CLA 2007

It's been forever since I've been to a library conference and I had forgotten how exciting they can be. I was so taken with the first master speaker that I ended up staying for the rest of them.

The opening general session on October 27th, featured best-selling author Chip Heath. He is a professor at Stanford Graduate School and the co-author of the book, "Made to Stick." Why do some ideas die while others (which may not be good or even true)survive? In order for an idea to stick, it needs to be simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and have a story attached to it. Libraries need to make their ideas or publicity stick. Here's an idea for libraries: Have a CSI room with 12 crimes to solve. Have mysteries and true crime books in it which will lead to the answers.


Improving Online Catalogs speaker Roy Tennant, author of "Managing the Digital Library."
When people try to find book titles, they think of Amazon. When customers type in "Shakespeare", they get a good selection of reasonable choices. When they do the same thing in our catalog using keyword, only 4 out of 20 are likely to be what they are looking for. Automation began in the back rooms of libraries and were really made for staff and not the public. It was intended for circulation, cataloging and acquisitions. It was moved into the public areas as an afterthought, otherwise why call them "Online Public Access Catalogs?" Only librarians like to search,customers like to find. Libraries need to take lessons from Google and Amazon.

Tried to get in to Why We Borrow! Redesigning Libraries Using Retail Touchpoints. Unfortunately, it was more than filled and standing didn't work for me. So I moved back to hear the next master speaker, Bob Treadway. His Web address is trendtalk.com His talk was called Blueprint for the Future: 20/20 Foresight. Bob's main point seemed to be that customers expectations from libraries are far higher than they once were and that it's important to make educated guesses about the future. I liked the Noah Principle--"Predicting rain doesn't count, building arks does."
Push Customers or Pull From Them
Tell Ask
Hours 24/7
Fixed Configuration Customized
Provider Control User Control

Stayed for the last master speaker, Shawn Gold, who talked about My Space. I've heard of My Space but have never been on the site.
Why do people like it so much? It gives opportunities for self expression, connection and discovery. My Space is in 17 countries and rapidly growing. 12% of all time spent online is spent on My Space. To market on My Space, you need to understand core needs and address them as well as facilitate social networking platforms. Word of mouth plays a really big part on My Space. The 5 top categories for word of mouth are:
food, media and entertainment, beverages, travel and shopping.

#23 The Final Stretch-Thoughts About This Program

Until I took Infopeople's Web 2.0 class, I knew close to nothing about Web 2.0. I took the class and my brain was totally fried. Without the opportunity to to the 23 things, I never would have learned (or at least not for some time) how to do lots of this very useful stuff.

I've been a librarian for 20+ years and although I have enjoyed my job, I needed something to really stimulate my imagination and give my a healthy dose of brain exercise. Although it's been a bit stressful trying to get my work done and my 23 Things assignments, I found that I've been much more excited about my job lately and I attribute it to this assignment.

And now I get my thumb drive! Yea!

Task # 22 Teach Someone Else how to Use of the Web 2.0 Technologies

I trapped an unsuspecting Substitute Librarian at the Reference Desk and taught her how to use LibraryThing. I purposely picked something that I actually thought she would like and use. She loved it was quite enthusiastic about it. In showing her how to use it, I learned more about it myself and had a lovely time adding books I've read in the last six months. Now when I go to visit my "always reading" friend back East, I'll actually be able to remember some of the books I've read.

Task #21 Podcasts

Here are some useful seach tools for locating Podcasts: Pandia, Podscope
Podcast.net ,Podcast directory ,the podcast network ,Yahoo! Podcasts,
feedster.com and Podanza. Found a podcast of Pride and Prejudice--11 hours and 30 minutes.

#20 YouTube

I have heard so much about YouTube and never even looked at any video sites. Now that I have, it's quite addictive. There are so many funny videos out there. In addition to being a librarian, I teach dance. There was a dance I learned this summer, but couldn't remember exactly how to do it. I did a search on YouTube and found a video of the dance and music!! I'm hooked. Google, of course has a Google video site that allows you to upload and share videos. Dropshots and Vimeo are another Photo and Video sharing sites.

#18 Online Productivity

I have convinced my boss to try using Google Spreadsheets for our Ref. Desk Schedule. In the past, she would send around a paper copy for each staff member to fill in. Often, a staff person would have it under a pile of books and our boss would have to spend time hunting it down. We now use Google Spreadsheets and to some degree, it works better, however, I am sure that there is an on-line calendar that is designed for just this kind of task.

#16 and 17 Wikis

Perhaps the line between blogs and wikis is wavy. When I tried to find information re. how libraries use wikis, I kept finding Library's blogs. Hmmm. I know that wikis are more collaborative than blogs. The site www.libsuccess.org
is an excellent example of how wikis can be used for the common good. Librarians from all different types of libraries, add information about anything that might be of interest to other librarians. Some examples are programming, readers' advisory, material selection, weeding and management.

I went to the Infopeople wiki and added a sentence or two about mashups to complete task #17.

#15 Perspectives on Web 2.0 and the Future of Libraries

After reading lots of pages of information about Web 2.0 and libraries, what stands out for me is the fact that it's not so much about technology as it is making library service a two way street. Web 2.0 gives customers a chance to make their library the way they think it should be. Libraries want to give customers what they want(within reason) and haven't always had ways to find out exactly what that is. Web 2.0 could help. It is also a way to reach out. The people who already use the library know about all the great resources available, but how do we reach out to non library users? Offering Starbuck coffee for free would definitely help, but other than that, Web 2.0 could be a way to reach that goal.

#14 Technorati

I haven't really done much with tagging at this point. It's probably really important to include tags if you ever want anyone to find your blog. Since I don't really care that much if anyone finds my blogs or not, I'm not spending any more time on this right now. I did find an interesting article in Library Thing, called
"When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing." Tagging hasn't worked out that well for Amazon because readers often choose dumb or irrelevant tags.

Task #13 Del.icio.us

I use 5 computers if I count work and home. So often, I think I've saved a bookmark on the computer I'm currently on, only to discover that I must have saved it on a different computer. Del.icio.us lets you import your bookmarks as well as easily save interesting sites when you find them. You can also find bookmarks of others who share your interests as well as what's popular at the moment.

Rollyo

#12 of our 23 things is Rollyo. I think I'm on overload. Every one of these numbers has been something entirely new for me. While I really enjoy learning all this cool stuff, it's getting to be overwhelming. However, since I always complete the things I start, here's my opinion on Rollyo. It is an excellent tool to use on the Reference Desk. While it's true that Google is still my best friend, Rollyo lets you limit your searches to sites that you trust. I created a Reference Desk searchroll and typed in "Holidays". Lots of great stuff popped up, however, there are lots of sponsored links that show up, as well. I suppose one must take the bad with the good.

#11 Library Thing

I played around with LibraryThing and added a few titles to my library. It's very cool to be able to keep track of books you've read and see their covers, have "conversations" about them, read review, etc. There are a zillion ways this could be used by book lovers in general and public libraries more specifically.
Our library is hosting a "Let's Talk About It" Jewish Literature series. Many of the people who attending the first session, don't use this library and in fact have never been here (the sessions are held across the courtyard from the library).
I have a lovely display of books which falls into the Jewish Literature category that these people will never see. If I had them listed on LibraryThing, they could see them and discuss them.

Task #10

Wow! I tried Oddcast and although you need a subscription to really use it, you can play with it and it was so much fun. It allows you to create and customize animated characters. You get to choose clothes, jewelry, hair and even voice. I used to love to play with paper dolls and this is similar only even cooler.
I can see how great it would be to use this in a public library for new users. They could see down at a "Welcome" computer and have one of these characters welcome them and explain library policy, programs, layout of the building, etc.

Twittering Along- Task # 9

At first glance and thought, I thought this site was a dumb waste of time and couldn't think of any use a library might have for it. I gave it some thought and changed my mind. I don't think it's as cool as some of the other "things" but I can think of some uses for Twitter.

The first thing that came to my mind was to use it as a career guide. If for example, someone wanted to become a librarian, they probably know in general what that person does. Twitter would allow them to truly know what a librarian does in an hour by hour (or any increment of time), truer way.

Most of the libraries in San Diego County have tons of programs.
Twitter would be an easy way for the public to see what's happening at their library every day or even every hour!

Exercise 7 and 8 RSS Feeds

I had already created a Bloglines account in my Web 2.0 class, but couldn't remember how to get a list of possible popular subscriptions. I emailed others at San Diego County Library who are participating in this program, but I'm assuming they are so busy completing their 23 things that no one had time to respond. That is just as well since it forced me to play around and find the answer. The answer I was looking for is as follows:

1. Click on Add on the top left part of the screen.


2. Click on "Quick Pick Subscriptions" on the top right part of the screen.


3. You get to choose from "Bloglines Quick Picks" and "Today's Most Popular Subscriptions".


4. I then chose tons of interesting possiblities including LII New This Week, The Shifted Librarian and Libworm: Fiction.

The real trick will be to find the time to read any of this great stuff.

The Possibilities Are Endless-Task #6

Using a wiki for our reference desk schedule might be preferable to what we're doing right now, which is sending around a paper schedule. Not being that comfortable with wikis at this point in time, we are experimenting with Google spreadsheets, which allows collaboration and might work.

There is a big poster of me in our library for a Jane Austen exibit I'm doing. It's in a really prominent place and only 4 people have commented on it in the last week, however, everyone is totally absorbed in whatever they are doing on our computers. So, since they don't seem to read signs in the library, we could blog them with library events and "what's new".

I just walked around the library asking customers which magazines they'd like us to order for next year. Using blogs or wikis would enable many more customers to give their input on these kind of things.

Quest Number 5

First of all, I didn't even know what mashups were and had to look it up.
I found a really cool mashup. It's called "Spell With Flickr". This mashup spells out a message you enter by drawing it with photographs of letters and numbers hosted by Flickr. You can even change the letters you don't like, by clicking on them.

Task #4

I signed up for Flickr and was absolutely amazed at some of the photos I found.
I joined one group which posts pictures of a dance camp I've always wanted to attend.
At least I now get a vicarious thrill. Hope more people post pictures. There are not a lot of them at this time.

Jumping into My 23 Things-Items 1-3

I've accepted the challenge and I'm on my Web 2.0 journey. Took the
Web 2.0: A Hands-On Introduction for Library Staff class yesterday and was a bit overwhelmed. I know from teaching computer classes for the public, how important practice is and decided to practice what I preach (couldn't have done that if I tried).
So, I'm on my way. Wish me luck.