Archive for June 2008
Teaching Patrons about Flickr
The first Online Picture Sharing class was last week and the second is this week, we only have 15 laptops for the patrons to use so we have to have multiple sessions. I choose to focus on Flickr vs one of the many other online picture sharing sites inpart because MRRL has a Flickr account and because of the Social aspects of Flickr.
I’ve started working on the next set of classes, one of them being Online Safety, this is a hard one for me because it’s important to me to teach people to be safe without making them feel like the internet is full of dangers. Any suggestions?
How the Leopard Got His Spots
I’m a joiner what can I say? Tombrarian tagged me for a meme, create a Wordle tag cloud based on a book. I’ve been playing with this and it’s so cool!
I guess I need to tag someone too, how about Talking Books and the Goblin in the Library
Missouri Librarians Unite!
Earlier this year Robin and I heard that some of our nieghbors in Kansas were planning an Unconference, calling it Kansas Library Camp. We agreed that Missouri needed one of these so we made plans to crash their conference, borrow their ideas and started the search for funding for a Missouri Library Camp. Everything was going great, we were welcomed at Kansas Library Camp and ideas were shared freely, and we found a grant we thought would cover expenses. Fast foward to yesterday, we found out we did not get the grant. Time for Plan B, er, except well we don’t have one. So it’s brainstormign time. It’s time for Missouri Librarians to get together and figure out how we can make this happen.
Where can we have it? We need a location that offers wifi access and will allow for about 100 people to get together. Places to eat nearby and volunteers to help oranize it.
So what is an unconfernece?
It’s an opportunity for conversation among Librarians without the structure of a conference. Basically it’s the dialogue that happens in the halls, at lunch, and at dinner at a conference. It gives Librarians a chance to explore new ideas, discuss problems and challenges and make connections with other Librarians.
Goals
- To network with other Librarians
- Share ideas and resources
- Learn about solutions and innovations
Other Unconferneces
Are other libraries teaching patrons about blogging?
I’m taking a break from the video game (PS2) I’m playing, to write this, because even though I tell myself the hard parts teach me patient and perseverance, they really make my head want to explore. 
Last night I finally taught the rescheduled Introduction to Blogging class I was supposed to teach in May. I really love these classes and even better, patrons love them too. They get hands on experience and one on one time with a library staff remember. I usually spend the first half hour explaining things and giving demonstrations, then for the last half we do hands-on. Nikki teachs half of the series so when we’re not teaching we’re assisting the other person, because hands-on time for 15 people really does require 2 instructors. The last half hour always turns into an hour and sometimes an hour & half. The powerpoint and handouts only tell part of the story, the rest is demonstration, answering questions and assisting people with account set up. Being flexible is the most important part, you don’t know the skill level of the people in the class and you can have a wide range, you’ve got to be able to cover enough so everyone feels like they are learning.
I’m really curious, are other libraries teaching classes like this? How are they going? If so what subjects are they teaching? How are they received?
LibraryThing adds Find Friends feature
It’s 7 am and I haven’t even finished my first cup of coffee but I’m already excited! LibraryThing has added a Find Friends feature! Sweet! One of my favorite tools, as a librarian, a book lover, goes even more social!
It has the usual option to find people using your email contacts, but also a way to search for friends using your “also on” connections. Which is awesome because there are some people I’ve never emailed who are in my Twitter account (Facebook isn’t supported yet). I have to say as someone who has, more than once, accidentally spammed all of my contacts with an invitation to some new site, I’m thrilled to see the precautions they’ve taken against that sort of thing. LibraryThing, I gotta say it, you guys rock! 
What’s your hook?
One of the things about having a blog or facebook page for patrons is that you need to give them a reason to come back. What can they get there that they can’t get anywhere else?
The Pirates application on Facebook hooked me with the monkey, I love monkeys!
So what hook are you using to get people to read your blog? visit your myspace page? What hooks do you use to get people to come to 3D library events? How can you apply those to the web?
2.0 round 2
Anyone who knows Robin or me knows either one of us can easily talk your ear off about Web2.0, probably for a whole day, if you’re unlucky enough to be stuck wth us for that long. But what about 4 days between the two of us? Well, we’re about to find out. We’ve been invited back to present for MoreNet and the Missouri State Library at Summer Institute. We did 2 half day sessions at Winter Institute in February for a total of 6 hours. This August we’ll be doing 4 days, for a total of 18 hours, 3 times as much. Can we do it? Without a doubt, but will my vocal cords hold up? I’m betting on it! I’m really excited! It was great to be invited the first time, but gettting invited back is even better!
Robin’s been doing a series on her blog that includes most of what we cover, head over there and check it out if you’d like a better idea.
