Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries
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Presentation for the Iowa Small Libraries online conference in January 2010 covering strategies for libraries in difficult economic times: project management, project assessment, marketing strategies, and free web tools & software to save libraries money.
Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries
- 1. Tough Times Make Tougher Libraries Sarah Houghton-Jan Digital Futures Manager, San Jose Public Library Author of LibrarianInBlack.net
- 2. Why doth the libraries cry?
- 3. What we can do right now 1) Find out user needs 2) Use free technologies to save money 3) Plan projects effectively 4) Assess projects thoughtfully 5) Market our services the right way
- 4. Find out user needs
- 6. “ Understanding local patron culture is essential to creating used and useful technology services.” - Char Booth
- 7. Taking the Ass out of Assumption (Char Booth): slideshare.net/charbooth/local-user-research-taking-the-ass-out-of-assumption
- 8. Taking the Ass out of Assumption (Char Booth): slideshare.net/charbooth/local-user-research-taking-the-ass-out-of-assumption
- 9. Listen to your users. It really is as simple as that. Plz?
- 10. Use free technologies to save money
- 11. Public & Staff Computer Software Operating System - Ubuntu Email/Calendar - Google Calendar & Gmail Web Browser - Firefox, Google Chrome Financial Software - GNU Cash Productivity Software - Open Office - word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, databases, desktop publishing, and calculator
- 12. More... Public & Staff Computer Software Image Editing - GIMP Typing Software - GNUTypist or TypeFaster Typing Tutor CD writing - Brasero or InfraRecorder Antivirus - AVG Antivirus Ad-Busting - AdAware Anti-Spyware - SpyBot, Spyware Guard, Spyware Blaster
- 13. Staff Scheduling Tools Droster AceShift (<20 shifts/day) or even Open Office's “Calc”
- 14. Team Meeting Tools Voice – Skype, Google Voice Video – Skype, Sightspeed, Tokbox IM – AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, & others Meeting Space/Chat – Today's Meet Meeting Scheduling – When Is Good, Doodle Webcasts – Vyew
- 15. Tech Support Tools Embedded chat - Meebo chat widget Voice or video chat - Skype or Ekiga, Sightspeed, Tokbox Screencasts on the fly - Jing Discussion board - Google Groups Remote Support - LogMeIn.com
- 16. Audio & Video Tools Voice/Video Chat – Skype or Ekiga Audio Recording/Editing – Audacity Video Editing – Avidemux, DVDx, Lumiera, Kino Video Hosting – YouTube, blip.tv, Vimeo Audio Hosting – OurMedia
- 17. eLearning Tools Screencasting – Screencast-o-matic, Jing, Wink, Camstudio, Screencast.com Online Learning Environment – Moodle Conference Calls – FreeConferenceCall.com Webcasts – Ustream.tv Class Websites – WordPress, Blogger, PBworks
- 18. 'Contact Us' Tools Email – Gmail, Yahoo Mail Instant Messaging – AIM, GoogleTalk, Meebo Chat Widgets – Meebo, Plugoo VOIP/audio – Skype Video – some IM clients (AOL, Skype) Text Messaging – AIMhack Social Networks – Facebook IM Twitter – “ask us a question with @...” Jing – screencast video on the fly
- 19. Social Network Tools CheckUsernames.com : check multiple networks Open ID and ClaimID : claim and log into multiple networks HootSuite : Twitter stats Ping.fm, Hellotxt.com, and AtomKeep : simultaneous updates Twitter/Facebook : settings/apps to update both Filtrbox and MyBUZZmonitor : what people say
- 20. Website Tools Website recommender - del.icio.us, Evernote ILS - Koha or Evergreen Content Management System - Drupal Flickr slideshow - Pictobrowser RSS Feed and Blog Post Statistics - PostRank Tag Clouds - TagCrowd, Wordle Web Forms - Google Forms CSS-picker - Typetester
- 21. Online Book Displays Westmont Public Library http://www.flickr.com/photos/westmontlibrary/549380055/
- 22. More Free Web Tools
- 24. Free eBooks Project Gutenberg AudioBooksForFree Escholarship Google Books ManyBooks Memoware Online Books Page Oxford Text Archive & many more!
- 25. Free Articles ArticlesBase.com FindArticles.com + open access e-journals + free access through individual publication's websites Why not add this stuff to your website, or even your catalog?
- 26. More Favorites RSS aggregator - Google Reader Book Jackets - Book City Jackets Open Source/CC Images - Wikipeda Commons, Flickr Image Search Charts – LucidCharts, Lovely Charts, Gliffy Text to Voice – Text2Speech, Google Voice Citation Keeper – Zotero Movies Online - Hulu File Drop Sites - SendUIt, DropBox
- 28. Quick & Dirty Project Planning Can add costs for staff time, explicit deliverables, breaking each step down further, listing who is responsible for what. Time and Money Completion Date (start date Sept. 15) Research 10 hours, $0 September 22 Committee review 20 hours, $0 October 6 Software installation 10 hours, $35 October 13 Staff training 40 hours, $0 November 3
- 29. Sarah's Awesome 10 Step Project Plans 1. Background 2. Aims & Objectives 3. Overall Approach 4. Project Outputs 5. Technology Requirements & Impact 6. Training 7. Project Management 8. Marketing 9. Budget 10. Evaluation Plan
- 30. But my project is huge and I need help managing the steps!
- 31. BaseCamp
- 32. Staff Training Part of training is information. Provide staff exposure at least 1 month before soft launch Offer staff formal training in that time - Play with it, touch it, and learn it. - Fun. Rewards. Food. - Types and numbers of trainings
- 33. Getting Staff Buy-In Inform early and constantly. Ask for & use input. Demand consistent managerial support.
- 34. Soft Launches Beta test everything! 1. Launch the new service for a small group of staff first (to find big bugs). 2. Launch for entire staff (and ask for feedback, problems, suggestions). 3. Launch for users (without “hard” promotion and ask for feedback). 4. Do a hard launch and promote.
- 36. Evaluating New Services Survey users and staff 6 months in: Would you recommend this service to a friend? Why or why not ? Evaluate the library's follow-through: Has adequate marketing and training been done? Evaluate statistics: How much staff time is being used?How much is the service used?
- 39. Results of Evaluation Continue service or Discontinue service or Extend pilot and - change aspects of the service - do more promotion or training Discontinuing a service is not failing. Persisting in a failed effort is failing.
- 40. Market our services the right way
- 42. Raising Awareness PR in our physical presence PR in our online presence
- 43. F2F World Marketing Ideas Open communication & discussion in the library outside the library Outreach to partners & community groups Word of mouth Dynamic physical marketing LCD screens in-library or in the community Flyers, posters, geocaching in the community
- 44. Online Marketing Ideas Library website promotions – large, graphic Have a good URL Updates & flyers on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Short promotions on receipt printers, email alerts, newsletters, catalog, banner, everywhere! Ensure search engine findability Events websites (Eventful, Going, Upcoming) Get links from partners
- 45. $10 = 5000 Facebook Flyers to targeted audiences Facebook Flyer image by Steve Lawson: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tuttlibrary/1546577200 CHEAP ADVERTISING!!!
- 47. Rejoice in failures... for failing indicates that you have encountered a boundary that needs testing.
- 48. Questions? Sarah Houghton-Jan web: LibrarianInBlack.net email: LibrarianInBlack@gmail.com IM: LibrarianInBlack Twitter: twitter.com/TheLiB Skype: LibrairanInBlack Facebook: facebook.com/librarianinblack