I’m spending the day today at the NELA-ITS workshop on Library-Wide IT Proficiencies. I’m sitting across from the eminent Andrea Mercado and next to Brian Herzog, which is lovely… since I trust and respect both of them. And feel like my next professional challenge is going to be dissolving institutional idea of a Technology Librarian as IT support. My job and training is not best utilized rebooting computers and unjamming printers. These are important things, of course, but things I think every staff member should be empowered to do themselves.
My mantras:

1. You are NOT going to break the computer.
2. What did you try before you phoned me?
3. Did you reboot?

I am hoping this workshop will help me take thing a bit further toward formal training and giving staff a sense of ownership and confidence when it comes to computers. My convention when live-blogging is to take notes but put my personal comments in brackets []:

Part I: Proficiency, IT Staff and End Users presented by Gary K. McCone and Grace R. Sines, National Agricultural Library
IT Proficiency - know what your end-users need/expect [my feelings are they EXPECT librarians to know everything or at least be proactive to solve their problems - they do not expect blank stares and shrugged shoulders.]
Training improves moral and teamwork because staff feel a sense of mastery.
Manages expectations.
Promotes efficiency. [Lately, this seems the magic word, 'it will make us more efficient goes quite far.]
A successful IT person wants to ENABLE staff to solve problems on their own.
Get to know your end-users better [I'm not trying to be sassy, but I'm not entirely sure why the National Agricultural Library is qualified for this.]
Four generations currently working all together: veterens, baby boomers, generation Xers, millennials.
[Idea: ask staff how THEY want to learn. Ask each reference librarian to take on a class.]

Define your core competencies - in black and white - the ability, skill, and knowledge required to do something technical.
Puposes:

• Develops a uniform knowledge-base
• Promotes self-sufficiency
• Keeps staff technology savvy
• Develops clear expectations
• Creates a culture of learning
• Improves customer services

Types

• Task-based: arrow in scope and specific, easy to demonstrate/measure.
• Descriptive: Broad, I know how to use the web.

Who should develop?

• management
• Professional Library staff
• Professional IT staff
• paraprofessionals
• volunteers
• Everyone should be involved.

People who are doing the work know what they need to know.
Decide on categories, levels, positions… expand on ideas within the categories.
What does everybody need to know?
Implementation: Communicate, Training, Job Description, Rating, Others… institutionalize it.

Incentives
Why? Threatened by technology, fear of looking foolish, change-resistant, increase motivation. Examples: Prizes, time off, bonus, public recognition.
All employees must go to two trainings per year related to their work… most choose what is related to technology. [I like this idea.]
Managers/supervisors write personal notes to congratulate staff, monitor progress toward a goal on a visual, group-incentive. Incentives are not always tangible.
IT Liaison Program - each division selected a liaison to act as the first point of contact for support questions - faster service, able to handle minor issues, enables self-sufficiency, representative of unit needs, assists in maintaining standards. Installation of software, assist in setting up new computers, assist with purchases, coordinate inventories, attend meetings and distribute to their unit. Wrote Standard Operating Procedures.

For months, nay years, I’ve been running around talking about how a library website should have all the earmarks of a branch library: materials, librarians, reference service, and programming. I finally got a chance to put my money where my mouth is.

This is Children’s Book Week and to celebrate I invited our staff to pose for photos with their favorite kids books. Then, in flickr, I added all the photos to our Manchester City Library flickr pool and then created a badge on the website for all photos in that pool and tagged with ‘cbw’ will show in the badge.

A blog post invites patrons with a flickr account to take a photo, add it to the group, and tag it appropriately in order to be part of the children’s book parade on our website. No one has done so yet, but I’m extremely hopeful… I don’t see why you would have to be a resident of Manchester so please, if you’re moved, join in!

After many months of spottily focused work, I was thrilled tonight to launch the upgraded, updated, preferred, deferred Tamworth Library website.

When Casey and I began to expand the concept he proved with wpopac into what has become Scriblio we quickly realized we would need a development partner. In order to create a tool to meet the needs and limitations of small and rural public libraries we needed to know, first hand, what the users those libraries expected from their library online. Enter Cook Memorial Library in Tamworth, NH. Serving an incredibly strong community of 2500 and with a staff who was dedicated to learning and implementing online services, Tamworth made an ideal beta site.  We learned lots and everyone was happy with the result but as Scriblio grew and evolved, it was hard to keep Tamworth up to date. With both of us working day jobs, Tamworth’s site, while always growing in popularity, fell behind the latest and greatest Scriblio developments.

Those days are over. This evening we happily launched a new tamworthlibrary.org complete with a cleaned up and consistent database and a new look. Casey and Jay (Cook’s director) were extremely patient and supportive and patient during the slow process - thanks to both of you.

Sarah Houghton-Jan

• Why? Save money, improve customer service, should institutional commitment to lifelong learning, increase staff retention rate, motivate staff to keep learning.
• Staff training takes time and money
• Competencies based training cycle
  • Step 1: Planning and Brainstorming - What does your staff need to know how to do with technology to do their jobs well. For: Creates equitable expectations of all staff, reveals training needs, accurate job descriptions, helps with performance evaluations, consistent customer service, helps staff adjust and handle change. Work with staff to brainstorm and create a list. Staff know what they need to know. Reassure staff they don’t have to know everything now. Solicit input via a blog/wiki. But they don’t know HOW to do so?
  • Step 2: Creation. Work with a taskforce. Representatives from units and branches and different position classifications. Get management buy-in. Don’t call it competencies. Ideas: Terminology - create a glossary. Hardware. Office Software. Email. STAYING CURRENT. Keep it core and task-based. Add to job descriptions and new hire checklist. Present list online with each item linked to a how-to.
  • Step 3: Assessment. Online survey tools and/or self-assessment. The psychology of maybe - yes, no, maybe. Review indivividual results and group results. Work with supervisors to create individual training needs list for each employee.
  • Step 4: Training. Training budget. In-house? Offer a small prize. Use real world examples. Make it fun. Highlight tips and tricks.
  • Step 5: Reassess. Rewards for success and consequences for failure. Nurture hidden sparks.

Tips and celebrate successes. Make them feel management is engaged. Have cake. Recommended resources.

Technology training - Maurice and Annette Annette is my secret, alter-ego name.
Staff survey showed them they needed to learn about newer technologies and things like how to work their digital camera. YA committee. High buy-in. = Tech Fair/Petting Zoo.
First steps: Get organized and get help. Get buy in and get excited. Used the tools we would teach to promote the fair.
Content: Wikis/Open source - Work tool; gaming; streaming media; IM/Myspace; Blogging; MP3s/iPods.
Visible support from the top.
Mandatory and helped with scheduling and provided financial support.
One hour lecture and two hour lab. Class of 36. Rotating stations.
Station masters and Hosts. Partnership with a big box store. Provided equipment and experts.
Finding people: Techies at all levels, all levels of staff.
Equipment: Computers/Keyboards/Mice, Projectors/Projection surfaces, cords… do a dry run.
Preparation: minimum and maximum numbers, team skills and personalities, communicate again and again, have a floater.
Practice. Do a full scale dry run. signs.
Blog during the zoo - post pictures. Do a survey afterward. Ask what you’d like to use, learn more about?
Make expected outcomes clear to everyone.

Roy Tennant
Kill off the term OPAC
Discovery system = public facing tool, public interface, doesn’t replace the ILS. Veneer on top of back office operations.
Worldcat Local is a different and particular type.
Sytems Highlighted: Koha, Evergreen, VUFind, LibraryFind, Worldcat Local.
Harvest records out of ILS for Discovery system, which queries ILS for circ info.
Want to replace your ILS or just the public interface?
VUFind from Villanova University. Tabs for info, holdings, toc, comments, and reviews.
LibraryFind from Oregon State. Metasearch tools for articles with books.

Kate Sheehan from Darien Library
LibraryThing for Libraries in Danbury
Radical overhaul is difficult
Library Thing is a niche social network for booklovers - LibraryThing for Libraries uses the data in a local catalog.
It’s good and a quick fix, but good enough? No single search box. No integrated non-book data. No feeds.
Library Thing takes data from what people have read and not what they have bought.
Tag cloud shows other books in the local catalog and searches by isbn.
Good for Readers’ Advisory.
Look for searches by isbn for stats.

Them and ME

• Companies are letting things out that are not from the PR department. Even police and schools
• Barriers to Web 2.0 implementation. Mine is that libraries don’t invest in a position devoted to innovative technology, if they do invest, they don’t also provide that person with the support they need to follow through on those their initiatives.
• Locked down library web sites help captive by overzealous IT departments or marketing/PR offices.
• Technology decisions without staff buy-in.
• Transparency: multiple avenues, visit font lines, cross-train, consider the role of anonymity, what would you add?
• Conversations: Open and honest - happens easily online, solicit input and USE IT, don’t ask staff for input if you are not going to use it.
• Speak in a human voice. People (patrons) have LOVED the human voice on our blog
• Administrators have to understand all the roles staff play in the library. Administrators should be able to work any desk in the building.
• Darien Library clerks blog and make purchasing decisions.
• ALL administrators should be able to create an email attachment.
• Hands on technology
• Anonymity can be good or bad, but it is difficult. Will get good survey results, if you can look passed the snarkiness and unconstructive negatives.
• Discussion of how to get staff involved and begin a conversation. Suggestion to include communication in the review process or offer a survey and give them access to the account for results.
• Parking space: ‘Reserved for Romance Reader of the Month.’
• Make sure the staff knows the mission statement. Do they care? If they don’t know where you’re headed or it will fail.
• CULTURAL SHIFT NOT SHINY NEW TOY. Blogging policy: support the mission and quote it.

I follow Marshall’s writing so I’m interested in what’s on his radar. Also, want to get a tip of two about what to ask Polaris.

Him and Me

• OCLC study showing that users do not turn to libraries for info needs. Only 2% of students start with library and only 1% in libraries. Uh huh, that’s not going to change. So we need to get OURSELVES in the search engines…. sigh.
• Users use amazon to find a book and then try the catalog. DUH, most librarians do the same thing. I know I do.
• We need better interfaces, better search capability that work how the web works, MEET user expectations… less underwhelming tools
• OPACs need to be put out of public use. Ahem to that
• ILS tools are crummy at delivering electric content. Why should there be a distinction between an OPAC and a Digital Library (Sorry, Jill)
• library catalog and OPAC are NOT descriptive.
• Not only know what we have, but deliver it to them.
• Redefinition: More comprehensive, NOT limited to print, access to digital content can’t be an afterthought, systems should be inclusive not exclusive.
• NOT federated search. if it’s built correctly, Google will search all the content. Just like other industry’s rely on.
• All of OCLC can go on an ipod - we are no longer battling a problem of scale.
• Web 2.0 now is an afterthought. NH just had a vendor fair for ILSs. 45 minutes for each. Word is that NONE offered an interface as good as Scriblio. Why? Not because Scriblio is brilliant, but because Scriblio is user focused and obeying Web2.0 conventions is a development priority.
• Ideal= unified user experience, single point of entry, print AND electronic, local and remote, locally created content, user contributed content. I would add PORTABLE.
• Features/Functions: single point of entry ONE search box, facets for narrowing HELP the searcher, don’t alienate them with ‘No Results, you dummy’, query enhancement ie. spelling correction…
• Sometimes I think we spend altogether too much time thinking and not enough time doing - by the time we’ve thought it out, the conclusions are obsolete… Break through? That’s maybe we’re always behind.
• We have great content, it needs to be available on the wider web.
• Make the response better than the query provided.
• FAST = Faceted Application of Subject Terminology
• Personalized user experience
• Back-end complexity should be as seamless as possible to the user. Let’s not insult our own educations and frustrate our users by assuming they can do what we do. ILS’s were made for US, we need something totally separate and built for them.
• We’re PART of a larger world and we have to be able to integrate.
• Decoupled interface HELLO SCRIBLIO - sometimes frustrating, I feel like Casey and I have been saying this for years. I believe I even said it to Marshall…
• Great cost… Doesn’t have to be, think about it.
• Open Source - Koha and Evergreen… hey, SCRIBLIO! YAY.
• POLARIS is one of the most forward thinking. Yay, GMILCS

Good presentation for an introduction, but I certainly feel like it’s been said. More people need to implement Scriblio in order for it to get higher on the radar.

In this session I’m hoping to get ideas for how to interest the uninterested on my staff. Or even how to empower the interested but reluctant or shy or, at the very least, convince those who think what I do is needless play, that it is actually an important and relevant initiative.

Him and me.

First: Donovan Deakin (WebJunction)
Market Research Trends.

• An increase in interest and adoption of online tools. Shoot, is this about HOW to get online staff training and not HOW to train staff to even get online? Darnit anyway.
• F2F is most popular, conferences, online training
• Blended learning.
• Wimba classroom; livemeeting.
• Formal training plans.
• Patron Services Content

I am not following this very well. It’s too much theory and not enough of what to do actually do.

• Information technology, computer applications and tools, web 2.0
• Impact and ROI of training: morale/job satisfaction, attendance and evaluation of trainings, job performance ratings, improved library services. What if the staff doesn’t want to come or if they do, they don’t show an interest in implementing it on behalf of the library?
• fit training design into current schedules
• Budgets static, projected to increase

More now by Rebecca Ranallo Kahl
Maybe this will be more what I was hoping for.

• Contracted to get training from community college for staff and then implemented it in house.
• New public website with increased staff responsibility. All staff responsible for web content. This is what I would like to do.
• Dedicated staff for training helped to comfort staff who were reluctant to adopt.
• Intranet which runs on same system as their cms so those may be comfortable contributing to intranet can then bring it to the cms.
• Committed funds for training and external trainers.
• Let staff PLAY with tools before they have to do it in public. How to get them to try and give it time to learn?
• Test case: Employee time and payroll software. System upgrade. All employees training by online tutorial. Sustainable. Designed for current staff. Useable as an orientation tool for new staff.
• Strategic Planning interactively! Included collaborative planning… video. ***
• Second Life. No staff computers can handle Second Life - create content. Not so sure about this.
• Cuyahoga Conversations: Community issues and interests, library hosts the site, library manages the conversation. Staff are excited, but also scared.
• Orientation Center includes online modules for Intellectual Freedom, Corporate Culture, Customer Service, Marketing, and Diversity. ***
  Barriers: Buy-in from Staff and from Managers, Bandwidth, Updated technology, union, fear of technology, complacency.
• Outcomes: Deliberate training plans, competency based evaluations, more working sessions (everyone brings in a project to work on and apply it), responsibility for learning, more on-demand opportunities.

Q&A Biggest challenges are fear and that they’re not required to immediately use what they learned.

Not so bad afterall. The question at the end really resonated. I have some ideas about effective staff training, but need a plan to present to the managers.

I couldn’t get on the wireless so I’m not liveblogging, really which really bums me out.

Them and Me

Firefox tools

• SafeCache protects your privacy segments the cache so one cookie can’t read another.
• SafeHistory similar, but hides your history. Good for public computers.
• Fox marks allows you to share book marks and go to my.foxmarks.com to see them.
• FEBE - Firefox environment backup extension. Sychonizes computer at work and computer at home.

Wait, I got on, commence liveblogging.

Other webtools

• Meebo chat widget. When you login it shows you are available. Libraries embedding it on the no search results page. In license databases.
• LinkBunch. Puts multiple links into one small link.
• DocSyncer. Automatically finds and syncs your document files to Google Docs. Yay, this would be great for reluctant Google Docs users. (You know who you are.)
• Twhirl - Twitter helps to keep in touch with colleagues. Join a river of conversation. Fades in and out as new tweets come in so you can glance.
• Polldaddy: creates a poll to put on your website.

Other web development tools

• VisCheck: simulates how images will look to someone who is colorblind
• Feng GUI feng-gui.com: Automatic alternative to eye-tracking and creates heat tracking.
• Browsershots: shows your site in different types of browsers. I need this for the new tamworth site, because I think it’s a mess in IE. When will I learn to code in IE?
• Flickr Photo Badge
• Photoshop Express www.photoshopexpress.com/express - photoshop you can use online.
• Forget location of website, think distribution. Put your stuff where they are. We need bookmarkable pages - permanent URLs.
• Google gadgets: put a countdown countdown widget on your site. Announce upcoming events.
• Altavista Babelfish site translator. Widget on the page: translate this page.

Cool utilities

• ProcessTamer: monitors CPU usage
• FileHamster: real time backup and archiving of your files while you work.

For this, I’m just looking for more ideas about how to punk our city’s cms. I heard Darlene and Jeff when I went to Monterey a few years ago.

Him and Me

• Improve the site incrementally. Iterative change - small stuff instead of big stuff. This model is so much easier on us web folk… especially with other responsibilities.
• Update your copyright date and last updated automatically. People DO pay attention to your site’s freshness.
• Outdated information = NO credibility. We’re always preaching about credibility, but we ignore how civilians judge it for themselves.
• Add photos to contacts! YAY! Put a face on the library Increases a users trust with the library website.
• Turning contacts into microformats, hcards. Note to self: order a book for the library on microformats hcard creator = cool! Firefox extensions for microformats: tails and something else I missed
• Replace all “click here’s”
• Three question survey: What is the purpose of your visit? Were you able to complete your task today? If you were not able to complete your task today, why not?
• directory links need final slashes.
• web 2.0 stylr for web 2.0 logo creation.
• Say things visually. Use icons. commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Clear/
• Stop slow loading. Diagnose at firebug with yslow FF extensions
• Get site-wide static content into the users cache. In the server config file set certain file types to stay fresh/not expire. Image file types, css, js files, pdfs. Have an .htaccess in your server root and add a FilesMatch for pdf, jpg, jpeg, png, gif, js, css, swf and set to expire in 2010.
• Eliminate inline scripts - put that stuff in external files and call it, except for the homepage. Even CSS should be inline.
• Spring cleaning with w3c validator. validator.w3.org/#validate_by_uri+with_options
• Clean css - looks for redundant and improperly nested. Also compresses it and makes it smaller.
• banner blindness. people read webpages in an F. I always thought that was interesting
• SEO, get good page titles. Check into Google Webmaster
• Format title tags: document title | section name | Library/site name
• Add labels to your forms
• Radio buttons = mutually exclusive; check boxes = one or more option
• SMO (social media friendly): add social media bookmark links to your pages. Use: Social Bookmark Creator

I have to admit that I was skeptical of this session, but it was super terrific. I’m going to take some cues from Jeff for my NELA talk.