Meme: Twitter is Like…
I started a little meme on Twitter on Thursday, which David Free picked up on and posted about over on his blog, David’s Random Stuff. I thought I’d add a little (brief) backstory and fill in some of the tweets that David missed. (One of the interesting things about Twitter of course, is that depending on who we follow or who follows us, we all saw – or didn’t see- different responses. )
Like David, I’m not naming names, but I thought it would be interesting to add timestamps to give everyone an idea of how this played out chronologically. I think there were some brilliant comments, so I hope the authors step forward and take credit.
Brief backstory: Janie Hermann and I were chatting about the lack of recent posts on LG and Janie jokingly suggested that maybe Twitter, the great sucker of time, was to blame. I threw out the comment that “Twitter is like therapy… without the progress.” Janie suggested (dared?) that I share that thought on Twitter. I thought it might make for an interesting meme so seconds later (at 11:10) I threw it out there to the 50 or so people in my twitterverse. This is what transpired:
- NEW TWITTER MEME: TWITTER IS LIKE… (I’ll go first) Twitter is like therapy… without the progress. (11:10)
- Twitter is like ADD without the Ritalin (11:19)
- Twitter is like Jaiku…. I’m bad at analogies (11:23)
- Twitter is like whippits (11:24)
- Twitter is like a celestial bulletin board. (11:24)
- Twitter is like a crack addiction without all the mugging, prostitution, and running from the cops. (11:26)
- Twitter is also like Paris Hilton: slutty and unfortunate. 11:26)
- Twitter is like your drunk uncle at Christmas, sometimes you want the madness to stop, but you still wanna see where it’s going. (11:30)
- Twitter is like passing notes during class. (11:31)
- Twitter is like [name redacted] – You don’t like it until you try it (11:32)
- twitter is like the background noise of the universe, kind of a low murmur that lets you know you’re not alone (aww!) (11:37)
- Twitter is like cheating on your blog (11:38)
- Twitter is like crack for procrastinators. (11:41)
- Twitter is like sex without a condom. Sure it’s fun, but you will probably regret it later. (11:42)
- Twitter is like…. so. y’know. … What was I doing? (11:43)
- Twitter is like compressed infobursts, effin ay! (11:45)
- Heck, Twitter *is* compressed infobursts (11:45)
- Twitter is like an inside joke: no one gets why you do it unless they do it (11:46)
- Twitter is like sucking out my braaains… (11:46)
- Twitter is like being stuck in a massive kaleidoscope- ooh something shiny! (11:56)
- Twitter is like drinks with @dwfree – makes you feel all nice and warm inside (12:04)
- Twitter is like drunk sex w/ a friend: not nearly as intimate as you expected it to be, but still sexy & satisfying. (12:04)
- Twitter is like drunk sex w/[the person who just posted about drunk sex.] (12:09)
- Twitter is like being in a room with your “friends”, saying something really loud, and hoping that someone hears you. (12:18)
- Twitter is like having 10 IM windows open at once. (12:27)
- George Costanza: “It’s like going to the bathroom in front of a lot of people and not caring.” Jerry: [pause] “It’s not like that at all.” (12:28)
- Twitter is, like, another reason I, like, totally, looove innovation (12:39)
- Twitter is like a party in my phone! (12:39)
- Twitter is, like, totally awesome. (ok really i’m done. lunch over) (12:43)
- Twitter is like the sound a tree makes when it falls in the forest — whether anyone is there or not. (12:48)
- Twitter is quotidian packet hops (12:51)
- Twitter is like finding out your favorite candy bar now comes in smaller easier to eat packaging…for free (12:55)
- Twitter is like is like a bus full of crazy people talking to themselves. Except you get to choose who is on the bus. (1:12)
- (Twitter is instant gratification.) (1:12)
- Twitter is like a dry skin condition. It itches, and the more you scratch it, the more it itches. (But it feels soooo good to scratch…) (1:22)
Do we encourage our employees to leave?
If someone leaves your system for the same job in another (i.e. lateral move), that should get you thinking.
If the average new-employee retention is less two years before they move on to another position, you definitely want to take notice.
If your system sees people leave and then watches them flourish in another position, you shouldn’t brag that “they started off in this system.” It should raise questions as to why your system couldn’t seem to hold on to him/her.
Employee retention has always been difficult in our profession but, sometimes, we unknownngly encourage people to leave.
The list below is a compilation of reasons I’ve heard Librarians give for leaving their positions. If any of these sounds like a familiar complaint of former employees, you may want to consider it, especially from the employee’s perspective.
Pay– Bosses, Directors and Board Members tend to roll their eyes when this issue is brought up. However, this is going to be a key factor for applicants. If two positions are posted and one offers more money than the other it is no surprise which will get more applications. Furthermore, I know several people over the last two years who have earned up to ten thousand dollars a year difference in pay simply by moving, laterally, into another system. How much of a difference can that be? How about the difference of affording your own rent or having to live with someone else.
Vacation and/or Holidays– Some New Jersey Library systems offer 10 days of vacation a year while others offer 24+ days. This does not include federal, personal, floating holidays or sick time. If everything else is equal (pay, benefits, etc.) which system would you rather work for?
Hours and/or Nights– How many nights a week do you require your librarians to work? How many Saturdays and/or Sundays a month?
Yes, we are in public services but we are also highly educated professionals with families, friends and social needs. On the nights that I work I don’t get to see my children or wife. One night is tough enough but two nights a week would be nearly impossible and a bigger strain on my family as it means my wife would have to feed, bathe and put both kids to bed by herself. The effects of working multiple nights are further reaching than just the employee’s schedule.
Professional Investment– Some systems have a budget for training and others do not. Some systems encourage employees to pursue professional interests and others look for a homogeneous staff. Employees who feel invested tend to support their systems and be happier as they know they may not get the same treatment elsewhere. This can also be a big draw for new employees as it shows the system’s interest in professional development. And consider this; the more an employee can pursue their interest, the more they are noticed in the professional realm as an expert in that subject which, in turn, is good for the system’s noticability.
Advancement– A professor once told me that Librarians tend to have to promote themselves and that means they leave the system they are working in. Obviously, we cannot promote everyone as there are fewer positions the higher up we go. But, other than steady employment, what are we doing to encourage these people to stay?
If employees leave because of these reasons it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are in a bad system but it should rasie a warning flag. As systems, we are in competition with each other to employ the best possible professionals. Although we may hire that professional, what are we doing to keep him/her?
Tetris, Library Arcade and Brownies
I was going to save these for a little “Friday Fun” at the end of the week, but I have a few spare minutes between meetings so I am sharing early. Here are three totally unrelated items that in the last 24 hours have made me sit back and go “Whoa, is that ever cool”.
The first is library-related: The Library Arcade at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. I have not had much of a chance to play, but will definitely be trying to master both of these games at some point.
The seconds is just pure geek fun: Mikontalolights created by students in Finland who transformed a school dorm in to the world’s largest Tetris game. Here it is in action:
And finally, a little something that I have added to my holiday wish list. I am an edge lover and Baker’s Edge is like an answer to my prayers (and I also wonder how come I didn’t think of this myself!). Isn’t it a think of beauty?
Happy Birthday Mark Twain
Last night Princeton Public Library had a standing room only crowd for a program that paid tribute to Mark Twain on the eve of his 172nd birthday.
Twain’s appearance at the library was performed by Alan Kitty, a local actor who has played Twain throughout much of his career. Last night’s performance of his original one man show Mark Twain’s Last Stand was the perfect way to celebrate the birth of this American icon — especially given that it was in a town that Twain himself visited and dubbed to be better than Heaven (at least for him).
Happy Birthday Mr. Clemens!
More photos from the night can be found on the PPL Flickr Account.
Ideas to Post Ratio
I was thinking this morning about all the ideas I have had for posts that have never made it to this blog. I have not kept count so I can not truly quantify, but I am fairly certain that if I tracked it in some way that the statistics would show that my current Ideas to Post Ratio (hereafter known as IPR) would be 10:1 at best. That is to say, for every 10 ideas I think I want to blog about only 1 actually ever gets fully written and posted here. I would like my IPR to be down around 3:1, which is where it probably was about a year ago, but somehow my days fly by and the fingers never find time to hit the keyboard to write what is swirling in my brain.
My ideas for posts tend to come when I am driving to work or when in the shower since they are often the only “alone time” I get in a day (working parents with preschoolers will understand that the shower is a sanctuary of peace). I sometimes fully write these posts as I lather and rinse, refining them as I dry off. Then I open the bathroom door and somehow my brain loses all those sentences that I formed in my steamy sanctuary before I can actually find time to sit down to write in the late evening hours.
I am making one of my New Year’s resolution early this year, which is to better my IPR so that I am at least in the 5:1 range instead of my current miserable ratio. In fact, I might even start to track my ideas so I can quantify this (and to keep me on track for my resolution).
Anyone else having this same issue lately? I have an abundance of reasons why my IPR stands where it is, but really no good excuse. I would also love it if others would share their IPR here — partly to make myself feel better and partly because I am curious.
Convenience
In my last post on The Human Touch I discussed how a warm, caring human being trumped a crappy, highly inconvenient system. And now for something completely different…
A few weeks ago I went into Philly to meet an old friend for dinner. Mindy had just moved back to the Philly area after too long an absence. She was happy to be returning to the city life, and particularly happy to find that there was an organic food co-op a block from her new place. Over dinner she related the following story.
After getting moved in, Mindy grabbed her environmentally friendly canvas bag and headed down the block to the co-op to do some shopping. The co-op’s a fair-sized place, spread over two floors. Lots of veggies, fruits, meats, dairy, knickknacks, and a very active community bulletin board. There’s lot’s to see, so Mindy takes her time, browsing through the store, taking it all in, while slowly adding items to her canvas bag.
Little by little Mindy starts to feel a little weird. People are watching her. Giving her strange looks. Dirty looks? What’s going on? Maybe she’s been out in the sticks too long and is just not use to the unfriendly ways of east coast city life? No, people are definitely watching her. And following her. Like maybe she’s a thief…
After this goes on for about 1/2 an hour, the manager approaches her and says, “Is there some reason you’re putting items in that canvas bag?” Mindy replies, “Um, yes. Because I’m shopping.” The manager informs her in a none-too-friendly tone that all customers must use the little plastic baskets for shopping. Mindy says, “Oh, well, I didn’t know that.” So she grabs a plastic basket and transfers all of her items into it, wondering why no one told her sooner.
She finishes up her shopping, goes to the cashier, pays for her items and goes to the door. At the door she transfers her items from the basket to her canvas bag and walks out.
She’s about 1/2 way down the block when the manager comes running out of the store calling, “Miss!! Miss!!”. He chases her down, stops her, and says, “I’m sorry but I have to see what’s in your bag.” Mindy replies, “I’m sorry, are you accusing me of stealing? Here’s my receipt.” The manager insists he has to see what’s in the bag. Mindy says, “Fine” and dumps the contents onto the sidewalk. The manager inventories the purchase against the receipt, and then leaves.
There was no apology.
OK, so here’s the punchline. When Mindy told me this story I said, “So I guess you’re never going back.” Sheepishly she tells me she’s already been back. And she’s signed up to become a member. WHAAA??? Mindy says, “It’s just so convenient!”
The thing is, I understand. Convenience is something we all value. In Mindy’s case, she valued convenience so much it outweighed the crappy treatment she received. Of course, the co-op is not only convenient, it offers a niche service. You can’t go to the Acme and get the same goods, so the co-op can get away with lousy customer service. They’re not only the closest game in town, they’re the only game in town. Literally.
In my last post, I related how a human touch — truly exemplary service — helped make up for a decided lack of convenience. However Mindy’s story revealed how convenience can also trump bad service, especially if the service fills a specific need that is otherwise difficult to fill.
Ideally, of course, we want our libraries to be both convenient and customer-service oriented. We want well-designed systems AND the warmth of caring human contact. Unlike the organic food co-op, however, libraries no longer have the luxury of providing niche market services.
In the good old days (prior to 1994) many of our customers had to come to us. We were the only game in town. But I’m afraid that our prior near-monopoly on information services made some of us a bit too comfortable. We were able to get away with clunky systems, restrictive policies, and unfriendly staff. Customers didn’t have much of a choice. Well, those days are gone, and they’re not coming back. That doesn’t mean libraries don’t have a lot to offer, but it does mean we have to be much more aware of the value that our customers place on convenience and friendly service if we expect to remain relevant.
As some of you may know, I’m involved in the management of New Jersey’s 24/7 VR service, QandANJ.org. We celebrated our 6th anniversary in October, and in those six years we’ve collected thousands of customer comments. Two of the most frequent comments we receive are variations on, “Wow, it was great to have a live person helping me.” and “Wow, this was just so convenient.” I’m proud to be associated with QandANJ because we’re translating (or “operationalizing”) one of librarianship’s core values: removing the barriers between people and information. It’s personal service with anytime/anywhere convenience that our customers value.
I’m not suggesting that every library needs to be doing virtual reference (although I do think every library should at least be available through IM.) I am suggesting that if libraries are to thrive, it’s imperative that we audit our staff and services with a critical eye toward ramping up convenience and bringing a human touch to all of our services and all primary points of contact with our customers (our front doors, our phone systems, and our websites.)
Library Garden is the Annoyed Librarian
The mystery is solved. Look no further: We are the Annoyed Librarian. The theory that the Annoyed Librarian is really a hive mind or a team of bloggers is true and it us, the bloggers of LG, who are really the AL. Yes we tend to write about 2.0 stuff and customer service, BUT that is all just a rouse to cover up our real identity.
As a group, we have many different things that annoy each and every one of us on a daily basis and the diversity of our jobs gives us lots of content for writing as the AL. One of the team will start a post, then the rest of us will add a paragraph or two (that is why all AL posts are so long — a large blog team means long posts when you write round robin).
We have discovered that it really is a lot more fun to be annoyed and anonymous than to blog under your real identity. You can say things you would never dream of saying when you are
anonymous and that, dear readers, is the fun.
Now that we have outed ourselves, however, we fear that it will not be as fun for others to read AL — after all, half the fun is trying to figure out who is behind the pseudonym.
"I Was Kind of Confused b4" – Audio of Radford on Chat Reference at Oregon VR Summit ’07
On June 7, 2007 I blogged about a keynote talk I gave on June 1, 2007 at the Oregon Virtual Reference Summit 2007 organized by Caleb Tucker-Raymond, Oregon Statewide Digital Reference Services Coordinator for the L-net: Oregon Libraries Network consortium. The talk just became available as an audio file on the open web. (Thanks Caleb!) I promised to post to the blog when this happened, so am now able to make good on my promise.
If you’d like to listen to this presentation, click here: “I Was Kind of Confused b4” Interpersonal Communication Research in Virtual Reference.”
The talk focuses on the information-seeking and communication behaviors of the youngest Millennials – the Screenagers. I discuss their predilections and characteristics (multi-tasking, impatience, practicality, convenience, etc.) as well as their perceptions of librarians (“I don’t trust librarians, I trust Google”) and fear of cyber-predators in chat rooms that extends to chat librarians (“I don’t like to chat with strangers.”)
In addition, I comment on some recommendations for improving chat reference encounters with teens . These recommendations were derived from focus groups with screenagers and from in-depth chat reference transcript analysis as part of the IMLS grant project Seeking Synchronicity.
The keynote was about 50 minutes, followed by Q and A, so be forewarned that it is long. Hey, feel free (of course!) to check your e-mail while listening, or to multi-task with other activities 😉
I begin by talking about my background and how I got interested in studying chat reference, so if you want to get to the research results, fast forward through the first 15 mins. or so.
The Human Touch
The Human Touch (in which a crazy-bad “system” is made less bad by a live, caring human being)
In November I’m going to be staffing a booth at New Jersey’s annual teacher’s convention to help promote our statewide virtual reference service QandANJ. A few months ago I filled out the necessary forms to reserve booth space on the exhibit floor in the Atlantic City Convention Center. Soon after, I was sent the “exhibitor’s manual” which included another myriad of forms to fill out. So many options! Do we want a table? How many? What size? A table drape? What color? Carpet? Plush? Regular? Color? Chairs? How many? Wastebasket? Do you want the booth vacuumed? How often? Do you want electricity? What kind? (yup, there’s different kinds.) Internet Access? Telephone? Help setting up the booth? Taking it down? Will you be sending boxes of stuff? To the warehouse? To the booth? Etc. Etc.
I suppose choice is good, but the quality of the forms that would (hopefully) reflect my choices were not so good. Small type. Poor design. Lot’s of repetition. Yesterday I spent the better part of the morning attempting to fill out these many poorly-designed forms, all written in 6 pt type. There were eleven different forms. Eleven. And they had to be faxed to three different places! Each form asked for the same information: Name, phone, email, fax, credit card. Name, phone, email, fax, credit card. Name, phone, email, fax, credit card. Wouldn’t it have been great if I could have gone to a single website, entered this information ONCE, then made my selections electronically? Hey, a boy can dream, can’t he?
As it was, my morning was eaten up, my eyes were crossing, but there was a single saving grace: The exhibitor hotline. I had called the exhibitor hotline months ago when I first ordered the booth. In fact, I called it five times in one day (the initial forms I used to order the booth were no less confusing.) Each time I called, the phone was answered on the first ring by Kris. Kris was pleasant. Kris was helpful. Kris was friendly. When I called, I was feeling equal parts stressed, frustrated, and stupid. Kris talked to me like I wasn’t stupid. She comforted me and made it clear that I could call as often as I needed to. So I did.
Yesterday morning I renewed my contact with Kris. She was still there, picking up the phone after one ring with a friendly greeting, helping me figure out the forms and understand the ramifications of my choices. She even made a few phone calls to assure that I’d get the early-bird rate even though I was a few days past the deadline (“Oh, since this is your first time exhibiting…”)
So yes, the “system” sucked, and yes my eyes hurt, but in the end, to be honest, I felt fairly positive about the whole thing. Sure, I would have preferred a system that didn’t require me to interact with another human being (and I’m an extrovert). And I certainly would have preferred a system that didn’t take 3 hours of my time to communicate some relatively simple choices. But having a live person–a warm, caring, informed live person–available to help me gave a HUGE boost to my overall level of satisfaction.
So I ask: What happens when our customers need help? Whether it’s a reference question, a query about branch hours, or someone trying to find out what time storytime starts. Do they get a live person? Do they get an informed, warm, caring live person? Is the phone answered after one ring? Two rings? Five rings?
Kris was my escape valve. Ultimately it’s better to design our systems so we don’t need an escape valve. After all, what happens when Kris retires, or takes another job? Without her on the other end of the exhibitor hotline I would have been in hell. But even the best systems can only benefit from having an escape valve. A Kris who picks up after one ring. A human touch.
If asked to evaluate my experience as a prospective exhibitor at NJEA I’d give failing grades for convenience, but an A plus for the customer service I received from Kris. Overall, a solid B.
In my next post (on convenience) I’m going to describe a very different experience…
Reason #454 to Love Being a Librarian
Inspired by a post over at A Wandering Eyre, I have decided to post yet another reason to love being a librarian: you are sometimes lucky enough to be the muse for a poet!
I was reluctant to post this at first, but after telling Amy about this yesterday over snacks at Applebee’s (and seeing Michelle’s post today), I guess I will share. Here’s the back story…
Romina Gutierrez and I had a tour and lunch with the some of the staff at Princeton University Press a few weeks back. While at their offices we noticed that they had the newest biography on Garibaldi on display, it was hot off their presses and being released that week. We were able to get a freebie copy during the course of our conversation – but it was not for the PPL collection that we wanted the freebie. We wanted to get this for one of our favorite long-time customers, an elderly gentleman who takes a bus some distance and then walks several blocks to reach us so he can do research on Garibaldi at our library. He has been here on an almost daily for as long as I have worked here (9+ years). The staff all know him by name and we have literally purchased or done an ILL on every book and article every published about Garibaldi by this point.
When he was given his own copy of the new Garibaldi biography to keep, he was deeply moved – we knew he would be happy, but we had no idea how happy. Here is the poem he wrote and typed on his typewriter and mailed to administration to give his thanks. It brings a smile to my face to read it (I have it on my bulletin board next to my desk).
O Janie! O Romina!
Wish I knew a better way,
To let my heart (thank you) say,
For your generous book gift,
Giving my sagging spirit a lift.
Newest bio, I do not own,
On “Garibaldi” which I’m prone.
To some librarians, well known,
Thrives the noble gestures pull,
Into that zone of the wonderful.
Eye-ing graciousness hue
Embedded in Library’s two.
In parting, I will plead
Words are _______ next to the deed.
— A.C.
Anyone care to share Reason #455 to love being a librarian? Perhaps the making of a meme…
Library Garden 