Tame The Web » Library Innovators

Overcoming e-book ‘stagnation’ by Åke Nygren

Michael — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:21:55 +0000

Don’t miss this article by Åke Nygren at InformationToday Europe:

http://www.InfoToday.eu/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=80411&PageNum=2

Åke explores how Stockholm Libraries are responding to e-book stagnation:

Since 2010 the Stockholm Public Libraries have been working hard at coming to grips with the conflict between a growing public demand for e-books and the devastatingly low percentage of e-books available in their stacks. The overall conclusion: instead of waiting for a print oriented publishing market, paralysed by its anxieties for possible loss of market shares, let’s get the job done ourselves!

Later:

The third step will be to explore the potential with EPUB 3, an open format that has the potential to move e-reading from a disclosed and lonely activity towards an open, creative and social experience.

In brief, Stockholm Public Libraries response to e-book stagnation is to:

Cooperate: we can’t do it on our own, let’s find strategic partnerships, for e-book openness and innovation.
Digitise: let’s not just sit and wait. If nobody else seems keen on digitising, well, then we do it ourselves.
Integrate: making literature accessible for everybody in 2012 is not just about digitisation, it’s also a question of packaging and integration of the content in user friendly and flexible user interfaces.
Engage: let’s explore the potential of co-creating new content together with the users of today: the prosumers.

Library on Wheels – Blogging Gold from Char Booth

Michael — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 18:56:03 +0000

Please do not miss:

http://infomational.wordpress.com/2011/12/19/project-curve-part-five-library-on-wheels/

Just a snippet demonstrates Char Booth’s evidence-based, grounded approach to library outreach and technology:

the mobile shift: not exactly news

Now, down to project business. Mobile platforms and services have become one of the most handily bandied-about concepts in libraryland over the last few years, and for very good reason. Recent research from ECAR, PIL (pdf), and Pew (among others) documents a mobile shift in personal and academic connectivity, communication, and access among learners. My own research for the Council of Chief Librarians of California Community Colleges in 2011 examined in part the receptivity of participants to mobile library functionality, which resoundingly confirmed mobile trends. Figure 27 shows mobile library interest among smartphone/web-enabled mobile device owners, which represented 56% (N=1,453) of our five-campus survey population (CCL LTES Final Report, p. 36).

In all categories, a majority of respondents indicated they were very or fairly likely to use mobile library content, research, and support options from their device, significantly higher than other technology applications such as location-based services and social media (with the exception of a Facebook and YouTube). See Figure 26 (ibid., p 34).

Erik Demonstrates Surface & Flickr App

Michael — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 03:07:47 +0000

At DOK in October 2011, Erik Boekesteijn demonstrates an app the pulls in the library’s Flickr feed into the Surface table.

Update: Erik Comments: If people are interested in having this app or any of the other apps we make in their library, they are welcome to contact us at info@doklab.nl

“Chance favors the connected mind”

Michael — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:40:06 +0000

Thanks to Warren Cheetham for sending this to me. Much to ponder here. My first thought: this is further support for the concept of participating in the professional commons. Imagine how ideas and innovation can be amplified and enhanced by others.

Michael Edson on TWIL

Michael — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:36:34 +0000

TWIL #22: Michael Edson (Smithsonian Institution) from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

Dangerous Ideas for Libraries by Mal Booth

Michael — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:17:55 +0000

Dangerous ideas for libraries: ASLA 2011

View more documents from Mal Booth

Vade Mecum

Michael — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 23:42:18 +0000

This video inspires me. Have you seen it?

TWIL: Ellen Forsyth, Library of New South Wales

Michael — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:38:42 +0000

TWIL #48: Ellen Forsyth (Consultant at State Library of New South Wales) from Jaap van de Geer on Vimeo.

I met Ellen in Australia in 2009 . Her work with Learning 2.0 for library staff has been outstanding.

Don’t Miss: Using WordPress as a Library Content Management System

Michael — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:34:57 +0000

I am thoroughly enjoying this issue of Library Technology Reports by Kyle M. L. Jones and Polly Alida-Farrington. Read the first chapter here to get a taste of the useful, practical and engaging work. Kenley Neufeld and I have an interview in the issue concerning WordPress as an LMS for course management. There’s also an extended version here and a TechSource post about the early stages of the project here.

The guest sections include an excellent article on utilizing WP to enhance the user experience by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches-Johnson.

Supercharge your CPD: 23 Things for Professional Development – A TTW Guest Post by Maria Giovanna De Simone

Michael — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:04:54 +0000

What is it?

23 Things for Professional Development, also known as cpd23, is a self-directed, self-paced, inclusive, practical and free online programme open to librarians and information professionals at all stages of their career, in any type of role, any sector, and from any part of the world. It encourages information professionals to explore and discover social media ‘Things’, including Twitter, RSS feeds and file-sharing, as well as other ‘traditional’ CPD routes, such as gaining qualifications, presenting skills and getting published. Participants will be asked to assess how each Thing can assist them in their professional development, and then to blog about each Thing and share their thoughts, views and expertise. The programme is completely informal and no prior knowledge or experience is expected or assumed.

What will I have to do?

Each week, details about one or more of the Things will be posted on the central cpd23 blog (http://cpd23.blogspot.com). We’ll then invite you to explore the Thing in question – and don’t worry, we’ll provide lots of guidance and support – and then to record your response on your own personal blog. Please don’t worry if you haven’t already got a blog as we’ll cover that in Thing 1, but feel free to use an existing blog if you’ve got one. We’ll ask you to register your blog with us as part of Thing 2, just so we know that you’re taking part and can say hello! And we’ll list all the participants-about 280 so far, from all over the world, and rising all the time-on a Delicious page and in an RSS bundle so you can find other people taking part. We think each Thing will take about an hour to complete, so there’s no major time commitment involved. There are also plenty of ‘catch-up’ weeks built in, and you can complete the course at your own pace.

What will I gain from it?

23 Things for Professional Development is a great way to supercharge your CPD, no matter what stage of your career you’re at, what role you have, or how professionally involved you already are. It aims to assist participants to explore their own professional development and to reflect on it. We hope that it will enable participants to learn about the different ways to enhance their careers and to equip them with the tools, skills, knowledge and confidence to boost, underline or kickstart their CPD. We also hope that it’ll be a lot of fun and a brilliant opportunity to meet and get connected to other information professionals, as well as an incentive and an excuse to think about-and talk to others about-your career advancement.

I’ve done a 23 Things programme before. What’s different about cpd23?

The 23 Things framework is tried, tested and trusted, and there have been lots of other programmes. If you’ve already done one, that’s great! We still think there’s a lot to gain from taking part in cpd23, and you’ll have a headstart because you know what to expect. With cpd23, we’ve used the existing framework, but given it a bit of a twist, and it differs in two ways. First, unlike other programmes, it’s not just about social media, but includes plenty of offline Things too, and some of the social media Things which we’ve included might be different from those used by other programmes. Second, it’s got a different focus: it isn’t about whether or how you could integrate each Thing into your working life, but about how you could use it for your professional development. Cpd23 is a little more personal and more reflective than other programmes.

How do I join in?

23 Things for Professional Development starts officially on 20th June, 2011 and it runs until October. To join in, just visit the central cpd23 blog and get started! The list of Things is already available online, as well as plenty of other information. On 20th June we’ll post some guidance and instructions about how to set up and register your blog. And if, at any time, you’ve got any questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact the team either by leaving a comment on our blog, or by tweeting us @cpd23. Please use the hashtag #cpd23 so we can see how you’re getting on.

Anything else?

One last thing is that while we will offer you as much support and guidance as we can, nothing at all can beat the face-to-face support of your colleagues, so encourage them to take part too. So spread the cpd23 message!

Acknowledgements

Our 23 Things for Professional Development programme was inspired by 23 Things Cambridge, and is based on the original 23 Things programme at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in the USA in 2006.

Maria Giovanna De Simone, Information Assistant, Careers Service Library, Cambridge, UK, is one of the CPD23 organising team members.

TWIL: Justin Hoenke

Michael — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 10:48:47 +0000

Don’t miss Portland Public Library Teen Librarian and TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke’s appearance on “This Week in Libraries.”

Zukunftwerkstatt Meets TWIL!

Michael — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 12:37:14 +0000

http://vimeo.com/24777638

http://vimeo.com/24910071

A hot room, three guests and 40 minutes. These are the ingredients of another steaming live episode of This Week in Libraries from the Bibliothekartag in Berlin. Mace Ojala and Jukka Pennanen talk about their cycling unconference and Dr. Hannelore Vogt tells us more about the use of social media and gaming in libraries.

thisweekinlibraries.com/??p=308

cyclingforlibraries.org/?

I Read Where I Am – New Book on Future of Reading

Michael — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 01:02:31 +0000

I Read Where I Am, originally uploaded by mstephens7.

http://www.valiz.nl/en/IReadWhereIAm

I am honored to have a short piece written with Jan Klerk in this new book just released in The Netherlands.

I Read Where I Am contains visionary texts about the future of reading and the status of the word. We read anytime and anywhere. We read of screens, we read out on the streets, we read in the office but less and less we read a book at home on the couch. We are, or are becoming, a different type of reader. The question remains which shape will it take and what experience does one want? To answer all these (and other) questions we have asked people from different backgrounds, subject to the aforementioned changes, to think about these issues.

You can read our entry and the whole book here:

http://www.ireadwhereiam.com/

Seduced by Google – A TTW Guest Post by Dr. Troy Swanson

Michael — Wed, 25 May 2011 13:43:49 +0000

When we initiated a new usability study of our library’s website, we reviewed close to 60 library websites. The one dominant trend we observed was the placement of some sort of search functionality was present on the library’s homepage. Most libraries had tabbed search boxes that allowed users to click between tabs for searching the OPAC, periodical databases, and other types of information.

Our assumption was that we also should move our search functionality to our library’s homepage. We thought that search was the primary purpose of our website, but the results of our usability study caused us to rethink this assumption. We found that our existing library website where users must click to a separate “research tools” page, outperformed a mock up site with the search box on the homepage. Jeremy Green and I wrote about our usability study findings in the Journal of Academic Librarianship (“Why We Are Not Google,” JAL 37:3, May 2011, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2011.02.014).

In our article, Jeremy and I framed our usability study findings with Siva Vaidhyanathan’s critique of higher education as having been seduced by Google. We did this partly as a critique of ourselves, partly as our interpretation of our review of library websites, and partly as a rhetorical device to get you to read our article. We hoped that our article would be part of a larger debate about how librarians design websites to fulfill our missions. Are libraries trying to be Google and not be libraries?

Since the article was made available online and in print, I have had several librarians drop me notes about their own usability studies. While all of these notes were very professional and generally grateful for our article, they all presented evidence to support the usability of tabbed search boxes on their library homepages. I greatly enjoyed the exchanges I have had about our study’s findings, and I hope to broaden this conversation with this blog post.

For me, the bottom line remains the same. A mock up site with a tabbed search box on the homepage did not out perform our current website when it came to users actually answering the questions we presented them. Our study revealed many problems with our current site that we are addressing, but participants had very few problems navigating between search tools on our site. There was absolutely no evidence that clicking down one level to a page devoted to research was a hindrance to success. Additionally, there was evidence that not having a tabbed search box on the library’s homepage made the homepage cleaner and more usable.

One caveat that must be made is that we were testing a tabbed search box, because this would have been the most realistic option for our library. There are many options for federated searching, tabbed searching, and a new generation of discovery tools that may impact future results. We are a relatively small library that does not have programmers or systems support within the library, so our technology options are limited.

This leads to a second caveat, which is that context absolutely matters. A library’s homepage needs to make sense for the library. We expect our library’s homepage to be a gateway to all of our services, not just a search portal. Moving our search services to a secondary page allows us to build more context around searching.

A final caveat to our findings is that the participants of a usability study matter. There are some aspects of usability that are universal and there are some aspects that really do depend on your participants. The goal of any usability study should be to get behind the eyes of the user and get a feeling for how they see your website. In our case, we wanted to know about our students and our website, and our study has been very enlightening. At that outset of our study, I assumed that search should be front and center on our site. Now, I have abandoned that assumption. I was seduced by Google, but the seduction is over.

Part of the fun of an article like ours is that we have leveled a criticism against all libraries and higher education based on 16 students, but I haven’t lost sight of the fact that our findings are really only relevant for us. Yet, knowing how much work a full usability study takes and the prevalence of tabbed search boxes across library websites, I am curious how many libraries are really testing usability? Maybe everyone out there is testing? But, I am skeptical. I think that Google has done a sexy dance, and we have been charmed.

Troy A. Swanson is Teaching & Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College. You can follow him on Twitter at @t_swanson.

New Library Leadership Blog from Ken Haycock

Michael — Wed, 11 May 2011 11:13:58 +0000

Don’t miss Ken Haycock’s new blog focusing on all aspects of library leadership:

http://www.kenhaycock.com/kens-blog.html

Here’s a bit of a recent post on “Building A Better Manager:”

How do you determine what makes a great branch manager? The results would be fairly obvious, I suspect… along the lines of have a clear vision and strategy for your team, help staff with career development, be productive and results-oriented… All standard stuff.

Well, Google found the same results but they took a more methodical approach. How many of us stop to actually analyze those performance reviews, feedback surveys, and nominations for manager awards? Google correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints. They found, through their Project Oxygen, that, for example, technical expertise was less important (indeed, dead last) than being accessible.

It would be interesting to undertake a systematic study of an urban library to see if their results would be any different from Google. Imagine the potential for strategic human resources management, including selection and staff development.

I was lucky to work with Ken a bit this year and have learned much from him. Please add his blog to your reader.