Does the year you were born have anything to do with how successful you are?

After reading Malcolm Gladwell's latest book, I had to wonder just how much the year I was born has had to do with my lot in life. Gladwell’s book, Outliers: The Story of Success is an easy read, much like his previous writings, The Tipping Point and Blink. Each chapter is prefaced with a quote that reflects the point he makes in the chapter; and, gave me plenty to consider about the cultural, environmental or genetic factors; being in the right place at the right time, such as not only the year, but the month one is born; or simply the concept of practice makes perfect that can have a positive or negative impact one’s success.

Several of the concepts, such as practice makes perfect - the 10,000 hour theory, that Gladwell highlights are already widely recognized. One of the examples Gladwell used to highlight 10,000 hour theory is the Beatles. Yes, the George, John, Ringo, and Paul Beatles. Gladwell posits that the Beatles’ success was firmly grounded in the fact that the band was regularly asked to play in the clubs in Hamburg, Germany early and often in their career, which meant that they played solid sets 7 days a week and for hours and hours at a time thus contributing to their 10,000 hour of practice, practice, practice. The 10,000 hour theory purports that regardless of one’s natural, or supposed gifted ability, 10,000 hours at most any given task secures one’s success at that task.

I found two of the chapters of the book particularly interesting. One is the chapter called The Ethnic Theory of Plane Crashes, which explored the unprecedented high rate of Korean Air Lines airplane crashes during the 1980s and 90s; at the time, specifically seventeen times higher than that of United Airlines. Gladwell describes how six layers of complex Korean communicative culture directly resulted in the high rate of airplane crashes by relating the theory that Dutch psychologist Geert Hofstede coined as Hofestede’s Dimensions. Hofstede’s Dimensions are comprised of uncertainty, which measures how well a culture tolerates ambiguity; and the individualism-collectivism scale, which is a scale of measurement that can distinguish one culture from another according to how much they expect individuals to look after themselves. One of the points that Hofstede makes about these dimensions is that a country’s scale on any of these dimensions doesn’t connote a better society; rather the scales just denote what is. Another of Hofstede’s dimensions is the power distance index which is a direct result of how comfortable one is or isn’t in questioning a supervisor’s authority, or the layers of communication in light of social standing. Gladwell does a good job of explaining the tie between the complex and multi layered Korean culture and communication structure in regard to Hofstede’s theory to explain Korean Airlines higher than usual plane crash rates.

The other chapter I found particularly interesting is the chapter called Harlan, Kentucky. Ever hear about the feud between the Hatfield-McCoy feud? This chapter examines cultural predisposition rooted in a current culture yet stemming from hundreds of years ago. The predisposition present within a group that has not only evolved, but moved across the globe, hence the current still permeates the behavior even when far removed by time and geography. In the case of Kentucky, most immigrants that settled in Kentucky were from one of the most ferocious cultures of honor, the borderlands region of the lowlands of Scotland and Northern Ireland. The harsh and turbulent area was steeped in violence; and, making a living was especially hard. The combination of these circumstances resulted in tight knit families with a fierce sense of loyalty. Fast forward 400 years and although these families and people have been long removed from the harsh environment of Scotland/Ireland, the criminality of the American South demonstrates much higher rates of personal violent crime, rather than crimes that reflect property or stranger crimes. The cultural sense of loyalty has remained inherent in this regional group of people for hundreds of years. Gladwell expands upon this evidence by drawing from David Hackett Fisher’s book, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, which describes the premise that cultural legacies remarkably present themselves for generations. Gladwell also uses the description of an experiment that was conducted in the early 1990s by two psychologists, Cohen and Nisbett that measured culture of honor tolerance. The experiment involved purposely insulting students at the University of Michigan from the north and the south and discovered that the reaction to a variety of means of insult for southerners produced almost immediate effects of aggression, while the northerners were consistently not even fazed by the same behavior targeted at them. Environment factors, you might say? Not so. These students weren’t living in anywhere near the circumstances of their ancestors; they were all living in the twentieth century in a sufficiently metropolitan area and traveled from the south to attend school in the north. Nonetheless, as Gladwell explains, “They still acted like they were living in nineteenth-century Harlan, Kentucky.”(p.174).

Gladwell’s book left me with the realization that success and failure are much more complicated than I would have imagined; the result of a host of advantages and extenuating circumstances that we most often have no control over and most often never recognize, much less understand. They can be simple or complicated and derive from a variety of factors that can be hard to recognize much less pinpoint and that the focus on the individual, which has most often been the case, is a nearsighted view in light of the influence of culture, family, community, social heritage, and a host of indistinguishable factors provide an opportunity for success or subdue one’s opportunity for success.

How often have you sat in the parking lot in the car?

People like me can found in parking lots everywhere: Starbucks, Whole Foods, the library, or perhaps at work. We have good reason to be sitting in our car in the parking lot though, it is because we don't want to miss one minute of Fresh Air, This American Life, All Things Considered, Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, or Science Friday. But alas, there is now a solution to our lingering hesitation to leave the car. It is a cool new tool I heard about on NPR yesterday. It was being offered as one of those "you can get this great gift by making a donation to WETA" offerings, a radio bookmark. A radio bookmark is a small, thumb-sized gadget you can put on your key chain that you can use to point to the radio station and it will bookmark the current station and story when you arrive at your destination. When you are ready to hear, as Paul Harvey famously coined, "the rest of the story," you plug in the thumb device in to your computer and the story is streamed to the computer via the Internet -- picking up the story right where you left off. You can also have the story replayed from the beginning. No more waiting in the parking lot for me!

What do a news icon and Twisted Sister have in common?

The DC/SLA 2008 Annual Banquet was held at the Woman’s National Democratic Club in Washington, DC on December 4, 2008. Fortunately for those of us that attended this year’s banquet, Mr. Robert Dubill was the guest speaker. Mr. Dubill had three things to say to the librarians and information professionals that attended the banquet: 1) stay hungry 2) keep a journal 3) try to walk in another’s shoes. Dubill chronicled his journey as a reporter and the founder and retired executive editor of USA Today around these words of wisdom with an insightful, entertaining and inspirational narrative.

Mr. Dubill embarked on the evening’s narrative by reminiscing about his first newspaper job, that of a paperboy in small-town America. He described how he loved delivering the newspaper because before he set out each day to deliver the newspaper, he would read the paper from cover to cover. As one might imagine, this didn't lead to his becoming known for "early delivery" skills! But this still worked well for Dubill, because while making his way along his route to deliver the newspaper, people would comment about how long it took him to get the paper to them, and for Dubill, this was his opportunity to reply with a noteworthy response about a news article in the day’s paper that they ought to read and engage them in a conversation about the article. Dubill explained that for him, the news was fascinating – he loved the news; simply loved reading the stories. He also poignantly mentioned that when he visits his hometown today, many people still remember him simply as “the boy who used to deliver the newspaper.”

Mr. Dubill went on to describe how his career as an official journalist began in Hudson, New Jersey where he worked for the Associated Press, which he described as a membership co-op paradise. One of his first assignments was to report about an execution at a New Jersey State prison. He noted how this assignment gave him insight about the nature of journalism because he it led him to realize that although he was there to record and report the facts, the facts weren’t going to necessarily be easy to gather or possible to record in light of the emotion and unforgettable vision of witnessing someone being strapped into an electric chair and watching his or her final moments of life.

Another story Dubill shared with us about his experience as a journalist with the Associated Press while in New Jersey was the excitement and accolade of his work during the Nixon Humphrey Presidential campaign in 1970. He told his story about how during this campaign New Jersey just happened to be the swing state in the Presidential race, much like Florida was in the 2000 Presidential race. He said the Associated Press had placed a reporter in each one of the twenty-one New Jersey precincts, which gave the Associated Press an advantage that propelled the AP's accolade of being the first news association to report the outcome of the election. Dubill said that as soon as he received a telephone call from the each of the reporters in the twenty-one precincts, he realized that there were enough votes tallied to declare Nixon the winner. Recognizing this, Dubill phoned the Associated Press headquarters in New York to relay the results to the head honcho there, who then immediately asked Dubill if he was certain that Nixon had won the presidential race? Dubill told him that yes, he was sure. He went on to explain that the Associate Press had reporters in each precinct, and based on the information relayed from the those twenty-one reporters in those precincts, the information was reliable: Nixon was the winner. So the AP HQ head honcho told him that he would make the official call reporting Nixon as the declared winner of the Presidential election. Dubill also mentioned that the AP HQ head honcho quickly follow-up by telling Dubill that if this information turned out to be incorrect, Dubill didn’t need to bother coming to work the next day! Needless to say, Dubill came to work the next day!

And for the record, Dubill brought along a record. And this wasn’t just any record! Dubill wove his earlier words of wisdom to “stay hungry” by daringly casting on a pair of sunglasses and touting Twisted Sister’s “Stay Hungry” record album. Dubill’s ballyhoo referenced one particular song from the album called “We’re Not Going To Take it Anymore” as he danced around the stage while singing the words "We're not going to take it! No, we ain't going to take it!" When the show was over, so-to-speak, Dubill talked about how the song had served as a motivational tune for him and his staff at the often perceived “underdog newspaper,” USA Today. Let me mention here, that USA Today has the widest circulation of any paper in the United States; and, that under Dubill’s direction, Gannet News Service, the publisher of USA Today, won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 1980.

On a more somber note, Dubill continued by sharing his experience as a journalist at USA Today here in Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001, more commonly know to us today as 9-11. Dubill made it unmistakably clear that for him 9-11 has been the most important story for him in his lifetime. He portrayed the event for him that day by telling us that as soon as he heard the news about the two commercial passenger jet airliners crashing into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, he jumped in his car and headed to work at the USA Today headquarters in Rosslyn, VA and witnessed first-hand the high-jacked American Airlines Flight 77 crash in to the Pentagon. He noted that although it was a blue-sky, sunshine day, at that moment - the moment when the airplane crashed into the Pentagon, the day seemed to turn to complete darkness. After he gained composure, he continued the drive into work where he managed to talk his way past the security guards, who weren’t letting anyone in the completely evacuated building, to find himself in the USA Today newsroom surrounded by fellow journalists and librarians. Dubill described his feelings of exhilaration, pride and fear as he took notice of himself, his fellow journalists and the librarians working in the newsroom that afternoon. "Keepers of the flame" he professed - providing information, no matter what, no matter where, was his heart-felt observation that afternoon; and, a view that he genuinely embraces about journalists and librarians everyday.

Dubill went on to discuss the elements of a newspaper and the decisions of the editorial staff in regard to publishing the events of 9-11 in USA Today for that day; decisions such as choosing not to advertise, and the carefully selected images that reflected a conveyance of the loss of life, as well as the resilience of America. He brought along several copies of the published paper from that day and shared them with the audience.

Dubill then described the work of USA Today journalists, editors and librarians in regard to the editorial decision to write an obituary for every single person that lost their life that day. He touched on his theme of putting yourself in another’s shoes as he went went on to say that “Obits are tough to write.” He continued, “You try to tell the story or stories about the person.” And he applauded the work of the reporters and librarians compiling these obituaries as he talked about their quest to find information about each of these people, about how tough it was emotionally, and about how in spite of the challenges of the work, there was joy in the discovery of each of the facts because it all came together as the information that made the stories about the people who died that day. Dubill also wove the concept of keeping a journal as he described this obituary work, which sounded more like a labor of love, by noting that we all have a story to tell, a song to sing, and snapshots of our lives to portray.

Dubill described the attributes of librarians as evaluators, story tellers, compilers, teachers and educators. And he harked, "Librarians need to sing their story!" Finally, and in most earnest, he talked about the critical importance of free press in times of crisis and how journalists and librarians share the responsibility to uncover and discover facts and information; and, attribute the credit as deemed appropriate.

So there you have it! A news icon and Twisted Sister most certainly have something in common: they both stayed hungry!

Wikis, crowds, and the Army 10-Miler: is it all about shared, collaborative space?

I ran the Army Ten-Miler with my husband a few weeks ago. We took the metro to the starting line at the Pentagon and joined a crowd of 26,000 runners; quite a crowd to move through a course of 10 miles. Twenty-six thousand of us gathered and made our way to our respective starting sections. We wove in-between each other, waited in line for port-o-potties, stretched, noticed each other while pretending not to notice each other in that usual Washington DC way, and many of us managed to stay in our perspective little worlds even though collectively and collaboratively, each one of us was there to do the same thing: run the Army 10-Miler.

Excitement was in the air! The gun went off and our crowd of 26,000 began crossing the starting line. Using the loud speaker, the announcer at the starting line told everyone to raise his or her hands in the air and cheer as we crossed the starting line; and so we did! Our collective cheers were loud and clear as each one of us, individually, crossed that starting line and began our 10 mile trek. For the first 3 miles or so, I was in my own little world, thinking about the trek ahead of me. On this particular morning, 10 miles seemed like a long way to run. Fortunately though, the weather soon took my mind off the goal ahead of me. It was one of those beautiful, humidity-free, Washington DC, blue-sky days. With 10 miles ahead of me and the beautiful weather surrounding me, one thing I noticed about this race was the amount of people constantly jostling for space. It was crowded! Having run other races that drew much bigger crowds hadn’t felt quite so “crowded,” my mind began to wonder: I started to think about book “Wisdom of the Crowds” by James Surowiecki. I also thought a bit about the nature of Wikis -- collaborative Web sites often used to power communities. I began to wonder: was running this race an individual goal, my individual goal, or was it a collaborative endeavor? Would this crowd accomplish running 10 miles by sharing this "space" and contributing the tools to do so along the way? The “space” was certainly inspiring. I rarely am not in awe of the streets of Washington, DC -- running over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, passing the Lincoln Memorial, and trotting past the Federal Reserve building. I thought about the creation of virtual worlds and Web sites in regard to space; about how we try to emulate a space that is visually inviting by using large elements that compliment and balance the corresponding smaller elements; by giving the site direction in the way that we line up of the elements, and finally, the design’s visual flow that moves readers along the path of a Web site, much like the visual flow that the streets of Washington, DC convey.

I am partial Surowiecki’s “Wisdom of the Crowd” philosophy. I relate this viewpoint to group projects at work because I think there is a more than a fair amount of merit to Surowiecki assertion about the aggregation of information in groups. Surowiecki believes that the aggregation of information in groups results in decisions that are often better than if an individual or a group of experts had made the decision. This is a powerful concept: the more input by a diverse group of people, each with varying strengths, some with ideas, suggestions, or expertise completely unrelated to the goal or task at hand, the more likely the group will be successful than if one takes on the task him or her self, or if a group of experts on the able to produce an outcome, result, or product more precise and topic had taken on the task. Considering this viewpoint affords me the freedom to let go, sort-to-speak, and allow a group do their magic, rather than to try to steer or control an outcome that I believe may be the most efficient, appropriate or right. In this book, Surowiecki also talks about three different types of crowds and their respective outcomes: cognitive, cooperative, and coordinating. As I continued running and counting down the miles and thinking about The Wisdom of Crowds, I noticed a correlation between the race and some of the types of crowd that Surowiecki denotes as a “wise crowd.” How might one distinguish the cognitive, cooperative, and coordinating features of the 26,000 of us running the Army 10-miler?

What’s more, Surowiecki discusses four common themes that accompany the wisdom of a crowd: diversity of opinion, independence, decentralization, and aggregation. I discovered some of these too, along the way. What role did cooperation and independence play in this race? I noticed a gentleman wearing a lower leg prosthetic. Actually on this particular morning, I noticed quite a few people with prosthetics, as well as varying physical and athletic ability. At about 8 miles though, one particular gentleman that I had noticed several times earlier on the run now had two other gentleman holding onto to each of his arms. I could see that the man with the prosthetic was experiencing some difficulty. But what struck me about his scene was that the two gentlemen that were assisting him were doing so in a manner that still lent independence to this gentleman with the prosthetic leg. They were encouraging him, yet they were solution focused. How could I judge that, one might ask? The gentlemen were helping him to stretch his muscle cramp. And indication that once finished with the stretching, that this runner was not going to stop. For me, the scene simple exuded that this gentleman was being supported in a way that was cooperative, yet that still allowed for his independence.

How did decentralization come into play? I noticed the wisdom of decentralization, which is the idea that people who possess knowledge or skill in an area share that specialization, at mile 9 when I heard someone shout, “It’s all in the mind.” I can completely appreciate this concept. I couldn’t help but think that whether a goal is finishing a race where you are the 9 mile marker and still have another mile to go, or you are working on a project at work with a definitive outcome, the ability to focus one’s mind and realize that the goal is accomplishable is a decisive element to success.

How did aggregation come into play? Right after the shout-out at mile 9, I noticed a couple running just ahead of me wearing matching shirts - sponsor shirts from the company Unisys, a business technology and consulting firm. The shirt said, ever so simply, “Imagine It. Run.” I thought to myself, is this message that all of us running this race in this space can use to those of us sharing this space can use. Perhaps this was a "private judgment," a component or call that propelled many of us around this couple to continue this run. To me, it did feel like a mechanism for turning private judgments into a collective decision, or aggregation. And finally, how did connectedness come into play? It was everywhere! The connectedness was inspiring; 26,000 of us ran this race. We were a completely diverse crowd, nothing homogeneous about us – we all had very loose ties and wide variety of running experiences. But on this day, from what I could see and hear, people of every race, religion, background, athletic ability – we ran together, took water and Gatorade breaks together, cheered, supported, and sustained one another. Connectedness resonated every mile of this race!

Is Survival Enough?

According to Seth Godin in his book, Survival is not Enough; Zooming, Evolution, and the Future of Your Company, one clearly gets the picture, survival is not enough. But what do zooming; evolution and the future of companies have to do with the survival of libraries and librarianship? Knowledge sharing, penguins, and adventure, believe it or not!

I'll start with knowledge sharing. Godin uses an excellent example of knowledge sharing by telling the story of Paul Orafela, the gentleman that started "a little copy" shop that eventually evolved into Kinko’s. As Godin explains, Orafela accomplished this zooming feat with several strategies. The first, was realizing that the people who worked for him could do a better job than he could running a business, so he set up a co-ownership structured franchise which provides more flexibility than a franchise. Then, Orafela would go from store to store and make note of what people were doing well. At the same time he was visiting each Kinko's store to see what others were doing well, he would also share the successful practices and procedures that he had discovered with employees during these visits to other stores.  In essence, Orafela was capitalizing on one of Godin's firmly held beliefs: ideas that spread, win. He was able to capture the collective "best practices" of those doing the work and share that knowledge so that everyone succeeded.

On to evolution! Evolution is generated by ideas, Godin professes in writings. He asserts, “our work now belongs to our ideas" (p.42). Continuing with his theme, ideas that spread win, Godin explains the idea cycle like this: the more ideas we have, the more creative we can be, the more creative we are, the higher the stakes for establishing ourselves as cutting-edge, which ultimately leads to growth. This growth, Godin avows, can lead to a type of evolution that becomes melded into our being, into our daily lives, into our memes. Memes and mDNA are a few of the words that Godin uses throughout the book, except that Godin uses the terms in regard to organizational facets. Memes, he says, are ideas or concepts that set in motion a transference that results in construct. mDNA, Godin states, is the sum of all the memes and assets in an organization. And here is where the penguins come in. Penguins evolve, says Godin, but they don't plan to evolve, don't have meetings about evolving, and undoubtedly don't debate evolving. Rather, "it is built into their daily lives." They simply evolve, it is in their memes. As librarians, do we embrace creativity and explore ideas? Or, do we spend our time in numerous meetings debating what the most effective route to the future might be?

Moving onto zooming! One of the most important perspectives about change that Godin describes in his book is one that we incessantly hear the chatter about, technological evolution. Godin points out that many organizations are still functioning using the old and familiar model of change. You may remember this model; and/or, you may be currently supporting this model in your organization. The model that entails creating a sense of urgency, coalescences a rosy picture of the future, adaptation of a work flow to accommodate the change; and, ultimately cajole workers into accepting the change. Zooming, Godin declares, requires that we toss this model out that we step outside of our current comfort zone and stretch our limits in ways we may not normally be comfortable "stretching" so that we can create new models and processes that embrace technology and change. Ultimately, I think zooming requires being adventuresome!

So what do knowledge sharing, evolution, zooming and a sprinkling of adventure have to do with librarianship? Do you embrace an atmosphere of knowledge sharing that is empowering for your fellow librarians? Do you have the courage to share your ideas and color outside the box? Do you embrace new technologies? Are you an adventurous librarian? Are you the librarian in your library that has the ability to create change while remaining focused with intention so that you can make a difference? Do you recognize and support the ability of others in your library to create this type of focused effort that results in triumph?

Are you a librarian that is zooming, evolving, and leading your library with an adventurous attitude, as we all zoom in to the future? Let's chat!

Check out Seth's blog!

Inspiration - is it serendipitous?

Inspiration! Where do we find it? How do we find it? It seems so indiscriminate; so serendipitous. On Google, these are a few of the “define: inspiration” results: arousal of the mind to special unusual activity or creativity; a product of your creative thinking and work; a sudden intuition as part of solving a problem. What role does inspiration play in the world of librarianship? For me, inspiration plays a key role in my profession as a librarian. Inspiration propels my commitment to; and, the excitement I feel about the profession. Here’s some of the chatter I found inspiring at the 2008 SLA Conference in Seattle, WA this past June.

Vint Cerf, vice-president of Google, was the opening Keynote Speaker at the conference. Vint’s job at Google is about identifying new enabling technologies to support the development of advanced Internet-based products and services at Google. Vint was interviewed by Charlie Rose, host of the Charlie Rose interview show produced by the New York metropolitan area public television station WNET. Vint talked about the past, present, and future of the Internet/cyberspace. One of the most interesting developments that he chatted about is the development of the Interplanetary Internet -- way cool. Vint predicts that by 2010, 50% of the world will be online do to the continued innovation taking place in the mobile device arena. This connectivity exudes the expansion of the Internet and the lowering of the barriers to access. I certainly found Vint’s chat inspiring. I wonder: did everybody that heard this session find it inspiring? Perhaps only a few? Is inspiration completely indiscriminate, or are there situations, speakers, or events that we all find inspiring? I don’t know the answer to this question; however, I can say with relative certainty though, that I am clearly not the only one that finds Vint inspirational. In December, 1994, People magazine identified Cerf as one of that year's "25 Most Intriguing People."

Another speaker that I have heard over the years, and have consistently found inspiring is Stephen Abrams. In one of the sessions Stephen spoke at during the conference, he talked about how as librarians we need to “remove the boarders inside libraries” (aka – really need to get on the ball and think outside the box); how the dominant space is in cloud computing – human interaction in the cloud (Facebook, My Space, Second Life, etc. – not Google); and, that G3 is already here and G4 is coming – the architecture of this massive platform indicates that current sharing capabilities are bigger than any other invention including the web. Tied all together, the meaning behind all of this is that there is a mosaic of opportunities and possibilities in our profession. Stephen also pointed out though, that are also many challenges ahead. On that note, Stephen noted that 25% of China already using ebooks; the United States is seriously lacking in graduation rates of engineering (40,000 engineers US per 400,000 in India) and PhD students (25,000 short a year) leaving the United States 5 to 7 years behind the rest of the world; and, the state of the US economy and national debt pose serious issues. Ultimately Stephan suggests that librarians shift the focus from traditional role of “transactional librarians” to that of “transformational.” Hmm..., a transformation librarian – this sounds much more inspirational than a transactional librarian!

And lastly Seth Godin, deemed by Business Week as the "Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age," was the conference closing Keynote speaker. Seth is a best-selling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. I am currently reading Survival Is Not Enough, a book about how companies and the people who work there can deal with--and thrive on--the chaos of the business world. I will chat more about Seth’s session @ SLA; and, about the book, Survival Is Not Enough, in my next post.

Ready to embrace the inspiration? The SLA Conference proved an opportune time to launch a variety of tools for its members that allow us to explore new technologies. Here are a few:

• As I discovered, and many of you I am sure already knew, Second Life is not coming, Second Life is here, and it was a hot topic at SLA this year. SLA has an active Second Life experiment currently in the works via the SLA website. There were several second life demos during the conference. A most interesting fact by Gartner about Second Life is the prediction that 80% of people will be using their Avatars for searching by 2012. As I was reading the conference paper submissions I noticed that my friend Scott Brown, Sr. Information Specialist at Sun Microsystems, SunLibrary had submitted a paper about Sun's use of Second Life as a marketing/training tool: interesting, innovative, and inspiring! I am looking forward to creating my Avatar.
• SLA developed an “Innovation Laboratory” for its members. The lab is a place to explore and discover uses for the latest emerging technologies. The Innovation Laboratory offers a wide variety of Web 2.0 software learning tools that can help one become more business savvy and technologically adept.
• "23 Things" is a cool task based learning tool developed to introduce SLA members to Web 2.0 technologies in, go figure, 23 sessions! I have started this program, matter of fact; this is how I started this blog. Some of the applications are redundant for me, but I am sure there is plenty I can learn.

Also noteworthy and inspiring for the library profession is that SLA’s partnership with DowJones has resulted in full page advertising in the Wall Street Journal. The one page ad reads “The right people, information, and decisions. Behind every good business decision is information professional.” I have a copy posted in my office!

Here is my little technology groove: SLA, The Movie: http://web.mac.com/shellmasias/Site_3/Movie.html.

So about inspiration! Is it serendipitous? How important is inspiration in the field of librarianship? Who or what inspires you? Let’s chat!

My first entry

I am here. I took this step and created my blog. Where will I go from here?