Connecting Librarian

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.

This is my first study tour blog post and in the interests of readability, I will break down the entries so that they don’t end up being too long. This is only a representation of what I discover, to blog it all would be more like a book than a blog post!

My first stop on my whirlwind study tour! I came down to Princeton from New York by train last night, so that I was fresh and ready for my visit today (as fresh as time lag would let me be anyway). The Princeton Library is a beautiful newish 3 storey building in Princeton township, not far from Princeton University. The three levels are themed - the first floor is a browsing collection, with media, express fiction and new books organised in a bookstore type layout. The second floor is the adult collections and the main computer area (they have over 100 public PCs) and the third floor is the children’s and teen areas. The first floor has a large seminar room, a Friends run library store and an outsourced cafeteria. The other two floors also have several meeting/seminar rooms of various sizes. There is also some beautiful public art interspersed throughout the building. You can check out the photos I took on Flickr.

I first met with Janice Painter from Access Services (equivalent to our Tech services) and talked about Innovative’s Millenium ILS. They send courtesy notices by email, 2 days before items are due as a reminder. 90% of users get these. Overdue notices are also sent by email. The only paper used is for overdue notices for non-email contactable users and for bills which are sent out on paper only. Since this was introduced, fines revenue has dropped dramatically. What a great PR move! In 2007 they will be introducing federated search and mashups through new Millenium upgrades. They have a staff blog for news and views and are looking at using a staff wiki for tips and tricks. The Book Club wiki from last Summer’s reading program will be run through new features available in their ILS this year, making the most of the new features of reviews and comments. Although a n intensive process, they will be entering old reviews into the catalogue to start the process. They use RFID and Libramation’s self check and have tapped into Innovative’s API to make it work with their ILS.

Tim Quinn - Public Information - gave me the grand tour of the library, both the public areas and behind the scenes. They have several video screens throughout the library, which displays their events calendar, which is extensive. Their beautiful art wall will have a PC nearby which will allow visitors to access information about each individual tile that comprises the work. They use a bookstore philosophy on their first floor, with their express collection - latest releases with 1 week loan and increased overdue charges, new release DVD rentals ($1 overnight) and their large media collection. The 2nd floor is reference and the adult collections, with the teens and children on the 3rd. They have free wireless in the library and into the plaza next door, which is available 24/7. Their Technology Centre is open to the public for set hours when not being used for classes, with each PC having the full Adobe Suite so people can work on projects or try software out. It also includes scanning and an AV media centre.

Barbara Silberstein, their Media Librarian took me through their downloadable media. Unfortunately, due to digital rights management, it is only available to MP3 players with Windows DRM, so doesn’t include iPods. They offer Overdrive through the Listen NJ consortia and Netlibrary downloadable audio books and streaming music from Alexander Street Press. The Listen NJ option offers several 1000 titles, but with only 1 simultaneous users, but it does have a holds facility. Audio books must be downloaded to computer first, using specific software, after which they can be transferred to an MP3 player. The consortia set a loan period of 10 days, due to long holds lists. These titles are not listed in the catalogue and account for about 100 loans a month. Netlibrary adds 30 titles a month and at present they have about 1500 available. They are accessible through the catalogue, their website or directly from Netlibrary, but the user requires a user account which is set up through the library. Loans are for 3 weeks for up to 7 titles and they have unlimited simultaneous users. Loans are mid 100s per month. Barbara said that loans have remained flat, most likely due to the DRM issues. Hopefully with the recent announcement by EMI that they will be making DRM free music available, this issue will be resolved for libraries soon. They also have streaming African American, Classical and Global Sound music, for free. Must be played live on computer and can only be saved with credit card details. Users can create playlists and search for particular music in a wide variety of ways. It includes childrens, spoken, old jazz, older stage and screen music and much more. They have a licence for 5 simulataneous users, but the most they have ever had is 3. It is relatively inexpensive and generally well used.

That concluded the morning. More later.