So long, for now....

After clerking at the Providence Public Library for a couple of years I became a librarian at the age of 25. While many of my colleagues were pursing their second career I was one of the youngest in my graduating class at URI (1992) . After having reached many of my library-related goals by working at three of the finest library systems (Providence Public Library, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District, and the Maricopa County Library District) --and working with the finest people--my focus has turned to my young children and family. And to that end, a way to earn a living that allows the flexibility needed to spend vacations, weekends, and to be around for them when they get out of school. My husband and I started our business in July of 2005. While the kids are at school I attend networking and chamber events and work on marketing and promoting our store. It's been a huge learning curve. I feel like I've been sheltered for all these years. I'm learning a lot but I'm also learning that many of the skills do carry over: customer service, technology, finance, merchandising, etc. Also, our business is a franchise and after working in the last two multi-branch library systems, boy do I understand franchises! I am also working on another book about our adventures with this franchise business (any publishers interested??--it's one of the top rated franchises in the country). I have spent the last year weaning myself from full-time librarianship while working on the Kids Catalog project in a part-time status. I will continue to keep this blog up as it is referenced in my ALA Editions book "Library Web Sites" for the foreseeable future. If you have any questions or comments about my work on this site you may contact me at apwilson@cox.net. Thanks for your interest.--Paula
p.s. I reserve the right to renew my ALA membership if the right offer comes along--and once my kids are a bit older!

Kids Catalog: Customizing the Kids Catalog

Just completed a project to customize the Kids Catalog using the Polaris Library System Children's Edition with the Maricopa County Library System. You can see it here: http://www.mcldaz.org/Children/default.aspx?ctx=1. It took a great deal of input from the youth services librarians and a learning curve on the system. What I found challenging was learning the Polaris System Administration of the Kids Catalog as the entire system is administered through it. You do not have to know HTML or programming. The most difficult part was decided what categories to include! So, really, it was not difficult at all. But it did take time and effort, and some trial and error. You can construct predefined searches, web lists or bibliographies. The polls are not working and I hope they fix that in the next release. Additionally, the library's graphic artist (who is truly gifted) created all of the icons. I think we are all very proud of the outcome--which is really a starting point. The project is now in the hands of the childrens librarians where it belongs! That said please see the next post!

Public Library Web Site Redesigns

A post on Web4lib today asked about library Web site redesigns. Here are the posts that were listed:
Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage
About the redesign
Other college redesigns

It appears to be difficult to find a write-up of a public library Web site redesign floating out on the Web, but I did find a report titled: CURRENT PRACTICES & FUTURE PLANS OF PUBLIC LIBRARY WEBMASTERS (ISBN: 1-57440-004-51, $65) and I'm hoping to get a copy of it soon.

I'll keep looking, but mostly I'm finding links to recently redesigned sites, press releases, but no planning and implementation documents for public libraries. I'll keep looking--that's what librarians do.

Social Networking via WorldCat

I read an interesting press release about WorldCat allowing user comments in from Open Worldcat. The records are not actually within the WorldCat bib records; however, within the full record there are links that will lead you to them. Here's a snippet of the email received yesterday:
________________________
FirstSearch users can contribute reviews, notes to WorldCat
Library users and non-cataloging library professionals are now able to contribute information to a WorldCat record through the OCLC FirstSearch service.
Anyone may add personal reviews, factual notes and tables of contents to the record for a particular library-held item. For instance, family members can add notes to the records of genealogical materials about their lineage, or community members may comment on digitally preserved photographs or documents of local historic importance.
________________________


My first thoughts are about editorial review--what if the information is inaccurate? Here's another quote from the press release:

"Guidelines for content contributions are provided, and OCLC monitors all submissions. (Note that contributed content is only associated with—not directly applied to—the authoritative metadata in WorldCat.)"

I should probably read the guidelines for contribution before I take a stance. The techno-librarian in me says--wow, cool...my librarian old-school mentality says--just because we can do it doesn't mean we should. This feature is not new for OCLC as it is used in Open Worldcat (not to mention the popular Wikipedia.org).

When libraries spend thousands of dollars in proprietary subscription databases and vendors add features and content I can find on the Web I can feel the hair on my arms stand up. I think Gale did this with Lit Resource Center with the link to Authors on the road (or something like that) and I need to check if it is still there. The link was placed on the home page and lead out to the open and free web.

We are spending so much time trying to educate folks on the differences between proprietary databases--that has been placed under editorial scrutiny and content found on the "free and open" Web--now we have a merging of the two--and library are paying big bucks for this material.

I'm not saying there isn't a place for the type of social networking that Web sites like Wikipedia offer--but don't expect me to pay thousands of dollars for features that I can get on the open Web. The lines are getting a bit blurry and I don't like it.

By the way--speaking of social networking...my blog is now open to your comments...I would love to hear from you.

Paula

PLA in Boston

Unfortunately I could not attend PLA in Boston (Richard 4yrs, David 3 yrs.). I attended Seattle in 2004 and Phoenix in 2002. I also attended way back in 1994 at the Jacob Javitz Center in NY. I truly love PLA. As a public librarian everything is there that I need. One of the most interesting things I do at PLA is to look at name badges and see what library people are coming from. From the largest multi-branch system to the smallest--all parts of the country (and more) are represented. If you want to get a slice of Americana in one place, PLA is it. For more reasons why PLA conference is awesome you should take a look at this posting on the Top Ten Reasons Why PLA is the BEST Conference I've Ever Attended at PLA's official blog. Ditto.
heres a change

AZLA Conference: Library Portals

We had a great session on library portals! The president of Polaris Library Systems, Bill Schickling, spoke about portals in libraries and Polaris Powerpac. After Bill I spoke briefly about the Virtual Reference project and how live chat operates in a portal environment--how that differs from offering the service from your site. Brad Whittle, VP of Sales, from SirsiDynix gave an excellent background on the development of portals and how they came about ad how the SirsiDynix portal works. Lastly, Jesse Haro gave a very interesting presentation on how the Phoenix Public Library created their very own portal. I am so impressed with what they have accomplished at their site and I'm interested to see how their site develops.

We did all of this in a one-hour time frame so none of us were good with the details, but I think throughout the hour the attendees got a varied look at portal development and how that differs from the typical web site and link out to the library OPAC.

More tomorrow...and onto Promoting Your Library's Electronic Resources (my favorite)...

AZLA Conference Day 1: Roy Tennant Speaks--we listen

I raced the 30-some odd miles from Glendale to Mesa to catch Roy Tennant's (The Google Guy) key note speech this morning. As I was listening to the radio I thought I heard them mention Google and then in the next breath discuss 600+ jobs coming to the valley and that the Governor would make an official statement later today. Did I have Google on the brain? Later at the Veicon booth I logged onto AZ Central and confirmed what I had heard on the radio. It appears they are moving their engineering operations here and already have a temporary office in downtown Phoenix. Very, very interesting and great for AZ economy! Oh, about Roy's speech. He looks just like his picture in American Libraries where his monthly column appears. He talked about MARC and OPACs and how they cannot handle the type of resources libraries have although there are some library automation systems that are finally getting it. Nice to hear Roy speak in person--he speaks as well as he writes--and that's a good thing!

The ultimate library portal: Polaris Powerpac

I'm working on a presentation for Web Technology Day sponsored by the State Library. My presentation hilights the Polaris Powerpac and all of the in-house customizations and forged integration of the pac and third-party vendors. The presentation is really coming together and reveals the vision of how the portal should work. Many times we say--why doesn't it do it like this...or, it should work this way...well, Maricopa has made that happen. They have forged relationships between vendors where none existed. They've created partnerships between Polaris and other vendors in order to accomplish their goals. This, in turn, benefits all of Polaris' customers by making innovations available to them that were previously unavailable. Equally important these types of partnerships strengthen the industry. I'm looking forward to the presentation where Phoenix will also showcase their home-grown (with TLC) portal. Here's a link to Web Technology Day as well as other local AZ training opps! I would love to have a better grasp of how the Polaris Powerpac differs from Sirsi's and the other ILS vendor products. I see that web mastering has definately taken on a new level of knoweldge and skills in the portal environment...that is, if you want to customize. More on this another day...

Time to retreat and reflect

As you can see I've taken a hiatus from Webliography...that's a big no-no in the world of blogging, but sometimes when you don't have anything to write about you just shouldn't write. Not that there isn't much to write about because there is. Many times the need to retreat and reflect is sidelined by the urge to get the word out. Well, I've been retreating and reflecting during the last few months. I also started another blog which was specifically for a Virtual Reference LSTA-funded project. The blog is at http://vreference.blogspot.com and tracks the progress of the Virtual Reference Desk project at the Maricopa County Library District which I think was a huge success on many levels. Visit the blog to learn how we integrated QP: 24/7 Reference into Polaris Library System's Powerpac portal. I'm going to keep tonight's post short and sweet, but expect more, more, more in the future. Also, if you're interested in the VR project, my last column that will appear in Public Libraries discusses the project and the software more in depth. I think it is the Nov/Dec 2005 issue. Stay tuned...