SLA Dinner

Posted on April 26, 2007 by pat

I attended a pre-conference dinner tonight at the Rochester Hyatt. Tomorrow the Special Libraries Association will present a talk given by Stephen Abram on Library 2.0. I heard him speak last October and my entire outlook on my job as library IT person was changed. I’m very excited about the direction libraries are headed.

Tonight’s dinner was terrific — really good food and great conversation with people I have not met before. As a public library employee, I enjoyed the opportunity to hear about the special libraries — science, academic, government, etc. — and to hear what goes on there.

Our guest of honor arrived late, due to plane issues in Pittsburgh. He arrived just as I was getting ready to leave so I stayed a bit longer. A handful of us had a glass of wine and an informal chat. We talked quite a bit about Second Life. One of the issues I’ve been grappling with is how to decide on what information my SL library will provide. Obviously, I can’t duplicate our real life library. That would be monumental and would also be unnecessary. Stephen didn’t give me the answer. What he did was give me what I needed to make that decision. His statement created one of those “Aha!” moments with it’s simplicity: Do one thing, and do it very well.

Of course I knew this. But like so many things, I had to hear it to realize I knew it.

“Shift Happens”

Posted on April 20, 2007 by pat

Here’s something to think about. Follow this link and let me know what you think of it:

glumbert.com – Shift Happens

Justifying my Playtime

Posted on March 9, 2007 by pat

I’m having a blast in Second Life. Working, collaborating, meeting interesting people. Flying, building, exploring. But am I just playing? Is Second Life just another video game?

I’ve created a list of reasons to justify my time spent in this alternate world:

I’m watching technology trends.
Second Life is essentially the next version of the internet. Remember when the net was text-based? And how exciting it was when our computers finally had enough memory and processing speed to start including pictures on our websites? In the early days, you had to be a Photoshop god to put graphics on your site. Later, we added sound and video. As our machines get better, the web becomes more and more like real life, and Second Life is the obvious next step toward putting usable content online and creating a life-like way for users to find that information.

I’m learning to work in a 3D environment.
Maneuvering in 3D takes some practice. At first I was walking into walls, falling off stairs, and having a difficult time reading signs. It gets easier with practice. As library staff, being able to help newbies get around in this world is a key factor in getting these new users to come back and see what we have to offer. We ourselves need to be comfortable in virtual reality if we want to be able to provide service here.

I’m helping to create “what’s next” in terms of library (or web) services.
Putting information into a virtual environment is quite different from putting it on a 2D website. You have an opportunity to communicate with your users in a new way. Thinking through the possibilities of how to present information has changed the way I look at my static website. We don’t need to create an environment that is identical to real life (i.e. brick and mortar library building); we can use the endless possibilities in VR to enhance real life, not copy it. It’s a valuable thought experiment.

I’m creating relationships in my field.
I’m enjoying this part of Second Life most of all. I’ve been working with library people from all over the world and from all kinds of libraries: public libraries, academic libraries, medical libraries, engineering libraries, arts libraries… We collaborate and build friendships. We work with museums. We work with astronomers. We work with historians. Second Life has taken down the walls between information providers and has given us a place where we can all meet and share ideas.

Am I playing in Second Life? Yes. Am I having fun? Yes. Am I positioning myself for the future of information sharing? Yes. It is real-life work; but it’s work that is extremely enjoyable and rewarding.

Are You Ready for Library 2.0?

Posted on March 1, 2007 by pat

Library 2.0 is the latest thing in all the library-related magazines and blogs. Hurry! Get on board with all the really cool stuff! Get your staff up to speed with 23 Things!

But in reality, is your staff ready for this yet? Are you?

My library held it’s annual Staff Training Day today. It’s a day where we close the library and spend a day together teambuilding and learning. One of the sessions was a wonderful presentation by Barbara Moore called “Gadgets.” Her intent was to show staff members the various items our patrons might be bringing into the library — just a brief overview so staff would know a PDA from an iPod. We took a quick online peek at the upcoming iPhone from Apple. We talked about downloadable ebooks.

And we discovered that well over half the staff was baffled by their own cell phones.

All but two staff members own cell phones, but most of those who have them only know how to answer it when it rings and how to dial out. Some said they have no idea how to get their voice mail. Most said they don’t know what text messaging is. Some did not know whether or not they had a camera, and many do not use their contacts.

Clearly, some training is necessary to teach staff these basic technical skills before we send them off to create MySpace accounts and blogs or expect them to load their latest videos onto youtube. We could use a “Ten Things to Learn Before 23 Things” type of training. : )

Technical Difficulties. Please Stand By…

Posted on February 26, 2007 by pat

I held my first session of Second Life training at Rochester Regional Library Council tonight. Unfortunately, there is a limit on the number of new accounts you can create from an I.P. address at any given time, which forced me to quickly rethink my training plan.

The intention was to lead librarians through the process of setting up an account, creating an avatar, and then touring InfoIsland to show them the library work that is going on in Second Life.

We ended up having only five people able to create accounts (the others got error messages) and it turned into a demo for the rest of the group. It wasn’t bad, but I had to quickly rethink my plan and provide the same information without the benefit of the hands-on part of the program.

I’ll be holding another session next week, so will have people create their accounts ahead of time.

Book Discussions in 3D

Posted on February 4, 2007 by pat

The Talis SciFi and Fantasy Portal is a library in Second Life devoted to science fiction and fantasy.

We’ve just set the schedule for our new monthly book discussions:

March 20 - The Stand by Stephen King – Led by Grizzy Griswold
April 17 - Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler - Led by Franja Russell
May 15 – Planet of Exile by Ursula Le Guin - Led by Hawk Lightcloud
June 19 - Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer - Led by Rebekah Cavan
July 17 – The Prestige by Christopher Priest - Led by Phenyks Winx
September 18 - Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien – Led by Dare2B Wise

All book discussions are held at the Portal on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:30 SLT (9:30 pm Eastern time.)

Our June discussion of Rollback features an in-world visit by the author, Robert J. Sawyer. Don’t miss this opportunity to discuss this brand new book (to be released in April) with the author!

(We have nothing booked for August yet. Anyone out there who would like to lead a discussion of a favorite sf or fantasy book should contact Floria Hand in Second Life.)

Structure

Posted on February 2, 2007 by pat

I’ve been looking at the structure of my library site a lot lately, feeling that it’s just not right. We have the usual categories: teens, kids, adults. We have a link to the catalog and a link to patron information, and our calendar and newsletter. We’ve put our services into labeled boxes. Maybe that’s not a bad thing, but the boxes we’ve used feel wrong.

I’m not sure why we have a category called “adults.” Perhaps at an early meeting we discussed the way librarians are put into categories: adult services, teen services, children’s services, and divided our website accordingly. While this may be a good way to distribute job duties, it doesn’t work well for a website. It makes sense to break out separate sections for kids and teens, but labeling a section for adults sounds almost like we have an R-rated section.

I still chuckle every time I hear a co-worker tell a patron, “The kids videos are over there on the right, and the adult videos are on the left.” Adult videos? Do they realize how that sounds? Apparently not. : )

Rather than putting all of our users into one category, “adults” (leaving out the kids and teens for now), perhaps we’d be more helpful if we think about who these adults are and how they might be using the website.

It seems to me that there is a useful correlation between what a person will use the website for and their level of internet experience. Someone new to the internet may come a library’s website just to see if we have a book. A more experienced person will look around the site for information on programs or book recommendations. And those who live and work on the web will want to interact with the site, rather than passively obtaining information.

We need to accomodate all of these users if we want to have a successful website. We need to make it easy and intuitive for a newbie, without “dumbing it down” and driving away patrons who are looking for something more. Because the library may be one of the first sites a newbie visits (After all, people look to the library understand and learn new things. That’s our business.) we need to make that first experience a positive one. And we need to provide an engaging environment that will keep people coming back for more than the catalog.

Once we start thinking in terms of real user categories, the services required by these users begins to become clear.

Second Life Library

Posted on February 1, 2007 by pat

I’ve been spending some time during the past couple of months in Second Life. For those who haven’t heard yet, Second Life is an online virtual world where people create avatars and wander around this second universe, interacting with other people from all over the world.

Many organizations have set up shop in this world — businesses, educational institutions, government, etc. There is a cluster of “islands” where real-life librarians are doing real reference work and promoting books and programs, just as they do at their day jobs. This is where I spend most of my SL time, but I do wander out and explore a lot. If you’re ever “in-world”, look me up. My avatar’s name is Rebekah Cavan.

Take a look at http://infoisland.org/ to get an idea of the kind of work people are doing here. It’s a fantastic group of dedicated people who are working toward bringing library resources to the millions of SL inhabitants. I’ll be doing a couple of tours of Second Life for Rochester Regional Library Council. The first session (February 26th) is completely booked, so I’ll be doing a repeat session (no need to attend both — they’ll be identical) on March 6, 2007 from 4 – 6 pm. You can register at the RRLC website.

These will be hands-on, beginner classes. We’ll download and install the SL software, create an account and an avatar, and then tour InfoIsland. I’m expecting these classes to be a lot of fun!

Finally!

Posted on January 30, 2007 by pat

It’s been forever since I’ve blogged. Holidays came and went; I got the kids back to college; I took a week of vacation. Whew! Time flies by.

The website redesign is coming along nicely. I’ve worked out many of the underlying questions I was wrestling with: What is the purpose of the website? Who is my audience and what are their needs? How can I set up a site to minimalize the day-to-day attention it will need from me? How can I make it functional and how can I make it look good, while still answering the prior questions?

These are the topics I’ll address over the next days and weeks as the site comes together and is usability tested and tweaked.

Plenty of other things have come up, too. I’ve been working in Second Life — helping out the library staff there and attending events put on by the Science group. I’ve got some upcoming presentations I’ve been putting together for Rochester Regional Library Council. And I’ve been invited to join the Monroe County Library System’s web team.

My job is very busy these days, and very exciting. Hopefully, my blog posts will not be so infrequent. There’s a lot to talk about and write about. Now I just need to find some time! : )

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Yearly Archives: 2007