Tag Archives: #andypoll

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#andypoll–12/10/10

On Twitter today, I posted an #andypoll that asked: “Invent a new library word, provide a definition, & use it in a sentence. GO! RT plz!” I didn’t get many replies, but I loved the ones I got so much that I wanted to post them. So, here they are:

  • libraderie: Friendship and goodwill between librarians. “Little makes me happier than the libraderie I have with my colleagues.” (by @gingeringeorgia)
  • Lamenter: A person who constantly complains. “He got fired because he’s a lamenter.” (by @uberlibrarygirl)
  • Transvesselify – to provide timely information in the format (or vessel) most appropriate to the user. "This resource is going to be extremely popular – we need to transvesselify to cater for old and new markets." or "Traditionally that book has always been popular in print, but we need to transvesselify." (by @theREALwikiman)
  • Inforationale: helping students learn the rationale of good information seeking skills. (by @dianekauppi)
  • Virtuarefassist: where students get virtual ref to do their homework. "I used virutarefassist to find the answers." (by @andi33079)
  • e-new: to renew electronic resources from outside the library. “I’m e-newing ‘The Lost City of Z’, excellent!” (by @LibraryCynthia)
  • Smold. The smell of a closed study room during finals. “Even after two days, the smold in room 214 was tangible. Next year we hand out Febreze.” (by @bmljenny)

If anyone wants to add their own word, use the comments to add your own perfectly cromulent word. It embiggens our professional vocabulary!

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#andypoll – 10/12/10

So, I sent out a Tweet this morning that simply asked this:

#andypoll: So, what library issue is on your mind today?

And I got a tremendous response from Twitter. I have taken screenshots of the replies with the #andypoll hashtag and made one giant image. (I don’t think I made it big enough, but as someone who doesn’t need glasses, I can still read it.)

Click to embiggen

I was going to write about what I see in this jungle of replies, but first I want to know what do YOU see in these tweets? I’ll share my thoughts tomorrow.

Leave a comment with your observations and thoughts or if there is something in particular that caught your attention.

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The People Business

I’ve been running the near daily #andypoll on Twitter for a couple of months now. Sometimes the questions are goofy, sometimes they are serious, and most of the time they are just random questions that pop into my head. The question I asked today elicited all sorts of answers.

You should add your own answer below.

For this particular poll, I got a ton of answers. So many, in fact, that rather than highlight a few, I compiled them into a giant picture file.

Click to embiggen

They certainly represent a broad spectrum of views and beliefs as to what makes a librarian a librarian. If I was to generalize them, they hover around customer service skills (e.g. empathy, patience, kindness, and a love of people, to name a few).

But I was curious as to what non-librarians thought would be a quality that they would look for in librarians. So I (and a few other people) asked around. Again, I compiled it into a graphic (albeit a smaller one).

Click to embiggenWhile this does not meet any sort of scientific credibility at a glance, I thought even in the few answers collected that they lined up some of the answers given by my fellow professionals on Twitter. Moreover, it was a confirmation of the personal aspect of the service; that attitude and approachability have a higher importance to non-librarian library users than other proficiencies and knowledges.

While this isn’t a Will Manley poll, it certainly something to get conversations started. What do you think is the #1 quality a librarian or library staff member should have?