Librarian and Technology

Hey Librarians! Is this us? The interactive, customer oriented, techno savy librarian?

Google and Stupidity?

Is Google making us stupid... in Atlantic monthly. An interesting article

Tech Term Knowledge Pt. 2

More terms to print off, study, memorize and use to dazzle your friends and colleagues. Those youngsters that you work with won't know what hit them when you start talking about that kindle that's available right now, or ask what kind of MP3 player they're planning to use for the new overdrive books available!

Hyperlink: A navigation element in an email, blog,or website that opens on a webpage or takes you elsewhere. Click on Hyperlink and you'll see what I mean!
Kindle: For a consumer from Amazon. An electronic device that stores, organizes and plays print or text files like e books.
MP3 Player: For consumers. An electronic device that stores, organizes and plays audio files like music and audio books. IPods, Sansa, Zen Stones are examples.
Netiquette: ettiquette on the net. Mostly encouraged when emailing, but increasingly important in IM and social sites. Be polite. Be Nice. Be diplomatic.
Quick Time: A file extension developed by Apple. When you see a quick time extension on the web, it means the file in question is a movie or video clip.
Synchronous learning: An online classroom with lots of other people logged into the class in real time, discussing together. As in a WIMBA class from NW. This term is opposite of asynchronous learning.
Widget: In computing terms this refers to objects on a webpage that users interact with. Hyperlinked objects that when placed on your website or blog take you elsewhere on the web. An example is LibraryThing that provides widgets for you to put on your website.
WIMBA: A corporate name and leading producer of collaborative learning software and online classrooms. Web Junction uses WIMBA classrooms as their vehicle for the State Library and NWILS. If you were involved in last winter's Online conference you were involved in a WIMBA room.

If you keep tabs on new technology terms, you'll be learning something new every day. Check out www.webopedia.com to find the definition for terms that are unfamiliar, or to learn new ones! Keeping up is hard to do, but this site can give you a hand.

Tech Term Knowledge

These terms are from the 2008 Jamboree session on technology. And if you want more terms be sure to click here. There was so much available Bonnie didn't have time to get through them all. So we will test your knowledge in a couple of posts:
Applet A software component that runs in the content of another program. A small application like a web caculator or a text editor. Windows media player is one....
Asynchronous Learning: An online classroom but one not in real time. It is not connected to a teaching human at the other end, but is rather a tutorial, like web junction. You take these 'classes' on your own time and at your own speed, by yourself.
Avatar: a 'cute' image of your alter ego when you're online in IM or 2nd Life.
Bandwidth: The maximum amount of data that can flow throgh a communication path at any given time. It speaks to the speed of your internet connection if you look at it as a garden hose.
DRM: Digital Rights Management. It is the transferring to other medi functionality after its been downloaded; like downloading a book from Wilbor to Media Player to your MP3 player.
Emoticons: The smiley faces used to express feelings when you are using IM or emailing someone.
FAQ: Frequently asked Questions. As in the NW FAQ page about Wilbor.
VOIP: Voice over internet protocol. Your computer receives voice transmission from another connected computer, not a long distance phone call. Skype is an example.

Don't have Time?

So, if you're like most of the library world, staying current seems to be nearly impossible. It seems that once you get something down... like, say, flickr, or plone, or google docs, or even overdrive when along comes something else that you have to learn or try. The technology is exploding and you're at the center of the blast! So how do you keep up?

Delegate some time each week to pend at that keeping up task. Blogs are a great way to start and there are some great ones out there that will help you sort through all the important explosions of technology and information:
Library link of the day
Librarian in Black resources and discussions for techie/not so techie librarians
Library Garden A discussion from different kinds of libraries helping keep libraries relevant
Tame the Web libraries, technology, people
LISNews news for the librarian among us!
Library Journal Ok we just can't get away from reading, reading reading. It's what we do/promote!
There are also, a whole host of blogs and sites out there that are geared towards libraries and reading, that provide all kinds of reviews, or just discussions about topics that you might have a particular interest in. If you use an RSS feed you never have to go hunting for that site or try to remember which one it was. It will come into your computer automatically.

Some really good blogs that provide book reviews:
Big A Little a
Youth services Librarians unite
What Adrienne thinks about that
chicken spaghetti
Jen Robinson's promoting the love of books by children and the continued reading of children's books by adults

By checking any of these sites out, you will no doubt find more sites from links that are available there. Oh, I know, reading blogs, or about available technology won't get books processed or shelved, or even other technological problems that you have get solved, patrons served, but you will be much more knowlageable about what's out "there" right now. Keep up!

Take a tour: Glendale, AZ public Library!

I recently visited a branch library of the Glendale Public Library in Glendale, Arizona and was treated to some amazing art. I thought it might be fun for you to see what libraries are doing in other areas! Glendale has a program in place that provides commissioned art for libraries. These three pieces cost more than $500,000. Paid for by tax dollars, but not directly by the libraries. The first piece is called "the Magic Door" and is the entrance to the library's children's story hour room. Viewed at eye level, things on the inside are a bit distorted and is to make a child feel like he/she is headed into a world of their own. The second piece is a 20+ foot painting of all the animals in the sonoran desert as they would be during a 24 hour period. Beginning at one end you see animals during the early morning darkness hours and progress through an entire day. It is a beautiful painting and is labeled with all the animals of the desert. some of them you have to hunt carefully for. You could spend quite a bit of time checking this painting out! The last piece is called Sun and Moon and is made of 1000's of pieces of hand blown glass. It's suspended from the ceiling of their entry way and is very impressive. I have to tell you that this branch library was all on one level and wasn't much bigger than the Spencer or Orange City library. Very impressive.

Google and the librarian

Another session at PLA was entitled: What Does it take to be good at Reference in the Age of Google? presented by Joseph Janes a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington in Seattle. Here's the gist of this workshop:

You know Google, basically, it's a 'really big ad agency with a search engine attached to it!' In lots of ways Google has changed our lives. It's certainly entered into our vocabulary! If you have a specific thing to find out, it will. It fills in a momentary gap in our knowledge and sometimes in our collections. It even means that you don't have to do the dumb stuff anymore It's fee. It's quick. It's easy and it's good enough. But not perfect. We can do it better! Here are some things that Google CAN'T do. Believe it or not Google is filled with limitations and I'm sure you've noticed them.
It can't select, i.e. tell you which of something is the best.
It can't evaluate, decide, understand, give depth, help in an active way, be a part of a community of learners, give you accuracy, or even find materials either virtually or physically!

All this to tell you that we as librarians are in timesaver positions. We can do it faster. Sure Google is fast, but we have all these other things that we offer that make us even faster!
So here are some suggestions , not to compete with Google, but to prove that the library is still very relevant today!
People come to us with reference questions today because they have failed. Like the gal who was in the library yesterday to ask us to help her find a book about phenome toxcicity in cats and dogs. Please, please please. Just try and get google to help do that!

Increasingly, though, We must be where our patrons are, both virtually ad physically. We must offer a presence on the internet as well as in person.. This means we need to build tools that help people find what they're looking for. Think Pathfinders, vodcasting, something like research minutes on youtube, blogs, or some type of community partnerships. Above all use your secret weapons: print. And doing what you you got into this job to do!
One of the best thoughts from this session, though was this: We need to have an extended notion of the library. A library is not just 4 walls and a roof with books inside and hours posted on the door. The library is anywhere, anytime, and any way in which people interact with information that is organized, provided by and supported by the library. The library is/should be a bigger place than just the building! It is an actual physical location and it can be everywhere. Wow!

Sexy Senior Programing

This is from one of the sessions I went to at PLA. The presenters were Ing Kalchthaler and Mary Mullen from Bethel Park PL in Pennsylvania. They had some typical ideas, i.e. a tax service day, speakers to address senior concerns etc. but the most fun were there 'Way Outside the Box' ideas! And don't you love getting new ideas from conferences! Hope you can use some of these at your busy libraries.

Using Intergenerational Programming, a kind of buzz word for libraries today.And you absolutely MUST see their VBLOG posted at YOUTube. Seniors are often featured on these.Working with Schools and families is critical for this type of programming:

-Family Battle of the Book
A book would be chosen for families to read and then they would come together at the library for a Quiz Show style Competition. This would be geared toward families with children in 2nd through 5th grades though it could be adapted I'm sure any way you would like.

-More than Grandparents Day
For regular storytimes have children invite older adults to join them.This could also include an 'Adopt a Grandparent' program. Older students (JH and up) would be invited to travel to nursing homes or senior care facilities to read to them. They found that if they bring a short picture story style book then the senior and the student can have a discussion afterwards. There could even be themes to the reading, i.e. World War II books, Depression Era stories, etc.Students have even done old time radio scripts for their older audience.-Movies for your MindThis involves finding general movies, foreign films with subtitles, unusual movies to be shown when the library is closed. Discussion following. Movies are then reviewed on a BLOG.

-Seniors and Technology
Have a 'Senior Morning' before the library is open for seniors to practice things at the computer. Mousercize, learn Microsoft Tools programs, or even teach them to BLOG, do digital photos, etc.Seniors could enjoy gaming such as the WII or or other online gamesThis would be an opportunity to to pair kids with Seniors to learn games. Kids and Seniors can compete against other kid/senior teams just for fun! Families can play against families.

-Laughter Club
This is actually a formal club that meets once a month. It's geared to seniors to help them reduce their stress, improve their health, to feel more positive and to have social interactions. They actually intentionally laugh! You can find more information from the World Laughter Tour.

If you try some Senior programs, or already have them we would love to hear what you have been doing!

The Job We Do!

Consulting and Consultants have always been a 'given' in the Iowa Library Community. But I wonder if you know how endangered they actually are! The Iowa Library community of consultants and their staff are dwindling, and this means that our own consultant, Bonnie with her trusty help, Janie, have had to scramble to keep up with the demand. (i.e. NW staff has gone from 7 fte to just 2 in less than 10 years) You all probably know the results of that: the birth of the Northwest Consultant Team. This year's PLA was a once in a Blue Moon chance for us to showcase this surprisingly fresh idea. And Surprise! Systems and consultants from all across the country who find themselves in the same dire state of short-handedness came to find out 'how it's done'!

As many as 10 states passed through Bonnie's round table "Rethinking our Workforce", all sharing the same tale of financial cuts to library consulting. This economic fact makes Northwest's team approach to consulting a very Cool idea indeed! Both Dave Netz, a NW library board member, and Tena Hansen were there to field questions as well as to offer thoughts from a board member/consultant point of view along with Bonnie who spearheaded the whole thing. All those who stopped in asked great questions, but what delighted us the most was that with all the questions, our team already had answers!

Not only did Northwest offer a great new strategy for consulting, but we learned as well! There will always be ways to improve our service to our clients (That's you guys!) and to improve the quality of our team and we picked up some great ideas from those who stopped in to chat with us.

Join us in more 'outside the box' thinking as we seek ways to meet needs and improve the quality of our services.

Share the PLA Conference!

Many of us are freshly back--and newly inspired--from the PLA National Conference, held last week in Minneapolis. Staff from several Northwest Iowa libraries were there, from Onawa to Orange City and lots of towns in between. This year saw an estimated attendance of 9,500, with over 400 vendors in the exhibit hall. In the coming weeks, we'll use EYE-OPENER to share the learning and NWILS Bulletin Board Blog to share the experience!

For my money, the opening and closing keynote speakers were the best in memory. John Wood, author of Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, was the opening keynote speaker. With a photo slideshow, he told about leaving his executive job at Microsoft after a life-changing vacation to Nepal. He quickly went on to establish a non-profit organization called Room to Read, which now fundraises to build schools and libraries in developing countries. His aim is ambitious because the statistics are staggering:
110 million children in developing nations between the ages of 4 and 10 are not enrolled in school
1/7 of the world's population is illiterate
2/3 of these groups are girls and women

He described these "grand challenges" behind Room to Read:
To build schools in places where there are none
To provide reading rooms with multi lingual books in these schools
To offer scholarships to girls in third world countries who otherwise would not have the chance to attend school

John Wood has a great story and Room to Read is a great cause for library advocates to know about.

The closing keynote speaker was Paula Poundstone, comedian and author of a new book There's Nothing in This Book I Meant to Say. With her trademark stool, microphone, and diet Pepsi, she had the crowd roaring. It was a fresh and entertaining way to close out a conference jammed packed with information and ideas.

So that was the beginning and the end. Of course, there's lots to relay about everything in the middle, so I'll continue sharing PLA sessions in the coming weeks. And for all Northwest library staff and trustees who attended, be sure to comment here with your favorite PLA moment.

And take a minute to watch our slide show thanks to our gal blogger and conference photographer Sue Kroesche.

More on Gaming at the Library

So you're tired of the after school crowd racing to the library just so they can play games after school? Time to start working with them rather than against them, as it were. Time to step out of the box you're in and start looking at the gaming crowd as the perfect opportunity to up your circulation and programming statistics.

There are several websites with ideas about gaming programs including Librarian in Black, The Shifted Librarian, and an article from the Philly News that will help you promote your library and gamers.

Think about these things in relation to how gaming fits within the context of the library's mission:

1. Gaming meets needs
2. It provides social interaction that is critical for a teen's development
3. It offers physical activity (think Wii)
4. It's an outlet for creative expression
5. It offers a chance for teens to prove competence and achievement and thus opportunities for self development
6. It teaches risk taking, problem solving and how to be a team player
7. Gamers must spend time reading instructions, walking through rules of the game and even being involved in websites and chat forums related to their games
8. For ever one hour of playing, gamers spend 4 hours reading!

Looked at from that angle, who wouldn't want games at the library? I'm not talking about the violent, grand theft auto games here, just your avarage 'Runescape' or 'Medal of Honor' or any one of a dozen other readily available game that your teens are playing at your library. Video games are great for helping libraries challenge their inaccurate image as dusty and outdated. So...game on!

Gaming here we come

Should there be any doubt that gaming should be implemented and used in libraries, any doubt I previously held has been dispelled. I am convinced that the reluctance to embrace gaming in a library has to do with the reluctance to embrace change. But this you should know: the average age of gamers is 34 years old! Senior citizens are also enjoying gaming connected to adult programming in libraires and senior centers.

Multitudes of ways to use gaming creatively exsist out there and we need to get started. Are you hunting for a way to get your missing teenagers back? Wonder where some of those seniors are? How about all those men that have been missing from the stacks since they graduated from high school? They're all out there playing games on their computers.

In at least 3 of the PLA sessions that I attended I had a great opportunity to see what other libraries are doing to use gaming and invite those missing patrons back to the library. This is just a teaser post since I have lots to say about this, so hang on! Sites and ideas are coming. But think about this: Nearly 80% of teens play games. And gaming = literacy. We need to think about how that will translate into our libraries if we aren't in some way a part of it. More later.

Zak the Yak With a Great Big Book Pack

Who would have thought you'd have to go north to find spring?! It's been sunny and a balmy 30 here in Minneapolis!

The opening keynote speaker is John Wood, who in 1999 founded Room to Read.Org after a vacation to Nepal, and found a library in an elementary school with no books. "Perhaps, sir, you will one day return and bring us books" became the challenge for him to see to it that every child in every country (especially third world, developing countries) should be educated. That challenge especially included girls who are often neglected in favor of boys when lack of money keeps them home. These were John's Grand Challenges:
To build schools in places where there are none.
To provide reading roomswith multi lingual books in these schools.
To offer scholarships to girls in 3rd world countries who otherwise would not have the chance to attend.

Room to Read insists on involvement from the local community, hires local staff, and raises its money from the monied world at large, as well as in the local community. Check out Room to Read. Wish you were here. Pictures later!

Some New Children's Books Worth the Effort!

Today I got to enjoy the best part of my job--sitting and reading! Of course, I must read in order to know how to accurately catalog all these cool books! Every single one of them was a children's book, so I actually got through quite a few of them. This is as opposed to young adult or adult which are just too long to actually read through a whole book in one sitting (though many times I have been sorely tempted)I'll be working on those on Monday, so maybe I'll have more to share with you then! But, let me tell you about some of the cutest books I read today. These were reviewed in the ICN session about new children's and Young Adult titles. A couple of these were purchased to go with the Summer Reading Program.

Martina the beautiful Cockroach, a Cuban folktale by Carman Agra.
Thelonious Monster's sky high Fly Pie by Judy Sierra
Cottonball Colin by Jeanne Willis
Wolf Wolf by John Rocco

If I were to summarize the four of these I would have to use the word "absolutely the funniest tales I've read in awhile!" (how's that for a 'word'?) Take my word for it, you won't be disappointed! In fact, I'd venture to say they won't 'get it'. But you will! You'll be laughing all the way home! I read more than 30 books today, and I could review them all, but these are the best of them! I tell you, "What a job"! I have got to write a book as clever as one of these someday. Oh wait. I have! I just need a publisher.

Gaming in Libraries

We had an interesting, and as far as I was concerned a rather shocking, discussion at the OC library last week concerning gaming in the libraries. I was shocked by the vehemence with which the library staff objected to having gaming at the library. As it stands now, we have tons of kids, mostly boys, playing computer games such as 'Runescape' and 'Medal of Honor' after school, during school breaks, and especially during the summer. We are charged with monitoring how long they stay on the computer and it gets to be rather tiresome as even I would admit.

So when there was a proposal that we add XBOX for kids--well, you can imagine that it didn't go over well. Not all because it would be one more thing for us to monitor, but because of the objection to the damage that gaming creates. So, knowing that there is a lot of research out there about gaming, and lots of libraries who are really getting into this, I went out and took a look at what's going on. Surprise, surprise, but it isn't just libraries who are 'wooing' the teenage crowd with games and all things associated with gaming--so is the business world and schools!

Join me as we walk through the gaming world in libraries:

Are you missing a segment of your population in the library? Teenagers? NPR has a short segment you can listen to that talks about wooing those missing teenagers back to the library....to the games, near the books.

The Blog Game On has a very long list of research articles related to gaming in school, public and academic libraries. Very well worth looking at some of those articles

Those English Language Learners are using gaming to build their English skills, not to mention the critical thinking skills all students gain by playing games in the library or not.

If you're at all serious about gaming in the library, this is a MUST READ series: ALA held a symposium on Gaming in Libraries and you can listen to podcasts or read articles related to this symposium: explore how libraries fit into the intersection of gaming and the digital learning landscape.

Before you write the idea of gaming off--or even before you embrace it--think through what this means to your library in general. The whole idea of having gaming in the library is a challenge to librarians to 'think outside the box'. How can we offer traditional library services to a new generation of users in so that they'll understand and come to love libraries the way we do? Is it possible to use something as radical as GAMING? At the very least, it's worth a second look!

Every Child Ready to Read

It's an awesome responsibility for the libraries: working with educators, community leaders, and parents to get pre schoolers ready for the incredible task of learning to read! If you had a chance to hear Saroj Ghoting this past month, you will already be inspired to do more with your preschool or outreach programs. NWILS provided free materials for those who attended: Brochures "Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library" for parents of preschoolers from two and three year olds to pre readers aged 4-5, along with the book by Ms. Ghoting.

Programs programs programs. Summer Reading, Pre-School Story Hours: They have always been something the library has provided within our communities. But within recent years there has been brand new emphasis on the incredible importance that preschoolers have early literacy experiences. What a great opportunity for libraries to step up and fill a void. What are the libraries offering out there? Who is doing outreach and how does that look? Have you developed policies that address these issues? Have you added programs that seek to work with the immigrant population and their children, or extra toddler programs? How about online programs for pre schoolers? Anyone doing something like that? Do you use volunteers or guest readers? Here's some links to ideas: Preschool Storytime Volunteer Handbook

Cyber pre-school Story hour

Teen Tech Week '08

What are your library’s plans for Teen Tech Week? It’s March 2-8 and marks only the second year of a national promotion sponsored by the Young Adult Services Association of ALA. The theme is “Tune In @ Your Library.” Aimed at teens, parents, and educators, Teen Tech Week helps to teach kids to be competent and ethical users of technologies, focusing on the tech tools offered through libraries. You’ll find lots of resources and ideas here: http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/Tune_In_@_Your_Library_resources And be sure to share your plans with others by commenting here!

A Love/Hate Relationship

So you love using the new technology! So you hate using the new technology. It's a love/hate relationship all the way around. Some days it's perfect and makes life so much easier. Some days you have nothing but trouble. Well I have the perfect quiz for you to take. This is from the Pew Internet and American Life project. They have a little rubric set up so you can see where you fall in your love and tolerance for all things technology. It's kind of fun!
"Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? Do you suffer from withdrawal when you can't check your Blackberry? Do you rush to post your vacation video to your Web site? The questions below allow you to place yourself in one of the categories in the Pew Internet Project's Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users. To identify the typology group to which you belong, please answer the questions below. When you press the 'Calculate My Results' button, a new page will tell you in which group you fit, along with a description of the general characteristics of that group" Have fun! Now you know why you love/hate the computer!

TOOTING OUR HORNS

How many times do you need to tell them, before your patrons realize they can get information from your website? Do the know that they can actually go to your website and find: what books are in the library, what books they have checked out, the schedule of events, pictures of the summer program, policies (ok, so they're not really interested in what your policies are!) what to read next, book blogs and a whole lot more! Do they know you have a website? Or for that matter, do they know about programs, teen councils, book discussion groups and the whole range of things availible? We must be better at marketing ourselves. You know, and I know, that we have amazing things to offer the public. Unfortunately, for the most part our patrons don't realize it. One thing we as librarians must do is Toot Our Own Horns! Advertise, Market, Inform. We have to do it many times, and in lots of different formats. I think what is the problem for us is how MANY times we are saying the same old thing. And still people don't get it. That is all the more reason for us to keep repeating ourselves.


Here is a fabulous blog that lists a lot of ideas for sharing the library with our public. It gives links to sites with marketing plans, tips for marketing, and ideas from libraries with unusual ad plans. I love the idea about library staff pushing book carts in parades! (Do you think I could get NWILS staff,i.e. Bonnie and Janie to join your parade?)

Library visit in Costa Rica

Our own Sandi Neary is still in Costa Rica. Here is her report on the state of libraries elsewhere!

Thought I would regale you with another small library in Nuevo Arneal Costa Rica. The town is about the size of Laurens and the library has been open only a few days. The first picture shows a young patron enjoying"Spot" in Spanish. The second picture is the children's craft area, called Cotton Corner. They name comes from a young boy who wanted to name the library "Cotton". When asked why, he explained he had a thin cotton "blankie" at home and he always felt safe with his "blankie" and the library should be a safe place. Although the "board" did not think that was an appropriate library name, it was appropriate for the kids corner.