The connection between passion & community transformation ...

There's a huge long blog post brewing in my head after reading this quote. But to be honest, I don't think there's much to be added that Wynton has already hit directly on the head.

" A palpable energy is released when inspiration and dedication come together in a creative art. The energy is transformative in an individual who is innovative, but it is transcendent when manifested by a group. There are no words for the dynamic thrill of participating in a mutual mosaic of creativity."

— Wynton Marsalis

Thanks Mylee for forwarding this great quote. It's definitely a keeper.

A mutual mosaic of creativity ? ... now that's a library vision that makes my heart sing.

Trend Spotting Predictions

Trend Spotting has recently posted several slide decks highlighting 2009 predictions for online marketing, social media and mobile computing. If you view all three, you’ll probably see some similar themes… market saturation, strained economic capacity, back to basics, more mobile/more impact, and the killer app? It’s definitely community - & the definition is more personal than ever.

Take a look for yourselves:

• Influencers on Social Media 2009 Predictions
  
• Influencers on Online Marketing 2009 Predictions
  
• Influencers on Mobile 2009-2020 Predictions

What trends do you see?

New Year’s Reflections

The first day of the new year always seems to be a reflective day for me which is fueled primarily by my “Best Book” ritual. This year marks my 21st entry in the book and along with this ritual, I thought I continue another started also three years ago on LibraryBytes and highlight a few of my posts which seemed to have generated the most conversation (at least from my perspective).

• "Patron", "Customer" in an "Us & Us" world - Does either fit ???
  
• On wild success, stones, gems & online catalogs
  
• Just a few thoughts on sustainability …
  
• CSMC, libraries and the new digital divide …
  
• Education: learning to Change
  

Happy 2009 everyone. Here’s to another great year.

The Internet 2020

Lee Ranie, Director of the Pew & Internet Life Project, sent me an email (like I assume many people were copied on) yesterday providing a heads up about the Pew latest report on the Future of Internet III. I've only taken a my first cursory glance over the summary and predictions, but what I really thought-provoking are some of the comments shared by leading experts and futurists...

"Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy. The Net will wear away institutions that have forgotten how to sound human."

"The world will get a nervous system, and that is a big deal."

"New methods of securing the true from the false will emerge. The source will become more important than the message."
"The internet is like graffiti, only it can be targeted to the right niche."

"Transportation will be refined through massive substitution of communication. The current flight to cities will be reversed."

"The greatest changes will occur in the arena of trust and human relations."

Here's a high level summary of the predictions and impact:

• Some 77% said the mobile computing device (the smartphone) with more significant computing power will be 2020's primary global Internet-connection platform.
  
• 64% favored the idea that 2020 user interfaces will offer advanced touch, talk and typing options and some added a fourth "T" - think.
  
• Nearly four out of five respondents (78%) said the original Internet architecture will not be completely replaced by a next-generation 'net by 2020.
  
• Three out of five respondents (60%) disagreed with the idea that legislatures, courts, the technology industry, and media companies will exercise effective intellectual property control by 2020.
  
• A majority—56%—agreed that in 2020 "few lines (will) divide professional from personal time, and that's OK."
  
• 56% said while Web 2.0 is bringing some people closer, social tolerance will not be heightened by our new connections
  
• 45% agreed and 44% disagreed with the notion that the greater transparency of people and institutions afforded by the Internet will heighten individual integrity and forgiveness.
  
• More than half (55%) agreed that many lives will be touched in 2020 by virtual worlds, mirror worlds, and augmented reality, while 45% disagreed or did not answer the question.

Oh, and if you have a prediction yourself to add, there's even a form for you to participate.

It's got me thinking ... how about you?

Moving from more to best

“Doing more with less” is a mantra that many libraries have learned to live (and some even flourish) by. But with this current financial crisis it may take more than “more” to carry us through ...




Thanks Jenn Hess for inspiring me with this twitter thought. I totally agree that creativity will be a huge asset during this coming year. How can we do “best” for less? You've got my head spinning around this thought as well.

My 24th & final for the year

My final talk for this year was yesterday and it couldn't have been a better venue or audience. The staff at Boulder Public Library seriously rock and in touring their Main library and community, it was easy to see why Tony Tallent jumped at the opportunity to become BPL's Library & Arts Director.

For me this last talk of the year was a bit of self-imposed stretching assignment. I wanted to do something for Tony's new staff that was not only playful and fun and but also steered clear of the topics of social media and technology trends -- my typical presentation forte. I think I succeeded in doing both, but I'm always open for suggestions for improvement, Here are my slides:

BPL: Libraries, Learning & Play

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: learning libraries)

From a quick recap of my calendar, it looks like I did 24 different talks this year and in all of these, it looks like I only used one slide deck twice. That's a lot of talks ... and a lot of stretching.

Thanks Tony & BPL for a awesome day of PLAY!

CML Learn & Play Finale !!!

When Joy told me where we were tracking with the participant and completion rates for Learn & Play earlier this week, I was totally impressed. This morning, the drawings were held for those who finished in time for a chance at the added incentives, but in my book all 254 staff members who completed their 23 things learning journey are winners!

Here's the video of the final drawing with Pat Losinksi and the Learn & Play team. Getting to sit on the sidelines this time around and watch the enthusiasm and energy that the team contributed to this effort was a pure joy! They really brought new energy and a brilliant twist to the program.

Anyway, here's the video of the prize drawings for L&P.



Hats off to everyone who joined in this learning journey. And from what I understand there may still be a bit more in store for those who are still interested in learning more. So, hold on to your blog and keep watching Learn & Play.

PS: Here's the final stats: 494 staff blog created = 63%, 254 completed = 51.4% - w00t!!

I'm IMPRESSED, aren't' you?

10 Random Things (& my 10 things from a year ago)

A few weeks ago, I eluded in my Learn & Play video that I had put forth a challenge for CML employees (via the APLE employee newsletter) to share ten random things about themselves. Since that time, I've had several requests to reprint them. So for those that are curious, here they are:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For those who don't me yet, I'm Helene Blowers and the newest member of your executive leadership team. Having just been in Columbus now 10 months I'm still learning tons about the area, the library and all the incredible people I'm working with – that's you!

As many of you are already aware, I'm the creator of the original online learning program that CML's Learn & Play is base upon and blog at LibraryBytes.com. So in trying to figure out what I could share with you through the APLE newsletter, that you might not know about me, I thought I'd just try and share ten random things that you won't find elsewhere. :)

1. I have weakness for white chocolate covered pretzels. There's something about salty and sweet together.
   
2. In high school I excelled in swimming, competing on numerous teams and even swimming at the state level. Now I rarely swim … except in paperwork and housework. I'm sure many of you can relate.
   
3. As a pre-teen I had crushes on David Cassidy, Scott Biao & the Bay City Rollers. I know this dates me, but oh, well…
   
4. I enjoy going to concerts. The best concert I have ever attended has to be Joe Cocker. The second best is REM @ the Hamersmith Odion, London -back when Michael Stipe actually had hair. :)
   
5. I've had the same green ribbon attached to my key ring for over twenty years. It's served me well. I've never lost my keys.
   
6. People who treat "walking sidewalks" in busy airports like "parking lots" (and don't know how to get off to the side) are one of my few pet peeves.
   
7. For some reason I'm good at remembering trivial numbers. The grocery clerks are constantly amazed by my ability to recite the barcode off the dog's 20 lb bag of food without looking – 1780042330 :)
   
8. Although I hitch hiked all over England and southern Ireland during my younger days, it's not something I would do today. Nor would I encourage my daughters to do when they get older. Ah, the wisdom of age ...
   
9. I've had minor brushes with fame with Barry Manilow, John Cougar Meloncamp, Patti Smyth, Jessie Helms and Lauren Becall. But my favorite bwf story has to be Jon BonJovi. Ask me some time and I'll tell you about it.
   
10. I love to read with my daughters Kathryn and Jessica. We've plowed through the Magic Tree House series, Little House on the Prairie and are currently working on Prince Caspian (Naria series) and the Magic Rainbow fairy books. At 7 and 9 they are fascinated with fairies.

How's that for 10 random facts. If you're interested in the normal stuff about me, please feel free to check out LibraryBytes.com.

Oh, and I have one last thing. I'd like to give a huge shout out to all you that are participating in Learn & Play. I'm really enjoying watching all the participation and getting to know so many of you better through your blogs. Hey, here's thought ... how about a bonus L& P "thing"? We could call it "10 Random Things." Why not blog ten random things about you and twitter me the link (my twitter ID is hblowers) and that way I ( & others) could also get to know you better. :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS: Today is officially my one year anniversary. And as follow-up to this, here's the post I did after my first week titled 10 things I learned during my first week @ CML ( does anyone notice a pattern here?)

It's been an extremely fast year!

Happy Birthday Discovery Place!

My first year anniversary with CML is quickly approaching this week ( my how time goes by fast). But as I’ve learned quickly in my short 52 weeks here, my short-timer status is nothing compared to the tenure of Discovery Place - the work-horse application of the library system.

CML I believe may be the last large urban library system in the country to still run their own home-grown ILS (yes, it’s totally true) and this past week Discovery Place celebrated a major milestone - it’s 20 birthday.



Of course, there's been lots of changes and upgrades to the system since it was launched Thanksgiving weekend in 1988 and with all the exciting upgrades that the DP (Discovery Place) team is working on we're hopeful that we can make this backbone application even more valuable.

Anyway, I have feeling there's a lot of good things ahead for both me and DP. I'm still in awe that it's been a year for me already... and am mildly hopeful I'll also make it here at CML to celebrate my 20th :)

Thing 23: [insert happy dance]

Like many Learn & Play participants, I’m doing a happy dance right now realizing that I actually made it through all 23 things in the allotted time. I know that there are many CML staff out there still doing the program, so I want to lend my social media support (hmm… could this be a new meaning to the acronym “sms”) to all those pushing to the finish line these 48 hours.

For me the Learn & Play program has really be amazing to watch. As many of you already know, this discovery program was based upon a program idea that I launched nearly two years ago for another library system. But as look back on this experience with CML (this time both a participant and staff support cheerleader) I can honestly say that Team CML really turned up the volume. From day 1, Learn & play – ”I say LEARN, you say_____” – the amazing team ( remember this video) behind this creative effort has launched themselves 100% into this effort. And for those of you participating in the program (hey, including me) you’ve responded with 200% !

My favorite part of Learn & Play definitely has to be the learning transformation that I’ve seen and watched from staff. Not only are you guys having fun, but I’ve heard about so amazing stories about how staff have reached customer in new ways as a result of being familiar with these tools and communication channels. Reference questions have been answered via twitter and even books have been reserved for customers via these new channels. In essence the program has not only been fun for staff and given many of you new tools, but already even these first few weeks, some of you have increased our libraries customer touch points through your efforts.

Tied for my favorite part of Learn & Play is also the videos. Gerald 2.0 & Library4Joy, you two seriously rawk! These videos capturing the experiences of our the staff participants are in fact the very best testimonials of how this discovery learning program has helped and united staff. In my own L&P video installment, I truly meant when I said that the worse part of Learn & Play is that it’s going to be over soon and after hearing from several staff who also are expressing the same, let me just say to the entire CML team ( yes, that means you, all 700+ employees) … let’s work together to ensure that our learning together never stops.

Congrats to all on completing this journey!

Image: licensed by derekrogerson under CC.

Thing 22: MOLDI (aka downloadable stuff)

I have to agree with the consensus out there that MOLDI (Mid-Ohio Library Digital Initiative) is perhaps one of the worse sounding acronyms ever. However, that being said, the content from the service more than makes up for a the sour-sounding name.

For my “moldi” experience, I chose to checkout one of the eFlicks. Of the children’s eflicks available, I learned that “Animalland“ was the most popular title downloaded from the current 140 titles available for young minds. The video come in 9 parts and is a total of an hour and nine minutes in length.

I’m downloading it right now to see what the quality is, but I'm anticipating that it is good. Will follow-up with my Siskel & Ebert soon. :)

Thing 21: Podcasts

Like a lot of CML employees right now, I’m in the middle of the last dash to get my 23 things completed by Wednesday for Learn & Play. When it comes to podcasting, I have to admit, it’s been a while since I’ve done of these. Back in 2006 when I first created the Learning 2.0 program, I created a podcast for each of things. They are still accessible on my Odeo channel, which is the free podcast hosting site I choose to work with. Most of my podcasts were created using Audacity, another free audio file editing program and then uploaded to Odeo.

Here’s the last podcast I did for the original Learning 2.0 and I must say that the enthusiasm I had at the time for my former POW, is two fold this time around as I see and hear about all the excitement from staff who have completed Learn & Play.

My original podcast done for thing 23:

Listen to this podcast [1:17]-->powered by ODEO

Great job CML!!!

PS: Am wondering if any of you notice a change in my accent at all since I relocated from south? If I have, I not able to notice is myself.

10 rules for crushing innovation ...

[ Note: Discovered tonight in my drafts. Although my November talk is over, I think the list is still to good not to share. Edit date shows I orginally wrote it in early Sept. ]

In November I’ll be doing a talk on innovation at OLC’s Innovative Environments conference this year. And if you read my blog often then you know that this a subject area that I am very interested in.

Thanks to Steven Bell at Designing Better Libraries for pointing to this article from University Business on “10 simple rules for crushing innovation and maintaining a culture of inertia”

1. Request a formal written proposal.
2. Send the proposal to a committee.
3. Schedule meetings to discuss the concept.
4. Lose the proposal.
5. No money in the budget.
6. "Have you talked to ... about it?"
7. "We don't, haven't, won't, can't ..."
8. "Sounds exciting, but I'll need more details."
9. "Yes, but ..."
10. Quote Nancy Reagan and "just say no."

I think we’ve all witnessed some of rules these in practice, and just maybe even used some of these ourselves. Ok, I admit I’ve been guilty myself in the past of #s 1, 6 & 8. But I’ve worked hard to change # 8 from "more details" to “I’m right behind you and happy to support your leadership on the project.”

With large bureaucracies, formalizing and socializing ideas is unfortunately necessary in order to move ideas forward. It’s hard work navigating through red-tape channels, but from experience I’ve learned that if you’re persistent and demonstrate leadership (this second item I can’t stressed enough) the effort is worth it. The tape also becomes weaker the second ( and third, forth, etc …)time around.

At the Innovative Environments conference in November, I will speaking to some of these points from both the employee/idea generator and leadership perspective. It's important to understand that innovation is more then implementing great ideas. In order to get to the "doing new things" stage you have to get your ideas noticed.

Read the full article and anticipate the red-tape. Then brainstorm ways to demonstrate your 1) passion 2) vision & 3) leadership. Everyone has these qualities in some shape or form. It's just to what degree do we share them with others.

PS: And if you're in Columbus on Nov 6 & 7th, why not join me attending the Innovative Environments conference. From the line-up of speakers and guests, I'm really looking forward to it.

PPS: My talk is opposite three heavy hitters (Joe Branin, Andrew Pace & Stephen Abram) so I'm little nervous.

My Dewey Decimal Classification

[ a just for fun post]

According to this little finding aid, my dewey classification is 023 Personnel Management. TBH I find this funny and a bit scary at the same time.

Helene Blowers's Dewey Decimal Section:

023 Personnel management


Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works

Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.

What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Thanks Ridiculooogy and Rock Me Like a Librarian for posting.

Thing 20: YouTube

Ok, here’s another post to cross another Learn & Play activity off my list. I’ve been a fan and user of YT since long before (if you can call 14 months long) it was acquired by Google. Here’s a lost little video I uploaded in early 2007 that shows a collaborative art project that I created along with several dozen other strangers on TheBroth.com



If you haven't tried out the Broth.com, try it out. Collaborative art is fun!

Thing 19: CML Power Tools

For thing 19 of Learn & Play, we are encouraged to check out CML’s Power Tools page and since I’ve already blogged about power tools page before here on LibraryBytes, I’m taking the easy out on this exercise and just pointing you to my earlier post.

To date, I think I heard that 156 staff have already completed this journey, with many more trying to wrap up (as am I) before the December 6th deadline hits. For those of you still blogging and moving through your things, keep the faith. You can do it! The home stretch is almost here. Keep on learning … I'm right there with you!

Thing 18: Web 2.0 Fun

So for my 18th thing for Learn & Play, I chose the Fun Stuff category to explore. Hairmixer, listed as #2 on the this year’s Seomoz.org’s Web 2.0 Awards, looked too much fun to pass up. Here are my results. BTW feel free to giggle :)


I think it’s safe to say that I definitely can’t pull off the Pink and Paris Hilton looks and I just don’t have the locks to maintain a Catherine Zeta Jones. Still it was fun.

Ok, only four more things to do for L&P.

Help us tell our story by telling yours

When I ran into Nancy Dowd at Internet Librarian just a month ago she mentioned that a fabulous new marketing campaign was in the works from the New Jersey State Library. She was right. Take a look for yourself...



Wow! I love it and can't wait to see the results.

The religion of “best practice”

Dave Ferguson left a comment on my blog yesterday that stuck such a resounding cord with me that I was motivated to flickrize it. Here’s the result:


After I did some crafting on this new image -- which you can bet will also show up in some future presentation of mine -- I stumbled across this thought-provoking post from Bailey WorkPlay:

“Best Practices encourage the belief that there is just one true path.
Ever hear a consultant or industry peer tout best practices like they were written in stone and brought down from the mountain by Moses himself? They preach that all someone has to do is simply install these practices into their organization and they’ll score easy rewards. They’ll argue quite strongly that to ignore best practices is to needlessly “recreate the wheel” and waste valuable resources. It’s enough to make you feel like a sucker if you don’t immediately sign up to learn as many best practices as possible. But let’s be frank…the sucker turns out to be the blind adherent to the religion of best practices. Hopefully, this isn’t you.”

Read the full post, Tools of the Devil- Best Practices and let me know if you agree.

From an innovation standpoint, I can definitely see how blindly subscribing to “best practices” can definitely lead to the death of innovation. However, learning from "best practices" is another thing. The religion of learning I will always subscribe too!

Related thoughts: Best practice or fresh practice?

My 7 year-old's definition of community

Not only is it a library... it's a library online !

... with sponge bob the librarian handing out ice cream :)