My Favorite Posts By Month — NavelGazing 2008 Part 2

(Subs were great.  It is a yearly tradition at HCPL that  my director throw for staff who happen to work on New Year’s Eve.)

As we come to the time of year rife with looking back and looking forward I want to thank all of you for following me, reading my blog, following my friendfeed, looking at my pictures, and following my exploits as the training flyboy in the buttermilk.

So, I give to you my favorite posts of each month of this year from this blog.  Part One is here.

And now for more of 2008.

May 2008: How Twitter Made My Life Better.
Yes, I called out Comcast on Twitter. Yes, I got a response from Comcast and now I have the comcast Triple Play for less than I was paying Comcast and Verizon for Phone, Cable and Internet.  And as soon as Verizon brings FIOS to Harf. Co.  I am so there.   Unless Comcast comes through with a better offer.

June 2008: I <3 Mouseprint
I love this site, which proves after all these years that I was not crazy about the corporate food package shrinkage that has been happening for years.   Now I follow this site for the latest things I will not be purchasing.

July 2008: FriendFeed and I are now, well friends.
2008 Killer Social App of the year. QED.  I was shocked that I have only been using FriendFeed since July.  I cannot imagine my day without it.

August 2008:
How I Found My Way to Libraries? Glad you asked;
Extreme Bathroom Makeover Mrs.baldgeekinmd style;
Introducing T is for Training podcast.
These three posts are a part of another busy month and serve as a past, present and future of my year.   And I cannot say enough how much I love doing the T is for Training podcast. (next show on Friday Jan 2, 2009) I keep hoping it helps a few fellow trainers out and helps them not feel alone in the training woods.

September 2008:
How/Why I got Into Blogging?
The Chron got Blog Dayed..
Two posts relating to blogging (which I still love to do in fits and starts and when appropriate.) It is nice to know people actually read this thing.

October 2008:
Rutabee and Road Work: My Minnesota Training Adventure;
Starter Observations from the Learning 2008 conference.
These two posts sum up my main work and me for the majority of the month.  It also signaled a shift in how I blog conferences and events.  I used flickr for pictures from Minnesota and beyond, used my new IPod Touch.(squeeee!) to twitter and blog Learning 2008 and experienced the truly cold weather in Orlando that week.  38 degrees cold.  Also I proudly drove (mostly by myself) almost 1000 miles in 9 days in Minnesota.

November 2008: On Open Letter about election 2k8
Most. Historic. Election. Ever.

December 2008: MLA 2k9 Presentation: A Pecha Kucha about 2.0h
Looking ahead to next year’s Maryland Library Association Pecha Kucha presentation with a bunch of virtual/f2f friends.

Thanks for reading and I hope to do even better next year.

bald.

My Favorite Posts By Month — NavelGazing 2008 Part 1

As we come to the time of year rife with looking back and looking forward I want to thank all of you for following me, reading my blog, following my friendfeed, looking at my pictures, and following my exploits as the training flyboy in the buttermilk.

So, I give to you my favorite posts of each month of this year from this blog.

January 2008: Sports Break — NY Football Giants in the Big Game
I was right about this, except I gave both teams 10 extra points in a completely thrilling Super Bowl. And this time the (dec 08) the Giants are back as the favorites.  Nice.

February 2008: Damn only three posts?!  Not wasting your time.

March 2008: Now You Can Tweet Me…
Who knew that this would become the gateway app to this year’s killer ap for me Friendfeed.  I now use twitter as occasional updater, billboard, advertising platform for my lifestreaming and blogging.  I don’t use it as much for direct microblogging as I did previously.  It is the killer app for me for conferences.  I can use my IPod Touch to tweet the conference, create quotes and generally not have to carry the big honkin ‘laptop around with me all day.

April 2008:
CIL2008 Day the First A review;
CIL2008 My Day Two in Review;
CIL2008 Day Three In Review;
CIL2008 Gaming: Gimme’ Shelter;
Pardon the Navelgazing: Happy 1st Blogbirthday to the Chronicles

Quite a banner month on the blog and in my professional life.  CIL 2008 dominated the posts *as it should as the “best conference ever for 2008″ awarded to it by yours truly earlier this year.*   Needless to day that I loved the conference for a pile of reasons.  Three unreported small moments that stick out for me.  I sat next to Karen Schnider in a meeting;and got a hug from Chadwick Seagraves in the hallway and connected with my fellow MD trainers over lunch and dinner.    Yep, the personal moments improving the value of the conference.  Also, the conference had so much information, that I had to create a separate Island of lost posts to post the leftovers from the conference.
(BTW: anyone want to sponsore my attending CIL 2009 this year?   We can talk easy terms. )

Part Two forthcoming.  Now time for our library New Year’s Eve Lunch.   Subs..mmmm..

2008 I(o)LP – April 2008 Library Staff Training

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.

From (April 2008) CIL My Unedited but newly half organized Live Blogging Notes of this workshop at Computers in Libraries 2008: Session D105 – Library Staff Training Donovan’s  PPT’s are here and Rebecca’s are here. Another good session I attened at CIL.  (I do so want to go back in 2009)

Library Staff Training with Donovan Deakin of Web Junction and Rebecca Ranalio Kahl, Internet and Media Services Manager Cuyahoga County Public Library. Donovan is on the left, went first and talked about electronic web based learning. Rebecca presented a case study of her system.

Donovan asks the audience a question: How do you like your coffee? There are many ways to order coffee in Seattle and there are that many ways libraries are implementing staff training.

Some trends in library training noticed by WebJunction include: Increased interest and adpotion of online learning and dissatisifaction of responding systems with their own existing online learning programs.

Commonly recognized barriers to learning (the you are not alone portion of the show):
Staff time or lack thereof, No expertise or access to content, lack of funding/travel for conference or training attendance ; and technology using it and access to it.

Online learning adpotion by libraries is pretty good. A majority offer surveyed offer online learing today or will in the next two years. WJ noticed a trend in how systems were using online training: Larger budget systems tended to go toward the Synchronous/Live Electronic class model and both large and smaller budget systems use asynchronous/self-directed learning.

Blended learning is being adopted and adapted by systems. Using different elements of traditional and newer learning models.

Tech content in staff traning: Information technology, networking, desktop management, computer applications and tools, Web 2.0 Technologies and reacihing out and engaging staff and service community.

Noticed Impact/ROI of training: Morale and job satisifcation, attendance and evaluation of training, job perfomrance ratings and improved library sevice.

Summary of findings: training content design needs to fit existing schedules; training budgets static and projected to increase, online learning adoption is slow but will grow and there is a growing awareness for web20 technologies.

(Ed note: this section contains pure live blogging notes from this session.)

Next to speak was Rebecca Ranallo Kahl, Internet & Media Services Manager, Cuyahoga County Public Library (68 million dollar budget, over 1000 staff with 663 in SEIU, 106 managers and confidental clerical staff.)  It is one of the 10 busiest libraries in country and is the county that surrounds Cleveland Ohio with 28 branches.  She gave a nutshell presentation about her system’s training now and where they are going in the future.

Training situation now: Launched new intranet with cms (content management system) running both public and staff sides; staff becoming more comfortable adding information to public side by adding content to intranet; blended learning workshops to teach new cms (Content Management System) content creation. House interanet was very static.  Systems used contracted training and workshops. have many resources out there. anbd are using nancy peral an dlookin g for mgmt training
Elearning tutorials online
increased blended learning options
increased 20 visibility
more hands on and some staff practice and play.
trying to get staff to see and use connections

work on interactive modules for working on strategic plan using 2.0 tools
another project
second like training project with stff to get used to developing content for staff in anticipation of getting computers that can handle second life.
another project
cuyahoga conversations interactive converastion space with subject specialsit community news and interests. We host and they manage the conversation. Her staff is excited about comments on this space and comments on catalog.
revamping orientation center.
online modules for intellectual freedom, corporate culture, customer service, marketing, diversity. putting together already created content with new content for a FULL Week.

Outcomes
6 mo 2 year
deliberate traning plans
compentecny based new management expections.
more working sessions
responsiblity for leraning
more ondemand opprotunities.
Would like to move intermediate traing to real works exercises in their training.

2008 I(o)LP– April 2008 Wikis: Managing, etc.

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.  Looking back, this was a really good session, I should have posted back in April.  Now, I fell guilty.  Dang.  Well — here it is.

April 2008: CIL Session named Wikis: Managing, Marketing, & Making Them Work Some formalized notes some of the post contains just notes.

Chad Boeninger (His Blog) Reference and instructional librarian at Ohio University Libraries spoke about wikis and how to manage, market and using them. His BizWiki is here. This is a summary of his presentation. As soon as I find it, I will place a link to it here on this post.

He created this presentation because a number of librarians asked him how to make wikis work for them. He used wiki technology as a collaborative tool to communicate with users while putting together as subject guides across a network.

First, a caveat, remember to define a purpose or problem to figure out if you do need a wiki or are their other tools that may work better for you.

Why did Ohio use a wiki? The library had a network drive which developed different knowledge silos on their network drive. Staff wiki helps keep information in one place. If someone leaves, their knowledge is not kept in their silo

They use their bizinfo wiki as a public subject guide. This met their need to keep their information accessible and organized even though expert staff were not there or still at the library.

How do you choose which software to use for your wiki?

The site wikimatrix.org offers free assistance to compare wiki farms and software to see which one best meets your needs. Categories, better organization

Locally hosted Options

What is required?: Experience, Desire to experiment, Ready to get your hands dirty customizing the look and feel, Data lives on YOUR server.

Wiki Farms and Services

Why use a wiki farm?: for new users, they are nice, require little technical knowledge and when they upgrade, your wiki upgrade. Also a good place to start.

What did they use in Ohio?

They ended up hosting their wiki using mediawiki for all of their wikis. This allowed them to keep a consistent look throughout their wiki’s. They also went with mediawiki because if anyone knows how to use wikipedia, they would be able to navigate their wiki.

So, now that they choose a tool, how did they structure the wiki?

Well, this is the hard part. Provide struction and content so your users can find things quickly on the wiki.

After you structure your wiki , you will probably need to encourage folks to change it. You have to essentially say “Ok here is stuff, you go edit this now.”

No one will know what to do with your wiki if you don’t have a purpose or have some content. Feel free to steal your ideas from others. The wikiIndex is a great resource to find various wikis. He encourages you to check them out and steal the way they are organized.

What do I put on first?

Content:

Just start with the old content cut and pasted onto site;
Seek input from users for additional content and layout;
Provide Help Page on your Wiki…..a wiki text help page;
Provide more help via a screencast to help folks do basic things on your wiki;
Add content yourself: Try to think of what to add and when to add it to your wiki;
Use your wiki to communicate information and create a knowledge base.
Encourage others to add content;
Let others add content.
Don’t get feelings hurt and don’t demand perfection! Its ok if it does not look perfect.
Force staff to add content to wiki.
Have buy in from higher up bosses to direct staff to add to wiki.
Provide even more help. There is never too much help offer in person and to give immediate help.

How to promote your wiki?

Teach off of wiki. Use the collected knowledge during presentations.
Add desirable content — What resources do your users need?
List open desk hours on the wiki.

Your wiki MUST be flexible. MUST BE FLEXIBLE
you should be too
have realistic expectation for use
dont be surpised if users use the wiki otehr than intended
users may use it, but may not contributge.

How easy is it to add content? Add content on the fly to your wiki.

Kernels not corn…instant response to information requests.

On the FLY CONTENT from email to content on wiki in 30 minutes
CREATE ARTICLES TO ADD list to wiki.

Here a wiki, there a wiki. Should you system collect a wiki? or have individual Create google custom serach for diparate wikis.

WHEN IS A WIKI DONE….It is never done…always growing and changing. A static wiki defeats the purpose of the wiki. Maintian links create new pages, edit old ones to unsure viablity of wiki
How do you know it is still alive

Lesson learned Reasonable expectations of users, use. they may not think it is as cool as you do.

IS A WIKI FOR YOU
Flexible
can be adapted to meet your needs
Wikis save time
require contributions and edits.

aol yahoo im cfboeninger

for more informaton ohio libraries business blog.

2008 I(o)LP – May 2008 The MLS Thing

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.

This came out of a conversation on either on blogs, twitter or friendfeed (frankly I don’t remember) and was part of the reason I started the podcast, T is for Training to create a place to have these types of conversations for trainers who happen to work in libraries.

From May, 2008: Lori, both you and another more local trainer friend of mine Tech from the Non-techie have both touched upon a thing that has been sticking in my internal inbox for the greater part of a month.

When I do our first day and our full day customer service orientation, I emphasize to all staff that their friends and family do not care that they are a page, circulation specialist, librarian, manager or anything else. The job designations only matter inside of our doors. To them, they are librarians. Period. I also set up my training programs that way, giving weight do skills needed to work in the library not just as a librarian.

So why, when there are many branches and entire systems nationwide that do not have MLS librarians leading them on a daily basis, are opportunities for professional development, such as the ALA leadership limited to only some leaders?

Personally, I am not an MLS library staff person, but in Maryland, our Maryland Library Leadership Institute does not specify that you <i>have</i> to be a MLS holder but by my observation, it seems to help A LOT in the decision making process.

I hope that ALA and state library systems review and revisit guidelines that limit library professional development to MLS holders, since there are many non-MLS holders leading from many different positions in library land.

2008 Island of Lost Posts I(o)LP – April 2008

Now that we are at the end of the traditional western calendar year, I am looking back at some posts that were not quite ready for prime time.  I hope they interest you and provide some enlightenment and entertainment these last days of 2008 and first of 2009.

From (April 2008) CIL My Unedited but newly sort of organized Live Blogging Notes of this workshop at Computers in Libraries 2008: Session C205 – 2.0 Pecha Kucha—Conversation Face-Off!

CIL2008 2.0 Pechua Kechua or some thing.

pecha 1

Amanda Etches Johnson blogger.
IM need to be there to support an dprovide ref serveices the promise of virtual reference.
software was not user centric.
Now you can use im aggretgaotrs mulitple services\.

Widget ot provide a right there access to staff a chat widget for your pages. Hummainzes the information.

Podcasting
PC 2
podcasting by Greg Schawartz

he got an Ipod and need to discover content for such…. looked on podcast aggregaorts found library
podcasts wanting. so…He created his own. Create content and teach partons via podcasts. shortish info blasts,
promoting literacy and the serviced commuities. Libraries sharing stories.

uncontrolledvocalubary.com
No library too large or too small to podcast.

So how do youknow people are listening?

Pecha 3
meredith farkas

Wikis are like a barn raising. Each person can add and edit. all of us have unique knowledge.
we can collect that knowledge to benefit all.

ie Rock Wiki Chicago library with moderaly priced resturants.

Pecha 4

Video casting David free
give cameras to teens to show off your library. (The Library Rap) pill of learning.

loud tasty teen tour cat learns make time be super
It iw worth the time Video: finding time in the penn state library.

Pecha 5

Aaron and facebook
to be online its to be social facebook shows us that your site should be social too.

(ed note: I can say that I was distracted by the twitter traffic and my neighbor Rachel V’s smoking laptop at this point during the session. Sorry Aaron. )

skeptic greag notess

Is it the final solution? what was the problem? does it solve life’s questions?

chat is small component of service delivery.

Are we experst in creating content or finding and collecting content.

Ditto…do you have a david free? or a greg?

How do people use videos. doing work, use comiuters, surfing anon.

wikis are not all wikipedia

how many sit untouched

cil wiki. 57 out of 2200 people on the wiki.

worldcat — where is your time and money going?

openurl resouver

Cost benefits analysis… consider cost in time and money. benefit who and how.

Exam Week’s Random Kudos

Hey all, been busy doing the exam week and two job thing, so its has been quiet on in the world of the bald. There are some things that have come across my radar (thanks friendfeed) that I want to comment on.

Congratulations to my MD Learning 2.1 training partner Jen for being named the new director of the Somerset Co. MD Library System.

Also thanks to Marianne Lenox and Bobbi Newman for recently writing excellent notices about the T is for Training podcast.    The words are kind but not as nice as the people who wrote them.

More next week or so.

MLA 2k9 Presentation: A Pecha Kucha about 2.0h

Next May, I will be speaking at the 2009 Maryland Library Association Conference as part of a Pecha Kucha. It is in Ocean City, MD, so it should be a good time.

I am on a panel with Annette Gaskins, Beth Tribe, Alan Simpson and Julie Strange.  I think that is everyone, if I left someone out, pardon me.

A Pecha Kucha is a type of presenation throwdown limiting the each participant to 20 slides of 20 seconds each, meaning total presenationlet of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

If you want to try it out, here is a place with some tips to make a pk presentation: http://www.aqworks.com/2007/07/03/pecha-kucha-nights-and-beer-a-sober-guide-to-better-presentation-skills/

Why I Love The Web: Reason #42 – ITunes University

Apple’s ITunes has made available educational video and audio content for free.

And subscribable. And downloadable.  YEAH!

Content is provided by schools such as Open University, Duke University, Texas A & M University, Yale University, UC Davis and  Stanford.  Did I mention it is free on ITunes.

i <3 Free Resources.