The Liminal Librarian

Going to Internet Librarian this month? Want to talk about publishing with InfoToday? Have book ideas to kick around? Drop me a line… and I’ll buy you a coffee! Or maybe even lunch — yes, lunch. Such a deal.

Not to pick on NSLS.info again, but I’m catching up on reading my Friday newsletters. And hurrah! I’m on today’s, which talks more about the impact of budget cuts. (That’s not a hurrah for budget cuts, but for whittling down my email.) They explain:

There are several things we have done or plan to do in order to offset the budget cuts, including not giving any staff raises this year. We will also be cutting down on food provided at staff, board, and other meetings, travel, institutional dues, public relations, paper mailings, and supplies. We’re also looking for a more economic way to handle our phone system; more calls may be forwarded to voice mail. Unfortunately, the search for our vacant Member Liaison position has been put on hold. In the area of professional development, program fees will increase and the number of “big name” presenters brought in for programs will be reduced.

I guess I’m semi- “big name” — I do have three of them, after all! But I’m thinking we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this, and am wondering what the impact on conferences, professional development funds, travel, and association membership will be as new fiscal years and budgets roll around.

I was on the Internet Librarian conference site today and saw this under a new “Why I must go to Monterey” section.

Need help justifying your trip to IL-09?
Sometimes all it takes to get permission is using the right words.  Tell your boss why you MUST come to Monterey.  Here’s a draft memo to get your started . . .

Now, that’s interesting. Think it would work with your administrator? But I’m also wondering if this is a preemptive move, or a sign that registrations are probably down at this point — although it’s a little early yet to tell (this being an end-Oct. conference).

And on a personal note (and yes, full disclosure, I’m still affiliated with the ITI books division) — Internet Librarian is my absolute. favorite. conference. So if you think the memo would help, go for it, and I’ll see you there!

I’ve been thinking lately about speaking and libraries and the effects of the economic crunch on library conferences. By this point in the summer, I’m usually confirmed for at least 3-4 presentations or workshops for the fall — and right now, I’m scheduled for a big, fat, zero. Now, it could be that I’m just not so interesting to hear anymore, but I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the craptacular economy than anything else. Invited speakers are a logical place to cut back.

Then, I just read in LJ that the Ohio Library Council has cut its entire convention this year — largely because people just can’t afford to go:

OLC made its decision in the wake of a survey of library directors that showed that very few could afford to send their staff to the event. “In light of the recent developments in the state’s public library funding and the drastic adjustments that all libraries have been making to their operations, the OLC made the most fiscally-responsible route for both members and the organization,” OLC said in a news release.

Ohio of course is an extreme case (and if you want to help, check out some of the links over at Pop Goes the Library). I presented there a few years ago and remember the conference organizers as committed and energetic people, so it’s disturbing to read this.

Then again, ALA attendance appeared to be great, although the number of vendors was down. Are smaller conferences going to be more heavily affected? Have those of you who do the conference circuit noticed huge drops in attendance, or a decline in speaking invitations?

The following authors will be signing at the Information Today, Inc. booth [#4525] on Saturday July 11 from 1:00 — 2:00 p.m.

Tasha Squires, author of Library Partnerships: Making Connections Between School and Public Libraries

Pop culture mavens Sophie Brookover and Elizabeth Burns, authors of Pop Goes the Library: Using Pop Culture to Connect With Your Whole Community

They. All. Rock! Come on by :).

I usually blithely repost announcements on Beyond the Job without comment, whether or not I find something personally interesting or agree with its focus. But, this one made me snort coffee. I just gave a talk at UM-Milwaukee last week for their “Get That Job!” day about career building in a down economy, one part of which stressed free/low-cost professional development opportunities (including student rates and volunteer opportunities at conferences). So the topic’s been on my mind — then this crossed my inbox last night:

STUDENT DISCOUNT NOW AVAILABLE!

The Northeast Document Conservation Center Welcomes Students of Library and Information Science to join us at:

DIGITAL DIRECTIONS: Fundamentals of Creating and Managing Digital Collections

MAY 27-29, 2009
Westin San Diego
San Diego, California

CONFERENCE FEE: $700 (includes a Networking luncheon on Day 1 and the Conference Reception)

DISCOUNTED STUDENT RATE: $595 with a copy of a valid student ID (emphasis mine)

(See: http://www.nedcc.org/education/ddsdstudent.php for Student Rate instructions)

Coffeesnort! I haven’t been a student for a while, but in what world is $595 a good student rate? And here I was thinking the $140 ALA wants to charge was a bit high… No disrepect intended to NEDCC in particular (hey, it is $105 off the regular rate!) but especially in the current economy, I think some of these conference structures bear rethinking.

Cool Blog Sociale - 10 July 2008 - I Heart Job Offers Resume T-shirt by BlackBirdTees A

Originally uploaded by SOCIALisBETTER

Things you find on Flickr while looking for something else…..!

Tasha Squires — author of Library Partnerships: Making Connections between School and Public Libraries

Started as teen librarian, local school library had flooded, donated a bunch of public library books that they had weeded because they were out of space.

Found had relationship, but no collaboration — when she found Walter Dean Meyers was coming to school the day before he came, could have collaborated because she served more kids than one middle school, didn’t get him to share at PL, w/ entire community, only one school benefited. If had collaborative, not personal relnship, maybe could have worked something out.

Middle schools lacked a lot — only got online catalogs in 2004, some still had card cats.

Question to audience: How you become school librn? Public to school, parent volunteer, social worker…

Not nec. know all services PL can offer.

Why collaborate?

Serve same clientele — school libs have during day, PLs have at night. Same community. Lots of overlap. Same revenue sources — can save a lot of money by working together/sharing resources.

Instead of thinking “why bother,” start thinking “why not?”

Share info — blogs, wikis, podcasts, youtube, myspace, e-flyers.

Change your thinking — how can I bring in my partner from the PL?

Collaborate on a blog — helps solve crunch in keeping up to date. PL saves you time. Esp if you are alone in your library.

Wikis: Any assignment you use wiki for students, project w/teachers, ref. or research project, curr. dev, bring in PLs. PLs are based on numbers — database hits, ppl in door, program attendance, circ stats — get PL to help, brings kids in, brings their numbers up — incentives for them to help. Up their ref stats.

Curriculum development — want PL collection to align w/ school curriculum — esp. if school libs less well-funded. If you’re kicking around new curriculum, talk to PL about it so they can get resources to support.

Podcasting — new teachers, new books, booktalks by students, by genre, library news, programs, admin. Sit down with PL, make a podcast, say what available for teachers in school library, public libn can talk about what available in PL — teacher cards, etc.

PL if collaborate with you know that they need your support so will be uproar if you are cut.

YouTube — film festival at PL, collab. with schools — vote on scripts, cast, film, and have screening at PL as film festival — winner goes on YouTube. Etc. — happens at PL but disseminated on Web.

MySpace — But what if they post something bad. If concerns — test it out at the PL — they’re not blocked — say want to start a Facebook page, but it’s blocked, make a collaborative blog or Facebook page. Onus off of you but you can contribute, see how it goes, you will have the proof it works.

E-fliers — Cross-promotion of materials. Ex. — school library book fair, need to have it go well.

Sharing our resources

How to stretch $ — share resources with PL. Where she worked before, they spent over $100k on database subscriptions — now offer over 60 databases to any with a library card. Serves several school districts — huge duplication of databases. Why spending tax dollars to duplicate resources? As a taxpayer, why pay twice for same resource? If kids have PL cards, can access anywhere. Think what you could do with the money you save on databases — buy a new database, or buy books.

Vendor in audience — says work with your vendor to work out pricing scheme that reflects overlap in audiences.

Grants, Shared Usage, Non Print Materials

If students have PL cards can access digital audio, other PL resources. Partner on a grant — they love you. Want everyone to collaborate. Have instant partner. Shared usage agreements — cameras, videocameras, PL might have equipment to share for special projects (PLs use most in summer, so can divvy up time).

Audience comment — DC PLs, each school assigned to a library, bookmobiles come, ongoing partnership already — Tasha — SB one everywhere.

Audience comment — She moonlights as community college ref. librarian — highschoolers moving to college, need to talk to each other. If in smaller PL, check to see if cc in area and start cooperation with them.

Audience comment — in her part of NJ, member of school has to be on PL board. Intertwines, learn what’s going on, start to talk more. Hard, because they’re making cuts and she is having to cut some of the public librarians — but also helps board members who don’t understand libraries.

Audience comment — her area — high school, public, hospital, college, elementary libns meet — create synergy, staff development day — Instructional Technology teachers + librarians in same lab learning about databases. Just talking once in a while creates helpful projects.

Aaron Schmidt, Carol Garland, David Lisa

First up, Aaron Schmidt: Presentation will be up at website. WordPress, why you should use it — now works for DC PL, but used to work for 2500 sq. ft library:

1) FREE — wordpress.org

1.5) If not free, can be CHEAP. If you download it, it has to live somewhere — inexpensive places like LISHost.

2) Support — active community developing — active forum, post ?s, but search first. Section just on blogs as CMS.

3) Interaction — automatic, comments, trackbacks.

4) SEO — blogs are great for search engine optimization. Already 5th hit though he just started recently.

5) Less work — users — create different roles, different control over different pages. Can have friends or volunteers do.

6) Easy — just like writing an email. WYSIWIG. Check out wordpress.com — hosted and free just like blogger.

7) Themes — Don’t need design/coding to make blog look different. Check out Thematic, customizable. K2. Cutline. Popular for libs etc. Wordpress.org, browse theme directory.

Widgets — all the stuff on side.

8 1/2) Plugins — can do a bit more than plugins.

9) Flexibility — it’s open source so flexible. Examples — Plymouth State, Collingswood. Plymouth State, WordPress OPAC. Lake Washington Technical College. My Kansas Library on the Web. Ford Auto Shows.

10) People — facilitate interaction and easy to keep up to date.

——

Carol and David

Carol: Serve a little over 1000 people. Old site was with FrontPage, person left, site got out of date, ugly. Went to meeting, colleague showed blogger. They chose — easy to learn, set up, adapt, maintain, update. Took down website, anything they want to communicate to patrons can do instantly with Blogger — put up “we’re closing early, there’s a blizzard, roads are bad.” Info right in front of you all the time.

Use to: Publicize services, PR campaign — trying to get rechartered to serve 9k in school district, video on blog. Showcase actvities, slideshow for summer reading, list new materials, advocate for libs (NY wants to cut them back to 93 levels, put button to contact rep), sub blog for events and closings.

Link to dbs, local libs, local libs blogs. Enhancement — free clip arts, photos, picasa slide shows, google pages, artbex, stock exchange, blogger polls, videos, stat counter.

Put links to annual report, other library information.

Polls in sidebar with Google widget, upload videos, visitor map showing where visitors come from — someone from tel aviv spent 50+ minutes on their site.

Easiest thing you could do if you don’t want to be stuck with FrontPage, whip it up really quickly. Go get started now.

—–

David

West Long Branch Public Library — chose same theme as Carol even though they didn’t know each other, but customizable so looks so different.

Why use? Also part of a library system, but wanted to do own website. 2006 reformatted from old style to completely blog formatted. Wanted to be more usable, content to be reverse chronological order to stress newest news, promote new items to users.

Have every staff member who contributes have first name attached to blog entry. Had patrons come in and ask for by name. Name of library, address, phone number = a graphic they put in header.

Can make multiple posts and make them links in sidebar to create a whole website, continue adding to.

What about static stuff — hours, list of board members, etc. Created HTML page that mimics look of blogger template.

Emphasize new items in collection, started flying out door.

RSS feed — patron doesn’t have to keep coming back to site, can get news at their convenience.

Question: How do you link back to library catalog on the blog?

Answer from David: He put a link: Find items in catalog — his library was county library member, just put a link to from the sidebar. Answer from Aaron — on WordPress, found another library in system that had search box on their page, he pasted their code into a widget, put it on his site. Carol: Copied a picture of the library card, linked it back to the catalog.

Question: Do both systems take podcasts?

Aaron: Yes.

Question: What about subscription databases?

Answer: Karen from audience — use Links tool in wordpress to put links from sidebar. Answer: David — links to county list of electronic resources from sidebar, links to list of resources, have to put in card number to access remotely/IP recognition in lib.

Question: For Aaron — in WordPress can you work in code view?

Answer: Yes, he works in HTML editor exclusively. Can set defaults by user.

Question: Has anyone used different blog software, how does it compare?

Answer: David has only used blogger, Carol has only used blogger, Sarah from audience has used Typepad but wouldn’t recommend it.

Question: Can you tell how many people sub to your RSS feed?

Answer: David — numbers weren’t huge, but happy. Aaron — how did you find the info? David — he uses Feedburner.

Question for Aaron: What’s the benefit to hosting it yourself (besides URL) — their URL is on wordpress.com. What other benefits?

Answer: The URL issue, can pay if hosted. Also, a lot more control when download and upload software — your stuff lives on your own server (can troubleshoot if problem) and also can completely customize CSS and plugins — tradeoff convenience and control. David: Agrees — they have own domain name — Can set Blogger up to post to a domain, biggest work was registering domain. Aaron: Can give Blogger FTP credentials and send to own server.

Question: Good examples for linking from blog to a library OPAC?

Answer: David — we just put a link to find books in catalog. Carol suggests going live to show it. Aaron says Plymouth is more advanced, not just a link, he actually turned it INTO a catalog — imported records as blog posts. David shows the link — just clicks through to the catalog.

Question: Tips for enhancing the search engine optimization?

Answer: David — Blogger gives search bar on the top of blogger you can customize. Aaron — Using this software is a step forward in itself, All in one SEO pack plugin for WordPress.

Question: How do you divide work among staff so someone’s always putting something fresh up there?

Answer: David — good point! Goal for using blogger. Buy-in issue re: using first names, got past, talked about personalization of service, started having good time.

Followup: Is it on a schedule?

Answer: David — example is Janice (cataloger) weekly, book club, him, etc. Besides cataloger, catch-as-can basis. From Audience: Certain people don’t want to write/blog, others enthusiastic. Will schedule events — national library week, sign up ahead of time for certain topics. Then other people who love to blog fill in around it. Aaron: Have a plan for content and posts in can waiting to be published when you start. Audience: Can just post a photo with a caption.

Question: How do you promote your blog and get people to comment and respond? She has older pop, not tech savvy, people are using it but no one is commenting — one couple comments.

Answer: David — get hands on, show people in person, work one on one. Aaron — think of blog as a normal website and do user testing on it. Carol — the blog is the homepage on public computers so they have to see it.

Question: How do you manage your comments?

Answer: Aaron — can have open and free, can have moderated. Carol — has email sent w/ comments but doesn’t turn them down. David — no comments on his but he says open it up and have policy to address abuse.

Session 2 of Innovation in Smaller Libraries is Tiny Libraries, Tiny Tech, Innovative Services. Part 1: Jessamyn West, Part 2: Heather Braum, Brenda Hough

Jessamyn West: Smart Tiny Tech — Solving Problems with Simple Technology

Slides online at librarian.net/talks/cil2009

Her little library photo, very cute. Population 900 — 1 FTE — librarian, and her (systems lady). Also runs MetaFilter, lifeguard, teach basic computer classes, help me buy a laptop, speaks.

Rural is different — ALA talking to rural libraries usually means ppl from bigger libraries talking about what rural libs can do. Ppl at big confs talk about people in slums in Brazil having cells. People in rural areas don’t — can’t get service! Lib. only place to get internet where she is.

Apologies for the numbers — Pew reports — not reality you see on TV — not same service there. 55% adult americans have broadband at home — lots of libns where she works don’t have internet or even computers at home, because they think of computers as “work machines” whereas Jessamyn thinks of a computer as “my best friend.” 10% have dialup. Internet now doesn’t work on dialup. 25% low income ppl don’t have broadband at home, older ppl, etc. Home broadband adoption by poor going down — they can’t afford or are losing jobs. People who don’t have broadband — 19% don’t want, 14% (24%) in rural america say NOT AVAILABLE where they live. 27% adult americans not internet users.

Who cares if you’re offline. Obama — deliver more services printing less paper. 45% dialup users never look state local info online.

First things first — clicking a challenge. Screenshared with her dad to show right click. Can’t ebay til you have email. Staff — no broadband or computers at home, hotmail.com addresses, limited time to troubleshoot, no playtime to learn things. Get what gates foundation gives them and happy for it, upgrade when vendors say, MP3 players when switched to overdrive. Patrons just want stuff to work.

Jessamyn — she rules — can be in charge because she just wants to do it. Run state library association web site because it needs fixing and she just asked. Figure out who leads/follows. Pull along who is in charge.

Money problems — Save a stamp, let us email you. People get that — $.42! Get online, help us save money. Things that are free — web space, video hosting, photo hosting, blog software, some tech support, free vs. “free.”

What her libraries think are worth it: Sharon library — wireless draws new ppl in, no one else has. Randolph — wireless, computers — people can’t afford them. Troubleshooting/guides/maintaining tech. Patron privacy. Royalton — wireless, taxes, apply for jobs. Website up-to-date, interactive. Roxbury — just got a bathroom. And wireless, started a website, did 23 things, grant for computers. Tunbridge — getting catalog online. One-on-one advice, the library that says “yes.”

Heather Braum, Brenda Hough –Tiny Libraries, Tiny Tech

Brenda: MaintainIT — Tech Soup — Brenda used to work at NEKLS, Heather is there now.

1) Thinking outside the box — literally — thinking outside the library walls, creating a virtual library in a community of 157 when you’re open 14 hours a week, because that presence is up 24/7.

2) Connected to community — Williamsburg KS has a population of 300 and worked together to move books to new building. No paid staff at time, did it all themselves.

3) No fear of new things. No layers of bureaucracy, getting admin/staff buyin, committees.

4) Collaboration. KS has 7 regional systems — even if in small town, can be connected to/collaborate w/ other local libs.

My Kansas Libraries on the Web (MKLOW)

Sharon Moreland article, CIL magazine. Uses WordPress — had sites couldn’t update, that someone set up for them once upon a time, outdated — now can use to keep it up to date. Slides showing videos from library staff who support the project and in dinky libraries talking about how useful the project has been.

KOHA in Kansas

70-80 current/future KOHA libraries in KS — communities of 500-1000 ppl — pooled resources, now can get awesome ILS system, easy to use. Created video using jing (free) on how to use catalog, stick on library homepage. Comments from patrons — like using a well-funded large city library but more convenient/less expensive. Before only had winnebago, etc., standalone — no online presence — now can easily do ILL.

Morrill PL — tech training — lifelong learning. Hiawatha KS. Video about the tech classes — office, ebay, gps. Ppl like, advertise paper/radio/website. Just go for it. Start w/ what you have, what ppl in community ask for. Listen to patrons. Laptop lab, hope to replace w/ grant.

PC time management. code.google.com/p/powerline — had a 16 year old geek on staff who saw challenge of sign in sheets, wrote time management software, free online, MaintainIT did a webinar on it.

Question: software for video tutorials?

Answer: Jing is available online — jingproject.com. Used to build training for KOHA and cloud project. Mac/PC — install and just hit a key and capture motion video and mike input or just screenshots and write on them — can download to PC and upload somewhere else, or register for a free screencast.com account and upload from there. Easy, cross-platform.

Question: Questioner can only get internet at home on satellite — why are you having animated images on your tiny library sites — this is contrary to what you are saying about people not having broadband.

Answer: Libraries themselves designing the pages — they don’t design the pages for them — when people start creating web pages, get allure of moving images etc. Feedback will probably resolve. Jessamyn says: Ceiling — hundredk or 75k or 150k or less site — fit whatever can do w/in limit — WordPress, header etc. can all be text so can be a tradeoff between visual appeal and load time. Satellite is jerky — anything more than a couple k goes later, they have a lot of satellite users, they worry about.

Question: Questioner is from Thailand, they have similar system. Who is main target — who uses the website? Did Community ask for it? Who decides what content to put on it?

Answer (Heather): Often just librarian — announcing programs, respond to community needs, ask patrons what want on site, community news in general, old newspapers 100 years ago — depends on community. KLOW project — one platform, but each lib can put in own theme, widgets, content.