Connecting Librarian

Its Day 8 of the 30 blog posts in 30 days challenge. Let me start this post by saying that our public library users are, in the vast majority, lovely people who are pleasant, give us few problems and are generally fine to deal with.

Now for those who aren’t. Start of whinge.

I don’t know if I ever really experienced this in my previous branch manager incarnations (probably because the buildings were new then), but I seem to spend a lot of time logging, documenting and following up on maintenance requests, mostly building and fittings related.

A large number of these are not due to bad library design, poor maintenance of buildings or equipment or even accidental.  A large number of maintenance requests are a result of people deliberately getting up to no good. I won’t be specific, otherwise I will put you off whatever meal you have planned next.

It just gets me that maintenance problems in the main are not accidental, not a side-effect of something done incidentally, but a deliberate act.  I really don’t get why? Is there something brave, smart or otherwise extraordinary about picking on a public library and causing damage/disturbance to other members of the public – not just library staff? Or is it more cowardice as we can be seen to be a soft target?

And its not just the deliberate vandalism that makes me wonder, but also the way some ordinary people treat the facilities. If someone treated their home in the same way, they would be outraged. In a sense, the public library is a kind of home – a home for the staff who work there and for people who use it regularly. We all want a pleasant space to visit.

Unfortunately we can’t have eyes and ears everywhere, but we do what we can to help remind people to respect the facilities and the people using them.  On the otherhand, we wouldn’t want to have eyes in some areas, so instead we just deal with the issue as best we can.

End of whinge.

I feel better now, thanks!

Today, July 27th 2009, was the 2nd Annual Library Day in the Life and as it was actually one of my work days, I thought why not.  I am not going to give you the minutae of my day from waking to sleep, one because I can’t remember the details of this morning and two because the day’s not over and I’m not going to stay up that late… (well that’s the plan anyway).

Before I begin, I am an Information Librarian for a public library service in Australia and on Mondays I work at our Headquarters, doing regional type work.  Usually that is focused on the library’s virtual services, but my manager left 2 weeks ago, so today was a little bit different to normal.

My desk is at bottom left

So what did I get up to at work today – Monday 27th July 2009.

8.20am

• Answered email queries received from our users – mostly what’s my PIN, how do I get this item etc.  They seem to save them all up for first thing Monday morning.

8.40am

• Checked RSS feeds and printed off articles I was to focus on later.
• Read memos.

8.45am

• Some quick catalogue changes to a few old reference books. Helps to keep the hand in.

8.50am

• Adding websites to delicious for future reference. Some for website development, some for proposed research, some for ammunition.

9.00am

• Adding events to our Google calendar – love how easy it is, although wish it would let me incorporate some HTML, eg. links.
• Creating and adding slides promoting said events to our website – this is such a fun thing to do, although it can be time consuming.
• Removing old slides – nothing lasts forever.

9.30am

• Dealing with my former managers mail – got a little backlogged
• Preparing handouts for this week’s eBay seminar

10.00am

• Touring the rearranged floor plan of the library branch to which our HQ is attached – looks great and is a huge functional improvement.

10.10am

• Reference stock work, dealing with superseded editions and making reallocations and withdrawing old stock.

10.50am

• Morning tea time and there is food for morning tea – leftover from working bee to rearrange branch – promised to be good with my food intake today, so didn’t take advantage of it.

11.05am

• Killed the shredder whilst disposing of old outdated documents. Despite assistance and a range of tools, were unable to resuscitate it. Have to call in a specialist.

11.35am

• Gathering feedback forms from Information Services seminars for evaluation of this year’s programs.  Need to make recommendations for next year’s programs to management team meeting in a few weeks.

11.45am

• Quick look at SOPAC in action.  Love how it looks and what it can do, don’t know if we will be able to implement it.

11.55am

• Touched base with my next level up manager – checking that bases are covered and that current projects are moving along OK.

12.35pm

• Out for lunch with partners in crime, former manager and current desk side buddy. Good time catching up with what manager has been up to and catching her up on the gossip (there wasn’t any….)  Succumbed to chocolate mousse for dessert – diet slipped a little there.

1.30pm

• More email information queries, including a doozy that took a bit of time.  Very enjoyable to be able to get my teeth into something a bit more solid.

3.00pm

• Meeting with senior managers about proposed blog survey.  Going to research how and why our users do or don’t use our blogs.

3.30pm

• Catch up on 3 sets of emails, only one of them directly mine.

3.45 til 5.00pm

• Website updating. Including adding new booklists content, linking in to our catalougue, fixing spelling and grammatical errors and more.
• Find one of the holds my husband has placed, in amongst the 27 boxes of them that have just arrived at HQ.
• Make notes to send a few emails when I get home and have been able to think about some of the things that have come up during the day or after I have checked my calendar.

5.05pm

• Pack everything up and head towards home and a whole different list of things to do and done.

Just another day in the life of this Information Librarian. Hope you had a good one.

I highly recommend you check out some other Library Day in the Life stories as well and maybe think about adding your own at some stage.

Its been well over a week since I got back from Aurora and it will take a whole lot longer before I can say that I have gotten my head around it all.

I can’t tell you all about what happened there.  No point really, the old cliche really does apply here – ‘you had to be there…..’  Not only that, but at lot of what you get out of it is very individual.  Everyone has a different experience.  However, I will give you an idea of the sorts of things we did, but mainly I’ll write about what I got out of it and being a task type person, what I’m planning to do with what I got out of it.

We did a lot of learning. Learnt a lot about myself and about others and how to work with them. Learnt a lot about strategies and getting your point across to decision makers.  Learnt about getting the best out of a group of people and how to develop a team to achieve that. Learnt that climbing mountains is hard work and that cricket is not necessarily the game we see played so professionally on TV.  Learnt that to do all this is confronting, exhausting, challenging, inspiring, motivating and scary and requires a dedication to your profession that goes beyond your current position description.  And that’s just what I can think of from the top of my head at the moment.

Also learnt that my thinking on where I am and where I’m going professionally was pretty much on the mark, which was very satisfying. I also learnt however, that although I achieve much on a regular basis, I can do more. I also was reminded of a lesson that my son taught me, that being that my priority is not necessarily the first one. And that lesson equally applies to my work as well as my family.

I learnt about presenting business cases, about being open with a group of people in an amazing environment. I learnt about change management and change styles and discovered that I wasn’t always what I thought I was – an interesting exploration into self. I learnt about how to really look at the library environment, learnt a lot about SWOT analyses, took a trip into the big picture of our profession, talked vision, examined risk-taking, confidence and putting yourself out there and much more.

So what have I come away with.  First off I guess is the true realisation that we are a profession. And if that is truly the way of it, then I have to act professionally.  So my first forays into personal change are to get my act together as a professional.  I am starting to get some more ‘business-like’ clothes and think about my appearance a bit more – I’ve finally started the diet again, too much weight put on, some of it from the awesome food we had at Aurora, but also how I look when I go to work.

I have also taken the first step in refocusing myself at work and looking at how what I does fits in with my library’s goals and plans.  I guess its all about me becoming a better follower, before I can become a good leader. I am also starting to look at visioning for my library in the work that I do and setting some concrete goals for the virtual services for which I am jointly responsible. I have asked (and had accepted) one of my senior managers to act as mentor for me in this process.  And finally, I am preparing myself and my family for me to go back to full-time work next year, only with my family’s blessing however, after 9 years of working part-time.

A couple of staff members asked me today whether Aurora had changed me. I said to them that it hadn’t – what it had done was to refocus me and motivate me to do more – go higher I guess. Ultimately I guess that means I will change, but that’s the environment we live and work in, so I’m happy for that to happen.

For those of you who have heard rumours about Aurora, yes it did make me cry, but not everyone did. I never did discover the secret handshake and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make the most of their career as a librarian – not only for yourselves, but also for our amazing profession.

There has been a lot of discussion about the divide caused by the internet, with the terms digital native and digital immigrant coined by Marc Prenksy to describe it.

Now, a new study coming out Oxford University is indicating that another description that may work better may be digital residents and visitors.  Dave White posted to the TALL blog on the JISC funded Isthmus project which looks at how students are using the technologies, not at what they are using. The post “Not natives and immigrants, but visitors & residents” summarises what they are discovering in student use patterns.

idea313

It resonates with me, although I don’t know that it is applicable to anyone besides students.  It could well be.  Either way, I consider myself more of a digital native than an immigrant, as I have discussed here before and I am definitely a resident.  What about you?

Beyond a dream: the real picture of employment in the library and information sectors in Australia – Dr Gillian Hallam QUT

Nexus 1 – a snapshot of the LIS profession in 2006 – individual respondents

Nexus 2 – pilot study with CAVAL in late 2006, then institutional respondents

Supported by ALIA and NSLA with interest from other groups

Goal to look at recruitment and retention, training and development

Nexus 2 required active participation of library management to obtain data at an organisational level. 82% of respondents completed all parts of the survey.

Respondents – large number of special libraries, with their subsectors within, 22 public library, 20 academic libraries then smaller number of school libraries and state libraries.
By state, NSW largest, then QLD and Vic.

Public libraries comprised 45% from Vic and 36% from NSW which was encouraged by state initiatives. Size of libraries varied widely.

Staffing patterns – smaller libraries, public library and school libraries had smaller numbers, then at the top end it was academic, state and large public libraries. Casual/temp staff highest in academic, but strong also in public and special.

Non LIS staff were mainly IT/Systems, web design, finance, marketing, management, graphic design and more. 77% of public and 73% of school and 15% of academic libraries had more than 85% female staff.

CALD staff were presented in only 76% of libraries, mainly public, academic, government and NSLA. 0.02% of staff were ATSI.

Absenteeism was not a strong concern, staff turnover rates being too low was favoured by 1/3 of respondents. Pattern had not changed much in the previous 5 years. About 14% reported that over 50% of their staff over 55 years. 22% had 50% of under 45.

Repondents value recruitment strategies in the profession, but only 18% had such policies in place. 45% were considering introducing such programs. Lack of funding was major issue and library size were issues.

Recruitment has gotten harder in the last 5 years, particularly in regional and remote areas. Para professionals are being employed more in professional positions – 57% and vice versa 40%. 33% had changed their recruitment strategies, with more advertising, more online lists and headhunting being more utilised.

Desirable skills required were years of people skills, communication skills, technology skills, particular generalist skills, certain specialist skills, leadership potential and managerial skills. Desired attributes were flexibility, learn new skills, etc. The desired attributes did not match the actual attributes of library staff very well.

When people leave the oranisation, there is not much cross sector movement, they go to the same sort of library. People stay because they like their job, their workplace and the people they work with. However, was fear they wouldnt be able to get the same salary and conditions. Promotional opportunities were seen to be better today than 5 years ago.

This has been a quick summary into the Nexus 2 data, looking specifically at employment factors, far more to explore including staff training, professional development, leadership, sector reviews and comparisons. Main report will be available soon.

Question: Why was the response rate relatively low – just under half of potential respondents did so? Everyone is so busy, time factor was main reason given. Looking to repeat it every 5 years, like the census. Data collected from 101 libraries is still of significance.

Question: Librarians dont want to have supervisory tasks, but that is what is advertised in Canada. Its the same here – jobs need to be more appealing, gender is also an issue. Young graduates are leaving because of disillusionment with managers.

Question: Level of support for doctoral level. Not much in this survey, but only coming up when there is an issue – ie. fighting fires. In Germany, top library managers have Phds.

Researching and benchmarking best practice in library staff development: a joint Australia/UK study – Richard Sayers – CAVAL

Project is ongoing, but have enough data to start teasing out some early findings.

Study covers only uni libraries at this time, but wider application is desired.

Benchmarking – on ongoing structured process by which we evaluate the functions, work processes and services of organisations recognised for their leadership an innovation – undertaken for the process of comparison an improvement, new ideas forecasting, planning, goal setting, process improvement

Effective benchmarking compares like with like – CAVAL and EMALINK (UK) were a good match for comparison. Involved planning, analysis, implementation and reviews (the PAIR process). Built on work already done in Australia since the 1980s.

Metrics investigated were SD expenditure as a % of payroll, average SD hours per staff member, SD cost per person per hour, % of employees undertaking SD, % of positive ratings of SD, % of reported gains in learning, % improvement in performance, costs savings/efficiency gains. IFLAs standards proposed that 0.5-1% of payroll be spent on SD, 10% of work hours should be SD. IFLA also provides statements on learning needs assessement and more.

Goal is to create a dashboard of indicators that will work for their organisations, their peers and the professional.

Aim was to identify, share and compare knowledge about SD practices an to establish common measurement points. DImensions utliised mirrored the metrics highlighted above.

Beginning of the dashboard covers the buget for SD – both organisations members mostly met. No figures on hours, evaluation stats were high as was planning (70% approx.) ROI was only 18% for CAVAL and 57% for EMALINK but still a work in progress.

Assessment so far – good overall, but failed with misaligned expectations an insufficient resources. There is room for improvement.

Question: IFLA figures dont match – 1% of funds and 10% of staff time dont match our national situtation. Unfortunately there are no other figures, 10% is unrealistic though (1 day a fortnight in reality).

Livestock Library: a dream come true – Ruth McIntyre

www.livestocklibrary.com.au

Launched in 2005 initially, it was a library of 15,000 scanned research documents, made available free on the internet. Although free, a login was required.

Challenges: library database was spread across several platforms and locations. It was all migrated to Inmagic DB/TextWorks and WebPublisher PRO. Scans of papers were donated back to the publishers, who agreed to give Livestock Library users free access to the content hosted on the publishers websites. At the same time, the need for a login was removed, enabling easier access to users an encouraging use.

Publishers host the material, so therefore retain how the content is accessed. Livestock Library indexes the metadata of the content from the publishers, giving users a range of access options. The Library gives users the same sort of access to content, that university students and government staff experience.

The ability to web crawl relevant websites was inhibited by the websites server restrictions. This was overcome by instituting a Federated search engine to search these websites as well as the Livestock Library database. Web Feat was the chosen product and since its introduction, many more websites have been added. Despite various issues experienced over time, it has generally been a very successful addition to the Library, with its success noted by the user approaches to it when the federated search facilty went down.

There are over 23,000 items in the database and 14 industry sites targetted by the federated search engine. Over 5,500 visits from 98 countries have visited the Library in recent times.

Australian Agriculture and Natural Resources Online (AANRO) has been the biggest competitor, but also the Livestock Librarys salvation? Talks are in progress to merge the two services. The WA Agriculture and Food Dept is providing support until the Livestock Library finds a source of sustainable funding.

Question: whats the likelihood of the project continuing. Fairly optimistic. Stakeholders are keen that the URL and own homepage are retained, even if there is a joint server arrangement as there is a high profile in the livestock community.

As I am going on a week’s holiday with my family and as a week is a long time in the biblioblogosphere, I thought it best to post some interesting stuff that caught my eye, but which I won’t have a chance to consider more fully – at least not here in my blog.

Read/Write Web did a post nearly a month ago – “Finding the true value of web technologies“. Although not directly library related, considering all that has been going on with regards to the Library 2.0 discussion in recent months, it was very relevant. It proposes that we are in a ‘digestion phase’, which is a ‘time for us to reflect, to integrate and to understand recent technologies and how they fit together.’ This may sound familiar to anyone following the Library 2.0 discussions – well worth a look.

Ryan Deschamps is a new blogger I have caught onto, he has written some very thought provoking posts recently at his blog, “The Other Librarians.” However, the one I want to highlight is “Under the hood of Web 2.0: the top ten programming concepts for librarians to understand.” You don’t want to know how Web 2.0 tools are created, but its useful to understand a bit about how they work, to get the best out of them. Ryan’s post helps with that.

I would consider Kathryn Greenhill at Librarians Matter to be one of the most predominant library bloggers in Australia. I am also fortunate to blog with her at Libraries Interact and to have spent a great day with her in July. Great lady with another great post – “What new about Library 2.0? Shift in power.” She gives a whole new perspective to the discussions on Library 2.0.

I love reading Walt Crawford, his blog “Walt at random” and the “Cites and Insights” newsletter are staples of my library reading diet. About a month ago, “Walt at random” pointed to a great resource hosted at Web Junction – “The Storied Library“, a series of articles from Walt which talk about how to market your library by telling stories. Well worth the read.

Related to this was a simple example from Emily at Library Revolution of how to make your library blog posts more readable and storylike and thereby more appealing. “My story about telling stories” shows that it is very easy to do, just takes a little extra time and a simple switch of voice – even I could do it, lol.

Briefly in other news, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV show “The Librarians” will premier on the 31st October. Definitely will be one to watch.

Also registrations for the VALA biennial conference – “Libraries: changing spaces, virtual places“, in February 2008 are open. Library conference season is in full swing in Australia, as the call for papers for the ALIA biennial conference in September 2008 – “Dreaming 08” and Expression of Interest for Information Online 2009 are also open.

This should keep you busy. I will be back in just over a week and my next post will be as host to the Carnival of the Infosciences. Already some great posts coming in, so stay tuned.

I have just shifted my RSS feeds to Feedburner. Google, which owns both Blogger and Feedburner, has now enabled feeds through Feedburner. The benefit for me is that I will get a better idea of how many people reading Connecting Librarian.

Another benefit is that Feedburner enables you to setup email subscriptions for those interested readers who don’t have or want an RSS reader (in one of the many forms they take). So instead of having to check in regularly, you can subscribe to the feed, using the subscription box in the righthand sidebar. When you submit your email address you will get a confirmation email, click on the link in it and you will get new posts via email.

So if you currently subscribe to Connecting Librarian through the old blogger feed, you may want to update to the new Feedburner one. The RSS icon in the righthand sidebar has the link.

Not that there’s been a lot of traffic here recently. I hope to be rectifying that very soon, now that things are settling on a number of fronts here. Thanks for staying tuned in the meantime.

Its been a few weeks now, and I am very sorry for the delay, but wow what a day it was. I’ll let my notes speak of the content, but all the feedback coming in has been positive and one of my managers who attended has encouraged our managers to check out the presentations, which are being posted to the State Library of Victoria (SLV) website.

I didn’t take many photos, too busy taking notes instead, so you’ll just have to imagine a lovely cosy 200 seat theatrette, packed with interested public librarians (and many more who couldn’t get in!). Here goes!

“Library 2.0: Transforming the library through the web” – Helene Blowers

NewsWeek (putting the WE in the WEb) – User generated sites are rocking the internet – April 06. Not just libraries trying to figure out Web 2.0 and how these technologies are affecting how we connect with our users.
Time – Person of the Year – YOU! You control the Information Age. Welcome to your world. No longer need to know HTML, free services are available for people to collaborate and share.

“Web 2.0 generally refers to a second generation of services available on the WWW that lets people collaborate and share information online – Wikipedia.
flickr, youtube, digg, my space, delicious

The tools are not what is important, it’s the connections that they are making possible.

Michael Casey – Library 2.0 article (and book) its about user-centred change.

Web 2.0 isnt a thing… It’s a state of mind. (Helene’s own quote)

It’s about:
Cultivating communities: Darien Library – blogs
myhamilton.ca – webspace is a community portal
Pikes Peak Library District – Ning network – created a social community for the library
Mint Hill Public Library – Stitch In blog. (part of PLCMC). Stitching group meets in the library, blog allows them to add photos, follow up on their meeting. (meet twice monthly)

Encouraging Participation: Allen County Public Library – Photo Survey – loaded onto Flickr – A Day in Allen County Indiana 2007 (using same tag)
Princeton Public Library – Book Lovers Wiki
Hennepin County Public Library – Book Space – based on Amazon model

Human conversations: Ann Arbor District Library – website built on open source CMS using blogs, so can have conversations with their community.
Parma Teens blog – speaking in first person to teens.

Collaboration: Loudoun County Public Library – Loudounpedia – add, share, contribute info about Loudoun County. Asking for suggestions and content.
Danbury Public Library – they are including user generated tags with their catalogue records (searchable)
Hennepin County Library – comments on the library catalogue
Thomas Ford Memorial Library – local history project – each photo and description was a blog post which people can comment on

Being in their space: The Loft @ ImaginOn (PLCMC) – teens created a MySpace account for them – teen webpage is not heavily used, but this space is – 1080 friends – who all get notified about their events etc. Great PR.
Crossett Library – Facebook profile.
Second Life – new space to look at what we may be able to do with public spaces
InfoIsland.org – blog for Info Island

Small pieces loosely joined: Lander University – meebo chat widget
Hennepin County Public Library – widget for MySpace and website, to search their catalogue
Harris County Public Library – created a toolbar which users can install on their browser at home/work etc.

Shifting the focus: New Jersey Libraries – 3 reasons why you love your library (on YouTube)
PLCMC – Asked users to generate their own motivational posters using their own photos and a website which does this
Denver Library – YouTube contest for their teens – “How I have fun in my library”.

Letting go!: we are more valuable and powerful when we empower users, than when we try to control.

You: What can libraries do to continually keep up with the changes?
1. Player – become an information player – one actively involved especially in a competitive field or process
Take 15 minutes a day to play! Read blogs, literature, explore, scan the magazine racks, subscribe to just 5 blogs (LiB, TechCrunch, What i learned today, Wired, Learning 2.1). Tag “play items” in Del.icio.us. (use 15 minutes to explore these). Create a learning blog. Give yourself and others permission to PLAY! Its the Learning 2.0 way.

“Learning for the future: using the Learning 2.0 program at YPRL” – Lynette Lewis
Internet is a moving target – constantly changing environment, new tech is readily availalble, staff need to keep up, familiarise themselves and be comfortable using it.

Learning 2.0 program – started with a roadshow taken around the region, blogs, mp3 files Google tools, wikis, podcasting, federated searching (LibLink).

Online learning program, designed to help staff explore Web 2.0, self paced, hands on discovery exercises, based on concept of lifelong learning, encourages exploration through play.

Developed by Helene Blowers at PLCMC, over 300 participants, now being used worldwide, licenced under Creative Commons.

Program – YPRL experience – 12 weeks, staff were encouraged to partake in 23 things (9 week program with 3 week catchup).
Allow for late bloomers (start at week 9!) Exercises set out on a blog, which guide staff. Most exercises include a podcasts, you have to set up a blog and use it as an online workbook to comment on each of the 23 exercises. (Lynette demoed how it worked).

YPRL added some extra content relevant to Australian libraries.

Learn about blogs, flickr, RSS, mashups, rollyo, wikis, podcasts, technorati, del.icio.us, image generators

Advantages – self paced, do as much or as little as you want, added links allowed the participants to explore further if they wish, it’s not restricted by a timetable or venue.

It can be accessed anytime, anywhere, via an internet connection.

Evalution sent to each participant. Questions included; initial reaction, most challenging part, most fun part, possible improvements, ways these tools could be used in the library.

How they could be used: Reference service (IM), wikis as staff manuals, RSS feeds and mashups to clients, podcasts of activities, podcast library tours, blogs as promotional tools, blogs as publishing tools, public classes on Web 2.0 technologies. Showed visual presentation – reflection of their achievements.

Running classes on Library Thing, blogging and Second Life.

ME NEXT! – Kathryn blogged me.

Then:

“SLV: Thinking it through” – Kelly Gardiner
Thinking about how to apply Web 2.0 principles to SLV. Its not just a blog. Dynamic dlievery of content and services. Fluid data that mix and flows where its needed. Networks of service and light-weight applications that grab content and data and deliver it to users fast. Adapts to users’s workflows, rather than forcing them to work around system constraints. It Really Is A Web!

Our systems are making our users jump from one system to another (ie. website to catalogue etc). Web 2.0 tools allow them to do it where they are.

Why does it matter? Its not just fun, its important! Find a problem to solve for your users and then finding a solution online. Its becoming large in terms of the industry and unavoidable in terms of our industry. Its changing our users expectations of the internet, of computers and of libraries. Need to live up to the expectations of Google. (see slide – its awesome). Example: dynamic search. Assumption – users want to constantly refine searches. Our task – help them to do that. What about expanding, exploring, discovery. Use our data to offer broader possibilities: facets and clustered results, suggested searches, other users’ recommendations, serve results in unexpected or useful places (widgets), offer results in unified discovery. eg. World Cat refine your search column. LibraryLabs from NLA – find in your library, related searches, topics by year, ISBN related book covers. Childrenslibrary.org book cover colour, characters, age search options.

Web 2.0 is about our users, not us. Understand our users’ tasks – find, analyse, annotate, publish, comment, cite, learn, organise, visit, collect/copy, collaborate, teach, share, explore, register, read, describe/review, organise, compare, enjoy.

SLV online – last redeveloped 2004 and expanded largely since. Catalogues, databases and applications are separate. Vicnet portal redevelopment underway. Legacy sites include “A place called Victoria” and “Victorians at War”. User focussed sites “Inside a dog” “Your treasures”. New sites – “Mirror of the world” “Learning zone”. Around 3 million users per year and rising rapidly. Well organised but bursting and expectations have changed.

SLV principles – consistently describe info and objects, view and present our many info repositories as a single source, provide users with many windows into relevant info and opportunities to contribute and interact, deliver online services and content dynamically.

Deliverables: network of content gateways,serivce oriented architecture backend, redesigned presentation layer, user testing, consistent user experience, user generated content, federated search, consistent taxonomy, accessible and reusable content with associated metadata, expanding suite fo easily deployed tools and applications.

Summary: how to keep current content, match our users tasks, make data accessible to be reused by others.

SLV slideshow widget – serves rotating images on Google homepage, depending on users specs.
Flickr account – not sure of implications (john328) – most images are nothing to do with State Library, user tagged
Your Treasure – tags and comments enabled
Wynlearn – RSS feed and Google Maps
Inside a dog – almost entirely user generated content, has downloads – interviews, screensavers, pdfs etc.
Tour of new acquisitions, presents cover images, click on them to go to catalogue covers

Structure: SLV Gateway, books and ideas,our community, learning zone, place called victoria, family history, research and resources (not finalised)

Share your thoughts, ideas, concerns etc. Launching things bit by bit.

“Virtual Libraries, real librarians” – Kathryn Greenhill
Cybrary City 2 – Murdoch University Library – Discovering your Second Life space. Resource which has an implication for Information services.

What is Second Life – webpage for Second Life, run in San Francisco (Linden Labs). “3D online digital world, imagined, created and owned by its residents.”
MUVE – Multi User Virtual Environment. Each island is a server, uses avatars, has buildings, can interact with objects.

Access – free! Freebie stores give away hairdos, clothes etc. There are system specifications – video card is of particular importance. Family name, first name. Choose family name from drop-down list, choose your own first name. Download client software to your PC, not accessed on the internet. Open software which connects to the Second Life servers.

Isn’t it just a game? Yes, graphic user controlled interface, avatars, inventory, interact with environment and others
No, no rules, no points, no strategy, no win/lose, no start and end.

Who is in Second Life? 8 million registered. 33k online at once. Individuals, organisation, companies, educators, Australian (RMIT, Film, Radio and Television school, Big Pond, ABC)

What can you do in Second Life? Avatars: talk (chat and IM), modify, move (walk, fly, swim, animate)
Objects: build, upload, buy-sell-trade, animate, script (can open external websites)
Environment: streamed media, join groups and networks, attend events

What do librarians do there?
InfoIsland has 6000 visitors a day. Information – Has reference desk with Questionpoint software. Open 56 hours per week. Outreach programs – writer’s talk, visits from historical figures, book discussions. Collections – external links, web tools accessed within SL, items especially made for SL (aetheric novels and collections) – can also link to the electronic book (Ebsco is doing database trials in SL) Classes and Seminar – for librarians, for everyone, using SL tools, getting your avatar together.

April 2006 started as shopfront. July 2007 over photo islands. One island per server. 16 acres in size. Non-profit $837 and then maintenance fee. Sirsi-Dynix sponsors the Alliance Library System and teen Eye4You. Talis as well as other private sponsors. Alliance Library System – 260 libraries in Illinois. They coordinate the library presence in SL. Eye4You is administered by PLCMC. Library Services – some paid librarians and a lot of voluteers. Problem with burnout.

8 story reference library with dance club on roof for librarians. Hanuted house for Gothic literature. Genealogy room, Script library. World Bridges – educational podcasts are streamed there. Science Fiction portal. Imagination Island – including Rachelville “a magical place with displays and environments relating to children’s literature”.

Ten ways you can join in. Play! Attend a class. (virtual world librarianship course). Run a class. murdochsecondlife.pbwiki.com YouTube video. Join the Google Group and read the blog. Take a tour. Volunteer on the reference desk. Use the Australian Libraries building. Dance with librarians. Every second Saturday 12 noon AEST. Bell Library, Information Island. Run a group. Create your own branch. Kathryn then took us on a tour!

“Libraries Building Communities Demonstration Project recipients” – John Cain
Library Board published the LBC report in 2005 – how public libraries make vital contributions to their communities. Also identified gaps and challenges in meeting their vital roles in their communities. Funding allocated to support these initiatives over the next three years. Demo projects – InfoSkills (murray), Wyndham Portal, Hume Global Learning Village Learning Advocates, Goulburn Valley – Koori project. Many applications this year, ranging from $31, 000 to $120,000. Ranging from LOTE, local history, pre-schoolers, teens programs. Winners 2007 – Libraries Demonstration Projects: East Gippsland – Building on the Bookie. $81,900 to utilise a ute to provide new services to remote users – meeting needs of non-traditional users – kicking off in September this year. Test new ways of serving their users. Moreland City, YPRL and Darebin – Wikinorthia – $50,000 to use a wiki to gather the stories and images of the residents in these areas. WMRLC – Cruise and access to skills for young people – $60,000 to develop a program for teens – cruising VCE, cruising life and cruising virtual life, in collaboration with youth agencies in these areas.

“Virtual Gateway, real challenge” – Kerri Sidorow and Tom Edwards
Wynlearn – brings together info about local learning opportunities. Increase awareness of and participation in life-long learning. Planning for combined libraries/communities centres in the next 10 years in Wyndham Vale, Tarneit and Pt Cook. Objectives for the portal: single focal point for libraries and learning, increase awareness of and accessibility to learning opportunities, increase participation in these, facilitate connectedness amongst partners, invite community dialogue about learning in Wyndham.
Partners: Library Board, Wyndham Education Committee, Vicnet, Community Centres, Volunteers Network, Wyndham Connected, Council and Library Service.

Portal was built from the ground up. Working with education providers to build the database on which the portal would be based. Included maps, accessibility issues, thesaurus for course descriptions. (inspiration: Short Courses Victoria, EDNA, Hotcourses (UK)).

Course providers input their course info and teachers set up forums for their students. VICNET did the training. Portal created so that bookings can be taken online and so that data can be exported for reporting requirements. http://www.wynlearn.net.au/ Look and feel to promote community goals. Use mouseovers to give a more detailed description of links. Find learning can do keyword search, provider, time of day search. Result tells you course details and includes a Google Map of the location. For those who have transport difficulties, they can access courses by geography.

Engage in learning provides a forum to feedback. Not much takeup at present. RSS feeds for news and announcements on the site. You can register your interest in an event, or if there is nothing, you can set up a profile and when a course that matches your profile, you are notified.

Portal uses personalisation – saved searches and tailored RSS news content (using Yahoo Pipes), forum (social software) and content syndication (alerts).
Portal launched in May. 81 registered users who register interest in events. 75 hits per day. Traffic coming from Wyndham Council, Libraries, Vicnet and Victoria’s Virtual Libraries website.

Challenges- to be able to develop it in a way which is developable and sustaininable – expand to schools and universities
to develop documentation on what the purpose of the site is (not for events like community markets)
to keep it current
to keep it progressing to meet user needs and new functionality

“Darebin Historical Encyclopedia: an online local history resource” – Katrina Knox and Jackie Goddard
dhe.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au
More than a simple catalogue/database
Over 8000 entries – info from original source amteirals, photos, newspapers, articles and other documents
24/7 access

Darebin Libraries has a strong commitment to local/family history study
Provide public access to a wide range of materials in one place
Access with preservation
Capacity for ongoing development
Allow for community interaction and participation

Developing: review of comparable projects, development of project plan – scope and content, funding, potential users, design format and functionality, contracted out the development of the public interface and site administration.

Content developed by library staff – researched topics, scanned images (shelvers did), brought the research and images together in individual entries. Scoped project in 2004,launched in April 2006. Jackie did a live demo of the site. People have seen articles on the website and offered their own images for inclusion. It covers people, places and events and links to websites and pdfs of records eg. Northcote Cemetery list. Images are shown in small size, but can be clicked to open larger in a new window. Includes digitised newspapers and Northcote First World War database – taken from the original enrolment cards, oral history transcripts (interviews taken in 1970s – not the actual audio yet).

Challenges and lessons: larger than envisaged – revisit the scope, redesigned the structure, extend the delivery timeframe; information technology issues – IT plan was required within the project plan; allocation of time and resources – being done whilst doing other work, so took longer. What to include: driven by patron queries and staff interest and availability of maerials. Visual look, design and ease of navigation are critical – extensive usability done especially with older people who are key users.

Achievements: accessibility with preservation, reference tool for students, public and researchers, staff; increased awareness of local history; positive reaction from both the local community and beyond. Received questions and contributions from locals and beyond. Further developed Darebin’s community connections. Well received at Council. Commendation in Victorian Community History Awards 2007.

Ongoing development: new topics and updating existing entries (now up to 800), customer feedback and involvement. Refinement of site structure and design. Second stage planned for 2008 – increased interactivity and community through wikis, blogs, podcasts and e-postcards.

“ImaginOn” – Helene Blowers
Partnership with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte – first collaborated a quarter century ago. Each organisation has their own staff, but also shared staff working for total organisation. Both organisations work under the same mission, vision and core values. Staff has to be creative – Library Manager hires creativity. The library is about delivering experiences, not services. Some of the labs in the loft are used for dance classes as well as computer related activities. Upcoming generation is creating content, mashups etc. Studio i – students create stop animation, which then are displayed through screens throughout the library. Also have low tech stuff – dolls houses, building blocks, nooks and crannies to explore. Helene’s daughters love to go to ImaginOn for the experience – one of their favourite places – don’t really use it to borrow books. Check out their Flickr account. Use it as a focal point for community festivals in an arts area. Word Play Saturday – street festival at end of October. Exhibits.

I knew it was here somewhere and this morning I found it. Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of Connecting Librarian. To celebrate, this is my 127th post. Never thought of getting that far when I started with my first post “In the beginning….”

Those 127 posts have had 144 comments, which is much better than I expected, even accounting for the fact that nearly half of those comments are from me, responding back to comments made.

How do I feel about blogging 2 years on? I’m in awe. I never dreamed of the power this medium could have. Its enabled me to vent in a healthy way, to work through my thoughts on issues that are important to me and most importantly, linked me to a fantastic community of people passionate about libraries, world-wide. It has been a great personal and professional satisfaction to know that my musings are of interest to others and I appreciate all your support as I have stumbled, ranted, mused and journey through these last two years.

So where to from here. I have some dearly respected friends suggest I get my own domain for this blog and other professional stuff and it makes sense. I now have some presentations and a report to share and my own domain would be the place to make those available to anyone interested. I also plan on writing the odd journal article or two, so that would be their home also. So watch this space as I plan on moving it before year end.

So flowers to you and many thanks, for helping to make these last two years of blogging interesting, provoking, inspiring and fun! Although things have been a little dry of late, here’s to the next two years and more of passionate sharing and support of our wonderful profession, both by me and you!