How do we get buy-in from administration and staff to pursue a technology initiative? Of all the services a library provides, why should technology take any precedence?
It seems that most libraries are slow to embrace and integrate technology. Part of the reason is underfunded and unsupported libraries. It is difficult to take the lead without a safety net. Nothing is worse than dedicating resources away from other parts of the library for technology and then having it blow up in your face. It can happen with anything new, but it seems with technology people are unnecessarily angry or afraid of technology. Just like math, everyone convinces themselves they are bad at it and the slightest mistake confirms that.
We need to stop worrying so much about technology and learn to play. Investigate the interests of your staff just as you would perform readers advisory. You will find an interest that can be enhanced by technology. Just like teaching someone to use a mouse through playing solitaire, the same can be done online. Social networking sites are cropping up left and right. There is bound to be one that meets anyone's needs. There are general ones, like myspace, and there are specific ones, like espn.com, and now you can just create your own social networking site through ning. Maybe there will be a rule that states every social networking site their user? The point is anyone can be convinced of the uses of technology if they are hooked into something they are interested in. Then they realize that they love the technology because of what they can do with it, then at that point there is the problem of pulling them away from it :)
Librarians think about things differently than the general public. The freedom to read, the freedom to access information, and most recently, to access both of those items wherever the public wants it. To a librarian, someone surfing wireless internet from his car after the library closes is a good thing. Hey, it's like 24 hour library services (just like you would advertise on a library webpage), but when a cop busts the guy for being there, the library takes the bad rap. On censorship, the library takes pride in having a diverse collection that challenges people to think and to grow their minds. So, when someone requests a book be removed (especially one that has the anatomically correct word), the library looks bad for providing such a horrible and deviant book. In both of these situations, the library takes the bad rap for doing its job, but the community perceives it as pushing its agenda. It is a perception issue that the library needs to address. At my library it is ok if someone is outside in their car using free wireless internet. It is even ok if they sit on the side of the library and plug into the outlet for power and use the wireless. It certainly doesn't run up the electric bill or cause problems with the wireless. However, to a police officer, this looks suspicious. "What is this guy doing out here at night in his car all by himself?" If they had known that there was wireless internet, it may not be a problem, but I bet they would still get the guy out of there for one reason or another. We see a library patron enjoying the service, the police see a potential crime. Censorship issues can have the same effect. Censorship usually ends up increasing circulation and purchasing of said censored book. As Hermione said in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the best thing she could have done to get people reading it is to ban it. I don't think most authors fear censorship. They become champions of intellectual freedom, people write articles about them, and even more people buy or check out his or her book. I am sure the Higher Power of Lucky sales are going through the roof, both because it is a Newberry Award winner and because it was banned. I think authors fear anonymity worse than censorship. This book may have been another Newberry that many do not read. Just because it is critically acclaimed doesn't mean anyone will read it. However, the combination of both will make it fly off the shelf. I have my own censorship story to tell that involved my predecessor. This is a legendary story and even though it has been several years since the previous manager worked at my library, the story is still recounted at conference by librarians. A woman came into the library and found a bad book on the shelf. It was a dirty joke book. She immediately took it over to the police station and reported it. The policeman CONFISCATED IT! Instead of saying talk to the library director or even "Why are you wasting my time with this I have ACTUAL crimes to deal with." he took the book. A controversy raged for a long time over whether the library should have this book. The library ended up winning and the book was placed back on the shelf. The manager had articles written about him and was a champion of intellectual freedom. It has been a story recounted to me several times. What makes this story funny is that several years later when I worked at the same library, I weeded the book. No I didn't find it offensive and there was no controversy. The book had not circulated in several years and I needed the space. I did not the story that had made the book so famous. In fact, when this story was first recounted to me, I realized I had weeded that same book. It was funny to me that such a great story about intellectual freedom would not go out with a bang, but with a whimper. I think many authors would fear the whimper.  
Before we had an automated computer management system, many library patrons came into our library, never looked at a book, asked a question, or engaged the library in any way except to sign up to use a computer. Once we began to require a library card to get online, we found usage everywhere beginning to increase. Circulation, walk-in business, reference questions, (of course computer usage), and more were used heavily. New patron cards doubled from the same time from the previous year. The curious thing was that it was not from new residents moving into the area (even though that is a part of it). It was all the people that have lived in this town their whole life, but never used the library. Once we began to require people to get a library card, they began to use all of our services. We extracted the patrons from the database, removed the names, and put them on a map. The result was a giant blob with most new users living within a five mile radius from the library. It is amazing to see that once you begin to advertise services and require people to get a library card do they realize all the things you can do in a library. You can increase you library's usage by just adding computers. Very interesting.
This year was an active one for me. It is nice to think back on your accomplishments to see the improvements that you have made. New ComputersWe started this year with 11 Gates computers from the 2001 cycle and 4 thin clients. We also had to sign people up to a computer by clipboard. With a $30,000 Capital Improvement Project from the city, and a $26,400 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, we have 30 brand new computers with all the works, plus a time management system that signs people up for a computer and kicks them off when their time is up. We also received an additional $12,000 grant from the local Indian Reservation, but those won't be installed until next year. Automation of ServicesUsually automation is nothing to brag about, but if done in the correct way it can improve services and reduce wait times. Our Friends group purchased a new 3M V-1 Self-check unit. It still is not at 80% of our check-out, but we are getting there. We also automated our phone systems to call people for holds and overdue books. This saved a huge amount of staff time and stress. We also automated our inbound services too. Before, people just left a message and whenever a staff person got to it, that book was renewed, now patrons can do it themselves in real time. We also automated the computer sign-up. Grant WritingI was able to secure several grants. We were awarded three grants at a total of $75,000 for more computers and a bookmobile. Public Relations The library got on the map during our annual report. Our report on our adult literacy accomplishments got the front page of the local paper with an outpouring of tutor support. The local United Way is duplicating our program to our surrounding communities. With a little luck, we will have the same Adult Literacy/ESL program throughout the county. We hit the front page of our local paper three or four times. Literacy I started the city's first adult literacy program in eight years. We will also add an ESL Component and bookmobile services. A recent interview process over the summer identified key needs for Spanish speakers. The resulting change in collections, services, and programs has brought an increase in usage from this population. Something our library has never been able to accomplish. New Library We passed our bond and we are already in the process of planning our new library. We will also expand our current facility. New Databases/Electronic Resources We have expanded our databases through agreements with the state library, our county consortium, and expanded our own budget. This also includes the purchase of Rosetta Stone that teaches English and Spanish. It does this online and you can do it from home! I revamped our website so that it looks like an actual library information portal. We will be rolling out a host of mobile services using library 2.0 concepts. Participation We have an increase in circulation, walk-in business, reference questions, database hits, and program attendance. This last June all of our service skyrocketed higher than expected. We have a host of well-behaved teens using our library (middle schoolers too, just not as well-behaved) and even have our own teen group. AND I started this blog to talk about it all. It has been very cathartic to write about the bad stuff, that didn't work out. It has also emboldened me to try new things and MOST importantly, to brag about myself. For those who read my blog and subscribe to it, thanks for reading and have a Happy New Year.
This recent report from ComScore, More than Half of MySpace Visitors are Now Age 35 or Older, as the Site’s Demographic Composition Continues to Shift states that more people 35 and older are using MySpace and that the teen demographic has dropped 12% in a one year period. Once sites like MySpace, Xanga, and the whole social networking thing got around to the mainstream media all the teens left the building. They are no longer cool. However, I see this is as the absorbing of this type of communication into the mainstream. Teens check it out first and it is cool because you are the first, plus it is this big secret. Once Mom finds out and gets an account, it is lame. What eventually happens is that these social networking sites became mainstream communication devices. Instead of using email or chat, they use MySpace and Facebook. It is a better communication device anyway because it looks like you are talking to a person not jdumb63. It seems to be the next evolution of communication among people in general.
Successful Saturday: Are Well-behaved Teens an Oxy Moron This successful Saturday will focus on the library's success in attracting teens to the library without gaming, without offering special programs, and without doing anything but having one group at the library meet monthly. A typical problem with teens is that they get into trouble. Libraries will actually try to avoid them because they destroy things, are too loud, and general annoy everyone, including the staff. When I first came to my library, we never saw any teens. We had some programs for them, mostly aimed at middle schoolers with very little success. We had a grant to set-up an E-Mag program which was an online website teens could create on their own. The product was fine, but it quickly fizzled out. By the time I came on board, the program was a program in name only. We wanted to attract teens and make the library a place for them to go and congregate. I looked to strategies to get them in the door and went to the local high school. At the time, the library still had its old Gates computers and only had 11. When I went to the High School and saw what they had after school it was shocking. They had dozens of computers all lined in a row, fast and up to date. There was no way we could compete with that, so I gave up on it. When the library performed its strategic plan, one of the big needs of the community was to provide activities for teens. We decided we needed to provide recreational and educational opportunities that were open ended for teens to drop in whenever they wanted. We also said we would dedicate at least 10% of our computers to this population. We had a vague plan, but it was in the direction we already knew we needed to go. We provided programs that summer for teens. We had game nights. We bought and Xbox and a Playstation. We had competitions and for a while the teens were showing up and playing the games and getting involved, then it stopped. For one month we had great participation, but then they just stopped coming. In the end we found out that we could not keep up on the gaming end. The demand for games was beyond our budget. We could not get the best and most desired games fast enough. We decided that we were not yet at the level that we needed to be in that area, so we tried a different approach. Our Youth librarian created a group of teens that would meet once a week until they decided on what meeting day was best. They came up with their own name SPARC, Students Participating in an Advisory Reading Committee. It was just like a Teen Advisory Group, but we just did not call it a teen group. Never call anything a teen if you want teens to come. In my community, the Boys and Girls Club wanted to create a teen club where teens could hang out. After getting feedback, the number one complaint of theirs was that if you call anything a teen something, we will definitely not come. After meeting with the SPARC group for some time, they gave us ideas on what books to buy, what graphic novels to buy, and what types of things they wanted to see on the computers. In the end, they wanted good material to read and a hands off approach on the computers. They did not want something specifically geared for them, but just to be allowed more freedom on the computers. Don't block MySpace or chat, let us use the computers in the way we want them and trust us. So we did. In our first quarter of this activity, we found circulation in the Young Adult Sections go up 40 % and computer usage go from dismal to 28% of the collection. We dedicated 20% of the computers to the teens, but then decided to let them go where they wanted and to just perform the roving reference to make sure everything was ok. So all the numbers are up, but what about the behavior, had I turned our library upside down with unruly teens yelling, talking on cell phones, causing problems? The answer was no. They were well-behaved and good and showed an active interest in our collection, our computers, and the library itself. The library is a hang-out place. On Friday's the High School lets out early and by 1pm, all the High Schoolers come down to the library. Most people would have been scared. The funny thing was that yesterday a City Councilman came into the library to sit and check things out. He was down were most of the teens were and I was surprised to see him when I went downstairs near the end of the day. He said, “I was surprised by all the activity and all the teens. I see a lot of teens on MySpace, but they are all so well-behaved. They don't act unruly or cause problems. I know they use MySpace, but they are probably just talking to their friends and doing what teens do. It is great to see them here, this is a great place for them.” To have both the teens act that way and to have my councilman see it was perfect.
In the last week I have read three different analyses about online digital materials. My library is at the cusp of jumping into this format. However, these items give me pause (along with many other library user interfaces that are not popular and don’t meet user needs). From Techdirt we find that most music listeners are not really downloading their songs from online music stores. Most of the users are just burning them from CDs so they can avoid Digital Rights Management problems. Your library comes in when they offer music CDs for check-out as opposed to online content. It is easier for someone to come in, burn a music cd from your collection than to download it from your website (or ANYBODIES website). How big is the market of downloadable music? Not as big as you think. I know Itunes is a loss leader but FIVE PERCENT?!! The article: iTunes May Not Be That Popular, But It Serves Its Purpose A new analyst report says that just 5 percent of the tracks on the average iPod are bought from iTunes -- a figure that really shouldn't be all that surprising, given that Apple intended it to be a loss leader to sell more iPods. People are still buying music on CD, and they're still using file-sharing networks, illustrating two realities: first, that the mere existence of digital distribution doesn't mean people will overlook its shortcomings and flock to it in droves; second, that despite the availability of free music, people are still paying for it. Digital music sales offer some benefits over buying CDs or other physical media, but for many consumers, the lack of playback restrictions on music ripped from CDs and the benefit of owning something tangible outweigh the convenience and minor price savings legal downloads offer. (end of snipped piece, read more at the link above.) Here is another article on online audio content. Again, online audiobooks show steady increase, up a whopping 3% in two years! APA Surveys: Audio Growth Continuesby Shannon Maughan The Audio Publishers Association has released findings from two new surveys on audio sales and audio consumers that shows another gain in sales in 2005 and the increasing popularity of the digital audio format. According to the sales survey, total spending on spokenword audio rose 4.7% in 2005, to an estimated $871 million. As expected, sales of downloadable audio are showing steady gains. Downloads represented 9% of total audio sales last year, up from 6% in 2004. Another obvious trend is the continuing decline of sales in the audiocassette format. Cassettes comprised only 16% of total sales last year, down sharply from 30% in 2004, indicating the inevitable fade of this technology. Additionally, member publishers indicated that they produced fewer titles in the cassette format in 2005. (end of snipped article) Of course on both of these above issues, no library online audiobook/music vendor has provided a downloadable format that works for all music players. If all the music works for windows and is in mp3 format, and everyone has an ipod, who is going to use it, especially if you cannot hack it? Another issue is e-books. No one has agreed to a standard e-book player. There are a dozen different format and no player in which you could read the item without hurting your eyes. Even then you would have to pay $500 to get it. Another article from the Washington Times about the non-use of e-books and the problems that have arisen with it: E-books unpluggedStart of snipped piece: “Ms. Schroeder says that a few years ago, publishers were anticipating a surge in e-book sales. "We built it, and they didn't come," she says, speaking of consumers. Part of the reason for consumers' hesitancy is the difficulty in finding an appropriate reading device. Mr. Bogaty refers to new e-book reading devices, such as the Sony Reader or IRex Technologies E-Reader but says the preferred platform in the United States is a personal digital assistant (PDA). In the future, he speculates, cell phones and PDAs will combine features in one electronic device with a larger screen and better resolution, which would be more conducive for e-book reading.” (end of snipped piece) Start of another snipped piece, same article: “Before e-books can truly hold up in the mass market, however, the industry has to agree on standards regarding digital rights management, known as DRM, for consumers to get full use and accessibility from their e-books. Jonathan Smith, a graduate student at Catholic University who works as the electronic resources assistant at the university's library while he pursues his degree in library science, recently confronted one of the problems caused by the lack of open standards in the e-book industry. After purchasing and downloading an electronic textbook to his computer, Mr. Smith realized that his e-book couldn't be transferred to another, more accessible reading device such as his Palm Pilot. "DRM is the largest barrier," Mr. Smith says, referring to the lack of e-book popularity. "Open standards would help across all [reading] devices."” (End of snipped piece) I thought that because I worked for a semi-rural library that we were behind the curve in offering these services to the public, but the market isn’t here yet. I would see these items as services bigger systems are providing through their central library, but it seems like this market is still pretty small. Digital Rights Management seems to be the biggest problem and for libraries to provide this information, it would require heavier than usually since it expires after so much time and most of the vendors do not provide services compatible to all formats. I guess we will see what happens, but I feel better about not being able to offer these services yet.
This Fix-it Friday will focus on meeting the needs of your patrons, but failing to do so for your staff. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the library is going through major transformations in providing technology for our patrons. We are making attempts to bridge the digital divide and knowledge gap so that our community produces a competitive workforce and informed citizenry. We will more than double the amount of public access computers at our library and provide all the latest software to meet user needs. If you go to any public library in Arizona now, libraries that have received Gates Grants have all these new sleek black computers, lots of RAM, they can do almost anything. It is fantastic! What strikes me as funny is that we are trying so hard to make sure our patrons are trained to use computers and then providing them with the latest technology, but we are forgetting about doing the same for our staff members. The realization hit when you stand back and look at all these beautiful new machines, and then turn around and see these old white clunky dinosaurs with TV type monitors. You have a back to back comparison of the latest technology versus the 1990s technology. Yikes! The problem with computers for staff is that we have to rely on the city’s schedule. They will replace all of the computers on a three year cycle. Cities and libraries don’t have the advantage of a Gates Grant or applying for any grant that just covers administrative overhead or basic infrastructure. No one wants to fund a grant like that, just the same as not many people would vote for a bond to renovate their own city hall building. The funding agency should be able to cover its own internal matters. So as a library, we forced to sit back and wait for our city IT to move its own infrastructure into the 20th century when the citizens its serves are moving at the speed of light. I guess that is good and self-less, but it doesn’t feel good for those who work for the city and don’t get the same attention. We are doing the same thing with training opportunities. We have this great line-up of classes and programs for the public. It teaches them information on financial literacy, information literacy, and all sorts of literacy type stuff, but we are not doing the same things for our staff. We have technology classes twice a week to teach basic computers, internet, email, and even e-bay, but we are doing the same things for our own staff. Granted, they have this basic knowledge. When they first came on board, we taught them how to use our Integrated Library System, we taught them how to use the internet and the basics of a computer, so these same classes are not needed. However, we still need to teach and re-train basic computer and catalog concepts. What we really need to do is transform our staff into computer techie people so that they can trouble-shoot and assist our patrons more readily. The problem with this is that only I and one other person really have those technology skills to teach. We need to teach our staff how install and un-install programs, how to troubleshoot simple computer and internet problems, we need to teach them basic IT things so that they can provide some sort of triage before calling in the cavalry (IT). The problem is that I have to squeeze time to make this a priority. I need to sit down and write a manual and teach it. We are in the process of forming our technology plan and I am writing the manual, but all these concepts will take forever to teach all of them. How will I ever find the time to teach them especially when we are so thinly staffed most of the time? All of the technology manual concepts will be forever changing. That was one of the reasons we stopped teaching our computer maintenance class, it is too complicated and takes too much time to keep up on the concepts that are needed to help ourselves and our public. The only training opportunities are over an hours drive away and we can’t afford to send everyone to the training. Usually, it is not even library specific. I am looking into using several techniques to help our staff become naturally inquisitive about technology. One of the problems is that they don’t want to touch anything on the computer. It is too intimidating. I need to break the habit and get them to learn concepts on their own. My plan is to develop a library technology manual, some of it will be developed with the help of Webjunction and some from our Library Technology Plan Consultant that was funded by a Library Services and Technology Act from the Arizona State Library Archives and Public Records. (I try not to use acronyms) I also plan to use some Library 2.0 training concepts. I am using a modified 43 Things concept I found from the Information Outlook, February edition called 23 Things. I am planning on creating incentives for staff to learn on their own. Just don’t want them to get spoiled and then not want to do anything unless they get a cookie. That is always a tough line to walk. I hope the plan works, it seems like it is working over at Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County County (PLCMC). I will keep my fingers crossed.
Today’s Fix-it Friday will focus on technology and finding a balance between an agency that bridges the technology gap and one that creates barriers. (note this posted late, sorry) Our library is at a turning point. We have provided sufficient technology to meet the needs of our users. Space issues are planned to be resolved by bonding for facilities, followed by more staff. We are currently considering more technology to help save staff time and more convenience to patrons until this happens. In all services, the library must meet the lowest common denominator for service. It cannot push too much technology on the public; otherwise it creates the same digital divide it has sworn to bridge. We keep looking at making the next step in technology to provide content online. However, with much of the population still unable to afford a computer and Internet access, E-books, downloadable music, and even electronic databases are a problem. In the past, if we did not have enough modern computers, how can we take away a paper product and replace it with something that requires a computer. If we could not provide access to these electronic resources ourselves, how can we expect our patrons to. In a previous Successful Saturday I documented how we solved the problem of new and updated computers and adding additional computers. We recently received another grant for more computers which will give us one computer for every 1000 people in our legal service area. That is higher than average and great progress. We have solved the problem of basic needs technology-wise and patrons do not often have to compete for computer time. Our next dilemma, where do we go from here? We can provide more and more databases for the public so that they can meet all their information needs from the library's website, at home or at the library. That is the first step. Databases are great, they save the library money, they provide the same information one can find in a book, but multiple people can the same information at the same time. Sounds great right! You still have the problem of the lowest common denominator. Who is going to use this product on average and will they have the technical ability to use it. A case in point, we went to a product called referenceusa and stopped ordering phone books out of state and stopped purchasing some business directories which ended up saving the library $4,000. You would think it was a win-win, saved money and provided greater access, but not completely. When the library participated in its Master Plan, one of the focus groups came up with the problem that the library was pushing too much technology too fast. We got rid of reference materials that were being viewed everyday by patrons thinking they would easily migrate to a digital format. However, instead of just going to the book and getting their information, they had to learn how to use a computer. This is the problem with today’s transformation of library services, we are creating a barrier of learning how to use a device to access the same basic services patrons are used to. For databases, sometimes libraries have no choice. We must go digital because that is the only way the information is being distributed. Government information, directories, and reference books in general are being placed in databases online. We created computer classes, but many people will simply refuse to use the computer. So, we ended up getting dinged by a number of patrons because we caused more problems than we solved. We did end up getting them to use the databases and referenceusa is one of our highest used databases now. It took a long time to get there though for our core users. Databases have become standard fare now, we still need to be careful in purchasing the expensive databases to replace the expensive reference books. The problem is providing services in the area of e-books, audiobooks, music, and movies online. The funny thing is that I keep hearing about Digital Rights Management and the problem with purchasing these items online and stripping that out of them. Now the library is going to purchase some for their patrons with even more of the same stuff? Not sure if that will work long-term. The worst problem is the e-book. There is no set standard for e-books, no format to be downloaded that everyone agrees to. You can go to project Project Gutenberg or other online sites and download free e-books, but not in the same format to read it in microsoft reader or adobe acrobat. You would have to download the text file and read the raw text, or put it in a freeware software program to allow it to be read by either the reader or adobe. That's not even the problem. The whole concept of the book is that it never required any type of technology to use it. You just needed to learn how to read. Now with music, audiobooks, and movies it is generally accepted that you need to have some tech savvy to get these items to run, but never with books. Are we really expecting patrons to use a laptop or PDA to read these books. What do we tell the patron when all of our books are e-book, sorry you will have to buy a $500 computer to read that instead of the $20 you are accustomed to? That definitely seems like creating a technology divide to our patrons instead of bridging it. It is something to keep in mind as we progress online and provide services to our patrons from the web 24 hours a day, we still need to serve the patrons that walk through our doors and use our “traditional” services like reading books or storytime. We can move to a format and sacrifice our core users for the technology end. We need to bridge the divide, not create one. And if we are providing virtual reference that patrons find difficult to use, or if we provide books that patrons need to purchase a computer to read, or put music, audiobooks, and movies online with so much digital rights management that patrons cannot watch them, then we have failed in taking the right steps forward in technology. It goes back to the rules of library science, save the time of the user, much of this technology does not save anyone anytime. We have to find a way to provide these services that patrons are getting from other places and expecting it from us, but still be the same library that patrons are using.
Today’s Fix-it Friday will discuss automating your services and the problems they create. The use of technology in a library has many advantages to save your library staff time, stress, and deal with the lack of staff to meet user demand. It is typically a reactive program instead of a proactive program. As demand goes up and you can’t keep up, buy some technology and have the users serve themselves just like the grocery store. Check-out your own groceries, your books, renew your own books, go online and user our services. These work great for people in a hurry or are technology savvy. In most urban environments, it is not a problem. However, in a small or semi-rural community, people can’t figure it out, and then they get very angry at you. In the August edition of American Libraries, the latest Will’s World column derides the use of automation as a way to solve problems. He would rather speak with a person. Well, wouldn’t anyone?! The problem is that when you do a cost analysis, it is much cheaper to buy a piece of technology and have IT come fix it when it breaks rather than employing a person to make everything friendlier and easier. No one looks at automation and thinks this would be great customer service. What the library is trying to accomplish it to push simple tasks to the users so that staff have more time to handle the more advanced tasks. However, simple is a very, very relative term. About a year ago, the library employed a phone tree, an automated phone notification system (telephony), a self-check machine, and a little before that put up our catalog page which further allowed automation. Of all of this technology, it was the phone system that caused the most problems. We simply could not afford to call every patron for their hold or overdue book. We hold books for seven days, but by the time we were able to contact the patron, they only had three days to pick up the book! So our policy had to be changed to three days even though in the system it gave them seven days. We also could not pick up the phone because our philosophy is to serve the patron in front of you first. So patrons were leaving angry messages left and right with much of the time, they just wanted to know when we were open, or where we were. The first thing we did was implement a phone tree. The gigantic revolt from the phone tree was heard around the world. People complained to the city manager, constant messages were left on phones complaining about the system. To this day there are still complaints, but we have no choice in the matter. It is either they can get a phone tree and get quick information through the phone tree, or leave a message and wait for someone to call them back sometime next year. As a result of the revolt, we were forced to make 0 the first option so that patrons knew they could press 0 to talk to someone. This of course did not alleviate anyone’s problem. We still can’t answer the phones unless I hire a secretary or remove someone from the front desk when we have a 20% increase in walk-in business every month. We stuck with the phone tree. We further exacerbated our patrons by changing all of the city’s phone extensions. We just added a zero on the end of the extensions. However, patrons used to working the phone tree ended up dialing three numbers instead of four. For some reason, it always took them to our Spanish language prompt. They did not appreciate that. (However, on a side note, it does let them know how difficult it is to navigate in this country if you cannot speak the language. I mentioned this in a previous post how it is vital for our economic development for employers to get monolingual Spanish speakers bi-lingual.) We ended up having to bounce the calls to increase our pick-up chances. When someone dials “0” they get the circulation desk, when they cannot pick-up, they get the reference desk, when they can’t pick up it goes to me. The thought process here is that someone should be able to pick up after that, and if I even can’t then they know who to complain to when they leave a message. This didn’t solve the problem, but I could usually smooth things over with the patron by the time they got to me or my voice mail. Of course, we made the problem worse with our telephony system. Our telephony system makes outbound calls with an automated voice. It tells the patron it is the library and they have books on hold or overdue and to pick them up. People hated this as well. They of course wanted a warm voice on the other end telling them that they have a book on hold. A personalized service, just like Cheers where everyone knows your name and what you read. So of course, they hated that as well. “I don’t want to talk to a machine I want to talk to a person!” Again, we can’t afford the time for staff to call people to pick-up holds. It took 4 days to get to call the person and that left them 3 days to pick up the book instead of 7. No one had enough time to pick up their books. Again, there was a revolt, but they got used to it. Until I can get more staff, I can’t afford not to automate. However, automation causes you to push your staff costs onto IT. Staff time is never really saved unless the technology never breaks. Don’t we wish it wouldn’t? Customer service is lost with patron talking to machines instead of people. No new revenue for the city means any new staff for me, usually not the highest priority anyway. Until I can hire another person just to do this or reduce face to face time with increased telephone coverage, there is not much I can do. I don’t think anyone sees automation as a solution; it is just a way to get by with what you have. Some things works, like our time management system for our public access computers, but like I have said in the past, self-service only works when the patron really, really, wants to use that service. If not, it is simply a barrier and a reason NOT to use the service.
I did not post my weekly Fix-it Friday yesterday and not because I have run out of problems, far from it. I was just not feeling well so I didn't post. So today you just get me bragging about myself with the absence of putting myself down. If I do that too often my ego may get out of hand. Anyway, last week I spoke about problems with my library's ILS. I had problems writing code into the system because there was complicated code to learn on top of proprietary code that I did not understand. To resolve this problem I went to a larger county system that had the same ILS and asked their advice. They provided it, but recommended that I do not touch any of the systems unless I have a training server. That way if I screw something up, I am not putting it out there live and breaking something. Right now, we are in the process of purchasing and installing one. After playing with the technology and having some good results and some bad results, I was going to take his advice and not try anything. However, one of our server's crashed while we were in the process of creating a back-up server. So now we just have the server that replaced it with no hopes of getting a real live back-up for a little while. I decided that instead of waiting for the new installation, I would try a few new things I was playing with. The fun thing about technology these days is that to solve a problem, all you just have to do is to search for a solution on the Internet and people have already posted their free code solution. If I couldn't create code to do what I wanted, I could embed the code of others to get what I wanted. So I made three significant changes right away. I changed the theme of the page to a modern theme. This is one of the easy features in the ILS, just pick one of five themes and you can make your page different from the others. I had made a change a few months ago just so my page would not look so generic, but it still did not help. The modern theme I chose this time was very plain, just white with very little color, but it worked well if I was going to make changes and it matched with our city webpage. The next thing I changed was placing the library's name on our catalog (no we could not do that before!). We were able to manipulate the system by creating a new image, then saving and naming that image the same as file that already exists. That way, I was able to change the vendor's label on my page to the library's name, plus I added a little background for color. As long as the pictures size was similar in size, it works great. The change to white and the image change had an immediate effect. It made the site cleaner and we finally owned the site. The next steps were to put a calendar of events and possibly a photo slideshow on the site. I had been playing with Google Calendar for some time and created an account just for the library. I set up a Gmail account with the library's name, then created the calendar. The new features in Gmail are great and you can set up a calendar, excel spreadsheets, and put other files online so that you can share them with others. I set up a calendar and placed all of the library's events in the calendar, plus included all third party programs that were not library endorsed, but were held at the library. Originally, I had thought of just creating a link to the site on the library's catalog page. The problem with that is that it would take users away from the page instead of searching for books. However, Google Calendar has an embed feature when you go to the manage calendars feature. I just went to my calendar, clicked on manage calendars, clicked on my calendar, and then clicked on calendar address for html. This would have created a link to the calendar site. However, I also so a configuration tool in which it would provide a embed code you can place on your website. I copied the code and then pasted it in the portal page. IT WORKED! I was able to see the library's entire calendar of events on the catalog page. I also copied this in the events page. The training from the county library helped me find what file to place it in. The calendar of events was a big problem for us for many reasons. One, many library staff did not have access to a live calendar because we are on different systems. They could see the calendar on the library's city webpage, but it is difficult to navigate (mostly because we can't control the content that much, but that is changing). We had to provide a paper copy and then they posted it downstairs to see it. Now, they can go online like everyone else and see the calendar in real time. They can even print it out! After cracking the placement code, I was able to do even more with the page. I added a Flickr slideshow. I used this code here to embed a flickr slideshow on the portal page. It is really neat because it has the same functionality as going to flickr and playing a slideshow. It does all the same things, plus it does not say flickr on it. It just has the show. This works particularly well when you get into trouble placing company names on your site. It also does not link to your flickr, but keeps you on the webpage. Now we have a nice library tour on the portal page. I will probably add this to our events section and show all the library events in the loop. You can point to a particular set in flickr for your loop. Very neat! Lastly, what is the library's catalog portal without books? One of the problems we had with the portal was the rotating book image. It was a nice feature, but we had absolutely no control over it. The problem was that is showed images from BookSense's bestsellers, but it showed hardcover, paperback, and mass market paperback. Since it just does an ISBN search, we could have that book, just not in paperback and it would not reveal that we had the book simply because we did not have that edition! This caused many problems as patrons sending in requests for books we already had. So we had to create our own links using another trick borrowed from the county library. Our library subscribes to Syndetics Solutions enhanced content, which provides book images, book reviews, and many other items that searchers find useful when selecting material. Very nice! We found that we could manipulate the data that was in the catalog code for the book image. When you go to the catalog, you can right click on the book image, this will give you the image location and by adding a src img= (insert syndetics tag here) and then place html for the search for the book around the image, you can get the image with it tagged so when you click on it, you search the catalog for that book. So we could control the book image! Each week we put out a top ten list in the local paper. This week was top ten mystery and we could place the image for each book in a row at the top of the page. I was very boisterous so I added a row for top ten fiction, juvenile fiction, young adult, and more. I tried to do DVDs, but many of the catalog records don't have images for the DVD records. Even stealing the images from other sites would not yield an image in the system. It must be tied just to their code. I will probably figure that out and I am very excited about the prospects of controlling the site. Think of all the possibilities, we could now link a webcast, podcast, even sample music from the site! Now that we have control and I have cracked the code, there are a million things I could think of doing to the site now, it is only a matter of time, how exciting!
As I was posting about catalogs this week, a funny thing happened to me. A patron complained that our catalog was horrible and that she could not find anything. What was she looking for? Integumentary System Information! The Integumentary system is your skin, hair, nails, and sensory system. Could you find that in your catalog? Probably not, search for it on the internet, the first hit answers enough for an essay. However she was instructed to find the information from a book. If she did not talk to a librarian, she would not have found her information. We had a Merck manual she could check out so she found what she was looking for. Sometimes you can solve a problem, but you can provide a fix that solves a part of the problem. Today's Successful Saturdays will cover how we improved the catalog through authority control and raised our successful browsing rates. I had mentioned in the last post our implementation problems with our new ILS vendor. However, most of our problems with the catalog records were problems of neglect. We have had several different people catalog in our system with no formal training. This process has left the catalog a mess with some records just having and author and title, and some just having outdated information. To attempt to fix this problem we underwent a major weeding program and then performed an authority control. The weeding ended up finding records for books that no longer existed and with the aggressive weed, we were able to get out all of the bad records. However, we still needed to fix the records that were still in the system, and this is where the Authority Control comes in. Try to get funding from your authority and explain to them how Authority Control works. I am not sure how I phrased my proposal, but it ended up getting funded. Through my research I had discovered that the library had never undergone an authority control. In fact, a project attempted several years ago failed because all of the bids came in way over budget. I was able to fund my project fully by examining the costs of other projects and gathering information from vendors and other libraries. I was able to budget $5,000 for our project. In my proposal I explained that patrons will be able to find information they are looking for faster without having to contact staff. Patrons who cannot find information in the catalog will often turn to staff. If the patron had more successful searches, they will be able to find what they are looking for without having to rely upon staff to find their materials. We have a way to track our catalog usage and successful searches. We do a survey during the last week of each month asking two questions. Did you have a good or excellent experience? Did you find what you were looking for? We always had a high good experience (in the 90% happy mark), but the successful searching was always low (in the 80% successful mark). We simply have a form at the desk and the patron just has to chicken scratch yes or no in both categories. If they feel the need to comment, there is a space for that too. After reviewing this information, I made the gamble that if we had authority control, the patrons would be directed to the right materials and the successful search rate would go up into the 90% mark. I had attended a program on authority control at the last Arizona Library Association conference in the fall. I took my two catalogers as well. I understood the concept behind it. Authority control provides searches with the best terms to be successful. It will direct patrons to records that have the correct search terms from the incorrect term. For instance if I were to search for “bubblers” it would direct me to the agreed upon term, fountains. Another example is with the author J. A. Jance, some call her Judith A. Jance, some J.A. Jance, but we have to agree on one otherwise you will have a whole swath of records under J.A. Jance that may not be found because you did not use the correct search terms. I don't think my catalogers understood the concept the way the program was presented, but explaining it as I did above made it more clear to them. This is by no means an easy process. Next came writing the RFP. Ever write an RFP for authority control? It is like writing another language. The City Attorney was asking what all the letters and squiggles were. Looking back I was surprised it was funded at all. Luckily when all of of my bids came in they were all under my budget mark. The project began easily, give the company a sample, they provide it back and you make corrections. The funny thing about this project was that we had never done an authority control, so we HAD NO AUTHORITY RECORDS. Most of what the company ended up doing was changing our bibliographic records so that they have an accurate subject heading and information. It would be further backed by an authority control record that would re-direct patrons to the correct subject and book. Getting our records sent out and returned was not a big problem. Reloading them into the system was. It took six weeks to reload all of the records and then double check for errors. We still had some records that ended up being funky, but overall cleaner updated records. A lot of work, but would it pay off? We completed the project at the end of May, we awaited our surveys at the end of the month. The catalog re-directed patrons and did what it was supposed to, but I had said that the successful searches would go up. In both June and July our circulation went through the roof, jumping 20 percent in both months and still hovering at the level for August. And the surveys? In the last two months we had a 98% successful search result. Very successful indeed.
To cap off my thoughts on the catalog and where it is going, today's Fix-it Friday will cover my struggle with the catalog. Before I became the Manager at my library, I was a librarian. For a time, the former manager retired and with troubles getting someone hired, we had no Manager for three moths. During that period, we had to select a new Integrated Library Service (ILS) vendor and implement it. We ended up select the same vendor we had and just upgrading the software, mostly because it was the cheapest one and also because we knew all the staff. We also were only allocated $80,000 for our Capital Improvement Project, which also forced to buy the cheapest one. The obvious lesson is that you should allocate more enough for your highest bidder and get the software that is best for the library as opposed to doing it on the cheap and being stuck with something that will take years to rectify. I was just happy to get an ONLINE catalog since the previous one was DOS. I remember asking them in my interview, “Where is your catalog.” The reply, “Oh we are stuck in DOS.” DOS what the heck is DOS you mean that stuff that was on my computer when I was like in elementary school? I remember afterward being a little confused about how that worked and then I used the catalog after my interview and it was indeed a green screen with green letters. (The Horror!) It was not available on the web so of course you could not access any databases unless you used the computer specifically for it in the library (and they were wondering why it got so little use.) Getting the library online was a major goal of the library and mine. Once I was hired I realized that they had made an attempt to go online the year before, but it did not get funded. I was never sure why. The worse part was that the county library system was already online. They had been online since 1998 and this was 2002. The city could have easily paid to get in with the system. The major costs of upgrading a system, cleaning up the DOS, and all that fun stuff could have been partially paid by the county, with their help and expertise guiding us. I never knew why we never did that, but my hunch is that it came down to politics and control. The ironic thing is that when I did a TechAtlas technology assessment it recommends investigating joining our catalog with the county or with other libraries in the area, doh! So we began implementation with no one in charge and just myself and another librarian. Both of us had been on the job for six months and the third librarian, the youth librarian, had just quit. Essentially we had no organizational memory of how things worked. Implementation was rocky, but it worked all the same. We still did not have web access within the first three months since we did not give our city IT in on the project early enough. Once enabled it worked fine, however we soon learned of a consistent problem with web access, we could not control any of the content. We had accomplished our goals, online web catalog, check, better way to catalog books, check, ways to access databases from home and within the library, check, but we were stuck with the vendor’s name on the top of the webpage and this fresh out of the box look for several months, and now years. We used to have the catalog search function as the first page you see when you went to our catalog. It was very boring and not useful unless you just wanted to search for books. We changed it to the “portal page” so that users could see we had databases, show our top ten lists, and provide information on the central page. We took several trips to a larger library system that was able to manipulate the system. We crashed the webpage a few times since we had no back up. We attempted to make changes to pretty up the main page. After many attempts, training sessions, and requests for help, we were still stuck with this blank page. The ironic thing is that it states “Your portal for more information” and immediately after that a big white blank space, right in the middle. It’s like having a library with nothing in it. I go online and read about Library 2.0 and all these functions, and I can’t even get events or library information in that spot. I realized too late that I couldn’t manipulate the data on this page because if I change it and screw it up, the ILS vendor will charge me through the nose to change it back. I don’t have the knowledge or the expertise to change it and the system is very strange to work in and manipulate. However, I do see this same page across the country with the same fresh out of the box feel. The vendor has provided many Library 2.0 items; book images, patron account management, RSS feeds, more intuitive search functions, a google-like search page, and a search by popularity. However, most of the neatest Library 2.0 functions are beyond my reach because I don’t know how to use their system or change the information. I have to have the knowledge of the code or software PLUS knowledge of their propriety software that only a hacker or someone totally dedicated to the project could do. So I am stuck with a blank page and am a prisoner to my ILS. I need to pay someone to fix this J
Computer access is one of the most important services libraries provide today. As I touched on in a previous post, people need computers in order to apply for jobs, file their taxes, or just to search for information. In Falling Through the Net (1995), it stated that less than 5% of rural households owned a computer and only 23% of them had Internet access. In 2000, a new Falling Through the Net documenting a rise to 45% in rural areas. In a report created by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Toward Equity of Access, states that 60% of Americans have Internet access. Suffice to say, access has always been a problem, but technology marches forward. In the last Fix-it Fridays, I talked about our attempts to create more access using thin clients, wireless Internet, and an open source time management software that all created problems. The following fiscal year, I requested funds for a Capital Improvement Project to replace all the existing computers and for additional computers. It was funded, with the budget I requested for the project halved and a caveat that I needed to filter the library's computers. The same problem existed before, a funded project with not enough funds for time management, filtering, and additional computers. After our problems with the last project, I was determined to plan ahead for all contingencies. I spoke with several vendors to get a ballpark price on the product. I worked with IT to set up a time line for all of the pieces of the project. Due to the fact that last project did not go well, this project was placed at the very end of the priority list. Even though library staff members were excited that we were to have more computers and a better way to manage them, they were disappointed that it would take so long to implement. After careful consideration, I knew I would not have enough to replace the Gates and add a significant number of computers. I was able to talk IT into replacing the existing computers out of their budget, but I was not sure what I was going to get. Then a letter came from the state library announcing another round of Gates grants to replace all of the existing computers. YAY! Instead of using the funds to replace computers, I could use them for additional computers. However, when all the pieces of the budget were planned for, there still would not be a great amount of additional computers. Also, when I saw the time line, I could see that everything was scheduled for the same time period, June and July. We would have to move 11 computers, install time management and filtering, and purchase additional computers and install them in a six week window. Everyone was very skeptical of the project and doubted it severely. After providing a Request for Proposal, we received three respondents. In the end, we chose one that on paper was the most expensive, but in reality, provided what we wanted more cheaply. Many vendors will respond to an RFP with a low-ball figure that does not really meet the needs stated on the RFP. It is important to look over all of their documents and think about what you are going to need before making a decision. Also, having it in the RFP that the lowest bidder will not necessarily get the bid, but the vendor that provides what the library needs at a reasonable cost. The two other vendors had extremely low bids and after reviewing what they provided (no technical support?) we decided on one that had everything we needed. The big news for the project came in May right before the big install was to take place. We were shopping for new computers and I had budgeted for $1500 for each computer. It turned out that I could get the same computers for only $960. Another yay, I could replace all of my existing computers out of the city's capital improvement project and use the Gates money to buy additional computers. The day came for the big install, we had just replaced all of the old gates computer with the new sleek (and even small) black ones. Flat screens, half gig memory, lots of programs and they were zippy. The funny thing was that before we replaced these computers, we had to reboot computers that used MySpace because of the memory issue. Once the new computers were installed, no patron had to ever bother us with a crashed computer, it was wonderful. A big storm hit the day of the install, which was a good thing because we had to shut down all of our computers for the day. We had planned on two days for the install, but it was completed before the end of the day. All the library staff were impressed that it worked and worked so well. We still need to work out bugs, but it is such an ironclad system. A patron cannot get around it or manipulate it in any way. No more kicking patrons off of computers with complaints or anger, the computer takes care and make sure everyone gets an equal amount of time. Lastly, with the new computers so cheap, I was able to buy 13 new computers as opposed to 5. When I became Manager, we had 11 old clunky public access computers that crashed and was managed by a clipboard and stressed out library staff. Two years later, we now have 30 brand new computers, with the exact same interoperability, thanks to Recommendations for Multipurpose Public Access Computer Configuration Using Windows Prepared by Lori Bowen Ayre, 10/3/2005, wireless Internet access, and space to bring our computer access to over 40 computers. When I first began at the library and taught technology classes, we had to close the computer lab. This brought on arguments from patrons about how public is the library if the library's public can't access the computers. A patron came up to me yesterday and asked, where did you get all these computers? You only had a few the last time, and these are all new and zippy. As a Manager it is rare to get a compliment about good service provided, but it was nice to hear that patrons appreciated the new improved access so much, they had to mention it. That's good customer service and it was all do to proper planning, a little luck, and persistence.
These days in order to apply for a job; you have to do it online. Safeway, Walmart, Home Depot and others all have this convenient computer kiosk to apply for a job, no more paper applications. Isn’t it great to be without paper? Until the computer breaks, then you head down to the library. Libraries were blessed with Gates Grants many years ago that bridged the digital divide. A whole world of information was opened. Patrons began to rely on this technology, and then businesses did, then the Internal Revenue Service did, and then the Department of Economic Security did, and that is where problems began. In 1995, congress passed the Paperwork Reduction Act. Essentially, the use of paper for communication was to be reduced and an electronic format, preferably the Internet, was the preferred choice to provide information. It was great. You could get information from anywhere just by having a computer and Internet access. Many businesses are providing services online as well. Again, this is great if you have a computer and Internet access. After several reports, such as Falling Through the Net, people began realizing that there was a digital divide by creating this access. Before, you would have to travel far to get forms or call people on the phone, but since everything was online, there were no more forms, or people to call. The reply always was, oh well you can get that online… what’s that, you don’t have a computer? Well, then I can’t help you, sorry. As information providers, public libraries stepped in and began offering computer and Internet access to the public. This move was further bolstered by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which essentially placed computers in most libraries across the United States. Problems did not arise until three years later. This is where my library comes in. We had our original 11 gates grant computers. However, we had to teach people how to use these computers. The way our library is situated, we ended up placing all of our computers into one room with the exception of one. This led to obvious problems, as when class was in session, there was no public computer access at the library except for one computer. So we could not really teach the public how to use the computers without denying access to the rest of the population. We then began our experiments. We received some operating capital funds from the city to provide us with a way to manage our computers through an automated system and to increase access. After shopping around, we came to the realization that this was not enough money to provide access and pay for a time management system. We came up with three solutions, one provide wireless internet access through Polaris’s Wireless Access Manager, use an open source product to manage the computers, and use thin clients to save money since we did not need full workstations. The wireless worked great, at first. After some touch and go problems and with the system being down for an entire month after being available only for one month, it seemed to work fine. This saved some of the computers since during the winter visitor season as many of our visitors have laptops with wireless cards. The open source product was a bust. We spent hundreds of hours working with the system for over nine months, only to have it blow up on us. Overworked library staff, overworked IT staff, and angry patrons only had one person to blame… me. The thin client solution was the worst for us. Our IT could not get them to work the way they said they could. What ended up happening is that we just let people on them and told them they could only get internet access…but only if you are not using yahoo or hotmail…and you can’t print… and you can’t save anything…and…..and again, staff and patrons were frustrated. There is nothing like offering crappy service to the public. They let you know they are not happy and so will staff, and rightly so. You cannot offer a substandard service to the public. They will simply refuse to use the service. Our poor staff members with clipboards in hand monitoring the public were left trying to manage additional computers on two floors with some computers doing one thing and some computers doing another. With all the computers over three years old, the constant ctrl-alt-delete was giving them carpal tunnel. It is always important when implementing technology to make sure all of the technology is the same and that the service is sustainable. Different computers with different abilities will only lead to disgruntled patrons, staff, and the general public. I was only saved in this process by another round of Gates Grants and a City funded project, which allowed me to replace all the thin clients with full workstations and the existing crappy workstations with brand new sleek ones. So the moral of the story is not to implement technology without the ability to be consistent, having adequate IT staff support, knowing what your level of services is going to be, sustainability, and simply just knowing what you are doing. Technology is tricky and you should only provide what you can sustain. Also, make sure you get as much information as possible in order to make the best decision about what types of computers, technology, and other items to provide the best service available for your library.
| 
