Drexel University Special Libraries Association (DUSLA)

noreply@blogger.com (Chrystelle) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:59:00 -0400

DUSLA has a new blog!

Please visit http://dusla1.blogspot.com for our latest updates. We also have launched a new internship blog at http://dusla2.blogspot.com

Thanks!

DUSLA Guest Speaker - SPOTLIGHT ON THE INFORMATION PUBLISHING INDUSTRY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 7 Jan 2009 15:00:00 -0500

Who: Jill O'Neill, Director of Planning and Communication for National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS).
What: Trends in the online database publishing industry, and preview of the upcoming NFAIS conference in Philly

When: Tuesday 1/13, 5-6pm
Where: Rush Room 014 (downstairs)
Interactive simulcast online here: http://67.202.209.165/launcher.cgi?room=iSchool_DUSLA

NFAIS serves as the trade group for providers of online database services that aggregate, organize and facilitate access to published information. In other words, the vendors of all the databases your library will ever use are members of this association. From their website: "It is a partnership of government, nonprofit and commercial organizations – all sharing a common mission of improved access to, and use of, information."

This is an excellent opportunity for us to learn more about an industry that we all rely on and that may also be a potential job market for librarians. Ms. O'Neill will also be discussing the NFAIS annual conference taking place here in Philadelphia in February. They are looking for student volunteers to help at the conference and will provide them with excellent networking opportunities.

Questions? Contact DUSLA Program Co-coordinator, Holly Zerbe - hzerbe@gmail.com

Learn more about DUSLA and opportunities to get involved here: http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/sladrexel/

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:58:00 -0400

Please join the Drexel University Special Libraries Association (DUSLA) for an open house at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts on November 12th from 4-6 pm.

From their website: "The Conservation Center specializes in the treatment of art and historic artifacts on paper. Established in 1977, CCAHA is one of the largest non-profit regional conservation labs in the country." At the Open House there will be a conservator or technician at every bench prepared to talk about their projects. It's also the time when the "best of the best" materials are out and you can look through everything at your own pace. Food and wine will also be available.

This event is open to the public and everyone is welcome regardless of their affiliation with DUSLA or Drexel. A group of DUSLA students plan to attend this event together and will be meeting in front of the CCAHA around 4. DUSLA welcomes anyone interested to attend the event as part of the group, but feel free to go on your own if you prefer. Either way, the CCAHA does ask that you RSVP, so if you plan to attend please email the DUSLA program coordinator Holly Zerbe, hzerbe@gmail.com, with your name as well as the names of any guests you plan on bringing by November 7th.

What: Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifiacts Open House
Who: This event is open to the public but some DUSLA members plan on attending as a group. Please feel free to join us or attend on your own.
When: Wednesday, November 12 from 4-6pm
Where: The CCAHA is located at 264 S. 23rd St. (Just south of Walnut on 23rd)
RSVP: If you plan on attending (on your own or as part of the DUSLA goup) please RSVP to
hzerbe@gmail.com by Nov. 7th.

If you have any questions, please contact Holly Zerbe: hzerbe@gmail.com

Gadgets, Gizmos and Gear Exhibit at PaLA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:46:00 -0400

Volunteers are needed for the Gadgets, Gizmos and Gear Exhibit at the
Pennsylvania Libraries: Leading for Life
Pennsylvania Library Association 2008 Annual Conference
November 9th - 12th, Valley Forge Scanticon & Convention Center.

The Gadgets, Gizmos and Gear exhibit will showcase the Wii, Guitar Hero, Kindle and more. We just need volunteers to answer questions, assist in system operations and maybe give a quick demo of gadgets. Prior knowledge of these gadgets is not required, but will be helpful.

This is a great opportunity for students to network with fellow librarians and get involved in professional organization activities. Free exhibit passes will be available for volunteers. If interested contact Tanya Finney, tfinney@mclinc.org, tdf22@drexel.edu

DUSLA field trip May 23rd at 10:00 AM

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 15 May 2008 15:49:00 -0400

DUSLA will be exploring some of Philadelphia's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender resources on May 23rd. Come join us on a field trip to the AIDS Library and the Library and Archives of the William Way LGBT Community Center. The AIDS Library is run by Philadelphia Fight a comprehensive AIDS service organization. The library offers access to health and support services, disseminates information about HIV treatment, nutrition, and history and connects people to regional and national AIDS resources. The William Way Community Center Library has over 10,000 books of LGBT-related fiction and non-fiction, one of the largest collections in the country. The William Way Center Archives is Philadelphia 's most extensive collection of rare books, periodicals, video and audio tapes, periodicals, personal correspondence, and other ephemera documenting the rich history of the LGBT community. RSVP to Jessie at jdummer@gmail.com. We will meet at 10:00 AM at the AIDS Library at 1233 Locust St., 2nd Floor.

DUSLA Spring Social

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 6 May 2008 11:01:00 -0400

Join the Drexel Student Chapter of the Special Libraries Association for a Spring Social!

WHO: Your iSchool classmates

WHAT: DUSLA Spring Social

WHERE: The Mary Hagerty Learning Lab (Lower Level of Hagerty Library)

WHEN: Wednesday, May 14^th from 5 PM to 6 PM

WHY: Learn about DUSLA events and meet with your classmates

Spring is here! Join DUSLA on Wednesday, May 14^th as celebrate in style. You'll have a chance to chat with your iSchool classmates and talk about upcoming DUSLA field trips and work shops. Refreshments will be served.

No RSVP required, We hope to see you there!

RUSH @ Hagerty Tonight!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:43:00 -0400

Hey guys,

Tonight is the Rush @ Hagerty. This is a networking event the iSchool has planned to introduce iSchool students to library and information industry professional associations. DUSLA and PLG (Progressive Librarians Guild), among others, will have tables there and will be available to answer any questions you have about the organizations.

See you all there!

Last Day to Register! Open Source for Libraries: All Grown Up

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 10:40:00 -0400

Remember, attendance is FREE to all student members!

Open Source for Libraries: All Grown Up
Co-sponsored by DUSLA, Drexel University

Date: Monday, April 21, 2008

Time: Registration 5:00pm - 5:30pm; Presentation 5:30pm - 8:00pm

Location: : Mary Hagerty Room - #L33 on the lower level of the Drexel University Hagerty Library located at 33rd & Market Streets in Philadelphia, PA.

Description: : "Open Source" - a term you may have heard thrown about at conferences and on mailing lists - but what does it mean? This session will not only define the term "Open Source" but will show librarians exactly how it can be used within their libraries. Learn to separate the myths from the facts, learn about the tools that are available to your libraries and most importantly learn about how open source can free you from the costs associated with many proprietary library products. This session will cover open source alternatives to popular products used inlibraries, including, but not limited to an office suite, instant messaging, ILS and web browser.

Presenter Bio: : Nicole C. Engard received her MLIS from Drexel University in 2007. Having worked in libraries for over 7 years, she has recently accepted the position of Open Source Evangelist at LibLime. Starting in web development and moving on to working with metadata and cataloging, she has had the opportunity to work with people in all areas of the library and can be found at conferences around the world presenting on open source and web 2.0 topics. Nicole is best known for her blog, What I Learned Today... where she writes about technology issues for libraries and her work in developing a 2.0 friendly intranet at Jenkins Law Library in Philadelphia. In 2007 she was named one of Library Journal's Movers & Shakers and has published several articles on technology and libraries. In her current position with LibLime, Nicole is responsible for educating librarians both about what open source software is and the many options available to libraries. Her passion for talking to and educating librarians makes this role a perfect fit for her.

Registration Information: Registrations should be sent to Kim Rotter via email at kim.rotter@qvc.com. Registration deadline is Thursday, April 17, 2008. Those not canceling on or before the deadline will be expected to pay the registration fee. Please make checks payable to SLA Phila Chapter.

Cost: : $10.00 for SLA members, $15.00 for non-members, Free for student SLA members.

A light dinner (pizza and refreshments) will be provided.

Program Questions: Please contact Karen Krasznavolgyi, SLA Philadelphia Professional Development Chair, 215-503-2826, karen.krasznavolgyi@jefferson.edu.

***********************************************************************
DEADLINE FOR RESERVATIONS: Thursday, April 17, 2008

To Register, please send an email to:

Ms. Kim Rotter, Kim_Rotter@qvc.com

Phone: 484-701-2313

Name:___________________________________________________

Organization:_____________________________________________

Phone:______________________________

Email:___________________________________________________

Member (SLA/MLA) @ $10.______ Nonmember@ $15 ______

SLA Student member (free) ______

I will pay at the door (payment by check is preferred).

Make checks out to SLA, Phila. Chapter.

*********************************************************************************************************************************

Today! Google Documents Talk

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 11:01:00 -0400

The Drexel University Student Chapter of SLA will be hosting an
informal talk on Google Docments Thursday, April 3rd, from 5:00 PM –
5:30 PM in the Mary Hagerty Learning Lab (L33) on the first floor of
Hagerty Library.

The talk will be led by Katherine Fischer, who will discuss the uses
and features offered to users by Google Docs. We will discuss how to
create, edit, share and publish files using Google Documents.
Alternatives to Google Docs will be discussed as time permits.

No RSVP required.

Save the Date! Open Source for Libraries: All Grown Up

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 1 Apr 2008 15:47:00 -0400

Who: Nicole Engard

What: SLA Philadelphia and DUSLA Present Nicole Engard, "Open Source
for Libraries: All Grown Up"

Where: The Mary Hagerty Learning Lab - First Floor of Hagerty Library

When: April 21st, 5 PM - 8 PM

Why: "Learn to separate the myths from the facts, learn about
the tools that are available to your libraries and most importantly
learn about how open source can free you from the costs associated
with many proprietary library products."

Blogging for DUSLA: A Quick and Dirty Guide

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 11:12:00 -0400

All members of DUSLA are actively encouraged to post to this blog. You can blog about local library events; conferences you've attended; your reactions to recent events in library world; ongoing topics in library world; tips and tricks related to library science you've learned in your classes; or any other DUSLA or library related topic that is relevant to you.

If you've never blogged with DUSLA before, here are some quick instructions for how to get set up:

1. Open a 'Google' account.

If you have a gmail account, you already have a 'Google' account.
If you're new to Google, you can start a Google account at www.google.com/accounts.

2. Email Christopher Curry at curry@drexel.edu and ask to be added as a 'contributor' to the blog

Give him your Google Account name and email address so he can add you to the list of people who have access to the blog.
Christopher will contact you when he has added you.

3. Log into Blogger.com

www.blogger.com.
Use your Google Account email and password

4. Start a 'New Post' in The DUSLA blog

Once you log in, blogger will take you to the 'Dashboard', where you have easy access to all of your blogs.
One of the blogs listed should be 'Drexel University student chapter of the Special Libraries Association (DUSLA).
Click the link 'New Post' under the title of the post. It has a green plus sign icon next to it.

5. Create, Edit and Publish the post

Write your post just as you would a regular word document.
You can add images and videos to your post using the icons on the task bar.
Once your post is complete, click the 'Publish Post' button. Make sure you double check for mistakes!

Christopher Curry, DUSLA's webmaster, has put together a quick instructional video (NOTE: requires the latest version of Javascript to be enabled).

Links to the Video on the DUSLA website (files are larger):

AVI:

http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/sladrexel/podcasts/bloggeravi/blogger.html

Shockwave Flash (requires Flash and Javascript):

http://ischool.drexel.edu/sladrexel/podcasts/bloggerswf/blogger.html

Exploring Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 10:37:00 -0400

DUSLA explored Penn's Rare Book and Manuscript Library on February 23rd, where we viewed a few different collections, the Reading Room, and the staff workroom. We saw the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (for all things Shakespeare), the Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection (for the history of chemistry), and the Henry Charles Lea Library (for medieval and early modern history). In the Lea library we looked at a variety of books and manuscripts from the entire rare book and manuscript collection, including a book of hours, a rare monograph printed by Benjamin Franklin, a medieval royal genealogical scroll starting with Adam and Eve, and a book on alchemy with marginalia from Isaac Newton, to name a few. Everyone had a great time and learned a lot too. Check the blog and the website for more field trips coming up soon.

Upcoming Events: SLA Philadelphia Chapter hosts a tour of QVC

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 6 Mar 2008 19:14:00 -0500

The Philadelphia Chapter is sponsoring a behind-the-scenes look at QVC studios. QVC is one of the largest multimedia retailers in the world. They broadcast live television shopping programs 24 hours a day, 364 days a year.

The tour will be followed by a sit down dinner and a talk on metadata and taxonomy given by QVC staff members.

This is a great chance to get to know your local SLA librarians better and get a unique perspective on QVC.

This event is scheduled for March 26th at 3:30 PM. For more details, visit the event page: http://units.sla.org/chapter/cphl/index.htm.

Upcoming event: The Leslie Nicholas Lecture: Health Information Technology in the 21st Century

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 6 Mar 2008 15:34:00 -0500

The College of Physicians is hosting a cocktail hour and guest lecture on the topic of health care information technology. The lecture will cover what technologies currently exist and how they will change in the future.

The event is planned for Thursday, March 27, 2008, 6:15 PM, and it's only $10 for students to attend.

Check out the MLA Philadelphia Chapter website for more information: http://www.mlaphil.org/wp/events/2008/02/28/lnl/.

This is a great event for anyone interested in medical librarianship, or anyone curious about how these technologies may affect your health care in the future.

Writing Webinar

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:41:00 -0400

Sirsi is having a webinar in July with a focus on publishing for library professionals. I've been very pleased with previous Sirsi Institute webinars, so if you're interested in learning about publishing for your profession, make the time to attend.

Writing for the Library Profession

Date : Jul 10, 2007
Start Time : 11 a.m. Eastern
Length : 01:00:00

Do you want to inform and influence your colleagues? Do you have a story to tell? Have you done something innovative that delighted your users? We don't have a paucity of ideas and innovation in libraryland, we do have a problem with diffusion. We need to share our ideas and experiences more. From blog postings, to periodical and newsletter articles to website content and even to books library staff are increasingly being asked to write. With the dynamic and rapid change happening in our sector, we have an increasing obligation to share our knowledge and experiences. It's an exciting time to be in libraries.

Newsletter Available

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 07:35:00 -0400

The summer term newsletter is now available for download.

If you're interested in volunteering for DUSLA, find a list of opening positions on the last page.

BlogPhiladelphia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:07:00 -0400

BlogPhiladelphia, a social media “unconference,” is taking place on July 12 - July 13, 2007 at the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel in Center City, Philadelphia.

BlogPhiladelphia is an “unconference” for those interested in all forms of social media. It’s a central meeting place for everyone working within the realm of social media (online and mobile) to get together and exchange information and ideas.

Registration is first-come, first-served so register now! There is no fee to attend.

Click on the below URL to register.
http://blogphiladelphia.net/index.php

Careers in Federal Libraries

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 May 2007 17:41:00 -0400

I found this event on the OPAL list of webinars today and figured you'd all be interested in checking it out.

Careers in Federal Libraries
Friday, June 22, 2007 beginning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 8:00 Central, 7:00 Mountain, 6:00 Pacific, and 2:00 p.m. GMT:

If you are interested in learning more about career opportunities for information professionals as federal employees, this online event is for you. It will be presented simultaneously as an in-person event in the Madison Building at the Library of Congress, in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the American Library Association. A variety of speakers working in various positions throughout the federal government will share their experiences and advice.

Note: This online event will last approximately 3.5 hours.

Sponsors: The

Federal and Armed Forces Libraries Round Table, the
Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC), the
District of Columbia Library Association, the
Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Special Libraries Association, the
School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University, and
Library Associates

Future of the Catalog

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:44:00 -0400

Tennant and Spalding on the Future of the Catalog
Originally uploaded by madinkbeard.

Tim Spalding of LibraryThing started out with his talk entitled “The Fun OPAC”. Tim quotes Casey Bisson who said that the OPAC was broken in three ways: usability, findability and remixability. Tim argues that that is not enough - he also thinks it’s missing funability.

He gave us an example from Big (the movie) where Tom Hanks says that one of the toy ideas isn’t fun. Tim says that everyone is a toy company now. Users expect the web to fun and easy. If a site doesn’t change from visit to visit it’s boring - and our OPACs never change!!

Unlike other speakers on this topic, Tim thinks we need to bring the catalog out front and center. He says so used to hiding it behind our websites because we’re ashamed of it - and we can’t change it (which is very true).

So, how do we make it fun?

Allow inbound links!
links into our catalogs are always timed out when you find them in search results. People want to link into this information and they assume it will always be there. One way to solve this is to provide a permalink - like Google maps - but I’d argue that this isn’t enough either!!

Allow links outwards
The more you link outwards the more people will come to you. This includes links out of your catalog. Tim said that some libraries say no to this because they won’t link to commercial sites. Tim asks, why? Your patrons know about the bookstores! Good websites don’t work like malls, where all of the exits are hidden and they try to keep you inside.

Link around
LibraryThing links to 500 libraries around the world and makes everything clickable (the author, title, tag, subject heading). There is also a page for every author, tag, etc etc. Most catalogs do link subjects - but nothing else. You can also link to wikipedia (people are going to go there anyway).

Dress up your OPAC
Dress it up with covers from Syndetics (if you get them from Amazon you have to link to them).

Get your data out there
Stop thinking you’re the only people who can work with your data!! Wisdom of crowds!! There are bored techies out there who want to do fun things with your data. People will think of things to do with your data that you haven’t thought of yourself.

Provide remixable content
Users don’t want your data. They don’t want generic new book lists, they want their own content. RSS feeds for specific searches, authors, tags. They want a way to tell people what they’re reading with widgets. If the user freely consents to show what they’re reading to others, then there are no privacy issues to worry about

Next up - Roy Tennant!!!

Roy was worried that we were all there to see Tim, but everyone stayed to hear what he had to say (well, I left a tiny bit early to make a lunch meeting - but I really really really wanted to stay).

Roy started by telling us that he refused to use the “O” word. And then told us that catalogs have no future - you’ve gotta love him!

Roy does clarify that when he says catalog he is not referring to the ILS (which libraries still need for internal operations). He is no suggesting the death of the ILS just that we rework the finding tool which is the catalog.

He sees a future where there is no local catalog and in his future, all discovery will take place on the network level. If however it stays on the local level, few people will want to limit their search to just books - they’re going to want something that can pull together all of the info on a topic no matter what format it’s in.

This means that we need to look at new models of finding information.

In the new world order, discovery will be disaggregated from the ILS (Google, Open WorldCat, meta search, others). This makess sense because users typically want to find anything they can on a topic. Now we have to explain that you have to look in different places for articles. People don’t like pain so they want to search in one spot and if they can’t then they won’t use your tool.

Most ILS lack cool new features and fall behind our expectations and the market doesn’t look great that we’re going to see these things anytime soon.

Open WorldCat is offering some of the cool tools we want (facets, integrated article index, clean easy to read display) all for free. They also have WorldCat Identities tool which allows for every author to have a page. Maybe the answer is that WorldCat replaces our union catalogs. OCLC already has all of our data (I don’t quite follow this - not being a cataloger - but it sounds good to me). Another tool that they have is Fiction Finder (both this and Identities like the things Tim was talking about with LibraryThing).

These tools are great at exposing the richness of the records we’ve been painfully creating over the years (and this is true - i had a horrible time creating MARC records for one of my assignments).

At this point I had to leave for lunch - but it all makes sense to me and I’ll keep an eye out to see if Roy’s predictions come true!

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07

PennTags

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:43:00 -0400

Rob Cagna from University of Pennsylvania came to talk to us about PennTags. The last time I saw this it was a bit rough - it has grown up a lot since it’s birth!!

PennTags is like del.icio.us for members of the Penn community. They can save pages from anywhere on the web, from the catalog and from campus resources to PennTags and share it with the world. They can also keep their bookmarks private if they’d like. Penn has also released bookmarklets to allow people to tag things from their browser without logging into PennTags first (like with del.icio.us extension for firefox).

One neat feature of PennTags is that the users can make projects - which are files of different documents in a particular subject area. This way you can see just a new books list (http://tags.library.upenn.edu/project/14404). Projects can also be made private if the user prefers - Rob doesn’t think that many people have done this.

If you look at this record in the UPenn catalog, you see an Add to PennTags link at the bottom and below that you’ll see the tags and annotations from PennTags - very very very cool!! This is done with Oracle and Perl - you can email Rob if you want the more techie details.

One way this has been used is as an on-demand subject guide. Reference librarians create a project and add links. They then send the project URL to the patron! Students can use these projects as bibliographies - or working bibliographies as they write their papers. And because every page has an RSS feed the patrons or students can subscribe and see new additions as they’re added!!

I am very impressed - and a bit jealous!!

If you like what you see, Rob is looking for partners to help work with the code and make it open source! Email them at: penntags@pobox.upenn.edu.

Technorati Tags: penntags, cil2007, cil07

Guiding Libraries and Info Pros Through Change

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 22:41:00 -0400

David Lee King gave an amazing talk on handling change within our libraries. He started by asking a few questions and reading a few quotes. The first question was how many of us have had a hard time changing things in our libraries - lots of hands were raised. Then what kinds of change are hard - tech or other? Both! How many of us had to change ourselves while trying to implement change? A good number.

David, like a few others, recommended reading Stephen Abram’s article in OneSource on change within libraries.

He then read a quote from Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by Jim Collins which basically said that spending time to motivate people is a waste of effort - the right people will be self-motivated - but the key is to not de-motivate them! What a great quote!! I don’t have the book, so I can’t write the exact quote, but the gist is right.

Change is gonna happen whether we like it or not - just take a look at librarian want ads these days - they’re all full of new (fun sounding) jobs.

So what is change? Change the old way:

leaders simply ordered changes

goal: getting the change accomplished

when it failed the leaders would review change to see what went wrong

The problem is that they were looking in the wrong place (within their organizations) - because change is external. Transitions (reorientation people have to go through inside before the change can work) however, are internal. The reason most changes failed was because leaders focused on getting the change done instead of getting people through the transition.

So, what are the stages of transition?

Saying goodbye (letting go of the way things used to be)

Shifting into neutral (in between state - full of uncertainty and confusion)
This is where you focus on the details. You have to want to change to get past this phase and unfortunately, some people get stuck here. These people don’t let go of the old ways. On the other end of things, some people get frightened and leave

Moving forward- requires people to begin behaving in a new way

Of course there is going to be resistance to change, in fact, “nearly 2/3 of changes in corporate environments fail”, but resistance isn’t the problem - management’s reaction to resistance is the problem - resistors aren’t seeing it as resistance - they see it as survival!

Three levels of resistance:

info based - not enough info with the new thing, don’t understand, disagree with the idea, confused

physiological & emotional - job threatened, future with organization threatened, respect of your peers at risk (loss of power - feelings of incompetence) - all in your head (but still real!)

bigger stuff - personal histories, significant disagreement over values, etc

So, how do we navigate through change?

Tips just for leaders & techies:

remember that you’ve already come to terms with the change, but others still have their own stages to go through

understand why people might not want to change

understand that it’s the transitions, not the change, that’s causing waves

Steps to take in helping change run smoothly:

describe the change succinctly (1 minute or less) change and why it must happen

plan carefully

help people let go (explain why they have to let go - why it’s a necessary change)

constant communication

create temporary solutions when needed (things to make the change move smoother)

model new behavior - practice what you preach, don’t say we need a blog and then never contribute

provide practice & training in new things)

if you want staff to use web 2.0, you better have an RSS reader and you better be actively using it and reading blogs etc etc

David than reminded us not to do these things:

don’t confuse novelty with innovation

don’t confuse motion with action

don’t keep something going if it still has a “few good years of life left”

More tips & reminders for techies:

you might be able to change quickly

there are areas where you don’t change quickly (it departments have to stop saying no first - think it through)

always share too much… (and do too much training) it should feel this way to you - cause you’re not the user

technojust(ification) - make sure it makes sense (the opposite of technolust)

After all of this if you still won’t change, you need to remember that refusing to change will lead to missed career opportunities and missed changes to expand your network and meet new people (like I do at conferences and through my blog). Most importantly, you’ll miss out on the possibility of shaping your new destiny and reality - don’t get me wrong, it will be shaped, the question is who do you want to do it - you or someone else?

Some final pointers from David:

learn all there is to about change

break old habits

work on stress management strategies

whine with purpose (constructive criticism is good)

What an awesome talk!!! I hope I did it justice in my summarization - and I hope you’re all motivated to change the way you handle change in your institutions.

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07

Core Competencies & Learning 2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:40:00 -0400

Before even starting her talk, Helene Blowers posted her presentation information on her blog - check it out here.

Helene walked about the room using her new presentation remote (the same one I have) and talked to us about core competencies and learning 2.0 at her library. She told us a story of librarians in her library who would put an out of order sign on the printers if they were ever out of ink. When she asked why, people would say that it wasn’t their job - it was the IT staff’s job. That means that until IT gets into the library the patrons have to go without printing. By telling staff that they can’t do things like change ink, we’re telling them that technology is someone else’s responsibility -do we really want that? She didn’t so at her library they created some core competencies.

All librarians should know how to do some basic things such as saving documents, printing, entering timesheets online and basic troubleshooting. After that Helene’s library set up three more core levels. See all of the levels here. Other tools for coming up with core competencies can be found on Web Junction or in the newest Library Technology Report.

I like Helene’s definition of core competencies. Core competencies are developed to support changes that have already happened within our daily work lives. To address the future they decided to do Learning 2.0. This way they could make people familiar with the tools that are coming out now.

Before developing Learning 2.0, Helene tried tech talks - short talks on specific technologies. With these talks, she only reached 64 out of 540 employees and was only able to cover 2 topics - at that rate it would take 10.5 years to teach everyone everything she wanted.

Instead she started Learning 2.0 which was a 10 week program that introduced staff to 23 technologies - it was not a training program, it was a learning program and encouraged the staff to experiment with 2.0 tools. At the end of her program - 356 staff members had started a blog - a number that would have taken a lot longer than 10 weeks to achieve using the old way.

Towards the end, Helene asked us how many of us were encouraged to play at work - not many hands were raised!! Hopefully after this talk, people will go back to their libraries with ideas for change in the way technologies are taught!

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07, learning 2.0

The new information design

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:39:00 -0400

I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ve talked about others who have said it - but this topic bears repeating - over and over until it’s stuck in everyone’s head!! The way we design web pages needs to change - it’s changing all around us and it’s time to learn from others and use those new rules on our library sites. Today I got to see a test version of a new site for a public library (sometimes public libraries get to do the coolest things!) and it was amazing! I made notes and shared them with work (who are considering a redesign this year). Last week I wrote about user-centered design (an awesome topic). Today, I’m writing about Ellyssa Kroski’s talk on the new information design.

The fact is (if you hadn’t figured it out) the user experience with the web is changing. Users are changing the way they consumer information, the technology is different and most importantly the user’s expectations have changed. Today’s web design should be simple, social and provide alternative navigation structures.

Simple

Ellyssa included a quote from The Paradox of Choice: “The fact that some choice is good doesn’t necessarily mean that more choice is better … there is a cost to having an overload of choice.” And then showed us a picture of MS Word with all of the toolbars turned on!! That is bad choice!

New web apps are just showing the user what’s necessary, there’s a lower learning curve this way. This is also known as the “less is more” philosophy - we’ve all heard it - now we just have to apply it to our web redesigns. Lastly, and we all know this (but most don’t do anything about it) users are expecting a DIY (do it yourself) service model!!

Today’s websites (mostly web 2.0 sites) have clean simple designs. Sites need to be designed with a purpose, just for design’s sake (no need for flash on that library homepage just cause you took a flash class last year). Some formatting choices we’re seeing often are:

centered pages

round edges (provides a casual feel)

san serif fonts

lowercase fonts

large fonts for important concepts

simple persistent navigation

strong colors

bold logos

subtle 3D (like the site I saw a demo of) using reflections and shadows

original simple icons (like our intranet)

zen like feeling by using white space effectively (provides a fresh look)

Social

Just like every other talk at this Library 2.0 themed conference, Ellyssa reminds us that what used to be personal and singular is now shared (pictures, videos, etc). Users are expecting to interact socially with information on the web. This means commenting, ratings, send to a friend, subscribe via RSS, save for later and the ability to see all of that for the other users of the site.

Alternative navigation

Ellyssa showed us some need options for navigation (things librarians would never go for because they’re too chaotic). Some sites are trying to use a visual representation of what’s important on the site. Steve Krug writes in Don’t Make Me Think (great book by the way) that we don’t read pages, we skim them for important items - things that catch our eye. An example of an alternative method of navigation is a tag cloud. Others I’ve seen have included web like graphics linking pages together. Neither should be used as the main navigation - but the option can be there for users who like that sort of thing - it’s an easy addition.

Conclusions

Pretty simple! You have to evolve, be nimble and be willing to abandon bad ideas!! Doesn’t sound to hard - does it?

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07

Social Software at CIL

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:37:00 -0400

So, Meredith Farkas started off her talk by telling the audience that I bite!! Yep, that’s right - I’m a biter I’m just kidding, Meredith (and me later today) was in the worst room for presenting. There are 2 pillars in the middle of the room that make it nearly impossible to see the screen. If you’re short and can see the screen you can’t see the bottom half unless you’re in the front row - I’m not a fan of this set-up so far.

But, back to Meredith. She presented on “Social Software: Building Collaboration, Communication & Community Online” - yep that’s the title of her book (which I’m ready to get signed!).

So what are the characteristics of Social Software according to Meredith?

Easy content creation and sharing

Online collaboration

Conversations have changed! They’re distributed (blogs) and they’re in real time (IM)

Capitalizing on the Wisdom of Crowds. Del.icio.us is a great example of this - we can see what others have found interesting. Wikis - conference wikis in particular are a great way to collect knowledge from many sources

Transparency! If you’re a terrible professor (as Lee showed us) then everyone will know. On the flip side, you can make a human connection this way.

Personalization - it’s everywhere and RSS helps you facilitate it

Portability - everyone is using at least one portable device these days - once again RSS lets them take content with them

What can Social Software do for libraries?

Number one - it will help us disseminate information. We can use blogs for library news, research tips, new books, new librarian articles, things in the area news - so many options! Wikis can be used as subject guides. Dowling College Library is doing amazing things with podcasts. Next, we can get feedback from our patrons - like I wrote earlier, no one wants to bother with the comment box at your circ desk - but they’ll comment online. It also makes the patrons feel like a part of the library - like they’re making a difference.

It allows us to capitalize on the collective intelligence of colleagues and patrons! There is so much we can learn from the people who come into our libraries - why not give them a chance to contribute? Also, why not use a reference wiki and share with those around you - what are you afraid of??

What strategies can we use to implement these changes?

First - avoid technolust! Don’t make changes just cause they’re cool - do your homework - very similar to what David was saying. Think about whether patrons will use it - and I’d like to add that even if you think they won’t and it’s free and easy to set up - DO IT!! Why not give it a whirl, maybe you don’t know everything about your users.

Next, involve staff at all levels of planning - they also want to be involved. Help them play with the technologies and see what they’re about.

A great presentation overall - you can see the entire thing online - I love it when speakers get their info up nice and early!

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07

Library 2.0: Setting up the New Stuff

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:30:00 -0400

Next I heard David Lee King talk about Library 2.0 "Setting up the New Stuff". While I obviously have a feel for some of the basic technologies that David went over, I'm still glad that I attended this event so that I can share what I learned with you all.

David broke the talk into 3 parts. Part 1 - He answered some questions.

Why?

Just cause we can isn't a good enough reason (but it is a good reason in my opinion to play and experiment - if it's free and easy - why not?). We need to think about how these tools will meet the changing customer needs (Like Lee said in the keynote - web users want to participate on our library websites - they want our sites to act like the rest of the web), how it will help us stay culturally relevant and how we'll keep our digital spaces up to date.

What?

There are lots of options out there to choose from - once again think before jumping. Use your library's mission to help you pick tools that will help you meet those goals. Think about what you want the end result to be - do you want a place to share library news and have users comment? Then a blog might be your answer. David asked how many people had a comment box in their library - and only 2 hands were raised - but he made a good point, don't you think users would be more likely to leave a comment via a web form than that box sitting at the circ desk??

Who?

Specifically - who does the work? Both staff and patrons can do the work. Staff members should be chosen because of an interest in the topic - not because of the department they work in. Patrons can help by commenting, adding to wiki pages, and creating groups with a vested interest in the library and the library site.

How?

Always remember to include administrators and managers - you're going to need them (you never know when you might need to request to equipment). Consider how much staff time you're going to need - not just to start using the new tool - but to keep it going. Last and most importantly, ask yourselves - do we have willing participants, and if not, can we make them?

When?

To quote David "Like, yesterday". A lot of these tools have simple install files or sign up pages, it takes nearly no time at all - remember the Web 2.0 video (The Machine in Using Us)? Well, towards the end of that they create a blog in less than 10 seconds. That said, it does depend on whether you want to start big or small - if you want to use the predefined settings and templates or create your own.

So - that doesn't sound too scary does it?? Next David moved on to Part 2: Content, Container and Customer.

David asked us who had taken a writing for the web class - and not many people raised their hands - which is okay because it's not just about writing anymore - it's about video, voice, and so much more. You have to remember to keep a conversational tone when creating content for the web - this is a hard thing for some librarians because they were taught to be professional and proper at all times - well, that just ain't so anymore :) Once you get the hang of it it really does make it more fun to create for the web. He also showed us a few library blogs started in 2005 that haven't been posted on in as much time - you have to create often - if you can't don't try. If you think it looks unprofessional to write in a conversational tone, just imagine what it looks like to have a page that says "The newest news from our library" that was last updated in January of 2005.

Like I'm about to do with this summary - David says we don't have to write for just one place - we can re-use content all over. I post these summaries to at least 3 (sometimes 4) blogs. David uses blip.tv to upload his videos because they have a service that lets him send his content to a bunch of other places as well. How does this apply to your library? At Internet Librarian last year I attended a session on RSS & JavaScript. The gist was that you don't need to know how to code to get an RSS feed to print on your web page - you can use a blog and copy a bit of JavaScript and you're set. This is one of those ways where you care publishing in 2 places. You can write to the blog, but others can read the content on your library website, pathfinder, or links page.

I mentioned the inviting participation series of posts a while back - what a great time to bring them back to the forefront. There are 2 ways of inviting participation. One is passive and that is to write compelling content and allow comments. There is also an active way (that sounds like a great idea). On David's library's blog (Papercuts) they write a weekly post they ask a question (What's your favorite book? Who's your favorite author? etc) and that makes people feel like their participation is appreciated. This goes for both staff and patrons!

Next the container. Like I said before, do you want your page to use the default template or a fancy-schmancy one? This doesn't just go for you blog either - MySpace and other social networking sites offer you different design options. My recommendation is to play first and design later - make sure it's going to stick before you spend too much time on it.

Last (but not least in my book) the customers. One of the ways that social networking is "social" is that most of these tools have a friends or contacts list. These don't have to be your "real" friends, they can be your customers/patrons - by adding them as your friends they can easily subscribe to your content on Flickr, MySpace, etc etc. Allow your patrons to comment - this can't be stressed too much!! Our customers can also be creators, let them participate and let them contribute - it's what they want.

The last part was a list of the specifics for those I'll point you to Michael Sauers' summary (he was sitting next to me) - he did a great job of listing all of the specifics you'll have to think about - since it looks like I've rambled on enough already!!

Technorati Tags: cil2007, cil07