As I lay bleeding there on the asphalt

Bronwyn and Maybelle are back from a meeting. They're the latest ones to tell me what other library authorities are doing on Facebook, Twitter, et al. A lot of it is just the usual rubbish but there are occasional sparks of creativity in trying to reach new audiences, or not lose the ones they've got. I receive this as positively as I can, bearing in mind that I want to scream at them that this is precisely what I was trying to do with them and a few others this time last year and they didn't want to know.

Last week it was T.Aldous: "Dourly Libraries are on Facebook and Twitter, they've done ever such a lot. It would be good if we could do something like that." Yes it would, it would be splendid if librarians listened to new ideas and perhaps even shifted themselves a bit and did something once in a while that didn't involve creating lengthy explanations why things can't be done.

"Why aren't we doing..." is a question I'm sick of hearing. The answer is that we've no management processes; no idea processes; no direction; no responsibilty; no accountability; no hope; no shame.

We are on Facebook and Flickr and quite a few other things. Unofficially. "We" being me, effectively. Given how much hard work is involved in dragging input from the librarians for to update the library web site we've only had for the past thirteen years I don't hold out a lot of hope.

Maybelle's dead keen on doing something for a couple of projects so we have a chat to explore the possibilities.

"I feel a bit bad about not picking up on this last year."

"So you should."

"Is anyone else doing anything?"

"..."

"It's really dispiriting isn't it?"

"Shall we see what we can do with these projects?"

And yes, it is really dispriting. Really, really dispiriting. And not really anything new.