Library Revolution

 Share

A little item on Slashdot today touched on something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately.

Their take: Web 2.0 may be a threat to IT job security. (Interesting comments on this!)

My take: Web 2.0 empowers folks to get many jobs done themselves “without involving IT.”

It’s something I think about every time I hear someone in a library talking about “giving that to the tech guy” when it comes to posting something to the Web site, blog, wiki, whatever.

These technologies are designed to be easy to use, learn, and maintain. But we’re so used to giving the assignment to the “person who handles that,” that I often see librarians who could have done the job themselves in about two minutes playing the handoff game - which starts to add up to days and weeks of waiting for the task to get done.

Yes, we’re all busy. Yes, we should be able to delegate duties as necessary. Yes, the library’s “tech guy” is very important to it’s survival and shouldn’t be ushered out the door (please no! We need you!!!) But we’re very lucky to have access to great technologies and resources that give us the power to stop relying so much on other people when it comes to using technology.

We don’t need a specialized person to handle everything remotely connected to a computer. We can do it ourselves. We don’t have to wait. We can put our professional skills to use in designing and maintaining many of our services without a middleman.

 Share

Thanks to Ryan for a great post about the future of accessibility in libraries. I love technology, but this is something I really worry about. He’s right - when you work on Web stuff for libraries it really does seem hopeless… but he has some good suggestions for things we can do to help make our resources more accessible.

 Share

While I’m showing videos, here is another one that really grabbed me (found via).

A few of my random thoughts on the video and the conversations it led me to explore:

• Did you catch the question: “To whom were these questions directed B.G. (Before Google)?”
• I’d like to recommend adding another line to the section at the end. Why not “Ask Your Library:”?
• Another thing I want to point out is the “Key Question” associated with this project:
  

  “Given the realities of our modern age and the demands of our children’s future, is it really okay to allow teachers to choose whether or not they incorporate modern technologies into their instruction?”

And don’t be afraid to accept the invitation to join the conversation. I think libraries have a lot that they could add. Or at least, they should.

 Share

How much do I love this video?

“There is no ‘top’ to the World Wide Web.”

 Share

Check out this interesting list of “Good Reasons Not To Blog” (found via)

Here are some of my favorites (but be sure to peek at the full list):

(2) Is afraid of harsh or challenging comment posters, or discussion of real issues, i.e., blogocombat.

(5) Has no interesting stories to tell about how your products have solved problems for users, how your company got started, or lessons learned along the way.

(6) Is fearful of “losing control of the message” — which is probably a non-differentiating, feature-driven, “we-oriented” message that’s boring and alienating customers anyway.

(7) Has no need of media coverage by trade journalists who search blogs for news items, controversies, and emerging trends.

(8) Is not willing to spend a fair amount of time (several hours per week) writing blog posts, replying to comment posters, and contributing comments to other blogs relevant to your industry or audience.

(13) Believes in commanding and controlling, rather than engaging in conversations with the public.

(20) Cannot commit to being truthful, transparent, and trustworthy, by displaying corporate values and goals in a public forum.

Do any of these remind you of your library?

Then maybe you should stop wasting your time.

 Share

I have recently been involved in several conversations about Internet use where the folks I’m conversing with seem to bring a very strange (to me) assumption to the conversation. They seem to think that the Internet is somehow antisocial and isolating in nature.

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me… I feel like almost everything I do online has a strong social component these days. To me, the Internet is incredible because of the way it is populated by real people with whom you can interact.

Reading a book, on the other hand, strikes me as pretty isolating.

But some of my colleagues disagree. One person I was recently talking with had volumes to say about how using the Internet too much threatens to completely remove the human element from your life.

Which makes me ask, “What Internet are you on?”

 Share

I had a little time tonight to go through some of the blog posts I had saved to check out in more detail at a later date. One thing I came across that just tickled me pink was this post from Nicole Engard about WikiMindMap. (It’s from July– how did I let this one slip through??)

Here is a search that I had a lot of fun with. Check it out.

I really found stuff that I never would have normally even thought to look up, and would have been unlikely to stumble on were I just doing my normal link-to-link surfing.

 Share

Wow, I wish I could have gone to this!!!

Reading the summary (thanks, Laura for posting it!), I was really struck by just how much I could identify with the comments of the panelists. I can’t even tell you how easily they could have come from my own family and friends… and some of them even from myself! My husband and I are really the only active library users among our immediate family members and in our social circle. And it’s not always easy to find incentives to stay active library users.

Yes, I am a librarian. But I’m also a busy working mother, and I do not work in a library. A lot of the time using the library is something I have to really make a conscious effort to do. And it’s often something that takes a pretty signifigant amount of effort, based on library hours (limited on the weekend), distance from my house (it’s FAR! and in completely in the wrong direction!), and program schedules (why, oh, why are there no weekend toddler programs??).

Of course, I do make an effort to use the library. But it’s not always easy to get what I need. Even as a fellow librarian, I often have a hard time figuring out the cryptic rules and regulations most public libraries (at least in this area) like to enact. You know: You can take out three dvds for seven days, unless they are new - that’s three days. Plus the fine rate for a late return on those is higher. Except for the foreign films. Take as many of those as you want. And that dvd owned by another library… that one is a 10-day loan but you can’t renew it and the fine is half as much as ours. Have a nice day!

The panelists in the session I linked to above also mentioned the issue of being intimidated by the library. I think that crazy confusing rules play a big part in creating a sense of intimidation, at least for me. For others less familiar with public library practices, I can only imagine that being confronted with a two-page handout outlining the rules for registering for children’s programs would make one’s head spin even more. Why do we wonder why folks find libraries intimidating when we make things so hard???

Another thing that makes using the library less than convenient for me is the utter lack of information about the library and it’s offerings that reaches many patrons. I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. The three public library newsletters that clutter up my mailbox go directly into the trash can with the rest of the junk mail. It’s jsut so much noise competing for my attention. And it loses every time. I’m not alone - I asked my neighbor the other day if she reads the library newsletter. She couldn’t really remember off hand if they even get one. When I told her that we get three on our street, she was confused… if she did pay attention and read it, which one would she read?

What’s really too bad is that so many public libraries depend entirely on a newsletter, a bulletin board in the library and Web site (I also do not go to the library Web site) to communicate their offerings to their patrons. But for many of us, this misses the mark entirely. The panelists suggested reaching out through the local pizza place… now that’s an idea. No matter how busy and distracted I am, there’s always time for pizza. Or the supermarket. Or Starbucks. That’s where I am. That’s where you’ll reach me. (Don’t make me come to you!!)

Librarians are always complaining about image problems faced by the library, and I’m not going to say there is a simple solution to this. But I really think that the problem lies less with the message the library tries to communicate with the community and more with the way that they try to deliver the message. You can have the coolest, hippest library with the greatest services in the world. But if whole segments of your community toss your primary mode of communication directly into the trash without even looking, what good does it do?

OMG! Am I talking about marketing?!?!?!?

For me, the bottom line is convenience. I’ve got 24 hours in my day, and if I take the whole “librarian” aspect of my life out of the equation, going to the library really falls into the “errands I have to do” category — like picking up the dry cleaning, going grocery shopping, and getting the dog groomed. So, for library services to fit into my lifestlye, they need to be fast. Easy. Convenient.

I shouldn’t have to put a lot of effort into informing myself as to what the library has to offer. Because I won’t.

I shouldn’t need a MLS to be able to find something on the shelf when I get there. Because I’d rather sit on my butt and have Amazon or Netflix deliver to my door.

I shouldn’t have to deal with a labyrinth of rules and regulations to sign my kid up for a 30-minute program. “Hi, Gymboree? We’ll be there on Saturday at 10.”

Free is not enough.

 Share

I just got off the phone with such a funny person at one of our libraries. Part of our conversation:

Me:  Wow… it looks like your Large Print circulation is down a lot from last year! What happened??

Her: I think everyone got glasses!

 Share