My project is to establish a blog for a public library undergoing expansion. The blog will share information about the expansion project and include photos of the progress using Flickr.

The target library

The target library is a small public library. It serves a town of approximately 8100 residents and had circulation of 85,092 in 2006. Current staff composition includes 3 F/T and 11 P/T employees (some working only 1-2 days a month). While the planning process for the expansion has been going on for over a year, the physical work is just beginning. The library has desired a new, easier communication mechanism (only one part time associate can update the web page) throughout the process, but was not sure how to approach it.

Purpose/justification for the project

This project serves a few purposes;

1)       It will provide communication to the community on the progress of the expansion project. As part of the expansion, the children’s department was moved to an off-iste location. Parents who only use the children’s part of the library may not have convenient access to progress.

2)       It will provide visibility to other libraries which may wish to follow the progress of the expansion

3)       It will be the first real foray into use the Web 2.0 tools for this library. Although the reference librarian has utilized some of the tools within her sphere (e.g. a blog with other librarians) it has never been employed in a manner which reaches the remainder of the staff or the public.

Technology and requirements for use

The plan is to use Blogger (www.blogger.com), and flickr (www.flickr.com) to provide blog and photo management services. These tools provide the benefit of allowing easier updates (multiple people can utilize the easier blog technology as opposed to the one person who is trained to update the web) and the use of flickr circumvents issues with storage space on the library server allowing multiple photos to be viewed. There are no plans to upgrade from the basic packages offered at no cost. Recognizing the photo limit on flickr, this may need to be re-evaluated at a later point. The current plan is to maintain the slideshows as part of the blog for a 6 month period and then remove the early links and photos allowing room for new. All photos will be saved to a CD and a hardcopy photo journal/memory book will be maintained.

I will be establishing the accounts and formatting the blog. The library director, reference librarian and full time library assistant will be trained one on one for posting of blog entries and creation of slideshows. Comments will be moderated by the library director.

Step by step implementation plan

1 -     Discuss concept with the library director (complete)

2 -     Provide sample blog and slideshow (complete)

3 -     Create blog and photo accounts (complete)

4 -     Format blog; this step includes reconciliation with the library director to insure inclusion of desired features and address areas of concern (complete)

5 -     Gather photos and load to flickr (on-going)

6 -     Create welcome and May/June blog posting (in process)

7 -     Get approval on final version

8 -     Go live with blog

9 -     Train associates

10 -   Reference librarian to add link to web page

11 -   Advertise the blog in the library

12 -   After amount of time, evaluate process and incorporate improvements as necessary

Negative consequences/Areas of concern

1)       Audience: this blog may receive little use. There is not a lot of evidence that the staff or patrons are users of Web 2.0 tools.

Mitigation plan: a link will be added to the library web page and the blog will be advertised

2)       Maintenance: although the current plan is to update the blog on a monthly basis except in cases of rapid progression or noteworthy milestone, it could easily be a task that drops to the bottom of a priority list based on a heavy workload.

Mitigation plan: A reminder through outlook will be established to jog the memory of those involved. Multiple people will be trained to perform updates.

3)       Technical issues: None are known. The reference librarian does not anticipate any firewall or security issues. Unwanted comments or spam are possible.

Mitigation plan: The current plan allows for comments but only after approval. A comment policy will be created and posted. A word entry option has been chosen to help reduce the possibility of spam. Since the primary purpose of this blog is to provide information, the comment option will be discontinued if it is found to be more trouble than it is worth.

Screenshots

Included is a screen shot of the blog along with the draft of the first flickr slideshow. The current plan is to release the blog in early July and include photos through end of June. The comments policy, welcome post and May/June posting have all been submitted to the director for final editing

Screenshot

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26648564@N03/2602727764/

Slide show

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php?id=51032

We had a class meeting the other day. I forgot to write about it. I have not kept a diary or journal since I was a little girl and am still not in the habit of documenting my thoughts. That aside, several class members and the instructors met at SCSU and some of us tied in on line. It did not take long for me to be wishing for a nice old style teleconference with all its faults. I got to see a few faces, and I could hear a word or two every now and then, but to a great degree it created the feeling of being on the outside looking in. Almost reinforcing a division between on-ground and on-line learning as opposed to overcoming it. We have many multi-site meetings at my place of business, and no system is without its faults.   I guess it is a good reminder that all technologies have their limitations, and it is important to understand them when reviewing their use for any given application.

““

“Looking back, it makes me smile. I remember reading Denise’s blog entry at the start of class and thinking, what are all these things and what did I think I was doing signing up for this class! It is nice to reread it and not only recognize the various tools listed, but have at least a rudimentary opinion formed as to whether they are a good fit for me at this point in time.”

The above was written for the class blog, but thought I would add it to mine also. After all, it does document what I feel is a milestone for me. Not only do I recognize the terms, but I have gained enough confidence to be willing to play with them, and look into others. I am somewhat amazed that class is almost over. But the work will carry on. I have my project, and I know that I will have my hand in that blog for the duration just based on the library director’s trepidation. And I haven’t given up on a staff wiki, but tackling that as a substitute I think would be just too much on top of the rest of life. I am really pleased I overcame my concerns and took this class. And I am thankful for the patience of my fellow classmates and the instructors.

As I have been going back over notes to make sure I have covered all the assignments, and in the right place, I realized a couple of things.

1) I signed up for bloglines early on to test it out. But I never look there. Time to sign out of that one, although if I could remember I could get the Dilbert cartoon everyday, and since I am in one of those businesses that it mimics so well… at least I know the tool is there for the future.

2) I created some things in flickr that I tagged with the class tag, but never posted to my blog. I have included link for them here. I can’t say that they are very good, especially in light of some of the one’s my classmates made, but it was fun testing out the possibilities.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26648564@N03/2578578245/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26648564@N03/2571134991/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/26648564@N03/2569456894/

I think I am starting to reach my technology limit and understand even more than I did before, the risk as well as the upside, to the technology tools that “make our life easier”. I sit to work on my final project…um let me see if anything new has been added to our class wiki. And is there anyone in our Meebo chat room? No, not at the moment. Now what was I doing, oh yes, the final project. But wait, maybe I should check out del.icio.us and see if anyone has added anything that I want to tag, or follow to something I want to tag. Has anything new been added to our class blog? How about my classmates’ blogs. Oh and let me just check flickr to see if anyone added any great ideas that I might have missed on the what’s new section of the class blog. My final project- oh yes, that old thing. Well let me look at my notes and the blog site that I am setting up….but maybe a staff wiki would be better….

I contacted the Skokie Public library http://www.skokielibrary.info/s_info/getref.asp  for my IM chat.  They were great. They responded right away that they were with a patron and would I mind waiting.( I like the audio of meebo so that I could be doing other things and know when they were ready for me.) From there we ‘talked’ about many aspects of reference IM. This individual set up the service at their library. They stated they had great support from supervision and varying levels of support from other staff.  IM and email get about the same usage, but phone and onsite visits still get the most use by a large margin.  This individual felt that IM is great for brief questions, but they always take email addresses and phone numbers for longer questions. He/she stated a great deal depends on the patron and whether they are wiling to sit through a longer IM session while answers are obtained. They do occasionally get overwhelmed by requests coming from many different avenues, but felt this situation exists with or without IM in play. This service is available during open hours and they have a service similar to our InforAnytime called AskAway for 24 hours coverage. This individual felt the same level of satisfaction for a completed reference transaction via IM or other, but felt that many time IM patrons are more grateful. They stated 3 things they felt most important for someone starting this type of service

1: Get the service out there as much as possible. If you can, embed chat widgets in places patrons might get stuck.

2. Take it easy. IM-speak is by nature more relaxed. This doesn’t mean you can’t conduct a full-fledged reference interview, though.

3. Take advantage of the technology. If you can send an article, a link, or a file through the service, people will be impressed and remember the level of service that IM offers.

Overall, it was a great experience. I had tried the InforAnytime once with a reference question, and it left me cold. Never had the desire to try again. Now, I think I will have to reconsider…

I tried to contact a few libraries today. Most were offline. One just did want to chat and suggested I try on Sunday or Monday to chat with the reference services coordinator. Sigh. Maybe tomorrow…

I visited our Meebo chat room a couple of times. Had a lovely chat with Rebecca one time and some classmates another. IM is not something I use. I did participate in one session through Web Vista for a class.  Found it both useful and frustrating. With many people online, following the threads of conversation can be difficult. The variable color font in Meebo helps make it easier to sort out the participants, which in turn helps track the conversation. My other frustration is really due to my own lack of typing skills. In a group situation you need to be quick to be able to participate in a meaningful way, and I am not. Part of that is learning the abbreviations etc. and some is probably practice.  I think it a great tool and one that I will likely use on the future. The ready exchange of information versus waiting for replies and responding in email, is fantastic.  I am hoping to try and join on the night that class is held and gain some more experience.

Another week of firsts. This week we worked on a wiki.  Again I was pleasantly surprised at the ease of it. Edit a page, no problem. Add a page, a-okay. I was surprised at the number of wikis out there. I was pleased at some of the resources (e.g. http://librarywikis.pbwiki.com/) to find wikis.  I was confused by the copyright issues. And still am. I really like the ability to track changes, discuss potential changes or thoughts and have a documented record.  I guess in my current job, objective evidence and configuration control are so critical; it strikes a pleasing note here. Even if someone does not detail their change, you can find the who and pursue that why and what.

As soon as I started playing with this tool, I immediately thought how great it would be for my local library to provide guidance on various activities. A wiki with pages on how to deal with donations with a link to the policy, suggestions to try for fixing computer problems, or to extend time, or even to capture the shut down routine would be a big help to a staff made up of part time people.  Or at least to the poor sub like me who may only deal with these things on very rare occasions.  But quite frankly, I do not think the culture is there yet.  We will just have to see how the first library blog is accepted and then maybe in the future….

It is a lesson I seem to have to learn over and over again. Back things up! I learned again today when I accidentally deleted one of the items I had tagged on del.icio.us. A mistype of the fingers…and it was gone. I could not find an “undo delete” option (which I think is my all time favorite option). It was too old to show up on the “what’s new” listing, and I did not see an archive option for that. So one saved site on wikis is gone. I will probably stumble across it again if it meant to be, but for now I am angry with myself for forgetting the basic rule of computers – back up everything!