A Time to Paint! July, 2012

7 July 2012 - Friends of Shady Nook School, the last rural school to close in Cottonwood County, near Westbrook, Minnnesota.

A Time to Plant - May, 2012

Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument & United States Capitol

View from the United States Marine Corps Memorial on 7 March 2012.

Smithsonian Castle in Spring

Even though the beginning of March was too early for the cherry blossoms in Washington, there were some beautiful blossoms outside of the Smithsonian "Castle" Building.

The Mother of All Lib Guides: Reduce Maintenance and Enhance Uniformity Through Strategic Planning

http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/libtech_conf/2012/sessions/82/

Library Technology Conference, 2012 at Macalester College, St. Paul. MN

Dr. Carol Leibiger and Alan Aldrich, University of South Dakota Libaries



http://www.usd.edu/library/


The assumption was: "We have Lib Guides. What do we do now?"

Dr. Leibiger first gave some background.  Pathfinder, which originated at MIT in 1970, at first was limited to a single sheet of paper.  The idea was to start the user on a topic. Pathfinders went online in 1994, and were enhanced in 1997.

A negative aspect of Lib Guides now is the workload to keep them all updated.  Lib Guides are an expectation of the job.  Web 2.0 made the current format of Lib Guides possible.  2,900 to 3,000 libaries currently use Lib Guides.  They are easy to create and can borrow material or entire content.  Good statistics can be kept from them, and they meet student expectations.  They are easty to create, but not to maintain.  Lib Guides encourage reliance on the web.  According to the USD librarians, the average Lib Guide takes 8-20 hours to produce.  I found it interesting that the average lifespan of a URL is 44 days!  Dr. Leibiger said that we don't want students to tell us that a link is dead.  She currently maintains 24 Lib Guides.

There are different models for Lib Guides:

Individual Creator Model - created independently of each other

Pros

• Complete Customization
• Individual Creativity
• Liason Roles

Cons

• Labor Intensive
• Maintenance
• Updating

                                            Social Network Model

Pros

• Leverage Thinking and Creativity
• Less Effort Needed

Cons

• Maintenance
• Retrofitting of Borrowed Content

                                            Hub Model

Simplest

Change reverberates to all others who borrow

Greatly reduces workload

Sharing or borrowing is not just one directional

Small libraries may consider a single model

For any library the following question needs to be answered:

Who is in control?  Having one person in charge works well.

                                                                     Multiple Node Model

Referred to as "mothers" adding "children"

Having multiple nodes allows sharing and updating of content through all pages

Someone needs to create and update the nodes

   Common Content

• Databases are organized by subject or discipline
• Citation style for content and resources
• Links to library resources such as local catalogs, World Cat, etc.
• Uses information literarcy materials, tutorials, etc.

The presenters stressed that you "can't break a Lib Guide"

The content is now more generic, and linking at box level rather than page level offers more flexibility.


                                                                CLOSING COMMENTS

I was happy to be one of the 459 to attend the Library Technology Conferene 2012 at Macalester College, and gained much information in the day that I spent there.  The most difficult part was selecting the concurrent sessions to attend as there were so many choices. I had lunch with four women who work at high schools in the West Metro area.  It was good to discuss issues and concerns (such as printing costs!) with them.  Most of their students are college-bound, and the Library Technology Conference is helpful for them to attend.  It is also good to be able to "put a face" with librarians who I knew just from Twitter such as Amy Springer (Amy Librarian) who introduced the first Wednesday keynote speaker.

Plan, Execute, Evaluate, Report: Social Media for Libraries and Non-Profit Organizations

Presenters: Laura Hansen, St. Thomas University - Administrator of Library Facebook page
                  Tanya Cothran, Spirit in Action, Non-profit Agency


http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/libtech_conf/2012/sessions/39/

Laura Hansen began the presentation by giving some statistics from Facebook.  As of March 6, 2012, Facebook had a global audience of over 845 million.  There are 483 active DAILY users of Facebook.  85% of students (not sure what age range!) in the USA are regular Facebook users.

Facebook Assessment at University of St. Thomas

Done from September 1 to October 15, 2011

Studied other Facebook pages and studies (See above link for sources!)

A conclusion from one study was that Facebook was not effective at actually getting students inside the library.

Analytics take many forms - quantitative and qualitative

I learned about Facebook Insights whcih can be downloaded from Facebook. There are also online tutorials.  Timeline data is not yet available.

St. Thomas wanted to know:     How reliable is the data from Facebook?

                                                Who is the audience?

                                                What are the demographics?

                                                What is the response rate from having a library Facebook page?

About 6 posts are made by the St. Thomas library each week to their Facebook page.

The study showed that it does not matter so much what is posted - just that people like it and like to interact.

The following breakdown was given for the St. Thomas Library postings:

39%  Announcements

  6%  Blog

29%  Database collections

  6%  Forums

  2%  Outside marketing

   4% Random

 14% Reference and General Library

                       

Of the 23,481 impressions for 62 posts analyzed, the number of direct website hits, blog hits, and verbal comments and feedback were counted.

The most recent statistics showed that LIKES were up 13.5% while website and blog hits also increased.

Library users see information on Facebook, and go to the library to interact.

A limit for the St. Thomas Library staff is for no more posts until at least 90 minutes since the last person has posted. 

St. Thomas Library posts also go directly to Twitter.

The week of the conference, St. Thomas was moving to the new Facebook Timeline format.

The staff will continue to monitor Facebook page usage.

Laura told us to have fun with Facebook!

Tanya Cothran, Spirit in Action

http://spiritinaction.net/

Spirit in Action, a non-demoninational, faith-based  non-profit agency is " a network of committed people worldwide who are serving God by empowering others."  They inspire and encourage people by empowering them.  Using Facebook is a way to try to attact donors to support their programs. 

Three months of data from Facebook use was analyzed.  By using Google analytics, it was easy to see what sites people used to refer to their website.  17% of the site visits were from Facebook referral traffic.  Google and Yahoo are still the biggest draws to the site. 

A Google Alert was set up for Spirit in Action to monitor web traffic

Tanya encouraged us to use photos.  Their photos had 3 times the action as posts without photos.  I think that our Minnesota West website emphasizes photos too.

                                        Conclusion from Spirit in Action

• Resolve to count more than just followers
• Set goals that connect to the overall mission
• Make changes based on what you see
• Have fun!

The search engine Kurrently will search Twitter and Facebook to see what others say about your library.

http://kurrently.com.websiterecord.com/


I do not know if Minnesota West has done any analysis of Facebook statistics, but still would like our libraries to have a separate page.  St. Thomas talked about different areas of the University working together to promote campus events on Facebook.

                             

Chad Mairn's Keynote Speech on Wednesday, 14 March

TRANSFORMING OUR VISION TO ENHANCE LIBRARY SERVICES

Chad Mairn, Information Services Librarian/Adjunct Professor, St. Petersburg College, and Chief Technology Officer, Novare Library Services

After plenty of time for lunch, networking and winning prizes (I did not win any!), the second keynote speech of the day began at the 2012 Library Technology Conference.

The recent library technology interests of speaker Chad Mairn, have focused around mobile technologies, building applications for libraries and electronic book developments.  He is the author of the chapter 'Acquiring, Promoting, and Using Mobile-Optimized Library Resources and Services' in a recent book by Sue Polanka, E-Reference Context and Discoverability in Libaries: Issues and Concepts.

Chad Mairn began his speech by saying that he was honored to be on the same playing field as speaker Andrew McLaughlin because usually they are "not in the same league."  He said that his slides would be available at slideshare.net/chadmairn

Mairn said that he would highlight the technology that affects everyone's lives today.  He referred to the "digital metamorphosis" of librarians using technology to make lives easier.  Chad Mairn spoke of a book that he is currently reading by Nick Bilton, I Live in the Future, and Here's How it Works. Mairn also referred to Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, which was published in 1970. 

According to Chad Mairn, librarians are needed to filter through the information that patrons want.  The digital revolution is hitting every form of media now.  The way that we are consuming it is what is changing.  Librarians are more important than ever in knowing how to make sense of all of the information.  Chad Mairn said that the concept that people have of libraries having no value needs to be changed.  The responsibility of librarians is to show what we have.  We do not need to use every piece of technology that comes out.  Lifelong learning and digital literacy are crucial in this age.  ("Every age thinks it is the modern age, but this one really is!")

Because Chad Mairn is in a joint use library setting, he works with high school and college students as well as the public.  A good idea that he shared was offering free workshops after the holidays for the public to bring their new devices for instruction from the library staff.  Mairn does not like "Out of Order" signs in the library.  He said if something does not work, get rid of it. 

In tough economic times, librarians and library staff keep people afloat and must be available to help users when they need it.  Many people don't need librarians to help them search.  They need help making sense of what they find.  He gave the example of Florida's statewide Ask the Librarian Service.  Because most students use instant messaging, the service is popular.  If a librarian is not available, students bypass them for Google. 

                                                  Free Learning Management Systems

Coursekit http://coursekit.com/

Openclass.com http://www.joinopenclass.com/open/home/what

Moodle http://moodle.org/  (more complex!)

Embedded librarianship can be done within learning management systems.  Librarians can add content, help with problems, and moderate disccusion forums that are resource-based.  Faculty can easily link to the resources.

                                                            Popular Research Tools
Lib X
Google Scholar
Khan Academy (also mentioned by the first keynote speaker!)
MITx http://mitx.mit.edu/ (new - online teaching and laboratories)
iTunesU
PBS

                                                              Information Fluency

The intersection of information literacy, thinking critically, etc.  An important point stressed by Chad Mairn is to allow the user to do the work, and follow up with them.  A user does not learn anything, if the work is done for them! 


Librarians need to widely share our resources offline and online.  He gave an example of when someone complains about a problem on Twitter, there is immediate action.


Quora - popularity has declined since last year.  http://www.quora.com/

Wikipedia - an honors class assignment is to edit articles from Wikipedia to include library resources.  Wikipedia is now a little more difficult to edit than it was previously.

Best Buy Idea X - http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/ideas/v2/ideaexchangepage/blog-id/IdeaX still working with to promote e-book sources for e-readers that people purchase.

Twitter - find out what is trending on Twitter.  Enhance and support it with authoritative resources.

Share Your Space - http://www.instructables.com/contest/shareyourspace/

YouTube - Dublin, Ireland was the birthplae of YouTube.  Every city has places like that.

Jazz in the Stacks - Celebrate Jazz Appreciation Month.  Hundreds of people attended when the St. Petersburg Library hosted a 22 piece jazz band and the Smithsonian streamed online.  This year a six piece Brazilan band will play.  Even though at least one person complains about the noise each year, the event is very popular.

Author visits - Worked to go directly to the author rather than through an agent.

Students wanted more space in the library.  Books not being used were weeded and donated to
http://openlibrary.org/

Host game nights at the library

Kinect - http://www.kinecteducation.com/

Virtual Pianos - http://www.virtualpiano.net/

Manipulate air drawings

Augmented reality with Twitter

Learn sign language

Learn to play guitar

Enhance theatre arts

Google + collaboration

Have e-reader classes on the web

iTunes listening stations (like Barnes & Noble) Add call numbers for library locations



Form partnerships

Be an advocate for your readers noo matter what the content - Format is all that changes

                                            Examples of Innovative Collections

East Palo Alto Library - collection of circulating guitars for 8-week courses. http://www.smcl.org/content/east-palo-alto

Mills Music Library - album cover archives.http://music.library.wisc.edu/exhibits/album-covers/index.html

New York Public Library - George Washington's beer recipe. http://nypl.tumblr.com/post/5194250128/nypl-and-coney-island-brewing-company-create-george


                                                   Access vs. Ownership

Consider that what a company provides, a company can take away.
E-books sales double each year while print declines.
Encyclopedia Britannica just announced that after 244 years, no more print editions.

                                                Book Discovery Recommendations  (I have accounts for the first two)

Library Thing - http://www.librarything.com/

Good Reads - http://www.goodreads.com/

Small Demons - https://www.smalldemons.com/

                                                  Social Media in Libraries

Web 2.0 is already an outdated term

Add QR vode to displays with mobile optimized content (previous session that I attended!)

Post frequently!

If someone comments, reply even if the comment was negative

Survey your users frequently

SCVNGR - http://www.scvngr.com/

Many patrons do not care that their privacy is eroding (there were several sessions on privacy later that I was sorry to miss!)

Get Glue - http://getglue.com/
Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/ (I look at a lot that people post on Facebook, but have not created my own Pinterest account yet!)  

                                                                 Mobile Technology

With the PC industry dying, libraries need a mobile presence.  In 2011, there were 5 billion phones in a world of 7 billion people.  Mobile use keeps growing.

Survey students with text polls

Take down the NO CELL PHONES signs from libraries (I did!)

Wolfwalk is a great photographic example from North Carolina State University of learning campus history of from a mobile phone: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/wolfwalk/

                                                                      Electronic Books

Siri - The trend is moving toward streaming e-book content
24 symbols - A streaming service based on a subscription model: http://www.24symbols.com/

Authors are slowly bypassing publishers

Help local authors to get published

                                                                  "The Times They Are A Changin"

Occupy Wall Street Library http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/occupy-wall-street-activists-try-to-reoccupy-zuccotti-park_b48644

Kickstarter: a new way to fund and follow creativity http://www.kickstarter.com/

Pay attention to legislation affecting libraries

INSIDE - Social film experience: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/07/inside/

"Everything will be social." - Chad Mairn

"Memory Engineering" Timeline on Facebook

Need to be good at visualizing data, inforgraphics, creating animations easily

                                                                 Closing Words

What is your personal mission statement?  (Chad Mairn just turned 40)

What excites you?

What do you stand for?

Digital Metamorphis - Look in unexpected places beyond Library Land for work and/or advisory roles, etc.

Monitor and manage your digital identity

Always learn, be curious, play!

Seriously explore open source access

DropBox - Cloud https://www.dropbox.com/https://www.dropbox.com/

Google Cloud Print - Print anything, anywhere: http://www.google.com/cloudprint/learn/

3 D Printers, Projectors

"The future is here, so now what?"

Add Value!