goblin cartoons

Utterly despicable.

New federal legislation says universities must agree to provide not just deterrents but also “alternatives” to peer-to-peer piracy, such as paying monthly subscription fees to the music industry for their students, on penalty of losing all financial aid for their students…

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) applauded the proposal, which is embedded in a 747-page spending and financial aid bill. “We very much support the language in the bill, which requires universities to provide evidence that they have a plan for implementing a technology to address illegal file sharing,” said Angela Martinez, a spokeswoman for the MPAA.

According to the bill, if universities did not agree to test “technology-based deterrents to prevent such illegal activity,” all of their students–even ones who don’t own a computer–would lose federal financial aid.

Because nothing, not even the education of the next generations, is as important as the entertainment industry’s profits.

If you live in the districts of Rep. George Miller (D) of California or Rep. Ruben Hinojosa (D) of Texas, please call and remind them it is not the responsibility of schools to protect the entertainment industry’s interests and denying a college education to lower-income students to make the entertainment industry happy is reprehensible.

I thought I was done talking about this year’s Internet Librarian, but then Meredith Farkas (who I didn’t get to hang out with nearly as much as I would’ve liked to) blogged about it, and I feel the need to comment on some things she’s said.

I really do enjoy Internet Librarian, but so much of the material covered in the conference is a review for me. While I always get some insights and inspiration from the sessions, I find that I get the most value from the conversations that take place before and after the sessions.

I feel the same way. I learned about some new software apps at IL this year, but I didn’t leave feeling we’re on the cusp on much newness. It felt more like people were hammering away on the Library 2.0 basics. Which is fine, but I think I’m ready for the more advanced courses now. But between sessions, I spent a lot of time talking with my coworkers and with other conference attendees, and those conversations really felt like something special to me. (Much like when I was an undergrad, when what I talked about with my fellow students outside the classroom was generally far more inspiring and educational than what was covered in the classroom.) (Come to think of it, grad school was mostly like that, too.)

I come back to work with a recognition that I’m not alone in this, that there is a huge network of other librarians struggling to create better subject guides, better information literacy tutorials, better communication tools. The reality though is that we shouldn’t need a conference to share that information.

Yes! And this is something I’m hoping to present on at some point. Conferences are expensive to go to, and not all librarians can take the time to attend them. The internet gives us the ability to network and engage in professional development 24/7. Does this make professional conferences obsolete, at least in some ways? I don’t know, but I believe it bears further thought.

It stands to reason that if the discussions are the best part of the conference for some people, then perhaps more of the conference should be dedicated to those informal conversations. Interested in subject guides? Get a group together to discuss that. Interested in Facebook and MySpace? Form a group to talk about that. People can submit what they would like to discuss and other people can sign up if they’re interested in talking about that. The person who proposed it isn’t the speaker or even the facilitator; it’s just a free and open discussion. Everyone is simultaneously the teacher and the learner.

This is one of the niftiest things I’ve read in a while. I’m all for looser, more free flowing conferences and gatherings.

I also would love to see conferences designed for those of us for whom Internet Librarian is a review and Code4Lib is way over our heads.

Oh boy, yes! Like I said, I’m reading for the more advanced courses. I’ve had enough theory for now. I don’t want to study blueprints, I want to start building gadgets and gizmos.

I have more to say about this, about conferences in general, but not tonight. Let me sleep on it, and I’ll get back to you later.

I heart Shelf Check!

My coworker Erin has started a new blog, schooling.us. If you’re interested in the intersection of schools, education, libraries, and technology, check it out.

Although I didn’t take as many photos this year at Internet Librarian as I did last year, and few of my pictures of the actual conference turned out, you can see the pictures I came away with in my Flickr set.

My coworker and conference roommate, Scott, took more and better pictures than I did. You can see them on his blog here, here, here, here, and also here.

I had a great time in Monterey at Internet Librarian this year, but boy, there sure were some aspects that I found frustrating and infuriating.

Let’s start with the internet access. Why am I blogging about the conference after the fact? Because I wasn’t able to access the free wifi at the conference, not once. Other attendees told me they also had a lot of trouble using the wifi. Apparently, the wifi couldn’t handle so many conference attendees using it at the same time. But I did see people online, and I could never get the wifi to work for me. Could it be because I was using an Ubuntu Linux-driven laptop? Maybe. But at an “Internet Librarian” conference, that shouldn’t be a reason. (Also, I was using my Ubuntu laptop last year and was able to use the conference wifi, as erratic a signal as it was.) Because I rely on my laptop to keep me connected, I missed a lot of opportunities for spontaneous socializing and conferencing; I couldn’t use Twitter, I couldn’t IM, I couldn’t keep up with other people’s blogs. The only internet access I could get around the conference area was in my hotel room (hi-speed cable access, for $10 a day), which was far from convenient and far from immediate. Frankly, I’m appalled at the internet access problems at a conference called “Internet Librarian.” It’s as if the conference organizers don’t take the name and focus of the conference seriously.

This flows nicely into my next point of frustration. Let me first say that I don’t want to harsh on the work the presenters put into their presentations. Some of the presenters are friends of mine, and all of the presenters I saw did at least a good job of presenting at a conference (and some did a great job). But…at a conference called Internet Librarian, I was surprised and frustrated at how many of the presentations were lectures based around offline Powerpoint slides. I’ve seen videos of TED presentations, and compared to that, Internet Librarian generally looks like Tinkertoys and Lincoln Logs. I appreciate that the library profession as a whole isn’t rolling in money like Scrooge McDuck, but as many of the presentations I attended pointed out, even on a shoestring budget, you can make dynamic, networked presentations. If I’m attending a conference called Internet Librarian, I don’t just want to talk about the internet, as if the internet were Shangri-La, I want the conference to be a part of the internet, a part of our everyday librarian lives.

So, while I had a great time and would go back to Monterey in a heartbeat to interact with these dynamic, inspirational librarians, I’m seriously on the fence about attending the conference again until Internet Librarian really starts living up to its name.

Did I have a good time at this year’s Internet Librarian conference? Boy, did I!

For one thing, I got to spend more quality time with some of my coworkers, who were at IL for the first time. We hit the aquarium, which was mindblowing. I think my jaw was in a state of perpetual droppedness as I took in the jellies, kelp forests, touch pools, and more. We ate some great food together (including a wild drive to Salinas to eat at In-N-Out Burger, which was even tastier than I dreamed it would be). And best of all, we had spirited conversations about what we love and hate about our profession and where we’re going as librarians.

Another great part was getting to see online friends again: Sarah Houghton-Jan, Meredith Farkas, Steven Cohen, Michelle Boulé, Jenny Levine, Michael Stephens, Michael Porter, Michael Sauers, Beth Hoffman, Rachel Singer Gordon, David Lee King, Tom Ipri, and Dave Free. As an added bonus, I got to hang out with one of my good friends from library school, Mandy Tuthill, who is one of the funniest people I’ve ever known. I also got to meet more online friends in person for the first time: Karen G. Schneider, Laura Carscaddon, Jenica Urbanek-Rogers, Cindi Trainor, Holly Blosser, Steven Kaye, Jason Griffey, Chrystie Hill, Ruth Kneale, Robin Hastings, and more people I’m probably leaving out (for which I apologize). Seriously, the social networking is one of the best aspects of conferences. I mean, that’s why we blog, IM, use Twitter and Flickr and Facebook and all that other jazz, right?

I attended some very good sessions, too. One of my favorites was Jenny Benevento’s snarky “How to Lose a Tech Librarian” and the companion presentation by Sarah Houghton-Jan and Michael Stephens onstaff technology training. I also liked Michelle Boulé and Karen Coombs’ presentation on free e-learning tools, not just because it was educational, but because Michelle and Karen present well together, like a classic stage duo. Paul Pival and Chad Boeninger are another great presenter pair who gave a great presentation on “Tech Tools for Library Outreach.” They threw out the Powerpoint, talked casually, and provided a Meebo room for backchat. Joe Janes’ Tuesday morning keynote speech was hilarious, thought-provoking, and inspiring. And the Tuesday night presentation by the Dutch “library boys” of the Shanachie Tour was so brilliant and joyful, I almost cried.

I left Monterey early (I mean, really bloody early) Thursday morning feeling energized, enthusiastic, and inspired to dig into more great library work with my brilliant fellow librarians. For all of that, Internet Librarian was a success.

My teammate Amy is a wizard. Today, she added a line of code to our Library homepage so that when you go there, you can add our Library catalog to your IE7 or Firefox search box. Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait here.

Back? Good, because there’s more. She also created a widget for your iGoogle page which also allows you to search our catalog. There are now two ways to search our catalog without having to go to our site at all. Pretty nifty, eh?

Jennifer Graham and I were talking about Web 2.0 and how neither of us really understands what the “Semantic Web” that is supposedly Web 3.0 could be. I mean, I went to college, I was an English major, I’m not a complete idiot…but no explanation of the “Semantic Web” has given me much of an idea of how it would work and what “Semantic Web” means. (Anyone who can explain the concept to me in a way that leads me to understanding gets a prize.)

At any rate, here’s my idea for further Web “upgrades”:

Web 4.0: the Holographic Web. The Web will be all around us, in 3 glorious dimensions and full color.

Web 5.0: the Ecological Web. The fully immersive Holographic Web leads to 3-dimensional ecosystems of information, growing and interacting all around us.

Web 6.0: the Cyberweb. Artificial intelligence, or the closest thing to it, spreads throughout the Web. All Web-connected machines (computers, media devices, toasters, refrigerators, etc) become independently-thinking machines, existing equally with flesh-based life.

Web 7.0: the Broken Web. A plague of solar flares disrupts all electronic information-communication systems on the planet, leading to huge crashes in the strands of the World Wide Web. Informational ecosystems become isolated and inbred. Meanwhile, solar flares and massive climate change lead to startling mutations in flesh-based life.

Web 8.0: the Changing Web. Mutant humans, animals, and cybernetic lifeforms rise up and seize control of the planet from non-mutated lifeforms. The World Wide Web becomes a system of ever-mutating language and information, like Second Life on ’shrooms.

Web 9.0: the Cosmic Web. Radio waves and mutant psychic forces beam the Web out into space, across the galaxies. Files are stored in the hearts of stars. Social networking is routed through wormholes. Everything in the cosmos is miscellaneous.

After that…well, I leave that to you to imagine.

EDIT: My wife noticed that I had “Web 7.0″ twice. I’ve fixed it, so now the Cosmic Web is Web 9.0.

Right in schedule, the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, called “Gutsy Gibbon,” was released on Thursday. I upgraded last night, and it went more smoothly than any past upgrade has. So far I haven’t noticed any huge differences between this version and the last, but it’s running at least as well as the previous version did. And best of all, it was both free (like beer) and easy (not like kittens) to upgrade!