You may notice a few changes to the lib.de.us catalog homepage today. As a "baby-step" to making more connections with social media and user participation, we've broken out some of the content areas of the homepage and migrated them to a new blog at www.delawarelibraries.blogspot.com. Older announcements and library news from the lib.de.us site will go there, and the main site will only hold the most current single announcement. The blog will also feature more casual postings, book reviews, and other informal content.
On the main site, some underutilized content panels have been cleaned up- notably the flash-based Firef.ly chat feature, which is now gone, the "what xxxxx is reading" panel, which will be going, and the FriendConnect social feature, which has been migrated to a menu bar at the top of the main page. Hopefully this slimmed-down main page will be less cluttered and the remaining content more easily accessible.
If you'd like to post on the blog, please feel free to use the comments section, or FriendConnect with the page and post a comment there. If you want to become a more formal contributor, and will commit to posting something to the blog at least monthly, on a topic of your preference, let me know and we will talk about adding you as a contributor.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Thursday, February 26, 2009
LIveblogging Webwise Day 2, second session completed
Deanna Marcum, of the Library of Congress. Discussing the American Memory Project. The target was to digitize 5 million items in 5 years- and when the goal was set the technology didn't really exist in the museum/library context. Private funding led to an emphasis on K-12 resources and audiences, rather than the full spectrum of users as defined by the founding documents- which is everyone in America.
They're up to 14 million items now, but have moved away from a K-12 emphasis. The debate inside the Library is between staff who are committed to guardianship within the "library of last resort", and who have little familiarity with education, and those staff who are pushing to push material out to the general public. The library wants to turn subject specialists and curators into generalists who can see the value of making their resources available to the public face of the Library.
If the library only deals with the audience of today, it short-changes its future: the transition MUST take place and ALL staff must be engaged, not just the technology believers.
And on that note, I'm headed back to Dover DE!
They're up to 14 million items now, but have moved away from a K-12 emphasis. The debate inside the Library is between staff who are committed to guardianship within the "library of last resort", and who have little familiarity with education, and those staff who are pushing to push material out to the general public. The library wants to turn subject specialists and curators into generalists who can see the value of making their resources available to the public face of the Library.
If the library only deals with the audience of today, it short-changes its future: the transition MUST take place and ALL staff must be engaged, not just the technology believers.
And on that note, I'm headed back to Dover DE!
LIveblogging Webwise Day 2, second session continued
Next up: Shelley Berstein
How Brooklyn Museum's community mission is enhanced by their use of Flickr. Started to use it simply to post pictures of a graffiti exhibit- then have gradually expanded to panels, behind the scenes pictures of exhibit installations. Have grown the platform and opened it up to more and more participation- users and visitors can post their own photos to the Museum's group, and museum staff respond to user submissions and promote debate.
Brooklyn were the third institution to participate in the Flickr Commons, sharing images from their library and archives with the Flickr community globally, and waiving their rights to the images. The DE archives could do similar projects- in fact had worked on a non-digital participatory exhibit last year where attendees could submit comments and information about a touring exhibit of pictures that the Archives did not have a great deal of information (metadata) about.
Brooklyn's participation in the Commons ran into trouble because of popularity became so great that institutional resources could not keep up with the information and requests of the community. Flickr users formed a group independent of the museum to service the collection and deal with inquiries and enhancements. User participation made the project become a much more valuable resource both for the public and the Museum. The internet is a collection of monomaniacal obsessives, and that is something that Wikipedia and many other websites leverage to their own advantage.
Brooklyn's particular motivation that inspires their use of Flickr is the institutional value of community service and engagement. Their priority is local and community engagement, rather than just exhibition and pageviews.
How Brooklyn Museum's community mission is enhanced by their use of Flickr. Started to use it simply to post pictures of a graffiti exhibit- then have gradually expanded to panels, behind the scenes pictures of exhibit installations. Have grown the platform and opened it up to more and more participation- users and visitors can post their own photos to the Museum's group, and museum staff respond to user submissions and promote debate.
Brooklyn were the third institution to participate in the Flickr Commons, sharing images from their library and archives with the Flickr community globally, and waiving their rights to the images. The DE archives could do similar projects- in fact had worked on a non-digital participatory exhibit last year where attendees could submit comments and information about a touring exhibit of pictures that the Archives did not have a great deal of information (metadata) about.
Brooklyn's participation in the Commons ran into trouble because of popularity became so great that institutional resources could not keep up with the information and requests of the community. Flickr users formed a group independent of the museum to service the collection and deal with inquiries and enhancements. User participation made the project become a much more valuable resource both for the public and the Museum. The internet is a collection of monomaniacal obsessives, and that is something that Wikipedia and many other websites leverage to their own advantage.
Brooklyn's particular motivation that inspires their use of Flickr is the institutional value of community service and engagement. Their priority is local and community engagement, rather than just exhibition and pageviews.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: Day Two, second session
Communities and institutions: Shelley Bernstein (CTO, Brooklyn Museum), Michael Edson (Director of Web and New Media, Smithsonian Institution), Deanna Marcum (Library of Congress)
How do institutions select and engage with outside communities? Resources shrink as outreach grows- who is the most valuable audience of all the ones that you engage in? Decisions are influenced by strategic and policy commitments to one or another group.
Each panelists was asked to present a "provocation"-
Edson: forward progress is impeded by an endless, fruitless debate about authority and trust. He created an animation that will be available here once it is posted by Webwise.
The example chosen is the argument that opening up collections enables people to say things that aren't true about collections, which diminishes the value of the institution. Open knowledge collection and giving away expertise is the future of learning- and people within the institution say things that aren't true about the collections all the time. In any case, people are saying things about your collections already, in places that you aren't engaged in.
Your reputation may not be what you think it is!
Recommended the "Inventors Dilemma" as a good resource on disruptive technology- Sears Roebuck missed the advent of discount retailers, because they were locked into their business model and continued to super-serve their existing audience as it continued to diminish in numbers- while our patrons aren't demanding social media and enhanced content, it doesn't hurt them to have it and allows our institutions to manage/engage in the gradual transition to Web 2.0 society. Institutions should invest in the core concerns of open-ness, rather than "follow particular technologies down the rabbit hole"
How do institutions select and engage with outside communities? Resources shrink as outreach grows- who is the most valuable audience of all the ones that you engage in? Decisions are influenced by strategic and policy commitments to one or another group.
Each panelists was asked to present a "provocation"-
Edson: forward progress is impeded by an endless, fruitless debate about authority and trust. He created an animation that will be available here once it is posted by Webwise.
The example chosen is the argument that opening up collections enables people to say things that aren't true about collections, which diminishes the value of the institution. Open knowledge collection and giving away expertise is the future of learning- and people within the institution say things that aren't true about the collections all the time. In any case, people are saying things about your collections already, in places that you aren't engaged in.
Your reputation may not be what you think it is!
Recommended the "Inventors Dilemma" as a good resource on disruptive technology- Sears Roebuck missed the advent of discount retailers, because they were locked into their business model and continued to super-serve their existing audience as it continued to diminish in numbers- while our patrons aren't demanding social media and enhanced content, it doesn't hurt them to have it and allows our institutions to manage/engage in the gradual transition to Web 2.0 society. Institutions should invest in the core concerns of open-ness, rather than "follow particular technologies down the rabbit hole"
Liveblogging Webwise Day 2: Keynote continued
Social Networking: part of the model of 'place' on the internet, but also increasingly used for organization of leaderless organizations, campaigns, and problem-solving exercises.
Gaps between technology and people are increasing- technology needs to become easier as tools become more powerful.
How can museums and libraries adopt and adapt to new technologies? And stay competitive with customers' time and expectations. Not that there is really any choice, because the alternative is irrelevance.
Concentrate on adopting open standards, open source software, ensure security concerns are met and reorganize and change organizational culture. Start with working on new distribution channels such as facebook and second life, become welcoming and aware of user-generated content, and join and create communities of interest. Many of these opportunities involve surrendering ownership and authority, and possibly giving up control of some outputs. This is one of the ways that IBM "jammed" product development in a collaborative way, committing resources and executive time to implementing ideas that were 'crowdsourced' from within IBM.
Advice:
The Obama campaign of 2008 used many of these rules, based on models of community organizing, compared with the more directed and controlled McCain campaign organization. Because the Obama campaign integrated technology tools to manage and monitor the vast quantities of information that were in a perpetual two-way flow, they were more responsive, more nimble, more keyed into local concerns and issues.
The internet revolution will be as disruptive as the printing press. But it will be much faster, totally global, and unpredictable. Cutting the cost of sharing information empowers communities and users. The internet has already cut the cost of sharing information by 99.9%, and is only 15% done. When in doubt, empower users.
Applause, applause.
Gaps between technology and people are increasing- technology needs to become easier as tools become more powerful.
How can museums and libraries adopt and adapt to new technologies? And stay competitive with customers' time and expectations. Not that there is really any choice, because the alternative is irrelevance.
Concentrate on adopting open standards, open source software, ensure security concerns are met and reorganize and change organizational culture. Start with working on new distribution channels such as facebook and second life, become welcoming and aware of user-generated content, and join and create communities of interest. Many of these opportunities involve surrendering ownership and authority, and possibly giving up control of some outputs. This is one of the ways that IBM "jammed" product development in a collaborative way, committing resources and executive time to implementing ideas that were 'crowdsourced' from within IBM.
Advice:
- Collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.
- Don't build if you can borrow.
- Go to the audience.
- The more you give the more you get.
- Let a thousand voices speak. Remix!!
- Serve a global audience.
- Build local links online.
- RETHINK YOUR ORGANIZATION!
The Obama campaign of 2008 used many of these rules, based on models of community organizing, compared with the more directed and controlled McCain campaign organization. Because the Obama campaign integrated technology tools to manage and monitor the vast quantities of information that were in a perpetual two-way flow, they were more responsive, more nimble, more keyed into local concerns and issues.
The internet revolution will be as disruptive as the printing press. But it will be much faster, totally global, and unpredictable. Cutting the cost of sharing information empowers communities and users. The internet has already cut the cost of sharing information by 99.9%, and is only 15% done. When in doubt, empower users.
Applause, applause.
Liveblogging Webwise Day 2
Keynote presentation, The Cloud, the Crowd and the 3-D Internet, Michael Nelson, Visiting Professor in Internet Studies, Georgetown University .
Michael Nelson is former technologist for the FCC, Director of Internet Technology for IBM, and Senator/Vice-President Al Gore's science advisor.
Key points- we're now entering the third phase of the internet, as profound a change as the creation of the web. Business practices are going to shape this new world 'in the cloud'. Society is only 15% transformed by the current state of the internet- most of the changes have not happened yet and are being created now.
"Cloud Computing"- one of the most common words in articles about computing and the internet, the term was almost unknown three years ago. More and more services "live in the cloud" rather than being run from local servers. This is a fundamentally different way of doing computing, where the network BECOMES the computer.
Economist October 23rd 2008 article "let it rise" is one of the best articles available on the impact of the cloud.
Phase I was the PC, Phase II was the Web, Phase III is the Cloud. Each new phase has created an explosion of businesses and services, and each has transformed society and commerce.
Common formats and compatibility are what makes the cloud unique- different datasets can be combined to create new outputs, based on the inputs from simple and inexpensive devices- from mobile phones to RFID tags.
"The Big Switch" by Nicholas Carr gives a background to the business practices of the new age of the cloud. The comparison is to big businesses transition from locally generated electricity to the elctrical supply grid in the early 1900s.
Gartner Group says that the cloud will be as big as e-business and will have as profound implications. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Akimai (which stores 15-20% of internet sites in a distributed grid) serve millions and millions of website hits per second.
PC-based grids have been around for a while also- Seti@home, FightAIDS@home, and many other ways in which you can connect your home computer and 'donate' its spare capacity to process hugely complex and large analyses.
By 2009, as much as 98% of web traffic will be in video files. This will be part of a projected 25-fold increase in the amount of data being handled by the web, which is know becoming measured in 'exabytes'. Video walls and Telepresence will be part of this traffic, as well as online gaming and virtual worlds- the GDP of which is equivalent to that of Belgium by 2006 (in 2005 it was equal to that of Namibia- so the rate of growth is tremendous.)
The internet is becoming a place rather than a medium for young people.
Michael Nelson is former technologist for the FCC, Director of Internet Technology for IBM, and Senator/Vice-President Al Gore's science advisor.
Key points- we're now entering the third phase of the internet, as profound a change as the creation of the web. Business practices are going to shape this new world 'in the cloud'. Society is only 15% transformed by the current state of the internet- most of the changes have not happened yet and are being created now.
"Cloud Computing"- one of the most common words in articles about computing and the internet, the term was almost unknown three years ago. More and more services "live in the cloud" rather than being run from local servers. This is a fundamentally different way of doing computing, where the network BECOMES the computer.
Economist October 23rd 2008 article "let it rise" is one of the best articles available on the impact of the cloud.
Phase I was the PC, Phase II was the Web, Phase III is the Cloud. Each new phase has created an explosion of businesses and services, and each has transformed society and commerce.
Common formats and compatibility are what makes the cloud unique- different datasets can be combined to create new outputs, based on the inputs from simple and inexpensive devices- from mobile phones to RFID tags.
"The Big Switch" by Nicholas Carr gives a background to the business practices of the new age of the cloud. The comparison is to big businesses transition from locally generated electricity to the elctrical supply grid in the early 1900s.
Gartner Group says that the cloud will be as big as e-business and will have as profound implications. Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud and Akimai (which stores 15-20% of internet sites in a distributed grid) serve millions and millions of website hits per second.
PC-based grids have been around for a while also- Seti@home, FightAIDS@home, and many other ways in which you can connect your home computer and 'donate' its spare capacity to process hugely complex and large analyses.
By 2009, as much as 98% of web traffic will be in video files. This will be part of a projected 25-fold increase in the amount of data being handled by the web, which is know becoming measured in 'exabytes'. Video walls and Telepresence will be part of this traffic, as well as online gaming and virtual worlds- the GDP of which is equivalent to that of Belgium by 2006 (in 2005 it was equal to that of Namibia- so the rate of growth is tremendous.)
The internet is becoming a place rather than a medium for young people.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: closing statements
We're in the learning business, and to learn is to change.
Libraries should adopt and model change because otherwise how can they create change?
These tools allow for the construction of change-creating engines, backed by the credibility of the library brand.
The opening up of technology and programming platforms allows for everyone in the institution to become the change agent the institution needs, and to create the changes that the public wants for themselves or their communities.
Become the programmer, become the visionary, become the communicator. Technology tools eliminate excuses but they don't create the vision- that's up to everyone.
Libraries should adopt and model change because otherwise how can they create change?
These tools allow for the construction of change-creating engines, backed by the credibility of the library brand.
The opening up of technology and programming platforms allows for everyone in the institution to become the change agent the institution needs, and to create the changes that the public wants for themselves or their communities.
Become the programmer, become the visionary, become the communicator. Technology tools eliminate excuses but they don't create the vision- that's up to everyone.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: That's all folks
Second session presenters are wrapping up now. Lots of food for thought.
Shout outs to catalogers for putting the information into the library catalogs in a standardized way, now users and technologists can take that information and make new things happen with it that haven't been seen before. The MARC records are still there, still safe, but putting them into circulation through XML and API gives them new life and new uses. We can't envision all of the potential uses of data that anyone might want, and most of the time we don't even take the time to ask them. David Lankes claims that scripting languages such as PHP have a steep learning curve but are then infinitely adaptable and can be adapted quickly through the application of open-source tools and languages. That allows users AND institutions to extract ANY information that they might need or want from THEIR information- and not be constrained by the Reports-type modules and templates that their vendor makes available.
Shout outs to catalogers for putting the information into the library catalogs in a standardized way, now users and technologists can take that information and make new things happen with it that haven't been seen before. The MARC records are still there, still safe, but putting them into circulation through XML and API gives them new life and new uses. We can't envision all of the potential uses of data that anyone might want, and most of the time we don't even take the time to ask them. David Lankes claims that scripting languages such as PHP have a steep learning curve but are then infinitely adaptable and can be adapted quickly through the application of open-source tools and languages. That allows users AND institutions to extract ANY information that they might need or want from THEIR information- and not be constrained by the Reports-type modules and templates that their vendor makes available.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference:Joseph Ryan
All Mashed Up: the Museum meets the Library.
Public data makes it possible to create new user experiences. Libraries have traditionally had "good data" but we made users come to us to find it. Post-Google, libraries are still expecting users to come to them to get their "good data".
Netscape founder Marc Andreessen promoted the differences between a platform and an application- preferring the former because it could be reprogrammed, repurposed, and adapted freely to meet a variety of user needs and preferences. This difference is related to the creation of APIs, and enables discovery to happen everywhere.
Public data makes it possible to create new user experiences. Libraries have traditionally had "good data" but we made users come to us to find it. Post-Google, libraries are still expecting users to come to them to get their "good data".
Netscape founder Marc Andreessen promoted the differences between a platform and an application- preferring the former because it could be reprogrammed, repurposed, and adapted freely to meet a variety of user needs and preferences. This difference is related to the creation of APIs, and enables discovery to happen everywhere.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: David Lankes
And we're off.
Promises a more data oriented, technical presentation than the "touchy-feely" content that preceded.
"Technology can only be the answer if the question demands it". David is not convinced that every offering is as easy to implement as they are supposed to be, or as useful. A useful reality check.
The example given to the panelists was to take a raw XML output of 70,000 items from a museum digital collection and make it into something useful to patrons.
The panelists are Joe Ryan, Digital Projects Librarian at NCSU Libraries, and Eli Neiburger, Associate Dir. for IT and Production at Ann Arbor District Library. Eli developed Goldigr, a set of instructions checked the value of the museum collection on EBay. There was a lot of scripting involved using a package called Symfony to mash together the museum's XML server with a Yahoo "term extraction" API and the eBay Marketplace API.
The end result was a website that allows the user to query the museum collection to see if it has a particular kind of item, then select from a results list and see what that item might be worth on eBay. It was all free except for the design and construction of the application- "mostly plumbing" and taking about 2 days of development staff time. That said, he's yet to express what the point is of this- perhaps a book- or catalog- related example would have been more salient. I'm not interested in how much I can get for a celery vase. Although there are a lot of museum people in the room who appear to like it.
Ah there's the connection- "mashups" and scripting languages are going to be the currency of choice for getting library collections in competition with commerce. Scripting is equivalent to the standardization of machinery and parts that enabled the industrial revolution.
Promises a more data oriented, technical presentation than the "touchy-feely" content that preceded.
"Technology can only be the answer if the question demands it". David is not convinced that every offering is as easy to implement as they are supposed to be, or as useful. A useful reality check.
The example given to the panelists was to take a raw XML output of 70,000 items from a museum digital collection and make it into something useful to patrons.
The panelists are Joe Ryan, Digital Projects Librarian at NCSU Libraries, and Eli Neiburger, Associate Dir. for IT and Production at Ann Arbor District Library. Eli developed Goldigr, a set of instructions checked the value of the museum collection on EBay. There was a lot of scripting involved using a package called Symfony to mash together the museum's XML server with a Yahoo "term extraction" API and the eBay Marketplace API.
The end result was a website that allows the user to query the museum collection to see if it has a particular kind of item, then select from a results list and see what that item might be worth on eBay. It was all free except for the design and construction of the application- "mostly plumbing" and taking about 2 days of development staff time. That said, he's yet to express what the point is of this- perhaps a book- or catalog- related example would have been more salient. I'm not interested in how much I can get for a celery vase. Although there are a lot of museum people in the room who appear to like it.
Ah there's the connection- "mashups" and scripting languages are going to be the currency of choice for getting library collections in competition with commerce. Scripting is equivalent to the standardization of machinery and parts that enabled the industrial revolution.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: Part II
Next up: R. David Lankes, Director of the Information Institute of Syracuse U.
I hope that he doesn't talk about Reference Extract too much. It's a current project of his that is attracting attention in the library world as an attempt to create a librarian/information professional mediated alternative to Google, also known as a "credibility engine". My personal opinion is that any attempt by academic librarianship to build an alternative to Google is Quixotic, at best. However, David is also an acknowledged expert on virtual reference, so hopefully the talk will concentrate on that aspect of library services.
I hope that he doesn't talk about Reference Extract too much. It's a current project of his that is attracting attention in the library world as an attempt to create a librarian/information professional mediated alternative to Google, also known as a "credibility engine". My personal opinion is that any attempt by academic librarianship to build an alternative to Google is Quixotic, at best. However, David is also an acknowledged expert on virtual reference, so hopefully the talk will concentrate on that aspect of library services.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: Next Speaker Continued
Next up, connecting social tools with your own website.
Facebook Connect is the 'premium' way, which enables users to share info from the library website directly to their Facebook communities. We currently have a lesser version of the same type of idea using Google Friendconnect, which hasn't taken off real well.
RSS feeds; Tell-a-friend; Share This are all ways of making it easy for users to push info from a website to their own blogs or social networks. Currently we are RSS'ing a certain amount of info, but we are the ones selecting the info we send out, and are therefore making assumptions about what the users will like. We are also only sending info out once, other than the 'new books'-type links that are sent out weekly to subscribers. Some of the tools mentioned here propagate throughout the website and can be selected as and when they catch a users eye.
I may take a closer look at Friendconnect, and think about adding the 'share this' code to the lib.de.us site.
UPDATE: I added a 'share this' function to the front page news announcements on the lib.de.us site.
Facebook Connect is the 'premium' way, which enables users to share info from the library website directly to their Facebook communities. We currently have a lesser version of the same type of idea using Google Friendconnect, which hasn't taken off real well.
RSS feeds; Tell-a-friend; Share This are all ways of making it easy for users to push info from a website to their own blogs or social networks. Currently we are RSS'ing a certain amount of info, but we are the ones selecting the info we send out, and are therefore making assumptions about what the users will like. We are also only sending info out once, other than the 'new books'-type links that are sent out weekly to subscribers. Some of the tools mentioned here propagate throughout the website and can be selected as and when they catch a users eye.
I may take a closer look at Friendconnect, and think about adding the 'share this' code to the lib.de.us site.
UPDATE: I added a 'share this' function to the front page news announcements on the lib.de.us site.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference: Next Speaker
After a quick Q&A with Aaron Schmidt, with some prevarication from him on how much time and resources from the library are necessary for an ongoing social media outreach strategy-
Next up: Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer from SocialFish. They are a social media consulting company working with non-profits.
As a first step, they recommend an initial investigation of looking for your institution on existing online communities- checking the "Word of Mouth" concerning events or institutions that is happening online, then engaging with it to promote your own events, programs and services.
Continuing the Lincoln theme that is being used as the case study for each presenter, 22,000 Facebook users are members of one particular Abe Lincoln group- what is the crossover with your own library community? SF created an Abe Lincoln at DCPL group and used it to publicize library events, which can then be picked up and shared virally by group members to their own communities, friends and groups.
In the example used by the presenters, a promotion of an event to less than a couple of dozen group members resulted in several hundred invitations being sent out via member sharing, and more confirmed attendants than group members. Interesting.
More talking about Twitter.
Next up: Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer from SocialFish. They are a social media consulting company working with non-profits.
As a first step, they recommend an initial investigation of looking for your institution on existing online communities- checking the "Word of Mouth" concerning events or institutions that is happening online, then engaging with it to promote your own events, programs and services.
Continuing the Lincoln theme that is being used as the case study for each presenter, 22,000 Facebook users are members of one particular Abe Lincoln group- what is the crossover with your own library community? SF created an Abe Lincoln at DCPL group and used it to publicize library events, which can then be picked up and shared virally by group members to their own communities, friends and groups.
In the example used by the presenters, a promotion of an event to less than a couple of dozen group members resulted in several hundred invitations being sent out via member sharing, and more confirmed attendants than group members. Interesting.
More talking about Twitter.
Liveblogging the WebWise 2009 Social Media Conference
I am attending a couple of sessions at the IMLS Webwise Conference in DC.
I'll summarize the sessions as they are underway for systemthis users.
The first session is "Making Web 2.0 work for your institution (for free)"
First panelist is Aaron Schmidt, of the DC public libraries, discussing how library websites obstruct usability.
Multiple hierarchies of click-through content, with a high presumption of familiarity with web-language, and a low value on user experience and visual design.
"Brochureware" and "Unintentional Design" are common problems. Other library resources are migrated to the web as pages without being re-written or re-designed.
His example of bad design is his own institutions Lincoln bicentennial webpage. He recommends that the webpage be migrated entirely to a blog platform- which allows really nice looking websites to be created without any web-programming skills. Also showed the Ford Motor Company website, which is a highly customized Wordpress blog, that looks nothing like a blog.
The core writing skill for web writing is "friendliness"! Don't overwrite, be approachable, and respond to comments.
Aaron talks about Twitter for a while. That might be effective in DC or another major metropolitan area where Twitter users are talking about their libraries- question is whether there are users in DE who are Twittering about our libraries. Recommends a light-hearted approach to using Twitter, rather than using it to push out resources, links, and announcements.
Finally talking about using Flickr in libraries. Examples on the Lincoln theme are having users submit pictures of themselves dressed as Lincoln to a library Flickr account, or tag their own photos with a group tag. Another participation from users could be to have them upload short videos to YouTube talking about their lives or their use of the library.
Covers the need to determine guidelines for participation- administration of comments from users, approving or disallowing submissions.
In all cases, providing new avenues for users to participate and interact with the library enhances their connection with the institution and their sense of ownership and support.
That's the first presentation.
I'll summarize the sessions as they are underway for systemthis users.
The first session is "Making Web 2.0 work for your institution (for free)"
First panelist is Aaron Schmidt, of the DC public libraries, discussing how library websites obstruct usability.
Multiple hierarchies of click-through content, with a high presumption of familiarity with web-language, and a low value on user experience and visual design.
"Brochureware" and "Unintentional Design" are common problems. Other library resources are migrated to the web as pages without being re-written or re-designed.
His example of bad design is his own institutions Lincoln bicentennial webpage. He recommends that the webpage be migrated entirely to a blog platform- which allows really nice looking websites to be created without any web-programming skills. Also showed the Ford Motor Company website, which is a highly customized Wordpress blog, that looks nothing like a blog.
The core writing skill for web writing is "friendliness"! Don't overwrite, be approachable, and respond to comments.
Aaron talks about Twitter for a while. That might be effective in DC or another major metropolitan area where Twitter users are talking about their libraries- question is whether there are users in DE who are Twittering about our libraries. Recommends a light-hearted approach to using Twitter, rather than using it to push out resources, links, and announcements.
Finally talking about using Flickr in libraries. Examples on the Lincoln theme are having users submit pictures of themselves dressed as Lincoln to a library Flickr account, or tag their own photos with a group tag. Another participation from users could be to have them upload short videos to YouTube talking about their lives or their use of the library.
Covers the need to determine guidelines for participation- administration of comments from users, approving or disallowing submissions.
In all cases, providing new avenues for users to participate and interact with the library enhances their connection with the institution and their sense of ownership and support.
That's the first presentation.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
New WINK instructional modules
New instructional resources on the "Tell me when.." catalog feature and LibraryThing reviews are now available.
http://dlc.lib.de.us/examples/favorites.html
http://dlc.lib.de.us/examples/reviews.htm
And here are screencasts of the tutorials (they run a little fast in YouTube, so you may want to pause them and start them over once they begin):
These modules are easy to make- does anyone have any topics they think would be worthwhile subjects for a "Two Minutes in the Catalog" video and tutorial?
http://dlc.lib.de.us/examples/favorites.html
http://dlc.lib.de.us/examples/reviews.htm
And here are screencasts of the tutorials (they run a little fast in YouTube, so you may want to pause them and start them over once they begin):
These modules are easy to make- does anyone have any topics they think would be worthwhile subjects for a "Two Minutes in the Catalog" video and tutorial?
LIBRARY NOTICE now "From your library"
The email header of all catalog notices is changing as of this morning. We feel that Library Notice sounds a little daunting, probably punitive or at least indicating bad news, and no longer suggests the potential range of the nature of the communications that we are sending out through this forum. Overdue notices are now a minority of messages sent, with an increasing number being informational or user-requested messages. The subject line of emails being sent out from the catalog now reads "From Your Library" to indicate the source of the message rather than the possible content.
On a related note: does anyone feel that changing the name of OVERDUE to Extended Use Fee would be problematic? Let me know in comments or email me.
On a related note: does anyone feel that changing the name of OVERDUE to Extended Use Fee would be problematic? Let me know in comments or email me.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
privilege renewal rush
Sometime in the Fall of 08, we altered a patron message from the cryptic ‘privilege has expired’ to ‘your library card has expired’. Envisionware continued to look for the old message, and since it did not recognize the new one, has continued to allow patrons with expired privileges to log on to computers. Thanks to Rose at Seaford for noticing that patrons were not coming for renewals in the same numbers recently! The new message is now configured in envisionware.
Patrons who check out library material or place holds would have got the message and taken action, but patrons who only use the library for PC access will now start to be blocked again if their card is out of date.
There is probably a three or four month backlog of computer-using only patrons who may have to be caught up with once the new setting is in place in envisionware, which will be starting this week.
Patrons who check out library material or place holds would have got the message and taken action, but patrons who only use the library for PC access will now start to be blocked again if their card is out of date.
There is probably a three or four month backlog of computer-using only patrons who may have to be caught up with once the new setting is in place in envisionware, which will be starting this week.
Monday, February 09, 2009
Reviews Module Announced Today
The LibraryThing For Libraries review module was announced today on the catalog homepage.
Click here for a .pdf tutorial.
It's easy enough to set up an account for your own library staff, reader's advisory group, or book groups. Local reviews will appear first in the review listings.
Click here for a .pdf tutorial.
It's easy enough to set up an account for your own library staff, reader's advisory group, or book groups. Local reviews will appear first in the review listings.
Tuesday, February 03, 2009
Email notices and comcast.net patrons
A periodic check of the system logs for emails of library notices is suggesting that while the vast majority of notices are going through, most of the ones that are refused by the destination email service are comcast.net addresses. This is probably due to some gateway security setting by comcast that we don't have any influence over, but it's worth noting that if you do have a patron complaint that they are not receiving messages, check if they are a comcast patron and make sure that they add the endeavor.sirsi.net domain to their junk mail controls.
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