I love that libraries use it to notify users of up-coming events or to remind users the event is about to start. Cool application. What about individual librarians?

Individual librarians generally share thoughts about their days with a smattering of links; admittedly some of this content is noise (of which I am a contributer).

The coolest power of twitter is still response-time to questions. Of course, this is only as effective as your followers (just like any social web application). If they are not listening or don't know where to find the answer... you are waiting on nothing.

As more and more users turn to mobile devices this issue may be alleviated. The possible future: imagine really getting one-minute turn-around times on most questions. Today our best alternative is the listserv which can take hours or days to get a response.

This could help support f2f or virtual reference:

librarian: hold on a sec, lemme ask some other peeps

user: k

[librarian posts user's question on twitter; get's a quick response]

librarian: @coollibrarianhandle says you should go here http://tinyfakeurl...

user: gr8! ty

librarian: np

Again, this will depend on who you are following and who is following you and your/their activity level.

Share some other ideas on how to use twitter for libraries.

Samuel Wheeler

Tags: abraham lincoln, celebrations, library promotion

The University of Texas at Tyler Robert R. Muntz Library has a great example of how to use a library blog. Sort of a researcher's advisory post (instead of a reader's).

So, what might you use this book for?

You are discussing a poem in class, and the professor says it has
internal rhyme? You want to know what that is? The dictionary will tell
you that it is “a rhyme that occurs within a metrical line in
order to create a musical or rhythmical effect. . . ” (145).

You need an overview of Romanticism (pages 268-269).

You need to tell the difference between a Petrarchan sonnet and a
Shakesperean sonnet (see the entry for sonnet on pages 281-282).

This is one of those cool books that you can use to look up a term quickly and get an answer. The Longman Dictionary and Handbook of Poetry is available in the library’s reference collection. Its call number is PN 1021 .M94 1985.

Two things:

1. I love that Angel Rivera, the Outreach/Reference Librarian, even gives the call number in the post so the user can find it readily.
2. Angel also writes about why the text is useful, not just about the book itself. Reference books are used less and less now-a-days but it is mostly because many users don't know why they can be more useful than just a Google search.
   

It seems the next logical step is having a catalog search box embedded into each library's LT Local page or (eventually) have a record in LibraryThing for the library's holdings through batch loading. Too optimistic? Probably, but still fun to dream about.

Just one more way to get your library out there and connecting with users in non-traditional ways. And it's COOL (I guess I just really love maps...).

The scenery was tacked on the bulletin board, with a photo of each puppet, and a question about it that sort of told the story. The thespians' (puppeteers to be exact) pictures are on the right, and the computer screen at the bottom is flashing scenes from the three days. I'll leave it at the school for a few days, then use it to pretty-up the library.

Our increased appropriation was approved with nary a word against. (Of course, this was such a dull Town Meeting that even the 2 million dollar school budget passed with hardly a murmur. Would I prefer the fireworks of the last several years???????)

Well, I'm trying to make this photo fit, and I'm not doing very well. You still can't see the right edge the way I can in the edit window. I'm never going to get past thing 11 if I can't make it look the way I want it to look. Gives me something to aim for--getting past 11.

And the avitars that others are posting. I'm getting bogged down with posting my photos on MySpace and missing something here. Wake up, Cathi.

Google is a master a self-promotion. They are opening a contest to see who can come up with the best "doodle" on their brand. Wouldn't it be cool to do something like this for a library? Anyone in the community could come up with a fun rendition of the library's brand for a special event or day. One more method to increase library user involvement and especially a sense of ownership and loyalty.

Iowa City Public Library has a great example. I love how it has the app which includes its blogs. Great way to have access to all the library news. University of Winnepeg also has some cool stuff like the meebo app and the WorldCat search.
Aurora University Charles B. Phillips Library has one of the largest fan bases because they used an incentive: good ol' Phantom tickets. Not bad. I love their banner: what a beautiful library space for collaboration.

Another nice idea comes from Sacrament State University: YouTube library video tour embedding. Deakin University Library has it's own library catalog app which is pretty awesome.

Know of any other libraries who are using Facebook?

This is a ten year old American article, but the title resonates.

A lot of school librarians think they are ignored by teaching departments and senior management, but being ignored requires being seen in the first place, and I don't think we're even noticed sometimes. 

So why is our role not appreciated? The author, school principal, Gary N. Hartzell, had three suggestions:

1. Libraries aren't mentioned in teacher training so they're not considered in educational terms. Unless a teacher's attention is dragged towards the library, they're not likely to see it. 
2. When the general public thinks of schools, it thinks of classrooms and teachers. Librarians are not part of that scenario, and aren't viewed as being a part of direct education. And as solo workers, Librarians often don't get the opportunity to network with colleagues and build influence because the library is open when everyone else is having lunch or coffee.
3. We don't make ourselves visible

So where does that leave us? I agree completely with this analysis, but especially the last one. WE DON'T SHOUT ENOUGH. We moan a lot but we don't jump up and down gesticulating wildly and saying "LOOK AT ME!"  and we should. There is a certain Scottish reticence in this: attempt to fly high and you'll get shot down, but if we're doing a good job, why not say so? 

I was definitely invisible when I started in this job: I was too scared to be anything else. This job demands a huge amount from an experienced practitioner, for a fresh graduate it's terrifying. 

I was lead to believe by the library literature that schools were on their knees waiting for librarians to walk through the door and help them. Definitely a bit naive there, but I'm not alone. 

Too many of us think people will use the library and should use the library because it's the library. QED. 

Sorry, but I tried that and it doesn't work.

And there are still departments around the school where the library is invisible and I have to keep on nudging senior management to remind them I'm there, but that's part of the job. Promoting the library is actually part of my job description. To begin with, I didn't realise exactly who I had to promote to.

So I use the website, the local press, email, and now the blog to help me shout and I'm aware that there's a fair bit of "who does she think she is?" getting muttered behind my back.  But I also hope that I'm doing something positive about making librarians a bit less invisible. 

How do we, as librarians, counter this question?  Well, first we can admit that yes, a great deal of medical knowledge and information can be found on the Internet.  Few medical journals do not have an electronic counterpart and electronic books are becoming more prevalent and easier to use.  That does not mean that librarians are superfluous or incidental.  In fact, we may be more important than ever as the amount of information grows exponentially and the number of access points, in varying quality, increases.

How does administration think the resources are found, evaluated, purchased and made readily available to patrons?  A lot of work goes in to making electronic resources easily and consistently available to the doctors, residents, nurses and students.  The job isn't over after initial purchase and activation of a product.  Publishers change urls.  Heck, even our IT departments sometimes change IP addresses, often times without notifying anyone.  Ever have to tell all your electronic resource vendors that your institution's IP address has changed?  It is not a difficult process but it can be a time consuming process.  Access issues are only the tip of the iceberg.

T. Scott's recent post on valuing librariansspeaks more elegantly than I ever could on the higher level aspects of why librarians are important regardless of where and how information is available.  When you add in the purchase and maintenance of print collections, interlibrary loan, and literature searching (things, along with electronic collections, I consider "basic" library services) it becomes clear that human management is needed in order for the library patrons to get quality information when they need it and in the format they need it.  Physicians are experts in patient care.  Librarians are experts in knowledge management.  Let us do our jobs well so that the physicians can to theirs.

Last October the Pew Internet & American Life Project published a report regarding behaviors of Internet users searching for health information (emphasis mine):

Eighty percent of American internet users, or some 113 million adults, have searched for information on at least one of seventeen health topics. Most internet users start at a general search engine when researching health and medical advice online. Just 15% of health seekers say they “always” check the source and date of the health information they find online, while another 10% say they do so “most of the time.” Fully three-quarters of health seekers say they check the source and date “only sometimes,” “hardly ever,” or “never,” which translates to about 85 million Americans gathering health advice online without consistently examining the quality indicators of the information they find. Most health seekers are pleased about what they find online, but some are frustrated or confused.

I read the above posted comic this morning, as I was updating the public Consumer Health Resource page at my hospital.  I have no idea how much this page is access, if at all (partially due to an IT department that doesn't really care why I care about statistics) and was hoping I wasn't updating the page for naught.  After all, getting to the page itself is an exercise in patience.  It takes clicking on no fewer than four links to get to the page and that is only if you know that you have to choose my particular hospitals page from the health system's main page.  We are the only library in the system with enough staff to maintain an external web page for consumer health information seekers.

Translation - 75% of health information seekers don't care if the information is right as long as it "looks like they did the work".  85 million people thinking Krypton is a planet.  85 million people who probably don't even know there are brick and morter or virtual consumer health libraries and librarians who are happy and willing to guide them to authorative, accurate health information.  85 million people whose local hospitals purchase "health library" packages for their web pages without consulting the librarians on staff.

So, as I sit here contemplating ideas for goals for the next fiscal year and wondering if partnering with local public libraries to teach critical appraisal skills to health information seekers would be worthwhile I see this report and think no - 75% of Internet users don't care and feel the information is useful.  Then I think ignorance is no excuse and there has to be a way to reach the public.  It's difficult for me to sit back and do nothing but I'm not exactly sure what we can do.  Here are some thoughts that have been bouncing around me head:

• Try to get a link to the consumer health resource page on the main system web site.
• Brainstorm about ideas for getting marketing involved in promoting healthy Internet search skills.
• Continue conteplating partnering with public libraries in the hospital's community to teach healthy Internet search skills.

I would love to hear other ideas.

And while Web 2.0 might encourage electronic collaboration there are still plenty of folk around here who like to meet face to face.  There are very few places to meet in the hospital at the last minute.  There are plenty of meeting rooms but they must be reserved.  We've opened up our AV room and Staff Lounge to people who wish to meet in a place more private than the cafeteria or lobby and this has met with tremendous success.  It's a small gesture that has seemed to reap much good will and customer satisfaction.  It has made the librarians more visible because they must pass the reference desk to get to the rooms.  They see us interacting with other patrons.  In my opinion, the  more people exposed to the library in any way shape or form becomes one more person who is a library supporter.  An additional library supporter never hurts, does it?

New commercial for FCPL