Library License Plates

With a tip to my non-librarian friend Woody, I got this in a note:

Library Support Through License Plates

So here is a link with a shout out to my friends at Louisville Public, Craig Buthod and Greg Schwartz. Craig and I go back to a Public Library Association committee on tax forms and the IRS and Greg and I share an alma mater (undergrad), and have communicated online in the days of his live conversations/podcasts [Uncontrolled Vocabularyh] on library topics.

Links and miscellany

Most recently, I have been collecting interesting links from both Twitter and my Bloglines account. I have gotten into the habit of just leaving the link open in a tab in my browser. Well, it is time to clean up again. Some of the titles are self-evident, but I have added comments to some of them.

And now in categories!

Broadband:

Bringing Broadband to Rural America (the official FCC report)

Broadband Nation. A new blog about broadband issues.

Bringing in Broadband. The issues in one Florida county.

Mapping Broadband. This person/organization may well not be a friend for libraries.

Lobbying the FCC for access and no caps.

New technology and Web 2.0

Paper Highlights Pros and Cons of Twittering at Academic Conferences

"librarians express affection through information"

Resolving the 80/20 dilemma "End users are spending less time on gathering the information they need – but their search failure rate is going up." A great article of importance to all librarians, but this one is focused on special/corporate libraries.

Technological accommodation of conflicts between freedom of expression and DRM: the first empirical assessment This links to a much longer PDF file on the Cambridge University web site

Search is too important to leave to one company – even Google Cory Doctorow in the Guardian

Study: Unselfish Individuals Benefit in Social Networks

9 simple suggestions for using social media

Twitter in the workplace. This is a presentation for government leaders on the use of Twitter.

Intellectual Property issues (IP)

IP rights and the Blind The US, Canada, and the EU try to limit the rights of blind people to use technology to receive written material -- Cory Doctorow on Boing Boing

IP: File sharing and Copyright. I have not read the full article (a link to the PDF is here), but the summary presents the intellectual property issues in file sharing in a new light. (Hmmm, maybe a full post is coming.)

Publishers are trying to avoid the Music industry's mistakes.

ALA

All Dressed Up with Nowhere to Go: A Survey of ALA Emerging Leaders

General Library stuff:

Mommy haven takes a hit in down economy

How to love your library

The 'M' word always has good stuff about library marketing. Nancy Dowd does a good job, this one is on the future of the media we will need to deal with. {Memo to grammar caucus fans...I did that on purpose.}

Darien Library's new brand image was picked up from John Blyberg. Check out the other clients here.

Job seekers at the library. While this is not new, there are some interesting statistics at the end. I also have to comment that when I first looked at this site, I thought I was at NOLA.com which is the site for the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Freemium A new way of thinking about library services and charging for them.

The Big Picture

Google takes on Amazon from the New York Times...and it is only for e-books.

Communicating a message. An interesting re-post from Stephen Abram on the differences that the wording of a message can make.

Personal

Free Range Librarian on where she is in her life and in her blogging life. It is actually a little similar to where I am.

Hot flashes -- a new perspective I found this one absolutely fascinating.

Want. Need I say more?

The rise and fall of LSU. I am not completely sure of the author's credentials, but it certainly is an interesting perspective on the positioning of state universities within the state power structure.

Marketing that Matters (review)/Diversity @ Your Library (program)

I serve on ALA's PR Assembly. This group of people is responsible for planning the Public Relations Forum at ALA's Annual Conference. The official charge is:

To provide a forum for the exchange of information about library public relations and marketing activities throughout the association and with other library groups and associations sharing an interest in library promotion. To promote cooperation and enhance the effectiveness of public relations activities throughout the association and to strengthen ALA's national public awareness efforts.

[from the ALA Handbook of Organization.]

This year the speaker is Eric Frienwald-Fishman. Eric is the author of a book Marketing that Matters: 10 Practices to Profit Your Business and Change the World. The book talks about Eric's business the Metropolitan Group as well as that of his co-author Chip Conely who founded the Joie de Vivre hotel group.

They talk about a large number of other business who use socially responsible business practices to not only make a living, but to provide significant employment and to change the world. They, successfully I believe, present ways that businesses can act in socially responsible ways and still be successful on any business scale. Among other things they note that the SRI segment of the investment market is currently 9.4% of the total market and growing. The show a large number of businesses who practice ethical business, are business successes, and advance a positive social agenda.

Now here is the great news for those of you attending ALA in Anaheim. You can hear Eric in person on June 29, 2008 8:00-10:00 a.m. when he presents Diversity @ your library: Broadening Your Audience and Engaging Communities in the Anaheim Hilton, Pacific Ballroom B. Please join us!!