APL Book Brigade in competition

At yesterday's statewide book-cart drill team competition, APL's Bookcart Brigade scored an Honorable Mention. Some of us thought they deserved better for their excellent performance, but we might possibly be biased. Nevertheless, they collected a lot of cheers, won a gift certificate from sponsor Demco, and had some fun. We're very proud!

Great WI library websites

The Wisconsin Library Association Media and Technology Section (MATS) has announced the 2008 "Webbie" awards in the following categories:

Best Innovative Use of Technology in Providing Library Services: LD Fargo Library YouTube Channel
Site designer: Gerard Saylor

Best Reference Site: Project Play
Site designers: Beth Carpenter, Joy Schwarz, Stef Morrill

Best Site for Kids: Monona Public Library
Site designer: Erick Plumb

Coolest Design: Beloit Public Library
Site designer: John Burns

Most Accessible Site: Wisconsin's Water Library
Site designer: UW-Madison, Aquatic Science Center

Best of the Best: LD Fargo Library YouTube Channel
Site designer: Gerard Saylor

Congratulations to all the winners, and a special shout-out to Project Play, which provided a great educational tool for our staff.

WAPL Conference Notes: an index to blog entries

The 2008 Wisconsin Association of Public Libraries Conference was held in Stevens Point on April 30th-May 2nd. Several members of WAPL and the WLA Media and Technology Section (MATS) have blogged the conference, reporting on many individual programs. These included Joy Schwarz, Michael Golrick and myself on the WLA Blog, Tasha Saecker on Sites & Soundbytes, and Nichole Fromm on nichole's auxiliary storage . Michael has also posted on his Thoughts from a Library Administrator.

See also the Post Conference Resources page for handouts, etc. -- includes some great PowerPoints!

Sessions blogged:

• Keynote: The Economic Impact of Wisconsin Public Libraries (Saecker)
• Keynote: The Economic Impact of Wisconsin Public Libraries (Golrick)
• Investment Returns: Using the Public Library Economic Impact Study Results in Your Library (Saecker)
• Investment Returns: Using the Public Library Economic Impact Study Results in Your Library (Golrick)
• Digitization of Local History Materials: LSTA Success Stories (Fromm)
• Imagine That: Intergenerational Storytelling with People with Dementia (Dawson)
  
• Unintended Consequences: Traditional Library Practices as Barriers (Saecker)
• Where Are We Going? Strategic Planning for Results (Golrick)
• "One Book, One Community" Programs: the Do's and Don'ts (Dawson)
• Jay Rath: The Writer's Real Life, or Be Your Own Boss! Work at Home and Pray for Universal Coverage (Saecker)
• Jay Rath: The Writer's Real Life, or Be Your Own Boss! Work at Home and Pray for Universal Coverage (Golrick)
• Continuing Education in Your Pajamas-New Technologies Bring New Opportunities (Golrick)
  
• Continuing Education in Your Pajamas-New Technologies Bring New Opportunities (Dawson)
• MySpace - Don’t Be Intimidated By It! Can It Work For Your Library? (Schwarz)
  
• MySpace - Don’t Be Intimidated By It! Can It Work For Your Library? (Saecker)
• Have You Heard About... (Golrick) & the del.icio.us page of resources
• Have You Heard & Be the Boss of Your Browser (Saecker)
  
• Notable Genre Book Discussion (and bonus Have You Heard...) (Fromm)
• Dick Bennett: "The Rule Rather Than the Exception" (Golrick)
  

PLA pix

Photos from the PLA conference in Minneapolis, including many pictures of the Minneapolis Public Library.

PLA: "If you're not comfortable with experimenting, get over it!"

I really enjoyed the Public Library Association conference in Minneapolis last week. Six days away from home, but it was worth the time. There were many highlights for me, and I'll write about some of the sessions in detail. Things I liked:

• excellent program -- too many good choices for sessions
• a fine reception at the very cool Open Book in Minneapolis -- "Minnesota's enter for reading, writing and the book arts"
  
• online resources -- downloadable handouts and PowerPoints make a lot of information accessible even for non-attendees
  
• talking with many vendors
• meeting people and comparing notes on the programs, vendors and our jobs -- including face-to-face meetings with people I've only known online
• spending time with my daughter, Gillian, as professional colleagues; color me proud
  

One of the most inspirational and empowering programs was "The Cutting Edge: the latest on Web 2.0." Speakers included Jen Maney (Pima County Public Library), Michael Stephens (Tame the Web & the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Dominican University) and John Blyberg (formerly AADL, now the Darien Library). The entire presentation is online as an .MP3 file; I recommend listening while reading along on the handouts.

Jen Maney noted that 2.0 levels the playing field and is not a technological phenomenon, but a sociological one. She said "if you're not comfortable with experimenting, get over it!" She encouraged us to play, to know that we can't do it all and to pick and choose -- her motto is "Designing for Uncertainty".

Michael Stephens had a lengthy and detailed PowerPoint (large .pdf version) with lots of good examples and reminded us that though we talk about and use technology, it's not about technology. 2.0 is "not a shiny new toy, but a carefully planned response to a changing world."

John Blyberg humorously and beautifully deconstructed Andrew Keen's Cult of the Amateur and defended the virtues of Web 2.0 with this PowerPoint. He noted we need to "encourage the heart." Thanks for lifting those lingering twopointopian guilt trips.

Nobody was lifting up 2.0 or any technology as a panacea or bandwagon, but talking about interesting new ways to implement our enduring values.

1 conference, 4 blogs, 8 bloggers, 36 posts

We had a great Wisconsin Library Association Conference in Green Bay last week, thanks to a lot of good work by many people. I put a post in the blog partway through the week, but there are a lot of postings in four different blogs that I know of. If I'm missing some, please post a comment / link! Thanks to all the bloggers for sharing their experiences:

Michael Golrick / Thoughts of a Library Administrator:

• The 411 on Mashups
• Wisconsin Public Library Standards and Certification
• Non-Profit Marketing
• Flash! The Future of the talking book
• Learning Games and Simulations
• Applying Survey Methodology in the Real World
• Keynote by David Maraniss
  

Tasha Saecker / Sites & Soundbytes:

• Poets as Peacemakers, Poets as Healers
• Palm Program
• The New Media Ecology
• Leadership and Resilience
• Tasha's Library 2.0 Presentation Slides
• Podcasting as a Library Tool
• Intellectual Freedom Issues with Judith Krug of ALA
• Preconference - Living Your Life on Purpose with Joan Gilman

Leslie Farrell / Posterhead

• New Media Ecology presentation by Lee Rainie
• Managing Your Library for Great Customer Service with Jefferey Russell

The WLA Blog - with bloggers Beth Carpenter, Joy Schwarz, Pete Gilbert, Nanette Bulebosh, & Amanda Werhane

• The 411 on Mashups (Joy)
• The 411 on Mashups (Beth)
• Tracing Your Ancestors Through Genealogy Tips and Tricks (Joy)
• WisconsinEye.com (Amanda)
• Non-Profit Marketing: What I Should Know about Marketing That My Mother Wouldn't Tell Me (Amanda)
• Taking the "Non" Out of Non-User (Beth)
• UW-Madison Libraries/Google Partnership (Joy)
• The New Media Ecology (Joy)
• The New Media Ecology (Beth)
• Those Who Can, Teach: Becoming a More Effective "One Shot" Trainer (and Explainer) (Joy)
• Tasha explains Library 2.0 for you (Nanette)
• Library Conference Planning 101: Backs to the WAAL (Amanda)
• David Maraniss keynote (Amanda)
• Real World RSS: Developing a Current Awareness Service for Your Patrons (Joy)
• Web 2.0 (Beth)
• Podcasting as a Library Tool (Beth)
• Lutie Stearns and Her Library Legacy - Stuart Stotts (Pete)
• Putting Library Services Where Our Users Live and Work: Future of the OPAC (Joy)
• Applying Survey Methodology in the Real World (Joy)

Thank you all --Wisconsin library folks rock!

WLA - learning in person & online

We're in the midst of the Wisconsin Library Association annual conference in Green Bay. It's great to rub elbows with colleagues, meet vendors, have lots of conversations -- some quick, some in-depth -- and of course, go to programs. The conference team and WLA staff are doing a great job as usual.

Thanks to some good bloggers and the WLA website, there are opportunities to learn and talk about the programs even for those who were not able to get here. The WLA blog has extensive notes on many of the programs. Worth watching and following as the website become richer with links to presentations and online resources.

Library Links 2: the QuickRef Library Page

I love QuickRef, and I probably don't say it often enough to our Reference staff.

Time was everybody maintained link lists, often annotated. Shortly after our library set up our web site, we added a list of useful links. Managed for years by Reference Librarian (& poet) Harriet Tippet, the page was known as "Harriet's Hot Links." Harriet is gone, alas, but our link list transmogrified into a great tool to help our librarians answer questions. It soon proved popular with other libraries and patrons.

That tool is QuickRef, and it contains separate pages on a variety of topics, each page with a categorized list of links. Part of what I like is the clean and easy-to-use design, but mostly I just like that it's useful and handy. Pages include: Books & Lit. Business , Education , Ready Reference, and many others -- but for this discussion I'll focus on the Library Page.

Categories, each of which includes from four to fifteen links, are:

• Indexes
• Libraries
• Full Text Indexes *
• Wisconsin Libraries (statewide resources)
• WI Public Libraries & catalogs
• WI Academic Libraries & catalogs
• Other Wis. Libraries & Associations
• Prof. Resources
• Listservs

Needless to say, having the most useful links gathered beats the heck out of imperfect Googling. We'll have to see what the future brings -- will del.icio.us replace separately maintained link lists altogether? Some thoughts and examples of library links in the 2.0 environment in forthcoming part 3.

Wisconsin Association of Public LIbraries conference notes

This is the third and final day of this year's WAPL conference. As usual, it's been a good time and worthwhile, not just for the change of pace, but for the opportunity to learn and get some perspective from other libraries.

This year, I've been one of several folks blogging the conference over on the WLA Blog, and the collective posts provide a partial snapshot by highlighting some of the sessions. Other resources, including presenter PowerPoints and bibliographies, are available on the Post-Conference Resources page.