Sunday, January 28, 2007
Change or die
I recently read the Fall 2006 "Seeing Eye Guide," a quarterly magazine published by the Seeing Eye in Morristown, NJ. Jim Kutsch, the newly-appointed president of the Seeing Eye (and the first president in its history who is visually impaired), was interviewed for an article in the magazine. He says something that struck home with me:
"The response of 'We've always done it that way' isn't justification for continuing to do something.... It is important to ask ourselves, if we came in today and built the very first dog guide school, how would we do it? And yet, we need to preserve those practices that are key to our continued success. We have more than 75 years of accumulated learning from which we have the privilege of drawing."
These words can be applied to libraries, as well. Change is stressful and it can really be hard to handle, but I believe it is necessary for individuals and organizations to take a good hard look at the way things operate in our libraries, and at the services we offer, and be willing to change if necessary.
If libraries are unwilling to work to achieve a balance between traditional and new services (and it is definitely hard work to try and do this), then libraries will die. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in ten years, but if we are unwilling to change to accomodate new technologies and the changing needs of our patrons, then yes -- I do believe the library will eventually be put out to pasture because it no longer meets the needs of the citizens who might use it. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 7:50 PM 0 comments links to this post
"The response of 'We've always done it that way' isn't justification for continuing to do something.... It is important to ask ourselves, if we came in today and built the very first dog guide school, how would we do it? And yet, we need to preserve those practices that are key to our continued success. We have more than 75 years of accumulated learning from which we have the privilege of drawing."
These words can be applied to libraries, as well. Change is stressful and it can really be hard to handle, but I believe it is necessary for individuals and organizations to take a good hard look at the way things operate in our libraries, and at the services we offer, and be willing to change if necessary.
If libraries are unwilling to work to achieve a balance between traditional and new services (and it is definitely hard work to try and do this), then libraries will die. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in ten years, but if we are unwilling to change to accomodate new technologies and the changing needs of our patrons, then yes -- I do believe the library will eventually be put out to pasture because it no longer meets the needs of the citizens who might use it. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 7:50 PM 0 comments links to this post
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Gaming and Libraries and more (oh my)!
(Disclaimer: I am a Member-At-Large on the NJLA IT Section and I posted this in a very similar post over on Library Garden.)
Hey! I just wanted to post a brief report on the NJLA Information Technology meeting that was held on Thursday at the East Brunswick Public Library. Library Garden's Tyler Rousseau gave a great presentation on Gaming in Libraries! The full presentation and handouts will be available very soon on the "Links of Interest" section on the NJLA IT page.
After Ty's presentation everyone got a chance to do some hands-on gaming! We provided Play Stations with Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero (one of my personal faves); some online gaming and the new Nintendo Wii.
The only downside to this event was that NOW I MUST HAVE A Wii!!! ;-) I don't consider myself to be much of a "gamer," but once I tried this I found out what all the fuss is about! It comes with the sports game that includes bowling, tennis and a few other things. I played the bowling game (against the very formidable Mary Martin, who kicked my butt!) and I am really hooked! The "real action" play of using the wireless hand-held controller while performing actions very similar to "real" bowling was just so much fun! I am officially saving up my money as of yesterday! Maybe if I practice enough I can take Mary in a re-match!!!!! ;-)
Funny aside: The other night a newscaster was reading from the teleprompter and read "Wii" as "World War II"! Also, if anyone is interested, our next meeting will be held March 8, location TBA, and will focus on Vodcasting! Check our page on the NJLA website for more information!
And, I wanted to point people to a great tool shared by Jessica Adler at the meeting (one of the regular features of our meetings is sharing information and sites or tools of interest)! The tool is Snipshot and it allows you to edit photos online before you share them. There is nothing to install - it is 100% web-based, with a one-click important from any site, and you can save to a free, permanent URL. I haven't tried it yet but it looks great! Thanks, Jess!!! ¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 1:30 PM 0 comments links to this post
Hey! I just wanted to post a brief report on the NJLA Information Technology meeting that was held on Thursday at the East Brunswick Public Library. Library Garden's Tyler Rousseau gave a great presentation on Gaming in Libraries! The full presentation and handouts will be available very soon on the "Links of Interest" section on the NJLA IT page.
After Ty's presentation everyone got a chance to do some hands-on gaming! We provided Play Stations with Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero (one of my personal faves); some online gaming and the new Nintendo Wii.
The only downside to this event was that NOW I MUST HAVE A Wii!!! ;-) I don't consider myself to be much of a "gamer," but once I tried this I found out what all the fuss is about! It comes with the sports game that includes bowling, tennis and a few other things. I played the bowling game (against the very formidable Mary Martin, who kicked my butt!) and I am really hooked! The "real action" play of using the wireless hand-held controller while performing actions very similar to "real" bowling was just so much fun! I am officially saving up my money as of yesterday! Maybe if I practice enough I can take Mary in a re-match!!!!! ;-)
Funny aside: The other night a newscaster was reading from the teleprompter and read "Wii" as "World War II"! Also, if anyone is interested, our next meeting will be held March 8, location TBA, and will focus on Vodcasting! Check our page on the NJLA website for more information!
And, I wanted to point people to a great tool shared by Jessica Adler at the meeting (one of the regular features of our meetings is sharing information and sites or tools of interest)! The tool is Snipshot and it allows you to edit photos online before you share them. There is nothing to install - it is 100% web-based, with a one-click important from any site, and you can save to a free, permanent URL. I haven't tried it yet but it looks great! Thanks, Jess!!! ¶ posted by Amy J. Kearns, MLIS @ 1:30 PM 0 comments links to this post
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Let's talk about automated phone systems.
A lot of companies in general, and a lot of libraries, loooove automated phone systems (which I will also refer to as phone trees). I hear a lot about how much time they are saving! And how efficient they are! But my question is: whose time are they saving? Because they're sure as heck not saving MY time, when I'm the person calling in, just trying to get a simple answer to my question. Historically, phone trees have not generated a lot of goodwill among the people who are subjected to them.
Have you heard of the Get Human database (http://www.gethuman.com)? It includes information on the quickest way to actually get to a human being at hundreds of companies. (Before you reach the point where your head explodes from rage and frustration, preferably.)
If you must use phone trees at your library, then for God's sake at least put some time and effort into planning them out. Here are a couple of tips for setting up a decent phone tree. (Please note, this is not a comprehensive list, and I'll probably add more to it as I think of things.)
* Take some time to plan your phone tree out before you implement it. Use flow charts! Write out the potential scripts. Think about the questions people are likely to want to ask, and the ways in which they might get lost in the system. Get feedback from your library's front-line staff. Get feedback from a few trusted library users. Do this work BEFORE you implement your phone tree. It is very frustrating for people when you take up even more of their valuable time by droning "Please listen closely to our menu, as our options have recently changed..." If you set things up right the first time, you'll never have to torture people with this message.
* What are the questions people are most likely to ask when they call? I've called libraries where the phone system starts off with a long prologue such as: "If you want to send a fax to our library, please send it to 555-555-5555. Our mailing address is 222 Cherry Lane, Nova Scotia. You can email us at nobody@nowhere.org. If you would like to speak to the Interlibrary Loan department, please hang up and dial 555-444-4444. If you would like to speak to the Reference Department.... " I have to listen to a whole bunch of this before I even have an option to talk to a human being! By the time I get the option to talk to someone, I've fallen asleep in boredom.
* Have someone record your telephone tree scripts who actually has inflection in their voice, so that a bit of personality and liveliness shines through. Sure, you probably aren't feeling too enthusiastic about sitting there reading all this stuff, but look at it this way -- at least you aren't the one who's on the other end, being forced to listen to it. The least you can do is try to make it sound like you care and are happy to serve.
* Keep it short and sweet. "Welcome to Your Library. For library hours, press 1. To renew a book, press 2. For reference, press 3. To sign up for storytimes, press 4. For all other questions, please press 0."
* Use language your users will understand -- "Inter-library Loan" instead of "ILL," for example. Or "to renew a book" instead of "for circulation."
Considering how bad so many phone trees are, it may not be surprising that I was unable to find much information on how to set up a decent automated phone system. But I only did a cursory search. If anyone knows of good planning tools for automated phone systems (for libraries or for businesses in general), please share them with the rest of us. Down with telephone trees from hell! We don't have to take it any more! ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 5:02 PM 0 comments links to this post
Have you heard of the Get Human database (http://www.gethuman.com)? It includes information on the quickest way to actually get to a human being at hundreds of companies. (Before you reach the point where your head explodes from rage and frustration, preferably.)
If you must use phone trees at your library, then for God's sake at least put some time and effort into planning them out. Here are a couple of tips for setting up a decent phone tree. (Please note, this is not a comprehensive list, and I'll probably add more to it as I think of things.)
* Take some time to plan your phone tree out before you implement it. Use flow charts! Write out the potential scripts. Think about the questions people are likely to want to ask, and the ways in which they might get lost in the system. Get feedback from your library's front-line staff. Get feedback from a few trusted library users. Do this work BEFORE you implement your phone tree. It is very frustrating for people when you take up even more of their valuable time by droning "Please listen closely to our menu, as our options have recently changed..." If you set things up right the first time, you'll never have to torture people with this message.
* What are the questions people are most likely to ask when they call? I've called libraries where the phone system starts off with a long prologue such as: "If you want to send a fax to our library, please send it to 555-555-5555. Our mailing address is 222 Cherry Lane, Nova Scotia. You can email us at nobody@nowhere.org. If you would like to speak to the Interlibrary Loan department, please hang up and dial 555-444-4444. If you would like to speak to the Reference Department.... " I have to listen to a whole bunch of this before I even have an option to talk to a human being! By the time I get the option to talk to someone, I've fallen asleep in boredom.
* Have someone record your telephone tree scripts who actually has inflection in their voice, so that a bit of personality and liveliness shines through. Sure, you probably aren't feeling too enthusiastic about sitting there reading all this stuff, but look at it this way -- at least you aren't the one who's on the other end, being forced to listen to it. The least you can do is try to make it sound like you care and are happy to serve.
* Keep it short and sweet. "Welcome to Your Library. For library hours, press 1. To renew a book, press 2. For reference, press 3. To sign up for storytimes, press 4. For all other questions, please press 0."
* Use language your users will understand -- "Inter-library Loan" instead of "ILL," for example. Or "to renew a book" instead of "for circulation."
Considering how bad so many phone trees are, it may not be surprising that I was unable to find much information on how to set up a decent automated phone system. But I only did a cursory search. If anyone knows of good planning tools for automated phone systems (for libraries or for businesses in general), please share them with the rest of us. Down with telephone trees from hell! We don't have to take it any more! ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 5:02 PM 0 comments links to this post
Friday, January 19, 2007
New Apple iPhone looks cool
I read an interesting article in Time last week about the new Apple iPhone -- the article is available here if you're interested. I've always been a big proponent of good user interface design (few things cause me to rant and rave more than what I perceive as bad user interface design) and it really seems as if Apple is very interested in fixing some of the things that are broken with cell phone technology. (Of course, how much I am willing to PAY for good user interface design is another question altogether. The new iPhone is $499 and frankly I don't use my cell phone enough to be willing to fork over that kind of dough.)
The last paragraph of the article really spoke to me. I'm going to quote it here. "...When our tools don't work, we tend to blame ourselves, for being too stupid or not reading the manual or having too fat fingers.... In other words, when our tools are broken, we feel broken. And when somebody fixes one we feel a tiny bit more whole."
This must be how our library patrons feel when they are forced to use an unfriendly PAC that doesn't tolerate spelling errors or insists on making you click through several screens instead of just giving you a list of items that might match your request. At least with the card catalog, they could flip through nearby entries in hopes of finding what they needed. How many library users are currently feeling stupid and avoiding the library because they can't figure out how to use a tool (our PAC) that is broken?
What would happen if we could get our automation vendors to fix our PACs to work as fluidly and effectively as Amazon, instead of constantly developing new bells and whistles and new modules to attract new customers and not fixing the crappy PACs they currently provide?
All I can say is, thank God for Amazon. When I can't find what a patron wants in the PAC, I turn to Amazon, and I can usually find just what the patron wants. It's much more tolerant of user error. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 9:32 AM 1 comments links to this post
The last paragraph of the article really spoke to me. I'm going to quote it here. "...When our tools don't work, we tend to blame ourselves, for being too stupid or not reading the manual or having too fat fingers.... In other words, when our tools are broken, we feel broken. And when somebody fixes one we feel a tiny bit more whole."
This must be how our library patrons feel when they are forced to use an unfriendly PAC that doesn't tolerate spelling errors or insists on making you click through several screens instead of just giving you a list of items that might match your request. At least with the card catalog, they could flip through nearby entries in hopes of finding what they needed. How many library users are currently feeling stupid and avoiding the library because they can't figure out how to use a tool (our PAC) that is broken?
What would happen if we could get our automation vendors to fix our PACs to work as fluidly and effectively as Amazon, instead of constantly developing new bells and whistles and new modules to attract new customers and not fixing the crappy PACs they currently provide?
All I can say is, thank God for Amazon. When I can't find what a patron wants in the PAC, I turn to Amazon, and I can usually find just what the patron wants. It's much more tolerant of user error. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 9:32 AM 1 comments links to this post
Thursday, January 18, 2007
What will they demand next?
Check out this recent article from The Onion, a stalwart bastion of news righteousness, to find out the latest horror facing libraries:
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/57511/print/ ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 2:51 PM 0 comments links to this post
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/57511/print/ ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 2:51 PM 0 comments links to this post
Pimp My Bookcart
I was delighted to get a "Pimp My Bookcart" t-shirt from my boss Roz as a holiday gift. I wear it proudly (but not while I'm working). The deadline for Unshelved's "Pimp My Bookcart" contest -- yes there really was a contest-- is January 15th 2007 so I'm looking forward to seeing the results soon.
¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 12:52 PM 0 comments
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Tag, You're It
NJ State Librarian Norma Blake tagged me on January 17, 2007. Check out her blog at http://www.njstatelib.org/blakesblog/.
Five things you may not know about me:
1. I sang in a band with library coworkers when I worked in Arkansas - we were called "Dewey and the Decimals." We performed at a branch opening.
2. I love watching movies about dancing even though (or perhaps because) I am a very bad dancer myself. "Strictly Ballroom" is one of my all-time favorites.
3. My refrigerator contains nothing but condiments, soy milk, and an old hunk of cheese that I keep meaning to throw out. Sometimes I'm not quite sure how I manage to survive.
4. I usually carry at least one crossword or Sudoku book and two books with me at all times, just in case I should happen to encounter a large pocket of time with nothing to do. Sadly, this happens much less frequently than I would like. But I remain optimistic.
5. My cat, Xena the Warrior Kitty, is the boss of me. I keep trying to get her to help me out with household chores but she absolutely, flat-out refuses to learn how to operate the vacuum cleaner. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 12:08 PM 2 comments links to this post
Five things you may not know about me:
1. I sang in a band with library coworkers when I worked in Arkansas - we were called "Dewey and the Decimals." We performed at a branch opening.
2. I love watching movies about dancing even though (or perhaps because) I am a very bad dancer myself. "Strictly Ballroom" is one of my all-time favorites.
3. My refrigerator contains nothing but condiments, soy milk, and an old hunk of cheese that I keep meaning to throw out. Sometimes I'm not quite sure how I manage to survive.
4. I usually carry at least one crossword or Sudoku book and two books with me at all times, just in case I should happen to encounter a large pocket of time with nothing to do. Sadly, this happens much less frequently than I would like. But I remain optimistic.
5. My cat, Xena the Warrior Kitty, is the boss of me. I keep trying to get her to help me out with household chores but she absolutely, flat-out refuses to learn how to operate the vacuum cleaner. ¶ posted by Mary Martin @ 12:08 PM 2 comments links to this post
