Government Info Pro

IL 2007: Ten Cool Conference Perks

Beyond the programs and events at Internet Librarian 2007, I cooked up this list of top ten things that I found interesting, remarkable, or just rather surprising during my stay in Monterey for the conference.

1. Old Fisherman’s Wharf was close to the Conference Center and provided a nice place to stroll, eat, and shop during lunch or after the last program was done each day.
2. The antique car show that was held beside the Wharf sparkled in the sunshine. Those cars were dazzling.
3. The magnitude 5.6 earthquake on Tuesday night only disturbed my east-coast sensibilities after I realized it had occurred. I thought someone was kicking my chair during the evening program. How rude. Once I discovered the truth however, I was a little shaken (no pun intended).
4. There are hummingbirds in Monterey. I actually saw one up close and fluttering.
5. You can hear the sea lions barking down by the water but I never saw them.
6. There’s a lot of seaweed on the beach in Monterey.
7. The cool people who dressed up for Halloween at the conference got my vote for super creativity. 
8. Those brave costumed folks and the pumpkin carving contests at the local hotels made up for not getting to watch the live Ghosthunters show on the SciFi channel that ran for a whole six hours on Halloween night.
9. The best thing since sliced bread is a good conference wiki.
10. In the end, there’s no place like home.

But first, I'm off to San Francisco for two days to teach the LexisNexis Librarian Certificate of Mastery series.

As beautiful as Monterey and San Francisco are, I’ll be glad to get home again. I’ve begun writing up my Internet Librarian 2007 program notes and I’ll be posting them here as I complete them.

IL 2007: Information Tomorrow

While hanging out at Bloggers' Corner, writing up my notes from sessions attended at Internet Librarian 2007, my eye was drawn to the Author's Corner. There I saw Rachel Singer Gordon, editor of Information Tommorrow: Reflections on Technology and the Future of Public and Academic Libraries. With a foreward by Stephen Abram, and a host of hot topic chapters, this newly published book really caught my interest. I believe that that there are many insights derived in the public and academic library setting that government librarian need to consider within their own environments. We can all learn from each other.

Along with Rachel were many of the chapter authors. Of course they all signed my copy of this book, which is why I feel confident stating that I have one of the coolest copies ever of a book published by Information Today, Inc.

The chapter authors who were kind enough to sign away on my copy of Information Tommorow are:

• Meridith Farkus, Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University, writing on Training Librarians for the Future: Integrating Technology into LIS Education;
• Jenny Levine, Internet Development Specialist and Stategy Guide, ALA, and famous blogger at The Shifted Librarian, writing on Library 2.0;
• David Lee King, Digital Branch and Services Manager, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library writing on Building Positive Experiences on Library Web Sites;
• Michael Stephens, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, Dominican University writing on Libraries and the Read/Write Web;
• John Blyberg, Head of Technology and Digital Initiatives, Darien Library writing on Taking Back the 21st-Century ILS.

IL 2007: In the Exhibit Hall at Internet Librarian 2007

The exhibit hall at Internet Librarian 2007 was hopping during the Tuesday afternoon program break. The bloggers were intently blogging away at Bloggers' Corner. Over at the Author's Corner (right across from Bloggers Corner) are the authors and editors with their book offerings. You could hobnob with the authors and buy that intriguing title that begged to be read when you saw that glossy cover glittering up at you from the tabletop. The vendor booths were enjoying heavy traffic. There were sodas, water, and juice for the dehydrated, or soon to be dehydrated. I knew I should take the water but the lure of the carbonated diet beverage overcame me.

In the midst of all of this, a short program on Collective Commons was being presented to a standing room only audience at CyberCorner.

These 15 minute programs provided during conference breaks are a one of those happy little secrets of the conference and they are well worth attending for quick gulps of information. The trick is to realize they are running between sessions and taking a look at the information packed schedule to select exactly what you want to sit in on. Look for them at Computers in Libraries as well.

IL 2007: Opening Reception in the Exhibit Hall

The Internet Librarian 2007 Exhibit Hall opened with a reception on Monday evening that was heavily attended. It was a hectic social whirl with refreshments, good conversation, and exhibits ready for visiting.

The crowd was still good to go - even after a full day of conference programs.

IL 2007 -- Online Marketing for Libraries: Outreach and PR in a 2.0 World

This Internet Librarian 2007 program was presented by two public librarians that you may know from their blogs:

Sarah Houghton-Jan, Information and Web Services Manager, San Mateo County Library, can be found at LibrarianInBlack.net. Aaron Schmidt, Director, North Plains Public at Library at walkingpaper.org.

You can view their presentation here: Online Outlook: 2.0 Marketing Strategies for Libraries.

Government librarians can learn a lot from the public librarian’s quest to be a dynamic and pertinent part of their community. Their outreach efforts and their perspectives on where libraries need to be right now and in the future are useful for all librarians who seek to find ways to be engaged with their user communities – both internal to the organization and without. Frankly, you can never get too many marketing ideas.

Here’s my takeaways:

A few beginning points:

• As you consider marketing your library here are some things to consider: social software, video, search engine findability, Wikipedia, YouTube, MySpace.
• Think: presence, connecting.
• As you consider your online outreach – think: What are you marketing?
• When you are talking about how to market what you create and get people to look at it, remember that you need to make it two-way. You need interaction.
• Blurring of jurisdictional lines means that everyone may be your patron.

If you are looking to be found then focus on these:

SEARCH ENGINE FINDABILITY

Go out and search for variations of your library’s name. Is your site at the top? Check it out on minor and metasearch engines too.

LIBRARY DIRECTORY LISTINGS

• Get listed. Some directories to consider: LibDex, MapMuse, and Libraries411.
• Are you blogging? Go out to the blog search engines.
• Use the power of Feed Submitter to submit your blog’s feed to multiple sites at once.
• Get listed on Technorati.

WIKIPEDIA

Don’t discount it. List your library on the appropriate town or county entries or find your larger community and make sure you are listed. It’s okay to talk about your coolness – like awards, etc. Go a step further with Wikimapia. You can add locations for your library.

PRESENCE

Create a community website presence - for instance, local community calendar presence. Hit the local blogs, special interest boards, forums and groups. Interact with local blogs or blogs that have a focus pertinent to your library. Don’t intrude but be available; be a person, not an institution.

Be a presence where warranted. For instance, public libraries may want to work to create a presence in the local school systems.

Social review websites like: Yelp, Citysearch, insiderspages, Local2Me, Judy’s Book, may be talking about you. You should know.

Social networking sites are seeing a shift as MySpace is giving way a bit to FaceBook. Consider creating a profile for your library at social networking sites: MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, Ning.

The presenters referred to Slam the Boards – (an effort where librarian hit the boards to answer questions and publicize the value of libraries. For example: Allexperts.com, Yahoo Answers.)

If you want to encourage public traffic consider listing you library in the WiFi directories (assuming of course that you have WiFi on tap).

Aaron asks how many of us are using default as the name of their wireless network and suggests that we change it to something catchy.

Push information out. For instance, invest in newsletter software, market in physical ways too.

TIP: Make sure your urls are friendly and accessible. If you are thinking about creating a blog, don’t settle for that long url that nobody can remember off the top of their head.

One audience member asked: How do you find a balance? The presenters suggested that we look at what is going to get the most bang for the buck. Look at your community to understand where you should be.

TEXT MESSAGING

Orange County is the only public library utilizing this (at this moment) and some academic libraries are offering both circulation and reference via SMS.

FIND YOURSELF

Look for mentions of your library. Check Flickr, IceRocket, Technorati, YouTube, Yahoo News, for instance. AND what if your library patrons aren't using these tools. Help bring them along by modeling this behavior.

Final Note: Check out the Library Success Wiki noted by the speakers

A Rich Variety of Tracks at Internet Librarian 2007

Internet Librarian has four different tracks running each day of the conference. The tracks are as follows:

MONDAY, OCTOBER 29

• Information Discovery and Search
• Public Libraries
• Web Design and Development
• Strategies and Best Practices

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 30

• Learning: More Than Teaching
• Enterprise Trends
• 2.0 Organizations and Roles
• Virtual Worlds and Libraries

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31

• Search Engines
• Content Management (CM)
• Digital Libraries, Systems, Operations
• Games, Videos and Libraries

Upon studying them, I decided that jumping tracks throughout the conference would allow me to get the most value from my conference experience and share back some interesting posts here on the Government Info Pro taken from programs that span the knowledge coming from many different types of libraries environments and communities of practice.

That's the plan - stay tuned!

In Monterey, California for Internet Librarian 2007

Web 2.0, the Internet, and library communities + information professionals + Monterey, California = the perfect conference. I've arrived in Monterey and am bowled over by how beautiful it is here and how good this conference promises to be.

I've got my laptop and I'll be blogging from the conference. Stay tuned for notes from some fascinating Internet Librarian 2007 sessions.

FLICC Awards for Federal Librarians

FLICC recently announced the winners of their national awards for federal librarians. Read all about it here: FLICC ANNOUNCES AWARDS FOR 2006.

Congratulations to these individuals and libraries:

2006 Federal Librarian of the Year:  Carla Pomager, systems/acquisition librarian for the Army General Library Program within Community Recreation, Family and Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command, U.S. Army, Alexandria, VA

2006 Federal Library Technician of the Year: Sabrina Honda, library technician, Hurlburt Field Library, Hurlburt, FL

2006 Federal Library/ Information Center of the Year - Small Library Category: George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies Library Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany 2006 Federal Library/ Information Center of the Year - Large Library Category: Camp S. D. Butler Library System, Marine Corps Community Services, U.S. Marine Corps, Okinawa, Japan

LexisNexis® Librarian Certificate of Mastery for Government Librarians Comes to San Francisco

San Francisco Area Government Librarians: The LexisNexis® Librarian Certificate of Mastery is coming to town. This is a special certificate program for the government librarian covering legal, news, and business research on lexis.com. The program is set up to allow you to take all four modules back-to-back and earn your LexisNexis Librarian Certificate of Mastery in a single day. All four core certificate modules of this accelerated-track full day certificate program will be offered on both Thursday, November 1st and again on Friday, November 2nd, 2007. 

This series is hosted by Scott Witsett, LexisNexis Research Consultant. Classes will be taught by Marie Kaddell, LexisNexis Information Professional Consultant. Please contact Marie Kaddell if you would like additional information on the program.

The LexisNexis® Librarian Certificate of Mastery is provided at regular intervals in Washington, D.C. It has also been offered to government librarians in New York, Boston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.

Please reserve your place soon. Class space is limited.

To learn more about the program, click here.

To register, click here!

Librarians Are Cool

Just in case you never got around to reading The New York TImes article: A Hipper Crowd of Shushers mentioned by Bob Farina in his recent guest post on the Government Info Pro: But I Don't Want to Have a Standard Deviation...., it's not too late to give it a read. I appreciate knowing that somewhere in America, there is a librarian with the Federal Depository Library Program logo tattooed on his arm. That is pretty cool and should put a smile on many a librarian's face.