Jeff Trzeciak provides more information about McMaster University Library’s transformation to blended services: http://ulatmac.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/2010/07/22/reference-desk-gone-2nd-post/ (bold emphasis is mine) In other words, only around 40% are really “research-related” questions. The remaining 60% are largely directional. In a subsequent blog post I reported on the breakdown between in-person, email and IM transactions. These statistics indicate that only 82% of the volume is taking place within one of our buildings. The remaining 18% is virtual. So, a decline of nearly 2/3 from our high, coupled with 18% of the assistance now being virtual and only 40% being research-related. Sounds like a candidate for […]
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Jeff Trzeciak writes: http://ulatmac.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/2010/07/15/reference-desk-gone/ After much planning and hard work the last of our reference desks is gone! Our library has completed the transition to “blended services” where library assistants handle most of the transactions at combined service points (circulation, interlibrary loan, research help). Our business library was the first to go in this direction around one year ago followed by our science/engineering library. Finally, I came in this morning to find that the last of our reference desks is now gone! Between 2009-2010 our Research Help Desk answered 21771 questions. As with many ARL libraries this number is down substantially. […]
Another cool initiative I became aware of at Annual is the Crave Libraries project. Skokie PL’s Toby Greenwalt appeared to give me these two buttons. What a wonderful promotion and way of thinking! Find out more here: http://www.cravelibraries.com/ But know that the project is just starting. Toby writes: I’m also going to be drumming up interest in Crave Libraries, a new semi-secret project I’m brewing up with Daniel Nguyen. (A debt of gratitude is also owed to Jason Kucsma, who coined the phrase and has graciously allowed us to run with it. Jason, look me up at ALA, as I […]
Justin and the 8bit tat he got at Annual, originally uploaded by The Shifted Librarian. One of the highlights for my very brief time at ALA Annual in DC was having lunch with Justin Hoenke, He writes for TTW as a Contributor, blogs at 8BitLibrary and other blogs, and was a 2010 Emerging Leader on Team J. I was the Team J mentor. Take a look at this: http://blog.8bitlibrary.com/2010/07/08/project-brand-yourself-a-librarian-the-aftermath-part-1/ Justin added a Link (I had it wrong – updated!) tattoo to his collection, which also includes a library logo on the other arm. (See http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelsphotos/4743185541 What a unique way to […]
Library Signage, originally uploaded by calicorocklib. Don’t miss this: Our desire to avoid confrontation and our inability to understand the user get in the way of providing the highest level of service. Bad signs exist in all types of libraries, victimizing users without bias and leading to some unwelcome encounters. It makes me wonder if a bad sign is truly better than nothing or just making things worse. Signs can serve several functions but generally fall into two categories: library marketing and communicating library policies. Many librarians and administrators agree that it’s important to communicate that the library is a […]
Team JBot (Justin Hoenke, Rafia Mirza, Jeannie Chen, Anne Krakow, Susan Jennings) Phew…time flies. It’s been six months since my first post on being an Emerging Leader and now that I’ve “emerged”, what have I learned? Here goes. THE PROJECT AND THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION To view the full report from our project, click here. As a project, our group was tasked with surveying librarians about “how web 2.0 should ALA go with ALA.org”. Before we jumped in, our first goal was setting up communication. Be it ALA Connect, Google Talk, or even a simple email, as an Emerging Leader […]
Batch 3, originally uploaded by wertheim. I finished my two year stint as chair of the ALA Web Advisory Committee this week. After our meeting, my last duty was to present a brief report to Council on our activities. I want to publicly thank all the members of WAC and the INCREDIBLE ALA ITTS staff for working with me these past two years. I learned so much about the divisions, ALA protocols and the HUGE amount of work that goes on to give ALA web presence. Thanks all! (Thanks to Dr. Andrew Wertheimer for the spiffy pic too!)
Pretty amazing! In under 30 minutes I downloaded the app, shot the video, edited it on the phone and uploaded it!
Thanks to Dave Lisa for taking a few minutes yesterday to help me test Apple’s FaceTime – we had a video conversation via our wifi connections on iPhone 4! More about FaceTime: http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/facetime.html