Most of the content of Librarians Matter could be distilled to two messages:
To non-librarians:
Librarians know about new web tools as part of our jobs and we are a viable, lively profession- use our skills.
To librarians:
We need to know about new web tools as part of our jobs to stay a viable and lively profession- learn the skills.
Last week, I had a whirl of a week getting this message out – and I feel really vulnerably “out there”.
People I respect, like Stephen Abram, say things like this (about seeing himself in video interviews):
I keep telling people that these are a way to engage with our markets. I have to put my own meat in the game. I have found that it’s not as scary as I felt it could be – great interviewers make the difference. It’s a risk sharing like this but it might personalize our libraries (and me).
He’s right. And I see people like Jill promoting her library by dressing up in a tweed Sherlock Holmes hat and cape and distributing the photo around her organisation to promote her library and I think “Go, girl!”.
While I’m proud that I was able to put the profession out there, this week I felt a bit like that annoying kid in class who always puts up her hand and never shuts up. (So, of course, I feel compelled to tell you about it, instead of modestly sitting with my hands folded in my lap – I’m getting it all out of my system now and promise not to mention it again.)
On Saturday I gave the Blog Fodder session at Podcamp Perth, and was tickled to hear this said of our profession:
I’m all for nerd power, but librarians? They’re beyond nerd, aren’t they? So what’s with the domination of librarians amongst the bloggers at Podcamp? How come they talk so much? And so raucously? Where’s that pale, timid mole stereotype gone?
And how come I’d never heard of terms like “meme”, never heard of Sitemeter, never used Google Analytics in assessing my blog traffic? What the screaming fuck is Twitter? Photobucket?
Wanna find out? Have a look at Kathryn Greenhill’s blog, Librarians Matter, where she has just posted notes from her illuminating talk at PodCamp.
PS: How come the ABC is about to launch a new comedy series called…Librarians?! Librarians are suddenly hip? And funny? HUH?
On Wednesday I was interviewed by TechCrunch writer, Duncan Riley for his “On the Pod” series where he interviews “guests that might otherwise not have a high profile yet have something interesting to say”. On the Pod #10: Kathryn Greenhill . I learned that it’s better to breathe than say “um”. It didn’t come off too badly, but my nervousness did make me call a new version of a book a “volume” rather than an edition. Disclaimer: Duncan is a local and a twitterfriend.
Seems like Emerald Dumont, my Second Life Avatar, is even more publicity hungry than I am. She wasn’t content only to host a discussion of “The Librarians” TV series on ABC Island in Second Life on Thursday ( transcript here ). Oh no – she had to startle the bejeezus out of me on Friday by appearing as covergirl on the University community newspaper, Explore – under the headline “A virtual life – Murdoch Libary teleports into the future”. I knew about the interview, but Emerald hadn’t told me she was going to be on the cover too.
Add to the mix the news via HeyJude that this blog is number 31 on the list of Top 50 Australian Women Bloggers. And someone contacted me directly via twitter and told me that my blog’s google pagerank is 5 – while I naively asked back “is that good?”. And I already knew this blog sits around number 23 on Ratified.org Australia which claims to measure the top 100 blogs of the Australian blogosphere – but really measures those who submit their site.
I wonder why I feel kind of uncomfortable blogging about this when I always feel so uplifted when I hear other librarians talk about doing those kinds of things? Hope it encourages you to put yourself out there – I’m going to try to lay low for a bit.
