PLA Blog

Michael Porter of WebJunction and Janie Hermann of Library Garden and Princeton Public Library, New Jersey, combined to discuss how new technologies can help libraries build and serve communities.

Marilyn Mason introduced them. She also told us to watch for newly expanded and redesigned services on Webjunction that we will see in the next few weeks.

Porter began with a quick, entertaining, and relevant look at social sites on the Internet, focusing on applications that libraries are already making.

• YouTube - there are already 3650 public library related videos loaded on this popular social video site. Getting the camera and learning to make the videos is the harder part. Loading them to YouTube is easy. Members of the audience concurred.
• Amazon’s Wish Lists for Libraries - 380 public libraries are utilizing this service with readers donating fully processed books instead of just buying books for their home library.
• Meebo - for monitoring instant messages. You can see multiple accounts on one screen.
• Flickr - Posting a picture a day is a way to show the many services of the library. These photos could be sent to clients by RSS.
• Del.icio.us - make public your web recommendation lists

Porter talked about how essential having MySpace and FaceBook accounts and having them link to all your libraries other web sites, including Flickr or other social offerings. “Be where the user is” is the goal and way to stay relevant.

Hermann talked about the importance of staff technical training and resources to help the library establish a training program. Princeton Public Library does something that I had not heard of before - combining public and staff technical classes. Much of what the staff need to learn is the same as what the public is learning for Web 2.0, so one set of classes can often cover both public programming and staff training. PPL has 25 established classes covering various computer and Internet topics.

PPL also has Data Bites programs, which are lunch time talks about databases, open to the staff and the public. On the first Tuesday night of the month, it has Technology Talks with invited speakers who cover current computer and web topics.

She then talked about other sources of online training that staff can tap. She recommended WebJunction, OPAL, and Neal Schuman PEN courses. When the library asks a staff member to take these, she said the library should be sure to schedule adequate off-desk time for them.

Hermann also recommended making screencasts or slidecasts for staff or public instruction. Wink and CamStudio are free. Camtasia is a popular fee-based software for creating online instruction.

About library websites, she said that we should always be redesigning them.

The program ended with a virtual presentation of Ning.com by Stephanie Gerdling, which is used for building online social networks. Some technical glitches lessened the impact of this portion of the otherwise helpful program.

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.

American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom (OIF) is pulling out all the stops with this year’s Banned Books Week, September 29–October 6, 2007, by taking the show on the digital road, so to speak, with events and official listings in Web 2.0 spaces like MySpace (no account required to view), Facebook (you need an account to view and join the Banned Books Week group), and Second Life.

For many, these spaces are still unexplored territory. The events of Banned Books Week are a good reason to get yourself oriented and try things out before things get really rockin’ at the kick-off party in Second Life on Saturday, September 29 at 6pm Second Life, which is the same as Pacific Standard Time. The links below are my recommendations for tutorials to help you get started.

Remember, you don’t want to wait until 5 minutes before the party next Saturday to log into Second Life for the first time, or to take advantage of the discussions and networking happening on Facebook, so give yourself ample time to set up accounts and explore!

MySpace:

• You won’t need an account on MySpace to view the information on the Banned Books Week MySpace page, but if you want to add comments to the page, you will need to log in as a member.
• eHow: How to Get Started Using MySpace: A basic step-by-step on how to sign up for an account and get started. You can see all of the how-to articles, which are a quick and easy read, in the eHow MySpace section.

Facebook:

• Take a quick tour: Created by Facebook, click on each of the aspects in the right-hand navigation to get your bearings before you create your account and jump on in.
• A beginner’s guide to Facebook for non-profits: A great basic overview of Facebook and how to get your network on *and* increase visibility in your community by understanding how people use it.
• How to use Facebook without Losing Your Job over it: Good, basic tips on security and use, with a good bit of an insight to just how open the information culture is on Facebook.
• 12 Ways to Use Facebook Professionally: It’s not just for kids!

Second Life:

• You will need to create a free account as well as download and install the free software on your computer before you can log into Second Life. This can take a little while, so give yourself time to get it up and running.
• Spend time on Orientation Island: Which is where you land after you log in the first time, and it’s really worth going through all the exercises. If you’re going into Second Life for a specific event, be sure to log in at an earlier date and time to get yourself oriented and play with your avatar.
• Natalia’s Getting Started in Second Life Guide: This list of tip guides helps you get your bearings, customize your avatar (the digital version of yourself in Second Life), move around, teleport (a quick and easy form of transportation to events), and more. It also gives you some cultural tips and etiquette bits to help you grow from n00b (newbie) to an advanced beginner.
• Top 10 Second Life Tutorial Videos on YouTube and Google: I like this collection of video tutorials because they give you practical tips and a real sense of the Second Life culture. Watch them in order, or pick and choose the ones you need, and they’ll help you explore the virtual world with greater understanding.

Have questions? Want help or a tour? Don’t hesitate to post in the comments here.