Library Sherpa

The Library Sherpa had the privilege of attending an alumni event last night at the swanky Pyramid Club for Mr. Sherpa’s alma mater.  (Mr. Sherpa being, obviously, Library Sherpa’s spouse…for those of you playing along at home.)   I was a liberal arts island in a sea of business majors at this little affair.  We heard the dean of the business school speak, and he was very excited about making the school one of the big names in the country.  I couldn’t help but to interject my two cents from a librarian point of view.  In private, after the dean’s speech, I very calmly and casually gave my best “library marketing” pitch directly to the dean.  I did work in the library of this major university for a brief period of time, so I wasn’t just talking out of my ’sherpa’ to him.  I just emphasized to him that while the incoming students may very well be extremely computer and technology savvy, it doesn’t necessarily mean they know how to do research.  I tried to stress the importance of still knowing how to do book research.  I understand many libraries are getting rid of paper publications, but I believe it is still a valuable skill.  So, I very politely but firmly gave the dean my opinion that if he wants his business school to be number one, he needs to implement a strong bond with the library.  No, he didn’t laugh at me.  He said he agreed and told me of what programs they currently have in place.  So, I hope I did not embarrass Mr. Sherpa too much, but this liberal arts librarian felt it was my moral obligation to tell the business people how to get ahead in this world….by using the library!  ;-> 

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I just watched the trailer for a movie entitled “The Hollywood Librarian.”  This may very well become the Sherpa’s new favorite movie.  (Yeah, I’m talking to you, ”Amadeus!”)   Anyway, the trailer looked great and I read in the Washington Post about how it had a premier at the ALA conference this past weekend.  What’s up with that, director Ann Seidl?  Can’t show the SLA any love?!  I’m kidding, of course.  (Or, at least that’s what the Sherpa’s lawyer said to say.  But, I jest.  What is this, the Catskills all of a sudden?)  The film appears to center more on public libraries, which is not a domain familiar to me from a professional point of view.  I prefer to just be a patron at a public library and leave that hard work to people with much more compassion than I.  So, I urge you to check out the clip on YouTube and see this movie when it comes out in the fall.  I think this film will make non-librarians fall to their knees to thank us librarians for what we contribute to society.  Or, at least that what I’m hoping happens.  Respect and admiration would be nice, too.

For other library and/or librarian related films, see Party Girl, Desk Set and The Mummy … just to name a few.

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Not too long after I posted my thoughts about bloggers as legit journalists, I received an e-mail asking for my permission to quote a blog entry of mine from the SLA 2007 Conference Blog.  The blog post of interest is my unapologetically gushing review of Al Gore’s speech at the SLA conference in Denver.  I did grant permission, so look for my words to be shown again at The One Person Library newsletter.  I was told my quote will be used to give alternate points of view regarding feedback about Al’s speech.  It makes me think of it as a belated on the spot reactional interview.  Since I blogged about it pretty quickly after I returned from the speech, it’s as close to my immediate reaction as possible.  Interesting. 

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I mentioned in a previous post about the lovely yellow ribbon I wore on my SLA conference nametag, embossed with the words “SLA Blogger.”  Not only did this serve as a nice icebreaker among strangers, it also drew odd reactions from people.  If I was among a group of people and someone gossiped or told an inappropriate joke or comment, I very quickly received horrified glances followed by one of the following exasperated utterances “you can’t blog that,” or “this is off the record,” or “you can’t comment on this!”  For the most part, these comments were scared pleadings from people who seemed convinced that I plotting to maliciously blog about them at a moments notice.  I found this to be odd at the time, but now have actually had a chance to think about it. 

My conclusion is that our public perception of the press/media/journalists has been changed dramatically by the Internet.  From Jayson Blair to CNN having “blog watchers” presenting segments during the news, it’s my opinion that the whole idea of free press has changed.  Turned upside down, even.  Hey, I love “The Daily Show” – but, is it weird that so many people get their actual NEWS from it?  With “infotainment” being the norm nowadays, it’s no wonder that anything goes – that an SLA Blogger gets treated like a member of the “real” press.  Interestingly, the other night on “The Colbert Report,” I saw an interview with Josh Wolf.  I saw he is described as a “freelance journalist and independent videographer” and he is under fire for not handing over videotape of anarchists to the government so they can prosecute.  What I found most interesting is that he talked about being a video blogger and it was freedom of the press and so on and so forth.  I thought the timing of his appearance was fortuitous, as I have been mulling this over in my head since leaving Denver.  After reading his bio on his blog/website, I see that he went to school for journalism.  In my mind, at least, I feel that still puts me, a non-journalist major, into a different category — a category of just a person with the technical capabilities to have a blog to spout off about things.  I haven’t made up my mind about Josh Wolf’s legal predicament, but his Colbert interview gave me more to think about. 

Some of us at the conference joked it would be funny to have a “Page Six” style blog about our fellow attendees.  Entries like, “Which librarians were spotted canoodling at the Gold Diggers Ball?”  But, it was never taken seriously.  So, to come full-circle with my original thought – the only times I will mention a non-public individual and/or their actions will only be if I have their consent.  Any of the people who have already been mention on this blog gave me permission to do so.  The operative term being “non-public.”  If you are on a widely watched television show like Mr. Wolf, then you are fair game.  Otherwise, I’m not out to tell the secrets or even off-hand comments of people I meet at a cocktail party.  That’s not the way of the Library Sherpa.

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The Sherpa is very glad to be back home.  Look for more SLA recaps here, as well as research tips and commentary on all things library-related.  (Or, lie-berry as is the common pronounciation where the Sherpa lives.)  I once had a blog named Liberrian Pie.  Hmmm, might be time to bring that back.  Sherpas like pie.

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This session was lead by three individuals well-known to the legal division.  They took turns speaking of the various emergency technologies currently in use and geared it towards a legal/law environment for the most part.  Some of the technologies were not new to me, as they are things I use regularly myself.  However, some of those technologies already known to me were presented with some suggestions for usage that were formerly unknown to me.  The items that were totally unknown to me were law/legal technologies.  This is more of a hands-on exercise and the presentations of each of the respective speakers are listed below.

Nathan Rosen’s presentation - Talked a lot about wikis.  Mentioned that wikis have been heavily cited in legal materials.  Mentioned professional wikis like Wikipatents and Wex of Cornell Law School’s famous Legal Information Institute.

Nina Platt’s presentation - Talked about how Evite is getting outdated and that the up and coming off-shoots of that are EVDB (Events and Venue Database) and Upcoming.

Thomas B. Fleming’s presentation - Called Linkedin the “new rolodex”

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Contrary to popular opinion, I worked very, very hard this past week.  I’m going to go through each of the classes/sessions I attended to recap what I learned.  This is for my own benefit in addition to creating a teaching/sharing opportunity. 

The folks from Factiva/Dow Jones led this class and went over a very detailed presentation of the aspects of how good websites should look.  It included real-life examples of good and pretty bad sites.  I learned that the best fonts for websites are Sans Serif, Verdana and Ariel.  This was really a visual course, it was about structure and color and the visual aesthetics of how a good website should be.  It wasn’t very technical, it focused on design and content.  I also learned of an important resource regarding content, a US government website called PlainLanguage.  It’s an interesting site which explains how to word complicated or unusal phrasing into something more reader friendly.  There are some funny examples on there as well.  Their presentation can be seen HERE.

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It has come to the Sherpa’s attention (and yes, I’ve decided that I must refer to myself in the 3rd person in this manner from now on) that it appears as though this trip to Denver has been all play and no work.  I assure you that the majority of my day was spent in sessions and other conference related educational activities.  But, what’s more interesting to write and read?  I could post all about copyright law, Web 2.0/3.0, and the U.S. Code.  But, that would be boring.  Hey, there’s a reason why tabloids make so much money.  So, keep in mind that the details of what I post is really a small portion of my very, very long days. 

The Sherpa is looking forward to returning to a lower altitude with a greater amount of humidity (believe it or not.)  I hope to post a series of retrospectives about my time at the conference, as I was unable to keep up with daily updates.  I need to sift through the pile of information I’ve received in paper form and all the stuff in my head. 

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There was great buzz around the conference about the website MAPLight.org

 I wanted to share this before I forgot, or it got buried in all my other conference info.  According to their website, “MAPLight.org brings together campaign contributions and how legislators vote, providing an unprecedented window into the connections between money and politics. We currently cover the California Legislature and U.S. Congress.” 

Definitely take the video tour of the website before you start clicking around.  It will make more sense after you view the demo.  I hope this site continues to grow.  I think this will help to make more people aware of what’s going on with government and politics.

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Many thanks to the Legal Division and Thomson, for sponsoring the very last open house of the SLA 2007 Conference!  I didn’t think it was possible, but I met even more new people at tonight’s event!  When we were closed down the Capitol 5 room, a select few headed to the other spots within the HR to continue on networking.  Now, don’t get me wrong, this truly was a networking event, we just kept getting kicked out of where we were sitting.  J from KC and I tried to head out to Sam’s No. 3 only to find it closed.  Darn.  We eventually wound up at a place on 15th Street in Denver and befriended two young gentlemen who we tried to talk into being librarians.  Always trying to promote librarianship whenever possible.

 I had a wonderful conference and look forward to posting more summaries about it later.   Yay, SLA 2007!

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