Reference 2.0 (sort of)

Text Messaging the Library

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 15:20:00 +0000

At the Roanoke County Public Library, we are just beginning chat reference. There is another option for getting reference questions too: text reference. This is where patrons can send messages to the reference desk by setting a text on their cell phone.

Keith Weimer, a librarian at the University of Virginia, has been involved in the text reference service at UVA and gave a presentation on the service at the 2008 Virginia Library Association Conference.

The system has been getting a fair amount of use. The system received 126 text messages from March 15 to October 4. Many of the questions they get are circulation related such as how to renew items and how to access databases. They have had a few reference questions.

Alan

See What Reference People Read.

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:13:00 +0000

Some Questions of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 21:15:00 +0000

Where can I find the poems of Poe? Where can I find information about the concept of chivalry? How do I add songs to an IPod playlist? Why won't my printer work?

The Solution to our Economic Problems

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 18:39:00 +0000

According to history professor Woody Holton (yes he is the son of former VA governor Linwood Holton), when the Constitutional Convention occurred in 1787, the economic situation was very much as it is now. There was a recession and nobody wanted to lend money.

James Madison thought we should crack down on debtors and taxpayers to solve the problem. Some said the U.S. was in a recession then because taxes were too high. In fact, taxes were higher than they were under British rule. Sounds like that scheme to avoid paying taxes didn't work very well (Alan's opinion).

Holton also talked about the how American Revolution war soldiers were payed with bonds. According to Holton, investors made a lot of money buying these bonds from soldiers at a low price and selling them later at a higher price.

Holton had a hard time finding a concrete example of someone who benefited in a big way from this bond investment scheme until he uncovered records of the activies of a woman name Abigail Adams. Yes, the Abigail Adams married to the beer manufacturer Samuel Adams.

Sorry, my mistake. She was married to John Adams who became the second U.S. president.

Some of the revolutionary war soldiers got so little money for their bonds, all they could buy after selling them was a set of new clothes and transportation home at the end of the war. Holton is currently writing a book about these bond sales called Abigail Adams, Entrepreneur.

Did the founding fathers think the U.S. was too democratic?

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:47:00 +0000

Woody Holton, a history professor at the University of Richmond, gave the keynote address at the Virginia Library Association 2008 conference on this topic. He claims that the founding fathers thought the U.S. was too democratic and they got together in 1787 to hold the Continental congress to make it less so.

Pennsylvania (PA) was an illustration of this problem. In 1787, PA had only 1 governing body rather than 2 (such as a house and a senate). PA had no governor and they had elections every year. Since most of the residents of PA were farmers and the state was so democratic, much of the laws were designed to benefit the farmers for instance making it difficult to get your money back if you loaned it to a farmer. On the other hand, these laws made things harder for people who weren't farmers such as the money lenders.

If you are interested in reading more about this, read Holton's book Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution.

Improving Customer Service with Mobile Communication

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:14:00 +0000

Jeff Crisci of Vocera Communications gave a presentation on this subject at the 2008 Virginia Library Association Conference. He is a representative for Vocera which created a markets a mobile communication system for staff. Their system is in about 500 hospitals and some libraries, most notably the Columbus Metro Library in Columbus, OH.

Jeff claims that you can serve more patrons without paying more money for staff time using this system. With the system, staff carry badges around their necks.

In order to communicate with someone in the building, you push a button on the badge, say "Call David" and the system will put you in touch with David. It is all done with voice commands. You hands are freee to do other things. You can call groups of people too. For instance, if the library director wanted to tell all the staff something at one time, she could speak the command to send the message to everybody and it would be sent.

The main advantage of the Vocera system is every staff member would have their own communication device with them at all times. If the pages are in the back of the library and the circulation desk needs them at the desk, they could call them directly.

If someone comes to the reference desk and has a question for a particular staff member, the question could be relayed to the staff member no matter where they were. If the staff member was in the lounge they could be contacted directly and the staff member could continue to eat lunch while they respond to the call because the system is hands free. Of course, they couldn't chew and talk at the same time, but you get the idea.

Another application would be to place a call button on patron computers that would be linked to staff badges. The patron could push the button and talk directly to a staff member. This would be especially helpful to communicate between patrons in a computer lab that is not close to a desk.

The Vocera system can communicate with the current phone system and works over an existing Wi-Fi network. The system should allow for more efficient use of staff. The system is a bit expensive though with a price beginning at about $10,000.

Alan

We Can Share Files!

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:50:00 +0000

In a very early post, I mentioned the use of Box.net. It's a free, online file storage service. Now they provide a widget that can be added to any site. It will allow users to easily download any files you wish to share. If you want your own widget, follow that link from within our widget to get started.

Animated Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:07:00 +0000

David

Now IPhone Friendly!

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:50:00 +0000

For an IPhone friendly version of our blog check out:

tinyurl.com/6bq74n

Powered by DoYouFeed.com, a site that will allow you to create IPhone friendly versions of sites and blogs. Even if you don't own such a device, you can still click the link and get a representation of what it would look like.

David

Consumersearch.com

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:54:00 +0000

This is an excellent site for finding reviews of a variety of projects. If something isn't in Consumer Reports, I check this site.

I have found some information that gives the site some credibility. Consumersearch is actually owned by the New York times (Direct (Online Exclusive) (May 9, 2007 accessed through Infotrac). That should lend it some respectability.

PC World recommended Consumersearch in 2001
(PC World 19.8 (August 2001): p.96 accessed through Infotrac).

Computer Shopper magazine named it the site of the month in 2003 (Computer Shopper 23.4 (April 2003): p.149(1) accessed through Infotrac).

A librarian said it was worth a click (Information Outlook 9.2 (Feb 2005): p.6(2) accessed through Infotrac). Give it a try.

Alan

Customer service (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Alan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:41:00 +0000

If you catch a fish for a woman, you can help her for one day. If you teach her how to fish, you help her for a lifetime. That is my approach to helping people with computers. When it is possible, I tell the patron what they need to do and let them do it. This way they may remember how to do it the next time. There are times when this doesn't work. If someone who has no computer skills wants to do something complicated involving the computers, I will often do it for them because it is just going to be frustrating for everyone if they do it.

Along the same lines, if a patron is a student in a class and needs to do research, I tend to show them how to do the research themselves rather than do it for them. I figure part of the reason they got the assignment was to learn how to do research. I wouldn't want to rob them of a learning opportunity. Now, I will get them started on their own and then research the topic myself as a way of helping. If a patron is not a student, I will just do the research for unless I discover that this is something they are going to need to do more than once and it is something they can learn with a reasonable amount of effort.

Sharon Hammond, a previous reference staff member, gave me this rule of thumb. If someone comes in to look at the one reel of microfilm, put the reel on the machine yourself. If someone comes in to look at more than one reel, it is going to be best for them and you if they know how to put the reel on themselves. You can expand that out to more things than using the microfilm machine.

Alan

Customer Service

noreply@blogger.com (Alan) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:30:00 +0000

My philosophy about customer service is do try and do more than people expect you to do. Then they can never feel short changed. At the reference desk (where I work), it is very important to acknowledge patrons immediately when they come up to the desk. Even if you are working on a hard question with the patron in front of you, take a second to ask the new arrival if there is something you can do for them quickly.This really applies to any kind of customer service.

When I go to a restaurant, I am always impressed when the server almost immediately comes by the table even just to say they will be back in a few minutes. No body wants to be wondering if any staff has even noticed you.I was standing in line at the customer service desk at Kroger one day. There was someone in front of me. I believe there were several employees behind the desk. No one acklowledge my presence. The employees were not talking to the person in front of me. I am not sure what they were doing. I felt invisible. I wondered how long I would have to wait before the invisibility spell wore off. I got kind of ticked.

Eventually, I said something. I am not sure what I said, but I am sure I said it with irritation. It turns out there was a good reason they hadn't offered to wait on me, but nobody had told me.I am also really big on telling patrons how long something is going to take.

If I am printing out a PDF, I will tell the patron it is going to be a few minutes. I am sure they would rather know how long something will take instead of wondering why it is taking so long. I also tend to exaggerate how long something will take. If it is going to take 4 minutes for the copy machine to warm up, I tell the patron it is going to take 5. That way they are pleasantly surprised when it doesn't take as long as they think it will. More on this next time

Alan

Web site to get your pictures printed and shared

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:17:00 +0000

A great web site to share your pictures is kodakgallery.com. Go to the website, create an account. After you upload your photos, you can email 50 pictures or more to your friends or family. You can also have kodak print your pictures and send them to any address. I know from experience that the picture printing feature works well.

Alan

All This Wireless is Making Me Itch

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Even if their cause was fully justified, I'm willing to bet they wouldn't get what they are demanding. But it's kind of "fun" to imagine what it would mean for us if they did. Follow the link:

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9952780-1.html?tag=cnetfd.mt

Del.icio.us - More CiL Knowhow

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:36:00 +0000

For those who don't know, Del.icio.us is the actual URL for a "social bookmarking" website. With an account, you can essentially store all your Favorites online. What's great about this site and its kind, is that you can tag your entries and search them accordingly. You also have the ability to see how many other Del.icio.us users have tagged a given site, navigate to their bookmarks and hopefully discover something new or useful. With a couple of browser addons you can tag and access Del.icio.us with a single click.

I'll admit we were already using a Del.icio.us account before I attended the conference. But we were only sharing links among reference staff. What I took away was the use of this service during a reference interview. As we find sites that will be useful for a patron we can tag them with the patron's name. Then they can view that custom link list directly via Del.icio.us or we could email them our results.

Library Elf - My First CiL Takeaway

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:30:00 +0000

This is a great little service that I hope we can push out to the public sometime soon. Many other libraries are doing so, as it is an affordable way to tap into some of this Web 2.0 frenzy. It's completely free and our catalog is already supported, so there are no costs to us or patrons. With a Library Elf account you can keep up with your checked out items. It goes beyond our own system by warning you of items that will be due soon. You can even adjust the amount of warning time for "almost due" notices. However, the real added value is the ability to have email and/or RSS notifications. To top it off, this isn't just one card per account service. Families can plug in all their library cards (even from different systems) in order to manage their accounts with one easy interface.

Computers in Libraries 2008

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:03:00 +0000

I'm back from the exciting CIL 2008. It was a fast three days, packed with too many websites, services, tips and tricks to recount in one go. I'll be collecting my notes and trying to put my experience in order for everyone to read about shortly.

A Solution to the Company History Question

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 16:52:00 +0000

If you have a patron that comes in and wants to know a history of a company, you can go to the Business and Company Resource Center to find that information. Sometimes patrons need to know a company history because the name of the company has changed and they need to know what the stock was worth for tax purposes.

To find out this information, you can go to the Company research center. This is how.

Go to our library home page (www.yourlibrary.us).

Click on Research on the left.

Click on Magazine and Reference Databases

Click on InfoTrac.

Click on Business and Company Resource Center.

Enter in the name of the company in the white square at the top. You could do General Electric as an example.

Click on the Search button.

You will be given a list of companies with similar names.

Click on General Electric Co. (GE) in the list.

You will see tabs at the top of the page. Click on the Histories tab.

~Alan

Google Tips

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 21:08:00 +0000

One of the most powerful features of Google is the ability to use the search engine to search a particular web site. Let’s say a patron comes in and wants information on a Dr. Pemberton at the University of Tennessee. You can search the university web site for the faculty members with this search: Pemberton and site: utk.edu.
With Google, you can limit a search to sites only in a certain domain. This is how: Type in your search term then an AND and then site:org. For example: “climate change and site:org”. This would search web sites that end in .org for the term climate change. You can also limit a search to the title of the web page by doing this: “intitle: climate change.”
I learned this at the Virginia Library Association Conference in the session titled Legal Research on the Open and the Deep Webs delivered by Paul Barron.

Exalead is Near

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 19:27:00 +0000

At VLA, Paul Barron recommended using the search engine Exalead. It is the only search engine that has proximity operators. This means you can tell it to find a term that is close to another term in a search. For instance, in Exalead you can do a search Stock near Exchange. This means it will look for web pages that have the work Stock close to the work Exchange. This is helpful when you don't necessarily need have the words next to each other, but better search results will have the words near each other.

-Alan

Civil War Books at VLA conference

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 18:53:00 +0000

At the Virginia Library Association conference, I went to a presentation by Mark Leepson about his book Desperate Engagement: The Story of Little-Known but Crucial Civil War Battle of Monocacy and Jubal Early's March of Washington, D.C.
In 1864, Robert E. Lee was surrounded in Richmond. Instead of consolidation his forces, Lee instructed Early to threatened D.C. Because Early was threatening D.C., Grant sent forces from around Richmond to defend D.C. and by doing so reducing the threat to Richmond.
I have read Leepson's book Saving Monticello, a fascinating account of how Jefferson's house was saved from ruin. Leepson has also written another book entitled Flag, an American Biography. Check back in for future installments about the VLA conference.

-Alan

David's 2007 VLA Conference Experience

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 12:23:00 +0000

This was my first experience going to VLA and to the Homestead. I'm not going to wax poetic about the drive up there or the elegance of the facility itself. Rest assured I found it all quite stunning.
The complementary valet parking got us in quick. We arrived just in time to see the president of VLA cut the ribbon to open the exhibit hall. The registration line was fast moving and with nearly an hour until the opening speeches, we explored the exhibits. A bag full of freebies (which were okay, but not as grand as I'd hoped) and a couple of pastries later, we were back upstairs listening to David Baldacci speak. Again, I won't try to truly recapture a moment you had to be there for, but Mr. Baldacci was a very entertaining speaker. His stories about becoming and being a successful writer were wonderful to hear.
After lunch, those of us that arrived together ended up going to different sessions. I can only recall those I visited. We'll see if anyone else can be conviced to blog their experiences later.

First Session: M-Learning - What Is Driving Mobility? Mr. Gardner Campbell (English PhD and learning technology expert) gave a wonderful talk about the trend of technological mobility. He began by complicating the definition of mobility itself, noting we are beyond the point of just using mobile PC's. We are well into an age of varied mobile devices, connected to computers, and they are changing rapidly. And we should all be aware that it is truly people that are mobile. Our basic physical needs and day to day lives are what drive the development of mobile technology. The current limits in hardware are the only boundaries. Looking ahead, he sees developments in the semantic web and increasing bandwidth leading to still unimagined leaps and bounds in the kind of information that libraries will be offering by 2020. Finally, assuring us that books will still be around, he pointed out a trend in Japan of ebooks by cellphone driving new users to libraries for even more print sources.

Second Session: More Than Tick Marks. I couldn't resist a session about creating meaningful reference statistics. Eric Ackermann from Radford University bascially showcased a piece of free/open source software called LibStats. With it you can track the time and details of transactions in a quick, but in depth way. In addition to simply recording these stats, it creates a searchable database of the answers given to patron questions. When information can't be found in the library, the fact of a needed resource can be noted for later collection development. Radford University has been pleased as punch with this for two years now. Overall, it has helped their reference department uncover what is actually keeping them so busy, while the old tick mark system appeared to be showing a decline in reference questions. The changing nature of our work just can't be captured acurately by hash marks alone. I'm hoping this might be the answer for us as well.

Third Session: Retool Your Library With Radical Trust. The description for this session was cryptic enough to draw myself and many others as we were implored to just trust the speakers with an hour of our time. Basically, radical trust means involving the patrons in the marketing and other aspects of library operation. The main example they gave was the adoption of LibraryThing into some librarys' cataloging schemes. What if we let the users add to the search terms or append comments to item records?
They also pointed out the need to move beyond rigid, theoretical concepts of what patrons need. Consider library furniture. At the end of the day, many libraries find tables and chairs moved around. Instead of thinking, "Why don't they put these back in the right place?" consider the fact your ideas of "order" might just be artificial and whether you'd be happier managing a museum instead of a library. Polling the public about potential new seating or interacting with them on various social networks are just a few more examples of using radical trust. Libraries need to be living spaces and respond somewhat dynamically to patron needs and "radical trust" is one conceptual approach to this end. If anyone is interested, I have the bibliography handed out in this session.

Home EC 101 (For Those Who Missed That Class)

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 17:09:00 +0000

A couple years ago I had a hard time finding truly interesting or informative blogs. However, several great finds have taken place over the past few months. I have to give credit to my wife, a librarian as well, for this one. Home EC 101 - What You Wish Your Mama Taught You is a fun and useful blog for all things related to the home. Scroll down the page and a list of categories are on the left. Whether you are looking for a week's worth of simple, inexpensive meals or how to get cat dander off the couch, it's here. Even if you aren't a typical "home maker", if you have a GTD attitude, this site will appeal to you.

Mother of All Keyboard Shortcut Lists

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:10:00 +0000

I don't know how many of you are out there with a laptop and no mouse, but keyboard shortcuts make routine tasks so much easier for everyone. Sure, they take a little getting used to, but you're likely to find them huge time savers.
Keyxl.com is an online, searchable database of shortcuts for a large number of programs, including many of the programs installed on the library's computers.

Why pay the high price?

noreply@blogger.com (RCPL Reference) — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:13:00 +0000

Every once in a while a patron will come along with the need to create or edit a pdf file, often it is a downloaded application form. They have no idea that this is really a proprietory file type and usually not set up to be fillable. They are even more surprised to hear the cost of a version of Adobe that will allow them to edit or create pdf files. Luckily a number of resources now exist that can do this for free and in a number of ways. This isn't quite new info, but many of us don't do this everyday. And it doesn't hurt to bookmark some tools ahead of time.

PDFfiller.com: An online service that allows you to upload pdf forms in order to fill them out. However, a quick and free registration is required to print or save the end result.

Several online conversion tools exist that can convert just about any file type to another. Zamzar, PDFonline, and expressPDF are just a few.

Then comes the freeware that you may have to install, but can do the trick. PDFcreator (find at sourceforge.net) and DoPDF (dopdf.com) are little programs that set up "virtual printers" that will allow you to convert documents into pdf via the print funciton of programs like Word.