Connecting Librarian

David polled the attendees on their experience of change. We are all inspired to go back and make change, but will run into “brick walls” once we get back to work.

Essence of the quotes he used was that the only certain thing about the future is change! Best staff are self-motivated, the key is not to demotivate them.

Historically technology and libraries have not changed very fast. Going fast in the 90’s with gopher and telnet. 2004 – Web 2.0 coined. Library techie changed goes extraordinarily fast. Most popular websites are MySpace – 2003 and YouTube 2005.

Job titles: Digital Branch and Services Manager, Virtual Services Librarian and more coming with this change.

Change the old way:

- leaders simply ordered changes

- goal was to get it accomplished

- when it failed, leaders reviewed to see where it went wrong

However, change is external, transition is internal, so they need to manage the change inside first, before external changes can happen. Most leaders focused on the change not the transition.

3 steps to Transition

- Saying goodbye – letting go of the past

- Shifting into neutral – focus on the details – but some people get stuck here

- Moving Forward – begin behaving in the new way – resistance will happen, doing new things can feel weird sometimes

Resistance is not the problem – management’s reaction to it creates problems, the resistors see it as survival.

Three levels of resistance:

Information based – not enough info, disagreement with the idea, not familiar with it, confusion

Physiological/emotional – job is threatened, future with the organization, respect of peers

Bigger stuff – personal history, identity, significant disagreement over values, transference (representing someone else)

How to navigate change:

Just for leaders and techies – already come to terms with the change, understand why people may not want to change, understand that its transitions, not the change that’s causing problems

Steps to take – describe it succinctly, plan carefully, help people respectfully let go, constant communication, create temporary solutions when needed, model new behaviour

Don’t do these things – don’t confuse novelty with innovation, don’t confuse motion with action, don’t keep something going if it “still has a few good years of life”

For techies – you might be able to change quickly, there are areas where you don’t, always share too much, technojust(ication) = no technolust or technomust

If you refuse to change – there are missed career opportunities, miss out on expanding your network and ability to develop new relationships, miss out on shaping your new destiny and reality

Parting thoughts on change – if you are not being told about it, ask! – work on stress management strategies, break old habits, whine with purpose – constructive criticism is good.

RSS is still a very hot topic as most things we see on the Net has an RSS component. (presentation at stevenmcohen.pbwiki.com/CIL2007/)

Steven M. Cohen loves Google Reader as his feed reader. Took us on a touring demo, very intuitive and easy to use. Windows Vista comes with a feed icon on the desktop. It calls it News, not RSS. Its not the name that matters, but what it can do. IE7.0 (a copy of Firefox), has a feedreader on their browser. Don’t go to browse web sites anymore, the websites come to him.

Whats cool - Libworm! Searches the biblioblogosphere - library blogs and library feeds. Much better than Google Blog search and Technorati for library related content. You can then get an RSS feed for the search results and get it updated to your feed reader.

Page to RSS, you put in a URL and it scans and creates a HTML page of the content from which you can get an RSS feed. It then updates everytime the page changes - unfortunately that includes the change of the date.

News feeds - Techmeme lists the hot topics in the tech community. Open Congress takes all the data related to congress, ie. bills, senators, news, issues etc and gave them all RSS feeds.

Justia - can follow all legal proceedings once a docket number is assigned.

RSS feeds in the library catalogue - using Library of Congress Subject headings, each of which as its own RSS link. Can also use it for new databases. And use it when databases are updated, down or have improved content.

Library Thing has RSS feeds throughout. Very cool.

Twitter is a buzz throughout the conference. Twitter is a cross between blogging, instant messaging and social networking on crack. Each page comes with an RSS feed. Steven thinks stuff will appear in Twitter via RSS. New site – RSS 2 twitter will allow you to sign up to a feed through the site and when it gets updated, it goes to your twitter page and creates a title and a link. Also check out Tumblr (tumblr.com) Can share a photo, a link, a post etc but right clicking on Share to Tumblr. There is an RSS feed to this, and then redirect the RSS feed to Twitter.

News readers will change soon. Steven predicts that Twitter will be the new feedreader.

Steven’s top 12 tools:
Internet Archive – http://www.archive.org - see what websites used to look like and say
Snapper - http://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2703/ - use it to take a selection of your screen as a screen shot
Browster - http://www.browster.com/ - open a link in a new mini browser
BugMeNot - http://www.bugmenot.com/ - get passwords for
TinyURL - http://www.tinyurl.com/
GoogleGroups - http://groups.google.com/
CiteBite - http://www.citebite.com/
Picnik – http://www.picnik.com – link directly to quotes in Web pages using a quote and URL by creating a unique URL
Missing-Auctions – http://www.missing-auctions.com – search for misspelled auctions and eBay typos
Twitter – http://www.twitter.com
Meebo – http://www.meebo.com
PBwiki – http://www.pbwiki.com

Came in late, so I missed the start while I set up. Library Thing has a page for every work. Shows how many people share the book in their collections, how many reviews have been written, the top 32 tags that have been attached and more.

Has a recommendation feature. Those who have this also have that, similar tags, ratings, all the different versions of the covers that people have uploaded.

Library Things treat authors as an entity as important as a book, so the same features. Related tags, pictures uploaded by members, links, similarly tagged, also known as (ie. In different countries)

Tags – have own pages, what has been tagged, who has tagged with it, related tags – could be used as a reading list for a particular category. Eg paranormal romance has 1800 tags, yet it falls through traditional indexing systems.

Recommendations feature, includes a Unsuggester feature – if you like this, you will not like…… Using the data in the system in a multitude of ways.

What does it mean for social networking – not a niche site, as books are the centre of life for many, a Second Life for readers is books! Amazon is not the best book site forever, nor is Google Books. Books are not just items of commerce. Library Thing is what people kept, what books remain with people even after they no longer have it physically. Library Thing is about our identity which has been influenced by the books we have read. Books are objects of obsession.

Tags - every item is tagged. The bolder and larger it is, the more times it has been assigned that tag. Click on that tag and you will link to all titles that have that tag assigned. Tim did a comparison between the Library of Congress subject headings and Library Thing tags - very amusing and very demonstrative of the power of tags - not that he advocates that we no longer use subject headings, instead use both!

There is now Library Thing for libraries. Top is normal ILS data, but then all social networking tools are from Library Thing, included recommended titles, but only to titles that you hold. Integrates seamlessly to the back end of your ILS. This is not the solution - Tim says that in about 10 years we will be able to get all that we want from our vendors - getting it as XML if we want, and probably coming from Library Thing. Library Thing will offer these enhancements in the meantime.

Libraries need an OCLC type group for user generated data, which can be collected by libraries and then shared between libraries.

Chad’s voice is Library Voice, check it out.

What this presentation is about is wikis, blogs, podcasts, screencasts, surveys, polls, and other tools.

Learning occurs everywhere, not just in the classroom. Librarians teach one shot instruction sessions, often attempting to squeeze too many learning objectives into the one session.

Pre-class preparation - alternatives to handouts which are often left behind - blogs and wikis. Chad uses these tools and sometimes teaches straight off the blog or wiki, especially for students at libraries that don’t have the same resources as the main library. ie. Biz Wiki. Can walk into any class and be ready to teach those students, because the resources are all there to access. The students just need the address, there is no handout to lose.

He got the professors to put the assignments onto the wiki and then Chad would link to the relevant resources under each question, rather than having all 80 students coming to see him the day before its due. Pre-class Prep tools, include Media or pbwiki and internally or externally hosted Word Press.

In Class Feedback tools can be proprietary and expensive, so better to use Polls and IM. In your locally hosted version of Word Press, there is a plug in - WP Polls that you can use to create internal polls. Can use the results, which are visible to the survey participants, to drive the discussion. Still have the problem of having the right questions. He did a live demo of how this worked on his blog - created a quick poll and blog entry. Can lock it down so each student can only respond once. Chad uses the meebo widget to allow them to ask questions in class, without having to put their hands up publicly. It can alleviate student boredom, allows students to have partial ownership of the class and helps develop instructor skills.

Post class tools. Survey linked from a blog post. phpESP, data lives on your server, more functions for the price, including great statistics. Alternatives include Survey Monkey, but free version is limited and the data doesn’t rest on your site.

Additional instruction maybe supplementary or complementary to the class. They are using podcasts in multiple languages for a library tour. From Sep 06 - Jan 07 it was downloaded 700 times - hence saving staff time. They used Audacity to create it - showed us how to do it, very simple. Once its posted to the blog or iTunes it automatically has an RSS feed.

Screencasting using Wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/ - not open source but its free. Allows you to do screen captures and record voice over it. You can scroll down the pages whilst your talking, click on links and so much more. Automatically saves it as a htm file, can upload it and more. Chad demoed it here and is is sooooo easy too! We could use it straight away and move to the paid software later.

Videos - record video with a camcorder, capture screen video with CamStudio - records AVI format (open source) - again he demoed it - again very easy to do. Can also convert it flash, but its still a linear recording process. camstudio.org

Audio and video can have a bit of a learning curve, initial experiences can be very time consuming, but he end product is well worth the investment, it adds a human element to what your are doing.

Typical follow up support includes IM, email and blog and wiki. Can also use del.icio.us with tags as to how the resources may be used. Also Facebook or MySpace, linked from the blog, wiki etc, where students can read the RSS feed from your blog, you can answer questions through your inbox etc.

Online FAQs and online scheduler. Knowledge Publisher is an open source FAQ generator, which includes comments and rating facilities. They can also ask a question through it and the answers can then be posted to the FAQ. PHP Scheduler where students can book time, at Ohio they are using it to book study rooms. Can also use it to book time to meet with librarians etc.

Closing thoughts:
- don’t be afraid to get under the hood
- learn from failures and successes
- try new things and get momentum to get buy in
- try looking at other tools with an eye for potential library uses

Am going to be visiting Charlotte in the last 2 days of this week, so introduced myself to Helen before the session - also managed to grab a quick chat with Meredith Farkas, Nicole Engard and Aaron Schmid - very exciting!

All feeling the technology surge, which is getting better. Like a wave, trying to stay on the rest of the wave, not fall in front or fall behind. Greater demand for services, high user expectations and more. New model for libraries is technology as a foundation on top of funding, providing highly skilled and trained staff, real and virtual connections, real and virtual services.

PLCMC Information Technology Core Competencies are at 4 levels. Not providing service when it is someone elses job to support technology. Lori Reed is their core competencies trainer. Core I - every staff person should be able to do it, eg. access the intranet, enter timesheets, print, save files. (will have a link to all the core competency lists via Helene’s blog) . Pre-assessment showed that biggest need was in core troubleshooting. Core II includes patron support competencies such as searching the catalogue and using ILS (Horizon). Core III - envisionware & LPT for PC management and printing, One competencies. Core IV - more librarians and public trainers needed basic AV knowledge (ie. connecting laptop and projector), imaging and Public Technology training. The Core Competencies are aimed at supporting public service, so not management or administration. http://tinyurl.com/yo2zmh

Technology Competencies and Training for Libraries by Sarah Houghton-Jan recommended, as well as Web Junction - two tiered.

Core competencies support the changes that have already happened and are integrated into our everyday work. Different approach required for new changes, hence the Learning 2.0 program. How do we prepare and stay current in the information arena. Its all over the media.

Learning 2.0 started as Tech Bytes where they introduced RSS and blogging to staff. They came for 1 1/2 hr workshop, but after 3 months, they had reached 65 out of 540 staff. The info has to get out quick as it is all changing so quick. Had to do something different. Inspired by Stephen Abrams 43 things. Trimmed it back to 23 Things - Learning 2.0 was born. Learning program to encourage staff and expose them to Web 2.0 tools that are out there.

9 weeks of program, plus 1 month of extra exploration time. Mostly free, apart from time and the cost of a microphone (apart from the cost of the staff rewards for completing it). All done using freely available web 2.0 tools.

It was all about exposing staff to new tools, encouraging play, empowering individuals, expanding the knowledge toolbox and eliminating fear. Encouraging staff to learn and have fun.

Its also about staff controlling their life-long learning, not about having it all delivered to them. Learning 2.0 is a weapon of mass instruction.

Learning 2.0 best practices:

- don’t confuse learning with training

- building the program for late bloomers

- allow participants to blog anonymously

- communicate weekly using 1.0 methods

- focus on discovery and encourage challenges

- encourage staff to use each other and work together

- Remember that its not about acceptance or doing it right – its about exposure

- Practice transparency and radical trust

- And continually encourage staff to play!!!

Been duplicated by many different libraries. Its out there for free.

Andy is Senior Product Manager for Online Communities at National Public Radio and was a last minute replacement for the scheduled speaker who was unable to attend. His powerpoint slides are available at http://www.andycarvin.com/complibraries.ppt.

If you wanted to produce content for a mass audience you needed to be a publisher, broadcaster, billboard owner, sky writer or guy holding a sign up at a televised event. Enter Web 1.0 (40 years ago!), but producers still needed HTML, programming and graphic design skills, hosting ability and promotion mechanisms.

Today= Web2.0. New online software in late 1990s allowing people to focus on the content, rather than the technical know-how. A mass democratization of content with a common thread of online communities where people are actively encouraged to use and share each other’s original content.

Content Production: all the cool kids are doing it. Young people are more likely to post content, although race, income and education are less of a factor. Shared stats from Pew which were blogged yesterday! Web 2.0 Universe is changing so quickly, so the slide of things happening is already out of date as new tools are developing almost daily.

Most famous example are blogs - began as geek personal homepages. Blogging software has made it easier for anyone to do it - like me! Fill out a form publishing, with the result of 60-100 million blogs online, Andy thinks thats conservative. Guestimate that there are more bloggers in China than there are English bloggers worldwide.

Media hates bloggers! Cant trust citizen journalists to get the story right, they have biases, a mob mentality and more. Bloggers don’t trust big media, claim they’re unbiased - right!, dominated by soundbites, don’t respect the public’s intelligence and pandering to lowest common denominator. Happy Internet - concerted efforts at finding understanding between the media and the blogosphere. Media/blog collaboration now more common, with a greater emphasis on networked journalism, finding ways for the media to work with “The people formerly known as the audience”. (Jay Rosen)

Why do Media outlets embrace 2.0 - improving journalistic transparency, creating a public dialogue, tapping into public knowledge and creativity, new collaborative opportunities with affiliates and maybe its profitable too?

At NPR have been involved in Open Piloting. They invite the public to help create new broadcast programming, sharing rough drafts of shows before they’re ready for prime time. A focus group concept, but everyone’s welcome. Examples - Rough Cuts - Tell me more, Bryant Park. Aim to make better programming that better meets their listeners needs. Would put podcasts of pilots up for people to listen, sometimes several options and invite them to discuss the good, the bad, the better options, which they have been contributing to.

Radio Open Source - www.radioopensource.org. Blog with a radio show. Not about open source software. Website with blog supporting the development and continued improvement of shows broadcast. Opens editorial process to the public, users recommend guests and questions and participate on-air. Hosts online debriefs after shows.

BBC Have your say. Centralized forum for discussing news, only select stories covered, highlights user comments at the top of the page. CNN iReport citizen journalism project, with users asked to submit photos, video for specific stories, very best clips are included online other are archived in a gallery. Published early video from VT shooting. USA Today embedding social networking across site, not just in one section, users can comment on any story, comments featured throughout the website and are now syndicating blogs from around the world. Irony that users were using the new social networking features to complain about the change to the new social networking features.

Ohmynews - Korean online news service, publishes in Korean, English and Japanese, dedicates 20% of its space to citizen journalists and invites content submission as volunteers, those that submit consistently get paid. Global Voices Online (Harvard), international news media service using bridge bloggers - Reuters are working with them to get content from places that they don’t have news outlets. Many more examples including New Assignment.Net, VoteGuide and Minnesota E-Debate, H2OTown.

Last session for the day and what a day it has been!

Fast session, a minute per gadget. All prices are US $. The word for today’s gadgets is simplify - although not really.

Treos - 6 models introduced in the last year. Depends on service - different colours and OS , need 755p is slimmer, lighter and easier.

Shredder scissors - five pairs in one, retro gadget, low tech and electricity free, protect privacy, portable, inexpensive, easy to use for home or office, shred all sorts of documents including thick ones, price $15.

TI’s projector phone - DVD quality image on the wall. Not yet available.

iPod - 5th gen. Easy to use, search, shuffle. 20,000 songs and photos - 80GB. Or smaller version. 20 hours battery life for songs and 6.5 for movies. Price $349. iTunes will offer DRM free music, but will cost more.

iCharge for iPod. Inexpensive, small, efficient and simple way to keep it charged. use with most models, key ring convenience, run on 9 volt battery.

Nano batteries - flexible, see through, 1 minute to charge, lasts 1000 cycles, 200 nanometers thick. Not available yet.

iPhone 6th Gen. Widescreen, easy menu, touch controls, high tech, WiFi, multi tasking, internet access, $499 with 2 year contract. Release June 2007.

Cube World Digital Stick People - each cube world individual has its own personality. Sold in sets of two, three series, price $29.99 per pair. Play games, connect with each other.

Pilot - label each end of a cord, so you know which is which. $6 per pack.

Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset - noise cancelling tech, matches face, hands free, $120.

Collapsible Chopsticks - practical, environmentally correct, stainless steel uppers, can hang them around your neck, price $19.89.

Jott.com - web-based voice to text service, phone to email or SMS - FREE! Need to speak clearly, but works well.

Golan i.Tech Virtual keyboard - bluetooth technology, infrared tech to project a keyboard on the desk, sensors, sound of typing, $170.

Illuminated Waterproof flexible keyboard - portable, hygenic, made of silicone, quick wash, $27

Rear view computer mirror - watch who is watching you. Price $13.

Sony’s DVP-FX810 DVD Walkman - multi-formats, swivel and flip screen, slim design, light and wide, 5.5 hour battery, easy to use can connect to other displays, $199.

Useful advice: Charging your cell phone in the car drains your battery.

Palmsize micro copter - infrared remote control, flashing led for night, full flight control, foam, battery charges from remote, 15 minute charge time, uses 6AA batteries, $39.99.

On the way out - CRT TVs. Sony only has 4 models left and they are being phased out. Will all disappear in the next 3-5 years.

Plantronics CS55 Wireless convertible headset - 300ft range, battery 0f 10 hours, works with conference phone, home version available - $279.

Targus Wireless Multimedia Presenter - controls mouse, trackball, pointer, all in one, use up to 50 ft, switch between applications, no software, $79.99.

IBM Optical Transceiver - 160GB per second, full HD movie in a second, internet routers and switches first. Soon for personal devices.

USB Missile Launcher - holds three foam missiles, use mouse to control the launcher, rotates tilts and fire, easy to use, USB activated, $39.99.

USB Vision and Posture reminder - low cost ergonomic device, warns you when you are too close to the monitor - $27.

QR Code - combine physical and digital worlds, codes interact with phones, nutrition info, real
estate details, etc. Hold phone to QR code and it will tell you give you more on the item.

Google’s Dodgeball - social tool for text messages, send a text message to service and they will let you know whether your friends are in the same area.

Next Generation Robotic Vacuum - vaporware, maps out the places to be cleaned, no picture yet exists.

Cordinator - manage cords from 10 devices, surge protector, put monitor on top, $59.99.

Trillian - IM client, free, connects to multiple IM clients, Astra 4 just released, free or $25 for Pro.

Belkin Compact Surge protector - no more tripping or tangling, flush to wall, sliding cover to keep outlets safe, integrated cable management, $39.99.

Smallest MP3 player - 2GB storage and radio, weighs less than headphones, $100.

Meebo - no software, multiple IM clients, use on all browsers except Opera, no charge.

Pelican 760 LED Flashlight - police issue flashlights, brighter, LED lamp is durable and never needs replacing, exceeds 10,000 hours of use, 90 minutes of continuous batter life. Available June 2007. Automatic charger available.’

Trivia: February 8th 2007 they were able to stop and restart light - implications for storage is immense.

Sony HDR-UX7 - consumer HD camera.

USB toaster - works on your computer’s USB port, $7.50.

International Adaptor.

Fireplace iPod Dock - $3650.

Clocky the alarm clock - runs away and hides, gives you one chance to get up, if you snooze it runs.

Retro phone handset - no batteries required, works with most cell phones - $4.99 to $29.99 clear sound.

Picknik Photo Editor - web based, no download, most of what you need, Flickr integration, free!

Chocolate Gadgets - box of 100 range from $3 to $12 each.

Resources/Ideas, check out the list at LLRX.com.

New blog coming soon, Gadgetarian.info.

http://theshiftedlibrarian.pbwiki.com.

Gamers – not just teenage boys in the basement. 90 million gamers up to age 35. Boomers = 77 million, 70% once in while, 65% regularly.

Average age = 33 years. Largest percentage is middle aged women.

Wii opening up video games to a new generation. Kids with disabilities, elderly are bowling and playing baseball.

Gamers see themselves as heroes on a quest, willing to experiment and keep trying, willing to ask for help. Have an inherent distrust of bosses, beat a boss to get to the next level. “Can’t say cos I said so and I’m the boss”.

Have strong organizational skills, creative problem solvers.

Different library services:
- collection development (Mario Bros memorial public library, Gaming Target, check
LibSuccessWiki)

- support materials for gaming culture (board games, graphic novels etc)

- post game reviews, myspace for gamers, blog etc

- Readers advisory – instead ask what movies, tv shows they like and what games they play – refer them to books about gaming – Booklist covering this

- Non-video games – board games not just virtual games www.goecaching.com

- Open play – buy equipment or get the kids to bring theirs in – or use Runescape sessions on internet PCs

- Gaming blogs get most of the comments – check out Ann Arbor. Free online games, runescape, sepmania, 4 librarians and good experience..

- Game pods – consoles in the library for use. Carver Bay Library lets kids accrue hours to play on 50 inch plasma screen – library card, book reviews, borrowing books, all help to accrue hours

- Tournament play – bragging rights. Kids will even self organize them.

- Bibliographic instruction – Uni North Carolina , Arizona State Uni – library board game now a flash game “Quarantined”

- Game creation – hold classes on how to make games – Gwynett Public – kids are content creators, great avenue for them.

- Participation gap – “confronting the challenges of participatory culture” report. Skills required for 21^st worker, play, performance, simulation, multi-tasking, judgement, networking and more, all used in gaming. Machina – write a story in a game – check Bloomington, who run a film festival out of the results.

- Lifelong learning

Potential gaming groups – families – DDR, Mario Kart; 20 and 30 somethings, middle-aged women - DDR and greatest generation men – WWII games, Seniors in general – Brain Age.

Nintendo DS – wireless networking between them so can play same game against each other. Has a lot of interesting learning games.

Storytime are communcal experiences. Need to think about how libraries can do the same with gaming. Check out the further reading on Jenny’s slides, to be posted at the wiki site listed at the top.

Social software to Meredith must meet 2 of the following definitions:

• communicate, collaborate and build community online
• syndicated, reused, remixed

Characteristics

• Easy content creation and sharing - democraticised creation, anyone can create and edit - eg. CIL 2007 Wiki
• Online collaboration - regardless of geographic location, collaborating in a single shared space eg. Google Docs
• Conversations: distributed - taking place in many different spaces - eg. blogosphere, using comments, trackbacks, you can trace conversations (BlogPulse site to trace conversations)
• Conversations: real time - instant messaging to access people in real time, friends are already there, is the library?
• Capitalizing on the wisdom of crowds - social tagging tools such as del.icio.us to find what others have found interesting, wikis to share local knowledge at conferences etc
• Transparency - ratings websites abound, so nothing escapes scrutiny, it allows us to make a more human connection with entities online and organisations are responding with human touches such as blogs
• Personalisation - choose and combine our own content with RSS feeds, bringing them together in one space - making them our own newspapers, podcasts become our own radio stations, using your computer, CD player or MP3 player
• Portability - ear buds seem be surgically attached to young adults - need to be providing content for the devices they are using

What can libraries do?

• Disseminate information - blog to push information out easily to our users, especially using RSS feeds so they can get it in the form they choose. Harris County Public Library uses a blog as a reference service - recommend books on topics that are of interest due to recent event. RSS feeds from the catalogue based on subject, author, title and more. Ohio Uni Biz Wiki - a subject guide, allowing subject access to resources, easily editable and searchable. Use del.icio.us to subject collect relevant bookmarks - Washington State Library has a genealogy collection which is annotated and available through RSS. Use podcasts to deliver library instruction, interviews, local history - eg. Omnibus
• Get feedback! Start a Conversation! eg. Ann Arbor District Library has built great conversations through their blogs and more by leaving their comments open. Better than a feedback form. Use social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace. Oceana Wilson uses the bulletin function to solicite suggestions for book purchases etc from students.
• Give the library a human face! Use Flickr to show what your library is all about. A picture is worth a 1000 words, show your fun activities and more. SJCPL blog really talks to their readers like they are talking to an old friend. Use visual elements and fun language.
• Provide services to remote users. More and more that our visitors are virtual only and we need to be reaching them also. Use IM, as they are already using it instead of trying to make them use something unfamiliar - such as virtual reference software. Calgary Public Library tutorials using webcasts, instead of screen shots or step-by-step instructions.
• Provide services where our users are. MySpace profiles, or like Brooklyn College Library which has built a portal where their users are: portal to online resources, blog and more. Thomas Ford uses MeeboMe widget to open IM messaging right from their website, without having to sign up for IM. Use RSS feeds to syndicate your content to many different locations.
• Provide services using tools patrons use. SMS reference using mobile phones which are ever present on particularly young people.
• Capitalise on collective intelligence of colleagues and users. Ann Arbor has integrated tagging into their catalogue - getting contextual information on these resources, from their users, making it easier to find. Have also got, users who borrowed this, also borrowed….. Hennepin has integrated commenting into their catalogue, patrons can write reviews and it can be found in their catalogue.

Strategies for introducing social software in libraries

• Avoid technolust - think about the needs first, then choose the best tool for it
• Will it improve library services? Will patrons use it? - Who are our patrons, what are there needs, it all has to be context appropriate to the users of your library
• Involve staff at all levels in planning - not just the tech savvy staff, but all those who have to use and market the tools, they can provide some great insights.
• Involve IT in planning - include them from the start, create a consortial rather than an adversarial relationship
• Play with Technology! Kick the tires! Start using the social tools, check them out and you will get a lot more insight on how they work, how they could work and their problems.
• Trust your patrons, learn from them - don’t fear what your users may post - its about radical trust and it we don’t have it, we miss out on valuable contributions
• Consider maintenance and sustainability - think long term once you start with it, not just the next few months, but years and years
• Do you need a policy? Don’t always need one, but there is a benefit in having things such as a comments policy.
• In Marketing, focus on the functionality - patrons don’t really care about the tool, but are interested in what it provides.

Meredith announced the winners of the competition to find cover art for her new book - “Social software in libraries”.

Links from the paper are at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com

Hamilton Library has many community partners. Won a Sirsi-Dynix award for their community development. A portal was created to represent all the organisations and agencies in the city of Hamilton. The same tabs on the library web page are the same on the Council webpage and other community institutions in the portal, as a result their website visit increased as has the visits to all other agencies.

They are “Google for Hamilton”. Search results are focused on Hamilton. The portal is complete integration with municipal services. Other features include a robust CMS, a unified events database, web casting, collaboration spaces, online transactions, rss feeds, single sign on, metadata everywhere and W3C compliant. Hamilton Library trains 200 authors to upload and manage content on the portal.

They didn’t do any risk management on the events calendar and thereby underestimated its use, so it crashed within a week of going live. The single sign on means that you are logged all at once to all the various organisations on the portal that need user verification.

Although the software is W3C compliant, not all docs loaded were, so much training was done to educate all contributors on this.

Online registration of their users needs verification, so they get their card within an hour of applying - subject to those verification processes. 70-80 users per week register who never come into the library and Hamilton does not want to force them to. The online registration allows them to use their virtual resources without having to ever visit a library.

Collaboration space in the software is being used for 70 online book clubs that Hamilton Library runs. It was originally intended for community groups but is being well utilised by the library.

Working with community partners on this portal has created last partnerships which benefits the library in so many different ways.

A partnership at its best when

• your reputation as a partner will precede you
• there are different organisational cultures involved, managing their own decision making processes within their groups, then at the partnership level
• there is a commitment to common vision and goals
• the sustainability model will evolve over the course of the project - it will not be the same as when it started, with underestimates in inputs and outflows and changes in who makeups the partnership
• the project is properly resourced or can be scaled back so no one organisation has too much demand placed on it

Ongoing challenges

• organisational structure and power partners - who has the power, why and how that power structure is managed
• inclusiveness and balance of perspectives
• changing environment and priorities for each partner
• sustaining what we have
• implementing new stuff

What you need to succeed

• build trust and respect as a partner (build reputation)
• have shared values - sometimes need to be a compromise and can you support it
• engage the right people
• start small, think big - some aspects of the software have still not being started as they still are getting their partners established on the portal
• integration with your core business - becomes part of core tasks of library staff
• test, test and test some more (usability and technology) - make sure the right testing is also being done
• celebrate success and excuse mistakes

Discovered that people were using the library more, as well as finding what they want more quickly and spending more time there.

Virtual Library - has branch manager, includes all services where it doesn’t require someone walking through the door, includes telephone services.

In future - Second Life project with McMaster Uni and others (have an island they are developing), WiFi initiative, IM Reference, Learning 2.0 and more.
www.hpl.co - library website, www.myhamilton.ca - portal address