10 Lol Cat Laws Of Web Services For Smaller Underfunded Libraries Il2009

10 LOL Cat Laws of Web Services for Smaller and Underfunded Libraries Sarah Houghton-Jan Digital Futures Manager, San Jose Public Library Author, LibrarianInBlack.net

LOLcats combine: - cat photos - grammatically wonky captions - all sorts of wisdom

Talk with customers

#1: Talk with customers
Email – Gmail, Yahoo Mail
Instant Messaging – AIM, GoogleTalk, Meebo
Chat Widgets – Meebo, Plugoo
VOIP/audio – Skype‏
Video – some IM clients, Skype‏
Text Messaging – Mosio ( $ ), AOL hack ( security? )‏
Social Networks – Facebook IM
Twitter – “ask us a question with @...”
Jing – screencast video on the fly

Put chat windows and Help links where customers are UPSET Screenshot courtesy of David Lee King, Topeka Shawnee County Public Library

Help via Text-a-Librarian
Altarama
My InfoQuest cooperative!

Interact with customers

#2: Interact with Customers
Welcome comments on everything
Respond like a human being
Example: offer Online Book Clubs with a mix of staff and customers

San Jose Public Library's Teen Book Club on LibraryThing

Blogs for Recommendations
Blogs (each entry is its own review)‏
- Blogger, WordPress
Full participation
Entry templates w/ tags/categories
Pages for mysteries, picture books, graphic novels, biographies, books for teens, etc.

Be social

#3: Be Social
Find out where your users are
Be there, real, & reliably new
Facebook, Ning, MySpace, elsewhere?

Social network resources
CheckUsernames.com : check many networks
Open ID and ClaimID : claim and log into multiple site profiles
Ping.fm or Hellotxt.com : simultaneous updates
AtomKeep : simultaneously updates
Twitter/Facebook : settings/apps to update both
Filtrbox : monitor social networks in real time
MyBUZZmonitor : hear what people say

Events sites too
Eventful
Upcoming.org
Going.com
Craigslist

$10 = 5000 Facebook Flyers to targeted audiences Facebook Flyer image by Steve Lawson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuttlibrary/1546577200 CHEAP ADVERTISING!!!

Use multimedia

#4: Use Multimedia
Photos / Images
Podcasts
Videos

Westmont Public Library
http://www.flickr.com/photos/westmontlibrary/549380055/

Exploit Image Generators
GeneratorBlog.blogspot.com
ImageGenerator.org
ImageChef.com

Podcasting & Videocasting
people who can talk/sing
digital microphone
Audacity
OurMedia
people who aren't camera-shy + digital video camera ($100+)‏ + Avidemux (editing)‏ YouTube/Blip.tv (hosting)‏
free & low-cost hardware on Free After Rebate

Learning Multimedia
screencasts – Wink, CamStudio
class websites – WordPress, Blogger
live office hours – FreeConferenceCall
live webcasts – UStream.tv

Offer treatsies

#5: Offer Treatsies
People like shiny objects,
Ask them what they want.
Then find them some.

There are many treats in HCPL's catalog

Staff Avatars!
a la Nashville Public Library

“ My Account” Text Messages

Surprisingly free stuff

#6: Exploit the Free

Tap the Google Wonderland

Marry free & paid content

#7: Marry Free & Paid Content
Cease snobbery about paid content
Find the free stuff & promote it
Open source software for public computers
- Gnu Cash
- Open Office
- GIMP
- TypeFaster Typing Tutor

Free eBooks
Project Gutenberg
AudioBooksForFree
Escholarship
Google Books
ManyBooks
Memoware
Online Books Page
Oxford Text Archive
& many more!

Free Databases
ArticlesBase.com
FindArticles.com
+ free language learning sites
+ free practice test sites
+ free sites in all disciplines
Why not add this stuff to your website, or even your catalog?

Respect customers

#8: Respect Customers
You never know when you're the lunch.
Expect the best, not the worst.
Treat customers with respect, regardless of age of which services they use.

Offer users choices

#9: Offer Users Choices
How to contact you
How you communicate with them
How they find digital services
What they find online (content & format)‏

Choices!
People are mashing up your library's content.
Why not advertise that?
Library ELF - account tracking and alerts (email, SMS, RSS)‏
Library LookUp bookmarklet
LibX Toolbar
Google Maps mashups w/ branches, local resources
iGoogle gadgets w/ library content

Good Catalog = Choices
Can’t change ILS? Consider an overlay!
VuFind (open source)‏
LibraryThing for Libraries (fewer $ )‏
AquaBrowser ( $ )‏
Bibliocommons ( $ )‏
Endeca ( $ )‏
WorldCat Local ( $ )‏

LibraryThing for Libraries

Keep going!

#10: Keep going!
Try new things!
Push administrators (solid project plans, marketing plans, and statistical re-evaluation)‏
Rejoice in failures (it means you're pushing boundaries!)‏

Questions?
Sarah Houghton-Jan
web: www.LibrarianInBlack.net
IM: LibrarianInBlack
Skype: LibrairanInBlack
Facebook: facebook.com/librarianinblack
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLiB
email: [email_address]

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10 Lol Cat Laws Of Web Services For Smaller Underfunded Libraries Il2009

by Sarah Houghton on Oct 26, 2009

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