Connecting Librarian

After a beautiful lunch of soup and salad, it was back to talking with Janie Hermann, one of the Library Garden bloggers, who is also presenting at CIL 2007. Princeton Library runs a Databytes program, where twice a month, a librarian gives a session on a technology topic. That day, Romina - who coordinated my program, did a comparison between Wikipedia and Britannica, with about a dozen people in attendance. The Databytes program came out of their staff training program. Each librarian had to become expert in one of their database and then train staff in it. After a few months, it was rotated around. The training was done in their Technology Center and they used to get the public wandering in, so they ended up making it available to all. They get about half staff and half public, with the benefit of having staff expertise in the room to help the public when needed.

Princeton is using Flickr for library photos but is careful with what they upload as they don’t have permissions from the public. This is an area which Janie says has generated much discussion in library circles, but no resolution at this stage. Their website design was outsourced and is also hosted externally, although they are hoping to bring it back in house with only the design being outsourced in future.

Their Booklovers Wwiki, using pbwiki will not be repeated, as they will be using features from their Innovative ILS. They used pbwiki as they did not have not the time or the money to use Media Wiki on their own server, which was their preferred option. They experienced some difficulties with pbwiki at the time, as it needed basic coding, not having the WYSIWIG interface that it has now. As a lead up, they did Databytes sessions on wikis and the Book Lovers Wiki. Even with this, most participants in the program emailed their reviews in to the library, where teen volunteers coded and uploaded them. It also lacked relational linking, so they could only post under either author, title, category etc. However, Janie said it was a great experiment which helped develop staff awareness and skills and that will look at using wikis for their staff handbook and reference procedures using their own server and Media Wiki. They are also considering doing a public technology help wiki.

I then spoke with Evan Kimple about their podcasting. They are using a laptop, a standard USB mike and free online service Audacity to create the podcasts and then are using archive.org to host them online. Evan showed me what was involved and it is very straightforward. They are doing podcasts of poets reading their original works and of authors reading selections from their works. They have the blog for these on a hosted Word Press blog, which is where the MP3s are placed and can be subscribed to. They are also podcasting special events, like their upcoming Teen Book Bash. Eventually they would love to podcast their guest speakers, but at the moment, they are time poor and there is also the issue of permissions.

Bob Keith, who is just about to graduate as a MLS, took me through some more techie stuff, in particular how he set up the Library’s OPAC computers so that they can only access the catalogue and related content, not the internet in general. He is using Firefox’s Kiosk mode with a few other enhancements to get the PCs just the way he wants them. As we are having a similar issue now with our new ILS in place at MPOW, it is a solution that I think we can use and he was kind enough to give me all the documentation and files to do so.

To finish, I had the honour of meeting with Library Director and ALA President Leslie Burger, who was generous in allowing me to take up both her valuable time and that of her staff. To Leslie and the staff at Princeton Library, many thanks for sharing your time, your expertise and your insights, they have all been very much appreciated.

Evan

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.