ksscils598s08 - kelli

Final Project

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 6 May 2008 23:10:00 -0500

Final Project: Mission Possible

Everything is on my student wiki page...blip.tv files open in popup player over there.

Goals

- Perform a simple needs assessment of an information organization that you think could benefit from use of social software
  Links to WMM Videos hosted at Blip.tv:
  Video 1: Who is the organization? How can social software help them? (0:39)
  Video 2: Need #1 (0:39)
  Video 3: Need #2 (0:36)
  Video 4: Need #3 (0:42)
- Provide a brief project proposal for the implementation of social software application(s) at that organization.
  Link to Google Docs: Project Proposal
- Provide a "mock-up" or demo of how your "system" will work
  - Phase 1 (Tech Support FAQ Blog)
    Screencast for Phase 1 hosted at Blip.tv (7:37)
  - Phase 2 (Staff Resource Wiki)
    Screencast for Phase 2 hosted at Blip.tv (6:04)
  - Phase 3 (One Book One Community Wiki Mock-Up) (One Book One CommuniTEA Blog Mock-Up)
    Screencast for Phase 3 hosted at Blip.tv (7:17)

Johnson, Part Two

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:01:00 -0500

If everything "bad" is indeed good for you, what does this mean for the world of Libraries and/or Educational organizations?

Kaufman has it exactly right: not just in the sense of rewarding repeat views, but also this idea of creating a "conversation" with the audience. Conversations are two-way affairs; they're participatory by nature. But how do you create a conversation using a "dead medium"? You do it by engaging the minds of the audience, by making them fill in and lean forward. [Johnson, p. 164.] (emphasis mine)

Although this book was not written with the library world in mind, it echoes popular topics as they relate to library 2.0, web 2.0 and the participatory web. We need to engage our users and invite them to be active participants in the library. Everything we've looked at this semester can become our tools to do that. Reach out through blogs with open comments, start a community wiki, a community social network, etc. Involve the community in the conversation of how to evolve the library! People simply are not engaged by a static web experience anymore, and if the library takes on a role as an active participant in projects, we have the potential to reach non-users in the community. This isn't limited to the web either, programming could be more participatory and more engaging.

We recently were contacted by a (local) author who wanted to come do a presentation about his book, followed by a signing. Nothing new there. His twist: he wants to return the following month for a discussion of his book. A creative twist, since people rarely read the book BEFORE going to an author lecture/signing. He's turning this into a more engaging event and giving people who just bought the book a chance to enhance that experience.

A recent author recruited audience members to read portions of the book as if putting on a play. That was a participatory twist that other authors we have booked had not done. (podcast available at http://tinyurl.com/3ukcwf)

Another author event with audience participation coming in the next week:
Susan Strawn, assistant professor of apparel design and merchandising at Dominican University will present a slide lecture on the history of American knitting. She will discuss and show photographs from her recently published book - Knitting America: A Glorious Heritage from Warm Socks to High Art. Knitters are encouraged to wear or bring in their items for an impromptu fashion show!

A simple slide-lecture, or book signing isn't going to draw in the audiences of the younger generations who have grow up with the high exposure to media. (But the seniors may come out in droves!)

We need to rethink how we offer services to this new breed of patron in order to stay relevant.
Users have gotten used to engaging content on demand, where they want it, when they want it, and the library can explore that through podcasts, screencasts, video content, etc.

If I were Steve...

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:32:00 -0500

Second Life:
Check the schedules of events on InfoIsland and ALA Island and offer students choices of an event to attend. For example, on 4/30 there's a podcast on the importance of school libraries at ALA Island. I think experiencing actual content via the Second Life community could give a different perspective. I also recall some events through opal-online.org and some of Alliance's programming as only available via SL, and until now, I've avoided what were probably good presentations, just because I didn't want to be bothered with (and who had the time?) to learn how to "attend" in SL. There was a lot of Lincoln related programming last week.
Uh oh, used both content & community in the same paragraph.. apologies if I sound a little like Jenny & Michael. Must be something in the Great Lakes water. :-)
Does Michael's Dominican class have a SL assignment? Perhaps some coordination between the classes? Or a group project to meet up with a few people from scils598?

Beginning of semester, email:
Encourage students to create a yahoo or gmail address book of the classmates. Some of the tools allow searching for users via uploading email address books, and when we're trying to "friend" people, this could make life so much easier.

Technorati?
What's up with it? I subscribed at the beginning of the semester to posts tagged scils598 and the only 2 ever showed up in the feed (and both were mine. weird) Maybe we didn't cross-link enough. If it had worked well, I would suggest adding it to class.

Commenting:
I missed the weeks we didn't have to comment on posts. (It also ensures we're viewing each other's content promptly...oops procrastination admission.. not watching the rest of the gaming vids til my final project is done!)

Console Gaming:
Do you have resources to upload to a server video clips from the AADL DVD? There's something about seeing and hearing Eli announce the MarioKart race that isn't conveyed in what we covered. It's more than just playing games. If you can utilize it, I'll track down my coveted limited edition copy at work, which I won in a head-to-head DDR match at a program Eli presented.

Overall,
the content per week (readings, SDI content, assignments) seemed appropriate and balanced.

Kudos for developing and doing whatever you had to do for SCILS to offer this class as part of the program.

I think I have to agree with others who said this should be a required class. Not everyone is going to come out of this as an expert in all areas, but having a basic foundation in social software not only expands our options for collaboration while still in school, but also post-graduation. I think a lot of people shy away from social software because of the unknown, and the more people exposed to it, they'll see the benefits, or at least understand why our users are so fascinated with them.

Cybrary City: Palmetto Library, Lincolnshire, ALA Island

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:31:00 -0500

They had this Library 2.0 board that has info about 15 different Library 2.0 sites, just click on the blue board to go to the URLs they describe.

Pictured: description of companion website for the Farkas book.

Avatar wearing free t-shirt they were giving away at the SL Shawnee & Topeka Library.

Awesome furniture at PLCMC's SL location.

Encountered few other avatars. Perhaps I was on at an odd time.
One did approach and offer assistance in Cybrary City, didn't see another soul in InfoIsland
image 2: outside PLCMC chatting with a guide.

Also explored Lincolnshire... all about Abraham Lincoln. Illinois is doing a year-long celebration of all things Lincoln in honor of his 200th birthday in 2009. Wondering if this was part of a grant project. The whole InfoIsland thing in SL started with Alliance Library System here in Illinois, so I'm guessing there's some sort of tie-in.

The second time I logged in, I found games to play (image 3) at ALA Island (Salon Huron Area) http://slurl.com/secondlife/ALA%20Island/196/215/29

Overall, frustrating moving around. I got stuck a lot.
Found a lot of areas obviously intended for groups (Shawnee-Topeka's 3rd floor dance club) but was the only one there.

Right now, not seeing the appeal of spending time in SL... but if I had friends who hung out there, or "events" I wanted to attend, that could make a big difference.

Gaming Learning and Libraries Symposium 2008

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:42:00 -0500

This is a plug.

I went to the 1st Gaming Learning and Libraries Symposium in 2006 when it was sponsored by the Metropolitan Library System. (the first ALA sponsored one was in 2007)
It was a great experience, and Jenny works hard to get awesome speakers.

If anybody's interested in 2008...

It took a little digging on the Ning group to find the dates for the 2008 symposium:

If everything continues on track, the Symposium will take place November 2-4, 2008, with a hotel room registration rate of $169 per night (which includes free wireless access in the guest rooms) and free parking.

It will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel in Oakbrook, IL

Doubletree - Oak Brook
1909 Spring Road
Oak Brook, Illinois
USA 60523
Tel: +1 (630) 472-6000
Fax: +1 (630) 573-1133

TV/gaming

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:48:00 -0500

I was explaining Second Life to my husband, and he said

Oh, like that Simpsons episode where Marge was playing that online role-playing game and killed Bart?

(I think that episode was more like WOW, right?)

What would Johnson say about his familiarity with MMOGs being based on a Simpsons episode?

Which console for you?

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:55:00 -0500

You're in charge of getting a gaming system for your library or a local organization (you can make your own situation, just tell me...)
Let's pick a public library looking to implement gaming programming not only for the teens but the underserved (program-wise) gen-Xers

How would you research?

talk to teens in the library - which system(s) do they play, which games
talk to 20-40 year olds - same questions
visit Best Buy, talk to the salesperson; browse available titles for various systems
internet research: which games are coming soon?

What would your criteria be?

which games are available
are there enough multiplayer games?
cost (but this is Steve's money right now!)
hotness - is anybody going to be excited if we get a PS1?

Which do you think you would get? I'm a little undecided...

hot
game catalog (170 titles) will grow as more people purchase and create a market
harder to find a wii-- will impact market for games
variety of sports games
wii fit - potential for new group to meet at library

Playstation

PS3 184 game titles
PS2 1633 game titles
Variety of puzzle, quiz, games
Karaoke Revolution, DDR, SingStar, Guitar Hero
Retro games available that emulate classic Atari & Activision titles

I'll be one of the rebels here and say the appeal of group play for the Playstation games would make it a good choice to reach the teens and the genX.

Library could host 80's nights where only the older Atari games are played. There is also the possibility of patrons bringing in their own titles for events to expand the offering.

Since fewer people have the wii, the game selection could get stale quickly.

GenXers often don't use the library until they have kids and begin bringing them to storytime.
Gaming events could provide an alternative to the bar scene, and a way to meet others.

Game Screencast

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:44:00 -0500

Conquer Antarctica game screencast.

Recorded audio from the game due to the fact that the audio of the opponent got a little too colorful.

Click to play

Screencasting Best Practices

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 -0500

Headset mic more convenient than a desktop mic.

Record a sample and listen to it for volume levels, unexpected background noise, etc.

Go through the entire thing you intend to screencast before recording to plan out your script and steps. (if not on paper, just to make sure you have a general idea)

Make sure the relevant portions will be visible on screen with minimal scrolling.

Decrease clutter on your screen-- close unnecessary toolbars, tabs, etc. so users focus on what you're showing, not trying to figure out which websites are in your bookmark toolbar.
Note to Steve--what's that shortcut in your firefox next to twitter that looks like a seahorse?

Begin the screencast with a very brief statement of what the screencast is about, or learning goal.

Where the link to the screencast is provided, list the approx running time.

Add a title frame within the screencast (Camtasia)
Be aware others may hyperlink to the screencast, so a little branding might not be a bad thing!

Use callouts when necessary (but sparingly)

Recording a series of screencasts? Add an ending title frame with a hyperlink to the rest in the series, inviting the viewer to visit those as well.

Consider your audience. Will it be sufficient to instruct viewers to "click" on something, or should you specify right-click and left-click? Include other relevant information (i.e. if logging into the library user account requires a PIN, explain the PIN is the last 4 digits of their phone number, and it will show up as asterisks when they type it in to protect their privacy)

Avoid lingo or acronyms if the screencast is for the general public. (ILL, MARC, etc.)

Re-record ASAP when the interface changes or new features are added.
Recognize screencasting will require ongoing maintenance/updates.
Novelist now has a new interface, "Ebsco 2.0" coming in July.

Consider the audience when choosing publishing formats.

[re-record the screencasts made a year ago now that you've had more practice]

Everything Bad is Good for You

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:16:00 -0500

Johnson Reading

From what you've read (read first), is Popular culture (games, tv, film) just a method to "sophisticatedly deliver stupidity" (paraphrasing George Will)

Not at all.
Pop culture of our parents' generation was focused more on entertainment and escapism.
You couldn't put too much thought into the plotlines.

Why can't they get off the island, when the professor can build just about anything out of a coconut? Why were the Howells on that type of cruise?..seems they could have afforded better! How can Samantha act as if Darren isn't a new Darren when we can obviously tell the difference? How clueless is Aunt Harriet that she has no idea that Bruce is Batman?

It has evolved into a complex product that requires viewers/players to keep track of multiple story lines, complex character relationships, and put pieces together mentally to fill in the gaps in the information. Oddly, we still find this entertaining.

The complexity of today's sitcoms and dramas come to light when you try to explain what's going on to somebody who hasn't been watching from the beginning of the season or series. I often wonder while watching the Simpsons...how many people who watch are NOT getting the more sophisticated jokes?

As we develop and refine our skills to manage the complex information, we are becoming trained (or are keeping up our skills) to navigate the immense amounts of information we deal with each day. I'd be interested in seeing studies of adolescents & young adults who grew up without TV (and gaming) and whether they have issues managing complex information.

Overall, I suppose this is why I stopped watching ER after starting this SCILS journey. I've watched the show from the beginning, but now, I just want to relax a bit by 9 pm and not have to think so hard! LOL

Libraries and MySpace

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:42:00 -0500

I agree with the concept of being where your users are, but in reality, how many people are going to "friend" the library on myspace? Might this vary by community?

Should libraries actively try to friend people in the community?

How lame is it that our #1 friend is the local cable TV station?
http://www.myspace.com/lansingpubliclibrary

How about the rest of our friends? Other libraries and librarians. The rest are authors of mostly teen lit.
We've only had 1 request from an actual resident to be our friend, in the couple of years we've had a presence. No, our page isn't sticky.

Biggest issue: how do you get staff assigned to be responsible for updating the page?
We're all so busy, we don't have time to make our page cool.
I don't think that type of shift will really be seen until more administrators begin to see the library's presence on the web (library website and other social software sites) as relevant as a branch, and begin to fund and staff appropriately.

[if anybody has suggestions--comment!]

Another issue: MySpace should recognize that there are groups trying to make connections via MySpace and provide a group account signup, so we don't have to make up some weird birthdate.

Here was our Youth/Teen Dept's attempt to connect with the myspace users during Nat'l Library Week. http://lansinglibraryteen.blogspot.com/2008/04/meg-cabot-is-my-friend.html

MySpace How to #2

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:40:00 -0500

Adding a school & courses in MySpace.
2:44

Click to play

MySpace How to #1

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 23:39:00 -0500

R U a MySpace noob (or do you just look like one)?
1:37

Click to play

Boyd readings

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:44:00 -0500

Reading the first Boyd article was like a trip down memory lane of all the sites over the past few years that staff wanted to block via our internet filter.

I had forgotten all about Black Planet, and Asian Avenue!
We actually had an issue with Xanga, when a young staff member who was supposed to be shelving books was caught blogging on company time!
This also led to paranoia of another staff member who was concerned that he was blogging mentioning where he worked. (I think she was afraid he'd say something about her.)

We never see any of the high schoolers on Facebook. Everybody's on MySpace. Hmm. I guess that's evidence of the shift of the demographics and parental education level we're seeing in our residents?

#1 takeaway
Social networking sites have been around for 10+ years now.
#2 They're not going away. The popular sites may change, but the concept is here to stay.
#3 Some of the teens on the sites may be reaching out to kids like them...whether it's musical interest, orientation, religion, or..? These sites are their lifelines to coping through middle school & high school!
#4 to the users, these sites are as vital as breathing! If you're concerned about everybody on the computers being on social sites, buy a timing/reservation system.
#5 staff should try the sites to see why they could appeal to the kids :-)
#6 staff should be trained in how to handle reports of cyberbullying if a kid were to approach us to report it.

The military blocking myspace is interesting. My husband works as a civilian on a military base, and they can't access any Yahoo sites on the network. (People can find an issue with just about any site.)

Just 2 or 3 weeks ago, a mom came in who found her daughter's passwords and was trying to login to her myspace. Mom FREAKED out that her daughter was friends with this guy Tom. He looked way too old to be friends with her daughter (who lied about her age to get an account). Try explaining to a hysterical mother that Tom is everybody's friend. Now THAT was a fun day at work. :-)

Like Peanut Butter on the Roof of Your Mouth

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:10:00 -0500

sticky.

What makes MySpace/Facebook etc. sticky?

[pet peeve and not directed at classmates] {soapbox}
0. Crappy web design. You're forced to spend longer on the page due to inexperienced people attempting to apply templates that make their pages unreadable. {/soapbox}

Real sticky reasons:
1. Sense of belonging. Tweens, teens, and people stuck going from work to school with little other time can feel connected to their friends on these sites.

2. Creative outlet. (see point #0)

3. Online persona, only share what you want to share. Freedom to control information.

4. Sometimes you have to go where the content is.
Grandson's birth announcement and first photos: myspace
the other daughter-in-law uploads tons of photos of another grandson to myspace, and is now uploading pics of her current baby bump. The "kids" don't call or email, my husband & I are on myspace because her profile is set to private, and only friends can view pics.

Ning post

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:45:00 -0500

what advantages/limitations do you see with using a Ning?
how could you use a Ning in a work environment?

I attended a conference last November, and they set up a Ning group.
Publicity for the Ning group came pretty last minute, and it didn't look like many people used it.

Somebody posted to it, suggesting a meet up for dinner the night before the conference began.
2 people responded on Ning.

Advantage: great way to get a group together, especially when everybody is from out of town, great to go out with a group instead of by oneself.

Disadvantage: People didn't think the whole thing through enough, or are too afraid to upload a photo.

Who was I meeting for dinner?
Godzilla & a cat. Seriously.

Even posting an avatar pic would have been better to figure out who we were supposed to be meeting!
Luckily, I had met "Patzilla" at a previous conference and knew who I was looking for. (He always puts a pic of Godzilla on his name badge)
I uploaded a real photo, and the other woman found me in the crowd. Another joined us since she saw the announcement on Ning.

Other Advantages:
easy enough to use
can create your own little group
it's not myspace or facebook
can tag entries in the forum

Other Disadvantages:
for a conference, this was very temporary, and contributions have pretty much died, post conference.
not limited to members-only--the rest of our conference content was restricted to CODI members

Camtasia Screencast: LinkedIn

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:22:00 -0500

This screencast is a brief tour of LinkedIn.com
5:53 long

(If you decide to join, why don't you use your "real" email address so we can continue to build our network after we all abandon our scils598 email addresses!)

Click to play

Link to this episode's .mov file on blip.tv

Jing screencast

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:29:00 -0500

How to change the default save option in word 2007 from .docx file type to .doc

Recorded with Jing.

1:21 long.

Learn how to change the default Save option in Word2007

YouTube Favs

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 20:57:00 -0500

I did enjoy many of the entertainment videos, but found the educational ones more engaging. I do tend to watch a LOT of public television as recreation though...and I don't have cable TV. My favorite show? America's Test Kitchen. I LOVE the science behind why the cooking works.

Gail's How to make a PB&J was informative, and very descriptive.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=layrDMYZEjQ
I remember back in the day, learning BASIC programming, and we had to write instructions on how to blow up a balloon (as an example of computers doing exactly what they are told) and the beginning reminded me of that.

Gail: who in your house puts mayo on a PB&J? My dad used to make PB & Butter (no jelly). He also used to make creamed corn sandwiches, or ketchup sandwiches. (he grew up poor)

Carina's was very professional, I felt like I was watching a clip of a PBS show, or a segment of one of the morning news/interest programs. http://youtube.com/watch?v=LPLq79I6gbc

Lorri's was informative, and is getting the most hits from our class so far, I'm sure people struggling to understand alopecia will view this one for years to come. http://youtube.com/watch?v=zY-wnQTcoeQ

Emma-- you did a great job with the editing of your wedding video. That seemed professional level! :-) http://youtube.com/watch?v=M_NkTI2QS6o

Educational Videos, Entertainment Videos the Grudge Match

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 23:04:00 -0500

As more people turn to the Internet for their primary information source, it is natural to also look for instructional or educational content. Plenty of things are easier to do once you've seen how. With the ease of today's video recording methods, and free software, you don't have to be a professional video producer to share your specialized knowledge with the world.

One of the things that is probably a barrier to educational video really exploding is that it is very challenging to get a point across in just a few minutes.

This got me thinking about something I had heard about the "Sesame Street Generation" (I'm a member) and how years of watching Sesame Street had fried our attention spans. I guess that's why I like Steve's 10 minute videos better than other prof's hour-long ones? :-)

I found this old article from 1975, which is pretty interesting to read now, as the author never could have imagined how the Internet would change the delivery of information.

An excerpt:

What I wonder, given Sesame Street’s forty to fifty different items per hour and its assumption that children have at best a three-minute attention span, is whether one can reasonably expect a child who’s been taught the alphabet this way to focus happily on a static printed page. My guess is that the answer is no, and that what Sesame Street is doing more than anything else is conditioning kids not to read but to watch television. One study has already shown, not surprisingly, that the least popular segments on the programme are those in which books appear. I can’t imagine Sesame Street graduates growing up to read Victorian novels. I can’t imagine them sitting through a speech by Robert Stanfield. Or reading a serious magazine or newspaper to find out what’s going on in the world. I can imagine them watching lots of programmes like Mannix, and keeping up with the world through the three-minute segments on TV newscasts. (Wolfe, — Saturday Night, July/August 1975)

from http://www.grubstreetbooks.ca/essays/sesamestreet2.html

full essay begins here

Flickr

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 22:29:00 -0500

We all seem to have piles of books (duh!)

We also tended to upload a lot of photos that included signs or other textual elements.
It's almost as if we read things!

There are some differences in hobbies, and places we call "home" but overall, looks like we're all chained to our computers for the time being.

As one of the few in class without a pet or kids at home...we used to have a dog, he now lives at a doggie old-folks home (as far as we know, he's still there) because he just needed to retire. We weren't home enough and none of the kids could take him, he would have been too old to get adopted elsewhere.

I was surprised at how few photos of Rutgers were uploaded. Was I the only geek walking around campus at orientation snapping photos in the early morning?

Entertainment Video

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 22:20:00 -0500

A short tour of weird things we've brought home from vacation.

Link back to the video

My YouTube page

Educational Video

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 21:05:00 -0500

Click to play

Radio stars reclaim the video (blip.tv)

How we've come full circle from MTV

my show page

Long Tail - Chap. 8-10, 14

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:33:00 -0500

The questions: * can libraries as a whole effectively utilize the "long tail" of our collections? Is it worth it? What would we have to do?
* OR, what question didn't I ask that I should? why should I ask it?

Anderson, p. 132

Who knows--with good search and recommendations, a bottom 80 percent product could turn into a top 20 percent product.

There it is. Why can't libraries effectively utilize the Long Tail?

1. OPAC's suck. (http://tinyurl.com/hsyvv)
Overall, although the P stands for public, they're not easy for the public to use.
Some vendors are working on this harder than others.
We don't have spell-check on our OPAC, and it was promised in a future release. That release was canceled when the vendor stopped development on our ILS.
But, even if you allow things like patron comments in the OPAC, it's only as good as what your community provides as input. Some communities will embrace the opportunity , but Ed Vielmetti doesn't live in my town.

2. Technology is taking away some of the opportunities for recommendations.
Self-check, remote users, frazzled staff dealing with one more computer issue--taking them away from their desk...these can result in fewer quality face-to-face opportunities with the patron. The remote user who searches for a book (at least with our OPAC) isn't offered a list of other books they might like.

Readers Advisory products like NoveList are so underused. (According to my coworkers, the recent NoveList redesign has made it harder to use.)
EBSCO will soon launch a new non-fiction product as a companion to NoveList. If these products recommend titles that are not included in the top 20, this could tap into the long tail, but the first hurdle is getting staff and the public to use the tools.

Readers Advisory people are also underused.
Where did patrons get the idea that they're bothering the staff by asking a question?

3. Weeding needs to be revisited, if Readers Advisory is recommending less popular titles, then those titles need to be on the shelf.

4. Get staff to talk, blog, wiki, podcast (whatever) about what they've read, and then tie that in with a recommendation for another title.

How quiet is my house?

ksscils598s08@gmail.com (Kelli Staley) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:06:00 -0500

A mashup... me attempting to record a podcast combined with Murphy's Law.

Link to Quiet at Kelli's House