Librarian by Day » patrons

Library Fund Raising Using Text Messages

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 14:19:25 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with a colleague at work about using mobile fundraising for the library. It is an easy way for patrons to support the library. Send a text message donate $5 or $10 whatever. No need to go home and get the checkbook or get online and enter your credit card information. Even better its instant, no worry that they’ll forget before they get a chance to make that donation.

Last week I came across How Text is Changing Philanthropy and it seemed like a good time to revisit the issue. Of course the best and most recent example of text fund-raising is the situation in Haiti. The Red Cross raised over 30 million from texts alone.

Why can’t libraries use this? Hang a sign in the library, put a message on the home page, but a link on the OPACs, its fast, its easy its simple. It might reach a whole different demographic than our tradition fundraising methods, people who might never have donated otherwise.

Text-based fundraising is all about immediacy. You don’t need to wait until you get home and turn on the computer. Simply enter a five or six-digit code into your cell phone, along with a single word in the body of the text, such as “Haiti.” You don’t even need to plug-in your credit-card info — the donation amount is simply added to your next phone bill. It’s all so quick and convenient, you can give in the moment. There’s no chance of you forgetting to do it later. – Time

Some other institutions are already doing it, Susan G Komen Foundation and St. Jude’s among them. And one library, the Brooklyn Library has already started a campaign. (go Brooklyn!)

I’m not vouching for any of these companies but here are a few options

Mobile Giving – mentioned in Time
Give on the Go – mentioned in Time
mgive
Give by Cell
Mobile Cause

CC image used courtesy of JonJon2k8 on flickrSimilar Posts:

Empowering Library Users to Work with Digital Media

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:39:49 +0000

I have been in awe of the Digital Media Lab at Skokie Public Library since I first heard about it. The Skokie Public Library Media Lab is a space (a whole room!) where patrons can use an amazing array of software and hardware to create digital media. This is the kind of space and service all libraries should be offering patrons to support transliteracy.

Learn more about starting a digital media lap from Richard Kong

Empowering Library Users to Work with Digital Media

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Teaching Tech to the Public – Follow up from Internet Librarian

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:57:15 +0000

This Those of you who were in my Web 2.0 for patrons presentation might remember a woman in the audience mentioning the classes she teaches at her library. I promised to get with her and share the follow up. I emailed her and found out that Liz Hubert is a Adult Services Librarian at the Barrington Area Library in Illinois

This is the information Liz shared with me.

We do not currently have a wiki or a blog for our patrons, the program is entirely face to face and people can take (or choose not to take!) what they wish. Very shortly, we’re going to be putting videos of all of our classes on our webpage. Those will be linked with handouts so that people can watch the class and follow a written description at the same time.
I choose classes to teach based on the popularity of the service or website, how often I have questions about it at the desk, and how useful I think it will be to our patrons.
I take a very basic approach to all of these classes. Unless I’ve noted otherwise, in each session (usually an hour) I help students set up accounts and show them the basics of the service (for example, I show them everything from friends to walls to account settings in Facebook). Here’s a list of classes I’ve taught.

Delicious

Bloglines (we started out teaching Bloglines but we now teach Google Reader primarily)

Flickr (we showcase this one because we have our local history collection on Flickr-more than 15,000 items)

Shelfari

Internet Safety (buying and selling online, scams, junk mail, etc)

Blogs

Digital Scrapbooking (we’ve used several services for this)

IGoogle

Facebook (account creation and basics)

Advanced Facebook (account settings and privacy)

Craigslist/Freecycle/Etsy

LinkedIn

Internet Dating (we’re offering this one with a singles mixer in February)

Skype/Meebo

Wikis

Google: Beyond Searching (Images, Maps, Labs, etc)

Shutterfly

Yelp

Web Media (Pandora, Last.fm, Hulu, Boxee, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc)

Twitter

Business Twitter

These classes have really been a hit at my library. They generally fill up right away and there are often wait lists. I do my best to be as casual as possible when I teach them-I want people to feel comfortable asking questions. I have my email and phone number on my handouts so that people can contact me with questions or refreshers. I’m now also offering open sessions a few times a month so that people can come in and ask questions about anything they’re having trouble with.

She said they advertise upcoming classes on Twitter, Facebook, in their newsletter, and plasma screens in the library. Class size is usually 10-12 students at a time, but occasionally as large as 30-40 .Similar Posts:

If Your Patrons Continually Use Your Catalog the Wrong Way the Problem Isn’t Them, It’s You

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:39:45 +0000

I was reading through an article (Found via What I Learned Today) on The Chronicle of Higher Education website about improving library catalog search functionality, when this comment caught my eye.

The problem is people are trying to use the catalog the wrong way. Instead of a keyword search like on the internet and online databases, the catalog offers something unique– direct access to exactly what you want through a browse or exact search using subject headings, authors, titles. An old idea but it still works–give it a try!

CC image used courtesy of JanneM on flickr

“The problem is people are trying to use the catalog the wrong way.” Wow. Really. Are we really still blaming the patrons for the archaic, non-intuitive functionality of our catalogs? Wake up and smell the musty old books people! If libraries were a business and we were selling books using our catalog we’d have gone bankrupt ages ago. Frankly, if this is the attitude we’re spouting off we are damn lucky if we don’t go out of business tomorrow.

The right way IS the way your customers are using your services. Continuing to insist they use them the way you want them too will only lead to your failure.

Your product is what your customer says it is. If they continually use the catalog the “wrong” way, the problem isn’t them it’s you.

There is a great essay, Somethings Just Don’t Translate, in The Big Moo that illustrates this point from a non-library perspective. A very successful Italian businessman who sells handcrafted housewares decided to expand his business to Washington D.C. Many people came into the store to browse but no one was buying. When he finally approached a woman and asked how she was finding things, she replies that she didn’t understand why he was selling the bud vases in packs of 6 and the water glasses were sold individually. What this customer saw as a bud vase was a drinking glass for people all over Italy. What she saw as a water glass were flower vases in Italy. He changed his definition of the items to meet customers definitions.

If this man had insisted that Americans learn the correct (Italian) uses for these items, do you think he would have been successful? No. It doesn’t matter how beautiful or functional the items are, if customers can’t find what they are looking for, even if it’s right in front of their face, the business will fail.

It doesn’t matter how well organized your collection is, how extensive your services are, if your patrons can’t use them, if they can’t find what they are looking for, you have failed.

Insisting you are right wont make people to search the catalog the *correct* way it, will make them stop coming to the library.Similar Posts:

Web 2.0 for Patrons

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:00:46 +0000

One of my presentations from Internet Librarian 2009 with Jennifer Koerber, Sean Robinson, Rebecca Ranallo

I’ll be posting an update to this when I hear from Liz.

Web 2.0 for Library Patrons

View more presentations from Bobbi Newman.

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Every Library Should Have a Sandbox to Play In

Bobbi Newman — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:35:30 +0000

Notes from the 2009 Internet Librarian Conference

Matt Hamilton
What is a sandbox?
Safety model Place to test code that is isolated from production environment
Software development model test installation that allows to role back changes as necessary
Wiki model environment not consider production but just for ppl to learn new skills

Who can learn from software – staff, ppl who want to play & learn, helps keep up on cutting edge technologies, small IT staff to explore if its worth to develop expertise in something

Sandbox is a safe place to place
Learning environment
Inviate patrons to be beta testers, get feedback before implement new services
Is this something that is really going to be good for patrons but something were just enamored with for the moment.
Place to perfect your craft –

Two approaches – and internal option
Lisa Haitts at
Installs software that is heard about at conferences

How do you make it happen? 3 approaches
Virtual appliance marketplace, from VMware preconfigured virtual machines

Wanted to be the type of IT department that says yes, still have mission to protect data etc so can’t just say use, but can say yes, but…

Working with virtual desktops, so when patrons log into machines they would also see their own desktop, own software etch

Bitnami – free, includes a small SQL & linux installation, and allows you to run about 24 apps, can install on home pc or an old pc in the back
Also have virtual machines, doesn’t require a server, there are machines
Probably wouldn’t trust to run production environment, but great to play around with

JumpBox – will cost, will run on a server or a virtual machine
Can put into a production environment
Includes administrative panel, control back ups enable ssh

If IT dept isn’t comfortable with it you can install all of these in the cloud with Amazon EC2, Bitnami & Jumpbox both have agreements with Aamazon so both services are both available

Librarysandbox.info

Greg Schwartz
Have you flood proofed your sandbox?
Ask a few key questions before you start your project
Why are you doing this? What are you trying to accomplish? How does it tie itself to the mission of you library?
If you can’t answer those questions you’re wasting your time and your resources

Do you have a plan? Sure
But do you have a plan b? What will you do when your plans don’t work out, can adapt & move fwd

Got support? Everybody has so much to do already, how do you get staff buy in? How do you get them to be willing to play explore and learn
Do you have commitment? You can’t just set up a sandbox and walk away from

Are you sure you have the time?

Do you have a plan? Even if the sandbox is just for play you may need access to that information?

Questions
Looking for a place to allow an employee to play & explore but want it for a long term option not just for play, so is the virtual environment the right place for that? IT wants to use a virtual machine to avoid installing anything ever on the PC
Matt – yes it’s a great use
Stephen – SLA innovation lab, free to use & play with for any member

How do you get people to play?
Matt – it’s include in directors goals,
He doesn’t ask people to do anything; he waits for them to ask him
references Bobbi Newman (hey thats me!) – Stop talking about the tools
Stephen tie it to their value system
Audience – make it fun, do it in public so others can see it and ask
Have staff bring in and share stuff
Bribery

Distinction between internally & externally facing sandboxes
Redesigning website, allow patrons to beta test?Similar Posts:

Micro Interactions, Conversations, & Customers: Sweet Tweet Strategies

Bobbi Newman — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:45:05 +0000

Notes from the 2009 Internet Librarian Conference

Micro Interactions, Conversations, & Customers: Sweet Tweet Strategies
David Lee King
Julie Strange
Amy Kearns

David – tools for interaction
Comments
Start conversation and add value – except maybe on youtube

Status updates – twitter facebook myspace
Casual conversation
Meet ups

Retweet – that was cool content, I’m going to share it again

Likes, thumbs ups, ratings, favorites
You can subscribe to someone elses twitter favorites by RSS feeds, let someone else do the work for you

How to achieve engagement nirvana
1. Say the stuff in your head – but not everything, Healthy debate is good
2. Have to give to get, you can’t “get” something without using it, how do you get to know a friend f2f? you interact
3. ask & ye shall receive, allows you to ask a question & get 20 responses
4. listen – listen first,
5. Dangle a carrot – tempt them to engage, offer a reward for engagement, ask leading questions
6. don’t be dishonest, if you’re dishonest or shaddy sometimes that’s amplified on the internet
Bonus – tools that will help, get stats, facebook stats – demographics, flickr has stats too – these are the most popular, video 2mobile then to youtube because 2 mobile doesn’t stats, pay for radion6 scoutlabs will do similar to google but help show positive or negative reactions to your updates

Your goal is to connect wth your online community, its ok to have the online community to be your only goal, chances are they have been neglected and just being there indicates they are the type of people who like to participate

Julie Strange and Amy Kearns
Tweet What?
How to power up your twitter use

How twitter got started – wanted something that was similar to IM but using sms
Logo is a bird, on purpose, bird chirps sound meaningless to use, but meaning is applied by other birds, what sounds meaningless to you is not to others
Connections
Collaborations
Conversations

What were doing online isn’t information pushing it’s the interaction that primary, the conversation builds the relationship

Twitter search is the new google
Don’t have to have an account to watch whats happening., search.twitter.com, advanced search allows you search for emoticons  or  or ?
Can search for tweets by zip code & then subscribe via RSS, then insert themselves into the conversation
Libraries posting examples of the types of questions they are getting
Used twitter to put recent questions on front page of library
Post statistics, customer comments etc
Asking & answering questions
Conversations don’t have to exist solely online even if you’re using these tools
McMaster – have twitter embedded on bottom of the tv screens that are in library

Use it for reference
Connect for customer service
Broadcast news & events
Solicit feedback
Broaden professional network

How are you using it
Response – running a search for their library name & location & saw a negative comment by a reporter & were able to address it before it became a problem.

Don’t be the creepy guy, don’t just be pushing your stuff, give and take, just showing up and pushing your stuff and

Recommendations for twitter statistics
Tweetstats
Twitter analyzer, twittilizerSimilar Posts:

Managers – The Message You’re Sending About Time is Affecting Customer Service

Bobbi Newman — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 14:47:07 +0000

CC image courtesy of Robbert van der Steeg on Flickr

The choice you need to make is will it affect it in a good way or a bad way?

We are all busy. My to-do list is so long at this point I keep a master running list and a small list just for today, because looking at the long list inspires panic.

As individuals, managers and organizations it can be easy to keep adding responsibilities, expectations and tasks to our list and to the lists of others. Especially at a time like this, when you may be short staffed, or just busier than normal (library usage goes up during a recession) or both.

Unfortunately this attitude towards time can really hurt you in customer service. How staff feel about their time and the expectation from management affects how they interact with patrons. It’s the difference between handing someone a call number and vaguely gesturing towards the stacks and leaving the desk and walking the patron to the book. It’s the difference between hand the book over and walking away or asking if you can help them find anything else. It shows up in the type of greeting patrons receive in that minutes of extra chit-chat so many love, in determining if the information they are asking for is really the information they are seeking.

Don’t think it’s just front line staff either. It can mean the difference in pulling that raggedy looking book or letting it circulate one more time, in ensuring the door knobs and other areas are properly disinfected, in how fast a phone call is returned. I could go on but I think you get the idea.

Want to get smart about time? Here are some suggestions from How Smart Leaders Talk About Time on Harvard Business.

1) Establish a shared language that distinguishes between the “pressure on time” and “impact on goals” factors.

Team leaders often fail to make this distinction clear. Tasks are transmitted without specifying if the emphasis on such task is due to:

a combination of the above mentioned two factors

the fact the task has a remarkable impact on the individual or group’s goals

the restricted timeframe within which the task must be completed

2) Reduce those activities that, despite being important, must be performed under pressure. (emphasis mine)

A successful leader reduces “urgent and important” activities to a minimum, by monitoring:

How tasks are planned and delegated.

How “urgent and important” activities can be reduced.

How much free-of-distraction time people have for high-impact activities.

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Libraries and Transliteracy – the video version

Bobbi Newman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:46:06 +0000

I took my slideshow on transliteracy and turned it into a video. I was curious about how easy it was to turn a slideshow into a video (its super easy!) so I thought I’d try it. Most of my presentations aren’t meant to stand alone and so don’t really translate well to video. When I was putting the transliteracy one together I wanted it to be able to stand alone, so I thought I’d give it a try. A little self indulgent I know But anyway here it is.

Learn more about transliteracySimilar Posts:

Libraries and Transliteracy Slideshow

Bobbi Newman — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:20:30 +0000

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about transliteracy and how important the concept is for libraries and librarians. I’ve created a slideshow I hope conveys the message and is easy to share.

I have also added page with information on transliteracy.

Libraries and Transliteracy

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