Fun With our Meebo Widget and the Library Catalog

Update: I’m getting some questions on how we did this, so… We have a Horizon system - look for the searchinput.xsl page in your XSL folder. Then find the appropriate chunk of code where the “nothing found” message and table appears, and add the meebome widget there.
And if you have more questions, feel free to [...]

Actual Work Using Facebook

Just a small aside… but I’ve been doing real live work the last two days using facebook (go friend me - David Lee King at facebook)!
Michael Porter, my writing buddy, is to blame for some of it… We write the Internet Spotlight column in Public Libraries Magazine together, and he posted a question to [...]

Wanting Your Opinions about Blog Comments and City Attorneys

A new Facebook friend just asked me a question, and I thought I’d share it with y’all - in hopes of garnering him some more input, or “ammunition” if you will…
Here’s the deal:
“Maybe you can answer a question that our City attorney needs clarified?
She seems to think that if we [a public library] have a [...]

How to Carve a Thanksgiving Turkey (way off-topic)

This Thanksgiving, I have the honors of carving “The Bird” (a 21 pounder, to be exact - we’ve got like 28 people descending upon us tomorrow!). Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do this. Really! I mean, I’ve certainly tackled turkeys before… but my handiwork usually ends up resembling more of a hack-fest than [...]

Ignoring our Digital Community

Lately, I’ve been hearing librarians say some interesting things about incorporating emerging online trends into their already hectic work lives. They’ll say “wow, this is cool” when I give a presentation - but when implementation time arrives - when these busy people actually need to start incorporating some of these new things into their work [...]

blog readability level

How funny - my blog’s reading level (wouldn’t my professors be proud?)…. found here.

Some Thoughts and Quotes about Authenticity

I’m reading Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want, by James H. Gilmore and B. Joseph Pine III (same guys that wrote The Experience Economy). I love this type of book - the focus is still on Pine and Gilmore’s favorite topic, that of the experience economy. But this time, they have narrowed that focus a bit, [...]

Salt Lake City Public Library Presentations

Yesterday, I spoke at Salt Lake City Public Library’s staff day. I actually gave three presentations - one keynote and two breakout sessions… all three were extremely fun talks!
Salt Lake’s staff day theme this year was “Transform.. Adapt… Grow.” Transformation is a strong theme with them right now - for example, take a peek [...]

Big Juicy Twitter Guide

Want to find out more about twitter, but don’t like the screencasts David Free and I created? Well then… you’re in luck! Go read The Big Juicy Twitter Guide, by Caroline Middlebrook. She covers everything - from what is twitter, to twitter tools, to multiplying your twitter audience.

Valuing Users by Allowing Comments

Casey Bisson said this during his Internet Librarian 2007 presentation: “sites that allow comments value their users.” When he said that, my mind started making connections… what a great way to illustrate why the ability to comment is such an amazing thing to include on a website! So riffing off that quote, here are some [...]

keep looking »