Libraryman

A blog post, an event page and a press release. Thanks Palo Alto! Or more accurately: Excellent advocacy work, Palo Alto! Sure, it’s my ugly mug up there, but the fact of the matter is they are bringing someone from outside into their community to help. Carefully selected bits of specialized knowledge and experience can be used to help inform decisions, facilitate brainstorming and can lend a hand to libraries trying to be transparent to the community they serve. Working hard to decide how to best implement what users/patrons really want is more important now than ever before and bringing in appropriate amounts and types of outside thought can significantly assists libraries in making important decisions about the technological directions they take.

So this is exceptionally commendable of Palo Alto (and really has almost nothing to do with me individually). Having said that, perhaps I should have highlighted someone else’s public library tech presentation to make this point? While not entirely common, there are other examples, and each make me equally happy and hopeful for that community and their library.

As far as Palo Alto goes, I really do hope lots of folks show up. It’ll be a great chance to cover some important issues, issue a challenge or two and get some back-and-forth going on things that are driving libraries (and society at large).

As further example, here is the text from the press release for the event:

10/25/2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE #10/25/07
Subject :
Library Technology Expert Michael Porter to Speak at Palo Alto City Hall
Contact :
Mary Minto, Division Manager, Library (650) 329-2517

Palo Alto, CA – Library technologist, Michael Porter, trainer and author, will share his expertise November 8 from 7–9 p.m. on how public libraries use new digital tools to build communities. His presentation, “Your Library’s Future Has Changed: Technology, Content and Community,” will include a look at the web sites of innovative libraries that are using social networking tools and creative implementation to provide access to information and create connections in their communities.

Michael Porter is Community Associate for WebJunction, an organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to assist libraries and cultural organizations in meeting their objectives through the effective use of web-based technologies. His professional focus is on technology, community, and training. He co-authors the “Internet Spotlight” column in Public Libraries magazine and is writing a book about effective electronic communities.

The talk will be hosted by the Palo Alto City Library, which is gearing up to develop a library technology plan by early 2008. This free program is sponsored by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.

· Date and Time: Thursday, November 8, 2007, 7–9 p.m.
· Place: Council Chambers, City Hall, 250 Hamilton Ave., Palo Alto

Visit the Library web site at www.cityofpaloalto.org/library for more information.”

Very nice! I look forward to seeing everyone in Palo Alto (and Sunnyvale and Santa Clara Co. too) later this week!

-Michael

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!**

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.

The Santiago Library System has created a pretty spiffy flier for an upcoming event that I am very honored to be taking part in next month. I’ve had a chance to speak with a couple of the other presenters and I believe they will be quite interesting and certainly worth the time it takes to attend. I already know the audience ’round Santiago LS and MCLS land is pretty amazing, so it should be a great day all around (though I can admit that this is a bit of an intimidating crowd and not scare any potential attendees away, right?). At any rate, the event even includes lunch and a library tour, so how can you go wrong?

If you see me there be sure to say hello. I’ll do the same!

Thanks M!

This image in this post is just slightly freaky when you read what it includes and how the image came to be posted to the blog tonight. It’s deep, shallow and goes ’round and ’round.
So yesterday I blogged about Pandora and libraries (again, sorry), tonight I was working a bit at home and listening away to my good friend Pandora when a “frame ad” came up around the player. The ad? It was from the folks at Palm, for the Treo. In this series of ads, they mention the different ways you can integrate a Treo into your life. Interestingly, the ad I saw highlighted flickr. So, I whip out my Treo, while listening to Pandora, take a picture of the flickr/Treo/Palm/Pandora screen and upload it to flickr. Then I go into my blog editing software and write this post. Which will now include some code that will make a picture showing you an amazingly deep example of convergence show up for you. Enjoy!

A banner ad on Pandora this morning:

Love it! Let’s do this in libraries, why not?

I’ll be in Helena, Montana next Thursday, May 25th presenting the “Keep Up: Practical emerging technology for you and your library” workshop. Isn’t it a lovely bit of serendipity that the host site, the Lewis and Clark Library, is located at 120 S. Last Chance Gulch? Plus, if you’re a fan of the show, it totally sounds like a street name out of Deadwood. Seriously though, Montana library folks are notoriously fun, interesting, cool and curious so I’m really looking forward to this workshop.

And now for something completely different: Flickr moved into “Gamma” yesterday, officially leaving “Beta”. Who says pertpetual Beta is a feature of Web/Library 2.0? My favorite change so far is that as you page through a persons photo stream, more photo thumbnails display on each page. For those interested in FLickr, stop HERE to see a very interesting survey of changes Flickr users would like to see once they decide to leave all the Greek alphabet behind and finally move into software numeral land. Sorry that was a horribly nerdy sentence. Please pardon my geek out.

Last Thursday I had the great pleasure of presenting a “Talk Table” with my new friend Annanaomi Sams (from the Hanford Technical Library) at the Washington State Library Association Conference in Tacoma, WA. Here’s a description of what we (and a group of 25-30 folks) talked about:
“RSS: Feeding Your Staff and Your Customers.
RSS feeds are quickly becoming commonplace in libraries. They are used, for example, to ?pull? content from external sources for library staff and their customers. Libraries can also generate their own RSS feeds to deliver information and services.”

Annanaomi has done some interesting and innovative things with RSS in her library (see the link above for a mini-preview) and the folks attending had lots of high quality questions, comments and ideas. Thanks so much to Annanaomi and all the attendees for making this such a joy to participate in.

Interestingly, someone from Marketing just asked me for some quotes about RSS. Here’s what I quickly came up with:

?When carefully explained and well demonstrated, it is almost impossible to resist using RSS.?

?RSS is so practical and simple to use that it will seriously change not only how you use the internet, but how your library shares information on the internet.?

?You might not know about RSS yet, but you will. Why? Simply put, RSS is one of the most important internet technologies and concepts ever developed.?

?The power of RSS to increase the amount and quality of information that you consume daily is remarkable. ?

?The rewards are so large, both on an individual and an institutional level that library professionals need to know how use this technology NOW.?

Anybody else want to chime in?

If you use
del.icio.us, you can make your own TAG CLOUD too:

Thanks to my pseudo smarmy friend, KB for the link.

GeoMapped Libs

Originally uploaded by libraryman.

Wouldn’t it be cool to see a global map dotted with markers indicating where you could click to see pictures of the library in that exact geographic location? How in the heck would you make something like that work anyway?

Well prepare to “Ohhh”? and “Ahhh”?! The Libraries and Librarians Flickr Group is at it again with another super spiffy application of technology. Can you say Web 2.0? :). Actually, Lluisa , Russell and GeoBloggers folks (its author Dan Catt to be exact) have put their heads together and come up with a site to view GeoTagged pictures from the group photo pool. Amazing!

As more images are properly GeoTagged the page will become even more impressive. Join in the fun and contribute to the community! At last count we had 1495 images and 317 members on six continets in the group! Add your library photos to the Libraries and Librarians Flickr group and then add some GeoTags. The directions for doing this are included in the discussion HERE.