technology to attract library volunteers€¦ · libraries 3 mobile library apps 4 google sheets...
TRANSCRIPT
C L A T e c h n o l o g y I n t e r e s t G r o u p
Volume 4, Issue 2
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 5
VolunteerMatch 1
CENIC Broadband Project 2
Social Media in Libraries
3
Mobile Library Apps 4
Google Sheets and Active Learning
5
CLA-TIG Information 7
Low-cost Internet for Libraries
6
Inside this issue:
TECHNOLOGY TO ATTRACT LIBRARY VOLUNTEERS Using the Volunteer Match Widget By Carla Lehn
Get Involved: Powered By Your Library is a California statewide initiative designed to expand the visibility and contributions of skilled volunteers in public libraries. With tens of thousands of Americans seeking new ways to use their skills and experience to make a difference in their communities, public libraries can engage their talents to get great work done, and to develop new advocates and supporters. One innovative technology tool that the Get Involved project is using to provide volunteer jobs, conduct outreach, and engage their community is the VolunteerMatch.org widget. For those unfamiliar with widgets, a software widget is a small application with limited functionality that can be installed and executed within a web page by an end user. With this widget, which is created by VolunteerMatch and branded by the Get Involved project, libraries can provide an online volunteer recruitment platform for their community. Through the State Library’s partnership with VolunteerMatch.org, every public library branch in the state is provided with a free, upgraded VolunteerMatch account. VolunteerMatch has also developed a branded “hub” site and widget for the project at http://libraries.volunteermatch.org/. Once posted on the library’s website, the Get Involved widget drives potential volunteers to the hub where they get an immediate display of library volunteer opportunities within a 20 mile radius of their zip code.
The State Library’s partnership with VolunteerMatch is yielding terrific results. With more than 80% of California public libraries participating in the project, at any given time there are 850 or more library volunteer opportunities posted on VolunteerMatch.org. California libraries receive an average of 750 monthly referrals, which happen when a volunteer refers him/herself for a library volunteer posi-tion from the site. In the first five years of the project, we’ve seen a 52% in-crease in volunteers serving in California libraries, and 79% are volunteering for a library for the very first time. For more information about the project, including how your library can get more involved, contact Carla Lehn at the California State Library: [email protected]
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STORIES FROM THE CALIFA/CENIC BROADBAND PROJECT, YEAR 2
By Linda Crowe If you have not heard about the statewide broadband program this summer, you have probably been on a long vacation! The Califa Library Group and CENIC (Corporation for Education Network Initiatives) sponsored five regional workshops and six webinars during July and early August, which were designed to explain the year-2 build out of the statewide broadband network and re-cruit participants. The project rollout began simultaneously with the workshops and webinars. To start the process Chris Goodheart, my partner and Project Director for the CENIC side of the project, conducted administra-tive interviews with libraries that wanted to join the year-2 phase. The interviews con-sisted of routine questions such as name,
CLA CONFERENCE NOVEMBER 5-8 See below for a list of Technology-Related Programs
rank, and phone numbers of staff, admin-istrative and IT, who would be working with our Califa/CENIC teams. However, the most interesting part of the interview focused on two questions. First: What are the challenges you currently face with the bandwidth that you presently have available? Many respondents said that during peak times, especially after school, the internet was so slow that often users complained to staff or just gave up and left. Second: What programs and services would you offer if you were not bandwidth-challenged? The answers were exciting and varied. There were educational goals: classes, lectures, and working with health networks. Other responses focused on
entertainment: shared author programs, live dramas, and working with local thea-tre groups. Most interestingly, one re-spondent could foresee sharing cultural events and festivals across international borders in Mexico. But one thing they all agreed upon was succinctly expressed in three words by one librarian: “No more complaints!” For more information about the broad-band project, visit http://cenic.org/network/BroadbandLibraries. Linda Crowe is the Project Director for the Califa Broadband Implementation Project, and the recipient of the 2014 CLA-TIG Technology Professional Award.
Friday Nov. 6 8:30am The Future of Libraries: Coming Soon 10:15am e-book Maker: Libraries as Independent Publishers 11:45am Everything is Awesome! Reimagining Library UX 12:30pm Augmented Reality
12:30pm Do They “Like” Us? Using Social Media to Promote the Library and Gather Qualitative Data About library Services
12:30pm High Tech Tales: Designing an iPad Storytime
12:30pm Reinvent the Library Newsletter: Tips and Tools to Make a Stunning Presenta-tion
1:30pm Scaling Up e-book Collection Development and Maintenance 1:30pm The Value of Assessment: USC Libraries Drives Analytics Tools
2:30pm Technology and Intellectual Freedom: Understanding Digital Rights in Librar-ies
3:30pm Customer Intelligence Drives Strategy: A Discussion About Using Data to Transform Your Library
8:00pm InstaLibrary: Extend your Reach and Engage with our Community on Insta-gram
For Saturday programs, see Page 6.
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MAD ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA: PUTTING LIBRARIES ON THE (DIGITAL) MAP
By Elise Y. Wong Who has time to play with social media? Libraries generally recognize that social media can be a useful tool to feature and promote library news, information, and ser-vices for digitally savvy library users. Howev-er, library staff members are often over-whelmed beyond our daily responsibilities. Like staff of other academic libraries, Saint Mary’s College of California (SMC) Library staff have little time and energy to invest in social media. The niche of a new librarian As a new librarian who is constantly soul-searching for some place to exercise my strengths, I found my answer in social me-dia. I am not a power user but I do know that social media is not a fad. I would like to share our library’s involvement in Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. Playing with social media Twitter is very handy to tweet our games highlights, cool links, announcements, and special hours when the timing is important. We use Tumblr to post book covers featur-ing the Library’s newest resources on the library’s homepage. We routinely post inter-esting links/announcements on the library’s Facebook page along with taglines to attract viewers’ attention. Pinterest is an excellent navigation tool to showcase our library’s collections and to help users discover the hidden treasures in the catalog. Together as a team, we developed a consistent method for posting images and descriptions that link users to our catalog. Since our launch two years ago, our Pinterest page has generated a lot of media attention. Instagram is the latest addition to our social media family. Its mobile app functionality makes it so easy to share "instant" images with our followers.
Social media apps all in one place The social media application icons (Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Instagram) are featured on our library homepage. We configure the app settings so that posts can be automatically shared
on multiple apps. We promote our social media pages whenever we can. We connect to other libraries and information organiza-tions through social media. For some library users who may not be active in social media, they can still visit our pages and stay in touch with library news, latest resources, and development. Thriving in social media A library that wants to get its feet wet with social media requires planning and convic-tion to carry out its mission. In order for so-cial media to be effective, libraries need support and collaboration from their adminis-trators and staff. SMC library has enthusias-tic staff members who love to take on new projects, and we have had very encouraging feedback with our social media tools since we started following social media trends three years ago. Playing with social media is not a waste of time. On the contrary, it has become a chan-nel to connect ourselves with library users in the virtual spaces they frequent. Libraries need to realize that while the goal to connect and communicate with our users has not changed, what we once thought of as “nontraditional” communication channels are now the norm, and we need to explore these social media platforms in order to re-claim our position on the digital map. Elise Y. Wong is a Cataloging and Reference Librarian at Saint Mary’s College of California
Check out SMC’s Social Media Pages:
Twi er https://twitter.com/#!/smclibrary
Tumblr
http://smclib.tumblr.com/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/SMCLib
http://pinterest.com/smclibrary/
Instagram https://instagram.com/stmaryscollegelibrary
JOIN CLA-TIG AT THE CLA
CONFERENCE
UNIQUE CLA EVENT USES
TECHNOLOGY
One of the greatest techno-logical innovations of the early 21st century was the invention of the funny cat video. Known to cause hours of laughter (and quite possi-bly many wasted minutes), the funny cat video is now an internet staple. CLA’S “Midnight Funny Cat Video Film Festival” is a must-see. It will be held No-vember 6th beginning at 11:59pm in the Conference Ballroom. Attendees can enjoy the funniest in cat vids and breakfast burritos, spon-sored by the CLA Board.
Our Technology Interest Group will meet on Friday, November 6th from 5-6pm in Room 209/210, Plaza Level of the convention center. Stop by to learn about our group and how you can get more involved! We will also discuss our Spring Fling event planning. Afterwards, we will walk across the street from the conference center for some great food, liba-tions, and lively conversa-tion!
GOING MOBILE: THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE DEVELOPING A LIBRARY APP
By Crystal Schimpf Is your library thinking of crea ng a mobile app for library pa-trons? Custom-built library apps are star ng to become more common as we try to reach patrons outside of the walls of the library building. If you’re planning on developing a mobile app, here are a few things for you to consider:
1. Iden fy goals: What func onality and features would an app deliver that can’t be met by a mobile or responsive site? Is a mobile app the best solu on, or is a responsive website a possibility?
2. Think about cost: If your app will be created by an outside agency what can you afford? If it’s internal what equip-ment, training, and staff me will you need to pay for?
3. Know your community: What problem are you trying to solve for them? Who are your users and how will they benefit? What purpose or need does the app serve?
4. Partner up: Find knowledgeable designers and developers with experience in what you want to build.
5. Technology: What devices and opera ng systems do your users own? Android, iOS, or Windows? What opera ng system will you start with?
6. Look at other apps: Dissect apps that you like to use. Think about what makes them useful and easy to use. No ce the naviga on elements, the content, and informa on flow.
CLA’S TECHNOLOGY INTEREST GROUP AWARD TECHNOLOGY PROFESSIONAL
If you’re interested in learning more about mobile apps, check out these resources:
AR Journalism Blog Como Mobile First - Luke Wroblewski Mobile Pa erns Mobile Roadie P rns Stack Overflow
These ps and resources came from the Technology Interest Group Spring Fling Webinar on this topic. This webinar featured a panel of guests with experience developing mobile apps for libraries:
Ani Boyadjian (Los Angeles Public Library) shared the ARchive app, which uses augmented reality to provide informa on about special collec ons in the library.
Ben Lee (Neon Roots) shared his experiences as an app devel-oper and partner with the LAPL on developing ARchive.
Stacey Watson (Denver Public Library) shared her perspec ve on developing responsive websites, which is how the Volume Denver project was designed.
Anna Jaeger (Caravan/TechSoup) shared her experience de-sign pla orm level apps including Range, an app designed to connect youth to free summer meal programs in their area.
Crystal Schimpf is a librarian, training consultant, and founder of Kixal, a company that provides training services for libraries.
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Dana Vinke is Principal Librarian of Operations at the Torrance Public Library. At Torrance, he oversees adult services, facilities, and technology. During his tenure at Torrance, he has managed several technology projects to encourage, promote, and enhance access to Library services and collections including the digitization of local historic newspapers, equipping library facilities with smart televisions to facilitate programming and interactive storytimes, and creating an App based walking tour. He has served as a Youth Services Librarian, Audiovisual Librarian, and Branch Manager for the City of Torrance. He has provided Adult Programming workshops for UCLA, the California Library Association, and Infopeople. He is a graduate of the Department of Information Studies at UCLA where he received his Master’s in Library and Information Studies. He also attended the Public Administration program at California State University Long Beach. He is a member of the advisory council for California Center for the Book and blogs for Programming Librarian.
Dana Vinke, 2015 Award Winner
ACTIVE LEARNING IN LIBRARY INSTRUCTION USING GOOGLE SHEETS
By Raymond Pun I am all about integrating active learning in library instruction. Whether I am including online modules, the Cephalonian method, or images, I believe that these devices can enhance library instruction greatly and give students the opportunity to understand research much more fluidly. In my previous position, I worked in a new university – NYU Shanghai in China – where I mainly provided instructional, research, digital, and outreach services to students who are in their first and second year. It is a brand new university that allowed plenty of experimen-tations, and I coordinated all the instruction sessions for the first two years. In the second year, I included Google Sheets in my work-shops to create real-time learning experiences for students. In this piece, I’ll explain how and why I chose this tool to integrate into my instruction program.
Screenshot of Assignment on Google Sheets
Find Google Sheets online at h ps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets
Google Sheets is free, can be privatized or open, and can allow multiple users to view the page and edit the spreadsheet at once. In these library workshops, I collaborated with writing faculty and writing tutors to teach a variety of discovery tools, scholarly research process and search strategies in a workshop that lasted for 1 hour and 15 minutes. After our instructions, students were required to find scholarly and popular articles, primary sources and E-Books, for their first year research project and document them on Google Sheets. Each student was assigned a box and was responsible in filling in those boxes during the workshop. They also had to type in “keywords” they used, the Boolean operators, and why they chose such resources from the databases. This process allowed students to become engaged because they end up learning from one another; they feel encouraged when they see their peers’ progress on the sheet in real-time. Multi-users on Google Sheets allow the instructors to also identify mistakes on the spot. For me, I spotted wrong usage of keywords or Boolean operators and was able to correct the student while others could hear about the error/correction. It was a teachable moment for everyone. After the workshop, the instructors could save the document into their own files and refer back to it when they met with students re-garding their research projects. Using this kind of online collaborative tool can really build on teaching sophisticated databases and research strategies because it makes the students focus on their work as well as that of their peers. Of course, these were very “fast exercises” that may not have synced with some of the students; however, I see that this kind of “active learning” part has enhanced library instruction for the better, since it engaged the students and prompted them to immediately apply what they learned in the workshop. Raymond Pun is the First Year Student Success Librarian at California State University, Fresno
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By Lena Pham Have you heard about Mobile Beacon, an organization with a mission to bring low-cost Internet services to libraries, schools, and nonprofits? To help share and inform libraries of the ser-vices Mobile Beacon offers, this consultant has conducted an interview with Alisson Walsh, a Mobile Beacon Outreach Man-ager, to find out more. What is Mobile Beacon? We’re a nonprofit organization and one of the largest national educational broadband service (EBS) providers in the U.S. We are deeply committed to helping libraries deliver services with a combination of Wi-Fi services and products. We help libraries get the Internet access they need and extend it to patrons who need it most. What services does Mobile Beacon offer? Mobile Beacon offers affordable Internet access to libraries, schools, and other non-profit organizations. These organiza-tions can purchase 4G mobile Internet data plans for just $10/month. For some libraries this could mean big savings. For example, when you compare our $10/month rate for unlimited data to commercial rates of $50/month for limited data, com-mercial data rates cost 5 times more. What carrier network does Mobile Beacon partner with for In-ternet access? (For folks unfamiliar with the term, a “carrier network” is a network infrastructure belonging to a telecommu-nications service provider, such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile or Sprint.) Our original partner was CLEAR. CLEAR was purchased by Sprint about 2 years ago. Sprint is now our carrier partner. I heard there are big changes to Sprint’s Internet coverage. Can you go over those changes and share with us if and how that affects Mobile Beacon’s services? Certainly. Sprint is upgrading their mobile wireless network from WiMAX to LTE. This is occurring throughout the nation (end date November 6, 2015). The good news is that Mobile Beacon customers will have the option to eventually switch to LTE-enabled devices providing more coverage, speeds and data use. However, we're still working out the final details of
LOW COST INTERNET FOR LIBRARIES: AN INTERVIEW WITH MOBILE BEACON
the product offerings. Who is eligible to obtain Mobile Beacon services? Public libraries, academic libraries, schools, and non-profit organi-zations in the United States. As long as a non-profit organization can verify its 501(c)(3) standing, it can qualify. Keep in mind that with the upgrades to Sprint’s service, changes needed to be made to Mobile Beacon product offerings of LTE-enabled devices. Until that is finalized, we can only add folks inter-ested in Mobile Beacon services to our waiting list. How does Mobile Beacon’s Internet service work? Mobile Beacon’s Internet offering to specific geographical regions is dependent upon the signal strength of our partner Internet carrier, Sprint. In time, Mobile Beacon plans to transition to Sprint’s LTE network. If you would like to see what current LTE coverage is avail-able in your area, visit coverage.sprint.com webpage, enter your library’s address. LTE coverage will be designated as “Sprint Spark” or “Sprint 4G LTE.” You will also need to purchase a Sprint LTE-compatible device and service plan. How does Mobile Beacon’s partnership with Techsoup benefit li-braries? Mobile Beacon has a device donation program through its partner TechSoup.org which enables libraries to save even more. Once the transition to the faster Internet service is finalized, you can find the revised donation program on TechSoup’s web page. How can libraries find out more about Mobile Beacon services? To find out more information about the services Mobile Beacon offers, you can visit mobilebeacon.org or contact Alisson Walsh at [email protected]
h p://www.mobilebeacon.org/who-we-help/who-we-help-libraries/
h p://www.techsoup.org/mobile-beacon
Lena Pham is a Library Programs Consultant at the California State Library.
Saturday, Nov. 7 1:00am Drop the Beat: Introduction to Digital DJing 10:45am Getting up to Code: Kids and Computer Programming 11:45am Bio-hacking at your Library 11:45am Too Much Information! Managing Digital Overload 12:45pm CENIC Broadband and All That (SF) Jazz 12:45pm Tween Tech 1:30pm Creating an Innovation Team at Your Library 1:30pm Design Interactive iPad Stations 1:30pm Into the Digital Divine: Reined Computer Basics 1:30pm Reimagining Serials: Small Steps Toward a Linked Data Future 4:30pm Program-palooza: 60 Programs in 60 Minutes
CLA CONFERENCE
NOVEMBER 5-8
See right for a list of Technology-related Programs
CLA TECHNOLOGY INTEREST GROUP
Submit to SYNC Want to share exciting and successful implementations or use of
technologies in your library? Or discuss new innovations and technologies?
We want to hear from you!
Submissions for our Spring 2016 issue will be accepted through March 1, 2016.
Please send submissions for upcoming issues to the editors at [email protected].
Articles should be between 200-500 words in length; pictures (with captions) are also accepted; and the article may receive editing upon entry into the newsletter. Exceptions can be made for longer articles, please contact the editors at [email protected] to corre-
spond.
Our Mission: To evaluate past,
current, and future technology trends to
improve the technology
experience for both library patrons and
library staff.
Get Active with the Technology Interest Group!
Are you interested in getting more involved in the Technology Interest Group? We're looking for mem-bers who would like to assist with upcoming events on all different levels including event planning, publicity for events and the group or strategic planning. Whether you'd like to add some experience to your resume, network or just learn more about new technologies, your help could be invaluable.
Please email [email protected] if you’re interested in getting more involved. Students are welcome! Mellanie Reeve Technology Interest Group Chair
TIG Chair Awards Committee Chair
Mellanie Reeve Reference Librarian
Chaffey College [email protected]
Sync Editor
Carla Arbagey Electronic Resources Librarian
UC Riverside [email protected]
Chair-Elect Lena Pham
Library Programs Consultant California State Library
Steering Committee:
Carla Arbagey, Electronic Resources Librarian, UC Riverside: [email protected] Julie Oborny, Youth Services Librarian, San Benito County Free Library: [email protected]
Lena Pham, Programs Consultant, California State Library: [email protected] Crystal Schimpf, Librarian and Co-Founder, Kixal: [email protected]
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