One of the reasons I haven’t blogged for the last month is that I spent a great deal of that time writing 31,000 words for an issue of ALA TechSource’s Library Technology Reports on gaming in libraries. It should be out in late October (Teresa Koltzenburg and her crew are great at turning around manuscripts).

It turns out that 31,000 words about gaming isn’t as much as one would think, so it’s designed to help libraries interested in the topic understand it and think about options for gaming services. In addition to some explanations, background, and arguments to help you persuade administration, there are case studies for academic, public, and school libraries as examples of possible implementations. I included a range of options that run the gamut from free to “Ann-Arbor-go-for-it-all.”

If you’re not a subscriber to LTR, you should be, and I’m not just saying that because I work for ALA now (consider that a disclaimer). Check out the stellar line-up for upcoming issues:

• Casey Bisson – Open Source Software and Libraries
• Marshall Breeding – Next-gen Library Software Interfaces
• Brad Eden – Report on FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records)
• Sarah Houghton – Technology Core Competencies for Librarians
• Tom Peters – Digital Audiobooks and Systems
• Michael Stephens – Advanced Web 2.0 for Libraries

That’s on top of the just-released, flying-off-the-shelves Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software issue Michael wrote.

I’d recommend this resource even if I didn’t work for ALA, with or without my issue on gaming.

Last week I had the pleasure of traveling to Holland with Michael Stephens in order to do a hands-on workshop for the Ticer Institute’s Digital Libraries a la Carte series at the University of Tilburg. My morning session focused on blogging and RSS, while Michael’s afternoon session focused on instant messaging. At the end of the day, Paul Miller wrapped up with a lecture and discussion of Library 2.0, which was heartening to see included in this type of event. There were 40 participants from 14 countries at the Institute (mainly academic and special librarians) at our sessions, which is pretty impressive. I had a great time and met a lot of interesting people, including several Dutch bibliobloggers at a special dinner Tuesday night. These folks traveled from all over Holland to Tilburg just to have dinner with us, which I really appreciate. It was also very educational for me, which is a double-plus bonus!

Proof: I had the pleasure of talking to Sybilla Poortman of inter-net-viewer about her job and some of the things her institution is implementing. I’m always looking for examples of libraries using RSS to include in my presentations, and Fontys Mediatheek (where she works) is now part of my list. The Library has its own blog at http://www.fontysmediatheek.nl/ (check out the downloadable toolbar in the left-hand sidebar), and they are using RSS to display the headlines on the English Department at Sittard’s home page (http://www.fontysmediatheek.nl/weblog/Lero_Sittard/index).

“You can see ‘kennisdomein Talen’ on the left (domain Languages) with the entire text of the original post on the same domain of the mediatheekweblog, whereas on the right you can see the headlines for the posts that appeared in the section ‘informatiebronnen’ (information sources – relevant for all domains).”

In addition, they are using these same headlines from the Library’s blog for display on a page for the Venlo campus (http://www.fontysmediatheek.nl/weblog/campus_venlo/index). It’s all in Dutch, but you should be able to get the basic idea that they are blogging in one place and reusing the content on campus department web pages where it is being updated automatically with no further drain on staff time after the initial setup. That’s the power of RSS – getting your content off your own site and out onto others where your users are.

More of my pictures from the dinner are at http://flickr.com/photos/shifted/sets/72157594253302751/, while the pool is at http://www.flickr.com/groups/68648601@N00/pool/. Major thanks to Rob Coers for organizing such a lovely gathering. I’m so glad I got to meet him and everyone else that attended.

I very much need to thank Jola, Teun, and Vivi from the Ticer Institute for another wonderful experience. I think the program they put together was even better than last year’s, as evidenced by the increased interest and attendance, and I look forward to following up on the content of some of the other lectures.

I’ve uploaded pictures from the whole trip at http://www.flickr.com/photos/shifted/sets/72157594252007475/. The pictures below are two of my favorites from a walk through the king’s forest preserves on the way to the University the morning of our workshop. I tell everyone that walking through that forest is like finding yourself in the middle of a fairy tale, and I think these pictures help capture how magical it seemed.

 

Wow. Not just for Louise Berry's blog (conversational, thoughtful, engaging, great use of pictures to humanize the Library online), but I especially love her latest post. Talk about a director that "gets it." A great model I will be adding to the Roadshow!

Web 2.0

"How cool would it be if the local newspapers syndicated their headlines with an RSS feed so that you could subscribe to them? And blogged 'live' from government meetings? And posted dozens of photos (all the ones that didn't make it in this week's paper) on a Flickr account, especially if there was breaking news? OK, we're biased because we want them to do it so that we can feed the headlines, blog posts and photos onto our own Darien Community Matters blog, providing the most balanced, accurate and up-to-date information possible. And I guess that you could say that we're becoming Web 2.0 missionaries..... because we (that's me and Assistant Director Melissa Yurechko) invited Josh Fisher, editor of the Darien Times over to discuss it, as the first of a series of meetings with the local news media." [Darien Library Director's Blog, thanks Alan!]

9:24 PM  |   Permanent link here  |    |   TrackBack [0]  |   Google It!

Michael Stephens discussed A Culture of No and pointed to a great post at Blog about Libraries called Which "Culture of" Is Your Workplace? Since Michael quoted from it, I won't do that here, other than to say you should click that last link and read the whole thing. It's very thoughtful and inspiring.

I will, however, quote from the post that in turn inspired it.

Yes, and

"So, here is the challenge. Whenever you want to say 'but,' stop yourself and begin with 'yes, and' instead. It will be hard at first, perhaps, to find common ground, but your conversations (and even negotiations) will be more successful if you remove the word 'but' from your vocabulary and do your part to build a culture of yes in your organization." [Creative Outlet Labs]

This really hit home with me, and I've printed it out to post in my office.

Both posts quote Weiden+Kennedy's five rules of creativity, of which numbers one and five are my favorites:

• "Act Stupid. 'Our philosophy is to come in ignorant every day. The idea of retaining ignorance is sort of counterintuitive, but it subverts a lot of [problems] that come from absolute mastery. If you think you know the answer better than somebody else does, you become closed to being fresh.' states Jelly Helm, creative director."


• "Be Fearless. 'Do anything, say anything. In the words of our president, Dan Wieden, 'You're not useful to me until you've made three momentous mistakes.' He knows that if you try not to make mistakes, you miss out on the value of learning from them.' "

Note that the rules are "act stupid" and "be fearless," not "be stupid" and "act fearless." That means you have to be willing to try new things and not pretend you really mean it. Regression of services is not the answer.

I've truly been surprised at the number of "yes, ands" I've been hearing at ALA. I know - I sound like the newylwed, and I am, but I really wasn't expecting this. It's been a refreshing change, and I hope ALA really means it.

It's also been heartening to see how many library blogs are talking about creativity, innovation, and transformation of services. And not in big, huge, Nobel-prize-size services, but even just small changes that remove barriers for patrons (and just as importantly, for ourselves). Unfortunately, I don't have time right now to do a roundup, but I think it's safe to say that this will be an ongoing discussion (it's not really new but seems to be resurfacing again) and that we will continue to see exciting new intersections of service.

Maybe a lot of it has to do with the recent "rules in libraries" discussion, too. For an interesting way to start that discussion in your library, I highly recommend a children's book I read today called Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and Kevin Hawkes. "There weren't any rules about lions at story hour, either."

Yes, innovation and inspiration can come from the most interesting places, but you have to be open to them and be able to see the possibilities.

ALA staff have compiled the evaluation answers from the ALA L2 course and have started going over them. That phrase now includes me! :-)

We're in the process of creating a wiki in order to post them (once we strip out any personally identifiable information). You'll be able to read all of the comments and add your own as well.

I got to watch him write part of this (so did you if you followed his Flickr account), but now it's ready. Michael Stephens' issue of ALA's Library Technology Reports is about to hit the street!

I was lucky enough to be one of the first people to get my hands on it today. Dare I say, "It's hot?!" In the issue, Michael covers blogs, RSS, instant messaging, wikis, Flickr, and getting staff buy-in to implement Library 2.0 tools in your library. There are lots of examples, tips, best practices, and links for further information, all pulled together in layman's terms.

If you've ever heard Michael speak and marveled at his ability to explain Library 2.0, this LTR is like a print version of him, which means you can wave it around in meetings, cite it when you want to advocate for implementing a L2 tool, and hand it to your director for educational purposes. It's also going to become the de facto textbook for our Library Roadshow we've been doing across the country.

If you're already a subscriber, you'll be receiving your issue in the mail soon. If you're not a subscriber, you can order a copy (or lots of copies!) from the LTR site at http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/web-20-and-libraries-best-practices-for-social-software.html. I've heard that demand is already running higher than normal and that ALA Publishing is working overtime to keep up with the orders because there are so many of them!

Disclaimer: I started working for ALA last week, but I still would have written this exact same post when I got my copy; it just would have arrived later via snail mail.

• Rob Carlson, talking about blogs and wikis: "Everybody is asking for this stuff." Today Rob told me they're running more than a dozen blogs for various pieces of ALA, and the wiki farm is just about ready.
• Louise Gruenberg, talking about the pending conversion of web pages from the old content management system to the new one: "Most people don't realize there are 60,000 web pages on the ALA website. That's almost a page per member, and they all need to be moved over. Each one deserves its 15 minutes of reading."
• Leonard Kniffel, making an observation based on the fact that a link for election information will soon appear on the ALA home page: "The duration of an ALA election, if you begin with the appointment of the Nominating Committee (before Annual) to the announcement of the winners (May), practically lasts all year. It's longer than a pregnancy."

I also want to point out that ALA has at least four Flickr accounts that help tell the story of the Association (ALA, Spectrum Scholars, and the TechSource Blog), as well as a LiveJournal site.

I'm officially an employee of the American Library Association!

My first day at ALA today consisted of a lot of HR forms and explanations, a ton o'introductions, and the beginning of training on the various technology systems (email, voicemail, the knowledge management system, etc.).

However, the best part was the positive attitude I constantly encountered in so many of the new colleagues I met today, folks who want to learn more about blogs, RSS, wikis, connecting members, etc. It was refreshing to see how many of them are willing to try new things, want to discuss new (progressive) models, and are interesting in experimenting with new technologies.

I learned a lot of interesting (and cool) things that I hope will start showing up on ALA blogs soon. While I wade through the first week of orientation-type days (although I have my first meeting tomorrow!), you'll probably see more over on my Flickr account than here.

Oh, and speaking of Flickr, I was very excited to meet John Chrastka, the guy that started ALA's Flickr account! John is the Manager for Membership Development, and he definitely "gets" a lot of the 2.0 discussion. I can't wait to start working more closely with him and others who are as excited as I am about the potential for these tools at ALA.

Thanks to everyone who made this day so easy, comfortable, and welcoming for me!