confessions of a southside catatonic chataholic

"Those that choose to fit in should expect to avoid criticism (and be ignored). Those that stand out should expect neither."
~ Seth Godin, Not both

I follow @sweden. I've made no secret of that fact. I admire what they've done, what they're doing and, very probably, what they'll come up with next. Some time back in April I wrote a post for Sally Pewhairangi's Finding Heroes site; Opportunities as seeds, in which I expressed the thought that libraries could benefit from trying a modified version of this social experiment. I've received a few emails, comments and private messages that have all highlighted articles like this one with NYTimes.com, Swedes' Twitter voice: Anyone, saying (blush) almost anything, and others. (It'd take far too long for me to link all the ones that I've received). Everyone has asked the same question: "Would you take your statement back?" I thank you all for your concern and comments. And no, I won't take my statement back all the same, thank you. I stand by it, still.

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... of every bloody thing in New Zealand.'
~ John Ansell

In which Tosca finds herself surprised that she isn't angry about Ansell's comments so much as she is resigned. And thinks that maybe that's a worse thing to be.

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...and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still."
~ John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, 1859

In which Tosca moderately expresses her disappointment at what passes for 'journalism.' An epiphany that came about as a result of reading an online article that discusses how Auckland Libraries will stock a controversial book and is amazed that this is considered 'reporting' - and I use that word loosely - because it's rather stating the obvious, isn't it? Isn't that what public libraries do? Stock books? And which controversial book in particular? We have thousands of books, a good chunk of which have been challenged and or banned at some point or another.

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...Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'
~ Shakespeare, Hamlet

In which Tosca is depressed and frustrated that today's taniwha in-joke results in her cultural beliefs becoming the butt of a nationally recognised corporate joke. My personal tweetstream was busy today with the hashtag #taniwha that I didn't get at first and, when I did, I was taken aback, and then grumpy, and then depressed. So much so that I posted in a hurry and know I will have grammatical errors (Maori and English) galore. Deal. I am.

Amended note - 11:10pm: I'd like to point out that what I saw on my personal tweetstream was not instances of the people I follow making jokes or throwing off about Maori and the #taniwha topic. It was mentions of the article I saw in my personal tweetstream. Where I hit the skids was in being curious enough to want to look up people's personal comments and opinions online in various blogs and websites.

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...are what makes it so powerful'
~ Jonathan Zittrain (Professor of Internet Law at Harvard)

Twitter is not everybody's cup of tea and nor should it be, but neither is it the demon that some people believe it is. Your own personal experience of twitter is all down to you. It is as meaningful as you make it. It is as much a business tool as you want it to be. It is as useful as you allow it to be. It can be as lighthearted or as serious as you are.It's a blank slate just begging to be utilised. And utilised properly. Is your experience a crap one? Then you're following crap tweeters. I'm sorry - that's as nicely blunt as I can ever be. I've said it before and I'll say it again: make sure you have a healthy ego before putting your library staff through web 2.0 because you will need it. Yeah, it's Friday so technically this is my Ms. Cranky McRanty Pants post and I'm going to do what I said I wouldn't - I'm going to use my blog to respond to our staff who found the web 2.0 twitter exercise to be so much bunkum. And I'm taking the kid gloves off.

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...or just stand there and bleed?'
- line from Tombstone

Top 5 western movies I'm totally gutted we don't have in our library dvd collections

Friday is usually my Ms. Cranky McRanty Pants (PMS and a shotgun style) post but, for ages, my cranky mojo has been missing. First it was my book mojo, then my cranky mojo and, of late, my blog mojo. Tonight's subject is not so much a rant as it is a wistful sigh in the form of a list of things I really wish we had in our library collections. To be more specific, 5 western dvds I desperately wish I could find on our shelves. How did this post come about? Err well shoot I wanted to see if we had any of the Josey Wales movies or any of Clint Eastwood's westerns and nada, zip, zero, zilch :( I haven't listed any of those here because *sigh* it would bump this list up phenomenally.

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