QPLA townsville conference

It has been a busy few weeks culminating with me going to this weeks QPLA conference in Townsville. It was great to see colleagues who i have not seen in years from all over Australia and for a nice change I only had a one hour drive to get there yay!

The conference was thought provoking and i came away with many challenges none the least, is the word "librarian' sexy enough to describe what we do? A speaker pointed out that in the next 10-15 years a huge percentage of the profession will retire and younger librarians are not staying in the profession and moving up the "food chain" because we are seen as not "sexy enough" using the word library or librarian to describe what we do. Certainly food for thought.

tagging on the OPAC

Here's something I have been pondering and as yet don't know which way to go

in the SirsiDynix discussion lists there has been a bit of discussion about the need to allow users to be able to add tags to books they have read on the OPAC.

The question being asked is do users really care and will they be bothered when our subject headings are really another way of "tagging" resources in our collections.

food for thought i feel.

What a busy last few weeks

Boy have we been busy firstly with children's book week with over 600 kids in the library and last weekend the Sunwater Water Festival with the crowning of the Water Festival senior Ambassador who by the way is a member of our library team. Congratulations Carly

The world of twitter

Its been a while since the last posting the library team have been flat out. But guess what... we have found time to begin a tentative exploration into twitter. You will find us on http://twitter.com/BurdekinLibraries . Hopefully people will subscribe and visit us on twitter.

Blogs and libraries

We are about to explore as a staff how we can use a blog to promote the library here in Ayr. The challenge for me will be who will do it?

I have been looking at a couple of blogs namely http://librarianavengers.org/ and http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/ both are fun and a bit quirky. They have challenged some of my perceptions i must admit but that is a good thing.

We will be looking at both of these blogs when we brainstorm ideas for our own. I am going to step back and let the staff run with this and we will see where it goes.

Perceptions

Isnt it funny how people perceive what a library should be. Have a look at this link http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2555830.htm. It has certaintly generated significant comment on that page. My question is shouldn't the library be for all and not "library snobs".

Web 2.0 and the OPAC

I am starting to investigate our Sirsi unicorn system to see what if any web 2.0 functionality can be dropped onto the OPAC. Hmm It may be time to get the next software update loaded

I am in a new place getting to know people and my first question is "do you use the public library" and the universal answer is "O no i am too busy" hmm now thats a challenge if ever there was one.

time to begin a marketing campaign i think. We need to keep making the library in our small community relevant and alive then you can never be "too busy" to visit your local library.

Oh if you are wondering about the blog name it was a Library promotional slogan many years ago. I can legitimately say last century :). It appeals to my warped sense of humour.

What a hectic last couple of weeks its been. :)

After 6 years in private enterprise with two International Library Software companies in Brisbane Australia I am back in the Public Library world in North Queensland.

Its interesting coming back into the public library sector after this time and getting up to speed on all the current issues and challenges we face, but some things never change. The commitment to serving and engaging the communities we serve is as strong as ever.