Pecha Kucha: 2.0 Top Tips


Jessica Sanchez, Nathan Flinchum, Jenny Novalis, Joe Murphy, and Madeline Kriescher

This session had 5 panelists competing to win for the best presentation. Each person got 6 minutes and 40 seconds for his or her presentation, with 20 seconds per slide. These are awfully fun

Jessica went first and talked about blogging. This is her first CIL conference. She showed a slide of the blog of the Grand Rapids Public Library. Blogs convey news to patrons, helps you get in touch with co-workers, and reach people who make financial decisions for your library. Blogger and Wordpress and other sites are free and easy to use. Who is using blogs, and what are they using them for? President Obama’s admininstration is blogging. He also has a Twitter Account (username: BarackObama). Public libraries are blogging as well. You can use Wordpress to create a webpage too, not just a blog. The Ann Arbor District Library uses blogging to recommend books and other materials, update the community about library news, and they use tagging to aggregate related comments. Blogging for the staff is one way to cut down on FYI emails. She was asked to create a “blog of blogs” for her library - so she’d read through her feeds and create a “Daily Digest” with titles, authors, and links to the posts. If you have a blog and it’s not catching on, evaluate your blog and ask your users what they want. When people comment, make sure you reply - if you don’t, they will cease commenting. Tag your posts to help people find other information that is interesting to them. Blogging can be used in any library for any purpose. Tap the library world for help with blogging and tips and tricks for your software issues.

Nathan Flinchum went second and covered the social web. He started by noting that at one time we were all new to the web (n00bs). We need to think about our patrons and staff and what they feel like when they encounter Web 2.0 for the first time. There are common concerns - Why doesn’t everything work the same way? There are too many sites! Do I need to sign up for each site separately? Library users and staff are using the web for something practical and learning organically. Using these tools on a consistent basis is what has made them important to us. Think about why you initially chose to use a particular tool. Something we were interersted in used the web as a tool. He calls this the “on ramp” to the Internet. These can be a single site or group of sites about a subject: movies, TV, books, etc. These sites are usually self-contained, have one set of tools and rules and skills. This makes their initial entry easy to handle. Ravelry is a social network for knitters with patterns, photos, advice, friends, and more. It’s a social network based around a specific interest, and as such she is interested in having the 2.0 experience as a path to the information she wants. The skills are applicable, then, to other sites outside of their initial experience. He recommended Laconica, which lets you install a small instance of Twitter on your own API. Create a sealed off “sandbox” environment to teach 2.0 to staff or the public.Make it private, invite people, and make it a safe place for people to practice 2.0 skills. The fear of repercussions for their actions often stands in the way of people trying out new technology and media. If you give them this sealed off environment, they will be much more comfortable. He referred us to his website: Roanokepl.wetpaint.com.

Jenny Novalis was number three and talked about TechChat, which uses a wiki and technology demonstration programs to train people. Some of the topics include cell phones, digital cameras, printers, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, iPods, etc. The public often comes into the library trying to use these technologies, somewhat unsuccessfully, and stumble around. Their wiki provided an always-available resource where they can get access to help them remember how to do something from the class. They used similar wikis for both staff and public training. There is one “Tech Authority” at each branch who is responsible to help any user coming in with any technology problem. [Note from Sarah: I would not recommend this - I think that it's key that people are equally trained and that no one location relies on the skills and knowledge of one individual person. If a Library Assistant knows tech, but their colleague in the same job classification does not, the library has set up a situation of inevitable inequality, anger, resentment, unfair workload distribution, and other negative nasty things. All staff should be trained in what they need to know, equally, across the board. OK, end of rant.]. The staff wiki includes a lot of tech troubleshooting guides (wifi connections, setting up a projector, etc.). Staff felt more comfortable sharing their concerns on the wiki instead of going directly to Tech Support. Sharing their issues with each other, and helping each other, is a good learning process and takes away some workload from IT.

Joe Murphy was fourth and discussed mobile devices. Cell phones are what people are using - they are capable of many functions and are very popular. Every day, Joe exchanges about 400 text messages every day. He searches through SMS, and his favorite is not Google SMS, but Cha Cha. It’s quick, it’s people, and he loves it because it’s not librarians. Using SMS for reference services at libraries is growing in popluarity. What technologies we use is not important, but the fact that we do it is very important. He believes that we will need to partner with outside organizations like Cha Cha to provide these services. SMS is great for searching the library catalog, the library website, and more. He can check his bank account via SMS and make changes, but that is not possible with library accounts. Mobile applications in the next year or two are essential for libraries to develop and offer consistently. He wants to be able to rate items, share reviews, and connect with community members. He wants mobile applications to mash up with each other. How to manage and maintain mobile applications is something reference librarians will have to engage in as creators and service providers. Do we authenticate? How? How do we market? How do we get to the people who want these services? He suggests having a CiL application, and applications that let you find and manipulate eResources, including sharing them.

Madeline Kriescher finished up the discussion by talking about her work in Denver at a Law Library that serves a 6 state area. Their aim was at the law clerks, not at the judges. They felt they had an image problem in the library. They wanted to be the high tech go-to resources. The Denver Public Library and the Harvard Law Library were two examples she gave as where she wanted to go with her Facebook page and the group she presented it to were hesitant. She emphasized, though, that it’s a tool the clerks already use, it helps to reach a wider internal audience, meets the expectations of varied service, and changes attitudes of people about both the technology and the library. The drawbacks included some security risks in reaching a wider audience, plus that there would not be enough time for staff to work on it. The IT department was pretty much on board, but the Judges were giving her a hard time. A lot of the librarian were afraid of something new. Madeline then sent up a formal proposal for the Facebook page and it was accepted. Yay!

In the end, it was a close race but Joe Murphy won this year’s Pecha Kucha. Congrats!

CIL2009

Web 2.x Training for Customers and Staff


Beth Tribe, Michael Sauers, and Bobbi Newman

Beth Tribe started by discussing some tips and tricks about public training (I missed this part of the session as I was unfortunately late coming back from lunch - sorry Beth!  I’m sure others have blogged it as well).

Michael Sauers talked about the implementation of the 23 Things program at his library. The program was very successful and the staff responded very positively to the opportunity to learn. At one point, Michael said “If you haven’t done this program yet, go back and do it right away.” I agree. 23 Things is not new now. It has become a one-stop-shop for basic Web 2.0 tools and learning. They did the program with Continuing Education credits, which is unusual. And he suggests that it’s important to make sure that people write a minimum amount of words for CE credits. He suggested giong slowly, working with the staff one-on-one if necessary, and paring people up when they need help. Many school librarians participated, but the service was blocked in their workplaces. As a result, they were asked to do it at home. But due to union rules, some people could not do that work at home (it’s the same with my library in San Jose).

Bobbi talked about staff and public training. A good quote: “The more familiar we are with something, the more ew like it. This is the mere exposure effect.” She noted that with staff there is a baseline level of expectations for skills, but the same is not true with the public. Her library did 29 things, and got some interesting reactions from staff. Staff wanted more. So they created Learning 2.1. Staff had felt there were too many lessons, that they didn’t have enough time to complete each week’s task. Learning 2.1 was based on “microlessons” taking one hour only. They gave prizes all the way through. She noted that the dollar bin at Target and the dollar store are great places to get prizes. They were able to give away grand prizes for 2.0 and 2.1. 2.0 had MP3 players for everyone who completed the program. Same thing with 2.1 - another MP3 player for completion . The grand prize drawing for a digital camera was the ultimate win. One of their staff members now does a podcast with his daughter now. They had one library blog when the program started, and now they have four or five blogs. Staff kept sharing after the program was over and she believes that a real culture of learning has been cultivated in the library through these two programs. One of their problems her library has with training library customers is a lack of a training lab. They got a grant for a laptop cart and laptops for mobile classes in community spaces. The community wanted training on specific topics, so that’s what they offered: using blogs, discovering new resources at the library, Facebook, online photo sharing with Flickr, internet safety. She discussed the problem of having students with very basic knowledge and very advanced knowledge on the topic being covered, and the importance of offering ideas and content that is appealing to both groups. After the training, most people walk out and don’t think about it again. Few people follow up after the class with additional questions or needs. That is the opposite of what happens with staff training.

CIL2009

Social Network Profile Management


Greg Schwartz, Amanda Clay Powers, Michael Porter, and me

I had the honor of presenting with these three wonderful speakers about social network profiles.

Greg Schwartz went first. He started talking about identities online. It’s not just about expression and reputation. It’s about things you publish, services you access, things you buy. It all comes together to form your digital identity. Greg’s first tip is to own your username. Get one and stick to it. Join the conversation. Develop your identity by letting people know who you are. Also, listen. Pay attention to what other people are saying about you. Keep track through RSS feeds for Twitter, Bloglines, etc. searches for your name. Finally - Be authentic!

Amanda Clay Powers followed up with discussions about her experiences teaching social networking throughout the state of Mississippi. Social networking is all about telling stories, which we’ve always done. Where do librarians enter into this picture? Creating and managing your identity on social networks is just like creating and managing information. Think of this as social metadata - information about ourselves. Think about all of the information that creating identities creates…we can help people manage their identities. Users are smothered by information coming out at them and what they’re producing. She shared how her mother went to the library to go on Facebook for the first time. Librarians offered help, but she turned them down. She didn’t think that librarians would know anything about Facebook. Teaching each other how to be healthy online is important. We can coach people how to use these tools appropriately so that they can develop the best possible online identity.

Then I spoke. My slides are up on Slidehsare. See the bottom of this post for access.

Michael Porter finished up the talk. Michael is always fun. Michael works for WebJunction and has been very involved in managing their online identity and interactions. He talked about the WebJunction site building process. As a community site for library staff it can function as an online resume of sorts for your professional identity. He also talked about how you can micromanage who sees which bits of info from your profile. Michael recommends doing things that are fun and laid back through your social networks, but still smart. Be creative, be fun, but be sensitive. Don’t post nearly naked photos of yourself on MySpace (Michael gave an example from his own site). Share success stories on your social networking tools. Should you make fun of politicians, library figures, etc? Be tasteful, be careful, be smart.

We then opened it up to questions and comments from the audience. The first question came from a corporate librarian. She said her users didn’t want their personal profiles merged with their professional profiles. Is that possible? Greg said that that is unlikely. The identities blend and merge, and as part of being authentic, you start wanting to talk about professional stuff in your personal space and vice versa and they bleed into each other. Greg says it’s more authentic to realize that the two identities are one. Michael and I mentioned our similar experiences that you can’t really keep the identities separate. You can do things privately under another name if you need to, to keep things private. Amanda talked about how it is a legacy issue - what you posted as a college student is still there as you become a part of the workforce. Another person pointed out that newcomers to social networks tend to post everything. Keep in mind that it’s available for the whole world to see and know that you don’t have to post everything in your life online. Keep private things private. The next person asked about the difference between creating personal profiles and professional profiles on these different sites. Amanda talked about how the changes to Facebook change how you spread out information to your users, and what they are seeing. Are you spamming them? Are you sending enough? The right stuff? Even though it’s professional, for an institution, you still need to be personal in your nature. The last question was about cross-linking between profiles - how do your Flickr fans find your Facebook page? If you use a lifestreaming tool like FriendFeed to aggregate your different presences, that can help. But you should also cross-link between networks and presences. I also suggested that you link to all of your social networks from your Contact Us page. Michael also pointed out that you have to budget time for maintaining these sites. If you have 3 network presences, what does that mean you can’t do in other areas? Amanda also mentioned the 2.0 Mississippi Summit, and this year’s focus is on project planning and assessment.

CIL2009

Best of the Web


Aaron Schmidt

Aaron started the session by asking us all to talk to our neighbors about our favorite tools on the web. Nice touch! Then Aaron started with his quick and long list of favorites:

• Firefox: A great free browser. He mentioned several add-ons for Firefox like Smart Keywords: programming shortcuts for searching sites you often use. Also Greasemonkey which lets you extend the function of Firefox by adding bits of javascript in your browser. Customize Google lets you change displays. Better Gmail 2 lets you take out all the ads from Gmail’s screens.
• Google Reader: Helvetica Reader improves the display and function of Gogle Reader
• Bookj City Jackets: cute little paper jackets marked with “fiction” or “favorites” (suggested for book displays at the library - good idea!)
• Wikipeda Commons: open source images to use for library promotional materials, websites, etc. Different licenses for attribution exist, so check what the requirements are before using something.
• Flickr Image Search: also a good way to find photos by doing an advanced search for items with a Creative Commons license.
• Pictobrowser: lets you enter in a Flickr URL and it will give you a piece of code to embed on the website and give you a slideshow. No coding involved, just copy and paste the code.
• Skitch: a screenshot tool, you can annotate screengrabs and easily upload things directly to Flickr from Skitch or post it to their site.
• Jing: works for Mac and Windows, screenshots but also lets you record screencasts. Records all of your actions, lets you upload your final product to their site or download the files as Flash files and host them locally.
• Screentoaster: a completely web-based screencasting tool.
• Vimeo: YouTube but cleaner and with “less insulting comments.” An audience member said it was “artier.” You can get accounts for free and customize the way your video displays. Vimeo also has a Whitehouse channel, just like YouTube. Aaron also recommends that we look at Vimeo’s sign-up process, and try to make our library sign-ups just as easy.
• PostRank: put in your feed addresses and it will tell you which posts are more popular than others. Can help you measure what content is more popular and what should be dropped.
• CopyAndPaste.com: includes symbols and non-traditional characters that you can simply copy and paste into your blog posts, Word documents, etc.
• Today’s Meet: creates a temporary online space where people can gather and chat.
• Doodle: a tool to help you schedule meetings online with others
• When Is Good: another tool to help you schedule meetings online
• LetMeGoogleThatForYou: lets you do a Google search and then gives you a tiny URL to access those results automatically. The link shows people accessing it the act of typing something into the search box, hitting search, and then displaying the following text: “Was that so hard?” A bit of a smart monkey tool to tease friends
• Color Lovers: designs and color combinations and color schemes that you can grab for your own site design
• TagCrowd: enter a URL or a block of text and pulls out relevant tags and makes a tag cloud
• Wordle: similar tool for creating a tag cloud.
• Qapture: a real-time aggregation of what’s going on on Twitter.
• Search.Twitter.com: search for your library’s name, see who’s talking about the library then reply to people’s posts and connect with them virtually.
• TweetDeck: monitors Twitter activiity, lets you search for terms, includes access to your replies, etc.
• Vyew: Free online webcasting tool. Share desktops, do video, have chat, do a PowerPoint, etc.
• Bacolicio.us: Run any webpage through this and it super-imposes a piece of bacon over the site
• WordPress theme called Thematic: a basic framework, clean and good code, easy to modify and adjust.
• TED talks: really expensive conference held in Monterey with scientists, computer people, business people, artists, etc. The stie includes talks on a variety of topics that can be inspiring or expose you to new ideas and connections.
• Google Voice: You can get a new phone number from Google, give it to people, and calls to that number will be routed to your phone, and all voicemail gets transcribed into text.
• Google Forms: create a web form easily with this tool and copy and paste the code into your own site, and the data goes to a Google Spreadsheet. Aaron has used it to create a quick and easy sign-up form for Summer Reading.
• Book Bag: www.lizania.com/bookbag.php a bag that is shaped like a book. Unzip it and it turns into a canvas bag.
• Net News Wire: Aaron’s choice for an RSS reader, but it only works on Macs. Bah. An audience member says that Newsgator offers something similar for Windows.
• Prezi: make neat looking presentations using this web tool. Aaron says there is a steep learning curve, but thinks it’s worth it.
• 280Slides: online tool for creating and sharing presentations.
• Lovely Charts: lets you create wireframes, flowcharts, organizational charts, network diagrams, anything.
• Typetester: enter some sample text, choose all of the CSS paramaters and it displays the results below. You can compare three different options at a time. You can then copy and paste the CSS you like into your stylesheet.
• A commercial from Lithuania that airs often and adavertises libraries. The basic point is that you must use the right toolf or the job, and the library is the place to get that information.

The audience then started sharing their favorite sites.

1. Evernote: lets you tag sites and put them in folders. Kind of like a combination of bookmarks and del.icio.us.
2. Zotero: a Firefox plug-in that lets you pull citations from your OPAC into Firefox.
3. WorldTimeServer.com: shows the current time anywhere in the world. Also offers a meeting planner.
4. Tadalist.com: helps you create lists of sites. Save lists that you use often (e.g. conference packing lists, holiday lists, etc.). You can share your lists via RSS. Archives the lists.
5. Hulu.com: movies online. Good when your library copies are checked out or damaged.
6. Toodledo: Site for temporary to-do lists, lets you annotate, tag, put them into folders,
7. SendUIt: Lets you upload a PDF or attachment and create a link and email that to people instead of emailing them the attachment itself.
8. EMic4All.com: lets you record audio in MP3.
9. Audacity: free audio editing software
10. LogMeIn.com: remote support for computers, once you put the client on you can select a remote group of computers to connect to. Offers a free version and a paid version.
11. DropBox: put a client on a PC or a Mac and put files up onto the virtual storage site and you get updated real-time from either computer. Good way to have access to files no matter where you are and what computer you are on.
12. Xobni: searches email, links to Facebook, etc.
13. Google Chrome: fast, works like Firefo, for PCs and Macs only, not Linux. Also supposed to be super-secure.

CIL2009