I love Google Alerts

I have two google alerts set up right now - one for myself (I know, totally vain) and one for my library. Any time my name pops up on the web I get an email. Granted its not as often as if I were say, Britney Spears but its still nice to feel like I'm not top of my own web presence. As for my library - well lets just say that with budgets and union contracts they way they are for all libraries these days we pop up alot in the local media. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I like it when my info comes to me instead of me having to search every local paper for it. Yay! Is it wrong to say that I'll use this to stalk my favorite authors and bands now?

De.licious

I'm glad I finally signed up for Delicious - the facebook of websites but frankly it could not have been more annoying. I hated having to create a yahoo email account to do this. I hated that it kept bouncing me out. I figure I'll learn to like it but right now, not so much.

So...

I've been thinking a lot about the role of libraries and technology. There seem to currently be two prevailing schools of thought in my library: Technology is new! We must get on the latest trends! No time to figure out what they mean! Get us a blog! Conversely: I hate it, its scary and I will delete unread any email that has an attachment!

I fall somewhere in the middle. I came of age with the changing technology and some things come easily to me, some things are still overwhelming. I love how twitter and facebook let me keep in touch with friends around the country and the world - and not the just the big conversations. I know who has a cold and who is thinking about making a fritata for dinner tonight. Its fantastic.

But how do I keep up with all of the information? There is so much out there that I can't barely keep on top of all of it unless I make it my full time job. And frankly if there is anything I'm trying to find more time for its not keeping up with journals and blogs - its going to be napping, reading and eating snacks.

I remember being at a conference where Joe Murphy from the Yale University libraries was presenting the idea of text reference service in libraries. I found his presentation really abrasive and overly confrontational but I will say that I did take one thing away from it that's really stuck with me: people don't want to come to the information, they want the information to come to them. And he's right. I love having the blogs I follow come into my Google Reader. I love having news headlines texted to my smart phone from Twitter. I don't always have time to read the full article but I can scan them and get the gist. Every Monday morning when the Publishers Weekly reviews are posted to Twitter they show up on my phone in time for my morning coffee. When I attended the Public Library Association conference this past March OF COURSE all of the sessions I wanted to go to were at the same time. Luckily School Library Journal was posting links on twitter to highlights and outlines of some of the sessions I couldn't make it to! Twitter and Google Reader definitely changed my life by allowing the information to come to me on my schedule.

I love having information come to me - I bet our patrons would love it if our information came to them. So what do we do since no libraries seem to be fully staffed or fully funded? Right now, this blog post is part of the American Library Association's Association for Library Service to Children's 21 Things online course. 8 weeks to do 21 web based things that all the cool kids are already doing. I think trainings like these are a great start to demystify the big bad internet. There is so much out there that could help us make not only our lives and our patrons lives easier - and this is just the kind of online course is just the kind of excuse I need to try them. Thanks ALSC!