NELA Conference

Hi All:
Tuesday Laura and I attended NELA. it had been a long time since I had attended NELA. Back in the day I went every year when I was a Children"s Librarian. The first program we both attended was called Help! The teen Librarian Has Left the Building!. The two speakers gave useful tips on how to service YA's when the YA Librarian is not in the building emphasizing that all librarians need to help out ( which I think we all do). We left with many great lists of books and ideas to share....I have a copy of the info if anyone is interested.
The luncheon speaker was Michael Palmer. He is a local author who writes medical mysteries. He began his career as a surgeon at MGH and currently works part time for the Mass Medical Society. His most recent work is entitled First Patient. I am not a fan of medical mysteries and the last and only one I read was Coma by Robin Cook! I plan to read one of Palmer's books soon. I will let you know how I am doing!!!!!
the afternoon session included an excellent presentation by Amy Pattee from Simmons College GSLIS entitled Hot Teen Titles: Sexuality and Teen Fiction. She suggested ways to help librarians decide whether or not to include some of these titles. As many of you know there was an ongoing "gaming" demo and from what I could see many librarians enjoyed trying out the various games. I can't say I am a fan of DDR but I think I could really get into the ski jump and of
course bowling is right up my alley!
All in all it was a fun day leaving one with lots to think about....PC

N

Wiki and Zoho Creator

This was a really informative workshop I went to led by Sarah Feldman from the Newton Free Library and Emily Belanger from the New England Institute of Art. I was a little late for this workshop, because the author signing went a little long, but luckily, I was late for the wiki portion, which I knew more about. Wikis, for those who don't know are defined in (the most famous wiki) Wikipedia as "is a page or collection of Web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.^[1][2] Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites and to power community websites." Basically, they're simple looking websites that can be used and edited by multiple people and changed regularly. The Newton Free Library uses a wiki to communicate with the staff a variety of things. And, most of the software is free, such as PBWiki, (it's as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich, get it?). (In fact, the VP from PBwiki text messaged someone in the workshop to say that everyone at the workshop could get a free trial of the business version.). There are several types of wiki software to use, though, and in order to find out which one is the best for you, go to www.wikimatrix.org. Sarah pointed out the pros and cons in using wikis for staff communication. Some of the key pros were "anyone can edit" and "simple". As for cons, "anyone can edit" was also listed, as well as wrong information can be posted. For the most part, it sounds like it went very well in Newton.
My favorite part of this presentation was hearing about the software, Zoho (specifically Zoho creator) from Emily Belanger. Zoho creator according to Wikipedia (ah, now you have to look at a wiki, again. See how I did that? Clever), is "an online database / custom application development tool which allows users to create fairly sophisticated process logic without knowing how to code, simply by dragging & dropping script elements on screen." Get it? In other words, you can create your own database very easily on pretty much anything, have up to five people use it for free, and then download your findings into a spreadsheet of some kind. For example, the New England Institute of Art uses it for reference statistics, and then can sort the data by type of reference interaction, etc. Want to know how many times someone called on Friday asking for help with a crossword puzzle clue? How about the number of times someone asks you why the wireless is down? How about the number of people who asked you if you had any copies of American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld? (loved that book, by the way. Go read it.). Heck, maybe you even want to know how many times people asked where the bathroom was? Emily admitted that she is at a rather small library, but that it has worked very well. She also said that for her purposes, the free version was more than sufficient. She said that she will never go back to hash marks for reference statistics again. I started salivating, then thinking about the other ways I could use this software. (stats for Louise's and my program, for example?) I did ask Todd about it, after the fact, and he knows about it and vouched for the company. I want to try it out and use it before subjecting my staff to it, but it seems like it will be easy. I love it, can you tell? (I don't know if I want to marry it like I wanted to with Pharos. I tend to fall in love too quickly with cool software, and sometimes realize that we're better off being good friends. However, this one does look very promising).
Anyone who wants to read more about either Wikis or Zoho creator can read Emily and Sarah's powerpoint presentation. There are also some helpful hints in there regarding how to choose free software.

What Makes A Space Attractive to Users?

I attended the "Library Commons" NELA lecture given by Cheryl Bryan from Southeastern Massachusetts Library System on Monday, Oct. 21st.

Here's how we can improve our library spaces to attract and retains users!!!

LIBRARY AS COMMONS:
Get information out to the community on how change will improve or impact the library
Consider the communities values
people seek contact -- provide a place for people to connect
people want to know how to earn a living in today's economy -- provide info

PROGRAMS:
The library is an ideal place for:
Learning Programs
Story Times
Collaboration with other community agencies
Cafe Area

COLLABORATIVE LEARNING:
Articulate collaborative learning by:
Having school books available for homework
Homework center
Tutoring
Nationally renowned lecture series
1:1 computer tutorials

SUCCESSFUL USER EXPERIENCES:
Help people find their way. WATCH the users.
Are signs in the right places * It takes 6 - 8 feet after a patron walks into a space before they take it their surroundings.
Path. Carpeting. Lighting. All important to consider in re-evaluating space
Drop lighting is ideal
Signs with graphic elements more eye catching than just type
Make collection accesable. Pull out certain t hings to highlight
Change exhibits OFTEN - weekly if possible for weekly users
Create "neighborhoods" of fiction and non-fiction topics/authors/genres
Name the "neighborhood" and use acrylic cases to showcase the display
Zone Staffing - whatever a patron might need, help that person on the spot. don't send the user around the building.
One stop shopping - veteran's affairs, tutoring/health advisers - have them available at the library.
Street Scape - what do people see when they see the building?
Can hours be seen from the street?
Are plantings kept up (yes we have that!)
What do people see when they walk in the door?
Here are some eye catching ideas:
Display cases
Flat screen monitor
Screen behind the circ desk with slide show of the library/programs/patrons
A kind face (yes we have that too!)

CREATE ZONES to support popular use:
Cafe Area
Family Zones - also accommodate adults in the children's room
Comfortable seating for varied activities - make more spacious
Teen Zones. Students want I.M. reference
Large screen TV for gaming zone
Computers/table seating/semi-circle seating
When people move furniture around - take a cue on where they prefer to sit
Create "community living rooms" with couch, comfortable chairs, fire place
Give it that living room feel

FAMILY BASED ACTIVITIES:
Multiple age groups. Personalize. Often the only place in town that supports family activities is the library.

PERSONALIZE USER EXPERIENCE:
Guard users privacy
Self check-out
Commuter train station book deposit
Preferences list on the web site to create your personal search
Let people decide their own due dates (?)
email lists that tell patron when their favorite author's new book arrives
Self Scanning machine (like copier access). Let teens/patrons scan materials then they can email the scan to themselves.
Coffee!

HOW DO WE USE THE SPACE?
More of a gathering space - lounge seating
We may need to get rid of some furniture to create more space
Get away for the desk. Think about how we deliver.
Are we an old model or futuristic? How can we implement change. Look at patters and needs of the community.

Overall the seminar was very interesting. I think there are some exciting, new innovative, outside of the box ideas to consider.

Phew! The End!

From Doreen Buchinski :)

Marialice's Long Day

Hi there, Marialice posted about her day at NELA. Read her entertaining post!
http://walthaamconference.blogspot.com/

Help! The Teen Librarian Has Left the Building

I attended this workshop featuring Woburn's YA Librarian Christi Showmann-Farrar and Natick's former YA Librarian, Abby Reidy. I've known Christi and Abby for awhile and I was really looking forward to hearing them speak. The title intrigued me because I thought it was about what to do when the YA librarian no longer works at the library (or in some cases works at the library in a different capacity). However, it addressed the need for how to perform YA services, such as readers' advisory, when the YA librarian goes home for the evening. While the readers' advisory section of this workshop was a little familiar to me, it was good to hear some of it, again, plus I did learn some new sources for finding book lists. She offered a lot of websites, which can help anyone doing readers' advisory for young adults, such as: YALSA's booklists and Austin Public Library's booklists. Christi also gave some tips on how to talk to teens when doing readers' advisory, such as never talking down to them, but also never pretending you are one of them. She also stressed that it's important to talk to the teens and not the parents, even though the parents are often the ones asking all of the questions.
Abby discussed her rewards program for good behavior by teens. For answering trivia questions, making a purchase request, writing book reviews, or for overall good behavior, teens can earn what's called Moo-La and reimburse it for a variety of prizes, including paying off fines. She said that full size candy bars were once an option but the sugar highs were a little much at times! I think we would have to modify this for our library, but I do like the idea of encouraging purchase requests, and good behavior, as well as using that good behavior towards fines. An interesting idea.

NELA was fun

Greetings from Manchester, well, okay, greetings from Waltham. I wanted to post something from the NELA Conference in Manchester but there were some Internet issues at the conference site. I enjoyed the conference very much, and will make individual posts about the workshops I did attend. I drove up with Paula and was able to see some library acquaintances, including a couple of former co-workers, Simmons' classmates, and Rick and Paige from the Minuteman staff. In addition to the workshops, I wandered around the conference hall, went to a video gaming demonstration, attended lunch and listened to local author, Michael Palmer, a doctor who writes medical thrillers. Mr. Palmer was a wonderful lunch speaker. I was unfamiliar with him prior to yesterday, but he discussed how he became a writer after a dying patient made a death bed wish. (Despite this sad annecdote, Mr. Palmer was actually very funny). He mentioned that publishers are demanding rapid production from their writers, and his latest contract obliges him to write four books in four years. He also talked about what led him to write some of his titles such as The Sisterhood or First Patient (about the President's doctor). Sadly, First Patient was sold out, so I bought a book called Natural Causes and had it autographed.
The gaming demonstration was also fun. A lot of libraries are using video games and gaming systems, such as Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero, and Nintendo Wii with patrons of all ages. (Check out this article about seniors in Newton using the Nintendo Wii). So librarians had a chance to utilize the equipment. After making a fool out of myself playing Rock Band at the MLA conference, last spring, I forced poor Paula to try out Dance Dance Revolution, who held her own. My former MLA colleague, Cathy from the Central Region, tried the expert version of Dance Dance Revolution which looked pretty impossible.