Blog Revival

So, it's been almost a year since my last post, and I'm going to make the attempt of revitalizing the blog here. My personal and professional lives kind of starting melting together a bit and I didn't know how to extract one from the other. I think having a baby is a good enough excuse for that- and also a good excuse for not having the time to post. But I'm going to give-it-a-go again and see if I can't make some astute observations on here, even if people aren't reading it. :)

Backstory:
The last year has been quite eventful professionally as well as personally. After my maternity leave, I went back to my smallish branch and was transferred to another location. At the newer location I had a lot more adult reference questions and more "serious" collection development work due to the size differences of the collections. I was very happy there, and then due to (another) reorganization of the people at my library, was switched again to ANOTHER location. So that was three libraries in three months.

At the most recent branch, there was less to do collection maintenance-wise, but more reference though different still from the previous branch. These questions appeared to be more school based/homework like. I welcomed the change, but also missed the people at the two other branches where I'd worked before. The people within my organization are so awesome. There is no other word to describe it. The organization itself lends an air of confidence to its people and the people thrive on professional development and for the "good of the people". It has been such a wonderful organization to work for....and

Now I'm switching again. This time to a brand new library system that is smaller and in a completely different area of town. I know little about the community other than I believe it is a tightly knit one, and I know that they support their library due to a recent levy that passed by over 70%. In addition to the levy passage, this library system's director retired and a new director took their place. Changes are happening left and right and I think it's a great and wonderful thing. Honestly, I believe the swift changes I had just from one branch to another led me to this new appealing position- I'm anxious to see and be a part of the new changes to this library. I start on June 21st. I'll be working with Teens again and helping to create a Homework Help Center. This library doesn't currently have a Teen Collection, or specific Teen services or a Teen area. I'm starting from scratch and am super pumped about it. I can't wait to get the ball rolling.

So I'm hoping to post more library-relevant things here. I hope someone will read and start the conversations with me. :)

Last week I went to an AWESOME training offered by OhioNet on Social Media for the Social Good. David Lee King (from Topeka Library in Kansas) spoke about the great things his library does with Web 2.0 and online social networking tools. And then Betsy Hubbard and Debra Jasper from the Kiplinger Programs at OSU spoke. They were incredibly dynamic and had so many relevant and interesting things to discuss. My favorite pieces included:
* How data can be visually appealing/changed to evoke a different reaction from the audience.
* How many different websites are out there right now that can aggregate the information on people from various social networks- literally digging through the deep parts of the interwebs looking for your information. It was fascinating.
* How important it is to SHOW your story instead of tell it.
* How important informality is on the web. People no longer want technical jargon- it bogs us down. We want casual easy-to-understand narrative.
* How there are no more "captive" audiences- and if you want attention, you need to get it QUICKLY.

The information presented was done so in a way that made an AFTER LUNCH (ugh!) presentation exciting and fun to learn from. I am anxious to put some of their ideas into action and see how I can apply further ideas in my next venture at the new library.

So hopefully I'll be back more often. Thanks to those of you who stuck with me. :)