Connecting Librarian

Screen capture software allows you to capture a region on your screen, a file or a scrolling window. Much like the Windows print screen command does, but with more control and lots of other features. Screencasting software allows you to do a ‘video’ of what’s happening on your screen.

I have high hopes that we will be able to do either one of these or both, starting with how to use our catalogue.

Unfortunately, like any good software, it costs money. However, Techsmith, the creators of widely respected screencasting software Camtasia Studio and screen capture software SnagIt is making a special offer. You can download an older copy of each package from the web (Camtasia 3 - version 5 is the current and SnagIt 7.2.5 as opposed to current 8.2). If you then choose to upgrade from that to the current version, you get it at a cheaper rate. Upgrade or no, its worth looking into.

Sounds great and I have already downloaded both, without planning to upgrade. However, be aware that not all is wonderful - according to comments on the Download Squad blog post which highlighted these offers, some users had trouble installing and using the software and ended up uninstalling. I had no trouble installing, but haven’t yet tried using them. Will keep you posted. In the meantime, why not get a copy of each for yourself and see what you can do with them for your library.

I was surprised, but not so surprised to realise that I hadn’t blogged for over a month. That was for two reasons I suppose - one was that I have just been so busy and secondly I didn’t have the heart to post. Then tonight, I was just sitting at my computer, having had a day of overbooked commitments for the first time in over a week and I was ready again. I actually have a lot in my mind that I will get around to blogging about, but this topic is pre-eminent at the moment, so here goes….

This cartoon is one of a series from Unshelved, using the PC/Mac ad premise. They are well worth checking out, as is the series in general. Good for a laugh and sometimes very close to home as well.

That’s one thing that got me thinking about library websites. We are about to redo our library website. Its been 3 years since the last restructure and we haven’t done much with it. Not saying its static or anything - we have added new content, deleted old stuff, kept things current etc and we have even added 2 blogs in that time - a general behind the scenes blog and recently a local history blog as well as adding Google Maps for our branch locations and bookmobile sites. We even have a Flickr account with a small collection of photos from one of our branches - due mainly to its recent renovation and relaunch. That puts us a bit ahead of the curve in our state, as there are only 4 public library services (out of 45) that are blogging at present.

I’m not happy though, because I want more.

I want our website to be more than an online brochure and I would love it if the treasure that is available there was used more. Our catalogue is getting great use since our change of library system earlier this year and more importantly the elimination of reserve charges. Our catalogue is shared with a consortia of 9 public library services, so not only can our patrons place holds on our items for free, but for almost anything from any of the 8 other library services in the consortia also.

Most of our patrons come to our website to get to our catalogue. Totally understandable, its our stock in trade. Even with the improvements in our catalogue through having a new system, with the blogs, the google maps and more, we still have a mainly brochure type website. If we are to engage our users and attract new users, who may only visit us virtually, we need to do more.

And they are there to engage. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has been releasing statistics from the 2006 census. In our last census in 2001, our 2 local council areas had home PC ownership at about 21%, which was significantly below the state average. This census the question changed to home internet access and both our council areas were pretty much on the state average of 62%! And that is just home access, not access through school, work, the library or other locations. I am pretty sure that the percentage of our population with any sort of internet access that they use regularly is a lot higher than 62%.

We do have plans however. We plan to have a website which integrates the catalogue into the front end, not as a link to a separate location. We want more blogs. We plan to offer more RSS feeds, not only from our blogs, but also to new titles added to the catalogue etc. We want to post polls to get more feedback from our users. We need more Flickr photos and I am playing with what potentially could be our first podcast.

I would love to get the Library Thing tags on our catalogue, do podcasts and vodcasts of in-house seminars and maybe go out and do things too. And there’s a lot of potential in SMS or IM services also. Then there’s profiles on Facebook and/or MySpace, videos on YouTube, etc, etc. I could also go on about patron tagging and reviews etc, but this post is already long enough as it is.

But I feel like these things are all add ons to what is still essentially at its core, an online brochure at present. Whether our new website form will change that, I don’t yet know. I know we need the static information about branches and services, but is there another way we could be doing it? Can we change what a library website is at its core? If we can, how do we that and what does it look like when we do?

And who does it? I am only one person, working part-time. At present its me and my manager who do the website and there is never enough time in the day to keep current, let alone get ahead. Even two of us can’t make all this happen.

However, on this point I am happy to report that help is at hand. As a result of the State Library of Victoria coordinating the Victorian Public Libraries Learning 2.0 program for public library staff statewide, we have taken several steps in what I think is the right direction for our virtual services. Our local history librarian is now blogging local history and is doing a great job - after only a few weeks she has an armload of posts, with dozens more in reserve. A couple of our other staff are going to show a YouTube video as part of a teen Christmas wrap workshop they are running. Both great ideas and just the tip of the iceberg. We have more staff enthused and ready to go - waiting I guess for us to tell them how. (I must really get onto to that and soon…)

We had 44 staff enrolled in the program, which has just officially finished, with a third having completed it. If we are coming out with these ideas already, how many more might we expect, as others complete it in their own time, or as we get the other 42 staff to do it sometime in the next year.

So when I started this post, I was feeling a little frustrated, but now that I have had my rant and seen the positives that are happening, I am feeling a bit better. My biggest concern now is how to make our plans come to fruition. However, if we can get more of our staff as enthused as just a few of ones who have completed the program are, start tapping into their enthusiasm, ideas and skills more - we might just have enough people to be able to pull it off. This and more.

So thanks for sitting through my rant. If you or your staff haven’t done the Learning 2.0 program, I highly recommend it. Its hard work and can be time consuming, but its inspiring, challenging and fun! If you have any solutions for my brochure dilemma, I’d love to hear them. If you think I’m full of it, impatient etc - please let me know that too (but nicely). I won’t necessarily agree with you, after all, we have to have dreams and we have to aim high, but I would be interested in the feedback. Anyway, I’m back and have a lot to say it seems (just from the length of this post).

If you would like to read more on library web presences, besides the Unshelved cartoons, the following posts contributed to my thought processes - I recommend you check them out.
Technology Storm - Michael Casey and Michael Stephens (Library Journal)
Website or presence? - Kathryn Greenhill (Librarians Matter)
Ignoring our digital community - David Lee King

Stay tuned - I’m keen to waffle on more on other topics and won’t take a month to do so next time.

Tonight was the premiere of a new Australian comedy “The Librarians”. For those unaware of the show,
“The Librarians, is a new six-part comedy series from the ABC, based around the highly-strung head librarian of an outer suburban Melbourne library.“

Before the show had even begun, there had been a lot of publicity, especially in libraries. My public library received promotional literature and the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) has even started “The Librarians Blog“, to keep everyone in touch with launch parties, reviews etc. There is even a Second Life chat happening on Thursday night (1st November at 7.30pm) on ABC Island - the Second Life home of the television network which is screening the show.

To make the show even more accessible, you will be able to get it (as well as a lot more about the show) from The Librarians official website, after 10pm on the night of viewing - which is Wednesday nights at 9.30pm starting tonight the 31st October 2007. (wow, jokes about a librarian comedy and Halloween…. let’s not go there). All times given here are Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time for our overseas visitors.

To get librarians even more interested in tuning in, the show’s creators sent out a short video, reassuring librarians of their respect for the profession. Check out the ALIA thank you at You Tube.

So, as for the show itself? I thought it was highly amusing, even to the point that I laughed out loud a number of times in its half hour length. It was interesting how Frances, the branch librarian, reminded me of someone I have worked with, in mannerisms etc, although not too closely. The situations were amusing in their embarassment. My husband on the other hand thought it was stupid. I won’t spoil the story, instead I will leave it to you to watch if you are interested, but I will be watching again next week.

I would love to hear what you thought of it, if you saw it. Did you see a character portrayed that reminds you of a workmate? Or a situation that you have experienced in your library? Let me know through the comments!

I have been so busy, tired and distracted of recent months, that I have barely been able to keep a straight thought in my head. Things have been changing, unsettled and unsure, nothing special really, just life I guess, but it has meant that my motivation to blog has taken a bit of a back seat of late. Many thanks to those who have stuck with me, I appreciate knowing you are there, checking out what I have to say and hopefully getting something out of it.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I have been thinking about the biblioblogosphere and all the library bloggers out there, sharing experiences, successes and failures, thoughts and processes and more. I started thinking about what these faithful people have done for me, without them even knowing about it and I had to start making a list.

If it hadn’t been for library bloggers I would never have:
- started reading blogs
- started reading the library literature more widely
- started writing book reviews for the library literature
- started reading outside my profession for parallel experiences and new ideas
- started my own blog, to share my own experiences
- discovered the amazing resources and programs available out there
- participated in Learning 2.0 and become a champion for my library’s staff when doing the same
- been invited to participate in a librarian group blog - Libraries Interact, with a great group of motivated librarians from around Australia
- been motivated to apply for and receive the scholarship and conduct the study tour I did in April this year
- pushed for my library to start its own blog
- started using mashups on my library’s website - only just scratching the surface here though so far
- developed increased confidence in myself, my skills and the new skills and inspiration I was receiving from your posts
- asked to participate and then actually write a chapter for a book being published in the UK next year
- gathering new inspiration and ideas to play with and hopefully translate into something my library service can utilise and better serve my patrons
- had the confidence to submit proposals to library conferences in Australia
- had the inspiration to write for the library literature in Australia (still working on that one).
…. and that list is just off the top of my head, without any long consideration.

I have progressed more professionally in the last 3 years, than I had in the previous 19. Even though my job title hasn’t changed much, the work that I do, my love of it and my wider knowledge of the profession has grown exponentially (and there is potential in the job situation, so that may better reflect this development soon too).

And it’s all because library bloggers out there unselfishly decided to take the time to share their thoughts, experiences and more. They took a risk, put themselves out there, not knowing whether anyone would read and I again want to say thanks. I am more in love with my profession, my work and the life-long learning process that I am again engaged in, than I have ever been before. They are an inspiration to me, they give me inspiration to make the changes, small and large, to help make my library service better for our users - as a professional, I could not ask for a better gift from my profession.

So I am freshly motivated. By the posts I am reading, the motivations behind them and the people who create them. It is an honour to be numbered amongst them.

Several weeks ago we had our annual Staff Development Dinner. Its a dinner for all library staff (voluntary) where we come and get together for good food, good company and a special guest speaker, who this year was former fashion designer and amazing lady Sally Browne.

As I have been on holidays and so have been pretty out of the loop re: library related stuff, I thought I would get around to blogging my notes from Sally’s presentation.

She has an amazing story to tell and tells it in an entertaining way, through the use of stories. She spoke of managing change, which she has had a lot of her in her own life and which she has done with an amazingly positive attitude, regardless of circumstances. My notes below are a snapshot of what she spoke on, so it will be a bit choppy, but I hope there is something in it for you too.

She began with the story of the twins - one a pessimist, the other an optimist. Long story short, to test the level of these, the pessimist was sent into a room full of toys, the optimist into a room full of manure. The pessimist was found to be crying over how the batteries would run out and how the toys will break and the optimist was found dancing in the manure - because “with that amount of manure, there has to be a pony in here somewhere!”

We are being given permission to be different.

There is power in having a positive attitude, especially in the face of adversity.

Sally’s fashion business strengthened significantly, when their staff meetings changed to discussing what went right this week and how do they build on it, rather than the witch hunt it used to be.

From a health point of view, when we exercise our emotions beyond a reasonable amount, ie. through stress, our heart rate goes up.

“There are no bad moments, just awakening moments and I have woken up a few times.”

“When things get really bad, as long as you’re breathing, there’s hope.”

There is a fine line between new services and traditional services.

We have a choice - change is difficult. We can be victors or victims.

With change, there will always be complaining, regardless of how well it is managed.

Change is about pushing out of your comfort zone.

When changing, your small still voice tries to take over - you can submit to it or breakthrough. If you breakthrough you can really find out what you are made of.

If we have family, friends, food and freedom, we have everything!

A psychological happiness assessment with 13 questions has 11 questions on belonging. Which is why third world people are generally happier, because although they have no material possessions, they have each other, which many well-to-do westerners don’t.

We have the potential within us to live the lives we want - lack of money and fear of failure can hold us back. How much baggage do we carry that is holding us back. ie. guilt, resentment.

Sally’s advice:
- Not going to get far if we are carrying negative baggage
- Slow down and take time for people
- Exercise your sense of humour
- So easy to criticise, why not build up people by complimenting instead
(warm fuzzies)

That’s just my two cents worth, from a fun and inspiring evening.

Welcome to the Carnival of the Infosciences #80. The Carnival is a weekly weblog post that endeavors to showcase the best posts in the blogosphere about topics related to the wide world of Library and Information Science. This week its my honour to be hosting the Carnival for the third time.

First, the submissions and thanks to everyone who contributed to this issue:

Filipino Librarian presents Pinoy Bibliobloggers’ Mafia. “This post asks why Filipino librarians who blog are less likely to be working in libraries, and that they are more likely to be male.” Unusual situation when compared to libraries in general - interesting thoughts.

Jimmy Atkinson presents
The Self-Directed Student Toolbox: 100 Web Resources for Lifelong Learners posted at OEDb: Online Education Database. There are some real gems in there, for any library interested in lifelong learning and aren’t we all!

Steven Silvers from Scatterbox presents Bury my rant on the Internet saying, “Consumer advocates take issue with SEO companies that get paid to push legitimate product reviews down into the clutter. But relevance is not the Internet’s obligation — and modern Internet users will eventually figure it all out anyway.” Search engine optimization isn’t all its cracked up to be!

Laura Solomon at Library Geek Woes presents Chasing the technology curve. She talks about where we should look when we are deciding which technologies to invest our time and money in for our libraries. As usual, she is thought provoking and so I will leave it to you to decide if you agree with her conclusion.

Jeremy Aldrich from Global Citizenship in a Virtual World presents Filter? I hardly knew ‘er!, saying, “Filters are a fact of life, but perhaps school decision makers are using the minimal legal requirements for filtering to excuse their often-rigid control of information flow.” Where does the line go between education and filtering, in protecting our children from inappropriate content. Jeremy asks for your thoughts in this post.

Now to conclude with some picks of my own, to round out this week’s Carnival.

Peta Hopkins from Innovate has blogged about the first Australian Blogging conference , starting with the post Blogoz: first up and with follow ups. Check it out.

There has been a lot of discussion about Wyoming Libraries use of the mud flap girl in their promotions. I just love Shelf Check #93 - Emily Lloyd’s contribution to the discussions that have revolved around this unusual marketing choice. Check out this and many other amusing library based cartoons at Shelf Check. If you like cartoons, I recommend you also check out Unshelved and Turn the Page. If you know of any other library based cartoons, let me know, I’m a fan!

Finally, Karen at Library Web Chic posted The future of Web services isn’t the library website. She discusses what key elements we should be including in our library websites. Interesting reading.

That concludes this edition - thanks for joining us. Help out the Carnival by submitting a blog article to the next edition of Carnival of the Infosciences using the carnival submission form. Feel free to submit one of your own posts, or another that you have read that you think is worth highlighting. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page. Filipino Librarian is the next host, so see you at the Carnival on the 15th October!

As I am going on a week’s holiday with my family and as a week is a long time in the biblioblogosphere, I thought it best to post some interesting stuff that caught my eye, but which I won’t have a chance to consider more fully - at least not here in my blog.

Read/Write Web did a post nearly a month ago - “Finding the true value of web technologies“. Although not directly library related, considering all that has been going on with regards to the Library 2.0 discussion in recent months, it was very relevant. It proposes that we are in a ‘digestion phase’, which is a ‘time for us to reflect, to integrate and to understand recent technologies and how they fit together.’ This may sound familiar to anyone following the Library 2.0 discussions - well worth a look.

Ryan Deschamps is a new blogger I have caught onto, he has written some very thought provoking posts recently at his blog, “The Other Librarians.” However, the one I want to highlight is “Under the hood of Web 2.0: the top ten programming concepts for librarians to understand.” You don’t want to know how Web 2.0 tools are created, but its useful to understand a bit about how they work, to get the best out of them. Ryan’s post helps with that.

I would consider Kathryn Greenhill at Librarians Matter to be one of the most predominant library bloggers in Australia. I am also fortunate to blog with her at Libraries Interact and to have spent a great day with her in July. Great lady with another great post - “What new about Library 2.0? Shift in power.” She gives a whole new perspective to the discussions on Library 2.0.

I love reading Walt Crawford, his blog “Walt at random” and the “Cites and Insights” newsletter are staples of my library reading diet. About a month ago, “Walt at random” pointed to a great resource hosted at Web Junction - “The Storied Library“, a series of articles from Walt which talk about how to market your library by telling stories. Well worth the read.

Related to this was a simple example from Emily at Library Revolution of how to make your library blog posts more readable and storylike and thereby more appealing. “My story about telling stories” shows that it is very easy to do, just takes a little extra time and a simple switch of voice - even I could do it, lol.

Briefly in other news, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV show “The Librarians” will premier on the 31st October. Definitely will be one to watch.

Also registrations for the VALA biennial conference - “Libraries: changing spaces, virtual places“, in February 2008 are open. Library conference season is in full swing in Australia, as the call for papers for the ALIA biennial conference in September 2008 - “Dreaming 08” and Expression of Interest for Information Online 2009 are also open.

This should keep you busy. I will be back in just over a week and my next post will be as host to the Carnival of the Infosciences. Already some great posts coming in, so stay tuned.

I will have the honour of hosting the Carnival of the Infosciences again, this time on 1st October. If you have anything you would like to submit for the Carnival, you can do so through the submission form or to tag items as “carninfo” in del.icio.us.

The Carnival of the Infosciences #79 is at Libraryola - so check it out and then join me here for the carnival in a couple of weeks.

For those new to the Carnival, its a fortnightly ‘weblog post that endeavors to showcase the best posts in the blogosphere about topics related to the wide world of Library and Information Science.’ More info, including links to past Carnivals, is available at the Carnival of the Infosciences wiki.

There has been a lot of discussion lately around the biblioblogosphere on Library 2.0 and whether its over, whether it should ever have been, what it is, whether its new or not and much more. If you want to follow the discussions, I suggest you check out Annoyed Librarian, David Lee King, Information Wants to be Free and many more.

I started thinking about it more when Ryan Deschamps at The Other Librarian came out with “We asked for Library 2.0 and got 2.0 Librarians.” Although I agree with his premise, I wailed when I read the part that said that he sensed that the “prominence of the Library 2.0 moniker has plateaued”. Why did I wail? Because we had only just started! Our library blog is now a year old (had to stop to do a blogiversary post on that blog!), but it is just scratching the surface of what we hope to do.

Anyway, that got me thinking out what Ryan was saying and yes a lot of the changes at my library have been driven by me, a 2.0 librarian and initially I think my attitude was of the “cool tools, how can we use them” kind. Fortunately, that time passed quickly and I have been refocusing back on our users. Nicole at What I learned today took the words out of my mouth -
“I’m all for everyone learning everything they possibly can, but not all the tools are the right fit in all organisations….. I just want to bring every tool I can to your attention, because one might just be the one you were looking for to solve that one pesky problem you were having.”

At the same time, our users have been changing. Our library website use is just starting to skyrocket - we have seen an over 200% increase in virtual visitors to our website in the past year. Our website is a destination for our library users, more than ever before, I think partly because of our new library system, but also because of the development of our users as computer literate people. Apart from the catalogue, a few select webpages and the blog, our website is an online brochure, which is fine in itself. However, my aim now is to try and make the virtual experience of the library at least equal to the physical experience and an online brochure doesn’t do it. We don’t have programmers on our staff and there are only 2 staff here with html skills, so the only way to provide better service through our website is by using Web 2.0 tools. We have started with simple things like booklists linking directly to our catalogue (not web 2.0 I know), a Flickr account and a Google Maps mashup for our branches and mobile library stops.

I’m not alone in this either. A big group of our library staff have enthusiastically started the Learning 2.0 program, in a project driven by the State Library of Victoria, which I am very excited about. We will have staff knowledgeable about Web 2.0 tools which is great for them and our users, but hopefully some them will also be full of ideas for projects and the motivation to be the ones to drive it. I can’t do everything, much as I try, so it will be great to have others on board to contribute, especially in areas where I have neither the skill, interest or motivation.

There’s so much more I can say here, but it would go on forever if I let him. So for me and my library, Library 2.0 is just entering the building, so its far from over for us. We may not call it Library 2.0 and in a way its something we have been doing for forever, but its also a new frontier that we are going to explore and have fun doing it too!

For yet another perspective and well worth readings is Kathryn’s post at Librarians Matter - “What’s new about Library 2.0? Shift in power“. She makes some great points and it brings home to me that the definition of Library 2.0 is not only different to each library, but to each librarian, all depending where they are at, as institutions and individuals. You have to love something that is that flexible!

On a final note. There was a ton of feedback on Annoyed Librarian’s post - the “Cult of Twopointopia“. The post was fascinating, both in its biting wit and its ability to make me think. The numerous comments on the post were even more fascinating, for a couple of reasons. First - it was nice to see the passion of librarians on both sides of the argument. That’s one of the great things about our profession - we are generally very passionate about what we do. I guess it makes up only a bit for the less than professional level wages we generally earn. Second was that the arguments and flames were flying thick and fast and all I could think was that we are all supposed to be on the same side, so why are we turning on each other like this. We all have our interests and specialities, why aren’t we more grateful, accepting and understanding of the differing viewpoints that make us such a great profession?

That’s my 2 cents worth on the topic. Would love to hear what you think!

Its the 31st of August and the 3rd annual international Blog Day! To celebrate, the team at Libraries Interact will be posting their five blogs of interest, over the course of the day. So if you want to see what is catching the eye of diverse librarians from around Australia, go check it out!

And to all bibliobloggers out there: THANKS and Happy Blog Day 2007!