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here is a fun book to do with your kids (or let them do it themselves).

i was really moved by the FALLING WHISTLES website. it's movie and mission are so powerful. help bring light to the DRC and the young boys who are forced to go to war before they can even hold up a weapon.

so your kid has their costume, they are thinking of nothing else but trick or treating this weekend, you've got your flashlight and all is good to go.

it often feels like i can go weeks, even months, without seeing the big picture. living in a myopic world of my family and the "to-do list", i forget about all the help needed in the world. AND to add insult to injury, i know i'm not alone when i fondly reference those regular, almost mindless, trips to target where very full shopping carts (sometimes two) of god only knows what are de riguer.

the great american bake sale is an organization that helps you put on a (see if you can guess what i'm going to write next) bake sale!!! yay, you guessed right!

well, he's been in office for only a few hours, but why not have your child write to President Obama? seriously, what are you waiting for?

our new first-lady-to-be is a girl after my own heart. she's a mom of two, supports her busy husband, has understated style and wants everyone to give back. come on, we're 2 peas in a pod!

The Annoying Productive Guy At Work: Shaming Users One Color At A Time

“My new assistant is an 18-year-old ‘millennial,’ as I guess we’re calling them now. He’s a young computer Borg who could hack before he could walk. In a probably vain attempt to keep him from quitting before I get in at least one decent vacation, I’m constantly looking for ways to keep him engaged.

‘What IS all this crap??’ He guffaws at the cascade of emails that greets us every morning. ‘Do you really READ all of this??’

You don’t read it, I tell him, you PROCESS it. It’ll take months before he learns to fish the actions out from the dozens and dozens of messages clogging his in-box all day long. But once he learns to manage the broadcast, he’ll also get a front-row seat for the epic drama of fear and heartbreak that passes through our mail server every day. Our company’s high reliance on email creates such a dense barrage that it creates a perfect means through which things fall through the cracks….

In effect, I’ve started an ongoing email clinic. Some people respond to the competition: they want a lower number than Lumpy in the next desk over. Others will just add me to their pile of unread messages. But folks are also coming forward who are genuinely interested in freeing themselves. I’m sure my approach won’t work on everyone. After all, no one gets up at the crack of dawn and tries to cram 60-plus hours of work into 40-hour work week, just so they can satisfy the arbitrary impositions of some guy from another department that they hardly know. But I keep the offer out there, and eventually I’ll rescue the ones worth saving. To be honest though, I’m really just trying to save myself. It’s these modest checks in the win column that help me make it through the work day.” [43 Folders]

I totally get the whole “What is all this crap?” sentiment. :-p

I would have implemented this as a carrot, rather than a stick, but I love that attitude of helping others who are ready to be helped. It’s where many of us have to put our energies in order to be effective. Who can you help?

See also: Five Tips for Implementing Social Software in Your Library from Rob Coers, via Michael Stephens. I love Rob’s slide (and attitude), and I love Michael’s addition of “focus on the positive.” Life is too short to spend it being negative, folks. Again, I ask, who can you help?

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Lately I’ve read some very thought-provoking posts that I’ve wanted to comment on at length, but unfortunately I just don’t have time to do them each the justice they deserve right now. So here’s a starter pack to make you think about them instead.

• Technology with Altitude
  

  “Ron Gardner, Contentdm specialist for OCLC, made the point that libraries are getting a lot more involved in the creation that goes on in libraries. It got me thinking that we are still a little fixated on what comes into the library (metadata creation, organization, even the library website) rather than caring as much as we should about what goes out.

  In a profession full of humanists and expert researchers, is it time for us to be thinking even more about what people produce in libraries, rather than simply finding them the right resources and leaving them to their best devices? Could the library profession be a key player in the quality of information that with or without our help is going to wind up available to millions through search and discovery mechanisms that are not of our own flawless (ahem) design? We’re already playing a role in the production of mass digitization of our existing resources and the creation of digital portals for our unique resources. Isn’t the next logical step to be the stewards of the things that are created from access to those things?” [Hectic Pace]

  My answer is an emphatic yes, although I believe Andrew is probably thinking about academic libraries in this context. I, however, read it as an extension of what I’ve been saying for years about public libraries. More on this soon, due in part to an interesting conversation I recently had with Taylor Willingham.
   

• The Associaton for Library Services to Children is blogging away, and it’s home to a great post by Ann Crewdson about Second Life, Third Life, Fourth Life….
  

  “Many of us are in denial that we are in the age of digital natives. How many times have we walked by people whom we thought were crazy, only to find out that they have an earpiece attached to their cellphone? Watching someone using the Wii controller to jog around Second Life is even odder only because we’ve never exercised that way. Second Life is just another information place we can meet these people and serve them. It doesn’t have to be one world or another. We can straddle as many worlds as we want and be all the more information richer. We can even defeat a 12-year-old at a video game. It’s the same game, different skin. Second Life is the internet, in a different form. If we only set our minds to it we can free ourselves of our psychological barriers. If I can do it, you can do it too!”

  While I agree with a lot of what Ann says, it’s more the attitude that I wanted to note, because more than the technical know-how, that’s what makes “librarian 2.0.” It’s the willingness to play, experiment, and learn. Had Ann decided Second Life wasn’t for her or her library, I’d still highlight this post. It’s the folks who write something off without even trying it (especially while telling others that “no one needs to do this” or who spend all of 10 minutes doing something and then are surprised when the end result isn’t stellar) who work against the best values of our profession. This is true for many things, not just Second Life or virtual worlds. After all, we had this kind of debate around allowing email in the library, too, not so long ago.

  If you don’t care, that’s fine. But we now live in a permanent world of “and,” not “or,” and we can’t each do everything. Nor can we all do everything. So find your part of the “and,” and see what you can do with it. There’s a whole mess of digital honey out there to catch flies with.
   

• If you haven’t already read Karen Schneider’s farewell post on the TechSource Blog - Sailing On, please do so now. She says a lot of the things that need to be said, and that’s me you see standing behind her, waving my hands in the air and singing “amen.” I can’t choose any one piece to quote, and there’s really nothing I can add.

  I can, however, complement it with a link to Peter Brantley’s post about Libraries Re-shaping.

  “The tiller of change is advancing on the field, the corn has been harvested, and the stalks will soon return to the soil. We better be thinking about the new crop, or the field will lie fallow.

  I appreciate the severity of my suggestions. I think this is a conversation that libraries should have, openly and vigorously, because half-measures will not suffice. I may be wrong in my specifics; an out-of-step troubadour with atonal music and lyrics in an offensive language. That’s fine. Other and better learned troubadours must surely exist to play the music that will capivate.

  Here we go …” [Peter Brantley’s thoughts and speculations]

  Although the post focuses on academic libraries, I’m going to give away the ending because it’s applicable across the board. It’s also why I’m optimistic about libraries and librarians.

  “Why effect these wrenching changes?

  Because It’s Time. The librarians that I have talked with - admittedly, they self-select, although they represent a cross section of functions - are ready to move forward into the future. We know how much things have changed; we’re not kidding ourselves. We know there should be fundamental transformation, even if some of us necessarily and selfishly want its expression to come in just-a-few-more-years. Yet, a bright future beckons. It is exciting, and we can be part of it. We know it - we have a huge range of skills, and we’re bursting with new ideas.”