I read an interesting blog about online security from Google. They participated in a study to see how many people were using the latest internet browsers. The results might surprise you. I admit I am a Firefox junkie and upgraded to the latest browser within a week of its release. With the frequency that new/updated browsers, internet filters, anti-virus and anti-spyware  are released, it becomes a challenge to update the library computers. We use Deep Freeze to protect the registry, so it becomes a time consuming process to manually update each computer. Though, we do the best we can. This was a nice reminder to update the library computers. I liked the suggestion in the blog for a browser to give a warning statement about the need to update.

Yesterday, I attended a leadership presentation along with several other public leaders in the Magic Valley.  The presenter was Keith Allred, a Twin Falls native who has gone on to receive several degrees from all over the country and work as a professor at Havard.  Normally this wouldn’t be something to blog about, however, Keith is the founder of an interesting non-profit non-partisan group called The Common Interest whose work is to choose three legislative items from the Idaho State legislature, do research, and have the members state their opinions; these opinions are then put together and given to the legislature in order to provide them with what the “common interest” is saying about these issues.  Keith calls his group the anti-special interest special interest group since he has to function much like a lobbyist when passing along this information.  I plan to become a member of his group and thought there might be others in the library community who would like to check out his site to see you might have an interest. www.thecommoninterest.com  Happy Friday!

Maybe it is just my librarianish/catalogerish blood, but is there any way that someone who really controls things on here can change a setting so that posts are shown with local time stamps, instead of GMT time stamps?  This post is really being made at about 845am and not 245pm.

Part one of this post is a few postings down, and I invite you to review it if you’ve not seen it.  If you don’t want to scroll, click here and come back after reading:  http://c3library.com/2008/07/10/8-tracks-and-ultrafiche/ 

When I refer to failed technologies, such as 8 tracks, I do not mean that they didn’t work, or don’t work if you still have appropriate equipment to make them work.  They failed in the marketplace for one reason or another.  Perhaps something better came along (DVD over VHS), or perhaps they failed for business or management reasons (Betamax to VHS, HD-DVD to BluRay).  8 tracks will still play if you have the right equipment, but they lost out to a better technology that came out about the same time, the cassette tape.  Both replaced a transitional technology, reel-to-reel tape. 

In the same way, the transitional technology of floppy discs was replaced by CDROM and later DVD and Flash Drives.  We can be sure that something will replace them in the future as the technologies continue to develop.  Some transitional technologies last a long time (horse and buggy, automobiles, wired telephones), others a shorter time (cassette tapes, analog television).

The real issue isn’t just what technologies, tools, or services have been in which category in the past, or in hte present, as the borderlines are always debatable and poorly defined.  The real issue is which of the new tools, technologies, or services we choose to put our investmen in for the future.  Perhaps some of you could respond as to whether you have, either personally or for your library, blogs, myspace, wikis, nings, yahoogroups (or other brands), mailing lists, bulletin boards, second life spaces, flickr pages, chat accounts, twitter accounts, etc, etc.  If you have some of these, why did you choose them?  Why choose myspace over second life (or vice versa)?  Why did you choose AIM instead of yahoo chat or another one? 

Note that I’m assuming that NO library has done ALL of the above, to say nothing of wii, gameboy, and so forth.  Please correct me if any library has done all of them, and if so why?  Is deciding where to put your staffing and technology (and thus fiscal) resources any different from deciding where to put your fiscal resources that buy databases, journals, books, and maps?

Perhaps we should call this “service development” instead of “collection development”.

Please understand that I have no axe to grind in any of this, so please don’t take offense if I consider your 8 track player in your 74 Camaro or your HD-DVD player to be a failed technology.  None of this is personal or critical of any individual or library.  We’ve all made a few mistakes along the way, haven’t we?  Only from those mistakes, as well as the successes, can we all learn together.

dan, who never bought 8 tracks, but did commit a large chunk of another library’s funding to Ultrafiche

Since January I have been working on the Nampa Public Library’s new website design. Yes, it is June and we are preparing to launch soon.

We’ve been doing some great things with cross-functional groups here and the website redesign team is one example. We have a member from our circulation department, page department, management team, public services department and our public relations guy and we all have worked together to be innovative and productive in the website redesign process.

Our management team wanted to play a key role in the redesign and so they prepared parameters within which the redesign team would work. They reviewed other library and business websites and chose aspects of each they wanted to have included. The primary goal was to be a site designed for the user’s ease in navigation and download time.

Once the management team gave the redesign team the ball, the team met regularly to go over design options, architecture and layout. We also met to go over the progress of the site development and how to phrase things for the user to best understand what they were linking to (such as “magazines and newspapers” instead of “periodicals”).

The team works well together however, with us being from different departments and having different duties it was often hard to find time for all of us to meet or for us to do individual work on the website like reviewing the site and beta-testing. Granted, as the web person I had the most time to dedicate to the project but I also found that my regular duties sometimes made it more difficult for me to get done what I had projected.

Basically, I think a redesign team comprised of staff members from different departments is a good thing but there has to be a unity of purpose and time allotment of time granted for each participating member.

This article discusses ways to improve cross-functional team work. This article from 1997 discusses some of the ideas behind the development of cross-functional teams.

I saw this idea to post a blog about what it’s like to be a librarian, but it would also work as Library Assistant, Page, Director, Circulation Manager, etc. I first saw it on Gina Perischini’s Blog, and then read it on the pages she linked from, namely Librarian by Day.

I did my own. It’s located here! I had a busy day! I hope you all will consider it! Check it out!

 After hemming and hawing since spring conference, here I am, writing from downtown Stanley, Idaho.

It’s a zoo here and the library is buzzing with summer reading, lots of tourists, kids from around the world who are working here this summer, and plenty of programs for adults. We’ve had two author readings and signings, book discussions, garden tours and more to come. Oh, and starting next week we’re offering gaming nights. Whew. I’d be interested in hearing from other small libraries doing the gaming thing and finding out what works and what doesn’t. I’m a total n00b when it comes to gaming so I’ll be learning Wii games and am preparing myself for embarrassing and fun moments.

 I recently applied for and recieved an LSTA First Time Attendee grant to attend the Association of Rural and Small Libraries conference this fall in California. I am really looking forward to meeting and networking with other librarians from resort areas in particular. I’m confident I’ll bring backs lots of useful ideas for my library and other small libraries in the state.

  Next week we are hosting hiking maven Margaret Fuller who will be giving a slide show on her favorite places to hike. Margaret will be selling her books after the show and all proceeds go to the library. We appreciate Margaret’s continued support of our library.

 The day after Margaret’s presentation the community will be setting up for and bracing up for the annual Mountain Mama’s Arts and Crafts Fair. Come to Stanley and join the shopping throngs for beautiful handcrafted items. Be sure to visit the library booth where we will have our 2009 Sawtooth Scenes calendar for sale. Proceeds from calendar sales go to our building fund. If anyone would like to find out more about this fundraiser let me know and I’ll fill you in the ups and downs of calendar sales.

 That’s all for now from Ace of Diamonds Street in beautiful downtown Stanley.

Hello all,

This is Dan Lester, still at Boise State’s Albertsons Library for a few more months until retiring on Halloween (which some have suggested is a particularly appropriate date to become a ghost who just won’t go away).

I’d be interested in some discussion, ideas, comments, on how we decide what technologies we should invest in.  Remember, there are no free lunches and certainly no free kittens.  Even reading the blog, or joining it as an author, has a cost, at least in time.  I’m giving a talk on this topic at Internet Librarian in Monterey, CA, in October, thus the request for input.  Let me try to explain a bit.

We (meaning libraries, as well as individuals) have sometimes invested in failed technologies and have certainly invested in transitional technologies.  I would consider 8 track tapes, videodiscs (the old 12 inch type), ultrafiche and Betamax videos to be failed technologies.  They didn’t last long and almost no one can use them any more.  I consider phonograph records, audio cassette tapes, and audio CDs to be transitional technologies, as they’ve had a fair run, wide acceptance, and you can still use them, and probably will be able to for a number of years yet. 

So what technologies do we, or should we, invest in (time, money, whatever) for our libraries?  Why or why not?  For example, blogs, nings, twitter, facebook, myspace, second life, etc?   I happen to think the blogs are transitional, facebook and myspace are probably transitional, and nings, twitter, and second life doomed to be failures.  What do you think?  Should we really “get into” Second Life?  

I’m also interested in comments on other failed or transitional technologies outside of the library area for comparison.  I consider steam cars as failures, but steam railroads as transitional, for example.  But please don’t limit yourself in any way.  And, if anyone is interested in discussing any of this by email, telephone, or over a cold drink (or hot coffee), let me know.  My time is relatively unscheduled and fairly flexible.

dan

I just signed up for this blog.

We have a Library News blog here that I am editor of—check it out at www.isu.edu/library and then click on Library News near the center of the page. I’ve been doing it since October.

One of my favorite money gurus was a library cheerleader today. In his usual thoughtful-and-pithy style, Andrew Tobias was blogging (www.andrewtobias.com) about how individuals might respond to today’s economic and environmental challenges. Here’s my favorite selection from his advice:

“So what do we do now?

The easy things to say are the things it’s always easy to say: economize wherever you can; keep paying your credit cards in full each month to avoid interest (and so your browser will be able to access this site); recognize that there can be as much happiness reading a good library book under a tree – at zero cost in cash or carbon – as in driving out to the ballgame for whatever that costs in gasoline, tickets, hot dogs, beer, crackerjacks and antacid (sorry, stadium bondholders).”