Movers and Shakers 2008 announced in the American Library Journal

The March 15, 2008 issue of Library Journal includes this year's Movers and Shakers. Congratulations to those selected!

From the 2009 nomination guidelines:

emerging leaders in the library world. Our eighth annual Movers & Shakers supplement will profile 50-plus up-and-coming individuals from across the United States and Canada who are innovative, creative, and making a difference. From librarians to vendors to others who work in the library field, Movers & Shakers 2009 will celebrate the new professionals who are moving our libraries ahead.

Lists:

Cindi Trainor over at Citegeist is putting together a spreadsheet of all Movers and Shakers to date (2002 - 2008) so we can have a look at the demographic breakdown. Read Cindi's post and give us a hand with this! (Many hands make light work)...

Jessamyn West has made a briefer version of this list - Congrats to Library Journal's Movers and Shakers if you just want to scan the names.

Movers and Shakers State by State - including this year and previous years.

Introduction by Francine Fialkoff, Editor-in-Chief: Transformative Librarians

Form for 2009 nominations (due November 24, 2008)

Acknowledgements [appears to be incomplete]


The Movers and Shakers!

Maria Redburn - Bedford Public Library
Grace Under Pressure

Becoming manager of the Bedford Public Library, which had closed briefly in 2005, was a risky career move for Maria Redburn: city council members were considering outsourcing it to LSSI. But as a Bedford resident who had always dreamed of living and working in the same community and making a difference for her neighbors, she took on the challenge of restoring library service.

Marshall Shore - Maricopa County Library District
The Man Who Said No to Dewey

When MCLD began to design the new Perry Branch for the community of Gilbert, Shore took the opportunity to ask the local residents what they desired in a public library. Community members said they wanted a library they could browse in and explore, with books easily available in broad subject areas, much like—you guessed it—a bookstore.

Hilary Davis - North Carolina State University Libraries
In Context

Kathleen Brown, NCSU Libraries director for planning and research, calls Davis a pioneer in the use of analytics. But for Davis, detailed statistical analysis of the collection is only half the job. The other half is understanding “the research and teaching cultures” the science collection supports.

Jim Cheng - University of California-San Diego
Films 'R' Us

Realizing that East Asian studies professors at University of California–San Diego (UCSD) were increasingly using popular media for research and teaching, librarian Jim Cheng built an unparalleled collection of East Asian films for them. This now-renowned collection (including posters, too) has enabled faculty and student research on a wide variety of topics.

Darci Hanning - Oregon State Library
Giving Back

...Darci Hanning felt the need to “'give back' to society in a more direct way—librarianship became that way.” And “give back” she has. The Plinkit project (oregon.plinkit.org), developed for the Oregon State Library, is based on the open source Plone Content Management System and provides 36 rural Oregon libraries free, content-rich, easy-to-update web sites that can be maintained locally. Each web site provides libraries with an events calendar, incoming and outgoing RSS feeds, catalog search, and links to databases (including remote authentication), plus pages staff can update themselves. All for free—“And free is a very good price,” as the Plinkit web site proclaims. It's also expanding to three more states through the Plinkit Collaborative (www.plinkit.org).

Allyson Mower - University of Utah
Thrill Seeker

Though she's not even finished with her MLIS yet, she's been providing access to information at the University of Utah's Eccles Health Sciences Library through her work on the Neuro-Ophthalmology Virtual Education Library (library.med.utah.edu/NOVEL) and the library's wiki, as well as the classes she teaches on database searching. Now, as coordinator for the university's Institutional Repository (ir.utah.edu), she is creating its database, soliciting content, and negotiating copyright issues.

David Lee King - Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library
User-Centered Technologist

Librarians agree: David Lee King is your go-to guy for simplifying complex technology. “He has that rare ability to take tough tech and make it easy to understand and get excited about,” says Kathy Dempsey, former editor-in-chief, Computers in Libraries. TSCPL executive director Gina Millsap concurs: “David communicates ideas in ways that are accessible, inclusive, and humorous. His laid-back style encourages others to participate and believe they can do this stuff, too.”

Christopher Harris - Genesee Valley Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Deep Impact

Disappointed with vendor-provided library portals, Harris decided to tailor his own system for member institutions. His Fish4Info.org portal, which turns MARC-formatted files into nodes within Drupal (an open source content management system), allows users to manipulate and add to the records. Half the member libraries now enjoy use the systemwide catalog, taking advantage of its capabilities to append pathfinders, calendars, and students' book reviews, tagging, book ratings, and social bookmarking.

Steven Bowers, DALNET
Extending OPACs

Steven Bowers, director of the 20-member Detroit Area Library Network (DALNET), wants to expand library collections and digital projects to include materials created by the interactive online community. That's why he enabled librarians to incorporate YouTube videos and make them viewable within the online catalog, with full MARC records, ultimately increasing public access to valuable digital data. DALNET's own pilot project began with videos of Martin Luther King Jr.'s speeches, which were made available through member libraries' catalogs.

Evette Atkin - Michigan Library Consortium
Multitalented

Evette Atkin says her wide-ranging interests feed her work for the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC), as a trainer, and as leader of the statewide development of Evergreen, an open source catalog debuting in pilot libraries there this summer. Years of teaching violinists of all ages and abilities helped her adapt instruction to librarians' existing skills and interests; origami trained her in “precision and attention to intricate detail.”

Elisabeth Jacobsen Marrapodi - Trinitas Hospital
Pathfinder

A different perspective is what she delivers in her online explorations—Marrapodi believes that “immersive learning environments offer librarianship a chance to repackage and reinvent the way we deliver information.” Inside Second Life, Marrapodi has shadowed physicians, produced a short film illustrating the potential of 3-D applications for clinicians, and interviewed virtual world counselors on applications of “avatar therapy” and cybertherapy services.

Char Booth - Ohio University
Collaborative Experimentation

Booth's “Skype a Librarian” innovation enables virtual text, video, and audio reference from patrons' PCs or library kiosks, taking full advantage of freeware for cutting-edge service. This lets librarians “serve patrons where and how they naturally function,” build connections with distance/international students, and potentially personalize reference service across understaffed branches and service points.

Michelle Boulé - University of Houston Library
Geek Librarian

A member of ALA's Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) since 2003, Boulé is often working on new ways librarians can participate virtually. She ran Library and Information Resources Week with Meredith Farkas in 2006 as part of HigherEd BlogCon (www.higheredblogcon.com), the first blog-based higher education online conference. And in 2007, she, Farkas, and four others drew on this experience to create Five Weeks to a Social Library (www.sociallibraries.com/course), a free, grass-roots online course devoted to teaching librarians about social software and how to use it in their libraries.

Tim Spalding - LibraryThing, LLC
Metadata Man

With LibraryThing (librarything.com), Portland, ME–based web developer/publisher Tim Spalding has repurposed the library catalog into a social web application and, in the process, made cataloging fun. “LibraryThing brings into large-scale practice what the most visionary among us can only talk about,” says Don Yarman, assistant director, Delaware County District Library, OH—“folksonomies, crowd-sourcing, a populist concern for authority, and a cooperative method for constructing it.”

Caleb Tucker-Raymond - Multnomah County Library
Never Satisfied

Caleb Tucker-Raymond might have developed Oregon's statewide digital reference service, L-Net (www.oregonlibraries.net), from the ground up, but according to Jim Scheppke, Oregon State Librarian, he's not resting on his laurels. “For Caleb, the status quo is never good enough,” he says. “His fine mind is always working on how to make virtual reference service better.”

Nancy Teger - Florida Department of Education
Dynamo

Nancy Teger is known for getting things done. When the Florida Department of Education (DOE) couldn't fund databases for every school in the state, Teger, DOE's program director for media services, got them by working with the state library. When school librarians lost their sense of direction under the pressure of high-stakes testing and level funding, she brought them together to create an evaluation model for school libraries, ExC3EL—Expectations for Collaboration, Collections, and Connections to Enhance Learning.

Jessica Moyer - College of St. Catherine
Reader's Best Friend

...Moyer started conducting research herself and spreading that knowledge to help librarians improve their RA [readers' advisory] service and to use 2.0 services for NextGens. As an LIS educator, she preaches the RA gospel to future librarians. Her missionary work includes writing numerous articles on RA, speaking frequently about it at library conferences, and writing Research-Based Readers' Advisory (ALA, 2008).

Marcia Mardis - Wayne State University
Push Technology

As assistant professor in Wayne State's school library media program, Mardis constantly encourages school librarians to show teachers how new technologies—even personal entertainment devices—can enhance student learning. She's worked with the Michigan Education Resources Digital Library and National Science Digital Library to disseminate high-quality digital resources among school librarians and teachers.

David Rothman - Community General Hospital
Direct Effects

Rothman has an equally direct effect on the lives of busy librarians as cocreator of LibWorm, which searches over 1500 library-related RSS feeds (from blogs to journal tables of contents). Since LibWorm lets users set up custom RSS feeds to track topics of interest, it helps them manage information overload. Two of his greatest contributions to the medical field are his “enthusiasm and generosity.”

Mark Greek - District of Columbia Public Library
Restoring History

As photo archivist for the DCPL's Washingtoniana Division at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, the city's main, Mark Greek restores historical photos from the ravages of time and invisibility by constructing a database of holdings, writing finding aids, producing exhibits, and adding new images to the collection.

Lisa Sweeney - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Translator

Every day, Sweeney helps sophisticated researchers and amateurs alike use geospatial data to study how cybercommunities are created, air quality is monitored, and models of global change are built. [Reference coordinator and public services librarian Heather] McCann sees in Sweeney's efforts a combination of the fundamentals of librarianship—“collecting, describing, and providing access to data,” she says—and the advanced technological skill of “loading nonrestricted geospatial data in usable form to an online repository with Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata.”

Mark Vrabel - Oncology Nursing Society
Show Me the Evidence

Anne Snively, director of periodicals publishing at the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS), says Vrabel, the society's information resources supervisor, supports ONS evidence-based practice initiatives by keeping nurses apprised of research on best practices in clinical treatment of cancer patients. He not only assists society members with their own research, but he writes articles for clinical practice journals himself.

Mario Ascencio - George Mason University Libraries
Anger into Fuel

As a 17-year-old library page, Ascencio once helped a timid, illiterate Latina get her library card. The experience made him realize the extent to which libraries could affect the disadvantaged, and from that moment on, he resolved to become a librarian. Now, as visual arts liaison librarian at George Mason University Libraries, he's also one of the few Latino professionals on campus. A past beneficiary of REFORMA sponsorships, he makes a point of mentoring the university's minority students and supports its Spanish-speaking MLS students' attendance at REFORMA conferences.

Robin Kear - University of Pittsburgh
Global Thinker

Robin Kear loves both librarianship and travel and puts both loves to good use. During an internship at the UN HABITAT Agency in Nairobi, Kenya, Kear taught library staff to use electronic databases, helped produce a CD-ROM publication on water and sanitation issues for the 2003 World Water Forum, and learned the difficulties of librarianship in countries lacking adequate communication infrastructures.

Annabelle Núñez - University of Arizona
Life Work

Annabelle V. Núñez became passionate about health issues when her mother's chronic illness made her understand the cultural and financial barriers to good health and preventive care among Hispanics. Now, in her daily work at the Arizona Health Sciences Library and in frequent conference presentations, Núñez helps medical professionals, community leaders, and librarians understand those barriers “so they can work very hard to close that gap.”

Alex Youngberg - Vancouver Public Library
On the Line

Alex Youngberg, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 391, is an activist on many community issues, but the three-month strike she led against the Vancouver Public Library (VPL) exemplifies her belief that issues must come not from leaders but from the ground up.

Joshua Ferraro - LibLime
Open Source Evangelist

“No one in the library profession has served as a greater evangelist for open source software than Josh Ferraro,” says Carl Grant, president of CARE Affiliates, Blacksburg, VA, and one of his many admirers both inside and outside of the Ohio library community. Ferraro was systems administrator for the Nelsonville Public Library, OH, when it became the nation's first library to switch to an open source ILS (Koha, on Labor Day 2003). In promoting open source to other libraries, however, Ferraro says he found most didn't have access to “internal support staff who would enable them to deploy something as complex as an ILS without help from a commercial vendor.” So, in 2005, he cofounded LibLime and thus helped bridge the gap.

Jennifer Nelson - Minneapolis Public Library
Leveling the Field

Jennifer Nelson puts together programs, she says, that help solve “some of the inequities we see in our community.” As partnerships coordinator for digital inclusion at the Minneapolis Public Library, she collaborated with the Neighborhood Development Center to develop the Micro Entrepreneur Resource Center (www.mercmpl.org) and then make it more widely accessible by raising money to get its Business Plan Builder translated into Somali and Spanish.

Daniel Cornwall - Alaska State Library
On a Mission

...Cornwall works with the American Library Association's Government Documents Round Table to increase public awareness of what's available. Because he is concerned about the future readability of digital documents, he led the Alaska State Library to adopt LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) technology for preservation.

Padma Polepeddi - Glendale Library
Passion for Diversity

Now supervisor of the Glendale Library, Polepeddi builds collections and programming for a diverse community and buttonholes new immigrants to tell them, “All this is free!” Though her branch is known for its extensive Russian and Spanish-language collections, Polepeddi has expanded its diversity program, improving services to other nationalities, teens, the elderly, and people with disabilities.

Amanda McKeraghan - Sevens County Rural Library District
Rural Improvement

Having worked her way up in the Stevens County Rural Library District (SCRLD) from bookmobile driver to branch manager to director, now she knows it's true: her eight small libraries serve 40,000 people, including an active Russian and Ukrainian community. They range from 4800 square feet down to a station inside a general store—and have an outsize impact in towns without “trendy bars, Internet cafés, youth centers, or other places that people gather after school and work.” Whitney Edwards, manager of Colville Public Library, a branch of SCRLD, says that because of McKeraghan's work, “people in Stevens County view their libraries as their community hubs, their reference source, their connection to the Internet, their bus stop, their office, their living room even.”

Mary Ellen Stasek - Lakewood Public Library
Community Ambassador

Lakewood Public Library director Kenneth Warren is justly proud of the “smartly designed, deeply conceived, and community-connected web site” that Mary Ellen Stasek created for the library (lkwdpl.org). From the beginning, lkwdpl.org has been about the library and the neighborhood, because Stasek realized how wide an audience it would attract: prospective residents and business owners, genealogists, students doing school assignments, parents, homeowners, and more.

Jennifer Schember - Las Vegas - Clark County Library District
On the Same Page

Of German-Japanese descent, Schember relishes her opportunity as community outreach and adult programming coordinator to honor Clark County's many ethnic and cultural groups. Deputy Director Robb Morss says she's “developed productive partnerships with each of the community's ethnic chambers” and dramatically increased Heritage Month programming, with additional Heritage months honoring the county's Asian Pacific Americans and Native Americans, seniors, and GLBTs.

Amy Buckland - Library Student Journal
Do Something!

When Library Student Journal's (LSJ) founding editor, Eli Guinnee, left, Buckland became editor. She argued in her first issue that LIS students “understand the average user better than many practicing librarians” and “see information needs in new places (and new worlds).”

Guinnee says Buckland has moved into those new worlds, creating a Facebook group for LIS students, an Editors's Blog that's “an important place for LIS students to discuss developments in the field; and LSJ's virtual office in Second Life, where she's also a reference librarian.”

Kim Ricker - University of Maryland Libraries
Data Tracker

In three years, she's taught more than 2500 people to use GIS, managed hardware and software upgrades, surveyed campus GIS needs, and helped faculty use geospatial data to research topics like low-income families' access to dentists who accept Medicaid. One satisfied professor praises her “keen understanding of faculty needs.”

Alexia Hudson - Penn State Great Valley
A Blended Passion

...She “helps students reenvision libraries as a place for continuous professional development with emerging technologies.” Hudson focuses on graduate student orientation, training, and developing the virtual campus in the Second Life Penn State Virtual Worlds project. Her involvement in immersive environments helps libraries “maintain relevance in a highly technical global landscape” and demonstrates her “originality and inventiveness…to promote library services in both the real and virtual world,” says Susan Ware, reference librarian at Penn State Brandywine.

Tony Tallent - Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Count
Razzle Dazzler

Tony Tallent is an unparalleled generator of ideas. As director of youth and outreach services for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (PLCMC), he rocks the library, literally. Director Charles Brown says Tallent initiated PLCMC's “first ever rocking music series for young children and their parents,” the enthusiastically received Tricycle Music Fest hyped as “Three months. Three Bands. Three Ways To Rock at the Library.”

Penny Sympson - Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates
Creating Customers

Penny Sympson knew when she was hired as corporate librarian for Wiss, Janney, Elstner (WJE) Associates that the firm was considering outsourcing the library. She found that challenge irresistible—and met it. Now WJE's professionals rank their satisfaction with her library as 6.59 out of a possible 7, and the company's president brags that once he “called Penny for a book, and by the time I hung up the phone, she was standing at my door with the item.”

Stephanie Squicciarini - Fairport Public Library
Action Figure

Squicciarini chose to work with teens “because they are so worth it,” but she wanted to do something special for them: she launched the Greater Rochester Teen Book Festival (www.teenbookfestival.org). She organized local librarians and media specialists, and together they lined up the funding, location, and a slew of popular authors. Now entering its third year, the festival has become wildly successful (1000-plus attendance in 2007, double that of year one).

Devo Carpenter - Austin Public Library
Not Clowning Around

Many people know Devona Carpenter as a storyteller at the Austin Public Library. Some know her from her spare-time roles as “Devo the Clown” or as the puppeteer who staged a two-minute production of The Wizard of Oz, complete with tornado, wicked witches, and flying monkeys. But to teens at Austin's Gardner-Betts Juvenile Justice Center, she's the woman who changed their lives, bringing them books and treating them like people with a future.

Karen Brooks-Reese - Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Better Than Cool

Brooks-Reese helps teens expand their skills and gain the respect of their peers. She helps them turn their program ideas into reality. Together, they've created a slew of programs, including Tell-a-Tale Theater (teens bring popular children's books and activities to children at CLP branches); a video contest for teen-designed ads promoting the library; and Behind the Book: Authors Talk to Teens. “I feel that teens will have a greater appreciation of literature if they are directly exposed to those who create it,” she says.

Alison Cody - Loyola Notre Dame Library
Working the Crossroads

Cindy Fisher, one of numerous grateful fellow students at Simmons, called Alison Cody “the glue holding many Simmons GSLIS programs together,” because, as lead technology reference assistant (TRA), Cody helped students and faculty alike with computer problems and created a training manual and wiki for new TRAs. Seeing that fellow students wanted to understand new technologies better, Cody also created and promoted workshops on topics like social software, screencasting, tagging, and more. She even taught them how to run a technology workshop—perhaps so they could replace her.

Lucía González - Broward County Library
Storyteller

Through her programs at the Imagination Factory (an MDPLS program promoting reading through storytelling), she encouraged Hispanic children to read and their parents to read to them. Now with the Broward County Library, she's developed bilingual children's story times for libraries, public schools, and daycare centers throughout the county. Her efforts to expand the library's Dia de Los Niños/El Dia de Los Libros (Children's Day/Book Day) helped the library win the prestigious Mora Award for 2007.

Jamie Watson - Harford County Public Library
Spark Plug

Nationally known for her leadership in YALSA, particularly on its Quick Picks Committee, she also works with Maryland library groups to identify teens' favorite books and moderates book discussions for teens 14 and up (www.capitolchoices.org). Her blog, The Mashup: A Blog About Books for Teens, is part of her contribution to public television station WETA's “All About Adolescent Literacy” web site (www.adlit.org).

Peter Bromberg - South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative
Transformer

Bromberg's day-to-day work is transforming librarians. He delivers what Rider University librarian Robert Lackie calls “state-of-the-art technology training programs and staff development opportunities for SJRLC's 630 member libraries.” He coaches librarians as they move into leadership positions and shares best practices on blogs, wikis, electronic discussion lists, and chat.

Sarah Erwin & Candice Gwin - Kirkwood Public Library
Team Effort

Though Sarah Erwin (l.) and Candice Gwin are young (28 and 27, respectively) and new on the job, Wicky Sleight, Kirkwood Public Library (KPL) director, attributes KPL's winning tax referendum and its 2007 Missouri Library of the Year award largely to their “work ethic, programming ideas, and service philosophy.”

Sol Gómez - Pima County Public Library
Paying It Forward

Sol Gómez was a construction worker when he entered the University of Arizona's (UA) Knowledge River program, which trains librarians to serve Hispanic and Native American communities. Now, as a branch manager at the Pima County Public Library (PCPL), his raw materials are young minds, and what they're building is a better future.

Kim Fuller - District of Columbia Public Library
On Time, on Budget

With just a $20,000 grant from Idearc Media, 88 Idearc employee volunteers, a few contractors, and staff, Fuller brought the project [the makeover of the Black Studies Center at the city's main library] in, on time and on budget. She also met the other goal, that the makeover of this DCPL crown jewel, a special collection not renovated since the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library opened in 1972, make the same impact as Southeast's renovation. Fuller opened up the space, improved the lighting, created a zone for quiet study, added vibrant color, and installed end-of-stack larger-than-life-size photos of African American heroes.

Lisa Wells - Moore Public Library
Cowgirl

Within months of being hired, Wells convinced city leaders to fund both a library renovation and the branch's adoption of RFID as a pilot for the system. She says city officials joke that “if it costs money, it's one of Lisa's ideas!” But she made that investmentpay off: 46,000 of Moore's 50,000 residents have library cards, over 3000 students participate in summer reading programs, and more than 700 people take part in library literacy programs. Wells partnered with a local Baptist college to provide math and science tutoring and with arts agencies to provide summer concerts.

Congratulations, everyone!!

Thanks to Kathryn Greenhill for this blog post title (and for, along with Cindi Trainor, egging me on to do this), and to David Rothman for the magazine cover image which I couldn't find anywhere on the LJ website.

Talkshoe News: New Facebook Application

As predicted by William Spaetzel (see the comments), Talkshoe has launched a new Facebook application (you will need a free Facebook ID to view this page).

According to Greg Schwartz who hosts my favourite show on Talkshoe, Uncontrolled Vocabulary, "this will allow you to listen live to Uncontrolled Vocabulary and participate in the chat room during the live call without ever leaving Facebook."

Want to try it out? Uncontrolled Vocabulary #33 is live tonight 10 to 11 pm Eastern.

More details about the Talkshoe changes in the Press Release.

Friday Roundup (March 7/08) - An REM video duo

Before I was a book and computer geek, I was a music geek and even DJ'ed for a short period on campus radio. To kick off your weekend (March break?) I offer a couple of REM video selections.

Have you seen their ninetynights promo? Started January 1st, ninety video clips are being released one a day in HD (available for the one day only). Fans are permitted to "remix, remash or otherwise edit" the HD clips. [March 6/08 video removed due to annoyance factor as it played automatically upon entering the blog.]

And here is the song Supernatural Superserious from REM's forthcoming CD Accelerate which REMHQ released via YouTube:



Today's post is dedicated to another REM fan and law librarian, Steven Cohen. ;-)

Upcoming Courses: Professional Learning Centre, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto

I had a couple of messages today from my friend Eva Kupidura at the FIS PLC at the University of Toronto with an update on courses. There are two new course being introduced, plus space still available in three others for March.

One of the classes is my own Social Networking Tools. I have been teaching this introductory survey course on a regular basis since last August. Demand is finally starting to slow up for it. If you still want to catch it, I suggest signing up for the March 28th class. If you can't make it that day, there is one more scheduled for May. We're not sure if there will be enough demand after that, so don't miss out on your chance!

I have to say the other courses here look topical and excellent. I have taken the Information Audit and Mapping Course and can't say enough about it--I found it invaluable to both my work in the law firm and in my understanding of other areas of management.

New--just added:

E-MAIL MANAGEMENT: PRACTICAL GUIDE AND BEST
PRACTICES TO SUCCEED
May 13, 2008
1 day (6 hours) - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Instructor: Penny Clayson
Fee: $240.00

Is your organization facing the challenge of trying to manage it's ever growing email? This interactive course will help you to recognize and understand practical ways of handling your organization's email, improve effectiveness and efficiency, reduce risk, and enhance your compliance in the changing legal environment.

New online course:

ADVOCATING FOR YOUR LIBRARY: SUCCESSFUL POSITIONING WITH DECISION-MAKERS (LIBRARY ADVOCACY AND LIBRARY ISSUES)
24 Mar 2008 - 11 May 2008
7 weeks; online
Instructors: Kathleen DeLong & Pam Ryan
Fee: $395.00

This web-based, instructor-led course is for participants seeking ways to effectively position their library for success with decision-makers and constituents. Advocacy is about raising awareness and gaining commitment that leads to action. Successful libraries understand the advocacy process and exercise professional leadership in the gaining the attention and commitment of decision-makers to address the library's issues. Advocacy may relate to policy, funds, support, or partnership, and may be directed to external or internal decision-makers.

The course includes how advocacy relates to promotion and marketing, how to understand your decision-makers’ environments and their perceptions of libraries, and how to identify and engage key stakeholders. Participants will develop an advocacy plan for a particular issue of
concern (objectives, target groups, obstacles, communication tools, and evaluation) tailored to their own individual situation or environment.

There is still space in the following PLC March courses in Toronto:

INFORMATION AUDIT AND MAPPING: From Idea to Action
Thu. 27 Mar 2008 - Fri. 28 Mar 2008
2 days (12 hours) - 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Instructors: Ulla de Stricker & Dennis Ablett
Fee: $425.00

The course is ideal for those in information intensive functions who want to ensure their services and plans are aligned with their organization’s and/or stakeholder community's priorities and preferences. It is also an ideal course for those developing an information management or knowledge management strategy or those working in an organization where the value of content management or information services may not be fully understood.

SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS
Fri. 28 Mar 2008
1 day (6 hours) - 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Instructor: Connie Crosby
Location: Toronto
Fee: $240.00

Web 2.0, Facebook, Second Life - have taken the world and the library by storm! Explore these social media networking tools in this hands-on computer lab class. Set up a blog and wiki, view RSS feeds in an aggregator, try a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us, and create a profile on professional networking site LinkedIn. Look at Flickr, LibraryThing, Ning, Facebook, MySpace and Second Life. Test out the latest apps such as Twitter and Jaiku. We will try some of these and have a "tour" of others, as well as discuss the implications for libraries.

For library technicians, librarians, library managers and directors as well as others interested in Web 2.0.


USABILITY EVALUATION
Mon. 31 Mar 2008 - Tue. 20 May 2008
8 weeks (24 hours) - 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Instructor: Carolyn Watt
Location: Toronto
Fee: $625.00

Effective design is the core principle in developing information products (on paper and online) that are appropriate to the environment and are easy to use. But how do we evaluate the effectiveness of an information product? What tools can we use to make sure our products help our users? What is usability and why is it important in the development cycle of any product? How do we use the results of usability tests and assessments to improve the information product? And finally, how do we sell the concept of usability to our colleagues and clients (internal and external)?

For the complete Winter and Spring 2008 schedule check PLC website: www.plc.fis.utoronto.ca.

Waiting for News from TalkShoe

I have been using the web show hosting platform TalkShoe a fair bit lately. If you read this blog, you know that I participate in the library show Uncontrolled Vocabulary as much as possible. As well, we used TalkShoe for our last episodes of the Podcamp Toronto Podcast (we recorded Episode #14 last night which should be out soon).

Well, as a member of TalkShoe I received this interesting teaser tonight:

Things at TalkShoe are certainly moving fast and 2008 is proving to be a monumental year. We have already introduced our new web interface, our iPhone application and just last week we saw a new record number of community calls take place! We aren’t resting however, in fact on March 11th we will be making a very exciting announcement of a new application that is sure to put the voice into social networking (that will be my only hint!).

TalkShoe founder Dave Nelson also included an invitation to a meet-up in San Francisco. Too bad I won't be able to make it! But, I look forward to the news.

Connie Crosby on Podcamp: LISTen Episode #11

In this week's episode of the LISNews.org postcast LISTen, StephenK interviews me about Podcamp and the lessons we can take away for libraries. He throws me a couple of "curve-ball" questions, so you can listen how I handle them.

Cheers,
Connie

LinkedIn Has a New Look

Chris Brogan points out that business social network platform LinkedIn has a new look in his blog post LinkedIN Gets Pretty. He says:

So the fact that they gave themselves a nice facelift, added personal photos to the site, and have quietly added some new functionality, comes as a pleasant bonus.

I'm not sure about the change. I was very, very used to finding my way around the old site. I will have to spend some more time with it I think. For now I did a quick update of my profile in case you head over there to look at it! I still have to improve on some of those descriptions. The most difficult part was pinning myself down to one industry. Am I legal? Library? Information? Technology? Ha! I chose Management Consulting. For now.

JD Supra - Creating Your Profile

Just a clarification on my previous post yesterday about JD Supra: your profile goes live once you start adding documents. This makes complete sense to me--they give promotional space to those who are willing to participate, willing to share. It is a great business model, one which no doubt we will see more of elsewhere. I've now added in my wikis in law firms presentation to share through the system to get my own profile started.

What legal documents can you, your firm, or your law school contribute in JD Supra?

Uncontrolled Vocabulary - Library Podcast on the Move

The library industry podcast which I have talked about in the past, Uncontrolled Vocabulary created and hosted by Greg Schwartz, has moved! It is now located at the URL http://uncontrolledvocabulary.com . Congratulations, Greg!

The show is recorded most Wednesday nights, 10 pm EST using Talkshoe. That being said, last night's show was postponed and is being recorded tonight at 10 pm EST. If you can't make Wednesday nights but are available tonight, now's your chance! I hope you will join us.

Potential articles for discussion are tagged over on del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/tag/unvocab. If you would like to contribute an article or blog post for discussion, just tag it "unvocab" using del.icio.us. Please describe the issue to be discussed in the description space.

Sharing Legal Documents - JD Supra Goes Live

In my presentation about the use of wikis in law firms to Toronto Wiki Tuesdays a couple weeks ago, one of the audience members suggested that it was only a matter of time before firms start sharing precedents in some sort of free web system. It put me in mind of JD Supra which I had previewed last September. Well, I am pleased to announce JD Supra has now gone live! This system allows law firms, law schools, sole practitioners and others post documents such as filings, research memoranda, and law firm newsletters to share with others.

I did a larger write-up over on the Slaw blog, but thought I would share a few additional ideas: I was pleased to see that the club has not been made exclusive. Law firms and law schools are the focus, but they also invite in sole practitioners, individual law firms even if their whole firms do not participate, law librarians, legal consultants, and even law bloggers. Wow. It is this kind of forward thinking that is going to build a community of interest around the service and ensure it stays alive.

To that end, they have started a blog called JD Scoop and I was tickled pink to see myself in the blogroll. Well, Steve Matthews helped to work on the web strategy so maybe I shouldn't be surprised. Thanks for the "link love"! ;-)

Anyway, do have a look at this system and try it out for yourself. It is free to sign up and free to add documents. And I hope to check in periodically to see how things progress.

University of Toronto Faculty of Information Studies Professor Participating in New Research Project: Surveillance and Social Sorting

More news from the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto:

Professor Andrew Clement is one of eight academic researchers participating in a project that has been awarded a $2.5 million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant. The project is being led by Professor David Lyon of Queen's University.

The grant is to be spent over seven years. In a project being called "The New Transparency: Surveillance and Social Sorting," the team will be investigating how and why average citizens are under surveillance by public and private organizations as a result of computer technologies. They will be also looking at how computer-related surveillance affects Canadian citizens' lives.

Additional information:

Announcement from the SSHRC
information on Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRIs)
Press release from Queen's University

Why Podcamp Toronto Will Be Cool

Thanks to Chris Brogan for sharing these memories of Podcamp Toronto from last year. So many of the people pictured I had barely met or were complete strangers, and now I count so many of them as friends. It has been a crazy/strange journey through social media. We have mostly connected and stayed in touch via Twitter and the odd face-to-face meeting. This weekend at least 300 people will be descending upon Ryerson University to attend Podcamp. There is still room if you would like to join us for this free, information social media event! Details on the wiki.

Via ooVoo: Pistachio on a Presentation That Rocks MUCH More

Last Friday I talked about My ooVoo Day and trying out this fantastic new video chat tool ooVoo. Well, yesterday I put it to the test by attending a workshop put on by Laura Fitton of Pistachio Consulting (in the land of Twitter, we just call her @pistachio which is kind of fun and gives her lots of street cred I'm sure). Laura is a speaking coach extraordinaire, so it was amazing to have some semi-private time with her.

She is based in Boston, and other people who joined us were Andrea Vascellari in Finland , Beth Kanter in Boston, and Nico Pin in Brazil (I think!). Tommy Vallier in Kingston, Ontario, appeared briefly but unfortunately was having problems. The ooVoo platform does demand a lot of bandwidth and some people do unfortunately have issues with the set-up at this early stage of the game. Anyway, it was great to have such a geographically varied group!

Blue Lightning
Originally uploaded by jpre86

Laura went through her workshop 10 Minutes to a Presentation That Rocks MUCH More, and then answered our questions since a number of us were already experienced at presenting. Then (this is the COOL part) we shared slides of our own presentations via Slideshare (remember I talked about that last week, too?). Laura was able to post the slides in her screen on ooVoo and we could also page through it ourselves. We tried out her concept of "Lightning Round" where you spend only 5 seconds on each slide, verbalizing the main concept of the slide. Most presenters are unlikely to go through an entire presentation more than a few times, but one can do the lightning round frequently to really practice and warm up. It also helps narrow down which slides are needed or not.

What I really liked were the personal comments Laura gave us. For me, I need to think about some key ideas of my overall presentation and put them up front to really hook people in. You really have their key attention right in the first 30 seconds, so it is also best to have someone *else* introduce you so that you don't waste those precious moments at the beginning. Finally, she gave me some good hints about how to build real "take away" ideas into my presentations, since that is something I feel needs work.

Working with Laura for the hour will, I think, really help my presentation style. Maybe even my blogging and podcasting style, too. Which surprised me because I thought I knew a lot already, and doubted how much she could teach me in a short time over ooVoo in a group session.

If you are a speaker who wants to kick it up to the next level, I would highly recommend working with Laura at Pistachio Consulting!

Okay, I'll stop gushing now. ;-)

FIS Announces Eight New Library, Information and Museum Studies Professors and Lecturers - University of Toronto

As alumna of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, I like to check in periodically as to what is happening with the program. They have had a standing call for new faculty for quite as while, so I am pleased to see an announcement on the front of the website explaining who have now been brought in. It is a wonderfully diverse group.

I extend my personal congratulations to Mike McCaffrey who has been named lecturer. We attended FIS in and around the same time, and even as a student he was already an expert on international and government documents. I have heard good things from students who have taken his course, so it is good the school is officially recognizing him as Lecturer. Kudos!

The school is still looking for two faculty members in the areas of information organization and classification; and information resources, seeking, services, and reference; and one faculty member in the area of museum studies.

Toronto Wiki Tuesdays - Photos and Write-up

Thanks to Martin Cleaver for posting photos and another write-up of my presentation last week on his blog.

He counted 16 people who showed up in the snow storm. This is a tremendous number for this group. I can only imagine how big we could grow with more focussed discussions and better weather!

A Look at the Free Software and Open Source Movements

Joel Alleyne has just posted his Extreme Tech column for Slaw: Why You Should Take a Look at the Free / Open Source Software Movement. While I support the Open Source movement in principle, I have to admit not being personally involved and not knowing a lot about it. I do use (and love) both Firefox and Wordpress, so have to admit having personally benefited from the movement. I guess I have thought of it more as a coder/developer type of concept.



Adding to my "to do" list: exploring the links in Joel's post, trying some of these things out for myself. I have considered loading Linux on an old laptop. Maybe I should try Ubuntu? I know a number of others who have.

Photo source: Linux.org website

Podcamp Toronto Podcast Episode #10

Episode #10 has now been posted over at the Podcamp Toronto Blog. This is our second attempt at using Talkshoe to host, and I think we are getting better at it. I had better control of the conversation compared to last time. I may just be getting the hang of this podcasting thing! ;-)

Cheers,
Connie

Friday Roundup (Feb. 15/08): Five Social Media Sites to Kick Off Your Weekend

One thing I am loving right now is having the time to try out new media tools and better explore some old favourites. Here's what I've been up to lately:

Joseph Jaffee on OoVoo
Originally uploaded by ConnieC

1. Podcamp Toronto - I've been helping organize this new social media unconference coming up next weekend (February 23 & 24, 2008). It is fabulously free, and a fantastic opportunity to learn about podcasting and other social media as well as meet a diverse, interesting group of people from Ontario and beyond. I had such a fantastic experience last year as a newby, I dove head first into helping this year. Notably, check out our podcast episodes on the blog in which I am learning to podcast from Sean McGaughey. Episode 10 should be out later today.
2. Talkshoe - This is a call-in platform that allows you to record a "talk show" style podcast. I have been calling in to Greg Schwartz' weekly library show Uncontrolled Vocabulary periodically, and recently filled in as host. Since then, we have hosted two episodes of the Podcamp Toronto Podcast (#9 and #10) over on Talkshoe. The format takes getting used to, but with each attempt I am getting better at it.
   
3. Slideshare - I've had colleagues share presentation slide decks with me from this site in the past, but only woke up to how great this site is this week. You can make presentations public or private. You can share with people so they can watch on the site or download the presentations for their own use. Coolest use of all, it allows me to repost presentations to my blogs. I have had a great time exploring the presentations of other people with similar interests. People can set the copyright and Creative Commons licensing, so it is very clear whether we can re-use each others' presentations. Great site! Check out my page. I am going to have to hunt back through my computer for some past presentations for y'all.
   
4. Flickr - I've long known the virtues of posting and sharing my photos on this photo sharing site, but I have been neglecting this favourite for a while. To warm up your winter weekend (for those of you in the winter climate, that is!) here is my photo and recipe for a spicy Ground Nut (Peanut) Soup. I don't recall the origin of this recipe--probably something I cut out of the newspaper--since I just remember the basic recipe and play with it. One of my goals this year is to get photos of past vacations and conferences finally posted. Stay tuned!
5. ooVoo - I have saved the most exciting for last! Earlier this week I took part in a video chat with well-known new media marketer Joseph Jaffe and four other people. That's us in the snapshot I captured. It was part of the promotional series of chats called "myooVooday" starring some of the top names in social media and communication. Jaffe has written a good write-up, as has my fellow video chatters Sherman Hu based in Vancouver and Mitch "Studio Nashvegas" Canter in Nashville. Sherman included a brief video clip from the session, while Mitch went one better and recorded and posted the whole thing. I didn't say a lot because I wasn't sure how well my mic was working, but my fellow Podcamp Toronto organizer Eden Spodek obliged and said a lot of what I was thinking. Also on the call was entertainment management consultant Allen Mostow. What an interesting group. We mostly talked about virtual world Second Life. Anyway, we came to the conclusion that this is definitely a great tool for communicating with a group of people at a distance. A pretty good computer is needed, with video camera, microphone, and headphones. So, not accessible to everyone. But still, we are sure getting there with the technology!

Thanks so much for following me on this journey! Have a great weekend. For those in Ontario, enjoy the new Family Day holiday if you have it off!

Cheers,
Connie

Do Wikis Belong in Law Firms?

Tuesday night I gave a presentation to Toronto Wiki Tuesdays about the use of wikis in law firms. On Monday, to get some additional ideas, I posted a message to Slaw asking for any new examples of wiki use in law firms since I wanted to present more than just wikis I had a hand in myself. The next day a very interesting discussion ensued on Slaw about whether wiki use is suitable for firms. This was a fantastic discussion, starting to really get at the heart of whether a firm should be using wikis and what really works. So much so, that I took the liberty of using the discussion as my "hook" into the presentation.

The group I presented to at Wiki Tuesday was a real cross-section of people interested in wiki use: consultants, tech developers, at least one lawyer, people who have worked with lawyers, people with general interest in wikis, and even some new to wikis. Despite a snow storm progressing outside, we had at least a dozen people present which is a good turn-out for this event.

My slides (with some added annotations) are included below. Not all content of the presentation is captured in the slides of course, so if you have any questions please let me know. Some of the content was given to me in personal email, so I have kept the information anonymous and unattributed.


Do Wikis Belong in Law Firms?

| View | Upload your own

Presentation to Toronto Wiki Tuesdays about use of wikis in law firms and the adoption of wikis by lawyers. Presented February 12, 2008.

SlideShare Link

The subsequent questions from the group were very interesting: they were surprised that there was any wiki use in law firms since they see the culture to be competitive, not one conducive to sharing. We discussed what type of firm might be best for initiating wiki use. The feeling was that one that is used to collaboration, possibly as part of a larger knowledge management program, would find wikis useful. A firm with teams working across a number of geographically dispersed locations might also find it a useful tool. Finally, it was speculated that a smaller firm with younger members (such as a 5-lawyer firm) with the goal of working as a team could really find some value in wiki use and might be the most likely space we would see wiki adoption by lawyers.

Finally, we discussed some of the original concerns about the use of wikis when there are so many systems in place. One distinction is that with knowledge management systems, the emphasis is submitting documents and analysis after the fact. Wiki use emphasizes work in progress and collaborating on the end result. In this way, lawyers may find wikis more useful in the process of working on a project rather than after the fact.

We also discussed the "open law" projects first initiated at Cornell, which CanLII participates in, how this is meant to open the law and make it accessible to the public. Although they are largely creating controlled, edited systems, they in some ways have the collaborative ideal that wikis and the "open source" movement aspires to. We looked at screen shots of the wiki Wex from Cornell, and the wiki JurisPedia that is meant to be from a number of jurisdictions around the world. Martin Cleaver pointed out that JurisPedia was an excellent example of a wiki being used to bring different cultures together.

One participant thought that it would only be a matter of time before solo lawyers or those in smaller firms would get together to share things like model documents, precedents and the like on a wiki platform. This reminded me of the new service JD Supra in which firms can contribute and share their documents. I mentioned it briefly at the session; it isn't yet open yet, but according to Larry Bodine, it will be going live very soon. It is in a "private beta phase" right now. Seems to me I had an invite a while back to have a look around--I will have to check back through my email. If I do, I will have a look and write more about it.

I have to thank my friends and colleagues for sharing what they know here and over at Slaw. I hope the discussion continues. A special thanks to Ted Tjaden who played the vital role of devil's advocate and took our ribbing in good humour, and to Doug Cornelius for pointing me to material about wikis that he has written on his blog over at his blog KM Space.

Venue Change! Toronto Wiki Tuesdays moved to Insomnia Tonight

This last-minute notice from Martin Cleaver:

Hi all,

Re: Tonight's Toronto Wiki Tuesday (Wikis in Legal Firms)

I am really sorry to have to say that I've just discovered Rowers Pub is shut for renovations. We've scrambled and managed to find a place not too far away and have posted a notice at Rowers.

We are at Insomnia, near the corner of Bathurst on Bloor, just east of Honest Ed's. http://www.dine.to/profile_map.php?id=2330

The following map shows that if you walk west 2 blocks from Rowers, north up to Bloor and turn right you will find us...

To give late-comers a chance to find us, we'll start introductions / food at 7pm and start Connie's talk at 7:45pm. (The TikiWiki guys are already at Insomnia with me)

Please do pass on this message and accept my apologies. We'd happily been using Rower's Pub since 2005 without incident. Rowers did apologise profusely but are unable to accommodate us. The only good thing is that Insomnia is just over the road from Bathurst subway, saving you a walk in the cold.

I extend special thanks to Nelson Ko for extra travelling to get a projector at such late notice.

See you tonight,
Martin.

Recording Live - Podcamp Toronto Podcast Episode 10

Just to be confusing, we have changed up the day and time from last week. We are giving Talkshoe another go, and recording Podcamp Podcast Episode #10 at 9 pm tomorrow night, Wednesday February 13, 2008 here on Talkshoe. The phone lines will open up at about 8:45 to get us set up, so join us then.

It will again be the talkshow format. Here are the questions we'€™ll be asking:

* What are you looking forward to at Podcamp Toronto?

* Who would you like to meet at Podcamp Toronto?

Talk to you then!

Should Law Firms Be Using Wikis?

My colleague Ted Tjaden has raised the question about wikis in law firms over at Slaw. If this question interests you, I invite you over to the discussion (see the comments in addition to Ted's post). I respect Ted's opinion, and believe it to be justified for his particular law firm.

A summary of my viewpoint:

- wikis are one type of tool in the electronic toolbox which you may or may not choose to use;
- not all law firms may want to use wikis, especially if they have robust systems that enable collaboration among groups;
- not all lawyers are in firms that have sophisticated document management, content management, or intranet systems, and for them wikis may be lightweight solutions for certain challenges;
- I am interested in learning if and how wikis are being used so that I can inform others of how they might be used. I do not necessarily say they should be used in every organization.

I would love to have this discussion live tonight at Toronto Wiki Tuesday if anyone wants to come help me debate it.

Cheers,
Connie

Wikis in Law Firms - Toronto Wiki Tuesday

Please note! Last minute venue change - we will be at Insomnia. Details here.

This month's Toronto Wiki Tuesday will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) night. I volunteered to take the lead on the evening's discussion. I want to talk about two subjects:

- the acceptance of social media by lawyers and, specifically, the use of wikis in law firms; and

- how best to develop a course on wikis

I'm hoping that any members of law firms who are using wikis will drop by give some input.

Details about Toronto Wiki Tuesdays is over at the Blended Perspectivesblog. We meet at Rower's Pub. It's free to attend; food and drink are of course available. Please RSVP at Upcoming.org.

I hope you'll join us!

Tonight - Join me Live for Podcamp Toronto Podcast Episode 9

Tonight my co-host Sean McGaughey and I will be trying out the Talkshoe platform to record our podcast. We are looking for Podcamp Toronto attendees to join us in the call and talk about what they are up to and looking forward to with Podcamp.

University of Toronto, Faculty of Information Studies Grads: Call for Nominations Jubilee 2008 Award

Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto is looking for nominations---

Call For Nominations for the 2008 Alumni Jubilee Award -- Deadline March 28, 2008

Do you know of an innovator, a leader, a mentor, a researcher, a catalyst, someone who’s made a difference to the profession and is a FIS alumnus/ae? Each year, the Faculty of Information Studies Alumni Association (FISAA) honours a distinguished graduate of the Faculty (or its predecessors) who has made significant contributions in innovation or leadership in libraries or information management, professional organizations, publications/research, or the community at large.

To nominate an alumnus/a, write a letter about your nominee, their achievements, and why she or he should receive the award, sign it and email it to: alumni@fis.utoronto.caThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it , or fax to (416) 978-5762, or mail to: Alumni Jubilee Award Nomination, Faculty of Information Studies, 140 St. George Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G6.

There are two awards: one for an alumnus and one for a student. More details here on the FIS website. Submit your nomination now!

Research and Morals - What Would You Do?

What do or would you do if you are asked to do research that goes against your personal morals? That question is posed over at the Enquiring Minds Want to Know blog by Jennifer Vass and Davina Gifford. Below is the response I posted in their blog. What would you do?

It helps to have thought out what your barriers are in advance and worked out a policy. I have always maintained that librarians, when calling outside the firm for information, should:
(1) identify our name and who our employer is ("Hello this is Mary Smith, I am a librarian at the Big Smart law firm") and
(2) not identify the name of the lawyer or client on whose behalf we are calling, unless requested or given permission to do so. This is because the client and/or matter is often confidential.

When asked to do something that goes against these principles (especially #1), I explain the policy and stand firm. I have been known to even maintain #2 inside the law firm when calling another lawyer for advice on the research depending on the circumstances and the culture of the firm.

Can you think of certain policy you were put into place to help you deal with this in the future?

The lawyer ethic is that everyone, not matter what he or she has done, has the right to legal representation. That can certainly put you in the position of doing research on behalf of someone or some organization you do not personally believe in and would prefer not to support. Depending on how much this bothers you, you need to think about whether you can work for an employer that supports this organization. Are your feelings strong enough to make you want to leave that organization? This is something you need to ask yourself.

Ontario Library Association Superconference 2008 - Blog

Did you miss the OLA Superconference that took place last year? The blog is here. I am reading my way through the posts.

The link is courtesy of John Dupuis at Confessions of a Science Librarian. John has included his own presentation, My Job in 10 Years: the Future of Academic Libraries.

ABA Law Practice Management: Is CRM Worth It? and Other Marketing Technology Trends

In the January/February 2008 issue of Law Practice Management, a magazine from the American Bar Association, I was invited to contribute to a panel discussion about Client Relationship Management applications in the Law Practice Case Study: Is CRM Worth It? The Pros and Cons of Client Relationship Management. This is the scenario we were given:

Charlie gazed at his administrator while holding the memo from a group of partners who were advocating for a client relationship managementsystem. The administrator was explaining that CRM wasn’t so much a software product, but more of an approach to how a law firm deals with its clients. A CRM system, she said, was much more than an expensive electronic Rolodex. Among other things, it would allow the firm to track clients’ needs and expectations and cross-sell services accordingly.

Charlie was all for a centralized system that would finally help the firm’s 70 lawyers keep better track of clients and bring in more business. He’d read about the new technologies and believed there was plenty of potential. But he’d also done an informal survey of his peers—managing partners at other midsize firms—and despite the hype surrounding CRM, not one could honestly say their firm had successfully implemented one of these systems. On top of that, no one he’d talked to seemed especially sure about what components these systems needed to contain to succeed. That wasn’t likely to help in answering the tough questions he knew his partners would have about why they should support this initiative, especially given its potential cost. Even the firm’s most successful rainmakers relied on marketing techniques they’d developed 25 years ago. The majority of the firms’ lawyers thought marketing meant doing good work and waiting for clients to call if they needed new services. To them, cross-selling was telling the client that the firm had a litigation department on another floor. Convincing them that CRM was a worthwhile investment would take some doing. Before he agreed to support the initiative, he needed to talk to a few people and get up to speed—quickly—so that he could answer his partners’ questions and make the right decision. He wondered who he should talk to....

Doug Cornelius, Ross Fishman, Simon Chester and I all tackle the question in the Law Practice Case Study.

By the way, this whole issue focuses on Marketing Technology Trends and is one I highly recommend reading pretty much "cover to cover".

Feeling Deprived? Did You Miss the Superbowl Ads?

Superbowl isn't quite the big event here in Canada that is in the U.S. And I'm not a football fan. At all. Still, it would be nice to know what all these ads they talk about are. The folks at Fox are posting all the commercials over at myspace. Check it out: http://www.myspace.com/superbowlads

And for those of you wondering why Canadians don't typically see these ads during the Superbowl, Tod Maffin has the answer.

Jordan S. Hatcher - Lawyer, consultant and blogger

I always like discovering blogs that are new to me in areas that show a unique perspective. Jordan S. Hatcher is a lawyer specializing in the IT world, working as a consultant on copyright and content issues. He has at least a couple of interesting blogs:

opencontentlawyer.com

This is the blog of Jordan S. Hatcher, a Texas lawyer and legal consultant working in Scotland, the United Kingdom and throughout the European Union. This blog covers intellectual property, copyright, open content, internet law, media law, entertainment law, and related issues with a worldwide focus.

twitchgamer.net

This site has been around for quite a long time — especially in internet years, which generally are longer than dog years. It has, up until recently, mostly been a learning experiment in web design, site administration, and various other web activities.

From the left side-bar on twitchgamer.net he links to a number of projects he is involved in (including at least one other blog and a wiki). Looks like someone to watch for innovative ideas in the legal space.

Jordan Furlong Now Blogging at Law21

If you only look at one new Canadian law blog this year, you should make it Jordan Furlong's Law21. Jordan has been a dedicated fellow contributor to the Slaw blog for some time now, so it is fantastic to see him taking the next step and starting his own blog space. Jordan is a lawyer and journalist who is currently Editor-in-Chief at the National, the Canadian Bar Association magazine. He is using this new blog to examine the current state of the legal profession and how it is evolving:

In the 21st century, the practice of law is shaking loose from its traditional moorings and heading out into uncharted territory. Opportunities abound, but so do pitfalls. Most of the old rules won’t apply anymore, while some will matter more than ever.

Welcome to the new legal profession, powered by collaboration, innovation, and client service. This is your front-row seat.

Welcome to the blawgosphere, Jordan!

To find more Canadian law blogs, refer to the comprehensive Canadian Law Blogs List from Steve Matthews.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary #28 - Now Posted

Greg Schwartz has posted Uncontrolled Vocabulary Episode #28 which I guest hosted on Wednesday night. He hasn't created the show notes yet, but since he's been very busy I guess we will let him off the hook this time.

Comments about the show can be posted to his blog or emailed to us:
greg.schwartz @ gmail.com
conniecrosby @ gmail.com

I haven't listened to the episode yet. Not sure if I want to hear myself talk. :-)

Toronto Tech Week - Town Hall Meeting - January 31, 2008

This morning I attended the town hall meeting for Toronto Tech Week. This event--or series of events--will be held September 22-26, 2008 this year, and will be based at the Toronto Metro Convention Centre. Last year was the first year for this event (it was held in May) and had 3,000 people in the technology industry attending over 20 events. This year the goal is to have about 48 events and attract at least 4,000 people. More details below from the meeting, including opportunities for volunteers, sitting on committees, sponsorship, and holding a related event.

Chair Dave Forde did conducted the meeting and fielded questions along with other committee chairs. I was pretty jazzed about it by the end, and started to think about how the various groups I interact with should get involved.

Below are my notes from the meeting, which are fairly detailed:


Toronto Tech Week
Town Hall Meeting
Metro Hall Room 308
Thursday, January 31, 2008
techweek.to

2nd year - this year being held Sept 22-26, 2008
last time - over 20 events, 3,000 people attending, people from Rochester to China attending
focus very broad - entire industry
National press coverage: Backbone, IT World, Globe and Mail
brought people from across the country together
Goals: looking to increase attendance to 4,000
Launch 10 new start ups
45 hosted events

Key Dates
Feb 5 - Executive reception
Feb. 20 - Tech Talk
Mar. 25 - next Town Hall meeting
Sept. 22 - 28 - Toronto Tech Week 2008
Executive reception - invited 75 executives from across Toronto to explain what the week is.

Marketing

• 50,000 copies of a 24-page guide distributed with media partner IT World
• revamped TTW website
• producing an HTML email message that can be sent to target market
• podcast between now and the event
• welcomes people onto the marketing committee to develop a strategic plan

Communications

• creating a community around Toronto Tech Week
• partnering with one of the national newswire services so they can release press releases
• series of industry roundtables on selected key topics
• revamping the current website
• Question from IBM: Why not have a space on Second Life? Harlequin did it, Canada Post - Maple Village
• idea: the media will be invited to give international exposure
• group comment: need to use the social media. Blogging will bring in more people. Need to think about this, plan it. Need to at minimum to have people linking back to the website from their sites. Need to put out tweets on Twitter - has connections to people across Canada and the U.S.

Target markets

• Tier 1 - mid-management to director
• Tier 2 - entrepreneur/start-up
• Tier 3 - C-level
• This year not targeting students.

Events

• Metro Convention Centre has been booked to act as the “home” for the event
• the Monday: State of Nation - executives describe where we are with technology
• e.g. Toronto signed digital cities agreement with San Francisco
• 2 day trade show - morning keynote, afternoon keynote, and concurrent sessions - Metro Convention Centre - 25 booths available - there will be a registration for the sessions; trade show will be free to bring people in.
• 2008 focus: innovations in the area of green tech/clean tech, sas, web 2.0
• talent management and career day - Wed. Sept. 24 - informational and educational sessions. Two streams: talent management - directors of HR, hiring managers, etc.; career day - for technology talent. 8 to 12 concurrent sessions, split between the topics. 30-45 minutes in length. Have not yet decided the content on all the sessions. Putting together request for speakers. Looking for people who will engage the audience.
• There will also be a career fair for people in the industry - technology workers with experience.
• Encouraging other groups to host their events at the Metro Convention Centre. They can also host their own event e.g. Toronto Board of Trade, MaRS
• Companies looking to sponsor an official event - they have packages. No fee to host your own event.
• Technology Idol - students can submit video to explain why they are the next “top tech talent”. This is the one event involving students.
• Thurs. (and possibly half of Friday) - Future Forward 2010 - areas such as mobile marketing, social media, online advertising - more focussed for the marketing/communications industry, what is the next thing on the Internet
• Thurs. evening - official after party - at one of the local bars. Open bar if they can get enough sponsorship.
• Half day Friday
• Break out rooms still available to be rented directly from the Metro Convention Centre; try to rent the A/V equipment together with the Toronto Tech Week planning group so they can get the best price break as a group.
• There will be overlap of events, but that gives people choice.

2008 organizing team

Dave Forde
Rob Berry
Mia Wedgbury
Elaine Pratt
Robert Berger
Jerry King & Rick Segal
Ernesta Rossi & Peter McNeil
Brian Makse

Sponsors to date

City of Toronto
Workopolis
KPMG
Thin Data
IT World Canada
Backbone Magazine
Government of Ontario

Available volunteer opportunities

• Internet Day Co-chair
• Marketing Committee
• Events Committee
• Communications Committee

Available sponsorship opportunities

• Sponsoring of Toronto Tech Week
• Sponsoring of a specific event or day
• Exhibiting at the 2-day trade show

Next Steps:

• Get involved with a Committee
• Suggest a topic or speaker - who
• TechTalk Feb. 20th - TBA
• Next Town Hall Meeting - March 25 [update: website showing this meeting 8am March 26]
  
• There is a Facebook group

Contact:

Dave Forde
dforde @ profectio.com
416-760-3344

Rob Berry
rberry @ toronto.ca
416-392-3387

Demo Post

I am showing the blog software to a group!

Catch Connie Crosby Today -- Live!

After two very full days of teaching in Ottawa I now get to "bust out" a little and hang with three different groups in one day. Currently I am holed up in a secret location getting ready for the following events:

- 4:00 p.m. Toronto Association of Law Libraries - I am speaking at the "Surf and Learn"--as opposed to "Lunch and Learn"--on the funky topic Social Networking Tools Inside the Law Firm. This is a members-only event. The original cap was at 20 people, but I hear they opened it up for up to 35 of my colleagues. Wow! I can't wait.

- 6:30 p.m. Toronto Geek Girl Dinner - tonight's speaker is Malgosia Green, co-founder of Savvica, an education technology company. Cost is $22 for the fabulous buffet dinner at the Hot House Cafe on Front St. There are still a few spots left on the sign-up wiki. Note that you have to be a woman or guest of a woman to attend. If any of my male friends are interested, let me know.

- 10:00 p.m. EST Uncontrolled Vocabulary - this is the library industry's phone-in talk show. I will be guest hosting tonight! You can join in the call by signing in to Talkshoe (via telephone or if you can figure out how to do it with microphone and a computer--that's how I do it, using a paid level of Skype to call in cheaply). I will be opening up the phone lines at 9:45 p.m. EST to give everyone a chance to get logged in and settled, then we start recording at 10 pm! You can also just listen in (access from the blog link above). Or, you can go back and listen to it later. It's all good. Hope you will check it out!!

So, see you this evening! I am hoping these howling winds and blowing snow calm down by then.

Namaste.

News Flash: Connie Crosby Hosts Uncontrolled Vocabulary - Wed. Jan. 30/08 - 10 pm EST

You have no doubt heard me talk a bit about Uncontrolled Vocabulary, the library industry phone-in show via Talkshoe on the web. Greg Schwartz aka planetneutral, the usual host, is unable to fulfil his usual duties as host this week. As such, he went in search of a guest host and I put up my hand. Here is his post:

The show will go on!

Many thanks to Connie Crosby, aka Leisure Girl, for grabbing the reins and agreeing to fill in for me as host this week. Connie is active within the podcasting community and can be heard on the Podcamp Toronto Podcast, as well as recent episodes 25 and 27 of this program. So fasten your safety belts and I'll be back for episode 29 on February 2nd. Thanks again Connie!

I hope you will consider joining me over on Talkshoe Wednesday night. That is Jan. 30/08 at 10 pm EST.

And if you have story ideas, you can email them to me or tag them on del.icio.us with the tag "unvocab". You can also visit the unvocab tag page in advance to see what will be discussed during the show, although Greg tells me I will have "editorial control" over what we actually discuss. Ah, the POWER!

--ahem--

So, don't let me just talk to myself. Come and join me. Thanks!

Podcamp Toronto 2 - Coming Soon!

Last February I attended my first "unconference" in the form of Podcamp Toronto. I had such a great time, learning so much and meeting so many interesting people, that I put my hand up to help organize this year's Podcamp Toronto.



My main focus has been the Podcamp Toronto Blog, and specifically with working on our latest promotional vehicle--you guessed it--the Podcamp Toronto Podcast. We are already up to Episode 7. In it, Sean "Ductapeguy" McGaughey and I talk about the latest news about Podcamp Toronto, while at the same time Sean teaches me about podcasting. And I have been learning. My focus thus far has been learning how to get started, and soon I will be stepping into the slightly more technical realm of recording things myself, editing them and putting them together. Wish me luck!

Enough about me--the REAL highlight of Podcamp Toronto will be the people. And some fantastic folks have already signed up. If you are interested in podcasting or other aspects of new media, you should consider joining us. Podcamp Toronto 2 will be taking place Saturday, February 23 and Sunday, February 24 with the likelihood of some kind of meetup the Friday night before. Registration is free. Podcamp Toronto 2 will again take place at the fantastic facility of Rogers Communications Centre at Ryerson University at 80 Gould Street in Toronto (Map).

I am particularly excited about a full stream that has been created specifically for the podcaster wannabe or the newer podcaster: Zero to Podcasting or "Z2P". The concept came out of the recent Podcamp Ottawa and is meant to walk folks like me through the process from beginning to successfully podcasting. I hope to attend as much of this as I can as it will help me to put the pieces together.

And there will be lots of other sessions to help more advanced podcasters get to the "next level". If you have experience, please consider leading a session. There is still lots of room for more!

The concept of an unconference is that everyone give a little bit to make it happen, whether that is giving feedback, asking questions, volunteering to work the registration desk, or leading a session.

For my library colleagues, do consider attending if this at all interests you. I see at least a couple of my library cohorts signed up, and I'd love to see more representation from my own industry! Lots of folks ask me how I fit in so many conferences during the year. Here is one event that is interesting, on the weekend so it does not get in the way of weekday at least, close to home for many of us, and best of all the price is right! If you have any questions about what to expect, feel free to drop me a line and I will try to answer your questions.

Not near Toronto? Podcamps are now being held world-wide! Check podcamp.org for more events.

In Ottawa Teaching for the Professional Learning Centre

You know, I take on projects and forget to tell folks about them. Monday and Tuesday this week I will be in the fabulous City of Ottawa teaching my Social Networking Tools: Hands On Learning course. I have just missed Winterlude by a few days unfortunately. Everyone here is sure psyched about Winterlude! Will have to time that better next year.

Regardless, I am looking forward to meeting the participants and guiding them through the survey of popular tools that are out there including Google Reader, Wordpress, PBWiki, del.icio.us, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, Twitter, and Second Life. It is a lot to cover in one day, a lot to absorb. We'll see if they are up to the test! If you are in the Ottawa area, if you hurry there may still be room in Tuesday's class.

For those closer to Toronto, we have added two more dates: Friday, March 28, 2008 and Thursday, May 15, 2008. See the Toronto course description for details.

One of the first things I want to do in my new incarnation is to spend some time developing more courses in this area. The Social Networking Tools course is a survey course for the beginner to intermediate level. I would like to take some of these topics to the next level for everyone, something in the intermediate to advanced level. My idea is to develop a course about wikis, and then one about RSS feeds to start. What I need to know is, what form would people like to see these in? And what other courses would you like to see from me? I am open to all ideas--in person classes, electronic classes, half day, full day, or something that runs over several weeks. The Professional Learning Centre at the Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto, has been very supportive of my first course and have really given me some fantastic freedom to develop what I like to follow it up. But, it only makes sense if I give you what you want to see.

Let me know! Drop me a comment here on the blog or email me directly conniecrosby (at) gmail.com.

Cheers,
Connie

Gung Haggis Fat Choy is Coming Up This Weekend

One of the things I am enjoying about being at home is seeing the CBC News coverage (not to mention the G4 Tech TV coverage). I just turned the news on to see a familiar face--Todd Wong! I had to laugh. Two years ago I blogged about an unique Vancouver cultural happening, Gung Haggis Fat Choy. First created by Todd Wong 10 years ago, it celebrates both the Chinese and Scottish cultures that make up so much of Vancouver.

His interview on CBC Newsworld was a lot of fun. He talked about the origins of the event, the food being served (haggis in dim sum form?), and then introduced his friend Joe McDonald who played a brief bagpipe piece. Then Joe and Todd went into the Gung HAGGIS RAP Choy, the Robbie Burns Address to a Haggis set to rap music. To hear the full 3-minute version, go to Gung HAGGIS RAP Choy.

I have to tell you, the zany craziness of Toddish McWong and Joe McDonald is contagious. I hope everyone who attends the event this weekend has a great time!

Should Other Archival Photograph Collections Move to Flickr Commons?

Last week Agnese Caruso reported that the Library of Congress is running a pilot project with Flickr to make its photographic collections available over the web. According to the Library of Congress Blog, the response has been tremendous:

The response to the Library’s pilot project with Flickr has been nothing short of astounding. You always hope for a positive reaction to something like this, but it has been utterly off the charts—from the Flickr community, from the blogosphere, from the news media—it is nothing short of amazing.

Let’s start out with a few statistics, as of last night (thanks, Justin!):

• 392,000 views on the photostream
• 650,000 views of photos
• Adding in set and collection page views, there were about 1.1 million total views on our account
• All 3,100+ photos have been viewed
• 420 of the photos have comments
• 1,200 of the photos have been favorited

That report was as of January 18th, so you can imagine how much more the word has spread by now.

From the Flickr write-up of The Commons, there is the idea that this is the first of what they hope are many projects in this regard:

Hopefully, this pilot can be used as a model that other cultural institutions would pick up, to share and redistribute the myriad collections held by cultural heritage institutions all over the world.

Over on the BlogTO blog, Sameer Vasta ponders whether the Toronto Archives should also make its photographic collections available on Flickr? His thoughts:

While their collection may not be as extensive as that of the LoC, the Toronto Archives hold photos from as far back as 1856. This extensive compendium on all things Toronto is partially-accessible through the web, but for the most part, it's still hidden away from our city's general public, many of whom have no clue that the Archives even exist.

Is it time for the Toronto Archives to collaborate with an organization like Flickr in order to share their collections with a larger audience?

I wonder from the point of view of archives, libraries or other organizations holding photos, what kind of resources need to go into creating a collection on Flickr? It seems to me staffing and money would need to go into it, something these organizations may not have a lot of. Should they designate resources to this? Should the government be making one-time funds available for this purpose?


Republished from original post on Slaw.

Uncontrolled Vocabulary #27 - What's Wrong With Cool?

Whenever I am available 10 pm (EST) on Wednesday evenings, I like to take part in the phone-in show for librarians called Uncontrolled Vocabulary. The show is created and hosted by Greg Schwartz and uses the Talkshoe platform for recording and hosting.

In last night's episode there were just four of us talking, so you actually have a chance to hear me pontificate a little more than usual. I like taking part because there are few librarians from special libraries participating, and not so many Canadians. That being said, our group last night was half Canadian with the brilliant Ryan Deschamps of the Halifax Public Library also taking part. The other participants were (of course) Greg himself, and up-and-coming librarian Julian Clark who works at the Georgetown University Law Library. I met Julian at last year's Computers in Libraries conference and was very impressed with this library student. I can't wait to see what he does when he finishes his degree!

If you haven't done so already, check out last night's show and past episodes. They run about an hour in a talkshow format, wherein we discuss controversial articles and blog posts of interest to the library community.

LLRX.com article: Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries

New on LLRX.com is an article by Debbie Ginsberg and Meg Kribble called Social Networks for Law Librarians and Law Libraries, or How We Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Friending. Great title, and a great article to go with it!

I enjoyed their discussion of how law librarians are using social networks to connect with communities and each other. My personal interest is how law firms are using social networks, so I found this little tidbit interesting:

Lawyers are also active in social networks. MySpace includes several profiles of law firms promoting their services. Many law firms, including Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Baker & McKenzie, have formed Facebook networks which feature hundreds of members. Such networks could be used not only for members of the law firm itself, but also to keep law firm alumni informed about firm activities and to maintain connections with former attorneys.

I had a look, and found a number of Facebook sites for Skadden Arps (you will need a Facebook account to view these pages I believe):

• Skadden Alumni
• Skadden, LA - Summer Associates
• Skadden DC - Summer
• Skadden Summer Students 07
• Skadden Trainees 2008
  

I find it interesting that some of these groups are open for anyone to join. Not sure why. They only have a few members each and are not very active, but that probably describes a good number of groups on Facebook.

A similar search for Baker & McKenzie Facebook groups:

• Baker and Ex-bakers
• Baker & McKenzie Trainees 08-09
• ex Baker & McKenzie
• Baker and McKenzie vac scheme
• Baker & McKenzie Future Trainees - Sept 07
• Baker & McKenzie Summer Interns July 2007
• Baker & McKenzie Summer Clerks 06/07
• Baker & McKenzie Intake 2
• Baker & McKenzie APSAM 2007
• Baker & McKenzie 2007 Summers, Unite!
• Baker & McKenzie Summer Intern August 2007

Except for the last couple, the groups seem to have or had a larger number of members and a fair bit of activity. Membership for most groups is appropriately closed. Some seem to have sprung up organically from the interns or summer associates involved.

In both cases I think the firms' thinking is correct, that if the law students are on Facebook, that is the place to get them connecting one with another before and during their summers. If they have a large turn-over of associates who do not stay, then keeping them connected with an alumni site on Facebook is a good idea. But, keeping a group active on Facebook is no easy task. One has to send out periodic messages, and create real-world events, to keep them engaged and coming back. Easier said than done. Especially if these same people end up in an office together and get used to the law firm email culture.

I am sure there are other law firm groups springing up, if not by design then organically by firm members starting up groups. Any others I should know about?

Lawrence Lessig - Book Free for Download

I was just checking out the 2001 Lawrence Lessig book The Future of Ideas which is his most recent to have been made available for free download under Creative Commons licensing, as mentioned the other day on Slaw. I was impressed that I was not required to fill out any forms or even leave an email address behind in order to download it. Fantastic idea! This is a great way to revitalize interest in a book that may no longer be on mainstream bookstore shelves. He apparently has done this with some of his more recent books as well. Kudos!