I’m very excited to announce that the American Library Association has issued the official press release announcing the publication of the latest set of ten volumes in my book series, The Tech Set #11-20. This is the series of cutting-edge technology books that started in 2010 with The Tech Set #1-10, which won the 2011 Greenwood Publishing Group Award for the Best Book in Library Literature. Once again, we had an amazing group of authors writing on the hottest tech topics relevant to libraries today. These are the newest ten books in the series, check them all out here on the Neal-Schuman page!!

• 11. Cloud Computing for Libraries
• 12. Building Mobile Library Applications
• 13. Location-Aware Services and QR Codes for Libraries
• 14. Drupal in Libraries
• 15. Strategic Planning for Social Media in Libraries
• 16. Next-Gen Library Resdesign
• 17. Screencasting for Libraries
• 18. User Experience (UX) Design for Libraries
• 19. IM and SMS Reference Services for Libraries
• 20. Semantic Web Technologies and Social Searching for Librarians

1. Put up an avatar. It doesn’t really matter what the picture is, but the “egg picture” (the default avatar for new accounts) makes you look like a spammer.
2. Don’t pick a Twitter name that is difficult to spell or remember.
3. Tweet regularly.
4. Don’t ignore people who tweet at you. Set Twitter to send you an e-mail notification when you get a mention or a private message. If you don’t do that, then check your account frequently.
5. Engage in conversation. Don’t just drop in to post your own update and disappear. Twitter is not a “broadcast-only” mechanism; it’s CB radio.

1. Database driven features
2. Complex/variable URI formats
3. Dynamically generated URIs
4. Rich, streamed media
5. Incremental display mechanisms

1. Build an iPhone or Android App

• There are a lot of resources available as well as free applications which will walk you through the process of building your very own native application for iOS or Android devices. One of them is AppMaker which provides an easy to use graphical user interface which will let you set up multiple tabs/pages within your app.



• You can also learn how to code your own mobile website as well as iOS and Android apps with Jason Clark’s new book Building Mobile Library Apps

 

2. Create a QR Code Campaign



• You can easily create QR codes for your library website, electronic resources, even contact information using QR Code generators such as Kaywa or Delivr. And you’ll want to be sure to advise patrons to install a free QR Code reader on their mobile device such as BeeTagg, i-nigma or NeoReader.

 

3. Participate in Location-Based Social Networks



• All libraries can claim their venues and take part in increasingly popular location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. If you haven’t already, start engaging your patrons and offering them incentives for visiting the library.

 

4. Offer SMS Reference Services



• Libraries can offer their patrons cutting-edge text reference services through tools such as Libraryh3lp, and Mosio’s Text-a-Librarian. This is a great way to get patrons connecting with the library.

 

5. Experiment with Augmented Reality



• AR applications such as the London Tube app adds layers of information over the real-world which can be viewed thru a user’s mobile phone. This type of technology could be easily adapted to point to and mark library branch locations, call number and stack locations and much more. Librarians feeling adventurous can investigate augmented reality applications such as Layar, Google Goggles, and AcrossAir and create their own applications.

1. Obtain a trademark registration for each of your most important brands.
2. Proactively obtain account names using all of the trademark owner’s most important brands.
3. Monitor social networking sites to find unauthorized uses of brand names.

I made the discovery today that we’ve reached a major milestone here at iLibrarian – this is the blog’s 2,010th post since its inception in 2007. Thinking back to my first post on August 1st, 2007, I hoped that this would be a place for conversation and community around Library 2.0 and emerging technology news and resources. And I’m happy to say that it has become just that – we’ve also had 1,110 comments made!! It’s been a great five years and I’m looking forward to many more to come. Thanks everyone for reading, commenting, contributing, and being a part of the iLibrarian community!

Amy-Mae Elliott at Mashable offers 10 Facebook Tips for Power Users. These are all excellent and useful suggestions, many of which I didn’t know myself and will be excited to try out! Here are the first five recommendations:

1. View Photos Full-Screen
2. Hide What You Read
3. Create a List Based on Your Interests
4. Populate Your Map With Pics
5. Reposition Photos on Your Timeline

Stephanie Sammons at the Social Media Examiner offers 5 Tips to Build and Grow Your LinkedIn Network. If you’re wondering how best to leverage LinkedIn’s 150 million–member worldwide network, you’ll want to check out this post. Here are her first 3 recommendations:

• #1: Update Your Status Frequently and Consistently
• #2: Build Connections Constantly
• #3: Be Strategic about When You are Active on LinkedIn

Technology Solutions Planning in Libraries: Overview

The Project Plan

The first step in any new project is to put together a plan with achievable goals. The breadth of your plan will depend on what type of new technology you’re looking to implement, so you should feel free to adjust this example plan as needed. However, this project plan should cover most new technology initiatives, and this series of posts will be going through each section of the plan individually.

1. Establish a Planning Committee
2. Gain Market Intelligence
1. Vet Solutions/Vendors
2. Research the Market
3. Read Case Studies
3. Requirements Gathering
1. Create Library Profile
2. Develop Use Cases
3. Business Requirements
4. Functional Requirements
5. Technical Requirements
4. Evaluate Solutions
1. Test Online Demos
2. Research Solution/Vendor Viability
3. Check References
4. Create “Short List”
5. Create RFP
1. Refine Requirements
2. Write & Distribute RFP to Top Vendors
6. Select Solution
1. Analyze RFP Responses
2. Conduct Interviews/Demos of Top 2 Solutions
3. Make Final Selection
7. Negotiate Contract
1. Make Contract Recommendations
8. Draft Budget
1. Include Hardware, Data Conversion, etc.

Download this project plan here: project_plan

Create a Timeline

Once you have outlined your plan, you can create a timeline with dates of individual goals and their deadlines. This will help you keep on track and motivated to move forward. Timelines such as this one can be created using software programs such as MS Project or OpenProj.

Download this project timeline here: timeline.mpp

The staff writers at Online Universities.com have predicted 10 Changes to Expect from the Library of the Future. Most of these changes have actually already been implemented by many libraries, and will continue to be adopted. Here are the first five changes.

1. More technology
2. Sensory story times
3. Better outreach to ESOL and ESL adults and children
4. Automation
5. Emphasizing community space