I'm heading to Computers in Libraries

I keep forgetting to post here, but next week I'm heading to Computers in Libraries up in Washington, DC.  I'll be presenting on Tuesday, April 8 at 4pm on the D track with a presentation titled "Perfection is the Enemy of Perfect" (and yes, I know the webpage and whatnot has a different title...not my doing.)  Anyway, if you'll be at the conference or are in the area and want to meet up let me know, either via a comment here or tweet me @ashuping.  Look forward to seeing all of y'all!

CIL 2012 presentation

My apologies folks I honestly meant to get this up two weeks ago and I didn't....but here it is now.

For posterity's sake:
In March 2012 I gave a presentation at Computers in Libraries titled "Getting to Yes After the Conference" (the CIL program called it "Getting to yes after CIL" but that wasn't my call.) In this presentation I shared tips and tricks that I've learned over the last 5 plus years of getting support for projects after the conference and buy in from administration.  For the first time ever I've also typed up my notes (hopefully they'll make some sort of sense to someone other than me.)

If you have questions, comments, suggestions, etc. feel free to leave a comment

Cil 2012--Getting to yes

View more presentations from Andrew Shuping.

Slide notes:

Slide 1:  I am me.

Slide 2:  Why am I talking to you guys about this?  Because selling ideas after a conference can be difficult.  You know it, I know it, well all know it.  So what do you do?  How do you get your admin to buy into what you're selling?  Well I'm going to share some tips and tricks I've learned over the past few years that can help you out.  First thing that you should do before you get back:  takes note and names.  yes take names.  if you hear a presentation or an idea that you like get their info so that you can ask them questions later.


(look below for two bonus content slides)

Slide 3: 

This is the most important thing that I can think of:  know who your audience is: who do you need to sell to, what do they like, brief convo, live demo, written report?

 

have a friend on the management team, someone that supports what you're selling 
Slide 4: 

users matter.  cool things are great, but if it isn't what your users are going to do or use and you already know it (example you work in a library that only serves the amish, don't push text messaging.) 

know why you're suggesting that the library invest time and energy in it. make sure it's meeting a need.  make sure you discuss what it will take to get it going...because
Slide 5:  

remember the investment:  even if it's free, it is isn't free.  it's like free kittens..and a bunny.  there's still time and money involved in it (mostly in the form of staff)  if you've got a small library and your systems department consists of one guy carrying everything but the kitchen sink, don't try to sell something that will require a lot of time and energy on their part to get going/maintain.

Slide 6: 

sell it to your colleagues. let them get excited about it. the more backing you have the better it's likely to go.

share with them what you learned, share slides, tweets, whatever works best, but let them be advocates for you as well.  if they're interested and support you it helps.

this can also include non co-workers, find someone to brainstorm with, how to approach the problem to get at a solution. people on campus, people online wherever.

in other words don't go it alone

Slide 7: 

find someone that can help you sell it.  your yin to your yang.  spock to your kirk

Slide 8: 

free is your friend.  if you can do it for free try it.  its a great way to sell a new service to admin.  down the road you can always say look it's working here's why we should move to this pay for service.  only go for pay for first if it's the only option or clearly the best option for what you're trying to do.

 

Slide 9: 

explore what's out there.  what's new, perhaps it simplifies the process, offers more, makes it easier to do, it improves efficiency 

 

Slide 10:

be willing and prepared to fail.  things aren't going to work.  it's a fact of life.  live from it. and learn from it.

don't be afraid to fail.  not everything is going to make it through the first time, come back a second and third time. if it's a good idea stick with it. listen to why folks are saying they aren't interested in it

Slide 11: 

give back to the community.  you've tried something. it worked. it didn't work.  let others know, even if its just a blog post.

Slide 12:  last unwritten rule and this depends on your pow, do first ask questions later--only for certain things though. don't redesign the webpage without telling people. 

Slide 13:
Slide 14:


And as an added bonus, two extra slides! (since it was pointed out that I neglected to include something from "Lord of the Rings"  These slides would be right at the beginning of the presentation.

Sometimes it seems like when we get back from conferences and try to talk to administration about what we want to do it's like talking to the Ents from "Lord of the Rings"

"Harummm....you want to do what with what?  Hmmm....we'll have to gather the ents to discuss it.  Don't worry we'll have things a decision for you in the next two to three years"

Or it's worse and it's like trying to wage war with these guys?  Not pretty is it?

My presentations for the year

This was a good year for presentations for me. I'm getting more comfortable giving presentations and I gave three this year, two in a one month time span which was a bit difficult along with everything else I had going on at that time. But it was great experience and allowed me to stretch myself.


BIGGER 2009
This was a rather interesting presentation for me for a variety of different reasons. In 2008 a colleague and I had done a library 2.0 project at our POW and we submitted to various conferences in the hopes of presenting and BIGGER accepted.

• The topic of the conference, Information Literacy, wasn't what we had built our project around but at the same time it fit into the theme
• 1st collaborative presentation. Although I gave it alone my colleague and I figured out a blue print to what we wanted to discuss
• 1st presentation I've done where the slides are mostly pictures instead of text. This was something new I had seen and I really liked the idea of using less text and this presentation really fit that type of style
  

Another thing that was different were some comments I received after the presentation. People were surprised that I discussed what didn't work with the project and I was surprised by that.

BIGGER 2009 Presentation

View more presentations from Andrew Shuping.

GA COMO 2009
Last year at GA COMO I discussed different types of free software and this was a continuation of that presentation where I discussed how to choose, how to find, and places to download free software.

Free Now What

View more presentations from Andrew Shuping.

Access Services Conference
This was a fun conference to attend and present at. Its the 1st year this conference was held and I was excited to be a part of the program planning committee (and no I didn't pick my own presentation!) The conference was strictly Access Services folks from across the country and it was great to be able to learn and share with folks in this area.

My presentation was on Library 2.0 tools that I had tried out with my department and some tips and tricks to look for when starting.

Access Services 2.0: Tools for a new era

View more presentations from Andrew Shuping.

One of the big things I took away from doing these 3 presentations was being willing to talk about what didn't work. Going in I didn't want folks to think that everything was always sunshine and buttercups and that things always worked the way you wanted them too. Cause man did some stuff fail absolutely miserably that I tried out. So I talked about it. I thinks its important to share not only your successes but your failures as well.

New! Access Services Conference fall 2009

I'm pleased to announce about the launch of a new conference taking place this fall: Access Services Conference 2009, “Unlocking the 21st Century Library”. This year's event will be held at Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta, GA from November 11-13, 2009.

This event is being planned by library staff from across the country and some very creative folks. It was an idea started by folks at GA Tech library and they are working hard on planning it. I'm serving on the program planning committee and will post updates on the conference as we get moving.

Here's the call for proposals:

On behalf of the Conference Organizing Committee, we would like to invite you to submit a proposal for the Access Services Conference 2009, “Unlocking the 21st Century Library”. This year's event will be held at Georgia Tech Global Learning Center in Atlanta, GA from November 11-13, 2009.

The Access Services Conference is an opportunity for individuals working in all areas of Access Service in libraries to gather information and communicate with other professionals about Circulation, Reserves, Interlibrary Loan, Student Worker Management, Security, Stacks Maintenance, and other topics of interest.

We invite program proposals from March 30 until 5pm, July 15, 2009.

Accepted program proposal submissions should be able to fit within a 50 minute segment. Proposals might focus on any of the following areas:

Customer Service

Circulation

Interlibrary Loan

Consortia Agreements

Marketing

Reserves

Security

Space Management

Stacks Maintenance

Student Workers Management

Current technology for access service enhancement

Program Proposal guidelines:

Please submit an abstract, 300 words or less, with the program title and your name. Program proposals will be reviewed by the program committee and those presenters who are selected will be notified by August 15, 2009. In order to submit a proposal, please create an account at the conference website http://conferences.library.gatech.edu/access/index.php/access/access09/login,

login and select the “Author” link to submit your proposal.

Please direct any questions to Denita Hampton dahampton@gsu.edu

Computers in Libraries posts--Coming soon!

If your waiting for my posts on presentation don't despair! I do have notes on the presentations that I've attended and I'll be putting those up over the next couple of days. I took notes and I'm trying to clean them up a bit before I post. I'm not quite as good as some other folks like Librarian by day and librarianinblack at gathering their notes so fast (seriously those 2 are freaking awesome at their coverage!)

I've enjoyed my time at CIL and get to participate in an on the fly T is for Training last night which was a lot of fun. Once it's posted take a listen to it. And if you haven't listened to it before check it out! Maurice Coleman puts together a great podcast every two weeks and there's a great list of people that participate (such as Librarian by Day.)

Computers in Libraries 2009!

I'm a bit late at posting this, but I'm at Computers in Libraries 2009. I'll be blogging the presentations that I attend for the next few days so that you can hear what I hear. If you're here at CIL and wanna meet up, leave a comment and let me know where and when. My schedule is pretty much wide open. Look forward to meeting some of you folks that are here and listening to some great presentations!

Notes on GA COMO presentation

For those of you that have been waiting, thanks for your patience! Here are the brief notes on my presentation and thoughts on programs.

This is a bit long, but as through as I could be on my notes. If you have questions please let me know

2nd slide: if you are interested in Open Source ILS please let me know and I'll put you in touch with people that are in the know on those.

4th slide: examples of some free programs that most people are familiar with, what others one do you know?

5th slide: By a show of hands choose top 2 or three topics your interested in and we'll cover examples of those topics (note in presentation audience wanted to cover all topics. As such we were not able to get to computer protection or other)
Other includes: file conversion, online storage, and free website/hosting

6th slide: Document alternatives

1. Open Office--includes word, spreadsheet, database, PPT, draw, and math formulas (just launched updated version recently)
2. IBM Lotus--relatively new document, spreadsheet, and PPT
3. Zoho--full suite of applications, just launched e-mail. All kinds of items, check it out
4. Google Documents--showcased. Easy to share documents and collaborate with others. PPT, spreadsheet, documents, just launched forms. Very similar in layout to Microsoft office.
5. Slideshare--way to share PPT presentations, just expanded into other areas.

7th-13th slide: Screen Shots of Google Documents
14th slide: Photo Editing

1. Paint.net--powerful paint/photo/design software. Equivalent of Adobe Photoshop/Draw in many ways.
2. Gimp--similar to Paint.net. Complex tool, but lots of good features. Does take time to learn
3. Artweaver--New, haven't explored much yet.
4. Picnik--integrated with Flickr. Basic photo editing techniques. Has pay version with more features
5. FotoFlexer--Most advanced online photo editing tool. Basic tools, plus effects such as stickers, paiting, sepia, etc. Has easy integration (via API's) with social networking tools. Was software showcased. *NEW* has a feature to create posters (inspirational or other), black border.

15th-20th slide: Screen Shots of FotoFlexer
21st-22nd slide: Laugh break and stay on target!

23rd slide: Screen sharing

1. 12seconds--not screen sharing but cool feature. You have 12 seconds to share a message with others. All hosting done online. Requires a webcam
2. Screencast-O-Matic--software demonstrated. Requires Java to run. Very simple easy to use. Doesn't cover full screen so you have to move box around to capture what you're showcasing. Way to demonstrate how to navigate website, database, etc. Limited to 15 minutes, but be honest who wants to listen to something longer than 15 minutes? Can export quicktime file to host where you choose, or host on their server. No download!
3. Jing--very basic, only 5 minutes. can only be hosted on their server.
4. CamStudio--requires download. Has many of the same features of Screencast-O-Matic. Does require a download.
5. CaptureFox--new add on for FireFox. Very basic at this point. Somewhat stilted, but will likely work past it's bugs to grow.

24th-27th slide: Screen shots of Screen-Cast-O-Matic

28th slide: Online Meeting Collaboration

1. ooVoo--chat with a webcam. Very limited. Requires a download, somewhat difficult to navigate.
2. Skype--one of the most popular applications to make phone calls and chat with people while away.
3. DimDim--online meeting collaboration, whiteboard, sharing desktop. borad based.
4. WiZiQ--software demonstarted. Share desktop, whiteboard, easy to collaborate. Does have a pay version that has more features (such as storing the recording for a set amount of time.) Can take test online, share documents, has storage so that you don't have to wait to upload documents, does it automatically.
5. Doodle--shcedule a meeting or a pool. Limited, but does what its meant to.

29th-37th slide: Screen shots of WizIq

(did not get to these last slides)
38th slide: Computer Protection
(if demo was provided it would be live features running on laptop--AVG and Firewall)

• AVGfree--paid version exisits with more features, but AVGfree does the basics very well. Make sure you read the license carefully as my interpretation is that it can't be used for business use, only personal. Will update and run scans automatically depending upon the setting that you provide.
• Spybot--paid version provides more options, such as automatic scanning and updating. Free version does a good job of catching spyware, but user most remember to run it and download updates. Simple to use interface and fairly easy to navigate.
• PC Tools Firewall--provides complex coverage of system and ability to manipulate. First couple of weeks requires constant tweaking to provide maximum coverage, but afterwards is a good way monitor and block programs trying to access the internet or make changes to computer's registry without permission.

39th slide: Other

1. Zamzar.com--convert files from one type to another easily, ranging from documents to video files to other. Upload file and it will send converted file to your e-mail address.
2. Weebly.com--software to be demoed. many places to host free blog, not so many to host free website. This site allows for both and for sites to be integrated. Does have pay version, but free version allows for the basics that most users would be looking for.
3. ADrive.com--provides 50gb of online storage for free. Great way to store documents wihout worrying about losing a flash drive. Can handle multiple formats of files. Some limitations. Does have pay versions that allow for greater features.

40th slide : Screen shot of Weebly

41st slide: Sources for information
Places to check for free alternatives and new tools to use

42nd slide: reminders

1. Always, always check the license to make sure you agree with what you want to do!
2. If downloading a program that your not familiar with, check download.com or softpedia.com to make sure that programs are spyware/virus free.

Any questions please feel free to contact me.

Notes are coming...

The notes for my presentation are coming don't worry. I took the weekend to recover from being somewhat more worn out that I thought I was. Last week I had a lot packed in a very short three day time span, so I and my humble computer are destressing a bit.

So while your waiting I thought I'd point you to a few of my friends blogs. Right now in Monterey, CA is the Internet Librarian 2008 Conference, hosted by the same folks that do Computers in Libraries. I've not been to Internet Librarian (maybe next year), but know many of the folks that are presenting there on a wide variety of interesting and creative topics. So I'm sure they'll be blogging about it as they go along. So make sure follow these guys:
Iris Jastram
Amanda Etches-Johnson
Jason Griffey
Jenica Rogers-Urbanek
Steve Lawson
David Lee King
Michael Sauers

CIL preconfrence thoughts

That's right...I'm setting aside time today and tomorrow to finally finish blogging on Computers in Libraries so I can post on other exciting topics...

It's been two months so my thoughts are kinda of blurred now (which is why I should have finished this a while ago), but both pre-conference workshops were fantastic. I've been able to take ideas that I've learned from them and start incorporating them into work life here. We have plans for doing a library 2.0 session over the summer for all members of our staff and I've been able to introduce some of the elements I learned from Almost Baldgeek and Librarian In Black workshop on training staff with technology, such as the hands on workshops. I've also been able to share some elements to make a great podcast, such as not reading directly from the script, that I learned from David and David.

Although the cost of the pre-conference seemed a bit high, the information that was shared was well worth while (see previous posts for full details.) The speakers were engaging as they shared the information they had. The audience felt like they really had a chance to participate in the podcasting/videocasting workshop and to gain an understanding of some different methods that can be used to train staff in technology.

CIL: Technology Training for library staff: Creativity works

Technology Training for library staff: Creativity works

Annette, Maurice, Sarah

As I remember this was a very creative and interesting presentation (writing this post a couple of weeks after from notes). As my library is discussing how to teach Library 2.0 to our staff I was very interested to learn from these presenters.

Maurice Coleman and Annette Gaskins from Hartford County public library from Maryland spoke about a specific project, the "petting zoo" that they ran to introduce their staff to new technology. And Sarah Houghton-Jan, the Librarian In Black!, discussed the benefits of a coordinated effort at staff training.

1st up were Maurice and Annette, who are both trainers for their library system. The state of Maryland gave a mandate for all public libraries staff to learn about Library 2.0, based upon the PLMC model. We learned that Hartford County has a diverse population from urban to Amish (they even have a hitching post at one of their libraries!) Maurice and Anette were tasked with a way to introduce the library staff to Library 2.0 concepts, before they did the Library 2.0 PLMC model (23 things to learning about Library 2.0). The goal was to introduce the staff to the basics were before discussing them more in depth.

The librarians at their libraries, didn't understand new technology, such as Facebook, Youtube, etc. that their users were asking about. Some staff just wanted to be able to keep up with their own kids. Anette and Maurice began by conducting a survey of the staff to find out what they wanted to learn and what couldn't be covered in the regular training sessions that they provided to library staff.They decided to go with the "petting zoo" model, which is where people have a chance to hear and play with the tools. Why this model? It provided the staff with a laboratory setting to play with the devices that they would be learning about in the Library 2.0 concepts. They trained all public service staff (required) and most of the support staff. One of the major challenges was that they had to do this without disrupting public services.


The first steps:
They had the support of the administration, who required all public services staff to attend and strongly encouraged others. More importantly they had visible support. The managers even participated in the training, and they have pictures to prove it! They even paid the PT staff to come in! Get people to buy into the program and get them excited about. Get them to talk about it with each other. It was decided that the best time to do this training would be on Wed. mornings when most of the library branches didn't open until after 12. The program was a half-day training, which included one hour of lecture and two hours of hands on activities. With the day and time chosen they divided people into groups of 6. Each group had twenty minutes at each of the 6 stations.

They decided that they would have six different workstations for staff to try out:
Wiki
Gaming
Streaming media
IM/Myspace
Blogging
MP3's/IPods

What did they expect the staff to learn? A couple of the main points were:
To have an introduction and be comfortable to working with new things
A chance to try hands on activities--many things they only had the equipment for just the day of the event
And of course to learn about library 2.0

Taking Shape--people
Each station had at least two trainers to be available and answer questions. They had a station master who was in charge of presenting and station staff that could help answer the questions. These were people that were knowledgeable about what they were speaking on and could answer questions that might arise. One thing that the library did was partner with a big box store, Best Buy, that not only provided resources--such as TVs, etc, they also provided staff that were available to help answer questions. Best Buy actually approached the library in this case and asked what they could do. They were able to secure monitors and flat screens to use for the day. They suggested that libraries talk to these stores, see what they could offer. Many offer community outreach and maybe able to help out.

They had host/hostesses that helped guide groups to the stations and provide additional support.

Most importantly they had "geek" and facility support. These were people that helped ensure that everything was in working order. To find people to station masters and staff they tapped into the people in the organization who were early adopters, aka "technology people by default." They utilized natural tech people and library trainers. They also tapped into their younger staff like pages and clerks. In the academic world I'm imagining this being able to work with student assistants or maybe even patrons that frequent the library! And don't forget the "curious learner" those that like to learn about everything. These people can be your best allies in training.

Space, you can never have too much of it. Find as much as you can with plenty of parking. You need space to move, space to hear, and space to play. Most importantly you need space with a good electronic infrastructure, internet access and plenty of electric outlets. Make sure that there is a good "flow" to the room and that people aren't bumping into each other. If you use gaming you may want to have it in a separate area since it can be kinda of loud.

Preparation--equipment
Make sure that you have all of the equipment that you need, including computers, keyboards, mice, plugs, extension cords, etc., etc. Borrow from your sister counties see if you can pool resources together. Make sure everything is labeled so that it gets back to the right person. IT staff will remember what you borrowed from them! If you have projectors, make sure you have projection surfaces that work! They showed green walls where they couldn't see what was being used, so they improvised with bed sheets and paper.

Most importantly--do a dry run! Set it up make sure it works, and then test again! Make sure everyone whose going to be there knows how the equipment works and how to do troubleshooting.

The Big day!
One thing that they didn't think about was breaks, food, or drink. They were lucky in that someone could go grab food and drink. In the future they would plan for that. And have more people to help step in so that someone could have a break. You can never have too many people. Make sure that there are seating options for those that can't stand and that everything is labeled. Which way to go, how to get to places, and anything else that they might need to know.

Make sure that you have good team skills and personalities working together. Make sure staff schedulers know that staff need time for lunch and time for breaks after training. Communicate again and again, about where people need to be, what time they need to be there, and so on.

Patience is a virtue. The other shoe will drop, learn to let go and let the chips fall where they may. Make sure that you have troubleshooters identified to help handle the problems. Make sure people know where to go, how to get there, and what to do when they get there.

Document the "zoo" as you go along! Blog, photograph, survey, anecdotal. What did they learn? Now staff can truly engage patrons about new technology. They've started new 2.0 projects to use in the library, such as a wiki and a del.icio.us account. It took 4 to 5 months to put together, but was considered a success.

Next up was the Librarian in Black!
Sarah talks about technology training for staff on a large scale. As it stands know the users know more than the librarians. Why the lack of coordinated effort? Because of the size of the project and costs. First up, why should you train staff? She discusses a number of different reasons, such as saving money, increasing staff petition rate, improving customer service, increase productivity, and so on.

What does it take to do this type of training? Time and Money! Libraries should be ready to devote significant amounts of both to do this type of training. You need to be able to attend training sessions and conferences that will continue to improve staff skills.

When planning for training start with staff competencies. What do they need to do their job? Most importantly make sure that one person doesn't become the "tech pack mule" someone that has to stop what their doing to answer everyone's questions, all the time. This will help prevent these people from leaving, which is not what you want to happen. Figure out what staff need! Do they need to know how to forward e-mail? How to do word processing? Create a list of what's needed. Do an assessment to determine what's needed. This helps create job descriptions, with performance evaluations, helps create expectations for all staff and create consistent customer service.

She proposed 10 planning questions for training: purpose, who manages, who identifies, etc. The one I thought most interesting--what is considered technology. What should happen is that customers get the same level of service, regardless of the hour.

Get your staff to buy in and use their input! What are the challenges to this? Make sure that everyone is kept informed about what's going on. The managers must follow the project plan. Hold a brainstorming party. Reward people! Have fun!

Have a taskforce that helps plan this with people from all levels. Use this time to determine how the library fits into the community in teaching technology. Make sure that the competencies determine who learns what, how it relates to their jobs, and has space for comments. Most important make sure that their is ongoing learning! Libraries should never stop learning. Provide a glossary of terms. Create this on paper and create it online. An important step, make sure you talk to the person currently in the job about what skills they think they need and then talk to management.

Make sure you determine how you're going to assess the training. Who reviews the results? IMPORTANT! Give the training coordinator the authority and credibility to tell the person that they need to go to a certain training session, even if they think they don't. You have to have the backing of supervisors and management. Deadline is important with assessment. Review the results and work with the supervisors to create training needs for each person.

Have scheduled learning time. Training is essential!! Make sure you have sufficient budget, funding and time to accomplish this. Start with the basic topics first, such as how to use a computer. Open up trainings to all staff. If the person feels that they need to go, let them go. This is where it is very important to have the support of management to get someone to go to a training session.

Have unscheduled learning: book, article, blogs, online tutorials, field trips to see what other nearby libraries are doing, watching podcasts, webcasts, etc. Have on the spot peer training. This is where the tech person can come in handy. They aren't having to answer all questions, but just a few.
To help staff to continue to learn:

Give staff 15 minutes a day to study/learn

Schedule 1 off desk hour for self study

Encourage conference/lecture attendance

Share online tutorials, printed materials, demos

Have prizes. Encourage learning. Use real world experiences. Do a continual reassessment of the project. What will be needed next? Are there are other ways to do this? Make sure you have ways to meassure success, and what happens if people don't meet the goals they are supposed too. Just as their should be rewards, there should be consequences as well. This is again where its important to have the support of managers. It may require a demotion, transfer, pay cut, or in worst cases--firing.

Make sure you celebrate the successes! Do something out of the ordinary!

CIL: Podcasting-videocasting

Sunday April 6, 2008
Preconference David Lee King/David Free

David Lee King and David Free are both dynamic speakers. They turned what could have been a very boring presentation into a lively animated one, eagerly answering questions that were thrown their way and allowing the audience to participate in hands on demonstrations of how to actually make a podcast and videocast.

The workshop began with a very lively discussion on why should we podcast or videocast? I know I was caught a bit off guard with the person that thought that they didn't have much value. The individual pointed out, correctly, that they weren't great for getting that quick information that so many of our users sought and that you had to wait for it to come to you. However, it was quickly pointed out where they do have their value: oral histories, story times, demonstrations of services offered, commercials for libraries, etc.

David Free was first up to discuss podcasting (slides from presentation)
We began with watching Ask a ninja: What is podcasting?
Then David launched into his slides. What makes a podcast a podcast? Its MP3+RSS=podcast. A podcast is a podcast because you can have access to in anywhere and have the content delivered to you.

There are various websites and search engines that you can find podcasts at such as: Google Podcast Pickle, podCast 411--which tells if a podcast is dead or not (which is cool, I didn't know that). And of course iTunes. You can find and upload your own podcasts here.

What are podcasts good for? Their good for all sorts of things. From everything from teen clubs to what books to read to oral histories. Libraries have even used them to record programs, so those not able to attend are still able to share in the content. There are even libraries letting their users create the content for them.

At this point there was the question of if you record an author speaking what of copyright? David Free said there are a lot of variables. Does the author own the content from which their reading? What does the author want to happen? What's the libraries policies? etc. David recommended checking with the authors before putting things up on podcasts. Put it in the contract they sign. In some cases if its behind a firewall or password protected and is being used for a class, then it could be fair use. You can also check the Creative Commons Podcast Legal Guide. Best advice, check with the experts if your unsure, such as your library or Universities legal consul.

There's just so much that you can do with podcasting! David shared a lot of different examples, some in other languages, some that was user generated. A few to highlight:
Pitzer Military Library
Princeton, NJ Public Library--Poetry podcasts!
Cheshire Public Library--Teen Driven, with content created by teens
Pierce County Library System--Story time for grownups
Take a look at his slides for more examples.

When doing a podcast thats explaining something, such as a database, don't cover every little detail. Don't tell them where to click. Cover the "meat" of the product, what does it do? What's it good for?

Slide number 20 has some good podcasting tips such as:
remember your voice
be passionate and entreating
outline/script--but don't read from it. Use more of an outline. So you don’t sound like you’re reading from a piece of paper. Do a couple takes.
find a quiet place. Remember your mike may pick up the HVAC, so beware.
remember your listeners

Where can you get music for your podcasts? Don't pay for it! There are a number of free sites such as CCmixter, Podsafe Music Network, Creative Commons Audio.

David's 7 steps to recording a podcasts
Record/editing
Get a usb mike. Sound quality with other mikes are not as good as USB mike. You can use a digital recorder, iPods. Belkin makes a product to convert this Record skype calls through USB headset.
Audacity for editing. Easy and free! Download LAME MP3 encoder to encode files into MP3 format

Listen before you put online. Make sure everything sounds like you want it too.
Hosting--Where are you going to put the audio for others to access? Blip.tv hosts video and podcasting. And of course theirs always iTunes.

Posting/Feeding How are you going to get the content to your users? RSS obviously!
Promote the podcast
Evaluate and repeat—surveys, focus group, what do they think


David Lee King was up next with Videocasting! (slides from presentation)
What is Videocasting? It's a way of sharing thoughts and can be considered "half a conversation," you're just missing the other person responding. It's just like a blog, except its live and you're talking to a camera.

What are some examples of videocasting?
There are many different types ranging from professionally created to the average person
They cover such things as news, tv shows, web shows, screen casting, and so on
Steve Garfield with I can't open it
The Topkea and Shawnee County Public Library: What if Barbie had a bookclub

How do you find them? Just like with podcasting there are search engines that can help you find the content that you're looking for. Some places would be blinkx, clipblast, Google, and iTunes.

How do you watch them? Just click one, but broadband is a must! Very difficult to watch even short clips if you're still on dial up.

How do you create them?
Having time helps. But you also need a video camera. Any type will work, even the video on your phone. Cameras with one big button to press are great and relatively inexpensive. The Flip video camera, one big red button, is one such example.

You need video editing software
If you have a Mac, you're covered! Apple's iMovie is free.
For those of that are PC based, you can try Windows Movie Maker, Avid Free DV, Quicktime Pro, or Power Director, which are all free. As with everything there are always programs that you can purchase, such as Adobe's video suite.

You can also edit your video online! At such place as VideoEgg, eyespot, etc.

You need a blog, someplace that you can display the videos, and RSS feed. Both can be had for free at such places as Blogger and Feedburner. While you can upload your videos to such places as youtube, embed them back on to your site so your users can find them quickly and easily.

Think about what type of format that you want to use. What's best for your users as they are multiple different types. Flash…many video sites use flash, but its hard to download for later viewing. Quicktime.mov isn't used much.

You need an idea!
All different types!
Book talk
Bibliographic instruction
PR for the library
Tutorials—how to use the catalog
Cultural memory history
Collaborative—video contests

You need some place to store them. While you can store them yourself on your own server...why would you? There are places that do it for free! Such as blip.tv, Internet Archive, and Youtube for starters.

Just like with podcasting, you can let your users create the content. Let them show off their musical talents or how they would advertise the library.

There was a hands on demo of how to do podcasting and videocasting...I think I got distracted so didn't take notes...

Computers in Libraries...musings

End of the 1st day and I still haven't blogged about the preconferences...I'll get to that in a bit and then have to catch up with everything else. After I decipher my notes. Cryptic handwriting is always a good thing. I think perhaps I should change the title of the blog to deal with my handwriting. Thankfully no one at CIL has had to see it yet.

The hardest part of CIL thus far has been to decide which presentations to go to. There are so many different options and I can't go to them all. I'm trying to make the best use of time to go to what I'm interested in and come out with ideas to bring back to my library. I've decided that next year someone else has to come with me to divide the work. Either that or figure out how to clone myself, and to be honest no one really wants two of me wandering around (not even me).

The coolest thing about the conference are the people that I've met. I've met and talked to librarians from Canada, MD, VA, assorted other states; a library science student that has made really, really good use of her school time to go to all different types of conferences; a librarian from the National Geographic library (seriously, I didn't know that they had a library...makes sense in hindsight, but really cool sounding job!); and the celebrities of the conference. It's been a blast to actually meet the people whose blogs I've been following or whom I've followed on Twitter. I've found that some are shorter than I thought, some skinnier, all better looking than their pictures, and all fun to talk too. Each of them that I've met so far has taken the time to meet with me, answer my questions, encouraged me to ask more if I have them, and just share their time in general. You can't ask for anything more than that. All of the people have been like that and it is fantastic!

Computers In Libraries 2008!

I'm currently at Computers in Libraries 2008 in Arlington, VA and have enjoyed it thus far. I went to two preconference workshops today:
Podcasting and Videocasting: David Lee King, David Free
Technology Training for Library Staff: Maurice Coleman, Annette Gaskins, Sarah Houghton-Jan.

And I had a blast. I learned a lot from both and I don't think I could have made better choices on which ones to go to. I'll blog more about them later (and no, not an official blogger for CIL...maybe next year) in more depth, hopefully tomorrow.