Facebook, and a dozen other for profit orgs, reaches too deeply into our REAL lives and connections to be held responsible to business principles/concerns only. Meanwhile, library orgs understand community and the deeper issues of privacy and democracy more than any company tasked with making profit ever could. But quite frankly, we (the entire library industry) generally stink at software development. Happily though, for thoughtful (and talented) software development companies, library folks get privacy and the sacred trust of protecting information (and therefore democracy at large) in ways that would escape most any other professional. The understanding libraries have here is built into our mission statements and policies. These aren’t vague promises or “statements” to “not be evil” that have no teeth when it comes to how we operate in our communities. No, these policies and practices demonstrate understanding of and commitment to protecting privacy all the while focusing on developing communities for the benefit of the community at large. Once a company like facebook get the critical mass it has now, this sort of consideration must be part of its operational intent. If not, there will be dire consequences for our society.

So will we make the next sea change as an industry or will we get cast about by the whims of info fads, social buzz, and shiny tools…at the cost of our core democratic principles? Or, just maybe, can we find a work together for the betterment of all involved…

And to Twitter, facebook, etc, I would personally challenge you to approach us, and work with us. Step up and be more than a business. You have a powerful impact and your promise is inspiring…in much the same way libraries are inspiring (after all we are both all about information and community, aren’t we?). In many ways you already are fulfilling your promise, but you are treading on dangerous ground for society at large if you don’t guard information based on a higher set of principles than business success. We want to work with you, honestly. Please get in touch with us. Heck, start with me here! I can get a slew of us together to help you and we’ll all be better organizations for it.

Yeah, buddy! Here’s to facebook username URL’s! As of this Friday night! W00t! Hey fb, what took you so long?

And all you grads, parents and friends on Twitter, please be sure to use that tag pre, post or even DURING the ceremony tonight at the University of Washington!

Congratulations all you fresh Library and Information Science Graduates! You will accomplish so many amazing things! #infograd

While I don’t know all the deepest details here, I usually advocate for very thoughtful, strong, quick, dramatic action when forced into situations like this. And I believe that closing the web site is a great idea! That might not be a very popular stance to take, but it does makes good sense if handled properly.

There is no getting around that fact that the reality of these situations makes us feel a bit queasy, but this really is a rare and (hopefully) unique teaching opportunity. As budgets get trimmed all over the world, libraries are chipped at bit by bit. It has almost become a sad tradition of sorts for many library systems. And in these systems we work ourselves silly with fewer resources and less money while trying to not show how thinly stretched we are. We keep doing more with less until…one day we wake up to find that we don’t have things like effective methods of distributing the most popular electronic content available on the web through the library(see Netflix, Amazon and iTunes) or that we aren’t the platform considered most seriously as new display technologies become closer to ubiquitous (see iPhone and Kindle). And we can afford smaller budgets? Well, ok, but there is a cost…and we shouldn’t try to hide that cost from the communities we serve.

So when the SPL site is down I’d advise them to have their page go black expect for a one sentence (linked to the press release) “The SPL and all its branches are closed from **-** due to budget cuts.” Under that sentence I’d have a link that says something like: “When a library is open it returns $$$ value for every $ spent. Click here to read the facts.” and link to solid/scientific examples and proof of the value/ROI of the library being open.

I know its is easy for me to say this since I don’t work for SPL, but I think this is the right way to go. If you get cut, make sure people can see how it hurts them. WE don’t do ourselves any favors by glossing things over and if people clearly understood the costs they might just prevent things like this from happening to libraries in the first place.

But what do you think?

PS-Some library ROI links for ya’. And another doozy!

Last week, Chris Peters, a very dear friend of Libraryland, employee at techsoup and MaintainIT, author, former Washington State Library and Gates Foundation US Library Program employee and all around good person, very unexpectedly had a stroke at his home in San Francisco. He has been receiving intensive care and observation for almost a week now. Happily, things are starting to look better. In fact, I very unexpectedly just got off the phone with him shortly after getting a text message from him (which had me very nearly squealing with excitement I must confess). His text and call demonstrate that, all things considered, he is functioning very well. It was a such huge relief to hear his voice and have a conversation with him! His parents and his sister are at his side now and he is in good hands.

And it even looks like Chris will be up and around enough in the not too distant future to share more info himself and reply to well wishes. In the interim we wanted to let folks know what happened and that he is doing better. It would also be nice if you folks out there in Libraryland would send him good wishes.

At this point we don’t have an address to share that you can send cards (or cookies, assorted treats or amazon gift certificates) to. I’ll definitely share that here once we have it. Until then, it would be good to drop him a good wish on his facebook page, in comments here or via an email. If you can view it, his fb profile is here and his email is chrispeters72**at s i g n ** gmail dot com. You might even consider sending @cpetersc a message on Twitter. I’ll be sending well wishes via all those channels and I hope you’ll join me!

If you don’t know Chris, believe me, you really, really do want him to get well. He has worked tirelessly for many years to share, support and grow libraries. As Brenda Hough recently said on the techsoup blog: “Chris Peters, MaintainIT Cookbook author (is) one of my favorite people to turn to when I need to better understand something about library technology. If he doesn’t know the answer to a question I ask, he sees that as a challenge and soon he does know and explains it to me, too.”

Yep, that’s good ole’ Chris!

Here is a little more Chris Peters goodness for you…

Lot’s of folks have loved Chris’s writing work on “Recipes for a 5-Star Library” which you can download and use for yourself via this page. And just so you know, he’s got more cookbook authorship under his belt that you can find if you poke around a bit (like here).

And here is some of what he are written and published online at work for libraries and non-profits:
Choosing the Best Internet Connection
Tips for Buying Refurbished Computers
Understanding Cookies and Their Effect on Your Privacy
Selecting and Configuring a Firewall
How to Extend Your Wireless Network
Choosing a Disk-Cloning Solution for Your Nonprofit
Tips for Hiring IT Staff: Balancing Skills and Communication
Managing Your Organization’s Technology Assets
Leasing Computers and IT Equipment for Your Nonprofit
Anti-Spam Solutions for Nonprofits

Here is a link to his blog on the MaintainIT site.

Heck, he was even very recently was shown some love on the Google blog.

As you can see, Chris is thoughtful, informed, curious, engaged, and generous. It would be good to drop him a line of support during this difficult time.

Chris, we all wish you a speedy recovery and send you mad love, my brother!

PS- Here are some shots of Chris in action. The good stuff above is part of why Chris is our friend, but the pictures help tell more of the story. For one, Chris loves snacks. He shows great restraint or course, but my man loves a good snack:

This was a fun night for geeking out:

Chris presenting with me at last years Internet Librarian conference:

Chris charming an audience at WLA in 2008:

Hangin’ with his homies:

Here’s what it will (partly) look like after your customization
(Click the pics for access to larger versions):

Here is another image with clear instructions on how to make this simple customization:

Your pandemic stress can walk the plan and be well forgotten. Besides, scurvy is worse than swine flu, right?

PS-Check out imeem.com, my latest tech crush, for seemingly endless eternally glorious musical distractions.

—————-
Now playing: Don’t Touch Me (Rock mix)

Oh, and ______, if you want to do a conference presentation like this *with me* some time just say the word, k?

“Hey _______,

PS-I’m gonna blog this now. lol! :)”