Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Our always popular speaker Lee Rainie discusses the Project’s new research about those who use the library and those who do not: who they are, what their information needs are, what kinds of technology they use, and how libraries can meet the varying needs of their patrons. This keynote is filled with strategies and opportunities for libraries!

Highly effective digital branch services are simpler, cheaper, and closer at hand than you think. This session lays the foundation for a less-is-more approach to launching your next web project and iterating through a continuous cycle of feedback and improvement. Fitzpatrick introduces some free or cheap tools as well as a proven process that will set up your web team for a successful product your patrons will love.

Hear about an all-electronic business branch library that has continually transformed itself and become an integral part of the Notre Dame business school’s educational system. Speakers describe the library’s services, working relationships with students and faculty, staffing model and staff competencies, funding and licensing approaches, and, perhaps most importantly, how they continuously strategize and evolve themselves to be true partners in the business faculty.

This session focuses on innovative approaches to dealing with copyright and student tutorials. Learn how SIPX’s university pilots are using real-time copyright clearance, matching assigned readings to library holdings for maximum ROI and library recognition for subscribed content, and calculating the lowest pricing for access. Hear about UC Merced’s use of Guide on the Side, open source tutorial software developed by the University of Arizona Libraries. Instead of screencasting, users get instructions on one side of the screen, and interact with the actual webpage, catalog or other search tool in another pane on the other side of the screen—authentic learning at its best!

Hennig begins this session with a look at various multi-touch, multimedia ebooks that create learning experiences for all types of readers, including people with disabilities. She examines the book as iPad app and the potential for use in innovative library programs and services. Kirker and Kerns demonstrate how librarians at a medium-sized private university developed, designed, and assessed the implementation of iPad kiosks as service points within the library. Wireless tablets are compact alternatives to the traditional computer, but there are some complications. Speakers highlight these complications as well as the solutions developed.

As budgets shrink, organizations must be creative to fund their programs. Menon and Koury discuss the world of crowd-funding. They explore funding websites, discuss the pros and cons on online fundraising, and share examples on how some libraries, individuals, or organizations have successfully used this tool.

Many libraries have institutionalized usability testing to improve their websites, but task-based testing, while extremely useful, only paints a partial picture. How do we know what tasks our users need and want to perform? We don’t; we need to ask them, and ask them again and again. This session discusses the who, what, where, when, how, and why of using user interviews and personas, along with task-based testing, to provide the missing link in designing a site that’s not only usable, but also useful, and maybe even desirable, for library users.

Website design as a field is still changing rapidly as new technologies and new design ideas are created to make websites more beautiful, functional, and user friendly. King takes you through the newest web design trends for optimizing user experience, illustrates with examples, lets you know what to incorporate, what to watch for, and what to ignore.

Usability testing is one of the most effective ways for libraries to connect with their user base while assessing and improving their online presence. At its best, usability testing is a highly collaborative process. The feedback, support, and time your colleagues contribute is key to even one round of successful testing, to say nothing of ongoing iterative testing. But how do you secure stake- holder buy-in and demonstrate that usability testing is a valuable undertaking? O’Donnell explores this question and offers practical guidance and strategies for implementing usability testing. The second presentation discusses how Webster University Library’s web committee decided to conduct usability testing on their current website design to plan for a possible future redesign. After reviewing various testing models, they felt that observational task analysis would be the most cost-effective yet efficient model for a first round of testing. Hear how they utilized Adobe Connect to record and capture participants’ actions, the pros and cons to using Adobe Connect for usability testing, and preliminary results of their findings. Future plans and lessons learned from usability testing are discussed by both speakers.

This presentation focuses on the experience of a multilibrary system as it seeks to collaborate on multiple initiatives to streamline the user experience by creating cohesive web design and a unified discovery framework. Topics of discussion include development of a unified brand, implementation of shared applications and services, and large-scale projects undertaken in support of an enhanced and improved user experience. This talk also addresses the leadership dynamics undertaken to facilitate this process and discusses the growing pains experienced during this transition. This presentation offers feedback to other library systems experiencing similar transitions.

As the rest of this track has demonstrated, the principles and practices of UX design are particularly pertinent when it comes to designing web interfaces and systems. But there are wide-ranging benefits to applying these same principles and practices to everything libraries design, from service desks to signage. Join us for the final presentation of the UX track as Etches and Schmidt explore ways to harness UX principles to improve virtual touch- points, as well as physical ones.

How does a two-person library/archive manage 14 social media sites, get 2.5 million views on its Flickr photo site in less than 5 years, acquire thousands of Twitter followers, and become a leader in daily news publishing while supporting reference and other traditional library activities? Get strategies and tools to successfully implement integrated digitization and social media on a grand scale despite having a very small staff, a large service population, and limited resources. Hear about a proactive approach to deploying new technologies, including harvesting resources from within documents and manuscripts and using social media to promote higher interest in digital collections. How to leverage automated processes with social media and develop a digitization plan focused on the benefits for decision-makers and users are shared.

This session covers technology for connecting in new ways to your immediate library community and also reaching out to new and unknown communities. It discusses a process that can be adapted for any library, including a rare book library and a health sciences library. Hear from an outreach librarian who uses new strategies, services, and tools to allow the library to live beyond its bookshelves for more active promotion. The CAMH Library is actively engaging users outside of the library using web development tools and techniques including audio/video software such as GarageBand and iMovie, Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, and Vine, and content management software such as Drupal. Barriers, challenges, pitfalls, and timelines for launching new projects using emerging technologies for the user experience are shared, including listening to your userbase and working with your corporate structure.

The first presentation discusses how info pros are well- positioned to help design metadata schema, apply governance principles, and understand end-user needs such as searching and delivery of content. All of these strengths are essential to the success of a digital asset management (DAM) project. It emphasizes the skills to enhance your professional toolkit for DAM project readiness and gives examples of DAM librarians (e.g., in corporate marketing departments, museums, creative services). Kneale discusses how she wears three different systems hats: systems administrator, systems engineer, and systems librarian. She shares information about these three jobs and shows how the tools and skills of librarianship are used to add value to all areas of responsibility.

Hear from two libraries in the same industry. Evans discusses engaging clients in a large corporation with no physical libraries, sites closing, and people exiting. During these turbulent times, Pfizer’s Information & Library Services group has been successful by selecting specific client groups and formulating a targeted marketing plan; outcomes of the marketing plan and outreach activities are shared. In the second case study, speakers discuss how when Ironwood Pharmaceuticals expanded from a mostly R&D operation to include business development, medical scientific affairs, legal, commercial and pharma-covigilance, not only were more database and journal subscriptions needed, so were ways to stay within budget, engage the user population to inform them of available tools and services, and disseminate information through the company. They highlight various tools and techniques used to coordinate transcontinentally between one remote librarian and one onsite librarian.

Public librarians are fortunate in that there always seems to be a “next big thing” for their institutions to offer to engage and serve their constituents—ebooks, gaming, cutting-edge programming, clubs, unique lending, etc. For corporate and law firm librarians, the challenge to stay innovative is a bit more tricky. We know the value that we bring, and we know what we can do, but how do we remain vital, vibrant, and interesting to the people who we serve when it seems like we have nothing new to offer? How can we continually market our services to keep them fresh, constantly applicable, and responsive to our organization’s challenges? This session explores several techniques to keep our current requestors as happy as ever while adding new requestors and users of our services; it also includes embedded librarianship, clips and alerts, rainmaking, and Pinterest for customizing library experiences to help customers prepare for practicing law in the information age; and ultimately transform the traditional law library into a 21st-century information hub.

Is your library contemplating reinventing itself in response to social, economic, and technology trends and searching for an effective process of self-discovery? This session explains how Howard County Library System and Somerset County Library System applied appreciative inquiry (AI), a philosophy of organizational change based on positive psychology and constructionist learning theory, to strategic planning to create an inclusive and participatory do-it- yourself process that transformed stakeholders from staff to customers to community leaders into strategic thinkers imagining new possibilities for their libraries. Belfont provides an overview of both theoretical foundations and action steps of Appreciative Strategic Planning, including the Discovery Stage, the Dream Stage, and the Design Stage, in a strategic plan. It is an autobiography, the next chapter in a library’s history, co-written by the stakeholders, expressing who they are, what they do, and why the library is important to their communities. Appreciative Strategic Planning locates the forces that give life to libraries—stakeholder passion, intelligence, creativity, aspirations—do not become irrelevant, and are essential to their future adaptability, resilience, and success.

Projects, projects, projects! How do libraries manage, keep track of progress, and collaborate on projects? This talk provides a few different looks at current project management practices in a variety of libraries. Speakers focus on project management software options, and share some tips on selecting and implementing appropriate project management software to fit a library’s needs. They report on findings from a survey of libraries currently using project management software or other tools to track projects. Survey results show a snapshot of which platforms libraries are currently using, and what types of library projects are a good fit for project management software. Presenters share standards and best practices from the project management industry and frame their analysis using these principles.

The first talk shares a how-to manual that will change the dynamics of your library regardless of your environment. It is based on four years of evidence of the library revitalization, the transformation of student success through library initiatives, and also the recent approval of a mandatory, library-led first year experience course. The journey began with the charge to assess the current state of the university library, create a library strategic plan, look at eliminating library services and/or identify a process to revitalize the library. It culminated in an approved learning outcome called “information literacy and technology” as a result of the library’s success. Hear the step-by-step process for developing library stakeholders in the campus and area communities through proven high-impact practices. In the second presentation, hear how one librarian used techniques from Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill and How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie to transform the Tyrone Bryant Branch, doubling reference stats, tripling summer reading program numbers, and cutting customer complaints. By requiring the staff to read Think and Grow Rich, answer questions about it, and scheduling self-improvement courses, he was able to lead his team to success. Get some tips & techniques from this talk.

This session covers the process VPL followed to develop a new digital services department focused on web projects, digital licensing, and community digital engagement. It covers key elements of the planning process (measuring the effort that was currently going toward digital projects, assessing current and future needs, and determining staffing numbers and roles) and implementation (developing training plans, team building, creating a sense of urgency and fostering creativity, and setting department norms). Hear about their first projects—the overhaul of VPL’s corporate intranet and the creation of a city-wide informal learning calendar. Gain valuable insights and lessons learned, and leave with a template that can be modified to develop new digital centers in your organization.

Given the changing role of the librarian as provider of “tech support,” this session looks at increasing the skills of staff in digital literacy and information technology, addresses the attitudes and flexibility of tech-shy staff members to increase their comfort level with today’s rich and dynamic information landscape, and shares a partnership that provides additional support. Speakers share experiences from two public libraries providing training around ebook downloads, handheld devices, navigating web and mobile apps, and using social media to empower staff with the confidence patrons expect around technology at the information desk. They discuss assessing needs through surveys and interviews and designing training series according to results, new software and web applications, and system updates, as well as offering one-on- one sessions and tablet checkouts to staff for hands-on practice; providing “how-to” documentation; and taking the lead in collaborative social media projects such as readers’ advisory on Facebook and the creation of a department Goodreads account. They describe community partnership with Best Buy, including their provision of tablets and e-readers to update their “Tech Petting Zoo,” and co-trainings with Geek Squad experts. They discuss the importance of staff trainings in preparing librarians to ease patrons’ tech-induced frustration and speak from a knowledgeable and confident perspective.

Do you yearn for a free and fun way to provide incentives for students and encourage positive work habits? Do you wish you could reward good citizenship and foster creativity and work that goes beyond the expected? Online badging is for you! This motivational practice is growing in popularity with students and educators at all levels. Badges are already in use with commercial applications such as Edmodo and Dojo, but creating your own can be even more fun and rewarding. And it’s free! Bell and Weimar share their firsthand experiences with their students and also those of K–12 educators. They will offer steps for starting up a system and then maintaining it efficiently and effectively. Attendees leave the session with specific ideas that will help make such a program successful and effective.

What happens when middle school students are challenged to make a difference in their world? Learn how sixth-grade students researched a topic about a local or global problem, its causes and current solutions, and how they could personally get involved. The entire research was done without printing a single sheet of paper using Google Docs and online digital resources such as databases, the internet, and citation tools. The original project grew to include persuasive essays, a student presentation at a Nebraska State Legislature committee hearing, and a Make a Difference Share Fair, where groups of students presented their research findings to the general public and raised money for their causes. This project has led students to independently volunteer and to make a difference in their world.

Internet@Schools track co-moderator Foote provides an overview of recent news on the ebook front and discusses trends in the ebook market for schools. Then Arriaga and Simons offer detailed steps on their e-reader program and how they streamlined the process of device selection, cataloging, funding, promotion, support programs, and curriculum integration. They address the challenges their program encountered as they navigated through the newly evolving landscape of ebooks in the publishing and retail book industry, as well as how e-readers fit into the life of a library and within OPACS.

As education changes and people talk about online learning, blended classes, ebooks and tablets, there is one constant--teachers. Whether students are using technology in a classroom with face-to-face instruction, receiving instruction through a flipped classroom model, or taking a class that is entirely online, instruction is impacted by teachers. But has professional development kept up with the changes in the way instruction is delivered? As time demands increase and as “sit and get” professional development has less impact, some are exploring additional ways to meet the challenges and provide that professional development. Attendees will see a variety of ways that training can be provided either fully online or using a flipped model, explore platforms for presenting different options, and discuss ways to engage learners.

Join a well-known expert on the vital subject of finding free educational resources online. Veteran web resource locator Gary Price discusses discovery and finding tools, techniques, and even the necessary mind-set you need to unearth the best digital content for education—so you can serve up just what’s needed for that social studies or history class, just when it’s needed.

Be prepared to be excited and inspired by librarians who have engaged their communities in novel ways. This fast-paced, fun learning event can only be described as Cybertours meets Pecha Kucha meets Battledecks meets TED! Join us for an amazing session of insights and ideas that you will want to implement in your library immediately. Hear about the Story sail boat off the California coast, leveraging “techkknowledgie” by sharing skills in other countries, game based learning, interactive maps, and recommended apps from librarianAPProved.com! Leave the status quo behind and return to work inspired and ready to transform your world.