katiebird Archives - Successful Blog

Blogger A Day Call: Hello is Katie there?

Katiebird has been incredibly busy at work for at least two months. She’s oveseeing the content revision and revamp of a nearly 3000-page WEBSITE that was built in the late 1990s. It’s getting a design, new navigation, and rebuilt with cascading stylesheets. Whoa! Exciting! Whew! Some work!

Oh did I forget to tell you where she works and what her role is? Katie is Librarian and Database Programmer for an urban library in the midwest of the USA. Yep, that’s right a library, and there’s 25 librarians working on the project. If you haven’t been to a library lately . . . keep reading libraries are really cool.

Half of our conversation was Katie bringing me up to speed on what’s going in libraries. Her library website is filled with pages of crafts, and games, and recipes, and booklists, and book reviews. One particular craft she mentioned, a paper flower designed by a library staff member, gets 10,000 hits a month from all over the world. That’s as many hits as the card catalogue, which is doing well, thank you.

Katie and I discussed how libraries often aren’t thought of being on the edge of technology and how that perception conflicts with reality — that libraries and banks have actually pushed programming forward in some ways. She pointed out that if you go to a library you’ll see a sea of people on computers. Katie also told me about the Database at Home service that allows folks to use the library offsite, and how that’s going to grow in new ways as they integrate electronic books into their services. I was thinking, if people only knew . . . There’s so much to be explored and used.

“It’s an exciting time to be in a library. . . . It’s an exciting time to be blogging.” Katiebird said. “Oh yeah,” was the only appropriate response to that!

When topic turned to blogging, Katie wondered with enthusiasm at this medium that combines the advantages of so many others, bringing people together, making brilliant new kinds of connections. We talked about the people who self-select to become bloggers. She said she was surprised to find how meaningful blogging quickly became. We discussed the communities that form, that links are more than they appear, and how we come to make our blogs our own. Yes, we did say the word addictive, but we meant it in the most positive way. . . . I’m guessing that urban library is going to have a blog when that web site is finally done.

When we finished the call I couldn’t help but think This isn’t your father’s library. This isn’t even the one from college.

Then I wondered how Meredith Wilson would have rewritten Marion, the librarian, if he were commissioned to update his 1957 musical play, The Music Man.

B.A.D. Blogger Quote

I didn’t realize when I started a blog, that I was joining such a strong community of people . . . You’re talking to people who are there every day. You get to know them, their thoughts, and they become dearest friends, yet you’ve never really met in person.–Katiebird

Stop by Katiebird’s blog, Eat4Today, and say hi!

Thanks, Katiebird, you B.A.D. Blogger!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Want to be a B.A.D. Blogger see the. . . a B.A.D. Blogger? page in the sidebar.

Link Love for Three Who Make Us Better

Today I’m celebrating official Blogtipping Day. How about you? As the song goes “Give a little bit . . .” Here’s how it works.

Choose three bloggers you admire and link to them.
List three reasons why you admire each one.
Then add a tip at the end.

That’s all there is to it.

Cat Morley

Designers who Blog is a testament to Cat who celebrates the great work of others.
Every time Cat visits here, she leaves wisdom and insights. She often leaves links to wonderful tools.
When a friend is in need, Cat is there with a hand, even if that friend is a friend of a friend. Cat is an amazing person.

Tip: Watch out for evil computers who want to thwart you.

Katiebird

Katie’s blog is like Katie welcoming, open, and other centered.
Talk to her once and you’ll know she’s the real deal — more than she ever shows in a glance.
When folks are at her blog or she is at theirs everyone seems to get taller, reading what she says.

Tip: Katie know your value. You make us worth more.

Rick Cockrum

Everytiime I read Rick’s blog I learn something I didn’t know about people and about myself.
He might have called his blog Shards of Consciousness, but his own awareness is vast, and his heart matches the size of the universe.
I feel lucky to know Rick and to read what he writes.

Tip: Rick, I can never get enough of you or your words.

Thanks to all three of you for making me more aware of how human the blogosphere can be.

–Me “Liz” Strauss

Katiebird Is a B.A.D. Blogger!