I love library instruction! It gives me a high.

It is official I am in love with library instruction. Those close to me in my personal life suggested I teach. I knew I was not cut out to be a school teacher!

When I talk about library resources I get all giddy! The first time I was scheduled to do a library class I was so excited. I did my hair, picked my outfit out, and left 2 hours early to get to work. Of course, my car broke down, and I never made it. 😦

I did not give up, and there were no obstacles for the next library class. I was so excited!

Today, I visited my first virtual classroom and it went well. I taught students how to find resources for their business law. The professor was even excited we had e-books! I am feeling really good right now.

My favorite part of Day Two at the ALA Virtual Conference 2011

I really enjoyed Amy Deschenes’, a Library Technology Specialist at Simmons College Library, presentation titled Creating a Mobile Presence in the Library. The content was great, and her presenting style was engaging. She discussed creating a mobile website versus an app.

Some great advice she gave was:

• You might want to create a Redirect if your website has a lot of metadata or large images because it will load slowly.

She discussed Frameworks &Tools you can use to create your mobile website or apps. To create a mobile website you might want to check out: iWebKit or winksite. For creating an app you might want to look at: appsamuck, android developers network, or PhoneGap. Once your site is up you can use iPhoney, iPhone simulator, and W3C  mobileOK checker to do testing.

Build vs. Buy

If you do not have the time you might want to consider boopsie for libraries or Library Anywhere.

All of the above information was new to me, and I thank Amy for such an informative presentation.

Day One: ALA Virtual Conference 2011

I attended Day One of the ALA Virtual Conference 2011. I have to eat quickly before a couple of meetings, but I wanted to share my notes from the presentations so far.

Virtual Conference Exclusive Keynote—Privacy in an Era of Social Media

Keynote speaker: dana boyd

• Digital flaneurs-contributing by being present in the social networking framework
• Young people make themselves very vulnerable by their use of social networking.
• Privacy as a network act
• Librarians should be advocates for young people, and helping them managing and navigating what privacy is. Teaching young people media literacy.
  • Google +, is 18+
  • Gmail is also 18+
  • Young people lied about their age to get Gmail accounts then go to sign up for Google+ and lost their email accounts.
  • Google+ limits privacy, people want to keep people out
  • Google created a complex way to segment it.
  • 13+ is violated as well. Parents allow their children to join these social networks. They help them get around these
  • Danah boyd contact info: @zephoria, danah@danah.org,http://www.danah.org

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Download This!: How One Library Embraced Its Downloadable Future

Presented by Sandy Bolek, Website Coordinator and Holbrook Sample, Virtual Information Center Manager from at Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

• Downloading from library up 33.4%
• 177% ebook sales were up
• E-book 3%-5% of total book sales

Library’s Challenges

• Downloadable collection was small
• Not Amazon easy
• Staff had little experience using downloadable material
• Long wait lists for e-books
• Patrons could not figure out what devices they could use with the e-books

Chicago Public Library #6 in the list of most downloadable collections. Rock on Chicago!

With increased marketing more e-books were downloaded!

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Competing with Search Engines II: Strategic Partnerships: Libraries and Journalists

• New Information Equation-nobody’s in charge, everyone can find information
• New Tools: digital media, smart phones
• Collaboration=results, wider visibility, increased participation, broader perspectives, community interaction, information literacy
• Rutgers has School of Communication and Information

Civic Engagement Blog: http://discuss.ala.org/civicengagement/

Beyond Books: http://journalismthatmatters.org/biblionews/

http://rjionline.org/blog/crossroads-journalists-and-librarians-we-find-community-engagement

Via chat window:

I mentioned I get so many emails through RSS feeds, and this website tutorial was suggested:

A mini-course on infotention from Howard Rheingold, Journalist and tech guru

http://howardrheingold.posterous.com/a-mini-course-on-infotention

http://www.rheingold.com/university/mini-courses/

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LibChat

Natalie Binder: #libchat normally happens every Wednesday 8-9:30 p.m. EST

Via Chat:

Getting Started with Google Plus, http://www.chrisbrogan.com/startgoogleplus/

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Seriously Social Leveraging Social Media

Twitter

Presenter, Kolene Allen, Web Branch Manager, Grand Rapids (Mich.) Public Library

• Why do libraries need to be use social media?
• If you are not using social media you are not in the library.Your patrons are tweeting and letting their friends know about your library.

Facebook

Presenter, David Lee King

• How often will you post?
• Who on staff will post on your library’s Facebook page?
• Make sure more than more person has the username and password. If they leave they will take this info with them.
• Use the Like button
• Check out Facebook analytics
• Most Important!-Tell your patrons you have a Facebook page, and ask them to friend you
• Ask them to tell their friends about you to grow that user group

Shared via chat window:

Springfield City Library Teens via @Meg Aust-Anastasi, Springfield, MA http://www.facebook.com/SpringfieldCityLibraryTeens

Question and Answer Session

• Kolene Allen, Twitter followers seem to be more outspoken, and you can respond to those
• @davidleeking, Facebook can increase library use, because they are interacting with the library online.

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Pecha Kucha: Teens and Technology, YALSA-ALA11 #yalsapk

Presented by Karen Keys, Outreach Librarian, Queens Library

• Pecha Kucha are 20 slides x 20 seconds, and you speak as the slides go. Slides move forward automatically.
• It started in Japan, and was used by architects and designers who wanted to give brief presentations of ideas.
• Pecha Kucha is Japanese for chit chat, sometimes called lightning chats.
• Hopefully more entertaining than bullet points!

Presented by Wendy Stephens, Buckhorn High School, Madison County Schools

• Parents watching and tracking teens
• Teens hit with a lot info, and library is a system of information which can be a relief to students

Diversity Counts

My Response to ALA Annual 2011: Panel Calls on ALA To Do More To Promote Diversity: Diversity is a huge issue, and we may always need to address it. My personal experience with librarianship has been positive. My race or cultural differences have never stopped my colleagues from embracing me. It has never prevented my supervisors from mentoring, and supporting my library career. I went from an even less diverse field into librarianship. We have a lot of work to do, but we are much farther than other professions. Yes, give scholarships, but when I sat in the classroom last year I was often the only minority student. We need to recruit minorities. I think the issue is teaching minority youth that librarianship is an option. It is not just sitting at the reference desk at your local public library. We work in the corporate sector, federal government, colleges, and universities just to name a few. Some of us are entrepreneurs providing a variety of services. We speak to each other, librarian to librarian, but we need to reach farther. Talk to the minority youth around you and let them know how cool it is to be a librarian.