Wikis were one of the more foreign things I discussed at my talk. It’s easy to point to Wikipedia and say “Look, a collaboratively built encyclopedia!” but it’s more difficult to explain how a librarian could use it in their own libraries. Today Teleread has a post about using a wiki for a book discussion group where groups can collectively annotate a book club web site. I think this is what the National Science Digital Library was hoping for with its Annotation and Review Services wiki but it seems to have suffered from neglect. Here’s a neat little wiki about blogs.
Author: jessamyn
how to become the nordstroms of public libraries
I was cleaning off my desktop and came across this little helpful list from an old ALA program How to Become the Nordstrom of Public Libraries [word doc] by Robert Spector. You’ll notice most of these items don’t even cost anything.
1. Provide Your Customer With Choices
2. Create An Inviting Place for Your Customers
3. Hire Nice, Motivated People; (Hire the Smile, Train The Skill)
4. Sell The Relationship: Service Your Customers Through The Products And Services You Sell
5. Empower Employees To Take Ownership
6. Dump The Rules: Tear Down The Barriers To Customer Service
7. Promote Teamwork
8. Commit 100% To Customer Service
2. Create An Inviting Place for Your Customers
3. Hire Nice, Motivated People; (Hire the Smile, Train The Skill)
4. Sell The Relationship: Service Your Customers Through The Products And Services You Sell
5. Empower Employees To Take Ownership
6. Dump The Rules: Tear Down The Barriers To Customer Service
7. Promote Teamwork
8. Commit 100% To Customer Service
hi – 20sep
Hi. I gave my talk on “emerging technologies” to the Librarians of the Upper Valley [LUV] in Newport New Hampshire today and it went well. You can read my presentation here. You’ll notice that emerging tech isn’t really the same here as it might be in your locale. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of the librarians I spoke with used email, and many of them had what I would consider to be a healthy skepticism for the licensing and marketing of ebooks and other tech initiatives even though I would consider them as a group “tech-friendly.”
search engines get paid to direct users to for profit sites?
Do you think it’s bad if search engines start receiving revenue for traffic they direct towards other for-profit sites? I’m not entirely sure I understand this article about the Google/Reed Elsevier talks. I also wonder what this means for Scirus which, by its own account, was giving Google a run for its money.
Many scientists post their research on university websites, which can be accessed free of charge. Google directs its users to Reed’s sites, but Reed does not now receive a share of the revenue generated by the traffic. Google has similar revenue-sharing arrangements with other companies, but a deal with Reed would be one of the biggest of its kind. [shelf]
listen to me call John Ashcroft “snotty” on the radio
In the little ripple effect of the Wired article, I was interviewed for BBC World Service which Chuck heard, but apparently no one else did. I had them email me the 4 minute interview as a digital file. If you have broadband and you’d like to hear it, you can download the mpeg here [2.7 M mpeg]