Lowrider Librarian

Organizational Communication Infrastructure for Innovation and Progress by Max Macias 11/08 At large organizations, Web 2.0 is being used in internal blogs or social networks. These perform the very useful functions of keeping far-flung employees, teams, and divisions in touch, sharing best practices and other useful information, and serving as a way to train. Organizations are beginning to see the value of these arrangements for more formalized training, as well as informal companywide communications (HR Focus, 2007). One of the requirements for an efficient (profitable?) organization is effective communication. With the influx of information today, new forms of communication are required for organizations. Most contemporary associations I have encountered have late 20 th century forms of communication based on an hierarchical system (I will be kind) from the 19 th century. Today one communicates in a variety of ways based on new tools for communicatio...

Vice Presidential Debate 2008 HQ (Part 1) 10/02 Palin Biden Debate 2008 - Sarah Palin Joe Biden VP Debate Thursday October 2nd at Washington University in St Louis MO in HIGH QUALITY (Part 1) Last night's vice presidential debate let me down.  Biden certainly came off looking weak to Reagan democrats and others.  I find it quite hilarious that these voters buy Palin's facetious verbiage last night.  Darn it!  If Obama and Biden don't want to come off looking like weak people who will pander to terrorists "without preconditions," they will lose many votes.  Americans don't like weak leaders and this could very well be the Obama camp's weak spot.  Americans would rather have a tough idiot for a leader (yes--I'm talking about Palin here and McCain here) than a weak intellectual.  Obama's middle of the road maneuvers don't set well with foreign policy in a country that is been scared witless by their leaders.  He can count on this strategy to w...

Check it yo,  write to facebook and tell them we don't want criminals like this involved with our private information!  http://valleywag.com/5056365/facebook-hires-alberto-gonzaless-former

Please check out my short presentation. Feedback is MUCH appreciated!

Please check out my short presentation. Feedback is MUCH appreciated!

Edit Nope--Ain't gonna happen... 11:22am I drive around alot--I'm a commuter. On my commute I see political signs all the time. It is interesting that, in this election, arguably the most important in a long long time, there are very few presidential yard signs out in the country where I live. Oh--there are plenty of local signs--for local elections, but the presidential endorsements are glaringly lacking. What this tells me is that most of these people are going to vote for McCain and Palin, but they are too embarrassed to admit that kind of idiocy. Its NOT idiocy though--its straight up prejudice. No surprise there--I mean--we live in a country that enslaves people of color under the guise of the prison industry. I hope my observation is wrong, but growing up and living in a white-supremacist society tells me different... In many ways I think that OBAMA needs to lose in order for things to get better. Americans don't care about things until they are impacted by something...

Hey, please take a look at PCC's new site and let me know what you think: http://www.pcc.edu/library/ Thanks!

I'm in school and took three classes this summer, and working on a huge project at work and working on personal stuff. I will be back soon! :-)

I'm in school and took three classes this summer, and working on a huge project at work and working on personal stuff. I will be back soon! :-)

Diversity and the Library Industry Diversifying the library industry will bring new ideas into the homogeneous industry of library science. In my brief tenure in Library Science graduate school it has become apparent to me that there is a definite lack of diversity in thinking. I say this because I constantly encounter a lack of critical thinking and logic when it comes to dealing with non-Western, or different cultures and languages. This is a direct reflection of the lack of cultural diversity in the library field. With the challenges presented to the relevancy of libraries by the advent of the internet and the Web, libraries have to learn new methods of conducting business. Libraries must be creative, innovative and dynamic. They must serve a diverse community that has varied information needs. Many of these communities have traditionally been underserved. These information needs are based on a mixture of outlooks, cultures, educational, p...

The communication infrastructure is advancing quickly. I now have the ability to talk to people I admire, and to reach others through self-publishing and the web. I have a Facebook account that ties my blog, my Flickr account, my musical playlists , etc… it is a place where I can consolidate my web presences. It is also a place where I can communicate with others who have similar interests. It is place where I can get up to date (sometimes up to the minute) reports from conferences as well as notes by presenters and audience members, links to presentations and other presentation materials. Facebook’s API allows developers to create applications which can be used by Facebook users. This leads to a proliferation of applications. Some of these applications are good, while others are not. The sheer number of applications assures that there will be some things you will like. Face book itself is doing a decent job of building itself and seems ...

Collaboration between Facebook blog and chat Evolution of networks [Write back and lets collaborate!]

Facebook Chat is what facebook has been missing. I mean the platform has always been a good networking tool, but now it is a KILLER networking tool. I've had a chance to speak to many library luminaries this week and I am thoroughly stoked on the possibilities. the ability to communicate with others immediately will increase the formation of new ideas, concepts and collaborations. We all know its about collaboration and freedom. I can get feedback from people who are the top in their fields. This is the networking information seeking tool I've been looking for. Sure myspace has had chat--but their chat utility shut down my poor 56k machine. I never used it. Communication, collaboration, and the creation of new information structures and networking avenues is in its infancy. Businesses need to learn from Facebook's API. Sure there are many ANNOYING applications, but there are also some really fun apps that let people play, get to know each other a bit, and learn. Th...

White-supremacist scum like this are the reason we are experiencing so many attacks right now. It is NOT just "illegal immigrants," Who happen to be indenenous peoples--who have a right to be ANYWHERE on this continent--its also a general attack on Mexicans and other people's from the south. Video of the anti-American congressman. http://tinyurl.com/3ksgb2 We have a racist bill attacking us in AZ, kids have been sodomized , there have been hate crimes committed at my place of employment , there is a full and sustained attack going on. We won't put up with this. What have we done? We are here to work, to improve our lives and to live. History has shown, no matter how "white (What I mean by this is trying to uphold the ideology of the Anglo-American--which is fundamentally white-supremacist as it is based on Western civilization)" we try to become--we will NEVER be accepted. What to do? Organize, get together with your people and educate them. Participat...

[This is an email I received at school yesterday. I work in "progresssive" segregated Portland, Oregon. I routinely find racist messages in the library bathroom and in other areas of the school. PCC is a great place and is doing much to improve the quality of EVERYONES lives in the Portland area. This is so sad that this happens here] FWD The world won't change if people don't change it! RISE UP Last week, a letter went out to our campus community about the theft and degradation of the Semana de la Raza banner. As a community, we need to RISE UP, PULL TOGETHER, SPEAK OUT , and SUPPORT THE VICTIMS of this hate crime. Please show your support by gathering in the courtyard TOMORROW, April 22nd at 12:45 p.m. to SPEAK OUT against hate and bias on our campus. Also, it is important for all of us to SUPPORT the students and staff who have worked to put the event together. Let's show them and the rest of the community that we are not a campus that toler...

An attack from AZ I received an email from a list I belong to this morning. It described a bill in Arizona (SB1108) that is sponsored by the White-supremacist Russell Pearce. I say he is a White-supremacist because his bill will ban the teaching of Mexican-American/Chicano/a studies! This bill would have a severe impact on what people will recognize as legitimate scholarly work, and what people will write off as opinion. Mecha, and Chicano/a studies has had a positive impact by teaching people about the history of what is called the US . http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/114048 Classes in Arizona which "denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization" could lose funding under this legislation. This bill actively targets dissent. Teachers and schools would have to surrender classic works such as Dr. Rodolfo Acuna's "Occupied America - A History of Chicanos." Lets look at s...

This morning I attended a presentation at OLA/WLA by the children's bilingual (Spanish-English) author and musician Jose Luis-Orozco . He is simply incredible. He displayed how to teach language and concepts like self-esteem and tolerance via fingerplays, songs and dancing. His presentation was rich and full of languages and respect for diversity. We learned how to count to ten in Polish, Spanish, Russian, German, French, English, and Dutch by the end of his presentation. This was no passive presentation Jose-Luis had the crowd up in front dancing and getting to know one another. I cried, I laughed, and I learned--he is a master storyteller/performer. I cannot tell you how happy I am that his books are available to this generation of kids. I didn't really have this kind of cultural appreciation child teaching. It is wonderful that our libraries, schools, and parents can take advantage his work to teach kids how to have fun and to love each other and themselves. Big pro...

My Homeboy over at Foulweather Press just wrote up a post on Libraries: Foulweather He was stoked that Multnomah Co. carried his zine (in which I have an interview with Immortal Technique and an essay on colonialism in the US). I recently received a comment from someone who works at Seattle public--saying they had received foulweather and noticed my work. Libraries just plain rule! We provide you with the information you need. Tell us what you want and need! Read Foulweather and support Libraries!

My friends recently turned me onto Muxtape. This is a sweet site that lets you upload 12 mp3's to make a mixtape. You can then share it with friends by sharing the URL. It is such a beautifully simple idea. For each song there is a link to Amazon where one can purchase the track/s. One can easily appreciate what a good sales/marketing model this is immediately. I've already been exposed to at least 10 bands I had heard of, but had never heard. Now I'm probably going to buy some of their music, whereas if I had not heard them--I would not buy their music. Sure you can sample tunes in many manners--its just that Muxtape has that social networking recommendation thing going on. Perhaps this is something the slow moving publishing industry will notice and take a cue from. I'm fantasizing about having a library muxtape with selections taken from the library collection and then having links to the records so they can be placed on hold easily. Simple is beautiful...

The former head of the Venezuelan library systems has been given the task of fighting cultural imperialism in Venezuela. Article We need someone to do that here in American Libraries. I have yet to read a good article on the colonial viewpoint that is in almost ALL information produced and disseminated in the US, and in the West. Has anyone here read any good analytical essays/articles on this issue?