Category: Library 2.0
July 13, 2007
Help Shape the Future of NJ's Libraries
From an email from Peggy Cadigan, Consultant for Innovation and Communication, at the New Jersey State Library. I'm really happy to see this come out of the futures conference and you can bet my application is in! ;-)
Subject: Participation in NJSL Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future - applications needed by August 15, 2007
Norma Blake, State Librarian, has instituted a "Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Future" to continue the groundbreaking work begun by the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference. The State Library recognizes that it is imperative to have input from the people who are shaping the future of New Jersey's libraries.
This is an open invitation to anyone currently working in a New Jersey library who has an interest in the future of libraries to apply for a possible appointment to the Task Force. The Task Force will comprise members from different types of libraries and from different job titles. Applications will be reviewed by a panel selected by the State Librarian and appointments made following the review process. The goal of the Task Force will be to make recommendations about how libraries can respond in the future to the information received at the conference and the challenges presented. How can local libraries and the State Library respond to projected demographic changes, growing diversity, an aging population, and technological advances?
We expect that this task force will require a short-term commitment. It is expected that the task force will meet once a month for six months, beginning September 2007, culminating in a report to the State Librarian by March 2008. The report will be presented at the April 2008 NJLA Conference.
If you are interested in serving on this panel, please complete page two of the application which can be found at http://www.njstatelib.org/News/Blue%20Ribbon%20Panel.pdf and return it by August 15, 2007 to:
Peggy Cadigan
Consultant for Innovation and Communication
New Jersey State Library
185 West State Street
P.O. Box 520
Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0520
You may send the application as a word document e-mail attachment or fax it to: 609-633-3963.
Contact Peggy Cadigan with any questions. 609-278-2640, Ext. 113 or 609-292-4161, pcadigan@njstatelib.org
Posted by Amy Kearns at 4:12 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
Not Attending ALA? Here's an Alternative...
This is posted many places but I want to be sure that no one misses it!
This is FREE and doesn't require you to leave the comfort of your home or use any gas!!!
Not able to attend ALA but still want to find out what's going on in cutting edge technology and social software!? Well check out the BIGWIG Social Software Showcase...
From their page:
The Social Software Showcase is an online unconference occurring on and during the time of ALA Annual 2007.
On this wiki, you will find eleven wonderful presentations on cutting edge technology and social software by librarians and leaders in the field. Regardless of where you are in the world, you will have the opportunity to discuss the presentations here in this space.
We will also be having a face to face roundtable discussion with some of our presenters at ALA Annual in Washington D.C. on Saturday, June 23rd, from 1:30-2:30 in the Renaissance Mayflower Cabinet Room. If you are in D.C. please come and join us.
This wiki will be a work in progress as we iron out a few things, including the embedding of the presentations. But we'll be ready and running before ALA! [end]
This is a revolutionary way of presenting information! Please do check it out.
The presenters include the VERY excellent:
Michael Casey - Library Crunch blog
Michael Porter, aka Library Man! - Library Man blog
Jessamyn West - Librarian.net blog -
Karen Schneider - Free Range Librarian blog
Her post on this.
AND MORE!
You can read another excellent post on this for some more information on the Information Wants to Be Free blog here
The Bigwig Social Software Showcase is here
Check it out! :-)
Happy Weekend!
Posted by Amy Kearns at 9:03 AM | Comments (0)
June 3, 2007
Back to the Future
Tomorrow those who attended the Mid-Atlantic Library Futures Conference will reconvene at the Princeton Public Library. We have had a chance to think a bit about all we took in and this should be a great opportunity for us to get together and talk about everything again. We will also brainstorm about what ideas affected us the most and try to discern some paths for NJ to take into the future! I'll be blogging more about that after the meeting.
The hand-outs and materials from the conference are now available. Take a look here.
Posted by Amy Kearns at 11:27 PM | Comments (0)
May 30, 2007
NJ Librarians, Facebook and 2.0
Are you wondering about 2.0 stuff? Do you use some but have questions? Do you want to use some?
Have you heard of/used/or wanted to use Facebook?
I recently joined Facebook and found that it is an excellent place to network and share with those who have similar interests.
To that end, I created a group on there called NEW JERSEY LIBRARIANS. We already have a nice group of people going and we would love to have more! Come on and join us. Facebook is now open to all to register and it's free.
If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me (kearns@patersonpl.org). Or, just join up and ask away in the group!
There are many interest groups and professional groups on there that you can join once you are a member of Facebook. There are also an incredible number of additional applications you can add to your Facebook account to make it more personal and more useful to you. For example, there is a calendar application; a video sharing app; a photo sharing app; a social timeline so you can see what you have done and when as far as organizations or groups you have been in; and so much more! I encourage you to jump on in - the water is fine and it's almost summer!
This is one great way to try something out, to play and to learn.
Hope to see you there!
Thanks, Amy Kearns
Posted by Amy Kearns at 10:43 PM | Comments (0)
May 11, 2007
15 Fantastic Freebies in 50 Minutes from Janie L. Hermann and Bob Keith
Posted on behalf of my good friend and fellow-blogger, Janie L. Hermann -
The slides for the presentation given at NJLA this year by Janie and Bob Keith are available archived at SlideShare. (PS SlideShare is really cool - check it out! - AJK).
Janie has also graciously made them available for quick and easy viewing here on the Library Garden blog! Enjoy!
Posted by Amy Kearns at 4:18 PM | Comments (0)
May 1, 2007
Helene Blowers: Adopt a Continuous Play Strategy!
Helene Blowers presented Core Competencies and Core Values in the Era of Library 2.0 and also Discovering Library 2.0 and has made the slides of these two NJLA Conference 2007 presentations available via a great sharing site called SlideShare.net.- You can access them through her site LibraryBytes which I highly recommend you keep your eyes on!
Read on for more on these two presentations ....
Having watched Helene Blowers' webinar Learning 2.0 : Make "play" your New Year's resolution on the SirsiDynixInstitute as a sort-of "assignment" for a committee I am on, I was very excited to realize that she would be presenting at NJLA!
That webinar introduced me to the Learning 2.0 program she created for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, which was a great success and has been duplicated (freely, as kindly made available for the taking by Ms. Blowers) in many places. In two seperate sessions at the conference, Ms. Blowers presented Core Competencies and Core Values in the Era of Library 2.0 and also Discovering Library 2.0.
It sounds to me like Helene Blowers has a fantastic job: Technology Director! And I am sure that working for or with her must be a lot of fun - afterall this is the woman who says,
"...librarians really do need to adopt a “continuous play strategy” in order to keep their skills and knowledge fresh."
CORE COMPETENCIES, CORE VALUES IN THE ERA OF LIBRARY 2.0
I think the important "take-aways" here are:
- A big change, or "technology wave," has already occurred - it's happened and now we need to provide staff with some development programs to give them the ability to cope
- This staff development must be a continuous process since new employees come in
- Start with the basics and build from there, i.e., using e-mail, the intranet, printing, saving, etc.
- Make the training system-wide so everyone knows this is a really important initiative with support from the "higher-ups;" it is a priority
- If you put technology in, you should "build-in" a component for getting staff comfortable with it
- Enable and empower employees by educating them in these ways!
Take a look at the slides to see the staff development system that was implemented (and very successful!) at PLCMC. Libraries have core competencies for many things, but we need one for technology too. Maybe you can adopt this model for your library.
Helene Blowers created a Learning 2.0 program for the staff at PLCMC with the goal of giving staff exposure to (not neccesarily mastery over) these new Web 2.0 tools.
The focus was EXPOSING staff to new tools; ENCOURAGING play; EMPOWERING individuals; EXPANDING their knowledge toolbox; and ELIMINATING fear.
She created a list of "23 Things" for the staff to do to give them exposure to tools such as blogging, photo-sharing, rss feeds, tagging, and maybe most importantly, how to become life-long learners so that they develop methods for keeping themselves "in the loop" as more new things come down the road at them.
The driving force behind this approach is to develop an effective way of motivating and guiding self-paced actitivies so you get the most bang for your training buck!
Take a look at the slides from this presentation and yes, you can "steal this program" and try it in your own library!
Posted by Amy Kearns at 11:17 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 21, 2006
Job Hotline & RSS feeds
The NJLA jobs page is now offering RSS feeds of new postings.
Why not have job openings come to you instead of you going to it? It's as easy as setting up a feed using an online aggregator or a desktop product. The NJLA site has more information.
Job updates are generally posted on Wednesdays. The feed you set up will automatically get updated when the postings are updated.
Posted by Ranjna Das at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)
July 19, 2006
"Conversation, Community, Connections & Collaboration"
Seventy or so lucky librarians got to see Michael Stephens' and Jenny Levine's "Roadshow" at Princeton PL July 18th. Their travelling presentation is called "Conversation, Community, Connections, and Collaboration: Practical, New Technologies for User-Centered Services" and it's everything you (and your administration!) need to know about actually implementing Library 2.0 technologies.
If you aren't sure what Library 2.0 refers to, take a look at Ranjna's previous post (last one on the page) on the subject, this ALA TechSource blog post or this reading list.
I'm not going to summarize the entire 5-hour workshop here, but I will highlight some points and ideas I thought were extra-important:
Librarian 2.0
This new kind of librarian approaches librarianship and our customers in special ways. (I'm paraphrasing from Michael & Jenny's presentation heavily here.) She utilizes the social tools of Web 2.0, gets the long tail concept and accepts the wisdom of crowds.
Librarian 2.0 should also probably read the following, according to our presenters:
OCLC Pattern Recognition
OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
The World is Flat
Blink
The Cluetrain Manifesto
The Future of Music
Six Things to Do Now
One of the greatest things about this Web/Library 2.0 stuff is that so many of the tools are free and easy to use - why not try it? What's the worst that can happen? Michael and Jenny suggest a few things we can all do at our libraries with little fuss.
* Start a "What's New at the Library" blog with Blogger (I also like WordPress.com).
* Appoint a trend reporter - someone who reads inside and outside the field to see what our customers are actually doing. Some sources: Wired, USA Today, Newsweek.
* Train on RSS in your library
* Tell your vendors you want RSS in your products
* Learn about Library 2.0
Oh, yeah - Learn About RSS!
How I wish it had a better name! It's really important, and it's going to get bigger and bigger. You might not even realize you're using it. Do you have a My Yahoo! page with news on it? You're using RSS! Jenny told us that future versions of Microsoft Outlook are going to have an RSS folder, which will make the RSS concept even more mainstream.
There was so much more valuable information packed into this session - I can't wait to see what these two do next! Thanks Jenny and Michael!!
For another perspective on the day, check out Amy Kearns' post on Library Garden.
Posted by Jessica Adler at 3:42 PM | Comments (3)
June 9, 2006
Social Software and Libraries: June 2, 2006
N.B.: This is a guest entry by Marc Meola, whose e-mail address is: meolam [AT] tcnj [DOT] edu.
Edward Corrado (TCNJ) and Jim Robertson (NJIT) provided a useful
overview of some new technologies often referred to as social software or Library 2.0 at a program sponsored by the Technology Committee of the NJLA College and University Section/ ACRL-New Jersey Chapter on June 2.
Social Software is software that supports group interaction, such as
instant messaging, RSS, blogs, wikis, folksonomies, podcasting, photo sharing, and social bookmarking.
Some features that social software have in common are: they are
collaborative and leverage the widsom of crowds; there's a low barrie
to use and adoption; they are open and can be expanded linked or
"mashed"; they foster community; they're fun.
While some of the new software can be frivolous, some creative
librarians have come up with some interesting and innovative library
applications. Check out how users can tag their own items and write mini-reviews in the University of Pennsylvania's catalog, for example (see how the user named "jarson" tags the book Broadcasting It).
What are the implications for cognitive authority and user privacy? As
Bob Dylan says, the answers are blowin' in the wind and the times, they are a changin'! Check out more photos from this event in the CUS Social Software Set at NJLA's Flickr account!
--Marc Meola, meolam [AT] tcnj [DOT] edu
Posted by at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
May 25, 2006
NJLA is officially Library 2.0-friendly!
Some of you may know that ALA is offering an online course on Library 2.0 technologies led by Jenny Levine of The Shifted Librarian and Michael Stephens of Tame the Web. (Their course blog is really informative, even if you are not offially enrolled!)
Jenny invited Sophie Brookover and the NJLA IT Section to record podcasts about the creation of the NJLA Blog and the NJLA Conference 2006 Podcasting Station. The recordings are posted to the Library 2.0 blog as course material. Check them out!
Posted by Jessica Adler at 3:35 PM | Comments (0)
May 24, 2006
Recommended Reading: Some Homegrown Blogs
There must be something about Spring that makes people start new projects. Spring 2006 has seen the flowering of some excellent new library blogs here in New Jersey.
Library Garden is a collaborative blog full of the smart, thought- and action-provoking musings of such NJ library luminaries as Janie Hermann, Pete Bromberg, Marie Radford, Robert Lackie, and Kimberly Paone (and the number of contributors is growing!). Looking for a blog that covers it all, from time management to adult programming to chucking the rulebook? Look no further.
The M Word is all about marketing, and is written by Nancy Dowd of the State Library. In Nancy's introductory post, she writes, "I wanted to create a forum where we could all start to share our ideas and thoughts and help each other to find answers to problems we are encountering in journey to tell the public about our libraries." That sounds pretty essential to me. This blog is a wonderful supplement to blogs like Creating Passionate Users and Library Marketing: Thinking Outside The Book. It's brand new, and I can't wait to see where Nancy takes it!
Finally, I recommend Pop Goes The Library, which I co-author with Ocean County Library's Liz Burns, and Melissa Rabey of Cecil County (MD) Library System. Our blog's motto is "Better Libraries Through Pop Culture", and we write all about how libraries can leverage their popular materials collections into displays, programs, and events that will catch the public's eye and help transform the view of libraries as warehouses for books into community centers for everyone.
Here's an opportunity to practice some self-promotion skills: do you write a library-related blog? If so, don't be shy! Post a comment about it and enlighten your colleagues!
Posted by at 3:15 PM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2006
Keeping up With the Next Generation Web
Like many of you, I've been tracking the web 2.0 (and by extension the library 2.0) phenomena. When a new phenomena hits the waves, it takes a little while for the hype to settle. I think the hype has settled and we need to start using/incorporating web 2.0 in to our libraries.
Still not sure about Web 2.0? Take a look at these facts/figures. About 70 million folks are now using myspace.com. The Los Angeles Police Department has just launched a blog. The White House currently has 5 rss/news feeds and 4 podcasts. Blogs have caught up to newspapers. Technorati tracks 39.4 million sites/blogs and 2.4 billion links. Why would this be important? It's a good way to see what people are buzzing about online. What a great marketing tool.
Ok. So web 2.0 is everywhere. What exactly is it? Let me back-track a little to the "rise" of the internet in the mid-late 90s. The first generation internet was all about posting information online. Sites were going up at a phenomenal rate during the late nineties. Remember the days when you discovered "xyz" organization had a site and you wanted to tell everyone about it and statements like "You mean we can look up that information on the web!" were pretty common. SEC filings became easily accessible to everyone. THOMAS made it easier to look up legislative information. Weather information was as easy to obtain as entering a zip code and hitting the "search" button. You didn't have to buy maps anymore... The first generation web was all about companies and organizations making their "stuff" available to everyone. Content hidden in stuffy offices and research centers were hitting cyberspace like never before.
Web 2.0 is just the next-generation of the internet. Web 2.0 is all about regular folks. It's all about "us" as creators of content; making our knowledge/experience available to everyone. Here is an example. I create a bookmark list of all my favorite and useful-to-me sites and share it with everyone. You decide to see my list [go ahead] and take the ones that are useful to you and share it with others. I like a link on another person's list and want to see who else has linked to it. This leads me to discover more sites to use for myself and to share with others and so on.
Web 2.0 is participatory. It's about sharing and collaboration. It's about creating forums where we perfect something using our collective wisdom. What are some other examples of this trend? Wikipedia is one. eBay was before that. Amazon.com saw the importance of ordinary wisdom and started allowing customers to write reviews. Other ventures include YouTube (videosharing and commenting), Givezilla (create a fundraising store), MySpace (communicating with & sharing content with your friends), Bloglines (Feed reader & news aggregator), Myhomepoint (calendar tool to collectively share with family or project members.)
Want to see more? See Sacred Cow Dung for a pretty good list of "All Things Web 2.0". How you use them in your library, is up to your creativity and imagination. Of course, I'd love to hear about the great ideas that are being vollied around in your libraries.
Posted by Ranjna Das at 1:46 PM | Comments (0)