Twittering away

Yes yes I have now joined Twitter too........... hmm, its all good. I think sometimes it takes a lot more work than just joining, you have to dedicate yourself in a way you might now expect to begin with. So if I just keep it at this stage for now, when I get a Aha! thought for what Twitter can do for me, then I will go straight there and continue. for now, I have just joined for the sake of joining. Can't say I am not being honest.
Was reading in the news, Google might be taking over Twitter .......... it seems like everything I touch turns to Google!

Marketing the library services

Yesterday an email was sent around to our members and studying members as a "reminder" of the library services they have access to as members. It was probably the only marketing of the library that did not have other services included, or where the library was not just a "side dish". In other words: This email was about the library only!! What an honour!



It was a quite simple email, with a professional layout and examples of the type of searches we could do and it was a great success in terms of response.


The only thing I can complain about is that the email was sent out in the late afternoon, 45 mins before we close and we were aware that this email was being created, but had no clue it was being broadcasted on that day! So as one out of the two people on the telephone I must have sounded surprise in the first call referring to this email.


Done about 30-40 enquiries today!

My Marketing Search Engine

Inspired by a web 2.0 I attended, I have for a while been fiddling with the thought of creating a search engine for all my marketing resources which I have created as a researcher in my current for the past 2.5 years.

Although the bookmarks in my browser are a great way of keeping all the links in one place and even in subject order, when it comes to actually using them you need to go through many links before you actually find what you are looking for, unless your brain is so sharp that you have all your bookmarks memorized, in which case you really do not need any of these tools!

I have looked around and out of all the search engine customization tools out there (such as MSN's Live Search Macros, Eurekster Swicki etc) but have now narrowed my choices down to two candidates. The first one is Rollyo. For over a year I have heard this word, coming in, but discretely gone to the back of my mind with the label "to be looked at later". It has several times been recommended by Phil Bradley whose blog I follow. The second one is Google. I have seen lots of websites using a adapted version of Google as a search tool for their websites, I believe the organisation I work for was once of them even. The benefit of using Google's version would be that my Gmail account, my Blogger account, my Picassa picture album, my Toolbar etc is all in the Google family, which means that with one login and password everything is accessible. Not to mention things will look familiar for me. Moreover, from what I have read so far, there is not a limit to the number of pages you can add to your search engine in Google's version, unlike Rollyo where the limit is 25. I think I have made my decision, I am not happy that Google is the winner, but let's see, I might give Rollyo a try later on.

So far I have only looked at the different types of search engine customization tools and chosen mine, now I need to create it and next would of course be to test it's usefulness.
I wonder if the Google search engine will give me the possibility of tags or meta data or thesaurus terms..... hmm....

I have only added a few of my bookmarks, but it has already created a mini search engine for me to test:

By the way, the link to this search engine (easy for me because I can just log on to my Gmail and access it) is probably something I will have to bookmark: http://www.google.co.uk/coop/cse?cx=012893089089251216177%3Aftxel3ywsxu

more photofun

I know this probably has nothing to do with chartership, but this is really cool and needs to be shared:
http://www.photofunia.com/
Photofunia is a lot like ruletheweb site so this could be an addition to Phil Bradley's suggestion in Gazette this week, only I think I like it more than ruletheweb :)

It's very straightforward, go to the website, select a image you would like and upload your picture (PS if you are not interested in your picture going public, tick the box!) and see your image be created! I would have shown a couple of examples, but I'd rather keep them private!Enjoy!

personalised bus ad

ruletheweb. co.uk

Shape the Agenda event

The Chartered Institute of Marketing publishes bi-annual papers known as Shape the Agenda papers. They set out the latest thinking on topics affecting the marketing profession, and at the launch of a new paper is accompanied by an event held at CIM. As the Institute is a chartered body, it supports marketers in their chartered CPD programme in a similar way CILIP supports librarians on their way to Chartership.

To widen my knowledge of marketing, and to stay up to date on the latest marketing topics, I attended the Shape the Agenda event covering the topic “The benefits and impacts of social marketing”. The Library assists in writing of the agenda papers, from research to proof reading, and when a publication is released the library becomes the first point of contact. Knowing that I will be contacted regarding this topic, it is in my interest to understand as much as possible so I can share my knowledge with the customers.

My experience in this role has made me realise that although I am not a marketer, many customers expect a high degree of marketing insight and knowledge from me. I am expected to know more than just how to find the information; I should also be able to understand and explain marketing to the marketers who contact me. This is one way of building specialist knowledge in the field of marketing, and it is as important to attend marketing events for my job as it is for me to attend events for library professionals.

Although a lot of marketing knowledge can be obtained by reading for example, course books in marketing and agenda papers, taking time out to mingle with marketers and take note of their questions and use of technical marketing terms gives me much better tools and greater confidence to deal with enquiries.

I am thinking of including this in the portfolio, lets see. I could enclose a session evaluation as proof of my attendance of the Shape the Agenda “Less smoke, more fire: The benefits and impacts of social marketing” event. I did not complete and return the form as I went as a member of staff rather than a member of the CIM.

Librarian name change

I read in The Daily Telegraph of 13th January 2009 (page 13) about "Librarians reject name change":

"Changes to the library system in Edinburgh that would have involved renaming librarians "audience development officers" are likely to be rejected by the city council.
Librarians threatened to strike over the proposals, which would have meant self-service borrowing systems in which customers scanned books in and out themselves.

Audience Development Officers? Naah!!!!.........I wouldn't like it. Why not work on improving the image of "librarian" rather than thinking of creative titles to replace it?

I agree on this statement on marketing of libraries:

“I think we need to promote librarians even more than we need to promote libraries. Very few people know what librarians do and fewer know what training and education we have. People seem to think all we do is read, check books out and shelve them”.

From “Libraries in transition to a marketing orientation” in International Journal of
Volunteering Sector Marketing, November 2007

Wordle again

I wanted to make a bookmark for our library, we do send out books by post, so why not add something useful to remind our readers about us?
It would have the usual things like contact details and opening hours, but I don't want too much text on it either, I was thinking of adding a word cloud like the above.

It doesn't make sense, nothing to read, but it is a picture made of words and all these words describe us, so basically it is a picture of us, the library.
I made it in Wordle.net

It is not that after doing the marketing your library course that I have come up with an idea of a bookmark, this is something that I wanted to do last year as well. It could have been a little flyer, but a bookmark is a little tool that has use to the reader and is kept, most importantly it is useful! We want to get a message out about us and what we can offer, we are not talking about a nationwide 2 months campaign here!

If it turns out that I get permission to use this for our first bookmark, I will mean I have found out what Wordle can be used for, something I questioned in an earlier blog entry.

update

Current status is that I am still in the writing phase but I have created a document where I am adding all the pits and pieces. I am struggling with the writing though, it's really hard to write with the overview in my mind, so I am putting in things as they come to me, which is why at the moment I have lots of pages but with lots of gaps and holes :)

In the meantime my mentor has resigned and is migrating to the sunny Spain, no it is not just a holiday, she is leaving the cold and rain for a sunny place near the beach! This means I will not, officially, have a mentor when handing in my application, so I need to ask as many questions as possible now! :s

So before I start feeling all alone, I want to get as much done as possible, so next week, the final week of this year, I am planning on working on this every afternoon and show my mentor before she leaves :)

Am I a librarian? Part II

My brother in law recently hinted that why would his 12 year old daugther go to a library to study, out of all places why a library! I didn't say anything, but I really wanted to interview him to find out why he said what he did and what did he mean? and why!??!

It made me think of another thing: He must know by now that I work in a library, but I wonder if he is one of those people who finds it difficult to comprehend that librarianship still exists and that a librarian doesn't have to sit within the four walls of a library!

It brings me back to the topic, am I a librarian? that stereotypical boring librarian? people think: who needs a librarian when you have the internet at your fingertips?

Why would I want to label myself with a tag that seems outdated for other people? Instead of batteling with the majority of people, why not adapt a new look and name to fit in with their thinking?
It all comes down one thing: I know what a librarian does and doesn't, just because I know it, doesn't mean the whole World knows it, it must be my responsibility to communicate this out, to market myself in such a way they will understand, by using their language and finding out what I can do for them. Once they know what I can do, they will know what I am. If I tell them I am a librarian, they don't know what I am and do. I need to find out the terms they would use to describe what I do. By marketing myself the right way, I can educate people. Maybe that internal marketing course I did last week, really did open my eyes!

Marketing of a marketing library

Am at the Internal Marketing for the Workplace Librarian and Information Professional, it's held by Terry Kendrik at CILIP. Just writing some notes (thoughts coming into my head from left right and centre while I'm listning so need to get it on paper before I go nuts!) while listning:

• the testimonials we did, what did we use them for eventually? if now, we could use them on the new website?
  
• What is the health of our library?
  

general thoughts:

• a lady at slough library wrote "www slough library" in Google's search box when she wanted to show me their library website.......if we cant use google better than the average user, then why should they come to us for help or advise? Obviously we would need to be better




• In internal newsletters, how do we promote ourselves better? Terry's answer was to be more emotional, don't just provide the facts about what we did, write how we did, who did what and what were the consequences, promote everyone in the library, not just the manager, make sure people know who is who by mentioning them as often as possible?




• Signage is part of marketing - sending people in the right direction and making them aware of things they didnt know we had

Break time, more later!

Blogging....

.... keeps me sharp.

It motivates me to speak and write, even though I know I am on a stage in a hall full of empty chairs.

It makes me give the events I attend a thought and write down my notes for later.

It improves my communication, makes me think of what I do and why I do it.



It has become my notebook for my chartership and most probably I will continue to write once I have completed the chartership process.

Library tours

I have been practising how to do a library tour in case my colleague who does it is not in a day.
So I have shadowed her a couple of times, taken notes, even done one. Its not much of a hu ha, its more something you just do and since I work in the library you would have thought I know most of the stuff anyway, which I do, but it is a different thing to be standing in front of a bunch of people and speaking about how we can help them. So that is what I will be practicing, speaking to groups and it has actually given me more confidence and I am not thinking about notes anymore. I wouldn't mind doing a proper presentation one day, you know, like we used to in uniy, maybe this will take me to the next step, small steps you know.

Thoughts on blogs!

Not everything that you think should be said.

And not everything that you say should be written.

And not everything that is written should be printet.

Menachem Mendel (1787-1859)

brain fritatta.....

so much!

There is just so so much information out there! on everything! So much information on information, how to handle information! I understand the purpose of chartership is, among other things, maintaining current awareness and updating skills, but my god, there is so much to be aware of and so many skills that needs updating with the changes happening every 2 minutes in the LIS world! ............. I have visited a library this week, on Monday I am going to CILIP for a course on marketing of libraries and the day after I am planning on attending a dusin of seminars at the Online Information event! I need a holiday soon, but noooh, I need to finish my chartership!
let's hope I finish it before I get information overloaded!

Am I a librarian?

or an information officer? they have these in councils too, but dealing with council tax and benefits (no degree needed!) Hmm!

maybe I am a knowledge gardener?

a information specialist sounds suspicious....

how bout a k-guardian?

business librarian makes sense?

a researcher? sounds as if I stand on the high st annoying people with my questions, or worse even, over the telephone on a Friday at 6pm!

k-provider maybe?

sometimes a k-warrior? grrr?

So many job titles - all filling a librarianship role .... sigh ... why do people understand exactly who you are if you say your a librarian, it just doesn't need clarification, rather than when I say "hey, I'm a information officer" why??

I would like to be called something that describes what I do, and I don't mind librarian as a title, but it makes it sound like the stereotypical librarian............... because I do have glasses and I do put my hair up in a bun and I do deal with books! ......... but what word can I use to expand the librarian title, I thought something like a business librarian........ at least it tells people I am a librarian but a business one.......... is that me?

Inspiration provided by Lyndsay Rees-Jones in Library and Information Gazette, 28Nov-11Dec 2008, p7

Public Library visit- after the visit

First thing that would describe today is: so so much information!

There is so much information here in this three story building! and now there is so much of it in my head! I can't possibly write down my thoughts, experiences and my reflection, firstly there is such a mess in my head right now and secondly, the pcs here at the library have quite useless keyboards, the monitors are clear but keyboard doesn't want to work with me, if i type abc, it chooses a and c and ditches the b! so this is very time consuming and it is very noisy here.

I will quickly write down my thoughts, the most important ones anyway:

• I had sort of forgotten what a public library is all about, forgotten the wealth of information available! This has reminded me!
  


• They have online access to FAME and anyone, yes anyone, can access it! We dont even have that!
  


• I must admit, you meet everyone from the community here, business people, small people, elderly people, noisy people and creative people, mums and dads, grannys and grandads, librarians about to retire, librarians just graduated.........
  


• Here you will find info in over 39 languages!
  


• There is a 24/7 online enquiry service among public libraries and the type of enquiries are usually the ones where people have tried finding information themselves but did not succeed, so the enquiries are often in dept ones. For Free!
  


• The CPD visitors we'll get would be interested in how we as a marketing library, market ourselves! So much think about that one!
  


• I met a librarian who didn't know what a blog was!
  


• Another librarian I metdid a google search by typing in www in the search field
  


• Lots and lots of things I didn't know about and probably never will unless I work in a public library, maybe one day I should!
  


• Many of the people I met knew about the CIM!
  


• While we catalogue and index our stock, here everything gets downloaded from the suppliers!
  


• INSPIRE is the name of a scheme to make libraries of all sorts available to non-members and the public!..... a librarian asked why our library is not part of this? "one would have thought......." so must look into that!
  


• Observation from the front desk: some librarians are more service minded than others, I noticed many cases where the library users knew more about the library than the librarian did!
  


• Would want to work in a public library? yes, but only in the info section!

Overall, it was a seriously great day! I am quite happy I contacted the library and that they welcomed my visit, it was definately worth it! I am actually visiting again this Saturday to work on my chartership!

A visit to Slough library - thoughts before the visit

Tomorrow I will be visiting a second library and I have chosen a public library. This way I will have visited a membership organisation's library which is very similar to where I work now, and also a public library which is completely on the other end of the scale.


My thoughts before going are:


- is a public library a dull, kiddy, fiction focused, tea drinking kinda place? Is slowpaced the word I am lookign for here?

- do public librarians read/scan and select all the books?

- are money always short? I read in today's newspaper (must have been either Guardian or Telegraph that in 2008 38 public libraries closed and in 2007 35 libraries closed!)

- does the library get many business related enquiries?

- and what sort of services does the public library offer businesses? any sources I can use?


From my questions above you wouldn't think I myself am a librarian would you? I seem to have the same prejudice thoughts as a non-librarian....... and to change this, or at least to challenge this I have chosen to visit a public library, not a small one either, its Slough Library at the heart of Slough.

Networking

While I tend to sieze every networking opportunity that is offered, I still haven't quite learnt the skills of networking it seems. The feeling of being snubbed prevents little beings like me to walk over to a person with a big smile on my face. Which is the biggest hindrance. I am still thinking about this, so I will leave this one floating in space ........ untill something hits it and it changes direction! (Think Newton!)

Too Googlefied!

....... I just talked to a human being who did not know other search engines existed, besides Google!

How sad is that?

Now just imagine me trying to explain to this lady that there are lots and lots of other search engine providers out there........