Things #13 - #15

Who does this sound like? "It has been a while since I visited this blog - sorry for the absence." heehee. And I don't even have the excuse of a busy schedule. Well, it does take a bit of work to get all the 2007 magazines withdrawn, so I'll use that as my excuse. I'm cheating a bit and tackling a few things in this one post.

Thing #13 - Social Bookmarking
I first heard of Del.icio.us a few years ago, probably from one of the library themed blogs I follow. Anyway, as with most of these things, I thought it was kinda cool, but didn't think it was for me. Who cares what sites I find interesting? (This is also the reason why it's hard for me to maintain a blog.) But getting to the point of this thing, it's the social aspect that counts. And that's where I have the issues. No, really! Even my Birkman results will tell you I'm not much of a joiner.

If I were involved with the online librarian movement, or "biblioblogosphere", I might be persuaded to keep a site like delicious active. I could see other library folks checking it out and finding useful sites that would help them in their jobs. It's not that I don't want to share what I know, it's just that I'm not sure that anyone really wants to know. :)

Something like delicious might be good for maybe the Central Reference staff to use, so that we in the branches could find info we need. We don't get as many reference requests at the branch, but when we do, it might be helpful to have a handy list of sites that reference folks use often.



Thing #14 - Technorati

I've explored Technorati before, on my own, and I'm slightly embarrassed to admit that, well, I don't get it. I wasn't really finding the sorts of things I was looking for, and could usually get better results when using Google. Maybe I was doing something wrong? Looking at it now, it's a bit easier to understand. I like the What's Popular page, reminds me of a feature one of the search engines used to have, that would show you the latest search terms. Strangely enough, they list the first 5 of their top 100 blogs, and I already read 4 of them!

I understand now how tagging your blog posts helps to make your searches better. That's something I need to work on, not surprisingly, that ties in to that whole social aspect of these 2.0 things, doesn't it?



Thing #15 - More on 2.0
OCLC is doing some cool online things and I really like their newsletter, NextSpace. I went back to Issue No. 1- Extreme Makeover: Library Edition and found some things that I found to be very applicable where SAPL is right now. For example:

Organizations exist to provide value. If that value is no longer perceived to be in sync with the consumers’ needs, the perceived value of the organization, and its brand, will be minimized.

Being a City department, SAPL is always having to improve the "perceived value" of our organization, especially around budget time. Things like a new bookmobile, a new website, online services, and outreach services are all ways for us to stay relevant to our community. By now, everyone's read the articles about how our country is in a recession and library use is up, now folks are starting to realize we're more than just books.

Then there's this part:

Changing the library’s image in the marketplace, however, must start with changing librarians’ perceptions. That means adjusting the librarianship culture and operations before persuading consumers that libraries have been reborn.

This is where it comes down to us. We are the face of the library and our attitudes contribute to the perceived value of SAPL. How many of us work with librarians who don't know how to copy and paste? How many of us have staff that are nicer to stray dogs than to our customers? It doesn't matter that you didn't learn how to upload pictures in library school, if it's something you've been asked about more than once, it's your job to learn!

We've introduced our patrons to CMS, where they sign themselves in to use the computers, self-serve holds are in several branches, self check-out is just about system-wide. These things are supposed to "free us from the desk" and although the learning curve is steep, we're starting to see some patrons really take advantage of these services. My question to you is this: What are you doing with this "extra" time to improve the perceived value of your library?