Re-imagine library services....for a whole country!

Last Friday (2nd May) I was in Melbourne with a group of other public librarians from around Australia, for a discussion with NSLA (National and State Libraries Australasia) about their Re-imagining Library Services Strategic Plan (PDF 803kb).

The strategic plan has some exciting goals:

Our new vision is:
In collaboration, the National, State and Territory Libraries of Australia and New Zealand will become leaders in empowering people to create, discover, use and transform our collections, content and global information resources.

We will deliver this vision through three strategies:

• One Library will put the user at the centre. We will redefine services providing users with a consistent and easy experience across our libraries.
• Transforming Our Culture will transform our culture and workplace. We will promote a new culture which supports new services and emerging technologies.
• Accessible Content sees collaboration as the key to liberating our content. We will empower our users to find, share and create content.

It was an interesting and worthwhile discussion, with lots of great ideas shared and stories told.

My impression is that there was widespread support of the plan from public libraries.
As State Libraries start to undergo this strategic shift in their organisations and in their delivery of services to users (including public libraries), communication and consultation with public librarians will be critical, in order to bring us all along on the journey at the same time.

More thoughts on the plan and the workshop to follow...

Creative Stuff

My RSS feeds fall into three main categories:
- all about library stuff
- industries and stuff related to/aligned with libraries
- stuff with nothing to do with libraries

My favourite RSS feed in the middle category is Creative Economy Online - "News and research on creative industries, innovation and society".

Creative Economy is a gateway to research and commentary on developments in Australia’s creative industries and their cultural and social impact, hosted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI). The site draws on the resources of Australian Policy Online, together with outputs from industry groups, consultants and other researchers and research organisations.

The feed is a valuable source of information about new reports and projects, and it often has topics about libraries, literacy, reading and publishing.

Highly recommended.

Innovative Ideas forum presentations

The Innovative Ideas Forum (National Library of Australia 10 April 2008) has Powerpoint presentations and audio files of each presentation available as links from the program.

Speakers and topics include:

* Professor Gerard Goggin (Professor of Digital Communication, University of New South Wales) - The Internet and the Mobile Phone: Histories, Possibilities, Challenges

* Kris Carpenter Negulescu (Internet Archive) - Digital Services and Online Research: The Future of Who does What and For Whom

* Richard Walis (TALIS) - Beyond Web 2.0 -The Continuing Journey

...plus a bunch more.
http://www.nla.gov.au/initiatives/meetings/InnovativeIdeas2008program.html

Web 2.0 with the Connecting Librarian

1st April and I managed to escape any April Fools jokes. Instead, I got to listen to Michelle McLean talk about Web 2.0 and libraries, which was time well spent.

I was in Sydney attending a two day course title "Revolutionising Library Management" by the Ark Group. There were only 11 participants so there was a high level on interaction and conversation.

Michelle had the floor for the whole day and her energy never seemed to fade. She gave an excellent overview of the Web 2.0 world and touched on lots and lots of examples. Michelle is partly to blame(?) for me getting this blog going again. Thanks Michelle!

Anyhow, here are some dot points I picked up from the day:

• in the 2.0 world, the user is at the centre, not the content
• tagging is almost universal across 2.0 tools and not limited to a few
• use del.icio.us account to to tag websites to do with 2008 Olympics, and then feed to website with RSS - instant subject guide!
• must explore yahoo pipes again...
• mobile devices (phones, PDAs) used to be fussy about what online content they could display. This is changing and devices are being made to read any online content. Great possibilities for libraries...
• new ideas come through conversations - the web is one big conversation
• use a widget to create a quick survey on library website
• some libraries building OPAC search applications for facebook
• use feedburner to track stats of blog subscribers (have since set this up with this blog - it works!)
• Michelle made good use of Google Maps to map out mobile library stops and branch locations for her library service

Warren and Michael

Warren and Michael
Originally uploaded by Stained glass waterfall

At SLQ after Michael's Hyperlinked Library forum

Notes from the Hyperlinked Library

I took a lot of notes during Michael's presentation, but once I re-read them, three main things stand out:

Big Picture
I wasn't exposed to a bunch a new ideas that I had never heard of before, but rather was given an excellent summary of the best of what web 2.0 and library 2.0 mean at the moment.
It was like going up in a hot air balloon and getting a wide picture of the 2.0 landscape, and Michael is an excellent guide.

Best practice
I did learn some new things, when Michael chose some real life examples to illustrate a point. Won't list them all here, but I have a long list of programs and websites to check out!

It's all about people
The phrase that had the biggest impact on me came near the end of Michael's talk, and it was something along the lines "the library encourages the heart, the library is human".
When I talk with colleagues about technology, especially social software type stuff, it always helps to bring the conversation back to the fact that it's mostly about people communicating with and connecting with other people. The technology is just a tool, and it's people and their conversations that are important.

Meeting Michael

Sometime in 2005 I discovered library-related blogs.

I had been reading library blogs since 1999 without realising what a blog was (for example, Jessamyn West's Librarian.net) - back then they looked to me like normal web pages that were updated frequently and acted kind of like a diary.

I'm not sure what really started me onto library blogs in 2005 - maybe it was a comment on an email list, maybe an article in a library journal, but one of the first blogs I started reading was Tame the Web by Michael Stephens. Back then Michael worked in public libraries, trained people how to use the internet, and educated / enthused staff about new and emerging technology. He also was enthusiastic about library blogging, and through his blog I was introduced to a whole range of blogs written by people involved in library/information work, and information technology.

Over a period of about six months, I discovered an online community of peers who shared my professional interests and concerns. I did a lot of reading and only left comments or contributed to discussions on very rare occasions. Through the bloggers, I felt like I 'attended' major library conferences overseas. Library blogs helped me stay up to date with ideas and technology, all of which helped my day-to-day work, both on a strategic and operational level.

I felt my professional interests renew and refresh in a way that I don't think would have otherwise been possible, without the support of my online peers.

So it was a great thrill to be able to travel to Brisbane on March 13 to hear Michael Stephens give his Hyperlinked Library presentation at the State Library of Queensland. Better still, I managed to talk with Michael a couple of times during the day. To have the chance to meet in person, someone who has genuinely inspired me, has been the professional highlight of my year so far.

Thank you Michael for your generosity of time and your generosity of spirit to the library community.

(Michael covered a lot of Australia during his visit - organised by CAVAL).

Dusting off and blogging again

It's been a while since the last post, and that's OK.... my intention for this blog was to only blog conferences and training I attend, however in the last few weeks I've had my vision of all things web 2.0 renewed, and so I might try expanding this blog to more than just reporting of professional training.

There are many, many excellent bloggers out there who already write about issues that I'm interested in, so I don't think I'll try to create too much new content, but simply report on things that catch my eye, and maybe share an opinion or two about the issue.

In the next little while I hope to write some notes from two very excellent professional development opportunities I've recently taken part in:

• Michael Stephens in Brisbane - The Hyperlinked Library
• Revolutionising Library Management: two day masterclass in Sydney with Michelle McLean and Mal Booth

Catch up thoughts about info online 07

Back to work in the very rainy north, and another attempt to reflect on some conference sessions.

Overall, what an excellent conference. The keynotes were all excellent. The exhibition seemed to have a wider variety of companies, and the concurrent sessions were mostly good too.

Day 1.
Ross Ackland from CSIRO and Australia's W3C office talked about how the W3C operates and the future of the web. His explanation of the semantic web was the best I've heard, and the first I've really understood...I think! He also talked about the mobile web, and made me realise how we really need to make our online content into a format that is easily accessible by online devices.

In my previous post about the NLA presentation I didn't include the link for the National Library's "lab" for playing with new things... http://ll01.nla.gov.au/

I attended a couple of sessions about federated search which were interesting and helped fill some gaps in my knowledge. Not immediately relevant to us yet, but sometime soon...

Dr R. David Lankes from the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS) was a funny, dynamic, excellent keynote speaker, plus he even managed to squeeze a Monty Python quote into his talk :-)
The IIS and ALA's joint research and publication "Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation" was one of my favourite reads of 2006. David talked about moving from the old model of librarians looking after items and artefacts, to moving to a culture of customer service and being people focussed. He suggested we need to be 'nimble' in how we plan and react to change. His final recommendations were to expand the conversation about participatory networks and librarianship, and to create a testbed, a pooled effort where librarians can test the ideas of web2.0 / library2.0.

Information Online 2007 Conference nearly over already...

...and I've only managed one post about one session.

Once I get home I'll go through and post some notes / thoughts about sessions I attended.

Overall, an excellent conference, the best of the 3 Info Online's I've been to. Big congrats to the organisers for the quality of the key note speakers, the variety of concurrent speakers and the expanded and diverse range of exhibitors. Well done folks.

Information Online 2007

A new year, another conference...

Information Online started well this morning, and there were two really good sessions that I caught.

Tony Boston and Alison Dellit from the National Library of Australia spoke about developments with Libraries Australia, in particular their efforts to include relevance ranking in search results. They also discussed the other 'ideals' they are working on, to make Libraries Australia even more user friendly and user centered. These ideals included:

• ranking results
• clustering
• FRBR
• Spell checker
• Citation links
• annotations (tagging)
• Integration

I wonder how long it might be before we could use a service like Libraries Australia as a local OPAC? Users searching for a known item not held by their local library would instantly be exposed to the holdings of libraries around Australia. Local holdings could be ranked higher in results list, but I wonder how local circulation data could be included....

Anyhow, the National Library seems to be continuing to do a great job in embracing the new opportunities that new technology is bringing, in order to make our library collections more accessible to our users.

Library Lounge - Upper Riccarton Library

Library Lounge - Upper Riccarton Library
Originally uploaded by Stained glass waterfall.

Inside Upper Riccarton library...

Upper Riccarton Library - Cafe

Upper Riccarton Library - Cafe
Originally uploaded by Stained glass waterfall.

'red' cafe at Upper Riccarton Library - the joint use library (high school and public) library in Christchurch.

It only took me a week or so to catch on to why they named the cafe 'red', and it has nothing to do with the colour of the furniture....

Back to work...

Yup, it is just as I suspected......back at work and the chance to finish up blogging the conference just seems to disappear!

Well, I gave it a go, and had fun doing it. I don't think there will be too many more updates to this blog, until the next conference.

I'll try to post a quick summary of the rest of my conference experience here, and then may add a few observations and thoughts about NZ public libraries later on....

So, still on day two of the conference.

At lunch I sneaked into the EPIC meeting. If you work with online databases and are interested in collaborative / consortia subscriptions, you've probably heard of NZ's EPIC (Electronic Purchasing In Collaboration). If not, go check it out. From what I've heard it's been a very successful venture, and I hope that the Australian "National Licensing Proposal" project is as successful.

In the afternoon I went to a two hour session with Stephen Abram. He was able to go into a little more detail of his ideas which was good.

On the third (and last) day I enjoyed the keynote address by Professor Martin Nakata, a fellow Aussie. We were on the same flight back to Sydney the next morning, so I got to chat with him for about an hour (at 4.30am...!) at the Wellington airport.

The other session I attended on the final day was about the Upper Riccarton joint-use library (public and high school) in Christchurch. I managed to have a look through the library while on holiday before the conference, so it was good to hear some more details of how the idea of a joint-use library developed, and how it (successfully) operates.

So that's it! I flew home the next day, refreshed and inspired by New Zealand, by the amazing environment, food and wine, by the wonderful public libraries, and by the excitement and enthusiasm that NZ library professionals seem to have. Well done LIANZA, and well done New Zealand librarians, on a successful conference!

Tara Brabazon

What a dynamic speaker, and a perfect complement to Stephen Abrams. Tara was the second keynote speaker, and started day two of the conference in a way that really *made* the conference for me. Her presentation was what switched the lightbulb on in my head.

Where Stephen spoke about the rapid change in the online world, and how librarians must take up free, easy-to-use web 2.0 tools to engage with our customers, Tara spoke and about the need to put some depth and context into the online experience. Here are some dot points I made from her presentation - not sure I agree with every detail, but her overall direction gave me food for thought.

• spoke about Wikipedia and blogs and the rise of mediocrity
• there is a great need for information literacy
• use of google by undergraduate students - subtle wearing away of the value of research
• there is an (incorrect) assumption that if people get millions of results from a google search, that they have the intelligence to interpret those results
• the whole ethos of google search is based on mathematics, not humanities / social sciences
• google page-rank results in confusion between popularity and quality
• blogs - people overvaluing the minutia of their day
• wiki contributors - anti-intellectuals with time on their hands
• are we prepared to trade speed for accuracy? (ability for wikipedia to quickly update to changing circumstances)
• Tara has observed a general decline in comprehension skills by her students - if they see text on a screen, it must be true
• She struggles to get undergraduate students to find and use 10 references for assignments
• Librarians and teachers need to highlight the quality websites to our students and users
• google scholar is an important development - at least it is alerting people to the fact that there are different kinds of information
• problem is not google, it is the google-effect. The degradation of education, the flattening of intellectual curiosity
• Libraries do not provide information - we provide a way through information

I'll take away from this a renewed interest in information literacy (and how we can make it useful and fun for our users), a renewed appreciation of the value and potential our Searchlight column has, and a renewed commitment to the value of public libraries.

Room with a view

Lion Harbourview Lounge
Originally uploaded by Stained glass waterfall.

This is the Lion Harbourview Lounge where we presented....except it was filled with about 100 people....

Thuringowa and Manukau Libraries: Building a model for a new customer experience

Our fleeting moment of fame and glory! This is the paper that I wrote and presented with Kim Taunga, Botany Library Manager at Manukau Libraries, on Monday afternoon.

We had about a hundred people turn up to the Lion Harbourview Lounge which was pretty exciting!

Our paper and presentation was about how our libraries are moving from customer service to a customer experience. Kim talked about the how Manukau Libraries used Botany library to model a new way of offering a customer experience in a public library. They have innovative architecture and design, specially recruited staff, and have made good use of technology (RFID). I talked about how Thuringowa Library has used some of the features of the Botany Library model in the planned refurbishment of our existing library space, and how changes are being made using our existing library workforce.

Our library managers first heard about Botany Library at the 2005 QPLA conference in Toowoomba, where Manukau Libraries Manager Chris Szekely spoke about Botany Library. At the 2005 LIANZA conference I heard Kim speak about Botany Library, and since then Kim and I have kept in touch by email - mainly me asking her things about Botany Library. Our current library refurbishment has been influenced (in a good way!) by many of the innovative and creative things I saw at Christchurch City Libraries and Botany Library.

Somewhere in the last 12 months one of us suggested that we should do a joint paper at a library conference in NZ or Australia, and before we knew it, we had an accepted abstract for LIANZA 06!

Many emails flew back and forth across the Tasman, and a paper made it in by the deadline. Some more emails got a presentation started, and then I took two weeks holiday to explore the south island before the conference, so Kim and I met and finalised the presentation an hour and a half before a practice presentation to Manukau Library staff, and only three days before the conference. It was great fun, and it all came together wonderfully in the end.

The accessibility of NZ library web sites

The Accessibility of New Zealand Public Library Web Sites toPeople Who are Blind or Vision Impaired - Melanie Brebner & Mary Parkinson

I only made it to the last part of this session, and I wish I had been there for the whole thing.
We are currently redesigning our library website, and the information that these two speakers had to share was very timely and useful for me. I'm looking forward to having a good read of their paper.

Their study examined a number of library websites through the use of different enabling software, like screen-readers and screen magnifiers.

Conference photos online

The photographs from LIANZA Conference 2006 are now available on the
LIANZA website
http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/gallery2/main.php

Conference proceedings now online

All submitted papers from LIANZA Conference 2006 are now available online.

Visit LIANZA's online library and enter author, title or keyword
http://opac.lianza.org.nz/cgi-bin/koha/opac-search.pl

The programme that lists papers and authors can be found at:
http://www.lianza.org.nz/events/conference2006/programme.html

Papers are PDF files. Apparently PowerPoint files where available will be added to the online library soon.