Thanks for visiting my blog.  Feel free to look around; you might find the “Blog Categories” section of the right sidebar a good place to start.

I’ve compiled A Young Librarian’s Crash Course in Library Access and People with Disabilities, a set of links for those who would like to learn more about library services and people with disabilities.  The list is hardly exhaustive, but I hope it will provide interested persons with a good start.  The links are also available via the Delicious social bookmarking service: mbfortson’s yl_crash Bookmarks on Delicious.

While I’ve worked in the information profession long enough to consider myself an information professional, I am hardly an authoritative voice.  I can only speak from the perspective of a budding librarian who seeks to unite my avocation and my vocation, eager to share what I learn along the way.

Thanks again to Leah for creating a space in which to share our experiences as young information professionals.  If you’re reading this and haven’t sent in a submission, I hope you will.  I look forward to hearing your stories.

Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words 5 million dollars.

source: LouisvilleKY.gov

The picture: the main branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, following the devastation of an August 2009 flood.  Five million dollars: the estimated amount of damage sustained by the LFPL’s main branch.

What does this decidedly non-kick-ass situation have to do with the title of this post?

First, this post is my contribution to the Louisville Free Public Library Blogathon.  This blog event, which asks bloggers to write a post on “Why Libraries Kick Ass,” is designed to raise not only awareness but also funds for the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation.

click here to donate

Librarians kick ass.  A librarian initiated this effort, and the library community has joined together to support Louisville’s library and the blogathon.  Trade publications and library blogs are covering the event, and today, library bloggers will take to Twitter (hashtag: #lfplblogathon) and social media to spread the word via their own blogs.  As a blogathon wiki author notes, “The Louisville Free Public Library gets a donation, you get a fun post to write (to train yourself for future advocacy), and the library blogger community unites for a good cause! It’s a win-win-win situation!”  Indeed it is.

Libraries kick ass.  Did you know that there is a Library Bill of Rights?  There is, and, while it is intended to guide policy, I think it also perfectly expresses the library’s role.  From the document, which can be read in its entirety on the American Library Association website:

I. Books and other library resources should be provided for the interest, information, and enlightenment of all people of the community the library serves. Materials should not be excluded because of the origin, background, or views of those contributing to their creation.

II. Libraries should provide materials and information presenting all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.

III. Libraries should challenge censorship in the fulfillment of their responsibility to provide information and enlightenment.

IV. Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

V. A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.

There’s been much talk of whether the library remains relevant in the digital age. Here’s why I think the answer to that question is YES.

More information doesn’t always mean good information; now, more than ever, libraries and librarians can provide access to quality information sources (and help patrons evaluate sources themselves). I love a good electronic resource, and I’m all about a digital revolution, but collections will-and should-remain “hybrid” (print and electronic) for some time to come. Beyond the abundance of materials and services the library provides, it also serves as a third place: libraries build community. Provided that they receive the support to do so, libraries can and will remain relevant.

Do you agree that libraries kick ass? If so, I hope you will join me in supporting a library in need by making a donation to the Louisville Free Public Library Foundation.

Disability.gov (@Disabilitygov) is one of my favorite Twitter accounts. The tweets are so useful, in fact, that I don’t just follow them on Twitter; I subscribe to the account’s RSS feed, making it easier for me to bookmark links and refer back to older posts.

Last month, a couple of tweets informed followers about changes to the Disability.gov site. An ODEP News Release describes the redesign: Disability.gov offers social media tools, upgrades to complement information from 22 federal agencies on disability-related programs and services.

In my work providing information and referral in the disability community, I regularly visited the old site. I usually accessed it via Google search results, though, and didn’t think of it as a starting point for disability resource information. Today’s site seems to be more comprehensive and current than the former site and more user-friendly, too. The How to Use this Site page is clear, informative, and a good “gateway” to the site, and were the site mine to manage, I would actually feature it more prominently (I accessed it from a link in the upper right corner, next to the “Skip to page content” option). The site appears to be fairly accessible: the main page passed WAVE and Section 508 automated evaluations (there were a couple of WAI errors). I can’t attest to its functional accessibility, though.

Tennessee Disability Pathfinder’s is another disability-related site that recently made some changes in order to become more usable.

As Disability.gov does with its How to Use this Site page, Pathfinder provides users with guidance in navigating the site. The descriptions provided by Pathfinder’s “On this site…” feature help visitors decide to which areas of the site they might go to find the information they seek. I also like how, at every turn, users are reminded of the availability of telephone and e-mail assistance. The site truly conveys a sense of invitation and welcome:

seen on the Tennessee Disability Pathfinder website

I must confess that I am a bit biased, as Pathfinder’s is the information and referral program where I served as Program Coordinator before leaving to attend graduate school. I regret that I cannot claim any involvement in the redesign, though, because the site looks great! Here’s a shot of the services database interface (click to enlarge):

Pathfinder services database screen shot

I think that a website whose primary aim is to provide resource information can easily become self-defeating. Lots of information doesn’t necessarily equal lots of useful information, and information loses its value when it can’t be a) found and b) used.  The recent changes to both Disability.gov and the Tennessee Disability Pathfinder website (www.familypathfinder.org) result in sites that are both attractive and more usable for people with disabilities and their families.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Disability.gov
• Disability.gov: How to Use this Site
• ODEP: Disability.gov offers social media tools, upgrades to complement information from 22 federal agencies on disability-related programs and services
• Tennessee Disability Pathfinder
• Tennessee Disability Pathfinder: Search the Pathfinder Database
• Twitter: @Disabilitygov

I tweet. I used to Tweet, but the AP Stylebook took care of that; I am no longer a twit.  Anyway…

Twitter’s trending topics feature ranks the popularity of words and phrases employed by its users, displaying them on its home page and in sidebars throughout the site.  Trending topics- and the tweets themselves- often include hashtags: keywords or other descriptive terms designated with the hash (pound) symbol.

I present, for your reading enjoyment, #failedchildrensbooktitles.  Here are some of my favorites:

Charlotte’s Webcam (@younginn22)

James and the Giant Peach Schnapps (@fenrislorsrai)

The 30 % Cotton 70 % Lycra Rabbit (@Cam_STL)

Thomas the Tanked Engine (@JRai)

Go Dog Go.  Take the Cat with You. (@coloween)

And these, illustrated and published at Comedy.com:

Which #failedchildrensbooktitles are a win? Have any of your own? Let me know in the comments.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Comedy.com: 10 Favorite Failed Children’s Book Titles Illustrated
• Twitter
• Twitter: @APStylebook tweet
• Twitter search: #failedchildrensbooktitles

In Spring 2009, BG and I set about visiting all of the locks and dams of Alabama’s Black Warrior and Tombigbee Rivers and the Alabama portions of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.  That Dam Project is my effort to chronicle our visits and share what I’ve learned along the way.

You may also be interested in my Delicious bookmarks tagged dam_project.

December on the Black Warrior (source: Diamondduste's Flickr photostream)

BG and I began our journey with a May 2009 visit to Holt Lock and Dam, one of several locks and dams on Alabama’s Black Warrior River.  From Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s River Facts:

The Black Warrior River watershed is 6,276 square miles, contained entirely within Alabama. Beginning in North central Alabama as three tributaries – the Sipsey Fork, Mulberry Fork, & Locust Fork – the river then flows southwest for roughly 300 miles past Birmingham and Tuscaloosa to its confluence with the Tombigbee River at Demopolis. The Black Warrior River watershed contains 16,145.98 miles of mapped water.
The Black Warrior River and its tributaries are a major source of drinking water for many cities including Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Cullman, Oneonta, and Jasper.

The Black Warrior has a rich history, from the prehistoric to the modern.   The river was named for Native American Chief Tascaluça (from “tasska” and “luska”, meaning “black warrior”).  Both coal and cotton have traveled the river, and river commerce prompted the creation of its locks and dams.  From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project History Page:

Between 1895 and 1915, a system of 17 locks and dams was constructed between Mobile and Birmingham. In those days, waterway construction was a slow and laborious task. Dams were built by hand of stone and mortar. Locks were walled with stone-filled timber cribs, and hauling was done by mule-power.

The original locks and dams were built to provide a six-foot-deep channel, adequate for the steam-powered tow boats and packets of the era. The Corps undertook a program to modernize the system in 1937. The 17 low-lift locks were replaced by six high-lift locks, capable of expediting present-day towboats and barges. The locks vary in maximum lift from 22 to 69 feet. The nine-foot navigation channel is maintained to a width of 200 feet. Tows of up to eight standard barges can be accommodated at all locks.

The waterway is now approximately 457 miles long. All of the original locks and dams have been replaced except for John Hollis Bankhead Dam on the Black Warrior near Birmingham. The structures at Bankhead were the last of the original locks and dams built on the system. Bankhead dam has been modernized and a new lock has been constructed to make it comparable in efficiency to the other locks and dams in the system.

In addition to transportation and hydroelectric power, the Black Warrior River offers opportunities for recreation.  Black Warrior Riverkeeper’s Recreation page lists offers links of interest to the thousands who “fish, flyfish, swim, boat, kayak, canoe, waterski, wakeboard and take advantage of many other recreational opportunities along the Black Warrior and its tributaries.”

The Bankhead, Holt, and Oliver, and Warrior dams impound the Black Warrior River; Smith Dam impounds the River’s Sipsey Fork.

LINKS IN THIS POST

• Black Warrior Riverkeeper
• Black Warrior Riverkeeper: Recreation
• Black Warrior Riverkeeper: River Facts
• Discovering Alabama: Black Warrior River Teacher’s Guide
• meLISsa BLOG category: That Dam Project
• mbfortson’s dam_project bookmarks
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project
• USACE Black Warrior and Tombigbee Lakes Project: History
• Wikipedia: Black Warrior River
• Wikipedia: Holt Lock and Dam