Fullmetal Librarian

Library services as evolving trends

2006-08-21T10:57:00.000-04:00

It’s a brand new academic year and I'm in a brand new library and I want to try on a brand new perspective to library services. Instead of viewing our materials as static assets (like a printed book) or online resources (like a subscription databases), I'm going to try viewing our materials as Service Trends. I do mean to that incorrect capitalization. For emphasis.

Trends implies to me to evolve, to alter, to transform. By viewing our services as trends, we can embrace change in the endeavor to keep our services relevant to a broad spectrum of users. For example, if I look at my electronic resources as trends, then the term "subscription database" becomes just part of that trend, but not by any means defining it. Part of the electronic resources trend could be a webcast by a leading researcher or a collaborative environment sites on the web, like a distance education course that includes a blog, a wiki, etc.

If we want to be relevant to all our users, students, faculty and staff of all ages, we need to stop viewing our long-standing services and traditional assets with the perspective of how we can rework and manipulate them to meet the changing in technology and start viewing them as trends that can parallel technology advancements and evolve in their own right.

Reference IM

2006-01-31T11:21:00.000-05:00

PCT started a pilot project this Spring 06 semester using AIM to provide Reference IM. We have been running the service for 3 weeks, with each week's use of the service growing. The questions have been thoughtful, well-constructed, and appropriate. Our users seem to have taken to the service better than the providers. Why is that?

Because instant messaging, text messaging, and email all are a part of the regular rhythm of our users's lives. Your mileage may vary on the delivery method, but for many of our youthful users, a technological application is the first place they look to for their communication and research needs, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Interesting to me is that our users don't even consider IM a "technology." It is simply another tool used daily for talking to friends, relatives, whoever. Legitimacy of a "buddy" is never an issue.

For us, however, it is. Commonly, a user will ask at opening an IM session with a librarian, "Are you there?" or "Am I talking to a real person?" In other words, we the librarians are the outsiders, the ones who our users are more formal with, less ready to believe we are there and ready to help them. We are the ones who need to establish ourselves in this world. When we can establish that we will be where our users are, bringing our services to them in ways that are as second-nature to them as picking up the phone is to most librarians, then we will be "buddies."

Why isn't the Library like my gaming community?

2006-01-16T15:39:00.000-05:00

I was reading a blog at a gaming community that I visit as part of my morning routine of coffee, email and blogs. Something struck me. Why isn't going to my library part of my routine the same way the gaming community is? I read almost every day the same as I game almost every day. I take equal pleasure in both activities. I augment both activities with outside sources (book reviews, word-of-mouth and strategy guides, game reviews). What does my game community provide that my library doesn't that keeps me coming back on a regular basis?

Both communities are made up of two essential, interested parties: users and developers. In gaming, users are the playerbase, the ones who buy the game and invest time playing it. Developers are the companies that create and sell the game. In libraries, users can be distance, in-person, other libraries, anyone who invests time in availing themselves of our resources. The developers of libraries are the staff, the librarians, the IT department, the people that provide and support those services. Our library users are our "playerbase" and we are the "devs" (as they are called in gaming).

As any gamer knows, gaming communities are essential to the success of a game. Players make connections while playing, either real-time in an MMO or via fansites and forums for solo games, such as the massively popular Civilization series. What is important are the connections. Strategies are shared, debates about mechanics evolve, players share mods, and relationships are formed in forums. These are just a few activities gamers participate in at a gaming community.

What can libraries take from this to create their own communities that are places our users visit on a regular basis and not just when they need something?

We could provide a means to assist our users in finding other like-minded users. Forums for research strategy sharing, debating new releases, etc.

We could be a repository of user mods. Be they scripts students write for computer class, mods for games, or user made guides to the library (gasp! someone else besides librarians may have something they think is valuable to share!)

We could provide chats with local authors, links to podcasts for book discussions.

The list goes on...

I think we could borrow alot from gaming communities if we are willing. After all, World of Warcraft has a user base of 4-5 million. One company, one game and a world-wide community.

That's something to learn from.

Gaming Display in Library

2006-01-10T18:19:00.000-05:00

I spent alot of my time the past days working on a Gaming display for the Library. Here is a quick snap:

I ordered a few books on gaming or related to gaming. The kiosk is set up to display 4 sides: 1 on gaming genres, 1 on design, 1 on concept art and 1 on the profileration of gaming into other genres, such as fiction. Nothing complicated. A few books, some pictures I found on the internet.

This display has been up since Monday. I've already had 3 questions about it just as I was walking by. Wow! Quite a response.

I'm excited about inviting gamers into the library. I hope this will begin information-sharing between gamers and library staff. I believe this is the one area that gamers excel at, they love to share information. They love to talk to others who are interested in gaming. Even if you aren't a gamer.

That's what I wanted to do with this display. Open a door. Invite our users in to a world they already know, but to view it from a different perspective. Bring the library to them where they live.

Library Linky - bring your library to Amazon

2005-12-13T15:25:00.000-05:00

This morning, a talented student in our Virtual Resources team created our very own Amazon PCT Linky. This wonderful little extension for the Firefox browser puts a link on Amazon that lets you immediately see if your library has the title you want.

PCT Linky on Amazon's page

What an excellent tool to provide for your users. I love the idea of providing customizations to our users web experiences to include their library at all avenues of web use. The library embeds itself where our users are.

This is where we need to moving. Library services are no longer exclusive to what we provide if you come to us, but what we can do for you where you are.

Can we get some more please?

Gaming, Learning & Libraries Symposium

2005-12-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

I've just returned from a fantastic conference, one I've been waiting for, but didn't even know it until it arrived in my email: The Gaming, Learning & Libraries Symposium. I encourage all librarians, public, academic & corporate to attend a conference like this, read a gaming blog, or play a game themselves, anything to start to get yourself informed & involved with the new medium. Its changing the way our users think about, obtain and react to information.

Games, whether console, pc or online, are not just a new media type that we should be providing in our libraries, they are a new medium. A new way of communicating information. And gamers have a new way of incorporating and evaluating that information. If we have been the "information priests," this is a whole new religion. And its here to stay. According to the report from Pew, titled Let the Games Begin, 70% of college students are playing games at least once in awhile, 65% described themselves as regular players. They are playing them in their homes, in dorm rooms, in libraries, often while engaged in other activities. Games are not just a trend, they are an integral part of life for many.

We need to start communicating more about this new medium. We need to start communicating in the world of this new medium, message boards, forums, mod sharing, dedicated fansites. Telephone? As a gamer myself, I wouldn't think of picking up a phone to contact a gaming friend. Its Teamspeak (VoIP), IM, message board or, if all else fails email (the new snailmail). We need to immerse ourselves in these new communication tools. Find our niche. Is RuneScape popular at your library? How about creating a Runescape resources website? Hosting a lan party afterhours on Fridays? Hosting a message board for runescape players?

Making a laptop your primary PC?

2005-11-30T16:53:00.000-05:00

Its getting time to replace my desktop. As I browsed and dreamed my way through websites and magazine ads, I thought back to that laptop that I never got. What if I forewent the desktop and made that committment to leap into using a laptop as my sole computing resource?

Dream sequence: Having coffee outside a cafe. Bare toes swinging in my flipflops. Purple laptop on table. Updating my blog via a wireless net connection from the cafe. Yeah. I can see that.

But forego the traditional desktop? Hmmm, committment indeed. Most computer users I know who have a laptop also have a desktop. Why? I need look at the commonly-thought disadvantages of laptops before I let go of that dream sequence above.

Power: Used to be that laptops lagged in power, but now they can provide more than sufficient power for the applications even a moderately heavy user (what I consider myself) requires.

Price: Still higher for a laptop comparable to a desktop system I would buy, by about $500. However, the laptop comes with things I normally don't buy when purchasing a new desktop, for example, a monitor. So I'm paying for equipment that I can carry around easily rather than lugging a monitor with me everywhere I go. Ok. Justifiable to me.

Upgrading: Laptops are still more difficult to upgrade than a desktop. However, so many external components are available now (thumb drives, ipods, etc.), I'm convinced I won't find myself running out of hard drive space anytime soon.

Connections: Staying connected to the net is getting easier and easier. Zones are being marked in towns, libraries are providing wireless areas. More wireless opportunities are being made available all the time.

Screensize: Almost laptops come with a minimum of 15" of screen space. And it is different viewing a laptop screen than a monitor. Less is equal to a bigger desktop monitor. And when I'm home or elsewhere with a bigger monitor, I can plug it into the laptop.

Bottomline: If I want my virtual computer resources to be available anywhere, anytime, then I want my physical computer resources to match. Time to take the plunge and go for the Dream!

Google Base -- uncertain future

2005-11-22T12:50:00.000-05:00

This week Google introduced another beta: Google Base. Anyone can submit content such as recipes, job postings, personal profiles and anyone can search this content via a basic keyword search. As I see it, its an Internet Intranet, open to the world. But will I use it?

Privacy and security are not issues as there is absolutely none of both. Everything put into Base's database is open and available for anyone.

How about a place to upload personal profiles, recipes, job postings? There are plenty of websites out there already doing this, with much success. Many I've been using for years.

Using my own criteria: Its free, its easy to use, its available anywhere. But I need to add another one: what's the added service I'm not already getting elsewhere quite happily.

While I can see some glimmers for real database gurus using MySQL, etc to have fun with Base, I don't see regular web users jumping on to it so quickly. Users who want to post and share recipes already have a place they've been going to. Monster.com posts job postings. Most local papers post their classified ads. Most users have their regular sites bookmarked and are comfortable with them. Why switch to Base?

Oh, and for entertainment, check out the list of prohibited posting items.

Nifty Idea: Personal Google Search page

2005-11-21T11:03:00.000-05:00

Many of us have google set as our homepage, but there's a way to enchance it to bring you much more than a default search page. Google introducted their personalize homepage and now I can display my search history, the weather in my town, the current headlines, or even any RSS feed I like. Content and functionality married into one product I'm already using. I can even arrange the different sections on the page to your desire.

Why I like it: By personalizing my page, I can carry all the info. I like to see (search histories, bookmarks, weather) around with me wherever I go. So I can search for hotels in Philadelphia in the morning in my pj's and pick up that search later on in the day when I am at work. Being able to pick up my search at any computer is just cool.

Second, it delivers content I want to see effortlessly to my computer. I want to see the headlines on the BBC, they appear automatically every morning as soon as I open my browser. No searching, no bookmarking, just there. That's great.

Keeping current on my favorite blogs. I can subscribe to my favorites via the RSS feeds. Need to feed my Samurai Champloo fixation? Blog updates are available by starting my browser.

Easy. Available anywhere. Delivered to me. I like it.

How do you get this service? To personalize the Google homepage, you'll need a Google Account If you don't have a google account, you can create one here.