I'll miss you at AASL

The AASL Conference next week will be the first one I have missed since 1994. I am having separation anxiety as I feel the excitement of those of you who will be heading off to Reno. From what I see it looks like a great program and some terrific sessions.

I made a deliberate decision not to attend this year. For the second conference in a row, planners have not allowed members to submit workshop proposals. For a volunteer organization, this is wrong, and I will not attend any AASL conferences until this policy is changed. Yes, I have voiced this complaint to AASL conference planners and the AASL leadership.

The primary problem, beyond displaying a lack of confidence in the rank and file that they have something of value to present in a workshop setting, is that the workshop choices don't give new voices, fresh experiences and different viewpoints an opportunity to heard. God bless the chosen workshoppers, all high quality people who have a lot to offer, but let's face it, none are exactly spring chickens, if you know what I mean. (Were I giving a workshop, I'd have been an oldie as well.)

I suspect that I am probably the only person bothered by this. And let me be clear - I'm not mad about not doing a workshop - I'm mad about not being given the chance to even be rejected. There is a big difference.

Just so you won't worry too much about me, do know I'll be working this Friday while AASL is in session with librarians in the Plano, TX area at their Library Expo gathering.

Yee, haw! Looking forward to it.

Librarian's Blues

What happens when you cross Muddy Waters with Marion the Librarian?

From my friend and colleague (but no relation) Keith Johnson up in Bloomington MN -  The Librarian's Blues. Remember, you saw it here first.

Keith is half of the talented Celtic Cat and Prairie Dog duo. One of them is talented and the other one is handsome - I can never remember which is which.

From the angst ridden performer himself...

I first *tried* to sing this song on a live school TV news show at Bloomington Kennedy last spring as I was trying to highlight the issue of getting our books back before the school year ended. I had, of course, practiced learning the very uncomplicated lyrics over and over again . . . how hard is it to rhyme the words books, took, and crook? Well, with the live cameras rolling, the whole school watching, I'm pounding the basic blues beat, and I'm blowing the harmonica . . . and as I start to sing the (uncomplicated) lyrics, I come to the horrifying realization that I have completely and utterly blanked out on the lyrics. In the thick of the panic, I'm not even sure I remembered what the hell the song was about. So I keep playing the basic blues beat, blowing on the harmonica, and praying to the high heavens to please, PLEASE  let me remember the (uncomplicated) lyrics to my own song. . . and I keep playing and playing and blowing and sucking on the harmonica (and getting very winded). I was finally ready to throw in the towel, end the song and admit I'd forgotten the lyrics (which I did mutter at one point in this very long song prelude...), but, the heavens finally did part and the lyrics (those very uncomplicated  ones...) did finally come back to me; most of them, anyway. Librarian's Blues indeed.

Tell your LWW  that I could've used some blonde backup vocals (as she provided at MEMO when I played down there for the vendor's reception...). Maybe we can overdub those later.

Never let it be said that Keith doesn't suffer for his art.

Home media ecology

A friend whose blog I read sometimes titles her entries "Imponderables." I suspect this might fit under that category.

Every time I visit with a telecommunications provider, I hear a sad litany of just how tough it is to make a profit in today's marketplace. I don't get it.

In 1988, this was, as I remember it, my telecommunications outlay:

• Basic telephone service including handset rental: $25 a month
  
• Long distance service, $10-20 a month
• One television and one radio (receiver built into a stereo amplifier) = $500 with a life span of 36 months = $15
  

Total about $55 a month.

In 2008, this is my telco outlay:

• Basic telephone service, no handset, $25 a month
  
• Long distance service, $10-20 a month
• Cell service for 3 lines, text messaging, data service: $120 a month
• Satellite TV, no movie or sports channels, $50 a month
  
• Home broadband Internet access, $50 a month
• Webhosting, two sites, $40 a month
• Various wireless charges at hotels, airports, etc. $30 a month
• Three televisions, three computers, printer, scanner, 2 cell phones, 1 cell phone/PDA, 5 telephone handsets (now portable with base stations), 2 iPods, GPS system, wireless home router, DVD player, VCR, stereo receiver/amp (No TiVo - yet.) All devices which need to be replaced now and then. Maybe around $9000 worth of electronics with an estimated life span of 36 months = $250
  

 Total about $580 a month!

And telco providers aren't making money? I don't get it.

I thought of this while playing with a chart that Lee Rainie from the Pew's Internet & American Life uses in this The New Media Ecology presentation. (He credits Tom Wolzien, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., but I can't seem to locate his work.) Here is my adaptation:

Then:

Now:

 

There's been some fuss lately about whether Prensky's Digital Immigrant/Digital Native analogy is accurate or useful. I'm not sure. But I do feel that while I may not have immigrated to a new digital country, I have moved from an information desert to an information jungle over the past 10 years or so. (And I have the bills to prove it.)

I am pretty sure that our kids don't inhabit this jungle any more skillfully than us geezers. They've just never known the desert.