I think we’re pretty lucky that there are only four entries for “library” on the This Is Broken blog. Of course, those four entries are… well, pretty broken. [via Jeremy Zawodny’s Blog]

I was reading the following post, nodding my head, when the following quote blew me away.

 RSS is the New WWW

“PiNet Library enables teachers to keep bookmarks online, so that they are available from the classroom, media center, teacher's lounge, and home office -- anyplace with access to the web. In my vision, you are creating and cultivating a personal digital library….

I use PiNet Library for my online handouts, so that as I add new links to my library, they automatically show up on the online handouts pages. If those links could be subscribed to by your Bloglines account, then you could be notified of new web sites, without having to regularly visit the handouts.” [Exactly 2 Cents Worth, via del.icio.us/tag/rss]

This, for me, was a Neo moment. Whoa.

Last week, Leland Johnson pointed me to Rubric, which I’ll have to investigate further as my own del.icio.us (does anyone else remember a post somewhere, sometime that you could download the del.icio.us code to run on your own server?). I’ve also been contemplating running Rubric - or something like it – for my member libraries, both for individual use and institutional use, along with sharing what is added by both. I’m going to have to find the time to pursue this idea.

One other quote from this article turned on a light bulb, too.

“The news aggregator will need to evolve a great deal before RSS becomes the integral and ubiquitous part of our information environment that I suspect it will -- starting with the name. But I think that it is important that we start to think about information as something that we will increasingly shape to needs. How about sophisticated news aggregators as digital textbooks?

I believe that understanding these evolving aspects of how digital, networked content is organized is information grammar….”

I would l-o-v-e to put David and Will in a room together and see what they come out with! Much food for thought (and fodder for presentations!).

I’ve really enjoyed reading the PLA Blog the last few days. I’ve been to one ALA Midwinter conference, and it was mainly so I could attend an OCLC meeting so I really didn’t catch much else. I don’t think I’m alone in not really knowing what goes on at this conference, but I have a much better sense of it now. I’ve really appreciated the event summaries, too, since my organization doesn’t send me to ALA conferences.

As an aside, Karen Schneider has my favorite quote so far: “The lively response to my request for input on top technology trends in libraries led me to conclude that the most significant meta-trend is that information is a conversation.” Sessions I’m most bummed I couldn’t attend are RUSA’s Hot Topics, the session on fostering civic engagement, Karen Hyman’s presentation (someone I’d love to meet!), and OCLC’s session on gaming (“…John Beck, author of ‘Got Game: How the Gamers Generation Is Reshaping Business Forever,’ made a superb case for how the generation of people conceived in Pong, weaned on SuperMario and matured in Massively Multiplayer Online Games, are changing and will change the workplace.”).

However, I think one of the most interesting things to come out of the blog is the sense of camaraderie and enthusiasm that these dozen people have generated. After the Internet Librarian conference last November, several people told me how much they thought the bloggers re-invigorated the whole feel of the conference. Now that I’m on the outside of the ALA meeting, I understand what they meant. When do ALA events ever get this kind of positive coverage online. According to Steven, the blog’s statistics look good, too. And how great is it to find someone lamenting a missed meeting, where a commenter then leaves a pointer to the online presentations, all where anyone can find the whole exchange? Plus, Wi-Fi is helping attendees do actual work!

When is the last time you felt enthusiastic reading about a library conference, especially in real-time? I think it started with the InfoToday conferences last year, but the PLA Blog has taken it to a new level. It’s the proof-of-concept that we’d always hoped for, and my greatest wish is that every library organization read it to understand how well this can work for them. Hmmm… maybe someone at ILA is reading it???

A huge “Well Done” to the conference bloggers!

Bonus link: after I posted all of this, Beth Gallaway posted a fantastic, more-in-depth summary of the gaming session. A must-read!