Coals? Newcastle? We’ll See about That.
(This item might read like a rant, but it isn’t intended to be one.)
Caveat Lector writes that my appearance at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in, wow, less than forty-eight hours, is “bringing coal to Newcastle,” or totally useless, redundant, and unnecessary. Perhaps Dorothea thinks everyone in Wisconsin knows what blogging, feeds, and aggregators are and doesn’t need someone to talk to them about these things or be available as a resource to them. If that’s the case, it’ll be a very different presentation than the “introduction to blogging” I’ve been asked to do. I plan to tailor the presentation to the audience’s interests and level of knowledge. If they all know about blogging, then we’ll spend less time on the basics and more on other things, much like the Librarianesque session at BloggerCon II I moderated.
Dorothea, a lot of professional development programming is based on what a few people think others in their organization might want to know about. If you have suggestions for program topics, I’m sure Amy Disch and other program planners in the Special Libraries Association Wisconsin Chapter and other professional associations applicable to you would be interested in hearing them.
Or maybe she’s saying there are so many bloggers in the area, it’s silly to import one to speak about blogging. Based on my experience with and knowledge of blogging and feeds, Amy invited me to speak to the SLA-Wisconsin Chapter. I’ve done a few similar presentations in the recent past and will be doing two more this fall, including appearing on a panel at the American Society for Information Science and Technology 2004 Annual Meeting. Perhaps part of this invitation is because Amy knows about my blog and credentials–she’s been reading it for quite a few months and we’ve been interacting via it regularly–and she doesn’t know about Dorothea’s or other Wisconsin bloggers.
I did pick up a few pieces of coal earlier today. Newkie Brown isn’t my thing, though. Ipswich Dark is more my style.
Oh, yeah, I guess I should clarify (again) that I’m not a /library blogger/ as in a librarian who works in a library who blogs as part of the job. I do not work in a library and I do not blog as part of my job. I am a librarian who blogs, though.
September 14th, 2004 at 8:51 am
You are nothing but welcome here, and I hope I didn’t imply otherwise. I can’t be at the gathering this evening because I work until 5:30, but consider this a long-distance hello.
It *does* seem — well, a trifle odd, in an amusing sort of way — to import talent when it’s freely available locally.
Nor I don’t necessarily mean myself, either; there’s a man at the Historical Society, an engaging speaker and adventuresome technologist, who has done stunning work integrating Movable Type into the Society website.
I agree without hesitation that the basics of blogging, RSS, et cetera need to be taught, and I quite applaud you for teaching them. I’m not offended in the least (why would I be? and what right have I to be?); I’m just — amused, at what can be under people’s noses that they don’t seem to see.
Good luck with the presentations!
September 15th, 2004 at 11:45 am
Dorothea, I read your blog regularly and have for quite some time. I also read some other local blogs, namely those of SLIS grads Jonathan and Cassandra and of current student Amanda.
Jessica and I have known each other virtually for a while now. We’re both members of the Special Libraries Association’s News Division and my boss was Jessica’s mentor during her time at SLIS. Jessica wrote a great article on RSS for News Library News, the News Division’s newsletter and that’s how I first got interested in blogging and her blog in particular.
I finally met Jessica when I had the great luck to have her assigned as my mentor this summer at SLA’s annual conference in Nashville.
So when the suggestion for a blogging program came up in the state SLA chapter’s discussions for the upcoming program year, Jessica seemed the obvious choice. She has connections to Madison, she’s a fantastic speaker and in my mind, she has one of the best library/information studies blogs in the blogsphere right now.
I never intended to slight all the local talent we most definitely have in this area. I’m just thrilled that Jessica agreed to come to Madison and am very grateful for how generous she’s been with her time while here.