Libraries

How social media can hurt your library

August 26, 2009
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How social media can hurt your library

We’ve all seen warnings and stories about people getting fired from their jobs because of status updates or photos on social medial sites like Twitter, Facebook and blogs. CNN is has a new one with some social networking don’ts 1. Don’t announce interviews, raises or new jobs 2. Don’t badmouth your current or previous employer 3. Don’t mention your job search if you’re still employed First I think number 2 should include – “or coworkers”, really nothing good can come of that either. But the point I want to add for librarians (library workers) everywhere is 4. Don’t badmouth your customers. We all get frustrated, we all have bad days,  I understand that, but venting on social media sites isn’t the solution and it could cause real problems for your library.  Your customers may read what you wrote, they are more tech savvy than you give them credit for. In addition to some old fashioned hurt feelings this can lead to some real problems for your library. They could complain to someone at the library, which means staff will need to spend time dealing with this issue. They could email it all their friends or maybe the newspaper, this is

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Geek the Library

June 23, 2009
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Geek the Library

Monday OCLC kicked off their Geek the Library campaign with Iowa (my home state!) and Georgia (my current state!).  What is Geek the Library? Its  a community-based public awareness campaign.  The idea is to increase public awareness of libraries and the important role they play and the funding we so desperately need.  People can share what they are passionate about using geek as a verb Geek\Verb. To love, to enjoy, to celebrate, to have an intense passion for. To express interest in. To possess a large amount of knowledge in. To promote I love (or is that geek?) the potential of this campaign!  When they get the gear up I’ll be first in line for a shirt and coffee cup! Right now they are testing the campaign in Georgia and Iowa, with plans to kick off nationwide in 2010.  I’ll be interested to see how it plays out.  The site looks slick and being a geek is cool in many circles now, I’m sure it will be a hit with librarian.  Will it raise public awareness and more importantly funding for libraries?  I hope so. For the public they have show your support page.  I do with they had made

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We’re barely treading water, what will keep us from drowning?

March 25, 2009
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Start with this, I did Now think about this – How do libraries fit into this picture? As far as I can tell the technologies we’re struggling to adapt to and implement might very well be outdated by the time we’re ready to start using them.  That’s not good. Right now technologies are running by and we’re still crawling to keep up.  What does it mean? Maybe we can’t keep up, maybe we should stop focusing our energy there, at least temporarily.  Let’s face it we’ve been talking about the next gen OPAC for how many years?  Would our time be better spent elsewhere?  Maybe we need to look at changing our organizational structure and mindset first.  Then we’ll be better equipped to keep pace.  Perhaps becoming more fluid and ready to adapt much more rapidly to change as it happens?     Because right now I see two problems The level of online service and interactions patrons  take for granted is not being met by libraries.  Not even the most cutting edge, front line, tech savvy ones.   The technologies and trends the most cutting edge, front line, tech savvy libraries are preparing may not longer be relevant by the

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Technology for Tight Budgets

March 3, 2009
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Technology for Tight Budgets

Times are tight, and likely to get tighter, if you’re looking to save money talk with your IT department. They may have some helpful solutions. Take a look at the University of Missouri’s IT department suggestions – Technology for Tight Budges. Many of these can be used by libraries and other businesses looking to save funds. Investigate the Technologies Available to Stretch Your Budget MeetingPlace Audio/Web Conferencing SharePoint Online Collaboration Tools IT Training — In the Classroom and Online Captivate e-Learning Authoring Tools Voice over IP (VoIP) Go Green, IT! Power Down and Virtualize Server Virtualization Videoconferencing TelePresence Smartphone Technologies Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

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Keep Libraries Free

February 25, 2009
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Keep Libraries Free

I read Indexed every day, I think Jessica is brilliant, she can say so much with a graph on an index card.  I share a lot of them through Twitter.  This one I had to share on the blog too. Bookmark on Delicious Digg this post Share on FriendFeed Buzz it up Share on netvibes share via Reddit Share with Stumblers Tumblr it Buzz it up Subscribe to the comments on this post Print for later Tell a friend

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photo by Beth Tribe

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