How the Heck do I Use That E-Reader??

This post on Dear Author walks a novice through the process of buying or downloading a free e-book, throwing it on the computer, and laying it on that Kindle, Nook, iPad, or BookBoy (OK, I made that last one up.)

12 Ways Libraries Are Good for the Country

This magnificent list, updated for 2010 really boils it down.

Your Favorite Authors, Their Favorite Books + Awards

Year end approaches and that means best of lists.  And tons of 'em.  There should be a list of the best of the best of lists.  OK, there probably is.

Anyway, want to know Dave Eggers' favorite read of the last year?  Jump over to this Salon.com article.  The very first page is a book I want to read as reviewed by Paul Guest.

Also, as usual, awards abound.  How about The Bad Sex in Fiction award??

Ebooks, Ebooks, and More Ebooks

Lots of buzz with the possible unveiling of the Google Editions reader within the month.  This would provide independent booksellers with a way to finally sell e-books to everyone but Kindle owners.  300,000 titles in the cloud for customers.  As a librarian, I am coming to really dislike that Kindle, since we can't loan anything on it.  Soon: the iPad, etc.  But never Kindle?  Read about it here.

Also, good quote from a book typsetter on what e-bookers are missing: "In fact, Mr Carter doesn't own an iPad, Kindle, or other reading device, as he is waiting for them to mature. (He does own an iPhone.) He frets that, as things stand, reading devices and programs homogenise all the tangible aspects of a book, like size or shape, as well as font. They are also poor at hyphenation and justification: breaking words at lexically appropriate locations, and varying the spacing between letters and between words. This may sound recondite but it is a visual imprint of principles established over the entire written history of a language. "Maybe people who grow up reading online, where every book is identical, don't know what they're missing."  Full article in The Economist

Library School? Part Two

"Did they get all the face out of my keyboard?"

Library School?

If you're considering library school, you may want to watch this video...

Human Library Project

Toronto Public Library wants to help others go the Atticus Finch route----taking that short trip in another's footwear.

Looks really promising, and a great way to teach patrons tolerance of one another if that's a problem in your library.  Our tolerance gap seems to land somewhere around teens not being able to understand the homeless population. 

This project also addresses immigrants, former inmates, models, and soldiers.

Could be fascinating...

Another "Hero Librarians" Article Can't Hurt!

I love sharing these.  Here's a list of 20 of us who save the world. 

And I remember Karma of the New Mutants from the old comics-reading proto-librarian I once was. 

(I also remember cataloging all of my comics back then as well, but that's another posting)

Go librarian hero image!  Here's to it becoming cliche!!

Bookmans Does Book Dominoes

In watching this amazing, well-edited video, I was impressed not only by the style, content, and pure fun of it.  But at how many of these are on Youtube. 

Apparently, people like to line books up and knock them down like dominoes. 

Try that with your Kindle.

What 10 Classics Were ALMOST Called

I don't know if I would have read this as The Dead Undead.

Read here for 9 more by Orwell, Rand, Fitzgerald....

I Guess We're Like Superheroes

Lots and lots of words recently about how we're the mightiest force of good there is.

I'll take it.

Here's a recent article in Huffington Post about academic librarians.

Good reading, makes me think Marilyn Johnson's great This Book is Overdue.  Librarians as pillars, as educators, as heroes...

Hopefully more on this soon!

ILA 2010 Providing Advanced Technology for At-Risk Young Adults

Darren Thompson, Jim Nelson, Blue Island

At least 20 other nations exceed us in Math & Science.  To fight that, created something called The Tech Annex that has not only the tech, but artwork made by teens, to be inviting.  

Need people with skills to share.  They may already be on staff.

Difficult to engage kids who may have been told there are no possibilities for them.  Takes a lot of convincing.

Not a new idea: Transformation Lab, Denmark.  USC 2007 Library of the Future also shows a video of how different disciplines can help build the libraries of the future.

Video Production:

5 videocameras w/tripods, lights & reflector, green screen, wireless, non-wireless mics, reference monitors, Adobe Production Premium, Adobe Premier Elements, DVD, VHS players w/capture cards.  

Audio Production:
Mics, headphones, PA, mixers, keyboard, guitars, pedals, amps, electronic drum set, FL (Fruity Loops) Studio, Audacity.

Put it all on Youtube.  Lots of oral history done this way.

Google sketch.  Lego Mindstorms NXT for robotics-focused activities.  Helps with critical thinking, promotes an interest in Math & Science.

Digital photography, another way to engage--lenses, style of shot, exposures.  Animate them in stop motion.

Graphic & Fine Arts -- Wacom Bamboo Tablet, CS4, fine arts materials (markers, paper, pencils, paints, charcoals, etc.)

Cons--noisy, chaotic, teens get distracted, projects are lengthy, hard to manage equipment, hard to find staff who can effectively use the equipment.

Pros--Good for kids who can't take these classes, promotes create thinking, math & science, teens grow, nurture others, encourages collaboration, increased potential for new programs, staff & community can use equipment, promoting partnerships--good way to get support from local businesses.

Gaming is not part of it, unless there is a tournament.  Seems like game production would be another avenue, though.  IT only appears to complain about the noise.

ILA 2010 The Myth of "The Digital Generation"

Siva Vaidhyanathan


The invocation of a digital generation, the tools, how we act...these assumptions are bad for us.

Print is Dead a book by Jeff Gomez.  He asserts that people now Google vs. going to the library.  No evidence. Siva's classes are filled with 18 year old's who don't do digital well.  4 or 5 do.  120 don't and are lost.  Most live in extremes.  Even though they do it, they don't fully understand it.  Like driving a car, but not being able to fix it.  Makes us users/consumers vs. experts.  Using a computer vs. engaging in open-source software or write for Wikipedia, for example.  Print is Dead is a fallacy.  Students tell him they prefer a bound book to a Kindle.

This kind of talk willfully ignores the vast difference in skills, those that are not socially or economically privileged, ethnic differences, availability of broadband (nonexistent in rural America) etc.

The very idea of generations has no sociological  or historical precedent.
Experiences are so diverse that we all experience things very differently.  Generation X is arbitrary.  The baby boom was a demographic event.  What do they share in identity?  Medicare, that's it.  We're too diverse.  Attitudes change gradually.

Henry Jenkins "Talking about youth as digital natives implies that there is a world which these young people all share and a body of knowledge they have all mastered, rather than seeing the online world as unfamiliar and uncertain for all of us."


Exoticizing people is deeply troubling.  We're all immersed in digital tools.  What matters is what we do with them.  Playing with Facebook vs. building something.  Making a prepackaged PowerPoint presentation.


We start to market to these assumptions, young people adapt to this.  We shift to work on speed and size vs quality and utility.  Article about this here.


History is not static; it is worth studying youth.  We are connected with everyone in the world now.  Real time contact and information around the world.  Identity is changing.

ILA 2010 Goodbye Reference Desk, Hello Information Commons

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Patrons evloving, must evlove service to reach them where they are working. Evaluate, synthesize, create. Information Commons may be the way to work information literacy, technology, troubleshooting, subject specialists, added to collaboration, social aspects, creating a dynamic diverse service model. Ripe to move beyond academic libraries. Change in attitude & policy vs. huge outlay of money.

Honor the Past & Invent the Future

“The conundrum for companies is that good products or services aren't enough.”  Made To Stick By CHip & Dan Heath:

"Arriving at meaningful solutions is an inevitably slow and difficult process. Nonethless … better is possible. It doesn't take genius. It takes dilligence...”

Engagement – taking part, devotng effort & attention, being in gear. Understand needs, bring our gift to bear to take needs, map them into something more than users can imagine. The Cluetrain Manifesto, people are in conversation with information, “the human voice is unmistakable and can't be faked.”

Innovation – Book: How to Get Ideas. Be idea prone. Need thousands more than we ever implement. Be entrepreneurial, rebound from setbacks to success.

Value – Degree of importance, relationsjip between cost & expectation. Could be economic, social, utility, justice, impact, outcome.

7 Levels of Change by Rolf Smith:

LEVEL 1:Effectiveness DOING the right things

LEVEL 2:Efficiency DOING things right

LEVEL 3:Improving DOING things better

LEVEL 4:Cutting Stopping DOING things

LEVEL 5:Copying DOING things other people are doing

LEVEL 6:Different DOING things no one else is doing

LEVEL 7:Impossible DOING things that can't be done
Level 8 (added): Audacity – Doing things that just aren't done.

Several areas of the library serve different collaboative purposes. They meet the needs of academic patrons. Gaming center, social cafe, reference desk, but as just a small facet of a several area multi-floor library area. Twitter to share reference tips. Chat references are longer, more complex. Texting librarians. All ways of pushing out the commons. Suggestion board “what book would you like us to buy?” Jing captures a URL and sends it back.

Loyola University

Information Commons meant to be service oriented. A good partnership with IT is crucial. Wireless, Internet Access, Access to experts (librarians, IT). Three C's.

Collaboration – Group work, respond by having 30 group study rooms. Online reservation system. Large tables, Soft seating clusters. Physical, technological collaboration.

Connectivity – iPad, cellphone, constantly connected. Wireless, 222 computers, 50 laptops. Restaurant style pagers for when a laptop is turned back in.

Community – Cafe, etc. has made the library the de facto student center.

Had 2 reference desks. Had to cut the one in the library, put staff just in the IC. Decline in reference questions due to move, but also a shift to RUSA guidelines (no directional, facility questions) for stats. No longer have to answer tech questions—frozen laptops, printer problems, etc. IT person answers those while reference staff answers reference questions.

ILA 2010 The Googlization of Everything – Should We Care?

Siva Valdhyanathan – “The Googlization of Everything: How One Company is Disrupting Culture, Commerce, and Community, and Why We Should Care."

Copyrights, Copywrongs. The Anarchist in the Library.

Google is 12 now. It “got” the web in way no one had back then. Tamed the chaos.

Now—It is the largest, richest advertisement company in the world. Unmatched processing power, banwidth (beyond governments). Has computational capacity that could never have been predicted.

A Dangerous Level of Dependence

We are dependent on it. Daily habits, expectations---the lens through which we discover the world.

Missed opportunities, crowding out of other ways, we settle for what we get for free. We ned to imagine better ways of doing things. We are in the unfortunate situation where people prefer Google to the library—at least, those too rich to need to go to libraries. Google's imperitive is to enhance shareholder investment.

Should they be regulated? We don't do it well enough. Copyright, antitrust, privacy laws regulate it.

3 Levels of Content Delivery:

Search: “Rank & Link,” 3rd-party servers searched, ranked, linked. Businesses thrive & fail on this. There should be more transparency, though.

Host & Deliver: Gmail, YouTube, Blogger, Buzz—all have strong competitors. But Google has created its own universe from which trumps often better competitors. Power users must register to create & use content.

Capture & Serve: Street View, Earth, Book Search, Maps, etc. Google-izing the world.
Google Wants a Single Standard – It is the government of the web. It has been in trouble over Youtube videos, one in Itally of a young man being bullied. Highest level of responsibility. Street View breaks this. In trouble in Germany for this. The general exemption from intermediary liability applies more to the Search than especially the 3^rd, but also the 2^nd. “Notice and Takedown” is not good enough. Google is more a network than a conduit. Google wants to be held to a low level of responsibility. They make up for the failure of public institutions. Corporate responsibility—Whole Foods steps in to a gapwhere the food industry is killing us. Walmart stepping in to deliver water to New Orleans, saving thousnads of lives.n It shouldn't have come to that. Are we so weakened that Google is digitizing our books rather than all public institutions steeping in to do this better and for the benefit of all?

Nancy Kranich – “The Googlization of Libraries: Should We Care?”

Is Google a Library?

Siva's question.

The Google Generaion is all of us. Simple, fast, 24-7. No more information literate than those who came before. Generation doesn't know the meaning of information they find. Study after study shows they prefer simple searching vs advanced, assume search engines understand queries, and find it difficult to develop effective search strategies. Younger people aren't visiting libraries in person. 89% of college students begin through Google or something like it. 2% at libraries (OCLC). How people learn about this information is usually not from us.

Think everything's on the web. And super-fast. Citations are DOA, would have to walk and get the article. No focus on privacy. No evaluation.

Evaulation – Young people cannot research, spend very little time on checking its accuracy, authority, lack of bias. Critical thinking is also lost. Safe libraries is a good example of a bad website.

Most collect information, hardly reading & digesting. Download, save, print out the information. Don't even use much of it.

Libraries – People are intimidated by them. The library is full, but the desk is empty. Often kids head to the public library instead of the academic desk.

Website – It is a gate that keeps people out. Per our organizational structure, despite what the user wants, how they will look for information. Simplify. One click access. Make it visible to Google. Open ourselves up to the net.

They Don't Understand Collections – Important to be where users are, but have to be useful.

Help Learners Get the Tools to Evaluate and Use Information: Librarians are not about “search” anymore. Must reorient to where users really need us. We should focus on evaluating and using, giving people the skills and guidance to help with what people find. We must help the overwhelmed navigate and critically assess the overwhelming torrent of news and information. Knowledge creation.

Libraries Must – make the Google Generation as knowledgable in how to evaluate as they are in using the tools.

Libraies – Don't bombard you with ads, unlike Google. One of the few places we are not used, seduced, tempted...every user is not a consumer. We are a public instution, not a firm.

Catalyze – Ratehr than being a system, we have a bigger impact in being this sanctuary. We have changed their lives for the better.

IBM & Microsoft were regulated. Will Google? These companies intersect very little. Will Google exist in 12 years? Will it be different? Less a creative force as it becomes a company driven purely by profit? Will the gated communities like Facebook demolish it? Will Apples Apps take away attention? Google books has only been going for 6 years. Too much responsibility for a company that may disappear. Blind faith is a bad idea. We navigate the world successfully with help from each other (librarians), not technology. First result is good for shopping, not learning. Google datamines and pulls up top results by what we'll buy – Wisconsin “Green” search brings up 8 Green Bay Packers sales sites.

Information Literacy – What is a better term for it? Libraries must partner with schools and other community organizations to figure this out.

Volunteers as a Service, Partnership, and Opportunity ILA 2010

Tobe Liebert, Hinsdale PL
What do MLS's want out of volunteering?  Keeping up skill sets.  Filling a gap in the resume.  A professional reference.
Starting Point?  Most libraries with volunteers have forms, policy manuals, etc. online.  ALA's Managing Library Volunteers good basic manual--not extensive, but process.  Could be 5-7 pages, good to have to pass along.
*Each volunteer application has a different set of questions.  Children's, Teens, Adults.


Where Does the Work Come From?  What Do They Do?
Core functions--shelving, staffing circ desk.  Some small libraries rely on volunteers do do all shelving, circ, etc.  Larger libraries generally use them for home delivery, book sale.  Daily operations.
Special Projects--definite starting and ending point.
Friends -- They tend to be sovereign and are supported by the book sale volunteers.
*Department managers generally contact with projects they need help with.  Occasionally, sending an email.  Department head will train--for example, head of adult services trains in shelf-reading.
*Patron privacy-- There is no concern for them doing circulation work, shredding, taking about patrons.  Depends on library.  But legally, it is OK.
Community Service--Can be better than expected.  Confidentiality, these people are embarrassed, sheepish.  Mustn't be major offenses.  Staff can know they're doing CS, just not why.  Coordinator knows why.  Ask "what are you serving for."  It's public--so they can't not tell you.  You can ask for paperwork.  We determine which kind of crimes we allow--anything relating to children & theft is an automatic "no."


Recruiting--Video editing workstation available to patrons with Adobe Premier Elements.  Time consuming for librarians to teach.  A volunteer could set up times to meet them.  No success yet.  High school computer club or AV club is supposed to get back to him.  Avg adult volunteer would likely not be a good choice.


Controversy-- Library Journal Charlotte Mecklenburg article about how they kept branches afloat by using volunteers here
Fair Labor Standards Act -- a public institution does not have to count volunteers as employees as long as they are doing a different kind of work.  Cannot force employees to volunteer additional hours doing the exact same kind of work as well.

Liability -- Insurance will likely have a "volunteer rider" which should cover volunteers.

Amy Alessio & Dan Schnepf, Schaumburg 
Teen Core -- Every meeting, does something different: crafts, AV, very loose organization--These are mostly middle schoolers.
*James Kennedy was filmed by the teen volunteers, shot and edited film in about 1.5 hours.  Teens staff the study room to help the 4th-8th grade kids.  James also teaches improv.  Lots of hits.
Year of a Thousand Hours -- 1800volunteer.org.  People can volunteer from home.  Teens knit at home.  Taught 12 of the girls to knit, grew from there.  Knit cafe, every Monday night.
Teen Carnival -- Raises food for food pantry.
Student Advisory Trustees -- 2 teens sit on the trustee board.

High school – teens want to help the world. Move it back to local. Knitting project is one way of doing this.

Texting – It is complicated to be able to do it for free. Get permission from various service providers. Use phone calls, emails.

Food, gift cards, drawings, etc. to reward them.

Varying – Teens get bored. Have them work on collection development, learning, pulling information.

Make it matter – Help select magazines. Design programs. They can bomb, it's OK.

Allow a lot of leeway – They need to call in.

Staff – Every employee works with them. Keep expectations real.

Staff2 – Volunteers become employees. Some get their MLS, become librarians, pulls them in for the rest of their lives.

Diane Hnatkiewicz-Norris, Orland Park

Reaching Teens – PA announcements in library and schools up usage.

Junior High – Need to get out of the house. Junior pages has grown to 43 kids. They sign up to help with SRP, especially crafts with tons of set-up, clean-up. Chores must be delineated exactly or teens will get lost, chat.

General Teen Volunteers

*Sign-up – Takes a long time, but they learn new skills even as they sign up.

*Attendance – Records are kept.

***Readers & Leaders – Teens teach preschooler pre-reading skills using Every Child Ready to Read guidelines. Training involves moving eyes left to right, letter recognition, setting up and using different materials, documentation, assigning homework. 4-6 week programs in fall and spring. 12 teens, 12 pre-schoolers, fills up every time.

*Computer Lab Volunteers – Kids are able to do their homework, teen helps release print jobs, takes money, helps with documents. No training required.

***Teen Techies – Sharing skills/ideas in bartering system. Adult teaches guitar, volunteers teach Facebook, Twitter, uploading photos, etc. Put call out in newsletter. Friday nights, 6-7, drop-in. Training teaches patience, privacy, confidentiality, no cells, arrive on-time, call in sick, respect, don't exchange personal information,etc. People need one-on-one help. Adults can't give payment or gifts of any kind, though they are appreciative & kind. Register through e-vanced. Extending the hours.

***Book Buddies – Pairs teens with preschoolers and they simply read together, successful. Bilingual bookbuddies, teens teach younger kids another language.

Karin Slaughter: We Need Libraries

"Libraries are the backbone of our educational infrastructure, and they are being slowly broken by bankrupt municipalities and apathetic politicians. As voters and taxpayers, we have to demand that our local governments properly prioritize libraries."

Article here.

No Camping, No Wheeled Vehicles, Please

I feel like I've seen many of these rules broken already in my short tenure in the public library.  Great McSweeney's piece on rules that need to be in place in libraries here.

I guess I'll have to leave my firearms at home.

Library Trend?

This NPR story describes a buzz level approaching ubiquitous love for libraries.  I'd be all right with that!

Article on Oak Park Readers!

The article I wrote about my library's quarterly readers' party just appeared online.  American Libraries did a bang up job.  Should be in the August issue, on page 29.  But you can read it here beforehand.

ALA 2010: Who Inspired, What I Saw

Wow:

As a presenter in my first-ever out of town conference, I may have been more receptive.  But this is the most productive conference I have ever attended.  I met tons of interesting people (from shaking hands with authors to chatting with amazing colleagues in line), lucked out in that most presentations were useful and entertaining, saw some great folks (like Storycorps) on the exhibits floor, and I feel like I walk away a better librarian with plenty of ideas to share and implement.

I put these here so I can access them, but more so I can share them with others.  Notes from all sessions can be found on posts throughout the following entries on this blog.

The first session I attended was Nancy Pearl interviewing Mary McDonagh Murphy about To Kill a Mockingbird’s anniversary and Murphy’s amazing-looking documentary, specifically.

Then I learned about cloud computing and open access.

I then sat in on the YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens roundtable. I walked 6 blocks in the 100 degree heat index to see this, was the only spectator there, and learned a lot, both about graphic novels for the collection and about how roundtables function.

Ended the day by seeing some old friends, one of which treated me to a tour of her place of employment, NPR. Absolute thrill of thrills.

That was Saturday. Here’s Sunday:
I began the day with a typical Stephen Abram lecture. In other words, my mind was blown wide open with the possibilities as well as the things we should stop doing. Brilliant lecture.

Then I headed over to the panel I was fortunate enough to be part of: Innovative Collection Centered Programs: Beyond the Book Group which I think I did all right in, with my presentation on Oak Park Readers. But my colleagues on the panel were just amazing.

After that, I was interviewed by a German doctoral candidate and another professor of LIS about my American Libraries article, "Those Who Can, Do. Those Who Can Do More, Volunteer." She was very complimentary. And I’ve learned: this article has legs (another doctor of library science bought me drinks, wondering if I'd be on a panel for NEXT year's ALA.)  Flattering and exciting.

Sadly, this made me miss Will Shortz.

But I was able to sidle over to Are You a Programming Librarian? Which was an inspiring plug for yet another great collective of librarians: programminglibrarian.org

I got to see Roy Blount, Jr. talk about his Duck Soup making-of book Hail Hail Euphoria. Very amusing, enlightening, and I will read this tale about a film whose creation not many know anything about. Love them Marx Bros!

Then I haunted the amazing exhibits floor again (and again) and visited the bookmobiles, which though parked by the dumpster were very eye-opening, inspiring, entirely different from one antother with each library's personality shining through, and just plaincool to see.

Monday:
I have read in various places (such as this) that graphic novels are really getting their due.  And at ALA, this is true.  There was practically an entire track devoted to them.  And on the exhibits floor, Art Spiegelman, Francoise Mouly, and Geoffrey Hayes all sat at a table waiting to talk to fans; great, down-to-earth folks whose hands I still can't believe I shook.  Great Graphic Novels for Teens was a conversation happening over at something called the Pop-Top pavillion.  Most of this stuff was covered at the roundtable I invaded Saturday afternoon.

Then I saw Salman Rushdie for just a few minutes. Presence of greatness and all that...he related a tale in his dulcet British tones that someone hipped him to the fact post-publication of his infamous book that Lord Byron referred to his contemporary poet laureate’s poetry as The Satanic Verses. This was a happy accident, as was my being able to grab a few moments and walk into this presentation.

Tuesday:

In bright red t-shirts, librarians stormed Capitol Hill to rally and demand more funding for libraries.
Lauren Myracle delivered an inspiring address to the gathered throng.  Similarly, Vernon Ehlers represented Michigan and Jack Reed Rhode Island.  See photos and watch a lengthy video here.  Apparently it was the largest rally of its kind ever held.  As the fellow with the youngest rallier on his shoulders (Ruby is 13 months), I can say it was fun.  As a librarian, I can say it was truly moving and inspiring.

I put these notes here so I can access them, but more so I can share them with others. Notes from all of the sessions I attended can be found on posts throughout the following entries in the blog.

Innovative Collection-Centered Programs: Beyond the Book Group

As I anticipated, this was an amazing program and one I would have attended, even if I wasn't on the panel.  My notes aren't the greatest, since I was busy being nervous most of the time.  In lieu of decent notes, an outline of my fine colleagues' programs can be found here.  What follows is what little I was able to scribble about them while still looking like a calm, discrete panelist...

First

Trivia Night using library resources, presented by Vivienne Beckett, Scenic Regional Library, Union, MO.  

A very cool program where Vivienne and her staff use actual library sources to drum up questions in this "pub quiz" style trivia night.  Exceedingly popular and very similar to one that my library runs, otherwise there would be more notes here.

Second

Winter Reading Club; Book Bingo; Book Club Mixer, presented by Michelle Boisvenue-Fox, Kent District Library, Grand Rapids, MI.

Winter Reading Club

2700 registrants.  Bingo card has 16 titles (originally more), inspiring patrons to read beyond "comfort genres."

Sticks slips in hold books.

Adult SRP

250 entrants/190 finished.  Treasure hunts.

Bingo & Booktalks

Patrons don't need to read a book.  Can sell new ones here.  The game brings them in.

Book Club Mixer

Discover great titles for book groups.  A circuit of tables fills the room: tables for: gentle reads, great books for book groups, local author, etc.

Each patron's name badge lists the best book they read in the last year.  Many brought lists of recent reads.

A booklist was necessary for those that can't attend.

Third

Twilight Comparative Lit Camp.  Available for college credit, group reads and discusses the Twilight series, Pride and Prejudice, Romeo & Juliet, and Wuthering Heights, presnted by 

Cynthia Dudenhoffer, Smiley Memorial Library, Central Methodist University, Fayette, MO.

Blurring the line between public and academic, local PL is only open 3 days/week.

Twilight is a natural--so popular, it has its own barbies.  13 to 50's love the book.

Course

Literary analysis

Themes & ideas -- Is Bella a good role model?

Slumber party atmosphere run by a 23 year old chaperon/fan.

Tie them into classics.

Moms wanted to be part of it; added a day for them.

Activities

Create a thematic soundtrack to the book

Crafts: shrinkydinks, cupcakes, etc.

Cast different stars/each other for the movies.

Boys are next: Hunger Games?

Fourth

Oak Park Readers, an informal book discussion group where patrons can just drop in to chat about books in a social atmosphere, with no formal title selection, by 

Alan Jacobson, Oak Park Public Library, Oak Park IL.

More information on Oak Park Readers can be found at http://www.oppl.org/opr

Fifth

Thrilling Tales:  Storytime for Adults.  A monthly lunchtime program where Wright and staff read short stories aloud, by 

David Wright, Seattle Public Library, Seattle WA.

Twice a month, lunchtime program attracts 40-100 people.  Seniors, workers, mothers, tourists.

Story is what we do.  Storytime is pure & elemental.

How to...

Photocopy strories, lay out the season.  October will be scary, Feb romantic, etc.

Read it, reread it, time it, mark it up (different colors for each character)

When performing, add no commentary.  Use a microphone.  Light at the podium, dark otherwise.

Call it a "grown-up" storytime.  Not an "adult" storytime.  Avoid xxx connotations!

Podcast it, tie it to local NPR station.  Use public domain stories.  Or don't worry, fair use seems to win the day as authors have told David they love being read.

Twilight Zones, Alfred Hitchcock Presents are the types of stories that are very successful, genre stories with a twist work best.

If you don't want to read the stories, tap your local theater troupe.  Can have a small repertory group.  

Guest readers, such as Nancy Pearl, have asked to perform.

Possibilities

Combined storytime and discussion called "The World's Easiest Book Group."

"Stories through History" where music, facts from the year the story was told are shared.

"Stories Around the World," 80 stories from 80 countries.

Vampires, family, ESL/Bilingual.

Do as annual festival--one community/one book.

Short story + film made from it.

YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens: Comics & Graphic Novels Advisory Roundtable

Uninvited, but not unwelcome, I sat in on this meeting where the 2011 nominations were discussed. Score! I walked away with their list of nominations.  I was the only spectator.

Each of 29 books was discussed and commented upon; all had cards on whether to comment, vote yes or no, and “spoiler ahead.” Passionate discussion ensued. Each nominee discussed his or her nomination, a vote was tallied, and then it was decided whether the book made the list, did not, or was tabled for midwinter. This was called a “Straw Poll.”

Appeal (who the book was for) was considered over literary quality. For example, Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean was considered for reluctant readers but also thought to be too young for the list, even though the panel unanimously liked the book.
Uniqueness also seemed to be a factor.

Even when a nominee’s chosen book was lambasted, there was good, mature discussion; no hard feelings.

I walk away with a reading list: Chew, Calamity Jack, etc.

This is a panel I would join.

Are You A Programming Librarian

Made possible by IMLS (not this), programminglibrarian.org is a central resource for librarians: toolkit, magazine, resource library.  They want us to help in its development.  What do we want/need?

Angie Hanshaw
Editor/designer for Programming Librarian.
Lots through the website.  Monthly newsletter.  Facebook.
1.) Learn: through library section about copyrights, grant funding, traveling exhibitions, events & celebration calendar, programs (authors, discussions, etc.)
2.) Share: comment on the blog.  Forum exists; info from today's breakout sessions will be put here.
3.) The brainstormer.  Search curated content by keyword.  Generate ideas, examples.  Create proposals.
4.) PDF designer, interactive tool allows to create promotional materials.

Sonia Feigenbaum
Deputy Director, Division of Public Programs
Ntl Endowment for the Humanities
Old Post Office Pavillion
1100 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Room 426
W, DC 20506
sfeigenbaum@neh.gov www.neh.gov
--Loves libraries, wants to make sure the humanities will always remain part of programs.


Hosted By Hundreds of Libraries
Many get additional programming grants by accepting these.
The Great Experiment: George Washington and the American Republic (1997, 1999)
Forever Free: Abraham Lincoln's Journey to Emancipation (2002)
Frankenstein: Penetrating the Secrets of Nature (2001)
Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World
Pride and Passion: The African American Baseball Exhibition
Soul of a People: Voices from the Writers' Project
Upcoming
Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
30 libraries, $2500, 5 programs, lead scholar, collaboration, planning workshop, deadline 7/30/2010 for programs Spring-Fall 2011.

Heather Paulson, Mother-Daughter Book Club
Librarian, lit scholar, contributor to site.
No programming course, this is learned on the job.
Tale of Despereaux, upper-elementary, discussion failed, a no-show despite lots of work.
Succeeded after talking to mother who wanted to do a mother-daughter book group.  Families choose books.  A friend could be bought.  Women's History Month's Understood Betsy attracted 12 of 15 registrants.  16-20 for future.  Father-son is next.
-engage with community per interests.  Talk about it.  Buy in from patrons necessary to create successful program.  Tie it into what's going on.  Adapting from failure is crucial.

Henry Fortunato, Kansas City Public Library
200+ Special Events a year.  Checks sign-ups hourly.  Intellectual, engagement in the world of the mind.

Why Do We Do It?
-Almost addictive.  An incredible high.
-Cultural center

What Does the Job Entail?-Drinking. with Sara Paretsky and AJ Jacobs
-Their grant allows them to do so much more than other libraries may be capable of.

What Continues to Be Engaging About it?
-Validation from public media.  Kansas City Star drives the news judgment in the city.

Recognize Value
-Vital to making people recognize & appreciate how important the library is to their community.  Happy people at the library is proof.

Develop Themes and Series
-Find out what local greats are doing, work with them: "Can We Improve Urban Schools."  "Meet the Past.  Reenactors will create a talk show, brought back from the dead, moderator pretends hew's Johnny Carson.  This airs on PBS channel.  Second Sundays with KC Columnists--free of fees, they come and talk about current events, draws 100 people.  Local authors/professors will do it for free to promote book or maybe $250.  Cards are cheap to print.  Low cost, high yield.
-Can be 2 programs at once even with similar appeal.

Find Local Connections to Broader Issues

Focus on Quality Graphic Design and Packaging
Graphic design and packaging can be done in-house by trained GD professionals.  Thousands of college GD students would love to work in a non-academic environment to add to their portfolio.  Contact dept. chair and they'll be happy to work with you.  Don't tell them what to do.  Tell them the goal.  They will work on the typeface, color, etc.  Tell them where you want to go; let them take you there.

Develop Partnerships with Other Institutions
Cooperation works; competition does not.  Split expenses, share audiences, cross-pollinate, looks good to grant providers.  Partnering with local TV station on film festival, for example.

Build on Your Success
10,000 names on email list used for blasts and other things.

Promote, Promote, Promote
Every Sunday afternoon, send the upcoming week's events to email blast.  Get on TV, public library, newspapers.  Get "In your face."  A great product to sell.

Once You Start, You Can't Stop
Create a need in the marketplace.  2007, 145 programs; 2008 244; 2009 224.

Breakout with Henry Fortunato
Calendars, 22 cents/unit for 15,000.  $5,000/month.  Postcard with less events would cost less.  Packaging makes something look like it's worth doing.  Grab people on book tours, partner with independent bookstore who likes the library.  Communication goes both ways to bookstore.  Make the author topical; 50 yr anniv. of JFK & Nixon debates.  JFK Library sold debates for $40.  Showing them sequentially.  Last surviving newsman of era coming out to comment.  Could just as easily be a local Poli Sci professor.  Get a grant, offer a hotel night, flight, etc!

Programming will start slow.  25 people at first for a big city is not good.  100 is now his make or break on whether he'll do an adult event again.  20 people is fine for a book discussion group, more would be too many.

There is a programming staff--2 MLS, another on his way, a few others (they are under "public affairs" which is outreach, public affairs, programs, website, exhibits, grants, crisis mgmt, etc.)--who suggests ideas.  But they implement.  Librarians and bookstore staff also suggest.

YA & Children's does their own with separate program budget.  The dept. packages them, so it looks like it's from the same library.

There sis a Madness to this!  Could be constraining.  Follow your gut; if it sounds bad, it probably will be bad.  Even if it's free.  Evaluations are not done.  Data may be misleading...

PR Forum with Stephen Abram

Began with a list of available grants and programs from the Campaign for American Libraries like ilovemylibrarian and Step up to the Plate.

PR Forum: Next Practices in Communication @ Your Library
(slides soon available here.)

Stephen Abram
Focusing, defending, making sure we'll survive & thrive, now easy to communicate with people.  Brochures & bookmarks vs. what we are able to do now, via Twitter Facebook, etc.

They need specialists in information during the information age.  Just like how they needed engineers during teh industrial age.  We need to promote this.  Shutting down school libraries in CA led to a 30% drop in grades.  Every dollar iinvested in public libraries is $6.50 returned (really $20.)  Need to get this message out, sell ourselves, services, what we're doing, the social bloom we cause, the difference we make both in finding information and helping kids continue to read.


People form their opinions of a librarian when they are 8.

People need to know to come to us for life-changing answers.  Google answers as many questions in 30 min as all librarians do together in 20 years.

Need to promote messages besides "we've got books."  Our competitive advantage is our people; we need a page describing our experts: geneology, medical, facebook page, goodreads, history, RA, etc.  Need to be more extroverted about it.

Need to not be anonymous.  Is our doctor anonymous?

Is our Library an Event?  People Make This!
Our circ clerks elicit comments, greet people.  Pass along a bookmark on how to use Goodreads, etc.

Need to describe the experience (storytime) versus the books.  No one hugs Google, librarians get them.  How about a stroytime how-to where we teach them how to get Goodnight Moon across?

The People We See Aren't Our Only Patrons
Patrons aren't "one size."  We see the people who need our help the most.  The majority of use comes through "virtual branch."  Very different users.

Inertia is the Problem
Don't study to death; death is not our original goal.  We form committees rather than learning by doing.  We already do this with face-out collections.

Selection is Our Forte
You pick what "sells" per your patrons and region; not just what's big on Amazon at the moment.  Gardening books that work in our climate, etc.  No one wants to see our inventory management system.  50% of all OPAC use comes from Amazon first.  Bibliocomments, LibraryThing, GoodReads can change this.  We need to create a local experience that matters; where people can start sharing things.  We know our users, they sign in, create a community.

We Let Everybody Have What They Want
We care about everybody as an individual; helping people learn, self-actualize.

"The dark ages began with closing a library."  Lots of quotes like this.

New Thinking
We have access to 18 million journals vs. the 100 of the old days!

18 PR Tools for Libraries from 2007
YouTube -- No 2 search engine next to Google.
Second Life -- How relevant is this to users?  Maybe not any more.  Too soon to tell.
MySpace -- Facebook is taking over.
Facebook -- Get here, use this.
Flickr
Podcasts/iTunes
Wikipedia -- No 1 influencer of what Google finds.  Make sure it's right.
Ning -- Social network, doesn't charge educational organizations.
WebEx/LiveMeeting -- Costs $85/yr.  Extends our reach.  We can heal frustration long distance.  Information literacy, storytelling, footnotes.  How to do these things.
Twitter -- The no. 1 job-finding tool in the US, Sears puts up a bunch.  Multiple Twitter accounts per area of expertise!
Blogging
Tagging, Scanning, RSS
Search Engine Optimization Free Gale App helps patrons find nearest library, information on them.  How do you break a person's fingers, hit their phone...
LinkedIn/Plaxo We should all be in LinkedIn.  Free, takes no time to write a profile.
SurveytMonkey/Zoomerang Ask what users are actually using, so we can respond to that need.  Especially virtual users.
Mozes, NowPublic, MyBlogLog all useless.

Connect People with Your Library


Learning at Your Library
7 different ways.  Gene sets also determine this--musicians, politicians, etc. all absorb information effectively in different ways.  Why we're influencing politicians in-person Tuesday.  Most learn experientially, from surgeons to mechanics.  Auditory beats text.  Visual is huge.

Understand Why They Read
What psych impact do they get from working with us, recommendations, etc.  We need to data mine circulation records beyond the top 20.  Bestsellers are bought, not neccessarily borrowed.

Social Glue
We train moms to tell stories; the best place to learn.  A real benefit.  Helps moms not go batshit by meeting people as well.

What is More Important for Value-Based Funding?
What Tugs at the Heartstrings:
6% annual increase in circ......100% incr in ILL....500% in website hits......1000% in database results
OR 50% increases in customer satisfaction.  How do we mine the well of users?  What stories can we tell?  How do we collect them?  We need to blog stories about people preventing suicide, preventing cancer, improving lives VERSUS plain, boring stats.  Videos of people who didn't make it through highschool whose lives would be damaged without us.  We can make these videos viral!

7 Tricks You Can Do Right Away
1.) What are our top reference questions?
2.) Promote your staff.  FB, Tweets, Web pages, photos.  None of the truly "private" things.  Connect genealogy librarian to genealogy professional, etc.
3.) Do a signage audit and walk through (watch out for "no.")  Use a newbie to get an outside perspective.  "Check your skateboard at the desk" vs. "No skateboards!"  Make sure librarians are facing out as people approach.
4.) Get some widgets (Hint: API.)  WHat would you like to do today?  Top 20 reference questions?  Consumer product reviews.
5.) Work with GIS.  Geotag search engine optimization.  Look at geographic information systems.  Map and put information on it.  Find out where most intense use happens.  Can be surprising.  Trailer park in Washington, DC.
6.) Go beyond statistics: Google Analytics, etc.
What we (Gale) Never Knew Before:
27% of users under 18.  59% are female.  29% are college students.  5% professors, 6% teachers.  On any given day, 35% of users are there for the first time.  29% found products via the library website.  59% found what they were looking for on 1st search.  72% trusted the content more than what they found on Google.  81% still use Google.
Gale(tm) Driving User to the Library Swallowing the Information World!
Encyclopedia.com, HighBeam, WorldCat, iPhone App (then Drone, Blackberry, etc.), Questia, Geo-IP Measures, Etc.  Watch for more.

7.) Develop a STORY collection strategy.

Read The Springboard.

Success is NOT About Things

We need to be socially-connected to our user population.  Sustainably connect yourself with everyone you know.  The number 1 place people go for information is friends and colleagues.  We need to connect to these people or we will be disconnected.

News Should Be Top on the Website

Weather should be on the front page.

Clients are Buying "Dream Deck"

They are not buying your hammer and boards, they are buying the deck of their dreams.  Help them build it.  What feeling do we want them to have when they come in to read the paper, market something that connects to their dreams.  Help immigrants get citizenship.  We can do amazing things.

This Month is the Tipping Point

Internet has now progressed to its infancy.  We are about to enter real change.  The kind of change grandparents saw.  20 yrs brought phone, interstate, etc.  No whining.  We must be flexible, change in phases, take risks.  Why it's the most exciting time to be in libraries.

Google Books Settlement

Libraries can compete.  Need to teach people to research, not forage.  We will soon be at paragraph-level rather than article-level.  Think beyond the book.  Promote specialists!  We will be drowning in information!  Google Editions opens next week: 14000 publishers, 20000 books open source, works on most readers.  2 million books.  $1.99 each!  SEO!  SMO!

We need to battle special interest groups who propagate racist, sexist info and make it the 1st hit.

GEO-IP 

Foursquare

Gowalla 

Can have an instant message sent to user walking through the door: "Welcome to the most awesome and innovative library in the world."

Top 10 Ways to Drive People to the Library Using Social Media

1. Find the influencers

2. Connect with the influencers

3. Motivate the influencers

4. Build Buzz and Interest

5. Kodak moments

6. Flip camera crazy

7. Tweet and be tweeted

8. Emails -- they still work, for older people.

9. Survey

10. Measure and refine

PROVIDE TESTIMONIALS

Transmogrifying Containers

Get ebook readers.  We should all have them to know how they work.  Most books that matter to us will be on readers in the next 5 years.  Not ready for libraries yet.  If we don't participate, Google and Amazon will control.  2002 ($5.7m) 2010 ($9.1.)  It's a giant mess.  We should play with some of it.

Broadband

Google has been lobbying to get white space between 2-13.  Google wants over-air broadband connectivity.  

We Compete

The cloud: printing, software, storage. $199 printers can print to an email address.  LA is all cloud vs. Microsoft.

Yahoo!/Bing, iPhone, Facebook Migration

Only Google and Bing are search engines.

Devices

iPads, Kobo, Kindles, eDGe, and Mobile.  Steve Jobs can't tell us what to read and what to say.  Offensive to our value system.  We need to be more vical about our value system.

Mobile

Dominant device in North America this year.  We're 7 yrs behind the rest of the world, even Namibia.  We need to play with the devices on our lunch hours.  Text, use apps.

Experience

1. Google  2. Bing  3. Us.  WERE products and place (Philadelphia Free Library) THEN intentional experience (reference, etc.) NOW Designed Experience (differentiate based on patron-based design--auto worker learns this way...building self-esteem and confidence) WILL BE Experience on Demand (People co-create on platforms WE provide.)  How do we build with them?!  Medline tells you how you're going to die as well as prevention and curing.  We want to help navigate these things.  Questions to ask your physician.  Context is king, NOT content.

Database of Intentions...?

The core of our profession is conversation.  Talented human beings with decades of excellent experience that need to reframe that.  New techies coming in need to help as they get helped with the patina of experience.

Future

Choose between achieving a dynamic future and dwelling in a nostalgic past--well within our power. 

Chips in people.  Credit card size phones that only use touch screens.

Tell stories, have conversations, create relationships (even ones we're not comfortable with.)  Connect with social life so we are the center of the social life of information.  More touchpoints than bookmarks & brochures.  Permission Marketing.  90% of users will use in the next 90 days.  Upgrade every user.  Offer this to people.  They choose their privacy level, trust us, and can always unfriend us.  

Self Check #405 (image.)

Trans-literacy Move Beyond Reading & PC Skills...?

Great website: Wyoming Libraries (maybe prototype?  Not findable, looked like cowboy stuff.)

Graphic Novels Panel Featuring David Small & Audrey Niffenegger

Began with a short film promo for the amazing Stitches which behaved like one of those old Marvel adaptations, where they simply took old books and animated the panels, except with the music, somber voiceover narration (by Small himself), pacing, and subject matter of an independent film.

David Small
A massively popular children's book illustrator, he made Stitches because he had the idea to write a novel, got encouragement to do so, but didn't have the words.  Needed to express story through drawing.  In Paris, met with friend and illustrator who encouraged him to express what he had inside and had to get it out in a healthy way or it would kill him.  He had passed out by a urinal, apparently.

Audrey Niffenegger
Did the Night Bookmobile because she made comix as a teen.  Huge RAW fan.  Maus was a huge inspiration.  As was Art Spiegelman, whose hand I shook no less than 30 minutes ago!

Q&A
Communicating in pictures gets straight to our hearts, surpassing guard towers of rationale, etc.  Why films affect so deeply...
Recommended graphic novels: Chris Ware, Allison Bechdel from AN.
Blankets, AD New Orleans, Blue Pills (Frederick Peters)
They are both upset that "small stories" are no longer being told, must make sense to the way our brains are wired, which the digital stories do not.

The Open Access Debate

Or: on Sharing
Here is a link to the presentation on this fascinating debate: "Science and scholarship writ large."  Knowledge that others can build on.  A hell of a lot like libraries.  Free trade of knowledge, ideas, and work.  We all win.  Everybody walks away with 2 ideas vs each just having one to begin with.
One year's Brain Research costs the same as a Lexus or $21,744.
Enough typing.  Check out the notes in the link above.
OK, a bit more typing.  This is actually streaming live here; it may be gone after a bit.  But at the time, it was a mind-boggling real time experience.
Public Access is where the writer owns the copyright.  Open access is different.
Speaking of which, time to go hunt for something more public-library related!

James Kochalka!

Haunting the graphic novels AREA
(and I still can't believe a whole area of the floor as well as so many programs are devoted to this once looked-down-upon art (well, maybe still looked down-upon, but due to massive popularity (read: circs), the can no longer be ignored.  And this is clear!!)
of the ALA exhibits, I hit the Top Shelf table where I met, talked to, and had JK sign a book for my daughter.

As a result, I've already walked away with tons of great ideas for the collections as well as a few free comix.  Crazy.

Very cool experience. James Kochalka here.  Andy Runton was also there...

Cloud Computing for Library Services...

This is a LITA program.

Dozens of tekkers talked about working, saving, and especially archiving int the clouds.  A really good exposure to new ways of thinking.  The tools are a bit confounding until used, it seems.  But the idea that this is becoming prevalent because it is not only effective, but also easy to do is very, very valuable information.

Most people need to be comfortable with free tools like Google Docs.  Flickr.  This is a first step.  Also excellent Amazon EC2.  Central Desktop, like SharePoint.  Drupal.  One speaker mentioned dropping hosting costs from $54,000/yr to the cloud which costs $4,800/yr for both web and digital archives.  Performs very quickly.  And it's quicker than adding servers.  And it's secure (although I wonder about longevity).

The word "geek" was used no less that 29 times during these presentations.  Prezi makes a nice-looking presentation and is free for a basic version.

Very interesting, considering our considerable archives.

Heather Moulaison at University of Ottowa LIS is writing about this.  A chapter can be submitted to her.  I wonder if any of my colleagues would be interested...

A Preservation Cloud Service
Leslie Johnston, LC.  Architecture for preservation.  Started organization as infrastructure for preservation architecture.  They help organizations work with digital preservation.
Duracloud (part of Duraspace) helps orgs use public cloud services.  Storage, software, and platform as service.
Create a set of services that allow to synch up a repository already have or to set up a new one.  Vs. local storage, keep video files, etc. in the cloud.

Terrapod may be worth looking into.

Data Liberation Front exists to make sure we can move items in and out of the cloud, which is crucial.

This is the future.

I am cloud computing right now. Meta meta...

RIA's and Libraries

Rich Internet Applications
Few libraries are doing this, many should.  We could use it for maps.  Google gears might be a good tool for us.
Data processed both on client and server side
Asynchronous data exchange.
Similarity to desktop applications (keyboard shortcuts, drag/drop, etc)
Richer experience for user (Connected, alive, interactive, responsive.)  Deeper level of interaction, quick.

History
Broadmoor (2002) is the earliest example of a RIA.  3 columns on 1 page.
AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML, 2005)  Google Maps is an early example.  Updates information based on portion person is accessing.  May be easy for libraries to do.  But takes more time to test/debugsince there's no community voice/framework.  No standards.
Flex 2 (2006) MXML -- Action 3 (like Java) is compiled into SWF then displayed using Flash Player.  Easy code (for code-writers.)  Bad for mobile devices.  Flash is not working with Apple.
Silverlight (2007) Windows Presentation Foundation hosted in browser--mix of XAML & JavaScript.  Lots of code.
JavaFX (2008) Learning curve is high.  Very complicated.  But very quick.
Adobe Air --does all this easier and well.  Note: this presentation is from an Adobe programmer, who claims to have an LIS, love libraries, and not be selling her product.  But here it it.  And it got a real sell.
Google Gears -- Local data store; Synch with server; Worker pool.  In beta.

Additonally
HTML5 -- Next major revision of HTML.  New structural elements.  Audio & video.  New form controls.  Drag & drop.  Session storage, local storage.  Offline application caching.  Canvas (draw directly in browser window.)  Very exciting.  The Internet is bscoming more usable.

Bottom Line
Users don't care what platform you use, as long as it works for you.  Note: Apple can't use flash.  No iPad or iPhones.
No matter the platform: design, usability, and accessibility is crucial.