Week 13 Post

Find a library offering mobile services and describe and assess their offerings. What could they do to improve services?

The Gonzaga University Library in Spokane, Washington has a few different ways to ask questions to a librarian. One can text, call, instant message, or go into the library to ask a question. 

The text a librarian service is only available during times when the library is open. These hours are as follows: Monday-Thursday 8 am - 2 am
Friday 8 am - 9 pm
Saturday 10 am - 6 pm
Sunday 10 am - 2 am

When I tested this service, the answer came within minutes so someone must be monitoring the incoming text messages closely.

If one has a smart phone, they could use their phone to instant message the librarian. This could be used for more in depth questions than would be used with a text message. This uses JavaScript so some devices may not be able to use it. 

Emails will be answered within 24 hours as advertised on the website. 

If I were going to suggest some changes, I would suggest that the library place more explanations of the services on their site. There is one to two sentences describing the services. If someone was new to the school, they may not know which resource would be the best to use. 

Exercise 5- www.kidblog.org

This is the link to the http://screencast.com/t/v74LDYaC57

Here is the video:

Week 12 Post

What types of services could libraries offer with user-generated content? The advantages and disadvantages?

In a school library, there could be a student created book review blog. I am doing this with my students in the 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. They are using www.kidblog.org/madisonlibrary and are creating a blog for the school. This is a site specifically created for teachers to use in schools. I, as the librarian, have to approve all posts before they are added to the blog. This allows me to be able to grade them, but also monitor the appropriateness of the posts. This is a great way for the children to recommend materials to each other and find books they would like to read. The recommendations mean more to them from their peers than from me or their teachers. The advantage of this is some children are reading more because they enjoy blogging. A disadvantage has been the work to monitor the site. If there were multiple schools I was doing with this it could be problematic. 

In public libraries, patrons could add reviews right to the catalog. This would give people the opportunity to express their opinions and would give the librarians a good idea as to what people like to read. The disadvantages to this could be with challenges. People could add things to the reviews that are offensive to some people or hurtful. This would be a disadvantage to any user generated content. The lack of control can create a high risk environment. Policy would need to be clear on what to do in said situation. 

Week 11 Blog Post

 For your blog posting, find a youtube video, training video at a library site, or one from the example list and do a critique.  Was the video well done? What could be done to make it better?

This is a video posted on the Spokane Library website. The video is accessed at http://www.spokanelibrary.org/index.php?page=eaudiobooks. OneClick Digital is the software the Spokane Library uses to give patrons access to e-audio books. In order to use these books, the patron must sign up with One Click Digital. This video takes the user step by step on how to set up and account and log in. This is a very helpful video for those who are not technically inclined. There are separate videos for each of the steps in downloading books which is helpful because there is not too much information to gather in one sitting.  I like how this video shows the screen as the patron will see it. It is a screen sharing video which makes the transition to performing the task easy. The person in the video speaks clearly and slowly. This makes the video easy to follow. He talks about the differences between Mac and PC which could get confusing for those not used to computers. There are many elderly people who use the Spokane Library. This is a great way to help them have access to all information.

To make this better, the Spokane Library may want to tailor it to their patrons. They may want to consider creating one similar but with the interface of Spokane Library. This would make the video even more clear for the people watching it.

Week 10 Blog Post

Identify a library using Flickr or Pinterest.  Provide a link and an overview on how they are using this software.  How could it be improved? What other things should they consider? Should they be a model for other libraries?  What are the top considerations libraries should have before using Pinterest or Flickr?

Spokane County Library District has a Pinterest account. They have many different pinboards and are utilizing the software well on the whole. What I find interesting is they do not advertise this so it is not known to the public that they have one. There are ten branches in the system and yet they only have 75 followers. Because of this, it not a resource that is being utilized very well. I would suggest that the library advertise this. They should place the link on their site and show people why it would be beneficial to follow the library on Pinterest. SCLD could look at other library accounts to better organize their pin boards and create a welcoming place. One board that is wonderful and useful is Book Crafts. There are different projects that can be done with children of all ages. 

Libraries need to consider their population before creating one of these accounts. Some communities do not use Pinterest or Flickr. The library is to cater to its community. It is also important that a library does not have more accounts than it can maintain. If there are accounts, but people are not maintaining them, the library could appear to have poor resources for the community. 

http://pinterest.com/spcolibrarydist/

Week 9 Blog Post

What are some of the challenges in starting an online community?

Starting an online community is a wonderful idea, but there are some challenges in place. There needs to be a central goal between all the community members. If some want to focus on one topic and others another then the cohesion of the community is compromised. When the community has and maintains a similar goal, there is potential to grow. 

Something that is important but possibly challenging is creating a community where members not only pay attention to the happenings on the site, but also contribute. If only a few people are contributing to the online community, there is not much of a community to build. The purpose of these is to create a place where people feel heard. There needs to be participation from different people with insights and thought about different things. Wikis in public libraries can be very useful to get information to and from many different branches. This is not how it works many time though. From my experience, the administrators or other designated people edit the wiki and the rest of the staff simply read it. This defeats the purpose of an online community. 

Starting something is always difficult because people resist change. Many may say that it does not make sense to have an online community when there is a personal community already established. Getting people to "buy in" to the process could be challenging. Once they are in, the community could easily thrive. 

Week 8 Blog

What do you see as the best applications of twitter in libraries and why?

Twitter is a powerful tool in academic and public libraries. School libraries may find this useful at the secondary levels as well but for elementary, there are better alternatives.

In an academic library, the students could easily find out what resources are available in the library. There are many different uses for the library in an academic setting and often many meetings are held there. This would be an easy way for the campus to keep news of the library current. Many college students are tweeting in their everyday lives. They are spreading news like wildfire and following the news of many different organizations. Twitter has taken this generation by storm and what better way to reach them than in a medium they already use.

In public libraries this tool is useful for its wide spread ability. Many programs can be spoken about and people can be tagged in the tweets. The library could advertise events that promote literacy but are not in the library as well. The community could be reached easier and many more people could see the library as important.

Twitter is quick, simple and ever changing. The library strives to change with the times and this is one way to do this. I think one of the best ways to reach people when they move so quickly is though their social networks. Twitter gives the ability to send messages without many navigational steps. Libraries need to utilize this depending on the community they are in.