Connecting Librarian

I went to the market the other day with the family and as we had a bit of time to spare before our next appointment, hubby suggested we do some ‘spelunking around the market’. This involved wandering around stalls and shop and looking for and at things we would not normally buy.

We ended up buying and trying a handful of new things.  The coming weeks will determine how successful those choices were, but the ‘spelunking” around the market idea itself was a winner. The whole journey of exploration and discovery was both insightful and enjoyable.

I enjoy ‘spelunking’ with work as well.  We see our libraries day after day and get used to the way things are, so it can be hard to see what could be.  So whenever I visit another library, or visit a library website, I take on that task of exploration and discovery to not only see what’s there, but to also see what we could use in our library.

Much of our website development over the years has been inspired by other library websites. And every time I visit another library, its an opportunity to explore how they use their space and for what purposes, the publications they produce, their arrangements and so much more.

There is much to be learned from just exploring another library. Even if you can’t take something directly back to implement at your library, often there is something there that will inspire you, or can be adapted to work for you.

And if you can’t explore another library, then explore it through others eyes; through blog posts, journal articles, through links on Twitter, through asking questions via email, conferences and the papers they generate and so much more.  Librarians are a sharing lot and I have found are always happy to share the good and the bad of their own experiences.

My next ‘spelunking’ opportunity is in a couple of weeks, with a visit to a new Melbourne public library.  Where’s yours?

For those who have worked in libraries for a while, you have been through several tipping points. The point where content formats change over, where the new whiz bang format takes over from the older standard format. Your budgets go into purchasing the new and the old either gradually or dramatically disappears from your shelves. Think audio cassette to CD, video tape to DVD.

Our audio cassettes have disappeared over time, taken over by CDs quite a while ago, but we still have the odd one which is slowly finally disappearing from our shelves. Our videos had been petering out, but the remaining ones were removed in a blanket withdrawal when we went to RFID.

No we are approaching a few more tipping points, but there seems to be a little different.

The first is MP3 CDs.  On the face of it, they would seem the best option for physical audio-books, but the uptake of them has not been as good as we would have thought. Possibly due to misinformation? People thinking that they are not getting a full title, but only a severely bridged copy (due to having only 1 or 2 CDs, instead of the 8-10). So at present, although many more titles are appearing in this format, due to our usage patterns, it looks as though we will be still getting both until we see some more movement in loan patterns to the MP3.

The second is DVD. We do not buy Blu-Ray unless the title we want is only available in that format.  We are seeing more requests for titles in MP3, but are wary of making the leap into this format at this stage. The general consensus is that streaming or downloading will be the next big thing in this arena and depending on the NBN this could be sooner rather than later.  We also realise that the majority of our users are still happy with just DVD, even if they do have Blu-Ray players. So where the tipping point will be here is also hard to say.

In music it is a bit clearer. We have downloadable music through Freegal and as you would expect, the biggest genres are Rock and Pop. This correlates to our lending CD collections, where loans in these genres are dropping, but in other genres are growing. So our CD budget will be adjusted accordingly, with a reduction (but not elimination) of money to be spent in Rock and Pop, particularly on newer releases.  We will still be getting them, but not to the degree that we used to.

And then there is the tipping point that may never come totally, at least in my working lifetime. The tipping point from print to e books. We have just started down this path, but in a big way, responding to the demands of our users. However, even in the broader world outside libraries, e has not tipped past print as yet. When it will, if it will, is yet to be seen.  But it will be an interesting thing to watch over coming years.

What tipping points has your library managed and what others do you see on your library horizon?

I was sitting at work yesterday, feeling like I was sitting still and watching as the workload increased before my eyes. I wasn’t sitting still fortunately, otherwise the pile would have been larger again, but the amount of work to be done just seemed to multiply like a virus.

So what do I do when this type of  situation arises? (which it has been known to do on the odd occasion).  It starts with P. Yes, that’s right, Panic!

No, only kidding, I meant Prioritise.

I took the time out from the morning’s work to determine what exactly I had on my plate and restructured the tasks in terms of urgency and importance. For much of my work, the urgent has to be done first, because other’s are relying on me having it done.

But after dealing with the “I must do this so …. can do that” it is then about prioritising the urgent and the important. And like most people, the urgent tends to take priority, even when the important is much more important, but much less urgent.

The day after a long weekend is not the time for me to be thinking too hard about that though – there will be too many urgent things to take care of. But I can’t forget what’s important…….    Sigh.

I am an organised person and I work efficiently and well, but even for me this is an issue. How do you manage it?

It was one of those days. A day when all the little thing didn’t quite work as expected. By the end of the day, I didn’t get all that I had planned done, but I was pleased with what I had achieved from my list, considering all the “fires” I dealt with.

I call them fires, because they kept popping up like little spot fires.  But what they were, were calls for help, coming seemingly from all quarters and in person, by phone and by email.

And when it comes down to it, even though I didn’t get much done on my own to-do-list, I am happy with what I did today.

One, because they were dealt with whilst they were still “spot fires” and before they became something big.

And more importantly, because  I was helping people with what they needed and whether it was directly or indirectly, that helped with our customer service.

And that’s important, because that’s what we’re about.

Its interesting the consequences of something new that you don’t expect.

Whilst sorting out statistics today, I had occasion to investigate how our new downloadable e-books were going.  We were very happy with the amount of titles already downloaded in just a few days, and only on the basis of a soft launch – online promotion only.  We expect that it will grow even more as more of our users find the need to visit our website or catalogue and as we do more active promotion through our libraries and  in the local media etc.

The interesting part was an unexpected, but not unwelcome spin off.

CC – Image by eugeniot – Downloaded from Flickr 05/06/13

We already have e-audiobooks from the same vendor and although they have been heavily promoted for some time, they haven’t seen prolific use. They’ve been growing, but not dramatically.  Yet since we soft launched our e-books, we have seen a third of our normal monthly loans of e-audiobooks happen in just a few days. The e-audio and e-books can be found through the same interface, which makes us think that either:

• our users have downloaded an e-audiobook, not realising that it is such (although it is quite clear on the difference between the two)   OR
• our users are now discovering our e-audiobooks now that they have occasion to come across them  AND
• they are more concerned with the content than the format, so they are taking the opportunity to try out the readily available e-audio

Until we can get some anecdotal evidence, we can’t say which of these it is (or something else altogether). Still it is interesting that in pointing our users to something that they have been looking for, they have discovered something that they didn’t expect, but were happy to find.

Sounds like the experience of serendipity when browsing the physical library shelves. Here’s our online serendipity.  And it makes me wonder how else we could create that sort of serendipitous discovery online – but that’s the subject of another post maybe.

What was your ‘something new’ that brought about a bonus that you didn’t expect?

Its grand to have a dream, a vision for your library. I love having big visions for my library and I can quite happily dream away and imagine how its going to look.

Then we have to make it happen…….

It’s not easy making it happen, there are so many things to consider.

• Finances
• Equipment
• Staffing
• Training
• Time
• Documentation
• Promotion

And that’s just off the top of my head.

It also means many people working together to make it happen. Unless you are a small library, each of these things is overseen by someone else. So even if you are project managing something small, you still have to  collaborate and you plan and you work through the lists that get created to ensure that all the bases are covered. Then you discover a base that you hadn’t thought of……

But you finally get there and when you do, its as right as you can get it. Not perfect, but perfectly good enough and you’ll fix up the issues as you come across them.

So now that one project is working its way through that process, its time to start dreaming about the next one (whilst trying not to think of all the hard work that will follow…….)

We had our soft launch of e-books today. Which by the end of the day, didn’t feel that soft.

We have had soft launches before – our new discovery layer, where we changed the link to our catalogue and made a website announcement, but that’s it.  No big fuss, just quiet and calm. Same with our new website, we just changed over one morning, during a maintenance downtime.

This soft launch has been very different for a couple of reasons. One, it is for something totally new, we weren’t replacing something old with something else. Secondly, we had been asked for this service for so long, that we had to shout it from the roof tops as soon as we knew it was up and running.

So what was different in terms of what we did in our soft launch?

For both types of soft launches, we posted information to our website and to our Facebook page. Even those posts were different however. Before, they were low-key, this time they were woo-hoo whiz bang!  This time we also added a big notice to our discovery layer – which screamed e-books.

We also did quite a bit of website editing, to bring our e-books content up to date and ensure we had consistency on how we were labelling them (with or without the hyphen, any capitals etc). And to finish it off, produced a  flyer with a quick overview on how it worked, to get the information out to the branches ASAP. In other instances, all this happened a bit more slowly over time, not so fast.

Our pre-publicity was virtually non-existent in this instance, because it was only late last week that we knew we were going live this week. After such a long wait, we didn’t want to give our users a definite date that we couldn’t meet.

In the end it has been a fairly unconventional soft launch, more hard than soft. The press releases and all that would make it ‘hard launch’ will come later.

Response to our soft launch has been great. Lots of borrowing already, lots of likes on Facebook and many comments on how great it is (and how great the library is for doing it, yay!).

The next soft launch will be easier, we will be adding a second e-book vendor.  And then e-magazines.  Lots more to come in the next few months, so I guess I’ll discover even more levels of soft launches.

How hard has your hardest soft launch been and how did it go?

Tomorrow I go to work to a soft launch of e-books.  We are very excited as it has been a long time coming.

And we are going in with a bang. This is the first of two vendors we have signed up with, which will end up giving our users over 2000 titles, for all ages and reading tastes.  We have also signed up for e-magazines, so we will have e coming out of our ears in short order.

When I think about this, two things come to mind.

First is that our users will be very happy.  eBooks have long been on our list of requested services, but it has taken until now for our library to find a vendor, with a product and a contract we could accept.  At least now that we are going live, we will have a good number and a good range for library users to choose from. (That is apart from Kindle owners, sigh)

Second is, I wonder if it will change my reading habits and if so, by how much.  I read a lot of content online, but mostly on my desktop computer (nice big screen) or my smartphone (convenient). I recently acquired a second- hand Nook and have been reading a few titles on that, but it has not taken over from my other online or print reading habits, rather it has supplemented them.  Will this change, now I have access to free ebooks from my library?

I don’t know, but I have already downloaded by first library borrowed book to my Nook, so I guess I’ll find out.

What about you? Has having an e-reading device changed the way you read?  How so?

It’s the first of June and the first day of Blog Every Day of June for 2013. A lot has changed for me since last year’s event and I think I’m going to find it interesting to come up with something new to blog every day.  But here goes.

In October 2012 I came full circle and was again appointed to the role of Information Services Librarian at my public library. I first held this role from 1996-1999, at which point I had my first child and went back to work part-time in a different role. I am full time again now with this position and how things have changed in those 14 years.

Back then we created our first library website, which looking back at using the Wayback Machine, was very cute and clunky.  Things have come a very long way on the Internet since then.  We could not have imagined that this is where it would lead, but we knew back then how important it was, both for libraries and for our communities. We were right.

Most of my days were split between coding a web page in html and lots of FTPing.  These days we use a content management system and spend a lot less time on a website which has ten times more content. That time saved is now on social media and customising our catalogue – things that were unheard of in 1999.

Our reference collection has moved out of the print and into the online. We still have a print reference budget but it is dramatically smaller and we have so much content now that we subscribe to online that would never have been possible in the print world. And we are adding ebooks and emagazines to that as well.

In 1999, we did introductions to the Internet seminars – now we do that in one on one sessions with library users and our seminars are on eBay and Facebook and Skype and whatever the next thing is…..

We did staff training back then. We still do, but it is also going more online and it is training more on our online resources.

Some thing have not changed – there is still resistance to change, but fortunately it is not as bad as it was – people are now getting used to everything being online, so another thing online is not as big a stress as getting online in the first place was. Besides, we have learned some valuable lessons along the way about dealing with it.

And some things are only different in their extremes. When the network went down back in 1999, it was an inconvenience. When the network goes down now, it seriously impacts on work-flows. Fortunately, we can get around things with our mobile devices these days……

Things have changed dramatically since 1999, but that’s OK because I have changed with it and as has been the case in all my years as a librarian, I am still loving every second of it.

Here are my notes from this recent event.

Tech tool kit – Georgie Nicholson – Melbourne Library Service

They bought the equipment from a grant. Got 4 each Toshiba Laptops, Samsung Slate PCs, Sony eReaders, iRiver eReaders, Kobo eReaders, (2 different models), iPad 2s, iPod touches, Kobo Voxes and Samsung Galaxy Tablets. Ten devices with 11 digital products including Overdrive, Freading and Gutenberg Project eBooks; Freegal, Naxos and Music Online music; Bolinda, One Click, Overdrive, Naxos and Tumblebooks audiobooks and OI and Zinio periodicals and reference.

The kit was a good reflection of what was happening in their community. Bit of ‘wild west’ out there – not collaborative in a not mature market, some devices will disappear in the coming year.

Showed a compatibility chart. Not all apps worked well on mobile devices – most products worked best with and aimed mostly at PCs.

The equipment had been purchased but nothing had really been done with it. So they tagged them and put catalogue records for each device into their LMS. Staff booked them out to play with. One problem is that devices are changing so quickly and what you have learnt to use is superseded or no longer exists.

They have a troubleshooting. guide but lot of the problems were answered by the compatibility sheet.

Adobe accounts were a problem (for their digital products), as six devices could be registered to an Adobe account. This required them to sign up for and manage multiple accounts. Also needed to manage the Internet enabled devices as well, including the installation and configuration of apps and the authorisation of devices.

They underestimated the time needed to configure and test all the devices. Needed to make sure they worked well, so as not to put off staff before they began.

After 6 months testing, they did staff training in both their digital resources and Tech Tool Kit. This is ongoing, so they also want to include self-guided training with the Kit, but this has not been completed yet.

They are also looking to create some content of their own to use on mobile devices eg. audiotours, Historypin.

Tania Barry – Yarra Plenty – iTots

Yarra Plenty have created a Reading and Literacy Framework. As part of this process, which involved community consultation, a number of literacy programs were created. The community wanted the library to take a larger role in the development of pre-school literacy, which was the motivation for the iTots program.

They chose iPads because at time they were more familiar, easy to use and had a great range of apps.

The pilot program ran in 2012- and it showed the fun that could be had. Libraries are at forefront of promoting literacy, usually with books, but the pilot showed that digital devices could be valuable in developing literacy.

The program ran with 10 iPads, pre-loaded with a range of toddler apps – drawing, puzzles, picture books – some were free (and so had advertisements) so they had to assess the ads for suitability. It was hard to assess who was having more fun, the children or the adults. They bought apps that could be loaded on multiple devices, as long as they were associated with the one Apple ID.

The first program ran over 4 weeks and covered the topics of letters, numbers, creating content and explore. There were problems though with people missing sessions. In 2013, a new model is being trialled. It runs monthly for an hour with 10 themes for the year. The host demonstrates an interactive picture book via the 42 inch tv screen as part of the program. After the structured part, there is a free play session with the iPads. The program is now running twice a month and they have added 3 iPads, but they still have a waiting list of participants.

Program Positives – children enjoying the interaction, parents are interacting with their children, responses are immediate and children are developing visual spatial skills.

Parents really appreciated discovering good apps for their children that they could get for their own devices and use at home.

There is a definite demand for more sessions and they hope to structure some more in to their library programs calendar.

She recommends that the program is held in the children’s area. Ten children participated in each session as that is how many devices they had. They may open to people bringing their own devices, if they come with the appropriate apps pre-loaded. (at their own cost if required)

iPads telling a story – Tara Hossack – Ballarat

Using the Animoto app and website and iMovie, the worked with young people to create stories.

You need to create an account on Animoto. Its free, but with a paid subscription you get more functionality.

They gave iPads to young people and asked them to take photos that showed what the library meant to them. You create a video by choosing your pictures, selecting a background image and inserting text where you like – up to 120 characters. You can edit it as much as you want and then share the videos to Facebook and YouTube or just save as a file.

Apart from the young people, they have also used it for staff to share what they consider inspirational, for promoting events eg. writing workshop. Also great for Mothers Day.

iMovie for Macs, iPhones, iPads were first used for the local heritage festival last year. The team practised with staff before filming on heritage weekend. At the heritage festival they worked with with a theme of ‘I remember that’. They had 20 questions broken into 4 themes consisting of 5 questions. They then edited the answers into one thematic video.

They used the iPhone headphones microphone to record, which resulted in good sound quality for 38 out of 40 people interviewed. The process was to interview 10 people, then edit the resulting video in around 15 minutes. It was later uploaded to YouTube and all videos were available for viewing the next day.

Posture was an issue for staff in recording – holding either the iPad or the microphone in a stable consistent position, but they had a great time listening to the stories.

People asked about the app they were using, so they could get it for themselves. It was a great experience for staff development and community engagement.

Lesley Sharples – eReader lending – Moonee Valley

They didn’t yet have eBooks for loan, but decided that the technology would be the biggest stumbling block, so aimed at education around the devices, before eBook lending came in.

The project aimed to give borrowers a chance to try the technology before they bought their own, or had their own devices. Borrowers were encouraged to give it a try by having each device preloaded with three new popular titles. The first stage was rolled out house with a display of all the devices – which rotated through their branches and were accompanied by weekly drop in sessions. Once each drop in session ended, borrowers could borrow a device for two hours in house.

The project started in September 2012. Drop in sessions were packed, so they added more staff and restricted the numbers of people who could attend the sessions. Interestingly, no-one under the age of 50 attended the drop in sessions.

They added Project Gutenberg content to each device, but each device had individual titles purchased for them as well. They explored different apps, Overdrive and Bolinda as services etc.

As they laws regarding lending such devices and content is fuzzy, the use of the devices in-house only ensured that they were covered legally.

The second stage of the project involved – public lending of the devices. Every borrower signed an agreement form, paid a $20 deposit and was made aware of the overdue fines (which never had to be applied). All the devices were stored in kits, catalogued and tagged. A clear policy was created, all procedures were made clear and available at the desk and all staff were trained. They made sure to give as much information as they could, to make it as straightforward as possible for both staff and borrowers.

The devices were promoted via flyers and brochures, the library website, their libguides, social media (including Pinterest) and at community events the library attended.

The lending program went live in November 2012 – there are currently 64 holds to be filled and they have already had 90 loans with no overdue returns and no damage to any of the devices. The overwhelming feedback has been that the devices were borrowed to explore the device, not to read the content.

They are now looking at creating themed ereaders, eg. Mystery, romance – inspiration they got from Hamilton Library in New Zealand. There is also potential for use of these devices in Home Library Service, with the vision impaired and for LOTE. Also book groups and storytimes.

They are launching Overdrive soon – their first ebook lending service and will draw back on lending after the launch. The only statistics they have are on the borrowing of the devices, not on the reading of the titles on those devices.

Adam Hornsey – Geelong – iPad lending in the library

When they opened a new library at Waurn Ponds it came equipped with iPads and ereaders for loan in the library. Two hour loans. Deposit required in form of keys, wallet, licence.

Have not gone great – average 23 loans a month. The project was done in a hurry so they didn’t set objectives. First lesson was to ensure they changed the mindsets of staff before beginning – there was resistance from early one. The devices are still there, despite some people’s expectations and they have only lost one – due to screen fuzziness from being bashed against child’s sibling’s head.

It has been an issue for the technical services staff to keep the devices updated – it has all been done centrally. However, as the project expands, this task will be farmed back to the branches.

As they move forward, there are things that they will do different, including better promotion, better display in the branch and theming the iPad content eg. 10 set up for adults, 5 for kids, 5 for teens. Would also relook at whether users could download apps. This could be time intensive for staff, in checking that accounts arent left logged in etc.

They have Airwatch Mobile Device Management System for their devices and are looking at using it for more than security for these devices – it will enable the push out of updates, and if device walks, you can check the device location but can also do a remote wipe.

Have to get staff on board if the project is to succeed.

iPads are locked down and iTunes is removed by Airwatch.

Whole project under review. 20 ereaders are not moving at all. Number of factors as to why the program is not working.

Tom Edwards – Wyndham and Anthony Woodward – Geelong – Library box.

Library box is a tiny portable DIY portable library, cheap, anonymous, wireless router. Tom had created one, preloaded with several of the morning’s presentations and we took the opportunity to log in with your mobile devices and download content.

He suggested how they could be used, including having library e-books available for download from every carriage of every train in Victoria. To do this on V-Line trains alone would cost around $5000 for the library boxes – amazingly cheap investment for such a service.

Unconference

The afternoon was spent in an unconference format. The topics covered were:

• Staff training/troubleshooting
• Mobile accessible websites
• Locked down equipment/security
• Library box
• Local history
• eContent

but I unfortunately was too busy coordinating to take any more notes…..