It's like spelling... bad spellers just don't know how to fix the problem.
teh intarnets
money and priority issues, it's not having the money, it's being reluctant to part with it
useful
| useless less useful
|
- comparison shop incl. online vendors
- implementation w/ short term technology plan
- "I'll look it up" [useful in so many ways]
- "Let's try it"
- tech lion tamer
|
- buy what's at the local retailer
- reactive technology. change happens when things break. five year plans
- "I don't know" [dead end]
- "let's form a committee"
- tech victim
|
There will be new things to understand and new ways to understand them. The more you know, the better you help others.
Everyone in the library can help.
One library director explains
"L2 is, to me, a service philosophy built upon three things; a willingness to change and try new things; a willingness to constantly re-evaluate our service offerings; and finally, a willingness to look outside our own world for solutions, be they technology-driven or not "
BUT, technology is where you save money, this decade. Seriously.
First, there is Web 2.0. The public is getting used to having greater degrees of interaction with their institutions via technology. The technology allows libraries to do more outreach to more people without much more in the way of resources. [example from my trip... rental car, plane tickets, "ask a question" this is NOT the cheeseburger in the library problem but more the "why don't we use what we have?" question]
- How libraries can take advantage of Web/Library 2.0
- patron notification via email: overdues, holds, events
- interactive web content: blogs, wikis, book reviews
- right tool for the right job [use the brick and mortar building for the brick and mortar programs and services, know when to say goodbye]
- using the technology to do the same jobs better, faster and with more familiarity.
Caution: "new" can mean buzzy, hypey, flakey and hazy, among other things [there will be more trial and error, it's sounds trendy and buzzword-y, old dogs, new tricks, right now it's still a bunch of white guy pundits talking about it]
learn the words: radical trust, many to many, information architecture, cluetrain
learn to say: "rip mix burn" or maybe "gather create share" or "small pieces loosely joined" or "the power of many"
Blogs - regular doses of links, commentary and discussion
- These regular doses of links, commentary and discussion are becoming a popular and easy way of sharing information.
- tools are often free or cheap
- templating makes design consistency easy
- very little tech savviness needed for basic set-up
- easy solution to the "how do you get them coming back?" problem
Wikis - online tools for collaborative whatever, editable by anyone
- simple to install and modify
- easy learning curve, also becoming popular
Caution: blog & wiki backlash and controversy, lack of maintenance can really show [it's like how for people like me, computers are video games and thus not 'real work']
a few blog search engines: daypop, technorati, feedster
wikis: wikipedia, sacred texts wiki, Koha wiki
libwikis: library success, ala conference, liswiki, blogging libraries wiki
blog reading: definitions of "blog" - from Google,
LISNews, law libraries with blogs, special libraries with blogs, Weblogs and Public Libraries article
An updated less dorky way to network.
learn: tags, folksonomy, "open API"
Where we once just had email discussion lists, now we can have "tribes", groups, forums and interest groups. Trusted friends-of-friends and colleagues-of-colleagues can share information in an easier fashion than by waiting to meet up at conferences.
Status: leaving "flavor of the month" stage. Not always interoperable. Different sites are good for different things. Yahoo is in the game.
Caution? Schools are starting to worry. Privacy and sharing are unlikely bedfellows.
HOT: superglu [mine], 43 things [mine], peoplefeeds [mine]
some sites: tribe.net, linkedin.com, friendster.com, flickr.com. Also dogster and catster.
some examples: my former library's pictures at flickr, progressive librarians tribe on tribe.net
get technical: read about the FOAF project, BYO with ning
No amount of money will make a tech-phobic staff love technology.
No amount of dissuasion will keep a technophile away from technology.
Knowing who you're working with and [the full range of] what your options are is more valuable than any amount of money thrown at your technology problem.
The good news and the Caution about technology: it is what you make out of it. Some things you can do even with very low-end tech skills...
- CD listening station with one of your offline computers
- Use your voice mail system to have a pre-recorded list of new books
- Have a staff intranet as part of your web site with links to frequently-used staff pages.
- Accessibility in web design and use of technology generally.
- Create a nurturing environment where everyone can learn together
Jessamyn West is a librarian, community technology mentor, and the editor of the weblog
librarian.net. She's an elected representative to ALA Council where she tries hard to advocate for sensible technology use at all types of libraries.
IM her at
iamthebestartist.
All images were grabbed hither and yon, if one belongs to you and you object to its use, let me know.
This presentation was created in HTML using CSS. There was no PowerPoint involved except as a nagging bad example. The layout and stylesheet are available to borrow via a share and share alike creative commons license. See source code for details.
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