Librarian by Day

This reception was at the Monterey Public Library on Sunday evening, there were a several speakers and a wine and cheese reception afterwards. I know, I know, how could I have forgotten to write about this yesterday? The Library was open with a lot of natural light and some great book displays, the staff was friendly and helpful to all of the strangers convening in their space.

There was a LOT of information presented in a very short time so forgive the briefness of my notes. It was a great teaser for the rest of the week.

Jeremy Kemp from San Jose State University School of Library & Information Science spoke about their virtual campus in Second Life and what the school and students are doing with Second Life. Very cool.

Lori Bell from Alliance Library System talked about what they are doing in Second Life – virtual exhibits, volunteers, networking and meetings, reference, etc.

Aaron Schmidt talked about games in Libraries. This was the third time I’d seen him talk about games in libraries and each version was as good as the last. (see earlier posts)

Amanda Etches-Johnson talked about OPACs and all the cool things Libraries are doing with them. I know she didn’t think it was fair she had to follow a presentation on Gaming but it was really exciting to see the different OPACs. I guess only a Librarian would say that!

My Sunday morning pre-conference workshop was presented by Aaron Schmidt and Jenny Levine.

Jenny presented first, reminding us the wide scoop that “gaming” covers – board games, computer games, online computer games such as scrabble, cell phone games, pda game etc. The stereotype that gamers are 13 year old boys sitting in their basements alone, is wrong. Sure there are 13 year old boys sitting in their basements but the average online gamer is a woman over 40.

Aaron followed up with some great information about how to hold your own gaming programs. Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero are both really popular. You can do an open play or a tournament. Open Play is easier for the staff hosting it, but might lose the interest of the players faster. It’s a good way to introduce people to the games and good for people who haven’t played before. Tournaments are more time and work intensive for staff, but people really like these.

Carver’s Bay did a gaming t0 literacy program. They included games as a part of the new branch and patrons earned time to play the games based on how much reading they did.

Ann Arbor has a great gaming program

We looked at the screen for World of Warcraft and how much information on the screen that players need to process simuntaniously and fast!

Gamers – learn by doing, they are problem solvers, they expect rewards, and believe there is no one “right” way to find an answer or solve a problem, what are we doing to get and keep their attention?

I have this note and I’m not sure who said it Aaron or Jenny but I love it – People should be on committees based not their titles but on their skills

Some thoughts I had

• Why isn’t my library renting video games? I think I’ll bring this up. We already have Teen gaming nights
• We need to have more gaming nights – maybe a family gaming night?
• If we had Friday night Guitar Hero tournament for 20 or 30 somethings would we attrack some people we’re missing now, those in that age range 18-35 without children, that libraries are notoriously missing?

At the end we got to play games both on the Wii and PS2, I sucked at both Guitar Hero and Dance, Dance Revolution. I’m considering getting Guitar Hero for my PS2 when I get home since it was so much fun. I think it will be hard to beat this session!

Sunday morning I attended a pre-conference workshop on training adults. I was a little disappointed in the content. It was aimed towards people who have never done any training and geared towards all day workshops. Since I work at a public library almost all of the training for both the staff and the public is an hour long maybe two. So a lot of the tips and techniques will be hard to apply. My impression from the other people who spoke up is they will have the same problems. Some of the good things I did get and will be using

Guidelines – no matter how short my training sessions are I can take a couple of minutes to lay down guidelines at the beginning. This will help with any problems later in the class such as people dominating the conversation, side conversations, etc.

• SOT – Start on time, Stop on Time, Stay on Topic – oh how I wish we did this at my library, even for meetings, no one bothers to show up on time and often the person “hosting” the meeting choices to wait for that person rather than respecting that the rest of us got there on time
• Respect the 5 minutes “T” zone – keeps people from dominating the conversation, if you go over the rule in the beginning you can nicely point to it if someone is dominating. Plus I think if you go over this before starting some people might be less likely to do it. Remember some people wont like this, but the other 80% will be thrilled.
• Actively listen – one person speaks at a time, no side conversations
• Mutually funny humor – enjoy it!
• Use the “parking lot” – for issues that don’t apply now, park them and get back to them later if you have time, if you don’t have time before the session ends make a point to get back to that person either after or via email or phone

Adults learn when there is something in it for them – reminded me how important the title and descriptions for my training sessions are, gotta have that “hook”

The physical environment is important, people should be comfortable that way they can focus on the content

Adults decide for themselves what is important about what you’re saying. They may already know or think they know what you’re talking about.

Make them responsible for their own learning

Remember there are different learning styles – Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, do what you can to provide something for all of them

The Internet Librarian Wiki had a link to conference tips from Stephen Abram, I think these are great and read them several times before I left. I was pleased to see that he says if you aren’t getting what you expected or needed from a presentation, leave, your time is valuable. I’ve been doing this for years and feel slightly guilty about it sometimes, but if Stephen Abram says it’s ok, well then…

I have one tip to add – Give people the gift of your name. It’s easy, wear your name tag clipped to your collar rather than on a lanyard. That way it’s close to your face and easy to glance while talking. When talking to someone tell them your name, even if you just talked to them an hour ago! There is a lot of information at conferences and even more people, don’t expect people to remember you. This also helps with the awkward name tag glancing. By making it easy for people see and remember your name you’re making it easier for them to remember you and talk to you, they can think about what you’re discussing rather than when they can sneak a glance at your name tag.

Today I attended one of the pre-conference workshops Social Tools for Your Library by Aaron Schmidt. He covered a lot of tools many of which I’m already familiar with and we’re already using or have plans in the works to use (Myspace, Flickr, Youtube, RSS Feedreaders, Blogs). Either way it’s always good to review old topics and see them in a new light, become rejuvenated about them, and see how others are using them, plus some things we’re not using. There was plenty of food for thought and I walked away with 4 pages of notes. Some things that really stood out (these are a combination of his points and my thoughts about them)

• Digital Relevance
• Google is for profit, Libraries are not
• How many barriers are we putting between us and our patrons?
• What message do our signs send? – NO CELL PHONES – bad, Step into the Zone, the Cell Phone Zone is in the lobby and stairwells, Please be courteous of others, turn cell phone ringers down or off and conduct conversations in a low tone – good
• If 90% of MP3 player users have an iPod, why do we even bother with Downloadable Audio?
• Why are our search screens so complicated? Why don’t they look like Google, just one box? Hello? Ebsco! ugh!
• Participatory culture
• Instant Messaging Reference – why aren’t we using this??????
• Gaming in Libraries – why aren’t we renting video games?
• Gaming Tournaments for Adults – Dance, Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero
• Average gamer is 18-35 and Female
• Carver’s Bay South Carolina’s gaming to literacy program – smart!
• $11 billion was spent on the gaming industry last year that’s more than books, cd, dvds and mp3s all together!! Why are we missing this boat?
• Everyone needs to spend at least 10 minutes a day checking out new stuff – I’m gonna up this to 30, there is a lot out there!

I’m blogging live from the Wild Plum this morning because even though the hotel has WiFi it does not actually work. Luckily it’s right across the street. Yesterday was a very long day (traveled for 17 hours), but if our plane had not been delayed in LAX we would not have seen the amazing sunset as we flew to Monterey, it lasted the entire flight and was truly stunning.

This is my first time attending Internet Librarian and I’m thrilled to be here. Monterey is beautiful and there are some great sessions scheduled.

I’ve put up my schedule and I’ll try to blog everyday about the sessions I’m attending so please let me know if you have any questions! Robin and are are also blogging jointly on our work blog