We meet Mem Fox!

On March 5, 2008 our library put on a day-long event named "Creating a Community of Readers, Starting at Birth," where we engaged the parents, teachers, business people and politicians of Pima County in a conversation about what we can do to improve the literacy rate here. Mem Fox was our keynote speaker, having traveled all the way from Australia! She was wonderfully funny and insightful and a real kick in the pants. I am on the left, then my boss Gina, children's librarian Julie and seated, the inimitable Mem.

For my part, I co-taught a shortened version of our "Ready to Read" class so that the attendees could see some of the programming the library is doing out in the community. Ready to Read is a two-day S*cceeds-certified class on literacy and early brain development that we offer to daycare and homecare centers.

Free wikis for communities

BBC News is reporting that Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is "launching a service offering free tools for people who want to build community websites." It is named Wikia.

There are, of course, some criteria and limitations: your wiki must "have a large potential audience and be likely to attract enough editors to maintain the wiki," and in most cases you are unable to be selective about who can contribute.

Interested? Information on starting a wikia community is provided here.

Making my list and checking it twice

I am having too much fun with a new list wiki that Amazon has created, and wondering how libraries could use it. They have named it UnSpun (beta).

The interface is smooth and pretty intuitive -- lots of Ajax so things fade nicely in and out as you write or save.

List sampling:
Most Powerful Character in the TV Show "Heroes," Favorite Quote from Your Mom, and the Best Things about Public Libraries.

Scratch your librarian/geek/listmaking itch and check it out. I am happy to say I created the first 3 lists for Tucson, AZ and one entitled "Best Book to Read a 3-Year-Old Child before Bedtime."

Public libraries as local image archives

I noticed something cool on the Ann Arbor Library website, and the more I think about it the more I like the idea. I would go so far as to say I had an "Aha!" moment.

What they've done is created their own photo gallery that community members can upload to, up to 10 photos per week.

What do they show? Street fair and parade pictures, Ann Arbor-related ephemera, old postcards, theatrical productions, etc.

They are using Gallery 2.o software, a free opensource gallery system that is housed on Ann Arbor's servers, though I can see several advantages to having a Flickr account instead.

I love this idea because it works on so many different levels:

• The library is *creating* content
• The content is unique to the community
• Uploaders and viewers are investing a bit of themselves in the library
• Historical, documentary value, not just entertainment

Link: Picture Ann Arbor