Celebrity moms share their favorite story books…

I have been utterly un-writey lately.  Nothing has quite sprung to mind when thinking of blog-worthy things.  However, I think this is a great idea:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/ap_en_ot/us_fea_lifestyles_celeb_moms_books_1

It’s an article in which celebrity moms share their favorite children story book lines.  There’s a Public Service Announcement or billboard in the making.  Are you reading this PLA/ALA?  The work has pretty much been done for you – now we just need to use this type of stuff to reach out to the public!

Monitoring Your Library On Social Networks

I know, I  know, I’ve become a big Twitterholic recently, but had to share this interesting article with you.  You really should monitor your library on various social networking sites.  Sorry to harp, but it’s so very true and necessary.  Libraries need brands, brands need to be monitored.

So, I was following the very awesome Meg Canada on Twitter and she linked to this article about what happens when big companies fail to respond to being punk’d by social media on BL Ochman’s blog.

Which drew me to this article that was also on BL Ochman’s blog – a list of tools that help you monitor your library and/or brand on social media sites.

And if you find something negative, you can use the Air Force’s Decision Chart for dealing with negative social media.

Se habla Espanol? Polska? Italiano?

I’ve taken a substitute Librarian gig at a local library with a large Spanish speaking population.  You know what I didn’t learn in Library School?  How to say “You can only have five videos at a time” in Spanish.  It would come in handy.

I’m wondering if there is a resource librarians can go to if they are on desk and someone who doesn’t speak English comes in?  It’s great if you have a native speaker on staff, but let’s face it, we are an increasingly globalized culture and our patrons reflect that.  There’s no way we can be prepared to face every possible language that can come in on any given day.  Is there a place where librarians can go and choose a language and then select common library phrases or terms to use?

Babelfish and other services don’t always translate quiet right, and it would be nice to have a resource like that on hand.  I might just make it if no suggestions come up…

Make your library website accessible

Here’s a great site if you’re working on your library’s website:

http://www.anybrowser.org/campaign/

Tons of tips and bits of code to make your website accessible from any browser.  (A major point of discussion on Web4Lib this week.)

Where Facebook and Blackboard Meet

And the winner of the “Oh my gosh I want to see it in action” award for the day is:

Going On – http://www.goingon.com/GoingOn/index.html

They call themselves the love child of Blackboard and Facebook!  Powered with Moodle and other open source coolness, Going On seems to be the millenial answer to developing online educational communities.  I’m loving the idea and want to learn more.

PDF Books

Need books in PDF?  Check out this PDF Book Search Engine: http://search-pdf-books.com/

I did a search for The Sun Also Rises and it came up with a list of PDF versions of the book from different sources.

Blogging, Not

Hey, what happened to the librarian etiquette blog? They disappeared.  Well, they stopped blogging in December.   I’ll be the first to admit they had their snarky moments, but they were damn funny most of the time!  A good blog stirs the pot a bit and also creates positive conversation – libetiquette did both!  Come back bloggers!  Come back!

Tweet Your Research Guides?

I’m wondering if any university or public librarians are creating topic specific twitter feeds for their library users?  So those interested in biology who want to get interesting articles or know when their research guide gets an update receive a Tweet?

Essentially, topic specific Twitter feeds versus Library News Twitter feeds.

If anyone out there is doing that, I’d be interested in knowing.

Library love on “Get Rich Slowly”

So, back in June 2008, the Get Rich Slowly blog ran this article about why using the library helps save money:

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2008/06/04/daily-links-crying-librarians-edition/

It’s a great article for libraries (thank you Get Rich Slowly) but also, the comments are very interesting.  If you’re a librarian or library student intrigued by perceptions of the library or of book borrowing services, you need to read the comments.