Monday, December 29, 2008

Catching up

Today has been a day for catching up. Not that I'm caught up on all my reading (ha ha ha, does that ever happen?), but at least I've plowed through my inbox.

Speaking of plowing, while I was in sunny CA accompanying a conference attendee (AGU is the ALA of geologists and oceanographers), visiting friends and going to yummy restaurants, we had two feet of snow. That's right. 2 FEET. But I missed most of it, as a lot had melted by the time I (finally) got home.

We met one of the nicest, kindest, most thoughtful airline representative on Christmas Eve Eve when we were socked in with snow at O'Hare. He was incredibly helpful when our late evening American Airlines flight from Chicago to Boston was cancelled. Have you had weather delays, in your holiday travel? Or wishing you could travel, instead of having to work the Reference Desk over the holidays?

Well to cheer you up, no matter what your fate..here are a few tasty, no-calorie morsels that have crossed my desk recently (in no particular order):

  • Museums on Us. Free admission to selected museums, if you have a Bank of America card/account. I love this idea!! (Of course, free admission is admittedly less of a draw when you're already usually free.) But the main point is--someone in the museum community has partnered with a bank to give the consumer a great experience. It made me contemplate opening an account with them, just to get the free museum days.
  • DIY PS3 supercomputer. Andy tells me you can build one for around US$ 4,000. Here's the recipe.
  • smashLAB White Paper on Social Media. A nice guide for social media from the marketing perspective. It's from March 2008, so a bit dated but offers a solid-but-quick overview if you want the basics.
Hope you've been enjoying your snowy or sunny holidays.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

"A Library Carol"

Check out "A Library Carol," a little holiday bonbon from "George and Joan, Thinking Out Loud," the podcast Joan Frye Williams and I do for Infopeople.

Many thanks to the rest of the cast...Andy Havens, Martin Helmke, Joyce Leahy, Larry Olszewski, Chuck O'Shea, and Eileen O'Shea (who is also our producer, mixer, and all around heroine).

Happy holidays, and to all, a good night!

Friday, December 05, 2008

Infopeople CLA Presentations

The mini-demos sponsored by Infopeople at the California Library Association conference last month are now available on Infopeople's web site. A wide variety of topics is available, including Linda Demmers presentation on Green Buildings, Chuck O'Shea on Jing, and Joan Frye Williams and me on Strategic Positioning. There are also links to the presentations Joan and I reacted to, featuring Daniel Pink and William Crossman. (These link open the presentations, so check the volume on your computer before opening!)