ALA Council Candidates - PUBLIB

I have been active on PUBLIB for many years now. For those who are not familiar with it, it is an electronic discussion list for public librarians. There are over 5,000 subscribers.

In a private email after a recent comment about folks on the list running for ALA Councilor-at-Large, ALA Executive Board member (and good friend) Nann Blaine Hilyard identified the following as current PUBLIB subscribers who are on the ballot for Councilor-at-Large.

They are:

• Catharine Cook (Chickasha, OK)
• Nann Blaine Hilyard
• Michael McGorty
• Dale McNeill
• Melora Ranney Norman
• Marti Goddard (a friend from a prior ALA life!) [added]
  
• Sue Kamm (whom I misunderstood was standing for election again -- even if I now remember signing her petition) [added, link added 3/4]
• James Casey (whom I misunderstood was standing for election again [added]

If I missed someone, let me know. I will do a full list of my personal endorsements after I see the ballot.

[Added 2 more names at 12:15 pm CST]
{Added link to Sue Kamm's "I am a Councilholic" post on Sunday, 3/4}

Google Reader Redux

Steven Cohen at Library Stuff picked up on my frustration with Google Reader. He and the other commenters are correct, you can read the oldest first, but only if you choose that option under view settings....feed by feed. You can not set that as the universal default. Even Google's help says that it is done feed by feed.

If I were starting from scratch, it would be a pain, but not a real problem.

I am importing 174 feeds from Bloglines. I have neither the time nor the inclination to tweak a setting (involving multiple clicks) for that many feeds.

Google Reader has lost me for now, and whatever problems Bloglines has, I will deal with them.

[And it may be a network problem at my end, or the fact I use Firefox, but Google Reader loads noticeably more slowly than Bloglines.]

Rettig for ALA President

I have previously noted my endorsement of Jim Rettig for ALA President. I received the test email from the ALA election company, so you know that the ballot blast will be soon. The email said over a 48 hour period beginning on March 15.

I was reading through my aggregated blog feeds and was pleased to find that Michael Stephens has endorsed Jim. He says some great things, including transcribing some of Jim's answer on Library 2.0 and ALA. He has also noted that Jim has been blogging since last summer at The Twilight Librarian.

More will follow.

Google Reader? I think NOT

I've been reading through my Bloglines subscriptions about folks who are in love with Google Reader. I exported my list from Bloglines, and imported it into Google Reader.

Here is where my problem is, and it seems to be the way that Google, and many other web services work, that it assumes that I always want to see the newest item first. Well, maybe I am too concrete-sequential, or anal-retentive, or obsessive-compulsive, but, here is a news flash folks: I don't want to read that way! I want to be able to logically follow a thread and have the OLDEST ITEM FIRST!

To do this in Google Reader, as best I can tell, you have to change the settings for each feed. With the number of feeds I have, that just is not happening.

Bottom line: Google Reader needs to become more Web 2.0 before they will capture me. I'll note that I harbor some resentment over being forced into switching to "new Blogger" and creating a "Google Account" (like I need another account on the web!).

Web 2.0 NOT available from all web services

I wanted to cancel my service with Rhapsody. Among other things I felt snookered by the sign-up process and lack of notice that I was shifting from free to fee. I went to the web site. Could I cancel there? N-O!! The only way to cancel is to call. The email said call time waiting averaged under two minutes. NOT. It was almost 10 minutes before I was connected to a call center (offshore somewhere I am guessing). What a pain.

Do not use Rhapsody if you can help it. Getting out is a pain!!!