If Wishes were Fishes...

Oh, how I wish that Overdrive's delivery element wasn't so clunky!  Wait.  Let me rephrase...

Oh, how I wish Overdrive's delivery method was more streamlined!  That's better.  More streamlined...  as in a single computer-resident software application that accommodates both audio- and e- books. 

• Or an application that would allow WMAs to work on a Mac (What? They work with iTunes...).  

• Or an iDevice app that tells you to log in before you do anything else.  

OH!  How I wish their help file was navigable!  (I also wish patrons would actually look at it.)

I really wish the publishers would pick a single DAMN industry-standard format for audiobooks and ebooks and make it so we all can access the titles we want, whether we borrow them from the library or buy them from Amazon. And use them on any device we happen to own.  (And I thought the recording industry was bad!)  Jeeze!

I wish our patrons would take advantage of the great stuff we provide for them.  We have free music downloads!  That you can keep!!  Why aren't you downloading constantly?  Do you prefer to steal the music off our CDs?

I wish the reference staff would go to Credo first rather than Wikipedia. I also wish they'd learn how to do a basic search in Westlaw.  It ain't that hard.

I really wish I ruled the world.

Marketing Reference

Marketing Reference is a BIG THING these days -- and with good reason.  Our patrons have discovered that they can actually find information on the internet!  Consequently, we don't answer as many reference questions.  Horrors!!

We like to think that our citizens can't find "good" information on their own -- that they wallow around in wikipedia citing half-baked articles in term papers and quoting misinformation to their friends.  Would that this were the case.  Wake up, Librarians!  Patrons have learned to find useful info without us.  We've spent several years teaching them how and they are definitely catching on.  I regularly talk to patrons who have already used the resources I want to direct them to.  They know about databases and how to use them.  They tell me about good sites to include in libguides.  What's a reference librarian to do?  Sit back and wait for my job to be cut?  Not on your life!  I'm getting out there and telling those hapless suckers who haven't visited a library in years all about our reference services.

Yes, indeed.  I'm going to market reference to the Great Uninformed.

Sometimes it actually works.  Several years ago we started attending the local business expo.  We barked at the front of the booth like doormen on Bourbon Street.  We grabbed stragglers by the elbow ("What's your line of business?") and steered them  to the computer for a magical demonstration of the next cool thing -- databases!  ("All you need is a library card.  And it's FREE!").  The guys from the Geek Squad  actually got excited about Safari Tech Books and I got a love note from a young guy who made cold calls for his firm.  I showed him Reference USA.

Marketing reference is harder now.  It's more about marketing the library than it is about marketing information services.  At my library I've started an outreach program that will provide computer classes to folks in assisted living.  So far, we've visited 4 sites.  They all want us to come back.  Is this marketing reference?  Sort of -- reference provides computer education in our system.  But it's really marketing a library service.  I was on TV twice this month, talking about our newest databases:  Freegal, Opera in Video and Music Online.  Marketing reference?  Not really.  But reference is the place to find out how to use these databases. 

Our most popular LibGuides (created and maintained by reference folks) are more successful as reference marketing tools.  Here we can actually point to resources.  YAY!!  But the most popular guides are Great Reads for Teens (RA for fiction) and Music, DVDs and Movies.  Not exactly reference guides.  Fortunately, our Arts & Culture, People Connection and Baton Rouge Room guides are also well used, so I can consider LibGuides as a successful reference marketing tool.

I hear a lot about how reference has changed and might be in danger of becoming obsolete.  Reference as an information function has changed since I started out 17 years ago -- we aren't researchers so much anymore.  But one thing that hasn't changed about reference work and never will...  Patrons look to us for answers:  how to cope with technology; where to find cheap/free entertainment options; how to find job opportunities or social support.  It doesn't matter that they can more easily find things on their own.  They will always need help; we will always be there to provide it. 

After the ebook Summit

I attended the Library Journal ebook summit the other day -- Libraries at the Tipping Point.  I find the title of the summit an interesting one.  The title implies that ebooks could be the thing that tips the balance for libraries.  The image it conjures for me is one of the library balanced on a fulcrum of patron expectation.

In late 2010, public libraries are negotiating a delicate landscape of serving two groups with very divergent expectations: patrons who expect a traditional library experience and view digital materials and services with indifference, if not skepticism, and patrons who are technologically engaged and expect more and more digital services and materials.  Will ebooks shift the balance of patron expectation?  Nope. The shift has already taken place.  

Today, even the most technologically backward patron expects us to provide instant answers via the internet, whether we find the answer quickly online or merely deliver it to them that way.  They want us to teach them how to use digital technology, no matter that they don’t own a personal computer or digital device.  Everyone (pretty much) uses email.  Technology has become part of the traditional library experience.  The tipping point is not the digital product – it’s the delivery.

Which brings me back to the ebook summit…  Delivery, or the lack of it, was a common theme.    We’ve gotten pretty good at delivering services and adapting to changes in how services can be delivered.  Materials – ebooks, audiobooks, video, music – are another matter.  How do we deliver the digital goods? Part of the problem is out of our hands; platforms and formats are in a state of flux that will have to be waited out.   But compounding the problem -- patrons use a thousand different devices to access our stuff.   Remember when the iPod wouldn't play an Overdrive audio?  Or when Netlibrary only worked with 2 obscure players?  Patrons don't get it when their XYZ mp3 player can't play WMA files or their Kindle can't read every ebook out there.  We look like chumps where delivery is concerned.

But we'd look like bigger chumps if we didn't offer what so many patrons want.

I didn't get any answers at the ebook summit.  But I did find out that I'm not alone in my frustration with digital delivery and in my concern that the  content and formats I've been buying could easily go the way of the betamax.  So I take what comfort I can in the realization that books on CD replaced books on tape and the world didn't end.  And that downloadable books will slowly eclipse physical ones.  Life is change; and change in Library Land is kind of slow, but it's inevitable nonetheless.   We'll deal.

Internet Librarian Conference, Here I come!

Looks like I'm going to the Internet Librarian Conference this year.  It will be my first time to go.  I've wanted to go before, but felt like it would be an exercise in frustration.  Now we have new administration and some institutional changes, and I'm looking forward to learning some things I'll actually be able to implement.  Amazing!

This spring I attended a quick & dirty reference conference at Tulane.  My reference tech guru and I were the only public librarians there.   What's with that?  It wasn't expensive and we drove down both days.  Whatever...  We both learned a lot and found out about a couple of techie things we were itching to implement when we got home.  Within a week of the conference, I had chat reference going (Bless LibraryH3lp!!), LibX installed on all the staff computers (that was a new one for us), and a trial of Reference Universe in the wings.  I call that a useful conference!

Speaking of LibraryH3lp...  If you're having problems with your IT folks implementing chat reference, this happy app will definitely improve your chances.  It's hosted externally so you don't need a new server, and you can limit access to chat.  We do it only through our website, so the IT people aren't so paranoid about network compromise.  We get a lot of play just through the website.  Pump up the ref stats, y'all!

Having had such a great experience at Tulane, I'm really jumpin' to get to the Internet Librarian.  One of my goals for the coming year is to gather all our digital library stuff into one spot -- a digital branch full of ebooks, databases, libguides, music, archives, and, of course, the catalog.  It's not like you can't get to all our online content through the website, but how much cooler would it be to have it all in one area?  So I have high hopes that attending ILC will get me going and give me the tools I need to get started.  I love starting new things!!  So exciting!

Review: The Faded Sun Trilogy by CJ Cherryh

I just re-read this book and loved it just as much as the first time I read it. But this time I realized that this is the "original" version of Cherryh's wonderful Foreigner series. Well, it's not really the original, but it reads like the "origin."

A lone human is forced to adapt to a confusingly different, yet familiar, alien mindset (mri) -- and to act as a go-between and cultural translator for humans and mri.

Cherryh's writing style is less confusing in this book than it is in Heavy Time (one of her most confusing); however, she does like to just set you down in her world without any preamble, leaving you to navigate the new environment much as the human character, Duncan, has to. But this book has the hallmarks of a great Cherryh story -- wonderfully realized aliens, the mri and the Regul; politics, politics, politics; military intrigue; culture clash; and a little religious fervor thrown in for good measure.

It's a good adventure too.

If you've already read the Foreigner series, then you should really backtrack and read this one. If you haven't read Foreigner (and you really, really should), then read Faded Sun and then move on up. It's a good first taste and a satisfying read.

A Review of Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer (audio version)

What FUN!!!  This audiobook is a great adventure story with an engaging heroine.  And the reader, Katherine Kellgren, is magnificent!!! 

Mary "Jacky" Faber, street urchin of London, becomes a ship's boy on a British Naval vessel in 1800.  She manages to maintain her disguise and has some great adventures just trying to keep everyone on board fooled.  In typical English naval adventure fashion, Jacky has to contend with bad men, cannonballs, marooning, and pirates.  She learns to be a sailor, seamstress, singer, and penny-whistle-artist extraordinaire.  She even learns to be a girl -- but she's not very good at it.

The pace is fast and you root for Jacky from start to finish. In fact, she's so engaging that I went right out and got the 2nd book.  It was like Harry Potter all over again!

Although Bloody Jack is a teen title, adults who enjoy fast-paced adventure stories, historical novels, or even Brit naval stories will find it a fun read.  My 76 year old mother has read the whole series.

I'm listening to the 3rd book right now and am looking forward to books 4 and 5.  It's a great listen or read.

The need for a blog

Despite the title, I don't need to blog.  I just need a blog.  It's a career thing.  I'm a public librarian.  I don't publish -- my job doesn't hinge on publishing.  I DO write.  A lot.

I write myriad emails to everyone on earth.  I write copy for web pages and brochures.  I write letters of recommendation; letters to irate patrons; letters to vendors...  I tweet and post on Facebook.  I spend most of my days and nights writing.  And yet.  When it comes to "showing off" my writing in a professional capacity, I have nothing to show!  Not one published article.  My tweets are about food or music gigs.  My posts are my tweets -- or they're comments on things my friends have posted about. 

So here's my dilemma. I'm going to run for an "office" in a major professional association.  As I was filling out the form, there it is.  List Publications (limit to only 3 publications!).  Put on the BIG BRAKES!  I have no publications.  I have the aforementioned emails, copy and letters.  Tweets and posts.  What to do?  I want to be taken seriously as a candidate.  Academic librarians are voting!  They publish!  I can't pull publications out of my...  

book bag!



Then it came to me.  I can blog.  Librarians take blogging seriously.  I will be a serious Librarian Blogger.  I will be profound and insightful.  For about 3 posts.