Tame The Web

Couldn’t make it to Monterey? Guess what — many of the presentations and handouts are here:

http://www.infotoday.com/il2004/presentations/default.shtml

..of Internet Librarian 2004 was presenting with Jamie Wilson from Tower Hill School in Wilmington, DE. It was his first presentation ata conference and he was smashing! Scott told the audience and they erupted with applause… it was most cool.

It made me remember my first time at CIL 2000… how exhilirating it is to get up in front of peers and have something to say…and have them listen!

Wrapping up today with IL2004… for your consideration:

As evidenced by the great group of people in our Make Learning Stick: Creating 5-Star, User-Centered Training & Instruction workshop, library folk are embracing their new roles as trainers and teachers.They had great questions and all participated. Scott Brandt gets this stuff and can explain it well. Instructional design for librarians is HOT right now. Are you developing classes? Are you teaching colleagues? You soon could be!

Internet Librarians are poised to “own the future,” according to keynoter Lee Rainie of Pew Internet fame. My favorite part of his stuff is the fact that Pew looks at how people use and interact with Internet technologies…not just the technologies themselves. It’s about the people first folks!

Internet Librarians are easy to talk to and you can learn stuff. Have a glass of wine and chat someone up at the reception. It’s fun!

We must never stop learning and looking at how quickly our libraries are changing.We may be talking RSS, blogs and IM now but what will we be talking about at IL 2010?

The future of the public library web site lies in customizing the experience for our users (USERS, thank you), including a local slant for browsable Web directories (thanks to David King), RSS feeds, and a portal feel. Jenny Levine urges library Web developers to generate buzz with their sites — and to keep those blogs active. It gives our users a reason to return.

Commiserating with two or three colleagues over good Japanese food, Falafel or the Jamba Juice is a great, intimate way to exchange ideas and share yourself and thoughts about libraries. I recommend it!

If the ILS vendors won’t give librarians what they want, the users will do it for them. What does that say about the benefits of an Open Source ILS free to all libraries who want to use it thus cutting the cord on these companies? (Things that make you go hmmmm)

WebJunction is there for library folk to exchange ideas, get tips for technology planning and to learn. Don’t miss this most cool virtual LIS community. (I just took another look…wow!)

Librarians never need to be out of the loop with the tools presented in sessions like Greg Schwartz’s “Making the Most of the Blogosphere.” Use Feedster and Bloglines, or the aggrgator client of your choice, to always be the one in the meeting that knows what is happening in the LIS world (and beyond).

Libraries need a “blogging policy” for staff and a “blog style manual” for their own blogs. Admin: Don’t be surprised when you find out one of your librarians has a popular blog that people read and learn from or one of your own is anonymously blogging the day to day trials and tribulations of reference work. This is not really a bad thing (although bloggers should abide by a personal set of ethics and protocols). We must educate staff, administration and our users to make them all aware of this new form of Web content. RSS as well! I’m tickled with the handful of Early Adopters at my library that actual got RSS and NetNewsWire and use it.

Internet Librarians want laptops to use all over their libraries, at home and on the road to conferences such as this.

Internet Librarians don’t want bloated, irritating virtual reference software.

EXTRA:

A gaggle of LIS Bloggers setting off for wine and food is a force to be reckoned with.

I can’t believe coming off of a great week celebrating libraries and technology in Monterey, the nearby town of Salinas is closing libraries:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/20/SALINAS.TMP

David King: http://daweed.blogspot.com/2004/11/my-thoughts-on-internet-librarian-2004.html

Librarian in Black: http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2004/11/recap_of_intern.html

Steven posts this…

And links to the IL2004 wiki:

http://il2004.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome

I’m interested to see how this plays out… take a look.

Aaron and I did our IM program Wednesday afternoon. We had a good group — many of whom are now instant messaging by the show of hands Aaron called for.

Our PPT is here.

Questions? Comments about this one? IM me! mstephens7mac

I am so tired… I will blog some wrap up tomorrow… what a great time it’s been here in Monterey! Plan on next year — October 24-26, 2005!

Thanks to my blogging pals for all the good times…

Whew! We did it! dear Steven’s voice was hoarse but it was a great time!

Questions ranged from why did I choose NetNewsWire as our RSS app of choice at SJCPL to “What about e-mail and listservs?”

Here’s the PPT: Teaching Weblogs in Libraries

I did my first session of the day and WOOOHOO was it fun! What a great group of folks present and a I got top share the satge with a school librarian named Jamie Wilson. It was his first conference presentation ever! He did GREAT!

I got to talk about how information literacy as a goal in libraries csn be achieved through staff training, the Web site, public classes and more.

My PPT for the talk is here!

Weblogs offer a wide diversity of topics….

Tools to make blog searching easier:

* Use FEEDSTER

* Also try Waypath

* No two blog search engines are the same.

* Daypop, Popdex, Technorati look at what’s hot in the blogosphere

* For finding specfic blogs: Blogorama, Feedfinder at feedster

Greg — First time I’ve heard you speak — well done!

* Blogging humanizes a Web site, that’s missing in a lot of library blogs

* Link virtual reference services in your blogs (Does SJCPL do this?) (YES we do!)

* Treat community bloggers like memebers of the press.

* Blog your statitics

* Try a photoblog to let people see how cool things are at the library

* Blog sites related to news stories and tell the newspaper

* If you don’t have a blog, get one! It’s an information channel.

Echoing Brian Kelly, Steven just asked everyone to open up their laptops and blog the presentations in the Blogging track.

I have yet to truly adjust to the west Coast. I’ve hit the bayside trail everymorning before 6am to walk, commune with my music library via my iPod and ponder the day’s stuff. Two presentations to think about today.

I also met two neat ladies from Illinois who were walking down to Cannery Row. I said it last night at dinner… I’ll say it again… librarians are friendly folk.

Tea beside me, I’m going over some PPTs… See you at the Conference Center!

Dateline: Internet Librarian 2004

Take a look at this:

http://kinja.com/user/netlib2004/

For a compendium of blogs being written here at the show by Richard Akerman from http://blog.akerman.ca/ who is staying at the Portobello as well.

Marydee Ojala is also posting at http://www.dysartjones.com/

At IL in London, Brian Kelly told our audience:

“The room is wireless, open up your laptops and start blogging and IMing about our presentation…” He joked then that they should say only nice things! But — how cool was this? We’ve heard about conferences where virtual communities spring up during the proceedings of folks commiserating in chats, private chats and actively blogging or congrunting.

Is that happening here? I just read this at Library Stuff:

I?m sitting here in David King?s session. I see only four other laptops. One is a blogger. So, 20% of all the laptops in the room are bloggers. Again, the last time I checked, this was the INTERNET librarian conference. Just like the Computers in Libraries conference, I asked D. Scott Brandt, ?What do they call this conference again?? COMPUTERS in libraries. Oh well. Maybe attendees want to get away from their computers for a while. Maybe they don?t want to have to schlep their laptops around or have to possibility of having them stolen!

Stolen laptops aside, which is a horrible thing, I would hope that by next year we have many more folks taking notes and blogging and chatting during the meetings…

I stand by my advice: library administrators: BUY YOUR LIBRARIANS A LAPTOP…

Tech trainers: TEACH YOUR LIBRARIANS TO USE THEM!

Conference centers: OFFER FREE WIFI to ONE AND ALL — we’ll thank you for it by coming back again and again!

http://www.librarystuff.net/2004/11/internet-librarian-monday-morning.html

Opening Keynote Monday November 15, 2004
Lee Raine, Pew Internet in American Life

(written with SubEthaEdit in tandem with Aaron on two Mac Powerbooks)

Pew charitable trusts funds project with 2 goals:

*wide public interest/news coverage
*work useful to policy makers and tech folk

Studies patterns of social interaction

63% of Adult Americans use the Internet

Internet use is the norm… there is a shrinking minority of those who do not use it.

Usage of the interent segmented in various ways: interests transfer to the online world

“I’m a Data geek.”

Expectations shifted…no longer a novely, but a utility

Current Uses

Email is number one

E-Commerce/vast digital library

The digital divide relates to age, employment, socio-economic, education level, disabilty, language, community type, race, parental status

Keep in mind the millions who are on the other side of the information gap. It is groups like this that can help them and remind folks that there are a lot of people on the other side…

Few Pew Findings:

Internet is good for social capital, doesn’t detract from social interaction (that e-mail is hot right now)

84% of internet users belong to groups that have an online component

We are more likely to meet other folks — widening horizons

Expanding social networks

People use the internet more seriously as they become

E-citizens are creating a new town square. Blogs! Discussion groups! Quick to organize on line community

One big impact not measured yet: INFORMATION OVERLOAD , no one is complaining yet

Ten Reasons we need Internet Librarians

1. No one knows better how to manage information
2. No one knows how to track down info
3. No one is better at establishing info standards
4. We have credibilty
5. No one is in a better position than us to teach about info literacy
6. Nobody is is a better position to be a watchdog in systems to sort information
7. We can teach about the process of determining credibility
8. Nobody is more empowered by professional training and creed to articulate freedom of speech
9. No one is better then at having thoughtful constructive role to talk about copyright and infomation something
10. Nobody can be as constructive in helping us think through the new norms as to what info is public and what info is private

David King, who rocks my library IT world and does Web stuff at Kansas City PL, told me over dinner last night (with Aaron, Jenny and Sherree at the Indian place) that Kansas City PL has started RSS feeds for program info, subjects and more (Look at this page). I was thrilled.

Then, this am, unable to sleep too long (West coast travel always gets me), I read Steven’s post about Cincinnati PL that greg Schwartz turned him on to last night after dinner.

http://www.cincinnatilibrary.org/feeds/

Such synchronicity! And an example of how cool networking can be at a conference like this!

One of our cool Reference librarians came to see me right before I left for CA. We talked shop and Macs and music..and I thought back to this post, written at PLA as he described with excitement his plans for a new computer purchase:

Public Libraries should do everything they can to provide a computer — a laptop — for all of their librarians. (it’s also a pretty snazzy perk in a job where there aren’t bonuses and the like…) We have it GOOD at SJCPL, each manager gets a 15″ Powerbook and the means to take it anywhere! I am proud of the group that is out here for PLA who brought their Macs. We need to be unwired, in our libraries for sure because you never know when an opportunity or “teaching moment” could appear with a patron or another employee. We need to use laptops at meetings as well. Our most recent managers meeting minutes were taken entirely on a laptop and then emailed to all after a bit of finessing.

I would expand that thought to all librarians on staff at a library — if possible. Give them the means to take technology with them: home, the coffee spot, conferences… You’ll reap a tech savvy staff that are not afraid of teaching someone how to join the wirelss network at the library’s cafe.

Addendum: Now in Monterey, this becomes clearer to me. The unwired librarian, attending a conference like this, being encouraged to note take and interact with collegaues (on site and across the globe), exchanging information is a cool cool cool idea.

Steven posted about Blogging policies and mentioned he didn’t have any policies for blogging. Over drinks at the Portobello Bar, I told him I thought we all have some inherent blogging protocols that drive many of the blogs I read and link to as well as my own.

So this morning, I pondered these, which line up so closely with the ones Steven pointed to:

The Library Blogger’s Personal Protocols

Respect your organization. Don’t bite the hand that feeds you. If you don’t agree with a policy at your library, don’t badmouth the folks there. Research other views/approaches and post about those! Learn all you can — they may ask for your opinion someday and an educated opinion on something is much better than hurumphing!

But don’t be afraid to put your two sense in on something you REALLY believe in.

Play nice. Cite your sources. Link back.

Don’t reveal secrets. Write about what your library is doing (I love that part) but don’t reveal sensitive data. It’s fine to say: “I had a meeting with a vendor of Product X today and here’s where I think this is going…”

Blog anonymously…I’m all for it. BUT be careful and don’t let it interfer with your workplace. Keep it underground. This stuff can be insiteful reading…I was fascinated by a couple of front line bloggers who blogged anonymously until found out and told to stop by their management! … just saying…

OR

Blog proudly and let your administration know what you are doing. I turn in conference reports that are a compendium of blog posts from a meeting like Internet Librarian, where I am writing from, — including notes from sessions, stuff from the exhibits and all the other cool stuff I encounter. Take it as a teaching moment as well: inform your admin what blogging is all about and how the library might get involved… come on folks!

While I’m at it: I’m waiting for the definitive professional librarian’s blogs devoted to Audio Visual issues, front line staff development and handful of other topics I haven’t found yet in the LIS Blogosphere… maybe YOU have something to say!

Read these too…

http://www.tametheweb.com/dc/archives/cat_internet_librarian_2004.html

http://www.librarystuff.net/2004/11/look-out-monterey.html

Good day. Good flights. Safe and sound her in Monterey Bay. Most cool was meeting up with Frank Cervone at the SF airport. Last i saw him, we were across the pond! we got to chat all the rest of the way!

Looking forward to some good sessions and some networking!

Tomorrow: I write a paper for school… Friday I leave for the West Coast and Internet Librarian 2004! Hope to see some of you there!