Library Voice

Virtual Reference:  Endless Possibilties

University of Waterloo
wanted to chat with minimal headaches

only staff chat from 12-4
that’s rather limited
University of Western Ontario now does it about 12 hours a day

Meebome has “non-life-threatening” issues
it requires flash
unfotunately, the univ of western ontario library machines does not have flash
patron won’t stand still

chats are anonymous with meebo

hab.la looks good.  keeps the chat box on top of the url that you push them
only 5 hab.la widgets will display simultaneously.  so not a viable solution for the OPAC
they are thinking about a pay option.

LibraryH3lp
http://libraryh3lp.blogspot.com
runs on javascript
does multiple monitors
currently lacking a wysiwyg
looking to make a fee-based version

there is no one-size fits all solution.

we need to stay flexible.  make the service important, not the technolog.

—————-
Virtual Reading Rooms

Derik Badman

We get all these journals, who is looking at them?

Browsing electronic journals is not fun.

RSS is good for getting information out.
We need to do a RSS class for notifications.

used Yahoo Pipes to mashup the RSS feeds.
The end result is one RSS feed for multiple RSS feeds from journal.
FeedBurner offers an email list for those who don’t use RSS.

Grazr
allows for one page of RSS feeds without subscribing

Derik found the library literature feed very useful.  Did not look at library literature before.  Now he is able to browse.

has about 20-30 subscribers to his library literature feed.  he’s not even sure it got out there.

Problems:  It’s a lot of work.  takes a lot of time to collect the rss feeds and to mash them up.

Apparently we are a twitter’n too much.

Learning Commons:  The “in” in CIL

Tom Ipri  (aka Tombrarian)

Tom has been in Las Vegas for 9 months
Tom connects the idea of place (his old home versus new home)

Tom can see a pyramid and the Chrysler building from his office

Learning Commons=Library Commons=Learning Spaces

Tom says that his Information Commons does not allow for modular furniture.  Most of the furniture is bolted together to the floor.

It was predicted in the late 1990’s that libraries would not exist as a result of the web.

Now, libraries are now putting a lot more money into their spaces.

Typical learning commons stuff
movable furninture, more computer apps, study rooms, laptop loans, tutoring services, writing services, practice presentation room, etc

People have an emotional attachment to space
they form an opinion when the walk into a space

Space can facilitate or hinder learing
space should match teaching objectives, learning styles, and social setting
If students don’t respect the physical environment, they likely won’t respect the teacher

How do you add value to a laptop?
Put Adobe Creative Suite on it.  Students are likely not to have that on their own laptops.

Mobile Search

Gary Price

Megan Fox

getting to the search box is still a challenge for many users

Gary mentions that he used an iPhone the other day.  The older network on the iPhone (AT&T) was slower than the 3G on his Treo (Sprint).

A very fast but good presentation.  Links available at web.simmons,edu/~fox/mobile.

Library Web Presence

Emily Rimland
Binky Lush
Penn State Library

Kristina DeVoe
Derik Badman
Temple University Libraries

Penn State
Research JumpStart page
built around the idea of widgets
designed for the novice user
includes a few tools that users need the most and use the most
provides instant help
includes search box to the catalog
includes search box for proquest  (demonstrates proquest by searching gnomes, but it did not ask her to authenticate.  )
also includes Research Quick Start  (links to research guides)
also includes quick links
good for teaching, as all the resources you are going to teach a class should be on this page
widgets can be added to iGoogle
Binky went to a place called WidgetBox  (maybe a cool idea to do a business search page)
register with WidgetBox, then click to make a new widget
WidgetBox lets you test your widget, and also gives you analytics.
this may make a lot more sense than doing a toolbar, as all you have to do is update the widget and it will update on all pages.
WidgetBox does allow you to make a facebook app, but it does not allow you to take advance of the social
next up is to do some assessment
been a successful project thus far

Temple University
Subject Guides 2.0
Engaging Patrons Empowering Librarians
old subject guides were static pages
used a Contribute system, but didn’t like it
LibGuides  –purchases in Spring 2007
http://guides.temple.edu
key benefits of LibGuides
1.  Ease of Use–easy to add stuff–copy and paste urls, add descriptions, etc.
2.  Content is modular
3.  organization is flexible
4.  comments, polls, etc are available
5.  quick bibs

what the numbers say
looks like the month of march was more than most of fall semester
fairly impressive numbers

guides need marketing

other software options
good article in Code4Lib

Paul and I hope you enjoy the talk.  Please use this chat room to interact during the presentation.

Jeff Wisniewski
University of Pittsburgh

Simplicity Rules
Everyone wants to be like Google.  But Google is a single purpose site.  Library websites differ because they serve multiple functions. 

Content is king, but design matters alot.  Novice users judge in the blink of an eye, and may only judge based on how your site looked.  With an increase in professional design, comes an increase in credibility. 

Need to design your website for what your users are doing.

The rule of seven
Somewhere between 5 and 9 categories for top level navigation

The 3 click rule
This rule is dead
Design for SCENT
Users will click so long as they feel they are on the right path

Design for 800 X 600
Best to optimize for 1024 X 768
Need to think about other platforms, such as handhelds
Use CSS media types  (there is a CSS media type for handheld)  I really need to look at this. 
Make sure you have a flexible design. 

Colors for the web
Most users browse with 24-bit color rendering

For Redesign Inspiration
Take a survey or the general web.  Don’t just look at other library websites. 

How often do you redesign?
A constant, more iterative design is less disruptive. 

Follow your own conventions
Be consistent with what you call things

Established web standards and conventions
home link in the upper left
if you have a banner, make it clickable

Does greater bandwidth give us more design freedom?
Mobile users are on slower networks

Need to support all browsers
For basic content—YES!

Separation of presentation and content means that you don’t have to design a text-only version of the site

CSS support for layout is good enough for modern browsers
“Be a

The very top of the page is most likely to be ignored or only looked at briefly.  “banner blindness”
Don’t put anything at the very top of the page if it is mission critical. 
Google heat map shows what parts of the page are visible to the user, while showing which parts are ignored.  Note to self, the top right is ignored. 

Flash can be used for effective animation and interactivity

Mouseover menus raise usability considerations.  The menus often require ninja-like mouse skills

Tell people when you are going to be opening a new window. 
Content such as PDF, Word, etc, it makes sense to open in a new window. 
Tabbed browsing makes this less of an issue. 

What about scrolling?
these days users are comfortable scrolling
but keep most important content above the fold

Images of people
generally images increase trust
labeled people increase credibility the most

IL2007

Aaron Schmidt and Sarah Houghton-Jan

Rather than blogging every single slide, I am pulling out key notes that can apply to my specific library. 

Make your library website two-way.  This will allow them to give feedback.  We allow this on our blogs, which are moderated.  Also, our FAQs allow for users to submit questions. 

Blurring of jurisdictional lines.  Online, everyone’s patrons are your patrons.  Personally, I get questions quite often from people from other universities and even other countries.  This is often very difficult for academic libraries to try, as many only want to serve their own patrons.  Often this is the result of license restrictions, but I imagine it is still a mostly cultural thing. 

Is your library on Wikipedia?  Perhaps your library should be on the page for your town.  I just added our local libraries on the Athens, Ohio page in the Community Web Links.

List your library in a wireless directory.  wifi411, jwire, wi-fi zone, etc.

Solicit email addresses with sign-up sheets so that users can opt in for newsletters, etc.

What about experimenting with SMS reference service?  How would we staff it?  Would we just have a librarian carry “the SMS phone” for the duration of their shift?  Can librarians get their libraries to help pay for a texting plan?  This seems like our next avenue that we need to go in, but the details need to be worked out. 

Should academic librarians be using Twitter?  Would students read it?  What sort of things would we Twitter at the library?  I have a Twitter feed  that I used and embedded on my wiki and blog, but took it down once I started posting personal things (updates of the kids, etc).  Perhaps I need to revisit the idea for reference and work stuff. 

IL2007

Learning Objects
Shiu Liu
Colorado State University

A learning object is an online tool that includes a learning objective, a learning process, and assessment of learning, providing an interactive experience, to help learners digest as specifice piece of knowledge, or master how to complete a specific task.

Learning objects are
Digital
Individual
INteractive
Reusable

Learning Objects Repositories

Wisconsin Online Resource Center
12 Cranial Nerves is a good example

Merlot
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching

UTOPIA
utopia.utexas.edu

University System of Georgia: ALT (Advanced Learning Technologies)

Library Resources & Learning Objects
supports 24/7 learning, anytime, anywhere

————————–
Tammy Allgood Digital Delivery and Design Librarian
Arizona State University

Two projects
Board game
online game

Learning objectives
teach library as a physical and virtual spces
library sources
types of resources
basics of catalog
differences between types of sources

Board game introduced Fall 2005
Board game is very easy to do
Began as prototype to computer game
Went through four versions of the board game

Computer game
development began spring 2006
5 people on the development team
skills–web development, flash development, database design, lower division insturction expertise, extensive research in gaming in gaming as an educational tool
hired an outside programmer

Timeline
5 months to develop storyline, documentation
two months for actual desing
character interactions—one month
information retrieval–two weeks
animations–two weeks
bug tracking and documentation—one month

CIL2007

Trends in Mobile Tools and Applications for Libraries
Megan Fox
Simmmons College

Size of mobile market
75 % of all US adults have cell phones
90% of college students have them
95% of US mobile phoes support text messaging
62 % of subscribers use text messaging regularly
text messaging increased 95% over last year

Samsung B47 supports picture in picture.  Screen rotates to support TV

Nokia N93 has a partnership with Flickr, to upload pics automtically

Audio is advanced on these devices, and they replace the need for a separate mp3 player

iPhone
coolest thing will be the touchscreen
can’t download apps to the iPod, no user-replaceable battery

UMPC
Ultra Mobile Personal Computer
now in 2nd generation
Samsung Q1 Ultra
thumb keyboard on both sides of the screen
battery life is an issue, but they are working on it
———————————–

The mobile web
.mobi internet domain
mobisitegalore
businessweek.mobi
fpld.websiteforever.mobi  Freemont Public Library

Zinadoo translates information into mobile
Ball State University  www.bsu/libraries/mobile

Mobile Optimized Catalog
AirPac is a III mobile version of the catalog

Ready reference info is not available on mobile phones  (almanacs, handbooks, etc)
use these resources at the ball game, at the store, at the bar

———————————
The Transcoded Web
Transcoding can be controversial because it distorts the page
Any page can be shoehorned into a mobile device

mobilicious = del.ici.ous on the go

Mobilizing your content
mobifeeds
xfruits

As mobile information becomes more proficient, librarians will need to be more familiar with the objects

———————
Communicating with library users

Alarama.com.au
company that provides reference service

MagicMessage does this

GizmoSMS
TeleFlip are other webform to phone options

youngest users are heavy texters

Wake Forest has a MobileU pilot program
Library has a mobile style sheet

AirBaruch 
reserve study rooms via the library

ClassInHand
sort of like a clicker system, but works with cell phones

AudibleAir
download audio books via wireless broadband

Guide by cell audio tours

YouTube to go is in the works, as is a mobile Second Life

BallState has videos that work on phones

—–
mobile for Library staff
Wireless Workstation from III

slides at web.simmons.edu/~fox/mobile

CIL 2007