A lot of folks have already linked, but allow me to point you to http://engagedpatrons.org/ from Glenn Peterson at Hennepin County PL. And I agree with Sarah: It’s a HUGE deal! From the site: EngagedPatrons.org provides web services for public library websites. We enable you to offer events listings, blogs and more on your website, no programming required! The pages you create on our site “plug into” your existing web site. We do the programming for you; you reap the benefits of being able to offer your users a more engaging and interactive web presence. EP services are designed to […]
Categories Engaging Library Users
156 posts
Via Stephen’s Lighthouseand the SELCO Blog: A report from the Urban Libraries Council (PDF) about Chicago Public Library is a useful guide to engaging your community and telling STORIES! Next step in my book: taking those same communities online via social tools! Come on CPL — try blogging! 🙂
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 […]
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 […]
I’ve been reading I Shush lately from Woody E, a Librarian from Texas, and this caught my eye: This all leads to reader participation in the organization of information. Librarians no longer have a monopoly on this. Computers and people are finding new, sexier ways to it for themselves. For librarians to stay in the game, we’ve got to incorporate self-organizing, bottom-up, grassroots, folksonomies into the very careful and rather inert records we create. We need moveable records (or, to clarify: portions of records) that make library materials dynamic for our users. iBistro is a step toward Amazon, but we’ve […]
Via The Social Customer Manifesto: Guy Kawasaki posts a Top Ten list: The Art of Customer Service. http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_art_of_cust.html This might be good to read and apply to our libraries: how does the administration feel about customer service? How does the director/dean/head librarian feel about users? What levels of trust are their in your institutiuons between management and front line librarians and support staff? Who blames who when things go wrong? Are we hiring the right people or pormoting the right people to the right jobs? Here’s the full list: Start at the top Put the customer in control (Ding Ding) […]
One are Jenny and I discuss in the Roadshow is content. Generation C, the young folks growing up with the knowl;edge, tools and desire to create, remix and mash up stuff, will figure into future library services in ways we haven’t even pondered yet. Add this piece in to the mix: http://www.webmonkey.com/06/10/index1a.html “Preserving Our Rights in the Mashosphere” by Michael Calore covers some fascinating ground. The driving philosophy behind mashups and other Web 2.0 technologies is that data should be open, exposed, and sharable. This so-called “Right to Remix” doesn’t mean that people should be required to give up their […]
Just a link for now: http://www.yalibrarian.com/2006/02/library-20-services-to-teens-listing.html Lots of cool stuff to explore and good ground for imagining what your library could do! Take a look.
http://stephenslighthouse.sirsi.com/archives/2006/02/being_truly_tee.html We need to ask ourselves which of our policies really are not working for us and which one’s need to be made positive and friendly. Let’s make sure we don’t extend our authority control issues with information to authoritarian control foci with users. Not good. Then let’s run our policies through a discussion with our teen advisors. Adventurous and visionary libraries know the value of this through experience.
Great post at OPL Plus! http://opls.blogspot.com/2006/01/just-give-customer-what-heshe-wants.html That’s just what I’ve been saying. Our customers don’t want books or articles; they don’t even want information. Our customers want answers to their questions, solutions for their problems. If you provide answers and solutions, you’ll thrive. If you don’t….polish up that resume.