July 4th, 2009 Brian Herzog
Here’s an appropriate reference question for the Independence Day weekend:
One quirk about living in New England is that many communities got their names from olde England. As such, about once a month my Chelmsford Library is contacted by someone who mistakes us for the library in Chelmsford, Essex, UK*.
To wit:
To: askus /at/ mvlc.org
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 6:52 AM
Subject: Thanks!
On Tuesday I visited Chelmsford with the aim of exploring the surrounding countryside and history. Unfortunately there was no easily found visitor center, or indeed a map with a “you are here” spot on it.
Fortunately I found the public library, and given some wonderful suggestions and a town map. I promptly forgot the name of the young lady working at the help desk who provided all this information, but please thank her very much and possibly consider a supplementary income for her as a town ambassador?
I had one of the nicest afternoons of English countryside I have ever experienced and it would have not happened without her enthusiasm and knowledge.
Once again, thanks a million. I more future visitors to your town have a great day like I did. Cheers!
A very nice message, but the “English countryside” phrase indicated he contacted the wrong Chelmsford Library.
Whenever this happens, I reply to the person saying that while we’re always happy to help however we can, they’re probably better off contacting the other Chelmsford Library. I also included a note encouraging him to forward his message to them, because feedback like this is important to libraries.
Shortly thereafter, I got this message back:
To: askus /at/ mvlc.org
Sent: Friday, June 26, 2009 11:17 AM
Subject: RE: Thanks!
Ah! You librarians are a special breed. Thanks for your googling, forgive my ignorance and have a wonderful day. To think that us Antipodeans love to poke fun at a perceived American lack of geographical knowledge. And I email the wrong continent. If you’re ever in London Brian, have lunch on me.
It’s nice that after 200+ years, we in the colonies are getting the recognition we deserve.
But best of all, he included a link to the restaurant he owns in London. I removed it here for privacy reasons, but that’s definitely more than enough incentive to hop across the pond.
The rewards of being a librarian are boundless. I’m telling you, fortune and glory.
*We even once got an email from someone in
Mackay, Queensland, Australia, because our branch is named the
Anna C. MacKay Library.
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Posted under Library, Reference Question | 1 Comment »
July 2nd, 2009 Brian Herzog
Speaking of embedding things into library websites, I wanted to highlight a book due out later this year.
In the interest of full disclosure, I contributed a chapter to this book. I don’t get any kickback from the profits (except for a free copy), but I am really looking forward to it.
Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data is written by librarians for librarians, on how we can expand our websites and web presence to better serve our patrons. Nicole Engard pulled us all together and edited the book.
More information about the book and authors is available at http://mashups.web2learning.net. It’s not due out until September, but just skimming the table of contents makes me pretty sure I’ll learn a lot from the other authors.
Writing my chapter made me feel like I was back in library school working on a paper, but I am glad to have done it. Plus, I’ll soon be able to tell people I’m a “published author.” People ask me why I became a librarian, and my answer is always the same: fortune and glory, kid, fortune and glory.
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Posted under Books, Library, Technology | 1 Comment »
June 30th, 2009 Brian Herzog
This post is unfortunately timely - by now you’ve heard of the cuts facing Ohio libraries.
I haven’t said anything about this because it’s been covered elsewhere, but it really worries me. I have friends and family that both work in and regularly use Ohio libraries. And I know how badly a 5% cut affected my library this year - I can’t even imagine a 50% cut.
The value of libraries is difficult to illustrate (one might say immeasurable), which makes proposals like Gov. Strickland’s possible. Libraries need to make a special effort to demonstrate our role and importance in our communities.
Two years ago I posted about the Library Use Value Calculator - a tool to let patrons calculate how much their library use is worth to them. I’ve been working with the ALA on version 2.0 of the library calculator (as part of their Tough Times Toolkit), and even though it’s still in beta, I wanted to get it out there.
The new version looks and works the same, it’s just easier for libraries to implement. Instead of having to muck around with coding, libraries can now embed it in their website web 2.0-style, just by copy/pasting a bit of code (like a YouTube video).
Please check out the new calculator, and add it to your library website - let me know if you need help. And if you are in a position to do so, please Support Ohio Libraries.
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Posted under Library, Marketing | 6 Comments »
June 27th, 2009 Brian Herzog
This week’s reference question is one of my own. I use Bloglines to read rss feeds, and a couple weeks ago they changed their interface.
I didn’t like the changes, so I used their Contact Form to express this and ask if there was an option to change it back. This was two weeks ago, and I still haven’t gotten a reply.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps Bloglines used Twitter, and maybe I could ask them that way. I found an @bloglines user, but even though he’s using the Bloglines logo, he indicates it’s not an official Bloglines account.
I asked him my question anyway (noticing he was fielding the exact same question a lot lately), and got a reply in 5 hours. And best of all, his suggestion worked perfectly, and now I’m back to using Bloglines happily, the way that suits me best.
But this experience got me thinking. It’s easy for organizations to let email messages slide, because only that one person knows they sent it in. But Twitter is public, and if someone is questioning or complaining, ignoring it won’t make it go away.
Unofficial or not, @bloglines did exactly what I would have expected an organization to do - respond quickly and helpfully.
This is what librarians do, and it reminded me of Kate’s post about their library suggestion box. I like that she’s publicly displaying suggestions and answers, because in this case, one-to-many communication seems better than one-to-one.
So I thought, why not encourage patrons to use Twitter as a suggestion box? Being public, the library has to address patrons’ concerns, but it also means all patrons can benefit from the answer, rather than just one.
I know a public forum isn’t appropriate for every issue, and anonymity can be necessary, so I think traditional suggestion boxes (whether physical or online form) are still useful. But I bet there are some libraries already doing this very thing. I know I came late to Twitter, but it really is turning out to be a very useful tool after all.
Tags: bloglines, box, customer service, libraries, Library, public, Reference Question, Service, suggestion, suggestions, twitter See Also
Posted under Library, Marketing, Reference Question, Service | 6 Comments »
June 23rd, 2009 Brian Herzog
My library started a new readers advisory program this summer, so I’ve been updating our reading suggestions webpage. A neat website I just added is bookseer.com.
Bookseer is like many “what should I read next” websites, except it is impressively simple. Just type a title and author into their fun interface, and it gives reading suggestions based on Amazon.com and Librarything.com data.
Of course, the suggestions will only be as good as the data. But I like that it’s building on something already available, and automatically updated, rather than relying on manual edits. And it’s simple, free, creative, and doesn’t require an account.
via @EchoYouBack, MELIBS-L and LifeHacker
Tags: advisory, book, Books, bookseer bookseer.com, libraries, Library, public, reader, readers, readersadvisory, reading, suggestion, suggestions See Also
Posted under Library, Resources | 3 Comments »
