The Lifelong Library Experience (L2E)

I have written an featured article on ntrls.org about The Lifelong Library Experience (L2E). Here is snippet:

"As we move into a new age where libraries are evolving, It is essential that the different types of libraries, school, academic and public, come together to continue to offer consistent services to our patrons throughout their lifetimes. I am calling this the Lifelong Library Experience, or L2E for short."

Check it out.

Bedford City Council Meeting

Last night, I attended the Bedford City Council meeting. As you might have heard, the City of Bedford is considering outsourcing the library management to Library Systems and Services, Inc (LSSI). dona weisman, President of the Bedford Public Library Advisory Board, made a statement against privatization. From my conversations with dona and Maria Redburn, Library Director of the Bedford Public Library, this will be the first time that LSSI has taken over an established library that is not in a dire financial crisis. dona mentioned in her statement to the City Council that LSSI would be experimenting with Bedford. dona also mentioned that City would only save .2%($100,000) of the overall City Budget if they outsourced the management of the library. dona also praised the leadership of Maria pointing out the fact that none of the Bedford Public Library staff has left since Bedford was reopened and Maria took the helm. dona related that the advisory board felt it was too risky for the library to be an experiment for LSSI, and she mentioned a fear of a degradation of services and the loss of community if LSSI succeeds in their efforts. The City Council will vote on the measure on January 9, 2007. I plan on being there.

Library Service in Nocona

Yesterday, I visited the Nocona Public Library. Nocona serves a population of 3,230 in Montague County.

The library is decorated for the holidays and is very welcoming and festive. A big children's Christmas party is planned for this Saturday - and the goodies are ready to go.

It is amazing to me to see how much rural libraries provide for their communities. The Library Director, Mary Norman and Alicia Walker, Assistant Librarian, are expanding programs to bring adults and children into the library. They have worked together this last year, to update the collection and create a welcoming atmosphere.

If you are ever in Nocona, stop in and say hello!

Lessons Learned from an Infocentre Upgrade

As part of my duties here at NTRLS, I consult with our member libraries on their Integrated Library Systems (ILS). I was at the John Ed Keeter Public Library of Saginaw yesterday assisting them with their migration from Sagebrush Athena to Follett’s Infocentre. Saginaw uses Novell, which was a challenge because Novell is not my primary area of expertise. Here are some lessons learned from the experience.

1. Test, Test, Test. I encouraged Saginaw to set up a test environment before attempting to migrate their “live” system. I did this because if something goes wrong in a test environment, you can easily recover whereas if something happens when migrating a “live” system, it can be devastating.

2. Call, Call again and Call one more time. Follett’s customer service was backed up with phone calls. We called at 11:15 am when we encountered our first issue with the migration. We didn’t hear anything back until after 2 pm and this was after we called them twice more. We, of course, continued to troubleshoot the issue while we waited, but it was still frustrating to have such a poor response time.

3. Download from a faster location if available. Saginaw does not have the fastest Internet connection so I had downloaded some of the required software the night before from my house where my connection is much quicker. Despite this, I still had to spend about an hour downloading some other software. If you have access to a fast connection, I highly recommend you use it.

4. Patience, Patience and more Patience. I hate to report that we never did get it to work correctly. This was actually my second visit to the library to attempt the migration in the test environment. I wanted to try again because Follett released version 2.2 of the Infocentre product. My hope was the newer version would fix whatever was causing the connection failure. We haven’t given up. Follett has upgraded our support request to the next tier and I am going to be on the hunt for a Novell expert who might be able to give us a hand.

Economic Benefit Study Released November 29, 2006

A new study released November 29, 2006 shows that nine public library systems in Butler, Clermont, Hamilton, and Warren counties in Southwest Ohio create an annual economic impact of nearly four times the amount invested in their operations. While this report covers Ohio libraries, much of the resulting information and analysis can be replicated for Texas libraries to determine economic value. The report from Levin, Driscoll & Fleeter in Columbus concludes that, using a conservative measure of value the libraries' cumulative expenditure of about $74 million returned a quantifiable direct economic benefit of $238.6 million, or $3.81 for each dollar expended in 2005. The study also recognizes that these libraries add significant value to their users and communities that cannot be assigned a dollar value including, "improved economic prospects and an enhanced quality of life."

Spanish for Librarians

NTRLS just provided the workshop "Spanish for Librarians" for library staff and volunteers. The instructor, Dr. Maryjane Dunn, the Director of Training at Command Spanish, taught two days of intensive Spanish language verbal drills and exercises. Many attendees commented they were amazed by how many phrases they were able to retain in just two days. This workshop will be repeated at a later date since there is such a demand and seating is limited. Please watch for the flyer (it is anticipated that the workshop will be held in early 2007).

To share a little bit of the knowledge learned, two phrases that we might all find helpful are:
Baje el volumen, por favor. (Lower your voice, please.)
No hablo mucho español, pero trataré de ayudar. (I don't speak much Spanish, but I will try to help.)

TALL Texans Leadership Institute

Texas Library Association is seeking candidates for the 2007 TALL Texans Leadership Institute.

The TALL Texans Institute is a week-long intensive workshop on leadership and management in the library profession. This transformational program is intended to enhance leadership skills in diverse participants. Many librarians have found that this program has changed their careers in profoundly positive ways.

Topics covered include * Improving your effectiveness as a leader * Key components for effective communication * Understanding personal power *
* Styles of influence * Process for making risky decisions * Diagnosing sources of conflict and disagreement * Negotiating skills *
* Principles and Practices of working in collaboration * Leading effective teams * Appreciative Inquiry: an innovative approach to change *
* Coaching and mentoring * Developing commitment to change * Planning your development

The seminar is taught by Maureen Sullivan and Jack Siggins.

Maureen Sullivan is on the faculty of the annual ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute and is a professor of practice in the new Ph.D./Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions program at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science. She received her MLS degree from the University of Maryland.
Jack Siggins is the University Librarian the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His career in academic and research libraries has included positions at the Library of Congress, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland, Yale University. He is a graduate of Princeton University with a B.A. degree in Romance Languages. He also holds advanced degrees from American University and the University of Chicago.

The course will be held at Highland Lakes Camp, approximately 35 miles west of Austin within Pace Bend Park. Participants will stay in dormitory rooms on site and all meals are included in the cost of registration. TLA members are encouraged to seek financial support from their employers and TLA units to cover the costs of the workshop.

To apply for candidacy to the TALL Institute, please complete an online application form before January 2, 2007, at
http://www.txla.org/groups/talltex/apply.html

Applications will be reviewed by the TLA Leadership Development Selection Subcommittee. Most participants will be required to have 5 years of professional experience, current employment in the library field, and membership in the Texas Library Association by the date that applications are reviewed (please see application instructions for details).

Job Search Site

SimplyHired, a search engine focused on employment launches Resume Post, which allows job seekers to instantly post their resumes to 5 major job boards, including Monster, Career Builder and Job.com.

These two resume posting services will help you to increase your visibility among the companies hiring for the jobs you want most. Before Simply Hired, you'd have to visit different sites one by one to post your resume. And each site would require you to enter your resume in a different format. Now, with our new resume posting services, you don't need to visit a dozen different sites to get the job done. We'll submit your resume to multiple job boards at once to help you on your hunt for the ideal "new gig".

Simply Hired is a great resource for job seekers using your library's computers.

Free Subscription to Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online

In the November 20th issue of Library Hotline, Disney announces that public libraries can receive a free subscription to Playhouse Disney Preschool Time Online.

"The ad-free, interactive learning program for preschoolers offers story-driven games and activities focusing on building skills in letter and number recognition, shape and color identification, and counting." (Library Hotline, 11/16/2006, p.5)

Email library@preschooltime.com to receive a welcome kit.

Libworm: Search Library Blogs

Libworm is a site I discovered through delicious. It is a search engine for library blogs. Here is what they have to say about themselves.

Frankie Dolan, a UK-based IT engineer, built the infrastructure for MedWorm.com. David Rothman, a medical library paraprofessional and blogger in Syracuse, NY, suggested to Frankie that this infrastructure would also work very well for making the biblioblogosphere more searchable. Frankie liked the idea, and said she was game if David would take on the day-to-day administrative tasks. David collected the feeds, applied categories, proposed some pre-set searches, and made suggestions about functionality and interface design; Frankie built everything that makes LibWorm work.

It is a wonderful site. I used it to search for North Texas Regional Library System and it showed me all of our blog postings and any other blog that mentioned us. Sweet! I then added the search to my My Yahoo news page so I can monitor the biblioblogosphere for any mention of us.

I think the tool would be especially helpful for newcomers to the biblioblogosphere. You can monitor your favorite feeds with it and even store articles on your account. You can easily create an account and they make a point of mentioning that the service is free.

If you need to find out what they are saying about a hot library topic in the biblioblogosphere, this would be the first place I would go.

North Texas Regional Library System Releases New Website

Please check out our new website. We welcome all feedback. Thanks.

IM Slang: Websites to Translate them

I have been asked quite a lot lately about whether I know the IM and Text Messaging Language. I have to profess that I do not. However, thanks to Stephen Cohen of Library Stuff, I was able to find three sites that will do the translation for you.

Here is the quote from the Cnet Article that Stephen mentions in his blog.

Despite the secrecy, Internet-savvy parents have more and more tools to decipher the code, causing a kind of chat-and-mouse game. Befuddled by lingo seen through monitoring software or over their kids' shoulder--like "wu" for what's up, or "plox" for please--parents are turning to sites like NoSlang.com, Teenangels.org and Teenchatdecoder.com for their acronym dictionaries--much to teens' chagrin.

I checked out NoSlang. It lists the top 25 for Parents to know.


ASL(R P)
Age Sex Location (Race / Picture)

BF / GF
Boyfriend / Girlfriend

BRB
Be Right Back

CD9
Code 9 - means parents are around

GNOC
Get Naked on Cam (webcam)

GTG
Got to Go

IDK
I don't know

(L)MIRL
(Lets) meet in real life

LOL
Laugh Out Loud

MorF
Male or Female

MOS
Mom Over Shoulder

NIFOC
Naked in Front of Computer

Noob
Newbie - often an insult to somebody who doesn't know much about something.

NMU
Not much, you?

P911
Parent Emergency

PAW
Parents are Watching

PIR
Parent In Room

POS
Parent Over Shoulder

PRON
Porn

PRW
Parents Are Watching

S2R
Send To Recieve (pictures)

TDTM
Talk Dirty To Me

Warez
Pirated Software

W/E
Whatever

WTF
What the ####?

How Many Web Sites Are Porn? Feds Count

About 1 percent of Web sites indexed by Google and Microsoft are sexually explicit, according to a U.S. government-commissioned study. Government lawyers introduced the study in court this month as the Justice Department seeks to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, which required commercial Web sites to collect a credit card number or other proof of age before allowing Internet users to view material deemed "harmful to minors."

Michigan High Court to Hear Case about Public Library Privileges

This article, which I found on the Library Link of the Day, details a case the Michigan Supreme Court case is hearing about a resident of one community suing to be allowed to use the public library of another community. Something for all us to monitor.

At issue: Can some municipalities decide to invest more in their libraries, providing extra services that only local residents enjoy? Or should any citizen of the state be able to check out books from any library, from Sault Ste. Marie to Saugatuck?

....

The case began when the Bloomfield Township library told George Goldstone of Bloomfield Hills that he couldn't check out books there.

If Goldstone's attorney prevails in his argument that the Michigan Constitution gives all residents equal access to any public library, then librarians fear that the local taxes some communities now assess to enhance their libraries will disappear -- along with the special programs that the taxes fund.

Calculating the Value of Your Library

The November 6, 2006 Library Journal highlights The Maine State Library's "Library Use Value Calculator." This calculator answers the questions "What is your library worth to you?" and "How much would you pay out-of-pocket for your library services?"

You can customize how to figure the value of the calculations and use on your library's website. Seeing the figures based on my usage of my local library was eye-opening.

Public Libraries - Share Your Stories About Public Access Computers!

Hi. I am on the steering committee for the MaintainIT Project. We are looking for some information. Please see below for more details. Please help if you can. If you can't share a story, pass it on to someone who can. Many thanks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The MaintainIT Project ( www.maintainitproject.org) is gathering stories on how libraries maintain computers and Internet services for their communities. From the information collected, the Project will create best practice guides tailored to different types of public libraries and will distribute the free guides beginning in Spring 2007.

Librarians, IT staff, and technology consultants are invited to share both challenges in keeping public computers running as well as successes and lessons learned. Stories can be submitted online at www.maintainitproject.org or by contacting the project at maintainit@techsoup.org, or 415-633-9390 and 800-659-3579 x 390.

Until December 15, the emphasis is on gathering stories from small, rural libraries, as the first guide will be oriented towards your needs.

The MaintainIT Project is a three-year project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. MaintainIT is a project of TechSoup (www.techsoup.org), a nonprofit serving fellow nonprofits and public libraries with technology information, resources, and product donations.

Booksprice.com - Compare book prices online fast and easy

Booksprice.com is a neat tool to use to compare prices of online retailers for books, DVDs and music. The webmaster emailed me and asked if I had ever used her site. I decided to give a go and blog my impressions.

Overall Impression: Although most of the prices do not compare to the discounts received through our preferred vendor, Brodart, it is a handy, easy-to-use tool to see if an item can be found more cheaply online. I was pleasantly surprised by the tool and will be returning to it when I go shopping for a book online.

Here is what they write about themselves:

What is BooksPrice? What do you do? BooksPrice is a free service that searches for the best deal in books, cds and dvds among the main on-line stores. BooksPrice is specializing in price comparisons on several books, cds and dvds together. BooksPrice is an independent web site, not owned by any bookstore. The search result is therefore totally objective.

I did a search on the title Wisdom of the Crowds and received a listing of different media types of the item. Once I figured out which listing was for the book, I clicked on the Compare Prices button. This took me to a page listing several online retailers and their price for the item. It even included the shipping price which was handy. Some of the choices were for used books so I checked the New Books checkbox at the top and got a shorter listing of the vendors offering the book new. I clicked on the Buy link and was taken to the vendor's website.

Some of the vendors I did not recognize so I went back to FAQ and here is a listing of the retailers they currently search. Nice list!!!!

Abebooks bookplace.co.uk Blackwells Parable.com page1books Buy.com CDUniverse Alibris Half.com Barnes & Noble.com BiggerBooks A1Books Tower Records Family Christian Stores Overstock bookpool HKFlix christianbook Bunches of Books eBooks.com ClassBook allbooks4less BookFellas.co.uk iChapters textbookx Ignatius DVDEmpire.com Chapters halfvalue Abebooks.co.uk iUniverse ValoreBooks Wal-Mart ecampus PhatCampus BestPrices BookCloseouts halfpricecomputerbooks Biblio Powells BOOKS A MILLION Amazon MarketPlace bookbyte Amazon Amazon.ca Amazon.co.uk Pickabook Countrybookshop JeannieMay IEShop Footprint Press B&N BookQuest amazon.ca Marketplace amazon.co.uk Marketplace Alibris Market

You can search by ISBN number as well which I believe some librarians will love. They even have an API so you can place a search box widget on your website if you so desire.

Internet Librarian 2006 - Day Three

I am back in Fort Worth. I didn't have Internet Access the last day of conference so I putting this last blog entry together in hindsight. Let's hope my notes are good....

I devoted the majority of my last day to Mobile Handheld devices since my knowledge was really lacking in this arena. Overall, the presentations were really good. Here are some tidbits of knowledge I gleaned from them.

• There are so many wonderful devices now available in the marketplace. My favorite was the cell phone that opened up to a television screen. You could watch videos on it. It even had Picture in Picture.
• Most websites do not render well for small screens(called Mobile Optimized Web). If you want to offer your website information services to the small screen crowd, you will need to design your website using another scripting technology such as WAP. This scripting technology strips down the website to just text and a few graphics.
• There are tools that will take sites like the ntrls page and strip it down to its component parts. The one mostly mentioned is squeezer.com. I have yet to try it, but plan to soon.. Of course, some companies hate these tools because they don't render their website well.
• Text messaging is the most popular way to convey information on a cell phone. If you want to reach the younger crowds, you have to figure out a way to get the information to them in this fashion. 4Info has done a really great job of this. This company has an open interface at http://open.4info.net that allows people to open their data services up to SMS inquiries. You can select a keyword such as NTRLS and then tell 4Info what information to send if they receive that keyword in a text message. For example, for NTRLS we might send them data about our member libraries. A user then would send the code @ntrls to 4INFO's text messaging number and 4INFO would send a response back about our libraries. Pretty slick material....
• Ask.com and other search engines have WAP enabled websites for handheld devices. Try them, practice them and then let your patrons know about them.
• Ball State University built a WAP version of their website including their catalog. Lot's of development time and effort, not to mention, they received a grant to do it. Still, it is nicely done. You can access their work at http://www.bsu.edu/libraries/mobile/.

Overall, I think handheld devices are gaining prominence in the US and public libraries need to begin to address them. In my mind, the public libraries should collaborate with university libraries to build mobile interfaces. Since so many students today are exposed to this type of service at the University level, it would be nice for public libraries to say, "Hey you don't have to lose this type of service just because you are not at school anymore. We offer the same." In fact, this is a good reason to collaborate with University libraries on any of the services offered.

The closing keynote was about gaming and libraries. Elizabeth Lane Lowley from RIT gave it. Very interesting. She gave some examples of how games are being played today. Traditional game playing is being mixed with an online environment. People are given game directions online to do something in the real world. Cruel2bekind is an example. People are given points based on the good deeds they do in real life. Another one is called tombstone Hold Em where people get poker hands based on the type of tombstone they can find in a cemetery. Gaming has always been so popular and it has taken off online in the last twenty years. It is time for public libraries to look at how they can engage their patrons using games. Anybody up for a library scavenger hunt!!!!

Try out 42 entertainment for some ideas on gaming.

Internet Librarian 2006 - Day Two

Hi again from California where sea otters munch on food in the water while you eat your lunch at the Fisherman's Wharf....

I decided to focus my efforts today on social computing. Podcasting and Videocasting was the first session. We heard from several people. I highlight the ones that really impressed me. Greg Schwartz from the Louisville Public Library introduced the crowd to podcasting. His definition of podcasting was the "distribution of audio files over the Internet using RSS technology." The beauty of podcasting, according to Greg, is that patrons can subscribe to content and receive automatic downloads. Greg mentioned that it takes commitment of time and staff to offer podcasts and libraries should analyze their communities on whether it is a service worth offering. Libraries offer podcasts of programming events, upcoming events, library news and bibliographic instruction. It can also be used for visually impaired sector as well as staff training. Greg mentioned nine steps to podcasting.

1. Determine content and format
2. Assemble equipment and people.
3. Record
4. Edit and export to mp3
5. Listen!
6. Upload file to server.
7. Generate your RSS feed using feedburner.com
8. Publish feed URL.
9. Promote. Respond. Repeat.

Jeff Humphrey of INCOLSA spoke of how they are migrating their streaming online videos to videocasting. Instead of paying for the cost of steaming, they have decided to go with the latest trend and have their users download their CE videos via a RSS stream. I spoke with Jeff at length at the break on how they were accomplishing this and I believe this is something NTRLS should explore doing with its CE program. I will research it and see what I can do.

David Free of the Georgia Perimeter College talked of lessons learned from his podcasting experience. Here is his list:

1. Make sure it feeds.
2. Promote, then promote some more.
3. Keep it short (6 to 10 minutes long)
4. Use music sparingly
5. Multiple voice rock.
6. Podcast events work best.
7. Consider your web presence (make the links readily available)
8. Listen to your listeners.

He said the best format for the podcasts is 96 kbit/s in mp3 format. Finally, buy a good microphone, it makes all the difference.

David King of the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library talked about videoblogging. Videoblogging allows people to subscribe to video feed versus the audio feed subscribed to with podcasts. He showed some really great footage from some of the more popular videoblogs. One video showed a gentleman trying to open a can of soup and not being able to do it. It was a great commentary on the product. Rocketboom is the most popular videoblog online today. They often show advertisements and get $40K for it. The difference with regular commercials, however, is that they get to do the commercials themselves. The net changes everything doesn't it?

David listed several ways libraries could use videoblogging.

1. booktalk
2. bibliographic instruction
3. cultural memory project
4. collaborative project with schools and other organizations.
5. environmental
6. Library- behind the scenes
7. travel segments
8. political debates
9. hobbies and lifestyles.

After a lunch with the otters, I then attended a session on Flickr and Libraries. Flickr is one of the better Web 2.0 tools available today. The two speakers, Michael Porter of OCLC Western and Michael Sauers of BCR, showed some neat usage of Flickr. The National Library of Australia was by far the most impressive as they asked their citizens to upload their pictures to Flickr for historical reasons. They currently have 1.2 millions photos for this project. If you want to explore some neat ways to play with Flickr, go to Fd Flickr Toys.

My last session of the day was on RSS and Javascript. It was a good session on how you can place RSS newsfeeds on a website. I learned that I could use a site like RSS Mix to combine several feeds together and then use Feed2JS to place this mix on our website. If you are worried about time lag on loading the RSS newsfeeds, you can download the Feed2JS software to your server. I also learned about RMail which is a free service to allow people to have RSS news headlines sent directly to their email accounts. You can create widget to place on your blog to allow your readers to do this.

Overall, it was a good day. Tuesday night, a Farmer's market set up shop down the block from the hotel. It was great fun to walk up and down the street looking at all the booths. Finally, if you are ever in Monterey, you have to try Rosine's. Best food I have ever had at a conference event.....the pies are fantastic.

Internet Librarian 2006 - Day One

Hi from Internet Librarian 2006 in Monterey California where the sea lions wake you up in the morningÂ….

My purpose in coming to this conference was to learn some new tricks for our System and for our member libraries. Here are the highlights of my first day at conference

Two speakers really wowed me Monday morning. The first was Michael Stephens from Dominican University and the author of the tametheweb.com blog. He really pushed to the audience that Web 2.0 created many offspring. Two of these offspring are Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0. For those of us who are Librarian 2.0, we are embracing our patrons and making them the center of our planning. We are also the trendsetters and not the followers. For Library 2.0, Michael gave the following rules that all public libraries should follow:

1. LetÂ’s expand our brand.
2. Break down the barriers. Here he was talking about policies that prevent our users from experiencing all we have to offer in public libraries.
3. Go where the users areÂ…
4. Adopt a 2.0 philosophy. We need the ideals of the masses..
5. Its about experience and play. Its okay to fun to do what we do.
6. Create a culture of trust.

The second speaker that wowed me was Helene Blowers, director of Information Technology at The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. Helene and I have a connection in the fact that we serve as board members for the MaintainIT project. It was nice to put a name with a face.

Helene’s library has initiated an intensive “training” program for their staff called Learning 2.0. She stressed that it was not a “training” program, but a learning one. Their library did nothing to assist their staff in this endeavor other than give structured exercises to learn some Web 2.0 tools. The tools they introduced to their staff included blogging, digital photos, RSS, tagging, wikis and podcasts. Each week, the staff had to learn a Web 2.0 tools. When the staff member was done with the learning, they received a MP3 player with a chance to win a brand new laptop. She called the prizes her carrots. The program had three objectives:

1. Introduce staff to new technology.
2. Encourage staff to take responsibility for their learning.
3. Reward the staff for taking the initiative to complete the exercises.

I found the new twist to CE very interesting. It put more of the responsibility of the learning in the hands of the staff so they took more ownership of their own training. I can actually envision having them come to NTRLS to teach us how they put together this innovative program so we can use it in our own libraries.

If anything, I believe I am going to explore putting together an online course for member libraries to use to help their staff learn the new Web 2.0 tools.

Monday afternoon was highlighted by a session led by Sara Houghton of the San Mateo County Library. Sara writes the Librarian in Black blog, which is one of the best on the web because of the original content she posts. Her session was by far the best of the day. She gave advice on how to reach patrons online and it was great advice. I think all libraries should follow her advice and start to reach out to their online patrons. She gave a 20 item checklist.

1. Ensure you are findable in the major search engines.
2. Make sure you are listed in the library directories.
3. List your library in Wikipedia.
4. Make sure you are listed in Wikimapia.
5. List your library events and services in local community websites and calendars.
6. Ensure that your library has a presence on local government, school and community websites.
7. Monitor local blogs, technology boards, CE boards and other forums.
8. Create a profile for your library in social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook.
9. Offer assistance via Instant Messaging.
10. List your library in free WiFi directories.
11. Check reviews olibraryr libary on social review sites.
12. List your library's blog on geography blog search engine.
13. Are your items listed in Worldcat?
14. Make sure you are on Local Google.
15. Push out newsletters via RSS and email.
16. Consider being present in Second Life and other online game environments.
17. List your staff as experts in various free expert-finding tools.
18. Make your audio and video findable.
19. Make sure you library blog is in blog search engines.
20. Subscribe to feeds to find discussions about your library.

Other highlights of the first day:

• Mystery Writer J.A. Janice gave the opening keynote. She talked about how she writes and where she gets her inspiration. Apparently, if you make her mad, you will end up in one of her books as the bad guy. Also, she sang two songs for us. A first for me.

• I received a tour of a library created in Second Life. Second Life is online simulation game where you can create an online version of yourself. This is a real library where the virtual people go ask questions of the reference desk and attend programming. Strange as it sounds, this might be one way to reach our patrons online. Fascinating stuff!!!!