It has been awhile since I have posted here since we all use Ask Away within the system. However, today Cindy sent that great bit of information about how the Director search for Salt Lake asked, as part of the application process, for your blog address. Library 2.0 has really kicked in. Everybody wants their system to enter the realm. It could be said that it represents PCP. Participation = Commitment=Productivity. Of course the fear is people are listening to buzz words and not to accomplishments or service provisions. I know when I interview poeple I want them to know what is going on inthe field and want them to participate but I want to see and hear the results, not the hteory or the buzz word nomenclature. Always question why something is being done. Is it for the better of the organization, the individaul and the user?

I like theidea od wiki's for sharing information. I amnot sure Iagree that it is the best way to do some of the things it is used for. It seems that some of the items we have looked at have a very intensive back end that requires someone to follow up.

I was shopping at a Giant Eagle grocery store in Frederick the other day. They have a service called Personal Shopper. It is actually a portable self checkout unit. When you come into the store there is a bank of handheld scanners. You scan your Giant Eagle club card and one of the scanners lights up. You grab the scanner, a cart and a bunch of bags and scan your products as you go along. You weigh produce and it prints out a barcode at the scale that you then scan. When you go to checkout you just scan a barcode at the counter and it downloads all the information. You just pay and go. Very cool.

Everything is always information. The discussion in Icebergs about collections bothers me. Public libraries will always be collections, storytimes and programs. To move away from that, imho, is wrong. We need to know how we fit in the information society and we need to be in the forefront. We should offer info and resources in the way people want to acces the material but not at the expense of core services.

I went to the FD Toys and played around with www.bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php. It was fun changing the backgrounds.

I found that the subject that you search has to be very narrow. Most of the subjects I wanted to find had a huge list of sites that were not pertinent.

I am very pleased that staff is reading the blogs and that comments are being made. Same holds true with Ask Away. Obviously, we are filling a niche.