Jason Puckett.net

Man, am I tired.  I think I did more stuff at this conference than any I’ve been to previously.  Still recovering.  Some standouts:

Win: Preconference on “Library Instruction 2.0” presented by Karen Munro, Anne-Marie Dietering and Rachel Bridgewater was one of the best conference sessions I’ve ever been to.  I came away with a ton of ideas.

Win: BIGWIG Social Software Showcase was not only interesting but fun.  I spent the whole session with Cindi Trainor’s Libguides discussion group since I had some experience with it and felt like I could contribute.  (Libguides seems to be a theme for me this summer.)  I’m so glad that groups like BIGWIG are experimenting with new presentation models like this.

Win: I got to meet Cory Doctorow, my technology activist hero!  The ALA Office of Intellectual Freedom had him, Beth Givens and Dan Roth in a fantastic panel discussion on privacy Sunday afternoon.  After hearing this session, I’m planning to create a guide to online privacy tools for students.  Win: Trading Twitter messages with Jessamyn West during the session.  Fail: The session was poorly publicized (last-minute addition?) and therefore poorly attended.  This should have been a centerpiece of the conference.

Addendum: Jessamyn’s blog post about the session, Jenny Levine’s post at Shifted Librarian, Kate Sheehan’s post at Loose Cannon Librarian.

Fail: The (paid) speaker at the LIRT session “Energizing Your Instruction” included ads for his wife’s (?) weight loss business in the handouts and opening slides.  That’s the tackiest and most inappropriate thing I’ve ever seen in a presentation and it put me off even before he started.

Win: Meeting (”meating,” as my friend Amy would say) some online friends and acquaintances in person for the first time: Karin and Cindi, great to meet you guys at last!  Fail: Logistical confusion ensued when some of us split off from the Twitter meetup at dinner and I didn’t get to hang out with Colleen and others I wanted to.  Can we try again at Midwinter?  Win: Made some unexpected new friends as well as seeing some old ones.

Win: I’m now the co-chair of Library Instruction Roundtable’s Teaching, Learning and Technology committee — we had a great discussion at our meeting and it looks like we’re going to do some sort of project based around reviewing/analyzing Libguides and its open-source competitors.  (Is there a name for programs like Libguides?  Research guide creator software?)

Cindi Trainor included my “How to make a Libguide” page on her Librarian’s Guide to LibGuides in the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase.  Thanks, Cindi!

Here’s my intended ALA conference schedule as it exists right now, Monday morning afternoon.  I haven’t filled in all the gaps yet, but if I don’t post it soon I won’t get around to it.

Thursday: Airplane!

Friday:

Library Instruction 2.0: Building Your Online Instruction Toolkit preconference (all day)

Maybe: LITA happy hour in the evening.

Saturday:

8:00: Try to catch the first hour or so of If We Don’t Call it Distance Learning, Does it Exist?

All morning: Library Instruction committee meetings.

1:30-3:30: LITA Social Software Showcase.

4-5:30: Science Fiction and Fantasy:  Looking at Information Technology and the Information Rights of the Individual (Cory Doctorow!)

Sunday:

8:30-10:00: The Highly Effective Job Search

10:30-12:00: Energize Your Instruction: Keep The Magic Alive for You and Your Audience

1:30-3:00: Either LITA Top Tech Trends or Privacy: Is it Time for a Revolution?

Monday: Airplane!

Attention Atlanta MLIS students, new grads and other library job-seekers.  Copying and pasting from the event flyer:

Join us for the second meeting of the Atlanta Emerging Librarians Meetup Group! This group is intended to help library students and new librarians in the Atlanta area to learn and network.

Belinda DeLisser of Cadence Group will discuss how  to prepare and interview for open positions and demonstrate an incorrect and a correct interview.

Jason Puckett of Emory University will discuss creating a personal website as a tool for networking and personal promotion: how to set up a site, how to make it a portfolio that’s more engaging than your resume and how to use it to connect with other online librarians.

There will also be time for you to mingle and snack with your colleagues. Library science students, new librarians, and job seekers are all welcome to attend.

When: Saturday, July 12, 2008, 3:30-5:30pm

Where: Georgia State University Library, Classroom 1 (on the first floor of Library North)

Cost: Free!

Getting There: Detailed directions from the roads and MARTA are available here:
http://www.library.gsu.edu/directions/.

Visitor parking in G Deck (located off Collins Street) is $6.00. If you’d rather not drive, The Five Points and GSU MARTA train stations are within close walking distance of  the University Library. Campus map: http://www.gsu.edu/map.html

Registration: Seating is limited to 60, so please register for this event at:  http://www.library.gsu.edu/gla/emerginglibrarians.asp

Hey, that’s me!

Google Code has published (created? sponsored? I’m not sure how that works) a plugin for the Pidgin IM aggregator client that works with Facebook chat.  Once it’s installed, you can add your Facebook account as a new account, and it works just like every other chat network.

This is great as far as I’m concerned.  I use Pidgin and am not a fan of Facebook chat (or web-based chat in general). Some of my friends use Facebook but not regular IM.

Facebook Chat Plugin for Pidgin

I am a big fan of Cory Doctorow, author/blogger/activist.  I’m very excited to see that he’s appearing at ALA Annual in Anaheim this year, but I haven’t seen a lot of buzz about it in the biblioblogosphere yet.  So I’m, um, buzzing.

As far as I’ve been able to tell, he’s got only two appearances on the schedule.  If I’ve missed any, please comment and let me know.

Science Fiction and Fantasy: Looking at Information Technology and the Information Rights of the Individual
Saturday, June 28
4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
Anaheim Convention Center 304 A/B

Distinguished science fiction and fantasy authors will discuss the visionary nature of their craft, how speculative literature suggests new ideas and technologies, and the possible impacts these developments could have on society in the future. This year’s authors are Cory Doctorow, Eric Flint, Vernor Vinge and Brandon Sanderson, experts in the field of information technology, access to information, and the rights of individuals, along with just being really good authors. Come to listen, ask questions, and enjoy!  Speakers: Cory Doctorow, Tor Books; Eric Flint, Baen Books; Vernor Vinge, Tor Books; Brandon Sanderson, Tor Books

Privacy: Is it Time for a Revolution?
Sunday, June 29
1:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
201D, Anaheim Convention Center

Protecting reader privacy and confidentiality has long been an integral part of the mission of ALA and its members. Should it continue to be a priority? In an age when people increasingly use social networking to expose intimate life details, does privacy still matter to information seekers? Does anyone care if their library records and online searches are being tracked? If they don’t, why should they? A panel of thought leaders from the information economy including author Cory Doctorow, Wired senior writer Dan Roth, and Privacy Rights Clearinghouse director Beth Givens will debate the importance of privacy and what’s at stake if the persistent erosion of privacy continues unchecked. Join us for a provocative examination of a librarian’s role in the future of privacy.

I was skimming through the excellent 100+ Job Resources for Librarians post that I’ve seen linked from a couple of library blogs this week.  Most of the job listing sites (like ALA Joblist) are ones that I’ve seen before and have in my RSS aggregator already.

(By the way, my own tip: ALA Joblist allows you to set up a custom RSS feed with just the search parameters you want — city, academic/public, salary range, etc.  It’s very handy.)

There’s a link on this list that I had apparently bookmarked some time back but had forgotten about: “HOWTO:Apply for a library job” on LISWiki.  This article is a must-read summary for new LIS graduates or for anyone looking for a librarian position.  It’s got particularly good questions to ask during the interview cycle (from phone interview to offer) and several links that I’m still picking through.

This was posted on BMEzine’s Modblog today (Caution: the pictures linked below don’t contain nudity, but BMEzine and Modblog often do.  Use due discretion before clicking):

Since I’m planning to commemorate completing my MLIS with a tattoo, I couldn’t resist linking to it.  This one from last year is still my favorite, though:

No, I’m not getting my finger tattooed.  That would really hurt.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, but have obviously had a busy summer so far.  I did eventually get around to creating that guide to free audiobooks that I have been meaning to do for a while:

Audiobooks Guide

Short version: students leaving for break always want audiobooks, we don’t have many.  I listen to a lot of audio fiction, hence the idea.  If you have suggestions for additions, please post ‘em.

This is also a link to our new Libguides setup, which won’t officially debut until August.  So far I love Libguides, and I’ll blog about it soon.  (After I finish getting ready to train our staff on it.)

My colleague Rachel Borchardt and I are giving a session at the GOLD/GALILEO Users Group Conference on August 1st in Athens, GA.  Our presentation is:

“Let Your Audience Hear You: Creating an Instructional Podcast”

Interested in publishing an instructional podcast at your library? Learn the steps to design, plan and produce a podcast for your students using inexpensive hardware and mostly free software. We will discuss both instructional design and technological how-to, drawing on our experiences producing Woodruff Library’s Survival Guide podcast for undergraduates. We will include topics such as technology tools, publicity, “iTunes U”, and involving tech-shy colleagues.

I attended this conference last year and it really rocked — I came away with more ideas and contacts than I usually do from a day at ALA.  I’m particularly excited to be co-presenting with Rachel, since she and I have been working on this together for quite a while and it’ll be great to share some of what we’ve learned doing it.

Since this takes place about a week before I finish my MLIS degree, the timing seems particularly auspicious.