RUSA MARS/RSS Preconference, WCC Room 207A, Friday 6/22, 8am – 4:30pm
Keynote: Michael Stephens, “Participatory Culture & User Generated Content: Reference Services in the 2.0 Age” [slides here]
takes picture(s) for flickr… btw, amongst 5 speakers, all using macs!
The world has shifted. The .com bubble exploded and the web rebooted – the world changed.
Tells his students to be trendspotters. If you can spot trends, you’ll be effective. If something makes the cover of a major news publication, it’s important to notice. Good signs for a trends: it sloves a problem, users are asking for it, your kids (mom, boss) already knows how to use it, it looks like it’s fun! If it’s fun – watch it! Use it!
Person of the year – last year: You (Time Magazine).
Web 2.0 – Read/Write web, Blogs, Flickr, Can we be “friends?” Meet people who share your interests. If you are inclined, you can subscribe to all of my flickr photos, all of my music playing (lastfm), etc. We live online – sharing ourselves.
Commonalities of 2.0: Open, Participation, tags, comments.
OCLC Perceptions report: READ IT. Top Reasons people give for not using Library web site – don’t know it’s there, other web sites have better info, couldnt’t find it. We have a Marketing problem.
Top educational web sites — Wikipedia is #1. Does your library have a Wikipedia page? If your town/school has a wikipedia page, think about linking your library to it.
Reference desk as Fortress (Aaron Schmidt photo). Creating more welcoming spaces including concierage services, open seating spaces for user/staff interactions. Let Go of Control! Warning: Failure to innovate while overthinking and underplanning ….
Problems: No Cellphone signs — guess what, cell phones connect me to my world! Don’t ban technology because it is technology. Do you have code of conduct? Take down your NO signs – eplace them will welcoming signs. Respect youself, respect others, respect the space.
Be visible – “Laptop librarians” (at the dining hall 90 minutes a week)- go where the users are. David Fulton – once a month, he goes to Panera Bread and puts up a little sign that says “The Librarian is In” – you can do your job wherever your user is.
Facebook Applications – UIUC catalog search with Ask a Librarian embedded into your users space.
The Cluetrain Manifesto (Read it!) -
the hyperlinked org – team based, decentralized, communicates with effective meetings, hyperlinked intrants, is a little bit broken.
Cluetrain Manifesto: Be Transparent! Speak with a human voice. People want to talk to each other.
Conversations are happening online:
Chicago Public Library – patron blog
SJCPL – 30 librarians publishing content directly
Book Discussions online
Catalog on a blog (created by Casey Bisson) at the Lamson Library (Plymouth State University) – enables tagging, comments, trackbacks, etc.
Flickr, YouTube - a picture is worth a thousand words. Make videos to market your library services. Get in their spaces to be found.
Engage your users in content creation:
Denver Public Library - working with teens to make videos about the library.
Podcast tours of the library – one by a librarian, one by a student (Ohio University Libraries)
Have materials conveniently delivered to our users – Netflix, BookSwim. Use friendly, memorable names and urls (example: Hennepin’s BookSpace). Use text messages to communicate with users – holds & overdue notices. Give your users a choice on how to interact with you.
THE USER IS NOT BROKEN. (K. Schneider). Listen to what they are saying. Involve your frontline staff in planning (they hear the users). Use wikis with your users – SJCPL, Ohio University. Engage them.
Justify services: It doesn’t cost a lot of money.
Get your vendors to enable this – embed IM into the catalog like a meebo widget.
Learn and Innovate – make sure your staff is well-trained, engaged, and learning. This should be part of the culture – up and down.
Ex. – If you don’t know your technology, your staff knows this – and guess what? They talk about it behind your back 
Ex. Communication is key – make sure your staff knows what’s going on! When a user asks a question, make sure your staff has answers.
Training 2.0 – why are we doing this? Because we need to reach our users. Most of them will not meet the library any other way.
RSS feeds – good place to start. Get your staff using aggregators. Ex. Netvibes.
Learning 2.0 programs (created at Charlotte Mecklenberg and currently being modeled at many libraries across the country) – we need to take responsibility for our learning. Our staff need to be given space/time to take responsibility for their learning. Form an emerging technologies team – trendspot, play with new stuff, blog what you do.
Don’t let your fantastic idea turn to crap – ex. I’m psyched for IM reference… back to the library… Meeting, committee, task force, policy, What if…(it affects my life)? Idea dies 
[compares to getting a telephone - what if we feared that it would ring? too much? what if we are successful?]
Remember this: Adopt a 2.0 Philosophy. Throw out the culture of perfect. Learn from the gamers – it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s not time to be timid anymore – things are moving too fast.
Second Life - info island, cybrary city (from Talis), buildings, libraries, stores, an economic system – what does this mean? I [Michael] Don’t Know. Ref Desk in Second Life – 200 questions a week! Idea: if you are building a new building – make a deal with the architect to build it in Second Life first – then bring your staff there and bring your users there to get feedback – test it!
Open libraries use their data in new ways – control fades. Create a Culture of trust — trust users, trust each other. Trust your staff to create content – we have a thriving blog presence because we trust our staff. 2.0 requires radical trust.
Join Library
5 things you can do right now:
1. be a trendspotter – read and find the next trends. Figure out how they will changes libraries
2. form an emerging technology committee.
3. try a learning 2.0 program
4. Create a “What’s New” blog – you get a marketing venue and most importantly an RSS feed!
5. Explore Presence. Explore how you can be present in your users worlds.
learn to learn, adapt to change,
Q. The people who are HERE want to do this – part of the obstacle we face is the other staff at our institutions – how do we catch the enthusiasm to other folks.
A. This requires a cultural shift for your library. Managers/Directors, listen to this! We are miring our users in too much process. They feel too weighed down to try new things. Let them play. Get everyone involved.
Q. What do you do when your whole organization is against it?
A. Bring your folks to these rooms! Or you can always use the “do it now and ask for forgiveness later” method (perhaps not if you work for the government, though )
Q. How do we get users to use our new services- nothing more depressing than a blog with no comments.
A. David will address Inviting Participation.
Q. What is the benefit of this – how do we sell the culture of play to our staff/admin.
The experience of learning the spaces, technologies. etc. Rewards are good (ex. ipod giveaway).
Session 1: David Ward, “R U There? Implementing, training and marketing for IM services in new user spaces”
IM is not emerging – it’s been out for 10 years – May 1997 AIM was introduced.
I. Defining IM - more than just instant messaging, multiple technologies and multiple uses, — we are really talking about a different way of communicating.
II. Implementation –
To Start Up (lots of resources to look at – walking paper, libsuccess wiki, tame the web, librarian in black, etc.)
- use it internally
- Practice IM style
- Use all flavors – cross platform client (AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, etc.)
- Define necessary features – (for example, cobrowsing doesn’t work that well)
- Know why chat fails (Radford, Kern) – not enough hours, don’t give it enough of a chance. They recommend you implement it for a minimum of two years.
- Go get your own money – grants, or somehow scrape up $25 to buy a Trillian license…
Generating Buy-In
- Involve Admin – explain the importance of getting into your users spaces.
- Tie in to Strategic Goals
- Security Issues (See LiB post)
- Ask your IT dept. – how many computers have web browsers? email? Those are much bigger risks. Already addressing these concerns.
- IM Talking points (See Aaron Schmidt’s walking paper blog)
TALKING POINTS FOR GETTING SUPPORT FOR IM:
- IM is a vehicle for online delivery of educational content.
- IM promotes increased and more efficient use of existing library websites and resources – which we pay alot for
- IM helps users acces library services even when they aren’t on our site. OR IM extends the librar’s online presence ouside of the reg. web site.
- IM is what our users use – and they’re right. We shouldn’t be trying to push them to do it our way.
How to address concerns about staff time: this is just a way of people contacting us – phone, in person, etc. It’s the same thing. Should be done on desk time not back in an office somewhere.
UIUC usage Statistics 2004 – 2007
IM (their space) – 0 to 773
Chat (our space) – 464 to 269
Total Chats – 464 – 1200+
lengths of chats – 12 to fifteen minutes 30%, 5-10 minutes 32%
Undergrad use is about 90% of the service, but it is increasing in ‘older’ categories – people have kid/students that are using this. plus, it’s 10 years old…the users are getting into the professional/adult world.
III. User Spaces
- Personal IM clients – buddy up – then you are in their list, they don’t have to go to your site to find your address. Yahoo integrates it’s IM into Yahoo mail, too! Google Talk is integrated into Gmail
- Browsers – toolbars, etc.
- MySpace/Facebook – facebook apps, meebo/plugoo widgets, etc. MySpace now has it’s own IM client – The newest Trillian supports this (not out yet, but coming)!
- Other social spaces – flickr, youtube
- Second Life
- Google – supports Open Worldcat integration which has search my library feature – but how do we add IM (ask my librarian feature)? Let’s get that!
- Your site(s)
- put IM in your catalog – buddy lists for libraries/depts.
- Put IM on your site (widget) – every page!
Use the native capabilities of Social Software Spaces – Use the information they are giving you – classes, interests, etc. They are putting this info out there – how can we use it to serve them better. Go to YouTube and search for undergraduate library or public library or whatever kind of library you have…
Social spaces are very active – people go there and socialize to find out what’s going on, what’s new, things to read, new music, etc. Get your library involved in this – push content into these spaces, make your library available.
IV. Marketing
Marketing for IM
- Needs Assessment -what are the issues facing your users and how can you solve them? Not necessarily as obvious as it seems. It’s not just ‘what you do at the des, but somewhere else’ it’s a little different – take advantage of the differences!
- Branding – tie it into what your users want to do.
- Business cards, posters, web site, etc.
- Instruction sessions
Marketing with IM – What does it say about your library?
- Demonstrates that you are willing to work collaboratively with your users. Value user-created content.
- Willing to meet users in their spaces – you are placing value/validation on their choices.
- Away messages — include not just hours but also “we’re not here, but… we have this [cool example] that you might try”
- Profile name – you can create it to be whatever you want – make it something people want to connect to
Differences with IM – violates some of the RUSA guidelines, the five stages are not as readily apparent or there at all. IM users come and go unexpectedly – the follow up doesn’t happen, for example. They have 6 or seven conversations going like this. If they have another question they’ll come back. This is one reason why training and learning IM style of communication for staff is really important. It’s a different manner of communication.
V. New Stuff
Emerging communication relationships:
- One to One, One to Many, Many to Many
- Peer to Peer
- Video, VoIP – skype, etc. How can we use this? WIth bandwidth increasing this is becoming more and more possible. We can speak faster than we can type, so our transactions will shorten. We can integrate sharing links with verbal interactions more effectively.
- Virtual Worlds – Second Life. lots of questions in Second Life about Second Life. This makes sense. Our users have questions about the spaces we are in (communities, campuses).
- Gaming – collaborative gaming (WoW, Runescape, Sims), lots of people are here for not just recreation, but education. How do we integrate our communications in there? People are using Playstation 3 to access Second life…
Convergence – all your stuff in one place – ex. iPhone – phone, web, text, im. We need to support this. Users choose the interface.
MeeboMe Rooms – search for ‘library’ you can send links, messages, instant library instruction sessions!
Bots – things where you can send a text message to a buddy name and then it generates n auto-reply.
SMS and other Cell Phone apps -
Twitter – “micro-blogging” collaborative, social. You can ask a question and get many, many answers from all over the world. — used to post alerts. Sort of a blog that can be posted to all the time. Nebraska Library NLS is putting all of the questions (after stripping the identifying information) they are asked on Twitter – not expecting answers just putting them out there.
RadiusIM – You can find who else is on IM in your geographic area so you connect to them
Q. Do we need to have all these different accounts?
A. Yes – but then you get GAIM (now called Pidgin) or Trillian to manage them from one interface
Q. What kind of tool do you recommend fo rintegrating IM into Datbase and catalog?
A. It really depends on how open they are. You’ll have to work with the vendor or your IT dept. to embed it.
Q. Do you foresee text messaging eclipsing IM?
A. i see them as two parallel things, they are similar but different enough to exist simultaneously.
Q. Suggestions for libraries who want to create collaborative IM system?
A. UIUC is attempting to do this sort of thing. They are trying to build a queue system for their IM so that questions can go to one address (an AIM bot) and then get routed to the appropriate place.
Q. (really an FYI) —MIT has Mentor Matcher – does content analysis of web sites in real time to analyze needs/interests of the user. They built it, but they did not have enough funding to actually test it… Contact Curtiss Priest if you want to get involved with testing it.
Session 2 (Part 1): David Free, “The World of Podcasting – Implications for Libraries” [slides here]
All questions are not rhetorical! When you hear a question – respond!
Going to talk about how libraries are using podcasting. Not going to talk about HOW to podcast. (this stuff is available from his wiki). Note -if you record folks who have copyright on the their programming, remember to get permissions.
Who has listened to podcasts (most everyone)? Subscribed to podcasts (most everyone)? Made podcasts (a few 
)? Podcasting can be syndicated like blogs and pushed to users with RSS – delivered automatically to your users!
A podcast is — “a digital recording o f a radio broadcast or similar program, made available on the internet for downloading to a personal audio player” – New Oxford American Dictionary
Comes from ipod + broadcasting, but you don’t need an ipod – you don’t even need a portable player, you can listen on your computer.
plays Ask a Ninja video: What is Podcasting? – Podcasting is feeding apple pie to whales!
54% of 12-17 year olds have an MP3 player (compared to 30% of 18-24 year olds). It’s increasing everyday. it is very pervasive, even mainstream.
Student Marketing Survey question: Beer vs. iPod – ipod wins more popularity (79% compared to 59%)
What is Reference Anyway?? answers – EVERYTHING. You can use podcasting for all of these things. Check out podcasts for computer instruction and more at Lansing Public Library. Check out podcasts for library tours (in different languages!!). Check out podcasts for Reading Recommendations. Check out podcasts for storytimes. Check out podcasts for how to use library resources (from Fairfield U. – producer of this podcast is at the preconference! reports that the podcasts are well received by students)!
Make sure you keep your library help podcasts short — no one is going to listen 25 minutes about Academic Search Premier. Think more like 2-3 minutes. think about FUN. make it engaging/entertaining.
You can also use podcasts for library instruction classes, especially for distance learners. It’s a way to humanize the online interaction. Might actually even encourage users to come into the library and interact with the librarians and the offline resources.
Library Guide for Nursing – includes all sorts of rich content for nursing students – both audio podcasts and printable cheatsheets to supplement. According to a study at University of Washington, approximately 80% of students use audio files in conjunction with print/visual materials/notes.
Mashups!
Idea – create a podcast with a brief assignment overview. Add audio/video tours specific library areas relevant for the assignment, create and link to online tutorials/podcasts for assignment specific resources & services. Include Subject Guides and “cheatsheets” to supplement.
Podcast planning – Have a Plan! Do a needs assessment – Who, What, Where, When, plan, plan, plan. Don’t just do it to do it. Fulfill your library’s goals through podcasting. How will it address the needs of your community? Ask them! “Create some good content” – something that people want to listen to.
Podcasting Tips:
- Consider your voice.
- Be passionate and entertaining.
- If you use an outline/script – use it, but don’t read it.
- Make it conversational. Ex. Pledge drive for NPR station in Chicago – it was conversational and made you want to keep listening.
- Find a quiet place.
- Remember your listeners
- Multiple voices rock! Example: Ode to WorldCat
Things to think about:
Remember copyright issues – Creative Commons,
Get multiple people to work on these projects. Get as many people as possible – this helps sustain the programming.
7 Steps to Podcast Heaven
- Listen before you post – make sure your audio levels are good.
- Host – put it on a blog for example.
- Posting – use iTunes or iTunesUor someplace where people will go. It is easy to get a presence here.
- Feeding – use RSS
- Promote it!
- Evaluate/Assess – Listen to your user feedback.
- Keep doing it! Keep it coming on a regular schedule. Add new content often, if possible.
Session 2 (Part 2): David King, “Videocasting for Public Outreach” [slides here]
Examples of videoblogs:
- Plays videoblog of self going to lunch…
- American Libraries new videoblog – AL Focus
- Check out David’s videoblog –
- Rocketboom – 400,000 viewers per day. started by a couple of people out of their apartment – now it is global and makes lots of $$
Videoblogs are getting lots of press – NY Times, Boston Globe, Colbert Report, Time Magazine.
Videoblogging is not TV, it is not youTube (although video blogs can be stored there), it is not streaming video,
Videoblogging is video … on a blog. has comments, tagging, permalinks, etc. just like all blogs.
What can you do with videoblogging?
example: Progresso Soup video (stevegarfield.com) – what was that? Consumer feedback, citizen journalism. Can go out to millions of people!
Why is it getting big?
- Broadband and free storages
- cheep and easy to create – video on many cellphones.
- video ipods
- people are discovering great uses that seem to be “just right” for videos
How to find – google video, mefeedia.com, itunes,
How do you watch them? Just click on one. (more involved answer — need computer & web, Need a video plater (quicktime, windows media player))
- Video aggregator — Fireant, MeFeedia, iTunes (sync to iPods)
- PSP
- Apple TV
- iPhone
How to create?
- You need TIME to make a decent video. – are you pressed for time? Is it time or priorities? Ex. World Bookcart Championship…. people are doing this at work? We make time for these things!?! Think about reprioritizing to make time for video and other new services.
- Digital camera
- Camera/video phone
- Need a blog
- Need video editing software
- Cheap and free
- Quicktime Pro ($30)
- YouTube video editing
- Pricey and Powerful
- Audio Formats
- quicktime .mov (most popular)
- window .wmv -
- find out what your users are most likely to use.
- Video storage space — for free!
What can libraries do with them?
Example – video from Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library – What if Barbie had a Bookclub? at the Papercuts Blog.
Link from YouTube to library web site. Link from library web site to YouTube. If you do this stuff – put it out there for your users to find! Example acpl on YouTube.
Traditional ideas –
- book talk
- bibliographic instruciton
- pr for the library
- showing off exhibits
- interviews — staff, director, authors, local folks
- Film your events
- Tutorials (search your catalog)
More interesting ideas:
- Oral histories
- Local news – news from teh branches
- video contests – kids/teens
- environmental issues (invite the zookeeper)
- behind the scenes at the library
- Local attractions
- anyone going out of town? Staff going to conference – give them a camera!
- Political candidates/local issues
Need More info?
- get some books!
- Yahoo Groups
- Conferences – SXSW Interaction, Pixelodeon, vloggercon, etc.
Q. How to reprioritize – what do you do less of to get these new services in?
A. Sometimes it’s just working smarter. Organize around work, not around MLS/experience, etc. Ex. If your shelvers can make videos, why not let them? Find some services that aren’t getting much use from users, and replace them with these services.
Q. What is the learning curve for these types of endeavors?
DK: Hard to answer because he’s always learning stuff. Part of my job is learning New technology
DF: as far as audio goes, if you can edit microsoft word, you can edit audio with Audacity. You can get a $15 usb mic to start out with and it’s just a matter of plugging in, recording, and doing basic editing and you have a podcast. it’s fairly simple and not as time consuming as video.
Q. Comment: One of the greatest untapped resources at public libraries are the teens. With a little bit of structure (competition, programming) you can get some great content for your library.
DF: along the same lines — Cheshire Public Library – their podcasts are created by their teens. Teaching teens the technology and creating great content!
Q. What books do you recommend?
Videoblogging for Dummies and Secrets of Videoblogging.
Session 3: Karen Coombs, “Blogs for Reference Services, Outreach, and Marketing” [slides here]
Why use blogs?
- easy to edit
- can allow many staff (and users) to contribute
- space for feedback from users
- good for information that must be up to date and changes regularly
- allows people to subscribe to your information.
News & Information -
- announcements,
- home page content (ex. Ann Arbor District Library)- blog is integrated into the library site – makes it a seamless part of the web site and not a separate entity that won’t get found.
- targeted to specific audience.
Internal Communications
- communicate news/announcements to staff
- record latest ref questions being asked
- highlight new library resources – what are they and what are they good for?
Example – ARC Blog – they made it the active desktop background for their staff machines. It is the first thing they see.
Readers Advisory
- Timeliness
- Multiple users
- enables comments from staff and USERS!
- Example: Lansing Library Adult News & Reviews Blog.
- doesn’t look like a ‘blog’ — includes all sorts of different useful content.
- includes link to catalog
- can see if the library is online (IM)
- links back to the library web site
- embeds the ability to search for other materials.
- Example: Colorado College Library Book Reviews
- Enables browse by genre
- includes links to other reviews
- links to the library AND to worldcat
Subject-Oriented Blogs
- Example: business blog atUniversity of Houston
- Communicates new resources
- Helps users get in touch with their librarians
- Offers guidance for users in their subject
- Example: Western Springs History
- highlights digital collection
- includes photos
- browse by street address
Promote Library Events
- Allow users to subscribe to particular kinds of events (use tags)
- Example: Darien Public Library
- includes media
- includes what going on at the library this week
- Specific user group programming/events
- Homer Township Public library
Blogs Do & Don’ts
DO:
- Have an RSS or Atom feed
- Update your blog regularly – people expect updates.
- Use tags and/or categories to organize your posts
- Allow your readers to comment – very, very important
- Make sure you monitor your comments and REMOVE spam
DON’TS
- Don’t hide your RSS feed
- Don’t post frivolous content – post things that would be of interest to people. Sales fliers from Macy’s go to the trash. Give them meaningful content.
- Don’t forget to moderate your comments
- Don’t separate your library blog from the library web site -
- link from your site to the blog, link from the blog to the web site
- look and feel – banner, logo, color scheme
Two Types of Blogs you can use: Hosted vs. Install it Yourself
Hosted providers: Typepad, WordPress.com, Blogger
Install it yourself providers: Movable Type. WordPress.org
Start out with hosted if you’re not a techie…but someday soon, you’ll have to get serious… You’ll have to get install-it-yourself software. This will allow you to customize much more in areas of security and look and feel.
If you have issues with your IT dept. or have troubles installing… drop her a line, she’ll help! for real, this is all she does all day long at work. That’s how she got started, by asking other folks.
Related Technologies – Syndication –
- RSS & Atom (they’re the same but different, like english and spanish – doesn’t matter what you use but make sure you have a feed)
- Feedburner – manages your feeds, gives you stats/info about your users.
Related Technologies – Photo Blogging –
- blogging of digital images – sometimes it is just the image itself and sometimes it is the image and some text about it.
- Digital image collection — a lot of times, cataloging images difficult. If you have a photo blog, you can leverage your user comments to gather information.
Creative Commons Licensing — grants people certain rights to use your content according to some easier restrictions (e.g. create licenses that allow your content to be used by non-profits if they credit you)
Mashups – taking content from one place and incorporating it into something else
- Feed2JS – allows you to take any RSS feed and it will give you javascript to generate that feed content into your web site.
- NetVibes – desktop window — allows you to get to all of your content in one place (mail, calendar, rss feeds, etc)
- Content from other sites — Shared Items from Google Reader
- Aggregatator for particular communities – Code4Lib.
Point is — Blogs are used in so many ways. They are so incredibly powerful and can be used in so many ways.
Q. How are wikis different from blogs?
A. Blogs are always done in chronological order. They are very temporal – if time isn’t important, maybe you could do a wiki. With wikis you see changes (version control) – on blogs these changes are not transparent unless the blogger makes a conscious effort to do this.
Q. What is RSS?
A. Allows you to syndicate – makes your content available for anyone to grab your info to make it available anywhere on the web.
Q. What is Mashup?
A. All sorts of these syndicated blocks of content that are available – a mashup is a combination of more than one type of syndicated content.
Q. Are all the blogs at the University of Houston open to comments?
A. Not currently, after fighting spam for 3 months it’s been shut down. Blog owners are responsible for their own content. Planning to move blogging software to solve this problem. Movable Type doesn’t deal with spam well. WordPress does a better job.
Q. Out of 60 blogs are they distributed to staff to maintain? How much time does this take?
A. Yes, responsibility is distributed. Time varies from blog to blog – some do a lot, some don’t do a lot. If people don’t update/maintain your content, she will pull it. The staff that manage blogs are managed by their own managers (who are generally cooperative in getting their staff to blog)
Q. Are your internal blogs closed to the world?
A. Yes, they have about 20 internal blogs and 40 external blogs.
Q. How would you compare the Mashups to WebCT and Blackboard.
A. They are similar, but the content for WebCT and Blackboard is not available for mashup so the students can’t take the content and create something out for it. If you’re stuff is mashed up then it is available for people to use in the ways that work for them. To find out what your users are using, look at your server logs.
Q. Do all blogs have to be created by/centered around communities?
A. No, some blogs don’t get feedback because they just aren’t things that require comments. Some do.
Q. What kind of use/feedback are your blogs getting?
The internal ones are getting a ton of use. For planning processes, etc. The subject blogs aren’t getting as much as they would like — it’s about marketing and placement. They need to be on course pages. they need to be in peoples aggregators. These will be addressed in the redesign. For us, though, it’s a huge achievement to get our staff contributing content.
Panel Discussion/General Q&A
MS: Really happy to hear DW talk about convergence – the way we get our media is changing – cnn gets photos from flickr because it’s the most up to date. iPhone and YouTube, etc. People want a seamless experience. People want a human voice — We can smell PR talk from a mile away so don’t put it on your blogs or on your podcasts. Give meaningful content in a human way.
How do we find the time? This question keeps coming up. From his dissertation — Michael Buckland and Patrick Patrick says Librarians should use the new technologies to do what we have already done. We need to find the time. Because it’s not a choice. This is where we are going.
KC Should we be doing this? Work Smarter not harder. We spend too much time pushing fphysical things around. If we arent bringing value to the transaction then we shouldn’t be doing it. If it isn’t mission critical, consider outsourcing it. We aren’t getting more staff so we need to prioritize. We need to assess what brings value to our users and to our institutions.
DK: Don’t look at it like “gee, i don’t have enough time to blog” Instead look at “where do i want my library to be in 2 years?” and if that includes a dynamic web presence – figure out how you get there.
MS: agrees with both of these things. Question Everything. Example – a library has outsourced cataloging, should save time, right? Well, no. Because the tech services librarian still insists on proofing the books that come in! makes my head to explode
KS: My library is doing the flush campaign. What can go? and if it can go, it needs to GO.
MS: Inviting participation – How do we get people to comment, how do we get people to participate in our wikis, etc.
DK: Comments are half of the blog. Invite them to particpate. Passive Invitations: Ask your users a question – they’ll answer. (Example: Are you blogging this?). Another way to do it is to make your comments a conversation. Keep it going. Active Invitations: Ask them to participation (ex. Paper Cuts blog, 52 Questions). Market your content. Sometimes digital content needs to be marketed in physical ways. You have to leave the desk and you have to leave the building. A bookmark at the circ desk is one thing… getting out to the community in there places are important.
Q: What about for those of us that are not techies? Why don’t we get more support from the computer types in our larger libraries?
DK: It’s a good question. This is why i have my job – to transition from a culture of No.
KC: Old job worked the reference desk, did collection development, that’s why she was hired. Don’t want to say no. But really, this stuff isn’t that hard. Everyone can use email, everyone can use word. How many of you can take pictures on a camera? You can post to Flickr.
If you want to customize, match up look and feel that’s a little more complicated (they need to match – tell your IT dept. to make it happen).
DW: alot of this is just typing text into different boxes. The boxes change all the time, but it’s the same principle. When we think about the most used Social Software sites it’s always the places where people can talk about themselves. If it’s just about us, it’s not going to work. How do we get more interesting than Librarians talking about Librarians.
KC: We all know that Librarian instruction is not relevant to students unless it is relevant to something that they are doing in their lives (assignment centered).
Q. How do you manage the process of giving up control?
MS: It’s tough when you have agency level control. What you can do is keep sending your messages up and gather evidence — evidence based change goes further.
KC: The more pebbles in the pond, the bigger the ripples. Get people to disturb, if you can get everyone jazzed on a particular topic so that someone notices.
Q: Public library that is bound by the city structure – what can you do?
MS: sell them on the idea
KC: Benchmarking! compare to other libraries, what are other libraries doing? Point out your inadequecies and where you are missing the boat.
DK: At my old library there was a sign with Don’t sit here for more than 30 minutes. — Michael posted it on Flickr and the sign was gone in 2 hours!
Q: With institutions that count stats to justify services, have you had any reports for how 2.0 services impact the library use positively?
MS: We’re so young. The studies are not there.
DK: I look at that different. I’m a branch manager. When people visit my library’s web site, it’s the same as a visit to the physical location.
KC: This came up with the online marketplace, it didn’t increase traffic to the physical locations. Success isn’t just physical visits. You are expanding your service into a different area not driving them back to your building.
