Connecting Librarian

After a delicious lunch out chatting with Darien’s team of librarian bloggers, I sat down with Barbara, Janet, Caitlin and Kim to talk about their podcasting efforts. They use an already bought Edirol MP3 Recorder (from Roland). They record, then do minimal processing of the file before uploading it to their website.

When recording a speaker, they put the recorder on a front row seat, next to someone monitoring it. For a concert, they place it next to a speaker and for an interview, on the table between the questioner and guest.

They use Wavepad (ironically its Australian) software, to compress the wmv file to MP3, Caitlin says it is much better than Audacity and its still free. They keep file sizes down to under 25 meg to keep it easier for up and downloading. If the session is longer than 20 minutes, they split it into separate files to keep it under the limit. Caitlin also uploads their podcasts to iTunes as well as having them available through their events blog. They have done podcasts on how to podcast, responses to the question of who will die in Harry Potter, teen book reviews, concert, speakers and more.

Caitlin also does audio reviews of audio books for Audiofile magazine, which helps her stay current on podcasting techniques and equipment. Darien also has a MySpace page and although they haven’t done much with it, they have over 100 friends - mostly publishers and librarians however.

I finished the day with Alan Kirk Gray - an amazing and delightful gentleman. We talked about the new Darien Library and all the changes that will come with the new building. Some of these changes include roving reference, RFID with no set circulation desk, a learning commons in the basement, teen center next to the computer, SOHO - small office, home office space, virtual reference office and much more. Its all very exciting and a lot of risk taking, so it will be amazing and exciting to watch how it all develops. They are aiming to be collaborative, with patron to staff and patron to patron.

Darien is very customer focused - what I experienced as a visitor is also the type of experience that every user enjoys. Alan and the entire Darien staff were a pleasure to deal with and I felt like a treasured guest as that was how I was treated. I can’t thank Louise, Alan and the Darien staff enough for sharing their experiences and the journeys involved with me.

So here I am now in New England (sounds so romantic) at Darien Library. Check out the photos I have on Flickr about their current building. They have just broken ground for a new library building, which will be similar to the new Princeton Library with 3 levels, but not quite as big. The inspired building project was written up in a Library Journal article “Library Buildings 2004 - Great Libraries in the making.”

Despite having an overcrowded building at present, with offices in closets and more, they are doing some great things, including a lot of technology based and virtual services. I met with Kim Gabert, Emily Weiss (recipient of the Louise Parker Berry Fellowship) and Mary Freedman from Reference Services and talked about their website, blogs, email newsletter, RSS and IM Reference. John Blyberg left Ann Arbor and starts here on May 1st (I’ll meet him at CIL!), so things will get even more exciting!

At present Kim as webmaster uses Dreamweaver, but John will help them institute Drupal as their content management system, so changes are coming. Darien hosts their own website on a Linux server, as well as those of over 60 local organisations. Talk about building community!

Their newsletter, Connections, which is available online, is emailed out to their users using “Constant Contact“, which is also used for their children’s newsletter. They will look at introducing RSS feeds from the Connections newsletter homepage in the near future.

They have 10 blogs, which are all linked from their homepage, as well as being linked from a combined page with a one line summary of each of the latest posts. They use Movable Type for their blogs on Books, Music and Movies, from the Director, Childrens, Teens, Technology, Front desk, New Building, Events and Community Matters. Each blog has a librarian author, with the exception of Music and Movies which is shared between two reference librarians. They usually post weekly and all their blogs are usually in their top 20 website hits, with the Music and Movies the most visited. Comments are rare, excepting on the Events blog when they poll their users as to which of 3 movies they will show in the next fortnight. A post from each blog is incorporated into the Connections newsletter, which then entices people to go back to the blogs, thus enhancing their readership. Their blogs tap into a wide range of librarian expertise and knowledge whilst enhancing the librarians skills and sharing the load of blogging.

Darien offers IM reference using Meebo online. They have also incorporated a Meebo widget into their website, so users can access the service from within Darien’s website, without having to use an external webpage or software. There are a few issues with this - remembering to login daily and the fact that it can only be logged into on one PC, so sometimes they have to juggle logins to answer incoming IM requests. They receive about 4-5 IM queries a month and about 20-30 email requests. They were very innovative and hosted an AOL IM chat room on Oscars night to discuss the outcomes - did some very heavy promotion and had a lot of staff involved in the discussion, but they believe they had 1 Darien resident attending. They are not doing SMS reference at this stage.

They offer downloadable audio, which started slowly, but is taking off. They use Overdrive through the iConn state consortia and Recorded Books, which is easier for the librarians to use and has more titles. They are offered for download remotely, as there is only one PC in the library that it can be done on and that is usually used just to show people how its done.

They also offer Playaways, which are self-contained audio books. They have the content and player all in one small device. They have about 200+ titles covering adult, childrens and teen fiction and non-fiction, which are very well used. (previous weekend there was only 1 on shelf). Each one is issued with a spare battery and disposable headphones.

Judy Sgammato took me through their Technology Center and tech classes. Their Center has 12 PCs, portable and large sized scanners, B&W and colour printers - using print management software. They circulate laptops, digital cameras, digital video camcorders and MP3 players and have headphones, a zip drive and portable floppy disk drives for use with their Technology Centre PCs. They offer classes on Microsoft products, Photoshop Elements, podcasting, Dreamweaver and more. The center is available for public use outside of classtime with timetables of available times and the availability of assistance posted outside the room on a weekly basis.