The document discusses designing effective library websites. It explains that a digital branch is about the library, not just a traditional website without collection, staff, or interaction. A digital branch has building, staff, collection, and community components. It is the actual library, just online. The document also covers usability testing, including creating test questions, administering tests, and analyzing results to identify problems and improve the website. Finally, it discusses creating community online through activities like listening, friending, starting conversations, checking in, and responding to users.
Building the Digital Branch: Designing Effective Library WebsitesDavid King
The document discusses designing effective library websites and what constitutes a digital branch. A digital branch is the actual library online, with building, staff, collections, and community. It allows interaction like meetings and questions to staff. The digital branch has real collections, staff, and fosters a real community online. Usability testing is recommended to evaluate a website, asking specific questions and timing users to find answers. Common problems found are wording, design, and functionality issues. The process of usability testing, redesigning, and retesting is advised. Creating community online involves listening to users, friending people, starting conversations using multimedia, and responding to treat community members like the mayor. Web analytics help track what's working after a
The document discusses the professional persona of an animator. It summarizes that he was born in Puerto Rico and dreamed of creating meaningful animation. He studied animation and attended Full Sail university to learn the craft. His strengths include creative thinking, problem solving, and communication. His goals are to create an animated film that inspires others and do work that is meaningful. He defines success as doing what you love and getting paid for it while having fun.
Lots of experts will tell you how to succeed at social media, but very few willl lay out a clear path to failure. Learn what the most common points of failure are for public libraries, and why libraries often aren’t getting what they want out of this new medium. Laura Solomon is the author of two forthcoming books on social media in libraries, and she has seen many libraries enter social media waters with no idea how to steer. Find out ifyour library is on its way to a social shipwreck and how you might be able to change course.
Using the C word: Change and the future of libraries.Cliff Landis
The document discusses the changing role of libraries and the future of library services. It outlines the progression from Web 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0, with each iteration connecting more people and knowledge. Library 2.0 principles emphasize user participation, flexibility, and designing services around user needs. The document argues that for libraries to keep up with these changes, they must consult users to understand their wants, provide both traditional and new services, and have an open conversation about the future of libraries.
Building and Evangelizing Holistic Experience Design - DMI Seattle 2011Samantha Starmer
The document provides guidance on designing holistic experiences by outlining strategies across four areas: expanding your mind, creating a vision, building a path, and just doing it. It suggests expanding one's mind by breaking out of silos, making new friends outside one's usual circles, getting outside of one's comfort zone, and finding comfort in discomfort. It recommends creating a vision by understanding the big picture, following a clear goal, storytelling to excite others, and leading change. It advises building a path by listening holistically, understanding executives' goals, managing stakeholders, and removing obstacles. Finally, it suggests just doing it by not waiting for permission, trying new things, using metrics, and starting small.
Don't Be a Digital Dinosaur: Design for the Space Between - Infocamp 2010 Ple...Samantha Starmer
The document discusses the need for experience designers to design holistic experiences that span both digital and physical channels, as well as multiple platforms. It notes that traditional boundaries are blurring as technology becomes ubiquitous and information can be accessed anywhere. The author advocates designing for the "space between" interactions by focusing on consistency of information and user journeys across channels to create a seamless overall experience. Experience design must look beyond individual websites or apps to consider all points of customer contact.
Building the Digital Branch: Designing Effective Library WebsitesDavid King
The document discusses designing effective library websites and what constitutes a digital branch. A digital branch is the actual library online, with building, staff, collections, and community. It allows interaction like meetings and questions to staff. The digital branch has real collections, staff, and fosters a real community online. Usability testing is recommended to evaluate a website, asking specific questions and timing users to find answers. Common problems found are wording, design, and functionality issues. The process of usability testing, redesigning, and retesting is advised. Creating community online involves listening to users, friending people, starting conversations using multimedia, and responding to treat community members like the mayor. Web analytics help track what's working after a
The document discusses the professional persona of an animator. It summarizes that he was born in Puerto Rico and dreamed of creating meaningful animation. He studied animation and attended Full Sail university to learn the craft. His strengths include creative thinking, problem solving, and communication. His goals are to create an animated film that inspires others and do work that is meaningful. He defines success as doing what you love and getting paid for it while having fun.
Lots of experts will tell you how to succeed at social media, but very few willl lay out a clear path to failure. Learn what the most common points of failure are for public libraries, and why libraries often aren’t getting what they want out of this new medium. Laura Solomon is the author of two forthcoming books on social media in libraries, and she has seen many libraries enter social media waters with no idea how to steer. Find out ifyour library is on its way to a social shipwreck and how you might be able to change course.
Using the C word: Change and the future of libraries.Cliff Landis
The document discusses the changing role of libraries and the future of library services. It outlines the progression from Web 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0, with each iteration connecting more people and knowledge. Library 2.0 principles emphasize user participation, flexibility, and designing services around user needs. The document argues that for libraries to keep up with these changes, they must consult users to understand their wants, provide both traditional and new services, and have an open conversation about the future of libraries.
Building and Evangelizing Holistic Experience Design - DMI Seattle 2011Samantha Starmer
The document provides guidance on designing holistic experiences by outlining strategies across four areas: expanding your mind, creating a vision, building a path, and just doing it. It suggests expanding one's mind by breaking out of silos, making new friends outside one's usual circles, getting outside of one's comfort zone, and finding comfort in discomfort. It recommends creating a vision by understanding the big picture, following a clear goal, storytelling to excite others, and leading change. It advises building a path by listening holistically, understanding executives' goals, managing stakeholders, and removing obstacles. Finally, it suggests just doing it by not waiting for permission, trying new things, using metrics, and starting small.
Don't Be a Digital Dinosaur: Design for the Space Between - Infocamp 2010 Ple...Samantha Starmer
The document discusses the need for experience designers to design holistic experiences that span both digital and physical channels, as well as multiple platforms. It notes that traditional boundaries are blurring as technology becomes ubiquitous and information can be accessed anywhere. The author advocates designing for the "space between" interactions by focusing on consistency of information and user journeys across channels to create a seamless overall experience. Experience design must look beyond individual websites or apps to consider all points of customer contact.
Loren Maxwell was originally studying music education but became confused and frustrated, questioning if it was truly his dream. He left school and spent years wandering without a clear path. After being diagnosed with HIV, he spent a decade lost and defeated. Witnessing the building of Coachella, he found inspiration to work in event production. Enrolling in the MCBS program, he now feels confident and ready to create his future in experiential events.
Loren Maxwell was once a wanderer who questioned societal expectations and left college. After years of bouncing between locations, a health diagnosis led to a decade of struggle. Witnessing a music festival being built reignited Loren's dream of event production. Joining a choir provided support as Loren now embraces their future through the MCBS program, ready to unleash experiential awe and help others achieve their dreams.
This document provides advice on finding a co-founder for a startup. It recommends getting started on the search early and being prepared by demonstrating your skills and knowing your needs. Good places to look for co-founders include among coworkers, classmates, hackathons, and founder dating sites. When structuring the relationship, equity should be split evenly and vesting, formalization, and clear next steps discussed. Common mistakes include choosing someone who is just a mirror of yourself, not working together before committing, glossing over goals and lifestyle, and not selecting an outwardly focused person.
Phil Bradley - the importance of social media to librarians: Google, search e...Sarah Bedford
The document discusses how search engines and social media are changing. Traditional search engines focus on web pages and don't indicate authority, but new search engines want to provide more types of content like images, news and related searches. The rise of social media and social search through sites like Facebook and services that curate news are challenging traditional search engines. The future of search emphasizes the individual and social sharing of content across different platforms rather than just search engine results.
This document discusses experience design and three paths to creating digital experiences: structural, community, and customer. The structural path focuses on site organization and usability. The community path involves creating digital spaces for conversation and participation. The customer path examines a customer's journey and looks for ways to improve and surprise customers through the digital experience. The overall goal is to connect customers and facilitate real conversation through the design of the digital experience.
The document discusses three paths to designing the digital experience for libraries: the structural path which focuses on planning, usability testing, and community involvement; the community path which centers around digital conversations, participation, and storytelling; and the customer path which emphasizes understanding customer journeys and improving touchpoints. It encourages libraries to listen to customers, focus on the experience as a destination, and ensure interaction is key.
This document provides tips for using social media to find a job. It recommends establishing an online personal brand through blogging, social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and networking online. Specific tips include regularly posting engaging content on your blog and social profiles to attract potential employers, using tools like Google Alerts to follow career interests, networking with college alumni and friends online for opportunities, and attending online events to make contacts offline. The goal is to showcase qualifications and expand your professional network to improve chances of finding new job opportunities.
Promoting Yourself With A Personal Web Sitejasonpuckett
This document provides reasons and guidance for creating a personal website. It argues that a website allows you to have all your professional information and multimedia content in one place, provides more flexibility than a resume alone, and can help demonstrate your skills. The document recommends using Wordpress software and inexpensive web hosting services starting at $10 per month to get started. It also provides examples of personal websites and encourages sharing projects, appearances, ideas, and updates on social media to promote your site.
The document is a collection of quotes and biographical information from an individual who describes themselves as an influential imaginator. They discuss their values of creativity, honesty and hard work. They also mention goals such as impacting future generations, embracing change and seeing technologies develop. The individual conveys a driven attitude and lists skills and experiences that include graphic design, overcoming challenges, and learning from mistakes with family support.
The document is a collection of quotes and passages about creativity, leadership, overcoming challenges, and goals for positively impacting the world through design, technology, and problem solving. It expresses a desire to influence people through imaginative creations and work on problems like affordable healthcare and environmental issues. The overall tone is optimistic and motivated.
If you're working on a large project with a lot of hands in the CSS pot, then your CSS may be doomed to code bloat failure. Scalable and modular CSS architectures and approaches are the new hotness and rightfully so. They provide sanity, predictably and scalability in a potentially crazy coding world. This session will give an overview of some the most popular approaches, including OOCSS, SMACSS, CSS for Grownups, and DRY CSS as well as discussing some general principles for keeping your CSS clean, optimized, and easy to maintain. Presented at FITC Amsterdam 2013
REI faced challenges with changing landscapes, lack of visibility, being siloed and lack of agility. Their plan was to tell their story with data, visualizations and orbs using agile development, cross-functional teams, bias towards action and iterating content like product information and expert advice. They focused on soft skills like customers first, transparency and relationships. The results were a 96% increase and their next steps are agile SEO, marketing and content strategy.
This document discusses experience design and outlines three paths - structural, community, and customer - for designing digital experiences. It emphasizes making websites easy to navigate, fostering real conversation and connections in online communities, and mapping the customer journey to improve the digital experience. The document recommends connecting with customers, creating experience stages, focusing on conversation, and improving the ordinary aspects of digital experiences.
This document is a biography of Kristina Ponce where she discusses her personal and professional journey. She talks about how she used to be lost and without motivation, but then realized a business degree was not for her. After graduating from college, she has appeared on TV shows in Florida and California. She is proud of her Mexican-American roots and culture. Her personal mantras are "Ambitious Latina" and that she has the hunger to succeed. She describes herself as self-motivated, humble, loyal, and spiritual. Her work ethic and ambition would allow her to fit in well with a particular team.
Co-Create: Creating Better Together - UX LisbonDenise Jacobs
Despite the prevalent mythology of the lone creative genius, many of the most innovative contributions spring from the creative chemistry of a group and the blending of everyone’s ideas and concepts. How can we best leverage this collective wisdom to generate creative synergy and co-create? Let’s look at the process of recognizing and removing our personal creative blocks, connecting and communicating with others, combining ideas using play, and constructing a collaborative environment to discover effective methods for tapping into a group’s creative brilliance. Through these steps, you’ll learn to capitalize on the super-linearity of creativity to embrace and leverage diversity to create better together.
There's a movement brewing built upon leveraging the transformative power of creativity to help us work and create better so that we can produce work infused with meaning. Discover how by knowing your Why, instilling tiny habits to cultivate your creative spark, and finally, fomenting creative collaboration based on the tenets of improv and open spaces, you can take the spark of Creativity (R)Evolution and use it as the impetus to push you, your teams, and your companies to create betterness.
Sharing is caring: becoming a trusted source through online curationMarco Campana
The document discusses online content curation and provides tips for becoming a trusted source through curation. It defines curation as identifying, selecting, and sharing the best online content on a specific subject for a specific audience. It recommends developing a core routine of listening, updating, and evolving content. It also suggests strategically sharing curated content using appropriate tools to reach the intended audience. The goal is to find the right information for the right people at the right time.
Find Your Shameless Spark - Inspiring Women Live 2014Denise Jacobs
Being true to yourself and loving what you do is a key part of being able to promote yourself shamelessly. Learn about the mental blocks that hold you back from promoting your brilliance to the world and how to bust through them, how to respect and feed your soul, plus several highly effective tips for sharing your skills and talents. This session is a booster shot of inspiration to spark your creative thinking about your personal brand and to promote your best self for stardom.
Things I Want To Model As Your TeacherWesley Fryer
This is a presentation I shared for students in "Technology 4 Teachers" at the University of Central Oklahoma on 13 January 2010. T4T curriculum is linked on wiki.powerfulingredients.com.
This document contains reviews from Booklist and Library Journal of Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novel Agincourt. The reviews summarize that the novel recounts the pivotal Battle of Agincourt through the perspective of English longbowman Nicholas Hook. It provides vivid details of the battle that led to England's unexpected victory against numerically superior French forces. The reviews praise Cornwell's ability to realistically depict this famous medieval conflict and bring it to life for readers of historical fiction.
Copyright for K–12 Librarians and EducatorsALATechSource
This document provides an overview of copyright law for K-12 educators. It discusses the purpose of copyright law, including ensuring authors are paid and promoting learning. Key aspects of copyright law are explained, such as exclusive rights, fair use exceptions, and distinguishing between copyright and physical copies. The document emphasizes that copyright is intended to benefit the public by making works available, while also recognizing the rights of creators. It provides guidance on determining what constitutes fair use and avoiding plagiarism. Overall, the summary emphasizes managing copyright compliance in education in a way that promotes learning.
Loren Maxwell was originally studying music education but became confused and frustrated, questioning if it was truly his dream. He left school and spent years wandering without a clear path. After being diagnosed with HIV, he spent a decade lost and defeated. Witnessing the building of Coachella, he found inspiration to work in event production. Enrolling in the MCBS program, he now feels confident and ready to create his future in experiential events.
Loren Maxwell was once a wanderer who questioned societal expectations and left college. After years of bouncing between locations, a health diagnosis led to a decade of struggle. Witnessing a music festival being built reignited Loren's dream of event production. Joining a choir provided support as Loren now embraces their future through the MCBS program, ready to unleash experiential awe and help others achieve their dreams.
This document provides advice on finding a co-founder for a startup. It recommends getting started on the search early and being prepared by demonstrating your skills and knowing your needs. Good places to look for co-founders include among coworkers, classmates, hackathons, and founder dating sites. When structuring the relationship, equity should be split evenly and vesting, formalization, and clear next steps discussed. Common mistakes include choosing someone who is just a mirror of yourself, not working together before committing, glossing over goals and lifestyle, and not selecting an outwardly focused person.
Phil Bradley - the importance of social media to librarians: Google, search e...Sarah Bedford
The document discusses how search engines and social media are changing. Traditional search engines focus on web pages and don't indicate authority, but new search engines want to provide more types of content like images, news and related searches. The rise of social media and social search through sites like Facebook and services that curate news are challenging traditional search engines. The future of search emphasizes the individual and social sharing of content across different platforms rather than just search engine results.
This document discusses experience design and three paths to creating digital experiences: structural, community, and customer. The structural path focuses on site organization and usability. The community path involves creating digital spaces for conversation and participation. The customer path examines a customer's journey and looks for ways to improve and surprise customers through the digital experience. The overall goal is to connect customers and facilitate real conversation through the design of the digital experience.
The document discusses three paths to designing the digital experience for libraries: the structural path which focuses on planning, usability testing, and community involvement; the community path which centers around digital conversations, participation, and storytelling; and the customer path which emphasizes understanding customer journeys and improving touchpoints. It encourages libraries to listen to customers, focus on the experience as a destination, and ensure interaction is key.
This document provides tips for using social media to find a job. It recommends establishing an online personal brand through blogging, social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and networking online. Specific tips include regularly posting engaging content on your blog and social profiles to attract potential employers, using tools like Google Alerts to follow career interests, networking with college alumni and friends online for opportunities, and attending online events to make contacts offline. The goal is to showcase qualifications and expand your professional network to improve chances of finding new job opportunities.
Promoting Yourself With A Personal Web Sitejasonpuckett
This document provides reasons and guidance for creating a personal website. It argues that a website allows you to have all your professional information and multimedia content in one place, provides more flexibility than a resume alone, and can help demonstrate your skills. The document recommends using Wordpress software and inexpensive web hosting services starting at $10 per month to get started. It also provides examples of personal websites and encourages sharing projects, appearances, ideas, and updates on social media to promote your site.
The document is a collection of quotes and biographical information from an individual who describes themselves as an influential imaginator. They discuss their values of creativity, honesty and hard work. They also mention goals such as impacting future generations, embracing change and seeing technologies develop. The individual conveys a driven attitude and lists skills and experiences that include graphic design, overcoming challenges, and learning from mistakes with family support.
The document is a collection of quotes and passages about creativity, leadership, overcoming challenges, and goals for positively impacting the world through design, technology, and problem solving. It expresses a desire to influence people through imaginative creations and work on problems like affordable healthcare and environmental issues. The overall tone is optimistic and motivated.
If you're working on a large project with a lot of hands in the CSS pot, then your CSS may be doomed to code bloat failure. Scalable and modular CSS architectures and approaches are the new hotness and rightfully so. They provide sanity, predictably and scalability in a potentially crazy coding world. This session will give an overview of some the most popular approaches, including OOCSS, SMACSS, CSS for Grownups, and DRY CSS as well as discussing some general principles for keeping your CSS clean, optimized, and easy to maintain. Presented at FITC Amsterdam 2013
REI faced challenges with changing landscapes, lack of visibility, being siloed and lack of agility. Their plan was to tell their story with data, visualizations and orbs using agile development, cross-functional teams, bias towards action and iterating content like product information and expert advice. They focused on soft skills like customers first, transparency and relationships. The results were a 96% increase and their next steps are agile SEO, marketing and content strategy.
This document discusses experience design and outlines three paths - structural, community, and customer - for designing digital experiences. It emphasizes making websites easy to navigate, fostering real conversation and connections in online communities, and mapping the customer journey to improve the digital experience. The document recommends connecting with customers, creating experience stages, focusing on conversation, and improving the ordinary aspects of digital experiences.
This document is a biography of Kristina Ponce where she discusses her personal and professional journey. She talks about how she used to be lost and without motivation, but then realized a business degree was not for her. After graduating from college, she has appeared on TV shows in Florida and California. She is proud of her Mexican-American roots and culture. Her personal mantras are "Ambitious Latina" and that she has the hunger to succeed. She describes herself as self-motivated, humble, loyal, and spiritual. Her work ethic and ambition would allow her to fit in well with a particular team.
Co-Create: Creating Better Together - UX LisbonDenise Jacobs
Despite the prevalent mythology of the lone creative genius, many of the most innovative contributions spring from the creative chemistry of a group and the blending of everyone’s ideas and concepts. How can we best leverage this collective wisdom to generate creative synergy and co-create? Let’s look at the process of recognizing and removing our personal creative blocks, connecting and communicating with others, combining ideas using play, and constructing a collaborative environment to discover effective methods for tapping into a group’s creative brilliance. Through these steps, you’ll learn to capitalize on the super-linearity of creativity to embrace and leverage diversity to create better together.
There's a movement brewing built upon leveraging the transformative power of creativity to help us work and create better so that we can produce work infused with meaning. Discover how by knowing your Why, instilling tiny habits to cultivate your creative spark, and finally, fomenting creative collaboration based on the tenets of improv and open spaces, you can take the spark of Creativity (R)Evolution and use it as the impetus to push you, your teams, and your companies to create betterness.
Sharing is caring: becoming a trusted source through online curationMarco Campana
The document discusses online content curation and provides tips for becoming a trusted source through curation. It defines curation as identifying, selecting, and sharing the best online content on a specific subject for a specific audience. It recommends developing a core routine of listening, updating, and evolving content. It also suggests strategically sharing curated content using appropriate tools to reach the intended audience. The goal is to find the right information for the right people at the right time.
Find Your Shameless Spark - Inspiring Women Live 2014Denise Jacobs
Being true to yourself and loving what you do is a key part of being able to promote yourself shamelessly. Learn about the mental blocks that hold you back from promoting your brilliance to the world and how to bust through them, how to respect and feed your soul, plus several highly effective tips for sharing your skills and talents. This session is a booster shot of inspiration to spark your creative thinking about your personal brand and to promote your best self for stardom.
Things I Want To Model As Your TeacherWesley Fryer
This is a presentation I shared for students in "Technology 4 Teachers" at the University of Central Oklahoma on 13 January 2010. T4T curriculum is linked on wiki.powerfulingredients.com.
This document contains reviews from Booklist and Library Journal of Bernard Cornwell's historical fiction novel Agincourt. The reviews summarize that the novel recounts the pivotal Battle of Agincourt through the perspective of English longbowman Nicholas Hook. It provides vivid details of the battle that led to England's unexpected victory against numerically superior French forces. The reviews praise Cornwell's ability to realistically depict this famous medieval conflict and bring it to life for readers of historical fiction.
Copyright for K–12 Librarians and EducatorsALATechSource
This document provides an overview of copyright law for K-12 educators. It discusses the purpose of copyright law, including ensuring authors are paid and promoting learning. Key aspects of copyright law are explained, such as exclusive rights, fair use exceptions, and distinguishing between copyright and physical copies. The document emphasizes that copyright is intended to benefit the public by making works available, while also recognizing the rights of creators. It provides guidance on determining what constitutes fair use and avoiding plagiarism. Overall, the summary emphasizes managing copyright compliance in education in a way that promotes learning.
Teaching information literacy with discovery toolsALATechSource
This document discusses teaching information literacy using discovery tools. It outlines that the presentation aims to help instructors understand the unique qualities of discovery tools to better teach students, learn how to maximize discovery tool features to teach evaluating search results, and understand how discovery tools integrate with subject databases. Some benefits of using discovery tools for teaching include their one-stop shop model, intuitive Google-like interface, facets and limiters, and ability to accommodate broad searches. However, challenges include the overwhelming number of results, lack of controlled vocabulary between databases, and dependency on topic area for interdisciplinary coverage. The document provides best practices for teaching like focusing on keywords, facets, critical thinking, and using the tool as a scaffold to subject databases. It concludes
SchoolNet South Africa/Nokia MoMaths PresentationSANGONeT
The document summarizes a mobile learning project for mathematics education in South Africa and Finland. It describes how the project provides interactive math learning materials through mobile phones to support both formal and informal learning. Over time, the project expanded from a few schools to over 150 schools in South Africa and 4 schools in Finland. The project benefits learners by giving them 24/7 access to learning materials and feedback, and benefits teachers by providing additional exercises and a diagnostic tool. Evaluations found the project improved math results and was sustainable, affordable and scalable.
The document discusses four things libraries must do when using social media: listen, plan, respond, and open up. It provides tips on how to listen to patrons on social media platforms to understand where they are, how to plan a social media strategy, how to respond to patrons respectfully online, and how to use social media to openly engage and share information with communities. The document also includes sample social media policies and guidelines for libraries to follow as well as tips on tools that can help maximize the reach of library social media activities.
This document provides an overview of ebooks and e-readers. It discusses the definition of ebooks, their history and major milestones. Some key points covered include:
- Ebooks first emerged in the early 1990s as digital versions of print books that could be read on computers. Major companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble entered the market in the late 1990s and 2000s.
- Important milestones included the launch of early e-readers in the 1999-2012 period as well as the growth of digital publishing in the late 1990s and 2000s.
- Ebooks offer various advantages like portability, storage, accessibility and lower production costs compared to print. However, challenges include a lack of
Evaluate and Improve Your Library Website in 10 Steps (Part 1)ALATechSource
This document provides 10 steps for evaluating and improving a library website, beginning with usability and conventions. It recommends conducting user research to understand gaps between user needs and the current site. Key steps include evaluating the site navigation, scope of content, and rewriting content for clear tasks. The document stresses designing first for critical tasks on mobile devices and iterating site changes based on user feedback.
Gadgets in the Library: A Practical Guide to Personal Electronics for Librari...ALATechSource
This document discusses managing ebooks and digital content in libraries. It covers different ebook file formats, devices like Kindles and Nooks, and digital rights management. Licensing terms for Kindle, Nook, and Google Books are examined. The document also discusses how some libraries have approached cataloging and tracking ebooks purchased from vendors like Overdrive and individual titles purchased for devices. It concludes that licensing and copyright are challenging areas and that cataloging digital content is less difficult than addressing legal issues around file sharing and fair use.
Freak Out, Geek Out, or Seek Out: Dealing with Tech Change and Customer Engag...David King
This document discusses how libraries can respond to changes in technology and customer engagement. It suggests that libraries should embrace a digital presence and focus on customer experience. Libraries need community managers, digital branch managers and other roles to engage patrons both inside and outside the library. The document provides examples of libraries interacting with patrons through social media, focus groups and visiting where patrons gather online. It emphasizes designing services around customers and improving customer journeys. Libraries should also gauge staff readiness for change and find champions to help lead transformations.
Redesigning Public Services: The 21st Century Library User ExperienceDavid King
This document discusses redesigning public services like libraries for the 21st century. It notes that libraries now face more competition and must improve the user experience. It suggests three paths for the user experience: structural changes like ease of use, a community experience through participation and conversation, and understanding the customer journey. It recommends libraries listen to users, improve small things, meet users where they are, make the library a destination, focus on interaction and staff, and find champions to help change focus.
King: Building the Digital Branch WorkshopALATechSource
The document discusses designing effective library websites and digital branches. It emphasizes that a digital branch should have key components of a physical library like a building, staff, and collection. It provides guidance on usability testing a website, including creating test plans, administering tests, and analyzing common problems. The document also covers building a website, creating online community, and planning for future expansion.
When I turned my web writing job into this “content strategy” thing back in 2008, I thought I’d hit the jackpot: Finally, I had the tools to solve the problems that plagued my projects. Content wasn’t left ’til last, projects weren’t delayed, concerns weren’t limited to design and development. Win, win, win.
But then some terrible someone always came along to spoil my party. I’d make a style guide; the authors would stop following it. I’d work out a content model; the designer would insist on an interface it couldn’t support. I’d go through the audit results; the client would smile, nod...and go back to business as usual. I wanted to make content meaningful. Instead, I was making documents. I was making fantasies. Sometimes, I was even making enemies.
I was overwhelmed, overworked, and disappointed—until I changed the way I saw my role. Instead of tying things up with a bow and delivering it to others’ doorsteps, I learned how to make the work theirs instead—to create strategy with them, not for them.
In this talk, I share the ways I overhauled how I work, and how that’s led to more successful projects and more satisfying client relationships.
A More Effective Social Media Presence: Strategic Planning and Project Manage...ALATechSource
This document provides guidance on developing an effective social media presence for libraries. It discusses the importance of strategic planning, including assessing user needs, setting goals and directions, and creating a formal strategic plan. It also covers project management aspects like communication, requirements documentation, scheduling, and maintaining an ongoing assessment process. The overall message is that libraries should take a thoughtful, evidence-based approach to social media through strategic planning and project management.
Freak Out, Geek Out, or Seek Out: Trends, Transformation & Change in Librarie...David King
This document discusses trends and transformations occurring in libraries. It notes that libraries now face competition from other information sources and must adapt to technological changes. Some key points made include:
- Libraries have transitioned from card catalogs to online public access catalogs (OPACs) to utilizing the internet and web-based resources.
- The emerging web is decentralized, multimedia, mobile, social, and two-way rather than one-directional.
- Libraries are using social media and their websites to engage in conversation with patrons and provide digital content and services in addition to physical locations.
Freak Out, Geek Out, or Seek Out: Trends, Transformation & Change in LibrariesDavid King
This document discusses trends and changes affecting libraries, including the emergence of Web 2.0 technologies. It notes that libraries now face new forms of competition and must adapt services to the changing digital landscape. Suggestions are made to engage patrons through new platforms like social media, conduct usability studies, and promote libraries as community destinations in the digital world. Staff development and change management are also addressed as libraries transition to combine physical and virtual services.
Climbing Out of the Box Mashing Up Our CommunityDavid King
The document discusses mashing up libraries and communities. It describes mashups as combining different data sources and embedding them together, such as combining library catalog data with reviews from blogs or social media. It advocates for libraries to move beyond their traditional websites and engage with patrons outside of the library, such as through mobile apps, social media or events in the community. The goal is to improve the library experience and demonstrate that the librarian and their knowledge and services are the real product libraries provide.
The document discusses designing holistic experiences that span both digital and physical channels. It recommends designing for the "space between" interactions by considering the full customer journey. Five principles are outlined for cross-channel design: convenient, connected, consistent, contextual, and cross-time. Five methods and tools are also presented: thinking in terms of services; sharing design work; starting with observations; embracing discomfort; and focusing on customer needs over specific solutions. The overall message is that customers experience brands through all touchpoints, so design must consider the integrated experience.
Presentation given to ASTD Charlotte Chapter April 16, 2009 and libraries, Learning 2.0/23 Things, and what trainers can do to help themselves and their learners using Web 2.0 tools.
Creating Community Experience using mostly free stuff & staffDavid King
This document discusses creating a positive community experience at the library by focusing on free resources, staff, listening to customers, gathering feedback through focus groups, analyzing statistics, improving ordinary interactions, making the library destination, ensuring interaction is key, focusing on resources and staff, and continually planning what's next. The overall message is that libraries should work to improve the customer experience through various low or no-cost methods of engagement, outreach and assessment.
Who Are We When We're Online? Self in a Digital MediumBonnie Stewart
The document discusses how our identities are shaped and expressed through digital media. It notes that online we have multiple facets and selves that are amplified and networked more than ever before, bringing both opportunities and vulnerabilities. It explores how digital selves are public, social, and potentially economic, and argues that what matters most is the kind of citizen we choose to be through our online interactions and representations.
Considering the Digital Branch: Extending Your Library's Reach into the Community presented by Catherine McMullen, Butte-Silver Bow Public Library at Montana Library Association Offline Technology Conference February 2010. A big thank you to David Lee King at Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library for developing and teaching the concept of the Digital Branch.
The document discusses three paths to designing digital experiences: structural, community, and customer. It advocates writing an experience brief to define goals and mapping the customer journey. The presentation provides recommendations for libraries to focus on the customer experience by asking questions, emphasizing conversation, and staging experiences on their website. The overall message is that experience design improves the ordinary interactions people have with an organization online.
The document summarizes the evolution of web design from the early 1990s to the present day. It discusses how technical factors like improved code, browsers, devices and access have enabled the rise of responsive design. The key stages discussed are the World Wide Web era from 1992-1996, the dot-com boom from 1997-2001, the era of web standards from 2002-2007, and the modern era from 2008 onward. It emphasizes how current design approaches like responsive design have emerged from the confluence of technical capabilities and shifts in how people access the web from any device.
Creating Customer Experience: on the web, in the library, in the communityDavid King
This document discusses how libraries can create a better customer experience. It suggests that libraries should focus on understanding their current customer experience by observing visitors and gathering feedback. Libraries are also encouraged to identify ways to improve the customer experience by focusing on their space, resources, staff, and being responsive to customer needs and feedback. The overall message is that libraries need to shift their focus to the customer experience in order to remain relevant and competitive.
This document discusses the concept of "Discovery Guiding" in libraries. It suggests becoming a Discovery Guide by focusing on training and learning, challenging traditional classroom models, remembering that exposure is the first step to learning, recognizing that learners have knowledge to share too, emphasizing fun, and focusing on knowledge playing and understanding new concepts using traditional methods. The overall message is that Discovery Guiding is about empowering exploration and sharing knowledge in a playful, low-pressure way.
The document discusses the importance of making content machine-readable so that it can be reused and accessed in different ways. It provides 10 reasons why organizations should adopt practices that allow computer systems to access and interpret their data, such as using microformats, RSS feeds, and APIs. These practices free up content so it is no longer locked into single websites and applications, making it easier to reuse and repurpose. The document advocates a focus on content over technology and argues that embracing machine-readable data will lead to benefits like lower costs, more ways to visualize and access content, and increased traffic over time.
The notion of allowing access to your website content and data via API's and other machine readable means is well embedded in geek circles.
This presentation aims to look at the non-technical reasons why these approaches are a good idea, arguing that it is time for Machine Readable Data (MRD) approaches to be better communicated to content owners, budget holders and other non-technical stakeholders.
Liven Up Baby and Toddler Storytimes with Sign Language (March 2019)ALATechSource
This document discusses using sign language in baby and toddler storytimes. It recommends choosing a few signs to use consistently in programs to stimulate language development and communication. Tips are provided on learning signs from various resources and practicing their introduction and use within storytime activities. Expanding sign language use can engage more participants, including those with special needs.
Dealing with Mental Health on the Front Lines: Part 1ALATechSource
This document discusses mental health issues and resources for dealing with them. Some key points:
- About 1 in 5 U.S. adults experience mental illness each year, with the most common being anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders.
- However, 60% of Americans with mental illness receive no treatment, resulting in lost productivity costing $105 billion annually.
- Groups more likely to experience issues include women, non-managers, and non-profits, while groups less likely are older adults, children, homeless/poor, first responders, and military.
- Reasons for not seeking treatment include stigma, lack of awareness, denial, and lack of resources.
Serving Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Part 2 (Feb. 2019)ALATechSource
This document discusses resources and instructional strategies for serving youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in libraries. It identifies various print and digital resources that work well for youth with ASD, including predictable books, formulaic series, non-fiction, rhyming books, and periodicals. Effective reading strategies include using word games, modeling think-aloud reading, and creating picture books. The document also discusses instructional strategies like direct instruction, discrete trial training, constructivist approaches, and ensuring accessibility for visual and language issues. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration, establishing routines, and incorporating the youth's interests.
Using Visual Arts in Early Childhood ProgrammingALATechSource
This document provides guidance for using visual arts in early childhood programming. It discusses the benefits of art for young children, including developing motor skills, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional skills. Four art projects are described in detail with supply lists, instructions, video demonstrations, and book connections. The projects allow for open-ended creative expression and include silly face paintings, crumpled flower collages, twirling sculptures, and action painting. Resources for further planning arts activities for toddlers and preschoolers are also provided.
Serving Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (Feb. 2019)ALATechSource
This document discusses strategies for libraries to better serve people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It begins by outlining the learning objectives and providing background on the increasing prevalence of ASD. It then discusses the characteristics and challenges of individuals with ASD, including sensory and developmental issues. The document outlines strategies libraries can use to create a more inclusive and supportive environment for those with ASD, such as establishing predictable routines, addressing sensory needs, providing social supports, and ensuring instruction is explicit and literal. It emphasizes the importance of collaboration and addressing the full scope of deficits associated with ASD.
Laura Solomon introduces her Library Website Rehab program, which helps libraries address common people challenges with their websites. These challenges can include not knowing what to fix, how much to fix, what to prioritize, or who will do the work. The program uses an interactive four-part event approach led by Laura and her team to help libraries assess and improve their websites. Interested libraries can register at the provided URL.
Taking STEAM Programs to the Next LevelALATechSource
This document outlines Amy Holcomb's presentation on taking steam programs to the next level. The presentation defines steam learning and discusses the benefits of steam programs in libraries. It also provides examples of structured and unstructured steam activities for different age groups, including multi-day bootcamp programs. Resources for steam learning are shared, and the presentation concludes with a question and answer session.
Creating a Digital Media Space for Today's Teens: Part 2 (Jan. 2019)ALATechSource
This document provides guidance and recommendations for creating a digital media space for teens at a library. It discusses the importance of mentorship and designing programming to support diversity and multiple literacies. Specific recommendations are made for workshop structures, partner programming, volunteer opportunities, and evaluation methods like badges and a teen media awards program. Equipment suggestions include video cameras, audio equipment, 3D printers, and software like Adobe Creative Cloud. Guidance is also given on grant writing and leveraging free online resources. The overall recommendation is to focus on relationships and community building rather than just transactions to better serve the community.
Creating a Social Media Policy for Your Library (January 2019)ALATechSource
The document discusses the importance of organizations having social media policies to protect their reputation and avoid legal issues, even if they do not currently have a social media presence. It provides examples of what should be included in a policy, such as guidelines for employee behavior online and protection of intellectual property. While some argue that formal policies are unnecessary, the document emphasizes that as social media becomes more integrated into workplaces, organizations need rules to define appropriate use and avoid potential problems stemming from employee social media use.
Creating a Digital Media Space for Today's Teens: Part 1 (Jan. 2019)ALATechSource
The document discusses creating a digital media space for teens at the library. It outlines the background and theory behind developing a mentor-driven program like The Labs at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. The program is based on 3 levels of engagement - hanging out, messing around, and geek out. The document emphasizes that mentorship should be at the heart of the program and focuses on building relationships and community. It also discusses how the program can help address equity issues in the city by providing caring non-parental adults and spaces for informal learning to explore interests.
Working with Individuals Affected by Homelessness: An Empathy-Driven Approach...ALATechSource
This document provides a summary of training topics related to homelessness, including:
- An overview of different types of homelessness and how trauma can impact brain development and behavior.
- A discussion of how traits like mental illness, substance abuse, and trauma history lower the effectiveness of punishment-driven enforcement when working with people experiencing homelessness.
- An introduction to using empathy-driven and relationship-based approaches, like building trust through compliments and acts of service, rather than threats or punishment.
- Tools and techniques are presented for using psychology and neurochemistry to develop relationships, build voluntary compliance, and resolve issues in a compassionate manner.
Fake News, Real Concerns: Developing Information-Literate Students (December ...ALATechSource
This document is a presentation by Donald A. Barclay on improving information literacy in the age of social media. It begins with introductions and defines fake news and challenges of the information age. It discusses how people often overestimate their ability to evaluate information. It then covers practical approaches to addressing fake news like fact checking and critical thinking. It suggests teaching information literacy concepts across curriculums and prioritizing the evaluation of information. The presentation concludes with examples of pro-smoking fake news memes to show how misinformation can be created and spread.
Offering Service and Support to the LGBTQIA Community and Allies (Nov. 2018)ALATechSource
This document discusses programming for the LGBTQIA+ community at libraries. It begins with introducing Jessica Jupitus as the deputy director of library services. It then provides questions to consider when thinking about the kind of community you want to live in and how to create change. The document lists resources for library professionals on transforming communities and engaging in turning outward practices. It ends by inviting questions about programming for the LGBTQIA+ community.
Library Director Bootcamp: Getting the Skills You Need, Part 3 (Nov. 2018)ALATechSource
The document summarizes a library director bootcamp session covering building, insurance, and legal topics. It discusses doing walkthroughs of library buildings to understand maintenance systems, contracts, and emergency plans. It also covers different types of insurance like liability, flood, and personnel insurance. The session discusses factors to consider when hiring an attorney like cost, experience, and specialization. It provides examples of when a director should contact an attorney, such as for personnel issues, contracts, or lawsuits. The document encourages directors to continue learning through conferences, online courses, and networking with other professionals.
Engaging Learners through Active Instruction and AssessmentALATechSource
This document summarizes a presentation on engaging learners through active instruction and assessment. The presentation aims to help instructors create a welcoming environment, use interactive exercises, and empower students. It provides tips for instructors such as making early contact with students, using validating language, displaying vulnerability, giving feedback, and providing opportunities for student engagement through techniques like think-pair-share activities. The presentation emphasizes building rapport, challenging students appropriately, and demonstrating the value of course content to motivate learning.
Library Director Bootcamp: Getting the Skills You Need, Part 2 (Nov. 2018)ALATechSource
This document summarizes a session on personnel from a library director bootcamp. The session covered topics like interviewing, compensation, benefits, onboarding and training, evaluating employees, disciplining employees, and personnel policies. Attendees participated in discussions about how they currently handle areas like training, benefits offered, and using personnel policies. The session provided an overview of important personnel-related terms and areas for library directors to understand when managing human resources.
AL Live: What Do the Midterms Mean for Your Library? (November 2018)ALATechSource
The document summarizes a discussion between Jim Neal, Alan Inouye, Vic Klatt, and Gigi Sohn on the implications of the 2018 midterm elections for libraries. They discussed the general political outlook following the elections, potential impacts on federal funding, telecommunications policy, copyright law, internet regulation, and the importance of library advocacy. The discussion provided an overview of key issues facing libraries in light of the change in congressional control.
Library Director Bootcamp: Getting the Skills You Need, Part 1 (Nov. 2018)ALATechSource
This document summarizes a library director bootcamp session about financials and boards of trustees. The session covered where library revenue comes from (mostly taxes), how to create a budget by reviewing data and future needs, and the roles and responsibilities of library boards and directors. It discussed challenges like unclear roles but also how strong communication and understanding different viewpoints can foster good board relations.
Prepare for the Future: Tech Strategies You Need to Know (November 2018)ALATechSource
The document discusses emerging technologies and their impact. It begins with a brief history of technological laws like Moore's Law. It then covers topics like local vs cloud computing, algorithms and filters, privacy issues, and the growing Internet of Things. The document also examines artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented and virtual reality. It raises concerns about data manipulation and deepfakes. In conclusion, it emphasizes that the technological changes of the next 20 years will vastly exceed the last 20 years.
18. Creating your Test:
Questions
• figure out what to test
• create a question that tests that
• write specific questions
19. Test Description
• “The goal of this study is to evaluate how
people find information using our website. I will
ask 15 questions and would like you to think out
loud while looking for the answer. I will time
you, and will stop you after 3 minutes have
passed. Don’t worry if you can’t find the answer
every time–we are testing our Web site,
not you! Each answer can be found using the
library’s Web site. The test should take no more
than 20 minutes. Do you have any questions?”
21. Administer
the test
• Think of this step as the consumer
“taste test”
• Administering the test is the easiest
part of a usability study.
• read the explanation, whip out your
stopwatch, and say “go.”
A “website” especially a “library website” tends to be an older, almost more traditional model. Here’s what this older model focuses on: [say the stuff on the slide, dude] What’s going on here?
A traditional library website is about the library - it’s not THE library. let’s look at a few websites - is it a website or a digital branch? Is it THE Library, or About the library?
I’m picking on some library websites here... about their services, policies, about their programs, a list of staff, links... announcements ABOUT the library - not THE library
How about this one? Nice clean design... Personal touch, making a connection, easy to read & look at. Helpful suggestions – get started, ask a librarian, search the catalog. Still an about the library section too – you need a mix of both. So - what’s a digital branch? It’s... [click]
digital branches are just like a physical library building. They have each of these things covered... they can be done digitally
ok - we don’t have a building... or do we? website IS the building - and it has upkeep like a real building does: - there is coding upkeep, data and content upkeep - there are “paint jobs” and “touch up” work to be done clearly laid out places to go to do things commenting and interactive pieces are clear 2.0 stuff is in place - rss, commenting, multimedia, etc...
how about staff? touches the public - librarians can answer questions touches the code - there is clean up work to be done, is there not? someone still HAS to be in charge, make decisions
real staff = staff interaction right on the site IM, email someone responding to comments someone overseeing a community forum...
needs to be something for customers to do - read, watch, listen to someone needs to organize the “digital” collection so it’s easy to discover and interact with our ILS’s - wonderful example. you can check stuff out - our bread and butter
real collection = reading/viewing right there catalog, ebooks, audio books, magazines librarian created content - videos, podcasts patron created content...
OK David, can we really do THIS ONE online? Well... actual people go there you can meet people (forums, discussion lists, IM...) staff interact with customers you can attend programs (screencasts, online book clubs) ok - the coffee bit doesn’t work too well yet... :-)
and, real community: real place to hang out, connect (via comments, social networks, book clubs, forums, etc) real place to attend meetings (livemeeting, tutorials, live feeds, video) ways to facilitate two-way interaction
next section - usability
What is usability & usability testing? Website usability is a measure of ease of use. Usability is measured by asking customers to complete a task on a website. This week’s lesson will focus on website usability and on creating a simple usability test for your website. How does this affect sites? There are really two types of usability: bad and good. Bad usability means that your patrons won’t be able to find information using your library website. For example, if your library databases are hidden under a “library resources and services” link, patrons might not be able to find the databases page. If this is the case, library customers will probably complain about your website. Good usability, on the other hand, means that library customers will be able to find everything your website offers. The first time visitor can easily navigate and find information. Good usability also means little complaining! People might complain that they don’t like a certain feature, but they will still be able to navigate within that feature and find the information. A usability test is a way to find out if your website has good or bad usability. The test consists of a series of well-thought-out questions designed to test parts of your website for usability.
The first thing to do when creating a usability test is to figure out what parts of the website to test. This can usually be a simple process of writing down major features and services currently presented on your site, because the goal of the questions is to test the most important features on your website for usability. Once you have decided what parts of the website to test, you need to create a question from each of those parts. When I create usability questions, I usually try to test the usability of information presented on the main page, and the usability of information found off the main page. For example, one of the questions asked the testee to find information on joining our Friends of the Library program. This question not only tested if testees could find the appropriate information, but it also tested all our links under the main About the Library link. When writing usability questions, remember to write specific questions rather than open-ended questions. For example, on a previous usability test, I created a question that tested our Children’s website. The question was: “Your daughter’s grades are slipping, and she needs help with her homework. Does our library have a Web site that will help her?” This question tested two things: It tested main page navigation, link wording, and link placement. It tested sub-level navigation, link wording, and general design on the KidsLinks page (since the answer to the question could be found by clicking the link to “Homework Help” on the main KidsLinks page).
A description of the test and test-taking instructions also needs to be created. This text will actually be read to your test-takers. Proper instructions will help set them at ease. Make sure the test description and instructions place emphasis on Web site faults, rather than on the volunteer getting correct/incorrect answers on the test. Here’s the paragraph we read to our volunteers: “ The goal of this study is to evaluate how people find information using the Library’s Web site. I will ask 15 questions and would like you to think out loud while looking for the answer. I will time you, and will stop you after 3 minutes have passed. Don’t worry if you can’t find the answer every time–we are testing our Web site, not you! Each answer can be found using the library’s Web site. The test should take no more than 20 minutes. Do you have any questions?”
Have you ever been stopped by clipboard-carrying market researchers at the mall? Here’s your chance to be one! Now that the test is ready to go, you just need to find volunteers willing to participate. I’ll get to that word “volunteer” in a minute. First, let’s decide how many participants are needed for a successful test. Jakob Neilsen, Steve Krug, and other usability experts all agree: Testing sets of five people three times (different people) will provide more and better information than testing 15 people once. Here’s why: With a one-time 15 user test, you’ll find 100 percent of your website usability problems. But when three five-user tests are given, you get these results: Test 1: 85% of usability problems are found. This allows you to redesign to fix those problems, and then test again. Test 2: Redesign problems are found, as well as the first 15% of the usability problems missed during the first test. Plus, this second test “will be able to probe deeper into the usability of the fundamental structure of the site, assessing issues like information architecture, and task flow.”4 Then redesign again, and test one more time. Test 3: This test catches anything missed during the first two tests. So, three tests with a smaller number of volunteers allows for faster turnaround, since you’re redesigning during the testing period. It also allows deeper probing into the usability of your site, thus creating a better site than if you tested 15 users once. Now, let’s look more closely at the term “volunteer.” Do you need to pay volunteers? I think not. A university library can easily find volunteers (students) willing to take a quick test. Pass out candy bars or something similar as an added incentive to volunteer. At a corporate library, ask people you work with to take the test. Most likely, you can find five people willing to do something other than their normal routine. At my library, I called the manager of the branch or department where I’d be doing testing, to find out their busiest times. Then I went to that department/branch, “hung out” by the computers, and asked people to volunteer for the test. We gave volunteers a library mouse pad for taking the test. Most people I asked agreed to take the test. You don’t really need to worry about finding a cross-representative sample of users when testing only five customers. But, in some cases, it is preferable to find representative users for your test. For example, are you testing a corporate intranet? Then, by all means, use employees that use the intranet. Are you a university? Then make sure to test students, and maybe a professor or two.
Think of this step as the consumer “taste test” where you measure consumer preference. Your questions are ready, and your volunteers are lined up to go. Sit back and relax! Administering the test is the easiest part of a usability study. At this stage, sit down with the volunteer, read the explanation and directions for taking the test, whip out your stopwatch, and say “go.” Take notes! Write down the path the volunteer takes when he or she is trying to answer the question. Note more than just the URL of the final answer. Also note where the person actually clicks – if the volunteer goes back to the main page to choose another link, etc. Record whether or not an answer is found for each question. Record the amount of time each question takes to answer. There’s a huge difference between answering a question in two seconds versus three minutes. Record the page where the answer, if any, is found. Also record anything said during the search process, if the volunteer visually scans a page, or if the person almost clicks on something and then doesn’t. Record anything you notice that may prove significant. Some people actually capture usability tests on video, so they can review later for the more subtle nuances of usability (visual cues might be missed while you are writing down a web path).
Once all the usability tests have been taken, it’s time to figure out what to do with the information that was gathered. For starters, I usually provide a summary of what was found for each question. I note how many people correctly answered the question, write down the paths each person took to find the answer, and any other appropriate comments that they or the proctor noted during the test. Next, examine that summary for good nuggets of usability information. Start with the volunteer’s final answers. How many found correct or acceptable answers to the questions? If all five volunteers found an answer relatively quickly, then the item being tested probably functions correctly. If, however, one volunteer answered correctly and the other four didn’t find an answer, something needs to be fixed. Compare notes on that question for each volunteer. An easy way to compare is to group paths and important notes for each question. Then, scan the paths and other notes together. This is where subjectivity comes into play. You need to find out if your volunteers had similar hang-ups. Did some of them go down the same wrong path? Did they make it to the right page, but then couldn’t find the link that answered the question?
Wording Problems: All of us, no matter what type of job we’re in, use work-related lingo. We assume everyone inherently understands that lingo. But that’s not true! You need to watch for these jargon problems. For example, in the library world, do your customers really understand terminology like “Reference,” “Interlibrary Loan,” “OPAC,” “audio/visual material,” or “monograph?” Probably not. Our users got stuck on words like “Reference,” “Online Catalog,” and “Policy.” Design Problems: You’ll also find a myriad of design flaws that you didn’t know existed. You might be used to your Web site, but testing users quickly provides a fresh perspective on visual design and information flow. Here are some things that might occur during the test: Volunteer missed the link because it was in the middle, right-hand side of the page, surrounded by other links. Since many people scan from left to right, upper to lower, make sure to group the most important navigational aids to your Web site on the upper left-hand side of the page. Volunteer missed the link because it’s “under the fold.” You have to scroll down to see it. Don’t hide important links under the screen. Many of your users will miss the links, since they quickly scan pages and move on. Volunteer missed the answer because it was hiding under a link that provided no explanatory text. To fix this, include short explanations with important navigational links. For example, under our new Resources link, we provide a summary that says “find magazine and newspaper articles, genealogy, local history, unique collections, Web links and more.” This explanation gives the user more information, and therefore helps him quickly decide on his destination. Now, there’s one more step to take. Complete your usability test, redesign, and then … do it all again. Remember the three five-person tests? Go that route, and you’ll save yourself many usability headaches later on.
Card sorting is handy - put web pages on index cards, then ask people to arrange them. You quickly get a feel for how your customers would arrange your stuff But you can also do a similar thing live. Have someone stand at the circ desk, and ask them stuff - like what do you call library databases? What would you callthe form where you can make purchase suggestions for us? That type of thing... Great for getting beyond jargon!
talk about it!!!!!! – Usability test
next section - how do I gather info about making a website? Business decision stuff - what to focus on is the question. Customer and library priorities. I get a lot of this by meeting with staff and with patrons. Here’s what I do
talk about it - my process, what I did The questions, who I met with How I did it Summarize staff findings summarize patron findings
How I summarize findings mindmaps! put all 5 or so questions down, then typed each response - for each meeting then I combined like stuff From that, I summarized the major things.
next section - how do I gather info about making a website? Business decision stuff - what to focus on is the question. Customer and library priorities. I get a lot of this by meeting with staff and with patrons. Here’s what I do
explain sitemap first mindmapped it out then went through each item and consolidated/removed/renamed Still need to work on labeling!
This is different from the experience brief. Instead of explaining the experience you want someone to have, this answers more of the why people would come here, what should be here, and what should it look like, how should it function stuff. For each section of you website, answer these questions: Purpose: why does this section exist? Goals: What’s it doing? How do we know when we reach the goal? Primary Audience: who? adults? Kids? 35-year old moms? - can’t be everyone... why viewers use section: why will patrons come here? Tasks section accomplishes: self explanatory Content Requirements: what types of content are required? Functionality Requirements: what functionality is needed? Read lilly’s stuff for a section!!!
an experience brief - 1 page story about experience, then build what you wrote about as the bible for your website - thinking about experience is better than not!
wireframing - here’s what it is, how it works visual outline of the website not focused on graphics, etc Focused on where stuff goes, what space it should fill, etc. This can then go to the graphic designer who can fill in each part and make it look great... then you have to actually start building the thing.
speed, not focused on graphics, etc Focused on where stuff goes, what space it should fill, etc. This can then go to the graphic designer who can fill in each part and make it look great... then you have to actually start building the thing.
hugely important. Here’s our process - our creative group works through stuff, gets it how we want it, then we start sharing I share with director and deputy director, we change big things then I share with management council, and change big things, then share again, etc until it’s good then I share with the staff ... change big things, and explain lots of stuff then we share with patrons, and change big things, repeat...
you should set one as a goal you should also release it unofficially 2-3 weeks prior, tell patrons about it, and let them play/comment sort of a beta test remember - it’s a branch library what do you need on opening day? content, staff, a building lots of coffee and ibuprofen :-)
Better than a real building - because you can and should continuously build! Fix stuff that doesn’t work well, etc. - continuous writing/creating. - schedule writing time - training. posting. writing. making a video. - schedule regular reading times, make suggestions/critiques - periodically touch base with content developers. documents: - style guide - discussion policy redesign, usability, etc!
check out top 10 pages, and time on site see if anything odd sticks out we use google analytics - it’s free & easy to use. And pretty detailed, too.
most popular content shows what people are doing #1 is deceptive - all our PCs are set to that #2 is funny - people are looking for jobs ... not library shelver jobs. We need to reword something #3 is cool - summerfest! #4 is weird - do that many people really want to know how many items to check out??? #11 - yay. databases made the list. Can we figure out how to get those moved up int he rankings? I’ll bet we can... etc - that’s how we go through these...
landing pages this can be interesting. what’s the “door” are people using to enter your digital branch? This is the page that tells you... Jobs? weird summerfest - flyers and newspaper articles etc bounce rate, landing pages where are they finding these pages?
what’s next? Do all of the stuff I’ve been talking about over again! big changes - maybe every year or so. most websites change something big every 18 months, because the web is still changing that fast. Gotta keep up! small changes - continually. This is the cool thing about a digital branch - it’s DIGITAL. You can make quick changes and tweeks whenever you need to!
next - online community facebook, twitter, etc - think of your main website as your home base. Think of facebook, twitter, etc as outposts you want to staff the outpost and fill it with stuff, so there’s something to do there... you also want to be where your patrons gather. Here’s what you can do in those spaces:
#1 - STOP. Before you do ANYTHING ELSE. It’s great to jump in as an individual. But don’t brand it as your library until you ... ... strategize a bit. For example, why do you want to have a presence in Facebook? you need some reasons, a bit of strategy, and you need to set some goals So - figure out a plan for starters. what content, who does the work, what next?
While you’re stopped, use your personal account and start listening. See what people say, and figure out how the tool or service works. Then...
are they talking about you topics close to your heart what they say in general about where you live, issues of the day how they say it - lingo, slang, etc this helps you figure out the lay of the land in that social network - how you can fit in, how to add your own stuff
This part’s easy. set up google alerts, youtube searches set up twitter searches Watch the activity feed in whatever social network you’re interested in (twitter, facebook, blip.fm, etc all have this)
Twitter search for my library. You can also do a location-based search using a zipcode. And a word, like library, reading, watching, etc.
ViralHeat - viralheat.com – is a cool tool that just created a free version. So stuff a couple of your SM accounts in it, and see what happens. Twitter – measures growth, total tweets, retweets, links shared, who mentions you, etc.
Socialmention.com is a cool tool - it searches twitter, facebook, friendfeed, youtube, digg, google, etc for mentions of you, aggregates that, and makes a feed you can subscribe to (or turns it into an email alert with links, too). It’s a cool way to see what people are saying about your library without having to visit lots of different places.
you want friends. numbers are good, patrons can talk privately with you - think confidentiality, privacy friend them back! focus on customers/patrons, focus on people living in your service area, whatever that means. Use tools like wefollow or the Find People searches in tools like Facebook or Twitter and friend people living your area. Pay for Facebook Ads and ask for friends that way. A “David likes the library” ad. $10 per day. Be active.
so ... think of status updates as short conversation starters. Make sure to invite responses by asking for them - ie., what do you think? what’s yours? etc. share your stuff - new materials, events, thoughts - interesting local news, add a library twist if you can answer questions - real questions, questions about you that they didn’t ask you about, real questions that you know the answer to and aren’t about you (remember - you’re their friend).
also conversation - with ways to comment share what’s happening - events, your collection, new tech or services - be a reporter. share your staff! who are those friendly faces? teach things - screencast, short and fun
be slightly informal - think business casual rather than formality - it helps you seem more real and human improvise - don’t memorize lines - are you really a good actor? - instead, outline, storyboard, then wing it Get used to it so you can be yourself. mics and lighting - read up on those a bit so you can still sound and look good. Michael Porter and I will be teaching this in a preconference at Internet Librarian ...
be active - add links, add tips, add info about you claim your space if you can - foursquare has yet to email me back Facebook has a check-in function too. Use this stuff if your community uses it!
free coffee on Fridays gets people in that space to be a bit more active, provides incentive
reply in twitter, comment and like in facebook leave comments on your patron’s blogs don’t be a corporate schnozz. Instead, be a real person goal here? - answer questions, correct info, generally be helpful - make the library seem real, friendly ... - and a service I can’t live without!
So - let’s say that next week, there’s a new service that’s making news, & lots of people are joining. What do you do? 1. don’t write it off - how many wrote off twitter or facebook ... and are now addicted? 2. immerse yourself - friend 50-100 people, interact a couple times a day for a month or so - this is the best way to get a feel for a service 3. see if there’s stuff you can do to connect those users to your library - tips, replies, broadcasting out info, etc. Most likely, there is
Then improve the service by looking at trends! More friends/followers. More views. Use stats - lots of these services have stats. Some examples: This is from flickr - shows number of views, number of comments.
Facebook - how many interactions happened - likes, comments, wall posts Male/female breakdown, etc. So - take a peek at your stats. Then figure out what to do with them: - attracting a certain type of person? IE., 35 year old women on Facebook? Can you focus interactions on that group? - getting unexpected results (weird age ranges maybe)? Look over your last month’s tweets/videos/updates and adjust accordingly. Experiment!
just stuff to think about for the next version of your site, or for additions: CMS - use one! it will be easier for staff to publish. and get you more staff content creators, too ... Drupal, Wordpress, Expression Engine, Joomla Thin about Facebook as expansion - the like button, driving traffic to your website using status updates, etc. patron content as expansion!