Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries

Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries Sarah Houghton-Jan Digital Futures Manager, San Jose Public Library Author of LibrarianInBlack.net

Why doth the libraries cry?

What we can do right now 1) Find out user needs 2) Use free technologies to save money 3) Plan projects effectively 4) Assess projects thoughtfully 5) Market our services the right way

Find out user needs

“ Understanding local patron culture is essential to creating used and useful technology services.” - Char Booth

Taking the Ass out of Assumption (Char Booth): slideshare.net/charbooth/local-user-research-taking-the-ass-out-of-assumption

Listen to your users. It really is as simple as that. Plz?

Use free technologies to save money

Public & Staff Computer Software
Operating System - Ubuntu
Email/Calendar - Google Calendar & Gmail
Web Browser - Firefox, Google Chrome
Financial Software - GNU Cash
Productivity Software - Open Office
- word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, desktop publishing, and calculator

More... Public & Staff Computer Software
Image Editing - GIMP
Typing Software - GNUTypist or TypeFaster Typing Tutor
CD writing - Brasero or InfraRecorder
Antivirus - AVG Antivirus
Ad-Busting - AdAware
Anti-Spyware - SpyBot, Spyware Guard, Spyware Blaster

Staff Scheduling Tools
Droster
AceShift (<20 shifts/day)‏
or even Open Office's “Calc”

Team Meeting Tools Voice – Skype, Google Voice Video – Skype, Sightspeed, Tokbox IM – AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, & others Meeting Space/Chat – Today's Meet Meeting Scheduling – When Is Good, Doodle Webcasts – Vyew

Tech Support Tools Embedded chat - Meebo chat widget Voice or video chat - Skype or Ekiga, Sightspeed, Tokbox Screencasts on the fly - Jing Discussion board - Google Groups Remote Support - LogMeIn.com

Audio & Video Tools
Voice/Video Chat – Skype or Ekiga
Audio Recording/Editing – Audacity
Video Editing – Avidemux, DVDx, Lumiera, Kino
Video Hosting – YouTube, blip.tv, Vimeo
Audio Hosting – OurMedia

eLearning Tools Screencasting – Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Wink, Camstudio, Screencast.com Online Learning Environment – Moodle Conference Calls – FreeConferenceCall.com Webcasts – Ustream.tv Class Websites – WordPress, Blogger, PBworks

'Contact Us' Tools
Email – Gmail, Yahoo Mail
Instant Messaging – AIM, GoogleTalk, Meebo
Chat Widgets – Meebo, Plugoo
VOIP/audio – Skype‏
Video – some IM clients (AOL, Skype‏)‏
Text Messaging – AIMhack
Social Networks – Facebook IM
Twitter – “ask us a question with @...”
Jing – screencast video on the fly

Social Network Tools
CheckUsernames.com : check multiple networks
Open ID and ClaimID : claim and log into multiple networks
HootSuite : Twitter stats
Ping.fm, Hellotxt.com, and AtomKeep : simultaneous updates
Twitter/Facebook : settings/apps to update both
Filtrbox and MyBUZZmonitor : what people say

Website Tools
Website recommender - del.icio.us, Evernote
ILS - Koha or Evergreen
Content Management System - Drupal
Flickr slideshow - Pictobrowser
RSS Feed and Blog Post Statistics - PostRank
Tag Clouds - TagCrowd, Wordle
Web Forms - Google Forms
CSS-picker - Typetester

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

More Free Web Tools

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

Free Articles
ArticlesBase.com
FindArticles.com
+ open access e-journals
+ free access through individual publication's websites
Why not add this stuff to your website, or even your catalog?

More Favorites
RSS aggregator - Google Reader
Book Jackets - Book City Jackets
Open Source/CC Images - Wikipeda Commons, Flickr Image Search
Charts – LucidCharts, Lovely Charts, Gliffy
Text to Voice – Text2Speech, Google Voice
Citation Keeper – Zotero
Movies Online - Hulu
File Drop Sites - SendUIt, DropBox

Plan projects effectively

Quick & Dirty Project Planning Can add costs for staff time, explicit deliverables, breaking each step down further, listing who is responsible for what. Time and Money Completion Date (start date Sept. 15)‏ Research 10 hours, $0 September 22 Committee review 20 hours, $0 October 6 Software installation 10 hours, $35 October 13 Staff training 40 hours, $0 November 3

Sarah's Awesome 10 Step Project Plans
1. Background
2. Aims & Objectives
3. Overall Approach
4. Project Outputs
5. Technology Requirements & Impact
6. Training
7. Project Management
8. Marketing
9. Budget
10. Evaluation Plan

But my project is huge and I need help managing the steps!

BaseCamp

Staff Training
Part of training is information.
Provide staff exposure at least 1 month before soft launch
Offer staff formal training in that time
- Play with it, touch it, and learn it.
- Fun. Rewards. Food.
- Types and numbers of trainings

Getting Staff Buy-In
Inform early and constantly.
Ask for & use input.
Demand consistent managerial support.

Soft Launches
Beta test everything!
1. Launch the new service for a small group of staff first (to find big bugs).
2. Launch for entire staff (and ask for feedback, problems, suggestions).
3. Launch for users (without “hard” promotion and ask for feedback).
4. Do a hard launch and promote.

Assess projects thoughtfully

Evaluating New Services
Survey users and staff 6 months in: Would you recommend this service to a friend? Why or why not ?
Evaluate the library's follow-through: Has adequate marketing and training been done?
Evaluate statistics: How much staff time is being used?How much is the service used?

Project Evaluation Plan

Results of Evaluation
Continue service
or
Discontinue service
or
Extend pilot
and
- change aspects of the service
- do more promotion or training
Discontinuing a service is not failing. Persisting in a failed effort is failing.

Market our services the right way

Marketing ≠ Bookmarks

Raising Awareness
PR in our physical presence
PR in our online presence

F2F World Marketing Ideas
Open communication & discussion
in the library
outside the library
Outreach to partners & community groups
Word of mouth
Dynamic physical marketing
LCD screens in-library or in the community
Flyers, posters, geocaching in the community

Online Marketing Ideas
Library website promotions – large, graphic
Have a good URL
Updates & flyers on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
Short promotions on receipt printers, email alerts, newsletters, catalog, banner, everywhere!
Ensure search engine findability
Events websites (Eventful, Going, Upcoming)‏
Get links from partners

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

Rejoice in failures... for failing indicates that you have encountered a boundary that needs testing.

Questions?
Sarah Houghton-Jan
web: LibrarianInBlack.net
email: LibrarianInBlack@gmail.com
IM: LibrarianInBlack
Twitter: twitter.com/TheLiB
Skype: LibrairanInBlack
Facebook: facebook.com/librarianinblack

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Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries

by Sarah Houghton on Jan 24, 2010

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Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries — Presentation Transcript