book club

There's a nasty cold making its germ-infested way from person to person here in Kansas City and despite washing my hands 20 times per day and eating Vitamin C like candy, it has at last caught up to me. Luckily, I telecommute so am still able to work without needing to worry about spreading the bug to coworkers. While I don't like contagious colds, I do love infectious ideas and I need to thank my friend Chris Jowaisas (MaintainIT Steering Committee member)  for my latest  bout of curiosity.The topic?? Believe it or not, it's evaluations and metrics.

Thank you to Stephanie Gerding for facilitating today's MaintainIT Book Club Discussion and thank you to the participants for contributing ideas and examples, too. The chapter being discussed was "Effectively Collaborating with Other Libraries and Partners". The discussion is archived if you would like to listen to it.

We'd love for you to join us online this week for the last two MaintainIT webinars in 2008! 

If you've read any articles about gaming, or you've sponsored tournaments at your library, or you've attended a library conference lately, you've likely heard the buzz around gaming in libraries. I LOVE watching librarians giggling and having fun playing Rock Band during conference down-times. At the recent ARSL conference, a certain someone was heard belting out classics while her colleagues accompanied her on drums and guitar (who knew that Margaret Miles--also a member of our steering committee--was such a rocker?).

There were many great discussions at today’s Book Club webinar on Avoiding Wireless Networking Problems including: wiring for wireless, planning for access points, using repeaters, how to minimize interference and even how to improve bandwidth. There was a great combination of techie experts, novices, and in-betweeners.

Every month, MaintainIT hosts an online book club discussion. We select a chapter from one of the Cookboks, invite people to read it, and then meet to discuss. Earlier this week a group gathered to discuss Meal Plan 5 from Recipes for a 5-Star Library, which is all about PC Reservation/Time Management Software.

How do you handle computer reservations and time limits at your library?
A. We don't. First come, first serve. No time limits.
B. We use paper sign-in sheets.
C. We use PC Reservation software.

Thank you to everyone who attended today's first MaintainIT book club. We discussed "Meal Plan 1: Setting Up a Wireless Network" from Recipes for a 5-Star Library. 18 people from around the country participated in the discussion. Topics ranged from basic wireless set-up to filtering to splash pages. 

Just attended the 30-minute webinar, "Notes on setting up wireless at your library," featuring Sharon Moreland and Liz Rea from the Northeast Kansas Library System (my old stomping grounds!). I feel the same way I did after the other 30-minute webinars: "Wow! I cannot believe we covered that much in that short amount of time!" I like the quick, practical approach and think it suits the busy life of a librarian well.

So you have a Cookbook. You've used it. You have opinions about how it worked for you.

Or...

Maybe you haven't used a Cookbook yet. Maybe there's something you want to do, and you'd like to hear how others have done it.

If this describes you, or maybe you're just curious about what in the world I'm talking about, listen in...