June 12th, 2008 Brian Herzog
Library-Wide IT Proficiency Workshop
New England Library Association, Information Technology Section
June 12, 2008 - Bryant University, RI
Gary McCone & Grace Sines
I’m writing today from the NELA-ITS Spring 2008 workshop. The handouts are available below, so I’ll just be annotating with a few points throughout the day, and also trying to add pictures to flickr.
Here are the handouts, that were provided to all attendees on a flash drive:
Part I
Overview of the National Agriculture Library, and the services they offer. Being a national library, they are a resource for everyone, so check them out.
Library-Wide IT Proficiencies
- Why are IT proficiencies important? It’s important to get IT support right the first time with the end-user, so front-line staff need to feel comfortable in both doing the support and managing expectations (we cannot “fix the internet”).
- Keys to success Enable non-IT staff, excellent communications, understand end-users (needs, vocabulary and skills), know where knowledge or information lies within the organization, don’t get stressed - we’re all working towards the same goal
- Get to know your users Know their generation, but get past stereotypes - teach based on how different generations learn
- Expect things to change Technology will change, staff and users needs and skills will change - must expect change and be flexible to accommodate it
- Listen to end-users Meet with end-users in a non-threatening way to learn directly from them what they need (although it might be delicate, focus on what is wrong, because no one is happy with IT), and work to get ongoing feedback
Part II
Roadmap to creating an IT-Savvy Library Staff
- Technology Core Competencies Abilities, knowledge and skill required to do the job - can be itemized based on areas or tasks, such as “printer & copier,” “operating system,” “email,” etc.
- Types Can be task-based (skill: refill printer paper) or descriptive (knowledge: know how to surf the internet)
- Get involvement from everyone Everyone should be involved in defining them and what is needed to achieve them (management, professional staff, front-line staff, etc)
- Plan implementation Everyone knows what’s happening and what to expect, and how competencies can be met
- Resources
- Why have them? Promote customer service, increase motivation, address fear/threats of technology or people with limited skills (and don’t be afraid of providing incentives and praise)
- IT Liaison Program Designate one person from each department to be the lead liaison with the IT department - hopefully someone interested in IT, to be the first point of contact
- Ideas for training Experts in the library leading sessions, creating fact sheets (your own knowledge base), online training/webinars (free and fee), weekly tips. mentoring programs, regional trainers, keep track of what library staff don’t know (FAQs)
- Topics for training Evolving technologies, real-world issues (spam, phishing, flash drives, etc), tour the library website, Google labs, digital rights management, RSS, media formats (flash, audio, interactivity, etc), hardware petting zoo (new gadgets, gizmos and games)
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October 16th, 2007 Brian Herzog
My second day at NELA2007 (Tuesday, the last day of the conference), was a quick one. I just went to two morning sessions, and then left after lunch (I had to come home to pack for my trip tomorrow morning to Omaha).
I blogged both sessions today, and posted them on the NELA2007 blog. They were:
Also, I posted some photographs of the Publick House. I really liked that place.
Right, now I need to go unpack, repack, and whatever else I can fit in before my flight.
annual conference, conference, libraries, library, nela, nela2007, public libraries, public library, publick house, scriblio
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October 15th, 2007 Brian Herzog
Today was a fun day. The wireless was spotty all day (luckily, my awesome hotel, the Publick House, has better wireless connectivity), but the sessions were good.
Here’s what I went to:
I’m sorry for any spelling or other mistakes you find in the posts - I’ve never live blogged before, and it’s hard. Especially when you only type with four fingers.
Also check out some conference photographs. I’ll upload some pictures of my room tomorrow, too - it really must be the best place in town to stay.
Okay, now I’m off to meet librarians for dinner, and then we’re going to see the showing of The Hollywood Librarian. More tomorrow.
conference, libraries, library, nela, nela2007, public libraries, public library, publick house
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April 17th, 2007 Brian Herzog
Even though cil2007 has already been going on for two days, today felt like things really got started. I ended up spending as much time in the exhibit hall as in the sessions, talking to vendors and other librarians. Which is unusual for me, but I learned quite a bit today.
Today’s sessions were good. The first was about the South Carolina State Library’s experience with migrating their website to the Joomla CMS. It wasn’t as in-depth and “here’s how we did it” as I had hoped, but they did talk a bit about frustrations and surprises they encountered along the way, which is good to hear before starting a project. I am hoping to sometime in the future help convert my library’s website from static html to something more dynamic, rssy and all 2.0′d out, and seeing what CMSs are out there helps.
This session complimented nicely the next two I attended – Comments in Catalogs, and then an overview of LibraryThing (and the new LibraryThing for Libraries). This entire track focused on modernizing libraries’ approach to web stuff, and how we can best communicate with patrons – primarily by making sure we look at this communication as a two-way street.
For instance, opening up our websites and catalogs to allow for patrons to comment directly on our materials not only involves patrons in their libraries by giving them ownership, but also provides us with invaluable social data on how and why our materials are used.
And it was this social data that Tim Spaulding is mining and using with LibraryThing. Regular people know what they think of books. Tim’s entire approach has been to let people associate keywords with specific books, and then let the groupings of those keywords speak for themselves. With the widget that is the basis of LibraryThing for Libraries, those groupings, (in the form of tags generating lists of similar books, suggested reading lists, etc) speaks loudly.
If we would only listen. As Tim pointed out, library ILSs and opacs, and the traditional vendors that supply them, are not really listening. Neither is Amazon. These are all companies trying to make money (which is why Amazon is not the ultimate book website. LibraryThing is for readers and about books, whereas Amazon is for booksellers and about making money). But improving the usefulness of our catalogs with third-party plug-ins is a step in the right directions, and hopefully these obviously necessary add-ins will soon becomes standard fare of the big ILS interfaces – or smaller solutions like Scriblio.
Interspersed between sessions I was talking to exhibitors, learning more about what library systems could replace Horizon, and what public pc/print station management software options are out there. I talked to quite a few, and need to sift through my notes (some other time) before I remember what’s what.
After the conference we got a personal tour of Alexandria, VA, dinner in the Old Town at the Union Street Public House, and then enjoyed Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry’s. Tomorrow is much more conferencing, and then flying back to Boston, if the weather allows.
alexandria va, cil 2007, cil2007, conference, conferences, libraries, library, library thing, librarything, public libraries, public library, scriblio, social data, tim spaulding
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