This session was a panel consisting of four presenters, each addressing a different aspect.

Ross MacLachlan of the Phoenix Public Library
Endeca: Developments in the OPAC World

The Phoenix Public Library uses Endeca because:
it is a search engine
it harvests data
it enables guided navigation
it is commerce driven
it is API-based

They wanted their site to be:
customer-centric not librarian-oriented
easy to use with not a lot of halls to go down

They have been able to:
Integrate Endeca data with bibliographic data
Integrate Endeca data with library data
Integrate Endeca navigation API

They opted to adopt BISAC (Book Industry Standards And Communications) and abandon Library of Congress subject headings because it:
Facilitates browsing
Is hierarchical (LC is not entirely hierarchical with its comma and dash conventions)
Take advantage of order records that come with BISAC headings
Is configurable in Endeca

Within the first 3 months, circulation increased 15%, web traffic increased by 27%. In a post-implementation study, the site received a 92% approval rating.

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Grace Lillevig, Harris County Public Library, Houston, Texas
PAC 2.0 Patron Reviews

Patron reviews are available on almost all other sites (retail, social, etc.). Lillevig presented four options for adding patron reviews to a library website.

1. Blog
Often used for staff-generated reviews only because an account is required
Easy to set up
example: Madison Public Library. Patron role: comments only.
example: Seattle Public Library Shelf Talk. Patron role: comments only.

2. Wiki
Includes content from users
Easy to set up
Open, closed, or moderated
example: Palo Alto City Library. Patron submissions are moderated before being posted.
example: East Bonner County Library. Patron submissions are posted directly.

3. Custom database
Time, money, and expertise required
Customizable
example: Denver Public Library. Patron submissions are moderated before being posted.
example: Harris County Public Library. Patron submissions are moderated before being posted. Uses PERL. Book reviews, movie reviews, and Spanish reviews are all kept separate on the site.

4. Commercial options
May integrate directly into catalog
Some include content from other sources/libraries
Sometimes less control and/or moderation
example: Chilifresh.com. Has some (but not a lot) of content so far (still building).
example: Aquabrowser My Discoveries
example: Evanced Solutions Summer Reader. This product is completely separate (does not integrate with PAC) and is staff moderated.

Things to consider:
Moderation
Staff time
Cost
Customization
Usability

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Kitty Little, Queens Library
Language and Access

Globalization means that you must know who your customers are.

Queens is the most ethnically diverse county in the US, which has a big impact on everything they do. The Queens Library PAC has multiple skins for the site in multiple languages, created by staff fluent in those languages. The Ann Arbor District Library PAC is available in multiple languages but use machine translation instead. They have a suggestion tool for fixing translations but have received none in the six months the languages have been available.

The Queens library uses MARC 880 fields (support vernacular). They also use BISAC and are happy with it. Spanish language subject headings are native in their catalog.

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Amy Cantu, Ann Arbor District Library
Blogging the PAC: Staff Training and Buy In (PDF)

(department heads, etc.). The AADL site went live in 2005 and is one big blog, pulled from a variety of specifically focused blogs (director’s blog, library news, etc.). All staff are invited to blog, and some are required to. Staff may blog using their staff account (real name) or separate blogging account (name of choice, many use a cute pseudonym).

Make it relevant:
Media mentions
Local events
Hot and new
Staff interests

Make it Fun:
By-lines and beats
Informal style -ok to have a personality, ok to be controversial
Tagging
Comments

Make it simple:
Easy input – Drupal (very robust open source software)
Few rules
No worries

Most comments are made on the director’s blog and the teen gaming blog. They’ve received ~20,000 comments in 3 years. They haven’t had problems with spam or inappropriate comments. Staff were very concerned about cursing/etc. in comments but it’s not been a problem at all.

——

Answers to attendee questions:

TLC is the reseller of Endeca for libraries (much more affordable than retail price). Being a development partner can also decrease the initial cost.

At HCPL, a staff member reviews every single review submitted. Summer reading reviews are so numerous it’s a full-time job to moderate, which is a considerable cost in staff time.

The Phoenix Public Library has integrated reviews and ratings from Amazon (free) and Rotten Tomatoes (fee) into the catalog but you have to click through to those sites to add your own (so not completely integrated).

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I found this session interesting and informative, but it was not necessarily the information I was expecting. I’d like to learn more about how libraries are making their PACs more 2.0-y in the sense of hacking/altering their ILS to integrate tags, user content from social media sites, allowing patrons to integrate their library accounts with their accounts/content from social media sites, etc. Much of this information relates more to the library website than the PAC specifically. Still, I learned a lot and thought this was a very valuable session.

The session I went to this morning was on Library 2.0. Oh, I know what you’re thinking, “we have Helene ( Blowers with us now in Columbus, Ohio, we don’t need to hear other folks talk about this.” Not true! It’s not going to be a reality for CML unless we all hop on that same train, my friends!

Points I gleaned:

• Design for uncertainty – you never know what is going to happen, and you should be ready to shift if needed to better serve the customers
• Keep experimenting! There is no right or wrong, there is just experimentation – if it works do it more, if it doesn’t work, try the next idea.
• In Boston they have Youtube vids of teens booktalking – on their website!
• Learning 2.0 is amazing (GO HELENE!)
• Web-based activity (i.e. on a teen website the library runs) is higher when it’s associated with a program.
• “Reminder me later” feature on their events calendar. They can program themselves to get a reminder 3 days before the event is going to take place.
• Michael Stephens is really as much fun in person as his blog would indicate.
• Speak in a human voice – remember that your customers will respond to this better than to another lecture.
• Circ staff is blogging about books for customers – and they’re sending circ staff to Book
• Expo to help them! They’re our front line – if they don’t know about the books, and they’re the ones who are known, we’re losing and opportunity.
• The library should be transparent, meaning we should allow comment in the catalog, etc.
• Throw out the culture of being perfect.
• Aim to satisfy the hearts of your customers.
• Learn to learn.
• Adapt to change.
• Scan the horizon.

Ideas I had while listening:

• Start a FlickR site where kids and adults and staff can post pictures of library events.
• Start a “1000 readers” project where we get a series of photos of people – maybe all reading the same book? Maybe each reading their fave. Why not even maybe use those things for our promotions? Our customers using the library!
• Stop worrying about controling the content of library blogs, and just let it go.
• If you haven’t read it yet, go read Tame the Web’s post on the library that disallows MySpace and Facebook. Pay particular attention to the comments – there is a good discussion going.

Stephen presented first, and gave a really nice comprehensive overview defining social networking, the difference between social networking (connecting and building relationships with other people) and social media (the sharing of objects with other people in a social way). Some of the social networking use examples he presented were very practical and successfully functional, such as using a meebo me chat box on the “Ask a question” page of the library site, or creating a Facebook Page for a library. Also of note is that librarians are starting to post home-grown profile pages on their library web sites, giving students a better sense of who the librarian is and what kinds of specializations they cover, as well as profiles that advertise a librarian’s availability on Facebook.

However, there was also something oddly disturbing that Stephen pointed out. He cited two librarians who have tried to perform “outreach” on Facebook by searching for students with their school affiliations and sending out mass messages to these people using Facebook’s built in messaging system. Their messages were perceived as spam (which is, essentially, true), and their accounts were shut down. However, instead of finding different ways to outreach do outreach on Facebook, they continued to work to beat the system. Not only is this behavior deplorable — purposely trying to get around Facebook’s rules for sending messages (the Inbox, Messages and Pokes help section states that if someone is not your friend, you can only message them individually, after negative experiences with past open messaging policies) to spam users, even if it’s for a benevolent cause — it’s very anti-culture for Facebook, and really kinda makes librarians look bad. One of many interesting reports on how Facebook users interact with messages is available through the HP site.

Beth Evans reported that she had great success using MySpace with students at Brooklyn College. The library has 4,000 friends on my MySpace, and they’ve been able to successfully market services and events through the online service. The library encourages everyone to “friend” them on Facebook, which I believe to be a double-edged sword. Beth noted that the reason that students say they don’t expect to see libraries in social networking spaces in OCLC report Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World, she believes that it might be because “it may not occur to them that we have something to offer,” which I think might be an interesting discussion to have, especially with public librarians.

David Lankes tied all of the presentations together while offering food for thought at the same time. His presentation about his work on participatory reference at Syracuse was truly scintillating stuff, and is definitely worth a listen. His statement, to paraphrase a little, that knowledge is created through conversation, and libraries, being in the knowledge business, are in the conversation business, seems very natural and innovative at the same time. Reference transactions should be conversations with the patron as well as any other human or digital resources at your disposal, instead of isolated Q & A sessions, which seems a bit obvious to me (doesn’t everyone bring all of their people and resources into the process?), but it may be that not everyone does reference this way. What’s truly innovative is the Scapes vaporware (conceptual software that only exists as concept) application that he’s developing to track this very collaborative reference process. That, and while ownership of space online is OK, we’ve been “too busy chasing Amazon and Google that we’re not really figuring out whether or not we’re in the same space” competitively. As librarians, you shouldn’t “define your mission by cool features, do it by core principles,” thinking carefully about how and why people use these online spaces. We need to stop chasing all of the innovators and making second-hand copies of everything, and really create something innovative to meet our patrons needs.

So yes, social software (an umbrella for social networking + social media) can create a collaborative environment in which reference questions can be answered. However, librarians need to take care in applying these applications, and, even better, should begin to really spearhead new ways and technologies in the area.

As you think about your resolutions for the New Year, why not resolve to make your library a great educational asset within your community? This webinar will show you how to leverage social networking tools such as del.icio.us and Librarything to enable knowledge sharing and create collections of information around professional development. Ten key themes are presented to empower library staff as well as to increase a library’s value within the community. Presented by guest speaker Ed Rossman, adult services librarian at Shaker Heights Public Library and author of Castles Against Ignorance: How to Make Libraries Great Educational Environments.

Be Safe, Not Sorry: Protecting Your Data
PC Magazine Learning Center self-paced course, four 30-minute webcasts

Are you doing everything you can to protect your data? Malware—from viruses to spyware—continues to plague many businesses, not to mention internal security threats. Does your small business have a holistic security strategy in place?

Don’t have a plan to secure your business data? Let the expert editorial staff of PC Magazine teach you everything you need to know. Attend this course of four dynamic online webcast lessons each of which includes practical downloadable coursework.

Even though we aren’t “businesses” per se, libraries are large organizations dealing with computers — public and staff — and their issues. This course, which you can do at your own pace, offers something a bit deeper than your average article about vanilla virus protection, and will give you excellent fodder for your next coffee with the tech folks.

And they need *your* feedback! Here’s why (via a quote from their post about the book):

So while we feverishly research, write, and revise the manuscript, we have a request of all of you, dear Readers & Friends of Pop: we have this survey, you see, and it would help us out tremendously if you’d be willing to answer our questions. It’s one thing for us to write about what we think makes a great marriage between pop culture & libraries; it’s quite another, more powerful thing to quote our experienced colleagues on this topic.

Please take a few minutes to help by filling out their survey. Understanding the fit of popular culture in the library is one of the many keys to staying relevant with our patron communities, so this is a very worthy cause for your time. Thanks!

It’s important to understand that, on a certain level, the new culture is making it up as they go along. On the other hand, much of the etiquette is really being adapted from early social networking sites like LiveJournal, and even from instant messaging (IM) and email etiquette.

Chris Brogan, co-founder of PodCamp, online community builder and contributor, and all-around networking guy, posted a really interesting and to-the-point post titled “Considering Social Network Etiquette” today, with the open invitation to all to participate in the conversation via the comments. The post covers a few sites like Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, and LinkedIn, but the discussion is certainly not limited to these sites.

Ask your questions. Debate the merits of the etiquette tactics discussed. If you’re experienced and feeling like sharing, definitely participate. Consider this your chance to write a “Dear Abby” to the social networking world on how to interact, or even just to read along and learn a little something.

OK, I’ll be honest and say that although I found the summary of this program enticing, I wasn’t sure if I’d spend the whole time at the session. It appeared to have an academic focus, and come on – it’s technical services and I am SO not a technical services kinda gal, so I staked out a seat close to the door so I could make a quick, unnoticed getaway if necessary.

It wasn’t necessary. This session grabbed my interest, piqued my interest, and held my interest for the duration. This was due to some great presenters -all of whom approached the topic differently, but with equal levels of engaging style. I’ve located copies of all slides used, and you can access them here.

The session began with Matt Barnes, a consultant with R2 consulting. He was throwing out ideas and applications left and right – and I was wishing I’d taken shorthand at some point in my life. Sure, he touched on the usual concepts like Wikis, tagging, and mashups – then followed these with more exotic (at least to me) things as the new “Geotagging” phenomenon, the Croquet Consortium, IBM’s Web Fountain and web outsourcing using the overwhelmingly amazing/cool/can’t really even get my head around how innovative Amazon Mechanical Turk Wow, wow, and wow. Other Matt nuggets:
- (re: OCLC OpenWorldcat) “Don’t get stuck thinking the only devide is the PC. Think cell phone, PDA, iPod, etc.
- 2.0 isn’t just about deploying new technology. Use Web 2.0 to solve problems based on your mission and goals
- There isn’t a final solution or correct answer – only continuous change. (Preach it, brother!)

Next up was Beth Picknally-Camden, who reported on the University of Pennsylvania’s successful “PennTags” program. The folks there created their own social bookmarking tool for their students and faculty to use. This allows them to tag catalog records and articles, and to create annotations. Beth said that in addition to the benefits of sharing and collaborating, she saw this as an excellent way to reinforce the “playing to learn” concept that is so important to web 2.0 tools (and is so undervalued in many of our organizations, I feel). She also learned very quickly that “people are watching” – meaning that she was encouraged to contribute because of the responses and connections her own contributions were making in others’ contributions. They use a tag cloud to highlight the popular tags. You need to have a “Pennkey” to contribute, but anyone can observe. Check it out at: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/

The final presenter was Elizabeth Winter, from Georgia Tech. She began her session with a slide that stated: PLAY v. PRODUCTIVITY. She then asked:

What if playing with new technologies was increasing our productivity? She also asserted that it’s OK to throw something out to “see if it sticks”. (Say it again, sister)
She then told us about their recent “see if it sticks” pilot – a GTJournals wiki. Using the easy and free pbwiki web tool, the folks at Georgia Tech set out to find a way to accomplish their goals of: cutting down on email volume, allowing all staff to share and get involved in a “common area”, track their progress, and avoid duplication of effort – relating to changes and cancellations of their many journals. They’ve locked it down, because they are including pricing and other sensitive informaiton, but you can see screen shots of their wiki in Elizabeth’s slide presentation here

An excellent presentation that sparked more than a few ideas in my “public librarian” head. Thanks academic folks!

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.

This session was an interesting one, but from my viewpoint, it’s one that got better as it went along. The first speaker, Lori Ayre, focused on things that I didn’t think really fit with this topic. She even said that she was going to talk about technologies “with levers and buttons, not we applications”. She covered things like central sorting systems, automated check in, and remote physical library service points, like book dispensers at airports, and library kiosks. And in my opinion, though interesting, this would’ve been better suited to the session on transforming your library space.

Anyway, next up was Casey Bisson who talked about the cool things he’s doing at Plymouth State University, and highlighted other library systems that have done innovative stuff in their OPAC. He began his talk with the statement “the library is more than about books – so should our library websites”. He said something I totally agree with: “the website is not a marketing tool; it’s a service point – as important as our physical library branches.” He highlighted small but innovative Tamworth Public Library, whose director utilizes a blog feature on their website to reflect questions received from customers. The example was regarding a particular gardening question received. Well instead of just answering the query (with book titles to try) for the one customer, this became a blog entry that all of their customers (and the rest of us!) can read and comment upon. What a fantastic approach to anticipating community information needs, and really making the most out of staff time spent doing readers advisory and/or reference work! He also carried a theme which I felt lends itself to the “Wisdom of Crowds” philosophy – epitomized, I think, by showing us the example of Beyond Brown Bag digital initiative that goes beyond the usual scanning and indexing of historic photographs, but then allows people to comment on the pictures themselves. It’s a fabulous project with over 11,000 pictures documenting the history of the Brown Paper Company of Berlin, New Hampshire from the late nineteenth century through the 1960s. This project allows everyone – but particular the older citizens in the area – to comment on the people in the picture, as well as what the picture is demonstrating or showing (the story behind the picture). What an inspiring way to use 2.0 technology to encourage connections and conversation about a city’s history – seen through the eyes of the people who worked there. Fabulous.

The third and final speaker of the session was Roy Tennant, whose respected reputation preceeds him, and I was not disappointed. His first main point was:
1) Technology is a tool… 2) used by people… 3) to accomplish goals

He then went on to elaborate why this very statement creates a tricky business: it can mean significant risk, we humans are messy and unpredictable, and there is a complicated mix of organization mission and vision, people and their abilities, society, and technology. Each of these variables change rapidly, independent of one another. Since this is a game of tradeoffs, Roy suggests that before making decisions consider the following:
-Understand the needs of your users
-Consider your mission and priorities
-Choose where to make a difference
-Get good advice from folks in the know
-Know your sources of support
-Consider a pilot or prototype
He then talked about finding the right people to help implement techology changes in your organization. The characteristics he advocates are:
-an ability to learn constantly
-demonstrated flexibility
-project management experience
-deep technical experience
-excellent communication skills
-enthusiasm.
Roy also made it clear that he would avoid folks that are always adopting the “latest and greatest” – there needs to be a balance between seeing something cool to look into, and rushing into implementing it in your organization because it looks so cool.
He then talked about the goal of creating agile organizations. He had the following tips:
-use committees for communication…
-and use task forces to accomplish work. These groups are specific and focused, and disband after the project/task is complete
-use the best people for the job (regardless of where they are in the “pecking order” of your organization)
-reward innovation (don’t directly or indirectly punish it)
-punish loitering (defined as folks just taking up space)
-take risks (and heavens, stop striving for unattainable perfection!)
-invest in infrastructure (lose your “poverty” mentality and stop trying to run your critical technologies on a shoestring budget. This is particularly critical for your human resources)
-invest in your staff (offer training opportunities and create an environment where staff is encouraged to play, learn, and have fun!)
-realize that not all changes are created equal (meaning: choose your battles)
-be opportunistic (exploit opportunities) and entrepreneurial (create opportunities)

Roy then finished his presentation with sharing the rules HE follows to keep himself running strong:

Learn only enough to get by. (What? We don’t have to learn it ALL…RIGHT NOW? I realize that this is simple common sense, but honestly I think we need to tell ourselves and our collegues this every day if necessary. Librarians are by nature “A” students, and in our attempt to be thorough and knowledgable, we are killing ourselves with unrealistic expectations.
-Learn when you have a problem to solve (He elaborated by saying he learns “just in time” – NOT “just in case.” Again I say a firm AMEN to that! How many times do we time our learning so that there’s no way to practice or apply what we’ve learned to a real life solution? That’s a perfect opportunity to fall prey to the “Use it or lose it” reality.)
-Find somebody experienced to show you 3 things about… (Well, anything, really. This encourages us to seek out collegues across the building or across the country to become “mini-mentors”. Then to return the favor. It forces us to admit that we DON’T KNOW EVERYTHING, and whew! what a relief to let that go, right?)
And the FINAL nugget ‘o truth:
Use what you learn, write it down, or kiss it goodbye (I’ll elaborate upon this to say that I believe there are times when each of those actions are completely appropriate. And I hope you notice what is NOT listed as an option: obsessing about things “slipping by” you and stress about keeping multiple balls in the air. Decide which balls to keep up in the air yourself, pass some off to your co-workers, and darn it – let some fall…and don’t rush to pick them up – just see what happens…)

I’m writing to suggest a library link for your blog. I’m a librarian at the Finkelstein Memorial Library in Rockland County, New York, north of New York City. One of our patrons and her mother donated her late father’s drawings to our library and we have made them available online.

[Link to the collection]

It’s an interesting story. David Friedman was a Holocaust survivor. Friedman documented his agony and torment during the Holocaust through a powerful series, “Because…They Were Jews!” While he was working on this series he found comfort by visiting local libraries and sketching the people he saw. Timeframe: 1962-72.

Friedman’s words: “I needed to forget about the concentration camps and the horror that was there. So it was a pleasure to go to the library.” There’s a poignant human interest story here; showing libraries as a place of relaxation and sanctuary.

I would argue that this is more than a lovely human interest story. This is an example of librarians telling a story, something that Karen Hyman so often speaks about, a low-tech option for offering digital photos (fast-loading HTML, thumbnails for quick viewing, an HTML slideshow that simply refreshes the page and doesn’t require a special plug-in), and definitely taking content from the community and presenting it to the rest of the community in a new and interesting way. It’s providing context for content and communing with patrons. That’s Library 2.0 if I’ve ever seen it.