So if you will forgive the pride and slight self-promotion for my role as a co-author, I am very happy to share that libraries were the front page news for Drupal.org’s 20 million viewers/month audience for the past few days. Andy Austin’s post about the ALA TechSource Library Technology Reports issue we wrote together highlighted other examples of libraries as technology leaders. The LTR issue itself has been getting great reviews throughout the Drupal Community as a user-friendly, plain-English explanation of the ideas and possibilities found within the Drupal open source content management framework.

I can’t wait to see what comes next from the incredible group of librarians working together through Drupal.

Imagine our surprise, however, when we entered the manga library to be welcomed with this sign that fails on so many levels. Leaving aside the quite horrific fail, we still have to deal with the unfortunate fact that this sign maker’s perception of libraries is that they are mainly quiet. What made this more sad was that the day before I had been one floor up in the same hotel talking about the fact that libraries are not just about being quiet anymore. That we have learned to change and meet user expectations; that we have adopted gaming and the idea of having a YA friendly social space. And then there was the sign.

Couldn’t it have just said “Quiet Atmosphere” or “Respect the Readers” or “Be Noisy Elsewhere” or (since this is Gen Con) “Stealth Check Required: Roll a 21 on 1d20 to be allowed to make noise.” Go forth and destroy dated stereotypes!

The first moment was while checking out from the doctor’s office. The receptionist, noticed me entering my next appointment into my iPod Touch and happily shared that she loved her Touch as well. Here was someone who at first glance did not seem like someone who would be packing one of the most powerful handheld computing devices on the market. And yet she was. Her desk included a speaker dock and the Touch met many needs throughout the day including music, calendaring, and more.

Then my wife and I stopped for breakfast (one of my favorite guilty pleasures on a day when I have to be late to the office). This was going to be a nice long breakfast, and my wife and I had our laptops to do some work with the provided WiFi. The waitress saw our Macs and asked about them. She was wanting a new laptop, she explained, but her boyfriend had told her that Macs were only for art people. My wife and I dissuaded her of that misconception, but were then horrified when she went on to tell us that her real problem with her current laptop was that writing papers for college for the past few years had been very difficult with only Notepad.

Notepad? You mean that bare bones text editor that does a better job of emulating a typewriter than anything remotely computerized? She was indeed using a program that lacks rudimentary tools like line breaks (not to mention spell checking). Here was someone - a younger person in college - who had no idea that there were other tools available besides the expensive Word that she hadn’t purchased. She did mention that spelling was an issue and she hated how the lines always messed up, but she hadn’t gone anywhere for help.

While we talk about online tools like Zoho Writer, Google Docs, or Acrobat.com, here was a member of the general public who was totally unaware of them. I urged her to check these out, or even to download Open Office as a free alternative to meet all her word processing needs. We suggested that the librarian at her college might be able to help her work through some of these options.

That morning just struck me as odd. In the first case, someone who looked to be in her 40s was rocking out to her iPod Touch. In the second case, someone in her 20s exhibited a very low level of technical fluency. What does this mean for school libraries (not to mention public and academic)?

The LiveScribe Pulse is a digital pen computer that focuses on audio recording and synchronization with writing instead of attempting handwriting recognition. Built on a platform that is meant to be extended to include translation and other pen-based applications, the LiveScribe would be a great tool to enhance note-taking in class or a way to capture and share minutes from any meeting.

“It’s like a Pet Rock…with wi-fi.” Thanks to Brian Mayer for this easy way to describe the Chumby to someone. With a constantly shifting set of flash widgets for clocks, RSS, news, music, video, games and more the Chumby has certainly found a place in my home.

Finally, an oldie but goodie - Blue’s Snowball USB microphone is a $100 way to upgrade your library’s podcasting efforts to professional grade. With two separate microphone bits inside, this white wonder meets your needs for both single-person and group recordings.

Read more from the Library Journal NetConnect Product Pipeline online.