Connecting Librarian

Besides free content to lend or access, one of libraries’ best things (generalising of course) is our customer service.  I know we try hard to provide  this for any number of reasons, but I have been surprised lately by the responses we have had to good customer service of late.

Bio-Med Library Public Services Blog – University of Minnesota

In both instances, I took the details of a person with an issue, followed it up and then got back to them with a solution. The first was a few days, the other a couple of weeks.  In both instances, the response was basically – wow, you guys provide great customer service.

This is a great thing to hear for a library whose job primarily is that, but it makes me wonder, in a world where so many companies are talking about providing good customer service, if something as simple as a follow-up phone call garners this sort of response, what type of customer service are people getting out there in the wider world?

So do we get that response because:

• Ours users don’t expect as much for a service that they don’t have to pay for directly 
• The customer service they are getting falls short of what they have experienced through their library
• It is personalised – a personal call answering to a personal situation
• A combination of all the above
• Something else again

What is the something else again?  What have I missed?

I think part of it at least is that when we do respond in such a manner, we are showing that their concern(s) are important and are pursued and that in turn they are important enough to be informed of the outcome, in person, by a person. The personal touch is very important.

Much of what happens in the world in communication is automated – emails, SMS, even phone calls, can be all machine controlled.  This is not a bad things in itself, as it makes life easier in the main. However, there is something to be said for person to person communication, especially when issues arise.

And maybe that’s one reason why libraries will still be around for a while. Because in a library, you can still communicate face to face and if you have a concern, you can feel that it is heard and that it is being taken seriously.

Maybe other organisations can learn a lesson or two from libraries about what good customer service is.

The State Library of Victoria hosted this event, in conjunction with Public Libraries Network Victoria last Friday.  There was good representation from libraries across the state and I am happy to say they weren’t all tech people.

Anyway, here are my notes from the day.

NBN and libraries of the 21st century – Mary Todorov NBN Co.

Presenter thanked libraries for her education story – single mum completing masters.

NBN is now listed as an essential service. Not unlike electricity, which came about due to the creation of appliances.

NBN provides the infrastructure to provide equitable services to all.

Government entity like Australia Post, connecting all of Australia. Existing copper network cant meet the demand now, let alone into the future. Majority will be fibre, then fixed wireless and for remote areas will be satellite.

44 providers who are buying the service from NBN at set wholesale prices. As fibre is rolled out in towns and cities, the old copper network will be shut down.

LIBARIES already on the NBN – Kiama, Pyrenees, Yarra Plenty, Townsville. Also Brunswick digital hub at the neighbourhood house – using volunteers to teach – social inclusion. C31 Frankston TV coming with their roll-out. More details at www.nbnco.com.au.

Mill Park Digital Hub – Chris Mackenzie and Tania Barry

 Digital Hubs funding to promote the roll-out to local communities. So far 38 hubs in Stage 1,2,3, sites. Fifteen located in public libraries.

 Hub is a space for training. It fits very well with library’s role. $390,000most for training, but good amount for equipment. It gives libraries an opportunity to improve their profile and develop community partnerships.

Libraries already doing this sort of training, open long hours and have complimentary programs.

Researched their South Morang residents , to support their application. Major partner is U3A and City of Whittlesea. Training plan household, health, small business and education in two year period. Specialist furniture, equipment including video conferencing, tablets, and of course the connectivity.

Four streams, some of the content was dictated by the Dept. Strong KPIs, including promote the NBN, available outside of regular hours, 26 group sessions (minimum of 4 attendees for 1 hour) and 40 individual sessions (minimum of 1/ 2 hour each).

Have a coordinator and 7 staff who conduct the 4-6 hours of training required each day to meet KPIs. Program is on their website, on radio and delivered to the community. Have a range of program partnerships in the works.

Looking at becoming RTO, showcase evenings for local schools, live streaming lectures, technology in the round and more.

 Albert – 90 year old learning email. Lottie learned how to use her Windows 8 laptop.

 Lessons learned – changing classes to meet user demand, technological advances and no corporate plans for NBN.

 Places and spaces for online students – Cathy Stone and Rose Talo

 Open Universities Australia owned by 7 universities. The qualification is awarded by the universities. Most students are HECS applicable. Mostly mature age and in paid employment.

OAU Pilot in 4 libraries in Wyong and Shell Harbour, where they could access library resources, learn about services and network. Libraries ran sessions for students and OAU trained library staff and promoted to students, including using social media.

Student feedback was consistent in the themes of isolation, technology assistance and networking needed. 83% of students would recommend this course to their friends. Expanding to include Lithgow, Newcastle, Kiama, Paramatta and Auburn.

Libraries are offering regular drop in sessions, one-off information sessions,promotion of online sessions. 

www.open.edu.au/libraryconnect – need some Victorian partner libraries.

eSmart Libraries – Kate Barry

Changing behaviours to make people cyber smart, safe and responsible. eSmart is a road map to incorporate standardised practices into Australian libraries. Its free and open to sign ups later this year – it is not about filtering.

In 2012,5.4 million people were victims of cyber crime. 70% download illegally and 75% have illegal software. 38% of 14-15 year olds have friended people they have never met and 14% have sent photos to people they don’t know.

1500 schools are now part of eSmart program. Sponsored by Telstra. Developed in partnership with library associations. Will be offered to all 1500 libraries.

Framework – vision procedures, staff knowledge, user guidance and community connections. Register, then plan, implement, achieve status and sustain. Takes 1- 3 years to complete. Pilot running in 106 branches, including Hume and Yarra Plenty.

www.esmartlibraries.org.au – available from July 2013.

Digital access and community – Paula Bray – Powerhouse Museum

Top 5 for digital content – findable, meaningful, responsive, usable/shareable, available.

What are you going to provide and who for? Audiences want to share and tell stories. They want to curate content eg. Pinterest. Technology is changing and we need to change with it and needs to work for the type of engagement we want.

Visitor cycle – pre (Web), during (on devices), post (social).

Risks need to be taken. Think about other ways of doing things, think outside the box.

115,517 items and 134,385 photos online, but still more to come. First went live in 2006 and about to redevelop their online presence.

Flickr Commons – share publicly held images that can be tagged, mashed and reused. Over 2000 images, which have been geolocated. Layar app. Commons explorer. Led to partnership with ABC. Sepiatown geomapped their images and corrected their location data.

Zoomify.

Their online interactions have influenced their on site interactions.

License as much as they can under Creative Commons licenses.

Aim to build a map of Australia, rich in content using Historypin. Run a year long series of events, to be done in the next year or so.

Games, maker-spaces and open catalogues: three intersections of technology, communities, libraries and play – Phil Minchin

Your digital experience, should: understand your community, what is the experience, make content accessible/usable, technology is only a tool, be participatory and responsive.

Play is key to self directed learning. Its frivolity but is serious frivolity.

Books matter,but how they do is changing. We still need them, but their access, form, availability channels are changing. They are linked to online,not necessarily only sequential.

We still need to archive them, we need to provide the format for that audience and more.

What else matters? All forms of culture, communities of learning.

Games – no institutional home, a culture that drives technology, that needs community, that promotes systems literacy and theory of mind – and involves a lot of reading. All skills we need to foster.

The focus on choice, systems analysis, possibility and action. Induce subjectivity. Require and reward reading. Are extremely popular. Encouraged us to look at EVE Online and Minecraft. Even non- electronic games are powerful tools, great at community building.

Online gaming model – need to get our thought together on what we want, before publishers dictate it to us.

Upcoming- 3d printing, robotic mills, general robotics, touch and motion controls, voice, 3d and VR, eeg control and then ???

Maker-spaces are usually community owned and where people work on physical and software projects. Strong community spirit and great opportunity to collaborate. Empowers users, have great info literacy, strong male demographic, reuse e waste. Likely to produce localised content, likely to be worthy of archiving.

Are libraries for our towns or of our towns?

We shouldn’t be publishers, but work with local authors, writers groups and more.

What if we opened our catalogues? Users could add items the want to give away, heavily moderated. Emphasises local community sharing. LibraryThing does this. Maybe book requests become book wanted. Not just books, but cultural works, events or proposed events, crowd-funding, public meetings, purchase request voting?

On Wednesday night, I attended the first VALA event of the year, where Hugh Rundle from Boroondara Libraries spoke on Technolust and libraries. It was a very interesting and thought provoking talk, which my notes do not do justice to, but they will at least give you an idea and hopefully get you thinking as well.

Technolust: the fifth column of the information counter-revolution

Talked about small projects driving Tasmania’s economic recovery in the last decade of last century – not the big projects that did it. It was based on a vision of natural produce, hard work and lack of pretension.

Tasmania’s failure was in an initial lack of self- belief, once they found it, the state was well on the road to recovery. Libraries are in the same boat now, some librarians are looking for the next big technology to save libraries.

When looking at any new project in libraries, we need to know why we are doing it, what we are trying to achieve and how we will measure success.

A library is a system for sharing ideas, based on the principles of preservation, openness, freedom and privacy Its about accessibility, access, freedom and protection of individual rights. The combination works together for libraries, in sharing ideas. That`s our unique value proposition, making us different from Amazon, etc.

Revolution is happening, with more people with access and the ability to share. Increases both readability and writability. The combination of the personal computer and web has opened everything up.

Revolutions always upset the status quo, with those in power wanting to keep it. So then comes the counter revolution. In our era it is coming in the form of severely restrictive copyright, reducing the ability to remain anonymous, filtering, e-books licencing, Internet use logs and other invasions of privacy. And it comes in the guise of friends eg. Amazon, Google and Apple.

We must be careful not to become the unwitting counter revolutionaries, and in turn forgetting our principles.

Introducing new technology is not about fashion or keeping up with the cool libraries. We do need to get the technology, but that which our community needs. Money spent on this technology means that the money is not available for other purposes. What is it that makes it useful to your community? What features should we be looking for – need to focus on the consequences as well.

We now have an ebook crisis, because the whole model is about licencing not sales. If the sub disappears, so does the content. Same thing happened with serials in academic libraries. The publishers/aggregators decide who will get access. DRM restricts access rights like portability and disabled access. Egs. removing ebooks, geographic blocking, automated filtering. Some of these involve websites which require extra logins for library users, but can we protect their privacy there?

Cloud based data is subject to the laws of the country of the server, so if your data is in the cloud in the US, it is subject to the Patriot Act. RFID – what data is on the tag that could be read by Near field communications apps?

Solutions?

LOCKSS – even if you stop a subscription, you have a copy of your paid for content.

Libraries on Wikipedia – SLQ running workshops on creating quality content.

Open access archives, including journals. eg First Monday by Uni of Illinois. Douglas County Libraries are self hosting e-books – unfortunately from small publishers only.

Library Box – anonymous wifi access for downloading.

RFID can be anonymously encode – id numbers only, not titles or user info.

Google Analytics alternative Piwik – you’re data is then protected and not used.

Community based platforms such as Vicnet and Museum of Victoria’s Collections Online.

Trove. API has now been released.

Need to consider these things in a more comprehensive way and act on it.

Internet development is an attack on the principles that libraries rest on. It’s not the technology we need to focus on, but the bigger issues of copyright reform, metadata and more.

We need to make things that retain our principles but still provide what our users want. We need to be proactive about protecting our values. Libraries will become irrelevant when we throw away our principles and instead of asking about consequences, we focus on features.

Act boldly with your next tech project – base it on the principles outlined above and your library will remain relevant.

The Horizon Report 2013 Higher Education Edition has been out for a bit now and I admit that I await its predictions with keen interest.

Although aimed at the academic sector, I have still found it a valuable insight into what could be coming up for libraries, including public libraries.

This year’s is no different.

The short-term forecast (1 year or less) was for MOOCs – massively open online courses and Tablet Computing. We are definitely seeing huge growth in the latter in our libraries and are moving in that direction ourselves. MOOCs on the otherhand are still very new overall and we have yet to look at their impact on us, or how we could tap into something similar for our own education purposes, whether they be staff or our users.

The mid-term forecast (2-3 years) was for Games and gamification and learning analytics. Again the former is probably more applicable to public libraries than the latter, but it is helpful to know what it is on the horizon and to at least be aware of it. As with anything though, even if it doesn’t exactly fit your audience, there may be some aspect or variation that could be made which would exactly suit our audience, so it is worth the time to investigate.

The long-term forecast (4-5) years is 3D Printing and Wearable technology and these are definitely applicable to public libraries. I am quite excited about the potential of 3d printing for all and keen to have libraries help to introduce it to our users and give them access to this technology, in the same way that we have and still do give access to the internet. Wearable technology is happening in a way already, with no outfit complete without the smart phone being secreted somewhere, but with Google Glasses making a big splash, its well worth keeping an eye on.

Check out the Horizon report at http://www.nmc.org/publications/2013-horizon-report-higher-ed.

Would love to hear where you are your library are with these technologies. Which of these technologies are already on your library’s radar? How do you anticipate them being used and when?  

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I normally don’t weigh in with a blog post when there is a heavy topic in library blogging, but am going to on this one because of my own particular interest and experience of late.

If you haven’t already caught the discussion on libraries, their mission and 3D printers, I recommend you do so first.  In particular:

• Hugh Rundle: Mission creep – a 3D printer will not save your library (http://hughrundle.net/2013/01/02/mission-creep-a-3d-printer-will-not-save-your-library/)
• R. David Lankes: Beyond the bullet points: missing the point and 3D printing (http://quartz.syr.edu/blog/?p=1567)
• Phil Bradley: 3D printing – is it for libraries? (http://philbradley.typepad.com/phil_bradleys_weblog/2013/01/3d-printing-is-it-for-libraries.html)

First off, I want to say I agree with a lot of what these guys are saying and I cheer them for having the conversation and making me think about where I am on this particular topic.

So, 3D Printers and libraries.  Where am I on this issue?  Firmly on the side of I want one!  But of course, for myself personally I will have to wait until the technology becomes mainstream enough that I can have one on my desk at home.  The whole idea of 3D printing just fascinates me.

Where does that leave my library.

Technolust? – I can be blinded by this as much as anyone. But my technolust is not going to get me the funds needed to buy a 3D printer for my library.  My management team does not have the same affliction as I do, so it will take good reasons and a well presented case to justify such an addition to our library.  And I would not present such a case to them, without knowing whether it is something our community wants or needs and that we can sustain over time. Grant money for such things is well and good, but you need to have the funds available to maintain new technology, once the grant monies disappear.  With the current financial situation, there are no excess funds to be spent on what some would consider to be trivialities – so something else would likely have to go to enable such an addition to be purchased. 

Lifelong learning?

My library’s mission statement:

Imagine:        Library services that encourage creativity and growth.
Explore:         A pathway to a worldwide range of knowledge and information
Understand:   High quality resources to inform and support life-long learning

The vision statement is: To inform and inspire our community. 

Funnily enough, nowhere in there does it say anything about books or any particular format at all.  We run seminars that are hugely popular and involve no hard containers whatsoever, just the spoken words of the presenter. Experience is, after all, just another form of information communication. Being a highly visual person, I find experience is a just teacher and invaluable for helping me to remember things. How much more valuable would it be for people to be able to use these new technologies, such as 3D printing, in a safe and open environment. They can learn, they can explore, they can discover.  So many libraries now have tech tool kits which enable library users to borrow (either in the library or to take home), to experience using such devices.  I wouldn’t suggest lending 3D printers at this stage, but couldn’t it be an expansion of such a kit?  Isn’t that what our users want?

Community?

This is one I had never thought of until one recent night.  I ended up going to an open night (with hubby of course) run by Connected Community Hackerspace group (http://www.hackmelbourne.org/), where they were demonstrating 3D printing. (check out the photos on Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/tang02/sets/72157632510795414/). It was fascinating.  They had about half a dozen printers of various vintages and types, with three beavering away at creating things.  Nothing mind blowing, but the process was rather hypnotic and we caught ourselves several times just watching the printers at work.

Also had a chat with a few members of the group about the printers, (some had been built from scratch – most had been ‘hacked’ to a certain extent), how they were used, the advances in 3D printing and more. My epiphany moment however, came at the end when I was talking to the group’s president Andy.

We got talking libraries and this sort of tech and it seems that the State Library of Victoria had already had discussions with him. (Go SLV!).  He could see definite possibilities for libraries in this tech space, because of their locations, good reputation and accessibility to all.  He described a vision that I found intriguing and could see the potential for.

His vision was one where there were specific libraries, say four around Melbourne, that were set up as community Hacker/Maker spaces. They had the 3D printing, the laser cutters and all the other equipment that you read out in existing library and/or community hacker/maker spaces. They also had people there to run classes and assist the community with their projects in these spaces. He also saw 3D printers in most libraries as manufacturers move to a future, where replacement parts are printed on demand. So for example, if your oven dial was to break, instead of ordering a new part, you would be sent the plan, take it to a library, where they would use the 3D printer to print a new one for you. Quicker for the consumer, no need for stock control for the manufacturer.  And this was just one small example.

This idea intrigued me and got me thinking. It would take a lot of funding and staffing (neither of which is in ready supply at present) to make this ideal a reality. What could make it happen in the shorter term, which would meet the needs of all involved?

One of our libraries has space within our building for a family history group.  They have all their collections/resources/equipment housed there and members can access it anytime the library is open (which is 61 hours per week).  They also open to the public several sessions a week, asking only for a gold coin donation.  Could a similar model work for a maker/hackerspace?

There are maker/hacker groups out there, looking to expand, looking for space, looking for members and more.Could this type of arrangement work for the groups, for the libraries and for their communities?   Could we find space in a few of our libraries for these groups to set-up, on the proviso that they have publicly available time and give access to their equipment? I like to hope so, but I don’t know if it could and what sort of model we would need to make it work. And even if there is, I don’t know if my library is the one where it could/would happen.  But I aim to keep investigating. 

3D printers – they are about technolust, but they are also about lifelong learning and they are about community. That’s worth looking into.

I love learning new things.  These are just some of the reasons:

• I’m curious
• I like knowing things
• I like knowing answers to questions people ask
• I like knowing something about things people are talking about
• I’m a sticky beak (some people might say a know-it-all)
• I’m a librarian – that’s what I do!

I learn from doing – I’m very task oriented.  I learn from reading – I am doing a lot of catching up at the moment, of reading of articles that I thought were important at the time I saw them, but didn’t have time to read at the time.  I also like reading fiction – from which I also learn a lot. I learn from watching TV, especially from dramas, comedies, mysteries and many more non-documentary shows. I learn from listening to the radio, from listening to others, from emails, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and so much more online……

But what is all the point of this learning……  Could it be learning just for the sake of it?

No, I discover I like learning, so that I can teach.

So that I can have the answer, or know where to find it when someone asks the question. To be able to help someone when they don’t know there’s an easier way to do something.

I have a young colleague that I do a monthly weekend shift with. She has told me on numerous occasions that she considers the day is truly useful if she comes away from the day having learnt at least one new thing from me.  I am amazed and delighted to admit that she has not had many disappointing shifts in that respect. We almost always find something new that I teach her – some not so important, some time saving, some very useful to her work, but something new nearly every time.

What we learn is most valuable, when we can teach it to someone else.  It can be discovering facts for your manager who needs it for future planning.  It can be finding a new way to complete a task more efficiently in the library.  It can be what the weather is doing on a stinking hot Melbourne day and when the cool change is coming through…….

Learning is important ALL LIFE LONG, for personal knowledge, but also for teaching – for sharing with as many others as would like to learn or who need to hear.

And that last part is a lesson to be learnt all in itself – how to teach to those who want or don’t want to be taught……..

For many years, our public library service has been part of a consortia that conducts an annual survey. We have been participating for many years, but this year the number of library services more than doubled, so the data we received, both for our library service as well as for all those involved, is even more interesting.

So what is the survey?

The survey aims to “track the resident population’s usage, perceptions and satisfaction with their Public Library services.” Data is gained from a survey of people (14+) living within the boundaries of the library services involved. This involves both users and non-users. This years survey had 3900 participants:

• 52% visited a Public Library in the previous 12 months
• 43% had visited a Public Library in the past, but not in the previous 12 months
• 5% had never visited a Public Library

The survey results have been reported to the public library services involved and their governing bodies, so the data is available somewhere out in the ether. I just thought I would share some of the things that caught my attention.

 Our local community uses the Internet more than I imagined. The survey showed that 89% used it daily for a wide range of reasons, including:

• 85% for email
• 55% for Facebook
• 20& for Internet TV