social media | emerging trends | libraries
I taught a post conference session with David Free at the 2007 Computers in Libraries conference on podcasting and videoblogging, and we needed something to videotape. here’s our video!
ps – this is my second attempt to post it – something went wrong the first time around… update: and it worked! Yippie!
Update – ok – this post didn’t work… but I reposted the video, and everything worked THIS time. The REAL Straw Tricks post can be found here. Thanks for everyone’s patience!
They wanted to be the first of the new libraries
two goals:
1. design and build an absolutely fantastic new library
2. use technology to be more efficient and effective – but it will meet our patrons’ demands
They have one rule – tolerate uncertainty
continuing vision:
eternal values
new technology
Next, Alan Gray talked about their library building…
ok… the speaker just said “for any of you who are fighter pilots know this…” Hmm. Not so much.
Skip the RFP process for RFID! it’s a waste of time and effort and money and time
have each competitor design to your needs, then compare and contrast. Cool.
No tech services and no circ back office
no cataloging
instead, workflow managers, not clerks
a small workplace to deal with exceptions
So, they’re allowing vendors to do the cataloging – they’re outsourcing EVERYTHING. They might have to catalog 50-100 books a year.
And by the way, why not outsource paging too?
What would a library be if it needed no booktruck…
active items back on the shelf in 20 minutes!
They plan to direct order and ship the book to the patron, overnight…
other stuff:
everyone out in front of their desks
circ staff become reader advisors
information staff at remote reference points
technology staff work in partnership with patrons
we’ll have a virtual library, too
Reference:
video chat, webex, etc…
Kinkos model – they want to be a regional collaborative digitization space
etc.
Much of this stuff was “here’s what we want to do.” If they REALLY do these things, they’ll be a hip library. Now, I want to know how they plan to do it – especially how they plan to get the book checked in and back on the shelf in 20 minutes.
Computers in Libraries 2007: Day 3 – Alliance & Charlotte Libraries Get a Second Life: Library Services in a Virtual World
Lori Bell, Tom Peters, Kelly Czarnecki, and Matt Gullett
Lori – intro to second life and their projects
two main projects – adult and teen focuses
5000 daily visitors to the Alliance Information Archipelago and 2-3000 teen visitors per day to the Eye4You Alliance Island – cool.
explanation of avatars
Gone from 1 to 10 islands, 10 partner islands!
starting to work with immersive environments – ex. Sci Fi and Fanstasy portal – looks like a space ship.
Pantheon Performance Center – live piano concerts, student productions
Cool – they mentioned Topeka & Shawnee County Library’s teen project!
explained second life library’s services:
reference
programs
exhibits
collections
book and genre discussions
training
Why are librarians in Second Life?
this is a new professional frontier
this is where many of our users and non-users are
to attract new users to the traditional library through referral
to investigate library services in virtual worlds
to provide library services 24/7
to meet and work with librarians worldwide
to learn and use the 3D web, the emerging web interaction interface
what have we learned?
virtual world residents do want a library
collaboration is the key and partnerships are essential
exhibits – very popular; events attract crowds
SL is fun – fun factor is a catalyst
Cuyahoga County Public Library
Where the library was…
they wanted to be a portal – have a customizabe customer experience
wanted to reach new audiences
weren’t quite sure what their customers wanted
created an rfp
Implementation of the website – by the website company…
discovery:
focus groups for the community – variety of types (ie., kids, teens, seniors, etc)
competitive research – looked at other library websites (bad idea, in my opinion… libraries aren’t competing with other libraries – they’re competing with amazon, barnes & noble, etc…
strategy:
mini portals – subjects, demographics, etc based mini portals… subject guides
needed a CMS that could handle blogs, rss, etc – new functionality
needed event management functionality
Ektron – their new CMS (dot net…)
Catalog – III
Federated Searc – webfeat
text messaging…
wanted to integrate all this stuff
cost – $150,000 – sounds pricey… but for what they bought, that’s about right for an outside web design firm to create a large-scale website.
I just checked out of the whole note taking thing, and am browsing their new site… some thoughts:
– kidspace – it’s not for kids – it’s for parents (just a quick visual look at the page)
– I’d say the same thing for the teens page
– I think with both the kids and the teens page, they most likely have great stuff for those user groups – but the main kids and teens page both look more like a hallmark cards page – very corporate.
they just mentioned they have more phases to implement. They have a great start – keep innovating!
cil2007