Librarian by Day » Digital Services

Day 2 in the Life of a Librarian #libday4

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:54:19 +0000

View from the stage at Kiwanis

I took these notes today as part of The Day in the Life project, if you would like to read more please see the wiki, if you’re interested in how it all got started read this post

My title is Digital Branch Manager, I work for system that serves 4 counties with 8 branches (9 counting mine).
7:00 overslept despite having my alarm on. I check it, yes on, no idea why it didn’t go off. This throws my whole day off because I have no time to
8:15 review Kiwanis presentation
9:45 attempt to track down a kindle to take with me for Kiwanis presentation
10:00 make note to redo library’s overdrive page
10:15 panic when I think I lost my library card
10:16 find my library card
10:30 provide new cellphone recommendation for my mom – work is making her upgrade her blackberry
11:15 print handouts for Kiwanis
11:30 Meet head of Popular materials in the lobby to ride with her
1:45 back to the library
2:00 downstairs to get a demo library card
2:15 talk with director about midwinter
3:00 attempting to record instructions of loading Overdrive ebooks on to Nook & Sony eReader,
4:00 run into issues with Nook and begin researching, problem (more later)
4:45 chat briefly with coworker about plans for staff day
5:00 Back to Nook issues
6:00 downstairs to drop off magazines and chat with Head of Reference on my way out.
7:00 exit building
8:00 home, make dinner, walk dogs, watch Castle

Also done but time(s) not noted – remove spam from the Day in the Life wiki, curse jerks who are posting it & remove access, check in on Twitter, glance at facebook briefly, answer emails and update websiteSimilar Posts:

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

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:08:55 +0000

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 As far as I can tell the technologies we’re struggling to adapt to and implement might very well be outdated by the time we’re ready to start using them.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 time they implement them or become obsolete soon there after.

We’re barely treading water here people and I don’t think another blog post about how your library can use Twitter or an article about website usability is going to keep us from downing. We’ve got to change, and I mean really change.

David’s Digital Branch Stye Guide

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:52:27 +0000

David Lee King knows a lot about digital service, he’s the Digital Branch Manager at the Topeka Shawnee Library (and an author and a speaker). If you are interested in digital services and aren’t already reading David’s blog, add it to your feedreader right now, go on, I’ll wait.

This wee he shared his Digital Branch Style Guide and it’s definitely worth passing around. He covers

General Guidelines for Blog Posts

Citing/Attribution

Featured Section

Comments – What to do with them

Creating a “Voice”

How Can I Get a Conversation Started?

I have a suggestion/problem. What do I do with it?

Staff Responsibilities

Go read the whole thing.Similar Posts:

One Man’s Treasure…

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:17:33 +0000

Meredith Farkas’ recent post about Library 2.0 got me thinking about me; my title, my position, my duties and my goals. The position of Digital Services Librarian is just 6 months old (and I think the title itself has changed 3 times already). My duties and goals are always in flux which means, for me at least, my position is 2.0. As in not static, changing, evolving, and developing to meet the needs of my users – library staff and patrons. Six months seems like a good time to reflect and, if needed, re-access. A lot has happened, I attended my first Internet Librarian conference, kicked off Library Learning 2.1, helped introduce gaming to the library, created our Facebook page, presented at a conference, just to name a few and the hits just keep on coming. When I look back I think I’ve learned two very important things, I tried to narrow it down to just one, but the two are intertwined, so we’ll call them 1.1 and 1.2

1.1 If you build it they will come. (to paraphrase Shoeless Joe)

Or maybe not.

One of the best aspects of working for a small library system is that it is fairly easy to implement a new plan, whether it is a Flickr account for the Library, or Library Learning 2.1 for the staff.

One of the worst aspects of working for a small library system is that there just aren’t that many people to get excited about your ideas.

For example, if your patrons aren’t big Flickr users they might enjoy seeing their pictures on the website, but they might not following the bread crumbs to your Flickr account. Our ventures into this area are fairly new, so I don’t know how well they will be received or what types of interaction we’ll get from our patrons. I do know, even if it is minimal, that’s ok. (We’re already getting some so I can’t say non existent.)

Any time you’re venturing into new territory you have to be willing to fail. We accept that when we develop a new book club it might not take off the way we want or if we add a subscription to the local newspaper on line, patrons might still prefer the micro film. So why not take this approach with our 2.0 ventures?

The library already takes pictures of our events and before we had Flickr they were stored on a server where, no one but the few who knew how to get there, could see them. Now with an extra 30 minutes a week, the staff and patrons can quickly and easily access the pictures from a computer with internet access.

1.2 One man’s meat is another man’s poison.

I see a lot of exciting new ideas being implemented all the time. It’s hard not to want to try all of those things at my library right now. But the truth is, what works for one library may not work for us. It might not be what our patrons and staff need or want. So I try to look at all the ideas in relation to how they’ll help our library. Additionally rather than dismissing an idea completely because it wont work, I try to look at the parts of it to see if any of them can be used or tweaked and used.

For example Learning 2.0. We were one of the early adapters of this program (Library Learning 2.0). We did some slight tweaking but over all kept the format the same as the original. That didn’t work for our library, staff felt like they lessons were too time consuming, too much information was coming too fast and they wanted some face to face time to ask questions. So part way through the program we changed it, we gave people more time and we offered face to face classes.

When it came time to start planning 2.1, I made a point of talking with staff about what they wanted from the lessons. I talked with staff who didn’t participate the first time about why they didn’t and what I could do differently this time to get them to. What could I do to make them excited about it? What rewards would they like? I also talked with staff who did complete the first one, asking if they were interested in a second program, what changes they would like to see. The results is a program that works for this library.

I’ve learned a lot of other things but they all go back to these two things – What I’m implementing needs to be relevant for my library and Not everything I bring to the table will or must succeed. Mostly importantly neither of these lessons could have been been learned without the support of my director who believes in both of them (and me), or the willingness of the staff at the library to tell it like it is. I’m a grateful for both. Did that last bit sound like an acceptance speech? It did, didn’t it? Cue the music and get me off the stage Similar Posts:

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