Library Surveys

At the Princeton University Library Symposium I attended last year  (March 2007) I was surprised to find that many academic librarians have problems getting feedback from students. The advice given by some attendees was to get evaluations at the end of an orientation tour, and that online surveys just didn’t work. This was news to me, I would have to say that online surveys are where we get most of our feedback. I guess big institutions have to do what ever it takes to get what they want. I was amused by University of Wisconsin – Whitewater inducement to take a recent library survey, it was a $50 Amazon.com gift voucher, but I say good on them!

Princeton University Library Symposium

Introduction

Among all the internet tools out there, social networking sites are now causing the most excitement in library circles. This was obvious at the Princeton conference “Technology and Library Services: Meeting Today’s Users’ Needs” (March 2007). Used well, these sites can help solve a range of “librarian problems,” e.g., allowing users to share knowledge, promote self-help, find like-minded students, and encourage project collaboration, etc. The best social networking sites applicable to libraries seem to be:

1. Twitter: short announcements
2. facebook: creates an on-line version of already-existing social ‘clusters’
3. Second Life: allows participation in a futuristic, virtual, educational world
4. del.icio.us: permits the sharing of web-based bookmark collections

Social Networking Site (SNS)

Twitter

For those on the move Twitter is the instant messaging or mini-blogging tool of choice. It’s supposed to answer the question “What are you doing now?” Messages are short (only 140 characters). This is how Casa Grande Public Library uses Twitter. For more on Twitter read this iLibrarian post.

Facebook

At one time Facebook (FB) was only for the college set. Recently, FB has opened up to accept anyone who wants to join. Some librarians have tried to use FB as a marketing tool but this hasn’t really worked. What FB does do is cement relationships with students and staff that already exist. You have to be a member of FB to see what it does. When you convince people to become your friend then your mini-news feeds will appear on their FB page. This is how some libraries have been marketing events.

Second Life

This is a virtual world which some of the librarians at the conference were really into. Apparently it can be quite addictive (there are t-shirts around with messages like “get a Firstlife”). Here is the link for Second Life education opportunities at Teachers College.

del.icio.us

Recently I have been working on our library’s list of recommended websites. Our goal is to present a small select group of five sites – it’s a good idea, but difficult to do. This is where del.icio.us steps in. This is what Assumption College for Sisters have done with the del.icio.us bookmarking tool. Focus on the right hand “cloud column,” you definitely know what they are interested in. The bigger the word, the more focus.

Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants

Digital natives are people born after the arrival of the PC (1985); they live in a wired world and multi-task to stay connected with it. “Continuous partial attention” is how digital natives cope with life. They are not particularly skilled at anyone thing they live in a hybrid part real/part virtual world. Interesting things about digital natives are that: approximately 40% of girls blog or keep some sort of on-line diary/profile, however, boys see blogging as a “girl’s thing.” For more on this topic read Stephanie Rosenbloom’s New York Times article Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain (February 21, 2008), for more on this topic read Growing Up Online by PBS. Other points to note are that digital natives:

document their lives online.

believe they are publishing intimate stories to a small group of friends

are unaware that they are publishing to the world.

have very different views regarding intellectual property rights

care little about copyright.

Although most students are digital natives and most library staff are digital immigrants librarians should not assume that all young people are tech savvy. On a daily basis we see natives and immigrants who break the mold. Other terms for digital natives are Generation M (for media). It doesn’t matter which generation a user is from you will find the following subsets:

ultra-traditionals (only use TV, radio, landline phone)

neo-traditionals (light internet users – sounds like most of us)

creators (make /share digital media)

mobiles (cell phones, wifi laptops)

The important thing is that librarians need to accommodate all four groups. Click on the following link http://www.integratedmedia.org for a PowerPoint on this topic.

Google Analytics

This seemed to be quite an interesting free tool to find out how a website is performing. It can tell you which pages are popular and also if patrons are hitting one page and then leaving the site, this can be good i.e., visitors found the information they were looking for and left or it could mean that the page needs an upgrade (users give up, and don’t explore the site).

Mash-Ups

Mash-ups are small add-on programs or services (often called widgets) which are pasted into a website. The ubiquitous Google search box on many library home pages is an example. Code must be placed into a page for the widget to work – this is easy as many sites write the widget code for you. Other examples of widgets might be a flikr box, an Instant Message box e.g., Meebo, or a tag cloud see the bottom of this Teachers College page. There is also an example of a cloud box on this blog.

The content of widgets do not reside on the library’s server but are called upon when the page loads. This is why SPEED is everything. A slow computer or dial-up service would make the experience of visiting a website with a number of embedded widgets frustratingly slow. As internet speed increases services to patron will flower and bloom exponentially.

Meebo

Meebo is a web based instant messaging widget. The good thing about this widget is that it accepts instant messages from other providers: AIM, msm, yahoo, google talk, icq, and jabber. Traditional patrons can also use Meebo directly on the screen (no additional software is needed). All patrons need to do is type their request in the text box and hit return, and then wait for your response. Patrons can personalize the message by typing their name in the space under the text box. For Meebo to work all you need to do is be logged in.

Sidebar Widgets

On the right side of this blog are four boxes or widgets: Search (which looks inside this blog), Categories, Blogroll (or links), Archives, Blog Stats (your own views are not counted). There are a number of other widgets you could add, e.g., calendar, site feeds, text boxes.

Add an Image

Bronx Zoo Critters

Bobby Smith, winner of Treasury Street’s Book Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature for “Monkeys Galore”, hits a bull’s-eye again with this collection of twenty-six poems — an ode to zoo animals. This rhyming romp though the ABC’s is perfectly paired with Betty Jone’s outrageous photographs.

Teaching Point

This image was edited in Adobe Photoshop CS, and then “optimised” for the web in ImageReady CS (172 KB). The image size was set at a width of 400 pixels.

Block Quotes

Selected by the Treasury Street Library Children’s Librarian.

Ah, back-to-school, the smell of a new pack of crayons, sharpened yellow pencils with pink erasers, and the excitement of the fresh and new. September means a clean slate for some and a reunion of friends for others. For children’s librarians “Back to School” means constant requests for the perfect “going to school” book: We want books about separation, making friends, dealing with new situations.

Teaching Point

Enclosing text in blockquote tags indents the text and places a grey vertical bar to the left.

Lists

Resources

This list provides a selection of titles and resources for anyone who is researching children’s book authors and/or illustrators. All these resources are available in the Treasury Street College Library and include reference books, circulating books, and Internet resources. The list has five parts:

The Librarian’s Favorites

Children’s Book Author and Illustrator Biographical Resources

Oldies but Goodies

Internet Resources

Indexes of Children’s Book Author and Illustrator Resources.

Teaching Point

The above is an example of the li tag to make bullet points.

Add Hyperlinks

Greatest Hits of 2006

In 1970, Treasury Street graduate students chose the books they found most useful during their time at Treasury Street and the Library created this bibliography based on their choices. So, the Library decided to create a new list, based on the selections of the graduate students of 2006. Here are the results Treasury Street Library Bibliography. Annotations were written by graduate students who submitted the titles. Thank you to all the students who participated!

Teaching Point

Running the mouse over “Treasury Street Library Bibliography” changes the color and underlines the link. If you click on this link it takes you to another site (not the one indicated in the text).

Categories

Why Have I Been Blocked?

When fines or number of books overdue reach a certain level, the patron record is blocked. This means you will not be able to renew books, place holds, or use the databases from home until the block is resolved. Please contact the Circulation Desk at 510-333-5555 to resolve any blocks as soon as possible. We appreciate your cooperation.

Teaching Point

This posting has been categorized under “Rules.” By clicking “Rules” in the categories box, a new page is made on the fly containing all postings in this blog with the tag “Rules.”

In this case a a new page with three posts is returned. If you clicked “Booklists” you’d get a page with four posts. It should be noted that these pages are not static, they are dynamic. A file is sent to the server telling it to pull together a new page with the elements you have requested.

You can add as many category tags as you deem necessary. In this post the tags “Administration” and “Rules” have been added. This allows this entry to appear in two different pages made on the fly.

If you click the categories below each post this will take you to other blogs which feature these categories.

Commenting

How Can I Renew My Books?

Online at the Library website at: http://treasurystreet.org/ And click on “my account”

By calling the Library Circulation desk at: 510-333-555

By stopping by the Library

Teaching Point

You many have noticed that several people have commented in this blog. In this particular post by biblioboy, Peter and Sally have left comments.

The list above is an example of the ol tag followed by the br tag for spacing. For all intents and purposes it functions like the tab button in a word processing package.