Creating a Mobile Library Website

You're probably sick of hearing about things I picked up at NELA2010, but I'm not done yet.

In the very last session of the conference, Steve Butzel from the Portsmouth (NH) Public Library demonstrated the Online Newsstand he created to boost their online magazine usage. That was neat in itself, but what I really took away from his talk was that I needed to - and easily could - create a version of our website specifically designed for mobile phones.

He showed theirs (in beta), which is simple and awesome. It inspired me to give it a try.

I started on http://chelmsfordlibrary.org/mobile/ yesterday, and am still working on it yet (in fact, I haven't even told anyone at my library yet that I'm doing it - surprise!).

I don't have a cell phone and so haven't tested this on a smartphone yet. I have been using testiphone.com (an online tool Steve highlighted - there are other tools, too), so please give it a try and let me know how it works.

Steve's point was that it could be very simple - hours, directions, events, a contact link, and a purchase suggestion link for patrons who are in a bookstore (great for people with apps like RedLaser). Here's the logic of what to include:

• Hours
• Directions (right now it just links to Google Maps, but I need to also include a link for our branch library)
• Ask a Librarian (haven't created this yet, but it will be a simple email form)
• Purchase Suggestion (also not done, but will be a simple form)
• Upcoming Events (our calendar was not at all mobile-friendly, so I just grabbed the rss feed and ran it through feed2js.org to create just a list of our upcoming events. There could be separate feeds for adult events, childrens events, etc., but that might be overkill)
• Link to the catalog (I also embedded a catalog search, but that might be too much. And I found the catalog isn't entirely mobile-friendly either - we'll be moving to the Evergreen ILS soon, so I'll wait and see on this, otherwise I'd investigate LibAnywhere from LibraryThing, which Steve also mentioned)
• Link back to the main library website for everything else

The next trick will be getting our regular homepage to automatically detect mobile devices and reroute them to the mobile website. I haven't even attempted this yet, but have done a little research.

Apparently, cell phones and smartphones aren't just a fad after all, so having a website that works well on these devices is just as important as a browser-based website - and this will only become more important as a way to serve our patrons on their terms. I was happy with how easy it was. Now I need to find out what my coworkers think.

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Ethan Zuckerman and Bridge Figures

At NELA2010 on Monday, I got to see Ethan Zuckerman speak again. I blogged his "The Internet is NOT Flat" talk two years ago, and although this year he spoke on the same theme, he is dynamic enough to always be both interesting and energizing.

His goal is to broaden people's view of the world, to get us thinking globally as well as locally. Something new in his talk this year was the concept of "bridge figures" - those people in an organization or community that serve as "bridges" between cultures, nations, people, departments, groups, ideas, etc.

These people are valuable because they can make connections others can't, and can move projects forward in new ways via collaborations. They are usually found in the "structural holes" in organizations - the positions that aren't explicitly defined, or the spots where many otherwise divergent areas overlap.

Because of their unique place, they can see things from multiple points of view, see how something will affect different groups, and see what skills each of the different groups can contribute to a situation. They are less susceptible to homophily than most of us (who tend to exist in [and not think beyond] our own social group, department, organization, etc.), and so are better able to develop solutions that address the concerns of all the stakeholders involved.

Libraries often serve this role in general. But can you think of any Bridge Figures within your library?

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NELA2010: Trends in Reference

Session notes from a great NELA2010 interactive discussion on reference and where it's headed:

A panel of experienced reference librarians explores the ever-changing landscape of reference service, with particular emphasis on implementing new and emerging technologies. Panelists include Laura Kohl from Bryant University in Smithfield, RI, Eleanor Sathan from Memorial Hall Library in Andover, MA, and Pingsheng Chen from Worcester (MA) Public Library.

Laura Kohl - What Bryant University is Doing

• Offer text (using a Droid rather than online), email, IM
• Goal has been to differentiate librarians from Google and add value "Librarians: the thinking search engine"
• Bryant's mission is to be high-touch and hands-on - they don't just offer access, they provide instruction to make sure people know how to use things
• All reference desks computers are dual monitor/keyboard (one faces staff, one faces patron), so it's easy for students to participate in the search, rather than just watch
• Use Jing to create on-the-fly instructional screencasts for chat and email reference questions. These are uploaded to Jing's server, which archives them for reuse

How to patrons know what is available? Marketing all over the place.

• Word of mouth - go into classrooms, tell people it's okay to interrupt us"
• Hang up tear-off sheets all around campus (including in the bathrooms)
• Have imprinted scrap paper at the desk with library contact information at the bottom
• Use Moo Cards for business cards to hand out. Also used clear labels to add more contact information to the back of the standard business cards
• On Twitter, Facebook (include redundant links to everything, which helps when regular website is unavailable), integrate into Blackboard
• Use digital signage using rotating powerpoints, images, or anything else - these are in the library and throughout campus
• QR codes on signs to go to websites or download contact information into students' smart phones

How to measure success?

• Qualitative - comments from students (email, texts, etc)
• Quantitative - track stats (face-to-face, phone, text, email, IM) - face-to-face is going down but students staying longer, and IMs are way up

Pingsheng Chen - What Worcester Library is Doing

Worcester is 3rd largest city in New England (behind Boston and Providence)

Trend 1: People need a librarian more than every

• Across the country, library use is going up
• Nature of questions have changed - fewer questions that can be handled in the traditional way, and knowing the collection is no longer enough

Trend 2: Reference librarians are reinventing themselves to make a wide range of new reference services available to meet users' current expectations

• Provide learning opportunities for users, especially for job seekers (computer books, job search/resume help, workshops)
• Provide personal assistance for job seekers or others (consult with a librarian, resume/cover letter help, set up LinkedIn or email account)
• Provide virtual reference services - email, chat (QuestionPoint), text (My Info Quest), ebooks and databases for online 24x7 reference (and build Gale bookshelf)
• Use web 2.0 and social networking tools to provide help in more than one way and in more than one place - blog, wiki, delicious links, Bookletters, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (do them all, because patrons have their own preferences)

Trend 3: Reference services have a bright but challenging future. So, with less money and less staff, we must...

• provide public and free access to ideas and information
• stay current with new technologies and new resources and be able to teach users those information tools and skills
• offer a wide range of reference services to meet users where they are and connect people to information that matters in their lives
• Bottom line: meet users' current expectations (it's about their experience)

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NELA2010: Easy Website Mashups

As part of NELA2010, I'm doing a poster session on Quick and Easy Website Mashups - very simple ways to add more information and utility to library websites.

The image at right is an example of the Resources page on the ChelmsfordHistory.org website (a town-wide history project my library participates in). Embedded in the page are four different mashups, which makes it both more useful to researchers, and easier to maintain. Win-win.

If you're interested in seeing easy examples of adding more content to your website, check it out.

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NELA2010: Trends in Tech Services

I'm at the NELA 2010 annual conference Monday and Tuesday this week, albeit without wifi or open power outlets in the rooms. As a result, my postings will be few and far between, but this session was a good one:

Trends, Trends, Trends: Innovations in Technical Services, Collections and More

What is going on that is leading us to change the way we work “behind the scenes” in our libraries? The Academic Librarians Section (ALS) and the Association of College and Research Libraries/New England chapter (ACRL/NEC) sponsor Consultants Margaret Lourie and Stephen Spohn to examine issues and trends in technical services, cataloging, and the acquisition and maintenance of physical and virtual collections, e-resources and e-books. Explore the larger issues at work that bring new opportunities to provide more resources to users, make it easier for them to find information they need and do all this more effectively and efficiently.

The Past Environment

• Libraries are warehouses of information (books/serials)
• Monopoly on search - they have to come to us and do it our way
• Information in discrete packaging - silos do not overlap
• Low user expectation - they get what they needed, maybe, and go away
• Big building, print collection owned, repository of physical artifacts, you have to come to us
• Catalog is inventory of what you own (later also what we have access to, or lease)
• All cataloging and reference work done in-house (sense that it was our duty to catalog the internet)
• Plenty of staff to do the work
• Sense of "we know what the patrons need" - relates to what was selected, how it was cataloged, where it was shelved

Work flow was like assembly line

• must follow the rules in all aspects (TS, reference, circ, etc)
• patron needs take backseat to process (fear of "doing it wrong" prevents "just doing it right" [according to patron's point of view])

We don't need to throw everything out, but we do need to question the rules to see what is holding us back.

Today's world

• Information and tools are created on the fly by millions of people and is available instantly (gone is the idea of librarians cataloging the internet)
• Mix of owned and leased, digital and physical, common and unique, print-on-demand (feeds into instant-info idea - don't need things on the shelf, just print when people want it), ebooks - libraries are going to own less and less of their materials (this is being driven by vendors and shifting business models) - focus must shift to community space
• Others do search better than us, our job is to help filter, not find (search results are not good enough) - we try to compete, but we're losing
• High user expectation - patrons want simple, complex choices24x7, personalized, all electronic, and easy
• Disaggregation of discrete information packages - full-text articles available, aggregated databases and journal sources becoming less important (can buy individual articles, not just entire journal or entire database)
• Buying books is easier for patrons, because they don't need to keep track of due dates and have library staff make them feel like bad people over $0.25 late fees (use Netflix model - patrons pay a few dollars a month and can keep things as long as they want)
• Catalog should be directory of what you have access to (not inventory of owned materials)

Environmental factors

• People are mobile and want to be social
• Different devices have different capabilities and requirements
• New role for libraries: foster learning and knowledge, collaboration with community and community service
• We must constantly respond to changes and trends in technology
• Bad economy means
  • we need to justify all spending (inherent value is no longer a given - we always try to shield patrons from budget cuts, so how do they know we're in trouble if they never see the blood?)
  • less money for resources
  • we have fewer staff with more work, so we need to maximize staff resources
    • we need to be more efficient
    • eliminate unnecessary tasks (ask yourself, "do anyone care about what I'm doing" for ever task you do)
    • accept "good enough" cataloging (only what patrons need to find information, not exhaustively complete records (for example, patrons/parents want books in a series, and MARC does not do series well - then we should bend the rules so we can provide this service)
  • move work out of the library
  • automate (self-check)
  • accept that we may have to DO LESS

How does all this affect TS

• Avalanche of new content to deal with - not just owned print anymore, streaming, unique
• Focus needs to be on user needs
• multiple metadata schemes
• Collaborating and contribution

What to call patrons?

• users, patrons, clients, customers, members?
• ask them, see what they say - it's all about the relationship

How would we organize libraries from scratch starting today?

• we collect things - collection development, preservation, resource sharing
• allow patrons to discover them - metadata (it's not just about us anymore) and discovery, reference and advisory, patron experience, borrowing
• publish things - user-contributed content, local publications, digital repositories
• transform - instruct patrons on how to move forward, recombining information

Look at what "summon" search can do (from Serial Solutions)- MARVEL does it. Its "preharvested" search results from designated sources - catalog, databases - better than federated search because it's fast and single search box ("Unified" search).

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