Head’s up – remember that Public Libraries Magazine column that I have been writing with Michael Porter for about five years (wow – 5 years. Really?)?

Well – starting in January, Michael Porter and I will have a new column … and we have moved from Public Libraries Magazine to American Libraries.

Our new column is called Outside/In, and here’s what we plan to write about:

“The Outside/In column will bring information about what’s happening in the larger world of tech trends (outside) to see how they apply to libraries (in). Readers can expect practical information, news and tips about emerging Web and technology trends” (from American Libraries’ press release).

We plan to stuff those columns with great, useful content … and stuff even more into the online version of those columns! So – read it in the magazine, but make sure to visit the online version too. There, you’ll find links and extra online-only content. And you’ll also be able to leave comments there (which we’d really appreciate!).

Here’s the online version of our first article - Calls to action online.

Enjoy!

Photo by way cool cindiann

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The fine folks at Information Today/Plexus Publishing just emailed and told me … my book is now an ebook! Sweet!

So – my book, Designing the Digital Experience: How to Use EXPERIENCE DESIGN Tools & Techniques to Build Websites Customers Love, is now in ebook format at these fine publishers:

• Amazon Kindle version
• Barnes & Noble Nook version
• Ebooks.com, which covers iphone, ipad, Kobo, Sony Rader, PC, and Mac

If you haven’t yet purchased it (or if you have the burning desire to have my book in ebook format and didn’t download a rogue copy), please go buy it!

And one more slightly vague, mysterious plug for my upcoming book – it’s in editing mode at the moment. I have some touch-up work to do on it before sending it back. There are a few more steps after that, too – publishing a book is definitely a multi-step process.

The new book (tentatively called Face2Face) focuses on the nuts and bolts of  using emerging web tools to connect with customers. There are tons of books on emerging web trends, but honestly not too many that include practical “how to” tips for actually using those tools to connect with customers, patrons … and people. So I thought I’d write about that.

Look for it next year!

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My publisher just told me about a review of my book Designing the Digital Experience, and I thought I’d share it with you. The review was published in New Library World (Vol 111, No. 7/8, pg 359-360), and was written by Sarah McNicol.

She nailed it (and I’m not just saying that because it was a positive review). Here’s the start of the review:

“David Lee King is a librarian at the Topeka & Shawnee Country Public Library in Kansas, but he also writes an excellent blog (www.davidleeking.com) on emerging trends in library web sites and digital technology. In this book, he writes in the same accessible and interesting style, focusing on experience design and its role in building web sites. This is not a book about technical specifics, nor a step-to-step guide to building a web site, rather it is a book to make librarians and others, including web developers and marketing professionals, think more deeply about how they design an experience so web site users are “enchanted and captivated.”

Yes! I never intended to write a step-by-step guide to building an experience – how the heck do you do that, anyway? Building experiences, even digital ones, really depends on your individual setting – your staff, your stuff, and your community. My hope is that you read my book, and think. Think about how you can transform a simple website into an interactive experience – much like you already do in your physical buildings.

And … since I’m writing about the book … why not throw in a discount, too? If you buy the book from Information Today before September 5, use this promo code – ITISP. It will give you a discount. Otherwise, buy it from Amazon.

Thanks for reading! And … drumroll please … look for my second book sometime next year! I am a week or so away from sending it to the publisher to do the editing thing to it. Fingers crossed, and more info coming!

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I just wrote a blog post for the Northeast Kansas Library System (NEKLS) about Facebook Pages – titled Facebook Pages for Kansas Libraries.

Here’s how it starts:

“What if there was a way for your library to get the attention of 51% of your local community? For free? Would you do it? I’m guessing so.

Guess what? There IS a way to potentially do that – by using Facebook! Edison Research (they do market research studies, among other things) recently announced that 51% of Americans age 12+ are using Facebook. And this stat is rapidly growing. Some other interesting Facebook facts on the average Facebook user:

• They have 130 friends
• They make 8 friend requests per month
• They spend 15 hours a month on using Facebook
• They visit Facebook 40 times a month, and spend 23 minutes per visit
• They are connected to 80 organizational Facebook Pages, Groups, and Events

Nice statistics, David – but what does this mean for Kansas Libraries and librarians?”

If you’re interested, go read the rest at the NEKLS blog!

And for more interesting reading on Facebook, check these books out (Amazon Affiliate links):

• Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day
• Facebook for Business: How To Market Your Business on Facebook and Get More Sales, New Customers and Brand Awareness (Kindle edition)
• The Facebook Marketing Book
• Likeable Social Media: How to Delight Your Customers, Create an Irresistible Brand, and Be Generally Amazing on Facebook (& Other Social Networks)

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The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change, by Beth Kanter and Allison H. Fine. Good book!

In the first part of the book (pgs 15-20 or so) they talk about the rise of “free agents.” In the nonprofit world, free agents “are individuals working outside of organizations to organize, mobilize, raise funds, and communicate with constituents” (pg 15).

As I read that, I thought “you know, with a little tweaking of that definition, it works pretty well as a definition of some of our “super patrons.” You know who they are, right? For libraries, this is the group that “likes” your Facebook status updates, or comments. A lot. They RT you in Twitter. They are the Mayor of you library in Foursquare. And they tend to show up to your on-site events, too.

Beth and Allison suggest a few “rules of engagement” for their free agents – let’s see if these rules work for library “super patrons” too:

Get to know the free agents. the authors suggest really getting to know the free agents – read their blogs, subscribe to their Twitter feeds, friend them on Facebook. Email them, call them, take them to lunch. Find out why they do what they do.

Does this work for our super patrons? I think so. Why? You need to find out why they like your organization so much, and how you can help them like it more – because if they like it, others probably will, too. Plus, it’s a way for you to interact with a very pro-active library user. Think focus groups on steroids.

Break out of silos. The authors’ goal here is to help non profits break out of their usual cliques and interact with people of similar interests who embrace the same cause, but not necessarily your specific formal organization.

Work for libraries? I think so. Think of a fairly normal public library… most of the public services staff will know Joe, who physically visits the library every Tuesday and Thursday and asks questions at the reference desk. But how about Emily, who frequents their Facebook Page? Very possibly not – or at least, fewer staff will know about her. Sounds like a silo that needs breaking out of.

Young people and free agents need to explore and learn about issues and sort out their feelings about them. The goal here is to get organizations and free agents together, so the formal organizations can be challenged by a new way of thinking.

Work for libraries? It’s certainly worked for my library. We met with approximately 70  community leaders, who helped us create our current strategic plan.

Don’t ignore the newcomer. In the non-profit world, sometimes unknowns do amazing things.

How about in libraries? In Topeka, we have a group of younger professionals who are doing some cool things in Topeka, including doing enough online marketing about Google’s Fiber Internet project that on April Fool’s Day, Google jokingly renamed themselves Topeka. Should the library be networking with that loose-knit group? You betcha.

Keep the welcome sign lit. Free agents don’t always stick around … and that’s ok. We need to stay available and ready to work with them when they come back around, get interested in us again. Definitely works for libraries.

Let them go. OK – this was a lame one – basically another way to say Keep the welcome sign lit…

Don’t be afraid to follow. It doesn’t matter who came up with the idea if it’s a good one. Definitely works for libraries, too!

If I come across some other juicy tidbits from this book, I’ll share it. But go ahead and read it for yourselves, then tell ME what you liked about it!

bookjacket pic by cambodia4kidsorg

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Annual reports – gotta do ‘em, and they’re usually boring as all get out. Right? This year, we decided to be a bit creative and have some fun with ours.

OK – partly, we had to “be creative” this year – the printing budget was cut, so we couldn’t do our normal glossy, 4-color annual report. Sometimes, those types of constraints are a good thing!

So, my library’s Creative Group (marketing, programming, and the web dudes) put their collective creative heads together and came up with a really cool, interactive, all-online annual report. Take a peek!

Lots of parts and pieces came together here – some copywriting, some remixing of content created throughout the year, our director making a video in front of a green screen at WIBW, a local TV news station, and lots of heavy Flash creation (by Michael Perkins, our Digital Services Supervisor).

Even better – last night at our monthly board meeting, the board members loved it … and the local newspaper wrote an article about it, too. How often does YOUR library get an article, in the paper … about your annual report?

Good stuff (and good staff) at my library!

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Information Today sent me a copy of Kathy Dempsey‘s new book, The Accidental Library Marketer (Amazon Associate link). I read it and loved it! Let me tell you a bit about the book.

As Kathy says right in the introduction, on pg. xv – “The Accidental Library Marketer fills a need for library professionals and paraprofessionals who find themselves in an awkward position: they need to promote their libraries and services in the age of the internet, but they’ve never been taught how to do so effectively.”

There’s a lot that’s good in the book (check out my post-it notes in the pic!). Why am I interested in marketing? Well … by being a Digital Branch Manager, I AM part marketer/promoter. Part of my job is sharing the library’s digital branch with Topeka. And that takes … well, marketing and promotion.

Kathy starts with the basics – what IS marketing, anyway? The rest of the book is full of “how to’s” – including creating a marketing plan, basic rules for producing good promotional materials, different ways to get your promotional materials out, and using demographic data as a great starting point. Good stuff indeed – I learned things.

Anything bad about the book? … … well, not the book itself. I was more bummed out that my grad school’s library science program (University of Tennessee) didn’t teach me squat about marketing. Zilch. Seems to be a pretty important topic to me (and it is completely plausible that at the time they DID have classes on marketing, but I wasn’t interested – best-laid plans always seem to change)!

So… go read, go learn. Go market – but not accidentally!

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My book, Designing the Digital Experience, has been spotted in the wild! Or more appropriately, I spotted it at the Barnes and Noble in Topeka, KS.

Which got me to thinking … if you ever happen to see my book in your local bookstore, please take a pic and send it to me (or send me the flickr link), and I’ll post it here – that might be fun (or it could be really embarrassing, if you can’t find the book anywhere …

And for some related book-ish news: I’ll be at Computers in Libraries next week. CIL always puts on a great conference – lots of new emerging trends and practical, “use it tomorrow” tips, all focused on libraries and info professionals. If you are one of those, you should try to get to this conference!

I’ll be speaking a time or two as well – on Tuesday, I’m talking about designing digital experiences, and on Monday night I’ll be doing a book signing at the InfoToday booth.

Make sure to stop by and say hi!

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I recently gave a book-related interview for a local-to-Topeka magazine, TK Magazine. People actually read it! I’ve had a number of people stop me and say they saw “my article” – that’s sorta cool. Here’s the interview:

**********

In the March/April 2008 issue of TK, we introduced you to the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library’s new “Digital Branch” – a library branch that exists entirely on the Web, enabling you to check out books, pick out movies and music, and just about anything you else you want to do at the main library (except you can do it all in your PJs!).

The whiz behind the development of the library’s website [aside - LOTS of very smart people built our website - definitely not just me!] is David Lee King. He has just published his first book, “Designing the Digital Experience,” which aims to help you create a website that offers such a positive digital experience that your visitors will not only return, but will share links to your site with all their friends, family and co-workers.

TK: What is “experience design?”

DK: Experience design is the practice of designing, well, lots of things – products, services, events, and environments – but with the customer’s experience fully in mind. A good example of experience design in action is a visit to two restaurants, McDonalds and Hard Rock Cafe. At McDonald’s, you get a sandwich, and the normal fast-food experience – rather bland (some would argue, just like the sandwich).

But when you visit the Hard Rock Cafe, the “experience” you have while at the restaurant is geared toward a theme – that of rock music. Everything, including the food and drink you order, the decor of the place, t-shirts you can buy, even the background music playing, is themed to provide you with a “rock and roll” experience that you can’t help but notice.

Hard Rock Cafe has designed an experience around rock and roll – only part of the total experience involves the actual food.

TK: How does that relate to my website?

DK: Websites are rapidly changing from electronic brochures about an organization or business to an actual destination, where real-life, real-time transactions take place. Take my bank, for instance. At my bank’s website, I can balance my checkbook, pay bills, and transfer money. I can do actual, real-world things at the website.

Organizations are starting to improve the experience their customers have while at the site in order to better serve their customers.

TK: What will our readers learn from your book?

DK: My book will quickly get you up-to-speed about what digital experience design is, and different approaches to take with your website in regards to digital experience. I also provide ideas to help jump-start your thinking about what your customers experience while at your website, and ways to help improve those experiences.

* original article online at TK Magazine, used by permission

** Photo by Bryan Nelson

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My book has been reported in the wild! Someone told me via twitter that she’d received my book, Designing the Digital Experience: How to Use Experience Design Tools & Techniques to Build Websites Customers Love, from Amazon a few days ago – so that’s cool.

What else is cool? How about giving you chapter 1? Here’s a snippet:

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Experience Economy

“What’s my daughter playing on the computer this evening? Oh, she’s on the American Girl site, and she’s playing Kaya’s Catch of the Day. She also sent an American Girl ecard to her cousin and looked at this year’s new doll. We receive American Girl catalogs and magazines in the mail and check out the latest books from the library. We even visited American Girl Place in Chicago last winter as a birthday surprise (the girls and mom watched a musical, had ate a party, and shopped, while my son and I checked out the science museum and LEGO Store).

What’s going on here? Why is my daughter so into this stuff? Because American Girl is all about the experience. It focuses on the fun of exploring and living as a girl in America’s past. The American Girl people are engaging their market in creative ways -  specifically targeting grade school and middle school girls. They know how to delight their customers. I know – I’ve seen my daughter’s smiles. As we continue to think about experience, let’s consider the experiences of a trip to an amusement park and the purchase of a computer.”

Want more? Here’s the rest of chapter 1!

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