The Library community

I love being part of the library community.

Maybe because I’m a librarian at heart.

Maybe it’s because, on the whole, they are all trying to be the best they can at what they do, at a time of great change.

Could that be said for all professions? Probably – especially those who choose to share experiences.

Anyway the blogosphere is a great place to be a librarian and it is also a pleasure to provide pages where a librarian might trip over an idea that will work for them as they try to be the best they can at what they do.

Tag: library

Um… uh… do I sound stupid?

Have you ever wondered why some of us just can’t seem to expunge those “ums” and “uhs” from our speech, no matter how hard we try?

I don’t know about you, but even as a professional speaker, I still have to carefully edit those filler words out of my podcast every week. And it’s worrisome, since many people tend to take a plethora of “um” and “uh” as a sign of a lack of intelligence, or at least as a sign of a less-than-suave delivery.

Turns out that there is actually a reason for those seemingly meaningless fillers.

Read on ….

Tag:

Yankee’s revenge

On 7th May, I posted about a video showing people’s lack of geographical knowledge, and becaue it was American, I had to have a dig at Americans. Well, I discovered this little test on the internet and failed geography miserably. Yankee’s revenge indeed! Here is what it said …

You Failed 8th Grade Geography
Sorry, you only got 3/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Geography?

Tags:
geography, tolerance

Three essential body language tips

“For anyone who has done some training with me, you’ll know that I don’t focus on body language when presenting. People can get obsessed by trying to look convincing or slick, and neglect the content of their presentation. They perform all the textbook hand gestures, and what comes out of their mouths doesn’t match up. A bit like watching 100 chavs pour out of a limo. It just doesn’t seem right.

Sometimes however I do give advice on body language for presenting – especially when it detracts from the message. Here are the 3 biggest body language presentation pitfalls, and what you can do to avoid them:”

Read on …

Tags:public speaking, body language

Who wants to be a millionaire?

I do think this is such a shame …

Gates doesn’t want to be world’s richest man

Most people probably dream of being the world’s richest person – except, perhaps, the man himself.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told an online advertising conference Wednesday that he’d prefer not to be the richest person in the world.”I wish I wasn’t,” he said in a session in which he was being interviewed by Donny Deutsch, the host of an interview show on CNBC television.

Read on …

I used to think the old sayings were boring .. “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.” “Count your blessings.” And yet the grass is always greener because no matter how much we change our physical circumstances, the emotions remain. But if we can find happiness in what we have, then those physical circumstances don’t have such a hold.

Tag: success

The Road never closes

From Tom Peters …”In our age of 24 hour connectivity, the road really never closes.”

He uses a quotation which is lovely to read.

I don’t know about Los Angeles, so I may be missing something, but referring to life in general and connectivity in specifics, then I guess it is up to us to close it or get off it and go inside and tell stories, read books and connect with real life, or is it soul?

Are you a librarian or interested in libraries?

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Tags:library

Ahhh. Now that is beautiful

“Loose connections and majestic rotational movement define this strange computational organism named Sea Thing.“

Thanks Orange Yeti

Public speaking tip – the value of Icebreakers

Public speaking tip – the value of Icebreakers

Icebreakers are little exercises that help relax tension and loosen up a formal atmosphere in a meeting where you want to have creative ideas and group participation.

This icebreaker will have everyone laughing:

Break everyone up into small groups of 2 or 3. Give each group a made-up punchline. Each group now has 5 minutes to come up with a joke or story that uses that punchline at the end. The crazier the better!

Here are some example punchlines:

1. And that is why you never let a cat go fishing!

2. That proves that elephants don’t like hot dogs.

3. Finally he said, “Sir, your computer doesn’t have a cigarette lighter.”

4. The moral of the story is, “Always wear socks!”

Tag:

public speaking

Global geographic awareness?

From the Pime Forest collective

It’s so much easier for our government to bomb foreign countries when our population hasn’t a clue where the target countries are located. Here’s some video proof of the study

….Is it just another myth that Americans are insular?

While this post is scary, I think that it applies to all of us and our inability to feel the pain of people on the other side of the world . It hits home when we see it on our own streets though, doesn’t it?

Tag: America, global, geography