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Friday, January 18, 2008
New website progress

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Slowly but surely, we're adding content and improving our new website. Over the next few days we will be doing the following:

  • Adding the committee charges to each of the committees
  • Adding the committee members

What that means is that when you go to the committees drop down list and pick one of the committees, you'll be able to see what they base their activities on and who's on the committee (in case you want to contact a member about their work).

There are still a lot of changes to come, so keep checking back!

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Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Youth, the internet and everything (with apologies to Douglas Adams)

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I've come across two items within the last 2 days that have made me stop and think.


The first one is a study commissioned by the British Library and the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) entitled "Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future." The study was conducted by the University College London (UCL) CIBER group and looked at

"how the Google generation searches for information and the implications for the country's major research collections. The study will try to address the following questions:

  • whether or not as a result of the digital transition and resources being created digitally, young people, the "Google generation", are searching for and researching content in new ways and if so, how this will shape the way they research and search in the future;
  • whether or not new ways of searching and researching for content will prove to be any different from the way that existing researchers/scholars work"

The resulting paper is very interesting reading for those of us interested in reference, especially in-depth (e.g., second-level) reference done in libraries. I strongly recommend reading it. Only 35 pages long, the executive summary can be found here. For the entire set of documents, click here.

Note: A BIG THANK YOU to Stacey Aldrich, Deputy State Librarian, for sending me the original link!

The second item is last night's PBS Frontline episode, entitled "Growing Up Online." It "takes viewers inside the very public private worlds that kids are creating online, raising important questions about how the Internet is transforming childhood." The entire episode is available online here.

Note: A BIG THANK YOU to The Travelin' Librarian for alerting me to this one via his blog.

7 Comments

Wednesday, January 23, 2008
"The Expectation Economy"

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In George Needham's latest entry on It's All Good, he points us to the latest edition of Trendwatching. Entitled "The Expectation Economy," it focuses on the demanding consumer of today. Here's what caught George's eye (and mine):

"never before have consumers enjoyed doing research and 'competitive analysis' as much as they do now, and doing it far more diligently than most corporations do."

What does that mean for the library's consumers? And reference, especially second level reference? So what is "the expectation economy"? It is

"an economy inhabited by experienced, well-informed consumers from Canada to South Korea who have a long list of high expectations that they apply to each and every good, service and experience on offer.

Their expectations are based on years of self-training in hyperconsumption, and on the biblical flood of new-style, readily available information sources, curators and BS filters. Which all help them track down and expect not just basic standards of quality, but the 'best of the best'."

Think about it in view of your own information needs and how you satisfy those needs. 

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Monday, February 04, 2008
PCC's Shatford Library Wins Award

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Congratulations to MCLS Associate Member Pasadena City College Shatfod Library on winning a 2008 Excellence in Academic Libraries Award from the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL). The Shatford Library won in the community college category. According to Camila Alire, chair of the Excellence in Academic Libraries Selection Committee, "innovative is the best word to describe why Shatford Library won this award. It excels in its information competency work and it provides new technologies to advance the academic success of Pasadena Community College students." The Shatford Library and other winners will be recognized during the ALA Annual Conference that will be held in Anaheim in June.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Rethinking Resource Sharing: ALA preconference

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The RUSA STARS (Reference and User Services Association Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section) is sponsoring a preconference at the Anaheim meeting "Throw Off Your Policies and Expose Your Resources: Rethinking Resource Sharing." Here's a description straight from the ALA RUSA STARS website:

"The session will help library administrators and ILL librarians interested in the future of library resource sharing discover innovative ways – such as a plug-in that helps users find material in libraries or on the Internet, a manifesto that sets the stage for new lending policies, scan-on-demand services, and the promise of home delivery – that will help librarians get people what they need, when and where they need it. As we rethink local, regional, national and international approaches to information resource sharing, we will also consider ways to implement and expand on these ideas.

This day is designed to give librarians an opportunity to develop creative responses to the changing expectations of library users’ and ideas about ways to improve service to our patrons, some of which might even save your library money one day."

Speakers include the always popular Stephen Abram, John Bodfish, Gina Persichini and other resource sharing professionals. You can get more information by going here.

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008
New ULC study: How Public Libraries help immigrants' transition

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The Urban Libraries Council has just published a new report, Welcome Stranger: Public Libraries Build the Global Village. The report is based on data gathered in March 2007 from a survey of ULC members. The survey asked for information on “the ways in which urban public libraries are involved with the transition of immigrants into American life.” Augmented with data collected in another 2003 member survey, the findings show “that urban public libraries are in the forefront of the effort to make their cities stronger by welcoming and integrating new residents from all over the world.”

You can purchase the report or download it by going here.

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Thursday, February 14, 2008
Free vs. "valued"

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Two items have come to my attention recently that have intrigued me. The first is a posting on The Technium, a “semi-blog” by Kevin Kelly. Mr. Kelly is “Senior Maverick” at Wired Magazine and conceived and oversaw the publication of four editions of the Whole Earth Catalog back in the 1980s. His January 31 entry is titled “Better Than Free.”

His theory is this:“When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.”

Think about that. One of the issues we are facing in the library world is that information is now abundant, very abundant. And most people looking for information are satisfied with what they find – it’s good enough even though it may not be the best or most precise answer! His response? "When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied." (And, yes, indeed we are "selling" our services to our users -- they pay taxes or fees which we then use to provide services.)

According to Mr. Kelly, “in a real sense, these are eight things that are better than free. Eight uncopyable values. I call them "generatives." A generative value is a quality or attribute that must be generated, grown, cultivated, nurtured. A generative thing can not be copied, cloned, faked, replicated, counterfeited, or reproduced. It is generated uniquely, in place, over time. In the digital arena, generative qualities add value to free copies, and therefore are something that can be sold.” Read his entire posting. As we move forward on making our services more valuable, keep his “generatives” in mind.

The other item was brought to my attention by Rushton Brandis, California State Library. He alerted us (via Calix) to a recent announcement that HarperCollins is going to offer some titles for free via the web and that Random House will be selling some of their titles chapter-by-chapter via the web. Why? To try to generate more interest in their overall offerings. One of the titles being sold chapter-by-chapter is Made to Stick, Chip & Dan Heath’s popular book.

It will be interesting to see if making titles available for free via the web or chapter-by-chapter ends up generating more purchases of the complete books. At the same time, how are we adding value to our services, uncopyable value that can't be copied, cloned, faked, etc.?

7 Comments

Thursday, February 14, 2008
Hubs of knowledge

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Do you think of your library as a “hub for knowledge, entertainment and digital downloading”? If you do, you’re thinking along the same lines as Borders – yes, the bookstore chain that’s everywhere (or wants to be). This recent article in USA Today is about a new concept store being tested in Ann Arbor, Mich. Borders hopes that offering “a digital center where you can download music or books, burn CDs, research family histories, print pictures and order leather-bound books crammed with family photos — with help from clerks who know how to do those sorts of and won’t embarrass you in you don’t” will help reverse years of sluggish sales. Wait a minute! Researching family histories? Downloading music or books? Haven’t we been offering these services all along? And many public libraries have the coffee shops to go along with the services, just like Borders!

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Thursday, February 14, 2008
100 Things to Teach Yourself: Continuing Education on Your Own

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Top 10, top 20, etc., lists abound. Infopeople’s Infoblog has pointed us to the Top 100 Tools for Learning (big thanks to Infoblog for pointing this out to us). Want to work your way through various Web 2.0 and non-Web 2.0 tools? The Top 100 Tools breaks it down into very manageable chunks. And it is being updated regularly as more folks contribute their “top 10” choices.

The list includes obvious choices (del.icio.us, Google Search, Firefox) and not-so-obvious choices (MindManager, Captivate, VoiceThread). Check it out. And bookmark the site because you will want to keep coming back to see what’s been added.

2 Comments

Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Libraries and social networking

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We're all jumping on the social networking bandwagon. Libraries have FaceBook and/or MySpace accounts, we set up IM identities to receive questions. Do we then sit back and wait for the interactions to start happening?

This morning I came across a thoughtful posting on the question of "if you build it, they will come." The posting is from Field of Dreams, a movie about baseball. Bernaise Source is a blog about “mapping the brave new world of new media, the PR profession, news, and web 2.0” – that’s a lot to take on!

In a posting dated Monday, 2/18, Dan Greenfield says the following:

“In launching a social network, it is tempting to create a FaceBook page and declare mission accomplished. Yes you can check off that item on your social media to do list. But having friends on your company page rarely taps a user base looking for a meaningful forum to engage with your brand or company.”

(Note: substitute “library” for “brand” or “company.”)

I recommend reading the entire post. Then we need to think about what we are doing to get our users engaged in our efforts.

2 Comments

Thursday, February 21, 2008
IMLS Connecting to Collections Bookshelf Grants Awarded to MCLS & SLS Libraries

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The Institute of Museum and Libraries Services (IMLS) announced the recipients of its Connecting to Collections Bookshelf grants. Sixteen California libraries were among the recipients. Of those sixteen, three are MCLS members and one is a member of Santiago Library System!

Congratulations to the following recipients: Arcadia Public Library, Irwindale Public Library, Mission Viejo Library and Pomona Public Library. These four libraries will receive “a core set of books, DVDs, online resources, and an annotated bibliography that are essential for the care of collections.

“The Bookshelf focuses on collections typically found in art or history museums and in libraries' special collections, with an added selection of texts for zoos, aquaria, public gardens, and nature centers. It will address such topics as the philosophy and ethics of collecting, collections management and planning, emergency preparedness, and culturally specific conservation issues.”

For a complete list of grant recipients in California, click here. A new round of applications for these grants will be accepted beginning March 1st and continue until April 30th. To view the application questions prior to availability of the application form, click here.

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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Online book discussion program

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You might want to make sure that you have at least one copy of Eckhart Toll's A New Earth in your collection. An announcement from ALA's Public Programs Office tells us that Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Toll will be leading an online book discussion every Monday from March 3, through May 5. Each session will focus on one chapter in the book.

Interested participants are encouraged to register. By registering, they will be able to ask questions of Winfrey and Toll before and after each session. You can register by going to the link above.

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Thursday, February 21, 2008
Audiobooks and DRM

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DRM (digital rights management) – you either love it or hate it. DRM is seen by many as a barrier. Now, according to a posting on BoingBoing by Cory Doctorow, Random House has announced that “it will now allow its audiobooks to be sold without DRM by all of its online retailers. In the announcement, Random House notes that they've been running a DRM-free audiobook program with eMusic for months, and that none of the pirate editions of their audiobooks online came from those DRM-free editions; rather, they've come from DRM'ed editions that were cracked, and from ripped CDs.”

Wow – that’s a change, a good change. Let’s hope others follow their example! You can read the entire posting here.

1 Comments

Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Changes a'coming: Ask.com

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If you use Ask.com to help find answers to your questions, you might want to rethink that. Yesterday the company announced that it was adopting a new strategy “aimed at boosting the loyalty of its core customers.” And with that change came a layoff of 40 folks, including Gary Price who also works on DocuTicker.

Now, why should you care that Ask.com has changed its strategy? This change reduces the number of search engines by one more. Yes, Ask.com will still be around, but its core customers are NOT librarians or library users. According to the Wall Street Journal article, its core customers are predominantly middle-American, white females.

Stay tuned to what they are doing. Maybe Ask.com won't be dramatically changed. But then again... 

1 Comments

Thursday, March 06, 2008
All a'Twitter

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You’ve probably heard of Twitter, the microblogging site. But if you haven’t and want to know more OR if you have but don’t really understand what it is about, here’s a quick way to learn more. Those folks at Common Craft have put together a short (2:25 min.) presentation that explains Twitter in plain English. Take a look – after viewing this short video you’ll have a much better idea of what Twitter does. And, if you already know/use Twitter, you now have a short video to send to your colleagues/friends/family who haven’t figured out what “tweeting” is all about.

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Thursday, March 06, 2008
Reference librarians: A dedicated lot!

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Reference librarians are a dedicated group! Their aim is to find the information that the customer needs if at all possible. But would you be willing to demonstrate the hokey-pokey to someone standing in front of your reference desk? A librarian in Minneapolis did that recently. Check out her blog entry here! However, should you need to show someone how to do the hokey-pokey, do not despair. There are several YouTube videos demonstrating this classic! And, if you do end up demonstrating the hokey-pokey at the reference desk, you might end up on YouTube, given the ready availability of video recording devices nowadays.

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Monday, March 24, 2008
Visualizing air traffic

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One of the blogs I follow now is FringeHog. Almost every Friday, they post their FringeHog Friday Five, five websites, videos, etc., that are interesting for various reasons. Last Friday’s Five included a link to a video that takes FAA air traffic control data and turns it into a mesmerizing visual with music. Take a look at it here.

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Tuesday, April 01, 2008
What if...?

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One of the (many) interesting programs I attended at the PLA Conference last week was "Dangerous Ideas: What if Libraries..." The speakers, which included Stacey Aldrich, put forth 10 dangerous ideas in the form of "what if" questions. Even if you weren’t at the program, you can view some of these questions on the wiki that is now available: What if Libraries…? You don’t need a Wetpaint account to view the site, but you do need one if you want to add your own ideas! Join the discussion.

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Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Smelly phish

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Worried about phishing scams – those emails that look like your bank (or PayPal or …) is trying to reach you so you can update your personal information, thereby giving crooks access to your bank account or credit cards? Even if you know how to avoid them, your colleagues, family members or your users might not be as savvy. Those phishing scams are so sophisticated they fool folks who should know better.

Darlene Fichter’s always interesting Blog on the Side had a posting about an online Flash game that teaches you how to avoid phishing scams. Created by the Carnegie Mellon University Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (CUPS), “Anti-Phishing Phil is an interactive game that teaches users how to identify phishing URLs, where to look for cues in web browsers, and how to use search engines to find legitimate sites.” Try it out. It is fun, which makes the learning part easy. And you will be doing your users a favor if you decide to make it available to them!

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Friday, April 11, 2008
Hooked on Reading

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by Shari Haber

Does your mind temporarily go blank when you are asked to find “read-a-likes” for a particular book? Cengage’s Books & Authors (powered by What do I read next?) may be able to help. Not only can you browse by genre and subgenre, but once you choose a book that your patron has enjoyed, you can click on “read-a-likes” to see what other books s/he might also find enjoyable. The site’s only drawback is it’s currently a work in progress, and not all of the books mentioned have been paired with a read-a-like.  Still go to the Books and Authors site and try your luck. Then, if you are the organized sort, you can even create an account to keep lists of books you have read or would like to read.

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Friday, April 11, 2008
Trivial Pursuit

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by Shari Haber

Don’t you just hate it when, while watching a Jeopardy! contestant who is having a particularly good run, you have to miss a crucial episode or two? Or, like me, you can only watch the Saturday reruns and you wonder what went on the rest of the week in which that show aired?  The J! Archive  to the rescue!

The fan-constructed J! Archive introduces the contestants, displays the game boards, and gives the correct answer plus the person who answered the question (if anyone did) by clicking on either the dollar amount of the question or the little white number in the upper right corner of the question square. Consecutive rounds are reached by scrolling down the page. Intermediate and final scores are shown between the game boards.

By clicking on the orange links at the top of the page you can choose to view the current season, last season, or all seasons. There is a link to see which contestant won what prize, and there is even a wagering calculator. Use the orange links just above the game board to toggle to the previous or next game. Start your computers and indulge your passion!

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Friday, April 11, 2008
Are You Being Served?

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by Shari Haber

You hear the phrase “customer satisfaction rating” bandied about by the news media from time to time. The more curmudgeonly among us probably wonder just who gets to decide how well we will like a particular company or service. Here's the scoop.

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) was developed by the National Quality Research Center (NQRC) at the Stephen M. Ross Business School of the University of Michigan in order to provide information on satisfaction with the quality of products and services available to consumers. “ACSI reports scores on a 0-100 scale at the national level and produces indexes for 10 economic sectors, 43 industries (including e-commerce and e-business) and more than 200 companies and federal or local government agencies.” Search it by industry, company, the Public Administration/Government sector, or you can check out the National Quarterly Scores.

Before mailing that package that just must be there overnight, check out the satisfaction ratings of FedEx and UPS. You might be glad you did.

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Friday, April 11, 2008
Jobless in Academia

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By Shari Haber

Are you planning to give up the joys of public librarianship for that of the rarer atmosphere of academic life? Better yet, do you have patrons who are looking to find their dream professorial posting at some far-flung university? Then check out Chronicle Careers, a free site of jobs in higher education from the folks at The Chronicle of Higher Education.

This site provides searchable listings of jobs in higher education browsable by location, field, position type, and other factors. By creating a free account, on can use tools with which to create cover letters, resumes, and curricula vitae, or post to a discussion forum or message board. The "Advanced Search" allows for further search customization.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Reference Conference To Be Held

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ALA’s Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) is sponsoring a two day conference entitled “A Reference Renaissance: Current and Future Trends.” The conference will “explore all aspects of reference service in a broad range of contexts, including libraries and information centers, in academic, public, school, corporate, and other special library environments.” It will “incorporate the multitude of established, emerging, and merging types of reference service including both traditional and virtual reference.”

The conference is scheduled for August 4-5, at the Four Points by Sheraton hotel in Denver. Early bird registration is $150 – deadline is May 31st. Regular registration is $175. Registration fee includes both breakfast and lunch both days. Interested in learning more? Go to the conference website (above) to see a preliminary schedule.

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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Library 2.0 for Newbies

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By Shari Haber

For the technophobes among us, as well as any of us who are uninitiated in Library 2.0 applications, the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, has designed a set of exercises for learning the new age techniques of blogging, texting, podcasting, image hosting, and more, all spread across 23 weeks. If you wish to drag yourself into the 21st century way of doing things, check out the Learning 2.0 tutorial. Of course you will not be eligible for the MP3 player or laptop the PLCMCL director is offering her staff, but at least you will be able to understand what all those teens and twenties are all a-twitter about.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Teaching Teens Finances

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By Shari Haber

Need an idea for a young adult workshop that will serve your teens well in their later years? Money Smart for Young Adults is a free financial education program for 12-20 year olds, available in CD format from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). It teaches teens the basics of handling money and finances, as well as how to create positive relationships with financial institutions. For details check out the Money Smart for Young Adults website. Use their online order form to order this CD in English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, or Russian. You’ll also find other products here.

3 Comments

Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Get Psyched

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By Shari Haber

Even before the insidious creep of the shrinking budget settled over our libraries, not everyone could afford highly specialized periodicals and books. In the field of psychology, you probably don't have to look too far to find “pop psychology” titles, but you’d be hard pressed to help the student of psychology or someone wishing to delve into the depths of some rare psychosis. AllPsychONLINE: The Virtual Psychology Classroom might change all that. Whether you are looking for a psychology dictionary definition, a brief biography of a practitioner in the field, a journal article, a timeline of psychology, career information, or even a medication guide, it’s all here in one handy web site. Check it out. You might get psyched.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Racy(?) Reads

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By Shari Haber

The American Library Association (ALA) has just released its list of the “10 Most Challenged Books of 2007.”  Besides the titles, the list includes the reasons behind the challenges.  Nearly a third of the titles on the list put in an appearance for the first time.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Online Job Hunting

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By Shari Haber

Every year Weddle's, a publisher of online job hunting guides, surveys online job board users and chooses the 30 top online job boards. Fortune Magazine's online article, “30 best Web sites for job hunters,” has posted the results of the 2008 User's Choice Awards.  The results are listed alphabetically by job category (Industry, Geography, Employment Category, etc.). All but one job board is linked to the article. What are you waiting for?

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Friday, May 16, 2008
The Mashed Up Library: OCLC's ALA Symposium

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Does your library have mash-ups (and I’m not talking about the potato kind of mash-ups)? If you want to learn more about mash-ups, especially relating to library services (where you mix data and functionality from several sources to create new services), you want to attend the FREE OCLC Symposium that will be held at ALA’s Annual Conference in Anaheim. Did I already mention that it is free?

Scheduled for Friday, June 27, the symposium will take place at the Marriott Anaheim, Platinum Ballroom 1-5 from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. OCLC’s symposia are usually well worth the time! (Our own Stacey Aldrich was a speaker at one several years ago.)

The keynote speaker will be Michael Schrage, author of Shared Minds – The New Technologies of Collaboration. There will also be a panel of three librarians, all of whom have developed their own mash-ups. They will be Susan Gibbons (Univ. of Rochester (NY) River Campus Libraries), David Lee King (Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library) and Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran (Univ. of Minnesota, Rochester).

Register here to attend this meeting! I’ll see you at the symposium on June 27.

2 Comments

Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Spin the Green Aspect!

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From The 'M' Word blog: Why not push the idea of saving money and gas by using your library? Kathy Dempsey gives several ideas for marketing your library in these economic times. Take a look and start pushing your library as a way to make their dollars (and time) go further!

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Tuesday, July 01, 2008
It's A Small World--Comparatively

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by Shari Haber

One cannot tell from the title of the web site, Globalhealthfacts.org, that you can find much more than health-related information. Sure you can find what countries lead the world in HIV cases or tuberculosis, but did you know that you can also find general demographic, economic, and health workforce statistics? Data can be arranged by country or topic.

Even better, you can compare up to five countries, using an unlimited number of indicators, by using the "Create a Custom Data Sheet" feature. The resulting charts can be exported to Excel, saved or printed in PDF mode, or you can just email a link to the chart. Easy!

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Friday, July 11, 2008
MCLS Partners with Drexel Online

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MCLS is pleased to announce an exciting educational partnership with Drexel University Online! Staff at MCLS member libraries (and their immediate family members!) are entitled to receive a 20% tuition reduction on Drexel’s fully-accredited master’s and certificate programs from the Drexel’s iSchool.

In its "America's Best Graduate Schools" edition, U.S.News & World Report ranked the online Master of Science in Library and Information Science offered by The iSchool at Drexel 11th in the nation overall.

Winner of the 21st Century Best Practice Award for Distance Learning from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, Drexel University Online offers programs in a convenient online format. Earn the same respected degree that you would on campus, without career interruption, commuting, or fixed class hours.

PARTNERSHIP BENEFITS:
• Receive a 20% tuition reduction as a part of MCLS
• Choose from over 60 fully accredited degree programs
• Attend classes conveniently online
• Access course materials 24/7

PROGRAMS INCLUDE:

• MS in Information Systems
• MS in Library and Information Science (includes three new concentrations: Competitive Intelligence & Knowledge Management, School Library Media, Youth Services)
• Post-Bachelors Certificate of Advanced Study in Information Science and Technology
• And many more! View a full program listing at here.

Visit www.drexel.com/mcls to learn more about your partnership benefits and the educational opportunities available to you at Drexel University Online.

APPLY NOW! There’s no application fee when you apply online! Be sure to use your partner code “MCLS” to receive your discount.

Please contact Valerie Malinowski directly with any questions or if you need assistance with your online application. She looks forward to welcoming you to Drexel!

Valerie Malinowski
MCLS-Drexel Online Partnership Liaison
(215) 895-0915
vm97@drexel.edu

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Monday, July 14, 2008
Got game? Complete the survey!

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From Jenny Levine (the information maven) comes word that Dr. Scott Nicholson, associate professor at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies, is collecting "information about gaming programs run in libraries in 2007. This can be any type of game (board, card, video, chess, puzzle) ... The focus is on gaming programs, where the libraries schedule an event of some type featuring games, and on gaming programs that were run sometime during the 2007 calendar year."

If you had any kind of gaming program in 2007 and want to participate, here's a link to the survey. The survey is available until July 31st. Results will be presented at the 2008 ALA TechSource Gaming, Learning and Libraries symposium, scheduled for November 2-4, 2008.

You can see the presentation by Dr. Nicholson at last year's gaming symposium here.

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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
New OCLC Report: From Awareness to Funding

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From Awareness to Funding: A Study of Library Support in America is OCLC's newest report. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation awarded OCLC a grant "to explore attitudes and perceptions about library funding and to evaluate the potential of a large-scale marketing and advocacy campaign to increase public library funding in the U.S." The report details the findings of the study. Among them are these:

  • Library funding support is only marginally related to library visitation
  • Perceptions of librarians are an important predictor of library funding support
  • Voters who see the library as a 'transformational' force as opposed to an 'informational' source are more likely to increase taxes in its support

The report suggests that targeting marketing messages to the right segments of the voting public is key to driving increased support for U.S. public libraries.

Interested in reading the full report? It's available now and can be downloaded at no cost. If you prefer, you can purchase a copy.

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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Libraries of the World

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By Shari Haber

Often the MCLS reference librarians answer questions that matter only to the patron.  But then there is the question that might be of interest to other reference librarians or even to the general public.

A library administrator wanted to know if there is a list of all of the public libraries "in the world."  Luckily, s/he was not interested in every branch, just the main libraries. After a brief check, our reference librarian recommended four sources: three web sites and a book. They are, from most to least comprehensive:

 

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Monday, August 18, 2008
Top World Universities

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By Shari Haber

The Ranking Web of World Universities did not start out as a way to rank the overall quality of universities and research centers from around the world. Its purpose was to promote Web publication by those institutions. Along the way, its founders, the Cybermetrics Lab, a large public research body in Spain, discovered that web indicators are very useful for ranking purposes. An effective Web presence reflects an institution's resources, activities and global performance, and provides information for candidate students and scholars, representing its commitment to the dissemination of scientific knowledge. The Ranking is published in January and July each year, and covers over 16,000 institutions of higher education from around the globe. See if your alma mater made the list.

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Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Cool giveaways!

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Want some cool giveaways for your YA or adult users? Check out what the Libraryman has found. Admit it -- you've always wanted a strawberry-shaped flash drive!

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Wednesday, August 27, 2008
How do Californians look for/find information?

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Back in March, the California State Library had Zogby International conduct a survey asking library users what kind of information they look for, where do they start their searching, etc. This survey was a followup to the first survey done in January. Public library jurisdictions throughout California were asked to place a link to the survey on their website. Now the results are in!

"A Snapshot of How Californians Are Finding and Using Information" is now available as a PDF on the State Library's website. The document compares the results of the January survey vs. the March survey. While the results are not surprising, they are interesting. Print it out because you are going to want to take a good look at what users are doing to get the information they want and/or need!

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Thursday, September 04, 2008
International Etiquette on the Internet

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By Shari Haber

Do you remember the old sensitivity training workshops from a couple of decades ago when we were taught that some cultures may take offense at something that we think is very ordinary? Culture Crossing: Country Guides to Culture bills itself as "A community built guide to cross-cultural etiquette and understanding." As such, one can learn of the communication style, gestures, and taboos of the people from any county in the world. Business and student etiquette is also covered, and, as a plus, one can learn the major religions and ethnic groups for each country. (I'd give this site a "thumbs up," but that is considered rude in Bangladesh, and probably other places too.)

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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Using photos legally in your library marketing

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Kathy Dempsey, one of the contributors to The 'M' Word blog, commissioned an article for the journal Marketing Library Services on the legalities of using photographs to market your library's services. The article is available for free via the web here. Read it and then review your own internal practices.

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Thursday, September 11, 2008
Visual search engines

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As part of the recently held Statewide Reference Think Tank, participants were asked to look at several visual search engines. What's a visual search engine? It is one that presents its results with images instead of the usual description with link. You might see the image of a webpage or a picture.

Take a look at these four examples:

Searchme
RedZee
Bryns Brain
Middlespot

Have fun trying these out. Do the same search in each one and see how they compare.

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Friday, September 12, 2008
Why public libraries close

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Why do public libraries close? We celebrate with much fanfare the opening of new libraries, but we barely mark the closing of libraries. A study is now available that looked at the closure of public libraries from 1999 to 2003.  The resulting paper is now available on WebJunction in various formats. You can view it here. The study was conducted by Florida State University and sponsored by OCLC. The researchers looked at why libraries closed and assessed the potential impact from the librarians' viewpoint.

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Friday, September 12, 2008
Google blog: Celebrating 10 years of Google

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As part of Google's 10 year celebration, The Official Google Blog's editors asked ten of their top experts to consider where Google is likely to be in ten years. The responses are being posted to the blog. The first one was by Marissa Mayer, VP, Search Products & User Experience, and is well worth reading: The Future of Search.

Folks: if Google does succeed in implementing Mayer's vision of where the company will be in 10 years, we should be thinking of and implementing services NOW that will complement what they hope to do. Because from reading Mayer's post, it is obvious that Google will only get better.

The second response was posted today and it is titled Ad Perfect. Naturally, it talks about the Google ads and how they hope to continue to refine the ads you see based on your location, preferences, etc.

Take a look at the blog and keep an eye out for the remaining 8 postings on the topic of where Google will be in 10 years.

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