Just. Too. Much. Data.

I’ve been swamped recently. Two presentation proposals – one on green libraries and one on rethinking library budget usage and creating new income streams for libraries.

In addition to it all, I’m trying to reign in all of my social networking tools.  Here’s the thing about social networking.  People often say “well, just don’t use all those tools!  Pick just one or two!”  But it’s not that simple.  I’ve been delaying using delicious, but I now I have to use it for two big projects.  I’ve got three Twitter feeds (my own, one for work, one for an unconference).  I’m monitoring three Facebook pages, creating Squidoo pages, building a wiki for a friend, blogging…uh, there’s more but I forget.

So, I’m trying to coordinate it all.  I tried Friend Feed today.  I need to play with it – I almost went into cardiac arrest from the information overload.

I have to ask…if you happen upon this post while surfing your three million RSS feeds, while trying to coordinate your Ning, Facebook and MySpace (ewwww, dirty) pages and posting a video on YouTube blip.tv (or vimeo or viddler or whichever one is the newest one now…)

, if after all doing that you read this blog post…tell me…how the hell do you manage all this STUFF?!?!

Millions of librarians want to know!

NYPL excels at “buyer segmentation”

I was just flipping through The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, viral marketing and online media to reach buyers directly by David Meerman Scott  and he features New York Public Library’s website as a sample of a website that excels at reaching multiple buyer segments through their website.  It’s unique in that on the homepage alone, a wide breadth and depth of answers can be found for many types of patrons. 

You know the profession is doing something right when a business book features a library as a great business/marketing model!

Is your library transparent?

Corporate transarency is the buzz thing in the business world right now.  Well, it really was the buzz like three years ago, but it’s one of those things that’s a persistent topic since it was started and will continually become a common method of conducting business.  (Especially now, when Americans have a vested interest in what corporations are doing, now that their government dollars are supporting past mistakes.)

Anyways, it shouldn’t be all that hard for libraries to be transparent organizations.  We are already embracing the appropriate trends when we say we LOVE Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and all that.  The next step in all that lovin’ is appropriateness and timing.  Here are a few links to get you started on the topic of transparency…

Radical Trust – a great social networking in business site by a corporate transparency expert

Get Naked! - Wired Magazine had a great issue a few years ago that was all about transparency in the corporate world.  It’s appropriate for libraries too though.

Don’t Friend Me! – David Lee King writes about the right way to garner your library’s Facebook friends. (Friends don’t let friends ho themselves out on Facebook – my words, not his…)

Info-crack…

So, as if the Internet couldn’t be any more addictive for us info junkies…check this out:

http://www.searchme.com

Mary Ellen Bates just recommended it in the recent release of her newsletter, which I recommend to everyone…see previous post.

Love, love, love SearchMe. It’s info-crack.

Mary Ellen Bates InfoTip

A really handy little newsletter I get is Mary Ellen Bates’ InfoTip.  You can sign up for it at http://www.batesinfo.com/

She is a successful business researcher and about once every six weeks or so, she sends out a tip about research trends or neat tools.  It’s written in plain English, which is nice, and it gives you a glimpse into 2.0 that is applicable to library professionals trying to work more effectively…not just 2.0 as a way to increase library usage.

1/5 of Americans Have Never…

used Email. Or a variety of other computer-y things, for that matter.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9946706-7.html

Hmmm…so there’s why librarianship and tech services often (and should) collide, why we should always offer classes, why we should always offer computers, why we should be the most patient public servants so we can help folks…

As the world becomes increasingly tech, there is still a segment of the population that does not embrace the trend for a variety of reasons. I don’t blame them for their reasons and I envy them a bit, to be honest. It is our job to make information, communication and knowledge available to those who cannot and/or will not join the tech crowd.

And if they choose to join up, then we must be there to help them with a smile and patience.

All Things Digital

http://allthingsd.com/d/

Tech conference.  Wonder if any librarians are in attendance?  If I wasn’t so poor right now, I’d be there.  I will watch the videos in lieu of attendance this time.

Webware

Webware: Cool Web 2.0 Apps for Everyone

I found it when I was looking for articles on improving Twitter. It’s a CNET website, so it has good stuff and is interesting. You sort of need to click around to get to the actual 2.0 app stuff that you can download. Going to look at it today to kill time at work.