GAME TEMPLATES SOFTWARE STATION: March 2011

Thursday, March 31, 2011

No One Starts at Your Website

Posted: 31 Mar 2011 08:00 AM PDT

Guess what? Your patrons aren’t starting their information searches at your library’s website. In fact, OCLC checked that out. In their Perceptions of Libraries, 2010: Context and Community report, they found that … NO ONE … started their info search at a library website. Yep – that’s a big, fat 0%.

And you know what? That’s ok.

Here are a couple of thoughts about that:

1. Your site isn’t built for that, and probably will never be. Sure, you have a link to your catalog. And links to a variety of databases. But those aren’t your website. On your actual website, you have a lot of information up about your library, like your policies and info on your board of trustees. But that’s not really what the majority of your patrons are interested in.

You do have some information that your patrons want, like hours, locations, etc – those are used a lot on my library’s website. But that’s not really the start of someone searching for information, is it?

2. There are other tools already set up that do that whole “let’s start an info search” much better than us. Think Google, Bing, or even Wikipedia. They are made to find little nuggets of info. In years past, actual librarians did that great – and there weren’t many other options. But now, the web owns that ready reference type stuff.

So what are our websites for?

Well – that should depend on your library’s strategic plan. But generally speaking, our websites serve a variety of purposes, including:

point to info sources. Catalog, databases, useful local organizations
we’re set up to answer questions (that’s not necessarily connected to beginning that info search)
some of us enhance learning, entertainment, and local community stuff via blog posts or posts/reminders about events at the library
all that normal stuff about the library – hours, locations, board members, policies.

But start info searches? That doesn’t really make sense in today’s web environment anymore (not to me, anyway).

Instead, point your patrons to the best places to go to start their searches – then, when they get confused … make sure they know that you are there, ready to expand, reshape, and redefine those searches so they’re actually useful.

That’s our job.

pic by jakeandlindsay

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Presentations at Computers in Libraries 2011

Posted: 30 Mar 2011 05:33 PM PDT

I gave a couple of presentations at last week’s Computers in Libraries conference (ok – 5, to be exact). I just uploaded them to Slideshare – here they are:

Social Media Strategy & Goals

View more presentations from David King

Social Media Strategy and Goals (embedded above)
Meta Social: Online Interactions and How to Make them Rock
Permission and Persuasion: Getting What you Want (and the 5th presentation was a preconference with Joe Murphy that included this info)
Topeka’s QR Code Scavenger Hunt: Success or Failure?

Enjoy!

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Monday, March 28, 2011

Livestreaming is Easy

Posted: 28 Mar 2011 08:00 AM PDT

I was just at Computers in Libraries 2011, a great conference that happens every spring in Washington, D.C.

Besides giving and attending some cool presentations (and hanging out with some awesome people), I was able to help out by livestreaming parts of the event.

Here’s what I livestreamed:

Monday’s keynote panel discussion on ebooks
James Crawford from Google Books, part 1 and part 2
Michelle Manafy on Digital Natives
Lee Rainie

Guess what? Livestreaming is really easy these days! Here’s how I did it:

I used ustream.tv – it’s a really nice livestreaming service that’s free to use.
I used their Ustream Producer app to do the livestream. It provides a slightly easier way to adjust the controls and options for the stream, rather than using the web-based version.
I used a camera from work – a Canon GL2, and plugged it into my Mac with a Firewire cable. For cameras, you have many options – here’s more info from ustream on compatible cameras
For audio, I ran a feed from the hotel’s sound board to a small preamp (shown in the picture). This gave me a lot of control over the audio signal. I could have simplified, and used the video camera’s audio – but the separate feed gave the livestream some great sound.

And that’s basically it! Once everything is set up, there’s basically two things to do – click the Broadcast button to go live, and click the Record button to record.

Problems? Yeah – I had a couple:

I wasn’t paying attention on Monday, and didn’t get that Record button pushed right at the beginning of the talk.
I compensated for that the next two days by hitting record way before the talk started, and caught some “on stage only” banter. Nothing embarrassing, but still…
Looks like someone bumped the camera in part 1 of James Cameron’s talk – he’s slightly off-screen at the beginning. I didn’t notice that, because I was running around like crazy, trying to deal with the next problem …
… Audio – someone had accidentally unplugged a cable (probably inadvertently, with their foot). In the video, you can actually see the audio guy (who was great!) plug it back in, and then hear the audio turn on.
The hotel’s internet connection (not sure the Washington Hilton was ready for 1600 geeks with gadgets).

So there you go. Livestreaming is easy (even though it can be tricky at times). Do any of you use livestreaming in your libraries or organizations? I’d love to hear from you!