So, the first part of next month I'm presenting on library camps at AzLA. Yay! Woohoo and all that! The basic premise is an overview of what library camps are (history and so forth), why people might attend or organize and what some of the challenges are)

But I need some input from you all, whether you've attended a library camp or helped organize. I will not be using this info to publish, and unless I specifically ask you if I can quote you, I won't use any names.

For those who organized them:

Here's a nice, short interview with Howard Rheingold, done at Internet Librarian 2008 by Erik Boekesteijn and Jaap van de Geer.

A thought occurs to me:

You know how in cooking shows, they don't just talk about how great some foods are, they actually show you how to prepare things, walking you through the steps, demonstrating how it's done? Why aren't more conference sessions like that?

I've changed the image on the colored T-shirts in the LSW CafePress store. The new image should look better on the colored T-shirts than the LSW logo.

http://www.cafepress.com/librarysociety.306483973

EDIT: I've changed it back for now. Someone ordered a colored tee when it was still the original design, and I want to make sure they get what they ordered.

Yes, it's true, one big reason I haven't been blogging a lot lately is because I've grown tired and frustrated with Libraryland. So, what do I do when I'm getting weary with my profession? Go to an unconference and get reinvigorated! Which is exactly what happened this weekend when I drove to Denver, CO and participated in Library Camp of the West. The unconference was organized by LSW comrades Laura Crossett, Steve Lawson and Joe Kraus.

Jessamyn West has a post about Banned Books Week, and I'm linking to it because I think it's outstanding. It really says a lot about things I think are important, reasons why I became a librarian.

If so, join us on FriendFeed: http://friendfeed.com/rooms/laurabrarian

Library Journal has a new blogger on its site: the pseudonymous "Annoyed Librarian." No, I'm not going to link directly to the blog, nor to the Annoyed Librarian's old blog. And here's why: I find the AL's blog posts to be too negative, too petty, too bitter, too smug and self-serving, much longer than they need to be and far less funny than the author seems to think they are.

I changed the default settings so that new blog posts would no longer get promoted directly to the front page. This should fix the previous problem with users not having the ability to change their publishing options unless they were administrators.

Administrators can still promote things to the front page, however, if they like.

Now, how about we get this blog rolling? Full steam ahead?

Hello world. Josh and I are trying to figure out how other people can post to the blog without bumping content on the homepage. In the meantime, here's a pirate joke:

A pirate walks into a bar, a ship's wheel jutting out of his pants. The bartender does a doubletake and says, "Oy mate, that a steering wheel in yer trousers?"

The pirate replies, "Arr, mate, and it be driving me nuts!"