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Stab at the audience with a kendo sword. Explain how Shakespeare describes the internet. Replay the sugar wars to a highschool audience as an entree to information warfare. Recount what a fictional knight from the middle ages has to do with internet search skills.

I have done this and more. I have stood before vast crowds of dedicated librarians, defence scientists and educators alike and done some of the wackiest antics. All in my quest to share internet information literacy skills with audiences that often have little concept of what it means.

(read two chapters/ cover image/ back cover image) Cost to libraries: A$50 +$9/order postage

I	seek your help

My name is David Novak. With the recent publishing of my book, Internet Informed: Guidance for the Dedicated Searcher, I have returned my attention to speaking and communicating internet skills to our community. Most excellently, the publishing of a book offers us a unique opportunity I wish to speak to you about.

I am scheduling a blitz of free & unpaid library talks across Australia and New Zealand. Might I persuade you to participate?

5	reasons to lend support

#1  I am an established expert at this. Book, website, seminars, articles, speaking career and more, I have much to share and much experience sharing it. Have a quick look around this website for evidence of this. My focus is solely on information skills and I do this very well.

#2  Information Literacy is part of your mandate. Hosting a free public talk rests closly to your mandated role in assisting the community to gather better information; closer than most library talks that just provide information. This is about information literacy - about emerging search skills.

#3  I teach something close to your heart. Many of the more helpful Internet search skills come from library science. Context, format, source. Q4 quality assessment. Anticipation. These are all library science notions that I bridge to the internet. For example, I always compare author/title, subject and Dewey number field searching to the big three Internet fields: title, URL and link.

Testimonial "David is an engaging speaker who leads the way in de-mystifying internet searching." -- Mia Mikin, Yarra Libraries

#4  Other Libraries have helped perfect this. Yes, libraries like Yarra Libraries, Stonnington Libraries and Glen Eira Libraries have already assisted to knock the kinks out of this effort. I also owe thanks for the State Library of Victoria for securing the funding to trial this in Portland Library. And while on the topic, my heartfelt thanks to the State Library of South Australia for supporting and sponsoring my initial seminar years ago. Of course, I get credit too; delivering numerous free and near-free seminars in WA and Victoria till I got it right. This is not some throw-away effort. It is practiced, supported and functional.

#5  Glen Eira Libraries got it right. The last talk, for Glen Eira Libraries, booked out an auditorium six days before the event. In the words of Joanne Casey, the librarian most responsible for the event:

On 9 August 2007, at 7pm, David Novak delivered a talk to 120 people in our large theatrette at the Glen Eira Town Hall. The free talk was titled: Internet searching demystified, guidance for the internet searcher.

It was a great success. The talk was enjoyable and much of the presentation was original material. Many who were present on the night made it obvious afterwards that they were very pleased they had attended. We are certainly interested in repeating the talk, or a variation on the topic.
...
In total we took 150 bookings for the event and probably could have taken an additional 40 to 50 but were forced to close bookings on the Friday before the Thursday talk due to the capacity of the room.

David presented a very professional and informative talk and I would certainly recommend his presentation to other library services. There is obviously keen interest across the community on the topic and we certainly had a much bigger response to the evening than we had to recent author presentations.

Yours sincerely,
Joanne Casey
Promotion and Publicity
Glen Eira Library & Information Service
Tel 03 9524 3333

F	inances

I have a new book I wish to sell and promote. The book is not cheap at A$50* but I think the occasional purchase at a talk and the valuable promotion a talk provides will suffice. I do not ask for a fee. However, I do need help. I need the same help you already provide other speakers who visit your library - venue, promotion, the taking of reservations and some equipment.

T	he topic of the talk?

Title:
I would like to ask you to select a suitable title, and if you wish, ask me to tilt the content to suit your needs. As for the title, my talks for Stonnington Library Service in 2007 were titled Fame's Mighty role on the Internet. It attracted 18 and 16 people respectively so in hindsight, that title was too esoteric; too limiting. Glen Eira Libraries' Internet Informed: Internet searching demystified suggests a more generic and approachable title succeeds in capturing far far more attention. Keep in mind, the background graphic starts the title with Internet Informed (from the book), so Internet Informed: Searching really effectively or something similar may work best.

Content:
The talk lasts for one hour, followed by 20 minutes of questions. While the talk assumes attendees are familiar with using the internet, that they know how to toss words at Google, it requires only a basic understanding to grasp most of the concepts. Its the nature of this guidance that this topic will interest a relative novice as well as your most experienced librarian. Do not dissuade the more experienced internet users from attending - they will often get the most value from attending. But equally, novices will learn a tremendous amount.

For those uncertain if they should attend, please direct them to the 2 chapters of Internet Informed published under a Creative Commons license and found online at (SpireProject.com#book). You could, perhaps, print it off and hold it at the information desk for this very purpose. This should convince them I have as much to offer a novice as a highly skilled searcher.

During the hour I will speak on:

The role of fame, of prominence, on the internet. Searchers should decide if they seek it. Publishers desperately need it. Internet culture is changed by it. Fame points to a solution to many of the frustrations of working with internet information.

Field searching. Its not author/title, subject and Dewey number on the internet. Its title, URL and link. Proper use of these three fields open many avenues to explore and get us around the problems of prominence.

Context. The internet obscures many of the normal clues we use to judge information, like context, format and source. However, they exist nearby. I'll show how to retrieve some of this halo of supportive detail.

I will then re-introduce the book and invite the audience to purchase a copy for the discounted price of A$50 (RRP of A$59.95). I will also take audience questions for another twenty minutes. Judging from previous experience, I get some very sophisticated questions.

Lastly, following the advice of Mia Mikin of Richmond Library, I will bring handouts to the talk. I'll provide these early to you if you could assist me with photocopying (though I will bring spares.) I can place them on the chairs when I set up.

P	romotion and equipment

Let us each work to our strengths. While you promote to your community, I shall promote the blitz of free talks to state media.

With this in mind:

Please use this graphic for the poster/flyer. As a .pdf (1.73Mbytes) As a high-res jpeg (5.28 Mbytes)

Please consider using the graphic to the right for your poster and/or flyer. Just drop the text you wish on top of this image. Its based on the cover of the book from which the talk is drawn. Glen Eira made a photoboard for their talk using a similar image overlaid with a talk title and description with great results. [The planetary nebula photo by NASA is copyright-free and duly documented while I have the copyright to the alterations which you are welcome to use.] This image is here as a pdf (1.73Mbytes) and as a high-res jpeg (5.28 Mbytes).

Personal photos of me can be found on this media page. I have copyright and you are welcome to use them for promotions as needed.

The Spire Project is a pending trademark. While some may recognize my name, others will recognize The Spire Project. I offer you permission to use this image for promotion too. (image 768x177)

Perhaps for promotion, you would consider purchasing and displaying my book, Internet Informed: Guidance for the Dedicated Searching, in your library in the run up to the talk. I can send you a copy quickly for $50/copy + $9/order if postage is required.

I did publish the first two chapters of Internet Informed under a Creative Commons licence so if you wish, you can host a copy, print copy for the library and/or link to it at SpireProject.com#book.

If an opportunity arises for me to write a short article for the local press, please forward it to me. I wrote this piece for the Portland Observer in connection to my lecture there.

Lastly, just come to me for anything else you need.

Love your work... The Spire Project is outstanding. -- John Makulowich, USA Today columnist

For my part, I will tackle state and national media.

Please commit early, or express interest, as this helps me capture media attention.

Which phone number should I direct reservations to?

Once the talk is over, please pen a short statement describing what worked and if the effort was worthwhile. I have many libraries to convince this year.

Equipment needs are simple. I will arrive early to set up but I hope for the following:

A dataprojector and a live internet connection. I have a laptop with wifi if that helps but with many libraries, I will need to borrow a computer for this.

A suitable screen or wall for the data projector to point at.

A small waist-high flat table where I can place my computer (not a slanted lecturn). Something like a book trolley or a table with a box on it. I'll bring a box and table cloth.

A place to sell a few books to those interested. Most likely my daughter (age 9) will collect the money.
I intend to stand beside or in front of the screen so I can type while I talk. Keep in mind, if there is complete equipment failure, I will talk without the computer.

T	alk to David

Ready to proceed? Still unconvinced? Share your concerns. I can be reached directly on +61 403055544 or by email using this email form.

Lets do this.

David Novak
The Spire Project - better ways to find information. [SpireProject.com]
Internet Informed: guidance for the dedicated searcher. [ISBN: 0975729918]
Tel/sms +61 403 055544