Tame The Web

Frank Haulgren commented here and I just had to make it a post:

Western Washington Univ.s “14 Days To Have Your Say” project was directly inspired by the Starbuck’s campaign.  I had read a newspaper article (quaint, no?) about this project one day while having lunch and immediately thought to myself, “We can do this!  We should do this!”

The 14 Days blog has closed has closed for comment.  A final post has been made by me for the libraries and we are now beginning to analyze the comments and see what we can undertake over the summer.

Bu far the most commented on issues were library noise, longer hours, and an interesting divide on the question of a library cafe.

It was a very, very worth while project!

http://lib206.lib.wwu.edu/14days/frontpage

New WWU Dean of Libraries Chris Cox responds on the site:

I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have taken the time to offer your ideas and feedback about The Western Libraries. I’ve been eagerly reading these and am looking forward to working with all of you to answer your needs, whether they be quiet in the library, the construction of a cafe, installing a book drop on the south side of campus or investigating the feasability of longer library hours and/or a 24 hour study space. I’m very excited to be coming to a place where the students, faculty and staff care so much about their library.

Gathering feedback for planning from stakeholders in the academic library should be a top priority. Using mechanisms inspired by good ole Starbucks in our 2.0 world is inspired. Well done WWU!

Leigh Anne Vrabel discusses articles on urban nomadism at Library Alchemy:

http://libraryalchemy.wordpress.com/2008/04/22/part-i-the-new-nomadism/

And comes to an interesting conclusion:

Cell phone lounge.

This lounge accomplishes two things:

1. Acknowledges that cell phones have permeated the culture and meets patron expectations for new nomadic spaces.
2. Gives the library more control over how those nomadic spaces are governed.

Our current cell phone policy asks users to take their calls in the hallway.  While this is respectful to patrons who desire quiet, it’s kind of like asking your adult relatives to sit at the kids’ table for Thanksgiving dinner.  Why not create a situation that’s win-win, as opposed to “some people win, some people lose?”  It’s also beneficial for staff in that security guards–and reference librarians–will be able to enforce policies more easily when there’s a designated space that’s just as nice as the spaces everybody else gets to use. If somebody’s using a cell phone anywhere other than the lounge, we can point to the lounge and say, “We respected your needs. Please respect ours.”

Fascinating! I would agree with her thinking - why can’t there be spaces for various folks? Just like the quiet reading room at Loyola where technology was not to be used. Good stuff!

Maybe most libraries think about it differently, but Darien Library is sending more staff members to Los Angeles for BookExpo America, the majority of whom will be Circulation staff, two of them part-time, than to any other conference this year. It’s a major commitment on our part, but for nearly all our staff, this is the most important event of the year. They love it! Now I wouldn’t expect many east coast libraries to follow suit, but how many libraries out there will be sending part-time OR even full-time Circ staff to BookExpo, and when it comes east next year, how many from here will do that? Many libraries will say they can’t, don’t have the resources (though that’s just another way of saying they have different priorities) but nearly all of them will still be sending the same people to attend ALA again and sit in the same tired old meetings, where nothing gets done that has the LEAST amount of impact on the central core of what happens in a successful library: the in-the-moment, one-to-one relationship between an engaged staff member and a committed patron.

We need great people to make our library a success — we just don’t have any preconditions about who they are, or what degree they do or do not have, just what they stand for, and what they can do.

And we don’t limit them in what they can do. We trust our Circulation staff with the responsibility of buying all our adult fiction – they have the budget and it’s their choice. Who knows better what our patrons would like, or is in a better position to react to their needs than the people on the front lines? And who better to “hand sell” an item than someone who participated in the decision to acquire it?

The Library 2.0 question is “Do you trust your patron?” The Library Eternal question is, “Do you trust your staff – all of them?”

Alan Gray, Darien Library

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A note from Michael: I’ve blogged about Darien Library a lot because I truly believe in the models they are creating. This guest post comes from some emailing Alan and I did these past few days while I’m prepping my Australia talks. I appreciate his candor, viewpoint and willingness to write this.

Great post at “The M Word:”

http://themwordblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/ideas-from-customer-service-is-new.html 

Andy Sernovitz on Damn! I Wish I’d Thought of That! posted a neat list of ideas he compiled from the panel “Customer service as community, community as customer service” at the Customer Service is the New Marketing Conference. Sounds like it was an all star panel: Gina Bianchini, Ning; Matt Mullenweg, Wordpress ; Tara Huntl, Citizen Agency ; Patti Roll, Timbuk2; Brian Oberkirch, Small Good Thing.

It has some good stuff for libraries to consider when we creating our campaigns.

1. When you open up to customer participation, your brand belongs to your customers, not you.
2. Use your product every day. It aligns your interests with your customers’. It lets you fix problems as they happen. It lets you see things as a user, which is always more helpful than seeing it as a marketer.
3. Turn the bullhorn around. Stop talking. Give the community a chance to speak.
4. There is no such thing as a “community strategy”. The community will do what it wants. Go with it.
5. Join conversations early. Negative gets worse if you don’t respond. Positive grows when you do.
6. Why pay for product photos? Encourage your community to share their product photos. They may even blog about the fact that you chose their photos.
7. Sounding “professional” does not require you to sound like an ass. You don’t need formal language or big words. Talk like a human being. Talk to people online like you talk to your friends.
8. The great thing about communities is that you can hear from everyone. The bad thing about communities is that you can hear from everyone.
9. It’s ok to moderate and set rules of civil discourse. You can politely refuse to engage with ranters who don’t want to have a civil conversation.
10. Your community will support you if you enable them. When a critic gets vocal, let your fans reply instead of you.
11. Listen to experts but design for novices.

Of course, I really like #7. Many of these also speak to the self-correcting nature of some of the communities that have sprung up around libraries and other institutions.

Just thinking about the Cluetrain and library managers/administrators this morning.

Command-and-control management styles both derive from and reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of paranoia.

Is your library steeped in a culture of paranoia?

This fascinates me.

The Church of the Customer blog points out “The Not So Secret Shopper” who visited a Kohl’s Department store and found a mess. Cameraphone in hand, he documented the condition of the retail establisjment and blogged about it.

http://heehawmarketing.typepad.com/hee_haw_marketing/2007/01/hurricane_kohs_.html

The folks at Church of the Customer state:

Here’s the thing: 156 million Americans use high-speed cellphone networks that allow them to take pictures like this and post them immediately to a blog where, naturally, they can spread.

Pew estimates that 41 percent of American cellphone owners use their phones as content creation tools. That translates into about 64 million people in the U.S. alone who have the potential to be not-so-secret shoppers.

Take a look at Kohl’s reply. Is this the human voice of the company sharing the concerns of its community? Probably not!

I can’t help but wonder how this could play out in our world. How might we respond if someone snapped a few photos, shot video or the like of something “not quite right” in one of our libraries. (And it has happened.) Has your library marketing/PR department/person developed a plan embracing citizen jounalists, citizen marketers and human communication? I hope so.

Also, this post at COTC details how CBS has embraced YouTube. Again, fascinating.

And, yes, the hype is real.

A lot of folks have been looking back at 2006. I realized today what a year it’s been: more library and librarian blogs, RSS gains even more ground, Wikis rule the school (and ALA), IM is embedded directly in pages where our users may find themselves, YouTube offers a way to share a “Ray of Light” and other library content, comments in the catalog, and innovations such as the WPopac offer a view of a bright, open future… wowza…

Who knew that 2006 would shake out to be a year of “participatory culture,” to borrow a phrase from Henry Jenkins. Who knew how quickly these 2.0 changes would come at us? Who knew that the conversations about trust, collaboration and transparency would reach as far and wide as they did?

2006 was certainly a year of constant change in Library Land. It was also a year of personal change for many folks we know here in the Biblioblogosphere. How many people did I write “Reinvention” posts for or comment on their own “I’m changing jobs” posts? Did you change jobs? Go back to school? Sign a book contract? Write a dissertation? Get your PhD? Wowza is right.

My first semester full time at Dominican GSLIS has been incredible. The students are engaged, curious and passionate about libraries. I wish I could bottle all the disscussions we had about library futures, our foundations, and the skills needed to move forward — they were thought-provoking and, frankly, I learned a lot. A big shout out to the faculty, staff and, most of all, the stufents at Dom!

I also want to say thanks to all the folks that had me in to speak this year. I met a lot of great librarians and traveled to some cool places. I appreciate the hospitality.

Last year, I collected a few of my all time favorite TTW posts as a way to look back, re-evaluate and scrutinize my writing. This year, inspired by this post at Copyblogger, I’ll offer the best of TTW for 2006 as determined by YOU. These are the posts that were the most visited, trackbacked and commented on. More importantly, I also want to point to some touchstone blog posts from the Biblioblogosphere that spoke to me, moved me and inspired me.

TTW Favorites 2006

Five Factors for User-Centered Service: Born from hearing about a librarian-centered decision in a nearby library that put up a barrier between users and the services they use.

Ten Techie Things for Librarians 2006: My favorite part: We can’t forget to take care of ourselves and each other. No ILS, RSS feed, blog, iPod or Treo is going to take care of our physical, emotional and spiritual selves. That’s up to us and those we love. Don’t miss out on that part too. Just sayin’. I still believe this and hope that you all have that spiritual, emotional center to balance your lives and work.

Selling RSS to Medical Librarians: Thanks to David Rothman for allowing me to post his detailed email he sent to TTW here. I’m glad he started his own blog! Rock On!

Ten Ways to Lose Your Techie Librarians: How about those timelines? 7. Plan project timelines that extend so long the planned service or tech innovation is out of date before it launches. Folks carried the meme forward with more posts.

Weblogs & Libraries: Notes from a SirsiDynix Webinar: One of my favorite presentations this year took place with me in my loungewear with my dogs at my feet, talking to an assembled group in a SirsiDynix Webinar. This posts wraps up and shares some data from that talk.

An IM Reference Report: Facts and numbers from looking at my former library’s IM reference stats.

Five Phrases I Hope I Never Hear in Libraries Agaoin: So, “we’ve always done it this way?” I think it’s time to red flag any utterance of that phrase in our libraries and make sure it’s not just an excuse to avoid change. It may however, be the best way to do something… so if you say it, add “and we examined other ways, and this way is still the best!” If you are hiding behind that phrase because you’ve had enough new things or just want to keep things the same, it might be time to move on.

Ten Rules for New Librarians: Listen to the seasoned librarians you encounter. They know things. Good things. Listen and they may inform your future decisions and planning. Learn from every conversation, meeting or water cooler chat. (And seasoned folk, listen to your new hires! You do the same: listen, learn and share… break down the generational divide present in some organizations…you’ll be happy you did!)

Ten Signs I hope I never See in Libraries Again: That pesky cell phone sign post! Thanks to all of the photographers who let me blog their pictures. I was amazed at the range of comments, thoughts and opiunions about this topic. Here’s the post about the table at KCPL that got this comment: “This is a great picture that goes along with a current assignment that I have in library class, “How do your libraries look to your patrons” I included a copy of this in my blog. Thanks for sharing.”

Why don’t CEOs (Library Directors) Blog? An unintended benefit? According to Darien Library Director Louise Berry: “One of the unexpected benefits of the “directors blog”: the library staff reads it!”

Ten Things I Know About Libraries:#6 Libraries will benefit from the next wave of MLIS grads. I am invigorated by my students. By their questions — and some of them ask HARD questions. I don’t know they answers to all of them, so I’m learning too. I hope I always will be. I do know - when these folks hit the door of your library to interview, be ready! Versed in our foundations, core values and, hopefully, a good dose of technology, social tools and user-centered planning, these graduates will take your library farther and into spaces that might surprise you. Let the breathe. Let them play. And encourage them. Oh, and rememeber: it’s still up to us.

TTW Biblioblog Posts of Note 2006

Karen Schneider The User is Not Broken

The user is not broken.

Your system is broken until proven otherwise.

That vendor who just sold you the million-dollar system because “librarians need to help people” doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about, and his system is broken, too.

Most of your most passionate users will never meet you face to face.

This is a milestone. Excellent on all counts. The ripples in the Biblioblogosphere that this post created are still moving outward. I’ve used it at school and urged all the groups I’ve spoken with to take a look as well. Thanks Karen.

Helene Blowers Learning 2.0 Blog

This is more of an idea than a specific post but the launch of PLCMC’s Learning 2.0 initiative for staff — all library staff– is a huge step forward in creating an open, participatory library. Encouraging learning and the responsibility that goes with ot, a snazzy prize for those who finished, and the positive buzz surrounding this innovation is far-reaching as well. Hurrah for Helene and PLCMC and hurrah for those libraries adopting the same initiative for thier organizations.

Also: Six Trends Driving the Future of Libraries: A classic post that takes an article from the popular press and applies it to libraries. I’m fascinated by this type of thinking. I used this post and the article its based on for a trendspotting exercise just recently.

David King Making Time for Web 2.0: The classic 2.0 question when I speak: “How do we have time to do any of this new stuff?” is answered mist succinctly and with insight from David Lee King. David writes: ““We don’t have enough staff to do these new things.” When I hear this excuse (because that’s really what it is), I think back to the NEKLS Technology Day I attended. I was on a discussion panel with a librarian at a small library. She is the ONLY staff member at her library, and yet she has time for a library blog and console gaming nights. If a one-librarian library can do these things, then you can, too. Sometimes it’s not really a staffing change that’s needed; instead, a mental change, or a change in focus, is what’s needed.” Amen Mr. King!

Jessamyn West The A List (on Bibliobloggers Ethics): Rules to live and blog by:

• be gracious with everyone
  
• be consistent
  
• lead by example
  
• encourage, nurture, read and link to newer bloggers
  
• meet bloggers in person whenever possible
  
• keep pissing matches and whining off your blog, take grudges offline
  
• read constantly, offline and online
  
• know what you are talking about and admit when you don’t
  
• make your content presentable and accessible and findable
  
• don’t turn down other opportunities to get your message out and make a good impression
  
• accept the power and the responsibility that comes with where you are, and use it for good

David King Are You Blogging This?”: Watch it. It speaks volumes about our participatory culture and the tools we use.
Michael Porter on Netflix taking Libraries to School:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Oh Netflix, why can’t you just be a library? Oh, wait…you ARE a library! Sure, you’re wrapped up in a company and a series of web services and efficient delivery, but your product really IS a library. An engaging and thorough look at the Netflix model and libraries from this summer that rings oh so true. Another reading for staff dicussion? Yes!

Michael Casey Evolutionary Technology and the Emerging Divide Casey writes: “Where does this leave an Emerging Technology Team? Clearly we need to remove the expectation that technology will always offer sensational new tools that can be inserted into library operations and result in exceptional returns. While the pace of new technology may increase again in a few years, for now it appears that both hardware and software advances will be more evolutionary in nature. We need to educate those in positions of power that this does not mean that these evolutionary tools cannot result in revolutionary outcomes.” Probably one of the most important ideas to ponder: it’s about people, not technology and it’s about buy in from up top. How many times this year did you say: “Why isn’t(aren’t) my director/board/trustees/school board, etc here for this presentation” at some Web 2.0 talk or another.

Jenny Levine Library 2.0 in the Real World: Introduced many readers to the incredible work of Casey Bisson and took the thinking about Library 2.0 to the real world. “One of Casey’s theories that resonates with me is a fundamental mistake librarians make: assuming that the OPAC has to be part of the Integrated Library System (ILS). In other words, if you buy a specific vendor’s product with which to do your cataloging, acquisitions, serials, etc., then you are stuck using that vendor’s online catalog. Unless, of course, you have one or more programmers to completely rewrite the catalog—and let’s face it, there just aren’t that many libraries with those kinds of resources.” This is a trend to watch closely. If you haven’t already, schedule a demo of the WPopac at your January staff meeting just as an FYI for your staff. Be aware. Watch what happens. It’s going to be big.

Also, following blogs outside of Libraryland was useful and thought-provoking. Take a look at edublogger David Warlick’s Information as Science & Why Libraries Are Important.

Update: Run don’t walk to Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 2006 wrap up: http://web2.wsj2.com/the_web_20_zeitgeist_2006_edition.htm

There were so many more wonderful posts and so many wonderful bibliobloggers, it’s impossible to note them all, but please keep writing and sharing.

“To the librarian I once overheard saying, “It is my personal duty to make sure we have no typos on anything!” I must say: Don’t miss the forest for the trees, Dear Lady. Typos can be corrected, especially online, and focusing too much on those little details may lead to missing the big picture. You’re the one that staff may be e-mailing about, while they wait to launch the new wiki, you are still proofing the proposal for the wiki! A nimble organization can move quickly if not mired in proofing, re-proofing, and proofing one more time a policy change, FAQ, or other document. ”

Read it here…

See Jessamyn’s post: http://www.librarian.net/stax/1860

This is exactly what ALA needs. I have to admit I had never seen the faces of some of these folks whose names I do recognize. Thanks ALA… please keep going! I want more! More faces, more humanity…

Director, are you Blogging??

Via the Church of the Customer Blog:

If CEOs blogged, they would save considerable time on hundreds of weekly emails that ask roughly the same types of questions. That’s part of Debbie Weil’s thesis in The Corporate Blogging Book. “Why not do it more efficiently?” she writes. “Instead of a one-to-one message, why not a communication from one to many thousands?” She describes the pro’s and con’s of corporate blogging with plenty o’ pointers on how to do it well and not screw up. I read an early copy of the book and it’s excellent.

So what about Library Directors? I know of a few that are blogging (see below), but I think it would be nice to have a few more — in fact, I’d hope that more directors will be inspired AND the next wave of folks that move into admin positions would welcome the chance to speak directly to their users!
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How cool would it be if the local newspapers syndicated their headlines with an RSS feed so that you could subscribe to them? And blogged “live” from government meetings? And posted dozens of photos (all the ones that didn’t make it in this week’s paper) on a Flickr account, especially if there was breaking news? OK, we’re biased because we want them to do it so that we can feed the headlines, blog posts and photos onto our own Darien Community Matters blog, providing the most balanced, accurate and up-to-date information possible. And I guess that you could say that we’re becoming Web 2.0 missionaries….. because we (that’s me and Assistant Director Melissa Yurechko) invited Josh Fisher, editor of the Darien Times over to discuss it, as the first of a series of meetings with the local news media.

Louise Berry, Director, Darien Library, Director’s Blog

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I wonder why many directors do not blog?

Could it be:

No Time?? Possibly, but wouldn’t being able to communicate library news and important details about the business of the library to the most people with an easy to use mechanism be a useful tool? It would also set an example, that top-down buy-in that is important for technologyyy projectss and organizational shifts. Here’s David King’s take on the Time thing as well — it deserves another link.

Fear? Are you afraid to put yourself out there? Afraid that a typo might slip through. It’s time to let that go.We certainly don’t have to publish our home phone numbers, but some human discourse from the top might be very welcome in many libraries, internally and externally. Folks don’t care about a typo or two these days — and heck, you can always go back and fix it.

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I, as the administrator, and the one whose job is on the line, am willing to take a risk here. Why are others so risk averse? It costs us very little. Other libraries are doing it without problem, we are not first, and I’ll be blasted if we will be last!

Michael Golrick, City Librarian, Bridgeport, CT at his blog Thoughts from a Library Administrator

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“I have nothing to say.” Oh, yes you do! Tell your story, your day to day adventures, your thoughts on the library and its collection. Blog your plans and strategies. This isn’t top secret work (well, yeah, some stuff is private), but blogging creates a level of transperancy that could benefit many libraries.

That’s what the marketing/PR Department is for. Well, I’d hope that PR was blogging too, in a human voice, not the language of marketing that people can recognize these days so easily, BUT the voice of library administration carries a lot of weight too. Here’s what the Cluetrain says oh so well: “But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.”
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I spend an awful lot of time soliciting and then responding to feedback and suggestions from our users. Lately, the written suggestions in the box asking for “newer” and “better” DVDs have outnumbered the requests for specific books or authors by nearly 12 to 1. My response to the requests for newer, better DVDs has always been that we buy what Blockbuster doesn’t — the hard-to-find TV shows — the series, the old shows & films, the BBCAmerica & PBS films — and not the drivel (Oops. I’m showing my bias. Sorry) that appears in the theaters. However, when people request a specific title, whether book, music, movie, or magazine, we’ll usually buy it.

I’ve just finished a lengthy analysis of our collection, including what we buy, how much it’s used, and what our users ask for. The not-surprising conclusion I’ve come to is that DVD and Books on CD are used far more than our print collection. For example, one copy of a bestselling book by John Grisham got 59 circs during the period I was reviewing, while The Sopranos DVD recorded 354 circs. A Book on CD version of the same Grisham novel logged in 153 circs. Clearly, the format of choice is not print. In examining our reference questions logged in that period of time, requests for specific movies or Books on CD outnumbered specific requests for print materials by 5 to 1.

Patricia Uttaro, New and views from the Director of the Ogden Farmers’ Library…

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Finally, and I am sure this is not the case in most places, what’s a blog? Directors, if you haven’t spent some time with the new tools and these new conversations, now is the time. Ask someone on staff to show you some blogs. Then ponder how you and your library might use the medium to further your mission, reach out to users, and give human voice to the library.

(This post has been cooking a long time. Don’t miss Jenny Levine’s post and the Blogging Directors Wiki page.)

Paul Miller posts about innovation, Abram and the Cluetrain:

http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2006/09/usercentric_inn.php

I trust that our fellow vendors must (by now!) just about be sufficiently Participation Age-aware to read at least one of Panlibus or Stephen’s Lighthouse. Here’s hoping, for the sake of their customers, that they find Patty’s post via one of those routes, have a read, and get re-imagining their business and its interaction with the world around it. Oh, and while I’ve got their attention… have you finished Cluetrain yet?

A few months ago,I asked III to read the Cluetrain as well. Maybe it’s time for ILS customers to blog more, collaborate more and participate a bit more in creating a dialogue with the folks that they pay a lot of money to for a service. And if they don’t like what they hear — and if the conversation isn’t human - maybe it’s time for another vendor…

Cluetrain Manifesto #95: We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

I’ve been telling the librarians I’ve been speaking with to read the Cluetrain Manifesto and apply it to library services. Networked conversations are changing business, and I honestly believe, changing libraries. Look at the incredible discussion, conversation and kerfuffle around the ALA L2 course!

Into my aggregator comes Casey Bisson’s post about Nicole’s post entitled “Touched a Nerve.” Seems a staffer from iii was displeased with her blog post about the ILS…

Here’s what I might say, quoting the Cluetrain:

Markets are conversations! Here’s what your some of your market is saying:

In the meantime, I tell people not to purchase Innovative if they want to do anything, er, innovative.

and

They do have a good sales team though, we were hooked and reeled in. It wasn’t until later that all the limitations and roadblocks of the system became apparent (Comment from http://www.web2learning.net/archives/355)

If I was amongst the folks at this ILS, I’d grab a copy of the Cluetrain, start blogging, pull in some Bibliobloggers to do a focus group, take a close look at ILS vendors’ products that have the features folks are requesting and using, and LISTEN to our users. I’d also participate in the conversations playing out online!! Just sayin’

Nicole rocks my world with this comment to her post:

Well - I’ve said it before - I think they all need to take a step back and stop building onto old systems - it’s time to scrap the old and start fresh - with the help of librarians in the field. 15 years ago the system was all about the librarians keeping track of titles - now we need systems that do that and give the patrons what they’re looking for - but that’s a whole other post.

Check out Steve Lawson’s “A biblioblogger visits the local branch library”

http://library.coloradocollege.edu/steve/archives/2006/06/a_biblioblogger.html

My favorite bit?

BRANCH LIBRARIAN: We do have some online innovations here. We allow patrons to pay fines online via PayPal.

BIBLIOBLOGGER: You still have fines? I’m sorry, my friend, but the Cluetrain is about to pull into the station, and you are looking like Anna Karenina, if you get my drift.

BRANCH LIBRARIAN: Ah! A literary allusion! Yes, I understand perfectly, though I’m not flattered.

BIBLIOBLOGGER: Hey, don’t take offense. Tell you what, I’m doing a thing in Second Life tomorrow called Exhuming the Paleolibrary that is designed for people just like you. Have your avatar ping my avatar and we can have Second Lunch.

So much of the content over at the ALAL2 Blogs is incredible! Peter Bromberg blew me away today with his L2 Manifesto. He cross-posted at LG. Go here:

http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2006/05/thoughts-on-ala-bootcamp-l20-manifesto.html

I zipped over to the wiki Peter put up and added these about the human voice and PR speak:

Conversations flourish when participants use a human voice.
Organizations need to learn to speak in a human voice.
To speak in a human voice, organizations need to share the concerns of their communities.*
Corporations can play too, but had better understand the conversation.
We can tell corporate speak and PR mumbo jumbo a mile away.
Let’s talk and learn from each other.

*Taken directly from one of my favorite theses in the Manifesto: #34: To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns of their communities.

On the Minnesota tour, I spoke a lot about how libraries can learn from The Cluetrain Manifesto, which says:

“These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about “listening to customers.” They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.”

We need to be user-centered in all we do. We need to be human. We need to listen.

The new Web is open, decentralized and participatory.

http://library2.0.alablog.org/blog/_archives/2006/5/9/1944906.html

I just posted this at the ALA L2 Blog:

As we close our week of discussion about Librarian 2.0, let me ask you to ponder this:

Cluetrain Manifesto Theses 53, 54, 55

There are two conversations going on. One inside the company. One with the market.

In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete notions of command and control.

As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are broken. Command and control are met with hostility by intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in internetworked markets.

I think we carry some obsolete notions of command and control in our organizations and that sometimes throws up a roadblock for folks to move forward and create change. Distrust is hard to overcome and I’ve seen it create a toxic atmosphere in libraries. Maybe Librarian 2.0 can use technology, but more importantly, builds trust: through mechanisms like a wiki or blog, via effective meetings and project planning, by overcoming technolust and by simply being human: not the boss, not the commander in chief, not the supervisor no one wants to work with because they are so hung up on control. They are human.

Via the Superpatron!

http://www.seattlest.com/archives/2006/04/04/small_things_weve_noticed_at_the_seattle_public_library.php<./a>

“Policy is anxiety avoidance.” Kathryn Deiss, Patron day, MLS

This statement really resonates with me. It leads me to questions about how user-centric our libraries are: Are we avoiding contact with users be creating layers and layers of policy? Are we not turning comments on our public blogs because we might actually get comments?

This has been a great day of discussion and thought! More in a bit!

Cluetrain Manifesto #95: We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching. But we are not waiting.

I honestly laughed out loud at this comment at FRL concerning another ALA kerfuffle about conference meetings being posted online:

In an effort to establish its street cred as a hip organization, ALA is going to an all-flash mob scheduling process. 30 minutes before the meeting, they’ll send a bulletin to all their myspace.com friends telling them where to show up. Thomas Dowling

This too:

I laughed first when I read the post, again when I read the messages on the ALACOUN list, and a third time at Thomas Dowling’s wonderful explanation above. Something tells me this won’t last long due to mass disobedience (or simple ignorance of the plan). Steve Lawson

You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.

Back in February, I did the SirsiDynix Webinar: Weblogs & Libraries: Communication, Conversation, and the Blog People. I got the statistics, survey and audience questions a few days ago from Crystal, who made the whole thing run so smoothly. One of the things she suggested is I might answer some of the questions here as well as share some of the polls we ran through the talk.

The mechanism for the SirsiDynix presentations is very useful: the polls engage the audience and the presenter gets valuable feedback and data!We opened the session by asking what type of library folks were coming from:

The session had between 200-250 people listening/watching. Not all audience members answered the polls or there were multiple folks registered as one. For this question, 166 folks answered. It was midday on a week day, so I think the school librarians couldn’t attend, but I was glad to see such an even breakdown between academic libraries and public libraries.

The most fascinating poll to me was the question that asked “Does your library have a blog?”

I actually thought more libraries would have blogs!

At the end of the session, we asked folks how they would follow up:

I hope some of the folks in the 67% decide a weblog might be useful for enhance their library’s presence, creating a conversation and building community.

In the data I received from the Webinar were questions we didn’t get to from audience memebrs. Crystal suggested I might answer some here:

Questions:

What is the difference between WordPress and Blogger and when would you recommend one over the other?

Wordpress is open source software (OSS). One of the best classes I had at UNT was a class focused on OSS - I moaned about it then but now it just makes so much sense for use to be looking at how OSS can be used in libraries. Wordpress is free to download and install on your server at your library. Blogger is hosted, off-site. You have no control over that server or that site. It is, however, a great way toi experiment or a perfect choice for small libraries that need a hosted solution.

From my article in the February Computers in Libraries “How and Why to Try a Blog for Staff Communication,” this passage fits here as well (I wish the articles Rachel and I write were available online!):

Open source software solutions prove to be the way to go for many institutions. With a community of support, various enhancements, available plug-ins, and relatively simple installation, software such as WordPress can be the perfect solution for internal blogging. How can you decide between all these choices? Look closely at your library’s resources: staffing, funds, and time. If you do not have staff that can install and configure software on a Web server, you may want to look at hosted solutions first. If funds are an issue, you may want to look at a free hosted Blogger Weblog or a local install of the no-cost WordPress.

Rachel’s article this month, which still has not appeared in Ebsco, is all about the benefits of OSS for libraries. Please look for it in the March CIL or online at your favorite leased database!

Do you recommend having a few weeks of blog posts before you go “live” with your blog (ie, tell people it’s there)?

I would suggest a soft opening: put the blog up and add some content then link to it from your opening page (or make it your opening page!). After a few days or a couple weeks, start promoting: fliers, bookmarks, etc. I like the idea of a bit of library schwag devoted to the blog: pens, pencils, etc.

The soft opening does two things: gives time for any glitches to be discovered and gives staff time to get comfortable. Remeber though: the library weblog will be wehre 90% of your new content probably goes. It needs to be foundl. It needs to be interesting. And it needs to be sustainable.

At SJCPL, whenever we had a big program or event, I checked the blog to make sure there was coverage there. I kid you not, no one is going to find that little update you made to a page buried three levels deep in your library Website!

RSS feeds – how do you get one on your blog?

This is an easy one: blog software comes complete with RSS built in! WooHoo. The minute you turn on your library blog, you are turning on an RSS feed as well. Wnat to make sure? Throw your blog URL into Bloglines or Blog Bridge and see what happens?

The second part of the equation is education:

Teach RSS & Aggregators ASAP!

Your staff and users will thank you for it! I kid you not: giving the power to aggregate news, blogs and more into a single place to your staff and users opens up a whole new way to look at the Web. Add a class to your roster that introduces Bloglines, Blog Bridge or the aggregator of your choice. Remember that Web-based aggregators allow folks to check their subscriptions to RSS feeds from anywhere.

Combining an overview of news sites that offer feeds, customized searches in Feedster or Technorati and reading lists like those offered in Blog Bridge or created yourself by simply listing your favorite blogs and sites, this type of training session can really invigorate staff. Library users will benefit as well from learning how to subscribe to their favorite news sites, and throw the library blog’s feed in too for built in promotion!

What are the reasons that libraries do NOT allow comments to their blogs? If you allow comments can that lead to spamming?

Sure. It can lead to spamming. But there are plugins available as well as moderation to prevent blog spam from getting out of control.

My take, however, is turning on comments can be very scary for some librarians. “Oh! What if they start asking us questions?” a librarian said at a recent stop of the Roadshow. That’s good - GREAT - if you get questions! But you need to be ready to respond. That’s the next step for Library Weblogs: conversation! It is time to enter into networked conversations.

I do have some concerns, though about the impact of blogs on group identities.
When 6 staff members each have individual blogs, is the collective concept of ‘the library’ somewhat lessened?

This is interesting. I haven’t encountered too many library weblogs that use individual blogs for staff members, other than the multiple blogs at AADL. Most seem to divide topics into categories or have individual author names. What I think happens is the group voiice becomes the collective voice of the library. For example, at the SJCPL Blog, you’ll find posts about new books, the Academy Awards, Brokeback Mountain and a librarian who participated in a climb of the Hancock Tower for charity. These are all individuals who add their experiences, thoughts and interests. Collectively, it creates the presence of the library. A particular author may really engage a particular reader, but it all happens under the unbrella of the library creating conversation.

Is there a loss of branding and message for the ‘library’ when each staff member is voicing their views independantly?

No. I think not. IF you’ve done the education piece: create the goal and mission of the library blog, gather your authors, discuss posting procedures and guidelines and let them go forth and write, armed with knowledge of the mission and comfortable with sharing their voice. Reign in someone who gets outside the mission. This is a learning process too.

What will be the unintended consequences when patrons begin to view their librarians as a individuals and not just as ‘roles’ (i.e. researcher, children’s reference, etc.)? Have any studies examined these issues yet - or is it just too soon?

I think the best unintended consequence (or inteneded!) is that the library will have a human presence. Library users will get to know authors and their interests. That’s important on so many levels, especially in this plugged in, social world where so many folks share themselves online. Want proof of how important the hum,an connection can be in libraries? Click on over to the Feel Good Librarian and read about the conversations and connections that go on in that library.

I have not found any studies, but boy of boy is that question ripe for research!

Comments from Attendees:

“I wonder why we are still using e mail to plan our state conference. If I were more knowledgeable we would be blogging our way to success.”

“As to getting involved in the LIS side of blogging I was thinking during your talk about those of us who don’t have the time/energy/creative juices to write a blog but have the occasional idea that might like to share with the ’sphere. We can still contribute to the conversation by sharing our ideas, new services, etc. with folks who do blog. I’ve always had positive experiences passing ideas along to LIS bloggers (present company included) who in turn share those ideas with their readers. Something to include in the presentation?”

Organizational charts worked in an older economy where plans could be fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and detailed work orders could be handed down from on high.

Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority.

#76: We’ve got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some better service. Stuff we’d be willing to pay for. Got a minute?

Yes indeed. And guess what? In our world, some tools are FREE!

“People in networked markets have figured out that they get far better information and support from one another than from vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to commoditized products.”

Cluetrain