While I am figuring out a few things with my .htaccess files, this feed will be dormant until I can redirect the old feed to this URL. In the meantime, you can subscribe to my new feed, or sit tight and a redirect will be in the works in the next day or two.

Hi. If you're reading this feed be aware that I'm moving to a new CMS this weekend. The new posts should be trickling in to this feed over the next day or so, but you can also check out the new look over at the same URL librarian.net.

Another hitchhiker outreach story. I picked up a kid who was getting of work at the local ski resort and gave him a ride in to town. He said that he lived right near the library -- where I was going -- but he never went there because he had "$120 in fines or something" I let him know that our maximum fine on books that have been returned was only $5 so that it was unlikely his fines were that high. When I parked my car, I invited him in "just to check." Turns out, he had $5 in fines and was so happy to not have his fine be in the double or triple digits that he paid it rightt then and there and renewed his card. I don't think I can make a habit of this, but it's nice when you just tell the truth about the library and people who have been thinking something untrue about it get the message.

Inspired by Michael's white board shot, I have the notes from my street reference talk -- which got at least one positive review -- on-line. How are you at communicating your message without your gadgetry?

Here's another picture of me from the weekend, at a meetup for Metafilter members, an online community that contains quite a few librarians or librarians-in-training. This was a shoutout to the people that couldn't make it.

Until we exist in a future world where auto-discovery of changed RSS feeds is the norm, dorky posts like this will have to do. If you're subscribed to my booklist feed, the new URL for it is at this link. I'll try to add some metadata to my pages so that I'll be ready for that future world.

I found out recently that I did not get a reference job I applied for. This is always tough news because I never know what exactly I could do better the next time around. I have ideas, but no firm feelings of "Oh I know exactly why I didn't get this job." Since my current contract/grant job ends in May sometime, I have been looking around a bit at options, though not super-seriously yet. This little offer came my way while I was at the conference. It's still a very up in the air thing, but it's nice to be wanted, don't you think?

Big fun news this morning.... I'll be giving a keynote speech at the Australia Library and Information Association's New Librarian Symposium in Adelaide Australia in December. I had been invited last month but funding was going to keep me on this side of the pond and giving a talk via videoconferencing. I just got word that the Bob Hawke Prime Ministerial Library [part of the larger institute] will be sponsoring my travel so I can give the talk in person. I've never been to Australia. I've never given a keynote talk. I've never been in the Southern Hemisphere. I guess now is as good a time as any to see if I'm on a no-fly list, huh? More from me as the situation develops. Anyone with local knowledge or who is a member of ALIA, feel free to drop me a line.

Here are a few pictures of the envelopes and little cards I am making today for everyone who has patiently waited for Revolting Librarians Redux postcards from me.

Hey, librarian.net is the Guardian Unlimited's pick of the day today, neat!

I have an article in LLRX this month about my experiences at the DNC.

Whoops, my talk on emerging technology is in Newport New Hampshire, not Newport Vermont. If anyone wants to drop me a line and give me some good examples of emerging technology in libraries besides the obvious [blogs, RSS, IM, virtual reference] I'd love to hear about it.

I spent the day at work on Tuesday working on my outreach display for National Library Card Sign-up Month. We have a lot of storefronts in the downtown area that are vacant. I spoke to the real estate agency that handles them and asked if we could use one of the windows -- the one by the bus stop -- for a library display. They said "sure" so now we have our READ posters and lots and lots of information about our library cards available to people who might not want to schlep up the hill to learn about them otherwise.

Speaking of virtual reference, I just realized that the issue of The Reference Librarian I edited that just came out is also available online with abstracts. There are some interesting articles about very different methods of providing "ask a librarian" services. Worth tracking down at your local library.

I was interviewed for a brief segment of a radio show called Been There Done That discussing library activism in the wake of the USA PATRIOT Act, along with Judith Krug. It's a short bit in an hour-long show, but you can hear my squeaky voice starting about 11 minutes in.

Hi. I try not to brag too much here, but I think it really is neat that I have my own Google/dmoz category.