Head for the Edge 2005-06

I've loaded and linked my 2005-06 Head for the Edge columns from Library Media Connection to my website. This year the columns were:

• Technology Dinosaurs, September 2005
• The Need for Community, October 2005
• Names Can Never Hurt Me, November/December 2005
• Caution with Collaboration, January 2006
• HPLUKS, February 2006
• Letter from the Flat World Library Corporation, March 2006
• Librarians 2.0, April/May 2006
  

I've noticed the huge impact that this blog has had on my column writing, not just for Library Media Connection, but for Leading & Learning and Education World, too. The blog has become my primary source of  ideas, drafts and trial balloons for many of my columns.

While at times difficult and time-consuming, columns tend to be more satisfying to write than blog entries. They need to be tighter, more concise, polished. They need to pass muster with an editor. They need to be written with an audience in mind rather than simply for self-bloviation. There are constraints that force me to actually work on them. And the writing is better for it.

I guess I better find them enjoyable to write - I'm committed to another 20 next school year!

Any feedback about this year's columns is most certainly welcome. 

The only thing cuter than a koala

Is a baby koala...

Back home after an extraordinary trip to Sydney and Cairns, Australia over the past 10 days with my son. We went pretty much non-stop - bridge climbing, zoo-going, Great Barrier Reef diving, kayaking, hiking cane toad racing, and 4-wheel drive touring. All culminating in a great day (for me, anyway) at the Queensland Public Library conference on June 5. Am I the only person who comes home from a vacation needing a rest?

Australians are uniformly friendly, funny and lacking in pretension.  To my favorite Aussie expressions of "no worries" and "gi-normous," I've added "magic." As in, "Look at that sunset, it's magic!" or "This weather is magic." And we managed to avoid the killer crocs and sharks (though we saw both) as well as killer snakes, plants, seashells, birds, etc.

But now it is home and back to reality. While I tried to keep up with my e-mail while I was gone, the RSS feed aggregator shows I have over 500 blog entries to read. I may skim. 

 Good to be gone; good to get home.

Beauty of Queensland's coast in the Daintree rainforest:

Beauty of Lake Jefferson coast (from my deck):

 

Off to Oz

Waking up this morning, I realized that once my head left the pillow, it will be 48 hours before my head  hits another pillow. And this one will be in another continent, in another hemisphere. Just about as far away from Minnesota as you can get and still be on the surface of the Earth.

My son and I are heading to Australia - Sydney, Port Douglas and Cairns - for the next ten days. This will be my third trip to Oz, but my first to Queensland. I am excited about doing the Harbor Bridge Climb in Sydney, eco-touring in Port Douglas, (rivers where snorkeling is guaranteed croc-free or your money back!) and diving the Agincourt area of the Great Barrier Reef.

Oh, and should we survive that, I'm speaking at the Queensland Public Library conference  June 5th on Dangers and Opportunities for libraries today.

 

We'll be attempting to answer the question: What will break the bonds of the three Bs and get people into libraries? Are the Queenslanders ready for this???

 It is still amazing to me that one can travel so quickly and so far. Within the last year alone, I've been to Singapore, Beijing, and Santiago and before the end of the year will be going to Ireland and Bangkok - along with lots of trips within the US and Canada. This is nothing compared to full time speakers, of course, but for an Iowa farm boy, hot stuff. Jet travel makes it possible of course.

In some ways, I envy those pre-jet travellers. Imagine the adventure, the drama, the one-in-a-lifetime uniqueness of a trip to Australia before the 1950s. I am sure were I to actually experience the discomforts of travel by ship,  rail and prop plane, I would never romanticize about such journeying again.

But travel is a prime exemplar of how our culture embraces speed. Fast and furious experiences that pile up as passport stamps. Blog snippets rather than books.  - the sacrifice of depth to breadth. Always trying to do more at work, rather than doing better at work. Is there a growing desire a simpler, less frenetic world? Or maybe it is simply geezerdom kicking in?

I will do my best to stop and admire the view from the top of the Harbor Bridge.