Monthly Archives: August 2008

79 posts

Video Games on Tour @ the Library

!, originally uploaded by capemaycountylibrary. Justin Hoenke writes: I’m the teen librarian at the Cape May County Library here in Cape May Court House, NJ. I put together a “video games on tour at the library” event at our library that’s going on this week and so far it’s been really successful. We’ve had people of all ages coming out to test games at the library…it has been great! Here are some photos! http://www.flickr.com/photos/capemaycountylibrary/

Library Fail

Chris Harris writes: http://schoolof.info/infomancy/?p=530 Imagine our surprise, however, when we entered the manga library to be welcomed with this sign that fails on so many levels.Leaving aside the quite horrific fail, we still have to deal with the unfortunate fact that this sign maker’s perception of libraries is that they are mainly quiet. What made this more sad was that the day before I had been one floor up in the same hotel talking about the fact that libraries are not just about being quiet anymore. That we have learned to change and meet user expectations; that we have adopted […]

Abram on Experience

So, what are the experiences we create in libraries and our communities? We know that the top reasons people use libraries are for community, learning, interaction, discovery and entertainment. All of these words describe a form of personal experience. We can find some of this in our list of top reference questions in public libraries. Careers & Employment Entertainment (print, audio, media) Family Health and Fitness Food & Drink Hobbies and Genealogy Home Improvements Parenting Personal Finance, tax & investing Reading choices Quick reference questions Spiritual needs Travel Each of these domains represents a wealth of questions and answers that […]

Customer Service on Twitter

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/AheadoftheCurve/story?id=5388404&page=1 Frustrated, she logged on to Twitter from her BlackBerry and typed “Damn Internet down in my house. Arrrrrgh. Can’t fix until Thursday. Shoot me.” Twitter kicked in. Wallace didn’t know that Comcast had a digital detecting unit searching the Internet diligently looking for unhappy customers who needed help. Frank Eliason heads that unit for Comcast and saw her rant. “She clearly needed help. As soon as I saw her post I started tracking her down.” Eliason went to great lengths to find Wallace. He located her Web site, found who owned her domain name, tracked down her business partner, […]

Reference Areas at CML

Reference Areas at CML, originally uploaded by mstephens7. ONE MORE from Columbus Metropolitan Library. The other thing that knocked me out was this reference area where the library staffer and patron would stand together on the same side and look up information. The desk as “fortress” was nowhere to be seen in this area. I spoke with Jack who told me that both staff and patrons like this new set up. NICE!

Read It: Faces of Staff @ CML

One thing I really got a kick out of at Columbus Metropolitan Library is the use of staff pictures on the front page of tthe library’s Web site. Everyday, a new image and staff pick goes up in this space. I used screenshots in my talk, and urged them to take the logical next step: recruiting library patrons to do the same. I believe it was Helene who told me that when a book makes it to the “Read It” area on the web, the number of holds/requests jumps. Also, one staff member reported being recognized at Target as the […]