Well, this is cool....

One thing that I love about the library proffession is that we serve everyone, we are inclusive, we pioneer good customer service, and librarians are usually up to something cool.

Check out the gay-themed library of Fort Lauderdale!


Fort Lauderdale gay-themed library out of the closet
The county's first gay-themed library celebrates its official opening in Fort Lauderdale on the eve of a GLBT literary festival.
BY AMY SHERMAN
asherman@MiamiHerald.com
In decades past, when gay residents wanted to find books about their community they had to borrow from friends or from a closet where some were stored at a gay-friendly church.
But the gay-themed library in Broward is now out of the closet.
On Thursday, the Stonewall Library and Archives, a collection of gay-themed material that was the subject of political controversy two years ago, celebrated its grand opening in Fort Lauderdale.
The new location is a sign of how mainstream the gay community has become in Broward: the gay library shares a building with a county library and ArtServe and is situated on the edge of a city park where children play ball and seniors gather for tennis lessons.
Jack Rutland, library executive director, lauded the city and county for entering a partnership to make the library possible.
''Imagine me saying that 20 years ago,'' Rutland said.
The grand opening coincides with the Gay and Lesbian Literary Arts Festival, which will be held at the library Friday and Saturday.
The library collection has moved from the Gay and Lesbian Community Center, which is slated to be torn down for development, into a city-owned building at 1300 Sunrise Blvd. The library opened at its new home in January.
When gay activists proposed the move in 2007, then-Mayor Jim Naugle balked.
''I feel troubled a city building would be housing materials with content we have arrested people for in the past,'' Naugle said at a 2007 City Commission meeting, one of many comments he made that angered gay activists.
The library move was narrowly approved by the Fort Lauderdale City Commission with Naugle and then-City Commissioner Christine Teel voting against it. Naugle retired due to term limits in March, while Teel lost to former police Chief Bruce Roberts.
Stonewall is the largest independent, circulating gay-themed library, with about 20,000 books and movies, Rutland said.
Named after the 1969 Stonewall riots in New York that preceded the modern gay rights movement, the library was founded in 1973 by a group of local college students who were exchanging books.
As the number of books grew, they incorporated as a nonprofit and moved multiple times over the years from a tiny closet in a church to its new 4,200-square-foot space.
Library visitors must be 18 to access the circulating materials, which include ''nothing you are not going to see at Barnes & Noble and Amazon. It's all gay-themed, nothing remotely objectionable,'' Rutland said.
The library has a wall with a timeline about the gay rights movement and T-shirts depicting various gay rights causes. Book titles include The Gay Church and Sweet Tea: Black Gay Men of the South.
Several elected officials -- including Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti and Ken Keechl -- the first and only openly gay county commissioner -- attended the celebration.
Lamberti talked about the importance of different groups of people coming together to celebrate the county's diversity. The sheriff highlighted a Florida Attorney General report that said Broward led the state in hate crimes in 2007.
''When I read that, it was kind of disturbing,'' Lamberti told the crowd of a few dozen gay activists and residents. ``We basically don't understand each other.''
Stonewall is open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It's free to visit but a library membership, necessary to borrow materials, costs $30 a year.

Washington DC Here I come!

My proposal for ALA 2010 has gotten accepted! Check it:

Hello Angela -

I am writing to let you know that your program proposal for ‘Technology Skills for Incarcerated Teens’ for the annual conference of 2010 has been accepted as is by the board. Nichole will be following up later with time slot information. If you have any questions in the meantime you can let me or Nichole know.

Thanks, and congratulations!


Awesome! I'm glad that I have a year to prepare my presentation, time is on my side.

Beware Spokeo, among other things

Well well, it seems that our world has gotten that much smaller.
Ever hear of Spokeo? It's a social networking search engine. Their tag line is: Uncover personal photos, videos and secrets... guaranteed! They promise to find you 'juicy' and 'truly mouth-watering news about friends and co-workers.' I assume that also includes information about ex-boyfriends/ girlfriends, current boyfriends/ girlfriends, or other objects of your desire. Or frienemies. Think of the power! Hey, with access to 41 major social networks I assume you could find some spine tingling details about people.
Spokeo is just one of several new services geared at crawling every available social networking site and dig up dirt on the people you know. It has competition with fellow sites Pipl and CVGadget, but the premise is the same. It's basically cyberstalking in it's laziest, the site does all the work and you reap the benefits. I believe that Spokeo allows you to import your email address book and you can set up alerts on people and get instant updates on their digital life.
Services such as Spokeo now bring to light things that people probably wanted to keep hidden from ceratin folks. The best thing about social networks and blogs is that there was a degree of anonymity to them. You could set them to private, invite only certain friends to your profile, or interact with a certain circle of cyber friends. Now everyone can know what you buy at Amazon.com, what your latest Tweets are, or read your touching Battlestar Galactica fan fic at SciFi.com.
The question is, how much do you want to know about the people in your life? How much do you want people to know about you?Although these sites are perfectly legal, there is a stalker-ish feeling to them with a hint of voyeur. I am wondering where this particular ride will stop, or if it will keep going. And, will I edit myself more and the gap between my real life and online life slowly closes?

Told you so

The economy, she is bad.
We know this at the Public Library, our jobs might be in question later this year. I find it ironic that the county is cutting our library budget and we are in a hiring freeze until July, while we have record numbers of patrons attendance and checked-out material.
Even MSNBC says that libraries are the hip place to be. While I doubt anyone uses the word 'hip' in an actual sentence these days, MSNBC's article is dead on when it says that 'buisness at local libraries is booming in this harsh economy'.
Told 'ya it would.

Lockdown Podcasting

I realize that I have written about Podcasting and Jail, but I have not written about Podcasting in Jail. It’s quite an experience!

This is the first Podcasting program that I have facilitated at Jail North. I was thrilled that Jail Administration was allowing me to conduct this program at all. People are starting to catch on to the many benefits of Podcasting, but I was afraid that Jail Admin would not see it as a worthy inmate program. However, I was cleared for the program and I have been having a blast. Thank you, Jail North!

It is an interesting experience to facilitate a tech-heavy program with patrons that have spotty or non-existent computer skills. Using a mouse, recording on Audacity and exporting a file as an MP3 can be challenging. Many of my patrons do not have a point of reference for those activities. The digital divide is very apparent within facilities like a jail. However, somehow we are muddling through. Repetition is our friend. Saving and exporting a file is done the same way every time and the guys have caught on quickly. I learned a long time ago to not make patrons use the touch mouse on our laptops because that is difficult to maneuver. I supply a USB mouse for each computer, and the guys handle that fine. Interestingly, they are very helpful to each other and the guys that are a little more tech savvy help out the ones who need assistance. That is nice to see.

The guys enjoy Podcasting, but they also like the concept of Podcasting. I showed them the Podcasting directory on iTunes and they were amazed that there were so many Podcasts available and for free. I have played several Podcasts that have covered topics such as politics, movies, manners, and sports. As we listen to the Podcast, we talk about what we like and don’t like about them. The guys practice reading poetry and record themselves on Audacity. Anything by Maya Angelou is excellent to use as she has relatable work and her poems sound wonderful when spoken out loud. Langston Hughes, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Lauren Hill are also great to use. We’ve recorded samples of Hamlet’s soliloquy, and next week I’m going to have them record the first four verses of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.

Along with technology skills, the guys are learning how to be better public speakers. They are critical of how they sound and work hard to ‘get it right,’ often re-recording a poem several times because they want to sound their best. I don’t know what opportunities these guys will have to Podcast when they are released, but I hope that they are able to utilize the skills that they have learned during the class.

And perhaps have an abiding love for the spoken word.

I heart Stephen King

Check out this action:

Smackdown of the Week: Stephen King vs. Twilight's Stephenie Meyer

http://www.comcast.net/articles/entertainment-eonline/20090204/b82354/


Oh, Stephen. How I love you. True, mocking Stephenie Meyer and her fandom is probably not a great idea, but I doubt that his readership will be fazed by his honesty. There is something truly affirming that one of your favorite authors feels the same way about Twilight. I'm not a Twilight hater per se, but I agree with King when he says that the books are just not that well written. They aren’t.
And while you might not agree with me, King has sold an estimated 300-350 million copies of his books, many of which are best sellers, not to mention to awards he has won…well, his opinion carries a little more clout than mine.

If possible I heart Stephen King even more!

Blogging is the new Black

My poor, sweet, ignored blog. No, I have not bandoned you. Yes, I know I am a bad blogger. I apologize. I have no excuse but my own laziness and lack of motivation.

There. All better. Now, let’s update this thing.

Things that have happened in January 2009:

1. My husband and I returned from a fabulous trip in South Africa, visiting family. I will post a little something about that later on. (No, I promise, I really will). Nothing like the African sun, good food, rock climbing, and family to rejuvenate you for the new year.

2. We got a new Prez!
Way to go, Barack Obama. Nothing like the historical election of a new president to rejuvenate you for the new year.

3. I am back in school.

4. My library programs are taking off. Check back for more details.

5. I am still a Snarky Librarian.