How to use this Page

A Spoonful of creativity
Day 3

Today I have a scratchy throat and feel very lethargic, so my enthusiasm for sitting at my desk was pretty low - but I knew I had to do something - it is only day three, after all!
I didn't have the brain power to come up with ideas and needed to do something more connected to my hands and less with my brain - if that makes any sense.

So today was paper clay day.
I have had this sitting in my cupboard for a while. When working with it, it is handy to have a sheet of waxed paper to use as a working surface, a bowl of water, a wet cloth, paper towels and sculpting tools if you have them:


The clay was pretty tough at first and not very malleable. so I broke off pieces, kept dipping my fingers in the water and kneaded it. It got quite soft after a while and I just played around with it, not really knowing what to make. These started to look like mouse ears to me...


A little mouse head, with a folded pipe cleaner as possible base for a body, and a little bunny. I pierced a holes through the body to possibly put wires through to attach arms and legs...


The beginnings of a doll. I put little holes in the chest piece with the idea of sewing it to a fabric body...


This is as far as I got, then ran out of steam...


The paperclay was nice to work with and fit my mood - a bit spaced out and slow.

More tomorrow folks :)

Today's "creative creature" was captured during a moment of shame. As it turns out, his father caught him moments earlier pulling his sisters tail. However, on moments that aren't filled with shame, this little one spends many giddy moments jumping in puddles with his bare feet and often tries to bring humans home as pets (his mother doesn't allow such ridiculous creatures in her home as they are far too loud). His favorite meal consists of baked polenta with tomatoes and cheese (grated extra fine and melted until brown).

Aaron Schmidt, Adina Lerner, John Blyberg, Carol Bean, Allan M. Kleiman, Glenn Peterson, Marilyn Turner

question: bookspace page is great, looks great; I wonder about these lists, because blogs are self-correcting, but the lists seem to be more static; how do you know the lists are doing their job and accomplishing what you want them to accomplish?
answer: glenn - recently noticed that on one of the lists, someone said “here are the titles that I like about such and such and if you have favorites, comment below,” but we don’t have offer comments on the lists; so there are ways we can make the lists more organic and dynamic
Marilyn - there’s a list called “all pink book covers,” so you can’t really correct everything

question from allan: we haven’t been very successful to get our staff to adapt to 2.0, although we’re playing with sites; how did you actually motivate your staff - with or without a stick - to blog? reference staff don’t see this as part of their job
answer: Marilyn - can’t pretend we haven’t had people kicking and screaming, but feels that if you can snag new librarians who aren’t afraid of doing these things and see this as part of their job, try to harness them; had trouble getting people to contribute content for the web back in 1996; saw that staff started to rely on resources their colleagues were maintaining, which helped; something collaborative finally happened, but not sure it can be described easily; they use statistics to show usage of the web resources; staff will update their blog if you tell them you are going to feature it on the home page; something is making it real for them, but it didn’t happen overnight
Glenn - have had their intranet for a long time, which helps, because they were able to start their in a controlled and safe environment

question: why did you use coldfusion instead of php?
answer: we selected CF in the mid-1990s, one of the few developmental languages at the time; rapid development environment, can use dreamweaver with it, easy to learn, similar to HTML in the way it uses tags; might have made a different decision of making it later

question: when I go home, my coworkers will ask the “what if” about user-generated content - how you deal with the bad stuff, who deals with it, etc.
answer: john - it’s a good question; need to understand it could happen, but can have a plan for how to deal with it; you won’t get a flood of participation to begin with; aaron - noted that you can moderate comments so that they have to be approved by the person who is worried about this happening
glenn - comments go live on their site unless they get trapped by their “naughty word” filter (eg, “title” gets blocked because of the first three letters - about one of these a day gets trapped and has to be approved); trapped comments are sent to a group of employees via email every couple of days - can click on a link to follow-up

question: NJ library where user-generated comments are approved before going live; has never seen a problem; if anything, people think they’re reserving a book; have a home-generated chat room for book discussions, staff meetings, etc.; can see the number of lurkers, which is pretty high - they don’t have anything to say; in the web 2.0 world, really likes the SOPAC, how do you get the lurkers to participate? he recently put up a “suggest a new title” box on their website, and it’s been a flood; thinks all of these people never thought to participate or contribute until they saw that box
answer: john - by lurkers, you’re really talking about people who are not predisposed to using those types of services; no better way to get someone to participate than to make them mad, but in the end, you really need to create incentive for them to participate; eg, if you put in 10 reviews, we’ll waive your fines; the end game is to build a community around the core elements of the social software, get that network effect rolling
allan - one of the issues that came up a few years ago is that the ILS vendors looked at 2.0 and were going to incorporate all of these features, but that’s come and gone so we have to implement it; it’s the vendors who really need to be the ones working on this, rather than us recreating the wheel

question: how do you measure and report value? we can all agree that there is inherently good value in these things, but how do you measure that value and report it out so that it is useful for decision-makers who are not librarians?
answer: aaron - at a very basic level, you can take your website statistics and look at hits from other sites where you have a presence
john - it’s also important to remember that you can look at metrics but your ultimate goal is enhancing the user experience in a way that changes the face of librarianship
allan - has been doing workshops around the state about the value of libraries using a web-based calculator that highlights the value based on your usage; gives annual reports to customers
Marilyn - it’s important to put modesty aside and send comments up the chain; she is constantly surprised how many users leave positive comments on the site; leave modesty aside and promote those comments

question from Michael: can each of you tell us a challenge you’ve faced and how you overcame it?
answer: aaron - he’s the director of a small public library with a small budget and limited staff, and the social software they use has been of immense help to them; was able to get a decent website going using free blogging software, staff collaborates with google docs, etc.
adina - is trying to find ways to bring more people into the library and offer more challenging classes, so at the end of next month, she will be offering a new class on web-based image editing software
john - oftentimes, we reach for the stars and we climb the highest peak we can find, and that leads to failure because we’re not focusing on the bedrock of our services (the backend, the foundation), so recognizing that fact we can’t innovate for a year because we need to lay the foundation and put the groundwork in is a way of acknowledging our limitations; so when you present a project that really works (like SOPAC), that’s a culmination of not just that project, but also laying the foundation
Carol - when she was first hired, she was the only one who understood the problems of having to get a mouse to teach how to use one; she just went out and did things (buying a mouse); when other staff didn’t like what she did, other staff pitched in and did something different, which helped move things forward; if others aren’t doing it, just do it yourself
allan - the biggest resource we have is our staff, and the biggest hindrance to going to the next level is our staff, so our biggest challenge is to get our staff to realize that their jobs have changed and they are all now technology specialists; he himself has this challenge because he tries to stay out in front of his staff, which seems impossible; the challenge is what we are as librarians to keep up with technology
glenn - our biggest challenge is with staff, not the public; patrons don’t have high expectations for library technology; it’s a great challenge to have when people figure out what technology can do for them, but then we have to manage expectations for what we can do; they see the magic in front of them but they don’t always have an understanding of what it takes to make that happen; so emphasizing communication (what projects they are working on, what information they need to make something happen, etc.)
Marilyn - her biggest challenge has been to be at the table of system-wide planning; because they’re not in each building, people plan without considering the web services components; her staff goes to a lot of meetings in order to contribute to these discussions and be part of things

- Sarah Houghton-Jan and Aaron Schmidt

Name 3 places your library should be on the web besides your library’s website
From audience:
1. Second Life
2. MySpace
3. Flickr

“online in-reach”

summary: make your website two-way where people can have a voice on it
if they can’t contribute to it, there’s nothing there for them
online, everyone’s patrons are your patrons
- talk this over with your governing agency
- loosen up!
- mimic online what we do in the real world, where you help other libraries’ patrons

free is good
much of this is free, which helps

search engine findability
- search for variations of your library’s name
- ensure your site is accurately at the top
- minor or metasearch engines
- buy AdWords from Google ($)
- search engine optimization (SEO) ($)

look at your site statistics to see what other search engines folks are using to reach your site

library directory listings
- LibDex
- MapMuse
- Libraries411
others
make sure you’re found in these

blog search engines
- Feed Submitter submits your blog’s feed to 15 sites at once
- Robin Good’s list of where to submit your blog and feed
- RSS Specifications list of where to submit your feed

sweet wikipedia goodness
- list your library on the appropriate town or county entries
note if your library has won any awards, etc.

wikimapia
- add locations for your libraries and other community features of interest

community website presence
- americantowns.com
- eventful
etc.

blogs and forums
- local blogs
- technology boards
- continuing education boards
- forums and groups with local flair (google, yahoo)

find local blogs
- search the tags for your zip code on Flickr
- blogdigger.com

interact with local blogs
- no marketing speak
- don’t intrude, but be available
- find appropriate blogs
- don’t be heavy-handed
- entering into an online community can be hard work
- have authentic voice, information

showed an example of Sarah commenting on a local professor’s blog as a model

presence where it’s warranted
- ensure your library has a presence on local websites (schools, universities, etc.)
- are you linked anywhere?

in google, link:YourLibraryURLhere to find who’s linking to you

social review websites
what are your customers saying when you’re not around?
- yelp
- judy’s book
- citysearch
- insiderpages
- local2me

viral marketing because you can market your services

social networking sites
- create a profile for your library
- major options: myspace, facebook, flickr, ning
- find great examples on the libsuccess list

a lot of people are moving off myspace onto facebook
if you are still in the middle of a 2-year project to start a site on myspace, you need to move faster
there’s so much you can do to facebook to reach out to people

give them something new often to keep them back
you must have follow-through
don’t use your library’s building as your avatar

Contra Costa Library had 2 paraprofessional staff work on the myspace page
it’s important to realize as librarians that we don’t have to *do* all of this, that we can hand some of these things off to people who are experts at this or have an interest in it
tap the local talent and don’t limit to MLS holders
helps distribute the workload in a practical sense

Hennepin County Library’s BookSpace
interactive, aesthetically beautiful

showed a Facebook Flyer example from Tutt Library

showed Ask MetaFilter site and Slam the Boards (which is now repeating the 10th of every month)

duh, we’re experts, too
- allexperts.com
- ziki
- illumio
- qunu
- yedda
- FAQQLY
- Otavo
- yahoo answers
list your staff as experts in various free expert tools

wifi is king
if you offer wireless in your building, make sure you are listed in wifi directories
- wififreespot
- wifihotspotlist
- wifi411,
- wifinder
- jiwire
- wi-fi zone
name your network something fun that advertises your library, not just “default”

push the info out
via email and rss
- invest in newsletter software (maybe $)
- get email addresses from ILS
- send periodically (don’t spam)
- variety of features
push out info as a person, not an institution

blog geo-search engines
list your library’s blog on geographic blog search engines
- frappr
- feedmap
- blogwise
- gFeedMap

where are people looking for phone numbers?
are you in those places yet? list your contact info in online directories

- askcity
- yahoo! local
- google maps
clinton-macomb public library as example with a great review in google local

second life
- Info Island
problem is bandwidth and hardware issues
if you have a super active community in second life, put energy into that; if you have a super active community of bloggers, put energy into that
will probably get more bang for your buck putting your energy into blogging right now

URLs
OPAC URLs suck
use wccls.org instead of wccls.lib.or.us, but even better is booksandmovies.org

instant messaging
- a primary forum of communication
- free, easy

text messaging
- cellphones and SMS continue to grow
- Orange County Library System example; only public library doing this?

make A/V content findable
- youtube
- blip.tv
- blinkx
- singingfish
- yahoo podcasts
- podcast.net
- podcast alley
- digital podcast
- podscope
record and put up a few storytimes as a way to get your feet wet
transcribe audio content with podzinger

find mentions of your library
all over the web, not just the social review sites
- google/yahoo news
- ice rocket
- technorati
- feedster
- bloglines
- youtube
- flickr
sarah found lots of pictures of people skateboarding down the rails at the library :-p

chitter on twitter
- is it worth it?
- be clear about what you’re sending
- works best when sending out quick info
- guide to twitter in libraries by Ellyssa Kroski

are your patrons using these tools?
we think so
but even if they’re not, we can model this behavior and lead the way

question: how did they create the facebook flyer?
answer: tool on facebook site where you upload an image and text