del.icio.us libraries

(Meant to do this a while ago.) For anyone interested in other libraries that use del.icio.us, here are three samples:

http://del.icio.us/SanMateoLibrary organized by Dewey (naturally)

http://del.icio.us/LaGrangeParkLibrary organized by topic/tag

http://del.icio.us/lansingpubliclibrary organized by topic/tag, although perhaps they should consider using Dewey (or just get rid of some!) considering the loooong list of tags

All three contain old, possibly outdated links, which happens with any kind of list. So in a perfect world someone should still go through them to make sure everything is useful. Personally, I've generally stopped bookmarking things, but if branches want to try del.icio.us you'd be in good company.

WANTED: Your Experiences with Rosetta Stone

Hi, everyone,
This post is a departure from the "Recommended Websites" dialogue. I am writing an article intended for the Loudoun Employee newsletter, the LENS, about how our patrons are using Rosetta Stone. I will share a few anecdotes from the PUR library, but I could use input from all the branches. Please email me at vhoover@loudoun.gov if you have any stories to share about this language program.
Thanks a lot,
Valarie Hoover, PUR

Librarians' Internet Index

It sounds like we've got a contingent who use and like the recommended websites. So here's a thought. Instead of keeping the page as is, let's include a link to the Librarians' Internet Index on our electronic resources page after the redesign. We'll still have direct links in some areas, but I think LII would adequately replace our chosen sites in others. If there's anything they miss -- for example, something that keeps coming up for homework assignments -- we could set up an account on del.icio.us for all the branches to use.

What do you think?

Julie

Recommended Websites

First of all, I hope everyone will respond to Marcie's poll. We can get some usage data elsewhere on which sections of the RW are used most often, but your input is important.

And now, I want everyone to pay attention very carefully -- the Recommended Websites page will not exist in its current form after the redesign. Keeping it as it is was never an option. (Sorry Marty, but it is broke. It's too big, its structure is unwieldy, and it is not worth the effort to keep it tidy and up to date.)

We will continue to have librarian-selected links, but they will be fewer in number and in fewer categories, and they will be integrated with other electronic resources.

I could seriously use your input on which categories and individual sites are most important and useful. For categories, I'm thinking: government, taxes, Loudoun County and Virginia, travel. But that shouldn't be the final list. I've said it before, but it bears repeating -- you guys know the patrons, the questions they ask, the resources that help answer them -- so help us out here.
Thanks.

Julie

Informal poll

I debated whether to start a new post or just leave a comment, so I left a comment. But I did also want to start a new subject because what that comment really leads me to is a question that's been perking for quite a while: How many reference staff use the recommended sites on something approaching a regular basis? Whether "regular" means every day or once every couple of months, I'd be interested to know.

Something else I'm curious about: Are the recommended sites more for staff or more for patrons? The answer doesn't have to be mutually exclusive, but just who is the target audience? If it's staff, then do we really need them? If it's patrons, then do we really need them (the sites, not the patrons)? I find myself much less dependent on them as a librarian than I was several years ago. I think web searching is one tool among many that we can - and do - teach, and I guess I'm just not sure how big a part lists play anymore.

(I'm also curious to know if anyone reads this blog besides Julie, Marty, and me. I guess I'll find out if anyone leaves comments.) ;)

WebFeat search box

WebFeat now offers a quick search box, similar to the Catalog Search on our homepage. I saw examples in a demo, and it looks like it could be useful for us. A dropdown lets the user search for "books and articles", "articles only", etc. You can have several search boxes all over your website, and they can have different settings. So, for example, the WebFeat box on a homework page could search kids/teens databases only.

Julie

What to call it redux

They're having this discussion on the Library Garden blog, too.

Getting serious about all this

Marcie is clearly anxious for me to get a move on with all this redesign stuff. She is vacationing in New Zealand this month, and the only thing keeping me from dying of jealousy is the knowledge that it is winter there, and wet sheep smell very bad. When she gets back, it's my turn to vacate, but only to Maine, where there are very few sheep and it smells very nice and piney fresh. When we're both back, it's probably time to start having meetings and mocking up what this is going to look like.

One of the things we are going to need is some of John Harper's time. It would also help to have some consensus from you folks. Or at least your opinions. I'd like to have something to show the reference committee in a few months, but if you want your views reflected ahead of that, now's the time.

Julie

Databases suggestion

Here are a few things that have occurred to me recently regarding the organization of our online databases (based on the categories and the alphabetical list):

1. rename "Kids and Teens" to "Students" and/or keep appropriate lists/links on those pages
2. rename "Pictures and Sound" to "Multimedia"
3. take off Encyclopedias, Magazines, Newspapers and make a new, separate list called "Format" - this would then include the above plus ebooks and the newly renamed Multimedia

Recommended Sites suggestion

Since redesigning and combining parts of the website is a big project, it's hard to know where to start. How about this:

Julie, the next time you ask us to check links, how about having everyone pare down their lists to absolutely necessary sites? Meaning ones that aren't already part of the librarian's toolbox or aren't easily found through Google (or could be duplicated by other sites found through Google). We don't have to remove them completely at that point (although we could), but I could compile a "chopping block" list for review. And if there are entire categories we don't need (I submit Entertainment, Leisure, and my own History pages as three examples) that's fine too.

This might help decide what kinds of broad subjects we do still need and how to combine the websites - if any besides local ones are left over - with the lengthy list of databases, which isn't going to get smaller.

What we want...

Taking a look back through our posts and comments, emails, and conversations, I think we're moving toward a more solid idea of what we'd like to end up with.

• A combination of different electronic resources on one page: databases, website links, eBooks, Ask-a-Librarian, Live Homework Help, etc.
• Resources grouped by subject area would include databases and carefully selected websites.
  
• In-depth information about a few select topics, e.g. Loudoun County/Virginia, ESL, Reading, and others to be determined. Could include static booklists or RSS feeds of new materials on the subject, and saved Infotrac searches as well as databases and websites.
• Seasonal special topics, such as back-to-school, gardening, Black History Month, etc.
  
• The ability to explore resources by subject area or type of resources, as at Worthington Library.
• The page should be arranged to allow access without having to click through many pages. Flash, mouseovers, and/or dropdowns would help.
• Links to public blogs and wikis
• Screencast and video tutorials

Anything to add, subtract, modify, argue?

Julie

Princeton Public Library

Princeton Public Library's recommended websites -- another one to add to our portfolio.

Julie

Library of the Year's Online Library

What do you think of this.
http://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/index_noflash.cfm?fid=root&CFID=1857190&CFTOKEN=92836618

I like the Virtual Reference Room concept(GVRL titles in there) and the Business section. I also like their terminology. It is understandable.

Orange County Library System

Take a look at the Virtual Library on Orange County's website. While the color scheme and graphics are painfully ugly in a very Florida kind of way, the content is pretty good. While they maintain separate sections for databases and websites, they also have Virtual Galleries which combine various resources. The Info Paths are, unfortunately, static PDF documents in stunning black and white.

It's not fabulous, but not bad either.

Julie


My apologies to Floridians among us.

Recommended websites as wiki?

Right now, when a website selector wants to make a change to their section, they send me the proposed change, which I almost always approve, and then I send it on to John Harper. What if the recommended websites were a wiki and the selectors were able to make changes on their own? I know this might be moot when we redesign, but we may be able to work in some of this functionality.

Julie

Some sites to look at

1. Mary Lou passed this one along to me -- the always-wonderful Hennepin Library's BookSpace. It might be out of our reach, but this is the gold standard for bringing together information sources in an attractive and easy-to-use way.

2. Proquest offers a free Library Marketing Kit, which is really for marketing online resources. It is not the usual self-promotion by a database vendor. Take a look.

Julie

What Do You Think

I think it is relatively easy and quick for Jie to change the tab in the PAC from Online Databases to something else. Do you think that is okay even though the link would still go to the database page as it looks now with the word database all over the place. Changing that is a lot more involved and will come about after all your ideas are reviewed and vetted. In the meantime I am growing to dislike the term databases and was thinking the PAC tab could read
Research and Homework Resources or
Reference and Homework or anything else anyone thinks is useful. If you have any comments or suggestions please post them. The database and eresources use is not meeting projections for this FY and anything you can do as front line service providers to acquaint the public with them is really important.

IF WE DO THIS KIND OF THING THEY WILL USE OUR RESOURCES NO MATTER WHAT WE CALL THEM

Take a look at the Princeton Public Library Technology Center at the class calendar and gadget garage. http://princeton.lib.nj.us/research/techcenter/classes.html. We could do drop in instead of registration for a lot of the stuff. Using the gadget garage concept and classes is more effective than just classes I think.

I talked to Cindy about being able to use the laptops with wireless to show people how to download etc. She is going to look into this and I think it will be an easy thing to get going. Also John is putting up Meebo on a test site and we decided to use Google mail for the Ask A Librarian mailbox instead of Groupwise. John will let you know when you can play with IM.

What to call it?

A little discussion going on in the comments after Jessica's post -- what the heck do you call the databases? Here's what some of the others call it:

Arlington - eSources (Databases & More)
Denver - Research Resources
Hennepin - Databases
Phoenix - Databases & Websites
Seattle - Databases & Websites

Hmmm, nothing truly revolutionary here.

When you click "Subject Guides" on the Hennepin site, you go to a page that is actually called Reference & Research. It includes a link to the A-Z database listing, catalog, a subject guide that includes databases and websites, and a handy-dandy Magazine & Newspaper search that lets you choose online, print or both. Sweet! If only they included their ebooks.

They still end up with the dreaded "database" term, but when it is presented from within the reference and research section, it may be a little less confusing.

A Few of My Favorite Things

eSources or eResources seem a better title than "databases" but what about "Reference Resources" or "Research Resources" or just plain "Resources," since that's what they are, ultimately. I think we need to stop focusing so much on the fact that these things are "electronic," since this is just how information is conveyed and we need to stop making people think there's something different or special about online databases. After all, we are ditching print in-favor of these databases, we want people to feel as confident in this information as they do with print resources.

I like this a great deal. Drilling down into each database to find a list of periodicals is difficult and many patrons just want to know if we have "Gene Therapy Weekly," no matter the format, without having to jump through hoops to find out. Nice that it includes print in-library titles as well as electronic.

I like a few of the sites that include web sites along with databases under the subject headings. If we did this we'd have to take special care to keep these sites updated and relevant. Also, we'd only want to link to the best sites that are useful as reference sources. This would probably mean dropping a few of the categories from the recommended sites page and possibly leaving some subject areas without websites. I'd be in-favor of this and of dropping the separate "recommended sites" area of LCPL's website entirely.

Seattle Public Library

Seattle Public Library

• Link to Selection Criteria also gives some general hints on deciding whether a website is authoritative
• Databases and websites are on same list with nice graphics explaining the difference
• Use same basic layout as LCPL with anchors at top and entire list futher down screen, but with the use of graphics and fonts it looks nicer
• I like the library navigation links on left and tabs at top remaining on all pages – we need to do that (this is not just for the databases webpage but for all library pages)
• Digital Books and Music page is nice – everything is laid out neatly with basic info on each service
• Things here are pretty simple, not much difference in content from us but presented in a more current look

Hennepin County Library

Hennepin County Library

• Databases listed in alphabetical order
• Has topic/sub-topic lists; includes websites
• Right side has links to catalog/news/library events related to topic
• On the front database page, I like the right lower side offerings under More Information (how to connect, difference between databases and websites, etc.)
• Site is clean and easy to navigate – there’s a ton of stuff here; it may actually seem overwhelming to a new user, but once you start clicking you don’t have to go very far before finding something useful

Phoenix Public Library

Phoenix Public Library

• Not crazy about the color scheme but layout is pretty clean (if our staff monitors were larger it would look better)
• Links in column on left don’t go to same place as links in center – center goes to list of databases and websites (and sometimes suggested books), but left goes to more subcategories (I kind of like the center options better, going straight to the links intead of more lists)
• Has list of full-text magazines/journals/newspapers as well as a search for titles
• Puts Webfeat search on left as drop-down
• Also, Webfeat is called Article Searcher, a user-friendly term
• Has sign-in screens so non-patrons can’t get very far in terms of seeing how the entire process works
• Database categories are all on one page, no extra clicking to find the subjects – database names are in Java so they appear quickly and you don’t have to take yet another click to get to the database
• Databases suitable for kids and teens are listed on the Kids and Teens pages under “Homework” (good label, since “databases” is more of a library term than an end-user term)

Database Ideas

I figured discussion might be easier if each topic/library were its own post, so here's a start.

Here are a few ideas I came up with so far regarding the usage of the electronic resources in the branches:

• Combine workstations: Internet, word processing, catalog/databases (I know, we have different rules governing each one, but maybe in this multi-platform era we could come up with some way to get around this, maybe with one dedicated computer in full view of the Reference desk)
• Be more proactive about offering one-on-one database/Internet instruction, or at least be willing to spend more time with patrons in ad hoc demonstrations
• Have a computer that allows patrons to download ebooks and e-audio files, since it's frustrating not to be able to show people all the steps
• Offer database instruction times and use the branch laptop to demonstrate downloading to mp3 players
• Perhaps steer away from library jargon, like “databases,” and simply say "search for articles" or use large headings like "research" or "homework help"
• Have fewer clicks to get to actual searching; make searching across databases more seamless

First Principles

I'm glad to see that some of you have signed up as authors already. Thanks, and please post as much or little as you want.

The way I see it, we have two challenges. One is to make our public aware of the electronic resources -- selected websites, databases, and e-books -- we offer. The second is to remove the barriers to use by making them easier and more convenient to use.

To my way of thinking, we need to address the second challenge first. We can market our services, but if people come to them and then can't figure out how to use them or find the process cumbersome, then we'll lose them again.

To jumpstart the discussion, I've posted links to several other libraries that have come up with different ways of getting at these resources. (Thanks to Mary Beth and Marcie who suggested many of these last year.) If you know of other good (or bad) examples, go ahead and add them to the list. Let's hear what you like and don't like about these sites. Go wild.

Julie

Getting started

Thanks for joining. In the interests of keeping everything in one place, I decided to start blogging this process right from the beginning. I've invited the Reference Committee members to be co-authors of this blog. If there are people at your branch -- or at other branches -- who you think would be good contributors to this discussion, let me know and I will invite them as well. Once we have all the authors on board, I will restrict comments to members of the blog.

More tomorrow. Ciao.

Julie