Looks like my grad school has relaunched its website with a few syndicated feeds in nearly every flavor of RSS currently in use. Nice.

In celebrating the naming of good friends Michael Stephens and Aaron Schmidt (see y’all tonight!) as LJ Movers and Shakers, I should note that Tom Peters of the OPAL project, about which I just posted, was also awarded this honor. Congrats to all. And thanks to Steven for the pointer.

I mentioned on the second show that, having reviewed the South Carolina study, I would like to see more states doing Return On Investment (ROI) analyses. Michael Pate pointed out that Florida has recently published a similar study. I haven’t looked at the final reports closely yet, but here’s what stands out right away: “Florida’s public libraries return $6.54 for every $1.00 invested.” Yeah, baby!

Updated 02/03/05: Alane Wilson sent along this bibliography of sources consulted for OCLC’s Advocacy advertising effort. The list includes the Florida study along with other interesting papers on the valuation of library services.

Just a quick minute out of my busy life to mention that the URL to my Blogs for Libraries article has changed. If you happen to have it in a bibliography or otherwise, you may want to update your link.

What I proffered as my reason for retiring my position as editor at the Open Directory Project:

Mostly lack of time and energy to devote to the cause, but also due to the following message I received today:

“Hi,
You need to improve your basic editing to bring it in line with ODp guidelines.

Let me know of any other queries.
Thanks.
pchere
Meta Editor.”

Put simply, I don’t have the time, energy or interest to interpret useless criticism from so-called “Meta Editors.” I found it particularly striking to come across the following in the suggested guidelines: “You should be accommodating of various individual styles, and avoid adopting a fundamentalist view of these guidelines by being overly critical and nitpicky of URL format, titles and descriptions. Editors should keep in mind that while the quality of the annotations is important for relevancy, the quality of the links themselves are most important to the ODP’s overall quality and usefulness.”

To which I say, damn straight. Why doesn’t someone else try to come up with annotations for 200+ personal weblogs and see what you can do to make them relevant and guideline-conforming? If you want to offer criticism, say something meaningful. Blanket negativity, besides being insulting, is de-motivational and indicative of poor stewardship.

Something vaguely supportive of the hours I’ve poured into the directory may have offset my frustration, but it is with an overwhelming feeling of malaise that I resign my post as ODP editor.”

Of course, there are other practical reasons why now would be a good time for me to get out of the dmoz fold. I’ve done it for a year, more than quadrupling the size of the LIS Weblogs section. It’s someone else’s turn.

I’m also very happy with my work on Blogsource and would prefer to devote my energy to that project.

And there are other high quality lists of LIS weblogs out there.

So one door closes…let many more open in its wake.

Just found out from my buddy Jerry that my local public library (where I live, not where I work) received the full sum of a grant request to provide wireless Internet access to the public. Nice work, Jerry! Now I just need that laptop…

Howdy, folks. No, I haven’t disappeared off the face of the earth, but I have taken on some new responsibilities that have gotten in the way of my usual news reading/blogging regimen. First, my wife and I have purchased and moved into our new abode. Three days of intense moving and setting up have made our house into something like a home.

Second, I have taken on a new position within my library system. No longer an Assistant Branch Manager, they now call me Circulation Support Supervisor. This is a complicated way of saying that I supervise a crew of 19 pages at the Main downtown branch.

I do other things too. I’ll be working on streamlining our ILL service into something that resembles an organized department. I’m responsible for the shepherding (the hot buzzword of the moment that suggests an advanced level of awareness/responsibility/leadership) of our new materials and circulating magazines.

I’ve also been part of the committee charged with a sorely needed website redesign. Through this involvement, I expect to assume responsibility for content updates in the near future, a charge I openly welcome.

And then I’ll also be the acting Supervisor On Duty for a large metropolitan library, which is a somewhat intimidating prospect. However, considering that I served as Supervisor for every hour I worked as Asst. Manager, it’s really not that much of a change.

Anyway, between the house and the job, things have been a little crazy around these parts. I suspect updates will be infrequent for now, as I focus on my new responsibilities both at home (lawn mower purchased and ready) and work.

I can’t wait to see this, if it ever gets finished:

Checked Out, the Movie - “Checked Out is an indepedent feature length movie about a crazy day for four student librarians, currently in pre-production in Anchorage.”

The link leads to a blog occasionally discussing the production status of the movie. There’s also a link to some pictures.

Steven passed along an interesting tidbit for my ego-stroking pleasure. Looks like I’ve received my very first mention in a print publication. There’s an article in this month’s Computers In Libraries called “Here a Blog, There a Blog, Even the Library Has a Web Log” and the author has seen fit to mention me as a “champion of library blogs.” I have to say I’m honored to have an entire paragraph devoted to my one and only article on the topic.

Fortunately, I was able to procure a photocopy of the article, but I’d really like to find a copy of the issue to hold onto for posterity. Does anyone out there either subscribe to CiL personally and not keep the issues OR work at a library that subscribes, but eventually weeds past issues? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Update: Copy procured. Thank you!