ECIUG 09

Summary

• hosted by Ryerson
• overall impression: FAB!
  
• wiki is here (presenations to be added)
• TBPL should definitely make it a priority to participate annually
  

Innovative Staff Presentations...

Mary...

• III just finished a big project in Sasketchewan -- 295 locations
• now offering SMS text messaging -- for patron alerts (TODO: look in to wrt teen services -- if it's a one-time cost, possible candidate for new funding?)
• Encore...recent growth..."did you mean?...reveal your metadata...can integrate electronic resources, program registration, federated search, digital content
• (TODO: ask Barb H / look in to compare Content Cafe vs. Syndetics...Mary mentioned Content Cafe wrt Encore)
• Did you mean?...more than a spellcheck...contexual to database...can handle multiple errors
• look at Scottsdale AZ's opac and WebSite...rock stars! (like Westerville)
• WebBridge now = Exlore...part of Encore integration..."Explore" your staff selected internet links...are pulled up based on search...pulling all resources in to context
• Encore Reporter...very slick stats "dashboard", reminiscent of GoogleAnalytics...hopefully iii will develop something similar for Millennium/WebPacPro

Barbara...

• R09 update...two phases...smaller bundles...Millie is built on *old* architecture and is being moved to a more modern one
• web services for "My Library Card" / portal on Web site -- TODO: learn more about this
• SMS text messaging for notifications...TODO explore this wrt MofC funding aimed at teens...good fit?
• R09 phase 1 will include AirPac enhancements -- ie. an iPhone interface (TODO: ask Barbara if we can use the "Air PAC" graphic on our Web site for promo...is it on CSDirect?)

Paul Hamilton (UWO ILS Adminstrator): Encore @ UWO

• (todo: ask for his ppt...check wiki)
• talked about the stuff iii didn't tell them...like, how to implement encore in conjucntion with the "classic cataloge"...at the moment in a transition zone
• UWO has "Research Pro Select" product which links to their WebFeat installation
• built an internal system for staff to record any issues / problems...including a help page, with a video demo...very slick
  
• Encore is currently available as an option on the UWO library opac (button "try our beta catalogue search) here (direct link to encore)

Tim from Brock re ERM (link to ppt)

• a ton of work to get their thousands of ejournal titles in to the database...very academic-centric
• TODO: look at the Directory of Open Access Journals and see if it would be useful for our patrons to have a link to it

Mike C. from Cambridge re adding an auto-complete feature (SO fab!)...presentation here

• blogged about it on his blog here
• check it out in Cambridge's staging opac here
  
• to quote Mike: "This implementation is not ready for primetime yet but certainly looks promising!"...
• TODO: keep an eye on it...add it to our Staging port and test...
• "MinChars" in code = minimum # of characters you need to type before the list pops up
• lists generated from associated index in your database
  

Anna from LPL

• added subject headings (to 690 field) starting with "We recommend..."...to kick up a notch old skewl lists (on paper and web sites) of "If you like.... Try...."
• also adding links of pdfs of the actual lists to the bib records ...for eg. check out Jodi Piccout, "Change of Heart" ...that is the only one they have done, so far!
• look up subject search "We recommend..." in their opac to see how fab / extensive...here's a link
• would also show up in a keyword search for the author or genre

Graham from Ryerson

• pecha kucha on single sign on...very academic oriented...allows students to sign on to My Library Card with another un/pw (eg. student number)
• objective = happy patrons
• also mentioned could link to other signins for eg. FaceBook...wow...contemplate...

Sally from Ryerson

• pecha kucha on mobile cats -- Ryerson has air pac (with their logo...todo: see if we can get ours added -- look at WebOptions...maybe wait for new logo?...make a new logo idea/reminder file)

Tour of Ryerson's Learning Commons...

• wow, so fab...pics on FaceBook her
  

Top Tech Trends

slides

Betty Blogger: A Recipe for Online Instruction

slides

Building Bridges to Business in Barrie

• slides are here
• have a dedicated biz lib position (created in 2002)
• librarians as info brokers
• read papers to become familiar with local biz issues
• economic downturn = library upturn
• outreach for inreach...go out so they'll come in
• talk about BENEFITS of your library, not features
• have a tag line/elevator talk..."this is YOUR tax dollars at work" "best deal in town"...might as well come and use it
• connect with other biz libs
• subscribe to the "Dear Reader" biz book club (good idea to promo on our biz page!!)
• net orking and netWEAVING
  

Creative Librarian/Creative Library

• anything worth doing is worth doing badly
• "Institutions" are not creative, people are
• libs need to reinvent themselves continuously to be creative
• keep things fresh for the peeps
• "dare to dream creatively and dare to live your dreams"...start from dreams
• "in dreams begin responsibility" Yeates
• dreams define you...self-actualization
• committee meetings are enemy #1 to creativity!!!
• ...try a creative exercise / short concert / something different to spark creativity
• energy to motivate comes from anger...that status quo isn't working...a call to action
• hope and change = Obama-esque
• strive to have an annual dream...what is my dream for 09 PP?
• look for upcoming article by Stan using our dreams
• give people the ingredients to create with...space / place etc.
• need to nurture your creativity...use it or lose it idea...but never loose it entirely...need to use it though
  

Michael Enright Keynote

• always interesting to SEE radio peronsality irl
• "infomania"...info is everywhere
• impossible to process all the info...we're digitizing ourselves to distraction

Successful Projects 101 with Sam Kalb

• slides are online here (yeah, finally!!!)
• good basic practices
• projects are about change...and empowering staff (by their involvement / outside "regular" work)
• poor planning is often the cause of unsuccessful projects
• communication is key throughout the process
• "The Art of Project Management" by S.Berkun recommended...check it out...also "Project Management Journal"...and allPM.com
  

Friday morning Planary with Michael Bloom

• Michael Bloom of the Conference Board of Canada
• basically a statistical version of Richard Florida's message!
• "Valuing Canada's Creative Economy"
• a new look at culture...the value of art/culture...economic/social/aesthetic
• creativity leads to innovation
• creative chain: creation/production/manufacturing/distribution/support
• economic footprint of the creative economy
• 3 elements: direct impact/indirect impact/induced impact....totals about 7.4% of GDP
• "prosumerism" = consumer as producer...desire to participate / interactive experiences...user-led content
• issues of intellectual property and copyright...
• talent/creation/innovation/technology/collaboration
• need links between: tech/content/creativity/business acumen/production/consumption
  

Richard Florida Keynote

• new economy = creativity
• economic development = human development
• we need to nurture creativity
• stoke the creative furnace withing ALL staff
• "squelchers" = people who squash creativity..."we already tried that" "we've always done it this way"...etc.
• his web site
  

Distrupting the Library Transporter Beam with Mark Leggott

• Mark's blog
• University Librarian at UPEI
• "if science can transport matter why do we still need the MARC record?"
• we need to *really* change
• a la Calvin and Hobbes' transmogrifer -- freedom to explore...build one and keep it in my office as a reminder
• upei has totally gone open source...evergreen
  
• check out Marshall Breeding's 2008 ils survey...negative comments outweigh positive by a LOT...ils-es are not effective...
• black box vs. open box
• the main reason upei went open source was to encourage a new culture that is open / new / transmogrified!!!
• Innisville Public Library (small, Ontario...wow!) went OS ILS
• switch to osils forces you to change your workflow, even if you don't need to
• check out DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals
• open mind + open world = open access
• traditional approach is not good enough
• @ upei used reserach funding / funded positions to help with univ.-wide open source project...open and collaborative frameworks...expanding to steward all kinds of resarch data...expanding the role of the library on campus
• lib involved to share their expertise with meta data / data stewardship etc. PLUS get in on big research funding...think about how pub lib can do this in the community....
• VRE = Virtual Research Environment...supports local research collaboration
• "Island Lives"...digitized local papers / history...community involved in editing and tagging...building community around digital collecitons
• the goal is the common good
• WorldCat is becoming a black box,not an open box
• embrace innovation
• build a true library commons
• walk the walk
• be more radical and protecting of the public good
• get in touch with your inner Potato Head!

What they tell us: Listening to your residents with Pat Cavill and Wendy Newman

• slides are online here
  
• the input of your community is critical to a library's survival
• tools:
• surveys
• interviews
  
• preferred futuring
• focus groups
• "finding out what people need, then changing, if necessary, to meet those needs"
• helps libs remain relevant and responsive
• never assume! it's arrogant and dangerous
• Rule #1: don't ask if you're not prepared to act (or at least re-think)
• use surveys when:
• stats and measures are required
• find out what people need; their beliefs, preferences, satisfaction rates
• surveys must be well designed and tested
• disadvantages of surveys:
• random sample difficult
• poor design or analysis = misleading results
• "preferred futuring:
• vision for 10 years hence...about saying what you want, not fortune-telling
• Focus Groups:
• powerful research tool
• explore peeps feelings about issues
• 6 - 12 people ideal
• not statistically valid, but has "face validity"
• participants should be "opinion leaders" whenever possible
• participants should be homogeneous
• kinds of questions:...determine your objectives...what do you need to know?...who is most likely to give you the info?
• more hours and better parking are *always* on top of wish lists!!!
• report back to participants on a regular basis...
• identify usable quotes for your advocacy work
• link to online presentation (not online yet...)
  

A few neat things...

• pedometers were given out in the confefrence bags -- goal is for all attendees to collectively walk across Canada...have mine ready to go for tomorrow
• One Book Once Conference...I finished The Book of Negroes on the flight here (thankfully it was delayed an hour, so I could finish it!) and am looking forward to getting my "I read the book" sticker and chatting with people about it
• First Nations Public Libraries...debuted a series of PSAs for TV re supporting FNPLs...does FWFN have a public library?
• bumped in to Corinne Simons who used to work for TBPL back in the 80s! I remember her training me on circ...says HI to everyone who remembers her!!!
• almost 4,500 attendees...wow wee!
• "The Book of Negroes" title was changed to "Someone Knows my Name" for the US market
• chatted with a publishers rep and the new tall skinny pbk format is being printed because of demand from the discount retail market...ie. WalMart etc. like them like that...I guess they can squeeze more on to the shelves...so, although they don't fit on our pbk spinners, they do stand out and will likely be "hot"
  

Opening Plenary: Cynthia Nikitin on the Place of Libraries in Changing Times

• libraries are good at change / doing more with less
• need to become public spaces / destinations
• have a big role in community building
• are about serving needs, not *just* eye-catching buildings
• PPS (check out www.pps.org) Cynthia's non-profit organization
• William Whyte = mentor of pps...has written a few books...check them out
• a not-so-nice physical building will disappear if the stuff going on inside is fab
• start with your community and place and work on solutions together...don't start with the solution...use a storied/organic approach as opposed to a structured / bureaucratic approach
• ensure your buildings have "active edges"...if people hang around outside, give them somewhere to sit
• cooperate with local transit so bus stops right at front door (Wave and MJ good...CPark and Brodie need improvement)
• co-program with other outdoor activities close by
• "library square" idea
• access + linkages
• if you focus on creating a PLACE then you do everything else differently
• contemplation: I wonder if you can apply the same principles to the Virtual Library?...hmmm...
  

OLA SuperConference 2009...The Day Before

• tying up loose ends in preparation for early morning departure tomorrow
• links to session handouts may be found here (I'll link to specific ones I attend as I go along)
• looking forward to reconnecting with people, and meeting new colleagues, as well as my first official duty as OPLA Councilor -- attending the OPLA AGM
• stay tuned for daily updates!
  

What makes some customers tick (and others talk)?

Ottawa House Workshop / Lloyd Smith Solutions
Friday November 14th, 2008

The presenter Aaron Dus is a very smart, very young (under 30), very well traveled dude. He has a masters degree in Anthroplogy, and has studied ethno-stuff, and all sorts of other interesting things, like getting design ideas from nature.

He talked about interpersonal relationships / building context / discovering stories...and translating those things in to information and then in to insight...so you need to understand a community of people, learn from them, then design for them -- design something they need, but that they don't even know they need.

He emphasized that you need to be curious / always questioning...never be comfortable...obsess about everything...in order spot the next big thing.

So...sort of reinforced the feeling I have that I'm always searching for "the answer" re what the peeps want...good that I don't feel like I know, maybe, although that can be frustrating too!

Lots of food for thought.

Paro Workshop: Partnersips and Technology

http://www.actew.org/
http://techtipsandtools.blogspot.com/

Constellaton

• can post events -- posted some library upcoming events
• not much for N. Ontario now, but they're hoping for more
• keep an eye on it and where they're are lots, add a RSS feed to library web site -- easy and instant updating of business / training type events
• very slick
• post computer classes and general interest programs
• funded by Trilllium for now
• formal partners can customize feeds

Google Aps

http://www.slideshare.net/ACTEW/actew-workshop-on-e-marketing-and-web-20-tools/

• googledocs useful for collaboration...consider using for next Big Project
• googlecalendars good for family bday calendars

web 2.0 emarketing boot camp

• fab name (consider adopting for my Small Biz Week pres!)
• "google-fu"...todo: google-fu library web site!
• consider adding FaceBook/Del.icio.us etc widgets to tbpl site
• tools are free, but costs you in time

Todo: ...in conjunction with web 2.0 updating / policy project...include backing up...back stuff up off-line...don't have stuff only in one place

http://www.netsquared.org/ ...ideas for how to use blogs

...become a member of technocrati and register our blogs

...I added a video bar too YacAttack (let RHD know)

Featured Lists for the Non-Programmer with Bob Duncan, Systems Librarian, Lafayette College

slides are here

duncanr@lafayette.edu

very happy to help out

code and instructions in slides

see results of what he's talking about here

the RSS feed builder from III is NOT req'd for this

Making Noise in the Library: Dinah Sanders (Rock Star -- Senior Product Manager) and Sarah Hickman (Product Manager) III

My Mill Patron Empowerment

• forgot your PIN? (to do: check this out!!!...make it happen) ...in R2007
• update patron info (done!)
• place holds etc.

My Mill features

• no need to start from scratch
• iterate and improve: you don't have to do it all at once
• constant improvements
• new: patron alias (coming in R2007)...can use for self-pickup of hold slips)...talk to BP re this...we can add this option to Change Your Info in My Mill

Express Lane

• new and improved Graphical Self Check
• can also renew and manage holds
• looks cool
• pay fines (with credit card swiper)
• touch-screen option / or keyboard / monitor / card swip

Online Patron Registration (Product)...which we didn't get when we got e*vents due to timing (it wasn't ready in time)

• combined with instant online patron reg / linked to patron dbase and events show up in search results (happy accidents)
  
• can create lists on data -- ie. attendance reports
• London PL is getting ready to launch this week
• (idea: put links to scoped programs in e*vents on FaceBook -- eg. teen ones on YAC page, adult / films / etc. on main page...or even separate them out...puppet shows / crafts / book clubs etc.)

Reaching more users:

• portable devices etc...WiFi everywhere
• get people aware of the lib -- put your search box out where the peeps are (*put it on our FaceBook!)...see discussion in the list + code for how to
• put the search box on every library web page
• make the lib more part of peoples' web lives
• FAQ re persistent search urls on CSDirect (check that this is what I use wrt Adv Searches)
• what do you need to show in BriefCit?...what do people need?...too much clutter/noise?
• change labels for subject headings and call # fields in records to say something like:
• "find similar"
• or "more like this"
• or "next on shelf"
• R2006 example set has nifty touches to package info for users CHECK IT OUT!
• Feed Builder
• get the info out there
• stay relevant and connected in a time of great change...good Marshall Breeding quote on slide
• My Mill knowledge management...
• know what we can do NOW!
• good ALA Midwinter 2006 Presentation on making the most of what you have...check it out on CSDirect "presentations"
• eg: preferred search alerts
• reading history
• my lists
• my databases
• discovery services
• I asked if there is an easy way to get stats on #s of preferred search emails that go out -- no :( submit as an enha. request (check first to see if it's there) + star ratings...we want to know how much this 2.0 stuff is being used
• MyLists: new feature...can name lots of lists nice...look for it
• leverage library knowhow and new technology...bring the intelligence of the reference interview in to the online environments -- ENCORE!
• WebPacPRO example set
• went up on Friday last week
• "refresher service" available...can save a lot of staff time
• Encore Services: new model for support (see slides for Dinah's next session)
  

MilStats 102: Corey Seeman

ppt is here

• ppt will be updated as Corey gets new examples / ideas, so take a peek periodically
• The Universe of Stats in Millennium
• transaction-based (circ / WebPac / WAM / financial
• requires action to appen
• counting things that are there
• don't forget stats have to be good for the lib / serve a need...don't let the stats control you!
• user manual = the road map
• this presentation = the travel guide!
• General hints:
• fixed fields and call numbers
• use system as central repository (not mish mash of misc things on different PCs and formats)
• every record has a "created" and "updated" date (updated changes with each circ) *maybe use this for my report on use of the business collection...consider / contemplate / and play with it
• can "view query" of all pre-done searches and see all the criteria / dates / initials...can re-run periodically -- "extract query"
• "millennium scheduler" is a "product"
  

What should we do...Part 2

What can we do about it?

• outsource redesign (webPAC refresher service -- $$ from III)
• hide the WebPAC (behind a "discovery layer" -- like Encore / BiblioComm / WorldCat Local (first two libs to try were III libs)
  
• enhance the WebPAC
• Scriblio:
• open source wrapper
• Plymouth State University (Casey Bisson)
• uses a word press blog
• no separation btw lib web site and opac...interesting...hidden (or *seamless* opac -- open source)
• Solrpac: Miami Univ
• Solar (indexing) + Drupl (cms)
• exports bibs from iii to new interface
• facets
• King County Library System
• Aquabrowser (from Bowker)
• hip skin for WebPac
• facets
• Encore
• WebPac as Cyrano de Bergerac!!!
• takes your records and displays them in a different way
• more intimate relationsihp with OPAC than 3rd party options (no sync / uploads needed)
• Enhancements overview
• iii enhancements
• InnReach (like WorldCat local)
• WebBridge
• Pathfinder Pro (like WebBridge for the opac)...links out to web based onyour bibs (eg. set certain call numbers to highlight literary databases / subject guides)
• ERM as a database pathfinder in the webPac...good idea -- how much?
• eg: Bowling Green State University (BGSU)...
• Virtual Coll inegrated in to the cat...also can add the A-Z journal title list
  
• MetaData builder and media management (iii product to store digital images...think about using this for NWO History stuff????)
• spellcheck (one of Karen Schneider's OPAC suck-isms)
• patron reviews
• reading history / preferred searches (DONE!!! :) )
• RSS Cat feeds ("product" but easy to do on your own...see notes for Bob Duncan presentation) (feeds for eg. for new books and patron info)
  
• 3rd party enhancements
• Library Thing for Libraries (San Fransisco State Univ Lib did)
• tapping in to tags / recommendations / read-a-likes of LThing users
• tag browser -- adding collective wisdom to webPAC (similar philosophy to google search results -- popularity contest!)
• Syndetics (Got it!)
• LibX
  
• adding WebPAC to the browser...patrons would have to install (Virginia Tech did it)...also adds your cat to amazon
  
• home made enhancements