Its Day 20 of 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and today I can sum up your average day in a public library with this Unshelved cartoon.
We serve a fantastic supportive community and the majority of the people are wonderful, its just the few……..
Its Day 19 of 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and today’s post is inspired by a special moment that happened on our drive home today.
I was just driving down our street with the kids, when I noticed a crow taking a bath in a deep mud puddle. He had his feathers fully spread and was immersing himself with great gusto, causing water and mud to fly everywhere. It was such a special moment, that we stopped in street to watch for a few minutes, then drove carefully past him. Despite our care, he edged away from the puddle, but by the time we had pulled into our driveway a few houses down, he was back again, so we watched a bit more.
Made me think about the special moments at work that help to make it the job that I love. The ones I could think of immediately included:
Unfortunately, quite often there is not enough time to stop and savour those moments, like we did today with the crow, but I’ll take them anyway.
There is much joy too, in the satisfaction that comes out of my job, but these are some of the special moments I enjoy. Would love to hear some of yours.
Its early Saturday morning and I missed posting this Friday night for Day 18 of 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge, because of the heading of this post.
My kids have been doing Auskick this year, for the first time. Originally it was for 8 year old son, but my nearly 11 year old daughter wanted to be a part, so she joined too.
Its 9 weeks in to the Auskick year and last night, my daughter played at the MCG as part of the half-time program. Being in Grade 5, she actually played in the club colours (she was a Bomber) and played across the centre of the MCG.
This all happened amazingly quickly. Only a few shorts weeks after starting Auskick, kids and parents were asked for volunteers to participate in this game – requirements were minimal. My daughter immediately expressed interest and being a long time AFL fan, I was happy to agree.
She did not get many touches of the ball on the night, but her team did win their game, unlike the grown up Bombers on the night. And she walked away with an amazing set of memories, including running out onto the MCG in front of a crowd of over 54,000 people (including several family members), winning the game, seeing the players close up as they returned to the ground after half-time and doing a hi-5 with spectators at the fence line as they moved round the boundary to exit the ground.
And all because she decided to try something new and put her hand up.
I try new things, but my daughter has inspired me to watch for other opportunities and to put my hand up. Who knows where it could lead.
Its Day 17 of 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and I came up with this topic when I spent half the day thinking it was Friday. Fortunately I’m only one day out, it is Thursday.
Maybe I was off track because of the holiday Monday, although I expect that would have made me think it was Wednesday instead.
More likely it is that I am still adjusting to working full time and trying to find my new routine, to match my new work schedule.
And being out of routine is really knocking me around. I am getting home at dinner time and being really tired whilst organising dinner. Then I wake up again until much later and collapse into bed – but at least I’m ready to sleep.
And that’s apart from regularly forgetting which day it is. When I worked part-time it was much easier to tell the days apart, because of the greater variance in what I did. There were work days and there were home/other business days. Now there are mainly work days, which sometimes feel like they are running one into the other.
I remember when I first started working as a librarian all those decades ago, it took me four weeks to settle into my new routine. I am all those decades older and its already been four weeks, so accounting for older age and more adjustments with family etc, I reckon I’ll need a few more weeks before I am ‘in the groove’.
It would give me some encouragement if you could share how your changed routines affected you and how long it took you to adapt. I know I’m not alone in this sort of experience, but its nice to see real life examples of that.
A little light-hearted fun to herald Day 16 and the 2nd half of 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge.
I will be interested to hear your responses to it. Did you enjoy it, did you think it was appropriate/inappropriate for a library setting and why?
With thanks to Stephen Abram for the link.
Its Day 15 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge, the halfway point and I’m very tired after working the late shift.
So instead of trying to come up with something deep and meaningful, when the only thing I am really interested in is my pillow, I’ll mention a couple of things that have happened with Connecting Librarian of which I am particularly proud (and thankful to my readers for helping to make possible).
The first is that Connecting Librarian has been accepted into PANDORA. From the relevant email:
The National Library of Australia aims to build a comprehensive collection of Australian publications to ensure that Australians have access to their documentary heritage now and in the future.
PANDORA, Australia’s Web Archive, was set up by the Library in 1996 to enable the archiving and provision of long-term access to online Australian publications. Since then we have been identifying and archiving online publications that meet our collecting scope and priorities. Additional information about PANDORA and access to archived titles can be found on the Library’s server at: http://pandora.nla.gov.au/index.html
We would like to include the Connecting Librarian web site http://connectinglibrarian.com/ in the PANDORA Archive.
I accepted, after all who doesn’t want a little bit of immortality.
Second was being nominated for a Salem Library Press Blog Awards. I don’t know how I got nominated, but I was in sterling company. I didn’t win, but I did get a gold star:
Blogs listed with a gold star were considered by our judges to be of significant quality that they stood above the norm.
And thanks all for your wonderful support of Connecting Librarian over nearly five years. I’m not done yet, so stay tuned.
Its Day 14 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and a beautiful spring like day in wintry Melbourne, so of course I got all deep and meaningful.
I decided in Grade 6 that I wanted to be a librarian and never really faltered from that course, moving straight through secondary school and then onto to my Bachelor of Arts (Librarianship) and straight into my first library job without a break.
That didn’t mean that I didn’t question it from time to time. I did. But my questions were usually around the idea of how important librarians are to society. The way I thought around it was if we went to war tomorrow – would I still be a librarian or would I be redirected to what were considered more important jobs. What can I say, I was a teenager, set on being someone qualified to help save the world. I figured that that teachers and nurses would be that important, but I didn’t want to be either of those, so reassured myself with the idea that we wouldn’t be going to war and if we did, I’d deal with it when the time came.
I’ve long since changed my mind. Librarians are too important for our society to lose. Librarians have been a part of many wonderful discoveries and creations in this world, from science to literature and more. And although I can’t see anything world changing happening in my public library, that’s OK. Because I’ve decided that I’m in an environment which reminds me of the starfish story – if you dont’ know it, read on, if you do, just skip to the end.
Uploaded to Flickr on May 12, 2010 by tibchris - CC Attribution 2.0 Generic
The Starfish Story
Two men were walking toward each other on an otherwise deserted beach. The beach was littered with starfish, washed up by the tide. Thousands of starfish were doomed to die in the warm morning sun.
The first man watched the second pick up starfish one at a time and toss them back into the ocean. The first man thought, “Why is he doing that? He can’t save them all.”
As they came near one another, the first man felt compelled to point out to the second the futility in his action. “You know,” he said, “you can’t save them all. You really won’t make any difference.” The second man bent down, picked up a starfish and tossed it into the water. He smiled said, “It made a difference to that one.” Then he walked on, picking up starfish and tossing them back into the sea.——-
Even in a public library the librarian is important. I may not help find a cure for cancer (then again I might), but the way I help a person, might help them make an important decision, it might help them relax and escape from a stressful situation or it might be an important piece of human contact that they are otherwise missing. Its not up to me to dictate the importance of my interaction with each library user, it is for them to decide. What I can do however, is make sure that they get my best each and every time and that I do all I can to help them get what they need, however inconsequential it might seem to others.Whatever makes a difference to that one.
So whether it be in normal every day times, in a global economic crisis or in a war, librarians are important, for the content we provide, for the things we save, for the human interaction and for so much more.
Its Day 13 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and I was thinking about my online life yesterday and how much its changed in a few short weeks.
My blogging of course has gone through the roof. So far in this challenge, I have posted more in a month than I have in a year, but I’m grateful, because it has kept me in touch with my library colleagues, even as I’ve lost touch in other ways.
The main one I’m missing is Twitter and I am feeling in on two levels. At Twitter itself and on Facebook because my feed goes there as well.
Why? Well when I worked part-time, I spent a lot of time in front of the computer, both at home and at work, so it was easy to have Twitter open and just check it periodically. I use Twitter as a constant presence. However, in my new role I am not near the computer anywhere near as often, either at home or at work and when I am, I usually have a long list of things that need doing (by yesterday!) and so Twitter is usually one of the last things on my mind.
And I’m missing it. I’m missing the constant presence of my friends and colleagues just brushing against my day. There for a bit of support, to keep me informed, amused and in touch with the wider world.
So I’m going to try something different with Twitter. I never really liked the idea of dipping in and out of Twitter, I did like the constant presence idea. But at the moment that’s not possible. So I’m going to try it. I apologise if that means I’m not around to respond to a DM or @ mention as quickly as usual, but I would rather do this than miss out altogether.
After all, its likely it will all change again in future. 
Its Day 12 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and my pondering today came out of a walk with the dog.
I regularly walk the dog past a water basin in our area, which is heavily fenced off, with a double locked gate being the only entry. More often than not, the fencing is peeled back from the gates or the gates have been knocked off their hinges to enable people to get through. Today, they had been fixed again, but from past history, I know that won’t last long.
So it got me wondering if there wasn’t a better way to achieve the same results. Are they just fixing the gate because that’s the way its always been? I know they are probably restricted for reasons of safety, but as people are going to break in anyway, maybe there is a way of meeting both needs?
And then I started thinking about the sorts of things we do in libraries that are parallel to this situation and I came up with memberships. We are still very much locked in to face to face membership applications. There are libraries who have ventured into online memberships, but many of them only give temporary ones until the user comes in with proof of address (at which time it is made permanent), or the application is only confirmed with the mailout of a library card to the applicant’s applied address.
At the downloadables seminar I attended on Thursday, we talked around users and how it is quite likely that in the not too distant future, we will have three distinct user groups: those who visit to access our physical collections, those who visit to use our facilities and those who only use the library virtually. (there will be overlap with all three groups of course and there are probably more that we haven’t even thought of yet)
So with the future now looking more virtual for a lot of our users, both current and potential, should we be sticking to the old tradition of having to have a physical attendance in our libraries to confirm membership or even to having a physical library card at all?
Can’t we have online memberships which require nothing more than an online application? Do we have to know where people live, particularly in Victoria where you can join any public library service for free? Do we need to know how to get a hold of people if they never take a physical item from the library? Shouldn’t we treat our virtual users more like our physical visitors who never borrow an item, but just our collections in house, or our physical facilities? How we do change how we view these members? And if they do decide to extend their membership to the physical space, how do we make this transition as easy as possible for both users and staff? And how do our LMS’s cope with this, to enable us to track use when a circulation of a physical item is not involved?
What other things are libraries doing, seemingly out of tradition, although the reasons we started have long since changed?
Just some questions that were raised from walking the dog. Hope you have some answers for me.
Its Day 11 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge and as promised, here’s my notes from yesterday’s seminar.
Insight into Victorian Public Library Experience with Downloadables – Thursday 10th June 2010 101m-4pm
Kenneth Harris – Port Phillip Library
They have recently implemented Wave Sound eaudio downloads.
Not many choices in terms of vendors.
They use IP addresses for inhouse downloading. External was organised through referring URL, with authentication provided by the library itself. Clunky but it works.
Raised awareness through high level links in the catalogue, which link back to the referrer page. Unfortunately you have to login to the catalogue first to get authenticated, so it then has a quick link to the ebooks from the account page.
Once you have logged in, you have to create a Clipper account. Once that is done, you don’t need to authenticate a second time.
Marc records are part of the sub. Links are displayed to everyone – so they needed to be changed to the link to ebooks info.
Took a while to upload the records (588) – took some fiddling and lots of discussion to get it right.
Stats can be retrieved on use, including popular titles, users, checkouts and renewals, activity by subject and more.
Have a 10 item limit for users.
In 6 weeks, they have had 245 accesses 197 checkouts ad 48 renewals. 95 User accounts have been created.
What they’ve learnt so far:
- not much they didn’t already know
- problems with DRM – macs cant play wma files (1/3 of files are wma)
- public PCs can’t download the wma files due to an issue with DRM and PC deployment
- WMA files wont play on your car stereo
- users find it difficult to locate files they can download
- if it takes more than couple of minutes, people give up
- needs to be improvement in catalogue and subscription integration
- authentication should be done by the vendor, done off the library catalogue login (not by the library)
Marketing – didn’t tell people it was coming. When it came, they used a screensaver on their catalogue PCs, Wavesound provided brochures and posters and want to come and talk to users and staff about the product. Have to promote more – difficult at this time due to RFID project in process.
Authentication: after initial authentication with library card, and setup Clipper account, they can go to straight in to the Clipper page. When they setup, it refers to Port Phillip, so that’s where the account is based and Port Phillip’s limits etc apply.
EZ Proxy authentication is available, but only if it is done by the library. Don’t offer SIP2. However, they may be able to connect using WebFeat, which is what Port Phillip has – but will still be adding extra steps.
Stats don’t show where people come from to get there – whether its from the catalogue or direct from the website (once the account has been created).
Knowing what they know now, they still believe that they made the right choice. A major reason for going with them was that there were no extra software requirements. Works on a yearly contract – they start with a base library and get an extra supply of titles each month. You can opt to choose titles or let them be chosen for you. You have the option to change titles.
Loan period is 3 weeks and can be renewed. Up to 10 titles at a time. Files disappear at the end of the loan period. Can’t return early.
Its a totally separate loan system to the LMS. All statistics are kept separately. Could happen in the future if we get SIP2 connections with our ebook providers.
All the products run using an online store model like Amazon.
No limit on simultaneous users. Fees based on population.
Wavesound has both ebook and eaudio, but Port Phillip only has eaudio.
As login is based on username and password, can’t tell age, where joined etc, etc.
Jennifer Khan, Greg Evans and Tony Brooks from Melbourne Library Service
Melbourne has had Overdrive eaudio books for 12 months.
Have introduced downloadable audio first not ebooks – due to degree of uncertainty in ebook market. Used a staged approach. As there are a limited field of vendors, decided to go with Overdrive because of their proven track record and a good market share. Overdrive provide professional and free marketing support and a very slick product.
Once they signed up, they sorted out policy definitions such as circulation, connection and IP issues, membership exceptions and different card types, which was all pretty straightforward with good technical vendor support. Got access to a development site for testing.
Support from local rep was not good, so dealt mainly with the US via email and teleconferences (6pm there to 9am here).
Greg had already introduced it at ACT, so had great experience to begin with.
Collection management: never handed it over to Overdrive but eaudio content has been limited. Shifting market makes things very difficult as titles can change with changing publishers agreements. However, users have taken to them with great enthusiasm.
Overdrive have a number of specialists – Collections, IT and marketing and the support is fantastic. Did a user survey to gauge interest and find out what they would be interested in. Got a lot of people provide email addresses and become their testers and feedbackers.
Marketing – lots of support from Overdrive. Library branding throughout. Got media engagement. Day after it was written up in the Green guide, everything went out. Had to buy more titles. Have about 400 titles now.
Have concluded that they will need to use more eaudio vendors. Next challenge is how to create a seamless interface to all the content being provided by these different vendors.
Vendor training to staff user group was very complex – consisting of a teleconference from the US which was very thorough but over the top. Too much information delivered. Had a overarching marketing emphasis however, rather than technical/user experience. Once completed, they played with the product some more.
Cascading information to general staff was simplified to customer needs and
was compulsory for all staff. They quickly learned what issues may be encountered in a real environment, the key features and bugs and then
redesigned the training again for the public.
Training public was easier as they were all keyed up and ready to go by the time they launched, the integration with LMS was seamless. Public sessions were very well attended – running 2-3 sessions a day for 2 weeks – many people brought own laptops. They also did some individual follow up with special need users and they are getting constant feedback and making minor changes as they go.
Needed a lot of patience throughout the launch process, to help get people on board. Overdrive provides a help service, where individual issues can be addressed – has a 4 hour turn around.
Interface is seamless with the Melbourne website. Although the Overdrive site is external, it looks like the Melbourne website. Overdrive has 2 to 1 WMA to MP3 format. WMA files can be downloaded to a PC however and then transferred to an iPod, during which it gets reformatted to a iPod readable.
However, you do need to download an Overdrive media console to access the content.
Future:
ebooks next – would be easy to go with Overdrive as DRM is less problematic and they have a great range of titles, a nice interface and great support. Checked out different options and have gone with Overdrive.
Issues for ebooks included limited reader functionality and availability, in a market where there is a huge range of devices. Sony ebook readers and Nooks will play the content, but not available here yet.
However, users are fascinated with mobile devices and readers. May yet lend some of the older generation ebook readers that they own, with pre-loaded content. They area also considering the options of bookstores vs vendors and online sellers. iPhone app is also now available for Overdrive. Have been advised to go with ePub format with ebooks.
Issues: format issues – ie WMA vs MP3, licensing vs ownership – different models and some vendors let you own the book, DRM and access to content and limited Oz content. Overdrive is licensing, Bolinda is ownership.
Check out BLIO? – downloads the software with the content and can be played on any device. May be major DRM issues so getting content from publishers may be difficult.
Success factors: critical mass strategy, group of early adopters, DRM minimal vendor, concurrent users, Marc records, ease of circulation, availability of stats, review and user group.
Lot of success due to holistic approach – collections, IT and marketing working together with staff. Staff are enthusiastic and the service has had great use and feedback from users.
Overdrive – one copy one user model. If you want more users, then have to purchase more copies.
Authentication – user is presented with a login screen – uses SIP2 to library system. Overdrive manages the user account, SIP2 is only used to verify that it is a valid user. If you login to catalogue, you still have to login to Overdrive.
Offer optional load periods – one or two weeks. Items cant be checked in, you have to wait for it to expire. Some titles are available in a single file – many titles are in multiple files to download (like CD based audio books). Can download progressively over your loan period.
User stats – have not done much as yet. Will now look at it now that they are 12 months down the track.
User Experience panel
I was then on a panel of three committee members, who used the Overdrive and Wavesound services as brand new users, using a PC, a Mac and an iPhone (that was me). We are still compiling experiences and hope to add more. If you are interested in the report thus far, let me know and I’ll get a copy out.
Vendor presentations
The early part of the afternoon was taken up with presentations from Wave Sound, NetLibrary – newly purchased by Ebsco, and Bolinda. The first and last only offer eaudio at this time, NetLibrary does both. Overdrive does not have an Australian based rep at this time. Each vendor gave a short marketing spiel and then demonstrated the user interface and answered questions relating to the IT structure of their product.
Vendor panel
We finished the day with a panel involving the vendors answering questions from the attendees. They were:
Will you be offering streaming content now or in the future? Not yet, but its on the radar for all of them.
Can you see a future where all content is device neutral? Yes, but no timeline though, everything is changing so fast and at different rates. Eaudio market is much more mature than the ebook market, which is why its much more device adaptable.
What do you mean by fully accessible? Bolinda downloads can be used by all – including screen readers. Files can be played on most devices – they are all MP3. All titles are remastered into chapters with logical breaks.
What do you mean by exclusive rights? Why exclusivity? Lots of money is involved in purchasing rights and publishers aim to get the best possible deals for their content. There are licences for print, audio and downloadable. Not all arrangements are exclusive. Rights are for a certain length of time, somewhere between 5 and 10 years. Also depends on the model – purchase model means you have it forever, subscription model means you only have it whilst you have the sub and the vendor has the rights.
Will we end up getting this content from multiple vendors? Yes, the issue then becomes how to make the whole process seamless so that the users experience one process. Library processes are changing. Moving from print to digital including how we join and access collections. Is getting to the point where the whole interaction that users have with the library will be totally digital. Collections offered are different, but so are our users. So we will have to pick and choose from vendors.
Is reciprocal borrowing available? It is through Overdrive in the US, where you can borrow between different libraries. Publishers much prefer consortium purchase, rather than reciprocal borrowing. Ebsco does consortial arrangements, as does Wavesound. Bolinda does not do consortia, because they believe they are affordable and give each library service flexibility.
Do you have plans to intergrate with LMS’s? Definitely on Ebsco’s radar. Libraries would like to have all their account information in one location, so they can check all their holds, all their loans etc, in the one setup. Bolinda says it can be done because the technology is available. Importing this data back into our circulation modules for statistical purposes is a lot more problematic. Bolinda has established Web Services with Aurora and SirsiDynix LMSs. In discussions with other vendors, but have confirmed that they will be establishing a SIP2 connection with Civica. This will also require an extra software install at both ends to help improve security.
Do you have any thoughts on offering other media for download? eg. Film, games, media etc. Bolinda is already looking to do this. Not Wavesound, but Ebsco will look at this as well.
Are there any plans to integrate back into social media platforms? Ebscohost has a module EIT – which has an array of tools with widgets etc, that can be inserted into a range of tools. Bolinda is looking at it. Wavesound works on Ebsco’s platform so they have access to the same tools as Net Library, through Ebsco.
Summary
The day was well received and well attended with about 50 people coming from over half of Victoria’s public library services, most for the whole day and some from quite a distance away. As an organiser and attendee I was very pleased, not only with how the day ran, but from what I got out of it. I feel much better prepared for when we venture into the world of downloadable eaudio, which will be soon.
Email: tango65 at gmail dot com
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