Library Voice

This post was prompted by an email from a business librarian at another institution, who was inquiring about my use of both a blog and a wiki to disseminate library information. In the email, the librarian asked:

Are people actually reading? No offense I find that often librarians’ efforts in distributing information is in vain or not fully appreciated. I notice that your blog [in this case, referring to my Business Blog] has 16 subscriptions via Bloglines so there is a steady readership. However, how are the students responding to this service?

I can assure you that no offense was taken, but I believe the question gets to the heart of one of the primary reasons people have for fearing the use of new technologies. That is, what if you build it, and no one comes? Using newer technologies like this are often a risk, because you never know if anyone will use a resource or service until you build it. And unfortunately, it can take some time and effort to put something together. Imagine choosing software, training staff, getting staff buy-in, marketing a service, or spending lots of money, etc., only to find that no one really cares about the service/technology, and no one uses it. The possibility of failure is extremely intimidating, but we have to face those challenges (and deal with those failures) if libraries are going to continue to thrive in the future. The beauty of the biblioblogosphere is that you can find inspiration, or avoid potential pitfalls, by learning from others.

In my case, I’ve taken a couple of risks with using blogs and wikis to disseminate library information. For me, the risks that I faced were mostly my time, effort, and pride. It takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to set up a wiki or blog, customize it to your liking, and then add (and continue to add) content. And, if I developed these (what I thought were) really cool resources and no one used them, well, I’d have to swallow my pride and start something else.

Fortunately, my risks are paying off thus far. I’ve been very pleased that the Business Blog and the Biz Wiki have both been used extensively. While I wish the Blog had more subscribers to the RSS feed, I am finding that RSS usage has not yet taken off on our campus. In fact, I imagine most of the 16 subscribers to the Business Blog are librarians from other libraries, not students/faculty at my university. I am working on that though by trying to promote RSS through workshops and other means.

It appears that most users are accessing the Business Blog and the Biz Wiki through a traditional web browser. We have the ability to measure click-through statistics through our InfoTree, which is where most students would access the resources. Last year, the Business Blog was accessed through InfoTree 2265 times. And since the Biz Wiki went live in August, it has been accessed 1193 times through InfoTree. Our InfoTree currently has 3113 records of databases, websites, subject guides, search engines, etc, all organized by subject area. This past quarter (Sept 5-Nov 20), the Biz Wiki was the number 25 most-used resource in InfoTree with 1065 click-throughs. The Business Blog, during the same time period, was the number 53 most-used resource in InfoTree with 497 click-throughs.

Because of the Biz Wiki, I believe the usage of the Business Blog will decrease to a certain extent. Before the Biz Wiki, I used the Business Blog more as an on-the-fly research guide. That is, as business students had questions about their projects, I would post things about finding resources for their projects. I still do that to a certain extent, but the Business Blog is now transitioning more into covering current awareness about business topics, promoting business resources, etc. The Biz Wiki is a little more broad in subject coverage, as it is replacing my traditional html research guides, but with a little more content. I believe students will go to the Biz Wiki before the Business Blog when they’re looking for the best business resources for their topics.

I think we all at one time or another think that our efforts are never “fully appreciated” . But the way I figure, that can be the case in almost everything that we might do in life. Efforts in trying new things may be in vain, but I believe that if you are really passionate about something, your users will find out about the resource and start using it. I’m lucky in that I get to talk to about 500 business students each quarter in library instruction sessions, so the blog and the wiki are the last things I show them in class. The blog and the wiki are also the easiest place to find my contact information, so if I show them this last, hopefully they’re more likely to remember that the Business Blog and Biz Wiki are resources that can help them with their work. I’ve also been very fortunate to have a great deal of buy-in from my colleagues. They are very good at referring business students to the blog and wiki, and they use the resources themselves when helping students find answers to business questions. I try to get as much feedback from my colleagues as possible about both the Business Blog and the Biz Wiki, as they use the resources and also see how others use them. Probably one of the best features of both blogs and wikis is the ability to edit and change things. In other words, if something is not working as intended, you can change things very easily.

When I first built the Business Blog, I had lofty dreams that students would be posting comments to my blog posts left and right. I thought that each post about a project or resource would be a great discussion medium. I’ve been disappointed in this area, as the only comments I’ve received were either from spam or other librarians. I first thought that this might be the result of a false perception that students shouldn’t comment on “Chad’s Blog” for fear of me or others thinking they were “altering” or “tampering” with the content of “My Blog.” I am now more inclined to think that most virtual discussion about research and class projects is taking place over email, IM, and in courseware discussion boards (like Blackboard or WebCT). As far as the Biz Wiki goes, I have had a few users fix my typographical errors, but that’s about it. And I’ve got no way of knowing if those users were students or not. The Biz Wiki is basically brand new, but I imagine it will follow the same trends as the Business Blog with very few (if any) comments or edits coming from the user community. And you know, I’m okay with that. The users are going to use it however they want to meet their needs. It’s not my job to tell them how to use it. It is my job to keep updating and adding content that is appropriate and pertinent to their courses and class projects. That requires a lot of work, but I know that if I don’t keep up with it, my efforts truly will be in vain.

My librarian trading card:

Make your own trading card here, and then upload it to the flickr group here.

I got an email yesterday from a graduate student wanting me to answer a few questions about blogging. Her class is studying blogging as a form of organizational communication. Her questions got me thinking about why I blog, so I figured I’d share my answers to her questions here. I’ve written about this before in a previous post, so some of my ramblings below may be redundant. I’d be interested in how other bloggers might answer her questions, and I imagine any additional input from other blogger’s couldn’t hurt the student’s project any either.

When did you begin to blog, and why?
I first began my Business Blog in March of 2004. I used it primarily to promote library resources to business students. I could point students to the blog in each library instruction class that I taught, so they could go to the blog to find appropriate resources for their projects. I now have a wiki that points students to more broad business resources, so now the Business Blog is expanding into business topics and current issues as well.

I began my professional blog, Library Voice, in January of this year. I was reading blogs of other librarians for quite some time, and I wanted to contribute to what was going on in the blogosphere. I really didn’t have many expectations for a huge number of readers, I just wanted a place where I could put my own ideas down in writing.

Does your job require a blog, or is it your own personal choice?
Blogging is my own personal choice. The Business Blog was another way for me to reach out to students and faculty at my university. We are required to maintain library research guides that list popular subject resources, so I used the Business Blog to complement that.

My other blog, Library Voice, was a personal choice as well. I liked what I saw going on in the blogosphere, and I wanted to contribute to the conversation. While I write mostly about work-related matters in this blog, everything I write about is my own choice.

Do you write your blogs at work or elsewhere?
Posts for the Business Blog are written entirely at work.

Posts for my personal/professional blog, Library Voice, are written at both home and work, but mostly at work. I see blogging and reading other blogs as a way of keeping up with what is going on in my profession. As a business librarian, web author, teacher, bibliographer, and tech enthusiast, I read a lot of blogs to keep up. Writing about my interests helps me to further understand what I’m reading and to apply what I’ve learned.

What is the primary purpose or aim of the blog?
As mentioned above, the Business Blog was originally designed to point business students to sources for particular projects. It is still used to promote business reference sources and databases, but it now has a current awareness aspect to it as well.

In Library Voice, I blog about issues in librarianship, technology, and education. I use the blog primarily as a way to keep up in these areas. Writing about these topics helps me to formulate my own ideas about the issues, as well as contribute some to the conversation.

Does your company have any policies or guidelines about blogging?
Not currently. I guess an unwritten policy would be that I never write anything that I wouldn’t want my boss (or future boss) or my colleagues (or future colleagues) to read.

Are your blogs monitored by your organization?
Not really. I imagine my colleagues or superiors may have read a post here and there, but there really isn’t anyone policing what I’ve been writing. I don’t blog anonymously, so having my name on everything I write keeps me honest. I also write a great deal about what I am doing at my organization (which is no secret, either) so I try to represent the organization well.

What inspires you to blog?
For my Business Blog, I really get inspiration from the students. They are the primary audience of the blog. I try to write things that will help them in their projects, and I try to keep it interesting to them. Since I’m using the blog now to for current awareness of business topics/issues, I try to blog about things that they may find interesting.

For Library Voice, I get really inspired by the conversation that takes place across the blogosphere. It really is amazing the way topics and issues get batted around on different blogs. Everyone has a voice, so you’re bound to have multiple perspectives on the same topic. I’ve also met several great folks in my field through blogging. Bloggers like to share, and I’ve contacted a number of fellow bloggers, and they’ve contacted me about various things.

Do other members of your organization blog?
Yes. We’ve got quite a few blogging librarians. We’ve got:
The News Blog
The Art Blog
The Communications Blog
The First Year Experience Blog.

Is blogging for you an act of self-empowerment?
Well, I suppose I like going back and reading what I wrote about a topic, and it is sort of cool to see what you’ve written. I like writing about issues that interest me, and I like keeping up with what is going on in a variety of areas. So perhaps the keeping-up aspect of blogging is more in line with self-empowerment, as I do feel empowered by the knowledge that I get from reading others’ ideas and blogs. The actual writing, for me, is more about wrapping my own thoughts around a particular idea, a form of self-expression and self-discovery.

Do you feel you can write about anything and not be judged? Have you ever “vented” or wrote about negative feelings toward your organization?
My mama taught me, “If you can’t say something nice about someone, then you’re better not saying anything at all.” I try to live by that, but of course, it is often hard to follow. My thoughts are, if you’re going to be writing something negative about your organization, then you better be thinking long and hard as you write. It’s easier to say something bad and be forgiven, because everyone has a loose tongue every now and then. People mess up and speak before they think. But to actually put those thoughts in writing requires a considerable more amount of thought and effort.

Others may disagree with this, and perhaps say that I’m being a coward. However, I’ve never been much for confrontation. I try to solve problems at the source. A problem would have to be pretty huge for me to go and blog about it to the whole world.

Do you feel like you are writing for yourself, or your audience?
With the Business Blog, I try to write for the audience. It’s geared towards faculty and staff in the College of Business, so I try to write about things that will interest them. I also try to use the blog to promote resources that we pay a lot of money for, so that drives what I write as well.

For Library Voice, I mostly write for myself. I like how putting something down in writing can help flesh out some ideas about things. To a certain point, I am also writing for an audience, which in general is the library community. However, I have to clarify that I’m not writing for, as Indiana Jones would say, “Fortune and Glory.” Rather, I am writing to share ideas about issues in librarianship, technology, and education. Sharing is another thing that my mama taught me, and blogging is the perfect medium for it. I’ve learned a lot from other bloggers and I’ve gotten a lot of ideas and have turned some of those ideas into successful initiatives at my library. So for me, blogging is just returning the favor.

This post from Jason at Pattern Recognition had me on the floor laughing. He’s in Vegas at a hotel that wants to charge for wifi. An excerpt is below, but you’ll need to take a look at his complete post for the full picture. He writes:

As you can see, there are two top choices: 24 hours for $9.95, or 1 day for $9.95. This left me pondering what possible difference there might be between the two that necessitated both choices. Do they not mean consecutive hours? 24 random hours? 24 hours of my choosing? You’d think that question might have come up a few times, and been answered….but no. Not anywhere in the terms of service, not anywhere I can find on the page at all. Just two choices that seem identical, but can’t possibly be since they are both there.

From a Computer World article, instant messaging is growing in the U.S. The article is a synopsis of a survey done by AOL. The article points that IM usage is growing, and not just among college students and teens. The article explains that IM usage in the workplace is becoming more common. According to the survey:

Fifty-eight percent of at-work instant messaging users now send IMs to communicate with colleagues, while 49% use IMs to get answers and make business decisions and 28% use it to interact with clients or customers. Twelve percent of at-work IM users have used it to avoid a difficult in-person conversation.

Twenty percent say they currently enjoy, or would like to try, making live voice calls to other computers, landlines and cell phones directly from their IM service. Another 12% say they would be interested in an IM-based voice-over-IP (VoIP) service that could replace their primary household phone line.

In Seattle, 47% of at-work IM users are most likely to say things in an instant message that they wouldn’t document in an e-mail message.

More than three in four at-work IM users, 77%, said that instant messaging has had a positive impact on their work lives. In addition, 25% of at-work IMers say that instant messaging enables them to check in on their children during the workday, providing them with greater peace of mind.

While the article states that IM usage is growing, it would probably become a more widely used communication tool if more people were aware of others’ screen names. One way to make more people aware of IM as a communication option is to put your screen name on your business cards. According to the survey, “among those who use instant messaging for business purposes, 13% say they have their IM screen name printed on their business cards, while 6% say they write it on the business cards they exchange.” Is your IM on your business card?

Link via Resource Shelf.

From the ACRLog:

I’ve found that although male librarians often tell people they became librarians for the girly reason of “helping people,” the real reason is that they’re in it for the power. Who among us hasn’t felt the surge of testosterone after sitting at the reference desk, taking on all comers, and summoning up the skills to answer any question, from any discipline? Last night I answered a question about the ecology of the Pine Barrens. Now for a humanities librarian, that’s a rush.

So perhaps if you’re getting asked, “Do you work out?”, maybe it’s because you’re doing multiple sets at the reference desk.

It’s been a while since I’ve given any real updates on our Instant Messaging reference service, but I’m finally getting around to it. I am sure you all can sympathize, as LTB (life trumps blogging), or in my case, BSRQTB (Business Student Reference Questions Trump Blogging). This post will be a walk-through of how we got started with IM reference.

I first became interested about using IM in reference about a year ago. I started giving out my IM screenname to business students in the library instruction classes that I taught. In the course of one quarter (about 10 weeks) I got about 20 questions from business students. I thought that was pretty good, considering that I did not have any set hours that I would definitely be at my desk. IM was just another way to catch me.

In the spring of this year, I started paying more attention to some bloggers who were writing about IM in reference. In particular, Librarian in Black, Tame the Web, Schwagbag, and Walking Paper all provided good information on the topic. Based upon my experiences, and on the experiences of others, I started talking up the idea with some of my colleagues. My colleagues are all great and needed very little convincing.

We decided to do a little research to see if Instant Messaging was even a viable option for expanding our reference services. We put a link on our home page in big bold red lettering that simply asked, “Do you use IM?”. The link pointed folks to a survey, where we asked them about IM and web-chat usage. I contacted Sherri Volkey to see if she would mind if I stole used her questions from her survey at UNLV, and she agreed. In a week’s time, we had 302 people answer our survey. Some highlights of the results are:

• 75.8% indicated a status of undergraduate, 21.9% were graduate students
• 96.7% of all respondents use IM (Granted, the link on our home page asked them if they did.)
• 84.8% use AOL, 24.5% use Yahoo!, 25.5% use MSN
• 75.8% have NOT use our Chat Reference Service
• 87.4% said they would contact a Librarian via IM

The last two numbers pretty much convinced us that we needed to at least try Instant Messaging as a reference service. To prepare and practice for the service, each of my colleagues created Yahoo! and AIM screennames and installed Trillian. We practiced for a few weeks in the office to get comfortable with Trillian and IM. Basically, we would just IM each other instead of hollering over the cubicle walls to communicate. Many of us practiced sending URL’s and sharing files over IM. After the exposure, many of my colleagues have begun using IM more for their personal communication, in addition to reference services.

We started our IM reference service began as a pilot in July of this year. We called it a “pilot” to give us a little wiggle room in case we failed miserably, but by August we were fully committed to using IM in our reference services. Our first method of marketing the service was through our first-year-student orientation. One of my colleagues had the fantastic idea that the library would serve lemonade to students during the orientation sessions. When students came through the library on their campus tours, we gave them some ice cold lemonade. This gave us some time to talk to them about library services, and we gave them all bookmarks that had our reference screennames on them. In addition to this method of marketing, we added an IM screenshot to our screensaver’s (discussed in a previous post), and we link to our IM and other reference services at the top of every single library web page.

I’ve compiled our virtual reference statistics for September and October, and thus far, we’ve had a good deal of business. We’re still staffing a web-based chat service as well, and the two service are working together quite nicely. We’re staffing IM reference 24 hours a day, five days a week, (which is the same hours as our Learning Commons), in addition to hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We’re staffing our web-based chat service from 9-9 Monday thru Thursday, 8-5 on Friday. Our stats are as follows:

September:

• 104 web-chat transactions
• 242 IM transactions

October:

• 100 web-chat transactions
• 271 IM transactions

We’ve been pretty busy, although not too terribly overwhelmed. We have one staff member monitoring both IM and chat each hour. Nights and weekends we monitor the service at the desk. Occasionally you might have two or three IM’s/chats going on at once, but usually it’s pretty manageable. The questions can be all over the map. In a typical hour, one might help a student find the hours to the writing center, help them renew a book, find an article on legalizing marijuana, or help with finding the Buying Power Index for Ohio cities.

We have not measured the quality of the service, and have not really thought about ways to do so. We can only assume that if patrons say “thanks,” then they are at least partly satisfied. I have noticed, however, a number of return users. Frequent customers will show up in your Recent Buddies list, so you can tell if you (or a colleague) has IMed with the person before. I used to work in retail, and in the business world, nothing measures customer satisfaction quite like repeat customers.

Overall, we’ve been very pleased with our first quarter of using Instant Messaging in reference, and we’re looking for additional ways to market and promote the service. Perhaps the most important thing that we can share from our experience is that if you set up and promote an IM service, you will have patrons who use the service. In other words, if you build it, they will come.

Steven Cohen wonders how many librarians have their IM handles on their buisiness card. He asks, “What’s in Your Wallet?”

Here’s what’s in mine:

What’s encouraging is that a few of my colleagues have also added their IM handles to their own business cards. And the person who replenishes the supply of cards is starting to ask folks if they would like their IM included on their new cards.

If you’re a blogging librarian, Scott Pfitizinger encourages you to visit the group that he’s created on Frappr. He’s created a group called blogging librarians, where you can go and put yourself on the map.

Many libraries and computer labs use screensavers to protect burn-in on computer screens when they are not in use. This past quarter, we’ve been using the screensavers as a marketing and advertising tool. At the beginning of the quarter I created a few images to advertise services and collections in our library. I’ve posted a few here as an example. The pictures rotate randomly with the MyPictures screensaver feature in Windows. I have no way on knowing if the scrolling ads have had any impact, but they sure do look a lot better than our old text-based screensaver.