David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

OPAL Presentation today

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I’m getting ready for my OPAL presentation in about an hour (making sure the laptop is working, is plugged in, the mic is on, etc).

And I thought I should mention – my presentation is being “simulcast!” Yes, you can hear my voice at OPAL… and you can also listen in by logging in to Second Life! How completely cool is that?

Sorta funny, too – I’m doing a webcast – so that’s a “digital presentation.” But then, in Second Life, it’s a digital presentation in a digital world… wow.

So – if you want to listen in via Second Life, go to Juanita (217,241). And go visit the Second Life Library 2.0 blog for details on logging into VOIP to listen to the presentation.

Part of all Three Places

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Have you familiar with the concept of Third Place? As far as I can tell, the concept came from the book, The Great Good Place, written by Ray Oldenburg. His concept is this: most people have about three places in their life that in some way define them – usually home, work/school, and one other place (ie., the Third Place). Third Place can be many things, including church,
a bar or coffee shop, etc.

A Third Place can even be digital – here’s a cool article discussing MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) as a third place, and even mentions a paper (currently under review) written by Constance Steinkuehler called “The New Third Space: Massively Multiplayer Online Gaming in American Youth Culture.” Wow.

Ok, so there’s a very brief Third Place background. Obviously, the physical library space can act as a Third Place for patrons – and that’s all well and good. But did you know that libraries can also infiltrate other Third Places, and possibly even people’s First and Second Places? Think about it – home and work/school. If you tweak your thinking about libraries, websites, and virtual services just a little, you can then start thinking about how a library can offer library services in people’s homes, at their workplaces, and at their schools – in essence, being available in people’s First and Second Places.

One way to get in those places, short of a physical Outreach Services type of thing where we physically take books to people, is to focus on our digital services. What digital services do you have now? Do you offer services like virtual reference, IM reference, phone reference, useful and usable web content, RSS feeds, etc? All those digital services get our digital foot in the digital doors of First and Second Places.

Just a braindump/thought process of going where your patrons already are – at their first, second and third places… libraries can be there, too!

Library 2.0

Interesting Job Ad

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Has anyone seen this job ad? The job title is NextGen Librarian – wow. It could also be titled the “Library 2.0 Librarian,” I think. Look at some of the duties involved:

  • provide leadership and vision for “transformative technologies” in the provision of library resources and services
  • Creates communication venues and distributes content via digital tools such as blogs and wikis for the library system website
  • Develops and delivers library instruction through podcasts and multimedia webcasts
  • promotes community via new technologies within the library and virtually via IM and other emerging communication mechanisms
  • enhances the WSU Library System web presence with current content and methods for distribution such as RSS
  • investigates and implements new technologies that may enhance the Library System’s web presence
  • provides training and support for other librarians on new technologies (this is gonna be a big one, I think)

And some of the qualifications:

  • working knowledge of blogs, wikis, online gaming environments, podcasting, RSS and other Web-related technologies

Just… wow. What a completely interesting job! I think hiring one person to tackle Library 2.0 is certainly one way to do it. Hopefully, the library ALSO plans to work on their mission, their strategy and goals – otherwise, one person won’t make much of a dent.

Either way – should be a fun time for the person who gets the job.

Library 2.0, web 2.0

Bricks, Clicks, and Pics

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Here’s a little more … ahem … broad thinking about websites being actual destinations, presented in pictures…

brick

This is a brick. It represents the physical library building. It’s an actual destination – library customers actually go there to visit, to use the resources, to be entertained, and to find loads of information.

book jacket

This is also a brick. It represent’s the library’s physical collection. It is an actual resource used by library customers. Librarians spend much time and money arranging this brick so customers can find and use it.

david

This is also a brick (although I have been accused of being many other things, too :-). This represents a librarian – an actual person, helping customers. And also a library resource.

Mouse

This is also a brick. It represents computer resources in the library. It’s an actual resource used by library customers. Librarians should spend much time and money arranging this brick so customers can find and use it.

website

This is also a brick. This represents a library website. It’s an actual destination – library customers actually go there to visit, to use the resources, to be entertained, and to find loads of information. It is also an actual resource used by library customers. Librarians should spend much time and money arranging this brick so customers can find and use it.

I think you get my point – the library website, interestingly enough, is where everything comes together in a library – as actual destinations that customers visit, as a much-used resource, and as a place where librarians help customers find what they need.

Website as Destination

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I just saw a job posting at Washington University for an extremely cool-sounding job: the Director of the Digital Library. And that got me thinking… thinking about how we as librarians view our websites. Is the library website a tool to support the physical library’s activities, resources, and services, or is the library website an actual destination?

Let me throw out some numbers. At Kansas City Public Library in August, 202,105 customers walked through our physical doors. Our busiest branch had 31,233 visitors. The library’s website had 309,083 visitors (granted, many of those would be visits within our physical walls – using one of our public PCs). We staff our branches with anywhere from 4 to maybe 20 employees (a mix of part and full-time), and our Central Library with even more staff. Our website is staffed by 2 employees, who handle all the day-to-day business of running the website, plus frequently writing content to be placed on the site. Other staff also send content.

So, the short version:

  • big branch – 20+ staff (lower fte), 30,000 visitors
  • website – 2 staff (plus some content help from library staff), 309,000 visits
  • Which one has staffing issues?

I think it’s time to stop thinking of library websites as something that simply supports a library’s mission and goals. Rather, the library’s website IS the library, or at least as much a real, live part of the library as a physical library branch building is part of the library.

And if we as librarians start thinking that way – gee whiz, what would we change? Would staffing of the digital library change? Would we put different types of information on the website? Would we market things differently?

Stuff to think about – and I’d love to hear other’s reactions to this concept!