A Follow Up with Christen Orbanus 28 Jul 2010, 2:00 pm

I checked in with Christen Orbanus following my earlier post describing how she has put the color of her hair in the hands of some ‘tweens and teens with the reading prowess to beat last summer’s reading program numbers.

Christen

JD Thomas:: How many kids are participating in the summer reading program?
Christen Orbanus:As of right now, I have 84 teens between 6th-12th grade signed up.

JT: How does that compare to last year?
CO: We had around 70 teens signed up last year. I think we did a better job of promoting the program this year… plus everyone wants to see my hair a different color!

JT: Are the kids involved primarily reading traditional bound books?
CO: I would say yes. Most of the teens are reading books, manga, or magazines. I had one boy come in though to show me the ereader app he downloaded to his ipod Touch.

JT: Have you observed any movement towards eBooks among the younger patrons that you serve?
CO: Other than the one boy with his Touch eReader app, most of the kids are still going with good ol’ books.

JT: How will your actual new color be decided among the participants?
CO: I created a survey with Survey Monkey. Once the teens hit 1500 hours, I’ll e-mail out a link to the survey to each teen who participated. They will be required to enter their e-mail address and pick one color from the list (Blue, Purple, Green, Pink, Yellow, Orange, Black, Silver). The most votes wins! The Rizzieri Aveda School across the street from us, is sending over two student volunteers to do the hair dying here in our Teen Space.

JT: Has any particular book, series, or author been more popular than others this summer?
CO: We have a few books/series we can’t keep on the shelves! The Pretty Little Liars series is super popular right now (maybe because it’s now a tv show?). The girls love it! Also, Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games and Catching Fire have been flying off the shelves here The girls…. And the boys LOVE these books. There’s currently a waiting list for all of these books.

When this is all over I will be sure to post a photo of Christen’s new hair.

Now That is Motivation! 26 Jul 2010, 1:15 pm

Christen Orbanus, a teen librarian for the  Camden County (New Jersey) Library System (@camdencountylib) in charge of programming and collection development for 6th – 12th graders has come up with a good way to motivate her young patrons.

She has pledged that if her summer group racks up 1500 hours of reading, collectively, they can pick a color for her to dye her hair.

With fourteen days remaining and less than four hundred hours to go it looks like Christen is well on her way to sporting a new hair color come August 21st.

Christen is going to dye!

Kathy Dempsey on Libraries and Mixed Messages 20 Jul 2010, 9:35 am

Kathy Dempsey, sometime LibConf blogger, author of The Accidental Library Marketer, and editor of Marketing Library Services has shared her thoughts on the messages libraries give, sometimes inadvertently, in the areas of Attitude, Facilities, Policies, and Signage and explains  how minor changes can make a big difference in how your library is perceived within the community.  Her post is a result of much rumination following her attendance of Wayne Disher’s presentation at the Texas Library Association’s annual conference this spring.

This talk was given by Wayne Disher, director of Hemut Public Library in Hemet, Calif. For years, he said, he’d been studying, observing, and photographing libraries and signs and people. And from all those experiences, he pointed out a number of ways in which libraries and librarians send mixed messages. Think about these examples and honestly assess whether any of this is happening where you work.

Disher pointed out four main ways that libraries send mixed messages:

1. Attitude
2. Facilities
3. Policies
4. Signage

Read on at The ‘M’ Word – Marketing Libraries: How Libraries Send Mixed Messages.

Call For Speakers Opens for Computers in Libraries 2011! 16 Jul 2010, 12:44 pm

Strategic Focus & Value for Library Communities

#CIL11 Call for Speakers!

Whether we are planning or designing services for our library community, or delivering services of value to them, we have to align our community’s needs, cultures, and opportunities. Learn about the latest trends affecting your community and your clients at Computers in Libraries 2011. The conference program is filled with ideas, innovative practices, tips and techniques for identifying community needs and opportunities as well as designing and delivering strategic and creative services that are of primary importance to our communities. The emphasis is on creating strategic value for our user communities and using new web tools to build innovative and priority services.

Information Today Inc., a key provider of technology conferences for more than twenty-five years with Internet Librarian and KMWorld, is pleased to announce the 26th annual Computers in Libraries – the most comprehensive North American conference and exhibition concentrating all aspects of library technology. Our theme, Strategic Focus & Value for Library Communities, encompasses all the challenges, solutions, technologies and practices that those working with computers in libraries or libraries in computers are dealing with today. The conference offers a multifaceted program designed to meet the needs of librarians, information managers, systems professionals, webmasters and web managers, content evaluators, intranet strategists, portal creators, and information specialists. The focus of the conference is on leading edge technology that allows us to bring strategic value to our user communities. It provides the latest information and practices for you to make informed choices for your community — whether it is an academic, corporate, non-profit, public, or school library community.

Computers in Libraries caters to all interests and all levels of knowledge, offering four simultaneous tracks plus many workshops, networking opportunities, and an extensive exhibit hall. This year’s tracks and themes encompass: Community Building; Partnerships & Collaboration; Aligning for Maximum Value; People (skills, organizations, roles); Social Media, Learning & Literacy; Places (virtual & physical); Digital/Virtual Library Services; Research & Innovation; Integrating Systems & Strategies; Information Discovery & Search; Technology Planning; Managing Content & eResrouces; Web Tools & Leading Edge Technology; Intranets & Portals; Search Engines; Case Studies of Internet & Intranet Librarians as well as Digital Library Managers; Library Automation, Architecture & Infrastructure; Managing Information and Knowledge Assets, eLearning & Training, Web Design & Development, Streaming Multimedia, and more. Speakers are knowledgeable, authoritative and focus on practical applications, “how to” solutions, and case studies as well as technical and managerial issues. Please consider sharing your knowledge and ideas; send us a proposal to speak. Below are some of the topics we hope to cover, but don’t let this list limit your imagination! We look forward to hearing from you.

TOPIC SUGGESTIONS

These are suggestions only, use your imagination! The more creative the topic, the better!

• Acquiring & Managing Content
• Aligning with Strategic Priorities
• Beyond 2.0 for Libraries
• Blogs, Wikis & RSS: What’s New?
• Building Community Partnerships
• Building Strong Communities
• Building Technology Alliances
• Building & Using Taxonomies
• Collaboration Software
• Connecting People & Technology
• Content Management Tools
• Cool Web Tools
• Co-ordinating Web Teams
• Creating Strategic Value
• Creating Tomorrow’s Learning Environments
• Creative Management Practices
• Digital Archiving
• Digital Rights Management
• Digitizing Collections
• Distance learning technologies
• eBooks & eJournals: Acquiring & Managing
• eLearning Strategies & Cases
• Evaluating web resources: Tools
• Experimenting & Learning
• Facebook, MySpace & LibrarySpace
• Finding Partners in Tough Times
• Folksonomies & Metatagging
• Funding Technology
• Future Net/Web strategies
• Gaming & Learning
• Gauging Customer Needs
• Information Architecture
• Information Discovery & Visualization
• Innovation, Change & Libraries
• Innovative Ways to Connect with Clients
• Intranets & Portals in Action
• Leading Edge Technologies
• Lessons learned from Techies
• Library Performance Improvement
• Making Interfaces Usable
• Making Tough Choices
• Managing Desktop Access
• Managing Digitally
• Managing Electronic Resources
• Maximizing User Experience
• Mobile Computing
• New Technologies & Libraries of the Future
• Next Gen OPACs
• People Capabilities & Libraries
• Personalization & Customization
• Search Engine Tips & Tools
• Second Life & Libraries
• Social Listening
• Social Media & Libraries
• Special & Virtual Libraries: Cases
• Strategic Library Competencies
• Streaming Content to Mobile Devices
• Streamlining Systems & Workflow
• Teaching Tips for all ages
• Technology Planning
• Tools for Spreading Information & Ideas
• Top Tips for Teaching Adults
• Understanding Community Needs & Opportunities
• Usability Testing for Web Sites
• User Generated Content
• Virtual Library Services
• Web Design & Usability
• Web Development Tips & Tools
• Web Policies & strategies
• Streaming Multimedia
• Wireless strategies & the Library
• Writing & Publishing for the Web

Submit a proposal at  Computers in Libraries 2011: Call For Speakers.

Kate Ray’s “Web 3.0″ 6 Jul 2010, 10:03 am

Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

A story about the Semantic Web

Transcript, interview bios, and other info on kateray.net
Downloadable version on drop.io/web3point0

Interviews with:
Tim Berners-Lee
Clay Shirky
Chris Dixon
David Weinberger
Nova Spivack
Jason Shellen
Lee Feigenbaum
John Hebeler
Alon Halevy
David Karger
Abraham Bernstein

Kate Ray is a recently-graduated NYU journalism/psychology student, currently working on kommons.com

Libraries are our future… 24 Jun 2010, 5:03 pm

Author Neil Gaiman Uses Award
Speech to Support Libraries

Neil Gaiman, 49, is the first person ever to have been awarded both Britain’s Carnegie Medal and the US Newbery Medal – considered the two most important children’s literary awards – for the same book.

Accepting the award in London yesterday, Gaiman said: “Libraries are our future – to close them would be a terrible, terrible mistake – it would be stealing from the future to pay for today which is what got us into the mess we’re in now.

“In this austerity world it’s incredibly easy if you are a local authority and you are looking for cuts, to say ‘Let’s cut libraries’. But that’s borrowing from the future.”

Neil Gaiman says closing libraries would be ‘a terrible mistake‘ – Telegraph.

ITI’s The Conference Circuit goes Digital 14 Jun 2010, 8:32 am

Beginning with coverage of SLA2010, Don Hawkins has helped guide the the long running Information Today feature,  “The Conference Circuit“,  into the realm of  real-time, digital publishing.  Don Hawkins, the author of the feature and the man in charge of maintaining the Information Today Conference Calendar, will be using this new blog to post real-time information from the many conferences he attends each year.

The Conference Circuit

Don has been a long time contributor to this site, both when it was InfoTodayblog.com and since its rebith as LibConf.com. Don has a long history of conference blogging (you can read his coverage of SLA 2004 online).

His new blog will eliminate the space constraints that Don had to cope with while working on the print only edition of The Conference Circuit.  The digital elbow room and the real-time connection to readers will enable Don to provide much richer coverage of the events he attends.

Read Don’s new blog at The Conference Circuit and stay on top of events at SLA2010 in New Orleans.

5 Ways to Make CIL2011 Even Better 8 Jun 2010, 2:46 pm

Computers in Libraries 2010 ran smoothly for both attendees and organizers down in Crystal City, VA back in April. However, as educational and entertaining as it was, there is always room for improvement.

Welcome to CIL2010

Like any good conference, Computers in Libraries is all about meeting the needs of you, the attendees!  Because of this special focus ,there are five things you can do, every year, to help us make the event better and better.

1. Check out the CIL2010 presentation materials.  If you missed session that you really wanted to hit, this is a good way for you to at least get a peak at what you missed.
2. Most Computers in Libraries presenters are social creatures. Connect with your favorite speakers.  Many of the presenters at CIL2010 have listed their social networking address in their speaker profile like Jill Hurst-Wahl.  Let them know if you enjoyed their session. Many attendees found Twitter to be an invaluable way to get their post-conference questions answered.
3. Send a shout out to the conference chair.  At CIL2010 you probably never spent more than two hours without being within shouting distance of Program Chair, Jane Dysart.  Jane is always approachable on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn and if you have an idea to improve the content of next years program, she is the woman to tell.  Telling her your ideas now allow her the time to look into your suggestions for next year’s event.
4. Get involved and share your voice.  This year we had 31 1/2 bloggers at the conference this year (Maurice Coleman has so much to say he needs not one, but two blogs!).  Many of their posts helped shed light on topics that could only be lightly covered in a single session.  If you will be blogging from Computers in Libraries (or even Internet Librarian 2010) please let us know so we can get your blog listed here at LibConf.com and we want to get you one of those nifty Blogger ribbons for your conference badge.  We know that the folks  blogging at Comptuers in Libraries have more to say year round so you can find links to their latest posts right here.  (And it is not just because I never miss Brian Herzog’s ‘Reference Question of the Week‘.)
5. And finally, give some feedback to the behind the scenes folks.  The conference organizers are the ones out there making sure your speakers have Internet access when they need it and they make the hotel dial back the air conditioning when someone tweets: “The Potomac is FREEZING!”.  These people are running around like crazy during the conference and it is only after it is all over that they can take a deep breath and try to figure out how it went.  The one and only way they have to get your feedback is via the Computers in Libraries 2010 attendee survey.  There are only nineteen questions but they are finely crafted to make sure the ITI organizers know what worked, what did not work, and what is most important to you!  Also, I’m just saying…, you could be the winner of the $50 Barnes and Noble gift card just for filling out the survey!  That could come in really handy when you need to buy reading material for your flight to Computers in Libraries 2011.

Greening Your Break Room 7 Jun 2010, 2:23 pm

Most libraries have a break room that includes a kitchen area. Today, I’d like to offer a few simple, low-cost, eco-friendly options to help keep it clean and fresh without the use of harmful-to-the-environment products.

Read five easy and effective tips at  Dont Forget Your Break Room When Thinking Green by Laura Bruzas.

Photo by chronos_tachyon
Thanks to LibraryofCT for tweeting a link to this article.

Wikipedia FAQ for Librarians now Online 1 Jun 2010, 10:54 am

Thanks ResourceShelf for pointing out this new resource. There are currently seventeen elements to the FAQ and that is sure to grow as more librarians and information professionals discover the FAQ.

However you feel about Wikipedia, they now provide an FAQ aimed at the information professional community. The history page says it was placed online yesterday.

via New: Wikipedia Launches an FAQ for Librarians – ResourceShelf.