Library Advocacy and Social Networking

It seems that many may have lost touch with what's happening in Libraryland, but with Web2.0 and social networking, we can thank Facebook for bringing at least one issue back to the front. (Hopefully that makes grammatical sense?)

ALIES has "uploaded a print2-sided and fold" flyer to help in their campaign for a library in every school". Whilst not wishing to seem negative about any effort of this type, I'm not sure who the flyers are intended for. Those that already are convinced of their worth (libraries, not flyers) don't need one; those that make the decisions and hand out the money have already been told, given the research, lobbied and more - but have remained unmoved.

It's a similar story for understaffed, underfunded, underutilised and misunderstood current school libraries ... and for that matter, Teacher Librarians. Here in Australia, after much gnashing of teeth and sweating of brows, we finally got a Federal government 'enquiry' ... but without the power to actually change anything, regardless of the findings.

Good luck with it, folks.

Yes, it's another website ...

Visually pretty good, nice design and easy editing ... but let's see what unfolds at http://amandacredaro.webs.com/

Internet Footprints?

You've seen/read/heard that well-distributed piece about footsteps in the sand, right? And you know that saying about lines drawn in the sand? Well, this has pretty much nothing to do with either of those. It's morning tea time, and I'm just about coffee'd out.

So I thought I'd sign up for a few things, as one does at times like this. First cab of the rank was a new "fan" page over at ning.com. This will allow you to sign up to become a member of a very small, select - may I say even possibly elite - group, the Fans of Amanda Credaro. I don't know how long membership will be open for, but it IS free, which is really the most important thing, isn't it?

I signed up for something else too, but now that my loyal reader has rushed off to check out the possibilities at ning, I guess I'll save the other one for another day.

The mysterious case of the missing librarian ...

... or, where the heck have I been for the last month. That's an easy question to answer, although possibly not quite as easy to justify. In the never-ending battle to stay abreast with cyber-developments, I signed up with Facebook, uploaded pictures, commented on other stuff, and spent about 3 hours a day 'engaging'. [For those who haven't undertaken the Youth of Today's Social Networking Experience, read 'playing games'.]

After only 27 days, I can report that yes, it's addictive; yes, it sucks the life out of life; no, it has virtually no educational value; and no, it doesn't come anywhere near real-life 'socialisation'. Take for instance the Friends facility. Here you can ask people to be your friend, or they can ask you. But then you get little messages that say things like "6 of your friends hate you". Yeah, OK, maybe it isn't all that far removed from real life. Sort of makes you feel like George Bernard Shaw ... "he doesn't have any enemies, but his friends don't like him much".

There were many things that I didn't understand. For example, in the dedicated advertisement portion of each web page were 3 or 4 ads - with an extra little thougthful link to "more ads". I couldn't imagine why anyone would click on that link, except by accident. But sheesh! What would I know? I'm a Baby Boomer in a Gen Y world. Apparently.

On the other hand, I did find out a number of things about myself that I hadn't known before joining Facebook. I absolutely suck at games where getting money relies on the generosity of people you don't know, and who don't appreciate the gravity of the situtation. But wait! That IS just like real life. At least as far as financing the operations of a library.

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. I just want to reach Level 50 in Heroes and Villains before I log out for the final time. And I'mwaiting for a power pack for Dragons. Oh, and I have to find out why the daily income in Metropolis has fallen to $12/day ...