risenetwork.ca/

It is early Wednesday morning. Dreamt of the prison and the idea of making the best of any situation. We will cary this with us for some time to come and we are determined to make all the good work that is done here in Edmonton known to the world. Quick shower in Moyra’s basement that is made for Hobbits and not Shanachies and off we go to Strathcona, a Hamlet about 30 minutes from Edmonton.
As we arrive we run into Diana, our tourguide for the day, who comes driving up to the RV in an old Book Mobile. She is so full of energy that she takes us straight away on a tour through the old bus, no coffee and no matter if there are people waiting for us. This is a woman of passion for the job that is obvious. The old Ford is great and we can hardly imagine that the new one beats this one, but first it is time to meet Sharon and het team.
The weather has taken a turn for the worst and it is raining cats and dogs. As we wait for the new Book Mobile we sit down with the staff to talk about the new library that they are building and the plans for the interior design we can not resist to talk about our DOK innovation team and the things we have been building over the past few years. We decide on the spot to hold a little presentation on DOK with lots of pictures. This takes up almost an hour and there are some good questions. we always get a bit carried away talking about DOK as we like our library so much. The staff meeting goes on without us and before lunch we get a little tour around the library. The teen area looks really cool and Robin tells us about the teen program, in which she uses a gaming program for literacy. The library is the centre of the community. Even more so as the Hamlet of Strathcona is huge and there is not really a city centre. So if people want to meet somewhere it is either the Mall or the library and probably mostly both.
Just after lunch and before we go out on a tour with the new Mobile we get a chance to see a session on literacy and babies. There is singing in an Irish accent while mothers play with the babies to the words of the songs. There appears to be a waiting list for this program and immediately I see opportunities to record this on video and to put it on the library website so that more people can enjoy this and thus shorten the waiting list.
The new Book Mobile arrives and what a beauty it is. We have never seen the likes of this. What a great bus. Diana has been working on this project for seven years and she has done a great job. There is a shelving system that allows you to take shelves out easily and replace them for others if the location is for a different target group. There are great laptops, there is wifi, there is fresh coffee. The collection has music, DVD’s. You name it, this bus has it. It is accesible for wheelchairs, there is plenty of space to walk around yet is has a good collection. This is again definitely best practice for sure. More important even is that in a time that we know this service of the Book Mobile is under debate and it is questioned whether there is a future for the Book Mobile it shows that with some investment and a very strong will and clear mind the future can be made and shaped to the user’s demand and need. Excellent work Diane !!
After a trip to two stops we get a chance to see the construction site of the new library. With Collin and Nicky of the construction team and Sharon, Cindy and Diane we walk into such a beautiful space. Wow, this is going to be a spectacular library. With art on the walls, a Laptop bar (we like it) and living rooms with a lot of daylight. It is obvious that the cooperation with the builders is really good and that they take pride in building this new library that will elevate the community of Strathcona to a higher plan. One thing…. the adjoining building that holds city services will have to be renovated next that is for sure.
After this visit we are exhausted, but there is no rest and on we ride with Cindy to a literacy program with horses. WHAT! Yes this man reads with children to beautiful Arabian Horses and it works. Do not ask me why, but the love for horses and the calm in which the horses respond to the reading improves the skills of the children enormously. We have never seen anything like it. Amazing. After having seen some children read to the horses. The man tells us it is now time for us Shanachies to communicate with the horses and he puts us in the arena with far too big and fierce, wild horses. The only thing to communicate  after a day like this is sheer fear. But with some instructions we make contact and we find a way even without rope to let the horses gallop and stop and come to us when we call. We are ready for the mountains. Bring on the wolves and bears. We Shanachies laugh you right in the face. If we can tame Arabians we can tame anything. Rockies and Jasper here we come……..

pukeariki.com/

YES!! We are off. Frank our host has secretly arranged a sort of limo to drive us to the Heathrow as he says: “You guys should leave England as the library rock stars that you are”. Frank you are amazing. Thanks!
Heathrow is very busy, but well organized and we get our tripod as extra luggage on the plane for free. Looks like our luck is changing. We also manage to change our flight back from Vancouver to Calgary so we have a day extra to see one more library. Flight of almost 9 hours was good as they had some good movies on the program such as The man who stare at goats and Sherlock Holmes. The landing however due to strong winds was more than shaking and the last 20 minutes were more like a rollercoaster ride.
Turning on the iPhone brings us the good news that Ellen of the Calgary Public Library is picking us up in red dress and red shoes. Can not miss her and we are so pleased to see her. She brings us to the RV Rental and tells us that there is a festivity going on at the library to celebrate the work of 1700 volunteers of the library. 1700 volunteers unbelievable. The RV Rental is closed so we check in at the hotel opposite and drive on to the library although it is already way after midnight London town and we are quite beat.
We manage to stay up and talk to Barbara about her plans and struggle to built a new library and with Dean, a volunteer, who educated himself with the help of volunteers at the library. Good story Dean. About 06.00 am London time we find our beds. We need sleep as Lisa Hardy is taking us on a library ride the next day and we still have to get the RV and find a place to camp.
After we get the RV I get us totally lost in Calgary as this country works a little different with the Tom Tom as I am used to, but we manage to find Lisa and she takes us to a beautiful RV Park where we park at the riverside. Then finally in Lisa’s car we set out for the first library. Fish Creek Library is the Library where Lisa works and it is definitely the first library that I have seen that is built in the shape of a piramid. It turns out to be a wonderful laid out library with different floors and different moods and functions everywhere you go. The marketing is very well done by Paul and there is a clearly a plan to manage this library in the best way possible. Jaap is a climer and when he sees the small steps he doubts not a second and he makes us go up to the top of the roof to do the interview there. Never done before and for a good reason. We take a good look around, talk to Maureen, who has organized a fibre arts event and see that this library is well used by many people.
After a good lunch we drive on to Shawnessy Public Library. It has started raining quite hard and it looks like there is snow in the air. This library has the same good atmosphere, but feels a little less open than Fish Creek. The great thing is that the library is in the same complex as a highschool and many sporting fascilities such as a swimmingpool. As many public libraries here and in the US they have a very cosy fireplace and I can see that the computers are well used. We like the coffee corner and the way the teens are invited as the teen books can be well spotted through the glass front on passing by.
We end up after lots of interviews and library shots in Lisa’s house to cook. Nancy and Kathleen join in for dinner and we talk for hours on libraries and on what we are doing in Delft. We decide to make Lisa the first person to play the cd sharing game with the marvelous cd by Jont. She is thrilled and immediately likes the concept. I am curous where the cd will go after Lisa. At the end of the evening Lisa takes us back to our RV through a blizzard. There is so much snow that we can hardly see the road and it is quite scary. I put my faith in Lisa and that she is used to driving through storms like this. After volcanic ashes there is snowstorms and far too few hours of sleep. Thanks Lisa you are a library jewel. This was a great day. I bet the libraries will fight to steal you away from Fish Creek as they see how bravely you did the interview in the top of your favourite library. Onwards it is to see our good friend Dean in Red Deer.

It is unbelievable. The word delay has to be given a new meaning. More than a week can no longer be called a delay. Regular attempts to talk with the airline and the travel agent learns that we are really out on our own. “no sir, you have to wait till friday for a new flight and by the way, because you have been given a new flight we consider you no longer as our booking so we can not do anything for you”. It would be inappropriate to write down how I as a user experience this form of service as this blog post is for all ages.
But the Douglas Mansion in Wimbledon is a great basecamp for us Shanachies to explore London and after a day in the Tate Modern, where we were impressed by the Kiss from Rodin and the Russian posters and a day at Hampton Court, the castle of Henry the Eight, we are more or less reaching a state of exceptance that we will get to Canada not earlier than friday.
We skype with Dean and are relieved to hear that everyone is still looking forward to the Shanachies and we will work like crazy to get as much out of our days as possible. We decide to record another This Week In Libraries episode from the National History Museum and especially the Darwin Center with Jo Mccausland, who is now working for Manchester Public library. We have heard great stories about the way this museum presents their material and especially the Darwin Center is looking at new digital storytelling tools.
Shanachies will be Shanachies and we dwell among the dinosaurs as we would have when we were 5 years old. I even felt a desire to buy me one on the way out as a mascotte, but we have enough luggage as it is. The Darwin Center is layed out as a cocoon that you spiral down along the exhibition. Indeed we find the touch tables, which enable you to download information to a card that you get at the entrance. This stored information can be retrieved on your pc when you get home and enter the code on the card on the website. Absolutely a great idea that could work in a library, but in this case we see that the joy for the children is more in the scanning than in the actual information. Hmm something to think about. Is it the technique we admire or the actual function and does it really meet a demand or need? I think it is a step forward, but it needs to get better and be more clearly about the content than the hi-tech.
In the garden of the museum we talk with Jo and she is obviously full of live and optimism. Of course she sees the cuts and the hard times libraries are facing in the UK like everwhere else, but this is also a time of great opportunity. This is the time to change. This is the time to look at staff. What are their functions and how can we prepare them for the library of the future/ How can we implement new ways of presenting all the treasures we have? This is a time of great expectations and England is setting a few good examples with the Idea Stores and with projects in Birmingham and Manchester. Keep up the good work Jo and we hope to see you in the USA when you go and make your own library tour. Again thanks go out to our friends, who put up with us. You are the best. Off to the wild west it is. We will be blazing our trails. I can almost smell the wild roses.

The Wild Rose- A library road trip across West Canada

15th April - An Act of God

We started out so exited!! Jaap and I woke uo early to get to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport on time with all our luggage. Camerera, tripod, photo camera, laptops and of course fishing rod and hunting knife….. I mean this is the Canadian Rockies we are talking about.
The first alert was already before boarding on our flight to London Heathrow. Big on the news Volcanic eruption in Iceland, but no news yet on cancellation of flights.
Second thing at the gate Jaap and I turn out not to be registered and are given new seats divided over the plane. Strange and as I recall I made a joke over bad omen and karma, not knowing what to expect in London.
The pilot warned us just before landing that all ongoing flights were cancelled because of volcanic ashes in the atmosphere.
At this stage there was still hope for a later flight, but as we were directed to terminal 3, our luggage as we found out at terminal 5 had not and was considered lost at terminal 5. So back on the train to terminal 5 to get our bags and you can imagine at one of the busiest airports in the world that has just been shut down this does not go easy. After 2 hours in line and getting back in through customs we indeed retrieve our bags and go back to terminal 3.
The policy is to let no people in the terminal and to tell the figure it all out with the flight companies. No hotel or re-booking is arranged as this is considered an act of God, so may the strong survive and there is no mercy.
I keep telling to myself that no matter what dissater, librarians would at least try to be of better service than this and that we would do our very best to help out wherever we can.
There will be no flights till at least tomorrow morning we hear and I decide to call my good friend and former bass player Luc, who lives in London.
He is in a meeting, but his beautiful and very friendly wife Bronwyn immediately offers to pick us up from the airport and to stay at their house for the night.
We Shanachies doubt not a second and leave the dissaster area of Heathrow. The news changes for the worse in the course of a wonderful evening with good music, good food and good company. No flights till 15.00 pm on the 16th. We will have to see. I can not wait to get to Calgary, but it is apparently all in the hands of God.
Well at least according to Air Canada. We survived an earthquake in Monterey, a flood in Brisbane and Guiness in Ireland so we laugh at Iceland and the Volcano when we fly over it.

Trailer made by Robin Slierendregt (www.3komma14.nl)

This library houses the Northern Ireland Political Collection. Shanachies believe it should be digitized. If you can offer any help, please contact us at shanachietour@gmail.com

More information on the library: linenhall.com

For more information please contact:

Jaap van de Geer (Head of Innovation), j.vandegeer@dok.info

Koen Rotteveel, k.rotteveel@dok.info

Chris has done such an amazing job and has been such a help in organizing the tour and bringing in the money. We owe her big time. Besides that she has organized a sort of Shanachietour with Australian librarians across Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Singapore in search of best practices. We have given her and her colleagues a tour through our DOK in Delft and they were so eager and enthousiastic. Can not wait to see them again. After a real good meal we have some good laughs with Michael, Christine’s Husband, who works in a special library and declares Jaap mad for building our own ILS at DOK. We find out that there is a lot of work to do. The next day we have to give a presentation at the State Library of Victoria. Three hours seems easy after this tour and the group is again so willing to join in the discussion about the future of libraries and best practices at DOK and other places. Excellent day, but again we have seen nothing of Melbourne. Chris has arranged for us to pick up our Lizzard king and stay at the house of Jane Grace, Manager Outreach of Yarra Plenty Regional Library. The day program has been so hectic that we forgot to eat and we are near to starvation when we get to the Thai restaurant. Jane knows all about marketting and shows us some brochures she makes. She has also stayed a while in the USA with our friends in Charlotte in an exchange program. Well I would love to have her work at DOK for six weeks. What great talent. Hang on to that girl Chris.

After a night in a real bed we are expected in the State Library for some interviews and some discussions. We take the train into town and get that feeling of going to work again. It is a nice day and we get there in time. As it turns out we are not just there to interview, no they expect us to lead a 2 hour discussion on libraries with a group of almost twenty librarians. Wow, talking about improvisation on the spot. After this I am not going to worry about any presentation ever again I promise myself in vain. After a energetic exchange of ideas we get a tour around this great library by Debra Rosenfeldt and Michelle McLean. The reading rooms are beautiful and especially the room named after Sir Redmond Barry is impressive, but the most beautiful part of the building is without a doubt the Dome. A small version of the Library of Congress in Washington it seems, with exhibitions and the story of Bushranger Ned Kelly. They have his original armour and his deathmask. What a story. The Irish Ned, after a life of murdering and plundering like a sort of Jesse James, was hanged by judge Barry, who founded the State Library and who was told at the hanging by Ned that he would see him in hell. It was only twelve days after the hanging that the judge suddenly found his death. These are the kind of stories and libraries that Shanachies like.

We are invited to stay the last nights at Christine’s place. Exiting discussions and a good laugh. These tours again proof to be so valuable. It is an honour to have such amazing librarians in your network as we met during this tour. The New Librarians Symposium4 brings together amost 300 new librarians and they are ready to take on the challenges. Not shy, but outspoken and critical, they follow the sessions and always seeking for answers. We are on as the one but last keynote and have 45 minutes. Not enough of course, but we put our whole heart in it and love every second. It is a great honour that dr Sherman Young in his presentation “ Bring out your Dead: The role of books in a post web 2.0 world” refers to our presention as being Rolling Stones material and that he feels like a support act playing after the main show. Ridiculous of course, the man is very good and gives an excellent presentation. Pity we did not tape it. After dinner with the new librarians at the members club in the Cricket stadium, which we hear is a tremendous honour in Australia, we go back for that last beer and last night sleep. We have travelled almost 3000 km in Australia and more than 25000 on a plane. We have done over 24 hours of presentations and visited many libraries big and small. Australia has been wonderful and if libraries find more ways to combine forces and learn from eachother’s experiences they will be an example to libraries all over the world. We have seen the potential in the libraries and in the librarians and it is only the Governing bodies that we have to convince of the power and essential use of our role in the community in order to provide us with the funding to do our work in the future. First thing to do is to get speed on that digital highway I’d say.

Shanachies like to thank all those who have helped and contributed along this trip and hope to come back to this massive, beautiful country soon.

Shaking and on the last drops of unleaded we reach Sale, Gippsland, Victoria and refuel the Lizzard King. The rain pours down and we are actually getting a bit fed up being the Drought Busters. We get safely to Melbourne and thanks to our Tom Tom we find our camping park at Coburg. Award winning park it says, but internet is a slot machine that allows you a few minutes per 2 dollar. There is an internet cafe and so we set out again after a shower to read some mail and maybe see where we are expected to show up in the next coming days. Well, just our luck, when we find the cafe and pay, the server is down so it is no use. Thank God Christine MacKenzie calls us if we want to have dinner at her house and we gratefully accept the offer.

Chris has done such an amazing job and has been such a help in organizing the tour and bringing in the money. We owe her big time. Besides that she has organized a sort of Shanachietour with Australian librarians across Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Singapore in search of best practices. We have given her and her colleagues a tour through our DOK in Delft and they were so eager and enthousiastic. Can not wait to see them again. After a real good meal we have some good laughs with Michael, Christine’s Husband, who works in a special library and declares Jaap mad for building our own ILS at DOK. We find out that there is a lot of work to do. The next day we have to give a presentation at the State Library of Victoria. Three hours seems easy after this tour and the group is again so willing to join in the discussion about the future of libraries and best practices at DOK and other places. Excellent day, but again we have seen nothing of Melbourne. Chris has arranged for us to pick up our Lizzard king and stay at the house of Jane Grace, Manager Outreach of Yarra Plenty Regional Library. The day program has been so hectic that we forgot to eat and we are near to starvation when we get to the Thai restaurant. Jane knows all about marketting and shows us some brochures she makes. She has also stayed a while in the USA with our friends in Charlotte in an exchange program. Well I would love to have her work at DOK for six weeks. What great talent. Hang on to that girl Chris.

After a night in a real bed we are expected in the State Library for some interviews and some discussions. We take the train into town and get that feeling of going to work again. It is a nice day and we get there in time. As it turns out we are not just there to interview, no they expect us to lead a 2 hour discussion on libraries with a group of almost twenty librarians. Wow, talking about improvisation on the spot. After this I am not going to worry about any presentation ever again I promise myself in vain. After a energetic exchange of ideas we get a tour around this great library by Debra Rosenfeldt and Michelle McLean. The reading rooms are beautiful and especially the room named after Sir Redmond Barry is impressive, but the most beautiful part of the building is without a doubt the Dome. A small version of the Library of Congress in Washington it seems, with exhibitions and the story of Bushranger Ned Kelly. They have his original armour and his deathmask. What a story. The Irish Ned, after a life of murdering and plundering like a sort of Jesse James, was hanged by judge Barry, who founded the State Library and who was told at the hanging by Ned that he would see him in hell. It was only twelve days after the hanging that the judge suddenly found his death. These are the kind of stories and libraries that Shanachies like.

We are invited to stay the last nights at Christine’s place. Exiting discussions and a good laugh. These tours again proof to be so valuable. It is an honour to have such amazing librarians in your network as we met during this tour. The New Librarians Symposium4 brings together amost 300 new librarians and they are ready to take on the challenges. Not shy, but outspoken and critical, they follow the sessions and always seeking for answers. We are on as the one but last keynote and have 45 minutes. Not enough of course, but we put our whole heart in it and love every second. It is a great honour that dr Sherman Young in his presentation “ Bring out your Dead: The role of books in a post web 2.0 world” refers to our presention as being Rolling Stones material and that he feels like a support act playing after the main show. Ridiculous of course, the man is very good and gives an excellent presentation. Pity we did not tape it. After dinner with the new librarians at the members club in the Cricket stadium, which we hear is a tremendous honour in Australia, we go back for that last beer and last night sleep. We have travelled almost 3000 km in Australia and more than 25000 on a plane. We have done over 24 hours of presentations and visited many libraries big and small. Australia has been wonderful and if libraries find more ways to combine forces and learn from eachother’s experiences they will be an example to libraries all over the world. We have seen the potential in the libraries and in the librarians and it is only the Governing bodies that we have to convince of the power and essential use of our role in the community in order to provide us with the funding to do our work in the future. First thing to do is to get speed on that digital highway I’d say.

Shanachies like to thank all those who have helped and contributed along this trip and hope to come back to this massive, beautiful country soon.

The next day the sun is out and the temperature is hot. I throw in my line a few times, but the Pelicans just laugh at me and I admit defeat. On to the next stop, Hollands Landing. We follow the Princess Highway and gradually the scenery changes. The landscape becomes flat and we see more and more cattle. Sheeps, cows it starts to look like Holland. The sky has clouded again and rain makes the image complete. There are hardly any houses let alone gas stations and we are running out. Besides that we seem to be followed by a group of rough looking guys in a big sort of hummer with a print of a deadhead on the window. Finally we come to a small dump with about 10 caravans, which are all falling apart, But they have gas. Bad luck, there is nobody there. A sign in the window says that due to family circumstances the place is closed. As far as we are concerned they are all murdered and buried by the Deadhead gang and we rush off to another site we saw on a dirt road. This camping also has something of a cemetery, which proves to be right as they have a sweet water lake that has been flooded with salt water from the sea and all the fish are dying and rotting away. Hells Landing is our stop for the night however and it will be the last stop before civilazation. Jaap searches for wood and we make a great fire. There are maybe two other people staying at the whole site and they ignore us completely. The sun has just come up and we are still cold from the night when we leave for Melbourne. Hopefully with enough fuel to make it to the gas station.

After another rainy night we pack up our wet chairs and get out of Sydney before it gets to us. It is another 1000 kms to Melbourne and we need to revive a little before we are ready to break some barriers and speak to all the new librarians. We make a little detour as we promised to visit the library of Picton, which is a branch library of the wollondilly library. Gail Dunn comes especially to show us around as it is weekend and the library is closed. We heard that this library is really into web 2.0 and already from the outside we can see big signage in the window: on line, on site and find it @ your library. When I point out to Gail this is kind of unique for a library she says she even had the saying: Get a life @ your library on display. What a wonderfull little library and what great example of how to make the most of a small budget and being really innovative. When Gail was looking for an good wishlist for future development she opened a wiki to which all staff could add ideas and that worked like a charm. Almost all staffmembers have done the 23 things and are loving it. They are even asked to help inform and advice people at the city council in these new ways of communication. Another great thing is that they are aware that the people in this town have great interest in biographies and therefore they have an amazingly large collection of them on the shelves. Providing in what the customer wants is rule 1 in the library of the 21st century. Another great thing Gail tells me is that they do not have overdue fees. People get two reminders and then an invoice to pay for the book and it works, People no longer built up debts and are not hesitant to come to the library again. Great stuff. Gail has to run as she has tickets for the concert of Andre Rieu, a Dutch violin player, who does a show with old Vienna like music. Walzing is for dreamers I say and Gail is that, but she does not only dream big, she thinks big. Just before we go we give her a tip on cooperation with the local supermarket and some stuff about gaming. Happy with some good video material we drive the mothership to Kiama. No time to see the famous blowhole as there is new material to edit and blogs to write. The next days are beachdays and fishing days. We buy a cheap fishing rod on our way to Narooma in Ulladulla. Narooma is again such a beautiful spot. We could easily stay a week here. The fish just laugh at us. 3 meter big Rays swim under our feet, but we catch nothing. Tomorrow it is off to Mallacoota on the Wilderness Coast. If we don’t catch fish there I will eat my new hat with a tiny bit of salt and a splash of lemon.

There it is. The city unfolds itself and opens like some sort of shell. We find our camping park after some miscommunication with our Tom Tom and see that it is situated only 20 yards of the first graves on a huge cemetary. We probably have a couple of thousand ghosts with good stories to join us in our dreams tonight.
Besides the cemetary there is not much more. It turns out to be Sydney’s sillicon valley with all offices of computerfirms. Looking for food we see the Microsoft building and decide to go in for an item on how Microsoft in Australia is looking into ways of helping libraries like their colleagues in the USA with webjunction, but we find no cooperation from the girl at the information desk. We are told to look for a person responsible on the webside and then make an appointment. Total lack of transperancy may be one of the biggest threats facing companies like Microsoft in the near future, but they seem to be unaware of the danger.

The next day we have planned to explore the city and we buy a day ticket for public transport. Jaap still plans to climb the Harbour bridge. A three and a half hour climb with a zillion stairs. Will Erik join him, I think not. Hell will have dancing polar bears on ice before that happens. We do walk across and visit an exhibition on how the bridge was build. Amazing, what an enormous achievement. From the bridge we have a nice view on the Opera House. The most famous building in Sidney I think and we decide to walk to it for a picture. First we have to get us some Aussie hats as we promised Kathy Dempsey to make a photograph like that for cover of the next Shanachietour book on Australia, should that ever be published. We find the hats and look completely ridiculous, but wear them with pride. The Opera House is beautiful and makes great pictures. The architecture is timeless and we are really impressed. After a walk through the Botanical gardens we go for a little shopping and then we meet up with Mylee and Ellen to go to dinner in the Customs House. As it turns out this building holds besides and Italian restaurant a beautiful library. There is no time, but we promise ourselves to come back the next day.
Mylee was kind enough to give us a check for the taxi, so we get to the Mothership at a reasonable hour to get some sleep before the day of the presentation.

The next day we get up at six to get ready to drive to the city center, which is only 15 km away, but takes about an hour to get to due to traffic. We have a group of librarians from 24 libraries present and they are a good group eager to hear about our travels and innovations at DOK. We meet Roger, who gives us a cd with his own music to use for our videos, which is excellent. This makes our job of finding music a lot easier. After the presentation of the ShanachieTour there is a break, in which many of the librarians come up to us to buy LBI Shirts and our ShanachieTour book with DVD. Some want the books signed to their own names and some to the library they work for, but I think some have just found the perfect Christmas gift. During the afternoon session we break away for an hour to see the State Library and look at very old Dutch maps. We meet Joseph and Louise and especially Louise tells so vividly about the travels of Cook and Banks that we think even our hero Boudewijn Buch would have been totally exited. We hurry back and do a virtual tour through our DOK. It has been a great day and after an interview with Mylee and Ellen we say goodbye and go for a quick visit to the Customs House library as promised. We meet Lydee and she shows us around as good as possible as there is a party for the Lord Mayor of Sidney. After a ferry trip to get some more good shots and sixteen hours of work we head back for the camping park. I can not remember being so tired. Tomorrow we leave Sydney to head south for Melbourne and some days at the coast. Thanks Mylee and Sydney we will be back some day of that I am sure. Signing off with a beautiful poem Mylee send me about Australia. It reminded her of our trip and is called My Country,
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding rains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

Byron Bay and the lighthouse are in every way what we hoped they would be. The most Eastern point of the mainland of Australia. We are overlooking the bay and think of the crew of captain Cook and how they saw this country for the first time. There is a mountain peak in the distance that Cook named Mount Warnings as there he saw the first signs of big storms coming in the bay. We go into the little holiday town and find a very old house with a balcony that has a great restaurant in it. Today’s special is a fish that I have not heard of before, but that goes down really well. Well enough for us to come back that same night. First we look for a camping park and a dive in the sea. The waves and current are so strong, but it is great fun. We have our Lizzard King parked 20 yards from the beach and find some time to edit videos and to write the blog.

The next day we drive on another 2 hours south to Iluka, a tiny town with the most beautiful camping park so far. Woody Head it is called and it has the best rock fishing spot ever. After getting some food and wine we check out the fishermen on the rocks and indeed they catch some big fish. Really spectacular is that I suddenly see Dolphins jumping only 50 yards away from us. Last time I saw Dolphins was at the Zoo in Antwerp, but in the wild is something else. Jaap builds a big fire after dark and we are joined by fellow campers for a chat. At this campsite they have some bookshelves and it says on the shelves that we can return the book at the library. Good plan and when we see a book with the title Surfer Boy we are on our way.

Maclean is a small town that clearly has Scottish history as we see all Scottish names and redheads and they even do Highland games.  The library is small, but has everything to offer. A youth department, Audiobooks, local history, computers with internet. They organise small events and they have a book drop. Whoops there goes Surfer Boy back to the shelves. Fran behind the counter says she can not think more than five years ahead as she hopes to retire, but she sees clearly that library work is changing. More and more people are coming in and especially young people, who want to use the internet. The library is becoming more of a community space that fascillitates new technology that not everybody has at home. Infotainment is the word. Communication and information is fun and you find it at the library.

Next stop is Hawks Nest a camping park on a small strip of land between two beaches. On our long drive towards this park we decide to pay an unexpected visit to the library of Taree. Mylee Joseph has recommended this place as they run an excellent youth program.  Well it certainly looks good and new and so it turns out to be, We are welcomed by Maggie and Debbie, who tell us that the library in this building has only opened since 2006 and that this location next to the City Council has brought in many new visitors. They run many programs for kids, but also for the Indigenous people. The local Aboriginal people have really discovered the library as a great place to be and they participate in the programs for the children. The future begins today and again the library can play an important role. Like in BCC Library they have a local artist, who has taken the library to his heart and who has volunteered to make great drawings on the wall of the youth department.
The teens have their own space with their own computers and their own evening program, Live and loud at the library. Similar to our DOK Street, the library is turned over to the kids and they bring live bands in to perform on stage and they run their own show. What a wonderful library and what a great team to run these programs. We would have loved to stay a little longer, but it is a long way to Sydney and we need to make some miles.

Dinner that evening at the local SEA cafe restaurant is of unbelievable quality. SEA stands for South East Asian and the woman who runs the kitchen comes from Bali. Duck, marinated with special Indonesian herbs and cooked very slowly in coconut milk served with fresh vegetables and jasmine rice makes extrordinary food that I will never forget. The Beef Redang and the Thai fishcakes, it is all beyond words. I tell the chef that a restaurant in Amsterdam with this quality of food would be fully booked every night and I certainly believe that to be true. One glass of the good old Pinot Noir in front of our mothership and it is off to bed. These days on the coast have been good and we are a little nervous to hit the big city of Sydney, but I am sure we are going to meet new librarians with vision for the future and their stories will bring us further to Melbourne.

We wake up early as we know the traffic in Brisbane gets insane and our Tom Tom is not 100% reliable at times. During breakfast we decide that after the four hour presentation and tour around the library we will try to make it a few hours south away from this disaster area and hope that the storm will not follow us. We arrive safely and I admire the way Jaap got adjusted to driving on the left in this traffic. Not easy especially with all the roundabouts. We park our mothership, from now on known as the lizard king, in the loading dock and hurry ourselves upstairs to the 16th floor. We have heard that a number of librarians could not come as they have volunteered to help out in this natural disaster. They need people, who remain calm under great stress and who can reassure people and give them good information. Librarians to the rescue!! I think it is great that librarians can mean something in times of crisis and that their skills are highly valued. So after a cup of coffee and some more pills we start with the presentation. Again we see that they are really enjoying the videos and that they come up with good questions. Absolute highlite for me was when we were discussing the space librarians get or take to come up with new ideas and Sharan got up and said: “Come on this is up to you please come with new ideas, I love to hear them” Well I think they are going to keep Sharan to that. The thing that this fine group was most impressed by was again the virtual tour of our own DOK. We went through all the pictures on Flickr explaining like we do during a regular tour and the questions kept coming. The speed of our dark optic fibre connection of 155 Mbit shocked them and I must agree there is internet in many places, but it is very slow. Uploading a Shanachie video is almost impossible. There is some important work to be done Australian Government. I know in a country this big it is a challenge, but I think people will need a faster connection to keep up with all the new tools that come on the market and to be competitive with others around the globe. The tour in the afternoon with Sharan, Diane, Deb and Kath was beyond our imagination. What a library! We have seen many libraries during our tours, but this one is one of the best ever. Absolutely ready for the 21st century and in some ways more funky than our DOK. It starts right away on the ground floor and in the cellar. Everything is done with a plan. They have self check in and check out of course, but for that reason they made small counters out in the open with only one librarian behind it. Customers can stand next to the librarian and look with them at the computer screen. On the floor there is a corner where the CNN news is on different televisions all day 7 days a week. There are newspapers and some magazines. This floor is open much more than the library and it takes a minimum of staff to run it. In the cellar at the end of the conveyor belt is the sort-out robot and it does a high teck job. This is advanced cool stuff. The robot does not only place the books on different book trolleys, it even places the book on different shelves of the trolley. This way the trolleys are ready to be taken out and brought to the right floor to put the books back on the shelves. On the first floor we see different open meeting rooms that can be used on appointment for free. Many laptops and students everywhere studying relaxed, enjoying the safe environment of the library. That this library is in the same building as the city council has some great advantages. The cooperation is beneficial to both and the city council sees every day how important the library is to the community. Besides the studyroom with the glass wall that can be made transparant or not and the wonderful youth department that is designed after a book the library commisioned, there is a space where there is sports on all day and where people can game. This space and the beautiful flat screens that look like what we want for our Agora project has brought in a very difficult group to bring to the library; the males between 18 and 35. They love to sit here read a magazine and watch some sports or play a game. The good thing is that it gets spread around by word of mouth. It is all well thought out and it works. The light effects on the bookcases, the luxurious feel. This is a library where we Shanachies could definitly work with pleasure. Amazing job Sharan and your staff, you are an example and I know we are going to be sharing many new ideas in the future and work together where possible. We leave after buying some sunglasses and hit the Pacific Highway south. It is dark when we arrive at a camping ground at Coolengatta. Rice, salad and, sorry Sharan, Kangaroo steaks revive us a little. Tomorrow we are going to Byron Bay to relax and take a day off on the beach. It is the place where Captain Cook, one of Jaap’s favorite explorers has been and they have a great lighthouse on the most Eastern part of the Australian mainland. Sounds like lord Byron reading poetry to me. First give me wine and sleep, then Byron and beach the day after.

After our touch of summer and presentation in Perth we left early for the airport with the hotel shuttle. The flue is getting worse and all my muscles ache. The last thing I look forward to is another 5 hour flight, but it has to be done. Sharan Harvey is waiting at the airport of Brisbane, which hopefully is still there, as we heard on the news that Bisbane has been declared a national disaster area. More than 200.000 homeless and 1 teenager dead. The tropical cyclone and thunderstorms look frightening on the screens at the airport and they expect more bad weather. Nothing indicates that when we fly over middle Australia. Clear sky and good views of red desert as far as the horizon. There is so much space here and so much land yet uninhabited and maybe full of natural resources. We pick up our luggage and there she is. Sharan has taken the day off to bring us to our new mothership and guide us to her beach house on Sunshine coast. She decides to call us Shanachies the Droughtbreakers as they were in a long period of drought and short of water till we hit the country. When we ride north following her we drive in the rain and hit traffic jams. This is so much like the Netherlands that we find it unbelievable to be so far away, yet facing this same routine. The beach house is made of wood and over 80 years old. It looks stunning and from the terrace we have a view of the sea and the incoming storms. We decide to cook and go out to the supermarket. 1 pound of honey, terriyaki Y bone steaks for 3 Euro is for us meat eaters almost too much to bear. Sharan leaves us and we have the house to ourselves. I am so tired that it is almost 11.00 am when I wake up. Jaap is just back from a walk on the beach and had an encounter with a deadly brown snake. It must be the weather conditions, for they have not been spotted for a long time we hear. We have a nice breakfast and go out to look for a coffee shop with internet. Internet in this country is not as fast as we are used to and it takes almost three hours to upload a video. In the meantime we have a great coffee and talk to Sally, who runs the coffee shop with her husband. They are surfers and travel around to make great photos of beaches, which they print on canvas to sell. I buy some cd’s by local unsigned artists to use as music under our videos. She tells me she has not been in a library for 15 years, but when we show her the pictures of our DOK she is really impressed. I tell her to definitely go to see some libraries in Brisbane as we heard they have some great libraries overthere. After we are done we pack our things and it is on to Brisbane to a campisite in the city and to get ready for our presentation at the State Library of Queensland. It is raining so hard that rain comes in our van and the matrasses get wet. It is 03.30 am when we hear screams ‘Evacuate now your life is at stake”. We get so wet as we wade knee deep through the streaming water. The creek near the camping is flooding the site and we are given directions to get out of there. We park the mothership on a hill somewhere and try to catch us a few hours of sleep. This is not helping me to get over the flue, but we arrive in time for our presentation, which goes like a breeze. Always nice to have a good screen, good sound and a good crowd. We receive the Shanachiebooks and sell some and some t-shirts. After the presentation we find out that we have to do an unexpected one on gaming of 45 minutes for a group of 26 librarians. We tell them about Dark Ink, the library game we developed with Liesbeth Mantel and the TU Delft Library. After this speaking we get a tour around the library and find out that they have great open spaces outside the library where there is wifi and where people come to eat and use the outdoor bbq and they make fires and tell stories. This is a good example of the library without walls. They also have a large space reserved for the stories and history of the Aboriginals and we are happy to hear that the views of many people in Australia have changed and that the cultures are finding each other and merging into one Australian history. There are so many computers here, and they are all being used. Again it is clear that libraries these days are used for so much more than just for books. People like the atmosphere and like to study together in the safe environment of the library. The youth department for the little ones is beautiful and run mostly by artists Amanda tells me. They really look at the many ways children communicate and learn and provide this space to parents and kids to meet here and share experiences. They also have artists coming in to work with the kids on all sorts of creative funshops. It is late and I am really worn out. We decide to take on the offer from Sharan to use yet another one of her houses in the city as they expect more bad weather and I do not want to have another night with floods and evacuation. Tomorrow it is a 4 hours presentation at the Brisbane City Council library and we need sleep.

After amazing food at the local Chinese Duck restaurant, where we find out that people in Australia bring their own beer and wine to the restaurant we go for one big beer at a local pub. This day has been so long and we are so tired that we seem like bewildered eskimos looking at all the summer people in summer clothes. We have not landed yet that is for sure. After a good night sleep in Jill Benn’s appartment we get up quite early to work on our presentation. We want to make a guided tour around DOK in Piclens by Cooliris.
This program is so cool, but there are so many pictures of DOK Delft on flickr that it takes a while to find the right ones.
10.30 sharp Kathryn Greenhill and Constance Wiebrands pick us up and we decide to make the theme of the day: 5 things to do in Perth on your day off with a librarian.
First thing we start out with is King’s Park. A wonderful park on a hill overlooking the city and the two arms of the river. The sun is hot and we need sunblock as the Baobab trees provide no shadow. In this park you can actually walk through a path high up in the trees, which is fun and we see Kakatoes and Australian Magpies, which are totally different from our Magpies, The second thing to do in Perth is of course shopping. We need a new firewire cable as the silly people at Apple decided that it would be a great idea to change the entrance for the plug so that everybody needs to buy a new wire. Here is marketing for libraries my friends, why not change the library card for every new Harry Potter that is published and make people pay. The third thing to do is eat and we have lunch downtown talking about all the great things and horrible things that involve our jobs in the library. The situation here is different and at the same time it is not. The greatest difference is that here the central organisation provides the libraries not so much with money as with books. This leaves the library not so many choices as what to do with their budgets and it seems like horror to us. What if in the future we have less demands for books and more demand for other media? How are these libraries going to be able to meet with the public’s changing demands, We have to further investigate this, but one needs not to have a huge brain to understand that this is not the best option to fund libraries.
The fourth thing to do is to visit Conny’s library at Curtin Univerity of Technology. They have just opened a new iZone, which has been designed in cooperation with the students and looks stunning. Drawing mats, big screens, it is all there and the place is packed with students. This is best practise indeed. We video the whole room and it looks great. There is also a lounge a restaurant and a place for an exhibition. This place makes us happy again and you see the result. All computers are used, even on a Sunday. We say goodbye to Conny and decide to go for the fifth thing, which is a local parade at Freemantle, in which local librarians participate as Snowywhite, Harry Potter, Rapunsel and so on. Jetlag hits in hard at this Lewis Carol hallucination. We leave to close our day at the beach where Willem de Vlamingh landed in Australia in 1697 as I recall correctly. This Dutch ancestor did not see anything worthwhile. Goes to show how wrong you can be. We meet up with Tricia and Sue and talk about their plan on building a new beautiful library on the coast. It is strangely familiar as they find it hard to come up with a name that is satisfactionary to all the three communities that pay for the library. We had the same problem not so long ago when the three different departments merged and became DOK, the library concept center. We did come up with a name, but will not reveal anything yet, They still have to decide. What I do know is that these two librarians are so enthusiastic and full of life that the result will be stunning. We hope to come back for the opening if we ever survive this trip.
That evening in less than an hour a fever comes up that burns me up. Hearbeats rise to an absolute record and a nasty cough sets in. Panic on how to do the presentation at the State Library like this. Pills pills pills. We arrive a little late and can not get the mac work on the beamer at first and I am ready to be carried off. Finally the presentation starts and from then on it is more than ok. A good group of librarians, who participate in the video and come up with good answers and in the end with good questions. They love our tour of DOK and are interested in the Game flightcase. We should find someone to make them here in Australia as they are expensive to transport, so if you know someone please mail the Shanachies. Now we are in a hotel near the airport. Tomorrow at 07.30 am we fly to Brisbane and get the new Mothership. I hope Jaap is not getting the same virus, but seeing the blood pouring down from his eyes there is little chance.’ I see a light still shining from the west down to the east, any day now any way now, I shall be released’ Bob is singing in my head. Sleep, nature’s sweet restorer, come to the rescue.

Finally the ShanachieTour kicks off. It seems like yesterday that we landed in Amsterdam after our little tour from London to Monterey. The weather was much the same as this morning. Drizzle and cold and depressing. We really enjoyed getting our ShanachieTour book and the signing sessions after the keynotes at ILI and IL.
It is still strange that two librarians like us are getting away with this. All the travelling and the work outside our own beloved and sometimes hated DOK. Well getting away is not exactly true. We have been putting the work of two months in three weeks and I doubt if we will be able to leave Delft completely behind us. With modern technology we will need another distance than just time and miles to hide from ongoing concerns. But having said that, Australia is big and this great on the plane, newly installed, Macbook Pro does have an off key I hope. Hmmm Mac and me. We used to tolerate one another, but real good friends we never were. See if Oz and the summer season can be of any positive influence. I am sure that the wonderful librarians and libraries will make a difference and provide great inspiration for new stories. Stories, music, art and especially people is what we hope to gather on this new trip and Shanachieblog.
The first hours of this trip will bring us to Kuala Lumpur and then Perth, where we are picked up from the Airport and brought to Jill’s house, who is so kind to let us stay there for a few days. She had better talked to Michael Stephens first haha, The man has vivid memories of our stay in his appartment in Chicago.  No we will behave. At least untill we are out into the wild in our new Mothership. Can not wait to get some real Australian food and wine. Look forward to the BBQ’s and the ocean.  Let’s try to wringle myself in a position that will not cause permanent damage to the spine and get some sleep. Lost all track of time and place. I think we are flying over Afghanistan right now. I am counting libraries we visited, perfect way to doze off.

Jaap: Fried rice on the plane for breakfast. While Erik is cracking his whip on the latest inhouse Indy, I am getting into the mood by installing our newly purchased Macbook Pro. Final Cut Pro has never run this smootly, I am so excited!. Editing this tour will be a breeze. Cupertino FTW. The last few days have been very hectic. Writing plans on innovation for DOK, selling our ClienTrix automation system to a new client and spending some hours with my two girls before becoming a bushtucker boy for the next three weeks. Laptops, shirts, camera’s: we brought it all on this big Malaysian bird and we are looking forward to hit dryland. 
This will be the longest Shanachieflight up till now and I am dreading te effects already.  I am not very good with digesting time differences so let’s hope I can fool myself to believe I feel like a million Australian bucks once we are there. Flight MH017 will take us to Kuala Lumpur first. In my mind this is only a short stop away from Borneo, the dark island. Redmond O’Hanlon one of my favorite travelwriters wrote a book about his search for the (distinct) white rino in the jungle of this dangerous part of the world. But first welcome to the jungle of Kuala Lumpur airport, switch over and get to Perth to slip slap slop and get this show on the road. I hear Australian libraries are totally into web2. Hope to bring some of there services and ideas over to Europe because that’s what ShanachieTours are all about: Keeping, Sharing and Making stories. Getting tugged in by a nice Malaysian air hostess now, it’s a good thing Geert doesn’t have to witness this. The man is one big walking weak spot for Asian girls.

Shanachie Tour Down Under: Kuala Lumpur from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Internet Librarian 2008: ShanachieTour from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Monterey, the final episode

There it is. After 5000 miles we are guided by the sound of the Sea lions towards our hotel and the conference center. Right next to fisherman’s wharf we park the mother ship to leave her behind for two nights. We have been lost in beautiful national parks without internet, so there is a lot of work to be done before we are ready for the presentation. And there are so many friendly people to talk to. Jane Dysart, Sarah, Aaron, Michael, Jenny, Kathy and of course Dick Kaser the man, who invited us over here. All inspiring people and every time we leave our editing room we meet new people. This project has been such a wonderful way of exchanging ideas and making people proud of their library and to be a librarian. But as I said there was work to be done and I was getting more nervous by the minute. Jaap suggested doing the last edition of the Shanachietour live with the audience. Brilliant, but that would mean that he and Geert would be busy filming and thus leaving me to do the presentation. The whole afternoon people came up asking for the time that we would be on and it was obvious there would be quite a crowd. That there would be near to 700 librarians and that we would start off with an earthquake 5.6 on the Richter scale was not expected. Edo impressed the crowd with the Bluetooth push device that send out the Shanachie trailer to the mobile phones. Then we threw in our boss in a short video tour around our own library DOK. After that Jaap turned on the camera and I invited the crowd to be part of the tour and they went wild. From then on the presentation could not go wrong. Such a nice crowd. Good answers to the questions. Sincere interest in the stories. Shanachie highlight for sure. After a standing ovation we took 5 minutes in the hotel to finish that bottle of bubbles and than into the night to enjoy every minute in the company of new and old friends. Is this the end or the start of the beginning? The Shanachietour will never end we are already on our way to new stories and new horizons. Hope to see you all soon on one of our stops. And please Dick take good care of that guitar. We may sing a couple of songs in April.

You can also view & download the Quicktime Version below.

The road to Monterey
Salt Lake City PL was the last library on our list, well we had more, but that would have been impossible. I guess we have to come back. That is, if you will have us. But the reception everywhere has been so warm and the people so friendly that I put my faith in that. Rather than in Vegas, which is our little detour on our way to Monterey. Passing through and staying overnight in the wonders of nature. Bryce Park, Zion, Death Valley,Yosemite Park, it is unbelievable. Warning signs for bears make our childhood books come to live. We are living the story. Then Las Vegas, what can I say. This town does not work for me. Although I immediately realize that you can not say that after one night, without a proper guide. It is just so much. All the temptations designed to make you spend your money. Too many choices. Maybe a bit like the internet. Such a wide wide world web. To use it effectively, if that’s what you want, it is handy to have a guide. And we librarians can be that guide. We can and must be out there as a good reliable friend. Just as much as inside the building, we need to inspire and stimulate and maybe, as Paul Holdengraber puts it, irritate. We pick up Edo Postma in Vegas. Together with DOK, our library, Edo has for ProBiblio, a Dutch library association, done a lot of innovative research and is at the moment working on new tools with regard to mobile phones. He brought a mysterious piece of machinery with him that he will be showing at the conference. Make sure that you turn your mobile phones and your Bluetooth ON. Well me I am tired of all these mountains. I want the ocean. I want to see my friends in Monterey. Just a few hours before I will take that dive. Can’t wait.

Salt Lake City Pl. let this Northern star be a guide

Coming towards Salt Lake, we are a bit disappointed at first. After a drive through beautiful scenery we see enormous smog hanging over downtown Salt Lake. We expected a clean, healthy town, but as Andrew our tour guide explains, it is because of the mountains that hold the air. A light breeze and it’s gone. The disappointment had already made way for amazing and admiration. Wow what architecture. The sun on all those windows. All that light. The vision of transparence is proven to be such a success. This is how libraries should be. Even the elevators are all glass. There are but few things kept behind closed doors. You can see that the patrons love it. It is their library, their bookshelves, their computers, their music, their magazines. So why should not they get a good look at their stuff. When the people in the library, both staff and visitors, take pride in the library there is room to grow. To really become something special. We have to work on that pride and go around tell it to anyone who wants to listen. We have the best job in the world. It may be easier to realize that when you are standing in a garden on top of a beautiful building, but it is true and let that building be an example. Let’s share ideas. I mean a department of independent magazines, mostly privately made by patrons and in 1 copy, donated to the library. Hundreds of them in all color and shape. This is Shanachie style to the limit. We love it. But there is much more. Everywhere there are surprises in the building. Hidden quotations, little rooms in the youth department, where kids find refuge to read quietly or Game online. Art exhibitions with original drawings of the Simpsons. A coffee corner. It does not stop. Another great thing was the cooperation with the shops in the building. They even have a library bookstore and a place where people can go if they want help in their writing. A sort of writing class that can help to get people’s writings published. I hope our video may inspire librarians to make the trip to Salt Lake. You have to see it for yourself. The library without walls is getting close here. No censorship, open on Sundays and that in the Mormon capital of the world. We have to leave. Head south for that devil’s pit Las Vegas, but not before we inhale some fresh air in Bryce.

You can also view & download the Quicktime Version below.

Florence, Co. Brave librarians throw away all lame excuses

After our admired friend Jenny Levine posted our tour on her blog Karen Hixon was brave enough to invite the Dutch gang over to her library. Despite our impossible schedule we really wanted to visit a small town library to see how they are facing the challenges of the 21st century. Well did we come to the right place. After an amazing meal with lots of cows and a good night rest on the ranch, we were ready to see how the 3500 people of Florence were using their library. And what a lovely library we did find. A real community center with a knitting group, the Wool Gatherers, and a computer class going on as we came in. The night before there had been a lecture on The Day of the Dead, a Mexican celebration. This library is very much alive. Mostly, as we notice, because of inspired, ambitious, open minded staff. There are never enough budgets or enough hours or whatever reasons you may think of not to go ahead. These people do not count hours or stop on budget restrictions. They invent ways to do what they want. Game events why not, the place is packed with teens, who all love the initiative. Changing from a card system to barcodes and a free open source ILS and catalogue for their website, thus saving a lot of money, why not. They were lucky to find Jessie, a 15 year old wizard, who is implementing all the technique, but then what is luck? We Shanachies believe that if you really want something, you will call upon that sort of luck and it will come to you. Away with the excuses, if they can do it in Florence you can do it. Let’s get on with it. Thank you Karen and Judy. Your board can be proud of what you are doing for your community. On to Salt Lake it is, through the best of scenery. New energy and inspiration. First a meal in the Red Barn and than a night stop in Grand Junction. The pictures of Salt Lake look so good. It is almost a pity that we humans need to sleep sometimes.

You can also view & download the Quicktime Version below.

Future history is treasured in Denver Public Library
It is 6.00 am. Nebraska alarm. Temperatures are below zero in the mother ship. This to me is Bruce country. Today we have to cross it to get to Denver, Co and it turns out to be the big void. A sort of Bermuda triangle. We lose all contact. No cell phone or internet. Just asphalt and flat emptiness. But I love it. The great hunger for stories is upon us once again so Silver Surfer ride the highway once again. The great thing is that we pass into in another time zone so we gain 1 hour. Just in time for a delicious lunch with a local bite of Tamales we are welcomed by Diane Lapierre , Michelle Laurie, Jo and other friendly staff members. What a great place. The entrance reminds a little of an old railway station with beautiful floors and gates to the different departments. We get on board and go back in time with John, who shows us that they are digitalizing the old archives in order to preserve them for the future. This is done with great care and respect and they still maintain the old maps and card system and furniture. There are works of art on the wall that show American history and the library definitely helps people to know more about where they come from. In contrast with this form of keeping stories, this library is very modern in the way they share their stories. Besides the amazing website http://denverlibrary.org/. They have an online video lending system that we would love to have in Delft. It draws many patrons to their website and is often used. This is best practice indeed. If we as libraries work together and get more rights to more materials to lend out online we will reach more people. Remember if we don’t do it somebody else will. So let’s get hold of this part of future library service and work together. Thanks for everything. We are on our way to Monterey and still enjoying these left over Tamales. For one single moment the hunger is gone and we lay back peacefully in the mother ship.

You can also view & download the Quicktime Version below.

Barbara Peterson runs a terrific show in Iowa
How big is this country? I feel like there is no end to it. The drone of our rolling mother ship goes on and on. I Feel much better and I am so glad with the all the positive reactions on what we are doing. Just goes to show. Think big librarians and dream even bigger. If indeed the universe is made of stories then this ship has only just set sail. I am so proud that we librarians can be the keepers, tellers and makers of these stories. Come on Melville help us search for that big white whale.Well one beauty did catch our attention in Council Bluffs. Worth every mile traveled. What a nice, spacious, clean and friendly place. The three of us felt right at ease and drank in the atmosphere of this cool public library. We were welcomed by Barbara Peterson, who had us spellbound from the very minute that she started talking. She has a group of great people working there and Barbara is bright enough to give them ample space to keep them motivated and to come up with good ideas. When your staff takes pleasure and pride in their work and tell it, then you have something special in your hands. We were impressed with the capability to think beyond the boxes, I mean getting a percentage of the income of your local casinos and putting that in your library. It is amazing. And it does not stop there. Audio books on mp3 players, great movie and music department with an excellent choice and variety. Big compliment Mary we were impressed. Great speakers and lots of events and public debate. Soon they will have their 10 years anniversary. We hope to be invited to their 20^th. We definitely stay in touch. Thanks Barbara. Don’t erase or else………………….

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Mother ship touches Home base Chicago
After what I hope will be the worst drive of my life we reach Chicago. My food poison reached worst stadium and I had to spend nearly 4 hours of the night trip to Chicago banged against bathroom walls trying to sit on toilet. My prayers were heard and we did reach Dominican University alive, where friendly security allowed us to stay overnight on campus. First thing in the morning was calling Michael Stephens to please come to the rescue with some proper medicine, which he did and which made it possible for me to get in front of his class, with Jaap and Geert to tell something about the tour and what we are doing in Delft with DOK, our own public library.The class was quit surprised when a whole group with Jenny Levine, Catherine, Stephen and our trio entered the room, but jumped to the occasion and came up with great questions. In the end we came up with the idea of spinning the bottle on the university floor with a few students and our group, thus giving our view on the library of the future. Wow, what great material. Fine people with vision, these upcoming librarians of the 21st century. Very hard to say goodbye after only a few hours. But we will meet up with Jenny and Michael in Monterey and play a mean Wii game in the mother ship. Turning our nose southward we hit the motorway towards Champaign Urbana and the Mortenson Center, where we have an appointment with Barabara Ford. Barbara has an amazing career and has, as director of the ALA, had the honor to meet President Bill Clinton. She has seen many changes, but definitely sees a great future for libraries. They are doing a teriffic job on cataloging all the new media . That is a big thing in the Netherlands as well. We did some footage (in dutch) on a Fobid Conference in september in The Haque . Whether it is about gaming or other technology, where Linda is working with in the Undergraduate Library or the education of librarians of other countries, where it is difficult to have internet access. It made me realize that the future we are thinking about is so different from the future in other countries. We need to explore and keep our course, but we should never forget and help those who are behind us. John Woods, did I already say you have our admiration? Free access to the web everywhere with reliable, objective information if you want, and good education programs. Wow we have still a lot work ahead of us.

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Eli puts G-force in Ann Arbor’s District Library

This distance, however ambitious we maybe, is not something we can do in 1 day. So from Charlotte we head out for a 5 hour drive in the Appalachian Mnts. Full of inspiration of our visit with Matt we rolled through the red, brown and green mountains in the late afternoon Indian sunset. Eventually we ended in coalmining country, where the standards of living are at rock bottom. We actually saw this stereotype picture of a man sitting on his porch with a gun, but Geert, our hero, did not dare to ask if he could take his picture. Hmmm wonder why. After a good night rest we set out for Buck Eye Lake near Columbus, Ohio. Great thing about these campsites is that the ones without Mac’s have excellent internet connection, no just kidding guys. So we were able to put up new posts and video material. Did not feel very well so I went to bed early again, to wake up in an enormous thunderstorm that completely soaked our almost dry laundry. From Ohio to Ann Arbor, Michigan is a 4 hour drive on which we discussed the wonderful things we heard about the place. Eli Neiburger is well known as librarian and gamer and his gaming program takes him all over the country and even beyond the borders. We wondered, on a large scale with many gaming events, would not the kids lose interest in time when the novelty wears off? No it definitely does not says Eli. The scale is getting bigger and bigger and the software actually enables libraries now to keep scores and play against one another. This could even be done internationally so I think Delft will have to come up with an expert group of gamers, as what I have seen blows your mind. Impossible speed on the dancemats. Not in a thousand years could we Shanachies learn that. Eli is I think one the best known persons in the community and popular among the kids and that is no wonder. What a man. So good to meet you and I know we will meet again soon. GAME ON Captain, the mothership says hi.

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Matt Gullet is lifting library standards in Charlotte
Very close to being arrested for illegal camping, we were almost at gunpoint directed to a spot in one of the darkest places I have ever seen. Exhausted as we were, we went to sleep early to wake up in a beautiful forest surrounded by squirrels and deer. The only thing missing was a white faced girl with vivid red lips and a bundle of singing leprechauns.
This fairytale kept us spellbound just a little too long, so we arrived late at Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library. Luckily there was a parking place for our little home. Matt Gullet and comrades turned out to be exactly what we hoped for. Inspiring, innovative librarians, focusing on the future with the sense to measure the results of their innovations. Imagine Game labs, music studios, animation studios, theatres, story-making rooms, computers that translate to Braille, computers for people with a handicap, you name it they have it in Charlotte. And like I said they measure the results of what they are doing and find that book circulation is increasing and that they are having more visitors especially teens. The awareness of the new ways of making and telling stories is obviously present in Charlotte. Best practice for sure. Hope to be back in a couple of years, but we will definitely stay in touch. Thanks Matt, hope to see you in Monterey.