goblin cartoons

I’ve just created a Library Society of the World page on Facebook. We’re everywhere!

Thanks to my conference sister Rikhei Harris, the Library Society of the World now has a group on LibraryThing. w00t!

In my other life in the world of tabletop role-playing games, I’ve been participating in online web forums for years. I’ve become a big fan of this form of asynchronous conversation, liking them much more than email lists or Usenet groups (even if they have approximately the same number of idiotic flamewars).

I love the Meebo chat room for the Library Society of the World, but I’ve been pretty busy at work and home lately, and I haven’t found the time to log in to chat as much as I used to. Now Tangler has appeared, a free web forum site, and I decided to try adding asynchronous conversation to the LSW mix (beyond the wiki, which is so-so for this kind of thing). I created a Library Society forum the other day and sent out some invitations, but it’s an open forum, so anyone can sign up and join in on the conversation. It’s definitely an experiment, and so far I haven’t seen an outpouring of posting on the forum. Past library forums I’ve seen haven’t really overflowed with conversation either, so maybe library folk just aren’t into forums that much (it seems to me their either heavily invested in email lists, which I pretty much detest, or stick with blogs, IMing and Twitter), but we’ll see how it goes. If it suits your fancy, go ahead and join in the forum. Add to the conversations and start your own topics.

As Walt blogged about, the Library Society of the World Meebo room got attacked by guerrila spambots on Thursday afternoon. I was at work and had a meeting to go to, so there wasn’t much I could do about it. I quickly posted on the Meebo forums, then suggested to the people in the chat room that they abandon ship for the moment. In the aftermath of the pr0nbot bombing, I’ve made the room accessible only by password. I’m not all that happy with the solution; a number of the LSW room regulars are people who stumbled into the room, found it to be a welcoming environment, and stayed. I don’t see that happening as much now, although we’ve made the password as easy to find out as we could. (Hint: it’s the same as the LSW wiki.)

In another sense, though, it’s awfully nifty the room was attacked at all. During the attack, people checked other rooms and found that the only ones getting hit were the popular rooms, the rooms with lots of people in them. And the LSW room has been consistently popular. You can usually find at least one or two people there, frequently a lot more than that. You can even find it hopping on a Saturday night (which maybe says as much about us library folks as it does about Meebo chat rooms). I love hanging out there, especially when there are a lot of people in the room. Conservation ranges from food (a topic that seems to emerge with the slightest provocation) to “what do we like and dislike about ALA” to “can someone help me with the reference question?” to “can someone give me professional advice about being a librarian?”

I know why the room is so popular: the people who hang out there are friendly, approachable, funny, and smart. But I honestly don’t know how it became so popular. I’d love to take credit for it. Often, when I log into the room, someone will make a joke about “our leader has arrived!” But I’m not their leader, I’m not the primary influence on the room. I creeated the room, I perform the rare administrative function for the room, but it’s the people in the room who make it what it is. I’ve never invited anyone to the room, I don’t drop links to the room anywhere (except once on Twitter and here on my blog), and yet a really good group of people have come to the room, and they keep coming back to interact with each other.

An example of the great social dynamic going on: when I told everyone to flee in the face of the pr0nbot invasion, LSW member Rikhei immediately created a backup room, password-protected, and people spread the word. I came back from my work meeting to find a whole new LSW room where people were congregating. Soon after, I made the original LSW room password-protected. Again, the word was spread, and everyone flocked back to the original room.

Whatever the reasons, I’m pleased as all get-out the LSW Meebo room has attracted such a great group of people. I’m not solely responsible for it, but I’m thrilled to be a part of it. It’s now one of my favorite hang-outs. It’s a place I can go where everybody knows my name.

A discussion (or was it a couple of different discussions?) on Twitter regarding ALA fees and navigating the ALA website led me to declare why I haven’t renewed my ALA membership. For one thing, ALA’s website, well, sucks. Is that really such a big deal? No, not really. ALA has already shown signs of changing with the changing times, and with Jenny Levine working for them, I’m sure their web presence will improve by leaps and bounds in no time. My other reason for not renewing my membership is a bigger problem: the cost of membership dues. As a student, joining ALA was $28, which was quite affordable when I was flush with student loan money. Now that I’m a professional, my first year would cost me $55. This is much less affordable. My second year dues would be $83, which is really not affordable. This is also assuming I don’t join any of the divisions or round tables. Actually getting involved in ALA, outside of paying the basic first year dues, would seriously compromise my ability to support my family. And to be honest, I can’t see what I would get out of being a member.

Is ALA an organization for professional development? I already get loads of professional development assistance from my coworkers and supervisors, my place of employment, and my time spent on the intarweb. Given the choice between the ALA and my blogroll, my blogroll kicks ALA up and down the street, making it cry uncle.

Is ALA a political advocacy group? I love that ALA gets into the political arena and supports causes and issues that I personally support. But so does the ACLU, and I only have to pay $25 a year to be a card-carrying member of that organization.

No, the more I think about it, the less I can find in ALA that I find worth paying my dues for.

This chatting on Twitter led to some remarks about starting our own alternative to ALA. Jokes and snarky comments morphed into somewhat serious questions of “Are you really going to do this?” to conversations of “We should definitely do this!” And so was born the Library Society of the World! It’s free to join and free to participate in. To be honest, this is sort of a lark, and I don’t take it all that seriously. On the other hand, I do take alternatives to ALA seriously. I think we already have an alternative to ALA, and it’s every library person engaging in conversations and collaboration on the internet and in other non-official ways. The Library Society of the World is just a cheeky way of formalizing that (sort of).

I encourage everyone and anyone who reads this blog to join the LSW, because…well, why the heck not? If you want to help with the wiki, email, IM, Skype or Twitter me (or call me on the phone, or talk to me in person) and ask for the password. At this point, I’m not going to post it publicly, but I’ll give it to anyone who asks nicely for it.

Champions of free information! The Library Society of the World wants you!