skill-set that complements my own. This has really been a perfect first job where I’ve had the opportunity to do a little bit of everything. For someone who has lots of interests and really wants to explore many different areas of academic librarianship (both public services and tech stuff), you could hardly find a better job.

A lot of people have told me that since I’m ambitious I should go work at an ARL. I’m starting to realize that either I don’t know what ambitious means or that ambitious means different things to different people. I think of myself as an ambitious person, but my career goal is not to be the head of an ARL library. I may end up one, but it’s not a goal. I want to blaze trails. I want to do or create new things. I want to constantly be challenged in my job, to know that I am constantly improving services to patrons, and to constantly be moving forward. I want to love my job and to love the people I work with. I don’t speak and write and teach to advance my career. I do it because I really enjoy it. I want to be a manager, not because I want to move up any ladder, but because I really like mentoring and motivating people. Maybe I’ll end up a Director one day, maybe not. Maybe I’ll be a consultant working for myself. Maybe I’ll get a PhD and teach at a library school. Really, as long as I’m earning a decent wage, I’m doing work I love, and I’m in an environment I fit into, I’m golden.

I’ve felt that pull towards other people’s definitions of what an ambitious person like myself “should” do. A major ARL tried to recruit me a while back, and I was so enchanted by the idea of working in an environment like that with really smart people and lots of resources and a tenure track where I could spend one day a week doing research. But I figured out during the interview that I belong in a small library, at least for now. I really like smaller academic libraries. I like that we can make decisions quickly. I like that I get to do a bit of everything. Small doesn’t mean small-minded. We have an incredibly open-minded and change-oriented staff here. Sure, there are times I wish we had more resources and more hands, but it’s rare that I can’t find some way to do the things I want to do, even if it’s not the way I’d ideally like to do it. My personality fits well into an environment like this.

And then there’s the place. I love it here. I’m reading a book called The Geography of Bliss (excellent book, BTW), which explores concepts of happiness in different parts of the world. The people you live around, the environment you’re in… it makes such a tremendous difference. I’d go crazy in a city. I can’t stand strip mall suburbia. Adam and I are really happy here; I feel a peace I’ve never felt anywhere else. I know some people are happy to travel from place to place every few years until they move up to the position they want, but I’m all about the place I live. I’m sure I won’t live in Vermont forever, but I plan to do my best to situate my career in Vermont-esque places.

There is no one way to be ambitious in this profession, and everyone will pursue their career ambitions in different ways. We should all choose the paths that make us most happy. For some, that may be the road to becoming a University Librarian at an ARL. For others, it’ll be staying in the same library all their lives with colleagues they really love being around. I, like most of us, fall somewhere in between. Find the ladder that you want to climb and if it doesn’t go straight up, that’s ok as long as it makes you happy.

It’s been a difficult winter for me for so many reasons. It’s nice to have something to really look forward to in Spring.

This is why. You’ve got to check out the actual ad; it had me half laughing half furious.

I don’t write much about politics on this blog, but I have to admit that this has gotten me kind of riled up. Vermont just isn’t the sort of place where people have really vile, manipulative, negative campaigns like this. Our elected representatives in the House and Senate are very accessible and very human. So that’s why I assume this sort of campaign will blow up in Sanders’ opponent’s face. At least I hope so. Bernie Sanders (whose campaign site is powered by WordPress — HOT) is very well-loved in this state and he is someone who has always been against the war in Iraq and has always supported civil liberties and the intellectual freedom issues that most librarians care about.

So while I was rather annoyed that Bernie voted for DOPA, I understood that he probably did it because of the title of the bill and the timing. Perception is everything. It’s things like this that have our elected representatives voting the wrong way on really bad bills.

I especially enjoyed the ads about Bernie trying to ship foreign drug dealers to Vermont and his “anti-sportsman” votes that also happened to be anti-crime and pro-environment. How dumb does this guy think Vermonters are?

I hope Vermonters really show Rich Tarrant that negative campaigns like this will not be tolerated in our state. No matter where we live, we should demand intelligent debate, not pandering and ridiculous misrepresentations of the truth.

We all have a story of our life in our heads that informs who we think we are and what we think we are capable of. This story is based on experiences in our lives — successes, failures, traumas, and other people’s expectations. Often we will construct our story based only on certain experiences in our lives — those that provide confirmation of what we believe ourselves to be. There may be other experiences that contradict this view of ourselves, but we choose to focus on the ones that confirm our view. Someone who doesn’t have a high opinion of themselves may ignore all of the achievements they have attained and positive experiences they have had. Instead, a man may focus on when he was bullied in middle school or the emotional abuse he suffered from a parent or the fact that he got fired from a job.

We all have a picture in our head of who we are and what we are capable of. What if that picture is wrong? What if your story of yourself is missing key facts and evidence? What if you looked for times when you did things (or things happened or people said things to you) that run contrary to your story? What about that person with low self-esteem? What about when he got first place in the science fair in fifth grade or when his high school English teacher told him that she expected great things from him? What about all of the good grades he got in college or the fact that his wife loves him and thinks the world of him? Our true life stories are usually much less black and white and show us as people who do good and bad and are capable of much. But more times than not, people do not allow their stories to reflect the rich, complicated, and sometimes contradictory reality.

From the time I was 13, I lived a certain story. Meredith wasn’t a very good person. She often made her parents miserable. She was argumentative and always dissatisfied with her life. Meredith wasn’t particularly good at anything. She did well in school, but it was because she worked hard, not because she was smart. She could write pretty well, but not well enough to really do anything with it. Since she didn’t think much of her own thoughts and ideas, Meredith never trusted herself. She was afraid to speak up in class (even when she knew the answer to a question) and, in college, she actively avoided small seminar classes where she knew she would have to talk. When she had to defend her thesis in college, she nearly had a panic attack in front of her professors and instead of talking about her thesis, she had to prepare a script to read. She never believed that any of her ideas or insights were worth much. Meredith never felt like she fit anywhere. She had friends, but, because she didn’t think she had much to offer, she was uncomfortable among crowds and was scared of meeting new people. As a result, she avoided parties and didn’t join any groups in college.

And this was the story I told of my life for a long time. When something happened that contradicted the story, I would just think it was a fluke or that I had an easy professor or that the person who thought I was great was totally screwed up. The story poisoned every aspect of my life. I spent a great deal of college (and a few years afterwards) clinically depressed and self-destructive. I missed out on so many great experiences and classes in college because of fear. It was so stupid.

I had loved writing when I was younger, but by high school, I had pretty much given up any hope of becoming a professional writer. Throughout college, I wrote for myself, but was terrified to submit anything for the newspapers or literary magazines on-campus. When I was very young, I’d loved performing. I was in every play in elementary school — sometimes in the starring role. I don’t know what happened, but by middle school, I was pathologically afraid not only of performing, but of even talking in class. When I’d have to give a presentation in college, I would sweat, shake and turn red. I would obsess over it for weeks prior to the class and would then beat myself up about it for weeks afterwards. Even when I had to do presentations for my job search last year, I’d read scripts rather than give “real talks.” If I didn’t have a script in front of me, I thought I would become so panic striken that I’d forget everything I was going to say.

All of this began changing for me when I started my blog. Well, maybe it was when I met my husband and he convinced me that I wasn’t as horrible as I thought I was. He wasn’t tied to me by blood or obligation and yet he stayed with me. Why? It was his unconditional love and encouragement that gave me the courage to start my blog. Blogging seemed safe since the worst that could happen was that no one would read it. As my audience grew, I started to wonder why people bothered to read me. And when Rachel Singer Gordon contacted me and asked me if I’d like to write a book for Information Today, I started to think that maybe I was a good writer afterall. But the whole speaking thing scared me for a long time. Really, it scared me until yesterday. Even when I gave that 15 minute CyberTour at Computers in Libraries, I was shaky and sweaty and terrified. And the night before I gave my talk at the Vermont Library Association Conference, I couldn’t sleep and kept obsessing over the talk. But when it came time to give the talk yesterday, I didn’t choke. I didn’t even feel nervous. It was kind of surreal how the words and ideas just flowed out of me like they never had before. And when I couldn’t think of a word, I laughed about it and the audience laughed with me. It was such a terrific experience. People came up to me afterwards with ideas for using social software in their library; ideas that came from my talk. I finally realized that I can do this. And I’m not afraid anymore. I’m not going to let fear run my life and keep me from good things. It feels like a giant weight has been lifted off me.

This coming Tuesday I turn 29. Gosh, five years ago, that would have freaked me out. One year until you’re 30! Look at all you haven’t accomplished! Maybe it’s just a girl thing, but I wanted to be at a certain place in my life by the time I was 30. I even made a list when I was a kid of things I wanted to have done by the time I’d turned 30 (and yes, publishing a book was one of them!). I think back to my life just five years ago and how at loose ends I felt. I assumed that, because I wasn’t happy with my boyfriend or my job, I was the sort of person who was always going to be dissatisfied with her life. It never even occurred to me that I might feel the way I did because I had a bad boyfriend and a bad job. And now I have a great job, a great husband and am in a profession that I feel so passionately about. I’m writing, which I love, and speaking, which I’m completely shocked that I enjoy. It’s a bizarre feeling to be happy with my life and comfortable in my own skin, but it’s definitely something I can get used to. 29? 30? 40? Bring it on!

I know a lot of people who are crippled by fear and self-doubt like I was. And this is why I am writing such a personal post. I want to tell those people to consider that the stories that constrain their lives may just not be true. They may be capable of so much more than they let themselves believe. They may have talents that they never share with the world because they think they’re not talented. They may have good ideas or insights that they never share because they don’t have any confidence in themselves. People allow themselves to stay in jobs they hate or in relationships that suck beacuse they don’t think they deserve better or because they don’t think there’s anything better out there. Or maybe it’s because the unfamiliar is scary. I quit social work and went to library school without every having worked in a library, but with a gut feeling that this was the right thing for me. And that was terrifying. If I was a permanently dissatisfied person, like I thought I was, I wouldn’t like librarianship anymore than I liked social work. But I took that risk and it paid off. What are you afraid of?

Consider that the negative stories you tell about yourself are wrong. Maybe you can do the things you don’t think you can do. Maybe you have talents and abilities beyond your imagination. Just consider it and consider how often the benefits of taking a risk and trying something new and scary outweigh any negative consequences. Just a year ago, the idea of public speaking made me physically ill; now I’ve got at least five talks scheduled for next Fall and I’m actually looking forward to them. Insane!

So just for a minute, consider the idea that you can do all those things you’re afraid of doing. Consider that you may not be the person you think you are.

By the way, you can see my presentation slides from VLA here.

just showing vt librarians how to blog! So easy!

Last November, I went to a meeting of Vermont colleges where we discussed doing more consortial activities. We broke up into groups to discuss different ideas and then reported to everyone at the meeting. One of the things we discussed in our group was the idea of skill-sharing. It is often the case in smaller libraries (and sometimes even in bigger ones) that your staff does not have all the skills they need to do all the things you want to do. At mine, we lack coding skills. Another library was desperate for someone with a background in managing archives. And so on. We all had something we lacked and some of us had staff with the skills the other was looking for. However, like most things discussed at meetings, nothing ever came of it. I’d wanted to create a wiki where we could each write down the skills we have at our library and the skills we need (or projects we want to do that we need help with). However, the people at the meeting were really freaked out by blogs and wikis and were really big on in-person meetings (which is tough, even in as small a state as ours — it can take three hours to get to some places in the state). So while I think it’s a great idea to do some sort of skill-sharing, I don’t really know how I could implement such an idea with a group that is really not going to go for using any sort of social software.

Still, the idea has been marinating in my head since November, and I’m so thrilled to see that I’m not the only person thinking in this direction. This week we see the birth of Pay “IT” Forward, a space where people can share their tech skills with others. Folks who are willing to help others can post their contact info and area of expertise that they’re willing to help people with. I don’t know if I’m techie enough for the list, but I wanted to do my part so I posted my contact info and said I’d answer questions about wikis. Since I already get at least a few wiki-related questions a week, it’s not such a big deal to get a few more. Right now, the list of people willing to help is just a page on a wiki that isn’t even in alphabetical order. I’d love to see it become a database where you could search for people by geographic area and by skill area (which would maybe allow people to choose general skill areas — like network admin, web design, etc. — and then also write in specific things they have expertise in). It could also be set up where people can write up projects they are working on that they need help with and what they’re looking for so that people who feel most confident in that area can take it (rather than having the person choose someone who may not feel up to the task or may be too busy). I’m not a database designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I saw some on the list (hint hint!) and I hope that’s what this project grows into.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from Glenn Peterson from the Hennepin County Public Library (a library that is doing some terrific stuff with tech). He has a new venture called EngagedPatrons.org which provides services to libraries that want to create a more “engaging and interactive web presence.” Here’s some info from the press release:

“Many public libraries would love to offer their users a more interactive web presence, but don’t have the programming skills to make it happen”, said EP founder Glenn Peterson. “Other libraries have a strong interest but are stymied by uncooperative IT departments. Some aren’t even allowed access to their own web servers”, Peterson noted.

EngagedPatrons.org solves these problems by offering a series of web “modules” hosted on its own web servers. Member libraries can customize the modules to meet the needs of their users by filling out an easy-to-use web form. When completed, the library is provided with the HTML code needed to link users from their website to their new service hosted at EP. Libraries can embed EP services within the look-and-feel of their own website for a seamless experience for their users.

EngagedPatrons.org currently offers these modules:

• Library Events – searchable listings of upcoming events at the library, including the option for online registration, integrated graphics and more.
• Library Blogs – communicate with users in ways never possible before, get the word out about happenings at the library and turn on optional patron comments to start a two-way conversation! RSS feeds are included.
• Contact Us – offer your users an easy way to get in touch with you right on your site.
• Custom Databases – EP can also help libraries create customized, searchable databases based on existing card files or in-house databases.

What is really cool about this is that EP is offering these services for FREE to public libraries that receive less than $1 million per year in total income. To other libraries, the services are offered at a low cost. I think what he’s doing is great, but that he’s really selling himself short. His time isn’t free and server space certainly isn’t free either. There is absolutely nothing wrong with making money from libraries, especially if you are providing them with a good and needed service and you are charging a lot less than it would cost them to hire their own techie. If I were to do it, I’d charge everyone, though on a sliding scale. I really see this as a model for making real money as a techie librarian/free agent without having to join some faceless vendor. I’d love to partner up with my genius husband and provide services like this one day. I worry that Glenn will quickly become inundated with freebie libraries, but I’m sure he’s thought about this a lot more than I have and has sound reasoning for the way he’s doing it. Either way, it’s a very good-hearted thing to do, and I hope he makes piles of money from it.

I know tech skills are in high demand, but they aren’t the only things we’re often lacking at smaller libraries. We could benefit from the expertise of a lot of non-techie librarians. How about archivists, preservationists, non-book catalogers, foreign language-speakers, instruction librarians and many others? At my school, we really could use someone who could give us a clear roadmap to improving our instruction program. And we have skills here that other libraries might want, like a super-fantastic archivist and a distance learning librarian who knows a thing or two about social software. I’d love to see this skill-sharing go beyond tech. I’d also love to see it be more of a two-way street. I’d love to see a database of “haves” and “wants”. For each library that has a “want”, they have to also post a “have,” a skill that they have that not every library has and that other libraries may want. And if they can find someone listed who has a want they can fill, they can just take on that task. I guess it requires trust that people will not just be selfish and will give at least as much as they get. I don’t know if this is a viable model, but I’d love to see it attempted. Obviously, some tasks would require that people are geographically close to one another, but if you have enough participants, that shouldn’t be a problem in most (but not all) places.

And another way we can share is by depositing the things we write into repositories. You can add all sorts of things like tutorials, book chapters, articles, presentations, etc. And what you’re adding to is an amazing collection of knowledge in the library science field. I just added to E-LIS for the very first time, depositing the article I’d written for WebJunction. As I publish things that I’m allowed to archive, I’ll be putting more in there. This is a great way to expose more people to your work so that they can benefit from your knowledge. It’s cool to make your stuff available on your Web site, but even better to make it available in a searchable repository for the profession. Or if your institution has a repository, you can add to the wealth of institutional knowledge contained within. And if you want to learn more about repositories and the open access movement, look at some of the great resources on the subject that Dorothea Salo has archived at her institution’s repository!

It makes me feel warm and fuzzy to see the ideas come together for us to really share our skills and knowledge.