Archive for the ‘Library Services’ Category

If you’re using Chrome, the open source Web browser by Google, you may want to check out the latest article from Josh Catone at Mashable. 6 Killer Google Chrome Extensions for Social Media Addicts lists popuar and useful plugins for using social media sites as well as lists some of the best places to find other extensions. Here are his recommended six extensions:

1. Gmail Checker
2. Chromed Bird
3. Twitter Ticker
4. Micro Last.fm
5. TPGoogleReader
6. Facebook Notification Checker

The November 15th issue of Library Journal gives a roundup of America’s Star Libraries - a national rating of public libraries. America’s Star Libraries rates 7,268 public libraries, identifying 258 “best” libraries. This is the second round of ratings in 2009. All rankings are based on 2007 data from the IMLS. This detailed report ranks libraries by:

• Circulation per Capita
• Vists per Capita
• Program Attendance per Capita
• Internet Use per Capita
• LJ Index Rating

The Nonprofit Tech 2.0 blog has a quick guide to Five Essential Apps for Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Page. Many of these apps would also be particularly useful for a library’s FB page as well. During my presentation at the Suffolk County Library Association yesterday, I suggested two of these five for library Facebook pages, I can’t wait to check out the other three.

1. The Static FBML App
2. Causes App
3. Involver Apps
4. Social RSS App
5. Links App

You may also want to check out the blog’s Five Most Common Mistakes Made by Nonprofit Admins on Facebook.

If you’re interested in text/SMS reference in libraries, please check out my latest Stacking the Tech column, Text Message Reference: Is It Effective?

“The biblioblogosphere is replete with posts announcing the launch of new SMS (text message) reference services at a steadily increasing number of academic libraries. The appeal of these services is more or less self-evident given the ubiquity of mobile devices on campus.

Journal articles and conference sessions are filled with discussions of products and platforms, as well as strategies to market the new programs including YouTube videos, home page links, and Facebook applications. However, so far little has been gathered about how effective this type of service really is and whether or not it’s something that patrons find useful.”

Marc Parry at The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on the advances in library search interfaces in After Losing Users in Catalogs, Libraries Find Better Search Software.

“The problem is that traditional online library catalogs don’t tend to order search results by ranked relevance, and they can befuddle users with clunky interfaces. Bauer, a graduate student specializing in early American history, once had such a hard time finding materials that she titled a bibliography “Meager Fruits of an Ongoing Fight With Virgo.”"

Be sure to also check out the follow-up article, The Library-Catalog Wars: ‘Chronicle’ Readers Weigh In, which sums up reader comments on the article such as:

“Unfortunately, instead of teaching students how to conduct a precise search with few relevant results, faculty and librarians have found an easy way out — googlize everything.”

If you’re wondering how to add functionality such as IM chat widgets or other rendered HTML to your library’s Facebook Page, Andy Burkhardt, Emerging Technology Librarian at Chaplain College Library walks you through how to do it in this helpful 2-minute screencast.

I’ve written an article for the October issue of School Library Journal titled Should Your Library Have a Social Media Policy? If you’re thinking about developing policies and standards for your organization, please check it out:

“Today’s new media tools are incredibly powerful communication vehicles that allow organizations to connect and engage with many different audiences. With more than seven million users, Twitter is growing at an annual rate of 1,382 percent, Facebook boasts over 250 million active members, and aspiring writers have started more than 133 million blogs. While the wild popularity of these apps has opened up a world of opportunity for developing brands and building communities, the social and extremely public nature of these services also brings potential hazards. That’s why organizations—including libraries—are developing policies on the use of social media for staff and users alike.”

Derek Law from the Centre for Digital Library Research at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow Scotland has written Academic Digital Libraries of the Future: An Environment Scan for the New Review of Academic Librarianship. It is available for free download for a limited time.

“Libraries are attempting to face a future in which almost every fixed point has disappeared. Users are changing; content is changing; research is taking new forms. Indeed the very need for libraries is being questioned in some quarters. This paper explores the nature of the changes and challenges facing higher education libraries and suggests key areas of strength and core activities which should be exploited to secure their future.”

via Stephen’s Lighthouse

Steven Bell at ACRLog posts A Dozen Newspaper Survival Tips For Academic Librarians. This useful guide includes 12 recommendations of ways academic libraries can evolve and thrive in the Internet Age. Here are his top five:

1. Put the Web First
2. Go Niche
3. Offer Unique Content in Print
4. Librarians as Curators and Contextualizers
5. Real-Time Reporting Integration

Kelly D. Allen writes about How Your Library May Not Be Using Twitter But Should. This useful post discusses several tweet styles to provide libraries with inspiration for making the most of their Twitter efforts.

• Tweet Style 1, or “The Average Library Tweet”
• Tweet Style 1b, or “Uhm, Ya Know You Can Be a Little Creative Though, Right?”
• Tweet Style 2, or “Promote Some Materials”
• Tweet Style 3, or “Promote Things As They Happen”
• Tweet Style 4, or “It Doesn’t Have to Require a Library Visit”
• Tweet Style 5, or “Interact!”

via LibrarianinBlack

Ben Parr at Mashable reports that Facebook has announced a new feature - the ability to tag friends in your status updates and posts. This feature is very similar to the ability to tag others using the @ symbol in Twitter updates. Friends will be notified and a Wall post will be created linking them to the original post in which they are referenced. The feature will be rolled out over the next few weeks. Read more in the Facebook news release:

“Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well. The “@” symbol will not be displayed in the published status update or post after you’ve added your tags.”

Andy Burkhardt at Information Tyrannosaur provides Four Reasons Libraries Should be on Social Media. He argues that libraries should take advantage of these new technologies with the following purposes in mind:

1. Communication
2. Respond to Positive/Negative Feedback
3. Marketing/Advertising
4. Understanding Users Better

Justin Hoenke, Teen Librarian at Cape May County Library, guest posts at Library Garden with 5 Reasons why you should be gaming in your Library. If you’re considering video game programs or circulating video game collections in your library, you will want to check out this article for Hoenke’s reasons:

1. Welcome to the 21st Century!
2. Gaming builds community.
3. You will see all sorts of new people in your library.
4. You couldn’t ask for an easier way to get teens interested in the library.
5. The initial cost may be high, but the return investment is priceless.

Kate Sheehan writes a thoughtful article about The Digital Divide Inside the Library for the ALA TechSource blog. Sheehan discusses the need for a strong technology skill set among reference librarians in addition to public service experience.

“Libraries need change and we need to get better and quicker at adapting–there isn’t room for actual luddites in the library. But when it comes to working with our colleagues, I think we’re headed toward a double standard. We need our front line staff to understand tech, to be sure, and even in the short time that I’ve been a librarian, I’ve seen huge leaps forward in that area. Tech savvy is increasingly like public service experience–it’s something organizations are unwilling to take a chance on. We expect librarians to keep up with tech and be willing to learn more about it, but we’re less skilled at differentiating between problematic resistance to change and thoughtfulness.”

via Jill Hurst-Wahl

The September 2009 issue of Walt Crawford’s Cites & Insights is now available. Be sure to check out this issue for an in-depth update of the state of both public and academic library blogs. Walt discusses the following:

• Where Are They Now?
• Survivors and Currency
• The Quintiles
• Post Frequency
• Comments
• Conversational Intensity