Software for libraries

I read about a public library in Maryland (Howard County Library) that has moved to an Ubuntu Linux based application (known as Groovix) for its public access computers.

Excerpts from the article:
"After I saw the Groovix deployment, with RealPlayer and other media support, there was no turning back. We begin piloting in January and it went effortlessly." De Groff tested the operating system on her existing hardware, upgrading the RAM from 128MB to 512MB. "The bulk of them are Dell GX150s with some GX100s," she says. "The newest machines are four years old." De Groff also added GCompris, a GPLed educational software package for children that includes more than 80 games."

Also, words of advice on learning what your patrons are actually doing on the computers as opposed to what the library staff thinks they are doing:

"We talked to our staff and they said the customers were searching the catalog. But when we talked to the customers, they said, 'We're reading email and doing online banking.' And then when we tracked hits, 70% of them were to MySpace. They may also be banking and need a secure system, but the audio and video are obviously very important as well. Your feedback from the staff isn't always consistent with the data you're going to generate -– so put it all together and meet all those needs

Yelp reviews libraries

This was a surprise to me- I thought the Yelpers were just into food. Anyway, I checked out the Yelp reviews for the Berkeley Public Library, and discovered that everybody loved it- along with some interesting comments.

Here's one excerpt:
"the berkeley library has the goods! the earnest nerdy librarians, a solid fiction room, dvds, cds, even a respectable foreign language books section. they can get you pretty much any book you want, though you may have to wait for it to arrive via some special magic lending source, and new books can be awfully hard to see on the shelf. i plug away looking for the new books to no avail until i just forget that i ever wanted to read them and settle on whatever vapid fiction is sitting on the shelf"

OK- I'll get past the "earnest nerdy librarians" crack and get down to the great suggestion- how to spotlight new books, or good books, or any book recommendations at all. My North Berkeley branch has a shelf of librarian recommendations (which I always check) but it is usually empty because people have taken the books out- this is prime marketing space and should NEVER be allowed to be empty- if the recommended book gets checked out- put another in its place. People LOVE recommendations.

Ann Arbor District Library catalog

The AADL has a great catalog, which we are reviewing as part of this week's exercise in the eBranch course. Among the many interactive features, it has reviews by patrons,tags and comments as well as many ways to browse the catalog. The tags feature is very well done- it first presents a page of the top 500 tags, then, in a sidebar, lists the top 10 tags, the 10 most recent tags, 10 random tags and 10 reviews. Each one is a link to the tagged items which then link back to the catalog. According to our instructor, AADL has modified an Innovative Interfaces catalog to include these features. It would be great to hear how they did it.

Also interesting is that the top 10 tags were dominated by manga related terms: fantasy, anime, manga, shonen jump, shonen, time travel, ghosts, half-demon, demons. It would appear that the most avid taggers are the anime fans- suggestive of the demographic likely to use this type of interactive feature.

A fun little feature is a card catalog image to which you can add comments instantly. I added the note, "This is neat", not really expecting it to post, but it did. In looking at the source code, it appears to be some kind of php script interacting with a form, but I couldn't quite figure it out. It's a neat trick though could be hard to deal with the graffiti.

Another interesting feature of the catalog is the options that are listed along with the bibliographic information on the book. The options are: Request this book, Card Catalog Image, Look inside this book @ Google books, Table of Contents, Summary/Annotations (these last two apparently through Syndetic Solutions).

Flickr and podcasting in libraries

Flickr is a must for libraries- I liked the Hennepin Library's "Bookspace" series, in which patrons submitted photos of themselves reading books. It's fun to look at pictures, and people who attend library events will feel more a part of the library if they see themselves on the libray website- in fact, they'll probably tell their friends and relatives to take a look, too. I really liked Westmont Public Library's idea of showing the new books, with the option to link directly back to the library catalog - I have to figure out how that's done- something involving objects I guess. Knowing how simple Flickr makes things, it's probably not too difficult. Also want to explore the Swan Online Catalog they are apparently using.


Podcasting is a bit harder- all the downloading and whatnot probably deters alot of novice users. The explanations are kind of wordy- all the sites needed clearer, simpler explanations, but Denver did a nice job. Their page is so friendly looking that it inspires trust in the user.

Juice and podcasts

Last week's exercise on multimedia content on library websites led to all sorts of dabbling, including figuring out how to email photos from a cameraphone to Flickr, how to post photos from Flickr to my blog (here's a link to Flickr's page telling you how to do this- all very simple, which is why Flickr is so popular) and how to set up a podcast receiver. I installed Juice but have not figured out how it works- the only MP3 player I have at the moment is my daughter's beloved iPod and she would be devastated if anything happened to it. Since disaster is frequently one click away in the world of internet explorations, I think I'll wait until I get one of my own. I think this is something like a feed aggregator, that automatically collects new podcsts from rss feeds that you specify and works with a reader like iTunes.

Storytelling podcasts

I have reviewed the Denver Public Library's site before, but found something new on this latest visit (the definition of a good website- something new each time you visit): a link to multimedia stories, available for free through a vendor, August House. I listened to and watched a charming story called The Drum. Interactive features include an option to read the story, with a button to click if you want a narrator to read along with you. The spoken text is highlighted in short phrases as the words are spoken, quite effective for developing word recognition. Another selection is called "Music Fun" and you click on the drums you want to hear, and two players on a stage do the drumming while small animals dance to the beat (the smiling alligator is really cute!)You can print out a coloring book, mazes and some "what's wrong with this picture?" pages. Under the Family Fun tab are instructions for baking the bread from the story and making a drum from an oatmeal container. Story Cove is sponsored by August House Publishers and describes its services this way:

"Story Cove folktales come from a variety of cultures and places. They share timeless values and simple, universal lessons.

The Story Cove format enables children and their families to explore these stories in a variety of ways. As a result, each child is able to develop a more personal understanding of a story while also exercising and developing a range of intelligences. This allows each child to discover and develop his own interest in the stories."

Colgate Graduation Brunch

Same group with me, originally uploaded by bonnieknight.

The weather was lousy but the graduation was great.