So I haven’t blogged since June. It’s now October. I’ve been studiously ignoring this blog. I just found a wonderful comment that I missed from said studious ignorance (thank you Ellen). I am so immersed in MSU Libraries and our emerging technology efforts, Facebook, Twitter, and Virtual Reference. Honestly, I’m tired of it. Maybe even burnt out. We aren’t going to be able to do the MS Library 2.0 Summit this year because of the current economic climate–even though there has been passionate interest in doing it again. Maybe it’s because I didn’t make a more compelling argument?

Lately all I seem to be interested in is poetry and art. Fourth Fridays. The cre8tive warehouse. Launching a new graphic novels bookclub in Starkville. Housekeeping. I’ve even started writing poetry again when I get exhausted from writing academic papers on Virtual Reference.

I just found myself sitting at my desk, trying to figure out how I could push the information I’m gathering about these topics. I thought about Facebook, but I needed an RSS feed. I thought about Twitter, but I needed more than 140 characters. Then I remembered this long neglected blog. Could I really do it? Aren’t I supposed to be a professional/librarian online? Am I allowed to have a personal-ish blog? More struggling with Online Identity. Is it better to have a dead blog if I can’t think of anything to say anymore about 2.0 and Libraries? Should I just kill it altogether and make this site a CV?

But then I remembered that my goal is to experiment always. My job is to find new ways of using technology–sometimes they have applications for libraries and sometimes they don’t. I was reminded about Carol Greider, who had been conducting “irrelevent” basic science research–quietly studying an enzyme with no application in mind. An enzyme which eventually became critical in understanding cancer and aging.

So maybe everything I do doesn’t have to have an application. Maybe it’s okay to just do something to do it and let the cards fall.

I went ahead and made a facebook page for the event from my own page… I’ve invited all the attendees we have for the MS Library 2.0 Summit one way or another. It’s global, so you should be able to see it.

I’m still working on publicity for it–we’ve gotten such a great response, but I know there are more people out there who would love to be part of this.

More tk!

Amanda

(Oh yes–Fourth Fridays is tomorrow night…we’re reading a new play by MUW professor Brian Anderson. Actually there’s a facebook for that too! 7pm at the theater–come and support grassroots theater in Starkville!)

The last collaborator is your audience … when the audience comes in, it changes the temperature of what you’ve written. Things that seem to work well — work in a sense of carry the story forward and be integral to the piece — suddenly become a little less relevant or a little less functional or a little overlong or a little overweight or a little whatever. And so you start reshaping from an audience.
–STEPHEN SONDHEIM, interview, July 5, 2005

In a departure (brief, I’m sure) from my Library 2.0 obsession, I want to put in an appeal out to any struggling (or even successful) poets, playwrights, or screenwriters in Mississippi. Kris Lee (a much loved local playwright, poet, actor, and cabaret artist) and I are building a new program at the Starkville Community Theater (SCT) to provide a venue for unrehearsed, script-in-hand readings of works under development on the fourth Friday of each month. We will provide the theater to stage it, arrange for the actors to do the reading, and make any necessary copies of the script. The goal is not to produce the work, but instead to provide an opportunity for writers to include an audience in the writing process and to get feedback. We’ve had two successful trial runs so far, and the official launch is scheduled for January 26, 2007.

If you are interested and/or want more information about Fourth Fridays, please email me.