Monthly Archives: April 2005

70 posts

Chris Kupec Writes to Audible: We want to support iPods at our PL

http://homepage.mac.com/ckupec/iblog/C1161074488/E452907398/index.html Chris is doing some cool stuff with iTunes at his library. This post includes a letter to Audible. His points: The details need to be addressed carefully, but it boils down to this: 1. We want to offer digital audiobooks to our patrons. 2. We do not want to circulate any devices. The patrons must provide their own. 3. We want the patrons to come into the library, and have the staff load patron devices. 4. We want the library to own the files locally, on a local storage device, e.g., when our Internet service is slow, we do […]

Training IM: A Ready To Go Module

Training IM Last week I did some IM Training for some new and seasoned staff who will be working at SJCPL Service areas that use IM (Reference and AV) to answer questions. It was a good exercise and now I see more clearly how to set up this type of training. I wanted them to get screenames first, then chat with each other and then tackle some exercises. I did all the things a good trainer should do: checked my equipment, tested the computers and preppeed the room and handouts. What I didn’t count on was having issue with logging […]

Another IMing Library (A Shifted Library! Right, Jenny?)

http://www.ncpl.info/departments/reference/im.htm From colleague and workshop participant Stephen Boggs, who is director of New Carlisle Public Library in New Carlisle, IN (at the far west reaches of my county), we get a report of what he’s doing at his library since the “Reinventing Libraries Workshop” This rocks my world. So far I have set-up three additional IM accounts for the library. Information about or screen names is posted on our main web page @ www.ncpl.info The accounts were fairly easy to establish, though I have switched to a program called PSI to handle all three accounts instead of managing three different […]

Multiple Online Personalities at Lansing PL

http://www.kellistaley.com/2005/04/our-multiple-online-personalities.html Kelli Staley writes about the IM experience at Lansing PL, and shares some cool stuff about how it all works: How does our staff like this setup? They like the the separate names. The Teen Dept. librarian said she gets a lot of young adult reader’s advisory inquiries which our Reference desk would be unable to answer. Her IM traffic seems to pick up after she booktalks at the high school. Students will remember parts of what she said, and then inquire about the title. It also helps to get an idea of the age of the patron right […]

MP3 Player Report

http://www.macmerc.com/news/archives/2197 U.S. shipments of MP3 players will grow 35% to 18.2 million in 2005 and maintain a compound annual growth rate of over 10% through 2010, reaching an installed base of 56.1 million by then, up from 16.2 million in 2004. MP3 players will reach critical mass this year, fueling demand for digital music services and stores. And fueling demand by library users for digital content for their players! The MacMerc tidbit concludes with this: Mostly due to the iPod’s success, JupiterResearch has raised its near-term forecast, but projects that flash-based player shipments will surpass those of hard-drive models in […]

SJCPL IM Reference Expands to Audio Visual

This is in the works for the library’s Sights & Sounds department! Direct IM capability to find out if music, movies or audiobooks are available. I’ll be training a bit with the staff before they go live. I was tickled to see we are on the right track when I saw Jenny’s post about Lansing Public Library and their multiple screen names. “Kelli wrote, ?Our library is on 2 levels, so we have separate screen names for different age groups. AskLPLAdult, AskLPLTeen, AskLPLYouth?(we’re on Yahoo & AOL).? She went on to note that a few weeks ago, they received IMs […]

Making Podcasts Searchable?

MacMerc reports: http://www.macmerc.com/news/archives/2189 Podscope: Welcome Podcasters! Podscope is the Internet’s first spoken-word search engine for audio and video podcasts. If you would like to extend the the audience of your podcast by making it searchable please provide us with an RSS link below. Hmmm… I would me more inclined to embrace podcasting completely if I could search for content.