Tumblr pt.1 : what & why

BREAKING NEWS: I’m using Tumblr, and I like it!

In case you missed the memo, Tumblr is a very cool, short-form blogging platform that is clean and super-easy to use. Tumblr is another form of microblogging; the current giant being Twitter. People share photos, music, links, videos, thoughts, quotes, short text, ANYTHING with minimal effort. Like ‘blog’ is a short-form of weblog, this type of (micro-)blogging gets its name from tumblelog. Positioned nicely between Twitter and longer-form blogging platforms like WordPress or Blogger, Tumblr is fast and simple push-button publishing, with a focus on looking schmick. Many (most?) Tumblrs have ‘tumblr.com’ in the address, but some people self-host and choose the URL. Just like many websites use blogging software and self-host to create their own domain. Also a social network, Tumblr users (Tumblers? Tumblees? Tumblfolk?) connect and follow each other’s posts, and reblog and like (favourite) posts. Reblogging is prolific on Tumblr; sharing is caring and all that. Some may feel Tumblr is too littered with reposts, that it is lacking original content. However, if that’s how people want to use it, I see no problem with that. There definitely is original content in amongst the reblogs. Perhaps as a reaction to the negative ‘reblogging’ tag, the fun people at Tumblr bring you REBLORG, the home of original content only: http://reblorg.com/about. To my mind, using Tumblr is like any 2.0-ish ‘thing;’ you make it work for you, how you want it to, and no, it won’t be for everyone. I like the following description from Tackling Tumblr : web publishing made simple by Thord Daniel Hedengren.

Tumblr is a hybrid service- part blogging, part microblogging, and a social network to boot. Not a very definite description, is it? The thing with Tumblr is that it really becomes what you make of it. It’s not just about understanding how the Tumblr service works, but also how you can use if for your own needs. (p. 6)

Given I mainly focus on libraries and learning here on dpgreen.net, I am using Tumblr to share my other loves. So in a moment of super-name-coming-up-with-ness, I’ve titled my Tumblr:
My Tumblr tagline reads:

Here lie the other loves of David Green AKA dpgreen. Expect music, art, theatre, photos, & GeeBee. Libraries, learning, books & reading will surface too.

You can check it out over here: http://dpgreen.tumblr.com/

There is a thriving art community on Tumblr. Gaming people and comic fans and creators too. You can follow folks with font fetishes, and literature enthusiasts. Design absolutely suits this platform, and of course tech is popular too. Oh and music, and music, and more music. You should find whatever you’re after, with hi-res photos adding to the goodness and the glossiness.

My current fave Tumblrs are:

• Underground New York Public Library – all sorts of awesome
• Oh Dear …  – make sure you click ‘start’ to read this comic from the beginning
• To Shake Your Rump is to Be Environmentally Aware – David Byrne bits’n'bobs
• Heart of Darkness – photographic eyecandy

I do have some fave library Tumblrs too (SURPRISE!) and I’ll mention those soon in my next post: Tumblr pt. 2.

Do you use Tumblr? Please leave me your Tumblr link in the comments, &/or recommend your favourite Tumblrs

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p.s. This post has been a draft for a long while. Special thanks to Kate Tkacik for her excellent piece which reignited my spark, and prompted me to finish and publish it

Brand me dot com

I am   s l o w l y   doing this fab professional development course called CPD23. You may recall I started last year but didn’t finish because, well, work, life and stuff got busy, and oh yeah, WE HAD A BABY! So this year I’m doing the Things I missed out on. I blogged about Things 1 and 2 here. Last year I wrote about Thing 3, Online Presence here: (br)And introducing… dpgreen! Since last year I haven’t consciously altered my ‘brand’ in any way, instead I’ve aimed to keep it consistent across social media platforms and other online haunts.

In thinking about this short post, I have decided I want to tweak the wording on my social media profiles to include “proud Dad.”  Also, I’m planning to re-write the About page on this blog. I think I am doing myself – my brand – a disservice by pledging to blog about topics that I haven’t written about yet. It is not that I particularly care that I haven’t blogged about every topic from my About page yet. Rather, I want to be careful not to be guilty of false advertising. For I know whenever I check out someone new to me in the blogosphere or twittersphere, the first thing I do is read their about page, or profile. This is a MAJOR factor in my, let’s be honest, lightning fast decision of whether I want to follow them or subscribe to their RSS feed. If someone’s About pledge and profile doesn’t match their blog or twitter stream content, then I’m far less likely to engage with them. So, I figure the same must be true for my profile and what I claim to ‘be about’. Perhaps people read my about page, and are wondering where the missing content is.

What about you? Do you read profiles and about pages? How do you feel when the claim and the content differ?

National Tobacco Company Ltd :It’s toasted. No other brands are genuine; refuse all imitations. Riverhead Gold navy cut no. 3, cut plug no. 10, Cavendish mixture. The only toasted tobacco on the New Zealand market. No cough, no bite; does not injure heart by National Library NZ on The Commons on Flickr.

Take 2! Continuing 23 Things for Professional Development Course

Last year I began an excellent online learning course known as CPD23. Based on Helene Blower’s original and much re-mixed Learning 2.0 – 23 Things program, this course is an excellent tool for learners from Libraryland, and further afield. I didn’t finish last year but I did make some great twitter contacts and I certainly enjoyed the networking and learning that I did do. This year I hope to complete the things I missed, and time permitting, I may blog again about those I’ve already explored. I’m excited and thankful the CPD23 crew are restarting the course for those of us who didn’t complete the course last year, and for all new learners!

If you’re interested in joining the fun and learning, check out the official site here; the 23 Things are listed here. For 2012, the CPD23 crew have decided to slow down the pace a little, for which I am grateful

Thing 1 asks participants to create a blog and have a play. Done! We are also asked to contemplate what we hope to get from the course. I’m looking forward to:

• gaining new knowledge
• online tools for learning, presenting, storing and sharing
• social media ‘things’ I am yet to play with
• advocacy
• lifelong, and further tertiary/other learning opportunities
• being challenged, in a good way!
• learning and exploring new tools
• expressing myself eloquently and hopefully creatively
• time-management
• gaining networking opportunities
• online and IRL
• actively analysing
• my learning
• my professional role in my workplace, and in our wider profession
• my contribution to our profession
• blogging with regularity.

I’m sure this list will expand as the weeks go on…

Thing 2 suggests we scout around other learners’ blogs and check out what they are creating. I really enjoy and benefit from reading blogs (library-types and non-lib people), so this will be easy. The slightly challenging bit will be leaving comments, as I get cyber-shy. However, this is what the course is about, right? Learning, networking, experimenting, and challenging ourselves. Dear Reader, why not introduce yourself in the comments? Or you can tweet me: I’m @dpgreen.

To the encouraging and knowledgeable CPD23 crew: Thank you for the opportunity to finish the course, I appreciate the re-run

To the CPD23ers: See you ‘out there’!

p.s. If you’re really short of reading material, you could read my Week One post from last year.

It’s raining posts!

<sung to the tune of “It’s raining men”> Hallelujah! It’s raining posts! Hey, HEY!

Tompkins Sq. Park by James Jowers from George Eastman House on Flickr.

So before November – and 2011! – completely fade into a distant memory, I thought I’d make sure you didn’t miss my most recent blog post.  Further to my guest post at Letters to a Young Librarian, I also contributed a piece to Read It 2011. Read It 2011 was a blog run by the NSW Readers’ Advisory Working Group. It was the online home of a monthly reading group that encouraged Australian (and all) library users to read and tweet about what they were reading. Monthly themes helped participants decide what they would read each month. I was stoked to be asked to contribute a piece for November As November was Movember and Picture Book Month, I wrote about picture books and depression: you can check it out here.

FYI: To celebrate the National Year of Reading in Australia, Read It 2011 has become Love2Read.

NEWSFLASH! Blogging drought breaks!

Well Dear Reader, I have finally blogged! I could list reasons/guesses why I have taken such a long break, but I may never finish that list, and therefore never post. Ever again!

MCCALL MAGAZINE COVER, GIRL IN RAIN by Nickolas Muray from George Eastman House on Flickr.

Jessica Olin from the ever-helpful & oh-so-interesting Letters to a Young Librarian asked me to contribute a post. I was stoked

Letters to a Young Librarian is a blog – an advice forum of sorts – where practising librarians share advice to new and other not-so-new library folk. If you don’t read this blog, you should. I decided to write about perfectionism, procrastination and asking for help. I’d be super-pleased if you would check out my post: Be Courageous; Ask for Help.

Oh and feel free to leave a comment there, or here.

Thanks for reading!

Library Day in the Life: Round 7

Recently I participated in round 7 of Library Day in the Life (or LDITL, or #libday7). LDITL is an oh-so-clever & downright helpful project dreamed up by Bobbi Newman. The project calls for library workers everywhere to document & share their day online to give readers an insight into what it is we do all day. On her Librarian by day blog,  Bobbi explains further:

“(LDITL is) a chance to share your day, or week, with other librarians and hopefully the public at large… Last round there were just under 250 people signed up on the wiki. There were over 800 people participating via Twitter.  It has grown to be an international project with participants from the USA, Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland, France, New Zealand, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore. Participants are from academic, public, college, special, school libraries, professional organizations and library vendors.”

I’m blogging about one day of my working week to share with people in Libraryland and – more importantly – people who don’t work in libraries, why I can honestly say: “I’m lucky, I love my job.”  This exercise is also for me to reflect on how I spend a working day, with a view to improving time-management & prioritising tasks. I am pleased I can compare it to my Round 6 post, which will be very helpful as self-reflection.

To participate I:

• signed up on the wiki
• recorded my day on a notepad (like a real-life, hardcopy actual pad – but I did include hashtags!)
• took some photos (sans public due to privacy)
• DIDN’T tweet – & I wish I could have because it would have made for a more interactive day & helped me keep more detailed notes that were time recorded
• posted my photo/s to the LDITL Flickr group pool
• tweeted a couple of things from home & followed the hashtag: #libday7 from home
• wrote this blog post & shared it with you!

There is a method to my messness!

My Librarian Day in the Life: Tuesday 26th July, 2011

Facts you may need to know:

• I’m a Children’s & Youth Librarian in a Public Library in Australia
• I’m 35 & male
• I do wear cardigans & glasses
• I don’t have a cat.

6:55am  Rise.

7:00  Coffee pot & computer on.

7:10  Logged into Twitter & read about Björk app & A Clockwork Orange being adapted into a musical! & began scrawling #libday7 notes in pad.

7:15  Scan Gmail inbox for any pertinent personal emails, open my google+ (G+) stream & added “Hello from Wollongong, Australia!” to @LiB‘s in-library G+ class.

7:25  G+ & coffee (Together at last,) read about gaming in & outside of libraries.

7:25  Reply to FB non-Libraryland friends & tweeted a welcome to (non-Libraryland) friend who joined twitter – yay!

7:30  Shower, etc.

8:10  Leave home, drop most excellent wife J. @ work, arrive work.

8:50  Clock in, return library books, start pc, etc. (10mins early.)

9:00  Write to-do list.

• cull
• #libday7 notes
• photos
• email person X
• write-up 5/6 (script for Children’s Book Week performance)
• post KC draft (library blog that I run)
• email ALL RE: stats
• prep lessons
• KC & TC posts (both library blogs I manage)
• select (books from visiting Bookseller.)

9:05  Cull AKA weed: part of my role is maintaining Junior & Young Adult collections. This involves (among other things) selecting items to be weeded (discarded, culled) from the collection. Right now I’m focussing on Junior Fiction & this morning I targeted Board Books & Picture Books.

10:00  Book selection: another part of maintaining collections is acquisitions (purchasing, ordering, buying). We have relationships with a few booksellers who bring books to us, so we can select direct from them. I purchase Junior & Young Adult fiction for our four branches. This is an excellent part of my job

11:30 Emails, emails, emails. It is a BIG element to my job. Recently, I spoke with my supervisor about how it interrupts our workflow, & we both wish it wasn’t so. Other people agree. Will MPOW use Yammer one day? Or something else? (Does your workplace use Yammer?)

12:00 noon  Preparing promo material for Library Manager.

12:30  Lunch.

1:00  Culling continued.

1:40 Set up children’s area space for library lesson: a local Primary School does not have a school library, so MPOW is their library. The whole (smallish) school visits over three afternoons, every two weeks. I host 5 lessons of around 25 children/class. We talk about books, reading, learning & our library. I am teaching them how to use their library for fun, & fun study. After our brief lesson I assist them to find any books/mags/comics they would like to borrow for the two weeks. Apart from raising our profile & providing an essential service for these school library-less children, these lessons generate great door counter & loan stats. It is also a chance for me to promote new items, services & activities & to informally survey what children are reading, studying, listening to, watching, playing & what their current hobbies are. I feel it is a very important service & it is undoubtedly mutually beneficial.

1:45  Check over pre-prepared lesson plan. It is very important for me to be organised for these lessons. I am not always, & the quality suffers & I get nervous & feel rushed. In an ideal world, I would have the year planned out, or at least a school term, but currently I just plan a week in advance.

2:00 Deliver two library lessons back-to-back. The first for Years 2/3, and the second for Year 4 children. If it fits into my lesson plan & the time allotted, I really like to read to the children as a part of the lesson. For the first class, I read the very funny Barnyard Slam as we were discussing illustrators.

3:10 Pack up after class: move furniture, tidy shelves, check in books, & enter the all-important stats for reference/catalogue help.

3:25 Make cup of tea, grab apple & back to desk.

3:30 Return my colleague’s trolley – very important. Never, no never, take another library worker’s trolley.

3:40 Continue culling.

3:45 Impromptu meeting to discuss Children’s Book Week timetable. Consensus = hectic!

4:10 Carry new book boxes. (Further proof librarianship is manual labour!)

4:12 My tea is cold, but I finished my apple.

4:25 Help customer with printer.

4:30 Sign into MPOW twitter account: scan tweetstream & retweet any faves.

4:35  Tidy MPOW blog post draft, publish it, email staff RE post, tweet link to post.

5:10  Shut down pc, tidy desk (honestly!) & clock out. (10mins late.)

- – - – - – -  time, traffic, conversation, dinner & Neighbours passes – - – - – - – - – - -

9:15pm  Open twitter, Google Reader & G+ & follow links to read about other’s #libday7 adventures. I also meandered around virtual Libraryland reading about Children’s & Young Adult literature & programming ideas for both groups. People’s posts about G+, other tech stuff & some #cpd23 posts got a look-in too.

10:35  To bed & more reading; The Red wind this time. I’m reading this as reader advisory because it’s on the short list for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year. Thankfully, I’m enjoying it too.

You may like to know:

• for sure I’ve missed some stuff that I didn’t make a note of. Especially customer service: loans, reader advisory, catalogue/pc/reference help, and, staff phone calls, discussions & questions (oh & laughs too!)
• of my list of 10, I completed 4 items. This is normal, & indicative of how much unscheduled work comes up
• I wore my lightweight cardigan, not my winter number.

So, Dear Reader:

• how was your #libday7 day/s or week? Please leave a link in the comments to your post/s because I’m keen to read
• if you don’t work in a library, what do you think of my workday?
• if you do, how does it compare to yours?
• Thanks for reading this  l     o        n          g  post!

Blogs, Blogging & Learning. (cpd23: Things 1 & 2)

This is the first of my blog posts for cpd23: 23 Things for Continuing Professional Development. It’s a great new course I’m doing which I blogged about here. Week one is about Blogs and Blogging.

Number One by smiling_da_vinci on Flickr

In the library job before my previous job, I did an adapted, truncated version of the original 23 Things course. The course changed how I learn, use the net, communicate & share. To this day, I am so thankful for all I learnt and I credit it with being the start of my passion for online learning, sharing, playing with tools, exploring emerging technologies & pursuing artistic expression online. I totally enjoyed every aspect of my first 2.0 course: especially learning about Twitter, blogging & RSS.  These ‘things’ remain hands-down my favourite things on the Internet. I cannot sing more loudly my praises for RSS – it makes the net drivable. Also, for me Twitter is the King of quick communication, real-time searching & sharing. (You can expect me to rave about Twitter & RSS more in week 3.) My first 2.0 course was the catalyst for my first blog & twitter account, both of which were anonymous & I’ve now retired them. (I’ve blogged about anonymity & revealing myself here.) I still continue to use RSS, Twitter & blogging tools lovingly, and I’m enjoying the benefits – and challenges – of blogging & tweeting as myself.

So I think it’s fair to say I have high hopes for cpd23! No pressure cpd23 contributors/organisers!

Thing 1 asks why we are participating in the course. My main reasons are:

• to learn new & update existing skills regarding web 2.0 & other professional development ‘things’
• to be proactive about my professional development
• to meet other learners/library workers
• to make another commitment to blogging with frequency & structure

number 2 by Leo Reynolds on Flickr

Thing 2 asks participants to investigate other blogs. Easy! I already do that, a lot. But it’s the leaving comments aspect that I shy away from. However, I was relieved to read that I wasn’t the only one. I know that commenting can only amplify, and is integral to, the sharing, learning and networking aspects of blogging. Still I remain hesitant to comment. Like blogging, sometimes I feel like I just don’t have anything to say. Or more correctly, I don’t know how to say it. However, I’m determined to start because it will help me to learn, network & articulate my opinions. And I have started! In fact, before I did any blogging for cpd23, I spent a lot of time reading other people’s cpd23 posts, and very occasionally I left comments. It was a great way to learn about other participants and their hopes from the course. It’s so pleasing, but no surprise, to read we are a diverse bunch who are all here to have fun, learn & network. I’m excited to begin

23 Things for Professional Development

Given my mantra for the year is “Just Start,” I’ve signed up for 23 Things for Professional Development (or CPD23). It’s a free, self-directed online learning course based on, and expanding upon, the original 23 Things program. I’m looking forward to learning about new tools, and I’m excited to continue my learning & professional development. As is always the case in virtual Libraryland, I’m hoping to ‘meet’ some fun library folk & explore learning together

More details from the blog:

23 Things for Professional Development is a free online program open to information professionals at all stages of their career, in all types of role, and anywhere across the world. Inspired by the 23 Things programs for social media, this new program will consist of a mixture of social media “Things” and “Things” to do with professional development. The program starts on 20 June and will run until early October 2011.
Each week the CPD23 blog will be updated with details of the next thing to be explored. Catch up weeks and reflection weeks are built into the program, so it’s not a problem if you’re going to be away for a week or two!

Naturally, the crew are on twitter: @cpd23
And on the book of face here
You can follow the conversation by searching #cpd23 on twitter (and as a tag in the blogosphere)
The list of Things is here
And a Google calender of what/when is here

I’ll be using dpgreen.net to blog about my learning & be tweeting as @dpgreen too (shock, horror!)
So, does this sound exciting to you too? Yes?!
Of course it does, and you should join me! Sign up here.

If you’ve signed up, please leave a link to your blog in the comments, or just say hi

On beginning and shedding anonymity

Sometimes you just have to start, right?

I have lived with a completely fun and anonymous handle on twitter, wordpress, and elsewhere for a long time and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the anonymity. I loved playing with online art groups using a pseudonym. I was less daunted when asking questions of industry colleagues. And I experimented in finding my voice as a “professional librarian” (whatever they are meant to sound like!), a blogger, an actor, etc. However I have decided to “go live” with my real name in the hope that I can connect more significantly with people. I hope to learn more from others – and to learn about myself – by sharing more of myself. I also anticipate my “putting my name to my work” decision will motivate me to blog more frequently and honestly. My online anonymity gave me a certain type of confidence; I was less fearful of making mistakes. But in the few years I’ve been working in libraries, and while I have been exploring online learning, playing with new technologies, and re-kindling the actor within, I keep hearing & reading the same phrase: “it’s OK to make mistakes”.

My mantra for 2011 is “Just start” – so here I go.