Tell us something we don't know

Chocolate lovers rejoice. A new study hints that eating milk chocolate may boost brain function.

See the article here

Bands in Libraries

Article from the Boston Globe about bands performing in libraries.

Next Level of Online Service

"Breaking through Your Four Walls: Providing the Next Level of Online Service" is a workshop that I will be attending in Columbus at the State Library in July. It's a hands-on workshop about online social tools such as RSS, wikis, podcasting, instant messaging, and blogs as they can be used for better library service. I'm really looking forward to it--I've got a lot to learn.

Liz

Intstant Messaging Comes to CCPL

Things are coming along for instant messaging to be used as a reference tool. Chris Rich and Sue Riggs will have their branches in Goshen and Amelia beta-testing IM for us this summer. Today they were hard at work setting up IM accounts. Temporary publicity will be placed in those two branches and we'll see what happens. Around the end of the summer, we'll analyze their experiences with it, tell everyone else all about it, and then all ten branches will be good to go. Yes, there will be training. You'll all get to sit through another of my informative, yet entertaining, powerpoint creations.

Liz

LibraryStuff

These minutes were approved at todays Safety Committee Meeting:




SAFETY COMMITTEE
MINUTES
MEETING DATE – 4-26-06


ATTENDING STAFF: Linda Kline – OE, Pam Newman – TS, Darlene Mullikin – FE, Patty Szuszkiewicz – BE, Gail Roberts – UT, Wanda Lawson – BA, Dianna Sissel - MI, Charles Lane – FAC/MAIN, Craig Heaton – AUTO., Heather Mikewski – NR, Ann Kamphaus – AM, Melanie Smithey – CD, Dave Mezack – ADMIN

Ann Kamphaus will facilitate the meetings and Melanie Smithey will take minutes.

The purpose of the safety committee is to discuss issues with each other before they are shared with Administration. Branches may have the same issues so it is necessary to discuss them and combine issues before asking Admin to act on them.

We worked on a mission statement and agreed on the following:

Mission Statement:

The mission of the Safety Committee is to create a safe workplace environment by anticipating problems and eliminating workplace accidents while remaining OSHA & BWC compliant. This will involve creating a culture of safety within CCPL as well as keeping an open door policy with outside organizations such as local Fire and Building departments.

We discussed rules and guidelines for SC meeting and agreed on the following:

Rules for SC (Safety Committee) meetings:

Monthly (at least in the beginning)
1 hour meetings with a 10:00 am start time
Start and end on time
Agendas will be sent out by Ann K. prior to meetings
Items may be tabled for later discussion
Meetings will be held on the 4th Wed. of the month

We discussed some of our building audits and decided that each member would post their audits to the shared folder. Please include your name and branch with each posting to the shared folder. Craig will have the folder on CCPL shared by Wed. May 3.

Several branches discussed problems with money being stolen from the Friends book sale shelf. Dave is going to discuss the money with the Friends liaison. He reminded us that that no money should be counted at the desk.

We were also reminded to keep purses in lockers or desk drawers.


Dave also told us that Jacquie Sehr is working with Lisa Denham on violence in the workplace. More to come on this.

We were also reminded that all circuit panels are to have a 3ft. clearance as well as all fire extinguishers.

Our next meeting will be 5-24-06 at 10:00 am . Patty S. has reserved the NEW Bethel meeting room for the 5-24-06 meeting.

Branch Communication SWOTS

There is a lot of good stuff coming in through the branch and department Communication SWOTs. I really appreciate the time everyone has taken to do this. Your input is helping me to pin point problems; and that's the first step to solutions. I am still waiting on the results of a couple of locations, but so far your remarks and suggestions have been interesting inciteful and pretty consistent in identifying problems.
Jacquie will be talking about some of the communciation SWOT results as she prepares to visit branches in the next few months. I will be talking to the managers in more depth at our next managers' meeting. I have some questions about the results that need more detailed information. I am already working with the Administration Team to address some of the more easily identified issues.
There were two large problems that we can begin to address immediately. One is the final development and consistent application of system manuals such as Emergency Manual and Circulation Procedures. The Administration Team is committed to completing ALL manuals and to developing a plan for consistent updates to manuals by 12/31/06. At some point in the process, you may be asked for input and suggestions. Liz will be working on the "manual formerly known as Public Services Manual" (with some input on procedures from the Office of Public Affairs.) Liz and Lynn will be working on updating the Circulation Procedure Manual. Liz has already worked on the manuals for Volunteer Coordinators. Tracey will update the Friends Manual. Dave and Jacquie will be working on updating the Emergency Procedures Manual. Maura is talking about writing a financial procedures manual (she volunteered!) and Jacquie and I will be working with the Board to update the Staff manual.
The other large problem that these SWOTs identified was the need for consistent updating and organization of the CCPL Shared File. Dave and the Automation Staff will be developing a plan to keep the system updated and organized on a weekly basis. If you are a contributer to the CCPL Shared Folders, you can expect at some time to be asked to update your information.
We have already been working on telephone service at Administration. We won't be changing the phone system, but we're making a better effort at getting the caller to a person more quickly. In six months we'll go back and revisit this issue to see if the service has improved at all.
Jacquie and I were already planning to do staff meeting visits; we'll be stepping those up in the next few months and I expect we'll both bring up communication issues.
As a part of this process, I'll be talking with specific branches about some of theri specific issues throughout the next couple of months. We also have this message posted on the Blog now, and a memo version of it will go out in the next week or so. So as always, comments, suggestions, concerns? Feel free to post them here or send them to me directly.

OPAC critique (LibraryThing ideas, cont.)

This is a closing summary of a three-part commentary on OPACs by Karen Schneider, from the ALA TechSource blog (don't worry, it's not too geeky!):

http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/05/how-opacs-suck-part-3-the-big-picture.html

After last week's discussion (LibraryThing, May 15, + comments), this seems to be of enough interest to initiate a new post. Schneider's comments resonate, but I feel that her conclusion, which advocates "atomizing" or "dis-integrating" the catalog, a bit drastic, as do the major utilities (OCLC and RLG), who have invested years in R&D which would incorporate existing MARC conventions. Schneider envisions a really big mashup, which is no doubt the future, but there has to be a more graceful way to get there.

Google

Back when I was at PLA, I found out that Google has a special page for librarians and I just now got around to checking it out. Included are a newsletter that you can subscribe to and a page that offers free teaching tools. The first item on the tool page is a poster that offers tips for searching Google. It has some good ideas and might be useful to our customers. There's a handout size version that could be distributed when teaching someone how to use the Internet or could even be hung by the computers, if we deemed that appropriate.

And for those who have seen it, take a look at Google Earth. It's an extremely cool program that you can download. Here's a little description from Google:

Want to know more about a specific location? Dive right in -- Google Earth combines satellite imagery, maps and the power of Google Search to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.
-Fly from space to your neighborhood. Type in an address and zoom right in.
-Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
-Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings.
-Save and share your searches and favorites. Even add your own annotations.

I think this would be a really neat program to have on our patron computers. It's great for driving directions (you can "fly" along your route), locating properties (if you're house hunting you can visualize the whole area), exploring (you can see downtown Baghdad, the Forbidden City in China, the Grand Canyon), and more. Besides being a useful tool, I think it would a fun thing for our kids and teens to play with.

Searching the blog

There's been some concern about finding information on the blog so three things to know:

Previous Posts
Along the right side of the blog, the previous 10 posts are listed/linked to.

Archives
Below that are archives of all of the posts sorted by month and year.

Search
And in the upper lefthand corner is search engine. Plug in a keyword, click "search this blog" and bam! you should get a list of posts containing that keyword.

All but official: TEL plan is D.O.A.

Good news from the TEL/TABOR front it looks like it will be removed from the ballot. Though, it sounds like the Library fund could still be affected, just not as much...

"But unlike Blackwell's amendment, which would limit the annual growth of government spending at the state and local levels, the new law would apply to only state general-revenue funds and not spending from other sources such as fees."

The article from the Columbus Dispatch can be read here.

This is from Coaltion for Ohio's Future (www.ohiosfuture.org)

Workload Study

Just to let everyone know, the second workload study will take place in August. More info forthcoming closer to the date.

LibraryThing

For those of you who use LibraryThing, interesting post about tags versus subject headings.

Favorite Library Web Sites

I was looking for ASL program information and found the Cleveland Heights Library. Their web site is clean, easy to read & the front page is packed with information. The “Top 10 Databases” are linked and listed by name. The “Today’s Events” section is such a good idea. I love the “Good Question”, a fun Reference/Trivia question. Anyone care to share their favorites?

Library Grants Blog

I just discovered this blog located right here on Blogger. It is exactly what it's name suggests. It is a blog dedicated to announcements and discussion of grants to librarys. www.librarygrants.blogspot.com

Liz

Thoughts about social networking software in the library from the Information Wants to Be Free blog.

ZDNet article: potential requirement for social networking sites

From a ZDNet article:

MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are the potential targets for a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category's most ardent users.

Read more.

MySpace...:Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?

MySpace, Facebook and Other Social Networking Sites: Hot Today, Gone Tomorrow?

Popular social networking sites, including MySpace and Facebook, are changing the human fabric of the Internet and have the potential to pay off big for investors, but -- given their youthful user base -- they are unusually vulnerable to the next 'new new' thing. As quickly as users flock to one trendy Internet site, they can just as quickly move on to another, with no advance warning, according to Wharton faculty and Internet analysts....

LibQual update

Final counts:

Batavia/Doris Wood Branch: 63

Amelia Branch: 61

Bethel Branch: 96

Felicity Branch: 25

Goshen Branch: 59

Milford-Miami Township Branch: 115

New Richmond Branch: 75

Owensville Branch: 45

Union Township Branch: 68

Williamsburg Branch: 59

Homebound Delivery - CCPL: 20

Brown County Library: 2

Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County - Anderson Branch: 3

Public LIbrary of Cincinnati and Hamilton County - Main: 6


There were 705 surveys completed.

Thank you to everyone for your help, both in taking the survey and in encouraging your users to participate!

Article about the IM Generation

The IM Generation in Charge, an excerpt:

IMers have an active lifestyle; they use multiple means of connectivity at any given time. Their means of digital communication have expanded beyond the e-mail and Usenet messages of the PC Generation, and include text messaging and IM, group messaging on e-mail lists, conversing in chat rooms, posting blogs, Internet telephony, and using webcams to videochat. The Internet—and the mobile phone—also mean that communication between IMers has been transformed from "house-to-house" to the new "person-to-person" paradigm. While most phone calls are still between two people, e-mail and IM make it easy for many persons to communicate at once.

Not only have the means of communication proliferated, but the reach of communication has also increased. It's as cheap to e-mail people across world as it is to email a neighbor. New free Internet phone services like Skype are also encouraging IMers, as well as the rest of us, to communicate more often and (geographically) more widely.

Open WorldCat book search

If you do a Google or Yahoo search with the words - "find in a library" (yes you need the quotes) before the title or ISBN of a book, the first link listed on the results page will be a link to WorldCat. From there you can put in your zip code and it will find local libraries - unfortunatly not CCPL though, since we are not members of WorldCat.

5 Things to Make your Library a Better Place

From walking paper, thoughts on the stapler, an excerpt:

Here are five things you can do this week to make your library a better place:

1. Let people bring drinks into your building. Let that group of high schoolers studying together eat the cupcakes they brought in. They might even offer you one. If they do, take it. It’ll make you seem human.

2. Communicate with your users who IM.

3. Let patrons plug their digital cameras into your computers.

4. By your DVD collection, have hold slips filled out with the info for popular films. They’ll just need to write in their name and hand it to you.

5. Allow kids to bring their skateboards in the library.

Quote about blogs

From Naked Conversations: "First there were phone books, then web sites and [businesses] know that if they don't have [one], it works to their disadvantage. Blogs are just the next logical step."

Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0 and how does it impact libraries? Some starting points:

• Tim O'Reilly defines Web 2.0


• TechCrunch reviews Web 2.0 products and companies


• A list of Web 2.0 lists


• John Blyberg's thoughts about Library 2.0

Two programming ideas I'd like to see us try (or Leslie has too much time on her hands)

As I've wandered along the last week or two, I've come across two ideas for programs I'd like to see us try. You can blame the really weird on one on Laura, she's the person who introduced me to the concept of "flashmobs" I think it would be really cool to get some people to pull be a "flashmob" (Laura tells me it's a noun not a verb) at a library branch. I think we're going to combine it with National Library Card month. If you're interested contact Laura. (but not Liz, she thinks i'm nuts)

The other idea you can blame on my son. I think we should start looking around for local garage bands of kids who are too young to perform at a "club" scene and try to kick off some concerts at our branches. These kids (if they're any good) bring their own audience and families, and it would make for some unusual programming. I know Jon's band is interested, and I'm fairly sure we could come up with a couple more. Felicity expressed some willingness to try this. Anyone else interested?

Art Show

I wanted to thank Joann and the rest of the staff recognition committee for all their hard work puting on the staff art show. Eric and I got there late and they were all hard at work getting things packed up. The show is really good, so if you didn't get a chance to see it, stop by the branch and check out all that talent.

interesting health web site

I heard an interesting story on NPR this morning about a nonprofit agency who rates health coverage done by nationaal television and newspapers. Check it out. It may be a very helpful reference tool for ourselves and our customers. It's http://www.healthnewsreview.org/. Here's a statement from the publisher: HealthNewsReview.org is an attempt to help improve the accuracy, balance and completeness of news stories that make claims about new ideas in health care. It is not intended to belittle the hard work of well-intentioned journalists.

There is still hope!

Interesting news regarding the TEL/TABOR amendment from the Columbus Dispatch newspaper today. Apparently, Ohio Republicans are trying to get the amendment dropped from the November ballot. You can read the article here.

The website
has a lot of interesting information regarding the TEL/TABOR.

Database Promotion

About a month and a half ago, I created a tool that I think is helping to promote the use of databases. Using Print Shop, I made a template to make a pocket that can be hung off any shelf and will hold several copies of the "Home Access to OPLIN Databases" bookmarks. I have 31 variations of the pocket, designed to promote different databases. For example, one pocket says:

Don't have an encyclopedia at home?
Two of our databases can help!
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia
Visit the Information Desk to learn more.

I have hung the pockets in the stacks next to related materials - a sort of "readalike" for databases. Yesterday, when restocking the pockets with bookmarks, I found that 15 were either empty or had only one bookmark remaining. The pockets that seem to have drawn the most attention are ones promoting our magazine & newspaper databases, RA databases, homework helper databases, p4A Antiques, and EBSCO Animals.

If anyone is interested in trying the pockets out, let me know. I can transfer the files I have to you, or I can put them on CCPLshared, if anyone would like to suggest an appropriate place. I can also send a made up sample to anyone who's interested.

Volunteer Manual(s) Are A-Coming

We're chugging right along on the volunteer and volunteer supervisor manuals. I've gotten input from the liaisons on the revised edition and I have now asked them to send in their current manuals (both binders and contents) by next Wednesday. Around June 1, Teri and I will send out lovely new manuals. Then in a year or so, we'll look at the revised edition and tweak it some more.

Liz

Children and Reference Service

Beginning on May 1, we are conducting a brief survey of children about our reference service to children. The question in some minds might be: why bother? We did a survey of adults, including parents, didn't we? Well, yes, we did, but here's the thing.

Children and teenagers view the world very, very differently from their elders. They experience schools and assignments differently. They use technology differently. They have very different informational priorities. There are many things that kids do not know yet, and many things about which they are far wiser than adults. -And not least, children experience time differently.

There's a lot we can learn from kids.

So...PLEASE...take the time to talk with the children and teens in your branches. Help the younger ones with the survey. Note down what they actually think and say, not what you wish they'd said. Hand out loolipops freely and get to know the young people and their opinions.

There's a lot we can learn from kids.

Liz

Teen program idea

Teen Poetry Night at the Johnson County Library. Sounds like a fun program.

And now I'm tempted to change my name to Angel Dew.