Freak out, geek out or seek out: trends, transformations & change in libraries – David Lee King

New book coming out next year – Face to Face – connecting with users online.

Was at NLS #5, lots of energy and enthusiasm. Saw lots of good ideas there.  Also had lots of staff telling him that they take their ideas back to their libraries and get told NO. Got told a few times that their IT guys are Evil!

Mentioned Grove Library and Community Centre – doing sustainability type things underground. Have movable, comfortable furniture. Don’t have a ref desk, but have staff workstations located around the library as the staff are circulating. They moved shelving and furniture to make room for the community.

Can be a bad place to be freaking out – not good for anybody. Should we be geeking out – as soon as it hits market? No, should be testing out for our users. We need to be seeking out.

Personal technology has changed dramatically in the last twenty years. In libraries, we have online resources, new technologies, new collections and new user expectations, online resources. Gone the way of the past: floppy disks, typewriters, film cameras and watches seem to be on the way out, at least for some.

One big change is we now have competition. Thirty years ago, the only place to get answers or borrow books was the library. Book stores have gotten big and offer many of the same services – they do storytimes, read books, enjoy coffee. Breaks down in the reference question department. If you want something fast – Amazon. They are a big competitor for us.

Not so much competition, but a change that has messed with libraries, is that newspapers are disappearing from print. In US, 120 newspapers have already changed from print to digital. On the Newspaper extinction timeline – it is expected that Australia will no longer have any print newspapers by 2022.

In US, they have rent DVDs from a vending machines on the street. But they don’t have the older titles. Competition for us. E-books, are the same. Overdrive now offers Kindle compatible ebooks now for libraries which maybe helps ease the pressure if we offer it.

Tablets, notebooks and laptops are taking over from desktops. Google has taken over from the ready reference collection. The positive is that it frees us up to answer the deeper questions, that’s if they know to come to us to ask. And then there’s the smart phone – which does everything!  Including making phone calls!

Tech changes in libraries – in the past included fiction, electricity, phone reference, copiers and then in the 1970′s we got our online catalogues and in the 1980′s the PC took off, the 1990′s the internet appears and in 2004 it was Web 2.0. The three biggest destination sights now are Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, which were created in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Emerging web has changed dramatically and has nothing to do with technology – it is about connecting people. It is real time, decentralised (can visit library on the web, without going to the website), its multimedia (line between newspaper and TV websites are blurring). Every company is a media company – we write articles, create content, pushing out our wares. Emerging web is very mobile – the web is in my pocket – but it should also be that the library is in my pocket. Mobile websites for libraries are a valuable tool – want it to be useful for people who want to do a task quickly – renew, ask a question etc. Emerging web is social, its two way, public with global reach, so need to be careful about what you say – if you can’t say it in person, don’t say it online.

David is Digital Branch Manager, he has a department – IT and a concept – Digital branch. He is a community manager, he scans the horizon, he is executive editor, long range planner, manager, evangelist and he answers the tough questions.

His 3 realities:
1. all services will be physical and digital – not so easy to achieve eg. storytimes
2. we’ll use the web to build unique stuff
3. to some, the digital branch will be their only branch – can place holds and pay to have them mailed out

Content – digital branch has to have things for people to see, do, read etc when they visit. They have catalogue searches on their website as well as their Facebook page. You can subscribe to their blogs by RSS or email. Blogs have photos and info about their blog contributors, so you can focus on the content you enjoy most. Photos they have on Flickr and YouTube are also reposted on their website in their blogs etc.

Community – how do you do community in a digital branch? They have instant messaging reference (using Meebo) and get an answer (if the library is open) – on both their website and embedded in their catalogue. Need to have a front door – that’s dramatic, but every page on the website is a front door, as well as Google, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter are also front doors. We have many digital borders.

Conversation – lots of discussions going on, between staff and users and between users. Conversations on the digital branch include the instant messaging widget, email reference, comments on the blogs (good and bad – which provides opinions and can help you continue the conversation), Facebook comments, Flickr comments, Twitter. Will follow their customers that follow them on Twitter, because they want to focus on their local community. Will celebrate achievements – they sent out a T-shirt to their 1000th follower.

Can have vanity searches for your library, town, postcodes and things like reading etc. Find out what the community is talking about. It gives you an opportunity to step in if you see they’re talking about you, but not talking to you.

Tackle change – ideas to get started thinking about it. A lot of libraries are not seen as relevant in our communities. They go to everyone else, before they come to us and only if they remember. We need to be first. How?
Model the way – you better be doing it first if you expect your staff to be doing it, everyone needs to be on the bus (Jim Collins book – “Good to great” – if you don’t have the right people on the bus, get the wrong ones off and get the right ones on) .

Our websites, our buildings, our services need to be as easy as a light switch to use – so that they don’t have to think about what’s going on – libraries have to stay out of their users way, unless they want to deal with you
Know your patrons – know what they are doing in your buildings, on your PCs, on your website – it can help you with designs and redesigns. It also helps you to know who doesn’t use your library. Find out where your non-users are and then market to them.
Online services have to reflect physical – no “will answer your email within two business days” on your online reference.

If we don’t change, we will die and some libraries in the US are already closing.

As print books slowly disappear and ebooks come to the fore, we will still need libraries, we will still have jobs – our patrons will lead us to where they want us to go.

Finding time – “what do you want me to drop, so that I can do that”. Its not about that, its about changing focus – what is the priority of your library and concentrate on that first, then if there’s time left, you can do other staff. If you can’t, the other stuff will fall to wayside and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Its about the user ultimately and they are online – so we need to be there.

Question: Improvement in catalogue, that negates the need to have instant messaging in catalogue. They are getting a new OPAC, which will meet that. There are overlays, and plugins that can be used to improve catalogue response.

Tablets and roving reference experience. Staff are answering a lot of questions when they are roving around, working well.

New website – can we get immediate content on there. Yes, it is possible, consult with your website provider (small library – Council IT).

Sustainability – what are you doing? Measure use against work input. Have service – personalised reading lists – fill in a form and a librarian will compile a personalised reading list for you, to meet your needs. Wasn’t getting a lot of use, so they re-jigged the form and marketed it and already the response has been good. If it doesn’t improve, they will stop the service.

What is the one next big thing?  Fun – thinks he will be wrong. Google + – just gone public in the last few days. No organisational pages yet, but that will come. Very different to both Twitter and Facebook, so there is definite potential there. Very closely tied to Google Apps, which is potentially a huge change – brings together Facebook, Microsoft and wiki-like content.

His current book: Designing the digital experience.  Website: www.davidleeking.com

Putting IT back in reality – Hamish Curry, Application and Online Learning Manager – State Library of Victoria

Mash-up idea – take photos and put them on top of each, as you rub the them on your  iPhone, you rub down through the years and see the space/place as it was going backwards through time.

Contact: hcurry@slv.vic.gov.au @hamishcurry  slideshare.net/hcurry

Statements heard from people he has spoken to about the SLV: ebooks must be killing libraries, this digital stuff must be making your job hard, guess no-one wants to go the library any more, bet your numbers are down.

Reality – the worst game ever! IT can help augment the experience. Smart phones, tablets are helping to do this. Extend the experience – after this you will look further, online of course. Enhance the engagement – you may tweet your own thoughts and ideas which enhances things.

What breaks assumptions over expectations? How can we get people to come in physically or online, to see for themselves. Seeing is believing, but you have to not only market, but be able to back it up in reality, to participate. They have to also have a social connection, not with the building, but with the people in the building – with people in the library who they believe are more honest and authentic.

Instead, you can offer surprises – offer them something they don’t expect. You need to do things that make your users curious. Give them a chance to discover – so that they end up owning it – even if we miss out on getting the credit. Let them make connections, both to people and to the place.  Learn – check out Happy Planet Index: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/ – number five is learning. So very important to ensure people keep learning. All this will keep people coming back.

Do something unexpected and make it cool, both in the physical and online environments. (I geek the library).

Always offer silence, trustworthiness, answers, quality and Wi-Fi. Quality, means finding the balance between doing it right and do it quickly.

From the community section on SLV website – helps embed them back in with their users.

Digital is not so scary – we are still trying to make the worlds information accessible in our pockets – but has moved from a miniature library in a matchbox, to online – the only difference is that we use mobile devices to access it and the content has been outsourced.

Technology has really shaped learning and literacy. We can talk to anyone at any time. We can work together from anywhere at any time. We can connect with people anywhere, any time. The curriculum has had to change too, but teachers are struggling to keep up with these phenomenal changes, so that they can lead young minds. They are getting on board and librarians have to do so too.

Information has changed, but even though trusted sources are always the best, they are not the first two results on a Google search, where people think they are trusted sources. There is so much learning now available on the web, not just content, but ways of providing learning – eg. Video conferencing. Information scarcity has changed to information complexity. Clay Shirky – “Its not information overload. Its filter failure.” This is what librarians are great at and we need to be able teach everyone.

Khan Academy – www.khanacademy.org – 2500 videos to teach you just about everything. Some good, some bad.

We are answer rich, but question poor. (Susan Greenfield – “Quest for identity in the 21st century.”) Hamish has great admiration for reference librarians who deal with people who have done the search but cant navigate what they found, or find the answer they seek.

University of Sydney has created a great range of engaging resources to help people to search and filter. SLV has done the same with ERGO (http://ergo.slv.vic.gov.au/). Designed for students, but stats showing that teachers are finding it very valuable.

Hoddle Waddle (http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/explore/student-teacher-resources/hoddle-waddle-education-kit) – program to help students navigate 50 sites in the CBD in a day. Not taken up initially, but once they made most of the content Freemium, bookings have improved and all the resources are being much better used. Teachers are now presenting on the program at conferences. They are now considering offering it as a public program, for cultural visitors to use it. Improvements in progress including mobile contributions using Broadcastr. ARIS is another app which does something similar. As augmented reality becomes more mainstream, there will be even more opportunities to put IT back into reality.

Change involving technology, needs not only the tech, but also a cultural change.

Interaction with inanimate. SLV playing with QR codes – used it in a gallery to see how people
use it. There are also Google Goggles, i-nigma, Red Laser, Photosynth – a 360 degree mapping app.

Risk: Partners and programs – risk is not a dirty word, being risk adverse – makes you slow and inflexible – wont do anything because we could get it wrong, it requires trust of the organisation in their staff, motivation, relationship – always remembering that shift will happen.

If you don’t step in and do it, someone else will – and they not present what you think should be.

Some tools to do this: RSS, Twitter, Google +, Facebook, Yammer. Half of SLV is now on Yammer, after starting with 5 a year ago.

Networks are always changing – online mimics what nature does – new networks develop and old ones die and drop away.

“Use the force, Luke”. – Obi Wan Kenobi. We need to harness the world around us. We want to be able to pull people on site and push them online. Don’t create your own social space, go to where your users are already. Need to occupy multiple spaces to access different audiences.

Sometimes you need to prepackage content and bring it to the fore, to make it easier for people to access and to bring our collections alive.

“The more you learn, the more acutely aware you become of your ignorance.” (Peter Senge – “Fifth discipline”) SLV programs: TedX Melbourne and now happening around the world, but it pulls people in and engaging with you, Personal Learning Network with SLAV teaching teachers and teacher librarians about the online world.

Its not so much I Communication T, but change as the C in ICT. We need libraries to be FUN – not just the physical, but the online as well. Need to know what the drivers are, have to be prepared to play and technology has a role. (Night at the Mitchell Library video).

Video games are changing how things work. They have play, replay and experimentation, they involve risk and reward, they can be integrated experiences and augmented experiences. The only difference between chess and video games is a shift in format – the skills and experience are very similar.

International initiatives – Find the Library at NYPL, National Gaming Day in US Libraries, Freeplay at SLV.

Merge and mirror programs – a fusion between what they experience in one space and are further enhanced in another. Transmedia – can stand alone (eg. Facebook), but can also be linked to draw people to other spaces. Hacks and Library Apps can also be used to enhance experiences.

Data is becoming sexy as people are presenting it differently. eg. Infographics, Library Hack, Open Government Data.
“But problem solving , however necessary, does not produce results. It prevents damage. Exploiting opportunities produces results. ” (Peter Drucker – “The Effective Executive”)

“When people in motion, meet a library in motion, anything is possible” – Director Stockholm Public Library.

Libraries after the iPad – Christine McKenzie – YPRL

Our world is changing fast, so fast that the paper that Chris wrote four months ago and was presented at LIANZA is already out of date.

Kurt Vonnegut quote – ……………the people on the edge see them first.

Being on the edge is not the place to be, being well prepared, with the right equipment and safely landing is (parachuting story).

So what makes now ‘the edge”?  Digital books are here – is one of the tipping points. Books are no longer just books. Stories are all around that have predicted the demise of the book.

Beyond the book summit at Columbus. Will libraries be part of the digital world circulating materials? How sure are we that vendors will let us in?  What does a non-circulating library look like ? Are we asking the right questions?

The container is changing, after being the same for hundreds of years. The book is still the most ubiquitous format we have.  E-readers are mimicking books because they are the ideal size for the aim of the device.

Books will be longer in dying because we have a love affair with them – they have been around for 500 years and we have a personal relationship with them. The change will be multi-generational.

What is you personal comfort with digital readiness?  Do you think libraries are digital ready?  What about our users?

Need to be thinking about:

Making information accessible: who needs a reference librarian when you have the internet. The librarian CAN be a better friend than Google.

Provide free access to information: internet is like the mind of god – its all free. Libraries are providing quality info and provides context.

Promoting literacy: how do we engage the kids today when they are more comfortable with digital devices. Having said that, there is still a demand for literacy at all levels.

Encouraging reading:  article “Is Google making us stupid?” “The way we read is changing. “Most of the arguments against the printing press were correct” – but nobody could predict the myriad blessings.” (Clay Shirky)

Community connectedness:  libraries are non-institutional, non-welfare facilities which are open to all.

Free flow of information: don’t let our line of thinking be dictated by the funding bodies we report to. Having Chopper Read as a speaker or Philip Nitzschke. Last place where you can promote both sides of an argument.

Monopoly on lending:  leisure time can be spent in many different ways. There is no secondhand in digital, but libraries are in the secondhand business.

Traditional library skills:  cataloguing is not even a compulsory subject  at library school anymore. But cataloguers are the ones who will make taxonomies work.

Biggest challenge is – are we even going to be at the table?

Content control – big players are Amazon, Google and Apple. Will vendors let libraries into the circulationless environment. The interfaces are clunky at present. Freegal is coming – music offerings – not the best model, but models are changing.

Worrying restrictions – Harper Collins only 26 loans and UK ebooks can only be downloaded in libraries. In Victoria, libraries were told they couldn’t link to SLV which has databases which they no longer subscribe to.

Public Library Manifesto – IFLA.
Top 10 things about libraries:

1. Libraries have good stuff. Community learning spaces give none of the visual cues that libraries do. Content is recreational, information, directional, inspirational and more.

2. Literacy – programs in the US are run so that children are ready to start reading before they start school. This program changes generational illiteracy. YPRL partnered with the train system and handed out books which were Book Crossing listed and encouraged to leave the book to be left in the wild….

3. Innovative and adaptable – libraries embraced the internet. What lessons can we learn from our excitement and foresight from the introduction of the internet into public libraries. Web 2.0 also brought excitement, new services, training both staff and members of the public.  We are moving more to apps, so mobile computing is the way we are going, but we don’t have the excitement we had in the early days of internet introduction. How can we get that back?

4. Trusted brand – Far Rockaway, Meetingpoint@latsapalatsi, Book Dispenser in Singapore, are these libraries? Tank U at DOK – recognises mobile phones nearby and allows users to download audio, e-books or music – like a top-up of fuel. The Edge at SLQ – digital productions and installations, Swedish libraries are using RFID and PIN numbers to get entry to the library even after staff have gone from the day – cameras and gates keep the libraries secure. (Sonderborg)

5. Physical spaces – the heart of the community – Nilimbuk residents were polled on this question and their response was the Eltham Library because the library takes them to new places – knowledge and discovery, inspirational, everywhere is here, has all they need to study and focus, provides material in their language and in learning new lagnauges, library has taught them what they never thought they could learn, marketplace of ideas, connected, social – allowed them to meet new people and learn new things, world away – a place of serenity and quality time. Libraries – infinite possibilities. Libraries are a great place to be alone.

6. Physical destinations – they can be tourist attractions. Amsterdam – transformed from a lending library to an adventure library. Is the  most popular building in the city.

7. Wifi – changing the way that people use the building – using it for business, study and social and the provision of it encouraged use of the library.

8. Community initiatives – fight cancer in Queens – Queens library Helathlink program is improving early diagnosis na dtreatment. YPRLS Nemi butteflies project resulted in jobs and award wins for participants.

9. We add value – economic, social and environmental – demonstrates the value that libraries provide to their communities. Providing safe spaces, virtual spaces etc, how do you put a value on that?

10. We have stories – libraries need to give out stories – not about the container. Powerful stories – Sarajevo Library – Hatzida Demiorvic.  The library remained open, being refuge, inspiration, relief and more for the residents of Sarajevo during the four years of war.

Planning for the future: What is the added value of the library to the participation culture. Is it only the space?  How do we develop the combination of media, staff and users. Victorian project is looking to 2030.

We don”t know what happens when DVD and CDs disappear or what will happen with DRM. Will newspapers and magazines survive? What will happen with e-readers?  We know we have value and that people are still using us – new libraries are still being built. Its what we don’t know that we don’t know that’s the problem.

Where to now? Get mobile – more quickly. Get social – in there and creating our own. Get active – get a seat at the table, with publishers and providers Get a partner – the right one, makes life easier.

Fortune favours the prepared.

Library Hack 2011 – Hamish Curry
(Online Learning Manager – SLV)

http://libraryhack.org

Hack has a different meaning these days.

Library Hack is a mash-ups competition. Its about gathering library data from Australian and overseas, bringing it together to create new mash-ups.   There are already reams of data and ideas gathered on the library hack site. Encouraging library data and turning it into something else.

Some real life examples include Flinklabs, Visuwords, Timeglider, Trendsmap, We feel fine, Spezify, Personas.

Trying to take libraries away from just being consumers, to also being providers of data which can be reused for wider purposes. Information from the social space can be accessed and used in libraries.

Library hack is open to everyone. You don’t need to be a programmer – ideas are very welcome.

A lot of the data has been added to the data.gov.au website.

End of May, SLV is running some events – check the Library hack website for details.

John Blyberg – Tomorrows library: top technology trends & user experience design for the 21st century library – Darien Library

Data is the 21st century version of clay, which can be molded into a new product – digital clay=mash-ups.  Take the opportunity to look under the hood and check out the data and how it may be able to be mashed up.

How can technology be used to enhance the library experience?

Last ten years have been interesting in technology change. Today we all have mobile devices, ten years ago not many had them and they were just phones. Today’s phones have more computing power than the computers of yesterday. The rate of change is still growing.

Showed Microsoft  Labs 2019 montage. All the technology seen on the video is available today, but in a primitive form. Its all going to be a part of our reality in the not too distant future.

What does that mean for libraries? We need to be very good at customer service, so that people walk away having experienced an ideal interaction.

Why do we provide good customer service? Because the users like that. Its a feel good thing.

What is user experience (UX)? Its a design method that looks at the interaction between users, machines, environment etc, as an ecology rather than a discrete set of elements. It includes industrial design, interface, physical experience. Everything from the shrink wrap to the product itself is part of the user experience.

At its core, it is a planned, positive, desirable experience.  It needs a synthesis of multiple discrete interactions – everything in our collection, our staff expertise, what our users bring in with them, all need to be considered and brought together in systems which meets the aim of a desirable experience.

It is more than the sum of its parts. It can be the little things, like what you call your library users, all brought together to create a unique experience for your library attendees.

It doesn’t happen on its own, it needs successful process management. Fourth level of economy is the experience business.  Disney is the ultimate experience, although libraries aren’t on that level, but we can still bring something special to our users experiences.

Design context – Michael Cummings – the four legs of interactive design – users, resources, technology and organisation. Need to have a balance, but with technology always changing, the balance in other areas also need to change to address the balance. Changes in one area, will lead to changes in another and so the balance is always changing and needs continuous adjustment.

Have our community, with its culture and then its different levels of sub-culture. Twitter has a lot going on, which we can’t possibly consume, so there are sub-cultures online too. The library is a node in our society, which sits out there where anyone can access it, we provide and expect very little in return.

Libraries need to be major players in the voluntary networks. Social media is a very voluntary network – these are networks that people choose to be a part of – at some level (may be partial).

The Road ahead – constantly scanning ahead to see what the future might be like and to position ourselves for our users. We need to accept reality and fold it into our business practices.

In order to stay relevant we need to commit to a process of continuous sustainable change. Innovation is a necessary part, it helps us to move forward, to be a part of the future. It takes short term resources however, to achieve long term gains. This can be hard to achieve. Once you have made that commitment, it becomes a stable resource.

At Darien, they allow innovation to drive change and its not just about technology. They removed the circulation desk, introduced a new classification system that encourages browsing and re-organised the picture books into subject areas which in turn dramatically increased circulation.

Scary thing about innovation is that it can lead to FAIL. Failure is a good thing – lessons learned have helped drive us to where we are today. eg. Steam engine was very inefficient,but many people worked on top of the original work to develop it into the combustion engine we have now. You don’t get to a Eureka moment until you have had failures. But how do you fold your failures into your organisation? Adapt and make mid-course corrections. Waste of time to berate on failures, but instead invest your time in trying new things. No-one will die if we screw up. Our resilience to failure is one of our strengths.

Interface design – the veneer that gets put over everything. Its the first impression that people have.

People – (training + talent) x (temperament+communication style+ability to collaborate). We are institutions of people, so we need to make sure we have the right ones on staff. If we were making loads of money and were hoarding ideas, we wouldn’t be librarians.

Presentation – don’t have a messy home when you invite someone over for dinner – you want to show your visitor that you respect them. We invite thousands to come into our institutions everyday, so think of their visit in terms of hospitality. This is our library, which has some rules, but its your place too whilst you are here.

Content – core part of what libraries are about, but its form is changing, as is what is inside.

Persona – how is the library personified in the minds of your users. How would they describe you. You need to be thinking about that.

Physical space – there is still the need and if anything it is growing.

Convergence – mobiles are convergent devices – they are no longer phones alone. Social is happening both online and in person – need to be aware of this.

Events and programming – never used to have spaces for these things – its such a key part of what we are doing now.

Openness – openly show how we are making the decisions that we do – but also about open data and open source – we want to be able to access open data, so we can do interesting things and view the world in new ways.

“The library encourages the heart.” (Dr Michael Stephens). The most succinct description of what libraries are all about. We want to inspire wonder, discovery and connection, inspire imagination and help people build on it.

Simplicity – we need to make everything as simple as possible for our users, even if it is illusion. We need to hide the complexity – to take that burden on ourselves.

Resilience – we need ensure that our users are our biggest fans, they will tell the stories that ensure our future existence. We do this by engaging them at the experience level.

Coordination and collaboration makes this easier.

Feedback helps to stay the course -want the one on ones with our users so that we can get the qualitative feedback from them. So they will tell us what value we provide, whether we are providing what they want and how we are doing in their eyes.

Personal transformation – the fifth economy beyond the experience economy. That’s where libraries want to be – not every visit will be an epiphany, but every visit should have the potential for a transformative experience.

Inhibitors of UX:

Security = lack of trust. If you don’t trust your users, it becomes a one way experience, transactional rather than collaborative. We focus so heavily on prevention – stop them because they might do something.  Move our resources to mitigation – what will we do if it does happen – if it does, how will we respond – what framework will we have in place so front line staff can deal with it if it arises.

Dis-organisation – how are you going about achieving the goals you have started for your service.

Apathy – a lack of purpose. Generally systemic. Everyone will know about it, but how do you address. None of us are doing it for the money – we felt the calling – we need a sense of purpose. You can then end up saying No a lot. Next time, when you feel the need to say no – say yes and see what consequences will you have to deal with – the world will not end. Try to be an organisation that says yes, and only says no in extenuating circumstances.

Darien Library has highest circulation and door count in Connecticut. Get users from neighbouring cities, due to the quality of the library. Got the inspiration for their new library from Lockheed Martin who took staff, gave them a space and a large budget and told them to design what they wanted.  Some of their most successful projects came out of this. Darien’s user experience department was based on this premise.

IT department was eliminated as a separate entity and folded into the user experience department. Brought programs, strategic planning and teen programming into this department. UX team is charged with evaluating every point of contact with users and systems and users and staff.

Implications:

Tethering. They spent a lot on making the building totally wireless.

Mobility: can be a 100 devices logged in during the day – staff are moving around so are using VOIP .

Roving staff: all want to be doing it, but difficult to get happening. Small desk with ability for users to page them if they were roving. Roving staff now have iPads. Have to think about practicalities – can’t carry phone, ipad etc especially if no pockets.

RFID: all business practices are based upon a successful implementation of RFID. Have same staff  as 2005, but in a building twice the size. Has paid for itself in 6 years (including automated returns system). All materials purchased, come pre-processed and ready to go. No time spent in tech services – just get unpacked, put straight into the returns system and then straight to the shelf. Once item returned, can be back on the shelf in 20 minutes.

Marketing – don’t do paper signage anymore – all electronic – with display screens throughout the library.

Display – used for movies and promotion.

Immersion – build the wow factor into the building – smart whiteboards etc.

Education – teaching about technology.

Control – over the environment, from a central location.

Convenience – access to power and the network, in central as well as wall locations.

Sharing – surface table installed but weren’t sure how to use it – children’s librarians built a sharing component into it.

Gaming – for teens, where they can engage socially with other people, whereas at home it is a solitary experience.

SOPAC : a module for Drupal which they use for their website. User usually clicks on library website, then goes to the separate OPAC.  SOPAC brings the catalogue back to the website.  John wrote and developed SOPAC.

Think about technology not only in terms of coolness, but how it will enhance the user experience.

And that was it for an interesting afternoon, which intrigued me with ideas relating not so directly to technology after all.

The presentations will soon be available on the Victoria’s Virtual Library - Infonet – podcasts will follow later.

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.

The moving team comprised 6 core staff, including myself, who worked full-time (or close to it) from Sunday night to Friday afternoon, in varying shifts, ranging from 7am to 3pm, to 1pm to 9pm.  A further 4-6 staff were involved in big moving times and on the last 2 days when we were getting everything back on shelves and into place.  A contract company was hired to assist with heavy moving of shelving and boxes, but the majority of the work was done by the library team.

Over the course of 5 1/2 days, we moved 60,000 items, much of that in boxes and their shelving, twice.  The first move was half of the library’s collection, packed into the other half. Sunday night we began after closing by moving the children’s and young adult areas, whose shelving was on castors.  We then also boxed up and moved the AV collections, magazines, genre fiction, adult fiction and large print collections, as well as the shelving they used and all the furniture that comprised those areas.  Took a few hours, but was fairly straightforward, especially as we were able to just roll some of the shelving, still fully stocked, out of the way. This was the easy part.

Monday was an early start, for all involved.  The painters and carpeters started their work, whilst the moving team started packing up the reference and non-fiction collections we could reach between boxes and shelving.  It took all of Monday for the old carpet to be ripped up on that side of the library, so laying the new carpet didn’t happen until Tuesday.  We were concerned that this would put a big dint in our plans for reopening to the public on Saturday, but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at 1pm on Tuesday to find that they carpeters had nearly finished and that we were able to start moving things back across to that side of the library.  Which we did.  We finished boxing up non-fiction and moved all 60,000 items, boxes and shelving across to the newly carpeted side of the library.

Wednesday was another early start, with the library team starting to reshelve large print and fiction, whilst the other half of the library was recarpeted and painted.  This left the last 2 days to do the final moving of everything back into place and onto shelves, in preparation for Saturday reopening.

Thursday morning was another early start, but within a couple of hours we had all the non-fiction and reference shelving back in place and it was the start of a major haul, with all hands on deck, to get everything back on shelf and in place throughout the library by Friday evening.

Add to this the fact that we were accepting returns and phone calls from patrons who weren’t aware of the closure and that our daily courier run from other libraries was still happening, there was a lot to still manage in terms of circulation.  So apart from the moving team, we had 2 staff on desk and were open to the public (at least to the edge of the desk), from 10am to 5pm each day.  Amazing how many people, even on seeing the chaos that was the library during this time, asked if they could come in and use the internet, or find a book etc.

Only adding to the interesting times we were experiencing was the opportunity we were taking to tweak some of the collection arrangements.  Although most of the shelving was going back to its original location, some wasn’t and would need to be recreated and reorganised as we started reshelving.  We were also changing some shelving arrangements, including totally redoing adult fiction and large print and changing the sequence of non-fiction.  All to give a better flow for the collections and all for the benefit of our users. Nothing like a bit of spice to keep us on our toes!

So Thursday had the shelving back in place, reference and the adult collections in place and the beginnings of non-fiction reshelved.  New shelving had been creating from the skeletons of old and new homes had been found for our Italian and Basic English collections.

Which left Friday to bring it all together.  Which we did. The last book was reshelved in non-fiction at 2.35pm (not bad as most of the staff were working 7am to 3pm that day).  The last 1/2 hour was spent moving the last of the shelving into place – AV and childrens etc, getting the furniture back in place and then leaving the remaining staff to clear the desk area of its boxes, trolleys and more, ready to reopen on Saturday.

So that was the process.  You can check out the photos on Flickr for a fuller account of proceedings and for a better idea of the size of the job. However, I wanted this blog post to be more than a reflection on the work that was done.  So here goes.

I would highly recommend that any library who wants to do some team building, do a recarpeting project like this. The 6 of us on the main carpeting team, had a wonderful time working together all week.  We all worked very hard, doing exhausting work (the last minor aches disappeared by Monday), working unusual shifts and had an absolute ball doing so.  We had a great team of people, both the core team and the extended team, who were determined to make it happen.  We bonded in a way we couldn’t doing normal library work for several reasons I believe, including – spending so much dedicated time together, being away from the public and the demands they make, being able to be more relaxed and more ourselves as a result of that and also because we genuinely liked and respected our team mates before we started the project.

We were able to share the achievements (applause and much congratulations once the last book was in place), the amusements and the mishaps.  Amusements included finding a 1945 penny in a building only 16 years old and under one bay of shelving finding a fruit tingle, a tic tac, a mint and a nail file (someone’s secret stash!!!).  The mishaps included various cuts from various tools and accessories, including scissors, utlity knives, table legs, tape dispensers and the ultimate of an attack by a drawing pin, which jumped out from a display board and got entrapped in the wild hair of one of our team.

Extra weekend staff helped clear the boxed up backlog from the courier, as well as dealing with the enthusiastic library users who poured through the doors, although it will take several weeks to get the stock reorganised on shelves properly, as we were in such a hurry to get reshelved that we ended up with very full shelves in most cases, but with room to expand into unused bays.

However, it has been all worthwhile as the library is looking great and the feedback from users has been overwhelmingly positive.

From my point of view, the week was a roaring success.  We achieved our goal of getting it all done in 5 days (I’m so task oriented) and was able to do so in good company.  I learned a bit about myself and a lot about my workmates, which has given me greater respect for them personally and professionally.  I am really happy that our users are taking to the new look and shelving changes well, as it adds that nice bit of icing to the cake.

It was a physically taxing week, but I am more than happy to be involved in such a project again if it ever arises, because it was fun.  They say a change is as good as a holiday and I couldn’t have done much different work that usual in this week, but would be happy to do it again, as long as its only periodic – I couldn’t do it everyday!

Pew/Internet regularly produces reports related to online use. One of the latest was conducted with the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois on Information searches that solve problems: how people use the internet, libraries and government agencies when they need help.  Interesting results include high use of public libraries by Generation Y’ers for the scenarios surveyed, digital divide is still an issue and the expected result of the internet as a first stop.  Well worth a look at.

University College London has produced another in their series of Ciber briefing  papers, this one on the Information behaviour of the researcher of the future.   The study was commissioned by the British Library and JISC to “identify how the specialist researchers of the future, currently in their school or pre-school years, are likely to access and interact with digital resources in five to ten years’ time.”  Very eye opening with some interesting results.

The Horizon Report 2008 from the New Media Consortium is out.  It aims to “identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning or creative expression within learning-focused organizations’.  This is their 5th annual report.  Considering the link between libraries of any type and our learning organisations, this is a key document to be watching.  The key emerging technologies highlighted in this report include grassroots video, collaboration webs, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence and social operating systems.   You can get the gist of the report through the Executive Summary.  Definitely food for thought for our libraries.

Enjoy!

First change has been the template I am using for this blog. I liked the original dark colours, they were a bit mysterious and made me feel a little on the dark side, allowing me to hide myself away in anonymity. But now I don’t feel the need to be anonymous, as I am doing things as a result of blogging that I wouldn’t have been asked to or felt comfortable doing before. The new lighter look of my blog is a reflection of this. Its also a lot easier to read!

I am also happier about starting to play around with things, so for example I have a link to my RSS feed at the top of the page and have updated my links – I have too many in my feed reader to put them all here, so I have just listed key ones. I have also included a feature that Kathryn at Librarians Matter put me onto – an Odeo Voicemail option. Click the link and as long as you have a microphone, you can record a voice mail message for me. I will then get an email to tell me I have a message and will go to Odeo and listen to it. Its free, cute and I hope its the beginning of new features (toys) that I will be able to use as I continue my learning journey. Hope you will continue along with me.