Connecting Librarian

My kids have just got their half yearly reports and have both done well, so as a reward, we took them to the movies.

We can’t take our staff to the movies every time they have a success, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be celebrating our successes. Some sort of acknowledgement is great for morale and for confidence.

I have been known to celebrate success at work with cheesecake, which always goes down a treat. And it works wonders for morale.

Its easier to celebrate big successes and we should, but they only come along every now and then. We aren’t necessarily working on a big project every day. Do we need to celebrate the little ones too?

I believe we do, but not necessarily with cheesecake, lol. (and yes, I can hear the sighs of disappointment from here). There does need to be some acknowledgement, just to recognise the work put in, the  achievements made, the improvements completed, the new service introduced. Recognition of the small things can lead to inspiration, innovation and even just happy staff. And happy staff make for happy library users. Its a win all around.

So what do you do to celebrate the small successes? I occasionally bring in some chocolates or flowers for someone who has done something difficult or noteworthy, but more often than not, I just tell them. I know from a personal viewpoint that I do like to hear that I am doing or have done a good job – its just nice to get the confirmation and acknowledgement that your hard work is recognised and is having an impact. (and doing it at appraisal time is not enough).

How do you recognise the little successes at your library?  How about the big successes?

Very interesting word discretion. It gives me the image of someone tapping the side of their nose, saying nudge, nudge, wink, wink. But in the library world, its about giving the staff the opportunity to ‘bend’ the rules, where they deem there is a situation where they should be bent.

Rules are important. They aim to guarantee that the world doesn’t dissolve into chaos and that everyone has equal opportunity and treatment, that we are kept safe and our privacy protected and much more. But if rules are always followed without discretion, they we have gone too far the other way.

Unfortunately, some staff mistakenly believe its  just about bending the rules. Its also about the situation and the people involved.

It may be appropriate to do so where a recipient is deemed worthy, or a situation where not to do so would be detrimental. Sometimes its just good PR.

And there are some rules which are easier to bend than others.

But all this requires, not only good judgement on whether the rules should be bent, but also on whether they should be bent in that particular situation and for that particular person.

Too often, a rule has been bent for a library user and despite being told that it was a one off and that they must abide by them next time, every single time they come in, they try to bend them again with the whole – “but they let me do it last time!”  Saying this is a virtual guarantee to never having any leeway on any situation in the library every again!

Making that sort of judgement call can be very difficult and is probably why staff will often refer to more senior staff to confirm it is the right option (or not) to take. (it also helps that they won’t get the flack if there is any problems resulting from the decision).

There are some rules I will bend more easily than others and some that I refuse to bend for anyone. Again it comes back to a judgement call on both the rule and the people involved in the situation. You want to help people, but you don’t want to make things difficult for other library staff if it all backfires.

The good news is that no-one is damaged irretrievably if using staff discretion leads to a difficult situation. And sometimes it doesn’t matter which way you go, you lose. But if nothing else, our managers will always support us if we stick to the rules, so if unsure, we are told to do that.

Have you had an instances where staff discretion backfired on you?  Are there rules you would bend more easily and others you wouldn’t bend at all?

We learned an interesting lesson yesterday at our library, which also resulted in unexpected promotion of the library.

We are introducing pre-overdue notifications via email, so sent out an introductory notice to all our users with email addresses on their accounts, to let them know it was coming and to give them the option to opt out.

This is the bit where people don’t read.

We had so many people call or visit, because they thought that possibly something had gone dreadfully wrong with our records and they thought, we had overdue items against their records.

This raised a few interesting points:

• That if library users had properly read their email, they would have known that it was a notice to let them know the service was starting and this was their opportunity to opt out if they wished
• That we needed to be more blunt with the start of the message, to let them know this was for a forthcoming service – not an existing one and hence avoiding some concern and lots of phone calls and visits
• That it did result in phone calls and visits from library users who hadn’t been in for a while and who had not seen the pre-publicity we had already had in the library for weeks
• That it resulted in awareness again for those library users, who also now were able to add tech savvy and good customer service to their view of the library (once we explained it to them) and those who attended with their concerns often left the library with borrowed items
• That not many people opted out – more people will receive these pre-overdue notices now, than if we had made it opt-in instead

So what began as a notification at a new service and was, for some, translated as something else, has ended up being good PR for the library (if frustrating for library staff).

The irony is, that we had a gentleman come to the desk in the midst of all this chaos and in his broken English, request to sign up for the service.  The one person who struggled to read English, understood what was going on, when those whose language it is, didn’t.

Have you had a similar situation in your library? Did it work out well for you? How?

I was at a meeting in the city today, walking up the Paris end of Collins Street back to catch my train, when I realised my whole viewpoint of that area had changed. I used to be reticent about having to be in that area, as I didn’t know it. However, after having had to venture there on a regular basis, I found I wasn’t even thinking about it anymore, I just did it.

So I got to thinking about how we keep doing things that we have been doing for a while in our libraries, because that’s what we do, without necessarily thinking about whether its appropriate to do so anymore.  We get so set in our ways, that we don’t always think about whether our ways could be improved by changing, tweaking or removing all together.

So imagine my amazement, when I got back to work later in the afternoon and whilst talking about various things to some of my colleagues, I asked if there was a better way of dealing with a process we have in place ( the query triggered by a comment in passing from a library user) – which is currently putting blocks in the way of our users accessing our self-help services (such as self-check, renewals, holds etc) and one of my wise colleagues suggested we get rid of it altogether!

I was delighted! The suggestion was well received by other staff we polled, but it will have to go to the managers for consideration and approval, because its quite possible there are implications we haven’t thought of.

Which makes me wonder and will probably get me to looking a bit more closely, about what other things we are doing, which we may not have to do anymore. I will deliberately try to look at things through our library users’ eyes and maybe query our new library staff about their other library experiences more closely to discover what they are (and there will be more, I’m sure).

Have you had these moments of revelation? What happened?  Love to hear your stories, as they might give me some inspiration and direction.

We are moving towards roving reference at our library. This is a very new concept for us, as we have always been tied to a desk. However, with the introduction of RFID, we have the potential to move out from our desk.  The potential is not yet fully realised, so until it is, we will start taking baby steps in this journey.

So what will roving reference look like at our library?

At the moment, it looks like it usually does – we are away from the desk, doing some admin type work, like shelving holds (they are self-serve), find items to fulfill holds or emptying trolleys to the appropriate collection areas. And as we do, people grab us as we go by and ask questions. And whenever we go to do a shelf check or help a user find a particular area in the library, we are always waylaid with further queries.

So what will be different? Hopefully, we will be able to spend more time with these people when they ask questions and not feel the need to complete it and get back to the crush that is our typical desk traffic, as soon as humanly possible. We will be more observant about library users around us and actively seek to help them where they are at – daunting as the prospect might seem.

And we will get our staff trained up a bit more so that its not just the librarians doing this. We will develop scenarios to give confidence to those who don’t like to stray from the desk and we will buddy up with these newly trained staff, to help them ‘get their feet wet’.

But we will do so only where it is not to the detriment of those we serve at our desk. They will remain our first priority, but our customer service will expand to those who don’t approach the desk. Customer service is one of strengths and we plan to capitalise on this opportunity and improve it – whether its deliberately seeking out those to help, or its incidental on our way to doing other things.

What does roving reference look like in your library?

There’s been a lot of talk about the future of libraries, but it is mostly coming from librarians and naysayers predicting the end of the book. I am looking forward to the results of research our library is conducting on the topic, which will include input from our library users.

But in the meantime, they are already having their say about what they want. With their hands and feet and voices.  Pretty much as they have always done, lol.

They are saying with their loans, that CDs are maybe now just starting to go out of lending fashion – with our loans starting to go down in the Rock and Pop genres (but not in the other genres). What’s next is yet to be determined. Finding a workable library model for music is a challenge in itself.

They are saying it with their queries and feedback forms about scanning. We don’t. Yet. We are getting new photocopiers shortly which will scan to USB as well as copy though.

They are saying with their feet, that they need space to study and work.  We are a single floor building – so no quiet study areas. We have usually been busy with studying students at exam time, but this year, as never before, its been all term round, for quiet study and group work. Wandering through the collections at various times, you would think it was empty, but you get to the seating areas and there are people as far as the eye can see – double and tripled up and even sitting at kids tables and on the floor, when there are no other options.

We also know that there are mature aged learners and business owners who use the library for the space and free wifi even more than the students do. And that we have run out of tables and chairs too often to ignore. Fortunately, we are getting more of those as well and eventually a new building which should accommodate the growing demand for quiet study space. In the meantime, we have more furniture coming, just need to figure out where it will go!

So although its important for us to think about what libraries will be, do and have in future and we need to ask our users this question as well as our staff, its even more important that we are listening to what they are telling us about their needs now in other ways – through their hands, feet and mouths.

How do you ensure that everyone you serve gets equal service, as well as good service?

This comes to mind as I was dealing with a library user the other day, who was also a former neighbour. We got to catching up (as you do), but the catch-up went longer than the transaction that was being conducted. Normally not a problem, but I was very aware that there was  a queue of people waiting to be served and that there were no other staff available to do so.

I know as a customer, the frustration of waiting in line to be served and having to wait longer because the staff member and customer are having a chat. So I am always aware of this, when I am on the other side of the counter.

But I also know that for many library users, the contact with staff is just as important, if not more so, than the transaction being conducted.  So how do you find the balance?

I have known staff who will give exemplary customer service to a library user, but in doing so, many others have to wait longer at their turn and ultimately have less customer service, as the demand far exceeds the supply. One person may walk away happy, but many others won’t.

Ideally we would love to be able to give this level of service to every library user, but it is far from being realistically possible.

Having to find this balance pretty much every hour of every day in the library, means that I have become quite expert at the wind up – making sure that the transaction is completed in a timely manner, but also to the satisfaction (as far as possible) to the user.

It has helped that now with RFID in place we sometimes have a staff member who can get out from behind the desk and to the queue, to see if there is any way they can be helped without having to wait at circulation. This has helped both our queue management and our customer service immensely, but is not always possible in peak times (which somehow seems like most of the time, lol).

Do you have any policies regarding this or any practices you have found particularly helpful in achieving this balance?

I am not a very spontaneous person generally. Although I’ll often get it in my head to add one more thing to the list that I have to do, because I can do it in time. But I am spontaneous on the odd occasion and I discovered there is reason to be so, ‘cos its fun.

My daughter is off on school camp tomorrow and needed a new pair of shoes. So a quick planned trip to the local shopping centre to buy a pair (she’s growing so fast) was the plan. Just before we left, I spontaneously changed the plan and then again once we got there. We got her shoes but also had a lovely relaxed morning tea together and extended our shopping time to successfully wander around shopping for her presents for her upcoming birthday. We  had a great time and are planning (or not) to do it again – it will happen again sometime, planned or not.

Spontaneity in the workplace is a bit more difficult however. You can’t spontaneously break out in song in the middle of the library – you’d be carted away for a psych evaluation. And other activities may bring you into conflict with a range of issues including privacy, policies and the law in general.

However, you still be spontaneous in other ways. When I was acting Branch Manager, I quickly became known for bringing in cheesecake to celebrate milestones. I then also, once or twice, just brought a cheesecake in for no reason whatsoever. I have brought in flowers to a staff member who has seemed to be under appreciated and I have shouted another lunch for the same reason (not by our staff – we appreciate the quality in our midst).

These were all spontaneous events which just seemed like a good idea at the time and fortunately its turned out not only were they are a good idea, they were fun (and also delicious – the lunch and cheesecake, not the flowers).

But the question I have to ask is – How can you be spontaneous in the library in a way that is fun, not only for you, but for library staff and library users? I would love to hear your stories.

This morning I got a call from my mum, saying she had seen on the news that there had been a fire at my kids’ school. A bit of quick research on my part and we discovered that overnight, a fire had severely damaged the new gym. The gym has taken 18 months to build, was 6 months late and handover was going to be Monday. The gym was a joint use facility, with the school using it during the day and local Council using it for basketball comps and other events after hours.

We are all a bit distressed about it. From what I could see of the building this morning, at least half of the building has fire and/or water damage from floor to ceiling. The one thing that I quickly picked up, from both conversations around the school and then from talking with people at the shopping centre next door, was a sense of community ownership. This event hasn’t happened to an objective building, it has happened to a community. People who have no vested interest in the school, but who just live or work locally, are just as outraged as those of us who do. Its gratifying to experience that sort of camaraderie.

Which got me thinking about this in relation to the things I have blogged about in recent days, as part of Blog Every Day of June.

Do our communities have that same sense of ownership of our libraries?

Do our communities actually see the library as their own, or do they see it as being owned by the library service and the library staff that work there? I am sure that there are many users who do see it as their library, but how many?

I think of it in relation to all the library closures overseas in the US and the UK. Do our communities feel the ownership enough to fight for us, if we were threatened with the same closures? I know they have fought and won in the fight to build new libraries, would they fight to save the old ones.

I’d like to think they would. But we have to make sure that we continue to give them something worth fighting for. Do what we do well, connections, in whatever form that takes.

I was fortunate to be able to attend the 3rd annual Emerging Technology Forum 2011 in Geelong, which is a collaboration between Deakin University, Geelong Regional Libraries and the Gordon Institute of TAFE on Tuesday 17th May. A long way to go, but well worth the travel.

Stephen Abram – The future: Frankenbooks, social collaboration and learning on steroids

We have right on our side, we know that  learning matters.

Sweet Mona Lisa smile with bubble saying Moron – over the heads of people who say that libraries are no longer needed. If you confuse having libraries with having know-how then you are mistaken. Know how counts, not know that. Its the know how that matters, the professional skills. As content becomes more accessible, we are drowning people in know that.

We all start with Google, because it does a great job at who, what, where, when. It sucks at how and why. Drug info online is provided by drug companies – if even its not their website.  Should we be happy with only that information being acceptable?

We are not a scalable solution for small questions. Google answers more questions in one day than all the librarians do in 25 years.

We only get so many once in a lifetime chances to do great things. Internet and we did. Mobile and social are our opportunities.  Biggest negotiations are in copyright – worldwide, telling us what we can do with information and taking away rights that we already have.

Is it the end of libraries as we know them? Hope so, at least the public perception of us as big warehouses. Google adjusts their results if it comes through a campus (geo-tagging), so the results reach that lucrative market. How much money do we make out of our searching?

We need to be defending the right to read, not the book. Defending toxic glue, human cells etc – its the memory that it evokes, not the smell itself. Can’t defend libraries over librarians, should be about the community spaces.

What will the roles be for libraries and librarians?

Has been a lot of change in the early part of the century, in the 20s and 30s. We had an infrastructure shift in the last 20 years, but it wasn’t a major change, that is coming.

As we move forward, we don’t know what the right answer is. We don’t know what learning is going to do, but we know that humans will be involved and the best way is to PLAY. Watching just doesn’t work. For those librarians who don’t connect on social networks, you are missing out on what is happening with your major market. Libraries are social institutions are should be on social networks. By not being there, we are not connecting with our clients, we are choosing to be transactional rather than transformational.

So what is changing – everything! We are connected to the world. We have to be smarter, nimble and more connected. The tools available now can make this happen.

Librarians are being the glue in communities of practice in very innovative areas including health and technology. Feeding in information as it is needed. We need to be in the spaces and being the glue – delivering the content at point of need.

School libraries are the best improver of school test scores, apart from parents reading to their child.  (25%) School/public library partnerships increase score by 5%+.  Libraries and information content and technology leadership are critical to Higher Ed.

Its not about what you find, librarians are about understanding what you find when you search.

Communities with libraries as an investment receive very high ROI – average 650%.

Most library content is organised like grocery stores – both in our physical and virtual spaces. How do libraries package our content in ways that our users want. Its getting harder to separate out content and making it easily findable for those who want it.

Librarians play a vital role in building the critical connections between information, knowledge and learning. There are 7 different learning styles – we need to be presenting our content in those different styles. We are text based, which isn’t even the most common learning style.

The elephant in the room is how do we deal with the depth of people and their styles. Do our collections support how they take in content.

Need to be collaborating across institutions, not competing against them.

Strategy is a choice. Emboldened librarians are the key – try things out with little projects.

The Internet and technology have now progressed to their infancy – they are toddlers.  We need to find our voice.

Should we be letting our technology dictate what we can or can’t access via our devices? We are about freedom to read – but that should mean freedom to read whatever we want!

We should be talking to the people we are uncomfortable with in our communities – its from them that we will learn the most. We are very comfortable talking to people who are similar to us. You may find that these are your best market.
If we want to serve all, its not just about reading, we need to support the culture, the people and their learning styles, not just their reading habits alone.

People are changing – IQ is up overall, increased educational attainment, playing video games improves brain development, device proliferation, sectors are very tech dominated, reading is up, library use up particularly due to e-books, ebook sales higher than print.

Need to be aware of eye movements- millennials are O frame, gen Xers are F frame. Need to ensure that our services are meeting the needs of our users, not our own needs.

Can libraries keep up with change? Formats have died before and we can deal with the death of books as we have survived the death of other formats.

Re-intermediation – how do we put librarians back into the space. Trust yourself to make a difference and have an impact. Don’t roll over and play dead – challenge false assumptions.

Two kinds of librarians – those who just watch and those who get involved. If we are to survive, we need to be the latter. We need to talk about our value, communicate better, advocate for ourselves and our users, market better.

The power of libraries is not information, it’s clarification. It is the value we deliver.

Have great library projects, but then we take the personality out of it – Inside a dog is an exception.
(only librarians will argue over spine labels rather than the content of a book)

Questions:
We need social connections which are both deep and superficial, to make changes in our communities.  So we need things like both Twitter and Facebook.

Social media @ Deakin – Kat Clancy
The key to using Twitter is following the right people. @sabram is a good person to follow. There are plenty of librarians to follow and many more people depending on your interests.

Yammer – has been used by Deakin for the last 2 years, but only seeing good results in the last few months, with a big take-up by library staff. Yammer is for private communication within an organisation or between pre-designated groups. Its Enterprise social software which enables communities – allows external groups to connect as well, if  you choose.

Similar to a forum, but easier to use. Can tag topics, include attachments, social bookmarking, integrates with Twitter or reply using email or SMS and apps on various devices, can be customised and has security features.
Deakin using Yammer to share info within work groups – between different areas of university – between students and alumni, problem solving, having questions answered, networking, events, polls, staff focus.

Deakin has Facebook page rather than group, more functionality, better promotion and more public. Got more likes when advertised on their website. Have users posting to their page.

Dealing with social media – you will receive negative feedback – deal with them as you would normally, you may have to deal with inappropriate comments and engage. Don’t have to be formal, works better if you are casual.

Dos and Don’ts for social media:

• Do be informative – tell what you are about
• Don’t be a parrot – will lose followers doing this
• Do make a tradition – eg. follow Friday, Wednesday resource of the week
• Don’t neglect replies – engage with your users, don’t be there just to be there
• Do call for action – use ‘like this status” – it gets you great feedback
• Don’t rely on text alone – photos are a great tool
• Do have a crisis plan – be ready for negative and inappropriate comments
• Don’t be impolite – commonsense, same as dealing with user in person or on phone

www.facebook.com/deakinlibrary
@deakinlibrary

Questions:
How much time do you spend monitoring and answering questions?
Kat checking twitter when checking her own account. Facebook is getting checked first in the morning, then 2 – 3 times during the day. Working on getting people who can answer the questions, there on social networks, so that it becomes part of their workflow. Are working on a social media policy at present. Getting a question a day during peak times, around 3 a week other times.

Aggregation services?
They monitor mentions of Deakin Library as twitterers won’t always put the @ tag in their tweets. Tweet Deck is the aggregator she uses.  It enables her to check tweets, mentions, direct messages and searches in one screen. Hoot Suite is an aggregator which includes both Facebook and Twitter.

How often do you tweet?
Most often post things which link to a news item.  Have put up fun things, like Old Spice ad library adaptation and some things about the University too. Uni has presences now, but is very formal. Need to put personality into what you do in social media.

Deakin’s e-book device loan trial – Sarah Sherman
E-books were useful for their users because they were available immediately, 24/7 access, portable. For the library, immediate access, less space, cheaper etc. Big growth in e-book content in the last 8 years.  Now have 125,127 e-books.

Expect tipping point from print to e will be in the next year or so.

Acquiring e-books via patron driven purchasing model (EBL), subscription to packages, publisher packages, individual title purchases, gratis (mainly government publications).

e works for Deakin, as it allows equity of access and flexible learning, have great support and they can trial new resources.  But more could be done…..

2010 – what did they know about students mobile technology use?  No iPads, netbooks and smart phones increasingly popular.

Educause study of undergraduate students and information technology 2010. Laptop is already highest percentage, with Internet capable handheld device more popular than desktop computers.

Kept all this in mind when looking at which e-reader to buy. Pre-iPad, so considering their requirements, including price, existing market share, content available (free and paid), connectivity, battery life and general usability.

Originally tried Iliad, Eco reader and Kindle.  FIrst has gone out of business now, Eco not large market share, so Kindle was chosen.

Project brief – considered: content, how many, size, security, promotion and license issues.  Bought 15 devices of varying sizes, split between 4 campuses. Bought cases from store and placed 3 fiction and 3 non-fiction titles on each.  Included conditions of use, FAQ, removed charging cord. Amazon approved use, as long as individual content was bought for each device.

Benefits of pilot – gaterhing information on the scholarly application of it, raise awareness of e-reader technology, promote the library as a leader in new technology/change/ideas, provide information to the Uni community on these devices.

Mostly positive response to the trial. Some issues included: not including cable so users couldn’t download more content, no holds allowed on the devices, unfulfilled fear that users would register the devices to their own Amazon account – didn’t happen.

General feedback – more textbooks – just weren’t available, choice of content – wanted more – can now email their team once they have the Kindle and suggest for purchase, colour – e-Ink is easier on eyes for sustained reading, so not available, touch screen – all want to pinch, drag and drop.

Issues with lending technology included: laptops or net books are possible, check your applications (some licences restrict it so cant lend device with software loaded on it), they can be useful even if you can”t lend them – testing, tech zone for play. What are the devices offering – tools, content, portability, productivity, iPads for mobile/roving reference, iPad touch for shelvers who work night shifts – for quick ref help, provide flexibility and choice for our users.
Other things to think about? Who will look after the devices – charging batteries, setting up  wireless etc. Who will – pay for apps and connectivity, administer authentication and subscription logins, manage content. Who provides training, instructions in best use, repair and replace and the list goes on.

Amazon sold more ebooks than print in 2010. Publishers ebook policies will affect use – loans between devices, loans from libraries etc are all in flux.

Have tried some more devices – Cybook (loaned from vendor) wouldn’t sync with their laptops and wouldn’t bookmark or highlight. Also looking at Kobo, which is slow and doesn’t have a dictionary.Now looking at tablet devices including the Handii tablet – heated up too much and short battery life, hard to read, Samsung Galaxy Tab (runs on Android) – limited apps and no e-Ink, iPad – no eInk and have to buy the quality eBook apps and just a bit too big. (want something between iPad and Galaxy Tab). More new devices coming out – Cisco Cius, BeBook Neo, Microsoft may be working on something, Kno. Didn’t try out Nook.

Ideal e-device:

• not locked to a single source
• able to handle multiple formats
• multi-functional
• web-enabled
• wireless
• run multiple programs
• colour and touch screen
• long battery life
• lightweight

Til that happens its about the Apps. There are apps for Kobo, Kindle, Sony, Nook, Martview, Borders and Stanza.
They may still go down the Netbook/Laptop path in the meantime.

Showed the PushPopPress ebook demo that has been getting a lot of attention lately: check it out at http://www.pushpoppress.com/

Future long term: ebooks in the cloud.
Showed Google e-books promo -http://youtu.be/ZKEaypYJbb4. Business model not out yet, but will be using HTML 5 enalbing them to use video. They have already signed up top 400,000 publishers worldwide.

Questions:
iDevices used by staff ARE heavily secured so that they have the same standard operating environment – no customising by library staff allowed.

Each device has its own Kindle account. Content is purchased using a university credit card for the Kindle and purchase orders for the iPad.

Came across a few geographic restrictions on the Kindle.

e-Paper, print disappears in temperatures under 30 degrees. (Steve Abram)

Exploring ways to spread OSS through public libraries – Open Source Workshop – Camilo Jorquera
Camilo was wanting to make open source more accessible to the public . Ideas included: software kiosk, preloaded USB sticks (which could be plugged into and run on any computer), online links to resources – eg forums, support networks etc, using it!, having Linux computers and having OSS installed.

Ask yourself – seems strange that libarires access to and don’t provide these free tools to the public. By not doing so, it contributes to the digital divide, so access, distribution and educating the public on quality and freely available software.

OSS is less about programming and more a philosophical approach to community driven and supported software.

Obstacles to use are restrictions put in place by IT departments, in trying to establish a Standard Operating Environment (SOE). Great for IT, not for a public requirements point of view. What should our focus be?
Support of software is an issue – IT depts know infrastructure well, but not software specialists. It really isn’t an IT issue, so expertise is not generally easily available.

A new approach – a better way. Camilo created a USB of open source portable content containing a wide range of excellent tools. They don’t affect the SOE as they are running off the USB.

He then handed out a USB drive with that software for us to try out and then keep! Device does an auto open and uses Portable Apps (portableapps.com) to access the menu. Some of the apps were added by Camilo, but many are available as is from Portable Apps. These are designed for PC, not portable devices – its the software thats portable.

Simon Goodrich – Portable – Future trends in technology
Much of Simon’s talk was the same as was given at the Yarra Plenty unconference – check out my report from that event.

Games applications can influence companies. Australian government is looking to get game developers to work with businesses on interactivity – ISIS project (http://cci.edu.au/post/the-interactive-skills-integration-scheme-isis)

Half of Australians now access the mobile internet.

SMS was initially only used to get a message to someone when they weren’t answering their phone.

Color – new service – take pictures together – has apps for iPhone and Android etc. Demo at http://www.color.com/

60% of Australians have smart phones – the other 40% might be our clients wanting to learn about these technologies.

Fast growing apps:
Instagram – growing faster than Facebook – share photos
Foodspotting – food guide, not a restaurant guide
Sound tracking – what are you listening to
They all use geo-location.

5 Pillars of social media

1. Innovation is key
2. Brand web literacy
3. Increased engagement
4. Next generation audience of fans, followers and subscribers in social media
5. Mobile is here

Practical ideas right now:
Install recording booths in library for users to come and record their recollections of the local area and/or times and events.

Scanning parties at the library – come in and scan your photos – build a local history of the area – geotag it.

Book reviews – encourage users to contribute to your reviews – using the “do you want fries with that” concept.