CLA 2007

It's been forever since I've been to a library conference and I had forgotten how exciting they can be. I was so taken with the first master speaker that I ended up staying for the rest of them.

The opening general session on October 27th, featured best-selling author Chip Heath. He is a professor at Stanford Graduate School and the co-author of the book, "Made to Stick." Why do some ideas die while others (which may not be good or even true)survive? In order for an idea to stick, it needs to be simple, unexpected, concrete, credible, emotional and have a story attached to it. Libraries need to make their ideas or publicity stick. Here's an idea for libraries: Have a CSI room with 12 crimes to solve. Have mysteries and true crime books in it which will lead to the answers.


Improving Online Catalogs speaker Roy Tennant, author of "Managing the Digital Library."
When people try to find book titles, they think of Amazon. When customers type in "Shakespeare", they get a good selection of reasonable choices. When they do the same thing in our catalog using keyword, only 4 out of 20 are likely to be what they are looking for. Automation began in the back rooms of libraries and were really made for staff and not the public. It was intended for circulation, cataloging and acquisitions. It was moved into the public areas as an afterthought, otherwise why call them "Online Public Access Catalogs?" Only librarians like to search,customers like to find. Libraries need to take lessons from Google and Amazon.

Tried to get in to Why We Borrow! Redesigning Libraries Using Retail Touchpoints. Unfortunately, it was more than filled and standing didn't work for me. So I moved back to hear the next master speaker, Bob Treadway. His Web address is trendtalk.com His talk was called Blueprint for the Future: 20/20 Foresight. Bob's main point seemed to be that customers expectations from libraries are far higher than they once were and that it's important to make educated guesses about the future. I liked the Noah Principle--"Predicting rain doesn't count, building arks does."
Push Customers or Pull From Them
Tell Ask
Hours 24/7
Fixed Configuration Customized
Provider Control User Control

Stayed for the last master speaker, Shawn Gold, who talked about My Space. I've heard of My Space but have never been on the site.
Why do people like it so much? It gives opportunities for self expression, connection and discovery. My Space is in 17 countries and rapidly growing. 12% of all time spent online is spent on My Space. To market on My Space, you need to understand core needs and address them as well as facilitate social networking platforms. Word of mouth plays a really big part on My Space. The 5 top categories for word of mouth are:
food, media and entertainment, beverages, travel and shopping.

#23 The Final Stretch-Thoughts About This Program

Until I took Infopeople's Web 2.0 class, I knew close to nothing about Web 2.0. I took the class and my brain was totally fried. Without the opportunity to to the 23 things, I never would have learned (or at least not for some time) how to do lots of this very useful stuff.

I've been a librarian for 20+ years and although I have enjoyed my job, I needed something to really stimulate my imagination and give my a healthy dose of brain exercise. Although it's been a bit stressful trying to get my work done and my 23 Things assignments, I found that I've been much more excited about my job lately and I attribute it to this assignment.

And now I get my thumb drive! Yea!

Task # 22 Teach Someone Else how to Use of the Web 2.0 Technologies

I trapped an unsuspecting Substitute Librarian at the Reference Desk and taught her how to use LibraryThing. I purposely picked something that I actually thought she would like and use. She loved it was quite enthusiastic about it. In showing her how to use it, I learned more about it myself and had a lovely time adding books I've read in the last six months. Now when I go to visit my "always reading" friend back East, I'll actually be able to remember some of the books I've read.

Task #21 Podcasts

Here are some useful seach tools for locating Podcasts: Pandia, Podscope
Podcast.net ,Podcast directory ,the podcast network ,Yahoo! Podcasts,
feedster.com and Podanza. Found a podcast of Pride and Prejudice--11 hours and 30 minutes.

#20 YouTube

I have heard so much about YouTube and never even looked at any video sites. Now that I have, it's quite addictive. There are so many funny videos out there. In addition to being a librarian, I teach dance. There was a dance I learned this summer, but couldn't remember exactly how to do it. I did a search on YouTube and found a video of the dance and music!! I'm hooked. Google, of course has a Google video site that allows you to upload and share videos. Dropshots and Vimeo are another Photo and Video sharing sites.

#18 Online Productivity

I have convinced my boss to try using Google Spreadsheets for our Ref. Desk Schedule. In the past, she would send around a paper copy for each staff member to fill in. Often, a staff person would have it under a pile of books and our boss would have to spend time hunting it down. We now use Google Spreadsheets and to some degree, it works better, however, I am sure that there is an on-line calendar that is designed for just this kind of task.

#16 and 17 Wikis

Perhaps the line between blogs and wikis is wavy. When I tried to find information re. how libraries use wikis, I kept finding Library's blogs. Hmmm. I know that wikis are more collaborative than blogs. The site www.libsuccess.org
is an excellent example of how wikis can be used for the common good. Librarians from all different types of libraries, add information about anything that might be of interest to other librarians. Some examples are programming, readers' advisory, material selection, weeding and management.

I went to the Infopeople wiki and added a sentence or two about mashups to complete task #17.