NSW public library wiki

Reference and Information Services Group Meeting

31 July 2007

2.00pm to 4.00pm

West Ryde Library

Attendance

Michael Barr, Randwick, Valeria Gryadunova, Randwick, Kathy Maltby, Ryde, Robyn Menzies, Blue Mountains, Martin Boyce, Sutherland, Cynthia Methven, Hornby, Kathleen Alexander, State Library of NSW, Natalie Gray, Rockdale, Frans Estens, Woollahra, Heather Thomson, Pittwater, Jane Smith, Pittwater, Adam Holland, Singleton. Carol Sommer, Ryde, Cathy Johnston, Central Northern, Ross Balharrie, Manly, Chris Brimble, Lane Cove Carole Read, Bankstown, Jacqi Ayo, Fairfield, Gialy Ly, Fairfield, Jaoluiga Kijza, Liverpool, Robyn Owens, Ryde, Marie Duncan, Hawkesbury, Andrew Powell, Cessnock, Joan Ruthven, Marrickville, Jill Webb, Marrickville, Jenn Martin, Marrickville, Annette Kuchowska, Auburn, Suzanne Micallef, Auburn, Ellen Forsyth, State Library of NSW

Apologies

Andrea Pakchung, Liverpool, Yan Zhang, Strathfield, Ion Sloggett, Kogarah, Jennifer Blume, Newcastle, Jane Broadbere, Mosman, Sharon Drantz, Ku-ring-gai

Introductions

• Round the room introductions of all present
• Discuss strategies for introducing library 2.0 elements into libraries - draft project plans.

• Process Sutherland used to introduce blog – Martin - Sutherland
• Came from a wish to highlight news on the library web site – bringing all the library news together
• Could have used web content management, but wanted to use a friendlier method
• See RISG blog http://www.nsw-risg.org/weblog/ for Martins latest blog post with additional detail
• Had been reading what other libraries – mainly US had been doing
• Blogs fitted in terms of creating a reverse chronological website
• Did a test blog to find out how they work – start a personal blog to see how they are to use/construct
• After this experience raised idea with his manager and could show the blog as an example of what the library blog would look like
• Only a few issues arose
• How to get the blog content onto the main web site? – came across ‘how to get an rss feed from the blog’ to display it on the library webpage
• Customised the template to the blog to get it looking more like the website
• Tools are designed for non-technical people to use – but still have to take time to learn about how the tools work
• Trade off between maintaining consistency and the workload – did not want to start the blog if was going to be doing all the posts – did not have time to be able to do this. Now people write things for the blog – Martin edits and posts these items – this provides consistency in the text style
• Every day have a few more people subscribing to the blog for updates
• Do need to think about who will be doing the updates – need regular updates for a blog to of interest to encourage people to keep checking back
• For a news service have to contribute staff time to make sure it is current and had news items
• Cost is not a big issue as most blog soft ware is free or low cost – but do have to factor the staff time in. The less technical skills each organization has the more time it will take and this will cost more
• Went through Council and other management easily as they could see that it was done professionally
• The rss feed associated with the blog has a growing number of subscribers – can subscribe and clients can consume at their leisure
• Would like to go more into rss feeds for content
• Blogs set up to provide comments – most of the software have comment moderation
• Referred te Helene Blowers saying PLCM do not moderate comments
• Need to start a blog and have a play as are in a better position to comment
• Lots of library 2.0 services which allow you to achieve goals – need to be up to date with what is out there and assess what use is it for you – time to play, time to be familiar with the new services – assess the options and how the fit into your services
• Can subscribe by e-mail or rss – and can subscribe to different categories of rss
• An education phase with getting clients to understand what rss feeds are
• Work with council IT
• People may overstate the dangers – making presumptions about harassing behaviour from the community
• Tamworth has started a blog with 5 staff using to learn how to use the blog, are sharing around who has administrator rights – are receiving comments from council manager – is on the library server
• Manly has been approached by other council sections about setting up a blog
• Might be able to set up a blog for council staff – as a trial
• Think about space – if it is hosted internally or externally – think about cheap hosting companies
• It is a good idea to have a blog to show within council
• Could put in management plan
• Can test blog – is not a permanent method – it can be deleted
• Can be a useful tool for gathering community comment
• Some web management systems (for example adobe contribute) have blog functions within them
• Flickr – make sure you do not waive copyright to pictures - choose your copyright carefully
• @ your library – what have you used to promote reference and information services – success stories since March

• Tamworth - Fun with food – did 2 events a week – the day of the coffee morning there were lots of reference questions, Reduce, reuse, recycle ended up with a worm farm in the library – use the council art from rubbish posters, and a woodlands exhibition – turned the library into a performance space for two months
• Hornsby – great displays – found that having a few enthused staff members helped, good contact with council, display of old favourite recipe books, food in literature
• Idea of reference book of the week – to tie in with the @your library
• What is part of reference and information services and collections at your library? What is reference and what is loan? Are there other specialist services we should be providing – for example local studies, LIAC, ABS, HSC collections, drug info, literacy?
• Reference collection, often duplicate with loan items for example LIAC, HSC study items – has taken load off reference library having these for loan
• Drastically weeded so move a lot of stuff to loan – making sure that reference is really reference rather than just expensive
• More and more into loan as lots of people want to grab something and go home
• Phased out reference serials – Choice is main reference serial – people don’t use back issues as use full text online
• Interfile all non-fiction - lending and non-lending – themed groupings of material - have a small separate area with encyclopaedias – not for loan is labelled ‘not for loan’ rather than reference
• have some high request school assignment items in reference – like permanent closed reserve rather than reference
• focus on what is hard to get reliably off the internet for reference purchases
• infocus well used
• more specialised collections in reference, liac, business, etc
• local studies as not for loan
• Next meeting will be at Singleton in late October. Meeting will start at 10.00am and will be followed by a library tour and lunch.
• Send suggestions for agenda items to Ellen

Favourite/least favourite reference tool

• · Who writes like – for lots of genre related queries – and online What do I read next
• · Fantastic fiction.co.uk – good for genre fiction and who writes like..comes with cover illustration, series
• · The family law – part of LIAC – most up to day for family law – give examples of how to fill in forms, and processes to follow. Structure is simple
• · skwirk.com Australian syllabus for all states – topic by topic
• · encyclopedias – great for easy answers/overviews for primary school students
• · medline database – saves learning how to spell medical terms
• · newsindex – newspaper articles for students
• · Australian War Memorial site – Australian based
• · Whereis.com – lots of people needing directions
• · ABS site – changes to web site make it easier to find things
• · Issues for society – great for assignments
• · SBS gold – for gold rush assignments, lots of original sources, good on a range of obscure information
• · Virtual hospital website – excellent information for adults and children, links to articles
• · Blackle.com – look at it
• · Festivals and holidays by Facts on file – alphabetically by country
• · ABS web site
• · World book online – for kids who don’t want to look at print and it looks good for kids. Dislikes bad indexes
• · Mayo clinic web site – good search functions, good for experts and lay people – and hermit librarian in Texas
• · Britannica online – good citations, Issues and Factiva
• · Reftracker for managing reference requests – people can use it to submit questions to the library and staff use to build up a knowledge base
• · SBS world guide – good for geography
• · Factiva, Australian population clock on the ABS website
• · Science resource centre – can get something for primary to university – breadth of resources, can get a lot of stuff for environment etc
• · What do I read next.com – allows you to type in books you like and bases suggestions based on what people have read and liked
• · Books into film – for helping people find the books used for films
• · Genreflecting – for a starting point for book list – as detailed genre descriptions
• · Mylanguage.gov.au – for information in other languages
• · Childrens fantasy literature – for Harry Potter referrals
• · Library 2.0 – blogger sites
• · Proquest - alerts

Back to Reference and information services working group home page