DS Blog

2009-09-04T11:02:00.002-06:00

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Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvadfgr erh shteafrgnnsatnETa ngn N Frvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Welcome to the new DS issues blog

2008-05-05T16:56:00.005-06:00

We are doing something new on the DS Blog. It has now become a place where we will post technical issues that may be occuring throughout the District. If something is broken and we are working on it, than we shall be posting detals about it here. If you are looking for the old web site blog that was here previously, we have started another blog for that purpose which is now located on the Arapahoe Public Library Main Web Site. You can find it here.

What do you think of Ebsco Career Library?

2008-04-14T15:43:00.002-06:00

ALD has received a 30 day trial for this product. Information can be found on the DS page of StaffNet (under Electronic Resources). The flyer and the trial information are posted; take a look around and then return here to post your comments, evaluation, impressions.

Looking forward to hearing from y'all!

happy friday!

2008-04-11T09:39:00.002-06:00

it's that time of the week when this blog is open to anything you've got to say, to rant, to brag, to share in the technology world.

i must confess to blowing off the blog for most of the week but i was knuckled under by meetings.........

thx and may you have a typical colorado weekend - cold and warm!

there's nothing like spending time in the dentist's chair

2008-04-07T16:16:00.005-06:00

to get the creative juices flowing :) i've got to start a private blog where i can discuss the pains and pitfalls of getting old ~ one of them would be to whine about old fillings that need to be replaced. on the bright side, there are 2 less teeth to worry about and a headful of new ideas to throw on the table!

here was my thought of the day - tell me whether you think my light bulb was just going dim or not ! why not create research guides to kinda look like a table of contents page you'd find in a .... real .... book? studies have shown that people equate libraries with books anyway, regardless of how much we try to stomp and shout that we're just More than that now. maybe building brand equity (is that really a term or did my fingers just make something up?) thru branding or how the book looks and feels online would make an impression or would be more intuitive to our public.

you can also call me a dreamer and one who is not ready to let go of our electronic resources. i will admit this is true, to an extent, but i'd still like to try. have you seen research guides or subject specific tools you really like? why? where? this dreamer wants to know........

Open forum friday is here!

2008-04-04T10:59:00.004-06:00

Welcome Friday and what looks to be a nice weather weekend! Hope your week has gone well and that the good or bad weather wasn't a distraction from work......

Being Friday, you have the ability to post whatever is on yr mind.

Thoughts on the new Locations & Hours page?

Feedback on the Novelist Plus trial?

Been reading the ALD Website Changes blog?

Talk to you next week!

NoveList Plus database trial

2008-04-03T15:08:00.003-06:00

A week ago or so I posted an article to MoMo asking for staff input on a trial of NoveList Plus. This database is basically NoveList on steroids :) if you pardon the pun. In addition to the great fiction RA you find in the existing NoveList subscriptions, Plus offers nonfiction titles!

Follow this link to Staffnet > Digital Services > Electronic Resources where you will find the login information to look at the trial (hurry, we only have a month!) and then return to this blog post to let me know what you think!

Many thx in advance for your input!

wow - look what topeka has done to their website!

2008-04-02T16:29:00.001-06:00

topeka & shawnee county public library just put up and out their newly designed website - take a look and see how you like it!

comments/suggestions/feedback all appreciated!

April Fools - but this is no joke!

2008-04-01T14:14:00.002-06:00

What an auspicious day to launch our new Locations & Hours pages to the public! If you haven't yet seen these pages with their new "do" then you've gotta go - and now! The reason these pages were deigned for a redesign is that they are some of the most popularly used pages on our website.

Among the changes, you now see:
*a directory-like look to the list of locations
*amenties provided thru icons. when you click on the "storytimes" or "programs" icons you will find them just for that location
*a catalog search that is specific to that branch

In the future, you will find articles posted by library staff on these pages ~ something groundbreaking for ALD!

What do you think of these changes?

Happy Monday and Welcome Spring!

2008-03-31T14:58:00.002-06:00

forever the optimist, i'm hoping spring is around the corner and that these dreary skies are just a moment's passing......

i was on spring break last week and what a fine week it was....as you could probably tell from the non-posts to this blog, i truly zoned out and not a technical thought crossed my mind!

today's thought revolves around the catalog and improving the catalog.....some of the DS team will be going to BCR to learn more about WorldCat Local. They're doing some great things in terms of making their search function better. Since we're members of OCLC, our items are in the catalog and updated regularly. With my account, I can create lists (my favorite quilt books, for instance) and share them (i think....haven't experimented that far but jill forwarded me lists so i know it's possible!). you can comment to titles, too.

take a look at worldcat and let me know what you think!

Overdrive for ipods! Wow!

2008-03-24T10:55:00.003-06:00

Comes the great news that Overdrive is working to create non-drm (digital rights management) for some of its titles (they say up to 15%) by the end of June. Great news for the public in being able to use ipods to audio content as well as for staff having to explain it......

Library Journal has a nice article on this - your thoughts?

happy friday!

2008-03-21T16:28:00.001-06:00

it's open forum friday where you can let loose on most anything technological that's on your mind.

sorry there's no post from yesterday. while i had trusty laptop, i did not have free wifi (boo atlanta airport!) therefore no post. i am getting my thoughts and notes put together so look ... later.. for more information.

in the meantime, if nothing comes to mind how about comments on the changes on the website?

Virtual Worlds

2008-03-19T14:27:00.003-06:00

Are you into virtual worlds?

I recently watched/listened to an OPAL presentation on kids, tweens, and teens in virtual worlds and wanted to share the info I gleaned:

-Currently, there are 55 million kids ages 5-18 and 20 million of them will be in virtual worlds, such as: club penguin, webkinz, teen second life, whyville
-There are many virtual worlds in progress: Disney, Nickelodeon, Lego, Mattel--and they will be very successful because of branding and extra marketing opportunities their brands provide.
-The negative consequences of virtual worlds are similar to video games and TV ads: addiction, companies preying on kids
-Whyville is really doing some interesting things with their virtual world: kids having to problem solve a virus outbreak (create a vaccination and sell it), book discussions, getting loans for cars--but I wonder how popular is it really? I find Whyville pretty cumbersome to use. They do have some really "authoritative" sponsors (government organizations, Scholastic, etc.)
-Virtual worlds make kids members of a community, allow for self-expression (no labels: geek, jock, etc.), help them understand the real world
-One of the presenters had a list of resources which I've copied here:

-Everything Whyville! Living and Learning on Whyville.net:
http://kafai-whyville.blogspot.com
-Virtual Worlds: A Teen Tech Week Guide: http://tinyurl.com/ywgtra
(YALSA)
-Kids and Teens: Virtual Worlds Open new Universes:
http://http://tinyurl.com/3ayxzj (eMarketer)
-What Kids are Learning in Virtual Worlds:
http://takeonedigital.blip.tv/file/488039/ (MacArthur Foundation)
-Digital Media and Learning Series: http://tinyurl.com/3xkwj3 (MacArthur
Foundation)
-Teens & Social Networking in Schools & Public Libraries:
http://tinyurl.com/2hwvej (YALSA)

atlanta - day 1

2008-03-18T15:46:00.002-06:00

as you read this blog you will have to imagine you hear a "thump thump" in the background. that's me patting myself on the back for finding my way to the Georgia Institute of Technology Library this morning via the cute little "Tech Trolley" that runs around midtown Atlanta. now finding my way back was a way different story (two different free transportation services stopping at the same place, how was i to know?????) suffice it to say that i saw lovely parts of Atlanta that would not have been exposed to me otherwise.... but anyway, the purpose of the blog is technical so my official report is to let you know that i attended a 1/2 day session on conducting an audit. i really liked that it was general enough to apply to any kind of library. it gave me a chance to talk with some in the room - we all had slightly different needs. i was also able to ask one of the presenters about my personal treasure hunt - seeking a source which collects research database usage stats. a couple of epiphanies that occurred to me during this session:

>focus grouping staff like we did with the public to find out what you're using the website for
and how to best to ensure the design meets your needs; and

>like we conduct new employee orientations, what about new patron orientations? aren't there basic things they might like to know or we might like to tell them? this could be offered either in person and/or we could create a nice powerpoint presentation with audio that might be a virtual tour. {light bulb - if we take photos the tour could be customized so that the patron saw the only the library of his choosing!}

stay tuned for day 2!

blogging from atlanta - hold onto your hat!

2008-03-17T19:38:00.002-06:00

thank you, ald, for sending me to atlanta to attend the electronic resources & libraries conference. christine sent me information about this conference awhile ago and i thought it intriguing enough to want to attend! i look forward to tomorrow's preconference (mars and venus for information professionals: are your stakeholders hearing the message you intended to send?) and hope i can find the free trolley that should get me there!

in the meantime, i have found that dia does not easily accomodate laptops. there is a plug in each pole at the gates but most of them were already in use! it was only when i sat down that i noticed additional plugs in the pay phone kiosk!

over and out!

open forum friday

2008-03-14T15:18:00.002-06:00

what's up with you on this rather overcast, spring day?

what new things have you learned, watched, tried that have either wow'ed you or you've yawned and moved on with?

meebo yes ~ meebo no

2008-03-13T13:36:00.002-06:00

this is the 9th day of our trial with meebo. the first week the meebo box was on the Koelbel page and while we had fun with our colleagues who were willing guinea pigs to test it for us we heard nary a thing from our public.

the second week we expanded to add the box on the research databases page, thinking that there would be some interaction with the public, but so far its a quiet quiet internet world!

in all, it was a good experiment to test the software, to see how to deploy it, to figure out how to staff it (it feels like having a puppy you need to watch over constantly!)

anyone else into IM'ing? for what reasons? using what software? in what website?

thinking outside the box.....

2008-03-12T14:36:00.003-06:00

visited with a web design firm today....it's great when you can get outside to see what's going on in the rest of the world! one of the things the firm suggested was going to sports illustrated's website. they, too, present a lot of content in an organized manner.

so i mosey'ed over......and found it so very....busy! maybe their presentation of data is good because it is organized by the sport you want to find information about. they do provide graphics and visual appeal. something in me just did not resonate with the site. am i not sports-friendly enough? is it still to much text on the page and i want to move away from this?

i like that you can customize your experience and go to "my si" where i would find just the teams that i want to follow. it is interesting they feel like their customers also might like CNN (as provided at the bottom of the pages) or is that corporate cross promotion?

interested to hear your reactions to the si site.......likes, dislikes, or are you feeling neutral?

twitter - ii

2008-03-11T12:46:00.001-06:00

a few days ago i asked if anyone twittered. twitter is like an online diary of sorts. you get up to 140 characters to post whatever yr doing (and are unafraid to share!). the previous post talked about twittering for national library week. not knowing anything about this software, i set up an account (cbrarian) and will post to it this afternoon. i even invited a couple of people (and YOU know who you are!) in hopes of seeing how it works more.....interactively...rather than my one-sided postings.

so this blog is a Challenge to you blog readers to set up your twitter account, let's invite each other to post (?) if that's the right terminology and let's learn more!

i hear the trains a'comin

2008-03-10T15:55:00.005-06:00

isn't this a line in a johnny cash song? not that i'm a big fan but the movie (walk the line) was great! if i made up the phrase, credit it to trying to segue to today's post....about some minor and not so minor changes that will be coming to the adult website and soon! sorry the screen shot is so small but if you squint under the blue header are 6 book jackets - these are staff picks which will refresh each time you visit the page. the interior pages will feature staff picks in one of the boxes on the right column. these, too, will change out regularly. how do you like it?

happy friday to you!

2008-03-07T10:59:00.002-07:00

welcome to the weekend - at least for some of us! as stated previously, friday is speak what's on your mind day....the day you can unload, rant, and other report anything technologically related in general or ALD website specific. i hope you've had a chance to be thinking about yesterday's post about magazine databases to provide input.

thx much!

magazine & newspaper survey results

2008-03-05T16:35:00.002-07:00

as you may know, we ran an online and paper survey during january and february. the paper survey was given to those taking computer classes. we asked the public how they look for magazine and newspaper articles, how often, on what topics and whether a central search feature/function would be useful. initially, it was set up to be a way to answer whether federated search was something we should invest in. here's the results:

29% look for magazines/newspapers more than once a week but the next largest number (24%) never look
many find articles through a search engine search, or by physically looking for the item in the library
most often looked for content is current event/news (26%) followed by health (21%)
the vast majority (86%) are satisfied w/ the way they search and what they find. they would, in the main, find a central search useful.

so ~ here's my thought (as she nosedives into a huge pool of uncertainty!) Why do we offer databases like OneFile which offers lots of magazine resources at our fingertips? How important is it - for adults, for students? Are they finding these ~ freely ~ from other sources (like school databases)? Is it better to redirect our budget and resources to other content instead?

my disclaimer here is that i am picking on OneFile for a couple of reasons: it carries a larger price tag than Academic Search and it is our general all-purpose database.

this post is most interested to hear your opinions about the use of this database, about carrying databases in general, about your opinion on the results of this survey. i'm even taking a leap and am going to write a momo article so that you devoted blog readers will hopefully get others who will want to comment to this one.

do you twitter?

2008-03-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

looking for those who twitter - inquiring minds want to know!

idea in the works to feature twittering on our website for national library week.

twitter asks "what are you doing?"

we want the public to answer via our website - a picture of the ald world for a week

what do you think?

call me lazy

2008-03-03T15:46:00.001-07:00

but today's post takes you to the professional development blog where i put up a post there about.......libraries becoming extinct........

hope you don't mind the redirect.......comment to either place!

Friday, fRiDaY.........FRIDAY!

2008-02-29T16:07:00.002-07:00

and it's time to tell me what You're thinking about

open forum

anything goes

enjoy your saturday - if you like the warm season

enjoy your sunday - if you're more the "colder the better"

Wanna play tag?

2008-02-28T14:51:00.003-07:00

Just read a post about the U.S. Government wanting our help...yes, you say, the world is ending :) but this looks like a project we librarians could apply our expertise and help with! go to http://freegovinfo.info/epatagging where you will read the description...the EPA has put out 32 documents that they would like tagged. you can visit anytime in the next 3 months. after the experiment closes, they will be analyzing how many people participated, how many documents were tagged, the tags used and how many documents were described. if you're new to web 2.0 this is a good experiment to dabble in - no wrong answers, no judgement - just whatever time you want to commit - let me know if you participate!

Coming Soon vs Featured Lists of Recently Ordered Items.

2008-02-26T15:14:00.002-07:00

Ever wonder about the difference between the Coming Soon lists and the Featured Lists of Recently Ordered Items avaialble online? Here are the basics:

There are 2 places that patrons can access newly ordered items. I (Christine Kreger)maintain a Coming Soon area for books, DVD, and music:

These are updated once a month with select titles (5-10) starting on the first day of the month. Previous months are available using the More Coming Soon area. All of these materials link directly into the catalog so that patrons can place holds.

David Britt maintains the Featured Lists of Recently Ordered Items that you see when you are actually in the catalog (III) itself. His list is manually updated at the first of each month (give or take a day or 2) and lists everything in each category that was ordered within the previous month.

There is some crossover between the 2 lists…but patrons can decide if they want to search through everything in III…or take a peak at what collections thinks will be the most popular items (my lists).

At some point we would love to be able to update the lists more frequently...weekly or even daily...but since it is all a very manual process right now for both lists it will remain this way for the time being.

welcome to the weekend!

2008-02-22T16:26:00.002-07:00

it's beginning to feel like spring and if i was younger and not so worried about breaking a bone, i would kick up my heels.... instead i will spend the weekend watching my daughter kick the soccer ball...

its open forum friday - what's on your mind? new found websites? nifty gadgets?

my latest find:

netvibes.com - a place where most of your regularly looked at internet life can reside in one place! this sounds exciting in a "i can manage my time better" sort of way - at least in theory - thx oli for trying out the email feature to know that it works with our outlook!

adult website changes

2008-02-21T09:52:00.003-07:00

a teaser to let you know the direction of the adult website....think netflix or itunes to see how they present their information. granted they are selling merchandise, but don't libraries try to do this, too?

pushing the limits or testing my patience?

2008-02-20T13:22:00.003-07:00

hmmmm, i wonder if there's much difference between the two. as a parent, i'd like to think that my children pushing the limits (e.g. exploring and wondering) is a positive thing and something to encourage. pushing the limits can also test patience and mine can be low if i haven't had my chocolate fix (yes, addict blogs here).....

this heading came to mind when i opened the blog and wondered what i was going to write about today...... while this blog is not "true confession" i must admit that i had something completely different on my mind than this entry...... the wonder and anxiety around learning new technology. you don't need to see my fingernails to know how i internalize anxiety but one very brave staff member volunteered to try a video staff pick today (yea, maureen!). john (yea john!) set up the imac and the lights appropriately and even had the window on the computer opened and a file created so that all i had to do was hit "record" and go. maureen talked about snow flower and the secret fan (great book!) and did 3 takes/tries to smooth out the processes so new to both of us. i recorded a short one (verdi) just to try it since the equipment was up. now comes the process of editing it! imovie is what i will use ~ it will just take some "play" time to sit with the software and figure things out (fingernail biting off limits!). you will hopefully soon see this on the website.

are there technological things which push your limits or test your patience? this chocoholic blogger is anxious to hear!

with an ear to the ground.....

2008-02-15T11:07:00.003-07:00

and a skip in my step (hey, it's friday and the sun's out!) - today's blog eagerly awaits to hear from you to see what's on your mind technology-wise........

in the meantime, i just completed my office 2007 training (yea, christine!) and found the one online tutorial i went thru to be quite helpful and useful. it was nice taking the time to be away from my desk to spend time learning. i've found the new office 2007 nifty and am liking the look. now that i know where the "help" button is, i am confident i can be more productive......

happy weekend & presidents day to all

teen website updates

2008-02-13T14:14:00.002-07:00

ahhhhh - what would we do without our children? i ~ for one ~ believe my hair would still be black but that's probably a post on another site (mothers united against aging)..... since i've got teenagers at home they've become my own personal guinea pigs and they're mostly happy to comply *bribing with desserts helps, too.* to my daughter, "go look at the teen website - the blue spruce nominees are posted and you've read alot of them - go comment!"

she happily goes thru the list (yes this editorial can say happily because she really WAS enjoying the titles that were listed) and commenting on them....until..... she says "oh you should be able to click on the author name so that i can look for more books by this author" --- valid point, i thought, to bring to alyson. then she says "you should link to the next book in the series so i can put it on hold or at least know about it" -- thought this was a nice touch so i tiptoed my way to alyson'c cube to bring these ideas to her (not to mention the previous idea of adding the series as linkable, too!). we had a great discussion about series names - no the catalog isn't always great about providing series information in the record but LMS is very happy to help us out when needed! we talked about how to get next book in series information which led to putting up an article "tell us your favorite series" so we might know which to follow (look for this in april)!

for those of you who are teenagers at heart, if you don't have any at home - go play around on the teen site and let this blog know what you think...improvements, changes, etc....or create an account to comment on some of the titles! happy surfing!

Adult Web site update

2008-02-11T07:51:00.000-07:00

~as copied from the MoMo article which was posted today~

Digital Services is invigorating efforts to redesign the adult website, that it may be as stylish as the children's and teen sites. Major changes to the adult website will be timed with catalog improvements scheduled to occur in late 2008-early 2009. In the meantime, however, you can expect to see the following changes to the adult website:
• New locations/hours section that features our library locations more prominently on the site
• More information about the individual libraries, including pictures, information about amenities offered, and the ability for each facility to add articles/information specific to them
• More items that feature our collection, such as staff picks, reading lists, and coming soon lists

Questions? Comments? Input? Suggestions?

hey hey hey it's friday

2008-02-08T08:20:00.000-07:00

and that means you can post anything technology-related that's on your mind

some new website you've found that's really great?

a new tool or widget you think is the best?

features or functions on websites that you wished we had, too?

since we've put the Staff Picks form on StaffNet we've been getting great response - thx to staff for providing content!

happy weekend - i'm getting my shorts out - woo hoo!

how much is too much?

2008-02-07T13:56:00.000-07:00

alyson provided quite the riddle the other day - how often does she put up new pieces on the teen website? hmmmm, i had no good answer to this. historically, the websites were developed to put up new content once a month, but w/ our blog-like style we have the flexibility to put up content minute by minute should we have the time and the content to do so!

do teens want new content every time they look at a site? are they happy to scroll ~ look around ~ click as long as they find interesting information?

we did not inquire as to newness of content or what it would take to keep them engaged.

for now we're putting up content regularly (more than once a month and less than minute-by-minute). again, with the flexibility, we can reposition content to the top of a page if it's been bumped down. we would certainly do this with features like database promos, programs or large content features like the cooking information for february.

what are your thoughts on this?

skype - the sequel

2008-02-05T18:55:00.000-07:00

well today was the day i got behind in everything and rather than participating, i just kinda oversaw what happened in the office today. i give credit to jill for going to and fro multiple times to get skype set up on the imac and various other things so that we could experiment with this nifty tool. thx, john, for your help and understanding the technology by being a "user" already.

so ~ in playing with skype ~ it seemed to work okay. we had microphone problems that need some discussion on how to improve. only 1 computer had a camera and others didn't which may have caused problems but all could at least text chat.

our next step is investigating ichat instead or as a first step. ichat is an apple application that uses AIM as its base, but incorporates video (thru your computer camera) and audio, too. jill's already set up AIM accounts and we'll play further to see how this works.

hoping to hear if you can see any potential applications for use -
>afterschool programs? run one live, capture it and run it remotely at another location
>storytimes? same as above
>book clubs?

hmmmmm, what possibility!

is it monday already?

2008-02-04T13:51:00.000-07:00

and here i am ~ as gloomy about not having an idea to post as the weather is outdoors

i spent yesterday at the dining room table w/ my husband's laptop. it was so convenient, read a book review and put it on hold, find an article and research the websites right away.....i'm going to have to behave myself this year in the hopes that santa reads blogs......

some minor suprises:

i came across a nifty piece at the library of congress website that i didn't know about previously that they've developed for kids.

having downloaded skype on my computer, all of the phone numbers on websites now appear as a hot link to call via skype - wow!

there's a new link at the "ald presence" box on the right. we now are located on one of the wifi directories.

may tomorrow be sunnier and the post more inspiring!

happy you-talk friday

2008-02-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

its friday and the day to hear what's on your mind, digitally speaking

for those of you football minded - happy super bowl

for those of you louisiana minded - happy mardi gras

for everyone else - happy weekend!

playing with skype

2008-01-31T16:01:00.000-07:00

ah the possibilities! if you haven't heard of skype (and i hadn't either until last week!) then you've gotta check it out - voice over IP - where you can talk computer to computer. what? no face to face, in person conversation? think about booking an author in seattle who can talk on his computer to a book club here about his latest release. what about being able to broadcast a live program at Kelver to patrons at Sheridan at the same time? the possibilities are broad and wide for potential implementation -

have you seen other organizations who are using this technology? have you been on the receiving end of a skype video? plse tell!

database changes

2008-01-30T15:21:00.000-07:00

ah those stable databases, that entity which sits and is one of the stables of our collection....you'd think they'd never change!

but in order to keep up with the search engines who make things better all the time, some of our databases are doing the same. look in the near future for these changes:

*literature resource center - on 2/19 we will turn on a new interface which is better and brighter than what you see today. all of the same content that yr used to searching will be on the site, just presented differently. look for tabs to find advanced searc, people search and works searches. more to come in momo where you will find training information and supporting documentation.

*novelist will be upgrading their search functions and features - look in march for their new look. i'll be working with Staff Development to get information posted about these changes so yr in the know, too!

how are you using these databases? pointing patrons to them lots? little? didn't know we had 'em?

ridin' the wave on "the expectation economy"

2008-01-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

from trendwatching.com comes a new phrase and a new trend called the expectation economy - cited on trendwatching's website as "an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service and experience on offer."

they cite the difference now from say the olden times (like 10 years ago) is that word of mouth can travel so quickly so that something new that happens across the globe can be picked up and talked about here so much faster.

trendwatching says that consumers' higher expectations will go unmet as companies are slow to keep up. some of their bullet points are

your competition could be anyone - who's going to fill my need to read what i want when i want it (go to dailylit if yr interested in seeing a rather nifty concept in action);
expectations are often set outside your industry (isn't google's "i like what i find well enough" a good example of this?
just copying competitors is a race to the bottom - wow! we should be asking, says this article, who are our other competitors? what experiences could our product or serve be traded in for? and what can we learn from other industries setting consumer expectations across the board?

lots of food for thought here.........

role playing websites

2008-01-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

my daughter's friends are probably really tired of me by now for nagging at them - how'd you like that book? when they're chatting (the car is considered neutral territory, right?), or why don't you try logging onto the teen website and tell me what you think about this title or that movie? maybe they're used to being guinea pigs..... this weekend i had the opportunity to talk to one of them who is administering a couple of role playing websites. i thought it was nothing new, after all we'd heard about runescape for awhile..... but these are different. here you take on personas (one is based on book characters) and then chat and interact as your character.

the vampires website is really hard to read (yes, old boomer eyes) while the warrior cats i haven't explored much. take a look and see what you think - comments welcome!

friday = you talk

2008-01-25T12:58:00.000-07:00

in the spirit of listening, friday's are being assigned to "you talk" days....where you can post comments to just about anything digitally related to ALD.

rather than just reacting to posts made, you can

>ask questions about anything digital
>comment about anything digital
>rant if you feel like it

any comments/reactions/words in regards to the article in StaffNet on Monday regarding our update on the website?

any kind words or otherwise to say about our new teen website?

have a great weekend, all, i'm looking forward to finding the original color of my car under all the winter muck :)

since when did "intermediary" become a bad word?

2008-01-24T15:07:00.000-07:00

i think i already waxed poetic about how productive i can be when waiting to pick up a kid from afterschool activities....but you'll hear it again today. with the sound of the pool lapping at my back, i caught up on yet another pile of "to do" work that had grown dusty on my desk.

yesterday's reading was insightful because the article was talking about the whole rise of the internet, blah blah blah....but that those who were intermediaries were finding themselves displaced......the analogy: when otis made self service elevators, all of the elevator doorman jobs were suddenly gone! libraries, too, have been perceived as intermediaries....come to us...we have good information....we have knowledgeable people......but what happened? search engines became better and better and people increasingly are happy with the "good enough" they find in their searches. i am reminded of how my kids used to want to go to the neighborhoods with the big houses to get better (or more!) treats on halloween. are we trying to be the bigger house with our "we are better" motto and large L branded across our chests as our visible defense?

instead of trying to defend ourselves as better and why we're better, maybe we should redirect and instead play in other (internet) sandboxes....... we can entice people to our website with information that is relevant but let them find the content that's relevant to them from those who are experts in their field. i think we have come to the realization that we're not the only (or best) lemonade stand on the block - let's figure out how to shine where we're the experts! ideas, anyone?

think brainfuse!

2008-01-23T13:08:00.000-07:00

had an interesting presentation yesterday from brainfuse, a competitor company to tutor.com. since i had no idea of who they were, it was a great 60 min worth of time to find out that brainfuse offers skills building and writing lab assistance that tutor does not. their skills building is aimed at the student who does not necessarily need homework help but could spend extra time in a subject giving them trouble. their writing lab is really nifty in that you upload your written document and it is returned to you (sometime later but can't remember exactly when) with the edits and comments. like tutor, they have a whiteboard. additionally, brainfuse will offer spanish language tutors during the entire service hours we sign up for! yes, they work with apple computers, too!

brainfuse has been focused on schools and started by offering assistance resulting from the no child left behind act. they are now expanding in the library markets. right now they are serving the denver and brighton schools and do have a presence in some large public library systems (e.g. las vegas and santa clara city & county).

we know from the stats that homework help is one of our most popular services; stay tuned as more information is sought out!

p.s. how're liking the new template?

from the january 22nd staffnet article - update on website

2008-01-22T15:18:00.000-07:00

by Oli Sanidas and reprinted here as is

Cynthia Kiyotake and Oli Sanidas attended the January 16 Staff Committee meeting and were happy to provide a number of updates on the ALD websites.

Cynthia Kiyotake and I attended the January 16 Staff Committee meeting and were happy to provide a number of updates on the ALD websites.

The new ALD teen website is finished and was launched January 7. Please check it out if you haven’t already and let us know your thoughts on the Digital Services Blog (aldds.blogspot.com).

Looking to the future, the online catalog will be changing to reflect patron feedback regarding the site. These changes will not happen until late 2008-early 2009. Why? We conducted our first-ever patron survey about website usage in 2007, and discovered that the website=the catalog for our adult patrons. (Online access to the ALD catalog is the number one priority for adult users of our website, followed by locations and hours information.) Our takeaway from this is that any major changes we make to the website (like making it more “web 2.0” or interactive) need to be timed with upgrades to our catalog. Based on our 2008 Strategic Plan, catalog upgrades are scheduled to happen in late 2008-early 2009, so website changes will occur then as well. One of the upgrades we’d like to see at that time is a new “faceplate” for the catalog, using a product like Encore or Aquabrowser. A new “faceplate” would present the catalog differently to patrons, in a more attractive, user-friendly way.

In the meantime, however, you can expect to see some smaller changes to the website, including a revamp of the locations/hours section, and more information about the individual libraries, including pictures, information about amenities offered, and the ability for each facility to add articles/information specific to them. Another thing you will see in the next few months is a more user-friendly interface to allow patrons to search the catalog at a specific library (for example, KO patrons can search just the KO catalog.) This is already available as an advanced search function, but it will become easier.

One thing I clarified for Staff Committee is that the discussions around Encore and Aquabrowser do not have to do with federated searching. Federated searching is different, and is about integrating databases into catalog search results. Money for a federated searching product has been included in the DS budget for a few years now, but we have yet to find a product that does what we would like it to. The search continues.

In general, because we now know of the importance of the catalog to our patrons, our focus throughout 2008 will be on finding in-house ways to pull information out of the catalog and present it attractively. Our focus is not so much on the generation of original content; it will be more about re-packaging the information we already have. Similarly, the general philosophy guiding our web development is that we do not have to create a space for everyone within our website; rather, we need to pay attention to the niche communities that already exist on the internet, and go out and develop an ALD presence in each of these places (e.g., myspace, EONS, Wikipedia). This is a fundamental shift in the philosophy of what our website, and our larger web presence, should be. Please visit the DS Blog to share your thoughts, and to read more about the DS team’s thoughts, on the future of the web and our websites. The DS blog also contains links to sample Encore/Aquabrowser pages, if you’d like to see how these catalogs work and how search results are presented. See blog entry on July 16 for info and websites using Aquabrowser, see entry on October 4 for Encore.

Please also take a look at the survey on the ALD Website (through January and February) about searching for magazines and newspaper articles (called Tell Us How You Do It). We welcome staff participation in this survey!

Questions or ideas about our websites? Tell us on the DS blog or contact Cynthia at x19306.

"you talk" friday

2008-01-18T11:27:00.000-07:00

it occurs to me (sometimes with a gentle whisper and other times with a thunk on the head!) that readers can only respond to the topics put up on this blog...other thoughts you have may not fit within any topic my fingers have randomly chosen to discuss......so in the interest of active listening, fridays will now be designated "you talk" days - where you can post comments, questions, etc on any digitally related topic that's on your mind.

fire away!

searching online is blowing my mind!

2008-01-17T13:06:00.000-07:00

the other day or maybe it was even yesterday.....i was searching online for some information.....you know the usual suspects like google and our databases to try to find something........ it later occured to me that possibly searching through blogs might yield some information.

what about finding information in wikis, too? how well do search results provide wiki information? thru the research buzz update that hits my inbox regularly i found out about nativewiki.org. when i try a google search it doesn't come up; when i add "wiki" to my search i get the hit/link to research buzz. how much am i potentially missing?

anyone using new search engines or new ways to try to access information (besides, the research databases, of course!)

da future of the ald website

2008-01-16T14:22:00.000-07:00

the december calendar has long been torn off and put in the trash. january means gearing up on writing my personal resolutions as well as starting on a new frontier with the adult website....yes that area that was given its moment in the spotlight last year until our focus groups told us otherwise.

so without further ado, here's the basic plans for the adult side.

1. per the strategic plan the DS team will be investigating further the catalog front ends such as Encore and Aquabrowser and even Sirsi Dynix to see how they stack up against our requirements

2. besides the big picture catalog we will be looking at federated search. there's a questionnaire on our website right now (yes, plse take the survey!) asking about magazine/newspaper usage to help determine need. this survey will run thru end of feb with plans thereafter to evaluate and decide if the purchase of such is warranted

3. closer to sooner rather than later we will be making changes to the Locations & Hours page. This warrants attention as it is one of the most asked for & used pages on our site! Look for the button to move up the page (e.g. more important). The 2nd click will show a list of our locations more like a search result from a hotel listing (photo, basic information, amenities). The 3rd click takes you into that library's page and provides an opportunity for library-specific information to be posted and updated regularly. This design allows more current updating of content where its needed - at the branch level without impacting plans for the catalog and how it needs to present on the page.

4. one of the recent posts also named some other "tweaky" changes that will occur with the Yahoo newsfeed going away, moving Latest @ Your Library over to this box, etc. If you want the complete details, go to the posting dated January 9th.

last night alyson presented the teen website to the Board who really liked the design ~ their question was "when are you gonna do this to the adult side?" We've heard and we're working! Comments and input regarding website changes mentioned here are now being solicited.

the state of social search engines

2008-01-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

reading more about these social search engines and their potential.... an article in econtent magazine that i had in my bag and recently read (its amazing what you can get done while waiting for a kid to finish swim practice :) called Teams Work: Social search gets results

some interesting things:

Mahalo - builds content by paying contributors so that relevant results are returned. when i clicked on a languages to see what they had, the page feels like a wikipedia page - content entered by someone as a resource expert.

ChaCha - being called "search with a guide" to connect to a live being as trained and paid by ChaCha. ChaCha has also partnered with Indiana University to create a search engine using the library and IT staff.....

One thing that struck me was a quote from Baynote (provides community-guided software and services) who believes "visitors are not burdened with the need to perform explicit actions, such as completing surveys, tagging, or engaging in other time-intensive and distracting process." This refers to that 1% of the online population that does tag and blog....but needing to tap into the larger population (called the invisible crowd) as a better indicator of behavior. Is this invisible crowd finding what they are looking for? Do they leave empty-handed, so to speak? A recent Wall Street Journal article talks about a survey indicating that 83% of visitors DON'T find information they are looking for from a search engine - wow - that's huge! (my apologies for not finding the article to link to from here....time permitting i will try to find it later unless any intrepid librarian would like to add this :)

Amongst the myriad of things to be keeping an eye on, i think social search is one of 'em - are you using any social search engine? finding them useful? better?

teen content/comments are up!

2008-01-11T15:33:00.001-07:00

whoo - hoo! (is that how you spell it????) anyway, i had the privilege of going to Sheridan Middle School and coaching 2 classes of 6th graders thru creating a log in and then recording their comments to Baseball in April - a required reading for the social studies class.

live and learn, it took a bit longer the first time to establish successful accounts for all of these students. once they got thru the process, they were ready ~ willing ~ and able to post their comments about this particular title. we now have 70+ comments and the number of them will probably grow!

the system held up under the pressure of 30+ students logging in at once and posting all at once, too. what a great way to end the week!

life after rosetta stone

2008-01-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

as you've heard from my whining and crying, rosetta stone looks to be a goner when renewal comes up in june.....due to the company changing the model they offer to public libraries - which is less, not more.......

i've looked for other products and have not been impressed w/ what's out there.

today i downloaded the itunes software on my work computer. it came about because my husband was raving about the radio stations in itunes. he confessed that he now listens to one of the rock stations as their music is so good (and is poor little shuffle is so full!). he showed me at home (where we're a mac family) and i felt challenged to see if this would work at work...... it's all work-related, you know :)

after downloading the itunes software, i was challenged to find the radio stations and confess to you that i can't replicate thru this blog how i got there. suffice it to say, at least for this blog, that i did find the radio stations but found a lots of other cool stuff like the Wall Street Journal recordings and foreign language learning - wow!

am in the process of further evaluating this but we'll see if this might work as a rosetta stone substitute....!

Next Steps......

2008-01-09T15:57:00.000-07:00

Now that the teen site is up with the major work accomplished, it is time to turn our attention to the adult side. That which was given the spotlight last year and then turned off again ~~~ after patrons really told us what they wanted and what we had designed wasn't it !

Stay tuned, i may have already mentioned some of the things that will change on the adult side but ~ off the top of my head ~ here are a few of them (in no order and definitely not in order of how the changes will appear on the site!):

>removing the Yahoo news and replacing w/ the "latest @ your library" pieces currently kinda under the fold. there's enough news sites that it doesn't have to take up space on our site!

>adding the feed from the program calendar onto the home page like the teensite does

>remodeling the control panel information to make it smaller/less. since the browsers have so much more capability, we leave it up to them now!

your input on these changes is much appreciated!

life is not just passing me by, it's speeding!

2008-01-08T12:37:00.000-07:00

nokia says that in the future, internet users will be consumers of their own content, rather than just passive consumers of existing content! if you're interested in the article, here's the link to it..... they're calling this new content "circular entertainment" - where i create a piece of content, share it with my friend who adds music, who shares it with other friends who add photos and it becomes bigger and better than what it was originally. the four trends they have identified are immersive living (blurring the line between online and offline), geek culture (blurring between creative and commercial), g tech (the feminization of technology where entertainment is more collaborative, democratic, emotional and customized) and localism (think homegrown pride).

do you see yourself as a content creator?

TEEN SITE IS UP ~~~ tAKEN a pEEK yET?

2008-01-07T15:53:00.000-07:00

what'cha think?

http://teens.arapahoelibraries.org

we're getting closer!

2008-01-04T13:18:00.000-07:00

to the launch of the new teen site. fingers are busily working away at both the technical and content ends of things.

i must be overusing the quote that "it takes a village" but it's the truth! besides the web team all diving in to assist with various parts and pieces, there's john's technical stuff that's making it all run. besides that i have to tip my hat to all of the AST's out there who contributed in some form or fashion, whether it be ideas, content or just plain enthusiasm!

look for the launch on Monday - check out the site - leave your feedback here ~~~

happy weekend, all!

let's libx!

2007-12-31T15:16:00.000-07:00

no its not another game for your xbox or an attachment for your ipod.....but it IS something cool. i made a valiant effort today to try to tackle the "big pile" on my desk that just seems to grow......one of the to do's was to look at a new tool called LibX and i have to say i'm pretty impressed. since i'm especially challenged figuring out new things a) without my teenager to explain it to me or b) without doing it myself, the demos walked me thru pretty well on how the LibX tool operates. one of the things i will soon do is download it but i can see applications for any library staff. why?

say you do a google search for a book and then want to know if your local library has a copy you can borrow. your handy dandy tool will search your local library catalog for you (can it be set up to search prospector, too?). you can search by title, author, ISBN. it brings the relevancy of the search right to your home library!

i really liked the option to find articles, too, but i think we'd have to have an openurl resolver to take advantage of it.

anyway, more to come once i get this set up. anyone game to try it with me?

it's so hot it's sold out!

2007-12-26T13:31:00.001-07:00

Guitar Hero - and if you didn't know that already then either a) you don't have gamers in your house or b) yr living in a world without electricity :)

i happened to be in gamestop doing some last moment shopping (never again!). the young man behind the counter (they're ALL half my age now!!!!) was talking about Guitar Hero III and how they did not have any left in their store. The normal shipment is only 6 to a box and those sold out very quickly!

one of my daughter's friends, however, was talking about playing Guitar Hero on the computer. she was going to send the link.....i was intrigued so i Googled and found this article talking about it. i may try this weekend loading it on my Mac at home to see how this works....

anyone got any experience w/the computer version?

joy to you and me

2007-12-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

okay, so i'm dating myself with a line from "jeremiah was a bullfrog" song that was very popular in my heyday but the line fits for this time of year, too. i always get pretty sappy over the holidays. its the end of yet another busy year, time to reminisce about all those resolutions never finished and books never read (yes i'm good for the millenium circ stats but not so good with staff picks, sorry christine!)

here are some things i'm joyful for:

*having a great team of talented people to work with as we battle thru the depths of the internet and opac and 2.0 world - what great spirit and minds to bring to such a task!

*working with a great support team - those who encourage and those we laugh with - makes the job seem not so job-like and so very much fulfilling

are there things you are especially joyful for in your life?

may you enjoy the festivities in whatever way you celebrate; i'll be back after Santa's visited!

what happened to tuesday?

2007-12-19T15:23:00.000-07:00

visited glendale yesterday afternoon for the monthly DS open meeting......didn't think up anything worth blogging about.

today comes a response to an article "beyond opac 2.0: library catalog as versatile discovery platform" which comes from the new code4lib journal. some things i found interesting:

1. the catalog is used in two ways a) "i know what i want" (or referred to as "known item" by the authors) and b) let me explore or browse (exploratory). Depending on your mode of shopping determines how best the catalog works for you/not. Their argument is "why should the discovery of library collections be limited to a single catalog application?" They cite Lorcan Dempsey (OCLC) who considers "lifting out of the catalog discovery experience."

the authors are the architects of the Endeca catalog which is employed at the North Carolina State University library system.

when i went to check out the ncsu catalog, they have an interesting presentation. On their search page you can choose either the a) or b) method mentioned above. They give you advanced searching for those really in the know or you can hit the browse button if you want to search titles by subject (LC subjects, mind you) or browse new titles (by last week, last month or within the last 3 months).

they've also done some thinking about offering their catalog for mobile devices....and have rendered the catalog search via your cell phone to just keyword, title, author or ISBN.

i'm excited about reading more of these next-generation catalog articles. they're pursuing different ideas and work arounds. what have you seen that's nifty and new in the catalog world?

immediacy

2007-12-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

i've gone on way too long about my dryer problem (which is no longer a problem, thx to repairpeople of the world - bless you all!) but it got me to thinking about immediacy.... when i put clothes in the dryer, my expectation is being able to have clean and dry clothes later in the evening. since the washer was working fine and dandy, i continued to run a load of wash but chose to hang clothes all around to air dry. it reminds me of hanging laundry on the line outside - remember what clothespins were really for? anyway, air drying took just a day for most things to completely dry. the only downside was stiffer towels :) and pants....

but, isn't immediacy is what search engines are selling? not really, how well can you type or how well can you evaluate resources, but "here are some results fast ... returned in .0000005 seconds"

what happened to our world of waiting for things? even christmas has been moved up and we start to see these decorations right after halloween. heaven forbid that we wait until after thanksgiving any longer. with tivo we can see anything we want whenever we want 'cuz we couldn't see it when it was actually showing. same with "on demand". email is immediate; letter writing isn't. our cell phones are immediate cuz we carry them; gone are pay phones!

while this may sound more like a rant, than a blog post ~ and i'm not knocking immediacy ~ i wonder what kind of mentality we're building......... your thoughts or have i just consumed too much sugar today?

cool stuff at los gatos public library

2007-12-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

while roaming thru my overloaded google reader, i caught up on the los gatos public library blog...which led me to their site....i like!

home page is clean and to the point - search box is front and center!
when you get to an item record, there's the librarything word cloud
when you get to an item record, there are links to similar titles, wow!
at the top of each item record page, you see "award winners" - great RA service
at the top of each item record page, you see "articles" - nifty!

they're a sirsi catalog so they have means and ways we may not have available to us but it puts content within the catalog where our patrons are searching anyway!

may your weekend be filled with the sounds of whatever you might be celebrating. as for me, i'm sobbing over my ailing clothes dryer :) ho ho boo

what are things on the internet we can't live without?

2007-12-12T16:10:00.000-07:00

last night my clothes dryer almost died.......while it still tumbles clothes properly, it no longer heats them to dry as it used to. i'm sure fixing it involves spending time with the repairperson, grumbling and spending money - things with which we have no desire to engage in....... does this relate to the ds blog, you ask?

well, here's the segueway. in my household of 4 people my clothes dryer is rather indispensible. it gets me to thinking about things on my computer or on websites that i can't live without any longer.... here's a random list:

>email - how can we communicate with anyone far away or even close without the convenience of email now? the world feels so much smaller - dare i say closer - with email as a vehicle. my example is our Japanese exchange student. she returned home and promptly emailed us. instead of having to wait a week or so for the mail, we now know she's tired but home safely.

>sharing pictures. this has been a great option to share with far away relatives and i appreciate the ability to do so. i might even go out on a limb this holiday season and create a slide show to email to loved ones instead of the old-fashioned USPS/postage stamp method. (p.s. this is supposed to be a more "green" thing to do, too)

>finding things! the other night my daughter needed graph paper......but none was found in the house. she had two options - wait for her brother to come home or hand draw graph paper :) a mini-watt went off in my head and a few minutes later, i was printing graph paper from a website - wow!

>recipes ---- this probably goes into the category of "sharing" as many things can be shared on the internet, for good and bad. but one of the things i like to do is to read recipes. i am now finding great websites and can put together words like "chocolate" and "chicken" to find all manner of exciting experiments for my family to try!

>being a closet Apple user, i love their desktop function where your program icons reside toward the bottom of the page. no matter how many windows i have open, i can always go to the bottom of my screen and pull up the application i want. nifty.

what internet/website things are indispensible to you?

teens and databases

2007-12-11T13:17:00.000-07:00

go together like......oil and water! i had the privilege to barge in on the KO teen advisory board meeting to talk with 8 lively adolescents about databases. ranging in grade from 7th to sophomore and representing both Cherry Creek and Littleton schools, it was a good mix.

findings:

used school databases (yea! someone's telling them to!)
relied on teacher recommendations for websites or sources
didn't know we had databases :( but would possibly remember to use them in the future now that they knew
liked the history databases over the Student Resource Center for the graphics (what looks good must also be good)
liked the accessscience database over the Student Resource Center for the same reason but more so. one student recognized the McGraw Hill name and associated it with his school textbook = quality
most rated the all of the databases highly but for different reasons

suggestions:
give more prominence to the databases ("put it on the home page in flashing lights so i'll remember to use it")
advertise in the school newspapers
let teachers know

i always get energized when talking with teens. they definitely have opinions and are a multi-talented group of up and coming voters! consider this post an open invitation for ideas about how to market databases to teens....or to any audience, for that matter!

stay warm/drive safely!

can we do what apple does with icards?

2007-12-07T15:04:00.001-07:00

oli was talking about how neat icards were......my daughter had sent me one this summer she had found. i said cool and dismissed it (although the picture was gorgeous!). when oli mentioned it a light bulb went off....why couldn't i send a book jacket (or movie jacket or cd cover) the same way? what a neat reader's advisor this would be! if we got really sophisticated we could include a link to the podcast review or to place on hold or to other lists, wow....i'm drooling with the opportunities! not only could staff send these out as patrons asked questions but patrons could send to their friends, too.

what do you think of this idea?

p.s. happy weekend, may you be merry and full of eggnog!

What do we have that's valuable?

2007-12-06T15:21:00.000-07:00

“as the world of information shifts, you have to be able to prove to your clients that you actually have something that they can’t get elsewhere more cheaply. Web links to the usual Internet resources won’t cut it. Can you prove that your services are differentiated in a visible, tangible way from the web experiences they have at home on their computers, which, by the way are more than likely better than anything available in your library? When you know the answer to this question, you know what you’ve got that’s valuable to them.”

From Out Front with Stephen Abram, ALA, 2007

Database Update

2007-12-04T16:20:00.000-07:00

Worldbook database will be renewed as it is good to have an online encyclopedia presence, esp since the print books are checked out regularly! don't forget that this is a great resource not only for kids and teens but for adults with reference questions!

Consideration of the 3 history databases is ongoing. While we need a history presence, the Student Resource Center database does provide coverage. This database also covers science which we have in a separate database, as well. I'm going to brain drain some (hopefully) willing teens this week to ask them to look at our history and science databases and offer some type of evaluation.

Do you often/hardly point adults to our science and history databases? Would they be happy trolling around in the Student Resource Center database for information? Would they take offense in using something that said "student?"

What a life in Second Life!

2007-12-03T15:04:00.000-07:00

the web team enjoyed a virtual tour of second life today. having met lori bell from alliance library system at Internet Librarian, she was kind enough to offer a tour. we wanted to better understand what was happening in Second Life as many libraries have a presence. john created an avatar so that lori's avatar could meet us and guide us. we went thru lori's virtual world, imagination island and cleveland public library, too. got a taste for how people interact and move around, how information is put up and got to meet some people too! it was most interesting to know that there's an event calendar where you can find all kinds of book discussions and such going on. i think lori said there are about 800 librarians in Second Life now with 36 library partners.

my personal mission, should Second Life accept Apple computer users :), is to create my own avatar so that i can sit in on some book discussions to more fully understand what's going on......elsewhere.

should you, too, have an Second Life presence and/or avatar, could you please let me know your name?

Check out infosoup.org

2007-11-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

thx, andrew, for showing this to me! i clicked around and found some great features! among them that made my top 10 list:

1. clean looking page that does not have lots of clutter

2. search box front and center (yea - just what patrons want!)

3. customizing the search box (in the "i'm looking for" box on the right)

4. their tagline is awesome!

okay, so there weren't 10 things i could name that i liked. offhand, it doesn't look like a library website either! there's nothing that hit me in the first few seconds that said LIBRARY, is this good or bad?

i also recently perused the Cleveland Public Library - for what reason i can't remember now. i like how they designed their site.

1. while you immediately know it's a library, they concisely put all their important stuff in the upper left corner where one's eye automatically falls anyway

2. their tagline is awesome, too

3. they post an option to read their site as "text only/mobile version" - how cool is that? (it'd be much cooler if i could go mobile via my iphone, but i guess that's a conversation with santa)

4. it's most interesting, when you search their catalog it automatically searches their consortium catalog. what a neat idea! it's like being able to search our catalog and prospector at the same time. the way results are presented made sense to me in understanding what was available from my library vs from the larger system. hmmm, can we do this?

any library websites you have visited/liked/disliked for any reason?

have a wonderful weekend; it's hard to believe there's only 32 days left in the year. if yr at the parade of lights, wave to me! i'll be one of the frozen marching parents holding lights in support of public education :)

Its Kindle-time!

2007-11-29T13:44:00.000-07:00

there's been some press about Amazon's new ebook reader called Kindle. it caught my eye twice today when one of my newsfeeds mentioned it as well as my weekly LII fix. LII, as always, provides a good link to more information, here's the link to the CNET site/review where there's a nice video review.

if yr interested in new technology or are thinking of a really nice holiday gift, take a look at this video!

as for me, it's quite interesting to hear about what new technology is doing. no backlighting so the reading is easier on the eye. the wireless access w/o needing to be connected to the internet is something that i had not heard of (yes, you may ask i do live under a rock sometimes!). while this is something i won't be looking for from santa, i'm curious as to what's on your tech-christmas-list!

Dewey Browser

2007-11-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of DeweyBrowser? A visual interface beta from OCLC. You enter your search term and click on the orange boxes to get to search results. Way more visual but gives some structure to what Dewey really means.

One nice feature is that once you get to a title you can search your own library. Since we’re members of OCLC, it searches our catalog. One bad feature is that if the title is not available it puts you in the ISN list of others located nearby. Duh…this part doesn’t make sense. Another search took me to a keyword search screen instead – which is a better option!

Try out a few searches, let me know what you think!

More info about this project

Teen Site....rollin' along

2007-11-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

the home page is a done deal! well, just about. john has been able to import programs from the calendar onto the home page so there will always be fresh content there to entice teens. we have a box which scrolls thru ALD Live, Homework Help and Ask Colorado as reminders of these services. we'll build additional logos for our databases, too.

as we move pages into the teen area, we'll be adding content and testing to make sure there are no broken links.

we'll have a soft launch in january - make the teens aware of the new looking site - and give y'all time to play with it.

want to prepare yourself for this new site? here are some 2.0 things you can do now:

2.0 know how to input a comment to any given site. try this blog as a safe place to experiment! just hit the comment link and type in "test" if you don't actually want to say anything (altho it's fun to hear your thoughts and not just mine :)

2.0 know what del.icio.us is and what it does. think about the functions it can serve as a supplementary reference tool. enter a website into the del.icio.us account. this is the current teen site; if yr interested talk to alyson!

once you've accomplished these, then you'll have a great grasp of the new features of the teen site. let me know when you've hit these milestones (hint, hint prize forthcoming)!!!

Games for Kids

2007-11-26T09:44:00.000-07:00

The Games page on Tales' Treehouse was hit 1075 times in October (but guess what?! The Databases page was hit 857 times!). I've made a few changes to the Games page--added some new games, dusted off some old games. What games do you find kids asking for? Oh, and did you know that there is a shortcut on the desktop of the children's computers that takes kids straight to Tales' Games page? You can find your favorites!

Clifford (www.pbs.org)
Little People (http://www.fisher-price.com/fp.aspx?st=2054&e=activities)
I Spy (http://www.scholastic.com/kids/games.htm)

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Productivity during holiday week, hmmmm

2007-11-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

tis the challenge to continue to blog during a holiday week when one won't be working, but stuffing, i mean eating and eating well. in my culture the word we use is "gotso" - which i think means feast or to have good food. it's only around the holidays that we make our special dishes so it's no wonder the salvitory glands get ramped up.........

which is nothing even closely resembling a post about technology and there's not even a graceful segueway into the topic of blog interest today so consider this sentence the awkward transition.

what type of internet user are you? take the internet typology test from the pew institute and see where you stack up. i found mine surprisingly close. the test takes only a couple of minutes - what did yours reveal?

del.icio.us

2007-11-15T15:34:00.000-07:00

oh what fun del.icio.us is (altho its rather a pain to type it!). attended a meeting where some of our AST's are inputting websites to create a soon-to-be delivered ALD del.icio.us account. why? well, it's geared as a staff tool so that those conducting reference can access sites readily and know they are of quality. it's one way to get at mary kaye's list (or at least part of it) and it's portable ~~ it's wherever you've got a computer.

doing vr? try accessing the account for some readily available websites.

in a fit of 2.0 passion, i actually created my own del.icio.us account and am happily changing over my IE favorites. there have been times when i've wanted to look at something from home and realized the bookmarked site was.....not there, too.

lastly, the new teen site (see yesterday's post) will be using del.icio.us as a homework & research tool. we envision that when you click on this button, one of the things you will see is the tag cloud of subjects. click and get websites!

if you have any websites you feel are worthy of entry into either del.icio.us account, please comment. would love to hear from you about a) websites you use b) creating your own del.icio.us or c) ways we can make this better!

Wow - it's the new teen site!

2007-11-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Take a look, take a goooood look! This is the debut of the teen site as it will look when we launch in under 2 months. While this image may not be very readable, let me introduce you:

the buttons across the top are permanent and will stay as you scroll down the page. they read:

>books & reading
>homework & research
>movies & music
>random stuff
>@ your library

on the left will be a new pick of the day (e.g. changes daily)
above the pick of the day are the different "skins" in which you can change your background color
it is blog style which means we will be filling in little boxes with various content
the library events box will be auto - filled with teen program information coming from the calendar
the ALD Live box will rotate images of AskColorado, VR, maybe databases as well as video and podcast content as we have fresh stuff

Your input???????????

Sproose it!

2007-11-13T16:09:00.001-07:00

www.sproose.com – yet another new social search engine on the horizon. Take a look at it though and see if you find it useful or better! Here are some of the intriguing things sproose does:

returns results based on user input

you can sign up as a user so you can vote on websites you feel are good ones. The number of votes is returned as part of your search result. You can also vote off bad websites.

In the spirit of community, you can click on the user name to find other pages that person liked

You can choose web pages, video pages, look at popular tags and active users.

Friday Fun and Professional Devt, too!

2007-11-09T15:43:00.000-07:00

this blog seemingly seems to be dedicated to not so serious topics on friday....hmmm.....this could be the start of a bad habit.

today's post comes to you thru serendipity...that when you're looking for something else you find good stuff that applies elsewhere, like this blog :)

while i was searching for information on how to practice being more energy efficient and leave a smaller carbon footprint, i came across a website called commoncraft.com. their mission is to produce videos which aim to take the complexity out of communication. the video which relates to energy efficiency is "new light bulbs in plain english" which is cleverly done.

how might this relate you ask to technology --- to the purpose of this blog ? well, they have other videos such as rss in plain english or social networking in plain english. if you have a few minutes (they're not very long) and want to grow your brain, then take a look at these videos. what do you think?

happy weekend!

Encore, updated!

2007-11-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

This blog has talked about the new III product, Encore, before. Today was able to sit in on a demonstration of it live, for the first time to see what it does!

Positive features:

Its version 2.0 that will be out later next year will have the tagging and commenting feature included in it.
it includes "facets" as part of search results which let you limit by various criteria such as location, type of material. these are nice value-added features
would include a prominent link to prospector catalog

Negative features:

the federated search box ends up in the lower right corner which does not much promote the research databases. disclaimer: this can be moved (yea!)
the other part of the federated search they showed is that search results were returned by names of databases. if you were joe patron, would you click on "general onefile" to know you were getting article results? disclaimer: this was probably demo'd with iii's research pro federated search product. if another product was purchased would different results show?

there are a number of library catalogs which have the encore 1.1 beta out there if you want to take a look. i've listed a few below*****go search and play. tell me how you'd rate your patron experience with encore!

nashville public library

scottsdale public library

michigan state university libraries

Great Stuff Happenin' at Apple!

2007-11-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

Am i making a shameless plug for Apple? I hope not. Curiousity about what Apple does with academics prompted me to go looking. They do a lot!

http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/

http://www.apple.com/education/products/ipod/

Check out their great stuff!

Followup on Internet Librarian, still

2007-11-05T17:00:00.000-07:00

Was looking on Internet Librarian's website for some of the presentations since i could not scribe quickly enough (at least quickly enough to read my notes later :). Came across the Twitter posts they provided, which led me to Michael Sauer's post about unintended consequences of the social web. thought his column was pretty provacative in terms of raising questions and issues that we will continue to wrestle with as we move the library from a bricks and mortar joint to one that thrives online. take a look, respond on his blog!

Friday fun

2007-11-02T15:53:00.000-06:00

in culling thru notes and such from Internet Librarian, I remembered one irreverent youtube video, called the Facebook song.

i leave you w/ this post. enjoy/comment/hate/ but have a great weekend!

playing with itunes

2007-11-01T14:48:00.000-06:00

internet librarian was a great experience and one of the best i attended in terms of returning with information that's right up my alley!

yesterday i attended a session in which the presenter talked about using itunes at his college library. don't you love great minds that push boundaries? it's schaffer library (http://www.union.edu/library/) at union college. (i'm home so i have no excuse for not making this a live link except that my time is being marked by child needing computer for homework....)

anyway, schaffer library created playlists of songs which go with classes in which music is being studied. they also loaded ipods with songs for students to "check out" as part of a class. in addition, apple has something called linkmaker in which you can put the URL into the MARC record from itunes. this was authorized under the itunes university college arrangement - something that i think we're gonna have to look at further!

why not deliver in the ipod format whenever possible? cool stuff!

Over and Out from Monterey

2007-10-31T13:25:00.000-06:00

Can't believe time has flown here in Monterey. On the one hand my brain hurts from all of the stuff i've learned; on the other its tired and needs a rest from everything internet. A couple of wow things that i'll leave w/ this post are:

*scriblio - an open source system that is overlaying the Plymouth State Library. scriblio even has a iii importer - so you know they're working w/ different ILS vendors! i think this is worth a look - they offer different themes which put up different data on the pages. what a concept! don't know about the whole tagging, commenting thing tho.

*look for a video with hans rusling describing (very funnily, too) the data visualization software he developed called gapminder. it might be coming from a place called ted talks which is a platform for cutting edge technology.

sorry - again - for not providing links thru this blog like i should. it's lunch in the exhibit hall and the food smells sooooo good and the waiting line is getting rather long.....no time to add .......

more to come later!

ALD in the virtual world

2007-10-30T16:01:00.000-06:00

One of the (many) great sessions I attended was Online Communities...ways to make our presence more known where our patrons are, virtually - of course! While i was trying to scribe as quickly as possible (yea, yea a computer would'a helped) i need to find the presentation online. Here are some of the places we should consider being:
>libdex
>mapmuse
>library411
>publiclibraries.com
>librariesontheweb
>wikimapia

Are we listed in wifi directories? Is the name of wifi network "default?" *bad idea, by the way*

Here are some of the places we should be trolling to see if they talk about us, good or bad!:
>yelp
>local2me
>insiderpages
>citysearch
>judy's book

Do we own or redirect people from url's like aldmovies or aldbooks?

Since i'm a guest on this computer i'm not making the links live like a good blogger should. It was enuf of a victory to get on the computer for a lengthy period of time to catch up, send home notes and blog/update. (thx Monterey Public Library!)

If you have the time, let me know if we already have a presence at any of these place, will ya?

Greetings from Monterey!

2007-10-30T10:54:00.001-06:00

I have been computer challenged. Yes, I had the opportunity to bring a laptop and was too lazy to want to carry an extra 10 #.... i did try to visit the Monterey Public Library yesterday thinking i could jump on a computer as a visitor and catch up, but they were closed in the morning - drats!

With the lines very long for use of the computers in the exhibit hall, this may be my only post "on the road".

I could carry on about all of the great things i've been learning. This conference has been great and on target for the things ALD is working on. The weather was great the first couple of days, warm and sunny but more typical overcast yesterday and today. Have enjoyed great chowder and company with fellow librarians.

Heard John Blyberg and Glenn Peterson talk about online community and what they're trying to do. Great stuff. Got some more thinking to do about how to implement systems analysis thinking around process improvement. Got the name of a librarian who is willing to give me a virtual tour of Second Life once i create my avatar. Wow! Will try to digest my notes on the plane ride home and post the bits and bytes of things i've learned.

In the meantime, do you have a Second Life avatar yet?

On the road to Monterey

2007-10-26T12:09:00.001-06:00

Can bloggers every really be on vacation or away from their desk as a reason not to post? With a computer available at practically every public library and at every conference, too, there should be no excuse, err reason for me to be silent.

I am leaving tonight for Monterey, CA - the site of Internet Librarian - where i hope to soak in the beach and the aquarium and ...... oh, sorry, i mean soaking up all of the knowledge from presenters more in the know about internet and libraries than i.

My intent is to post news and updates and the "wow" stuff i learn about. In the event you don't hear anything....then it'll be posted in long blogs after my return on Nov 2nd.

In the meantime, let's hear it for the Colorado Rockies!

quicksearch at Auraria Library

2007-10-25T14:06:00.000-06:00

today's post is short and sweet....cuz i'm at one of the denver public library branches and i have only 20 minutes to use a public computer and i have to stand the whole time, too, ouch!

just learned that auraria library just put up their new website. they based their redesign on user input, wow! one of the nifty things they did was integrate their search box. it's all about one search, multiple finds. they named it "quick search" and you get the catalog plus database results at the same time. they used serials solutions, for those who care about the product behind the box.

when i tried to run a search just now, no results were returned. i may not have waited long enough (20 min only goes so far!) or this computer was being slow. i'm going to try again when i'm sitting and see how this runs.

check it out - what do you think?

its a drupal world

2007-10-24T08:09:00.000-06:00

My track record for daily blogging is circling the drain! I feel I should apologize for not visiting daily to discuss and post.... the reason for not posting yesterday was due to a field trip! Some of the ALD staff visited Douglas County Public Libraries Philip Miller Library in Castle Rock. The purpose of our visit was to see the behind-the-scenes work of their new website as well as their intranet. Douglas is using drupal, an open source software.

This software has gotten more sophisticated over the years and much better, to the point that The New York Observer is using drupal as their content management back end system now. If you check out their site, be sure to notice their tagging ...... yea, yea you might say another tag cloud .... but this one IS different - tell me what'cha think!

We have also confirmed that one of our favorite library websites, Ann Arbor, uses drupal as their back end. Not only that but their tech guru, John Blyberg, is doing amazing things. Check out his blog for more info.

It's always good to visit other locales and see what's new. One of the things I love about library work is the willingness to share whatever we've learned with our colleagues.

We'll be taking what we've learned under consideration as we continue to develop the website.

In the meantime, you should see their new conveyer belt check in system - it rocks!

Encore v Aquabrowser

2007-10-22T20:49:00.000-06:00

Kids w/ no homework = mom with time to use kids as focus group ...... My kids are used to me using them as guinea pigs and are pretty good humored about it (having chocolate cake as a bribe doesn't hurt, either)..... Tonight was a homework-less night in our house, pretty rare. I pounced on the opportunity to test Encore and Aquabrowser with them. They were each (and separately) directed to Nashville's site for Encore and then to King County to experience their Aquabrowser.

Interestingly enuf, both preferred the Aquabrowser experience! They did not like the tag experience with Encore but really enjoyed the discover cloud look in Aquabrowser. The tag cloud in Nashville was "confusing" and they did not like the layout of the page either. It never occured to me that they might want to narrow a search by "fiction" and "nonfiction" which is a fairly natural way to want to search the catalog. We don't intuitively provide this to them, do we?

My head is brewing with a focus group test with patrons. One of the things we heard loud and clear was "give us the catalog" - both of these products give them the experience, but is one better than the other? It feels like Pepsi v Coke or Honda v Toyota...both are great products so it boils down to what your preferences are as to what you choose to buy.

Weigh in now, play "battle of the catalog enhancements" (boy does that sound clunky!) .... anyway, vote now!

Oh Rosetta, where art thou?

2007-10-19T17:23:00.000-06:00

Unlike any other database...... Rosetta Stone has prompted patrons to actually email and compliment us for offering it! They are so pleased to have language learning. I could'a fallen from my chair when the first email came in - i mean - how often does a patron compliment us about databases? Usage continues to rise among all of the languages, which is always a good sign, too, in database-land.

Then comes the call from Rosetta, they will no longer support the same public library model they just offered us! Come June 2008 when our current subscription expires, so will Rosetta Stone from our online offerings. Rosetta has chosen to offer their library service as a CD ROM product instead. Yes, you read correctly - CD ROM.....that which we moved away from, that which we no longer support, that which only offers patrons usage within a library - ick!

Since i've heard from a few staff asking about it, thought the blog could be a way to communicate it as questions arise. We will be investigating other products to see if there's another alternative. In the meantime, don't forget that Ovedrive offers some language learning.

Have a great weekend....I'm on my way to leaf-raking ...... isn't it a joy to live in Colorado?

It's better than finding $5 in your pants pocket!

2007-10-18T16:58:00.000-06:00

What could be better than that, you might ask? One of the discoveries from the online website survey is that the majority who responded DID know about research databases - woo hoo!

As we continue to wonder about their use and effectiveness given their costs, it is reassuring to see this from our survey. In addition, we discovered that the teens from our summer focus group knew the term "research databases" because they were taught accordingly in school. In fact these teens were mostly quick to look for access to them and thought it was important. Granted our teen focus group was slanted towards library users in one way, shape or form....but i'm an optimist and will take good news wherever it's at....

Do you find patrons who are very much surprised over research databases? Is this still a common reaction or have we moved away from the surprise of it all?

Now onto the laundry, there may be more "green" surprises awaiting !

Categorizing middle school and high school books - your say?

2007-10-17T13:09:00.001-06:00

{post copied from Alyson's teen blog entry, with her permission}

Denver's teen website lets you sort books by middle school or high school with many books being categorized as both. What does everyone think of that? Our teen focus groups liked the idea - especially the middle schoolers who seemed very conscientious about avoiding inappropriate material. I like the way Denver's works because all items show up, but viewers can choose to sort if they want

If we decide to do it all staff picks, bibs... would have to come tagged as MS or HS or both. What would our criteria be? Will we have to be extra sure that anything tagged middle school is really clean? What would be our source for justification if any are questioned given that the catalog just says 12 and up for all YA?

Please comment on this soon, because that sorting feature will have to be built into the teen site.

"I want to comment on the ALD Teen Blog"

Coming Soon....to a computer screen near you

2007-10-11T20:49:00.000-06:00

While we are not making huge overhauls to the adult website, little things will still happen. We rely on John working his "web magic" to make new things happen as he has time. One of the changes you will see is the national Yahoo news on the right frame disappearing. Why, you ask? Well the focus group input says it wasn't highly important. They easily know websites in which to find relevant news. We feel we don't need to take valuable real estate providing it. Instead look to this space to provide ALD news and updates - that which you now find under the "latest @ your library" heading. It will still be headline based in terms of looks but its focus is ALD! We will be placing articles and other things where you now see "latest @ your library" information.

Do you like this?

Teen Site - Input Needed on Button Naming!

2007-10-10T12:07:00.001-06:00

This post is copied (with permission) from alyson who put this up on the teen site.

One area of the new teen website will feature short to medium length blurbs about a wide variety of things of interest to teens. They will range from frivolous (like Timewasters now) to serious ( Like reminders of finding health and wellness material on Teen Health and Wellness). Basically anything we put up that is not specific to Books and Reading, Movies and Music, or Homework and Research will go here – kinda like the Lifestyle section of the newspaper. So what to call this area:

Teen Interests - “Teen” is redundant on Teen site?
Random Stuff – too trivial for serious subjects ?
Teen Topics – too serious?
Your Life – too vague?

I am leaning toward Random Stuff because it will really be random. Remember that all the items will go across the home page as well so, people will have the chance to read the item even if they don’t visit the “Teen Interests - Random Stuff –Teen Topics -Your Life” section. Any other ideas, comments please speak up now! Alyson

Link to ALD teen blog

Who needs library staff?

2007-10-09T16:30:00.000-06:00

when you've got Bokomaten? Have you heard of this gizmo? Kinda reminds me of the bionic woman - something that does everything. It's a machine that can sit anywhere and provide library services. Think about seeing this at the light rail station....you're waiting to board and remember that you want The Astronaut Farmer dvd. Just skip on up to the machine and check out your copy! Not only that but i can return it to the machine too!

i'm being rather silly in pointing out no staff are needed because the machine needs to be refreshed with new materials from time to time.........

it's just quite the interesting concept that the library is where the people are, not the people having to come to the library. what do you think?

here are the links to further information if you'd like to know more:

youtube video

youtube video - the inside of the machine!

the post from librarian in black

LITA'ized

2007-10-08T15:17:00.000-06:00

I'm in the process of decompressing - taking thoughts, ideas and putting into some cohesive, brainy conclusion of what all this means from this weekend's LITA National Forum. There were about 350 people there, added to the already huge numbers who were downtown taking advantage of all the events and happenings.

I'm pleased to report that the public transportation for going downtown runs well. Hopped the light rail to Union Station and rode the mall bus along 16th Street Mall. Ended up walking 2 whole blocks to my destination - how cool was that? Plus, i had 30 min of reading time instead of driving time...boy i could more of that!

Today i will just throw out some notes from David Lee King's opening session. David is a regular blogger who does some great things at his library, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library.

>Papercuts - their library's blog site where they post current events and such
>Lamson Library - they are a III library who chose to create an overlay of every item. search to find a title and see that the item record is not really their iii record but something created out of Wordpress. You have to click to request item which puts you into their iii interface. They somehow pull in subject headings, call them tags and allow commenting. How do you like this look?
>Danbury Library doing librarything....was this in a previous post?

Some great ideas he mentioned include

*teach blogging or flickr to businesses
*get involved in teen 2nd life
*offer myspace classes for parents

It's all about being relevant - who wants to start teaching myspace?

taking stock of where we are.....

2007-10-05T15:37:00.000-06:00

it's a friday and as i sit at the keyboard my mind wanders more to what's happening this weekend, than what's coming out of my fingertips for today's post.......

i am fortunate to have the opportunity to attend LITA, the Library Information and Technology Association of ALA. Their meeting is being held downtown this weekend (if you're not going to be downtown for the Rockies game, the Broncos game, the Avanlanche game or the Komen Race for the Cure - get off your duff!). I hope to use future blogs to talk about observations from this meeting.

in the meantime, work continues on the adult side website. i'm downloading the survey results as i'm typing :) so that i can read what our 89 patrons who responded said about the website. our primary focus is to get the teen side to look differently (e.g. cool) and to put this up in January. we can't keep waiting for more data, more new technology, more anything! besides working on teen stuff we'll look at tweaks to the adult side page, too. we've heard mixed comments from patrons about the national news and we think it's time for it to go away.......

may you have an enjoyable weekend, it's lovely to be in colorado when the weather difference day to day can be 20 degrees!

Let's Go Encore!

2007-10-04T16:09:00.000-06:00

We're all abuzz over Encore! You've heard about it way before you've seen it....now you can see it in action! Well, almost in action. Right now Nashville Public Library and Michigan State University Library have the Encore beta on their websites.

While some features say "coming soon" like tagging and the "my account" button, you get a general idea of what it is and what its intent is.....

Your feedback?

Are you all ears today?

2007-10-03T20:54:00.001-06:00

Well you should be! We started our new service with Overdrive today, yea! The titles are in the catalog, the link is on the page ..... look under Downloads and we are getting training to assist patrons who may be stuck.

Our Overdrive service is limited to just audio books, so don't go thinking that our Overdrive collection is just like Denver Public Library - not now!

Here's a couple of hints when working with patrons 1) they can't download to Macintosh computers and 2) they can't download to an iPod. Besides that, it is similar to Netlibrary's in that a software needs to be downloaded.

I feel soooo 20th century when i confess to not listening to audio books. Why? Not because i don't want to... what better way to pass the time on a treadmill? It's because my household is mac and i have no audio device in my car. don't own an mp3 player, either. this probably makes me, like, in the .000001% of the population that can't/doesn't use Overdrive, but i'll figure it out (Santa, are you listening?).

take a few minutes to browse around in Overdrive, download something yr interested in and let me know how your experience went!