PLA Blog

10 Ways to Make Your Library Great in 2008—via Web 2.0
1/16/08 11 AM-12 PM PT / 2-3 PM ET (registration is optional)
Excellent note: WebJunction’s webinars are now closed captioned in real time as well as in the recorded archive.

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.

Navigating the new online landscape, with all of the new social networking sites, means navigating a whole new culture. Interacting in the new culture also means understanding the etiquette of that culture.

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.

ALA Session held Monday 1:30-3:30

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!

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.

Sunday was a very busy day full of programs.

Nancy Pearl
First I arrive bright and early to see Nancy Pearl speak. It was fascinating to hear how each of her books came into being, especially her lastest book, Book Crush. She gave some suggestions of books for children and teens such as :
Sunshine by Robin McKinley
Alex Rider Series by Anthony Horowitz
The Paperboy by Pete Dexter
Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Lee
Each Little Bird that Sings by Deborah Wiles
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
The Great Good Thing by Rod Townley
Ragweed by Avi
The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck
Thirsty by MT Anderson
Feed by MT Anderson
Looking for Normal by Betty Monthei
Voyage of the Dawn Treader by CS Lewis

Off the Chain: Reader’s Advisory for Exploding Genres
I really enjoyed this program. I won’t go into too many details because one of my fellow bloggers have done a great job detailing the program. I know that RUSA/PLA CODES will be having the handouts from their program on their websites. I found the program very interesting and has given me more authors and books to add to my list of books to read. I liked the many ways of finding out about new literature online, such as lit blogs and email lists as well as MySpace.

English Only: Censorship and its Impact on Latino Children and Young Adults in Schools and Public Libraries
I came into this program about half way through but I am glad I did. This program was given by AFL REFORMA. I missed the presentation part, but I did come in just as they started the discussion groups for different types of libraries. The public library discussion group was led by Rose Trevino. This gave people from different library systems a chance to ask questions and talk about how their library systems have their foreign languages materials placed in the collection and any programming that they have in foreign languages. Suggestions were also given on how to start a collection or to grow your current collection.

Future Friends: Marketing Reference and User Services to Generation X
This program was given by RUSA RSS. The handouts for this program will also be posted on RUSA’s blog. First the presenters went into defining Generation X and the facts about this generation. They then presented what this particular generation are looking for when it comes to services and potential segments of this generation. After defining Generation X, the presentation then went into how this would pertain to advertising to this generation and the different stages to planning advertising.
The next part of this program had St. Charles Library system in Illinois talk about their programs that they have for 20- and 30-somethings’ as well how they market those programs. They also gave examples of different programs, such as a cooking for 1 or 2 program, white elephant exchange, creating a safe online presence, a course on wine, and an history crawl of the town. Then they followed with some of the challenges that they have had with marketing as well as what they have learned.
Following this presentation was another presentation on the Young Friends of the Kansas City Public Library a.k.a BooksEnds. They went over what the group was and also how they marketed to their Generation X population.

Final Thoughts on ALA Annual Conference 2007
Unfortunately this was my last day at the conference. After attending different programs on Sunday, I took the time to go to the Library School Reunion Event at the Rennaissance Mayflower Hotel. It was great being able to see some fellow alumni from University of South Florida along with some of the professors that I had taken classes from. It was a good way to end my last day at the conference. I have had a blast at this year’s Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. I am looking forward to the next time I can attend an Annual Conference. I have found out a lot of useful information to take back to my library. I also have had a great time blogging about my experiences and the different programs that I have attended. So it’s been fun and I hope all those staying through Tuesday ave a great rest of conference. This is Catherine Moffatt signing off.

No doubt you’ve heard of Twitter, the real-time social networking messaging service launched in August 2006, even in passing. According to the FAQ in the Twitter Help section:

Twitter is a community of friends and strangers from around the world sending updates about moments in their lives. Friends near or far can use Twitter to remain somewhat close while far away. Curious people can make friends. Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Developers can use the API to make Twitter tools of their own. Possibilities are endless!

Twitter accounts are free, and you don’t need a mobile phone to use it, you can do it entirely on the web, if you want. Although Twitter can send real-time posted messages, called “Tweets,” to your phone, it can also send them to you via instant messenger (IM). You can post Tweets to your account from your mobile phone by text message, web access on your phone (there’s a special mobile-friendly URL: http://m.twitter.com), or by IM on your computer, if you don’t feel like visiting the web site. As is the way of text messaging, Tweets are limited to 140 characters, including letters, numbers, and punctuation, so you need to choose your words and text shorthand wisely.

A WBUR (an NPR station) broadcast of On Point on April 27, 2007, included Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, as well as several other guests and callers to talk about The World According to Twitter. The episode is a good, easy overview of the Twitter/hyperconnected social networking mindset, as well as different points of view and questions people have about Twitter, along with mentions of other social networking sites (including LibraryThing). Listen to the archive of this broadcast (Listen on Windows Media Player | Listen on RealPlayer), it’s worth the 48 minutes.

There are several Twitter folks who are doing interesting things with their Twitter accounts, which you can read even if you don’t have a Twitter account of your own. Casa Grande Library in Arizona, under the username cglibrary, posts links to catalog records for books in their collection and their various blogs. TwitterLit posts the first two lines of a book, “so you don’t have to,” and includes links to the Amazon page for the book. BBC News and CNN also have Twitter accounts, where short news story summaries are posted with links to full stories on the sites.

Like most technologies on the web, it’s indicative of a user trend. While not every library or librarian can or needs to find an application of the service, or want an account, it’s worth knowing that this is a type of mindset in our diverse constituency, and that these tools exist.

That said, I do encourage you to play with it, even if it’s just to read a specific Twitter feed (you can even subscribe to a feed via RSS, if you want to follow it in a news reader). And if you find yourself with an account and wanting Friends, you can use nifty tools like TwitterSearch to find people you know. You can find me on Twitter under the name andreamercado.