Connecting Librarian

It was my birthday the other day. Unfortunately I had a staff meeting and an appointment on that day which was my day off, as well as the regular school drop off, pickup and swimming lessons. So it wasn’t a day to relax. However, it was a day I learnt a bit about myself that I guess I have known, but never really realised and it was a day filled with many moments of happiness, many of which had some sort of electronic origin.

I’m a Gen Xer, a control freak (but not a perfectionist), task oriented and I love music. My work involves virtual services for my public library, which I just love. This is just some background to give context to the rest of this story.

My staff meeting was our Information Services team. The meeting is only quarterly, so I didn’t want to miss it and I do enjoy what we cover and the people I work with on this team. However, my biggest moment of joy in this meeting was sharing an achievement involving solving the issue of being able to search our catalogue from outside of our OPAC. Its been something that I have been working towards, on and off, since we got our new ILMS over 12 months ago and which came together in a very short time due to some timely and very helpful assistance from a colleague at another of our consortia libraries. (Thanks again Maryanne).

Another moment of joy during the day was when I was driving home from my appointment and one of my favourite songs came on the CD player. The volume went up on the music and whilst driving, I was bopping away in my car and singing my heart out (I’m not a bad singer…). I didn’t care what other drivers saw or thought, I was just enjoying the moment, which combined my joy of driving with my love of music. (don’t worry, I didn’t break any road rules or run anyone off the road)

After getting home, I chilled out for a short time, firstly online. I ended up with a small smile on my face for the rest of the day, because of all the lovely birthday wishes I received, both through email and through Facebook. Thanks to both my email and Facebook friends. It was a small thing, but I really did appreciate the few moments that you took to send me a quick greeting. After that I spent the last little time I had spare before getting going with kids and birthday dinner, to watch some of my favourite episodes of one of my favourite TV shows.

I spend lots of time in the electronic environment. Driving my car, working on virtual services, listening to music, spending time online whether in games, social networks, watching TV and more. And I really enjoy it. I always knew I spent a lot of time on computer, in my car and on TV, but didn’t really realise until that day how many moments of joy they provide me. It makes me think that I may be more digital native than I realised.

Here’s the notes from the afternoon session of Michael Stephen’s visit to Melbourne. Over 70 librarian, mostly not all from public libraries were presented with an interesting and informative session, with plenty of inspiration to take back to their libraries.

World is changing, especially in the last few years.  Its getting smaller, collaboration is happening on a scale that would not have been possible before.  It has changed the way we comunicate.

Web 2.0 is open, decentralised and participatory. Commonalities are open, participatrory, tags, comments, RSS, APIs.

Library job descriptions are also changing as a result. Just look at recent job advertisements - these positions did not exist a few years ago, because the technologies didn’t exist.  This is one way our profession is responding to these changes.

Open Source software is growing fast - it levels the playing field a bit, but requires staff and other resources to use and manage.  eg. Open Office, Inkscape, Trillian and Pidgin.  Open Office duplicates the functions of Microsoft Office (offer to ours users as an alternative?).

Surveying best practices:

Blogs - how many libraries have blogs?  Worth thinking about adopting if you don’t already have one.  Its a software tool, a content management system which is organised and archived chronologically by date.  With a blog, its all automatic without having to go through bureaucracy.  Newest news is at the top of the page, where your users eyes are going to land first. All you need is software, server space (can be hosted) and some HTML, time to blog and something to say.  What to say? - what’s new, programs and materials, new resources, conference reports - some librarians put their conference notes on their library’s public blog.  Blogging can be used to promote your content, ie databases, its fast easy and cheap and you can promote conversation.  Lamson Library uses Scriblio to get their Web Opac out in a blog.

Best practices - look around at other library blog and check out what features of them that you like. Find your voice/mission - what is your goal, how do you want to say it, listen to your users responses. Focus on content - configure it then let it work for you, focus on interesting content, reach out by covering users interests. Design - make it seamless between your library website and blog, make sure its always usable, keep your software current.  Share authorship - spread out the blogging, agree on voice and mission.  Post often and be succinct - keep it simple, make it printable. Have a style guide and train your staff to blog - give them help sheets on tagging etc.  Make sure they have time to do it!  Incorporate the blog into your site as well as possible and link to the catalogue as often as you can - link it to your homepage. Be transparent - blog your projects and plans, listen and respond to your users comments.  Use the blog as a platform for videos, images, RSS feeds,news, customize widgets.

For Librarian Bloggers - cite your sources and links, post often but have something to say, invest time, post your passions, blog nice, learn about your blog application - spam filters are necessary, information feeds in, flickr images fed in, polls etc.

Blogs can create the voice of the library, administrators should be involved, enable comments, participate!

Podcasting - easy to create with some simple open source tools ie. Audacity (OSS), iTunes, Garageband. Podcasts are syndicated via RSS - search iTunes for libraries. Kankakee Public Library podcasts their author visits.  All you need is a computer, Audacity and a microphone.

Best practices - use free tools like Audacity, involve staff who are interested and capable, monitor time and use (be sure you are getting ROI), podcast news, speakers, stories and more, current awareness, offer a place for others to try it!  Give users a place to record their own podcast!  or some other form of studio (ie video etc).

RSS - take content from one place and have it available in another place. Some ILMS offer RSS feeds on new additions to the catalogue - ie. books, videos/DVDs, audio etc.  RSS feeds can be the most time consuming thing you can learn about - saves you having to visit different blogs, you can use an RSS aggregator to have the content delivered to you.  With RSS you can keep up to date and put your library content in other locations.  Hennepin hacked their catalogue to provide RSS feeds for user generated searches - click through and place holds.  RSS has taken the place of SDI. eg. RSS feed of animal books on RSPCA website.

Best practices - decide if you want to build a portal or provide RSS feeds - train staff and users, ask vendors for feeds, develop a policy of displaying RSS on your website. Have a what is this for RSS on your website and embed the Common Craft videos from YouTube.

Wikis - an easy web page.  Mostly WYSIWYG, but some need basic coding (related to HTML). SJCPL found that most people were using local content more, so when they revised and created their subject wikis, those are the heading they retained. Don’t even have to use the word wiki in its use.

Best practices - play with a wiki (ie. PBWiki), monitor changes to the wiki, use it in classes and instruction.  Policy manuals, group edits on a report are common library uses.  SJCPL had a no wiki, where they recorded when they said no to users.  Each month they were reviewed and analysed to see where policy changes might be of use.

Instant messaging - usually text, but can be voice or video. All IM systems have a presence awareness system. “Faster IM” Computer in Libraries 2006 Stephens, M. “It can be cost effective means for any library to have a virtual reference presence in virtual spaces where our users already live!”  FASTER - Flow, ask questions, software, training, ease of use, return on investment (is high).  Meebo allows you to access multiple IM accounts via an online interface, or insert a widget into your webpage and allow users to IM you without an IM address (library has to have one).  Meebo benefits - no viruses, multiple services at once, voicemail for the web.

Best practices - promote the service, add you IM to your publicity, use a consistent naming scheme for all clients, use away messages effectively, use all your resources to answer questions.

Make IM part of your policy - fold it in to the reference desk duties.   People are usually happy to wait when the library is busy.

Flickr - a way of putting a human face on the library (photos). Another example of a social network, enabling tags, comments and being fed into other sites via links, widgets etc. Can use a flickr set for a library tour - including behind the scenes.

Best practices - allow flickr to be accessed on your public computers, tag-note-comment, create a useful profile page for your library, tell stories, make the library human,capture events-buildings, speakers, be mindful of little people etc.  Use it to be out there - experiment with Flickr toys too!

The Big Picture - best practices for social software
Meet the mission - convey the mission.  Ground your use of social software in the mission and vision of your library.  Use it to further the library mission and to meet your long range plan. (Maraine Valley College podcast page)

Prototype - great for roadblock builders, use it for education and planning, it demonstrates a need. Create a sandbox and get staff to play with it.  Use Ning to create a social network. (do it at State level for our library sector?).

Comments - enable it, moderate if needed, participate and ask vendors to give us this functionality.

Invite participation - allow comments, offer RSS feeds, aks surveys to do something - surveys, polls etc.

Give physical services a virtual space - ie. give the book club a blog, do an audio tour of the library.

Create social spaces for real time access to the tools - ImaginOn - Studio I for animation, make stations available for podcasting, video creation, blogging.

Be human tell stories - we have great stories to tell in libraries.  ie. Storypalooza - Gail Borden Library  YouTube contest - Denver Public Library.

Replace or remove outdated methods - NetFlix, Book Swim (mail delivery of items).  Topeka and Shawnee County Library mails holds to users - have a budget line for this.

Admin buy-in and use is PRICELESS.  Josie Parker at AADL and Louise Berry at Darien both blog.  But Staff buy in makes it HAPPEN!  Getting staff buy in can be helped by a Learning 2.0 program.  Also LISTEN to your staff and get their buyin.
Extra info coming from questions:

Sample policies may be available through Web Junction or the Library Success Wiki.

Seed your social sight with entries or comments to set the tone.

Michael says the future of our catalogues will incorporate both formal library subject headings as well as users tags.

Need to seriously consider how we want our presence to be available on the converged device ie. mobile phone.  iPhone is allowing normal web page browsing, next generation of phones should be the same.

Cross promotion between neighbouring facilities - Dutch example of library having recipe of the month and food market across the road displaying the ingredients for that recipe.

I was very happy to be able to attend a day of presentations by Michael Stephens of Tame the Web today. I met Michael for breakfast one morning towards the end of my study tour last year, so it was wonderful to renew our acquaintance. Although the time was all too short, it was great to catch up.

Anyway, here’s the notes I took - Michael will post the slides to his blog - Tame the Web.

———————————————————–

Suffering is optional in this session.

Jesse Hauk Shera quote - “that society will determine what the library of the future will be.”

World has shifted in the last few years, beginning with the dot.com bust.  Web rebooted itself, more interactive and social.

Recommended “Cluetrain Manifesto” which is available online for free.

Continous computing - Roush “Social machines” - Web as platform, wifi is ubiquitous, devices are converging and connecting.i

Time Magazine - “You control the information age” - not libraries.

Recommended “Everthing is miscellaneous”.

Many descriptions of Web 2.0 - 2 Michael focusses on - harvesting collective intelligence and rich user experiences.

Web 2.0? - Live Web or as Michael says “Find others like you”.  Friending etc.  No 1 social site that Michael uses is Flickr - he is an image based person, so he loves it.  Can track his travels from his Flickr account.  Can also find him at Last FM - tracks what he is listening to on his Mac.  Michael has also has a Facebook profile.

Can make anything you want with image generators.

This is where we live - people are spending a lot of their social lives online - not just for the internet addict.  Lots of these sites, more and more being created every day.
All these sites are open, participatory and are about access.

Shared the Library 2.0 definition by Casey & Savistinuk - most important “physical and virtual services” and “consistently evaluating”.

Check out the Perceptions of Libraries and Information Sources and Sharing, privacy and trust in the networked world reports from OCLC.
96% of people had walked into a public library at least onece, 51% used IM and 30% had never heard of databases.  Users want seamless service and self-service options - think Google. They want seamless - not silos. Our websites are little versions of the library - they shouldn’t be.  “Books” are the library brand.  Only 1% surveyed used the library as their search starting point.   Why not visiting the library website - didn’t know it existed, other sites have better info, can’t find the site.Brian Mathews - social network will be ubiquitous - will expect it everywhere they go online - be able to tag, leave comments or reviews, wherever they go.

Pew Internet found that 36% of adults used Wikipedia. 8% were on it on any one day.  Make sure your library is on Wikipedia, including in the geographic area entries (ie. Council, suburbs, town etc). Add content, links - give it more value.

ACRL - put out a report (check slides) - need to do 3 things:
Evolve - reference signs have gone - welcome, ask here (Allen County), round tables for collaboration, transparent reference desk, with comfy chairs and flat screens and also IM service (NC library state uni), (MSN most popular in Australia). Dublin Library used PageFlakes to create a portal with feeds to the information you give it.  Georgia Tech Library did a welcome celebration free pizza, speed dating, music, poker, games, DDR, drama and more. (again Brian Mathews)  Didn’t talk about library resources, want them to find the library on their own.  YPRL using tablets for reference.  LC launched The Commons - a project with Flickr - hosting photos and inviting comments and tags.

Let go of control - (used the warning sign generator). If we don’t, we could lose both users and staff.  What stories are these libraries telling?   Showed signs banning phones - we should be banning the more concerning bad behaviour, not the technology.  Things we do can now go around the world - with a phone and a quick picture, then to Flickr and a blog and its publicised wider than your local library. PLCMC - Rules for the Loft - Respect yourself, respect others, respect the space.  Casey and Stephens - understand the people who are breaking the rules (Transparency column).  Walk through the library with users eyes - a teen even.

Be visible - Wyoming mud flap girl - caused controversy but was aimed at getting truckers in to borrow their audio books. Laptop Librarian - offers assistance in the dining hall. Librarian visits Panera cafe and offers library service, signs up members etc, answers questions.

“Cluetrain Manifesto” published in 1999, but foretold the advent of social networking. We can rally together online, make changes together online, share and discuss content online.  Cluetrain says Markets are conversations, Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy - and can go around the chain of command, get information out to people - ie. hacks to DRM.  Libraries can now communicate directly with teir users. Web is a little bit broken - hyperlinked organisation can be the same thing. Learn who to go around to get things done.

Organisational Chart - the hyperlinked library is more team based (although still need leadership), but it is focussed around the user, not a pyramid.

Technology is just a tool it is not going to save your library.  We need to understand technolust and should not be putting resources into things are users don’t want or will not use.

Transparency: technology storm - ie. locked down library website, technology plans without staff buy-in, siege mentality due to concerns about privacy, security etc - NO LONGER FLIES!

People want to talk to each other - open and honest conversations, open and honest decisions, speaking in a human voice.  Conversations among human beings sound human- we recognise PR speak. Make the library as flat as possible - Darien Library circ staff are blogging and buying for the collection - they know what the users are borrowing and requesting - even sending them to the Book Expo.  Going to the field - visit the front lines, examine different staffing models, develop big picture understanding (management). SJCPL has 30 bloggers contributing content to their blog, AADL website is blog based, State Librarian of Kansas is blogging her travels around her state.  Outside eg. Chief of Police in Nebraska is blogging - talking about crime, but in a human way and responding to comments, having a conversation.

Most important - Say Yes!

The Library tell stories:
Look for stories about the library and also give your users the chance to tell their stories. Gwinnett Library “Rock the Shelves 2005″ on Flickr. National Library photos on Flickr. Storypalooza - make a video about the library and reading, put the video on the library website. (Gail Borden Library).
“Participatory Culutre” - Jenkin quote “consumers are transformed into participants”. Ohio Uni library tour podcasts, done by librarian and another by a student. Hennenpin County Book Space.

The Library is user driven:
Get out of the users way - don’t create problems.   Karen Schneider - The user is not broken. Our systems are a little bit broken when it comes to engaging the user. They want the information in the easiest way possible.  User driven service is user-centred, can involve the users, ask them what they want (link on website - prizes offered.  Listen to your users and to your front-line staff - they know the story of the library.  5 Factors to Consider - does it place a barrier between the user and the service, is it born from complaints from librarians or users, does it add more rules, does it make more work for the user or the librarian, does it involve damage control begin you even begin? eg. SJCPL Subject wiki - public can’t edit but can sugest. Biz Wiki - Ohio U.

Engage your users: Facebook search box - UIUC and Hennepin. Comments on the catalogue (Hennepin) and also Book Space.

Let them drive, let them participate, let them create.  Amazon now has user generated video reviews. Competitions on your social networking space.  Pew Internet study showed that 57% of US teens that created content online. Rest don’t have the technology at home to be able to do this. Might be well serving our users to come and create content to put online.  ie. podcasting station, place to blog etc.  AADL Tag Cloud shows the most popular searches on their catalogue. Hennepin County - images of reading Harry Potter.  Privacy concerns allayed by agreeing to terms of use and having it as opt-in.

Library uses trends as opportunities: social network federation - networks will be converging, be able to talk between networks - may come from one of the social networks or from a third party. Choosing among trends: good signs are that everyone is doing it, its being asked for, most importantly its fun!
Trendspotting - hand out current magazines and ask staff to look for trends that we may be able to tap into.  Our jobs are changing - both in content and in title.  Trend: citizen journalism - mobile phones and blogs can spread news which in turn can change everything.  Challenge of how these tools are challenging privacy, reputation and more. There are legal implications which are still being explored.  We can be educators in how to deal with our online presence - if its out there.  Google your library or chedck Technorati to find conversations about your library that you may not know is happening. Open source software is a trend, but its free as in kittens,not free as in beer - need resources to adapt it and keep it going.  Emerging Tech Group - group of staff who regularly meet to discuss new tech and how it may be used in the library (use a blog for the group).  Check out the books he recommends on the slides.  Are we failing to innovate because of fear. (Kathy Sierra)

The Library has presence: library is out in spaces where we might not expect it to be. Buckland quote “There is much greater opportunity to bring service to potential users wherever they may be”.  YouTube video puts the library out where people may see it.  Use profiles on social networking sites to give more background - make it a miniature website which then links back to your library website.  Google SMS service - text a message to Google.  Libraries using twitter to do current awareness on book titles, events etc, then has RSS feed which you can add to your website.

Library learns, plays and innovates.  Learning should be part of staff development, throughout the staff structure. Everyone should be experimenting with new technology. Well trained staff are a great marketing tool for your users.  Get sandboxes for staff, both virtual spaces and physical - where you bring the gadgets in for staff to play with. Best thing to do for staff is getting them set up with an RSS reader.

Discover and experience the new tools: Learning 2.0 program - can be scaled and adapted for users. (offer it for users?). Check out Hey Jude’s blog on learning 2.0 and schools.  Second Life - shopping, events and a library presence - what does it mean for libraries?  We are still finding out.  Ning - do it yourself social networking site - users get blogs, forums etc. Golden rule of innovation - say YES - encourage people to play.

Encourage the heart - we get into libraries because we care.

The Library knows me - personalisation is the big trend coming - other sites have been doing it for years and users will come to expect it from libraries.
The Library is human - use Flickr to show this.  “Bring your heart with you to work”. (David Warlick)
Throw out the culture of perfect - trial and error is OK, it might not work but that’s OK too, there are still thing learned.
Open Libraries - control fades, communication is up and down.
Create a culture of trust - trust your users, trust each other.

Everything we have talked about today is about a cultural shift, not just shiny new toys.  To move forward, ground them in the mission of your library and your long term plans.  Be selective, choose the tools that work best for your library and your user, use evidence to decide which ones.  Be sure to balance innovation with ROI.  The next big step is how we evaluate these Web 2.0 tools in our libraries.

Five things you can do now:
Be a trendspotter - Form an Emerging Tech Group - Try Learning 2.0 - Create a What’s New blog - Explore presence (ways in which you can put your library out in social networks).

IMPORTANT:
Learn to learn.
Adapt to change.
Scan the horizon.

—————————————————————-

Next Space (OCLC) magazine includes a social networking article featuring Stuart Weibel.

Where is the Library as a brand?
Perceptions of libraries and information resources - OCLC report (available online)
3300 respondents to questions on library use, awareness and use of library electronic resources, internet search engine the library and the librarian, free vs for-fee information, the brand itself.
Libraries are trusted sources of information, search engines are trusted about the same, people care about quality and quantity of info they find, but speed is less important (not believable). However, convenience is very important.
Do not view paid infomration as more accurate than free info.
The overwhelming brand image of libraries is BOOKS!

Library Brand Equity - we need a strong visible brand on the web.  Libraries currently are a black and white presence in a colorful, flashy web world.
How do we build the brand?  Build on the trust of our patrons. Build on our business model - making info look free to our end-users.  Build on the scale that libraries represent - presence in every community, global scope and reach.  Improve awareness of library resources.  Make libraires a part of the new electronic environments that dominate social, educational and work environments.  We need to be there!

Social netowrking software!  Its not new, just the technical manifestation is. Deliver library services into the emerging social networks. Motivate people to participate: tagging, book reviews, emergent relationships that are evident from data about what people borrow, like and dislike, link to the people as well.  Need to build our own systems into the social structures that are so quickly developing.

Numbers of content creators and contributors are changing - increasing.  More people are wanting to get their content out on the web.  Their are great innovative approaches to attract that content to the library community.

Social Networking is not just for games: Facebook, MySpace, Second Life and Twitter.  All are flawed as service delivery models - business models are closed or obscure, features are rudimentary or overbearing. But they foretell a digital future in both their virtues and faults. Stuart Weibel has both Twitter and Facebook accounts and will be your friend.  They teach us about what people are doing out there - think of it as a professional investment.  They are all goofy because they are all new.  They will develop and some of that development will be interesting.

Libraries must compare favourably with experiences that our patrons expect: discovery and recommender services, web 2.0 social network capabilities, experiences of comparable commerical services, last-mile delivery capability, bookstore social experiences.  We are offering an experience as well as a service.  Save the user time.

Can Libraries compete in this space?  Should they?
Social software movement is fueled by (dollar denominated) entrepreneurial fervor.  Rate of innovation (and failure) is rapid. Distinguish between trends and the trendy and don’t get wrapped on the latter, especially when they fail.

Future of library catalogues?
Evolving towards network level. Collections linked to people, organisations, global location, concepts, context, metadata and social networking benefits.  Fit into the workflow and social lives of patrons. Help create a scaffolding for past knowledge and future productivity.

Web or Scaffolding?  We want more conherence and context, durable environments that help us preserve and fix resources in the context of culture, librarianship embedded in the emerging technologies of a social web.

Our catalogues need to be wholistic, treating not only works, but also people, concepts, works and objects (FRBR).  In addition we need book reviews, lists, services, commentary, other?  Book reviews are part of social bibliography, user created content.  All these things should be First Class Objects which have to ahve a persistent identity on the web, accessible by anyone or any applicaation, stand alone (attribution, clear IP rights), curated (not left alone). Allow the user to enter and tranverse the catalogue from any point.

WorldCat Identities - Beta product from OCLC - Another piece of the puzzle?
Tag cloud shows the top 100 identities.  Uses bibliographic data and mining it from other sources at OCLC.

Complicated puzzle - where ya gonna turn?
People, information, resources, places, terminologies, user generated content, FRBR (explain it to your patrons).  We need to better mine and utilise the data that we have.  Hook everything together with the right sort of identifiers.  A coherent identifier infrastructure is essential. Broad dissemination of identifiers serves the library collaborative and is the single most compelling means of making library assets persistent and visible on the web.

Persistence: not technological but rather a function of the commitment of organisations.  Libraries and other cultural memory organisations do this well.  Harder to do in the digital era, but the community is up to the task.
Universal access and global scoping: open to all, public identifiers in a public Web. Should work everywhere. WorldCat is the first globally-scoped identifier architecture for library assets in which the global surrogate is mapped to locality.  But we’re not quite done yet.
SEO and canonical identifiers - visibility of assets in the global library is diluted by the multiplicity of identifiers, agreement is needed on a canonical identifier.  Lack of it is a dilution of our brand and a lack of visibility on the web.
Branding is an important component of URIs - every URI is a micro-billboard branding library content in a crowded and largely commercial Web landscape. URIs need to be designed for people as well as machines, should be speakable, should be as short can be as managed, should have a predictable pattern that makes them hackable and truncatable.

FRBR is an important ocintrubtion to resource organisation on the web, but it is a challenge to explain to users.

World Cat - Mid 2006. Globally unique, freely available, citable and resolvable, independent of location, but not quite canonical.  Falls short because of duplicates, either mistaken or functional, not always resolvable to content and only sort of canonical.

NEWS!!!   Pilot project by OCLC - GLIMIR - Global Library Manifestation Identifier which is global in scope, canonical, business neutral, provides the URL equity necessary to support the library brand, fits comfortably with the FRBR model.  If its going to work, it can’t be an OCLC product, but it will be managed by them. It will require participation, buy in and support, all of which will be very tricky to achieve.  Can a global community agree and adopt this when there are already so many identifiers - eg. ISBN.  OCLC is launching this pilot to identify functional requirements and practicalities solicited review from technical specialists,moving forward will require a careful balance of use cases, business issue and more.

Identifiers are key to fulfilling the mission of libraries in a digital future, to compete ont he open web for recognition of our brand, to integrate our traditional bibliographic values with social networking content, to provides services and access to the digital tribe - our future constituency.

weibel-lines.typepad.com.
twitter - stuartweibel
flickr - weibel-lines

Kim Tairi - Swinburne University of Technology, Rob McCormack - Peodair Leihy and Peter Ring - Victoria University
“Fairy tales and Elggs: social networking with student rovers in learning commons”

Rovers were used in the Learning commons - student peer mentors who worked in pairs.  Created RoverSpace - an online community for Rovers to share knowledge and problems, initially used Elgg (open source social networking space), now use Google Groups and Mediawiki.

Student rovers need to be peers (complementary service to librarians), seed a culture of learning (exemplars of good learning practice, paid work as a positive (good addition to or complement of their coursework), where the community meets (some rovers see working for the library as an honour).
Having rovers who reflect the university’s student population, in terms of background, courses etc.

RoverSpace - contains shift reports, statistics, administrative communication, reflective tasks, organic information sharing space.

Duties: - basic advice, assistance, operational support to students in the Learning Commons regarding IT and Library queries
- assist students to clarify their learning issues and develop strategiese to tackle them
- refer students to online/library resources, formal student learning advice and other forms of assistance

Rovers handled 4500 queries in the first 2 semesters of 2007  83% dealt with in a few minutes. 7.2% referred to library staff. 70.5% of queries were for printing, photocopying, catalogue, borrowing and returning, finding items on shelf and the swipe card technology.

Happily Ever After?
better publicity and more visibility
more training and better knowledge management
different roles (lead rover and webmaster)
more efficient support (only one in off peak times)
capitalising on online support potential
other platforms - Cosmopolis
PDAs

Bruce Heterick - JSTOR
“Shift happens: how the network effect, two-sided markets and the wisdom of crowds are impacting libraries and scholarly communication”

Check out the YouTube video “Shift happens” - series of factoids on how the world is changing.

“Technology is everything that is invented after you were born.”  “Technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.”
eg. Printing press (Gutenberg -1440) led to the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance
Linotype machine (Merganthaler - 1886) led to increased newspaper circulation (cheaper production costs)
Integrated circuit (Kilby/Noyce - 1961) led to digital computing
World Wide Web (BernersLee - 1989) led to search engines, e-commerce, information transition
iPod (Apple - 2001) - led to portable media

Library in use is using audio avatars - surfer dude on using Google, southern lady on archives from JSTOR - podcast how to use the resources.  Students downloading and listening to them when they want.

Four exponentials ….. working together
- Moore’s Law - power of computing is doubling every 18 months ( hold true for last 25 years and probably for next 10 to 15)
- Law of Fiber - capacity of the bandwith is doubling every 9 months - allowing us to deliver much more than we could have imagined a few years ago
- Law of Storage - digital storage doubles for the same cost every 12 months (its not a concern anymore because it is so cheap)
- Law of Community (Metcalf’s Law) - the power of the network goes up with the square of the networked people interacting with it
Each law is an exponential change agent, but with all of them working together, feeding off one another, it has caused such great change that it has become unsettling for people.

“If things are under control, you are moving too slow”.

They are facilitating the transition from the Information Age to the Age of Participation:
- actively engaging with what they are receiving - blogs and wikis are descendents of that need
- multilateral, not unilateral - not just working person to person - more apparent but also can be more confusing
- communities, not silos - around the information, how will they be facilitated through the platforms being used
- contribution as well as consumption

They are contributing to an environment with new dynamics:
- The Network effect - service becomes available as more people use it, growth can be extraordinarily fast (often virally) and can occur with little or no centralized control, glider - the power of the network must move down.
- Two-sided markets - WEb 2.0 where people contribute and consumer, economic network having two distinct user groups

Wisdom of crowds - groups are smarter than the smartest individual in the right circumstances
- decisions by crowds work when the crowd is diverse, decentralized & work independently ie. Wikipedia

Libraries will have to engage more at the place where their users are - proactive engagement.
Publishers have to be building self-sustaining communities or be consolidated.
Faculty - have to become more conversant with the technologies, adopt these advances, focus on networks, not institutions.

Law of change - libraries will have to change as the larger system of which we are a part changes, or risk being ejected from it.
Gorbachev Syndrome - leaders swept away by the tide they have created.

Do we move forward to what is inevitable or do we hold on to the continuity that we have, however profoundly it is flawed?

Michael Geist - Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law, University of Ottawa
“Unlocking access: in support of a hands-on Internet policy”

Early days of the web (90s) were seen as a hands-off time for government, leaving it to the practitioners and users.  However, government and policy have always been a part of the internet.

Internet 2008: World of blogs, podcasts, social networking which is enabling people to create, speak out, making their voices heard.  They can share experiences and find that they are not alone. Creation, using desktop software and distribution of video is also growing exponentially - eg. Star Wreck, Elephant’s Dream.  Public broadcasters are allowing their users (and funders) to do the same. (eg BBC)  Flickr with billions of photos now has over 100 million photos available under Creative Commons licences - enabling others to create with this content as well as millions of other online works.

Growth of the collaborative media - ie. Wikipedia - 2 million articles in english. Encyclopedia of Life aiming to catalogue all life on earth in 10 years - started last year.  OhMyNews - citizen journalism contributed by the person on the street, to a handful of editors.  Project Gutenberg, LibriVox (audio of it), MIT Open Courseware (7 years old) - online syllabi, course materials, powerpoint demos, podcasts and videocasts. Public Library of Science - open access peer reviewed scientific journal. Internet archive is good for more than the Way Back machine, it will host any content that the individual has the copyright to. Digitisation projects worldwide making previously unknown titles or those thought to be lost, now available to all.  Underlying a lot of this is open source software.

Internet 2018: Four pillars: connectivity, enhance participation,copyright, content
Price of admission for participation, lifelong learning, self expression is access. Connectivity - Broadband for all.
Muni wifi - market can’t do it all, there is a place for public utlities
net neutrality (not the Internet 2 model - pay for better service) - will help develop innovation - much would not be around today if it had not been in place ie. Google, eBay and Amazon.  Need legislation to ensure equity for all.

Enhance participation - intermediary liability issues - being blamed for the content of others and sometimes having legal action taken.
domain names
privacy - protections are often dictated by the policies of the sites they inhabit
trust
transparency

Copyright - anti-circumvention - trying to keep it away, but if not, then retain fair dealing rights
fair use - ensure robust enough to deal with the shifting landscape
term extension -
orphan works
WIPO -

All communities need to speak out so that our governments are truly representing the view of the people in international negotiations.

Content: Open access, digitisation, crown copyright sometimes used as a legal form of censorship, public broadcasting.

Schubert Foo - Vice Dean SCI Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“Going virtual for enhanced library experience: a case study of the National Library of Singapore

His website - www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assfoo/

Was impressed with the developments in Librarianship in Australia, as evidenced by the papers and showcases at VALA. Encouraged the audience to share internationally and not think that the innovation can only come from the US or Europe.

National Library Board oversees the National Library and all public libraries in Singapore.

Singapore is a very IT savvy country. As young as 3 year olds are given mobile devices to play and learn with. Everywhere in Singapore, heads are down, using their handheld devices. Government initiative promoting Singapore as an IT island. Social and affluent society, cosmopolitan - coffee drinking is an experience in itself.

Singapore Libraries - brick vs click, collect-organise-store-access, mediator (source to user), authoritative, trusted content

Library users are in the minority and are scholars, researchers, library savvy.  Others find info needs met by search engines, see web info as legitimate and the only source, they think Google, Yahoo, MSN not library, expect instant gratification, find info until is downloadable, expect exception user experience (memorable, unique, exquisitely simple).  How do we find solutions to reach the majority and bring them back to our physical and virtual libraries.

What do hey do to close the gap? Delve into the information space of the users . Make resources more discoverable for them, thus bringing them back to the library.

Mobile phone penetration in Singapore 2007 - 109.1% of the population. SMS Nation - 3rd place afer Malaysia (210) and the Phillipines (846) - with a monthly average of 209 text messages per month.  Relatively cheap to send SMS and is often used to close business deals (no signature required).

Role of library - to connect users to resources that users need, for whatever purposes, in any format, from anywhere, using any device at the time (instantaneous for some) they want it.  Library as an info-concierge - individual info object is a self sustaining, self contained node unit, can be content or service, in any format.  Need to be inter-connected with multiple access points. Upon discovery, an information object becomes an info-concierge with ability to connect to other content (in library or outside) or other information seekers.  Connectivity can be achieved by hyperlinks, different platforms, pusing information - connectivity not necessarily one way.  Evolving a mesh (web) of information.

What’s Next? Browse by subjects, browse by format, recommended relational search, up and coming events, photos and stories to share. This content is harvested rom internal and external resources. Content can be released to spaces tousdie the library to promote discovery.(ie social networking spaces)  Residency in other spaces allows users to use them as best suited for their needs. If they don’t want the content, they can ignore it, but its there if they are interested or a need arises. Example: BookJetty.com.(like Library Thing) but will show if its in a local library or link to an online bookseller for purchase.

Library as a network of inter-connected info-concierges. Requires harvesting of other resources, selecting and authenticating contents, meta-tagging, creating, maintaining and growing taxonomies, information content organisation. Internal - NLS web content and subscribed databases. External - GYM, MICA, IDA, NAS.

Library as a network of true collaborators. Connectivity: content to content, people to content, people to people. Libraries are best placed to provide this. Dialogue/information sharing tools: wikis, blogs, social spaces.  Both library owned and other owned content.  We don’t have to own everything, we need to harvest content that is useful to our users, regardless of source.

In house exhibitions are rendered as far as possible to virtual exhibitions, once the physical one has ended.  National Library of Singapore is a smart building, approximately $300 million. ie. maximised airflow, use of sun and reflecting panels, trees on the 7th floor were chosen from thriving ones in the surrounding area. (book to be published on it soon).

NLS repositioned its reference service to meet users’ changing expectations and consumer lifestyles. Service within reach - SMS reference. Ask a librarian service by phone, one public library has a video conferencing service (no librarian in the branch), email and now SMS. 60 characters in Chinese, up to 160 in English.  Librarian resolves enquiry and enters answers via a standard template.  Reply with a direct answer or a URL. The URL gives more info, including more search terms to use, highlighted resources including notes on where to look in them, links to their availability.  At the end they include feedback questions which the user completes and submits. The answers are kept in a database as a future searchable resource.

Observations: overall positive feedback.  Various types of questions answered. Some users expect instant replies. Usgae rates averages 10-15 enquiries per day. Accessing NLS through Google, Yahoo and MSN. Created Infopedia - articles authored by NLS reference librarians about personalities, places and historical events in Singapore.  Use SEO to make sure it appears high on search engine results.  (infopedia.nlb.gov.sg)  Using Google based content (ie. maps) helps get links to your content. Content usage has increased exponentially with better exposure on the web - from 400 views to 63,000 views per month.  Other micro-sites are being explored.

Collaborative reference network. Making use of community expertise - librarians, researchers, community members. If questions can not be answered, referred to the network of specialists - who will then respond to the query which the librarian will then return to the user.  Uses forum for the discussions occuring over a query, can follow a thread.  Observations: still goes through the library, reference communities can included librairans, experts or others.

Challenges: requires support, experimentation, budget, time and innovation. Future promises excitement for librarians, managers, developers and vendors. Librarians will continue to grapple with constant flux of technological changes, users’ behaviour, users’ expectations and the need to reinvent themselves and continue instilling information literacy knowledge to users.  Need to continually learn about our users.  Referred to the JISC/British Library report on the Google Generation - Information behaviour of the researcher of the future.

Whilst I catch up on quite a bit of reading and get my head around my next planned post, whilst also getting my children ready for school (with my son starting Grade Prep) I thought I would point out a great resource.

Many of you would already have seen at least some of these, but they are all well worth a look. The videos are all quite short (3 to 4 minutes generally) and do a good job of explaining the topic at hand in layman’s terms. Kind of like a video dummies guide.

From Common Craft - “We produce short videos that make complex subjects easier to understand.” The Common Craft Show is a series of free videos on social media topics, which also help them to showcase their work.

Anyway, the ones most of interest to me and I will assume will be of some interest to you are:
Video: Google Docs in Plain English
Video: Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
Video: Blogs in Plain English
Video: Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Video: Wikis in Plain English
RSS in Plain English

I would also recommend them as ones to show others who may be struggling with the particular idea being discussed. They are brief, easy to understand, user friendly and even a little bit of fun. Take some time to check them out and enjoy!

Eli Neiburger, head of Information and Administration Services at Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) gave me most of his day to outline the great things that are happening at Ann Arbor. I so want a programmer on our staff. Eli leads the Information Access and Systems team of 9 fulltime staff who provide help desk support (2), programmers (2), ILS (1), systems administration (1), vendor/hardware specialist (1), AV media producer (1) and public training coordinator (1). The AV media producer also has 2 part-time assistants. Check out the flickr photos.

AADL has a reputation for doing great things with gaming, which arose when their Teen Librarian started in 2003 and suggested the idea. They didn’t just want to do a supporting collection and building limitations meant that installing gaming kiosks was difficult, so they chose a different means.

They want to build community with their teens, so their gaming is tournament based. Once a month, they will run a tournament weekend - Friday night is open to all ages, Saturday is teens only and Sunday is either for young kids or is open play again. It is usually held at the start or end of a school break. These tournaments are no different to storytimes, with the same sorts of relationships being developed and is the highlight of the kids relationship with the library, smashing their preconceived ideas of it.

Recreational reading teens are a minority audience. One of their teens has said that their gaming program is “a gateway drug for libraries.” It is not just bait to get teens in to the library and using other resources etc, it is an end in itself.

Out of gaming came the gaming blog, before the first tournaments began. School visits stirred up further interest. So their stats thus far are: 65 gaming events run with about 5000 attending across all events. Their database of gamers has 1000 players, with over 200 unique players last season. They get an average of 40-60 kids to each event, but their biggest tournaments have had 100-120.

As for their website, the previous incarnation had blogging, but was not blog based as it is now. They started planning in January 05 and went live with the website when they launches their new ILS in July 05. They used a graphics design company to design the look and the CSS templates. They also took paper copies of the proposed organisation of the site, to check terminology and structural transparency with their users. The study showed that had the right plan.

They looked at various content management system (CMS) options, limited to those that were php based as that is the development skill they had in-house. John Blyberg (who is now in Darien) brought in Drupal, mainly because of its open API. They now have 50,000 accounts on Drupal, not all are library members. Drupal works as a web interface for their ILS, logs their users in and returns search results. This enables them to use php scripts to do more. Their web server then becomes an application server, bypassing limits of their ILS. Next generation ILS for them may be an open source product, with all their written scripts as the front end.

Any one can blog on the website, with the approval of their manager and after they complete a 1/2 hour training session to ready them. They adapted the Drupal wiki to allow them to easily link to images, catalogue searches and individual items. Their blogs have had 10,000 comments, but over 9,000 of those have been on the gaming blog.

They started their gaming with $5000, buying 8 TVs, 8 Game Cubes, all the controllers, cabling etc, with 8 copies each of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. They also have PS2 and DDR dance pads. They have also run “Retro octathlon” sessions using compilations of old games. Have also started doing huge Pokemon XD tournaments and have Guitar Hero too.

Sessions are run by Eli and some of the IAS staff, with teen staff handling food, answering questions etc. They are also doing some family events and have had a parent/child tourney using Eli’s own Wii console and games. Hoping to get 4 consoles for more such events in the next year.

System staff and some OPACs are Macs, otherwise all machines, including their thin clients which work well, are PCs. Use in house developed software for PC management, which allows unlimited use, unless someone is waiting. The longest anyone has to wait is 10 minutes, minimum booking time is 1/2 hour. They use Pharos for their print management. Their PC training lab uses Macs, but they can open a Windows screen and run the software. They run an IRC channel for their intradesk communications, including inter-branch. No virtual reference service at present, they are examining options with IM.

Their server farm is awesome. They have an OSX server for managing the Mac OPACS and development, 2 ILS servers, a training server running a copy of the ILS, a number of infrastructure boxes, storage boxes, spam firewall in front of the mail server, media server installed but not yet used, a production server, windows file share server, terminal servers, firewall, domain controllers and more file storage. New servers awaiting installation will be used to supplement capacity and migration, for a Pharos update, as a new imaging server for PC images (ie. maintenance not pictures).

They also are starting a public development box - open up their applications and see what people come up with.

They are also starting up with Library Lego League, using Lego Mindstorms Robots. Run over 4 days, the kids build a robot from the kit which has to do a particular task set at the beginning. The champions then play off for the title of Grand Champion.

Eli, it was a great day and I appreciate all the time and effort you gave to my visit. I learned a lot from you and hopefully I will be able to blog about some of what I have been able to get done as a result.

Marianne Kruppa is Web Development Librarian at St Joseph County Public Library (SJCPL) and I have just spent a wonderful day with her, discovering their main library and all the great things that they are doing there. SJCPL is made up of the main library, 8 branches (plus one under construction) and a read mobile and services St Joseph County in and around South Bend, Indiana. Check out my photos on Flickr.

Their equipment comprises a web server, an external server for public access and an internal 4 staff, a mail server, their ILS server, PC management server, with an IT department to support them. The difference is that at SJCPL, 85% of their machines - staff and public, are Macs. They also have a development server where they can develop and play with applications etc before they go live on (wow, I want one of those!)

As at other libraries I have visited, they have some impressive public art in the Main Library too.

Their Sights and Sounds area on the third floor has all of their AV collection - from audio to DVD and video, from children’s to adults. Here is where they also lend out iPods with audiobooks they have purchased from iTunes. They have 30 iPods to lend, which come in satchel with earphones, adaptor, charger etc. They can have a maximum of 5 books downloaded onto it. Their list of titles is kept in a folder, patrons choose what they want and staff download the content, and when returned after the three week loan period, the iPod is wiped, ready for the next user. Patrons can also bring in their own iPod and have content downloaded to it. All iPods were out when I visited. They chose the iTunes option as the uptake of iPods is about 70% as opposed to other MP3 players.

They use Word Press loaded onto their server for the blogs and Marianne also uses a nice web tool, Feed2J to generate feed summaries from these for their homepage (very nice!) They have a public SJCPL blog, which is a free for all and has contributors from all branches and departments. Their teen page is blog based, managed by Marianne and their teen librarian, where teens are also able to submit book reviews, through a form in the blog page.

They also have 2 blogs relating to their building projects, one for the staff and one for the public, keeping everyone updated on progress. The Rewards and Recognition Committee also have an internal blog, which they use to recognize staff achievements and promote staff events.

For the staff, they use the content management system (CMS) Drupal, an open source products, which operates as their intranet – called Leaf-let and has a blog like front page, which several people post to. The Website itself is HTML based, no CMS is used, but it can be tweaked easily. Marianne uses Feed2J to put the feeds on the homepage.

The most popular blog is the Game Blog which is used to promote gaming events in the library and other gaming news. This is where they have built their gaming community, with approximately 60-70 kids now coming to their gaming events. They have done 138 posts and had 658 comments from the kids, it really is a case of creating a discussion on this blog. They also have a forum called GameBoard using PHPBB – open source software, for discussing gaming related items. Pedro and Marianne moderate it, but not too strictly. This is huge with the teens, who can start their own discussions.

They have the facilities to do podcasting, but wish to sort out copyright issues before going ahead. Would love to do movie reviews, with clips included, storytimes and more. They have a Flickr account with library photos and a MySpace page also.

They offer IM reference, as an extension to their in-house use of it as a communication channel between staff. It has not been widely publicized, but they still get 5-6 queries a day on average. They use Macs with the occasional PC, so IM on Macs uses Adium and on PCs uses Trillian. Non-staff queries are monitored at the Reference Desk, so a staff member is always there or close by.

Wikis came about at SJCPL after a Computers in Libraries. They used a server as a sandbox to play with the wiki, which then became a staff wiki, with the circulation team using it for their circulation procedures and more. It now includes manual type info and more from circulation, reference, branch information, handouts and more. It offers staff the option of feeding back training ideas and more.

Their links list was reviewed after they realized it was offering information that by-passed the great resources the library had. They used Media Wiki with a template created from input from all departments to cover content on a wide variety of topics, with the emphasis first on library held information and then external websites.

In the future, Marianne says SJCPL will be doing more videos – self-promotion, commercials etc, especially using the new Adobe suite, which incorporates video editing into Photoshop. They also want to start their podcasting and are moving to RFID.

Their gaming set up is something to behold and I did when they set some of it up for me to play with in the afternoon. (Pedro and Marianne kicked my butt in both game types). They have 8 Games Cubes with a TV and controllers each, 2 good quality Dance Dance Revolution platforms and accompanying signal boosters and projection equipment to show some of the action on the big screen. They mainly use 2 games – Super Smash Bros and Mario Kart. They set it up as a LAN, with fast match changes, automatic character selection (so no fighting over characters) and the equalization of tracks. It runs under professional tournament mode.

They have 1 open play session a month and 1 tournament play, both at the Main Library. They spotlight one game on the big screen. Kids also bring in their Nintendo DS’s and use the libraries WiFi to play against each other on their own devices. The tournaments always run on a Saturday from 9am-5pm in an open space in the basement of the library, away from the collections. Kids queue from 8.30am. They also have Dance Dance Revolution available and kids also come and play cards and more.

They discourage kids from bringing their own games or equipment (besides the DSs) – because it raises expectations and there are safety issues involved. Gaming gives the library relevancy to the teens, making it a Third Place for them. They don’t push library promotions on the teens, but make the information available if they want it. However they do get gaming kids at library events if they know one of the gaming library staff will be there.

Pedro runs every session and is assisted by Marianne on the tournament days and another staff member on open days. They have pizza for lunch on tournament days, with more staff on hand at this time to help out.

They recommend having a person in charge of gaming who is very enthusiastic about it. Gaming teaches social interaction, good sportsmanship and gamesmanship – they have seen the change in a quite a few of their kids. Not one piece of library equipment has been stolen at these events, although some personal belongings of gamers has gone. The kids will even stay to help clean up.
This is their only means of gaming as they don’t have consoles in their libraries, but hope to in the near future.

Thanks especially to Marianne who took me through all the great stuff happening at SJCPL throughout the day and particular thanks to Pedro who set up all the equipment so I could experience their gaming hands on. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot – THANKS!