Looking for a how-to on creating a Facebook Page (like, for your library)? Check out this article by Jesse Stay on Techipedia: How To Create the Perfect Facebook Fan Page.
The guide is short and pretty straightforward. Stay offers not only practical tips about things like custom tabs and search engine optimization for Facebook pages, but also provides code snippets for stealing (err, borrowing) for your own page. Nice!
via iLibrarian
OCLC has reported on the WorldCat Blog that you can use the RedLaser iPhone app to scan book barcodes and see which nearby libraries have that book, as well as hours & contact info for those libraries, using WorldCat.org.
The app uses Google Product Search to translate barcodes into data that WorldCat can use. The app costs $1.99 and does more than just search out books…but it does that too.
I really like the idea of the app, and am glad that it adds some more global mobile functionality for our users and may help them save money by using more library materials instead of purchasing those items. It is important to note, however, that while this app will work quite nicely for libraries that are OCLC members and have paid to have their records listed in WorldCat, it won’t list those who have not.
Functionally (and very generally speaking), this means that the app will likely work well in urban and/or wealthy communities, it will not work for many rural, small, and poor libraries, or for libraries who have chosen not to update their records and therefore what’s in WorldCat isn’t actually an accurate representation of what the libraries actually have. I am reminded once again that until libraries are able to share their records without a financial hardship attached, through something like OpenLibrary, apps like this only skim the surface of what our libraries truly offer their users.
So…for my wish for the new year, I’m choosing to wish for an open source, open access, accurate, complete, and 100% free-to-use database of library materials worldwide. Happy New Year!
Gale has announced a new iPhone application to help people use library resources. Building off of the AccessMyLibrary identity that Gale has promoted publicly,the application does two things:
The app is downloadable from accessmylibrary.com or from the iTunes store.
For more info, see Gale’s website on the app & ResourceShelf’s review.
I find it interesting that, once again, Gale beats EBSCO to the punch on a new technology. While EBSCO has EBSCOhost mobile, a mobile version of their interface (that your library needs to set up for it to be usable by your customers), it’s not a downloadable app (which is different).
I definitely have a preference for Gale online resources in general, for many reasons…title holdings, embargoes, better (though admittedly not great) user interfaces, and search relevancy ranking algorithms being a few of those reasons.
Offering something like this–especially if most of your online resources are Gale–is a huge boon for library users. Our databases are one of the last bastions of stinkiness in libraries’ attempt to make all of our services mobile. At our library, our catalog, website, eBooks, and ask-a-librarian service are all mobile-friendly. All of our databases? Not so much.
To me, this is yet another reason to go with Gale instead of EBSCO. Not because of this one application development. EBSCO can replicate that easily enough, and likely soon will. The real message is that Gale invests in development, is flexible institutionally to respond quickly to change, and monitors trends. That’s certainly a reason to choose one company over another, especially for such pricey decisions as our database purchases are.
Note: No, I am not on Gale’s payroll. My library doesn’t even subscribe to Gale products–we in fact switched, through a larger consortium, from Gale to EBSCO this past year. I can affirm that I am not being compensated for any of the above statements. I just honestly like Gale better.
Announced yesterday in a press release from Mosio is that their Text a Librarian product now handle cooperative library systems (and virtual reference co-ops) too. From the press release:
Mosio, an award winning mobile technologies company providing text messaging and mobile web solutions for businesses and organizations, today announced the launch of cooperative pricing and plans for its Text a Librarian text message reference software.
Text a Librarian’s Cooperative Plans:
- Offer the same ease-of-use, secure web interface enabling libraries to get up and running quickly with little or no training.
- Include answer templates that can be created by each branch so any participating librarian can quickly respond to a particular branch’s frequently asked questions with minimal typing or searching.
- Enable each participating library to create their own auto-responder to let patrons know their question has been received or with additional branch-specific information, personalizing the experience.
- Are built on the existing Text a Librarian platform with slight modifications based on cooperative size, needs and goals.
- Let co-op managers run reports efficiently so they can see which library is getting the most use, what are the busiest times of the day and export transcripts for further analysis.
For more, see Text a Librarian’s website on cooperatives: http://www.textalibrarian.com/coopref
We’ve been using Text a Librarian for our library’s texting product for several months now and have had very good experiences. Until now, Altarama has been the only text messaging reference product on the market (it is in fact what the MyInfoQuest cooperative uses). In comparing the software I think that Mosio’s product is far superior to Altarama’s. That is of course just my opinion. But I am seriously curious to see if the My InfoQuest folks take another hard look at Mosio’s product. I’d be much happier to join a cooperative if Mosio’s product was on the back end.
I love Etsy, the online craft & vintage store where individual artists get to proffer their wares. Amazingly, there are thousands of library, librarian, book, and reading-themed gift options available. And in most cases you still have time to get them before the holidays this year. I did most of my holiday shopping through independent artists, craftspeople, or local farmers. It’s important to me to support, with my dollars, the people working hard to make their dreams come true. So, to that end, here are a few suggestions for gifts for co-workers, spouses, and those book-loving folks in your life.
My favorite library & reading oriented Etsy artists
Some other individual items
I presented my most popular talk to the Central Texas Library System’s “The Mobile Library Conference.” We used Skype for voice (I couldn’t get video to work) and used DimDim to share the presentation. Worked quite well! You can use DimDim for video/voice too. Below is my presentation.
Yesterday, I posted about a new “Express Library” in King County that has no staff, and is basically a holds pick-up shelf, a catalog-computer, a telephone to call another library for help, a small paperback collection, and a book return. In thinking about this facility being called a “library,” I asked the question:
What makes a library a library?
Buffy Hamilton, a librarian at the Creekview High School in Canton, Georgia, took a video camera and asked some of her students what they think makes a library a library.
I love it! I love the answers, and I am motivated to try to record some of our library patrons to see what they think. Maybe that would help us make some of our tough budget decisions.
Check out 50 Essential Free Open Courseware Classes for Web Designers, posted by Designer City, USA. In other words, if you want to expand your web design skills, here are some free online classes for you to take from reputable institutions to improve your “web skeelz.” I’m going to take a few of these myself, so hey…join me and broaden your skill set. These would also be good to forward to your library’s web staff, plus anyone on the staff who contributes to the library’s web content in any way.
King County has opened what they call the “Express Library” — a building with no staff available for public service where customers can pick up their holds, browse a small paperback collection, search the catalog on a locked-down computer station, and use a telephone to call another nearby staffed library. From the Library Journal story:
To get into the building, patrons must scan or type in their library card number, but books can be returned via a book drop outside. How to maintain security? Cameras both inside and outside the building.
My questions really revolve around whether this saves the library much money at all. In talking with one of my colleagues, we came up with the following costs that still exist at his location:
So, for the cost of some computer cameras and a card-based door entry system, your library can also get rid of all of its staff apparently. While I am not opposed to a holds-pickup station somewhere in your community, I do think it’s a bit of a stretch to call it a “library.”
It raises the question–what makes a library a library? And not just because there aren’t live staff there. There is not a full browsing collection of materials, no internet-enabled computers, no wifi, no rooms to read or study in, no programs, etc. If someone said “Either you shut down this facility entirely, or take this $40,000 to install security cameras & a door lock and keep it open as a holds-pickup station,” of course I’d take the money and have something rather than nothing. But I truly, truly wonder how much this facility actually saves…and what its true cost is in the neighborhood they serve.
In times like these when we are all facing budget cuts, I think we need to really think about what we’re getting for our money–for both facilities/capital and staff expenditures. What is the return on investment? What is the real cost of operating a physical location? What about turning more to virtual services (a topic for a future blog post)?
At what point does a library become a used book store? A drive-in book pick-up station? At what point does a library cease to be a library?
Check out “Lessons Learned: How College Students Find Information in the Digital Age” (PDF – 3MB), released on Tuesday 12/01/09 by Project Information Literacy. Karen Schneider says “If you can make time for reading just one professional report over the holidays, please make it [this one].”
With that kind of endorsement from a trusted source like her, I’m sold. I briefly scanned the report and found it most interesting, looking at how many of our assumptions about student information needs and workflow are outdated. I also think that while this is geared at academic library situations, I think that the report applies equally to public & school libraries who serve students of any age (all of us). And the general conclusion that we need to think about the workflow of our users’ information needs is always good advice…and sadly something that we are often 5 years behind in tracking.
I also enjoyed Schneider’s analysis. From her post:
Librarians design too many services around a workflow where the student receives an assignment, perceives an information need, and comes to the library for assistance; as well as the just-in-case “first-year” instruction where students are bathed in instruction that is divorced from actual research tasks they need to conduct. But obviously, students aren’t following that workflow, and though they do seem to pick up that databases are valuable, frog-marching them into those inevitable biblio-classes isn’t growing the library luv for them–at least not luv as we envision it (which is part of the problem).
So the question is, why don’t we adapt our practices so that we are working with the “proxies” for library services — the faculty themselves, who create the assignments, interact first and most with students, and are the referrals for the tools we offer?
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