Category Archives: Conference Notes

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Research Pathfinders 2.0 for NowGen Learners

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Research Pathfinders 2.0 for NowGen Learners.

Presenter: Buffy Hamilton

Information is everywhere!

Getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. -Mitchell Kapor.

What do students/patrons need for the journey of learning and information fluency?

Pathfinders!

On the rodamap of information we use pathfinders to guide and help students/patrons find their way to information instead of getting lost on the information highway.

These pathfinders help  guide students/patrons to the resources needed for research tasks.

We need to work hard to construct  pathfinders to help access quality information more efficiently.

You as the librarian, are the travel guide for them on the information highway.

Use Web 2.0 tools to help manage the streams of information and embed content more easily.

Research pathfinder navigation tools:

Help them “Pull” information rather than “Pushing” to find it.

Explore traditional and nontraditional forms of information.

The future is now.

How do we help learners negotiate this friction between traditional and new media? -Joyce Valenza

Web 2.0 tools for social scholarship:

RSS -Real Simple Syndication A web feed or stream designed to deliver content.

Feed aggregators “Capture” and “Deliver” your streams of information.

Wikis -Open software that encourages collaboration and knowledge building.

iTunes Podcasts and iTunes U.

YouTube offers educational videos from news outlets.

Social bookmarking for tagging and organizing your personal learning network.

Blogs are a for of dialogue on an topic and promote the exchange of ideas.

We must work to help our students/patrons become information savvy.

Information fluent students/patrons won’t miss a turn or get lost on their travels for information.

View the Slideshare for this presentation.

Read her blog.

The Unquiet Librarian
The Unquiet Librarian/ buffy.hamilton@gmail.com



Implementing a 23 Things Type Program at Your Library

Librarianbyday

Librarian By Day/bobbi.newman@gmail.com

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Implementing a 23 Things Type Program in Your Library.

Presenter: Bobbi Newman

Green presentation by not having handouts.

The world around us is changing:

Tax forms aren’t being printed, you need to go Online to find them.

Information is being sent out through text messages and is accessible through your cell phone.

You apply for jobs Online, this requires an email address.

Technology is changing how we do everything.

Become familiar with new technology.

Clicking your heels three times won’t make it go away. The Internet is here to stay, it’s not going away.

It’s not as simple as choosing the red pill or the blue pill. You won’t wake up knowing everything, so you need to learn to adapt and operate with new technology.

We have users that are digital native and digital immigrants. So, how do we bridge the gap between them and the services we offer to stay viable.

We are going to need the right tools. Web 2.0 technologies. 23 things.

23 Things was a program pioneered by Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County on August 7th of 2006.  That was three years ago an technological needs have already changed.

It’s OK to re-use material and programs from other people/organizations. Share. No need to re-invent the wheel.

Learning 2.0.

Use technology to teach technology.

Create programs that are self-paced and allow your staff/users to become acclimated with the technology instead of forcing them to learn it by a specific date.

Identify your place to start and begin from there. this will be different for each staff member/user.

Borrow what you can and change the rest to what you need, make it work for you/your organization/staff.

Start small, don’t overload people or bite off more than you can chew.

Prizes and incentives matter. People love them for work put in.

Management buy-in is very important and can help create time and funding.

Patron expectations are changing and when need to be able to help them with all their needs.

Literacy was our main goal at one time. Helping people read and giving them the print materials they required.

Times are changing and so are peoples needs. Now we need to advocate Transliteracy.

Create a plan and stick to it.

GO!

View the Slideshare for this presentation.

Read her blog.

Design Your Way to a Future-Proof Library

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Design Your Way to a Future-Proof Library.

Presenter: Steven Bell

What is the meaning of organizational fitness?

Describing an area of Pennsylvania and the lumber industry in the 1920′s and how they clearcut the forests. When the lumber industry took all the trees they could take, there was nothing left.  Thy didn’t think about future-proofing. as a result, those areas that once thrived are now sparsely populated.

When was the last time you excercised with books in your library?

There are connections between personal fitness and organizations, it requires discipline and commitment to changing yourself/organization.

This year is the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s Origin of the Species.

Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest and natural selection.

Library Journal article: Future-Proof Your Library.

Identify problems and solutions in an appropriate way and try to put a system in place for the future.

It’s vital that you look ahead but you can’t over-plan for the future.

Design Thinking is a way to approach, analyze, and find solutions to problems.

Explaining Design Thinking.

Jim Collins: How the Mighty Fall. It’s good to be paranoid.

Andrew S. Cline: Only the Paranoid Survive

Always cycle of improvement and decline; some cases, improvement and improvement.

Jim Collins: The 5 Stages of Decline.

Some new product or service comes along and can disrupt your service.

Disruptive technology for the library was Google, it ate out lunch.

A Silver Bullet.

Focus on the user experience, not the technology.

Deep Dive.

The ideas for a fitter library:

  1. Listen/Observe
  2. Create and Innovate
  3. Go local
  4. Engage the User
  5. Fix What’s Broken
  6. Master Adaptability Master Adaptability
  7. Keeping Up
  8. Create Passionate Users
  9. Be a Problem Finder
  10. Build Relationships
  11. Know Your Core Values
  12. Think Like Collins

For more about Steven Bell.


Market Yourself, Market Your Library: Social Networking for the Real World.

Lori Reed Contact Information

Library Trainer/lori@lorireed.com

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Market Yourself, Market Your Library: Social Networking for the Real World.

Presenter: Lori Reed

Web 2.0 vs. traditional marketing.

Know that people are talking about your library whether you are listening or not.

The four P’s of traditional marketing

Product
Pricing
Placement
Promotion

The four C’s of Web 2.0 marketing

Consumer
Collaboration
Convenience
Community

The greatest mistake you can make is by just jumping in and producing content. This is like putting the cart before the horse.

Build a marketing plan:
1. Identify a need
2. Research
3. Identify the audience
4. Identify objectives->Output or Outcome?
5. Craft your message->What do you want to say?
6. Find the right platform/tools
7. Develop a plan and implement
8. Evaluate->How will you know what worked?

Really look at step 6 in your plan of action.

Are you coming up on Google? Google Maps? Make sure content is correct.

What services do you offer? List yourself on those directories. An example of this is for Wi-Fi, you can list on Wifihotspotlist.com as a Wi-Fi hot/free spot.

List your events on Craigslist. Example of this is your story times.

Utilize a blog:

Book reviews
Videos of Children’s storytime
Tie library books to events happening in the community
Myspace
Facebook
Flickr
Twitter
Youtube -> Training videos, patrons created, and events
Eventful
Wikipedia

Keep all of your content up to date. It’s better to have no presence at all than a dated one.

Duplicate content /monitor your brand.

You can’t do all this alone, you need a team. This would be a full-time job!

Don’t underestimate the staff time involved in this!

Connect with users in their spaces: Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs.

Resources:

Seven Strategies for Marketing in a Web 2.0 World by Darlene Fitcher.
Davidleeking.com
Librarianinblack.net

View the Slidshare for this presentation.

Read her blog.

Digital Issues Affecting All Forms of Libraries.

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Digital Issues Affecting All Forms of Libraries.

Dr. Martin Halbert

Collaboration in Digital Scholarship

Voyages Project

www.slavevoyages.org

There really is no difference between a digital librarian and a physical librarian.

No isn’t a big divide, just another facet of scholarly service.

We must learn to be and become hybrid scholar librarians

“synergistic”

MetaArchive Cooperative

Learn to work with faculty and IT equally

Julie G. Spear

Repositories and Digitization of Library Services

ETD database

Electronic conversion of theses and dissertations.

Campus legal allows students to have copy right.

Working to get LDAP up and going at the moment it’s linked to the proxy server.

Omnipage for searchable pdf files.

Georgia Tech is using VuFind

loaded into repository

Tim Daniels

New Directions for Integrated Library Systems

GPLS and Pines/Evergreen

Consortium of 50 libraries in GA

Atlanta/Fulton may become a member PINES

Go out into the community and resources that you have access to in your community.

The technology is the easy part, raising awareness is hard.

Dr. Graham

Georgia Home PLACE.

Historical archive works

Emotional Customer Service for Library Professionals.

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Emotional Customer Service for Library Professionals: Making the connection with patrons that makes them want to come back.

Presenter: Andrew Sanderbeck

Beginning exercise:

Identity crisis:

Three things about the person with exchange of name tag and remain that person until the identity is passed off to the next person. Similar to the game telephone played in school.

How can this be used in the workplace:

Use in the organization as a tool for quality control and make sure that the information is moving and stays correct and in contex.

What stores will you go back to and what stores will you never go back to?

We need to focus on the emotional needs of out patrons not just the physical ones.

Work sheet passed out with fill in thanks to keep you focused on listening instead of reading ahead. (If you want a copy of this I can send it to you).

Thoughts lead to feelings that lead to behavior that lead to events that lead to belief systems. All of this can be created by a lie or someone else’s experience.

This  belief system can all be overcome by giving consistently good customer service.

Is every customer a good customer for our library and is the customer always right?

The customer is not always right, however, the customer is always the customer.

Seek first to understand then to be understood. This was not Stephen Covey, but actually Saint Francis.

On the whole we don’t seek to understand the patron, just respond and judging stops us from actually listening. Our goal is to understand even if we disagree with what we are hearing.

Fair is a perception.

What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? Are we empathizing with of patrons?

Never let a patron leave angry. They may come back angry, never come back, or comment on it.

A question you never ask is “Do you understand?”

Training isn’t useful unless you follow up.

Paper folding excercise:

Sometimes your instructions aren’t clear to the other person.

Adults can only listen for 7-11 minutes in the morning  and only 4-7 minutes in the afternoon before they mentally leave the room. – Jack Wolf  Sarasota, Florida.

Three ways you can keep them engaged.

  1. Get other people talking/create open dialogue
  2. Do some form of activity
  3. Make them laugh

The customer Service Experience

  • Service
  • Experience
  • Expectations
  • Challenges

Be aware of cultural differences in your patron base. An example of this is not to point.

From hand out (again if you would like a copy, I’ll email it to you.)

Survey of visits to public libraries:

Customers noticed:
• Bright lighting
• Colors
• Smells good/bad
• Positioning of displays
• Employees present/non-present
• Asking for help/not help/too much help
• Employees taking amount themselves
• Space
• Noise
• Checkout lines
• Attitude of employees
• Eye contact
• Acknowledgment of patrons
• Going with patrons vs saying its over there
• Having to wait in line
• Acknowledgment/no acknowledgment in line
• Greeting in leaving

Notice how what “happened” created a general “feeling” which either precipitated the customer either wanting to come back or not.

Activity on changing Fire Starter phrases to relationship builders.

Example: “You didn’t do this right!”  to ” I’m not sure you’ll get the results you want that way, have you considered this way?”

Finding Your Voice: Creating Ideas for Beginning a Pod or Videocast Series.

Notes from 2009 COMO Conference in Columbus, Georgia

Finding Your Voice: Creating Ideas for Beginning a Pod or Videocast Series.

Listen and Learn!

Listen and Learn!

Presenters:Sarah Steiner, Jason Puckett

Identifiability of your audience: Aim for the outcome you want with content .

Identify your medium: video/ audio

Audio

Video

Non-verbal cues

Think about close captioning for all videos

Identify your approach:

informal/formal

team based/individual/global

Make sure that you get your point across or sneak information in on them.

Decide if you want to do a one shot vs. serial.

Identify needs:

What skills do you possess or need.

What tools or software do you have access to or knowledge of.

Identify allies:

People within your organization that can help you or get involved.

Makes sure that you administration knows whats going on with your program and the direction you’re going .

Recruit your IT friends

Create:

Use social networks to get the word out.

Work within your range of ability, don’t bite off too much.

Archive.org copy for free music.

Upload and Market:

Consider doing in a blog with RSS feed.

Make sure Google can find it

Embedded content is always a good idea.

Make sure format is playable.

Examples:

Ask IUB Libraries- YouTube

Library Insider podcast from Georgia State University

Learning Commons Theatre from Georgia State University

View the Slideshare of this presentation.

ssteiner@gsu.edu

jpuckett@gsu.edu

For more on Jason read his blog.