Earth Album

For Thing #6, I found a Flickr mashup called Earth Album. I've seen other sites that are similar, Google's own Panoramio is very similar in fact. However, I liked the simple interface of Earth Album as well as the way images were displayed in a clickable banner. It looks like this site can be used in several different ways; for example, you can simply click anywhere on the map of the world to see photos from Flickr taken near the spot where you clicked.

You can also enter an address into the search box at the top of the page for more precise results. I thought that was fun. In entering my own address, I found a Flickr photo of my absolute favorite store in the Sacramento region. If you haven't been there, you are missing out!

Then the thought hit me to go back and post a photo near every address where I've ever lived. So, here's something near my house in Ceres. And here's a shot near my second home in Savannah. Now here is something near my first home in Savannah (only six blocks from the second). Next, I included a shot taken near my home in Hinesville, Ga (about 45 minutes toward nowhere from Savannah). Before that, the student housing on CSU, Monterey Bay was home and this picture was taken near my apartment there. This shot was taken close to the house where I spent most of my childhood in Clayton, CA. Before that, my family lived briefly in Martinez, CA, and, when I was born, we lived in Concord.

The Overdrive Digital Bookmobile

Yesterday, I headed over to the Arcade Library to see the Overdrive Digital Bookmobile in action. The Bookmobile visited Arcade and two other Sacramento Public Library branches over the past three days to help us promote to our customers the great variety of downloadable audio and video that we have available on our website.

I think the coolest thing I learned while taking the tour of the truck from a very helpful Overdrive staffer was that my own phone has the capability of playing audiobooks! I can download from our website right to my phone! Too cool. So I'll definitely be taking advantage of that little feature very soon; I'll have an audiobook ready to go wherever I am! I also ran into the Arcade Library Branch Supervisor inside, too. I guess the temptation of this loaded truck was too much for her just a few steps outside of her library.

Building a Library

North Natomas Library Groundbreaking
Originally uploaded by civillibrarian

I can hardly believe it but more than a year has passed since I took this photo early last year! What you're looking at is a photo from my Flickr photostream showing the formal groundbreaking ceremony for the new North Natomas Library. Notice the conspicuous absence of a library behind the shovel turners. Now, take a look at this photo. Taken last month, 11 months after the groundbreaking, look what has popped up in North Natomas!

Everyone involved in the new building has been working hard over the past year in preparation for a grand opening sometime late this year. Lois Ross and Don Tucker in Facilities have been making sure the new building will be spectacular and Suzy Murray and the North Natomas team have been busy planning spreading the word in the community and preparing to operate in a very different environment than that where the currently "live". They might even have their own space for programming in the new building....

Take a Vacation!

As you might have guessed from this picture, I was recently in Washington, D.C. It is so cool to take a vacation that not only gives a needed mental break from the job but also stokes some enthusiasm about the job, too! This is exactly what happened to me on this trip.

First, I named my blog The Civil Librarian specifically because I hoped to convey my sense of how those of us who work in public libraries really are civil servants. I think that, often, the concept that we are government workers whose mission is to provide a valuable social service to the public is forgotten. Being in DC, surrounded by monuments to the value of sound government, really helped to refresh that sense of civil service in my mind.

Second, I visited Mount Vernon while in DC. A must-see if you visit the capital. On the wall of the visitor's center there, I read a quote from George Washington that I'd never heard before. Delivered in January of 1790 during the President's first address to Congress, it read: "Knowledge is, in every country, the surest basis of public happiness". That got me thinking about the real importance of public libraries in this country. The level of public happiness in any society is a result of that society's mutual societal values and goals and the extent to which we provide the means by which those values are expressed and those goals are achieved. Washington felt that knowledge was the key ingredient in allowing a society to form those values and to achieve those goals. What institution more than our public libraries, then, is at the heart of fostering public happiness? Libraries are the one place everyone is free to visit to develop themselves professionally and personally, to feed their love of reading and other forms of entertainment, and to interact with other members of the community. I have to admit that this quote of Washington's and my whole visit to his home prompted me to check out the playaway version of Ellis' His Excellency as soon as I got home. It's been a great listen so far!

Last, aside from feeling the weight of the presence of so much civic pride that the DC architecture and monuments demonstrate and also being motivated (thanks to our first President) by the recognition that I work in a field of government that has such an important role to play in bettering our communities and our country, I also made a pilgrimage while in DC that I imagine most library employees make when they visit that city. I visited the Library of Congress and I was really blown away. Just the building itself is so beautiful and impressive but the extent of the collection that the Library owns practically defies description. This, too, is a must-see for anyone visiting DC, in my opinion.

Now, less than a week back from my trip (that wasn't really restful because there is so much to see in that city), I'm still feeling excited about what I do and feeling especially motivated seeing the excitement that my co-workers are demonstrating through their participation in SPL's 27 Things program. It's good being a librarian!

"27 Things" Is Already Paying Off!

Sacramento Public Library launched our 27 Things program last week and I can already see the dividends. Six days into the months-long program, I am finding something unexpected: I'm learning a lot about the people with whom I work. While the program is primarily a method for rapidly bringing a lot of staff up to speed on 2.0 technologies in a fun and engaging way, the opportunity to read the blog posts of a wide variety of library employees is fascinating. Folks I talk to on a very regular basis share more of their real personality and interests in these posts than they do in the work environment. For example, I had no idea Sabrina is training for marathon; go Sabrina! I didn't know Dave "Dirt Pile" Hillier is a racing enthusiast. And I didn't know that this person is such a comedian! I am totally loving getting to know more about all the folks with whom I work as they chug through SPL's 27 things!

Reflections on Lifelong Learning

Sacramento Public Library launched its 27 Things program on Monday. I'm so excited because this has been in the works for a long time and we have had really outstanding enrollment in the first week; all indications are that this program will be a huge success! As part of the first few "things", participants are supposed to watch an online tutorial from PLCMC called "7 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners", and then blog about those habits that seem hardest and easiest for us personally.

I just watched the tutorial and really enjoyed it; there is a lot to think about there. I think, without question, the easiest of the 7 1/2 habits for me is #2: accept responsibility for your own learning. I am something of a school junkie; I've been enrolled in one program or another for virtually the last 12 years with very few breaks. I also really enjoy finding answers to difficult questions (imagine that I'd become a librarian!) and I really don't mind asking questions of others who have more expertise than myself in a given area. I also am developing a real enjoyment for blogging about my work; I find that it really helps to crystalize my thinking about what I do and why I do it. Kind of a modern version of the old fashion diary, I guess (without all the sordid details...). Overall, I just love learning new things and applying those new skills to "the real world".

On the other hand, habit #7, "teach and mentor others" seems to me the most difficult on the list. I've taken different versions of the Myers-Briggs test and I am always either a ENTJ or ENTP. Both outgoing types but neither of which thrives on teaching so much as seeing new opportunities and convincing others to follow along. I suppose one way in which I could temper what might be a shortcoming would be to focus more on those interpersonal skills where I need to improve because I really do like to see others succeed with me (I can't succeed at work, for example, on my own) so I should try to develop the inclination to share more with others instead of just selling my own objectives.

I hope everyone else participating in SPL's 27 Things enjoys this experience as much as I'm sure I will!

Assess This!

Being a manager in a large, urban public library means committee work. Death by committee. But I'm not complaining. I get to do a ton of interesting and varied work. The latest thing to fall in my lap is SPL's new IT/Public Services planning group. In short, this group will:

• Assess the extent to which the library meets our customers' needs in terms of our implementation of established technologies
  
• Explore emerging technologies in use at other libraries and in non-library environments in order to evaluate their potential application toward improving library services
• Make recommendations to Administration on the implementation of those technologies with clear applications to our environment

First up for the group will be to plan and conduct an assessment about how well we're doing relevant to the state of our technology implementation and what we're missing. I'd love to hear from anyone out there who has already conducted such an assessment!