I've been in my new position as Teen Center Advisor for ACL for a few months now and I'm settling into the role.  I've still got that "new job uncertainty" but I'm not thrown off track by every question that's asked of me and, thankfully, the teens are starting to accept me and the way I do things.  I thought I'd share some of the things that I'm particularly excited about:

• Teen Center - we've totally rearranged everything to make the space feel more enclosed and distinct from the rest of the library.  We've also got new furniture.
• Anime - my predecessor started an anime collection which I'll keep adding to as it's so popular, but we're also going to start showing anime once a month.  I emailed a couple of the major companies that produce anime to see if they'd give us screening permission and they DID!  It only took them a couple of days to get back to me too.
• Movies, Movies, Movies - my library recently purchased a movie license (pretty darn cheap all things considered) that allows us to show movies from almost every major studio.  This spurred me on to start a Books to Movies club.  We'll be watching movies made from books with YA appeal and discussing differences between the two.
• Gaming Tweens - Dylan and I will be starting a weekly gaming program for kids in grades 6-9.  We're starting with video games but in the future might venture into board games and table top role playing games.

What does this have to do with L2.0?  Everything.  L2.0 isn't just about integrating current technologies into our models of service, it's also about offering great programs and creating a comfortable place for our patrons. 

Some of the SPLAT team - Stephanie, Memo, and I - are kickin it at the Magic Valley ILA Spring conference today. We'll be presenting this afternoon at 2:30pm on Emerging Technologies. It'll be a bit of a smorgasbord: a smidge of SPLAT, a nice helping of RSS/Blogs/Aggregators, a dollop of social networks, and a sweet little serving of IM. We've also got a table set for people to stop by and get SPLATed. If you're here come by, say hey, and try out something new!

Well, it’s been a long time coming, but I’m thrilled to announce that the Ada Community Library now has its very own MySpace page! I’ve included all the services I could think of that our patrons might like. You can search our catalog, view our calendar of events, look at some of our new items, look at pics, contact us in a variety of ways, and of course, everything else you normally do on MySpace. We'll also be offering programming on safety in the future. So friend us, leave us comments, and let me know what you think!

I came across this while catching up on my blogs. It blew my hair back ya might say. You've gotta watch it. I think I'll be pointing back to this for quite some time when talking to people about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0.

Well? What did you think?

My coworker passed this post onto me.  I thought it was well done and useful.  I often find myself in the position of defending the existence and funding of libraries.  So many people feel that with the current and ongoing evolution of the internet, libraries are irrelevant.  The post gives 10 reasons why we are important - even necessary - to a healthy community. 

This post is from the Jackson County Library System blog.  In case you haven't heard, this is the system in Oregon that will be shut down indefinitely in April due to lack of funding.  The idea that a large library system, with 15 branches, could be forced to close is sad and sobering.  Their funding issues are involved, but this is a good slap in the face as to the reality of things...libraries are not constants.  We (those of us who are in the profession) have to be passionate. We have to fight.  If we aren't and we won't, how can we expect our patrons to feel any differently?