NOTES: The web pages are up now for my book, Net Effects: How Librarians Can Manage the Unintended Consequences of the Internet, at http://marylaine.com/book/index.html. The official date for publication is September 2.
A Correction: In the last issue I suggested that Jessamyn West's Librarian.net blog made her a logical candidate to edit Revolting Librarians Redux. Co-editor Katia Roberto, who initiated the project, tells me this was not the case: "For what it's worth, Jessamyn's being involved in the co-editing was really a result of happenstance. I had this idea, emailed people I knew who I thought might want to be involved, Jessamyn offered her co-editing services, and I took her up on it because I knew her and liked her. I can think of several other people whose offers I would have also accepted if they'd made them. In other words, librarian.net had nothing to do with her involvement..." I regret the error.
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LIBRARIANS HELPING LIBRARIANS: INNOVATIVE INTERNET APPLICATIONS IN LIBRARIES
by Marylaine Block
I have always maintained that librarians are the ultimate share-your-toys people, and that the worst punishment you could inflict on any of us is to offer to show us an incredibly useful free resource but only if we swear not to tell another living soul about it. This explains why some of the best web sites I know about have been created by librarians to help other librarians, and I plan to profile several of them.
One of my favorite such sites, created by Kathy Leeds of the Wilton (CT) Library, is called Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries, http://www.wiltonlibrary.org/innovate.html. Leeds has obviously spent a lot of time exploring how other libraries have used the net to deliver new services and make traditional services more accessible to distance users.
What that means is that librarians can either browse their way steadily through the entire set of linked library sites Leeds has provided here, or simply look to see how other libraries have implemented the specific kind of service they're thinking of offering.
Want to spiff up your services to seniors? The "Ages and Stages" section refers you to several interesting library web pages for seniors, each with unique features. I'm especially fond of what librarians at the Traverse Area (MI) District Library have done, for instance, compiling a listing of local resources for seniors. This goes well beyond the links you'd expect to local agencies and organizations, and caregiver resources, to some you might not have thought of, like local churches' programs for seniors, local providers of prescription help, local transit programs, and sites where they can download coupons for local stores.
Most of us could use a little help with "coolness" for our services to kids and teens. Among the interesting web things things libraries have done to appeal to them is provide a place for them to publish their writing (WordSmiths at the New York Public Library), to volunteer as a "tech teen" to assist library patrons with the library's electronic resources (Bettendorf Public Library), and to find out about their community (Tacoma Public Library's kids' guide to the Pacific Northwest)
It may be a bit much to expect that kids are going to be eager to see postings of school assignments, which Potamus Place at Cleveland Height/University Heights Public Library provides, but don't you think parents might find it useful? Not to mention reference librarians who are not accustomed to the concept, "advance notice" for homework.
Would you like to improve your services to readers? See how they do it at the Readers Cafe at the Montgomery County (MD) Public Libraries' site, where you can borrow a book club set, find out what books are on order, find discussion group guides, or tour "Around the World in 80 Books." Or visit Morton Grove's Webrary, to explore the Fiction-L reading lists and see how the BookMatch program automatically notifies readers of new books that match the reading preference profile they've created online.
Are you interested in creating a digital exhibit from your local history archives, or creating a database of photos or oral history or such? Explore how other libraries have done it -- the Salem (OR) Public Library, for instance, with its Historic Photograph Collections and its Salem History Project which "takes an encyclopedia approach to providing access to Salem's history of culture, events, institutions and people which has led our community into the 21st Century." Or check out the Kansas City (MO) Public Library's Local History Index, which indexes magazine articles, chapters in books, and vertical file materials among others, and they date from the late 19th century to today." The Bridgeport (CT) Public Library Historical Collections staff asked the question, "What was it like to work and live in Bridgeport, Connecticut during the past century?" and went out with tape recorders to find out, placing the resulting interviews on their web site.
Have you thought of putting a visual tour on your web site, whether to entice people to visit your attractive building or to make it easier for people to find their way around once they get there? Check out how these libraries do it. At Vanderbilt Central Library, for instance, at each service point in the tour (reference desk, government documents, periodicals, etc.), the page orients you on the map and says, "these are questions we can answer." The Urbana Free Library actually offers a library construction weblog on its web site, a nice service which serves the dual public relations function of generating excitement as completion nears while warning people about parking and traffic tie-ups at specific times.
And of course if you're preparing to teach library users, you don't need to reinvent the wheel. You can get ideas for presentation and methods from a wide variety of tutorials, ranging from how-to-use-a-mouse through how to choose among and use a variety of databases.
There are other interesting web uses on display here as well, including personalized portals, weblogs and newsletters, and virtual reference desks. Kathy Leeds has done us all a wonderful favor by doing the first sort for us, looking through many library web sites and identifying really interesting ideas worth looking at and building on. The best thing about Innovative Internet Applications in Libraries is that its examples should get our own creative juices flowing. On behalf of librarians everywhere, my thanks to her.
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COOL QUOTE:
Limiting searches to free online sources can be wishful thinking that undermines the adequacy of a search. But having said that, let me also add that the expectation by the rising generation of researchers that full-text journal articles ought to be free and online is one of the greatest assets of the FOS [free online scholarship] movement.
As Thomas Kuhn argued, doddering paradigms tend to topple not because someone produced sufficient evidence or a decisive experiment, but because the diehards died off and a new generation took their place. I welcome evidence that young researchers look first in free online sources. They should. That's by far the most convenient place to look. Our job is to put more information in that basket, not persuade researchers to start with less convenient sources. Students should understand that free online sources are not yet adequate in most fields. But the rest of us should understand that the best remedy is to make them adequate.
Peter Suber, FOS News, January 23, 2003 http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html.
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Ex Libris: an E-Zine for Librarians and Other Information Junkies.
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Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2003.
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