Libraryman

Sure it was sunny and 70 in Seattle today, but I had a high old time indoors, configuring my new Chumby:

After spending a couple hours with this (literally) squeezable little computer, I am convinced that libraries could get some serious value from Chumby. A few of them, configured with promo jazzy promo material and carefully placed in public areas would have some real impact. Sure, you’d have to chain them down, but it would really get serious attention. I mean, these little things are COOL!

I’ll likely post more Chumby related things soon, but for now, check out this Animoto.com video and imagine what you could do with your own spiffy library promo video. Their videos play on Chumby or a web page, was free, required no coding on my end, used pictures from my flickr account and was up and running with about 30 mins of work and waiting. Pretty sweet, eh?:

*link*

Mmmm hmmmm….

Do a SWOT, y’all!

Tim?

Testing the new Jib Jab “Starring You” tonight was partly fun and partly a chore. There are a few steps you have to go through to make the heads work and look “right” which took a bit of the joy out of setting things up. It is interesting to see this sort of technology interface being sold as something the public will latch on to. It is a stretch at the moment, but think of the promos libraries could do with a carefully planned marketing program using something like this (perhaps embedding letting patrons stick themselves in a famous book setting, etc?). The video I made is really just for fun and isn’t meant to be too awfully serious. You know, I must confess that upon seeing the results I couldn’t help but wonder “should I have just read a chapter or two in a book instead of making this?”.

Naaaah, who am I kidding, this time was time well spent! Enjoy:

Ah ha!!
The facebook “story types adjustment “equalizer”” solves a problem and demonstrates that the cluttering problems that many have complained about (with just about every successful social networking tool out there) are actually quite fixable. And fixable in a way that can be intuitive. Wow! Don’t you love big brains in action? This isn’t the ultimate solution to be sure, but it shows that there are rock solid legitimate solutions to this problem that are readily accessible and understandable to general users of social software. This stuff is going to drive how we use the internet for a long, long while, and that is GOOD.

facebook is on top right now for quite a few reasons and this is yet another example of why. Good on ya’ facebook!

*update*
Some wondered if this “equalizer” really worked, so I took a screenshot showing that after it was launched (yesterday or today) my feed was sparse and text. Shortly after I adjust my settings, you can see the more dynamic content returning to my home page (these are the posts towards the top with pictures, etc). Please note the typo that says “storytimes” instead of story types. It was ten years ago that I was a Children’s Librarian, but those days happily never really leave you.

Whew! Just finished, and you can check it out by following this link.

Here’s what it is about:
“I have a presentation to share with you about the new facebook developer’s application. In actuality the presentation is really about how this tool has huge potential importance for libraries. Naturally, the tool and it’s functionality are covered here, but the larger principles that apply to library futures, ILS systems and patron engagement with and within the online library environment are the real reasons to understand what is discussed in the presentation. It’s stuff that is worth know for sure! Here’s a screen shot of the introduction. The real file plays as a “movie” and can be found by clicking here. I hope you find it useful!

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to get ahold of me. My contact info can be found on my web site/blog: www.libraryman.com

**Thanks to WebJunction for hosting this presentation and for sharing the software needed to create it. WebJunction has tools like this that you can use too!**

PART I:

Woo Hoo!!! This weekend, the 365 Library Days Project (tag: 365libs) turned two months old! Amazingly (library folks are truly amazing), there are 297 participating libraries and already a library was written up in it’s local paper! All the person running their 365 Library Days Project did was call the paper and tell them they were working on it and they wrote it up! Wow! It works!

PART II
This an uplifting story for sure, but in ten months (or any time we like, really), the goal is to be able to start using the 365 Library Days Project as a more formal advocacy tool. Along those lines, an initiative has just begun to develop a Press Kit that we can give to media outlets and also a set of instructions/hints we can use to get the most value out of the historical document you are making as you participate in the 365 Library Days Project. Here is a link to the page where you can contribute to this phase of the project. Text of the original post is included too, so you can see what’s up:

Time To Write Our Press Kit and Instructions *this is a link*
“This weekend I started to write the press kit that libraries could just print out and give to their local newspapers, tv and radio stations to get attention to their 365 Library Days Projects. THen I thought, hey, there are almost 300 member libraries participating here, why don’t we make this a community project.

So, let’s do it! It seems that we will need to write:
1. A document we can give to media outlets.

2. A document we could give to library boards/governing bodies explaining the project and it’s value.

3. An brief, concise instruction sheet for librarians/staffer that explains how to use the two docs above most effectively.

So how should we write these? Perhaps we should start a wiki and do it there? Anyone have ideas or want to set that up for the group?

Also, if you need more proof of concept for the 365 Library Days Projects, as of this weekend we are just two months into the launch and there has already been one participating library that has received a write up in a local paper!

Please chime in here. You are the experts! :)”

PART III
Finally, for the past two months, every time the 365 Library Days Projects got a legitimate plug from a participating library or a blogger, I’ve saved it in my del.icio.us feed. It’s grown to be an impressive collection of 38 links from folks on at least four continents with posts in five languages (if my count is correct). AMAZING! Here is a screenshot and a link to those posts:

Thanks everybody! Please contact me if you have any questions or if I can help you move your project along! Keep snapping these valuable photos in your libraries, keep having fun with this, good luck and see you around the 365 Library Days Project page!

In fairly huge social networking news, if you aren’t using (or at least monitoring the maneuvers of) facebook much lately, you might consider firing up your account again. They have been adding outside app functionality (with a few hickups, natch) in ways I’d hoped might show up on a social library web site first. *grumble* The facebook Developers Platform will help you make your own if you are smarter than me in this regard. I lament that this didn’t show up in Libraryland first, but you know, I also wish I could have written Sgt. Peppers and wishin’ don’t mean I’ve got the chops, brother! Still, it’s made the weekend more interesting watching people/friends/colleagues dive in over the weekend. Superpatron (Edward V.) said it best via twitter when he sent out the message “You got your facebook in my twitter!”. I love you, you glorious geek!

In other, more lighthearted social networking news, Tweet Volume is a tool that tells you how often words are being used on twitter. Hmmm…anybody else see the word occurrence below as telling?

Thanks to thefreerangelibrarian for the Tweet Volume heads up. KGS, you are the bomb.

Just in the chatty fun!

Anybody coming to this afternoon Keynote presentation at the Brooklyn Public Library’s Emerging Technology Conference on Monday? I am!