heylibrarylady

Google Docs and the Lonely Road Warrior

2010-06-16T22:25:00.010-04:00

A friend who recently retired as an airline sales rep talked about the challenges of her job. Because she traveled across the Midwest making sales calls, she often felt disconnected from her manager and colleagues. Weekly office meetings were the only opportunity for the sales team to brainstorm, share customer comments, discuss new promotions, and review sales figures.

I told her about Google Docs and asked her to take a quick look at the Google Docs blog. When I asked if this tool's features would have made her life easier and the sales team more productive. I received a resounding, "YES!"

Using Google Docs, the six sales team members who traveled throughout the country could view and edit spreadsheets and crunch numbers together. Airline contracts are frequently affected by market conditions, i.e. oil prices, and her team could discuss adjustments before meeting with their next customer.

Documents could be uploaded, created, revised and polished before a presentation. Edits could be tracked and versions saved to gear marketing tools to specific clients. It was common to want to share customer feedback with team members after a sales visit. She described this feature as an answer to the prayer of lengthy emails with attachments "that I could never open".

She added, too, that today's market is so volatile that collaboration and discussion shouldn't wait, can't wait until all sales people can meet face to face. They need to be proactive in selling and responding to their customers, and having data at their fingertips is key. She sees Google Docs as a way to keep the lonely road warrior apprised and connected.

The power of bloggers

2010-06-16T19:58:00.002-04:00

This article, Blogs on Glob Show Power of Populace appeared in today's Tribune. It's another example of corporations dealing with the groundswell!

Favorite Brand Quality Value Convenience

2010-06-06T17:13:00.003-04:00

Yes, my favorite brand is the on-air, online shopping outlet, QVC. I'm hooked. While I feel guilty visiting brick and mortar stores since I've been unemployed, I feel no shame sneaking a peek at channel 95 to see what's selling. I don't have to make a purchase, but I can revel in the discussions and presentations. It's true the hosts' chatter can be a bit corny and overly zealous, but they're a lot more fun than surly salespeople. I can buy sandals, sterling silver jewelry, make-up or a camera at any time, day or night.

QVC is a multi-media retailer offering 24/7 shopping via on-air presentations, QVC.com , text messages, and an iPhone app. There are YouTube, Facebook and Twitter pages supporting the company's efforts to build a loyal customer base. Conversations between followers/shoppers and the QVC team can be found at the Community page which also includes blogs. The latest thread announces the addition of yet another access point to QVC via Android. An April community posting by the QVC team announces improvements to the platform as a result of customer feedback. The two key ingredients of the groundswell can be found at QVC: technology and people.

I can set up e-mail alerts for reminders of an upcoming show of a favorite vendor. If I'm in doubt about a product, I can read reviews from other customers to help me decide. On the QVC site, I'm a "Spectator" as defined in Groundswell. I don't write reviews of the merchandise, but I'm an avid reader of them. QVC.com attracts more than six million viewers per month and yet the number or reviewers is much smaller suggesting what the Groundswell authors have noted, "since being a Spectator requires so much less effort than the other activities in the groundswell, it's no surprise that this is the largest group". I don't want to take the time to write a review, but what others say impacts my decision-making. Was that Isaac Mizrahi tartan plaid cheesecake really tasty?

The website also offers a chat feature for immediate customer assistance. I can create a wish list to share with friends via e-mail. No more excuses for not knowing what I want for my birthday! I'm not always ready or able to buy, but QVC is there...everywhere...when I am.

Blogpost #6

2007-03-18T12:36:00.001-04:00

Harlem Renaissance/IADT Library site

http://domin.dom.edu/students/bankclau/LIS753/index.html

Blog Post #5- Weaving the Web

2007-03-16T19:13:00.000-04:00

As our Lis753 class comes to a close, I've been thinking about the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 tools we learned to use: wikis, blogs, Flickr, YouTube, podcasts, rss feeds. I've wanted to contemplate them in a larger context than just the technology of it all. I wondered if the Web's inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, had any foresight as to how the Web would impact our society, our world. In Weaving the Web, Berners-Lee discusses the ultimate destiny of his invention which debuted in 1991.

His closing chapter opens with the question, "Can the future Web change the way people work together and advance knowledge in a small company, a large organization, a country?" We can answer that question. We know that the Web has changed the way libraries work and the way they advance knowledge.

Berners-Lee observes, "that people seem to be naturally built to interact with others as part of a greater system". Blogging? Flickr? MySpace?

"If we lay the groundwork right and try novel ways of interacting on the new Web, we may find a whole new set of financial, ethical, cultural, and governing structures to which we can choose to belong, rather than having to pick the ones we happen to physically live in".

I thought about our class visitors, Erik and Jaap, and how we were introduced to their library in Holland from their physical visit, yet we can continue to learn about their work at the Delft Library via the Web.

In a discussion of his goal for the Web, Berners-Lee describes a system that would take advantage of "ingenuity, inspiration, and intuition of individuals in a special way". We've seen examples of libraries subscribing to those technologies that maintain that goal. And for those librarians that have shied away from the technology, they may want to visit Berners-Lee's insights to understand the true nature of the Web and to use the evolving Web2.0 tools to provide their patrons with the information and services they need and want.

Ning? Library 2.0?

2007-03-07T19:25:00.000-05:00

Is anyone familiar with Ning site: Library 2.0?

Have a look!

Blogpost #4 Library Blogs of Note

2007-03-02T15:30:00.000-05:00

Ricklibrarian is written by”baby boomer” reference librarian, Rick Roche of the Thomas Ford Memorial Library in Western Springs, IL.

I learned of the blog through an article, Balancing the Online Life in the January 2007 issue of American Libraries.

The AL article notes that Roche began working in libraries in 1976 “long before the birth of the web”, and quotes him as saying, “Boomers do not have to be left behind and can catch up technically, but it helps to partner with the younger librarians”.

There’s much written about the resistance of “old school” librarians to the technologies of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, and yet here’s a great example of a professional who has taken it upon himself “to make a conscious commitment to keep up with the technology trends”. Roche attended the LITA forum for six years and while he observed that many of the presentations were beyond what he could understand, he learned from the effort:

“In demonstrating his points, the speaker completely lost me. You may not need to write code, but you need to read it and know what bits to take, how to combine it, and where to put it. He moved a little too fast for me in this presentation. I need to start again with this topic” (Roche’s comments about a Mashup Application presentation at the Internet Librarian 2006 conference).

Ricklibraria n , “a review of books, websites, movies, or anything worth reviewing with comments about libraries and librarianship”, is valuable for it’s diversity of content as well as the observations and spirit of its creator.

It's comforting to read these musings from a fellow boomer who's challenged, but not defeated, by the new technologies, and whose adventure and humor make for enjoyable and informative reading.

Blogpost #3--Learning Library 2.0

2007-02-17T14:21:00.000-05:00

“Technology isn’t the story anymore. It’s what people are doing with it”.

That’s a quote from Hopping into Library 2.0: Experiencing Lifelong Learning , a SirsiDynix Institute Web seminar. I recently discovered these seminars on the Institute’s website and highly recommend them. They’re free, and you can attend the live feeds while sitting at your desk or listen to archived presentations 24/7. Visitors to the site have the option of viewing presentations or listening to them via podcasts (also available on iTunes), and supplemental material is available via PDF files. This particular seminar by the Yarra Plenta Regional Library, Melbourne Australia also enabled attendees to interact by participating in two polls.

The Yarra library’s seminar piggy backs on an earlier presentation , Learning 2.0 : Make "Play" Your New Year's resolution by Helene Blowers, Technology Director, Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County and presented in January of this year. Both of these seminars discuss how 2.0 activities enable users to find information, learn, create content and celebrate culture. Sometimes there’s so much emphasis on the technology, that we lose sight of the reasons why we use it. These seminars place 2.0 technologies in the framework of services.

Both libraries give examples of how they sought to empower and educate their staff in a “playful” environment in hopes of eliminating their fears. The PLCMC came up with a voluntary learning program for its staff, 23 Learning 2.0 Things which allowed them to spend as little as 15 minutes a day over a nine week period exploring Web 2.0. Their list was specific, and the activities were hands on. (Thank you, Michael. We’ve already learned about many of these technologies in LIS753!).

In our last class meeting, Michael asked our opinions about having LIS701 students begin their first class session creating a blog or using another Library 2.0 technology. I responded with a resounding, “No”. Reflecting back on my first 701 class session, I would have felt lost and intimated if these activities had been mandated. After having a look at both of these SirsiDynix seminars and reading PLCMC’s 23 Learning list, I’ve changed my mind. There is a way to safely ease new learners into the new technologies, and for those who don’t have the advantage of enrollment in a LIS753-type class, both of these libraries have shown us how to do it.

Blog Post #2 Future of Libraries-Online Conversation

2007-02-02T15:53:00.000-05:00

Knowledge is created through conversation.

Libraries are in the knowledge business.

Therefore, libraries are in the conversation business.

That’s a goal of the library as discussed in Participatory Networks The Library as Conversation produced by the Information Institute of Syracuse University for the ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy .

The paper, presented at the ALA midwinter meeting, is a comprehensive overview of social networks and other technological enhancements currently used in some libraries and under consideration in others. The authors begin the discussion by identifying a conceptual framework for participatory technology and add brief, concise explanations of these services. They close the paper addressing the challenges and opportunities with regards to operations, policies and ethics.

What I found particularly fascinating in this paper, and why I recommend reading it, is that the authors begin their discussion with the premise that “libraries are in the conversation business”. Until now, none of the definitions of “library” I’ve studied have included this concept. The Institute observes, for example, that while brick-and-mortar libraries have exemplified this concept, i.e. speaker series, and book groups, their online systems, i.e. their catalogs, are one-way conversations. Participatory networks of Web 2.0 provide libraries with the opportunity for online conversations with their patrons.

The paper identifies, defines, and gives examples of the following characteristics of Web 2.0 : Social Networks (Flickr, The Alexandrian Public Library on MySpace); Wisdom of Crowds (LibraryThing, Wikipedia); Loosely Coupled APIs (YouTube); Mashups (ChicagoCrime); Permanent Betas (Google Labs); Software Gets Better the More People Use It (Amazon) and Folksonomies (PennTags).

Not to worry. I wasn’t familiar with all of these characteristics of Web 2.0 nor many of the sites listed. That’s what’s invaluable about this brief. While the authors define these Web 2.0 tools and give examples of them, they discuss these technologies relative to the concept of the library as a place of conversation.

Finally, one of the most exciting developments of participatory librarianship discussed in the paper is the reference blog. We know that face-to-face, IM, and chat reference transactions are, indeed, conversations. However, reference blogs would enable “multiple librarians and other users to be a part of a question-answering community. Reference done online creates artifacts of reference conversations: electronic files than can be cleaned of personal information and placed in a knowledge base and used as a resource for other users”. Wouldn’t it be rewarding to know that your initial reference question led to a discussion and an answer that ultimately became part of a library’s collection?

Blog Post #1 Library Blogs of Note

2007-01-19T20:37:00.000-05:00

BLOGWITHOUTALIBRARY.NET

http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/

I’m relatively new to blogs having only read a friend’s and a few library blogs discussed in journal articles and publications. Wanting to become more familiar with this type of technology and its use in libraries, I began researching blogs.

Blog Without a Library is one I discovered in my search, and it’s informative and functional. The site was created by Amanda Etches-Johnson, a librarian at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario Canada. In her introduction, Etches-Johnson advises her readers that she writes about “emerging technologies, social software, web design, and the user experience”. In fact, her title at McMaster University’s library is “user experience librarian”. (I e-mailed her asking about her job title and how it was created, but I haven’t heard back from her….yet).

One of her most recent postings (January 12, 2007) discusses a survey Johnson put up in November asking about the use of 2.0 tools in special libraries. Over 60 libraries responded to questions such as, “What 2.0 tools do you use in your library?” Some of the responses are shown graphically which makes them easy to review. Respondents’ remarks are also listed in easy to read bullet points. Since I’m interested in special libraries, I found this survey particularly useful and revealing.

The site includes a menu which contains: archives (listed by category and by date); presentations and workshops Etches-Johnson is conducting (current and past); and articles.

Blog Without a Library offers a wealth of information for those of us who are novices to library blogs. Etches-Johnson says she “likes lists”, and so do I. Included in the blog is the blogging libraries wiki, the purpose of which is to collect links to library blogs. The categories include: academic, public, school, and special. In addition there are listings of blogs from library associations, library directors, and internal library communication.

Amanda Etches-Johnson has created a comprehensive primer that’s easy to navigate and allows quick access to a variety of library blogs through its collection of links. Reviewing her site provided me with useful examples of the kinds of blogs libraries are creating, news about what's happening in all types of libraries, and the issues and concerns librarians are discussing.

(Note: Michael Stephens is participating in Library 2.0.: Learning 2.0 Kickoff Presentation at McMaster University in early February).

Here’s a sample of some of the links and types of blogs on Blog Without a Library’s wiki:

Some libraries address particular interests:
http://genealogy.plymouthlibrary.org/

Some address particular patrons:
http://www.kiddosphere.blogspot.com/

Other libraries announce exhibits and additions to their collections:
http://wulibraries.typepad.com/bionews/

There are solicitations for opinions and suggestions:
http://href="http://ee.iusb.edu/index.php?/onebook/

And musings from library directors:
http://vancouverlawlib.blogspot.com/

And political news and information:
http://www.unhq-appspub-01.un.org/lib/dhlrefweblog.nsf/

Stephen M. has a new neighbor!

2007-01-15T17:59:00.000-05:00

The ALAs Washington office has just announced that they've moved into Cybrary City in Second Life!

While there are other libraries participating in this online world, it's noteworthy that this ALA office which "was established in 1945 as a conduit between ALA members and federal legislators on Capitol Hill" is using Second Life to direct users to their podcasts and blog which deal with copyright issues and library legislation.

Who knew you could learn about important issues in such a fun setting?

Thanks, Michael/Stephen M.

To my classmates

2007-01-14T15:39:00.000-05:00

How did I get here? Two days ago, I would never have imagined that I could write HTML code, but here I am in LIS753 at Dominican University, and voila!