libraries

Social Media as Place

by David Lee King on January 19, 2012

My last post about those billboards reminded me about the difference between a library’s normal forms of content (books, DVDs, music CDs, etc) and social media.

What’s that difference?

  • Content – a book, a video, etc – is something you DO. You read a book, you watch a movie.
  • Social Media is a place you visit in order to DO. You visit Facebook in order to share something with your mom.

Think of social media as a crowded room in a pretty social setting. A bar, a party, hanging out with friends, etc. You go there to talk, to share, to listen. It’s a place you visit so that you can do something.

There are a couple of cool intersections though. Things like this:

  • Go to Twitter (a place) to talk (something to do) about a book that everyone’s reading (content).
  • Visiting the library (a place) to use the computer to access Facebook to reconnect with a friend (something to do).

So librarians … use your mad powers of social media to connect with your customers to talk about your content. Then see what happens.

image by Bigstock

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Content Creation, Media Labs, and Hackerspaces

by David Lee King on December 15, 2011

Skokie Public Library's Digital Media Lab

I’ve been thinking about content creation and libraries lately. Right now, we collect content – hence our shelves of stuff. Yes, we do many other things too. But if you look at our buildings, they have been, by and large, designed for collections of stuff – for collecting content.

Some libraries are changing that focus (or at least adding on to it) by enabling customers to create their own content in a variety of ways … and it’s pretty interesting stuff!

I’ll lump what I’m seeing into three loose categories:

  • Digital Media Labs
  • Hackerspaces
  • Coworking spaces

Digital Media Labs: These spaces have content creation tools that allow customers to create and share video, music, photography, and design projects. Customers have access to computers with editing software, cameras, camcorders, microphones, and musical keyboards.

The best examples I’ve seen of this so far are Skokie Public Library’s Digital Media Lab and Chicago Public Library’s YouMedia project. Skokie’s lab has a greenscreen wall for video projects; Youmedia includes a small recording studio space.

Hackerspaces: ”A hackerspace … is a location where people with common interests, often in computers, technology, science, or digital or electronic art (but also in many other realms) can meet, socialise and/or collaborate … hackers can come together to share resources and knowledge to build and make things” (from Wikipedia).

Basically, hackerspaces tend to be public spaces with tools – 3D printers, drill presses, etc. And people make stuff there. Who’s doing this? Well, Allen County Public Library and Fayetteville Free Library are, for starters.

Coworking Spaces: Coworking is a pretty simple concept. Independent workers, freelancers, small business owners, etc. gather in a shared space to share ideas, team up on projects, and get some work done in a more social setting. It’s an alternative to meeting at home or a local coffee shop.

Libraries have unofficially done this for years (how many of you have heard of a patron who runs his/her business from the library? I’ll bet some of you have). But some libraries are going a step or two further by embedding librarians in these spaces, or even offering coworking spaces as part of their services. Meg Knodl, a librarian at Hennepin County Library, is doing this – here’s an article on what Meg is doing. Helsinki City Library has created some coworking spaces – read more about it here.

For more info, check out these articles:

Question – is your library doing something like this? If so, let me know in the comments!

Photo by Skokie Public Library

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Interesting way to get some Twitter Stats

by David Lee King on October 3, 2011

Just saw this thing called “You Are What You Tweet” from Visual.ly, which creates a personalized infographic for your Twitter account. I typed in my personal Twitter account (@davidleeking) to see what happened – but then thought it might be fun to add in my library’s Twitter account.

Here’s what came out – interesting stuff! The “face” of the library? Perhaps! But more importantly, this is a great, visual way to get some idea of what your library’s Twitter account looks like, statistically. Try it out!

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Wisconsin Presentation

by David Lee King on September 30, 2011

Wisconsin Librarians

Wisconsin Librarians listening to DLK

Earlier this week, I spoke at the New Berlin Public Library in Wisconsin for the Waukesha County Federated Library System – Wisconsin has some great librarians for sure!

This was a well-attended talk, and there was some really good discussion afterwards. They are definitely thinking about and planning for the future.

And – just for the attendees – I warned you guys! I said I would post this pic to Flickr, and I did. It also makes a great addition to this post. Text is often much better with visuals… :-)

Anyway – here’s the Slideshare version of my Wisconsin talk. This was a longer presentation (3 hours), and I combined some thoughts from my usual Freak Out presentation and my newer Creating Customer Experience presentations. The content blends together pretty nicely.

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Is the Web Modern Yet?

by David Lee King on August 16, 2011

Today’s web is the “modern web” – css, HTML5 coming soon, websites designed with grids, lots of functionality. Yes-sirree, this is the modern web.

Just like this was a modern car:

This “modern car” could’t move fast enough for today’s modern highways (top speeds of 40-45 mph), wasn’t automatic, and didn’t have a/c, radio, or an iPod hookup. Or windows, for that matter. But I’m guessing that to the buyer back then, it was a pretty modern car, and a major change for them. They had to figure out the details of the change – i.e., what should we do with Bessie the horse? Where do we park it? Where do we get gas? How do we maintain it?

My point? That’s where the web is today – roughly 20 years after the first web page went online, we have today’s “modern” web. It certainly looks pretty modern to us, much like those cars from 1927 probably looked to the buyer.

Guess what? Much like that Model T … I don’t think we’re done yet. With websites or with libraries.

Car photo from Wikipedia

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Why Just This Week?

by David Lee King on April 14, 2011

Yay! It’s National Library Week! It’s the week libraries remind their patrons they should love a librarian. We make buttons. We remind people that a community thrives when they have a good library. We ask people to tell us their stories. We bake cakes.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with National Library Week. It gets press. It gets us librarians organized a bit for at least one week during the year. And it can be a lot of fun, too.

But I get a little miffed during this week. Some libraries pour a lot of money and planning and time and festivities into a week … that no one else really cares about. It’s just a made-up week sponsored by ALA. Sorta like National Health IT Week (ooh! That one’s coming up on September 12-16, 2011. Be there or be square!).

As I was writing this post, I received a canned email from Michael dowling, Director, Chapter Relations Office at ALA, that starts like this: “Thank you for supporting your state’s libraries during National Library Week, the perfect week to let your state legislators and governor know how important libraries are to you!”

Why is this week the perfect week? Why don’t we do this stuff the OTHER 51 weeks of the year?

What would happen if we very actively pushed the idea of libraries, of loving your librarian, of reminding our community that libraries thrive with a good library (and then backing up that claim with proof) ALL YEAR LONG?

Something to think about…

pic by vanhookc

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5 Tips for Editing Videos

by David Lee King on February 24, 2011

This is the third video in WebJunction’s three-part series of tips on how libraries can create better videos. Michael Porter and I host the series.

Make sure to visit WebJunction’s Video Group and add to the conversation and resources there.

This video provides 5 tips on editing videos:

  1. you already have editing software
  2. buy some entry level editing software
  3. make sure to pause
  4. talk to the camera
  5. better sound is huge

So go watch the video for some great entry-level tips on making video, and make sure to comment, too – either comment on this post, or (even better) go visit the WebJunction page for this video, and start a discussion there!

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Libraries on Alltop

by David Lee King on October 19, 2010

libraries on Alltop

Finally! Libraries now have a home on Alltop, along with a bunch of other interesting topics (ok, I emailed them and asked for it – and they listened. Nice.).

You’re familiar with Alltop, right? It’s basically a list of blogs/news sites for a variety of topics. From their About page – “The purpose of Alltop is to help you answer the question, “What’s happening?” in “all the topics” that interest you.” It’s sort of a subject guide for the web.

So, it’s a quick way to get an overview of what’s going on in any given topic. I use it to follow web design, for example – I subscribe to the topic via the RSS feed, then skim through the topics in my RSS reader. It’s easier than hunting down individual blogs that I wouldn’t necessarily know.

Anyway, thought I’d share!

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iPads in Libraries – Some Stories

by David Lee King on June 22, 2010

There are quite a few uses for an iPad in a library setting, and some libraries have already started experimenting. Here are two examples:

#1: Omaha Public Library

From Amy Mather – “For the past few years, the Omaha Public Library’s Summer Reading Program kick-off party has been held in Elmwood Park in Omaha and has attracted up to 2500 kids for kick-off activities including live music, games,  pony rides, etc. Although always a success, we had one glaring “missed opportunity” at these events: signing up kids & teens for the Summer Reading program “online” at an outside venue.”

“Gary Wasdin, director of Omaha Public Library, applied for a local grant to obtain 6 iPads in which we could use to signup kids & adults for the Summer Reading Program. The iPads would allow us to connect to the AT&T’s 3G network and signup patrons on the spot for the Summer Reading Program. On June 9th, we signed up over 500 kids, teens, and adults using iPads. The iPad allowed us to take the mobile library to the next level and we looked really cool too!”

#2: Genesee Valley Educational Partnership

From Christopher Harris – “I am at a school library system, a regional support center funded by NY state to provide services and resources for 22 small, rural school districts in Western NY. Since we got the iPads so late in the year, right now we are just loaning them to teachers and librarians to build awareness in our districts. Over the summer, we will be working on developing some best practice guidelines and suggested uses for the devices. We hope to begin lending them for student use in the fall, though they may be for in-school use only the first year as they remain a very high-value theft target. We have 150 iPod shuffles we send home with students without any problems, so hopefully we will get to that point soon with the iPads as well.”

“Right now, we are loaning books from iBooks. My reading of the terms of use suggest that we can do this within our system. I am also working directly with publishers to secure additional content. We have a number of graphic novel biographies from Rosen, as well as a large collection (125 sci-fi/fantasy books) that I just got from another publisher. As for other apps, we purchased Pages/Keynote/Numbers and have 5 keyboard docks we can send out. We also have Dragon Dictation, Sundry Notes, Complete Shakespeare, Historical Maps, and a few others.”

What are these two libraries doing?

  • fixing a problem (signing up kids online … in a park)
  • experimenting … but also developing guidelines and strategy for use
  • breaking out of the “this is the way we’ve always done it” syndrome
  • applying new technology to traditional library services

Is your library experimenting with iPads? If so – how are you using them?

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CIL2010: Transforming Publishing & Purchasing

by David Lee King on April 15, 2010

Speaker – Stephen Abram

Do you need containers for information? It’s a real question…

What does Open mean?

- there’s line-ups in front of a movie theater? Because they’re engaged
- why do you read? entertainment, relaxation, be successful, learn info, etc
- open source, open infrastructure, open bar, open standards, etc…

Does Open require a container? It shouldn’t

What does Social change?

Think about it.

We all work in social institutions, we work in a transaction-based organization. Counting transactions, clicks, etc – we don’t actually know what they did.

Suddenly, the software and the activity aligns.

How does your library deal with visual material? For visual learners?

Ex – do you want your surgeon to have reviewed videos of successful operations, or do you want them saying “don’t worry – I read an article” ??

What’s driving the need for Open?
- user expectation
- architecture
- the cloud
- APIs
- social media
- experience trends
- personalization

The API cloud … lots of API possibilities…

“You shouldn’t have to dust something that people want…”

What about Apps?
plugins, itunes, etc. first app is usually facebook – for connecting with actual people.

What’s your experience look like?

University experience – what’s it look like? We used to shove people in carrels now we create more meeting and interaction spaces.

Old Containers -
- these are not going away!
- but they are always physical
- physical formats are losing market and mind share
- especially in the discovery and learning space

Traditional experiences:
- school, continuing education – how is it changing?
- open library hours – in the academic world, there’s a second peak between 10pm and 2am – anyone staff for that? Similar to a public library and people getting home from work and school …

New Containers:
- mostly virtual
- ecourses, lessons, websites, portals, sessions, events, digital photo albums, etc
- how do these objects fit into a positive transformational experience?
- we shouldn’t be measuring only transactional clicks.

Measure did the user find what they wanted, and did they enjoy the experience?

types of containers, revised: paragraphs, chapters, clips, graphics, pictures, etc.

Container success – focus not he end user in context. Where are they? In the shower? Driving? Sitting at a desk? Etc.

Content is not enough

focus on the results of the experience

support readers, not authors. learners, not teachers. collectors, not collections. etc.

design for use, not clicks.

Try writing a game that has only three clicks. They engage because there is something happening that engages them every step of the way. The get a coin, get a clue, find a monster, etc.

design for transformations, not transactions.

design for learning styles.

techflash.com e-book universe graphic…

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