Monthly Archives: April 2006

67 posts

On the “Mobile Office” and off to the Northwest

At Panera again today: I used to call this the “Mobile Office” and it’s become just that as I write my research proposal and Library Technology Report. It’s almost like working again: I get here before 8am and stay all morning or sometimes into the afternoon. I am seeing folks — regulars, I guess — I used to chat with in the spring of 2003 when I started TTW. Jenny and I updated the Roadshow here last week because tomorrow we’re off to the Washington Library Association to present the Roadshow as a preconference workshop. I’m looking forward to meeting […]

Library Director: Are you ready to go there?

Deep in my research proposal this morning at the Mishawaka Panera Bread, Blyberg’s statement resonates with me while writing about the social purpose of Library Weblogs: Early in the website design process, we made the decision that blogs would constitute the nucleus of our dynamic website content. In addition, we wanted to enable commenting on those blogs. We really had no idea what kind of response we would get–of what form that response would take. Just a brief look at our Director’s Blog will illuminate the fact that the blogs promote a constant two-way dialogue between our director, Josie Parker, […]

John Blyberg Lets the Patrons Drive

Another link this morning: http://www.higheredblogcon.com/index.php/patrons-in-the-drivers-seat-giving-advanced-tool-sets-to-library-patrons/ John’s presentation at HigherEdBlogCon takes readers through his experiences at AADL and offers some practical advice for some of the innovations he’s worked on. He concludes: Just as each library community is different, so should our deliverales be, but at the heart of it all should be the idea that we’re building and fostering a community. In return, our users wil be stewards of an online palace of information that fronts for tangible material–books that illuminate, movies that stir, and music that moves us.

Creating a positive Customer Experience

Zip on over to Library Garden for this post from Peter Bromberg: http://librarygarden.blogspot.com/2006/04/practical-tips-on-creating-positive.html Peter is going to offer practical tips on improving customer service, which he chooses to call “customer experience.” I like that and it ties in so well with our discussions of barriers, sacred cows and more. Put Library Garden in your aggregator of choice folks! Practical tip #1: Start thinking about your customers’ experience. What do they experience when they walk in the door? When they visit your webpage? When they call your phone? When they email you? Ask these questions and encourage co-workers to do the […]

Technology Advisory Committee

This just came in as a comment to “Meredith & Karen Address the IT Dept. from Craig, an academic librarian, and it merits being shared here as well. (I think I need a way to offer comments as a feed….) At the academic library we work at, we have a Technology Advisory Committe that is comprised of 5 librarians (Associate Dean for Technical Services, Access Services division head, Technical Service division head, Public Service/Subject Specialist Librarian, Systems division head), 1 AP position (Head of our Digitization Lab), and 2 Civil Service staff members from our Systems Department. We are charged […]

TTW Mailbox: That’s not the message we want to send.

A patron came in to the library… I like an email, from an anonymous librarian, that starts that way! Here goes: A patron came in to the library No library card. Resident of our town. No proof of residency to obtain card. Wanted to get on the internet for “5 minutes” Policy: Out-of State people $5.00 to get temporary internet card. Good for 30 days. (must have photo ID) Reciprocal borrowers, $5.00 to get internet access, good for 12 months, or exp. date on home library card, whichever is soonest. (must have home library card & photo ID) We have […]