Learning Privacy from Librarians

I always find it interesting when people in the corporate world feel they have something to learn from librarians.  Far more often its is libraries that are trying to keep pace with developments on the Internet or in the marketplace to make sure they stay relevant.  Today I saw an article in ComputerWorld that discusses some of the privacy practices libraries have in place that could be examples for business.

Findability : Information Not Location

This is the last session in the Search Engines track on the last day of CIL, presented by Mike Creech and Ken Varnum of the University of Michigan Library.  This was an interesting, although not particularly useful session in which Mike & Ken described the process they went to to improve the University of Michigan library websites.  They had vastly different problems than I am used to having to deal with (33 websites, all under the University of Michigan Libraries moniker, that had hugely variant interfaces and designs, that needed standardization while still maintaining a certain level of autonomy).  They also briefly discussed the tagging system that they are implementing on these sites.

This is the final session I'm attending at CIL, after which I imagine, I'll lose my free Internet connection and may not be able to post for a few days.  I'll be back at work in Winnetka (assuming my nascent cold can be persuaded to go somewhere else) on Friday.

What's Hot in RSS & Social Software

Stephen M. Cohen of LibraryStuff, in typical Stephen M. Cohen fashion, gave an entertaining presentation on his favorite tools for finding, collecting, and manipulating RSS feeds.  Some interesting sites, many of which are primarily of interest to the advanced RSS user, although some of these could certainly be used to show the power of RSS in different applications.

Gaming for Adults

Martin House and Mark Engelbrecht, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County presented in this session that described how the library implemented an adult gaming program (both video games and board games).  They got a grant and bought high-end laptops, games, and accessories as well as board games.  They had a lot of success, particularly with getting lower-income people who typically were not library users into the library for their events and many of them were over 26 years old.  Based on their descriptions, although it sounds like a really neat program that worked well for their community, it may not work particularly well in Winnetka, at least for adults.  The program was not particularly successful in the affluent, urban area, possibly because they already had the equipment at home or didn't see that the Library was somewhere where they'd want to go to do this.

Innovative Marketing Using 2.0 Tools

This session was presented by Helene Blowers from Columbus Metro Library and Michael Porter from Webjunction.  It was a nice overview of what different libraries are doing with Web 2.0 technology and what the best parts of Web 2.0 to take away and use for marketing are. In short, basically libraries need to encourage and then use the creativity of their users in addition to their own creativity to create good marketing, and using Web 2.0 tools is a good way to not only get the stuff your users make published, but also get it seen by other users (somewhat simplified description, but I'm trying to write this quickly).  We are already doing some things like this with the Film Fest.  Quite a few good examples of this kind of thing were shown and it will be interesting to see what we might be able to do that is similar.  

CIL Day 3

This morning's keynote was presented by Elizabeth Lane Lawley from the Rochester Institute of Technology with the theme of "Libraries as Happiness Engines."  She is an avid gamer (level 70 in World of Warcraft) and talked about what Libraries can learn and adapt from the world of gaming.

My first session was "Learning from Video Games" by Chad Boeninger from Ohio University Libraries.

Both of these talks had a very similar and compelling message.  People who play games will go through a lot of unpleasantness to accomplish something in the game.  People put up with whatever unpleasantness the game throws at them to get some kind of reward (leveling up, obtaining a magic item, etc.) and then think of the overall experience as generally pleasurable or fun.  Libraries already turn some kinds of activities which people may not otherwise do and turn them into games with rewards (think Summer Reading Club), but we can do more in this area.

The first session in particular highlighted how games self-teach (the first 20 minutes of God of War was used as an example, where through game play the gamer is taught how to use the controller for this particular game).  Trying to apply some of this kind of thought to library resources or making the use of library resources part of a challenge can make learning about the resources and how to utilize them more tolerable and rewarding.

InfoTubey Awards

Here are the winners of this year's InfoTubey awards.

University of Ottawa, Morisset Library, Ottawa, ON - Bibliographic instruction meets The Amazing Race.

DePauw University Libraries, Greencastle, IN - Google vs. Info Resource Center ala Mac vs. PC.

Monroe County Library System, Monroe, MI - MCLS Year of the Teen 2007

QandANJ.org (South Jersey Regional Library Cooperative), Gibbsboro, NJ - Now Your Library is Open Late Night, Too!

Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, IN - Library Zombies (all of the actors are library staff!!)

Enjoy!!

Video, YouTube & Libraries

In this session Karen McBride from Des Plaines Public Library and Nick Baker from Williams College Libraries (maker of the classic librarian video "March of the Librarians" available on YouTube).  They covered a lot of the basic technical and philosophical issues surrounding the making and posting of videos for library promotional purposes.  It wasn't as informative to me as other sessions I've been to, as I've dealt with many of the technical issues before, but it was still an interesting and useful session.

Harnessing New Data Visualization Tools

A fascinating and lightning fast overview of trends in data visualization by Darlene Fichter from the University of Saskatchewan.  She went through the basics of data sources, their trustworthiness, the power of data presentation when done effectively, and attitudes regarding the availability of vast quantities of information.  She then covered about a dozen sites that do interesting stuff with that data.  The last three major sites she mentioned that were particularly impressive were.

• Swivel

• Many Eyes from IBM Alphaworks

• Gapminder

Facebook Apps & Libraries Friendly Future

This was a good, interesting presentation by Laurie Bridges from Oregon State University and Cliff Landis at Valdosta State University.

Laurie provided a nice background on Facebook and then provided a few good, broad examples of using Facebook in a Library setting.  Build up a fan base in Facebook by using promotions (fan chosen at random wins a prize), then advertise to that fan base by submitting events on a feed.  Also advertise to fans and non-fans in Facebook, which is quite inexpensive and extremely targeted ($0.10 per ad click-through).

Cliff talked more generally about social networking and the benefits of social networking applications in libraries and library catalogs, with a slight bias toward academic libraries (although generally applicable to publics as well).  His four most important points were:

• Talk to your users and find out what they want
• Use the tools that they are using
• Broadcast what you're doing
• “earn your audience.”

Mashups, Mobile Knowledge Networks... Future Models for Youth Services

Not my favorite session so far.  Some very interesting ideas densely packed into a rather dry presentation (although the accompanying PowerPoint was quite striking).  The presenter is advocating open mobile platforms, open networking, and creative uses of technology.  It seems a key point of the presenter is that the local network is the global network.  She is implementing a new open network called B3OK that is going live May 1. Most interesting to me was the concept of QR codes which are cell-phone/computer readable digital codes that can be printed on a sticker and then applied to a physical object.  So you could stick one of these things on a building, and then someone could scan it and it would direct them to a web page describing the history of the building, etc.  It can be kind of a subversive technology, depending on its implementation.  She has had a lot of difficulty getting libraries to adopt her ideas and consequently has created her network independently.

CIL Day 2

This morning's keynote was an entertaining presentation done by three people from Delft Public Library in the Netherlands.  They crossed the U.S. looking at how libraries are adapting to changes in technology and culture.  It was an unconventional keynote where the three guys from Delft interspersed a video they had edited with live interviews with three people from the audience (in some cases pretty much random people).

The first session I went to today was presented by Ryan Deschamps from Halifax Public Library.  In this session he discussed the process of implementing a laptop lab and how they have used it.  It's interesting that they had originally thought they would take the laptops out into the community (a plan that was quickly identified as not feasible).  Instead they wound up using the laptops for teen programs and other miscellaneous programs where they needed flexibility.  They give the teens 1 hour of free time on the laptops (gaming etc. allowed) and 1 hour of structured time (a program of some sort where a specific goal is being worked on).  He showed a video some teens had done that was kind of cute called "Cow Wars" (available on YouTube).  This seems like something that we are well suited to use elements of and which Youth Services has already implemented in part with the teen laptop browsing programs we've had.

Users in their Native Habitat

This was a fascinating presentation with two studies, one from the University of Guelph and one from ProQuest, both on university students. Although in both of these studies some stereotypes of Millenials were confirmed, it became clear that students, in general, understand the value of libraries over general web searching. They find library resources more daunting and harder to search, but more trustworthy. There is also a clear separation of purpose for social networking sites, as they are rarely used for academic purposes.

Widgets, tools, and doodads for Library Webmasters

This program featured Darlene Fichter from the University of Saskatchewan and Frank Cervone, recently of Northwestern University although now the new director of the new library school at Chicago State University (!!).  A very quick rundown of a scad of tools useful for web development, web browsing.  Too many to list here, but a few of the more interesting ones:

• Feng Gui - automated eye tracking software for websites (tries to pretend to be a user to figure out how your site is seen)
• Vischeck - displays your website and images as they would appear to the color-blind
• Polldaddy - Easy implementation of website polls.
  

Library Web Presence

This post-lunch session was presented by 4 librarians, two from Penn State University and two from Temple University.  Each university library talked about the things they had done to improve the usability of portions of their web pages.

Penn State described how they made a simplified version of their library website using modular widgets.  The main page is rather text-heavy with about 100 links.  The user-friendly page has 5 boxes with a couple search blanks, a chat box, and a few links to select from. These widgets can be easily created on a website called Widgetbox.

Temple University described how they redid their subject guide pages.  The pages had been static lists of links.  They redid the guides using a product called LibGuides.  These guides are easy to maintain by a large number of people and feature the ability for users to provide feedback via comments and tag clouds to direct users to other pages.  Although the product they are using is quite impressive, a similar effect could be cobbled together using del.icio.us, some widgets, and PHP.

Fast & Easy Site Tune-Ups

Jeff Wisniewski from University of Pittsburgh provided a zillion little tools and suggestions for improving website usability and speed.  A lot of these are somewhat technical, but a few practical (if controversial) suggestions were:

• Use 3 question surveys on exit from the website using surveymonkey
• Use icons consistently from wikimedia
• Web 2.0-ify your logo using the Web 2.0 Stylr
• Add photos to contacts (which increases user trust & personal connection) and use hCard microformat contact cards.

...with that I'm off to lunch.

Web 2.0 Services for Smaller, Underfunded Libraries

This was a dense, fast overview of services/software that libraries can use to implement Web 2.0 services on the cheap.  Lots of information, and hard to even write down all of the stuff she mentioned.  Luckily, the presentation will be posted on her blog (librarianinblack.net) later today.  Some particular interesting points:

• (Once staff is using Instant Messaging) put a MeeboMe box in the catalog (may be difficult in our situation, but probably possible).
• Get a Flickr account (possibly pay for pro) and put pictures up and make promotional items using photos.
• Have teen staff put avatars of themselves on the website (see bottom of this page).
• Have blogs, but don't use the word "blog."
  
• Get on Facebook (see Hennepin County Public Library Facebook page)
  

Lee Rainie

The Lee Rainie keynote was interesting and informative. He spent quite a bit of time discussing the Pew Internet study that was published in December about what groups of people use libraries to get information. This is the one that provided the surprising information that Gen-Y users are some of the heaviest users of libraries for solving problems.

Some interesting points from the keynote:

• 60% of online teens use the Internet at the Library
• Of the people in the study 69% got help from staff and 68% used the Internet to get their information, meaning that you really can't get rid of either (38% of those using computers got assistance from staff)
• Lee Rainie hypothesized that the Gen-Y crowd is the biggest group of Library users for this application since they have been going to libraries during the period in which libraries have been adapting to technological change.
• Libraries should give users Web 2.0 tools, and if necessary train users in the use of Web 2.0 tools
• Libraries should aspire to be a node in social networks

CIL Day 1

I safely arrived in D.C. on Friday and had a nice time on Saturday going to a variety of museums in D.C. On Saturday night I went to a fun social event where they had video games and board games set up and I got to meet several librarians from different backgrounds over some Guitar Hero and a board game called "Ticket to Ride." I'm now in the ballroom waiting for the first keynote and taking advantage of the free CIL Internet which is finally operational. The first speaker is Lee Rainie from the Pew Internet & American Life Project letting us know that "Libraries Solve Problems." I'm planning to mainly follow the Web Design track today, which although we are nearing the end of a professional redesign, promises to have some information that may be useful.

Preparing for CIL 2008

Having gone to Computers in Libraries for several years now, I figured it was about time that I try the trendy thing and blog the experience. As I established a Google account some time ago for a very specific purpose, and have since found that Google offers a myriad of services under a single login, I've decided to take advantage of my free Blogger account and use it for this.

I've generally been terrible with keeping up with journals, so I can't say how long this will last, but it's worth a try.

I leave for D.C. tomorrow and the conference starts on Monday (after a free day of doing something else, not sure what yet).