PLA Blog

Hi everyone! I’m Anne Robert, a children’s/teen librarian with the Jacksonville (FL) Public Library. I got to Philly early this morning (at 8am *yawn*) and have done a little sight-seeing. I recommend everyone visit Reading Market - the food there is delicious! I will write more about events happening at Midwinter the next few days. Hope everyone is having a great time in Philly!

Right now, I’m writing to you by way of my Blackberry, on an Amtrak train that left Boston at 6am (I just passed New Haven), on my way to Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. Our conference bloggers are also making their ways to the Midwinter meeting, and you will soon be reading their introductory posts, as well as their observations, thoughts, insights, and photos of the conference. We hope you enjoy the coverage, and we also hope you’ll have some thoughts to share in the form of comments!

The Midwinter meeting in Philly is fast approaching! If you’d like the 411 on committee meetings, visit the handy chart on the PLA web site, sorted alphabetically by committee name.

We are also still recruiting bloggers for the conference. No experience is required, but great writing skills are desirable. Drop us a line through the contact form with your name, title, library, and blog URL (if you feel like sharing), and we’ll get you all set up. If you have submitted your information to me already, you’ll be hearing from me very soon.

Are you heading to Midwinter? What are you looking forward to most? Least? Feel free to leave us a comment and let us know. And don’t forget to hit the 2008 Midwinter Meeting Wiki when planning your trip!

Jed Moffitt of the King County LIbrary System began the PLA-sponsored Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog with family stories that somehow led to a disclosure that the topic of social software in libraries is not so cutting-edge as it was eighteen months ago when the topic was chosen for the American Library Association Summer 2007 conference. The topic has matured a bit. He thought it was still worth discussing. The overflow crowd agreed.

At this “late date” in social software, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County has already reached its second generation in training programs. Matt Gullett, the Emerging Technologies Librarian for PLCMC, described the library’s online tutorial series Learning 2.0. He invited all libraries to use what his library has created. PLCMC generally gave staff nine weeks to complete the tutorial in a voluntary program, but other libraries can take as long as they want. Gullett said the key is to be flexible and let staff learn at their pace.

The objectives behind the PLCMC effort are as follows, according to Gullett:

expose staff to tools
encourage them to play
empower individuals
expand their knowledge
eliminate their fears

PLCMC now has debuted its follow-up Learning 2.1, which is more self-directed learning. Gullett says that the results of staff training is a change in the work culture and the form of his library’s organization is changing. The new departments in the library are 1) community engagement, 2) library experiences, 3) organizational resources, and 4) research, innovation, and strategy.

Librarians in virtual worlds were the focus of Alliance Library System’s Tom Peters. Peters has been involved in Second Life for over a year. His avatar is based on his dog’s name (one of the references back to the title in this program).

Peters said that there are now at least 500 virtual worlds online. He said they are not games in the strictest sense of the term. They are alternate lives. Because many clients are going there, libraries should, too. Alliance Library System has created Info Island in Second Life and is providing services to participants in the virtual universe.

Peters thinks that libraries in a virtual world are great for answering reference inquiries, linking to digital collections, creating interesting exhibits, and running book discussions or other event programs. Libraries can design buildings that defy physics in their innovative service of clients in Second Life.

Transforming the online catalog for the Ann Arbor Public Library into social software is the trick for which John Blyberg won awards. With its tagging, reviews, ratings, and comments, the catalog has now become a community footprint and portal to the library. The catalog even has a tool for generating old catalog cards with comments written on them. So far the features have been most used by teens, as shown by the number of ratings for teen books.

Blyberg said the code for adding these features is free for other libraries to use, though it is not “plug and play.” He cautioned that libraries may want to find ways to “prime the pump” on the social features by getting a group of clients to use them to attract more general use.

In the little time that was left her, Meredith Farkas spoke about the use of wikis and blogs by public libraries. She found that wikis are well-designed for creating community knowledge bases. They foster contributions from individuals who join the community and are keyword searchable. She recommended that libraries go to Wiki Matrix to find comparisons of the competing software.

Farkas also showed examples of how libraries and businesses have used blogs to keep clients informed. In the case of Southwest Airlines, its public blog actually became an agent of service change, as clients expressed themselves through comments.

At the end of the formal presentation, the audience had many questions about applications of social software. The topic may not be so old-hat as Moffitt thought.

Hi everyone! I’m Anne Robert, a children’s/teen librarian with the Jacksonville (FL) Public Library system. This is my 5th time writing for the PLA Blog, and I’ll try to cover as much as I can! I arrived in DC this afternoon and took in the sights. I went to the Library of Congress Open House, and the building is fantastic! We toured the Main Reading Room and went downstairs to the stacks. LoC is closed Sunday, but open the other days of the week… I recommend everyone go and check it out!

Tonight I attended the NMRT Meet & Greet. I am the Leadership Director with NMRT, and it’s a great roundtable for all new librarians (besides PLA, of course!). The 3M/NMRT Social is Sunday night, and I invite any librarians (or library school students) to come and see what NMRT is all about!

Hi. I am Rick Roche, and I will be blogging for the PLA Blog for the next few days. I will be attending various programs of interest to staff from public libraries and reporting on for you. I will also be writing some on my own blog ricklibrarian and posting some photos on my Flickr site. I hope you enjoy the pieces. I will not tell you everything that was said, as some talented bloggers are able to do on the spot. I will instead reflect on the main points and highlight some important details. When possible I will link you to sources for further study.

As we start this conference in our nation’s capitol, it is natural to think back to last year in New Orleans. The setting of that gathering was emotion charged, as the people of the Crescent City welcomed us. Librarians made a big statement by being the first group to return for a conference in the storm-damaged city. This year we are in the most media rich city in the world. Let’s make ourselves and our issues known. In a small way, I hope these pieces add to the effort.

…one by one. After many flight delays (apparently, this was a common occurrence yesterday), I finally got to my hotel at midnight last night. After a day which included a 7:30a breakfast meeting, registration, and crashing the Library Journal Movers & Shakers luncheon, I’m *finally* making my first post. On the docket for this evening is the world premiere of “The Hollywood Librarian: A Look at Librarians Through Film,” and pre-party before that. I’m still ironing out the rest of my conference schedule, but I promise whatever I cover, it’ll be interesting!

Keep an eye on the blog over the next week or so for more conference blogging from our awesome crew.

Many of the emails of interest I’ve received about our Call for Bloggers for the ALA Annual conference have asked, “What does blogging for PLA entail?” Here’s the basics on how PLA blogs conferences, and how you can be involved.

Who can be a PLA conference blogger?
As you might expect, our preference is for public librarians. However, if you are a Friend, trustee, paraprofessional, a library school student, or even a library volunteer who is attending the conference, we’d like to add your diverse perspectives to the mix.

Do conference bloggers need to have a blog, or previous blogging experience?
No, and no. Not only are we into diversification of perspectives, we also like to offer conference blogging as an entry-level experience to the uninitiated. Our blog is powered by WordPress, which is easy to use, and we try to get people set up far enough in advance to answer questions or concerns. I’m even working on setting up a private, practice blog for newbies to help them ramp up on their posting skills before the conference, if they need it.

What do you want bloggers to cover?
Our focus is on the entire conference experience with public librarians in mind, so we encourage our conference bloggers to cover preconference workshops, sessions, meetings, lunches, dinners, receptions, interviews, with pictures, text, and audio recordings (we often podcast interviews and recordings of PLA-sponsored sessions). You can even cover sessions and events sponsored by other divisions, if you can make them relevant to public librarians somehow. We do have a few limitations, which are outlined in the guidelines each conference blogger should read before getting started, but otherwise, it’s pretty open.

How many posts are required of each conference blogger?
This is really up to each conference blogger, since we have no official minimum or cap. We like to see at least one post per day from each blogger, to encourage timely conference reporting, but if a blogger decides to save up their content and post them all on the same day at the end, that’s OK, too.

Is there a required length for posts?
No. The key to good blog posts is content that is easy to read on the screen, which usually comes down to clearly written short prose and a wise use of bullet points (taking a nod from Jakob Nielsen). A post can be as simple as a picture with a caption, or as involved as a 6 paragraph mini-essay. For examples, check out our archives.

When do conference bloggers start writing?
Conference bloggers can begin with their introductory post as soon as they start traveling to the conference, if they want, since part of the conference flavor is documenting the journey to and from the meeting. Conference bloggers also have 1 week from the end of the conference to post any wrap-up content, since we know that the conference is fast and furious, and some content just waits until bloggers arrive home.

This totally sounds doable. How do I sign up?
Use the Contact Us link on the PLA Blog site to send us your name, your title, your library/organization, your email address, and your blog URL (if you have one). You’ll receive information on how to proceed from there.

Hope this enlightens the mystery that is conference blogging for PLA, and encourages you to take the plunge and give it a try!

If you’re heading to the ALA conference in June, consider sharing your experience by writing for the PLA Blog. Whether you’re a librarian, student, trustee, director, or Friend of the library, an experienced writer with a blog of your own, or just dipping your toe into the conference blogging experience, we’d love to have you on board the conference blogging team.

Intrigued? Drop us an email if you’re interested, and I’ll contact you with more information. If you have questions about blogging for PLA, you can either comment here or email us.

Big congratulations to the PPO for the launch of their spiffy new blog, the Public Programs Post. In the past, the PLA Blog has highlighted information, programs, and events from the Public Programs Office here, and we hope to continue to bring you highlights from their new blog now and again. In the meantime, if you have a feed reader, be sure to visit their blog and subscribe to their feed!