Caveat Emptor? Researching Metropolitan Who's Who

I find it incredible the number of people finding my blog post about Metropolitan still. They are trying to determine whether to take memberships, whether to take the risk. You will note I do not call the Internet-based private social network a scam. As a librarian, I believe in presenting the various points of view, good, bad or indifferent, so that people can form intelligent, well-informed opinions on their own. People deciding whether to join should make up their own minds about Metropolitan. In addition to the Metro-written website, blogs and press releases which as with anything written by most organizations are very positive, also have a look at this and this and weigh the risks carefully for yourself before you pay $741 or whatever amount they quote you. If you don't feel uncomfortable giving them your money after reading the various points of view, then you will have piece of mind giving out your credit card number.

Remember, in any relationship when you sign on to join a group or buy something, caveat emptor. A nice Latin phrase for you legal research fans!!

Can You See the Wind Rushing Through My Hair?

In my usual style, I am over-committed and should be committed! Too many things on the go, doing my best to do them all somewhat brilliantly.

I just finished penning an article on trends in legal research training for the National, the Canadian Bar Association magazine. Whew! It is overdue and they have been very very patient with me, so it is good to have that finished.

We have also been working on NE2007, the planning of which has been heating up to a frantic pace. I had been anticipating it being this busy in June/July, not already in February/March. Meetings and email messages galore, and a growing concern that we are not getting enough information out to people in a timely fashion. That is being addressed this week. We are going to put out some "hard" details for people by next week and I have started up a blog for us so we can start talking about what it really is we have been doing. Have a sneak preview at http://librarieswithoutborders.wordpress.com.

Work has been a flurry of large projects including research outside the office, and the redrafting of our business continuance plan for the whole office. This time we are taking into account a pandemic scenario since that was not on the radar back in--what?--1999 when we last put some elbow grease into this thing.

In my spare time I have been thinking about and talking about podcasting and video podcasting, figuring out what I want to do. I definitely want to do something.

Oh yeah, and I have been taking a fabulous survey course through the PLC on Web Site Management and Implementation. My group project is to create a website for a real legal aid clinic. I have enjoyed being the liaison between the clinic and the rest of the team. I have also been working on the project report we have to submit, giving the team feedback on the site we have been creating, and being all-round cheerleader. Heh.

And I still have to create a personal site for myself in the next week. We have been creating one as we have gone along in class, but mine managed to somehow go awry and I have to start over. I am envisioning something that will incorporate my blog, a CV which I can update as I complete my growing list of professional activities, and a schedule so people can see what I am doing next. It would also be nice to have a place to post documents, such as presentations I have given, and maybe links to my various web presences. Tall order, but would be very useful!

Oh, yeah, and my next LLRX.com column has to be on the radar too. The plan is to write it on networking. Not the computer kind, but the people kind. It is something I am always coming back to somehow in the column, but haven't addressed it specifically as a topic. I met a bunch of super-networkers at Podcamp and learned a thing or two about networking, so am itching to share it.

So, enough about me. What have YOU been up to?