July, 2008

Every month, MaintainIT hosts an online book club discussion. We select a chapter from one of the Cookboks, invite people to read it, and then meet to discuss. Earlier this week a group gathered to discuss Meal Plan 5 from Recipes for a 5-Star Library, which is all about PC Reservation/Time Management Software.

Jim Haprian, Technology Services Manager from the Medina County District Library in Ohio had some words of wisdom in his interview with Chris Peters about purchasing servers as well as public access computers. Jim’s attitude towards purchasing new computers is,

I'm a big fan of bookmobiles. I'm also a big fan of paper--books, magazines, newspapers. One way to put a smile on my face is to send me a letter, and when a letter has a newspaper clipping hidden inside, even better.

Something is brewing in Montana, and it's showing up on the newswires. I just came across two terrific stories worth sharing about Montana libraries and public computers.

Last week I interviewed Lisa Prolman, assistant director at the Greenfield Public Library in western Massachusetts. Lisa provided an amazing amount of information on a huge range of subjects. A tech-savvy librarian who is mostly self-taught, Lisa shared, “I have the unfortunate combination of being curious and fearless. My general feeling is click first, see what happens later.”

The mayor of San Francisco went to jail recently to retrieve passwords from a techie gone bad. Turns out the techie with the goods was friendly and accomodating, but this is one situation we'd all rather avoid.

Budgets are tight and finding foundations, people, and other organizations interested in funding public libraries takes time. And money. While no panacea, here's one resource that just might help:

How do you handle computer reservations and time limits at your library?
A. We don't. First come, first serve. No time limits.
B. We use paper sign-in sheets.
C. We use PC Reservation software.

Ok, so you've heard the noise about web 2.0, and you've likely heard all the hype, the jargon, and the hullabalo about this fancy new technology with the name that tends to emcompass all that's hot, trendsetting, and must-do-now about the web. But have you heard it described using words librarians know and love?

A couple stories have captured my attention recently since Chris' last post on gaming...

First off, the Verizon Foundation announced recently that they made a grant to ALA for a research effort to determine the link between gaming, library attendance, and literacy in libraries. Included in this grant is a "gaming model for the nation's 9,000 public libraries" developed by "experts"--I'm curious to learn what this will look like!

Thanks again to Kieran Hixon and Jesse Weaver of the John C. Fremont Public Library. They gave a great presentation this morning on their home-grown, open source PC Reservation program (recordings and information about upcoming webinars can be found on the WebJunction site) . Instead of recapping the webinar, I'd like to share a quote from our recent interview with Kieran. She tells a great story here about the impact that teen gaming events have had on her small-town library. She started these tournaments with equipment she already had in the library and donations from the community. So it didn't put a big strain on the budget.

I just attended David Lee King's SirsiDynix Institute webinar, "Video on the Web: A Primer." Like most librarians, I'm a word lover. Reading them. Writing them. Being surrounded by them. For this reason, blogging has been a natural fit for me and I've been doing it for years. As a reader of blogs and websites, however, I have become more and more aware of the story-telling power of the visual.

Last night I returned from a week-long trip to Colorado--a much-needed respite after the craziness leading up to ALA. While in Colorado, I stopped by the John C. Fremont Library in Florence, CO to check in on some new friends who happen to be doing some incredible stuff at their library.

 Bobbi Newman, Librarian by Day, sparked interesting conversation and action with her recent blog entry, encouraging librarians to describe a day in their professional life. Lori Reed and others have taken off with this idea and have created a wiki to help track the activities. Some people have already posted a log of their daily activity.

We're super excited to announce the arrival of audio clips to our web site. Now you can read articles about librarians and tech support staff--we call them "Spotlights"--and you can also listen to MaintainIT contributors share their exeriences, too.

What a trip! As usual, ALA was crazy--so much to do, so many people to see, and of course, lots of great sessions where inspiration and learning made an appearance, which was pretty terrific. One particularly fun session was the WebJunction and MaintainIT Project Library 2.0 Forum, in which librarians were invited to chat in small groups about 2.0 technologies and ideas.