PLA 2008, Day 3: It Ain’t Necessarily So: Challenging the Assumptions of Legacy Librarianship

Speakers: George Needham and Joan Frye Williams
Aside - if you’ve never heard them speak, you need to. They are great presenters, and have great things to say. The combination is awesome!
Aside - George pulled up iTunes before the presentation and is playing some cool blues as background music. What a cool way to add a [...]

PLA 2008, Day 2: Think Outside the Book: Online Services as Outreach

Sarah Cofer, Barbara Pitney, Kristen Becker
What do they blog about?

they use the blog as their outreach
“we totally blog about it” - mp3 player services, tutor stuff, etc
teens like personal connections - they promote their services, but they also talk about themselves - ex - librarian dyed her hair purple, and she blogged about it
trying to [...]

PLA 2008, Day 2: The Cutting Edge: The Latest Information on Web 2.0

Michael Stephens, John Blyberg and Jen Maney
Jen’s title: Let’s Get Excited (and realistic) about Web 2.0
“not really a technological phenomenon at all; it’s a social one, enabled by technology.”
Can’t understand new tools in the abstract - you have to use them.
They have an emerging technologies team - they help evaluate services and new stuff
They think [...]

PLA 2008 Day 1: Dewey or Don’t We?

Maricopa County Library District Perry Branch dumped Dewey
Marshall Shore was one of the speakers (there were two others from his library as well)
Customers wanted a comfortable, browsable space - they thought of the concept of third space, and merchandising type stuff
signage - looked good 2 feet away, completely unreadable at 30 feet away
all the staff [...]

PLA 2008 Day 1: Take Your Online Services to the Next Level: Audio, Video and More!

Speaker: Michelle Jeske
Why - make connections with a new audience.
Sunnyvale public library podcasts - audio and video broadcasts… cool! Nice looking site - blog-based
Charlotte and Mecklenberg example - LibraryLoft author presentation
NYPL example (they’re really been transforming lately - fun to watch)
Denver Public Library- Stories for Kids podcasts- teen tech week - podcasts created by teens [...]

PLA 2008 Day 1: You’re Fired! When the Ideal Candidate Becomes the Problem Employee

Speakers: Paula Alston, Sean O’Connell, Jody Treadway
Common mistakes:- a warm body to fill the vacant position- if you have reservations, don’t hire that person
warning danger avoid- the whinny candidate- the helpless candidate- the candidate who has to be talked into taking the job- the candidate who has conditions on taking the job- the candidate [...]

PLA 2008 Day 1: What Does it Take to be Good at Reference in the Age of Google?

Speaker: Joseph Janes
Title: What Does it Take to be Good at Reference in the Age of Google?
Aside - Sorta humorous - moderator asked us to turn off our cell phones… in THIS session about emerging trends in the age of google! Hee. Probably should have said “put cell phones on mute.”
“we can find things they [...]

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Above and Beyond Customer Service

Something cool happened in my library a couple days ago. Take a peek at this picture, and let me explain the scene:
This elderly couple (you can’t see him, but there’s a man sitting down in the pic with the woman) came to the library with a specific task in mind - to look at some [...]

Library Camp Kansas 2008: Final Session

We came back together at the end of the day to share… here’s what I heard:
hearing each other’s idea talk
sharing between public and academics
felt like they had to choose…
Had a wonderful experience hearing what academics are doing… “they are so way out there… compared to a little public library”
More timely topics at this unconference [...]

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