David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Can The News come from a library?

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I read this article (found via infoDOCKET) earlier this week and found it pretty interesting!

Could a local library … that’s already a community hub … that people trust … also be the place for local news?

The article definitely shows that it could be a possibility! From the article, it looks like some libraries have done some limited experiments to show that it can, in fact, work.

Heck – my library has talked about doing some form of that (in passing – no actual projects!).

But it kinda makes sense. Many libraries already focus on a community’s history. They even keep a vertical file of interesting tidbits of information and history, just in case. So – we have the past covered.

How about the present? We’re already connected (or should be, anyway) to a lot of the non profits, chambers of commerce, city and county governments, action committees, etc. in town. We know at least some of the local movers and shakers.

So … we’re already connected to many of the organizations that know what’s going on in town. Possibly the next step is meeting with some of those people and organizations, and pulling that “what’s happening” story out of them.

We wouldn’t need to cover car accidents, road closures, crime, etc. Leave that to the evening news. But how about the good news in town? The “what’s happening next week” news? The “here’s what’s coming next year” type of news?

We just might be able to pull that off – because we already have those connections. We just need writers. And some of us already know how to do that, as well. Or we can hire writers and journalists to do it for us. Or it could be in a video format. That works too!

Assuming you’re able to hire, and can shift some jobs to do something new. I know – some big “ifs” there!

Could libraries pull this off? Maybe so. Definitely something to think about!

Read more:

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Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash

Hung out with T is for Training

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Last week, I was on the T is for Training Podcast (Maurice Coleman’s way-cool podcast).

It was fun! We talked about my library’s experience during Covid, broadband initiatives, digital multimedia spaces in libraries, and training and learning around each of those topics.

To say the least, we covered a LOT of ground.

So – have a listen, subscribe, etc! Also, make sure to go to the podcast episode page – the page has a bunch of links to things we discussed during the show.

Five Ways to Up your Library’s Mobile Game – new article

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I have another new(ish) article in the April 2022 Computers in Libraries magazine. It’s focused on easy ways to make your customer’s mobile experience a better one.

Here are my five points in the article:

  1. Make sure your website works on mobile
  2. Have a mobile apps page on your website
  3. Create a comfortable in-building mobile experience
  4. FInd fun ways to connect
  5. Train staff on mobile devices and apps

As usual, click over to the article to read it! Also, if you want a more in-depth look at mobile technology, find a copy of my ALA Library Technology Report, not-so-surprisingly titled Mobile Technology in Libraries.

Enjoy!

Take my class about Emerging Technology!

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Paul Signorelli and I are teaching an online course focused on new technology and libraries, and I wanted to invite you to sign up for it!

The class is called A Roadmap for Staff Success with New Technology, and it’s an ecourse hosted by ALA.

Here’s the ecourse description: “Technology is continuing to change how we learn and work with others, as well as how we deliver services to library users. At times, though, it can feel unmanageable and overwhelming.

This four-week highly-interactive course, in which you will be co-conspirators in the learning process, begins with an overview of current trends and developments in technology incorporated into a variety of learning environments and also introduces a variety of resources for tracking ed-tech developments. Subsequent weeks will focus on specific areas of technological developments, including online collaborative tools; Artificial Intelligence; Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality; and others identified by the course facilitators and participants. By the time you finish the course, you will leave with a simple plan of action for implementing what you learned.

The course is designed to help any library staff member better explore, introduce, and use technology in serving colleagues and other library users.”

Go here to sign up – see you in class!

Last Two Emerald Articles of 2016

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I’ve been writing an online monthly article/column for Emerald Group Publishing. Here are my last two articles of 2016. More to come in 2017!

  • November: Work/Life balance, finding time, and priorities. Find out how I deal with my lack of a work/life balance, and focus on priorities instead.
  • December: Digital inclusion at the library. A short article talking about a very important topic. I discuss what digital inclusion is, some projects my library is doing around that area, and share some links to other helpful digital inclusion resources.

If you haven’t read those articles yet, please do!

Here are the other articles I wrote for Emerald in 2016:

Enjoy!

Image by Rebecca