So, you are reading this on the OLD 8bitlibrary.com. 8bitlibrary.com no longer redirects here (to blog.8bitlibrary.com). Here’s JP’s “farewell” post to the blog…but first, some nostalgia…

In 2009, JP Porcaro and Justin Hoenke met for drinks and found out they were both ALA Emerging Leaders for the upcoming year. Our bromance continued with daily IM chats until Justin one day said:

Let’s start a librarygarden of gaming.

So, we did. We really started taking off and getting hits when Justin made a joke on twitter:

Let’s all get library tattoos.

And I was like, YEA LET’S DO IT. And that’s how this whole thing happened…Justin & I would brainstorm crazy ideas, and if they were just crazy enough to work, i’d #makeithappen. So we started Project Brand Yourself a Librarian, librarians shared it like crazy, and a bunch of librarians got tattoos.

So from the very start, within weeks, we strayed from the original “library garden of gaming” idea.

We came up with other crazy ideas and made them happen:

• ALA DANCE PARTY (and other parties like the NJLA ones and the ACRL Social)
• #TeamRock8
• The Adventures of Flat Justin
• Think Tank (which grew into ALA Think Tank, facebook’s largest active group of international ideas-sharing for librarians)
• Cranky Kong, librarianship’s oldest blogger.

We also had lots of fabulous contributors, almost all the top names in the field of “gaming in libraries” either wrote for us or were considered part of the team.

And then we shifted from crazy ideas to more traditional ones:

• We ran the petition to start a the ALA Comic Book & Graphic Novel Member Interest Group, and with the help of everyone who sent in an online signature, we made it happen at ALA Mid Winter 2011.
• We ran National Unconference Day ’11, a hybrid online & in-person conference. We had fabulous lightning talks at it by Michael Stephens, Jaime Hammond, and Eli Neiberger.
• We became the largest active source for game reviews for librarians, and eventually lead the charge to make GameRT a reality.
• We hosted Retro Gaming Days all over New Jersey.
• Got involved in Buy India a Library.
• Launched #makeithappen and inspired MIH.
• Launched #libgaming (which has since died, sad sad…)
• We ran webinars.

In our heyday, we were getting about 4000 clicks a day (which is BIG for library blogs), and alexa.com had us listed as one of the highest trafficked library blogs. The only blogs that were getting higher traffic at the time were the ‘official’ ones; the LJ, SLJ and some of ALA ones…

Lots of success here in a short period of time, maybe moreso than any other library blog. So why did we let blog.8bitlibrary.com “die”?

• All of our contributors are doing other things.

We all got busy. 8bitlibrary lead us to publication deals, speaking gigs, new jobs, and new leadership opportunities. Now that GameRT exists, we have a more formal place to do our gaming-in-libraries work.

• Blogging is boring.

We should have figured out from day 1 that blogging was not what we were about. We were a successful BRAND, but never a good BLOG. All of the successes I listed had more to do with 8bitlibrary as a brand, and less to do with blog.8bitlibrary.com.

• WordPress sucks.

The blog was constantly marred by slow load times, login problems for contributors, and errors on the user and contributor end. Anyone who was a frequent contributor knows what I mean when i say “500 Internal Server Error”

• We have better places to “publish”

Blogging is NOT publishing. We’ll get some game reviews actually published via GameRT hopefully soon!

SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE 8BITLIBRARY?!

When Justin posted this on the new 8bitlibrary.com, people FREAKED out (they though we were killing everything, the facebook page, the twitter, the tumblr (which is now the main site) and the blog) and I had to write this.

Where we’re left without the blog is where we always belonged: as the party people of librarianship. So we’re still gonna do all the stuff we used to do, like ALA DANCE PARTY, Project Brand Yourself a Librarian, and all the Think Tanks and subsequent parties…but we won’t have to worry about keeping up this illusion that we’re a “professional” library blog.

We’re still here.

#partyhard and #makeithappen,

JP

The Emerging Leaders poster sessions. Justin & I mentored a fabulous team this year and they are presenting a poster session on Video Game Collection Development. [rsvp on facebook] [add to your conference schedule]

ALAplay 2011 will be a fun event cosponsored by LITA, the Games and Gaming Member Interest Group, and the Comic Book and Graphic Novel Member Interest Group. [rsvp on facebook] [add to your conference schedule]

8bitlibrary.com‘s ALA DANCE PARTY 2011. Get down, make love. #partyhard. [rsvp on facebook] [add to your conference schedule]

ALA Facebook After Hours Social. Good times in the French Quarter. [rsvp on facebook]

Emerging Leaders Summit. A few 8bitlibrary.com contributors are speaking. [rsvp on facebook] [add to your conference schedule]

YALSA’s Pecha Kecha: Teens and Technology. JP aka me is speaking and I need people to cheer me on so I can present it again at the ALA Virtual Conference. [add to your conference schedule]

OK

every library blogger insists on giving you advice on what to pack and what not to forget for #ala11. these posts all say the general same things:

• don’t forget comfortable shoes
• be sure to pack enough business cards
• don’t forget to eat

We feel these are usually short-sighted and/or boring suggestions. here’s some more important ones:

1. MAKE IT HAPPEN. aka #makeithappen
2. AVOID INCEPTION BY SLEEPING BEFORE YOU GET ON YOUR FLIGHTS!! This will also help protect you from extractors. Don’t drink anything on the plane in order to avoid extractors from sedating you en route.
3. PARTY REALLY HARD EVERY NIGHT. Rest during the conference sessions. Sleep when you get home from the conference.
4. GET AS MANY CONFERENCE RIBBONS AS POSSIBLE AND MAKE A CONFERENCE SASH OUT OF THEM. It’ll be a fabulous accessory for your many Supermarket Sweep-style exhibit hall runs.
5. BUY A ROUND OF DRINKS FOR 8BITLIBRARY.COM CONTRIBUTORS. Toast to the Nyan Cat.
6. START YOUR MORNING WITH A RED BULL AND A BUMPING JAM BY LUDACRIS. Because access to books should be Ludaversal.

This is why Justin & all the party people are running to the SECOND ANNUAL ALA DANCE PARTY.

Will Manley just wrote a blog post about LJ Movers and Shakers where he says:

Will Manley: When I hear the term “movers and shakers,” I think of Donald Trump, Steve Jobs, Sarah Palin, and Hillary Clinton.

I’m currently writing a blog post where I say:

JP: When I hear the term “movers and shakers,” I think of people moving their hips and shaking their ass.

SO, let’s compare for a second,

Average Library Journal Mover & Shaker:

...yada yada yada blogging blah blah blah social media in libraries type type type mobile technology...

Librarian who moves & shakes at the ALA DANCE PARTY:

we do what we like and we like what we do, so let's get a party going, now it's time to party and we'll party hard

even their cats are moving and shaking!

Obviously we love lots of LJ’s Movers and Shakers, 2011 LJ M&S Eli Neiburger was 8bitlibrary‘s Patron Saint* even before he got library-famous by saying Libraries are Screwed, 2010 LJ M&S JENN WANN is our DUDE and she actually PICKED the location for ALA DANCE PARTY 2011 (besides being one of the founders of the ALA Think Tank, which has taken a life of its own…), 2009 LJ M&S Laverne Mann is RedheadFangirl here on 8bitlibrary and has the most contributions to the site after me & Justin. I could go on…

DUMBLEDORE IS A MOVER AND SHAKER

SO anyway HERE’S JP FROM 8BITLIBRARY.COM‘S CHALLENGE TO ALL LJ MOVERS AND SHAKERS PAST & PRESENT ATTENDING ALA ANNUAL 2011: PROVE YOUR ARE A MOVER AND SHAKER BY MOVING AND SHAKING AT THE ALA DANCE PARTY 11!!

RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=191826097521352

ALA DANCE PARTY is on ALA Connect: http://bit.ly/alaparty

* Eli has yet to respond to my challenge to a Pokemon battle.

@JUSTINLIBRARIAN WILL YOU WEAR THIS TO ALA DANCE PARTY?!

And so, I leave you with this: Everyone can be a library mover and shaker by moving and shaking at the ALA DANCE PARTY! #partyhard You don’t need a stuffy old library publication telling YOU who moves and shakes! #makeithappen

Reading Rainbow (Captain Culo Remix) by Cutso listen | download

Reading Rainbow (Dj Protege Remix) listen | download

Nas!!

by DJ Nique

Michelle’s FYI stats: Michelle Boule is a Geek Librarian living in Houston, TX. Michelle was recently a Social Sciences Librarian at the University of Houston. She now spends her time writing and consulting while trying to care for her growing brood of children* and large dogs. In 2008, she was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. Michelle has created online learning environments, taught in-person classes, presented on a wide variety of technology and training subjects, shelved books, read books, written articles, organized unconferences, and participated in subversive activities in an effort to save the world. She has a booki coming out in the Fall on entitled Mob Rule Learning: camps, unconferences, and trashing the talking head from Information Today, Inc..  Michelle can be found online at A Wandering Eyre, http://wanderingeyre.com.

Let’s start with her post on Why You Should Participate in National Library Unconference Day ’11.

And here’s her prezi titled Planning an Unconference.



I’m getting really excited for Unconference Day!!! Our kick-off set of lightning talks (by library greats like Eli Neiburger, Jaime Hammond, and Michael Stephens) will be offered free courtesy of the ALA Learning Round Table. And even if you can’t organize an unconference of your own, we’ll have a full-day live chat unconference at tinychat.com/8bitlibrary, a twitter unconference via hashtag #libuncon, and you can still check out the free lightning talks at 1 pm EDT. May 2nd, 2011, be there, #makeithappen – JP

*everyone say YAY to Michelle for recently adding another child to her clan!!!! I got to see the pictures and the baby is so beautifulllll.

Libraries from all over the country are going to be screening our free keynote set of lightning talks and then running their own Unconferences, Staff Development days, and BarCamps.

We encourage you to organize your own at your place of employment, or via your library school student association, or your regional library cooperative or state library association.

For those of you who can’t #makeithappen, 8bitlibrary.com will also be hosting two digital unconferences: our twitter unconference will be at hashtag #libuncon, and our live chat unconference will be at tinychat.com/8bitlibrary.

HOW do you sign up?????? Leave a comment here with your name and what uncon you’ll be physically organizing or participating in (including those of your who will be participating in the chat room unconference or twitter unconference). Please use a real email address when you leave the comment, because I’ll be using those addresses to send out a reminder email to you a few days beforehand!

And check back here at 8bitlibrary.com every day this week. We have a slew of new #libuncon content!!

Action is something that you do.

Doing is different than saying. We can write, talk, make statements, chat, dish, diss, blog at blog.8bitlibrary.com or any other blog…but it’s never a substitute for action.

In librarianship specifically, I hear lots of talk. Some of it is negative complaining about the state of things. Some of it is positive ideas about how we should move forward.

Neither of those are #makeithappen. #makeithappen is saying “I want today to be Teen Library Day in my town”, then calling the mayor, and getting it officially on the books as [Insert Town Here] Teen Library Day. #makeithappen is not just THINKING outside the box, but DOING outside the box. Like having librarians influence global gaming discussions that otherwise would have been completely out of the realm of libraries. Or having local professional athletes chill in the library.

Talking about something is a stepping stone to action, but in the end, no amount of blog posts here or anywhere will amount to #mih. However, we want this blog to be the #makeithappen blog, a place to show off pictures and videos or things people have #mih’d all over the country, to provide inspiration to all in their own efforts to #makeithappen. Have you made something great happen in your library? Please email me so you can show the world; I can be reached at jp at porcaro dot info

#makeithappen never gives up, ever.

#makeithappen is professional AND personal. In many ways, it is personal first: envision what you want in your life, and then stop imagining and #mih, because the reality is so much better than the fantasy.

#makeithappen is climbing 10,000 mountains before breakfast.

An 8bitlibrary.com contributor linked me to this a few days ago. I know it is harsh, but climbing 10,000 mountians is way harsher than any web comic:

The secret to #mih: work really really hard.

And although we define “make it happen” in twitter-hashtag form, we all agree that nobody can #makeithappen on twitter. The real work that needs to be done is through toil and sweat and hard work, even in the library.

#makeithappen is saying “Hey, let’s help people develop video game collections”, starting up a website about it, and becoming the most influential web resource for video-games-in-libraries.

Failure, of course, is a big part of #makeithappen as well. Video Games can be a great example of this: you toil through failure after failure, repeating the same tasks you fail at, sometimes failing at the same thing for hours or days. And then you win. You fail until you win. And #makeithappen is not stopping, because once you’ve jumped one hurdle of failure, you’ve got 100s more to jump. This is why video games are the perfect fit for the #makeithappen philosophy: keep pushing through failure until you win, because luck won’t get you anywhere, experience will, and the only way to gain experience is through failure, not success.

#makeithappen is also about priorities: like, knowing when to stop writing about it, because you have to go to work to DO SOMETHING. Which I am about to do.

8bitlibrary.com‘s own JP Porcaro (me) & Justin Hoenke, as well as our friends/colleagues/movers&shakers Ed Garcia and Jaime Hammond will be speaking on “Make It Happen in libraries” at the New England Library Association Conference in October 2011. Please come out and share the #mih mojo with us.

Maybe if we think about a library without books, we could start to imagine different and new ways to stay relevant in the future.

Also, we’re particularly interested in what libraries & librarians’ roles are in the events. Let us know! Librarians from all over the country & the world are ready to help you guys, so, speak up.