MLA Today
This morning I attended Exploring Web 2.0 Through Blogging. Now, you may wonder why I attended this when I've been blogging for a while, but I did learn a few things and was reminded of a few others. (Reinforcement can be a good thing!) I found out about Box.net which is a filesharing storage space online and about something called green print which is a software tool that allows you to print portions of a page that has different frames and no option for a printer friendly version. This session also made me realize I should probably offer an RSS feed option on this blog so I'll see if I can figure out how to add that. If not, I'll be calling one of my friends in Technology Support (ooooh, Ellen!) Another thing I thought of during this session is how annoying it is that when I finish posting to the Collection blog, I have to scroll to the top to click on the link to the home page of the blog; there should be a link at the bottom of the page too (ooooh, Ellen!) :-)
The second session I attended this morning was Hidden Patrons, and our very own Susan Waxter was one of the presenters. The main point I took away from this program was that before you try to serve a specific population in your community, you must understand their needs. To that end, I'm sure that some of the information from the White Marsh needs assessment will be useful to us in the new Perry Hall building.
Last, but not least, was an animated presentation this afternoon by Dr. Joseph Janes, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington (state, not DC). He's also a regular columnist for American Libraries magazine and has authored several information science books. He made several interesting points:
We should be happy that more people are getting connected with information via the Internet. So what if we're not the go-between? We need to decide how we fit into this new information environment, though.
How do you beat free, easy, quick, and good enough? You don't! You do something else. Find what you do better than Google or Wikipedia and do that.
We should be happy that people are coming to us to use the Internet. Hey--they're in the building and they trust us enough to come to us for something!
We need to participate in established online forums--Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc. (a recurring theme in many sessions during the conference).
Be willing to try and fail at figuring out your niche.
A great library is somewhere (physical building) and everywhere.
Whatever we offer or do online has to be better than what we offer in person because the online patron can go somewhere else instantly.
The second session I attended this morning was Hidden Patrons, and our very own Susan Waxter was one of the presenters. The main point I took away from this program was that before you try to serve a specific population in your community, you must understand their needs. To that end, I'm sure that some of the information from the White Marsh needs assessment will be useful to us in the new Perry Hall building.
Last, but not least, was an animated presentation this afternoon by Dr. Joseph Janes, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington (state, not DC). He's also a regular columnist for American Libraries magazine and has authored several information science books. He made several interesting points:
We should be happy that more people are getting connected with information via the Internet. So what if we're not the go-between? We need to decide how we fit into this new information environment, though.
How do you beat free, easy, quick, and good enough? You don't! You do something else. Find what you do better than Google or Wikipedia and do that.
We should be happy that people are coming to us to use the Internet. Hey--they're in the building and they trust us enough to come to us for something!
We need to participate in established online forums--Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc. (a recurring theme in many sessions during the conference).
Be willing to try and fail at figuring out your niche.
A great library is somewhere (physical building) and everywhere.
Whatever we offer or do online has to be better than what we offer in person because the online patron can go somewhere else instantly.
posted by Rose Frase | 4:31 PM
1 Comments:
I'll be glad to work with you on setting the blog up the way you want it!
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