My newest video for WebJunction is out! This time around, I provide a succinct explanation of how competencies can be useful to you and your library. It fits nicely with WebJunction’s Competencies website (you should check it out sometime).
Enjoy!
5 Tips for Dealing with Difficult Patrons on the Web
I have been working on a video series for WebJunction, and the first video is up! I have it embedded in this post – so you can watch it here.
This video focuses on dealing with difficult online patrons. I give 5 tips that I’ve used and seen in action that seem to work. And I’d love for you to chime in and add your own observations, too.
But it’d be more fun to click through to the WebJunction site, and comment there. I think you have to log in at WebJunction to comment, which is cool – they have a lot of great content there. For example, the managers at my library are taking a WebJunction-hosted course on change management right now – good stuff.
So – do you have a tip for dealing with difficult patrons on the web? Please – go share it over at WebJunction, and enjoy the video too – there will be more.
PS – looks like I made the WebJunction Crossroads newsletter, too – go check it out as well, if you’re not already familiar with it.
23 Things Summit notes
Today, I participated in the 23 Things Summit, a webinar focused on exploring and improving Learning 2.0/23 Things programs put on by Webjunction, MaintainIT, TechSoup, and Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. For my tiny part of the summit, I interviewed Helene Blowers and Michael Sauers. Here are notes on other people I listened to:
Twitter hashtag – #23smt
I interviewed Helene Blowers – here are my questions:
- The concept of a Learning 2.0 or a 23 Things program originated with you, I believe. Can you share where this idea came from? Why did you start it? What was going on?
- How did you start the program? Was it considered employee training? Did everyone at the library have to participate? Was there some impetus from admin to go through the program?
- You did the first one – How did it go for your library?
- If you could go back and do it differently, what would you change and why?
- Was there any resistance with staff, lower or upper level?
- It’s now global – how did it start taking off? Where is it now?
Jen Maney
They did 13 things – put them on a wiki
ended up doing a program for the whole state of arizona
2 goals:
- encourage exploration of 2.0 tools
- provide staff with new tools to better support the role of libraries as places of discovery
3 rules:
- give yourself permission to play
- make time for discovery
- have fun!
what we did right: included things relevant to area libraries, like online gaming, digital downloads – nice.
cool outcomes included: connections between people, rural library participation, early and late beginners, people did it at home, dial up didn’t stop them!, empowerment, not just for young people anymore!
Needed more communication!
Needed more local facilitation, have “a buddy” to help them
more incentives
13% completion rate – numbers weren’t the goal – people are still working on it
Ann Walker Smalley, Ruth Solie
From Minnesota
used blog as delivery method – 23thingsonastick.blogspot.com
tried to avoid things that were downloadable because of public lbirary policies
wow – some libraries actually unblocked things that were blocked just for this program – very cool
1600 registered participants! Wow. 600 finished, 38% finish rate. They received a USB flash drive. Nice.
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Next up, me interviewing Michael Sauers
He presented, then I asked two questions:
- How do you set up getting CE Credits for this? Great idea
- Has anything come of your program yet, like new services, new blogs, etc?
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Bobbi Newman
Missouri River Regional Library – first in the USA to do this after Charlotte’s original program
added MySpace because MySpace was getting bad press, but users were using it so they wanted staff to be familiar with it
Their program ran a full year
Lifelong learning was important
(sorry, I missed stuff here! My bad)
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Shirley Biladeau
[aside – our twitter hashtag, #23smt, has trended – it’s #9 right now]
They encouraged library directors to encourage their staff. Nice.
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Q & A
Facilitated by Stephanie Gerding
Q: How do you get buy-in? How to sell this to management? How do you champion the concept of 2.0 to a 1.0 team?
A: Jen – it takes time. Admin has to hear about this stuff more than once.
Q: How do you encourage play?
A: Have peers do the coaching/mentoring
Q: How much time per week is needed for this program?
A: One hour
A: Michael – the answer is: it varies widely person to person. Some people spent 15 minutes, some spent 6 hours, etc.
A: Bobbi – they originally thought 2 hours a week, but participants told them they needed much more time than that
Q: For those running the program – how much time?
A: Bobbi – round 1 took a lot of time! At night, on her own time… Round 2 – comments were left on the official blog rather than on everyone’s blogs
A: Jen had a student working 20 hours a week on this
Q: incentives
A: Michael – used donations
A: Vendors
A: Certificate of completion, mp3 players
A: library association funds!
A: CE certificate credit
A: Bobbi – their team paid for completion gifts out of their own pocket because they believed in it so much – cool
Q: How did you measure participation and completion?
A: spreadsheet – someone used Google spreadsheet
A: Used SurveyMonkey to do a survey about what got answered
Q: DId you use an online community or CMS?
A: Ning, Drupal, wetpaint, Blogger, etc – a variety
Q: Replicating?
A: school librarians DID participate, but had to do it from home because most of the tools used were blocked
Q: did small libraries participate?
A: yes – many one-person-staff libraries did
Q: How did it change your styles as coordinator?
A: converted people to the “go play with it” style
A: remember that people learn in many different styles
Q: Has anyone done a 23 things styled program for patrons?
A: great idea
A: Metronet in MN is doing one with highschool students
Q: How do you deal with people who say they don’t have time?
A: Michael – make it continuous, flexible
A: no time is good for everyone, so provide options
A: make it relevant to their lives
Q: Did anyone use Second Life as a thing to learn?
A: No…
A: Michael mentioned that SL has an extra download component, and many sites can’t or don’t want to install extra software…
Q: Impact on community
A: help patrons with the tools they’re using
A: Bobbi – Outreach tools
I missed a lot! Thankfully, the archive is here.
Excerpt of Chapter 5 up at Webjunction
WebJunction recently excerpted chapter 5 of my new book in this article: Designing the Digital Experience: What is Community?
Here’s an excerpt of the excerpt:
Chapter 5 – What Is Community Focus?
What exactly is community focus, and how does it facilitate experiences in the digital space? To answer these questions, let’s consider what community focus means in the context of physical spaces, such as in a town hall meeting. In such meetings, people are focusing on one another: listening, sharing opinions, and discussing community needs. This type of interaction allows community members to voice opinions and concerns, providing a voice for the community. In this context, we can say community focus is an emphasis on participants’ ideas, concerns, and interactions.
The town hall meeting is just one example; people obviously hold many different types of meetings, from religious gatherings to departmental business meetings to family reunions. We tend to think meetings are important. Why is that? Because we find conversation important, and meeting together facilitates conversation.
Conversation inherently facilitates something else, too. It allows us to interact with members of our community with whom we wouldn’t normally interact or even know. This type of interaction allows us to feel as if we are participating in the “grand scheme of things.” The challenge, then, is to usher community into our digital space.
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Go read the rest of the excerpt (or buy the book 🙂 ).