I still have difficulty believing that one of my blogs got over 100 viewers. I’m a little stunned. But, not one to leave a challenge hanging, Libraryman has requested some constructive criticism and I’ve actually been thinking about this off and on for the past few days. The following are some suggestions from a younger generation to, according to Evans and Ward in Management Basics for Information Professionals 2nd Edition, the whopping 60% of librarians age 45 and older:

-The Subtitles
The color chosen for the subtitles was a yellow without any kind of border which makes them difficult to read, especially against the bright color pallet chosen for the rest of the video. Having watched numerous fan-subbed Anime shows, my suggestion would be for white subtitles with a black border to maintain contrast when against lighter colored backgrounds and overall makes them more legible.

-Flashing Images
As I mentioned earlier this week, the images were flashed at a rate too rapid to really process and caused me a fair amount of aversion. My suggestion would be to slow down the rate of change a bit so that the viewer doesn’t feel… well, the only word that comes to mind is “assaulted.” The intro with the flashing primary colors was probably the most severe bit of it, but more on that in a moment.

-The Post-Production Magic
Showing off the technical abilities of a library professional aside, I honestly feel that an honest, low-budget production could have maintained the fun intended for the program while alleviating the side-effect of embarrassing and, quite frankly, insulting those who want to keep the library a fairly professional thing. I would personally much rather see two guys singing a cleverly written song in some mundane location without the over-the-top animated effects. As I mentioned before, it seems as though it’s trying too hard and that father-trying-to-connect analogy is just too appropriate for the feel I got from it. If, instead of the flashy colors and animations, I had seen two librarians singing an honest song, I’d be more moved than any amount of amateur post-production magic could ever squeeze out of me. Which brings me to my next point…

-The Song
I did a quick Google search and discovered that David Lee King was a musician. I’m not certain how that career went (obviously not ideally if he wound up as a librarian [no offense, just an observation D: ]), but I feel that perhaps a tad more collaboration could have been done on the musical front. Now all of this is personal preference obviously, but I would have preferred a song with… I don’t know, a little more substance? Music is so unquantifiable. I guess I would prefer a little more Molly Lewis and a little less After-School Special. Again, it was just a feeling of trying too hard. Something honest, clever, funny (if possible), and unassuming would, I feel, do a lot more.

And finally…

-The Look
The whole website just seems… gaudy. 1980s (and not in that “retro is coming back” way, either). As always this is personal preference, but something a little more sleek and professional can still be fun. It doesn’t need to be flashy and day-glow and covered in crazy patterns to be wacky and eye-catching. I guess I can’t chase away the feeling that the look more portrays a backyard clown act than a intelligent and clever feel, which is something I’m certain David and Michael are more than capable of pulling off.

Overall I guess it comes down to individual tastes. I sort of took the video as an affront to the senses and felt a little talked-down to because it seemed childish. Regardless of anything else they said, wolfshowl does make a point that there is a sect of librarianship which is struggling to turn it into a legitimate profession with all of the respect and (patron/librarian)privilege it deserves. Not to mention the fact that with the rapid emergence of new technologies, the group of people best suited to keeping up are those who have been living with it the whole time: Us. Gen X. And, even though we’re a minority in this profession, we’re going to stay one if a video goes viral which turns the entirety of the Library Profession into the butt of a joke.

But, I understand that you’re not catering to us. You’re catering to the 60% majority out there and, not that I understand it, maybe this is the kind of thing they need. Maybe this is what it takes for them to “get it” and move with the times. But catering to one group alienates another, and I think it’s been made pretty clear that, regardless of how many people enjoy it, I wasn’t alone in my reaction to the video. Not to mention the fact that this information isn’t just valuable to current librarians, the patrons and users should know that there’s an initiative out there to update the library so that they understand that we are just as, if not more, knowledgeable than they are.

By my nature, I’m a moderate. I feel that there’s a reconciliation to be reached with projects such as this in the future. As has been made evident in videos I’ve watched for class, librarians are a motley bunch of people with diverse talents which can be put to use. I also believe that there can be fun without embarrassment, laughs while maintaining an air of professionalism. Because, as I’ve told my friends in the past, you may have a gold bar, but if you cover it with dog shit nobody’s going to touch it.

I recently (relatively) saw a Tweet from @ALALibrary which contained this link and a request that I “Watch it!”

A common problem, I’ve noticed, is that libraries and the classes that accompany them are never truly taken seriously. They aren’t seen as popular places or even an arena for young people to freely interact with one another, regardless of how untrue it may be. That problem, I feel rests in the minds of the librarians.

The aforelinked video is one such example.

I am passionate about libraries. I really am. I believe them to be one of the most underfunded and under-appreciated resources in the nation. But this. This video made me ill. I honestly couldn’t get through the first minute of it before I was so disgusted with my entire profession that I turned it off. I’m not sure to whom this was directed, perhaps the ALA believes that five year-old children are avid tweeters, but thinking that this is going to interest anyone who isn’t under the age of seven or in the 1980s is a horrible mistake.

Seeing two middle-aged men, both of whom are balding, “rawking” out about “Library 101″ is a scary enough concept on its own. But the flashing primary colors only remind me of the 1980s children’s programming I grew up with. The flashing pictures, yes they can be attention-grabbing. It’s a popular technique in this age of ADD-addled kids to use flashing images to keep their attention, but come on. Having obviously amateurishly-taken photos of 500 librarians holding up ones and zeros flash across the screen at a seizure-inducing pace is just over the top. The limited animation is poor and very few people are going to recognize the balding animated man copying Velma’s dance from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.

And this brings me back to target. Who is this targeting? Children? Teens? Tweens? Adults? The movie is seven minutes long. No self-respecting music video is longer than four. The lyrics tout the need for more technology and a very VERY brief history about how the library was once a limited intellectual’s club but has since become an establishment for the people en masse: “You can’t keep the good people down. That’s what 101 means.” What. The. Hell.

***
Okay, I’ve braved so far as 2:42 into the video and I have just been given the audience: other librarians. This. This travesty of musical media is supposed to be a Call to Arms for librarians to evolve with the times and become more modernized digital learning institutions. Good message. But I have to say, if I were shown this video at a staff meeting at a library, I would have walked out (or more likely died of SHAME) before even getting to this message. (It’s currently taken me 20 minutes of pacing myself to get almost 3 minutes in)

Then comes a “hard-rock” section with the balding men with false piercings, leather vests, and dark eye makeup. This is an embarrassment to my profession. How are libraries supposed to be taken seriously if the ALA, the masthead of the profession, is endorsing this horror show as the way to encourage change. I’m only 23 years old, significantly YOUNGER than a majority of other people in my position, and I am ashamed of this. Libraries can be fun. They are important places. They need to be jazzed up a bit, yes. But this is not the answer! This is going to scare away the adaptable young adults the library needs in order to evolve with the times. Putting on makeup and dancing about like idiots is only going to remind them of parents trying too hard to be cool and missing the mark entirely. To put it into perspective, this video is akin to a 45 year old man attempting to connect to his 17 year old daughter by singing Hannah Montanna songs to her in front of her best friends. The mortification is astounding.

Shame on you, ALA and all library professionals stooping to this. You’ve made us all look bad.

I was excited, honored, thrilled and other adjectives that end in “-ed” to be able to contribute to Michael Porter and David Lee King’s Library101 project.  It first started out with a call (via Twitter) from Michael asking for pictures of library staff holding up a giant 1 or 0.  At the time I wasn’t sure what this was all about but I was game.  Anything to help me hone my photography skills I was able to get many of my fellow co-workers to pose for me.

I was then surprised, elated to help Michael beta test his Zazzle store for the Library 101 merchandise.  The final surprise came when Michael asked me if I’d like to contribute an essay to the web site he was creating to launch the Library 101 project. Here it is in the original unedited version:

New Library 101

So what exactly does the New Library 101 need to be part of the future? In my opinion there is one very important piece that needs to be there for the library of the future to stay afloat – customer service. Without our customers we won’t be here no matter what fancy words we use, what new fangled gadgets we have, what exciting programs we offer. Now customer service is nothing new to libraries, however, my version of customer service includes three aspects. If the library of the future will focus on these aspects they will grow and stay relevant.

Technology

Recently I got a Tweet from Jimmy Willis (@katannsky2) asking me if I had any career tips for a future librarian. My words of wisdom where “to learn technology. Embrace it. It will be a very big part of your job.” Be current. What are the latest trends? Adopt them, learn about them and use them. If you don’t you’ll be left behind because your customers are using this technology. And more than likely they are coming to you for help with it

Technology means not only the hardware/software we use in our branches but includes your presence on the web. Whether it is your web site, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or other social web sites – remember that not every customer walks through your physical doors. Make sure you have a presence out there in the digital world. But don’t limit it to just a Facebook page or a bunch of pictures on Flickr – engage your customers, start a conversation with them, bring them back to you (whether it is into your physical building or your catalog or one of your programs).

Education

I understand that funding doesn’t always allow every library to have tons of the latest and greatest hardware or even software. However, you can still educate yourself about technology even if your library can’t afford a Kindle, a new fancy web site or you don’t have an iPhone. Use what technology you do have to your benefit. Get out on the web and socially network. So many of your fellow librarians are on the social web, network with them and find out what they already know. Ask questions or use your searching skills so when that customer invariably asks you how do they do ___ you can use your network as a resource.

Please, don’t ever tell a customer you don’t know and let that be the end of the conversation. That is not an acceptable customer service response. Sure, it’s okay to say you don’t know but continue. “You know I’m curious about this too. Let’s research this together so we can both learn.” Customers come to you for help and hey would much rather have a real human admit they don’t know but work together to find the answer than some cold response that boils down to “go away I can’t be bothered”.

Audience

Above all the library of the future must remember who it’s audience is and what they want or need. As Thomas Brevik (@Miromurr) tweeted from the Internet Librarian International 2009:

* #ili2009 Stop insulting the user by guessing what the user want!

* #ili2009 start with the question: is this what our users want?

Once you have figured out what your customer wants not only meet that need but exceed it. But how to find out what the customer wants. Don’t rely on surveys on your OPACs or your web site, you have an opportunity every single day in every single interaction with your customers (via email, chat, face to face, or phone). Just go that extra step and see what need isn’t being met. Keeping in mind that meeting someone’s need doesn’t always require a big budget – sometimes just listening to them makes all the difference in the world and you’ll have a lifelong return customer.

Is it a guarantee that if the library of the future follows these three aspects of customer service they will survive? Well nothing is a sure beat but I would put good money on the library of the future (if it focuses on customer service) will be around for all of us to enjoy.

So here is to the future of libraries.  Long may they reign.

“Inviting Participation – Internet Spotlight” – in Public Libraries (Nov/Dec 2007)

Much of what is in this article is common sense but still very useful.  The main point is to invite people to partcipate in new initiatives that involve blogs and other technologies.

The author also points out ways to encourage participation.  One is to write interesting content.  Another is to include links within the post to other interesting sites.  It is also important to allow comments.  Some libraries even have contests where commenting is the way to enter.  Comments should also be responded to promptly.  Whenever possible use various formats such as video, audio, and image formats to add interest. These are just a few suggestions to encourage users to keep coming back. Even though these tips are not necessarily intended for instruction focused blogs the principles are likely helpful.

These links are referred to in the article:

• 365 Days Library Project – Michael Porter
• Are You Blogging This – David Leeking
• St Joseph County Public Library Wiki – SJCPL
• Storypalooza – Gail Borden Public Library

David Lee King

Cindi Trainor

Michael Porter

Meredith Farkas

Roy Tennant, Moderator

Description of the analogy of the elephant – People grab onto different parts and form an opinion based

Q – What does library 2.0 mean to you?

Cindi – It’s not just a set of tools and technologies. It’s a philosophy. It’s about creating services and spaces for users that invite them.

Michael – What libraries do to fulfill their roles as community anchors has to change. There are new tools tht make us more vibrant and more relevant than ever before.

Meredith – Creation of services as an iterative process. You’re constantly fixing and assessing. It’s about putting our money where our mouth is and being really user focused.

David – Wikipedia as a tool – It’s a new way to present information and to let everyone contribute their knowledge. It’s a new philosophy about how to do things.

Michael – I’m more interested in what works. I don’t care about Twitter or Gmail or Facebook. Focus on why the tools do or do not meet our needs.

Cindi – It’s useful to think of Library 2.0 as a derivative of Web 2.0. Distinguish new types of companies from dotcom bubble companies. It enables software as a platform. There are applications on the web (not just on the desktop).

Meredith – Technologies that allow us to build communities and communicate with one another. People form relationships with others who are only electronic blips.

David – Making tech tools easy for non-tech audience to use. 2.0 technologies are made to connect people. If it is succeeding, the technology is out of the way.

Michael – 2.0 technologies can be distracting. It’s hard to know what to use as brands change (so pay attention to functionality). It’s very difficult to track the success (or lack thereof) of your institution’s use of these tools. It’s all anecdotal.

David – It’s sad that we’re still trying to figure these tools out because some of them are 15 years old. Disagree with Michael on tracking success. You can find blog stats. If users are commenting, then they are reading and engaged. Facebook gives some basic statistics and demographics.

Cindi – Just because someone had a page open for 10 minutes, how do you know they were actually reading it and not talking with friends?

Meredith – It’s scary that so little assessment is being done. We’re spending time on these services. Why not assess them?

Michael – If you use the reporting tools from these various sites, they don’t always sync up on the same timeline. When the way you report is numbers-numbers-numbers, that doesn’t account for social connections and interactions and how people’s lives are impacted.

Cindi – Tools like WordPress, Blogger, PBWiki, and Flickr gives libraries the power to reach out to audiences in new ways.

David – In a normal library, how do you capture this anecdotal evidence? It’s recorded in these social tools.

Q – What are some of the barriers you see to libraries adopting and using these new tools?

Meredith – We’re entrusting our knowledge and hard work to third party sites that may or may not be there in the future. Twitter is a good example of a highly popular service that is constantly losing money. People aren’t planning for web 2.0 tools the same way they’re planning for others with regard to backups, etc.

Cindi – Any time you want to do something new or create a new service, don’t be afraid of failing. Take a risk management approach. What are the terms of service?

David – What are the barriers? Technology. The bigger barriers are our own. If you want to really "get" a technology, you have to immerse yourself in it.

Michael – Years ago, there was a debate in public libraries about whether to circulate fiction. In the 1970s the companies that produced VHS and Betamax tapes went to court to prevent libraries from circulating them. Do we circulate digital movies in our libraries? Very few. Go to Netflix. THEY circulate digital movies. These companies are usurping our content distribution. If we don’t figure out a better way to circulate digital content, we’re in deep trouble. Setting up a blog or a Flickr stream are first steps in doing something about it.

Meredith – Time is a barrier. People say that they don’t have time to learn or do a new thing. People are asked to do new things, but no responsibilities are being taken away from their jobs. This has to change at the organizational level. People have to be given the time and resources to do this.

Michael – Use the tools to get more effort out of what you’re doing.

Meredith – We spend a lot of time outside of work learning to do these things. If our administrators don’t give us time and resources to do these things, then they don’t value them.

David – Some people are better at managing their time than others. Reference librarians do 20 hours n the reference desk and 20 off. What are they doing with the unscheduled time?

Q – What libraries are good examples of using 2.0 technologies and principles?

Michael – Lester Public Library in Wisconsin.

Q – What is the one thing you want to say to the audience?

David – Administrators and managers – let your staff go with it. The worst thing that can happen is that you have a filed project and learn something from it. That’s a positive outcome.

Meredith – These technologies are not a magic wand. We shouldn’t use a tool just because someone else is. Think about what is appropriate to your audience.

Michael – If you focus on your role and mission in your community, you’ll be fine.

Cindi – It’s a matter of having someone in your library who understands the role of these tools in the community.

Q – How can library 2.0 tools be supported in brick and mortar libraries?

David – We had a tweetup with free food sponsored by a local tv station. The library will be hosting a conference on 2.0 tools for the community.

Q – What are ways to help people who are intimidated by computers, let alone 2.0 technologies?

David – If you have staff who are still intimidated by computers, why did you hire them, and why do you still have them? Why have you not fired those people if they are not fulfilling their roles?

Michael – I’m a big advocate of partnering people. Pair someone with greater technology skills with someone with lesser skills.

Meredith – Technology petting zoos. I like the idea of having a place where people can play with technology in a non-threatening environment. Host a training session where people can just play around.

Cindi – Subject guide boot camp. People will spend all day together working on subject guides  and reinforcing their skills.

Q – It sounds like a lot of library 2.0 is marketing. Would you say that that sums it up or is there something that goes against that?

David – That’s only part of the picture. Marketing is part of it because it’s a broadcast medium. It’s also a collaboration platform for connecting and sharing. It’s more about using pooled knowledge to come up with a better idea.

Cindi – It’s also a tool that lets users give feedback to us. It’s not just a wooden suggestion box in the corner.

Q – If you’re going to have a technology petting zoo, what tools would you show them?

Meredith – It depends on your population, what they need, and what will be appropriate to them.

Michael – Kindle, iPhone, Palm Pre, Flip camera, Livescribe Pulse

________________

David – Set your priorities and focus on them. Don’t focus on what will take the most or least amount of time.

Michael – If you’re going to do something like a blog, you have to have the plan, commitment, and follow-through to keep it updated.

Q – What some of the privacy pitfalls that we need to be aware of and let our patrons know about?

Michael – Every company doing these social tools is a for-profit enterprise. We care about privacy, but these companies don’t. I think there should be a non-profit connected to libraries that develops tools like this.

David – The bigger privacy concern is just a lack of understanding about what these tools do, where they go, and who follows them. People THINK they’re being anonymous. Some people don’t quite understand the tools well enough to know who can read them.

Q – There are people with legitimate arguments and complaints that Facebook and Twitter are a waste of time. These users may be feeling left behind in face of 2.0 initiatives.

David – The largest growing segment of Facebook users is the over-50 group.

Michael – We don’t have any trouble doing what we’ve always done.

David – My job is digital branch manager. My patrons ARE these users of digital tools.

Additional Reading

The Great Debate – Has Library 2.0 Fulfilled Its Promise? – at Librarian by Day

Has Library 2.0 Fulfilled Its Promise? at LITA Blog

Starter Questions for Ultimate Debate 2009 by David Lee King

David Lee King has written another thought-provoking and insightful post about changes in our culture and society that he feels will impact the way we do “business” as libraries.    In the first part of his article, King outlines changes in our economy and society that reflect a fundamental shift.   He points out that the majority of materials we house in libraries are undergoing a significant transformation or going away altogether (print magazines and newspapers, the rise of digital books and readers, the advent of subscription services for music and videos).  He poses this question to his fellow librarians:

How are you starting to re-think your services and libraries?

While this post is geared toward a public library audience, I can’t help but wonder how we as school librarians might answer this question?  Are we paying attention to the change that is happening right now?  Are we thinking about how these changes will impact the way school libraries function in the short and long term future?  Are we thinking about how our school libraries will need to adapt as these profound changes occur?  Should we have already been thinking about these things?    How does this affect you as an elementary, middle/junior high, or high school teacher-librarian?

Are we open to change and the possibilities it brings?  I have a poster in my office that looks something like this:

Are we willing to surrender what we are for what we could become?  Are school libraries on the cusp of a sea-change?  For me, the question is not “if” we will adapt, but “how” will we adapt?  How can we use this opportunity to tap into these changes to position information literacy as a mainstream literacy that is taught by all educators, not just the school library media specialist?

These questions weigh heavy on my mind tonight.  Please take some time to read King’s post and share your thoughts.   Shift has happened, continues to happen, and will keep happening—will we stand still, or will we shift too?

Day in the Life

Day 5 of week of keeping track of what librarians or library workers do so we can see the diversity of the jobs we do.

Friday January 30, 2009

7:25 – arrived at work – unlocked elevator and office

7:29 – swapped out tapes on Horizon and Authority works servers and unforwarded the helpline phone

7:35 – logged on both Windows and Linux machines – logged into email and did a cursory scan since I was out yesterday

7:41 – logged into Horizon and returned my DVDs (hubby is watching Wire in the Blood) and checked to see what reserves had come in for me

7:43 – went downstairs to put returned DVDs in correct delivery boxes, get mega cup of ice for Diet Coke habit and to retrieve my 13 holds

7:48 – checked out my 13 holds including David Lee King’s “Designing the Digital Experience”

7:53 – logged into Staff Intranet, iGoogle, Friendfeed, Facebook and Meebo

8:10 – updated co-worker on husband’s condition after yesterday’s test

8:15 – reading/responding to emails from yesterday

8:31 – posted day 3 of DitL blog post because I was out yesterday

8:32 – caught up with co-worker about Wednesday’s Lost episode

8:37 – tested Sailor link to our Marina page – is working now that they have the correct one

8:47 – updated boss on hubby’s test results from yesterday

8:50 – back to emails

9:00 – bounceback emails are calling me

9:05 – to help with a helpdesk ticket installing Filezilla client on Mac laptop – while waiting I “Dugg” some article from my RSS feed

9:14 – installed and correctly setup FileZilla on Mac laptop and was able to connect – easy install

9:15 – back to bouncebacks more have come in

9:30 – called Public Relations office about their helpdesk ticket

9:44 – uploading PDF’s to ChooseCivility site

9:55 – called Public Relations back and discussed uploading to Joomla’s media manager instead – turns out will probably just wait until the new Choose Civility site is up and running for this

10:03 – more bouncebacks….guess ILL finally generated all the notices

10:10 – discussed with Sys Admin about some errors and concerns over day end process a couple of days ago. Sadly neither of us is 100% sure who messed up what or did the system fail to finish a process.

10:30 – closed helpdesk ticket from Public Relations – will wait for new site to add pdfs

10:40 – emailed class about Picasa3 training and some issues that have arisen around timing and schedule

10:50 – called staff member to follow up on helpdesk ticket follow up that they didn’t follow up on

11:00 – worked on CIL09 slides

11:40 – created collection/set in library’s Flickr account for our new This Is Your Life program so they can start uploading images

11:45 – wrote up instructions so This is Your Life folks can upload to Flickr

12:10 – Lunch

12:45 – spoke with Network Admin about why my synaptic package manager was giving me error message – taught me how to run the command in terminal because an update didn’t get finish – running full updates now – installed FileZilla on Ubuntu machine

12:54 – back to CIL09 slides

2:00 – Called into podcast T is for Training

3:00 – back to CIL09 slides

3:30 – end of day, end of week

Found this meme on David Lee King’s blog and thought it might be fun to do. My comments are in ( ). Kinda makes me want to make a list of work-related ideas, including things no matter how small or how outrageous, to really think about what I’d like to do in my career as a librarian. But that’s another day…

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

THE 99 THINGS MEME

Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicize
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to – leave in plain font

1. Started your own blog.
2. Slept under the stars.
3. Played in a band. (does high school count?)
4. Visited Hawaii.
5. Watched a meteor shower.
6. Given more than you can afford to charity. (I give to charity, but not more than I can afford)
7. Been to Disneyland/world.
8. Climbed a mountain. (in Colorado – not sure if this means something more major, like K2…)
9. Held a praying mantis.
10. Sang a solo.
11. Bungee jumped.
12. Visited Paris.
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea.
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch.
15. Adopted a child. (almost! waiting for a referral when I got pregnant with my son)
16. Had food poisoning.
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty.
18. Grown your own vegetables.
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France.
20. Slept on an overnight train.
21. Had a pillow fight.
22. Hitch hiked.
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill.
24. Built a snow fort.
25. Held a lamb.
26. Gone skinny dipping.
27. Run a marathon. (I’d like to keep my toenails, thanks)
28. Ridden a gondola in Venice.
29. Seen a total eclipse.
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset.
31. Hit a home run.  (not a likely event)
32. Been on a cruise. (BIG fear of drowning at sea)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person.
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors.
35. Seen an Amish community.
36. Taught yourself a new language.
37.Had enough money to be truly satisfied.
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person.
39. Gone rock climbing. (really want to do this!)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David in person.
41. Sung Karaoke. (like singing – but the introvert in me may not be up to this without a couple of drinks first)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt.
43. Bought a stranger a meal in a restaurant.
44. Visited Africa.
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight.
46. Been transported in an ambulance.
47. Had your portrait painted.
48. Gone deep sea fishing.
49. Seen the Sistine chapel in person.
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling.
52. Kissed in the rain.
53. Played in the mud.
54. Gone to a drive-in theater.
55. Been in a movie.
56. Visited the Great Wall of China.
57. Started a business.
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia. (in light of their current situation, I’d say no for this right now – maybe later!)
60. Served at a soup kitchen.
61. Sold Girl Scout cookies.
62. Gone whale watching.
63. Gotten flowers for no reason.
64. Donated blood.
65. Gone sky diving.
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp. (I absorb the energy of people and places around me. Not sure I could survive this.)
67. Bounced a check.
68. Flown in a helicopter.
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy.
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial.
71. Eaten Caviar. (YUCK!)
72. Pieced a quilt.
73. Stood in Times Square.
74. Toured the Everglades.
75. Been fired from a job.
76. Seen the Changing of the Guard in London.
77. Broken a bone.
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle.
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person.
80. Published a book.
81. Visited the Vatican.
82. Bought a brand new car.
83. Walked in Jerusalem.
84. Had your picture in the newspaper.
85. Read the entire Bible.
86. Visited the White House.
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating.
88. Had chickenpox.
89. Saved someone’s life. (would be happy to, but don’t want to be in that position unless it’s a must!)
90. Sat on a jury.
91. Met someone famous.
92. Joined a book club.
93. Lost a loved one.
94. Had a baby.
95. Seen the Alamo in person.
96. Swum in the Great Salt Lake.
97. Been involved in a law suit.
98. Owned a cell phone.
99. Been stung by a bee.

Yesterday’s preconference workshop on podcasting and videocasting was too much for one post, so here are my notes from the videocasting workshop, presented by David Lee King.

Video On The Web.

There are many, many, many types of video available on the web.

Rocketboom Daily Internet Culture–from the about section “

Rocketboom is a daily international news program based in New York City. We cover and create a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to contemporary internet culture.  Watch daily on this website, subscribe via email, iTunes, or RSS, browse our archives, or find Rocketboom on many off-site destinations like YouTube, Vimeo and Yahoo!.”

News video

On the web has exploded–take a look at the CNN , there are dozens of links to video on their page.

TV Shows

• CBS–Survivor, Late Night with David Letterman
• NBC–Jay Leno
• Hulu
• Fancast

Webshows

• Pop17 from the about page:  Pop17 is a two-to-three minute daily exploration to track, analyze and understand the new cultural phenomenon of online micro-celebrity. Who are these new influentials? What are their stories? How have they leveraged their online successes? These are the kinds of questions we will explore everyday at Pop17. Grab an RSS feed, Twitter alert or just stop back by and jump in on the conversation.

Screencasting

from wikipedia

A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output, also known as a video screen capture, often containing audio narration. Although the term screencast dates from 2004, products such as Lotus ScreenCam were used as early as 1994.^[1][2] Early products produced large files and had limited editing features. More recent products support more compact file formats such as Adobe Flash and have more sophisticated editing features allowing changes in sequence, mouse movement, and audio.

Just as a screenshot is a picture of a user’s screen, a screencast is essentially a movie of the changes over time that a user sees on their monitor.

Machinima

Lifecasting

–from wikipedia

• –Lifecasting is a continual broadcast of events in a person’s life through digital media. Typically, lifecasting is transmitted through the medium of the Internet and can involve wearable technology. ^[1] Lifecasting reverses the concept of surveillance, giving rise to sousveillance through portability, personal experience capture, daily routines and interactive communication with viewers.

• Check out Justintv

Mobile blogging

Qik.com — mobile blogging, you can even use your iPhone.

How To Find Video On The Web

Some resources:

• blinkx
• Clipblast
• Google
• Mefeedia

How To Watch Video

• Use a video aggregator like:

• iTunes
• Fireant
• Mefeedia

• PSP

• AppleTV or Tivo

Creating videos takes TIME and tools

Tools

Need a video camera

• mini DV camera
• cheapie web cam and microphone
• mobile phone ( mobile blogging)
• some laptops have built in cameras and microphones–you could start now.

FLIP video camera has USB jack plugs right into your laptop–not expensive $100 bucks and oh so cool.

Need video editing software

Free & cheap

• Apple’s i-movie
• Windows Movie Maker
• AVID Free DV
• Quicktime PRO
• Power Director
• Ulead’s Video Suite

Pricey and Powerful

• Adobe’s video suite
• Final cut pro

Need a blog

• any will do
• enclosures for RSS 2.0 feed
• feedburner is easy and free

Formats

There are several formats  depending on what people use to create video.  Most videos are a version of quicktime or flash.  Bliptv converts -files automatically to flash and quicktime.

• Not easy like podcasting and mp3 formats
• quicktime.mov
• iPod.m4v
• Flash

Many video sites use flash (You Tube) which is hard to download for later viewing.

Besides the TIME and the tools, you’re also going to need an idea!

Storage and Access–two ways

One: Store them yourself

May please the IT guys, but it takes a lot of bandwidth, you may even need a media server depending on traffic.

• If you can handle the bandwidth
• Going to need a server packed with memory
• Possibly a media server–quicktime/WMV type thing

Two: Let Someone Else Store Them

• Ourmedia
• bliptv
• Internet Archive
• Others–ie youtube

Next time—what can libraries do with video casting.

jim

On this first day of the official conference, I switched back and forth between the Public Library Track and the Web Development Track.  This, of course, was after an intriguing keynote address given by Howard Rheingold, author of Smart Mobs.  Mr. Rheingold discussed Communities and communication in a social & Mobile World and spoke about how SMS has been used around the world for gathering mobs for both good and bad purposes.  Collective action has been a driving force for change throughout history and in the future, technology will make this even easier and faster.  His remarks were a great introduction for the rest of the presentations of the day.

David Lee King’s Designing the Digital Experience made me think about web page creation in an entirely new way.  Our Library web page should focus on providing an “experience” for the patron. 
He asked us to consider “How do you Improve the Ordinary Experiences patrons are having on your website?” rather than content we, as librarians, think should be there.  If checking out a book is the Event for a patron, then a “preshow” experience might be bookreviews or exerpts from the book on a webpage.  The “postshow” experience would include a comments section on the page where patrons can express their opinions of the book or a forum to exchange ideas with other readers.  In considering a webpage re-design, don’t look at other library pages, but rather look at web pages that your patrons use like Amazon, Google, and eBay.  Then take ideas from those experiences.

Greg Schwartz spoke to us about Branding – not our libraries, but rather ourselves as librarians. 
You don’t own your online identity but you do have the ability to influence it.  Personal branding is the actions you take to define who you are to others. 
Greg’s Six Tips for managing your brand
1.Have a homebase (blog, webpage, etc.) Claimid – gives you a profile page that identifies all of your social network pages.
2.Own your username – think about how selection of username affects your brand
3.Aggregate your lifestream – friendfeed – gives your friends a place to go to see a single place that unifies your social network.
4.  Join the conversation – single best way to get yourself as a librarian out into the online experience Important that you are thoughtful and the real you. You portray yourself in the light that you want to be recognized
5. Follow what others are saying about you.(Google Blog Alert) Technorati also does this.
6. Be authentic – be real You want your online presence to connect to the real you.

experiences are a unique tangible offering

experience design – simply stated approach to creating successful experiences for ppl in any medium, american girl example in chicago,

3 different paths structure community and customer

structure improve websites easy of use, when customers can focus on own goals rather than how to navigate your site

website design – strategy – scope – structure – skeleton – surface

37 signals – getting real – free ebook

simplify

community path – focus on community rather than struction

memorable experience in relation to online and community

real conversations taking place – im, commenting, twitter, youtube myspace etc, goal to allow your customers to connect with you and others,

connecting with others – online connections lead to face to face connections later

invitations

participation

sense of familiarity

telling our stories

community focus experience – twitter good example

customer path

commonalities ?

Pre vs post shows

ppl dont want to interact with the website they want to interact with other ppl

its about extending experience into digital space in a way that wasn’t possible before

customer journey mapping mapping out each touch point then trying to improve those touch points experience

improving the ordinary – wd40 improves by attaching the straw, so you don’t loose it

how can you improve the ordinary experience your customers have the website? When redesigning dont just look at library websites look at other industries websites, facebook amazon ebay, look at the sites your customers are using

what do we do with these paths?

Connect the customer – to organization, the product,

create an experience stage – rehearse new services before you start, do all your reference librarians know how to interact over the web?

Work on conversation – read emerging books on marketing, Ground Swell

change – we need to work on organizational change, if you

]]> http://colldevsnoisle.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/internet-librarian-2008-podcasting-videocasting-bootcamp/ Mon, 20 Oct 2008 00:29:10 +0000 Jim McCluskey http://colldevsnoisle.wordpress.com/2008/10/19/internet-librarian-2008-podcasting-videocasting-bootcamp/

Yes, it was a bootcamp, but at no time did David Lee King or Dave W. Free say the words, “drop and give me twenty”, for that and all the great information, I say thank you.

What’s a podcast?  According to Aaron, it’s easy RSS plus MP3 equals podcast.  Need more specifics check out Podcasting in Plain English.

Many resources on podcasting are available on David Free’s wiki.

Ways to find podcasts

• Websites like NPR and oh so many others
• Search tools
  • Google
  • PodcastPickle fun to say, and functional.
    
  • Podcast 411
  • iTunes

To consume podcasts: basic requirements

NEEDS

• computer
• broadband internet
• media player(s)

AGGREGATORS

• Juice
• Bloglines
• iTunes

DEVICES

• iPod or others
• PSP
• Treo–smart phones

Examples of podcast sites

Uncontrolled Vocabulary

: A weekly live interactive roundtable discussion of all things library, Wednesdays 10 PM Eastern.

When you add a podcast think about your listeners, make it easy to find on your site, embed a player for a clean look-either the server based version of WordPress or WordPress.com seem to be the best right now.  Be sure to add your podcast to iTunes, which is where most people will find you.  You’ll need a credit card to create an iTunes account for your library, but no worries your credit card info is safe.

Some things that make good podcasts for libraries

Author visits–be sure to discuss up front with your speaker that you’d like to podcast their talk, get a signed release–most speakers will be fine with this.
Storytimes

Internal training–ie Sno-Isle’s CPI collection maintenance videos (videocasting)

Some featured library podcasts.

• Los Angeles Central Library ALOUD Podcasts
• Sunnyvale Public Library
• Pritzker Military Library
• Princeton (NJ) Public Library Poetry Podcasts
• Orange County (FL) Library System
• Moraine Valley Community College
• Ohio University Alden Library Audio Tour
• Fairfield University Library
• WPI Audio To Go
• Pierce County (WA) Library System

Notable

Cheshire Public Library has a teen driven podcast–this would be great for our local Teen Project libraries.

Ohio University–library tours in other languages–this would be a great project for the Monroe Library to create a library tour in Spanish.

Pierce Cty–podcast of volunteer opportunities at the library–great idea. (share w/Nancy Patton)

Podcast Tips

Be entertaining and passionate.

Do a couple takes to hear your voice, and become aware of your tics– do you say ummm more than you’re aware of, try to work on breaking this habit.  You can edit out the ummms, but it’s tedious and ultimately easier to work on dropping this verbal tic.

3 to 4 minutes is best, and never go longer than 10 minutes–you’ll  lose your audience.

TOOLS

Use a USB microphone–doesn’t have to cost a fortune–entry level USB mics run about $25.00.  There  are of course cool ones that cost more but most important is to go with USB rather than with jack style.

You can also use your iPod as a voice recorder by plugging in a Belkin tunetalk into your iPod.  Has good sound, just place on podium and then later add the podcast to your iTunes.

Audacity–this is free and mega-easy software to use–”if you can use MS Word, you can use Audacity.  Looks a bit intimidating at first, but it’s easy and works in either Mac or Windows environments–you can even use Windows at work and then edit it more on your Mac at home.  Cool.

Levelator  this tool will level the volume of different speakers voices so that listening is pleasurable.  If you have one person who is loud and another who is soft spoken, then levelator is the tool to use, so that your listeners aren’t constantly fussing with the volume on their device.

Hosting free online tools like bliptv will host your podcasts–easy to cross post your podcasts to your blog.  WordPress works better than blogger for podcasting.

Promote your podcast just like any other service.  Be smart and use iTunes, and other podcast directories, don’t think that just putting it up on your site is enough.

Evaluate your podcasts–are they right for your community?  Do patrons enjoy them?  Ask.  Use the feedback to improve-don’t take it personally.  Finally, don’t start podcasting just because everyone else is, or because you got excited about it after a workshop–make sure it’s right for your library.

More on Videocasting later, for now I’m  off to the Gaming and Gadgets Petting Zoo.

Today is Library Camp at ACPL: we have librarians from throughout the region here to talk about all kinds of library technology topics. It’s what’s known as an “un-conference.” Instead of coming up with a list of sessions and presenters ahead of time, we’ve invited a bunch of people who are interested in technology and asked them just to bring ideas. After we hear from our keynote speaker, David Lee King, who is talking about the Digital Branch Library, we’ll put together a list of topics and then decide which ones we’re most interested in. It should be a really interesting day.

I’m a little late, but just in case you haven’t seen the latest music video sweeping libraryland. Warning! It’s catchy!  If you want to sing along the lyrics are here.

Thank you to David Lee King and Michael Porter for the tremendous amount of effort they put into making this awesome library related song and video.

On what to give up when faced with too much work and never enough time….David Lee King discusses this age old problem here: http://www.davidleeking.com/2008/07/01/answering-the-what-do-i-have-to-stop-doing-question/

As life and work and family and friend’s demands seem to only leap and grow exponentially….I keep thinking back to something from an earlier….more evenly paced time.  If we always try to do the most important, most meaningful, most valuable things that we have on our “to do”: lists……things will usually turn out just fine. 

Gosh that seems so hard to do these days. In a world of what seems to be an ever quickening pace of change, sometimes it just seems hard to catch your breath. I know I feel guilty enough of the time questioning….if I could have only gotten this or that thing done. I do know I have to continue to be more productive and to keep making “more meaningful” contributions and impacts. To make a meaningful impact on: my family, my work, myself and my faith.  I’ll have another post to follow this on what seems to be a very “unlibrary” type of a posting for me…please indulge me.

For now….here was my added comment to the David Lee King discussion:

“I agree….the “what” of the things that we do is important. I might add to the conversation another word…”why”. Why do we do what we do? or… Why should I do that new thing?

It seems to me…when you discuss the “why” of our actions, our beliefs, our library goals or even the “why” about what makes us feel passionate about our work, the true value and joy and meaning emerge.

Next time somebody asks about giving up or adding the “what”…reframe the question into: “why” do you ask?,  why should it matter?,  why is that better…and most importantly…”why not”?”

Although I won’t be able to catch it live, I plan on viewing the “Video on the Web: A Primer” seminar [http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=104] when an archived copy it is available. 

The 1-hour David Lee King [http://www.davidleeking.com] presentation Monday at 11am (EDT) is described as follows:

“Video on the web is one of today’s hottest social networking trends. But what can this emerging technology do for libraries? What is a videoblog and why use one on your library’s website? This in-depth session answers these questions and more. Come explore how libraries are using video for outreach and learning through a variety of case studies, discover tips on what types of content work best for different types of libraries, and learn what to consider when planning for and implementing videocasting at your library.”

Meebo är en tjänst som klarar de vanligaste standarderna för chat som iChat/AIM, ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, Jabber, Google Talk och MSN Messenger.
Meebo fungerar som ett utmärkt verktyg för bibliotek. Göteborgs Stadsbibliotek använder det som alternativ till dyrare verktyg för frågetjänster. I Kumla använder man det som kompletterande kommunikationskanal.
Sarah Houghton-Jan bloggade på LibrarianInBlack om hur biblioteken kunde använda Meebo Chat Rooms.

Och nu, tadaa!, via Anna-Stina Axelsson: smarta kollegor som lagt in meebo som sökträff  i bibliotekskatalogen när man misslyckas med sin sökning!

Idén kommer från David Lee King; “What did we do? We added a Meebo widget to unsuccessful keyword searches in our library catalog. This way, when a customer searches our catalog and doesn’t find anything, they can contact us via IM and ask for help”

Lite revolutionerande när katalogen blir ett verktyg för kommunikation.
Så vem blir först i Sverige med detta?

David Lee King – Videoblogging

The same as podcasting, but with video included.  Be sure to check out Rocketboom - 3 minute daily video blog, covers internet culture. 2-3 people in their apartment, very low cost, no promotion funds, but getting very popular, 4-5 hundred thousand viewers per day.

Other terms used to describe video blogging:  Videoblog, Vlog, Vodcast, Videocast, V-Log, Video Podcast

Not: A digital version of a tv show, not streaming video, not YouTube, not digital video news from CNN.

Video blogging is video on a blog. Commenting is allowed, just like a regular blog. Gets the conversation going. Some vloggers will use video comments.

“I can’t open it” By Steve Garfield. Very funny.

Broadband makes video blogging easier. Free storage online, easy upload, cheap equipment, video ability is available on cameras, phones, etc. lots of great uses for short video clips of things, and the technology is there to help them do it, find it, etc.

blinkx.com – search engine for video

clipblast.com – similar, video metasearch engine

google video search

mefeedia – web based video aggregator – set up an account and store video at your account instead of on your own computer.

iTunes – video as well as audio.

Just click on a video to watch it. Need of course computer, fast connection, the usual stuff like that. Need to have a video player installed, like QuickTime, Windows Media Player, Flash, etc.

Use a video aggregator, subscribe to the video blog, then you don’t have to search as much, and you can watch it on your own time, etc. just like normal RSS feed aggregator.

Creating video blogs – need time. Mostly time. Time to do it. Also, mini-DV camcorder, webcam and mic, mobile phone with a video camera in it, some laptops even have built in vidoe/camera capability.

Movie editing software: Windows movie maker is good, Quicktime Pro, Avid Free DV, Power Director, Ulead’s video studio, Adobe’s Video Suite (spendy), Final Cut Pro (spendy spendy)

Online video editing is an option – eyespot, jumpcut, motionbox,

Need a blog – any blog. Blogger, WordPress, work great. Feedburner can be great for getting RSS feeds out

Video is not quite as easy as podcasting, becasue file types vary. .mov, .m4v, flash are the big types, but there are many types. Flash is great, but hard to download for later viewing.

Ideas can be good. What would be good for a video blog? What kinds of content will work best with the media?

Storage/Access – store them yourself, at your library (bandwidth issues – popular videos might take up more bandwidth), media server is good. Or, let someone else store them – blip.tv, ourmedia, internet archive, others.

I like the idea of doing it at the Internet Archive – non-profit, open, free.

Lots of video hosting places out there. Lots and lots and lots. Youtube is the most popular. You can store up to a 10 minute video. You can get an RSS feed, embedding, viewer stats, but hard for others for download. Blogger has a way to save video on blogger.

What can libraries do? 60 second book review – life on the refrigerator door. Very cool. Booktalks with creative stuff in them.

book talks, PR, Bibliographic instruction, exhibits, interviews, events, tutorials.

Slideshare – slow yet, wonky for sound, slidecasts and screencasts should be short, just like all other videos.

More ideas: Cultural memory project, Local news, video contests for teens, environmental issues, behind the scenes at the library, local places to visit, Travel videos, local attractions, political candidates discuss issues, hobbies, lifestyles.

For more info: videoblogging for dummies, secrets of videoblogging. Groups.yahoo.com – videoblogging group lots of good people.

Ryan Deschampes skriver på sin blogg The Other Librarian om vilken utmaning Facebook kan vara för biblioteken. Han menar att Library 2.0-tekniker i princip är bra för biblioteken, Inte för att de är 2.0 i sig utan för att de tvingar bibliotekspersonalen att avlära sig vissa saker för att bli effektiva.
Facebook kräver att man är utåtriktad.
Deltagandet inne i communityn är det viktigaste – det som sker ute på www är inte lika viktigt.
Användarna vill ha uppmärksamhet.

Så här säger David Lee King i en kommentar:

“So… how do you learn a new tool’s culture? By PLAYING with it. Experiencing it. Using it. Play with Facebook. Gather 100 friends and see what happens. Connect to some Facebook apps, join some Facebook groups. Poke people. Browse – see who’s using Facebook in your neck of the woods. Then figure out what you can add that those people (your customers, after all) might find interesting or useful.”