David Lee King

social media | emerging trends | libraries

Leadership Greater Topeka – Awesome Local Leadership Program

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My Leadership Greater Topeka Diploma!

For the last 5 months, I’ve been part of a really cool local community leadership training program called Leadership Greater Topeka. And I just graduated!

What is Leadership Greater Topeka? Here’s a blurb from their website:

“The goals are to challenge and motivate traditional and non-traditional leaders by teaching adaptive leadership competencies through information, dialogue and hands-on experience, so participants are better prepared to strengthen and transform our community.”

So what did we do?

We met twice a month for full-day sessions. During those sessions, we learned about different leadership styles – both formal leadership and grassroots, community, volunteer-led leadership.

And we experienced Topeka. We visited a variety of organizations, including: Brown vs. the Board of Education, the county correctional facility, an architectural design firm, the local homeless shelter, the state capitol, the local public housing authority, a private jet company … and the library (’cause we are awesome that way).

We also heard from a variety of Topekans: entrepreneurs – really successful ones, and young entrepreneurs just starting out. We heard from lobbyists. We talked to prisoners and CEOs. We heard from a lot of people living in different parts of Topeka about how to make Topeka a better place.

I also met a bunch of really cool people (my 30-some classmates), took a strengths finder assessment, and discovered a lot about where I live that I didn’t know much about.

Because of this class, I have a better appreciation for Topeka, and have an understanding of ways I can help make it better. And learned some leadership skills that I can use at work and in my community.

So – very successful program!

If your community has a similar local leadership program … by all means, see how you can participate! It’s a great way to learn more about where you live, and how – especially for librarians – we can reach outside of our walls to help improve our community.

Nothing wrong with that!

Chatbots and Libraries

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This is my continuing series on emerging technology trends and libraries. This week’s trend explores the world of Chatbots.

What’s a Chatbot? Chatbots are called many things besides just “chatbot.” You might also know them as conversational agents, intelligent chatbots, interactive agents, or talkbots.

Chatbots are pretty much apps that talk back to you (my definition). Here’s a better definition from Wordstream: “… software applications that mimic written or spoken human speech for the purposes of simulating a conversation or interaction with a real person.”

This interaction is mostly done via chat boxes on websites. But they can also be found in call centers. In a call center environment, chatbots take care of very low-level transactions, like changing a password, requesting an account balance, or scheduling an appointment without having to talk to a real person.

The same basic transactions can be handled with a text-based chatbot on a website.

Chatbots use Natural Language Processing, much like virtual assistants such as Google Assistant, or Apple Siri. They attempt to sound (or read) very “real,” so the transaction has a more human feel to it. Very different from a phone tree in a call center or typing answers to questions on a web-based form.

Examples of Chatbots include:

  • Health-based. Some chatbots are used in medical diagnoses, dementia patient monitoring, and basic information gathering.
  • Facebook Messenger and Twitter DMs – these are both good places to see chatbots in action.
  • Chatbots within mobile apps. My bank app has one (Erica in the Bank of America app). The Starbucks app has a chatbot that helps you order coffee. Lyft has one that works with Facebook Messenger and Amazon Echo. Fandango also has a app that works with Facebook Messenger.
  • eBay’s chatbot works with Google Assistant.

Chatbots in the library?

How about having a chatbot for the library? Chatbots answer basic, always-asked questions. A library chatbot could answer a variety of questions, like:

  • Questions about hours, locations, and upcoming events. Maybe it could even capture event registrations.
  • With a good API connection, a chatbot could tell a customer when their books are due, or take fine payment information.
  • Facebook Messenger chatbots. You could build your chatbots to operate within Facebook Messenger. If you get a lot of questions there, it’s definitely something to think about.
  • Chat-based reference. Have a chat-based reference service? It’s very possible your chatbot could answer basic questions, freeing up your staff’s time to answer harder questions or focus on other tasks.

Articles for more information about Chatbots:

Build your own chatbot! Here are a couple of chatbot builder tools to check out (all mostly built on the Facebook Messenger platform):

Does your library use chatbots? Please share!

 

Technology change, wifi, and Library Needs

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Well that’s a lame-o title.

Anyway … I’m teaching a 4-week online class on emerging technology trends over at Infopeople. They do some really nice online classes (mine included 🙂 ). Check them out if you haven’t.

I needed to read through some of my students assignments last night. But of course, that was right around the same time that my internet decided to stop working. And stayed not working for a good 24 hours.

Five years ago, that would have been a problem for me. I would have needed to wait for the next day (and the AT&T technician). Or, I could have gone to a coffee shop or back to the library and their awesome wifi (we really do have awesome wifi).

Thankfully, it’s 2017 and I have a smartphone that lets me tether and use the cell phone signal to access the internet. It’s slower, but it also works. I got my class stuff done pretty much like normal, then went on with my evening (wifi came back on at 5pm the next day).

It struck me that there are multiple ways for me to access the internet. I have options, and have enough tech savvy that I can work aground an issue if needed. I even have a way to connect to the web on me at all times (my iPhone). Or any number of places to get wifi – coffee shops, the library, our local university, Walmart of all places, the mall, etc.

This also made me think just how important it is for libraries to offer some pretty basic services. Yes, having a bunch of books is a basic service of the library. It’s expected. How about wifi? I think that’s also a basic service in today’s modern library. It’s expected. And you need to budget accordingly. Today’s successful library can’t have “just ok” wifi, or wifi that doesn’t really work well (and yes, there are libraries that still don’t have adequate wifi).

I get it. Budgets are hard, and we aren’t always the ones who get to set, approve and pass the final budget. But we are the ones to advocate for it and for our customers.

So don’t just ask for better public internet and wifi. Ask for it, demand it, and back it up with usage numbers. Share data like how many people are using the service, how many are turned away, how often is the system at or over capacity, etc.

Also share stories – stories of customers having positive experiences using your library’s wifi service.

And make friends with the people who make those decisions. Turn them into advocates and champions for the library. Why? Because your customers need those basic services from you. They expect it. So work to meet those expectations.

Many of your customers depend on the library’s wifi to get stuff done these days. To connect with family, get a job, do research, etc.  It’s important. Important enough to not simply offer it, but to do it well.

image by transCam

Digital Inclusion at the Library – New Article at Emerald

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Digital inclusion was a hot topic in the library world in 2016. Are you familiar with the phrase? Digital Inclusion is simply helping people of all walks of life access the internet and use technology.

Want the rest of the article? You can find it at Emerald Group Publishing.

In the article, I discuss what digital inclusion is, what my library is doing in that area, and have some links to more reading on digital inclusion and libraries.

Go check it out!

Community and Colleges – 2 Interviews

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communitysignalI recently participated in a couple of interviews. Here’s some info about both of them:

  1. Community Signal podcast – I talked with Patrick O’Keefe about libraries and their communities, both online and offline versions. It was a fun talk! We covered a wide range of material, including digital branches and what online community professionals can learn from libraries. Check out the podcast (and the article) here.
  2. McKee Library interview – I participated in an email interview with McKee Library, and they posted it this week. In the interview, they asked me 4 questions: What am I working now, How have libraries been part of my life, What is your favorite book and why, and my advice for today’s college students. Check out my answers here.

Interviews are always fun to do, and hopefully provide some good thoughts and discussion, too. Enjoy!