Wow. How could I not be inspired...

Just discovered a new blog through a link to the post:

Amy Buckland, “in forming thoughts » Blog Archive » the talk i meant to give,” blog, in forming thoughts, Retrieved June 26, 2011, http://jambina.com/blog/the-talk-i-meant-to-give/.

 I love the passion and vision. I'm very safe in many respects, and yet I agree with her - maybe I'm more of a revolutionary than I thought! I have to say that I like the concept of Libraryland. And the power that together we can harness. I do feel tied professionally in that I'm not in a position of any 'power'. Except the power of the one to one discussion, where I help one person find what they need, or change their mind about what libraries are, or what can be done by individuals.

I know that this CPD program is giving me permission to continue to learn, to be challenged and, when I re-enter the workforce and am (hopefully) in a position of influence I won't shrink back but step up, stand up for what I believe in, and help build the future I think we should have.

Favourite quotes:

true thought leaders, true revolutionaries, are willing to overthrow the system, or join it, if that’s what works best for their community.

I think we overlook the 'change from within' option too much. We see things as threats to be fought against, but sometimes we need to be willing to work with things, maintaining our core of separateness and 'right' if necessary, for a better outcome for our community. 

it’s a kickass time to be a librarian. so many opportunities to make society better. and that’s why we do this, right? we aren’t becoming millionaires. we aren’t going to rule the world (ok, maybe we will).

 Can't help but love the way that this is put.

That's it for now...

Thing 14 - Flickr

I've looked at other people's images on Flickr (sometimes being amazed - as I am with Facebook - how much private information they're willing to give out about themselves) but haven't joined or contributed until now. I can see it's definite benefits in a personal setting but (like many of these tools) I could also use a different 'thing' to achieve a similar result - in my case that would be sharing images with family & friends that are interstate.
I did like Ian's work example and can see the value in something like the Cambridge Library's display with catalogue links - but would also think that it would create a huge amount of work. I do wonder at the time/value equation - although I suppose as with many emerging technologies, someone needs to put in the time & energy initially. Long term there may be huge demand and the time/value equation may swing, but until someone has done the work to allow users to get to know it, it won't happen. A case (possibly) of 'if you build it they will come!' Or not!

Thing 15

http://www.TrippyText.com - Trippy Text
http://www.MakeYourSpace.com/ - MySpace Layouts

Thing 13 part 2 - the feet!

At the Friday workshop we did a group photo of our feet - spectacular but it did surprise me how many of us were wearing 'sensible' shoes!

Thing 13 - Upload an image

This is a photo my husband took (but I uploaded to our PC at home :)) of McNaught's comet in January 2007. Lucky us only had to walk 25m across the street to get this view - so we were able to enjoy on a number of nights.