David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

I’m Running for LITA President!

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Guess what? I’m running for LITA president (again)! Here’s my election info page over at the LITA website. Bohyun Kim is also running – gotta say, she’s also a great choice 🙂 Here’s the list of all the awesome people running for LITA offices this year.

Voting runs from March 13 – April 5. Here’s my ask: if you’re a LITA member, please consider voting for me!

OK – here’s my other even more direct ask: if you are a LITA member, please VOTE. Last year, only 539 people voted. Even though there were 2595 LITA members. Yes, that means that 2056 of you didn’t vote. Why the heck not???

So this year – no matter who you vote for – I’d love to see more members vote. It’s a really simple way to make your voice heard, and it really does count. For example, last year I lost by 6 votes. If everyone voted, maybe I would have lost by 2500, because Andromeda. :-). But either way – please vote.

Then, after you have voted – help make LITA into the organization YOU want it to be. No one knows what that is if you don’t share it!

Vote for my Book!

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Just a quick note that my book, Face2face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections has been nominated for a small business book award by Small Business Trends.

So here’s what I’d LOVE for you to do – go vote for my book! It’s easy to do – go here, and click that blue Vote box next to the title of my book. Simple, huh?

While you’re at it, if you haven’t read my book yet … click the book link in this post, go to Amazon, and buy it! Ok, or check it out at your local library. Or get the library to buy it for you 🙂

Either way – thanks for reading! You guys ROCK.

Why “Getting it” Matters

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OK… I’m a card-carrying member of the American Library Association, and it’s voting time again. Every year, we vote for a president (and a lot of other stuff). This year, there are two candidates for ALA President – Kent Oliver and Roberta Stevens. Both fine, highly qualified people, I’m sure (though I’ve never met either one).

As a web-centric, social media loving geekboy, here’s what I noticed when I visited their websites:

Roberta Stevens:

  • Cool. She has a website.
  • Dated design … looks like a fine site from the year 1999
  • big fat Donate button (actually the first thing I noticed)
  • where’s the RSS feed … hey, wait a minute … why isn’t this a blog-based site with commenting?
  • a mish-mash of text links that point to videos, photos, podcasts, webpages, and pdf files
  • a link to a Facebook Fan page
  • Ah – there’s her blog – one of the many text links points to it.
  • Oops – I clicked through to her blog. She has embedded a YouTube video there …  but it broke her blog template.

Kent Oliver:

  • Cool. He has a website too. A nicely designed site, looks a bit like Obama’s recent campaign site
  • it’s a blog – the RSS feed is right there, where it should be (subscribed)
  • two quick links to platform and qualifications
  • a Donate Now button that blends in with the rest of the site
  • an embedded video (used blip.tv – coolness)
  • Flickr images, embedded on the main page so I can see them…
  • a search box!
  • no one’s commented on his blog posts yet (currently displaying big 0’s beside each post)
  • Oops – just clicked on Platform. Instead of getting his actual platform, I got two more links… same with the Qualifications link.

Honestly, once I get past all that stuff and take a peek at their actual platforms, it’s all the usual stuff (diversity, more money, support privacy, etc) – nothing that stands out as remarkably interesting to me, a lover of all things web (which is a reflection of ME, not them 🙂 ).

But – looking at the two lists above … who do you think “gets it?” Who either understands new online media, or at least knows who to ask for help? Will that sway my vote (and the votes of many others)? Probably so.

Yes, understanding “the new stuff” is definitely important, and can make or break a campaign.

Time to Vote for LITA Reps

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Guess what? It’s time to do a bunch of voting for ALA members! I’m a member of LITA – actually, it’s because of LITA and primarily the BIGWIG Interest Group that I’m active in ALA at all – BIGWIG is doing some amazingly innovative things. Well, for a large, unruly association, that is. But it’s a start!

That said, here’s my personal endorsement for the LITA election:

  • Karen Starr – I love this quote: “The innovators and leaders of tomorrow are the LITA members of today. It is refreshing to work with a dynamic group on the national level who care, who want to define that future and who come together to work on what the big picture should look like.” She’s describing me!
  • Aaron Dobbs – no brainer for me. We went to library school together, and both worked on an early grant-funded project, the Scholar’s Workstation. Aaron’s not slowed down since then.
  • Maurice York – He’s also realizing libraries are at a turning point, and that LITA can help: “I believe that LITA is positioned to represent the potential of a responsive and flexible professional organization to play an important role in shaping the profession at this critical turning point.”

So – make sure to vote! once that packet arrives (hmm … mine hasn’t shown up yet …).

*obviously this represents my own personal viewpoint, and not the viewpoint of ALA, LITA, BIGWIG, etc, etc.*

Photo by Theresa Thompson