NEASIST Events

Michael's Presentation as Blogged by Jenny

I blogged Michael's presentation, too....

12 Steps to Optimizing Tech in Your Library (another list – yay!)

1 – is the technology you’re pondering going to meet your mission? biggest question of all!

“the cabinet of dead and dying technologies” at his library  :-)
— the idea of “techno divorce”

South Huntington PL – cataloged iPods and wireless laptops and lend them out for users to take home. Yay, SHPL!

Sometimes you have to take a risk, although you need to have the resources to do it

“Evidence-based decision-making” = do your research before deciding! come to the table prepared

Soapbox time: why blog at your library? it works, it’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s cheap. how many things can you say that about?
— don’t listen to “some” people *cough* Gorman *cough* Cronin *cough*

Talked to someone from a library that had spent $20,000 on VR software but cut the cord on it when they realized the ROI was $500 per question! *cough* IM *cough*

Recommends that everyone read Death By Meeting by Patrick M. Lencioni

Michael is highlighting OCLC’s Environmental Scan. Yay, OCLC!

Lots of great stuff about IM; showing a screenshot of video IM (comb your hair!)

Tells a story about a woman he knows who has conversations with her boss on IM that she could never have in person (serious, in-depth discussions)

Excellent – now he’s introducing the idea of presence! References his article with Aaron Schmidt in LJ about IM.

Tells a story about a woman who started an IM training session by asking the group, “Why are we doing this?” Answer: because we have to meet these users in their world!

Shows a screenshot of staff blogging a conference internally for other staff to read

Showing screenshots of sites with RSS feeds in Safari in the new Tiger software on his Mac
— can just click on the RSS button in the browser address bar to see just the feed, but formatted for easy reading
— also showing the new screensaver that displays an RSS feed!

Nice graph for “unified mechanism for unified message”

Showing Harris County Public Library’s customized toolbar. Yay, HCPL!
Make your own at Best Toolbars!

Of course Michael is now mentioning Jybe!  :-)

Don’t forget to unplug!

Question from audience: does SJCPL rotate folks answering IM questions?
Answer: Yes, and even have a second IM name where they put people on hold and pick it up there.

Question from audience: ROI on blogs and RSS?
Answer: can approximate stats (Jenny adds: FeedBurner!

Question from audience: how does a small public library fit this stuff in?
Answer: can easily fold in blogging, which gives you an automatic RSS feed, IM, and wireless

Question: issues of security and privacy in sensitive environments - come back fired up from events like these, only to be told they can't do it because of these issues
Answer: some issues, especially if can't encrypt them