Connecting Librarian

Second day at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County. Today Helen introduced me to Charles Brown, PLCMC’s Director. That was an honour and a privilege to enjoy our short chat together about our respective parts of the world.

Helen then took me to their CheckIt Outlet, a small shopfront library at the other end of the Charlotte city centre. (Check out the flickr photos) It is a small popular materials library with 3 staff, open only during business hours Monday to Friday and they do roaring business, particularly at lunchtime. Very cool!

It was then back to the Main Library where Helen gave me a quick rundown on what they want to do with the Virtual Village. This includes changing an unused part of the service desk to a collaborative space between library patrons and staff, plasma screens to inform and engage library patrons and to be used for on the spot teaching as required and a digital display area. They are planning to pipe music into the Virtual Village to help contain the issue of noise. They will also add more equipment to a studio to enhance music creation and make it a more collaborative space and reorganise a 2nd studio into another smaller PC lab. They will hope to reorganise some unused office space for gaming.

Back upstairs, we chatted about some other things that PLCMC is doing or has done. They have an IT department of 12 staff, who do everything in house. They host 75 servers and service over 1500 PCs throughout their admin areas and 24 branches, including help desk assistance.

Their website has recently included podcasts on their Readers Place website. Book reviews are easily uploaded through a simple form interface. They have filtering on all PCs, a condition of federal funding and have found it works well, with no real issues arising from its use. They have a MySpace page (Library Loft), which includes a library catalogue search box and has over 1100 friends.

Patrice Ebert, Head of Public Services took me on a tour of one of PLCMC’s regional libraries – Freedom and one of their branches – Sugar Creek. It was very interesting seeing what their libraries are like away from the Main Library. I’ll let the photos on flickr tell the story.

When I got back, I grabbed a few quick minutes from Matt Gullett, the Emerging Technologies Director. He spoke about libraries needing to be more interactive, collaborative and having a life-long learning facet. I have copies of some plans that they have and they look awesome. They want to use emerging technologies to help develop experience and learning opportunities.

Matt would like to develop programs that attract a lunchtime crowd, appealing to the corporate culture that is their neighbour, the banking town. Ideas include a digital art exhibition, guest speakers and more.

They still have those experiencing the digital divide. They want to give them training to enable them to get basic certification, which will open job opportunities for them. Want to offer enrichment, learning and Web 2.0 tools type training to the public.

They are having a big open night at the Main Library, partnering with local restaurants who will provide food for the evening. There will be wine tasting, gaming to enjoy and speakers. Should be a ball and I’ll be there. Will blog it later.

In the meantime, thanks to Helen and the team at PLCMC (particularly Kelly), I have had a ball here in Charlotte and have a lot to take back with me about virtual services. I really appreciate the time, effort and attention you have spared for this visitor from down under.

An amazing service is provided from the lower area of ImaginOn. Storytimes to go (STG) provides pre-literacy kits for preschool teachers and carers. The kits are themed and aimed at getting children interested in reading. The kits have 8 to 12 picture books, a booklet of original activities written by the staff (of 4), flannelboard activities, recordings of activity songs, a puppet or educational toy and a family activity sheet. They also have art kits, adversity kits which explain cultural diversity, meet the author kids (including one on Mem Fox) and bilingual (English/Spanish kits). They have over 560 kits on over 100 themes.

The way it works: a teacher from the local county contacts them. They must first attend an orientation workshop where they learn the rules, about the kits and how to use them and how to care for the materials. Once they have completed orientation, they get the list of themes. The teacher calls and asks for a kit, STG sends the kit to their nearest PLCMC kit to collect. They have it for 4 weeks and all loans are managed from the STG office. There no overdues on the kits and late kits are returned after a follow up phone call. STG also offers workshops on storytelling and other skills.

They have now expanded their services to their website. Between 1000 and 2000 free activities are available online over 50 themes, with more being added which will eventually number between 150 and 200 themes. This is all the supporting material that is available within the kits. Teacher resources are also available.

I spent the afternoon talking with Chuck Rigney – Web Services Manager about PLCMC’s internet presence. If you haven’t checked out the PLCMC websites, you really should and allow some time to do so, as they have so much content online. They have 16 websites with their own domain names plus their intranet. Initially they got the domain names because they didn’t want people to know it was the library providing the content. They are considering leveraging the content back to the PLCMC website, but may keep the domain names.

Web Services comprises Chuck, with 2 developers and a graphic designer based in their Main Library. They have 5 active web teams who provide the content for their website, each with a different focus and comprising 6 to 8 people. They focus on book reviews, childrens, adults etc and meet monthly with someone from Web Services attending every meeting. Unlike other teams at PLCMC, these are not arbitrarily rotated – librarians move on when they want a change. When this happens, their position is internally advertised and potential members can be interviewed.

They use Active server pages and built the interface themselves, making it flexible and adaptable. It may take longer than off the shelf packages, but they get exactly what they want. The IT department maintains all their servers in-house, for the website they have 2 production servers and a development server. A recent access issue resulted in content being split between the 2 servers and a clean-up of superseded files which resolved the issue. Apart from the PLCMC website, the others use templates to call on the content from the database as required.

Some content has been developed off-site as it came for a grant – including the Smart Collection and Hands on Craft. StoryPlace is by far their biggest website, so now has its own T1 line to manage the traffic. They have considered hosting it out due to the bandwith requirements.

Looking at new options, such as creating content in a blog and then pulling content from the RSS feed into a HTML webpage.

Their Intranet was developed in-house and is 6 years old. They will be updating the look and functionality soon, getting complaints about not being able to find things. At present Chuck is the only one updating the intranet, they want to share the content management and are considering replacing it with a wiki.

They use a system-wide calendar, with the branches entering all their own data. Proprietary software then pulls this content from this and into the website. On their intranet they have a link on each page, “Does this need an update” and the equivalent on their webpages “Comment on this page” which is on the same level as the breadcrumbs, which enables their users to easily let them know of any problems on a Intranet or webpage.

Their latest website design, which was launched last year, was user tested. They took the 2 prototypes of the website which they designed in-house and a consultant user tested it with focus groups. The feedback included: patrons interested in their local branch, not the wider service, wanted to see people, not buildings. As a result, users can set their local branch and its info as their homepage, but as a result they can miss out on regional happenings as it appears further down the page. They have over 1600 individual webpages, although some were created for one off events and have yet to be removed from their servers. The main PLCMC is the biggest in terms of pages and management as the others use dynamically driven content.

They used to host external websites, but it became too expensive for them to do so. They may consider doing it again if it was revenue generating.

Chuck ensures that he and his team have time to play, learn and find out what’s out there on a daily basis. Its the best way to ensure that they stay current and are using the best means and options for their websites. They are looking to use more of the Library 2.0 tools to add more functionality to their website, particularly patron content, including patron comments on their catalogue (Sirsi-Dynix’s Horizon ILS).

Will blog some post conference thoughts on Computers in Libraries 2007 soon. In the meantime, here’s my notes from my first day at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (PLCMC). PLCMC is a regional service, with 24 branches, the main library being in downtown Charlotte.

Helen welcomed me to their main library and Branch Manager Susan Herzog took me on the tour. Lots of photos, so check them out on my Flickr account. I loved their columns out front, where each of the four sides has a book or library related quote – check out their list of quotes. I will only describe the buidling briefly here, the pictures tell a better story, so check them at Flickr. The building is over 4 levels, the ground floor level is circulation, the popular library, gallery and music and movies. The second level is reference and non-fiction, the third is the admin area and Robinson-Spangler Carolina Room which is their local history collection. In the basement area is the Virtual Village, their funky tech area. The library was first built in 1903, demolished the rebuilt on site in the 1950′s, then extended in 1989. They are now looking at their options for the future development of the library.

Helen then took me to ImaginOn which is 2 blocks away. (check the Flickr account). Lois Kilkka the manager, took me on a fascinating tour of this amazing facility. It is a purpose built shared building which houses the children’s and teens area of the library as well as their partner the Charlotte Children’s Theater. It is a green building, which uses a lot of recycled materials, including feature walls built of recycled headstones and the toilet walls made of recycled detergent bottles – fascinating! There are 2 theatres in the building – one seating 270+, the other 560+, which are used for children’s programs as well as the theatre performances.
They have experienced a lot of challenges with their shared facility, including the need for shared staff in the theatre spaces.

Their story lab, which contains the Story jar is a place to inspire creativity and collaboration. Using the items hanging from the jar, they encourage children to create stories. They also have individual computers to do the same and group collaboration is possible on their “create a scene” with each child contributing costumes, music, characters and more to a production which they then perform. After they complete their story or scene, the children can scan their library card and their creation is published to the web.

They also have dedicated literacy PCs in the children’s area, but also had to install the same software in their tech area upstairs, as the demand for group visits far exceeded their expectations and needed to be accommodated. Lois explained that they needed to adapt their thinking about the facility and look at it a bit more like a children’s museum than a traditional children’s library – it is a real destination for groups of children of all ages.

They had to create a parents space and added activities for preschoolers to better accommodate families. The parents space has magazines, a paperback exchange and the whole facility has wireless internet access throughout.

The teen tech area upstairs includes 4 rooms which are used for theatre camp, school activities and are occasionally hired out. This space has 30PCs and 5 Macs for use. They have a 15 PC training lab and have run programs like MySpace for parents here.

The Loft is the teen library, with the teen library collection as well as drop in activities such as crafts/games and affinity group programming (ie. Anime group etc). The only rules here are respect yourself, respect others and respect the facility. They have Blockbuster events quarterly where they open up to the public after hours. The PCs in this area have Photoshop and productivity software for film post production. They also have 11 laptops for use in this area and there is plenty of seating available.

The jewel in this crown is iStudio, where teens can create animation, music and more. They have 2, 2-dimensional animation stations, a 3-dimensional animation and a live action station as well as music creation equipment which has been wildly popular. They have library staff and high school interns to assist students with their works, with some of them available on YouTube. Check out Troy Story which was created at ImaginOn and won a national award.

ImaginOn also holds the offices for the Children’s Theater, including costumes, set design and 2 large rehearsal rooms. The facility has a vibe as a result, because there is always creation going on somewhere in the building.

Kelly then took me on a tour of Teen Second Life which PLCMC manages in partnership with the Alliance Library System and is only accessible to teens and background checked adults. We went to the robotics labs, were a teacher meets with teens to create robotic examples, at present they have a machine making cookies! There is a Teen Art Gallery where they display works created in real life. A radio station plays resident created content (a Linden Labs initiative) so you can stream music into Second Life. It has a park which has a memorial for Virginia Tech, which was created by a teen and has the facility for leaving messages. The area is still under development and includes teaching space, performance space, meeting space and a coffee shop!

The animation studio is used by girl scout and boy scout groups as well as teens in general, who come in to learn about the processes involved, as well as creating content. They have recently added a Mac with Garage Band (music creation software), with a midi keyboard coming. Another Mac is coming with more editing software.

Will blog more about my day later. I will finish with a summary – WOW! This facility is amazing and really reaches to teens and kids – it is all about creation and collaboration and I would love to have something like this in my city.

Wow, what a great time I had at Computers in Libraries 2007 and what a conference.

I was very fortunate to spend time and make friends in the bloggers corner with Michael Sauers (Travelin Librarian), Louise Alcorn (Librarian Rants), Laura Solomon (Library Greek Woes), Connie Crosby and also with David Free (David’s Random Stuff) and David Lee King at various times during the conference. Hi all! And thanks for the powerstrip access Michael!

It was also fun to be Twittering and meeting with these great people and many others such as Meredith Farkas (Information Wants to be Free), Nicole Engard (What I learned Today), Jenny Levine (Shifted Librarian), Aaron Schmidt (Walking Paper), Roy Tennant (Tech Essence), Jane Dysart and many more.

I also got to meet some great people who I will/have visited since the conference, including the delightful Helene Blowers (Library Bytes) (watch for her in Australia in the next year, including at VALA), Karen Huffman – who I shared a lovely dinner and speaking session with, John Blyberg – (but only in passing), Glenn Peterson and other great librarians from Hennepin and the inspiring Chrystie Hill from Web Junction. I was definitely on a biblioblogger junkie trip. Thanks also to Polly Farrington and the other Library2.0 Ning network members, it was cool dining and chatting with you.

So to sum up, the networking was awesome! I got a few books and had them signed by the authors – awesome, as well as taking away some awesome stuff for the conference. I don’t know if it was the conference, the focus of it, or both, but it didn’t matter what sort of library you came from, or what sort of library was presenting, you could take something usable back to your library service. I have enough from the conference alone to keep me busy and inspired for at least a year. And I’ve also added a few more blogs to my feed reader which will keep me even busier. And I couldn’t be happier about it.

The conference was great, the networking was awesome and I feel like the potential for me and my library is almost limitless. I’ll calm down a bit before I get home though, because I do want to achieve something – the biggest problem will be what to start with!

“Promoting “2.0 Training” with “Fantastic Freebies” and other innovative programs. Janie & Bob from Princeton whom I spent time with last week.

Inspired by Computers in Libraries 2006. You can do more than basic tech training. Several easy to implement paths to grow at Tech training program – low cost in money and staff time.

Position yourself as Tech Gurus. Get involved with local users groups, present for local groups, develop and/or join technology mailing lists, create a tech training blogs, sell up at each and every class, tease with new content. Never underestimate the power of a full colour poster.
Databytes program – brown bag session for an hour at 1pm, each librarian takes a turn at it, open to staff and public.

Bringing them in – 15 freebies in 15 minutes. Locate freebies through PC Magazine, SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 awards, Time Magazine’s 50 coolest websites, Filehippo. Constantly scan tech blogs, library blogs, tech news sites and the popular media. ie. Slashdot.

Text editing freebies – Google Docs, YourDraft, Ajaxwrite
Organisation freebies – Tadalists, Cozi Central, Google Calendar
Productivity freebies – LogMeIn (control a remote computer), CCleaner
Photo and Video freebies – GIMP, Everystockphoto, Flickr, OneTrueMedia

Future class plans at options. Photoshop to GIMP and Pixer/Picnik. Blogger to WordPress. Bloglines to Google Reader. Social Bookmarking. Podcasts. YouTube/OneTrueMedia/SplashCast. Digital scrapbooking. Classes are alway in constant beta, keep things fresh and keep innovating.

Slides will be on Library Garden Blog.

Tech Freebies Program Ideas – Matt and Robin who I will see at Charlotte tomorrow!

People are coming to us, wanting to create. Kids are Media Snackers (check their website).
Make it happen from painting to pixels, from crayons to cameras. Use what you already have – ie. Office suite. Use Freebies – ie. Tux Paint – basic painting program for kids.

More – Game Maker, Architect Studio 3D, Google Sketchup, YouTube, Picasa, GIMP, Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, flickr, Audacity, MySpace, Second Life and Wink (debug mode). Do some simple things to address the interests of kids.

Purchased software and activities – Youth Digital Arts CyberSchool, iMovie, Garage Bank, ACID Music Studio, pinnacle, Stop MotionPro, Fraps, Kudlian Soft, Digital Storytelling.

Robin explained all about ImaginOn – more about that after I visit it tomorrow. In house creation, including animation using Stop Motion Pro, Pinnacle Studio, Sony Acid Music Studio, Garage Band (Mac) and Final Cut Studio (Mac). Have a portable animation station. Next steps – “Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement.”

youthtech.wordpress.com

Great to hear the formal presentation of what I saw and learnt about the new Darien Library when I spent the day there last week.

Louise Berry – 3 principles guiding their building project, which is ultimately based on their library creed of extreme customer service

• Covenant with our patrons
• Stay ahead of expectations
• First of the new libraries, not the last of the old

Two goals: – Design and build an absolutely fantastic new library – as the most important institution in their town, where everyone wants to come
- Use technology, whatever it will make us more efficient and effective and however it will meet our patrons’ demands. Its supply and demand, not supply and need.

One rule is to tolerate uncertainty. Hard mindset for some staff to handle.

Continuing vision – eternal values of extreme customer service, friendly and helpful surroundings
- new technology

Architect Peter Gisolfi :
Creating an interior streetscape on the ground floor, aiming to be the centre of activity in the library. First floor is traditional library. Building is green with heating and cooling fed by groundwater, using recycled rainwater and many more green features, which will give the building certification and mean that’s it energy rating will be half of that of similar buildings.

Building is 3 levels – basement which holds the power (tech) library, technical services etc. First floor is popular materials, childrens area etc. Second floor is traditional library with non-fiction, reference and more. They also have a mezzanine level with lots of study space. Exterior has a New England feel, as required by law.

Three levels are popular (ground floor), traditional (first floor) and power (basement).
Lots of spaces for collaborative work on all levels. Dilemma is the issue of permanence and change – a civic building of importance which responds to the galloping rate of technological change. Response: Permanence is the town itself, the building itself and its timeless interiors.
Flexibility with open warehouse/functions change, changing technology, changing patterns of service. Connections are the building to the town setting, to regional traditions, to the environment/sustainability, interior streetscape, horizontal connections/open floors, vertical connections/open shaft, institution to community.

Alan Gray:
Not just putting a layer of technology over a new building. Its the patrons library, taking real risks, failure IS an option, get it right and then keep changing to stay ahead. Need a library failure wiki to learn from all our mistakes.

Technology layers: infrastructure, administrative, staff, patrons indirect, patron direct and patron to patron. Most important tech implementation – a materials handling system that happens to have an RFID front end. Self check works for the benefit of the patron, materials handling can have a major benefit for the library. No Tech services, no Circ back office and no cataloguing. Workflow managers not clerks, with only a small workspace to deal with exceptions. Majority of materials come to Darien shelf ready. Outsource everything related to Technical Services – outsource shelvers? What would a library be if it needed no trolleys? Would it be full of knowledge workers instead? Active items back on shelf in 20 minutes, inventory turns per item doubled, cost per circ halved, time for order to first circ – 18 hours, annual circulation per FTE: 40,000.

Have a fast second order, direct order and ship direct to patron (overnight), delivery from distributor same day. Everyone out in front of their desks, circ staff become readers advisors, information staff are at remote reference points, technology staff work in partnership with patrons, a virtual library too.

Tom Peters, Lori Bell, Matt Gullett, Kelly Czarnecki. Celebrating its first year of existence.

• Second Life is a virtual world, not a game
• Alliance Library System and PLCMC were the first libraries established in it
• 2 main projects, adult Second Life and Teen Second Life (13-17 yrs)
• Over 5.5 million registered avatars
• Complete online community – cultural programs, business, recreation, buildings, property and services
• 5,000 visitors per day to the AL Archipelago
• 2-3,000 teen visitors a day to the Eye4You Alliance Island
• used for meetings, workshops and education (ie. ALA)

Avatars

• digital representation that represents you in-world
• they can walk, talk, fly, swim, teleport, anything you want them to do
• each participant creates an avatar in any physical description you want

Commerce

• SL has its own currency – lindens ($US=$350L)
• purchase clothing, hair, housing etc
• growing business

InfoIsland: Main Library and Welcome Center has 40 hours a week or reference service, using Question Point. They have a science-fiction and fantasy portal, with books, podcasts, authors etc. Pantheon Performance Center – live concerts. Open air auditoriums, medical library, Imagination Island (donated by grieving parents) – Rachelville (for their daughter) and Vendorville (just starting), Renaissance Island – with Henry VIII who is the apartment manager – period space.

Eye4You Isle – adults involved who want to work with the teens have to have extensive background checks before being allowed to do so. Teens in E4Y come from all over the world, don’t always use their local library, but they are there in SL. Working with a developer and the teens to develop the island.

Ideal for E4Y was to create a space where the teens could explore what they want from a library. Its a space for interactive programming and building relationships, mentoring. Only 2 out of 90 Teen Second Life island are available to all teens – E4Y is one, the other islands are closed school spaces etc.

Services provided:

• Reference
• Programs
• Exhibits – World War II posters, Alzheimers, author Vachel Lindsay, Sept 11 remembrance
• Collections – web resources, Second Life formatted e-books and audio books
• Book and gentre discussions
• Training

Most visits to Info Islands are for exhibits and events. Librarians from around the world volunteer their time to provide library service on Second Life. People like having the avatar to avatar interaction.

Why are Librarians in SL?

• Its a new professional frontier – need to be trying it out
• Where many library users and non-users are – be where your users area
• To attract new users to the traditional library through referral – back to physical libraries
• To investigate library service in virtual worlds – trying out new options
• To provide library services 24/7
• To meet and work with librarians worldwide – collaboration
• To learn and use the 3D Web, the emerging web interaction interface

How it all started

• April 2006 first rental building
• May 2006 – first island odnated
• October 2006 – Grand opening of Info Island I
• December 2006 – grant for Health Info Island – one of the busiest spots
• December 2006 – Cybrary City for librarians donated by Talis
• January 2007 – Sirsi-Dynix sponsors InfoIsland I and Eye4You Alliance
• February 2007 – Rachelville, Vendorville, new ALS building, opera building, ALA building and coming soon the Renaissance building.

Weather is always great, but you can force the sun to stay out. Can fly, walk, teleport and get around really easily.

Challenges

• funding and sustainability – got lots of donors giving time and talent, how to cover things like the monthly maintenance fee
• volunteer burnout – people get enthused, spend too much time then something has to give
• parternships are the key – not being paralleled in the real world – ie. with museums etc
• steep learning curve
• what library services do virtual world users want?
• What, you’re working in SL? Right…..
• Robust hardware & Internet connection are essential
• No integrated audio and web yet – trying to get real life resources integrated into it
• Highly addictive and time intensive

What have we learned

• virtual world residents do want a library – they come in droves
• collaboration is the key and partnerships are essential
• exhibits – very popular, events attract crowds
• SL is fun – fun factor as catalyst for amazing growth
• Speed with which this is unfolding is unbelievable – lost an island this morning, had to spend time finding it and putting it back in its proper place
• People still ask for books in a virtual world
• ALS & PLCMC have received huge national and international attention – recognized as key innovators

What’s next

• Permanent virtual ALS staff working out of the ALS world headquarters, same for PLCMC
• More traditional info resources available – eg. audiobooks
• Pioneer meeting technologies to facilitate virtual meetings eg. adding audio to meeting protocols
• Integrate Info Island and Eye4You into ALS & PLCMC dilay operations so all staff are SL functional
• Actively promote the Alliance Information Archipelago
• Improve transportation around the islands – eg. people mover, better teleporting
• Create an Info Island for kids

Why is it good for libraries

• Be seen as leaders in the library community
• Provides national profile and recognition as innovative library systems
• Easier to recruit excellent board members and staff
• Easier to land big grants to provide better service for our members
• As requested by members, testing new technologies and services ie. virtual library services

Info Island – http://www.infoisland.org/
YouthTech Eye4You Alliance blog – http://eye4youalliance.youthtech.info/

A project from Cuyahoga County Public Library.

Patron needs were changing, the library profession was changing as was library service. Device evolution put pressure on staff who were uncomfortable with the new technologies. Needed to adapt staff, services and website to meet the changing needs of their community.

Wanted more than a site, wanted a portal, a customisable experience that enabled them to access the same services that they would experience in the virtual library. Wanted people to enjoy and dwell in the space, so the experience needed to be multi-faceted. Wanted to be able to draw in new audiences and that would allow them to partner with more community organisations.

They wanted to integrate web content, catalogues, databases, news and events, calendar features, branch info, and web 2.0 tools. Also wanted to know what their users wanted, they were just guessing. Put out an RFP to help them to develop the site and get a CMS in place to manage it all.

The process:

• discovery – internal constituent focus groups, customer focus groups, competitive research, best practice analysis, recommendations, wire frames
• strategy – mini portals (subjects, demographics, branches), CMS which now has 200 contributers and includes blogs, RSS and mobile CSS, event functionality, audience segmentation, enhanced search functionality, ended up with an out of the box CMS (Ektron) integrating with their III catalogue, Federated Search (Webfeat), text messaging, email (Exact Target), Online Store (CT Pro), Digital Assets (Fedora), Fundraising (e-commerce)
• design – focus groups wanted inspired, functional, intuitive, accessible, integrated, efficient, integrated, energetic, supportive, innovative, realistic, scaleable
• development – created subject and demographic portals, which dynamically pulled in events from the calendar and incorporated blogs and a relevant link collection, have segmented audience email – subject interest and geographic relevant info sent to patrons, sent 90,000 text messages for holds/overdues etc.
• launch/promotion – through print advertising, radio advertising, newspaper features = results blog readership up 40%, homepage visits up 64%, then named Ektron site of the year.
• evolution – platform defines the functionality, think ahead to where the web is going, memberships are the driving force behind web 2.0, libraries as a prime mover in new technology, additional features – metadata, federated search, geomapping, data portability.

John Van Oudenaren is Senior Advisor, World Digital Library Initiative at the Library of Congress.
Vision – to create a digital library of significant original materials representing all of the major cultures from across the globe and make it accessible to students, educators and the general public.

Objectives:

• promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness
• provide a resource for educators that matches the needs of a globalised, wireless world
• acquire rare and unique content of interest to scholars and the general public

Partners: UNESCO, National Libraries and other cultural institutions (not Oz) and the technology community, including Google, Yahoo, Apple and Stanford University.

Dates:

• June 2005 – World Digital Library proposed to UNESCO
• November 2005 – Google gives LC $3 for planning phase of the project
• 2006 – Conclusion of agreements with partner institutions internationally
• December 2006 – Site mockup and draft proposal presented to UNESCO
• 2007 – conclusion of agreements with UNESCO and additional partner institutions
• October 2007 – World Digital Library prototype will be unveiled at UNESCO General Conference in Paris
• September 2008 – Completion of World Digital Library plan and full-scale launch of the project

Creating not just a big website. Three pillars: content acquisition; construction of a sustainable network for production and distribution of content; the website – http://www.worlddigitallibrary.org/

Content acquisition – work with partners to digitise content in places where little or nothing is being done – bring to light ‘hidden treasures’. Maintain and build on existing scanning operations. Establish additional scanning operations. Pursue other methods of content acquisition – repurposing of already scanned material.

Construction of the network – both a technical and infrastructure and a community of institutions, scholars, curators, linguists and technologist. A lot of translations to be done. Network nodes for creation, including digitisation, cataloguing, translation, development, etc of the WDL and for distribution, including mirror sites.

Web Site – must appeal to all users, both in the US and internationally. Prototype under development, multilingual (7 languages), high quality user experience – fast and seamless, ability to search and browse a large volume of content. Prototype will show multilingualism and fast search and browse. Will be able to search in the 6 official UN languages (Eng, Ara, Chi, Fre, Rus, Spa + Portugese) as well as searching content that is digitised in other languages.

Multi-format – print, maps, 3-D presentations, sound and video clips. Special features with experts, scholars and curators, educational content for teachers and students. Will include social networking features, such as blogs, chat spaces, tagging etc – My Digital Library type initiative. Adjustments to developing country conditions: ie low bandwith and mobile device solutions.

Showed a great video at the end which showed the vision of the World Digital Library. Check it out on YouTube.

Couldn’t get to a power or get my laptop out in this crowded session, so had to use treeware and now is the first chance to type this up. This session was Monday morning, so sorry for the delay.

Karen Huffman spoke of her experiences at National Geographic (NG). Web 2.0 is what we are already in, it’s where our users are and where our desktops are going. Adapt, adopt or die. We envision Web 2.0 in different ways, but are all still figuring it out and have different ways of applying the same solutions.

NG has RSS and podcasting hosted externally. Started with RSS feeds posted on a simple web page, then using Magpie RSS and php, they started streaming RSS to the homepage. Started with current content and recorded it as podcasts, then educated their users. Relaunched podcasts into iTunes and NG is now rated at No. 8. Have a staff news area which includes RSS feeds from NG blogs.

They use Newsgator for intranet news feeds instead of the external Bloglines. Newsgator can give mobile access to feeds which staff can access via their Blackberrys.

They are investigating Google gadgets to enhance their website. One gadget they are using on the their intranet is a Word Press plugin which shows a thumbnail image of the commenter on their blog comments. Simplified wiki page creation with a widget that gives them a “Create a new project” button. Also investigating Mind mapping software, including Gliffy and Mind Manager. They are also using Google Maps and Google Earth mashups in their Women Explorers wiki and BioBlitz projects as well as mapping out recipients of NG grants.

Lessons learned:

• need the right people on board
• work in the white spaces
• collaboration
• understand organic culture
• prototype ideas, keep it simple
• communicate
• adapt if the strategy doesn’t match needs

Derek Willis from Washington.com spoke on creating browsable data with Django.

Information gap includes:

• what doesn’t make it into the news
• the data you don’t use
• what you can do about it

Can search it and searching is fun, but what happens when you don’t have a clear search term – are your users good searchers?

Django users a python web framework, takes data and puts it on the web. It is open source and automated as much as possible. More info and software available at http://www.djangoproject.com/ Presently django is used to run chicagocrime.org – a database of crime reported in Chicago and several Washington Post projects including the congressional votes database, Faces of the fallen and Recipe Finder. It is mainly browsable, although it can be free text searched or browsed/searched by category.

Need the Python script language on a web server, a database such as MySql. It runs on all operating systems and is free. Advantages include control over your data, using your data is easier, has built in admin interface, plus it supports syndication, generic views, authorisation, forms, file uploads and is used for about 15 smaller newspapers around the US.

Things to do to make it happen:

• become or find a geek
• scavenge for hardware
• think about your data

Give your users the value in the information you already have.