Category: Uncategorized

Photos from Michael’s Tame the Web Minnesota tour on Flickr — tag ttwmn

Michael Stephens is here on day one of a 5-day tour of Minnesota. The room is packed with every type of library person, public, school, medical, board members

I’ll be posting all day high points.
His first “Hot” was “Rich User Experiences”

Barriers are sacred cows. Policies are born out of anxiety — anxiety that something may happen.

Commonalities of 2.0 Tools

• tagging
• commenting
• RSS feeds
• mash ups

Looking forward to the ILS that rolls tagging into their catalog (he thinks it will be SirsiDynix, because Steven Abrams gets it)

Blogging
27.2 million blogs (Technorati)

Great job going over basics of blogging
Have a mission or goal statement on the blog

Asked who is using various WYSIWYG (Dreamweaver, Front Page, HTML coding)
Great sympathy for the HTML coding (ugh, that’s me)

Biblioblogosophere — “wonderful word”, coined by Karen Schneider
edited 5/17 – typo in spelling, should be biblioblogosphere — thanks, Karen(sorry)

Library Blogs:
Topical Blogs
Book Reviews
User specific information (teen, seniors, book clubs)

Book club has a blog, do discussion through comments

Ancestor Research Blog

Singled out school librarians — said “Glad you’re here, it’s hard to get school librarians out”

Other types of blogs:
Project Blogs
Intranets
Association Blogs
Librarian Blogs

Transparency, example Urbana Public Library, progress on new library

Association Blogs

feelgoodlibrarian.typepad.com totally anonymous blog, librarian on the front lines

Why blog?
It works
It’s fast, easy & cheap
Internal: Communication for staff
External: Selling your message
Gorman? Cronin?

Question – how to measure effectiveness of blog. MS says, “ask me again in a year” Says he’s working on this. Measure

www.plymouth.edu/library/opac
Brand new site. Didn’t like Innovative OPAC. Developed own with overlaid WordPress (watch this closely)
Pulls in Amazon reviews, cover art
Released code to world.

Simply Put: Be Human
Talk to each other
Participate
Don’t hide
Successes & failures
Give the library a face

Took a break, gave some doorprizes! Shirts or “Perspectives” study

Podcasts:
Enhances library web presence
Time consuming
Limited methods of linking
Fascinating to see what comes next

What could they do:
Add podcasts to circulating podcasts
Podcast as training tool
Get clearance – permission from speakers, etc.

RSS
Dave Winer, defination “automated web surfing”

Train staff to use Bloglines — important to keep up
Cuts down on time to keep up on news

Aggregators:
PC: Amphetadesk, News Gator
Mac: NetNewsWire, iBlog
Web: Bloglines

Libraries can aggregate:
News
Local events
New book lists
Images
Assignments
Podcasts

With RSS Librarians can:
Keep in the know
Help your users find your stuff
Syndicate audio/video content about their library (podcasts & videocasts)

Question:
How can tools be free? Bloglines owned by ask (probably funded through them?)

Selling RSS:
Teach them
Promote feeds
Use them yourself
Be ready . . . it’s going to be big

Put your content out there where the library users are — through RSS

Instant Messaging Stats
Library using IM Reference, Michael says “Rock on”

At SJCPL did not get return on investment. Dropped VR. Replaced with IM
ask@sjcpl
Have a separate IM for audio visual
Want library to be on Buddy List

Make IM part of technology plan
Promote screen name
Admin should be messaging
Trian & encourage staff to interface via IM from desks
Add IM name to business cards, sig files, presence

Use multi-network IM program (trillian does all 3 — otherwise you need to have all 3 open at once)
Use away messages
Use online sources only if the best answer can be given from them
Don’t panic

Question from audience — value of IM weighed against cost of interruption, especially in small library with less staff (and no reference staff)

There was the phone
Then there was IM
Now the phone – (example) send text message to Google

Skype — “should this be available on our user PCs”
“should we be doing ‘skype-ref?'”

LUNCH

Wikis
“it’s a box, you type in it”

WorldCat wiki
Must register

The Wisdom of Crowds — more people are infinitely smarter
Harnessing the collective intelligence

ALA 2006 New Orleans

Welcome to the Blogging Libraries Wiki

pbwiki.com

Could design policy manual as a wiki

Media wiki, need a savvy person to do the install
Free — can do multiple wikis

Flickr

Photo-blogging
illustration, Rutland Free Library, Vermont

Michael Casey, Rock the Shelves: Band Night 2005

Creative Commons license — will share — use this, just give credit

Flickr – $25/year commercial license

Social Networking Sites
MySpace/Facebook (academia)

DOPA
See article by Dana Boyd — doing research

Second Life — “be aware . . . . a good place to visit”

Mashing up
Using APIs (Application Program Interface) to create new content
Many sites off
Google, Amazon

Example, mashup with Chicago libraries

Wall of books – Super Patron

Meeting the mission:
Mission & vision
fulfill goal or objective
best solution?
technology plan can guide innovation

Technology planning
Investigate & evaluate are good words
Mixture of admin & IT as well as front line staff — communicate about planning new services

lifespan of library tech plan: 1-2, not more than 5

12 Step Program for Technology Planning
1. Control your technolust
(beware technomust)
Techno-Divorce, let go of dead tech
Why are we doing this

#2. Plan for your users
user-centered planning
find new ways
involve users in planning from beginning
ask them what they want – don’t tell them what they need
OCLC’s Perceptions
meet the gamers
gaming tournaments at libraries
Beck on Gamers & Boomers
Create zones
Expand AV (circulate games)
Know each culture
Go global
Be a guide, not a boss
Personalize your Web services
Be attentive
Pew study: Millenials
team oriented,
immersed in media & gadgets
they use the Social web
Accept loss of privacy for accessibility
Their learning is shaped by technology & collaboration
Gamers learned to not fear failures
5 factors to consider (still in user)
2-1. Does it place a barrier between the user & the service
2-2. Is it librarian-centered or user-centered in conception
2-3. Does it add more rules to bulging book
2-4. Make more work for the user or the librarian?
2-5. Does it involve having to do damage control?

#3. Do your research first

#4. Communicate effectively
every step of the way, with staff, with users, involve all, listen

#5. Focus on the ROI
Value for users, you can tell this story
5 Steps for Implementation:
Create policy />Technology
Staffing
Training
Promotion
Revisit the plan often
designate point person
form committee

#6. Become a trendspotter
Read Blogs & use RSS feeds
Read professional journals
LITA Top trends
Read outside of field
LITA
Library Landscape
Retail expectations

#7. Create Staff Buy-In
7-1 Listen to the staff
7-2 Involve staff in planning
7-3 Tell stories (a picture’s worth a million words)
7-4 Be transparent, tell the staff what you’re doing (staff is suspicious of your motives)
7-5 Report and debrief
7-6 Manage meetings well (Death by Meeting – Patrick M. Lencioni, Getting Things Done by David Allen)
7-7 Let them play (DDR)
7-8 Celebrate successes

#8. Training
Librarian 2.0 understands value of training
delivered trainin in person, online, offsite
part of staff development
part of culture – up and down
well-trained staff can carry your message to your users
Important to train staff on Bloglines
The Sandbox — let them play
Why are we doing this? it’s how our young users meet the world
Emerging technology group
(Michael’s blog post for tech source “are you dreaming”)
Training 2.0 is about:
experience
play
success
failure
many different ways to get to the end result
Brenda Hough – “Training in a 2.0 World”

#9. Consider Content
It’s the future
Digital Creation Stations
Mashups and Remixes
Apple slogan – Do something. Say something. Make something.
“The Future of Music: Manifesto for the Digital Music Revolution”
Generation C (creates content)
Community, conversation, collaboration, connections, commons

#10. Embrace Change & Learn
We’ve always done it this way
There’s no time for that

Never stop learning
Challenge yourself

Breathe & take care of yourself
Cluetrain Manifesto.
Librarycrunch.com
ALA TechSource Blog
Librarian 2.0
Harnesses the social tools of Web 2.0
Understands the Long Tail – people have access to just about anything, long tail of interests
Uses the Wisdom of Crowds
If we don’t “get it” users will pass us by (use the tools)
But why?
You are discoverable
Go where users are
You utilize IM
Share with flickr
Collaborating
Use social networking tools to keep the staff informed.
Use a blog/wiki for planning or new projects
Offer training (RFID, WiFi)
Extend conversation
Reach out to patrons on their terms
Interact via new tools that don’t break budget
Remain relevant to those “born with the chip”

Keep a “No” log. Every time you say no in the library (from Librarygarden)

Creative catalysts
John Cage: “I don’t know why people are afraid of new ideas. I’m afraid of old ones.”

5 steps you can do now
Train staff to aggregate RSS
Create an Emerging Technology Committee
Involve your users
Use Web 2.0 Tools in the Sandbox
Learn from the gamers

Question answer – US is very behind on our bandwidth availability/and in infrastructure.

In the last few days, the library blogosphere has had a hey-day over ALA President Michael Gorman’s May column in American Libraries. (I find it amazing how many people read American Libraries, or did we all go looking for it buried in our in-basket, or online)

The most quoted paragraph is an adolescent name-calling tirade. I won’t give it yet another publication, but you can read it on several other library blogs – such as Library Crunch. Come on, Mr. President, “pseudo-librarians”, “yips”, “yawps”????

I will quote the second paragraph, in which Gorman does make valid points, if he has any readers left after the preceding words:

Here are the central issues: I believe there is a discipline called librarianship; that the core concerns of that discipline can be defined and codified into a core curriculum; that ALAs accreditation of LIS programs should depend on the faculty of those programs teaching and doing research into those central concerns; and that library educators and practitioners should work together through ALA to ensure that graduates of ALA-accredited programs receive the training that will enable them to build on their library education to become productive librarians. Moreover, I believe that those educated and trained librarians should be involved in both the practice of librarianship and in continuing education–another area in which the Association can work fruitfully with practitioners and library educators.

Several points:

1. Gorman says: “. . . to ensure that graduates of ALA-accredited programs receive the training that will enable them to build on their library education . . .” The MLS is the beginning, the foundation. Well-prepared graduates will become “productive librarians” when they use all the appropriate tools at their disposal to accomplish the job. Tools come and go, and the “core concerns of the discipline” are much less changeable.
2. Technology is the tool. We all know that. We pick the right tool for the right job. Some people are better at one tool, some at another.
3. Good library organizations have a well-balanced staff, each who may have unique abilities with various tools and who all collaborate to bring the best possible service to their community.
4. I hope the EbscoHost version of the now-famous editorial was faulty and that Mr. Gorman understands the need for a possessive – see the paragraph above “ . . . that ALAs accreditation of LIS programs . . .” (in which case, never mind)

Yesterday I posted about a school in my region that has blocked the blogosphere from its district computers. Meanwhile, David Warlick wrote “You May Not Get to Read This Blog” in which he says “Because we still treat information as something that we can hide behind a wall, and we continue to teach that way to our children, they do not realize the dangers that their information represents to their personal safety and future well being.”

Also in this post he links to “Censored for Violence” in Wesley Fryer’s “Moving at the Speed of Creativity” in which he says “Simply put, because as educators we should strive to remain relevant to students and engaged in their development of literacy skills. Social networking websites are going to continue to grow FAST in the months and years to come. We need to help students make better decisions about the information they share about themselves online, in MySpace and elswhere. In some cases, it is hard to speak intelligently about something if you have little personal experience about it yourself.”

Tonight when I went back to the Warlick post to write about it, I find that David has added additional information from Andy Carvin (who writes “Learning Now” on PBS Teacher Source) that makes my blood run cold. “New Federal Legislation Would Ban Online Social Networks in Schools and Libraries.”

Carvin states that proposed legislation “would update the federal law that currently requires all schools and libraries receiving federal E-Rate money (the government program that subsidizes the cost of Internet access) to filter inappropriate websites. The amendment to the law would be even more specific, restricting access to interactive online communities.” He (and others who comment on his post) compare this development to COPA.

Will it never end?

From Peter Bromberg . . . a song about 2.0

Can’t quite get my mind around getting “Michael Stephened” — and he’s coming here Monday!

turn your speakers up

Libraries have a unique opportunity to be a leader for the citizens in their communities to be fully involved in the networked world. Or — libraries have the ability to close their eyes to the needs of the citizens and become irrelevant. I fear that some libraries are choosing the route to irrelevancy.

For instance, I shared some ideas with a teacher about how blogging is used in classrooms to motivate students to think and write. We explored possible ideas to implement, and she went back to her school all excited. Trouble is, she was told that in her district, access to any blogging is forbidden and blocked. It appears the decision is based on fear and a desire to protect the students from exposure. Trouble is, the school is abdicating their opportunity to teach cyber safety to students who will almost assuredly find another avenue to social computing without the enlightenment of teachers who would model constructive participation in their Web world.

Equally disturbing to me is the attitude of some public libraries that they don’t see their responsibility to their communities as including assistance in using E-mail. In fact there are libraries that reserve access to the Internet to “research” only which definitely does not include E-mail or other sites such as MySpace.

If the library is the community’s information utility and the professionals who work there are not resources and models on information technology (which really has become more business-as-usual that revolution), who else is there to do it? In the recent strategic planning process at a member library, the planning committee made a strong statement that they wanted their library to be a cutting edge technology leader.

So, what have I seen as good library leadership models in blogging (as an example of employing new technologies or modes of communication)? Just a few examples:

David Warlick (2 Cents Worth) quotes teachers on students’ use of blogging in Why Kids Blog

The front page of the Ann Arbor Michigan Public Library is the Director’s blog in which she invites comments – and the community does talk to her

Mabry Georgia School District website is a communication tool with the superintendent and teachers blogging assignments, reading lists, and a repository of podcasts of presentations, meetings, etc.

The Teen Zone Blog at the Wilmington Massachusetts Public Library

The Waterbury Public Library Blog

. . . . and last but not least, 9 of our members (thus far) are getting on board and have at least stuck their toe in the water. I’m particularly proud of our blogging libraries – directory

Having spent most of my adult life as a misplaced Cheesehead, I’m thrilled by this site. Now I’d like to send it to every school of public broadcasting and make it required reading. I can’t begin to count the number of times I’ve heard a story about a beautifully named Wisconsin location where the broadcast journalist renders the name unrecognizable. Besides learning the native language, the site is a guidebook to Wisconsin — http://www.misspronouncer.com/

I caught a new ask.com commercial on TV this morning. The setting is in a library! The speaker is an academic-looking guy (maybe a TA?), comparing the search to how librarians do it.

Hmmm, sounds like the influence of Gary Price, MLIS, Director of Online Information Resources for ask.com

Additional info – posted 05 May 2006

According to Barry Schwartz, of Search Engine Watch, the star of the ask.com ad is Apostolos Gerasoulis, one of the founders of Teoma, the search engine behind Ask.com. The ad was filmed in the bookshelves at Rutgers University and is about how librarians search. You can see the ad at http://about.ask.com/docs/about/televisionads.shtml

Further info on the Ask commercial – posted 09 May 2006 on SELCO Librarian

Thanks to Kiger’s notebook . . . .

The Rochester Apache Mall Food Court is now a Charter Wi-Fi Hotspot!

Great idea for all those folks coming to Mayo Clinic.

Seems like every new technology we assimilate brings with it more new learning and responsibilities . . .

Last week when I was out of the office and needed some information I sent a text message via cell phone to a colleague back in the office. Trouble is, she wasn’t as adept at text messaging as I thought she would be, techno-savvy as she is. She said she was surprised to even get a text message. Well, she got a real quick crash course from another staffer, I got my info post-haste, and never would have known except that she told me that she now knows a whole lot more about text-messaging than she did before.

My colleague’s quick-learning experience was an example of what has happened to all of us as Communication 2.0 has become a ubiquitous part of our lives. When all I thought I was doing was writing a blog, I found that site feeds were an integral part of the process. Several years ago, I when I taught my mother (now a techy senior citizen) E-mail, I warned her not to give out her E-address unless she was ready to commit to reading it. Sure enough . . . . she got important messages and almost missed them due to not regularly logging on. Another family member loves his cell phone, but his kids know better than to leave him a voice message, because remembering how to retrieve them is just too much bother for his Luddite brain.

So, the moral of the story is —– If you give a Mouse a Cookie or a Moose a Muffin or . . . .

I found a scrap of paper in my briefcase . . . can’t remember where I picked up this little bit of information, so here’s an apology to whomever I should give credit.

If you want to know the last time a web page was updated, while that page is displaying in your browser, enter this text in the address bar:
javascript:alert(document.lastModified)

A small dialogue box will appear with the last date the page was uploaded. Note: this only works with .html pages.