Text A Librarian Cell Phone Messaging is Coming Here...

The ink is dry, and we are about to begin the process of adding cell phone text messaging via textalibrarian.com which works with the major cell phone carriers. We have been using the AOL hack of 265010 ccplhelp [What time to do you close?] hack. It works, but we have not been advertising the hack plus and not all cell phone systems work reportedly with this method. Well, we have some training to do and some prep work before rolling out the service, but I wanted to post this note just letting people know askccpl full cell phone SMS text messaging is on the way to CCPL. On yr mark gt set 4 celfne txt msgN..

What is in My Librarian Tool Kit?

It is Sunday, a typical day of rest for most folks. But, I'm at work like many others working a service desk... The main thought of the blog post "What is in Your Librarian Tool Kit" by Jassmyn West got me thinking about mine. What follows are a few Sunday afternoon thoughts while at a service desk...

1) Patience.

Somedays, it is a lot of 'hand holding' such as helping people print documents. Today, it was how to change the font type, spacing, and sizing of text. The amount of traditional reference questions while on the face to face reference desk were limited to a book on costumes and the rules of basketball. There was also the inevitable: where is the bathroom and water fountain and several others...

2) Sense of What People Want.

It so much easier to help happy people, even when they are after something not easily findable. It is the grumpy ones that want "free money" and want it right now that are the challenge. Today, I was working with a patron helping her find info on halloween customes. Shortly into it, a second patron approached. I asked the second patron if he had quick question. This relatively quick two sentence conversation caused Patron one to retort. "That's not a quick question with a huff." I appologized and said I'll be with patron two in a few minutes... There is no way to keep everyone pracitically happy.

3) Sense of Understanding Information.

Thru practice, it takes me less to time formulate a search stragegy and find desired information or whether or not something is available. I would like to think it is an improved skill set of mine, but it also helps to have great resources available at my fingertips to draw upon.

4) Being Flexible.

Functionally, I spend more time on programs, outreach and giving talks then I did years ago and it is even approaching the time/intensity as one of my core work responsibilities. More outreach with less in-reach and staff development. My given priorities shift and change just like the goals of an organization. It pays to stay flexible. No one makes money as a buggy wip specialist any more or making card catalog cards on a large scale. Jobs change over time...

5) Applying What I Learn

Thank you Roy Tenant, Lorcan Dempsey, Stephen Abram, Jessamyn West and many others who blog about content taught at library conferences. Some of the most pracitical tips, tricks and tidbits come from talking shop with others around a meal about what is new in the library world at conferences. I'm so glad you guys take time to share your knowlege in blogs and other avenues....

Thankfully there are staff classes and occasionaly State Library training that comes to town. I'm having a blast learning about some open source library software and hope someday to develop a small home grown application I'm learning to write in a production environment. Lately, what I have been doing outside of work -- an exploratory library software project -- is keeping me challenged and inspired at work; and it has been a good sounding board by listening to the needs of people, and for me doing routine things like working service desks.

CharlestonRef is Branching Out on Twitter

CharlestonRef is branching out to twitter. The feed is intended to cover electronic research tools news and tidbits with info about outages, new features, and short announcements that don't need a paragraph or more of explanation. I'm going to place referrals on the twitter feed to the charlestonref blog when such depth is required. What you will NOT find on twitter.com/charlestonref is what I ate for lunch or that some celebrity just made the cover of People magazine.

Also, I have done some housekeeping on this blog. No longer does the marquee say "Charleston Reference" it now says: "CharlestonRef" to match the URL. Some of the widgets, such as the MyPlugoo IM service, Flickr library image pools and others have been removed to reduce clutter. There will probably be a few more tweaks to the blog and twitter.com/charlestonref feed in the coming weekdays as time allows…

My Mother's Garden Film - Wed Oct 22nd 7PM Main Library

My Mother's Garden (reviews)

Wednesday, October 22, 7:00 PM - 8:30 PM Main Library

Join us for a documentary film about a woman whose hoarding disorder has entered a dangerous and life threatening stage. Please note that this documentary has adult language and is not suitable for all audiences. A film discussion follows hosted by Stressed.Pressed.Messed professional organizer Madeleine DeNitto. Additional resources: Children of Hoarders, National Study Group Chronic Disorganization, other CCPL resources within catalog such as Burried in Treasures

Possible 'Second Life' Application Practical for Libraries

There is only so much technology that is frankly practical. But today, I was impressed with the insights of a new Apple Computer patent filing story on MacNN. The concept is built around the community shopping experience. I know you may be thinking what does online shopping have to do with public libraries and databases? Bare with me for a few moments for the analogy...

You walk into a box store, say Wal-Mart to compare the latest offering of digital cameras (two people recently where I work bought digital cameras) and then in the process of talking with others who are buying digital cameras find out their thoughts on say camera A over camera B. This does not happen often in the current online world of catalogs, pictures, and written reviews.

Whereas a handful of people, potentially numerous others looking at digital cameras online simultaneously in a 'second life' online library environment, are able to share insights in real time say for example (Ralph tells Sarah a 5 mega pixels is usually enough quality for an 8.5 by 11 inch photograph done well). Sometimes, there is comfort in knowing others who are looking for similar feature sets just to say hi, share in their decision making process, and find comfort in others making the same decision: buying a digital camera.

How is this model a potential application to public libraries besides shopping? One potential is the creation of a storefront of rooms, say if your interested in science you can hang out your avatar in the science room. The library component comes in where content in databases from magazine articles, books, audiobooks, music, and visual materials on topics of interest is available for use on the storefront. Then people can leave stickies, messages, and other notes on content that is sent passively and actively to users (hey, come and view the abstract of a paper on topic x or y).

We already have library content in traditional online public access catalogs and databases in online form. The difficulty in making library content visually appealing, digital rights management practical, and practically useful to a community of users.

As for community creation and utility, one thought is that users will find other users who are interested in specific areas, just like those shopping in the Apple model and can in one sense, draw upon serendipity or off topic discussions to generate new ideas and be feed a stream of the latest research in a subject.

In all practicalness such a 'second life' library product that will be the 'standard' say '900 pound gorilla' in the room so to speak will probably be developed by specialized libraries. In general, special libraries tend to be narrower in collecting subject areas, with greater depth in content, and collaboration is important as this pool of libraries and users is more likely to have the time and funds to do such an endeavor as a practical 'second life' library community.

April Events: Tuesday Board Games Nights and Collecting or Hoarding Outreach

It is not often I cover outreach events on the blog, but today I am going to. First, during the month of April we have been having a board games outreach on Tuesdays 6:30 to 8:30 in Reference and Children's areas at the Main Library. As a result of the outreach, a photo was taken and we received an honorable mention in the NLW - Day in the Life of SC Libraries Photo Contest 2008 Flickr contest. Mr. John Elerbe has also allowed his private collection of board games to go on display in the Main Library. On April 14th, Madeleine Denitto of Stressed.Pressed.Messed and Ronnie Classen - Assistant Fire Chief of the City Charleston Fire Department presented a program entitled Collecting or Hoarding as other pictures were taken for the contest and it was a very informative outreach. It is not often I have two outreach events back to back, but it worked out well. Also, a special thanks goes to Michel Hammes who took the honorable mention photo.

Security Solutions: Protecting a Home or Small Business Computer and Network

On Wednesday October 24th, 7:00 to 8:00 PM at the Main Library Auditorium Jamey Mellis of Software Solutions and Designs Inc will be presenting on wireless PC set-ups, data backup, sypware removal and network security. Jamey is overviewing and providing information on these general topics. He will introduce various kinds of technology solutions to secure your PC and network.