Online Web Applications

Online Application tools, boo-yah! That's an expression meant to convey happiness or excitement for those of you unfamiliar w/ boo-yahing. Google Docs is great. If this had been around when I was in college I would have been all over it. Way back in the early to mid-2000s when I went to college, I faced a significant dilemma. What's the easiest way of transporting a paper in electronic format? In the end I just settled on emailing the paper to myself so that it would available to me on whichever computer I found myself in front of. Google Docs would have cut out the middlemen, my yahoo and hotmail email accounts. Google Docs has all the basic word features I need and works great. I'm using it to make some suggested revisions to the LEO handbook and it has been 100% equal to the task (see below). I looked at some of the other stuff, such as zoho, it seemed pretty similar to Google Docs to be honest, so kudos to zoho. Google calendar was great, if you're into that kind of thing, but to be honest the only thing I use calendars for is to have a new picture to look forward to each time I turn the page.

(italic= suggested revision)
LEO Handbook

This is the second revised edition of the LIBRARY EMPLOYEES HANDBOOK. Each section of this edition has been reviewed and revised. This is the Handbook of the Library Employees= Organization of the Salt Lake City Public Library.

Members should make all recommendations or observations on the effectiveness of this Handbook, in writing, to the Executive Council member of their choice.

This Library Employees= Organization handbook is submitted by committee members:

Matt McLain

Randi Carter

Jered Hundley

Approved by the LEO Membership, and confirmed by the Executive Council and Representative Council at the August 2004 Monthly Representative Meeting.

August 2004 LIBRARY EMPLOYEES= ORGANIZATION

The Library Employee�s Organization exists as an instrument for the improvement of the library staff as a whole. LEO acts as an intermediary between the administration and the staff to increase communication and improve morale. LEO also works with the library leadership to protect the interests of the staff.

LEO plans staff social functions, including the Summer Picnic and Holiday Party. (Add in something about Halloween?) LEO also aims to participate in charitable and service projects. Ongoing contributions include volunteering at the Cathedral of the Madeline and monthly food donations benefiting the Crossroads Urban Center.

LEO participates in the implementation of the Grievance Procedure. Each staff member who has passed the initial six-month probationary period is given the benefit of the Procedure. Once a grievance is filed, LEO begins the process as described in the Employee Handbook.

LEO is comprised of all library staff members. LEO Representatives are selected by each agency to support LEO. The Representatives report ongoing LEO activities to their agencies. They also seek input about issues and challenges that are happening throughout the Library and report back at the LEO Representative Council meetings

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

LIBRARY EMPLOYEES =ORGANIZATION OF THE SALT LAKE CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY

Approved August 1980

Revised March 1989

Revised August 2004

ARTICLE I�Name

Section 1: The name of this organization shall be the Library Employees Organization of the Salt Lake City Public Library (LEO).

ARTICLE II�Purpose

Section 1: The purpose of the Organization shall be to promote the professional, economic, social interests of staff, and to encourage and support service opportunities.

ARTICLE III�Membership

Section 1: Membership is open to every person who is employed by the Salt Lake City Public Library. Membership is for the duration of the employee=s tenure at the library.

Section 2: LEO encourages active participation of its members. Active participation can include paying membership dues, participating on and assisting LEO committees, and participating in LEO events and parties.

ARTICLE IV�Structure of the Organization

Section 1: All elected officers and departmental representatives must be active members of the Organization. This organization shall consist of a three member Executive Council and a Representative Council.

Section 2: The Executive Council shall be elected by the active membership according to the procedures set forth by the Bylaws. Each agency will select a staff representative for the Representative Council. Candidates for the Representative Council may be nominated by any library staff member.

Section 3: Members of the Executive Council shall serve a term of twelve months. Elections will occur the first week of January for the term beginning January 15. .

Section 4: Members of the Representative Council shall consist of a selected representative from each agency and branch in the system serving a term of one year. The selection for the Representative Council will occur prior to June 30 for the term beginning July 1, in conjunction with the Library�s committee selection process.

Section 5: The Executive Council shall appoint a Treasurer to serve at least annually.

Section 6: The Executive Council, with the approval of the Representative Council, shall appoint committees as needed.

ARTICLE V�Meetings

Section 1: Meetings shall be held as provided for in the Bylaws.

ARTICLE VI�Amendments

Section 1: All proposals for amending the Constitution or Bylaws shall originate in the Executive Council and/or Representative Council.

Section 2: All members shall be notified of such a proposal in writing and given sufficient time for consideration.

Section 3: A proposed amendment shall be adopted by a ballot vote of a simple majority of the members voting.

BYLAWS

OF

THE LIBRARY EMPLOYEES= ORGANIZATION OF THE SALT LAKE CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY

Amended November 1980

Amended June 1982

Amended March 1982

Amended October 1989

Amended August 2004

ARTICLE I�Dues

Section 1: Membership dues are payable on LEO Membership Drive Day. The membership drive day shall be in March, as determined by the LEO Executive Council. LEO will accept payment of dues at any point in the year.

Section 2: The Executive Council shall determine dues as an article of business prior to the LEO Membership Drive, which shall be approved by the Representative Council. Employees working less than 20 hours per week will pay one-half the amount.

Section 3: Persons employed by the Library throughout the year shall pay pro-rated dues as follows:

March-May 100 %

June-August 75 %

September-November 50 %

December-February 25 % (Let's cut pro-rated dues)

ARTICLE II�Rights and Privileges

Section 1: All members shall have the right to vote on matters of Organizational business.

Section 2: All members may serve as members of the Executive Council, Representative Council, Committee Chairs, and/or Committee members.

ARTICLE III�Meetings

Section 1: General meetings of the Organization and its committees shall be open to the entire membership.

Section 2: The Executive Council shall meet as needed.

Section 3: The Representative Council shall meet monthly, currently on the fourth Thursday of the month. (second Monday)

Section 4: Committees shall meet at their own discretion or at the request of the Executive Council

ARTICLE IV�Committees

Section 1: Any member of the Library Employee�s Organization may voluntarily serve on a LEO committee, or at the request of an Executive Council member. Other committees shall be appointed as needed by the Executive Council.

ARTICLE V�Executive Council Elections

Section 1: The Elections Committee (Events Committee) shall request candidates to run for the Executive Council, including at least one candidate for President. The highest vote recipients will be selected for the Executive Council. If there is no candidate for President, the highest vote recipient will be selected as President. If no candidates run for LEO Executive Council, the current Executive Council and the current Representative Council will select new Executive Council members from combined councils.

Section 2: Executive Council members shall serve for a calendar year, beginning January 15. LEO members who wish to run for election shall announce their candidacy on or about December 1. After the campaign, LEO members shall elect one candidate for each seat on the Executive Council. Current members of the Executive Council may run for re-election. Candidates for the Executive Council should seek their agency manager�s approval before running.

Section 3: The election of the Executive Council members shall be by ballot vote. The Election Committee will send ballots to all LEO members on or around the first business day of January. Completed ballots must be returned within seven days of issuance.

Section 4: A vacancy occurring in the Executive Council before the end of a term shall be filled for the balance of the term through appointment by the executive Council as approved by the Representative Council.

Section 5: Candidates for the Executive Council must be current members of the LEO Representative or Executive Council to run. (Or from a location which is currently unrepresented in the representative council?)

ARTICLE VI�Representative Council Selection

Section 1: Each agency or coalition of agencies shall be responsible for having an active LEO representative that serves for one year. Each agency will select a representative no later than the fourth Thursday in August. Any LEO member may make a nomination for the Representative Council.

ARTICLE VI�Responsibilities under the Employee Handbook

Section 1: The Executive Council will be responsible for the Grievance Procedure as outlined in the Employee Handbook (Section 27).

Section 2: The Staff Rooms at Main and the branches are under the jurisdiction of the Library Employees= Organization. Their maintenance is the responsibility of all staff members of the Organization.

Duties of the Executive Council

� Members of the Executive Council are elected by the membership of LEO. The Council consists of three members elected to serve for one year. The elected President will be the Council Chair for the entire year.

� Basic duties of the Council as outlined in the Constitution and Bylaws include appointing a treasurer, a secretary as needed, and LEO committees and committee chairs.

� If a member of the Executive Council is unable to complete his/her term, the Council will appoint someone to serve the balance of the term. The Representative Council will confirm the selection.

Additional duties of the Executive Council include:

� Meeting as needed with Library Director and staff.

� Acting as mentors to successive Executive Council members; providing and organizing information to make transitions between Executive Councils smooth and seamless.

� Posting relevant information on staff room bulletin boards.

� Coordinating attendance at monthly Library Board, Management, and other significant meetings.

� Arranging for staff Brown Bag lunches with the Director. Also arranges LEO Town Hall meetings at least annually. (Do we do this? Do we want to do this?)

� Selecting staff for the Distinguished Service Award at least once a year (Staff Development Day) to honor staff members who have provided outstanding service or contributions in the library system, the library field as a whole, or the community at large. (Do we still do this?)

� coordinating monthly LEO e-newsletter. This should include:

� minutes of LEO meetings

� calendar of upcoming events

� announcement of Employee of the Month and E-Interviews and call for nominations

� other relevant information to be distributed to LEO members

Duties of the President of the Executive Council

� Conducts Executive Council and Representative Council meetings and prepares an agenda.

� Participates in the Grievance Procedure as outlined in the Employee Handbook and LEO Bylaws.

� Keeps a record of LEO activities.

� Assigns a LEO member to take minutes for the Representative Council meetings.

� Purchases supplies for LEO events.

� Serves as a President Emeritus for three months following the election of a new President to provide counsel and guidance to the new President.

Duties of the Treasurer

� Responsible for collection of all funds and debts owing the Organization.

� Responsible for disbursement of LEO monies for all expenses paid by check.

� Keep Organization books, entering income and expenditures on weekly basis.

� Deposit money in bank as needed.

� Reports monthly income and expenditures.

� Record membership dues.

Duties of the LEO Representative Council Member

Each agency will select a representative to serve on a fiscal year basis.

� Attends the monthly LEO Representative Council Meeting. If the representative cannot be in attendance, the rep should appoint someone else to attend.

� The LEO Representative should report the matters discussed at the meeting to staff in the agency they represent.

� The LEO Representative should notify the Recognition Committee of illness, death, births, etc. of staff members they represent so that cards and/or a flower can be sent.

� LEO Representatives shall actively participate on LEO Committees as listed under Standing Committees of LEO.

� Report on any changes in the agency; e.g., staff leaving or new staff members entering the system. (Do we really need a report each meeting of this?)

� Provide New employees w/ a LEO welcome letter and overview of what LEO does

Standing Committees of LEO

ELECTION COMMITTEE (Now part of events)

The Election Committee is charged with holding regular elections for the LEO Executive Council. The Election Committee should seek candidates for yearly election to the Executive Council, including at least one candidate for President. The Election Committee shall encourage campaigning, print ballots including biographies and photos of all candidates, provide a method for submission of ballots, collect ballots and tabulate the results of the election, and announce the results of the election.

SERVICE COMMITTEE

LEO is committed to being involved in a variety of community service projects. The service committee will select several projects over the course of the year. The committee will plan and organize each project, including logistics and staff participation. Examples of service projects include sandwich making at the Cathedral of the Madeleine, food donations for Crossroads Urban Center, purchasing holiday blankets, TV/Radio pledge drives, lunches at the Sorensen Center, or other projects.

NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE

This committee is responsible for the collection of articles, typing and editing of material for the newsletter. Each newsletter should include minutes from the previous meeting, a calendar of upcoming events, Employee of the Month announcements, Staff Interviews (E-Interview), and any other information pertinent to library staff.

RECOGNITION/EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH COMMITTEE

This committee arranges for a card or flower to be sent to staff on return from birth or death leave. Other special occasions for staff members are also remembered with a card. This committee will request nominations for Employee of the Month from the staff-at-large and will selected a monthly winner. Additionally, the Recognition Committee should consider a Distinguished Service Award recipient to be given out at the library�s annual Staff Development Day. This committee is also charged by LEO to be responsible for the purchase of a book to be donated to the library in honor of each retiree. The committee may also determine other awards to be given to individuals or agencies.

EVENT AND PARTY COMMITTEE

This committee shall plan, develop, and host LEO parties. The committee shall be responsible for the entire event, including arranging for volunteers, bringing supplies, providing entertainment and activities, and cleanup. Examples of LEO parties include the Halloween Party, the Holiday Party, the LEO Summer Picnic, and LEO Baseball nights. (Baseball nights sound awesome) Other LEO Events include LEO Membership Day, Town Meetings, Movie Nights, Sport activities (e.g. bocce, softball). The Event and Party Committee will also arrange food for the Friends� Booksale.

Staff Rooms

A staff room, located on the fifth floor of the Main Library, is maintained by LEO for the use of library personnel, volunteers, official library guests and others having approval of the Library Employees� Organization. A lounge, kitchen facilities and vending machines are provided. Anyone using the staff lounge or kitchen is responsible for cleaning up after themselves. Each branch library has staff room facilities that are maintained by the staff members at that branch.

PLEASE KEEP THE STAFF ROOMS CLEAN!!

Technorati

So the first time I did this exercise, I took really precise notes. I wrote down number of hits, relevance, my favorites blog titles, really and truly the whole nine yards, super meticulous. Then i lost that paper. So rather than trying to replicate my first experience I'm just going to tell y'all how I feel about technorati (from the heart this time). Honestly when I look at technorati i just feel tired. There's information plastered all over the place 1,000,000 gems of knowledge just waiting to be unearthed and treasured, cherished even. I'm sure I could spend my entire life on technorati and find more interesting blogs than I could count. I would also find an even more unbelievably vast quantity of poorly written blogs, boring blogs, innane blogs, absolutely worthless blogs and even downright wrong blogs. The easiest way for me to envision technorati in the physical world is as a giant search-able bus station. That is to say, imagine if I could go to some vast public place and call out a string of keywords and by doing this summon forth all people who had anything at all they would like to say about my set of keywords. Useful? Perhaps. I might be lucky enough to summon forth a Nobel prize winning scientist who happened to be in my bus station that day, of course he might have been summoned by my desire to know what "the best movie of 2007" was, a question which he might not be any better suited to answer than I am. That is the biggest problem with blogs. There is no guarantee that the bloggers (the person writing the blog) have any real expertise in the subjects they are writing on. Technorati does try to alleviate this problem by showing a blog's "authority" and number of fans. Authority records the number of times a blog is referenced by other blogs and a blog's number of fans just shows how many people like the blog enough to self-describe themselves as fans of it. While blogs with high authority and larger numbers of fans do tend to be better written there is no guarantee that these blogs have more accurate information, only more popular information. I feel like Technorati (and to an extent wikipedia as well) represents a democratization of information, it represents a situation where popularity trumps legitimacy and where the sheer weight of public opinion can dictate truth. Imagine the 15th century's technorati or wikipedia the vast mass of the populous could assure you that the earth was flat, their voices drowning out the educated elite that knew the earth to be round.

I'm sorry technorati. I didn't intend for this to turn into a mean spirited tirade against you, I actually do like the premise of the site. I just get nervous that people will look at this as a research tool, just because the library wants us to learn about it. It's not a research tool, but it can be an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.

Del.icio.us

I thi.nk that the most us.ef.ul thing I lea.rned from del.icio.us is that i.t is ac.cep.tab.le to in.ser.t mul.ti.ple per.iod..s in.to a w.ord. Not only is this beh.avio.r c..ool, i.t is als.o us.ef.ul. I've ev.en co.nsid.ered inc.luding i.t in an emer.gent l.iter.acy hand.out, or us.ing it in sto.ry.tim.e. Seriously though, I didn't find del.icio.us to be that useful of a site. I don't go home to my computer lab each night and wonder which of my 12 computers has the link I'm looking for, in fact I can't remember the last time I saved a link per.iod. Google does a fine job of searching out which ever site I happen to be looking for and I feel like typing something into the google search bar in firefox is quicker that searching thru a bookmarks folder and it is definitely quicker than logging into del.icio.us and then searching my links for whatever it is I'm looking for.

As far as using del.icio.us to provide reference help, I'm not sure I'm sold. I speculated that google would once again be more effective. So I decided to test this hypothesis, by searching some tags in del.icio.us and then searching those same terms in google. I decided to search nature, orangutans, trees (no I can't explain why I chose those terms, but I did, so now we all have to live w/ them) in del.icio.us and I immediately encountered a drawback to using del.icio.us, I can't spell, therefore, I certainly can't spell orangutans. My attempt ended up looking something like 'oragatang.' Del.icio.us was not impressed, it rewarded my search w/ 0 results and no suggestions on how i might find more. Google on the other hand actually found 31 results that other grievous mispellers of the web had posted and better still google, in it's infinite wisdom, asked me did you mean nature, orangutans, trees ? Yes. Yes I did google. Google then went on to show me some 36,000 sites that matched my criteria. I only looked at the first page, but most of the results looked relevant. I then took the correct spelling google had provided me and offered it to del.icio.us. Del.icio.us gave me one result, something about the origins of walking began in the trees. This was not what I had hoped to find. Google 1, Del.icio.us 0. I, being a kind a generous soul, decided to give deli.cio.us a second chance. Perhaps this one search was a fluke. I decided this time I would have a clearer objective when I searched (my triplet of only somewhat related terms may have been what caused del.icio.us fits). My objective became information on the movies of the 2006 sundance film festival. I phrased my search as: sundance, 2006, movies. Both google and del.icio.us provided me w/ many relevant links right on the first page, however del.cio.us actually provided me w/ the same link 6 times, 6 of the first seven links were to the sundance 2006 official website, which in a way is actually good, that's probably the most relevant site, but on the other hand suggesting it 6 times is a little over the top. Google provided a variety of sites w/ the information on the movies of sundance 2006 and since we're dealing w/ the reviews here I think at least a little bit of variety is important. Google 2, Del.icio.us 0. (Google also found the sundance 2006 official page).

Before I end I should clarify my opinions of del.icio.us. I'm not trying to say del.icio.us is a bad site, or a useless website, on the contrary, it seems to have plenty of great applications, but those applications are either not particularly relevant to my situation or those applications are redundant and my needs are better filled by another website (thanks google!). I should however give credit where credit is due and I must admit I did have one great success w/ del.icio.us. A few weeks ago, when the library 2.0 was still in its testing phase, I was previewing a few of the exercises at home and i decided to give del.icio.us a shot. I searched my favorite nba rumor site in delicious and then used the tags associated w/ it to try to find a similar site, I browsed long and hard and finally I stumbled across a website previously unknown to me http://heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com/ it was hillarious and it is updated frequently so I've visit it often since discovering it (thanks del.icio.us!) I can never remember the prohibitively long url though... so I always search larry hughes stop on google and it comes right up.

Week 2

I checked out a couple of the wikis listed on the learning 2.0 website. I was generally impressed with the SJCPL wiki, especially the format they used. To start I clicked on biography and memoir, the page then displays definitions of various types of biographies followed by a listing of new biographies at the library, staff recommend biographies and best selling biographies. Pictures of the book cover are shown just like one would expect to see on amazon or barnes and noble's website and clicking on those pictures links you to the library catalog. On the downside the page has been updated since feb of last year, so the new books aren't exactly new anymore.... I then tried browsing by categories, hobbies and then travel. Travel had a similar lay-out w/ the books, but it also included an "in the news" link to a travel to Torino in 2006 website, once again very out of date. The travel section also included lists of travel magazines, links to travel websites, dewy numbers and info on language learning help. The other wiki i visited was iread the Iowa reader's advisory wiki. One probably I noticed was they had lots of categories to browse (e.g. children's -> Historical Fiction) w/ nothing, or very options recommended. The adult and teen genres seemed to have more options, but I was never overly impressed by the quantity of books recommended. One thing I did like is the convenient links the site had to add a delicious bookmark or RSS. The problem i noticed is that for wikis to be success for they need frequent contribution and updates. Wikis generally useful proportionate to the number of contributors they have. Wikipedia is so successful because it has millions of contributors worldwide. The wikis I looked at today are limited in what they can do, because they have a much smaller group of contributors. While wikipedia is used by internet users around the world, I doubt that the SJCPL wiki attracts many contributors outside of St Jospeh's County library users who also use the internet.

Learning 2.0

Step one complete! Personally I found week one's activities to be fairly easy. I already have a gmail account so I skipped that step. Blogger seems pretty straight forward, the only difficulty I encountered was when I, on a whim, went into settings and made the transliteration English to Hindi button active. Unless you can read Hindi I don't recommend it, it changed everything I typed directly into Hindi characters. I spent maybe a grand total of 45 minutes working this out and that includes numerous interruptions (i was on desk the whole time) and much agonizing over which template I would use.