The future of libraries

Dr. Wendy Schultz is clueless. Another armchair librarian speculating about the future of libraries, when she likely hasn't actually helped a real live patron in decades...the reality is that libraries have become a haven for homeless street people and others who cannot afford a computer of their own....not brandy-drinking, cigar-smoking dilettantes. And frankly, I'm glad that's how our role in the community has evolved, because there aren't many so-called public places where they are welcome any more.

The Iceberg article hit the nail on the head, in my opinion. Its author suggested that librarians need to take a more humble approach to make libraries a place people want to be in the future. Historically we've portrayed ourselves as the lofty keepers of society's information resources, requiring that consumers come to us on our turf for the passkey, but guess what! Now any person of average intelligence or more can find it on their own, so who needs us? Just look at the stereotypes of librarians in the movies - they really show how much we need to improve our image in the public eye.

Technorati maze

This is a wonderful concept, making the blogworld a support group about issues near to our hearts...but yet again, I've lost the thread for putting tags on my blog. When I registered, the opportunity for listing tags appeared, and then somehow I wandered away without confirming the list, and I've spent an hour trying to resurrect it! However, it was fun searching for blog postings with tags that interest me, and I'll try this again later for adding tags to my blog.

Summer's over

Back to school, back to 23 things, and yet another stab at Rollyo. I now officially give up on it! I asked it to search for something I KNOW FULL WELL exists on a website I'd listed under "Great bike rides" and it couldn't find anything. What's its problem? I'm giving it a poor rating.

Success!

I fished around for a while and somehow found the way to join "one-person library" group on LibraryThing. I also posted a message saying why I joined and asking for likes and dislikes from the other two members. Nice to taste success!

LibraryThing

More frustration...At first I wondered why anyone would use this site, but then I explored groups and found one called "one-person library" which just began four days ago. It has only two members and I'd like very much to join, but can't figure out how. Then I saw something about upgrading to paying member status - is that the catch?

Frustration with Avatar image

It was fun designing the image (although I'd appreciate having age options, as not everyone thinks they need to look younger), but it was very frustrating trying to save the image, much less adding it to my blog! I was using Yahoo for UK - could that make a difference?

Getting deeper

Having explored items 8 and 9 of 23 things, I'm wondering if there's room in my brain for what's left to learn! The RSS feeds concept looks useful for very specific interests, but unfortunately when I looked for the RSS symbol on several websites, I couldn't find any. However, I did save an interesting blog under favorites in my Bloglines account. But it's good to know what that all means for future reference...and the MERLIN site has a veritable wealth of links!