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.

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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