A new iPhone app worth noting

I generally try not to favor one database vendor over another, but in this case I’d like to mention something that Gale (Cengage) is making available free of charge for the iPhone.  It’s called Access My Library and I think Gale is stepping forward to lead the way in making information resources available to all of us no matter where we may be.  This is how it works – the app uses the geo-locator in your phone to identify libraries close to where you are.  You then choose which library you wish to access.  There is an Access Resources button on the bottom of the screen.  Click on it and you’ll be taken to a screen with a list of all of the Gale Electronic Databases at that library.  Choose the one you wish to use and there you are – - no library card or password needed!!  This means that if I’m vacationing in Florida and want to look up something in a Gale database, I’ll be able to use my iPhone to do it.

If enough folks give Gale high marks for this application, perhaps that will inspire other vendors to follow suit.  In any case, this is one of my favorite apps for my iPhone and I’m certainly spreading the word to anyone who will listen!

Scaling down our web page

Now that I’ve joined the ranks of mobile device users, each time I look at our library’s web page I become frustrated with its clutter and design.  When I view it at work, it’s done on a 22-inch monitor and it doesn’t look too bad.  Even at home I have a 19-inch screen.  Reality hits when I view it on an iPod Touch or an iPhone – or, gasp, a Blackberry!

The result of this frustration is a patron survey on our current home page, the first step in finding out what our mobile users would like to see on a text-based version of our page.  When I compile the results, a new and sleeker page will be created to run on small screens and we’ll then begin work on moving to Joomla for our regular page.

According to presenters at the most recent Internet Librarian Conference, the majority of people worldwide will be using mobile devices to access the Web by 2020.  Each month I use my Google Analytics to see which browsers are used to view our web site.  The percentage of mobile device browsers is growing steadily, with iPhone and iPod touch devices leading the pack and Droid users a close second.  Blackberry users come in a distant third in our geographic location.  With this information in mind, I look forward to analyzing the results of my SurveyMonkey in a few weeks and getting down to the business of making our Library’s page a joy to use for our growing group of mobile users.

Moving to the Dark Side

My friends and co-workers call it moving to the dark side.  Others tell me I’ve finally seen the light.  In reality, I’m now the proud owner of a Macbook Pro. My family pooled their resources and gave me this beautiful laptop for Christmas this year and I’m just beginning to explore the various parts of Snow Leopard OS.  To complicate things a bit, I got my uber-techie son to load VMware Fusion on my machine and then install Windows 7.  Hmmm… this now means that my aging brain must learn not just one but two new operating systems.  Well, it’s winter in Michigan and I hate getting out in the cold, so this is a perfect season to hunker down and get serious about getting the most out of this investment.  I’ve ordered a bunch of books for the Library on both OS’s, so I’m all set to go.  Now, if I can just stop playing Wii long enough to start reading, I’ll be in business.

Going Mobile

Just two years ago I blogged about my search for the perfect smart phone.  I thought I found it in my Moto Q, but that turned out to be a frustrating move.  During the 24 months I used it, it was a constant battle to keep it charged and to navigate through the Microsoft OS.  As a result, I chose not to make a full move into the mobile world. 

I recently broke down and accepted an iPhone as a early Christmas present from my husband.  My entire family has been upset in their inability to reach me by phone when I had the Moto.  Now I’m ready to proclaim that I’ve GONE MOBILE !!  I love my iPhone.  I use it not only for phone calls but also for messaging, web searching, game playing and photography.  As for the apps, I’m like a kid in a chocolate factory.  Here are some of my favorites:
1.  Scanner Pro -  I can point at a document, book page or photo and get a digital scan of it.  I convert it into a .pdf and then e-mail it to myself.
2. Red Laser – So handy while Christmas shopping.  I hold my iPhone up to a product barcode and it grabs it and searches online to see prices at other stores.
3. Sit or Squat – Helps me find the closest public restroom, no matter where I happen to be.
4.  My social networking apps for Facebook, Flickr and Twitter.  Now I can post and read my updates remotely.
5. Dropbox – I’m so glad there is an iPhone app for this service.  I can sync my documents in my various computers seamlessly.

My list of apps grows each day as I find more and more programs that allow me to function better in a mobile world.  At the top of my projects for the new year is to make a mobile version of our Library’s web page.  I am a true convert after two long two-year struggle.

Helping Seniors through the maze of Medicare Part D.

For the past four years, I’ve been part of a team that helps local senior citizens maneuver their way through the difficult task of choosing Medicare Part D Prescription Drug plans during the months of November and December.  Each person I encounter expresses frustration and confusion at the complexity of this government program and I share in their feelings.  I don’t know how our federal officials can expect older people to know how to use computers and online programs when they may have reduced eyesight or have arthritic fingers that no longer work well enough to use keyboards.   It’s a daunting task even for those of us who use computers routinely!  Thankfully, our library has responded to this great need in our community and has partnered with CVS pharmacy techs to provide hands-on help.

We’ve held four programs so far this month and have two more to go in early December.  Each class has reached its maximum registration since we must work one-on-one in entering our patrons’ drug names & dosages for them and then produce the three best plans for them to view.  We print out the comparisons and patrons leave our classes with clear choices and phone numbers to call to enroll in the drug plan that best suits their needs. 

Why do I bring this up?  Because I think this is a perfect example of how libraries can be leaders in providing information and help to our seniors.  Because we, as librarians, are able to take complicated web sites and boil the info down into everyday terms and make our senior patrons not feel like dummies.  We ARE people friendly, by our very choice of this profession, and that’s what it takes to make this annual exercise seem not so awful in the minds of those who need our service the most.  These classes always help to refocus my priorities back to the original reason I chose this career amost a quarter-century ago.

In Praise of Mentors

It may come as a huge surprise to many new librarians, but in the 1980’s, computers were rarely mentioned in Library Science Programs.  We arrived at our jobs in libraries that didn’t have a single computer in the building.  So how did we learn to thrive in an environment suddenly so dependent on technology?  - in my case, it was working with a mentor.  Imagine, if you can, being given the job of technology librarian based solely on the fact that you were the only person in the building who owned a computer.  This is what happened to me.  I had an Apple IIc in my house, primarily for my three young children. 

Our library was one of the forward-thinking  facilities in our area.  We had two Apple IIe’s (Amber screens) and an old IBM.  We were just starting to migrate to GEAC, our first OPAC.  I didn’t have a clue what I was doing, especially since I was hired to be a children’s librarian.  In stepped my mentor, a retired GM employee who had the patience of a saint and was the most computer-saavy person I had ever known.  Chet sat with me as I looked “under the hood” of my first computer – and then put it back together for me.  He made sure I memorized the DOS commands needed to copy files, create directories and many other tasks that we now accomplish with a mouse click.  Unfortunately, he taught me enough to be dangerous – - I wiped out entire hard drives several times with that “Fdisk” command and Chet would arrive at the building in time to rescue me and rebuild the drive.  Over the years, he learned web design in order to aid me in creating our first library web page, and then assisted in helping other community organizations to make their own pages to put on our site.  He helped me when we started our web search classes for our patrons, acting as my assistant.  There was literally nothing that he wouldn’t help with in the area of technology!

As the years went on, Chet’s eyesight failed him and he had to give up his own computer.  He still served as a great coach and resource for me in so many ways.  His wisdom and wit were inspirational.  Chet’s heart  failed him just as his eyes,  and we said a final good-bye to him this week.  I told his family that I would not have been able function in my job for the past twenty years without him as my mentor.  This is the absolute truth!  There may be moments when I envy the librarians who come out of school knowing programming languages and the most current technology.  Then I realize that no amount of formal schooling could be as valuable to me as the time I spent with my mentor.  Chet, you were the greatest !!

Changing Nature of Reference Service

My library is located in Plymouth, a name shared by towns not only in the United States but also in other countries.  Thus, we tend to get calls and emails and instant chat messages from folks who believe they are contacting their local library, but it may be a library hundreds of miles away from us.  We usually catch on fairly quickly from the nature of the question or the library card number and good naturedly give the patron the correct phone number or URL of their local Plymouth library.  However,  with the many databases we have at our disposal, and good searching skills on the Internet, we are still able to answer questions for other Plymouth patrons no matter where they are located geographically.  A recent patron query is a wonderful example of this:  A patron called me and asked for a death date for her father so she could try to locate an obituary.  She knew he died in Plymouth, but wasn’t sure of the month or  exact year, only an approximate year.  I explained to her that our local papers were not indexed and finding this information would be very difficult to do just searching reels of microfilm.  She said it was very important for her to find this precise date since there were insurance issues outstanding.  I told her I’d do my best and got her phone number.  (The area code should have been a tip-off , but it didn’t register with me at the time.)  By this time, the reference librarian in me was looking for ways to avoid prolonged searching of 15-17 year old newspapers on film.  Thankfully, we subscribe to Ancestry Library Edition, so I tried using their version of the Social Security Death Benefits Index.  Bingo !! I hit paydirt within three minutes.  There was just one problem – the individual I was looking for didn’t reside in OUR Plymouth, but in another town called Plymouth almost 900 miles away.  The odd area code finally made some sense to me.  I called the patron and told her that I had good news and bad news.  I had found the date of her father’s death,  but that she was going to have to look through the newspapers in her own Plymouth library to find the obituary since we were several states away.  She was truly shocked that we were not in her home state and even more surprised that we managed to come up with the information she needed so quickly.  I told her that with our electronic tools, librarians are no longer limited by geographic borders, only our good resources and skills!

Final Thoughts from IL2009

When I first read the preliminary program for Internet Librarian 2009, I made a few mental notes about which sessions were going to be of the greatest interest for me.  First and foremost, I wanted comparisons of CMS open source programs so I could move ahead in planning for one at our Library.  Second on my “must attend” list was the Track on mobile platforms for Libraries.  Learning more about the role of digital photographs in a library setting was of great interest to me as was the topic of mashups. 
I attended all of the sessions I had listed as well as others that proved to be highly entertaining as well as informative.  Did I come away with all of the data I had hoped to obtain – no, not even close, especially in the area of CMS.  But I have enough parts of the puzzle to start planning new strategies in determining which system we’ll use.  In the meantime, I want to move ahead with inserting a mashup or two in our existing web site to make it more user-friendly.  On the mobile end of things, I discovered that we can’t just try to “squeeze” our current webpage into a micro version.  With mobile, it’s a whole new ballgame and we have a  chance to make the page correctly to start with – with fewer graphics, only essential text, and the ability to perform tasks with the fewest keystrokes.  I walked out of the Digital Photographer Boot Camp with a renewed enthusiasm to complete our Libs365 project on Flickr, even if it’s a bit late – but better late than never.
In addition to the individual sessions, I learned so much from other librarians I met in informal settings thoughout the conference.  I was able to get together with a former PDL intern who was attending IL2009 for the first time.  And, of course, I enjoyed the beautiful setting of Monterey and the sea lions.

Day 3, IL2009 -Mashups for Library Data with Nicole Engard

I was looking forward to hearing Darlene Fichter as part of this presentation on Mashups, but Nicole did a supurb job all by herself in explaining mashups and showing how they can be used in a library setting. She first defined the term Mashup as a “web application that combines data from more than one souce into a single integrated tool.”

Types of Mashups –
Mapping 35%
Photo 10%
Shopping 9%
Video 8%
Search 8%
Travel 6%
Social 6%

Mashups & Libraries: why?

Provide better services to our patrons
Added value to our websites and catalogs
Promoting library services where the patrons are
It’s a learning experience – and we never turn down learning experiences!

Mashups & Libraries: How?

Ask vendors for APIs
Mashup library data with popular web services
Put your library and your library data out there whenever possible
Create RSS feeds for library content.

What kinds of mashups for Libraries can we use? – - simplest mashup – location mashup – tool on Google Maps website that will generate the code for you.

Collections on Flickr – share your collection on Flickr and then bring it into your website.  http://flickr.com/commons
Read Flickr’s api page !!

Website Mashups – Join any service with an RSS feed – blogs, wikis, flickr, calendars, bookmarks, etc.

Among the tools Nicole discussed was Yahoo! Pipes.  Although I’d done some very basic work with Pipes before, Nicole showed us some very interesting things we can do with this free tool.  Delicious.com is another site that is easily able to be used in library-related mashups, especially in compiling unique resource pages for our patrons.  It seems like it’s much harder to turn our OPACs into mashups because of the proprietary nature of the systems and the difficulty in getting the APIs from our individual vendors.  We need to be pro-active in working with our OPAC vendor to get the data needed to create mashups to better serve our users.
I thought Nicole Engard made mashups easy to understand and gave us some examples of these applications not just for work but also for fun!

Day 2 – IL2009 – Dreaming, Designing, & Using Mobile Library Platforms

Mobile Technology for Libraries was the topic for an entire Track on Day 2.  The morning was taken up with a great panel discussion including Tom Ipri, Jason Griffey, Toby Greenwalt, Jason Clark, Matt Benzing, Christa Burns and Michael Sauers.  Christa and Michael started off the session with a quiz for all of us.  We had to guess which tasks Michael and Christa accomplished using a mobile device vs. using a laptop.  As it turned out, everything they had to do regarding the conference over the past two days they were able to do from a mobile phone.  After this humorous warm-up, the other panel members each touched on different aspects of Mobile Platforms in a library environment.

Getting a Second Chance at a First Impression – Tom Ipri   www.slideshare.net/tombrarian

Mobile Devices – another paradigm shift
Let’s not screw up again like many libraries did with web pages.
No crappy mobile sites made from our crappy web sites!
Libraries need Feedback from their patrons before starting:
            Should there be a site?
            What should be on the site?
            What is realistic?
            What is best for YOUR population?

Mobile device will be primary connection tool to the Internet by 2020.

Considerations
            Mobile web is mobile
            Transactional not browsing (DO things)
            Very different devices are being used today – screen size, input, poor curser control
            If web text is brief, mobile text should be uber-brief
            Simple navigation
            Even good connections are slow
            Essential Information only – skip the large graphics

 Mobile web of 2009 = desktop web of 1998
             Average mobile success rate – 59%
             Better the phone, better the success rate
             Touch phones: 75%
             Smart phones: 55%
             Feature phones: 38%

Mobile – the future!  Jason Griffey 
            What we can expect in the next 18-24 months:
                    3G is now – cellular protocol.  5mg/second on iPhone
                   4G is coming:
                             WiMax  10megabits/second but has huge coverage
                             LTE 100megabits/second – top is 300 megabits/second – always on 

Future of Content:
            Text – reasonably easy
            Audio – also reasonably easy
            Video – also reasonable easy – copyright issues must be addressed in all of these.

            Augmented Reality – new kind of media – type of virtual reality – gives you realtime information about where you are at the time.  Layar is an example.  Hold your phone up and it queries the thing you’re pointing at.

            Local libraries have unique archives that would be great in augmented reality.  Only we have those kinds of archives.

            Library patrons often don’t really know what they want.  We have to push the boundaries of what these new tools will do.

            Clay Shirky – “Tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.”

These are but two of the many informative presentations done in the morning session.  What was stressed in each of these talks was to find out what sort of mobile phones our target audiences are actually using now.  Also, rather than try to shrink our existing web page into a small format, we need to totally RE-THINK a mobile library application.  Strip out all non-essential items, especially graphics which will slow down the process.  Forget about browsing.  Mobile users want to find specific information such as library hours, directions, phone numbers, and if a book is currently available.