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Breaking news

The Seattle Public Library system to close Aug. 31 through Sept. 7

The Seattle Public Library system will close Monday, Aug. 31 through Sunday, Sept. 6 due to citywide budget cuts. Please note Monday, Sept. 7 is the Labor Day holiday and all libraries will be closed. Regular Library operations will resume Tuesday, Sept. 8.

http://www.spl.org/default.asp?pageID=about_news_detail&cid=124404841687

The website will not be available too. Following the discussion to this article. Some people thought this was a great marketing tool. Putting people in inconvenience will also show how valuable the library services can be.

Spell with flickr

Mindspot: The Library as Universe

Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark again. I had the You Tube video showing how they are using interactive spaces for the children in library in our Staff Development Day.

Here is a cool YouTube video  from them again talking about the youth  services  at the library.

Trying to understand twibes

Twibes is a Twitter tool for finding new Twitter followers and Twitter groups.

I just started looking at the twibes and clicked on the

librarians (651 members)

Just started looking at the conversation and clicked the  article below.

http://inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2009/a-conversation-with-kristin-antelman/

Now as I am trying to blog this I am trying to find the origin of this url and I can’t figure it out. But the “provocative statements” and ” Darien Statement Docs” are must reads for all librarians.

Why you have to engage in social media

Lisa just emailed  the link to this article.

http://blog.asmartbear.com/blog/why-you-have-to-engage-in-social-media-even-if-you-dont-want.html

It is interesting article. Many of my searches do not start on the webpage at all these days.   The way I use the internet has changed and is changing. For a recent project I found more appropriate links for the subject I was searching in delicious than the search engines. I am still trying out and experimenting with   the  social tools.

Delicious in library

Del.icio.us in the library

View more presentations from Lisa Mcmillan.

TLA 2009, Houston

I attended the  TLA2009 at Houston  last week .Somebody in the conference rightly said it was a conference full of heart and enthusiasm. It was just  a great opportunity to get to know what other libraries were doing and where the profession is going…

Day 1:Arriving at  Houston was good but  checking in was painfully   long since we had to wait 2 hours in line to get the room.  The Welcome party was in the park with good food and music. After a  dinner walked around the Discovery Park visited the Houston Public  Express library and the mobile library .

You can view all the pictures of the Houston visit on

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wedgwoodbranch_fwl/

Day 2: It was day to attend sessions. We had the Mayor of Houston-Bill White supporting the libraries in his speech followed by Paula Poundstone’s comedy routine.

Attended the first session by Libraries Facilitating Conversations and Communities by Dave Lankes.  He has uploaded the presentation he gave at TLA so go ahead look at it and listen to it . If all the presentations where available in this format I could have just stayed home.

I went around the exhibit hall till it was time for the afternoon session .  I  checked out the Wii fit, RFID and the Brodart interface for  ordering books. Skipped lunch because of long lines and attended Michael Stephens sessions

http://tametheweb.com/2009/04/06/thanks-texas-library-association/

The last  session  of that was about Be a Leader, No Matter What Your Job Title. They showed the coolest You tube video which made everyone in the room smile .

I will blog about the day 3 in the my next blog post .

Friendly Kid Browsers & Activity page

KIDOZ:A Kids Browser

kidoz.net

The KIDO’Z browser is a protected environment made for young kids that enables children to surf sites ,watch videos and play games. The system blocks links, scripts and any other attempts that lead to sites and content which have not been approved, preventing them being viewed by the children.

Kidthing:Your Kids Activity Place

kidthing.com

Kidthing leverages the power and global reach of the Internet to deliver fun and engaging learning content from leading companies and content cretors to kids everywhere, yet keeps them off Web Browsers and all of the inappropriate and potentially harmful things that they can encounter.