The Bridge Generation

“I am a generation X librarian. While prevailing stereotypes make many of us reluctant to assume that GenX label (no, I am not a slacker, and, no, I am not especially cynical), I take pride in my generation's accomplishments and professional potential.

After a flurry of professional interest in Generation X a few years back, the next generation of librarians, dubbed the Millennials, have now moved into the spotlight, leaving some of us in our 30s caught in the middle, nestled between boomer and Millennial colleagues, between long-term librarians and their younger customers, and between traditional librarianship and technology.

‘In the middle,’ however, can be an interesting, if at times unsettling, niche, full of possibilities. GenX librarians who recognize this potential are well positioned to take their place as movers and shakers in this profession….

Those asking what Generation X will need to lead should look at what GenXers are already doing. We are already directing our institutions from the middle, building bridges, forming connections. What we need are more examples of true leadership from the top, mentors who are willing to pass along institutional memory and to help us grow, to nurture these important relationships, and to recognize our contributions.” [Library Journal]

This column from Rachel Singer Gordon really resonates with me. In fact, I think there may even be pieces of this embedded in the current discussion of Library 2.0 with Librarian 1.0 (which Rochelle helped jumpstart and Michael Casey continues). I feel some of this myself because I’m a GenXer and it really can be difficult being stuck in the middle, and not just in the context of the potential for administrative positions. I’m not angry or upset with the generations on either side of me, but sometimes it’s tiring (and even frustrating) being the translator. Most of the time it’s motivating, stimulating, and even fun, but there are the days….

Thanks for putting this issue out there, Rachel.

Searching the AADL Catalog as Easy as Google, Delivery as Fast as Amazon

“There's an AADL catalog search plugin for Firefox, written by Matt Hampel. Matt is a regular at the a2b3 meetings and a student at Community High. It adds a very simple little search option to your Google search box so that you can keyword search the catalog from the corner of the screen.

The results are wonderful. In essence, it's just about as easy to search the AADL catalog as it is to search Google, and with a minimum number of clicks (not one-click yet) you can put a book on hold. If you like fairly obscure stuff this will often beat Amazon on delivery times, and certainly beats it hands-down on cost. (Of course you wait for books every so often, but if you keep enough in your queue you can treat the process kind of like Netflix.)” [Vacuum]

This is just one piece of “Library 2.0” – the ability to get your content (in this case, access to your content) out to where your users are instead of forcing them to come to your site to use your catalog with its oh-so-perfect-interface. And look what happens when you do it – easy as Google, faster than Amazon, leaps tall buildings in a single bound praise from patrons. You can also grab the code for the search plugin in order to create one for your own library. Now you really have no excuse for not having a FireFox search plugin!

Matt, the kid behind the plugin, also makes a couple of other interesting observations on his blog:

“I haven’t clicked an icon on my desktop in the last week. A sign of the changing Internet?”

“Hits from the search term ‘facebook high school’ (and all its variations) have nearly exceeded 3 months of hits for ‘Community High School’. You can feel the power of Facebook just churning below the surface.”