Posts filed under ‘Uncategorized’
Slam the Boards!
Today is Slam the Boards day – many librarians will spend some time today on “answer boards,” like Yahoo! Answers, Can’tFindOnGoogle, AnswerBag, and others, answering questions and making it known that the answer has been provided by a librarian!
This has even been picked up by Library Journal, where you can read more about the origination and background of Slam the Boards!
There is a wiki here where you can officially list yourself as a participant and get more information. You can, of course, participate without signing up anywhere. Just go to a public answer board and sign up there (some require that you create an account and log in, etc.) and start answering questions!
There are a lot of good tips on the wiki about how best to participate, remote library resources, and some comments/suggestions from Jessamyn West on this (and a caution with which I agree.)
There has also been discussion and some debate over on the Yahoo! Answers blog. There are some detractors from this idea but I think that if we think of it as just adding our voices and being where the information needs are we can contribute while doing a little self-promotion and marketing. We’re not out to beat or better the answer boards, but (in my opinion) to add ourselves as an option where people may not have thought of libraries before.
Be sure to let everyone know that the question was answered by a librarian at the end of your answer and remind them to think of their library as a resource. There are some suggested signatures and tag lines on the wiki such as The Library is a resource, not a building. Librarians are where you are – online! (I really like that one). You could put your library link, a link to find a local public library, or a link to a library’s virtual or IM reference service.
The point is not to put those answer sites out of business, or annoy them, or take them over, or to do anything negative, but to be where the people and questions are and to let people know that librarians are “answer boards” all day, everyday. I think putting the idea of libraries into peoples’ heads at times when they might not automatically think of them on their own is a very interesting idea.
Even if you only have time to answer just one question and mention that you are a library person that will be one more for today!
If you can’t do it today, do it another day. Many librarians already do spend time on these sites answering questions, like on AskMetaFilter. And, there are many library services/sites already doing it – here in the Garden State, we have the wonderful Q&A NJ (which, by the way, rocked the MTV Video Awards last night with their awesome commercial)!
There is also a space on the wiki to discuss this event after today. If this event is successful, it may be repeated. Hey, maybe you’ll form your own plan to do this as an “event,” for a day, a week, a month, or maybe you’ll just enjoy it and find you want to be a regular answer board person.
Get slammin’!
2007 Summer Reading Program… in Review
This time of year is always a happy and sad time for me. I’m sad because the summer is so close to ending, and I have an annual tradition of regretting not doing more outside. But then again, I am happy because the frantic pace of our Summer Reading Program is over… and that means I can actually take a moment to relax a little, perhaps breathe a bit as well.
All in all, it was a great summer for me. This was the first time that I had full reign of our teens’ Summer Reading Program. I packed it with programs, volunteers, last-second planning, fix-ups, movies and an occasional-running-with-scissors moment… if you know what I mean.
But how did it all go? What worked and what didn’t? Let’s review it in a hot/not fashion.
Hot– The average number of books read by teens who signed up for the Summer Reading Program was 18!
Not– Actual number of participants in the Reading Program was down.
Hot– The “You Never Know What You Can Do With Duct Tape” program. We made wallets, cell phone holders, a couple flowers and even attempted sandals. It was probably my most attended program on a week to week basis. By the way, if you try the sandals, make sure you don’t accidentally expose the duct tape adhesive to the hair on your toes… Yowwww!
Not– The whole “YNK” theme. Maybe it’s just me, but it seemed silly. People may have used the theme but few actually used it as “YNK” (and not without having to clarify what YNK stood for).
Hot– The End of Summer lock-in. It was the first after hours party we had at our library. The teens ate about 8-feet worth of subs, partied heartily and every single one of them was actually picked up on time!
Not– The one single teen at the party who decided to push the boundaries and threw her piece of cake into the face of another person.
Hot– The Shoprite Deli. Originally, the store lost our sub order for the party. So, Dan, the Deli-guy, made good by not just making 10 subs but only charged us half-price because of the mix up.
Not– Shoprite in general. I’m sorry, it’s a Marrazzo’s thing.
Hot– My teen-volunteer coordinator’s ability to have all but 5 of our teens complete the required number of hours and set a record for most volunteers sign-up and completed.
Not– The teen volunteers constantly referring to me as “Hey Mister!”
Hot– The song “Hey Delilah” by the Plain White Ts being constantly played.
Not– Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” being constantly overplayed.
And finally….
Hot– Our brand new Teen furniture finally came in!
Not– Gaylord messed up the color of the furniture and has yet to fix it. But they did offer to let us keep the furniture they sent us in lieu of having to send the right ones.
So, how do I rank the summer on a whole? I’ll go with an 8/10. Better than average but let’s leave some room for improvement.
Quechup spam/scam alert–pass it on
If you get any invites from Quechup, delete them immediately.
If you haven’t already heard ( see here, here, here, or just google quechup) Quechup is, well, rotten.
Although apparently a legit social networking site, if you join they prompt you with one of those, “hey, want to know which of your friends are already on Quechup?” pitches, and ask for your permission to search your online address book (if you have one.) That’s where it all goes south…
Quechup then searches your address book and…wait for it… SENDS AN INVITE IN YOUR NAME TO EVERY EMAIL IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.
Hey marketing geniuses at Quechup, can I ask you a question? In what universe would this tactic be successful and not, oh, say, be the ruin of your company? I’m guessing it’s a universe where people say ‘goodbye’ when they enter the room, and ‘hello’ when they leave it. (Hello Quechup!!)
Nicole Engard to headline 8th Season of Tech Talks at PPL!
This talk is free and open to everyone — registration not required.
If you live within driving distance, consider joining us we kick off the 8th season of Tuesday Technology Talks at Princeton Public Library with Nicole Engard.
Full details can be found on the newly migrated Tech Talk blog.
How addicted are you?
Found via TTW — I couldn’t resist taking the quiz and am surprised at my score!
Mingle2 – Dating Site
History is Made!
Today the bloggers of Library Garden had an historic first — we all finally got together in real life. This photo captures the first time that the entire blog team was assembled in one place at the same time since we began blogging about 18 months ago. We have had 3 or 4 of us together in a room before now, but never all six. In fact, this the first time that Amy and Marie have met face-to-face.
The occasion? A little something we call The Magical Mystery Tour, which will be repeating again next week in South Jersey and later this fall in the Highlands. Full links and details to follow… it was a great day. Thanks to everyone from CJRLC who joined us this morning for some Web 2.0 fun.
Come Work with Me …
… and lots of other great people too! MPOW (aka Princeton Public Library) is seeking an Information Technology Director and we really want someone who is on board with all things 2.0 and can lead us forward. We have a tech savvy staff eager to implement new ideas, a great new building and an ideal location in the heart of downtown Princeton. Here is the official job posting.
Information Technology Director
The Princeton Public Library, located in the heart of downtown Princeton, two blocks from Princeton University, is seeking an experienced information technology professional to shape the future of technology and digital initiatives in its new Information Technology Director position.
The ideal candidate for this exciting new position is a strategic thinker able to anticipate upcoming technology needs and identify emerging solutions, while overseeing the daily operation of all library systems, including installations, maintenance, upgrades, troubleshooting and systems integration. The Information Technology Director will be responsible for forming and managing an IT support team, implementing, monitoring and maintaining operational standards and procedures, and ensuring a high level of service and functionality to library users and staff.
Our environment consists of
- Innovative Millenium Integrated Library System
- Two self checkout computers with RFID
- Over 100 public work stations with Microsoft Office Suite
- Computer & Wireless Network
- Over 70 staff work stations
- Mail Servers
- ·Technology Center with Smart Board
- Community Room with media equipment
- Phone Network
- Alarm & Security Systems
Experience and background
Extensive experience in systems administration along with demonstrated success in a leadership role is required. Experience with library applications and Web 2.0 is highly desired. A bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in computer science/information technology or a related field is required. Certification as a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer is also desirable.
Qualified candidates are asked to email a cover letter and resume, including salary requirements (resumes without salary requirements will not be considered) to careers@princetonlibrary.org with IT Director listed in the subject line. No phone inquires, please.
We offer an excellent benefits package including 22 vacation days.
An Equal Opportunity Employer
The Bottom Line: Libraries Boost the Economy!
I love it when I come across articles that quantitatively prove the value of public libraries, and it seems like I have read several lately. The one I just finished reading is too good not to share!
Study: Libraries offer big returns.
In specific, it is facts such as the one quoted below that we all need to be able to call upon when our budgets are challenged:
The bottom-line conclusion: Pennsylvania public libraries provide a “return on investment” of $5.50 for every $1 of taxpayer funding.
If every state had a study where we could prove our worth in such a manner to the voting public it would be a wonderful world.
BookLovers Wiki: We hardly Knew Ye!
Summer Reading Clubs are well under way at public libraries across the country, including MPOW. I have had several emails and even some phone calls inquiring about the BookLovers Wiki and why we have not updated it. I finally had time to update today, but my update was merely to announce that the BookLovers Wiki is on a hiatus for this summer. I hope we can bring it back again next summer, but that will depend on a variety of factors (some of which are out of my control).
We fully intended to revive the wiki for this summers edition of the adult reading club. In fact, we had hopes of moving it to MediaWiki so that we could fully realize our original plan of creating cross indexes to the reviews (much like the TabWiki). We wanted to categorize the reviews by genre, author, title, reviewer, etc. this year. Even if we didn’t have time to migrate to MediaWiki, we were really excited to see if the addition of WYSIWYG editing to PBwiki would boost the number of reviews submitted by the public. Last year we had a few brave individuals who learned to submit reviews directly, but most (in the end) were still emailed to us and then entered by teen volunteers or staff — many of our bibioliphiles just couldn’t seem to grasp wiki code well enough to enter reviews on their own.
The BookLovers Wiki was a success in many ways, even if it had some shortcomings. We devised our plan to use a wiki for summer reading on a fairly short time frame, but it served its purpose amazingly well. It certainly raised awareness in the community about wikis in general and what they are (many atteneded classes about wikis, so even if they didn’t feel comfortable with the code at least they understood how they worked). It was an experiment, and (as far as experiments go) it was a good one.
So, why no wiki this summer? The wiki’s furlough status was made at the same time the decision was made to upgrade our III catalog to include ratings and reviews. Essentially, we want to get our community involved with adding reviews and ratings to our online catalog and, since we went live with the upgrade on June 1st, the summer reading club was the perfect vehicle to raise awareness about our catalogs newest features.
Also, we had been doing the BookLovers theme for a few years and we wanted a change of pace for the club. This year we have gone with a theme of “Read Around the World: Your Passport to Summer Reading” and it has been a hit. We have integrated our summer programming to the theme, have generated many interesting reading lists which we are now putting on our web site and will be having a Book Brunch at the end of the summer for participants.
I really do encourage other libraries to get involved with wiki projects for their communities, whether it is for book reviews or another program/project. The staff and patrons at PPL both learned much more than we anticipated from running the BookLovers Wiki and I am sure other communities would have a similar experience. I am always willing to talk about the project with those considering a wiki, so please do not hesitate to drop me a line or give me a call.
Help Shape the Future of Libraries in NJ!
From an e-mail from Peggy Cadigan, Consultant for Innovation and Communication, at the New Jersey State Library. (I’m so happy to see this come out of the futures conference that was held – my app is already 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 https://mail01.palsplus.org/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.njstatelib.org/News/Blue%2520Ribbon%2520Panel.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
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