http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/30/qa-from-my-sirsidynix-webcast/ David Lee King is the Digital Branch & Services Manager at the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He has spoken in the U.S. and Canada about emerging trends, website usability and management, digital experience planning, and managing techie staff, and has been published in many library-related journals. David writes the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries Magazine with Michael Porter. David maintains a blog at http://www.davidleeking.com Thu, 09 Feb 2012 15:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/30/qa-from-my-sirsidynix-webcast/comment-page-1/#comment-9560 Lissa Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:13:19 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/30/qa-from-my-sirsidynix-webcast/#comment-9560 Regarding the Topeka Library's personalized reading list service -- we adapted the idea from a PLA presentation in 2006 from the Williamsburg Regional Library http://www.wrl.org/ -- and it has indeed been popular. We have paper forms available in the library, but the majority of our users request a list from our web form, mainly from an occasional banner ad in the center of our webpage that clicks through to the form. In fact, when we are overwhelmed by requests for personalized lists (sometimes we receive more than 10 a day) we simply take down the banner ad from the site until we are caught up. (The link is always available on the left-side menus under Readers Corner/Papercuts.) THe flexibility in online marketing allows us to control somewhat the influx in new requests. Even though we already provided LOTS of book reviews, book lists, a literary blog, links to book sites, Novelist subscription, etc. for our users on our website, by offering this personalized service that gives a human interaction (albeit one without actual face-to-face communication) we are connecting with our readers in a new way. It's not faster for them (our turnaround is 2-3 weeks), it's not easier for us (we create new lists for each user instead of handing them a boilerplate bookmark), it's not less work (this is a time consuming project for several staff members). But the users are demonstrating (through their multitude of requests) that it's something they want us to continue to provide. And they e-mail us that they loved getting a list tailored to their taste. I'm not sure if this whole concept is in the spirit of Library 2.0 or not - the lists are privately returned, the users aren't adding anything to the site, their information is used only for their own list. It was simply a convenient time technologically for us to offer this service online as well as in print. Hope that helps -- for more info, just contact us using the Personalized Reading List form on the library's website! Regarding the Topeka Library’s personalized reading list service — we adapted the idea from a PLA presentation in 2006 from the Williamsburg Regional Library http://www.wrl.org/ — and it has indeed been popular. We have paper forms available in the library, but the majority of our users request a list from our web form, mainly from an occasional banner ad in the center of our webpage that clicks through to the form. In fact, when we are overwhelmed by requests for personalized lists (sometimes we receive more than 10 a day) we simply take down the banner ad from the site until we are caught up. (The link is always available on the left-side menus under Readers Corner/Papercuts.) THe flexibility in online marketing allows us to control somewhat the influx in new requests. Even though we already provided LOTS of book reviews, book lists, a literary blog, links to book sites, Novelist subscription, etc. for our users on our website, by offering this personalized service that gives a human interaction (albeit one without actual face-to-face communication) we are connecting with our readers in a new way. It’s not faster for them (our turnaround is 2-3 weeks), it’s not easier for us (we create new lists for each user instead of handing them a boilerplate bookmark), it’s not less work (this is a time consuming project for several staff members). But the users are demonstrating (through their multitude of requests) that it’s something they want us to continue to provide. And they e-mail us that they loved getting a list tailored to their taste. I’m not sure if this whole concept is in the spirit of Library 2.0 or not – the lists are privately returned, the users aren’t adding anything to the site, their information is used only for their own list. It was simply a convenient time technologically for us to offer this service online as well as in print. Hope that helps — for more info, just contact us using the Personalized Reading List form on the library’s website!

]]> http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/30/qa-from-my-sirsidynix-webcast/comment-page-1/#comment-25841 Lissa Wed, 05 Sep 2007 05:13:00 +0000 http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/30/qa-from-my-sirsidynix-webcast/#comment-25841 Regarding the Topeka Library's personalized reading list service -- we adapted the idea from a PLA presentation in 2006 from the Williamsburg Regional Library http://www.wrl.org/ -- and it has indeed been popular. We have paper forms available in the library, but the majority of our users request a list from our web form, mainly from an occasional banner ad in the center of our webpage that clicks through to the form. In fact, when we are overwhelmed by requests for personalized lists (sometimes we receive more than 10 a day) we simply take down the banner ad from the site until we are caught up. (The link is always available on the left-side menus under Readers Corner/Papercuts.) THe flexibility in online marketing allows us to control somewhat the influx in new requests. Even though we already provided LOTS of book reviews, book lists, a literary blog, links to book sites, Novelist subscription, etc. for our users on our website, by offering this personalized service that gives a human interaction (albeit one without actual face-to-face communication) we are connecting with our readers in a new way. It's not faster for them (our turnaround is 2-3 weeks), it's not easier for us (we create new lists for each user instead of handing them a boilerplate bookmark), it's not less work (this is a time consuming project for several staff members). But the users are demonstrating (through their multitude of requests) that it's something they want us to continue to provide. And they e-mail us that they loved getting a list tailored to their taste. I'm not sure if this whole concept is in the spirit of Library 2.0 or not - the lists are privately returned, the users aren't adding anything to the site, their information is used only for their own list. It was simply a convenient time technologically for us to offer this service online as well as in print. Hope that helps -- for more info, just contact us using the Personalized Reading List form on the library's website! Regarding the Topeka Library’s personalized reading list service — we adapted the idea from a PLA presentation in 2006 from the Williamsburg Regional Library http://www.wrl.org/ — and it has indeed been popular. We have paper forms available in the library, but the majority of our users request a list from our web form, mainly from an occasional banner ad in the center of our webpage that clicks through to the form. In fact, when we are overwhelmed by requests for personalized lists (sometimes we receive more than 10 a day) we simply take down the banner ad from the site until we are caught up. (The link is always available on the left-side menus under Readers Corner/Papercuts.) THe flexibility in online marketing allows us to control somewhat the influx in new requests. Even though we already provided LOTS of book reviews, book lists, a literary blog, links to book sites, Novelist subscription, etc. for our users on our website, by offering this personalized service that gives a human interaction (albeit one without actual face-to-face communication) we are connecting with our readers in a new way. It’s not faster for them (our turnaround is 2-3 weeks), it’s not easier for us (we create new lists for each user instead of handing them a boilerplate bookmark), it’s not less work (this is a time consuming project for several staff members). But the users are demonstrating (through their multitude of requests) that it’s something they want us to continue to provide. And they e-mail us that they loved getting a list tailored to their taste. I’m not sure if this whole concept is in the spirit of Library 2.0 or not – the lists are privately returned, the users aren’t adding anything to the site, their information is used only for their own list. It was simply a convenient time technologically for us to offer this service online as well as in print. Hope that helps — for more info, just contact us using the Personalized Reading List form on the library’s website!

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