Carnival Article in Public Libraries

I just finished reading Steven M. Cohen's article in the May/June 2006 issue of Public Libraries.

The background info on how Greg of Open Stacks got the idea and got the project off the ground was good.

Beyond the link love and hosting (although a carnival does need hosts* to succeed) I think some things were left out, this article focused so heavily on the writing of the posts, and carnival submissions, and didn't focus much on the benefits of reading the carnival!

I will acknowledge that I'm sure Steven was limited on space or word count.

Steven-- do you only discover new blogs when you've hosted? I've found lots just by reading the carnival! Carnival is a great way to find the other library bloggers, especially for people who don't know where to find library related blogs.
I wonder if we did a survey and asked co-workers to name 5 library related blogs or bloggers... could they?

Remember the audience. Michael Stephen's SirsiDynix Institute sessions a few months ago (Feb 15, 2006 available in the archive at http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/archive.php) had surveys that indicated many many people in the library world are not bloggers.

Could they benefit from a weekly digest of topical content in one place? Sure they could!
Would reading blogs get them more comfortable (since trying new technology is often about user comfort and confidence) with possibly posting a comment or starting their own blog or otherwise joining in the conversation? Sure it could!
Some people aren't ready to jump into the sandbox and start building castles immediately!

It can also be a great way to demo what can be done with blogs!
Collaborate, communicate, share.

Tight on time? Read Carnival of the Infosciences to catch up on the discussion in the past week.


Did you read the article in Public Libraries? Agree or disagree? Comments are open!

Zephyr Innovation

Kathryn's got a new blog!

I'm looking forward to reading about the projects she'll share with us!

:)

The Certificate!

Multimedia message
Originally uploaded by KatDeiss.

Thanks for the photo Kathryn!

Blogging and Teens

Last Saturday, we had 2 hands-on sessions for teens in creating a blog, using blogger.com

Why? Don't they already know all about this?
Well... the teen librarian has a public computer designated for teens right by her desk, and she had noticed the teens trying to set up blogs, but getting frustrated when they didn't understand the options in the setup.
It turned out the same was true in the sessions as well. Questions involved things like 'will the title of my blog display on the page?' 'do I have to put a description?' 'what's "date format" mean?' 'do I want to moderate comments?' Explaining their options and the results of their choice was all they needed to get rolling!

The teens were surprised that we also have blog classes for adults. When I told them senior citizens are the fasting growing group of bloggers, they thought that over for a moment and could see the possibility since the seniors have so many life experiences they could write about.

The moment we're all chuckling about at work... at the beginning, I introduced myself and said that I work with the teen librarian on a lot of projects, but often behind-the-scenes. One girl in the class said, "Oh, so you're like Chloe." [fans of 24 will get this reference]

Instead of a photo of themselves, many of the teens surfed for a pic from the internet to use. We had some time left at the end, and they began to show me some of their favorite sites. After they played the llama song a few times, believe me, it was tempting to play the blogga song, but i didn't. They just LOVE Numa Numa! Want to learn more? There's even a wikipedia entry for this internet phenom!

Being behind the scenes most of the time, and mostly getting senior citizen students, this was a cool opportunity to see some of the sites the teens are visiting.

Want to see a range of what they created?

"Things other than sports I play" by Kat

"On the wild side" by Ellen

"Creaturemaster's Travels" by Tom

"What's on my mind" by Ellen

"Angel's Music/Life Blog" by Angel

ISO greasemonkey blogger tags script

back in Dec, I blogged about a greasemonkey script that enabled addition of technorati tags when using blogger.

My lovely new Norton decided I didn't need my greasemonkey scripts anymore and deleted them without asking.

If anybody downloaded it from this site back then, and can email it to me I'd be very happy, (I'm getting an error message that the script is no longer available at that site.)

thanks

Sunbird Calendar

The situation: Staff from various departments needing to book the "community room" and expanded use of the former "story hour" room as it was repurposed to an "activity room" which will host computer classes, story hour, teen group meetings, and more!

With two rooms in more frequent use, how would Circ keep up with what was where?

Current Community Room calendar was created in Publisher.
An additional 'working' copy kept in a notebook, then later updated on the computer.

Downsides to method: 1 physical location of the notebook. Staff working at the off-desk area to book programs would need to check for several date options, then finalize a date with presenter.

Entire days often blocked out months in advance, due to sharing the room with the public groups that meet here. Of those days booked, some are not ultimately used.

Circ needs advance notice of major events to schedule accordingly, calendar put out at beginning of the month, yet shift schedules were made a few weeks prior.

Using publisher...Very time consuming, no easy way to enter repeating events.

One person responsible for keeping calendar up to date & entering all the info.

Enter the Mozilla Sunbird Calendar

Sunbird is installed locally on several machines, in several different departments.
Calendar files are stored remotely on the server, in a secured folder.
Sunbird is set to auto-sync with the calendars when launching.

I created a separate calendar file for each room events are held in, and gave them different colors so it's easy to see availability on the monthly view.
We also entered holidays, election days (room is used as a voting site) and then created a separate calendar for "special events" such as Banned Books Week, National Library Week, Teen Read Week, Teen Tech Week, etc. making it easier at a glance for staff trying to book an event to coincide with a special week.

Circulation does not need to enter events, so they have access in 'read only' mode.
They can print the week's event listing, and are keeping that by the phones, and at all public service desks to route patrons to the correct room.

Staff have actually used the words "easy" and "fun" when describing entering events!

Events can repeat according to a set pattern, making it very easy to enter our regular groups.

Each staff member is responsible for booking the room for the event they are hosting.

The program does not currently check for double-booking, but the interface makes it easy to see what's available.

So far, staff who have used it are very excited, and think this is a useful change!

Did I mention it's free?

not just for bands

Powell's books is on myspace?!

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=82198404

Syndicated!

Syndicated!
Originally uploaded by nomextra.

Thanks Lance!

Since our program info now offers an RSS feed, Lance (webmaster at www.lansing-illinois.com) was able to syndicate our upcoming events!

Just one more way to be where our users are!
Built-in community building!

Library Signs

Library Signs
Originally uploaded by nomextra.

So, I decided to stop in at the new location of my home library.
How had it changed?

I entered the building, passing the "no food or drink" sign.
Uh oh, I just picked up carry out. (Which was in my tote bag.) I hope they don't smell my dinner!

As i entered the vestibule area, I observed a display case filled with summer reading prizes for the kids, a brochure rack with mostly county info, and the restrooms.

Are reciprocal borrowers allowed to use the facilities? Do they accept cards from Indiana, or does it have to be a valid MLS card?
What if you came to the library to apply for a card, and decided you needed to use the bathroom?
Back when I first moved here, they would take all your info, then make all the cards once a week. I'm not sure if that has changed.

This gets better. I entered the main part of the library, passed the circulation desk. (where I was not greeted, nor smiled at.. nothing)

Oh, here's a little room with a few computers! I walked in and began taking a look around. I didn't touch anything, nor sit down at any of the terminals. A staff member yelled to me from the Circ Desk. You can't go in there, you have to check them out.
(That's all I'm doing.. checking them out!) Yeah, I couldn't resist. :)

No signage on the room indicated that I needed to signup anywhere to even enter the computer room. The door was wide open.

I then proceeded to look around, and I seriously could not find the non-fiction books. The place is not that big, but what threw me off was the J Fic, was on one side of a row of shelves, and non-fic was on the other.

I truly hope they add user-friendly signage.

I saw a lone computer pretty much in the middle of the building, but the screen was dim, and I wasn't going to press my luck.

I browsed through the new book shelf, then left.
Just as I got to the outer door, someone from circ told me to have a nice evening.

On the just-a-few-blocks walk home, I was approached by a total stranger who offered me a ride. I offered to call the police and let them know he was offering rides.

(I listen to the scanner sometimes when hubby is on fire calls, and on several occasions the police have been dispatched to have a chat with a guy in the general neighborhood of the library who is offering young girls rides.)

Tune in next time to see what happens when I use my cell phone in the library (just to access the weather, I won't make a call, I promise). They currently do not have "no cell phone" signs.

SirsiDynix Announces Finalists in Building Better Communities Awards!

Lansing Public Library made it to the finals in the SirsiDynix Building Better Communities Award Contest! I got the pre-notification yesterday, but wasn't allowed to blog about it until the press release came out this afternoon.

w00t!

Impressive and diverse list of 15 finalists.
Only 5 will win.
Good luck & best wishes to all of the finalists.

Unfortunately, I won't get to meet any of you, as ALA just isn't in the budget this year.

The nomination packet details how each library is using technology to build a better community, and is definitely a showcase for innovative ideas. (note: the nomination forms have been edited to remove personal information, and may not reflect the exact nomination submission.)

In our award application, I mentioned some of the bloggers who have posted about and/or mentioned in presentations the cool things we're doing at Lansing. This probably helped us make it to the finals.

A special thank you goes out to Kathryn Deiss, Jenny Levine, Michael Stephens, and Greg Schwartz. And also, thanks to Aaron for unknowingly inspiring the launch of our IM service at LPL, as I thought, if Aaron can, what's stopping us?

The extra push to continue moving forward was due to my attendance at the first Zephyr-sponsored presentation, when they invited Stephen Abram to MLS last June. At that meeting Kathryn spoke of her dream that Zephyr projects would inspire, and result in national recognition for innovation. An extra thank you to the entire Zephyr team for scheduling that presentation!!!

finally...wifi

Login Screen
Originally uploaded by nomextra.

Finally, we've got wi-fi.

wi oh wi did it take us so long to get it?
The Village of Lansing requires us to filter it.

Patrick Smith told me about ZoneCD from PUBLICip.

After finally giving up on recycling that very very ancient PC, I tried a different one, and it worked!

It's open source and has a built in filter. Cool!
It also reports on # of users. Cool!

Users can create a login, or connect anonymously.

Friends of Lansing Library bought us the wireless access point. (Thanks Friends!)

See the rest of the set, including what a blocked site looks like.

I am soooo glad this is finally up & running, as just a little over a week ago, a helpful patron inquiring about wireless availability suggested I check out the setup at Panera!