LARS Catablog: May 2011

Cheryl's notes from WAPL 2011:

Keynote Address
– Tom Peters: E-Books and the future of Library Services

Big issues: Copyright, Buying Pools (getting biggest bang for buck), same service requirements as we have on print materials (ensuring equal access).
Audio recording of keynote will SOON be available at: tapinformation.com/wapl2011.htm

Discussion of Possible Revisions to the 2005 Wisconsin Interlibrary Loan Guidelines

Resource libraries becoming net borrowers.
What's too new to lend? Do libraries really need to limit what goes out, or does this happen naturally because system holds prevent ILL loaning when items are new and in demand.
Beware of signing any license that may give away our right to scan/print and send articles from print and e-serials through ILL.
Demand for TV programs growing, what's cheaper, buying all the seasons yourself or repeatedly borrowing through ILL?
Proposed change in guidelines: requests should not be manually referred to out of State lenders by Reference & Loan when new, high demand, or AV items.
There used to be a free source to find out when books/movies are mentioned on radio/newspaper/magazine/tv and therefore likely to be in demand, should we be looking at starting our own version of this since this free version is no longer available?
Should libraries put ILL holds on items in their ILS? What should be left to local policy?
Library's must be better at getting information about ILL to patrons, remind patrons that what we have on our shelves in only a small portion of what is available to them.
What can we do better?
- Set appropriate patron expectations.
- Establish sustainable practices.
- Reinforce that ILL never can or should replace good collection development.
Should an advisory group be set up to rewrite WILL Guidelines?

System Level Cataloging (presenter)

Cataloging costs
- Cooperate to negotiate costs
  - statewide ILS-- not likely to happen
  - central clearinghouse for cataloging information, best practices, etc., possibly sponsored by WiLS
- staff time
  - to shelf
  - getting records cataloged "good enough"
- OCLC
  - number of records
  - resource sharing
  - original cataloging
Coordinated acquisitions
- libraries afraid that they'd lose control
- cost of service unclear-- real savings? how to measure
OPAC versus patron?
- making format clear without pages of similar titles (FRBR)
  - often leads to over-customization of records
  - affects how branches view short records
  - does the opac use all the data in MARC; often limited functionality which results in duplicating information across several fields
Efficiency
- how much is reliant on technology-- e.g., when will the ILS solve some of the over-editing problems. What is the promise in something like the OCLC-visioned ILS?
Training
- what skills can be required or expected of system staff if not centralized? are there savings in having fewer staff cataloging?
- turnover is a constant problem

How to Get your Weeding of the Ground

Run reports for "popular" subject sections of collection (cooking, crafts, gardening, etc.) that haven't circed in the last 3 years and WEED THEM! (can use CREW manual from http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ld/pubs/crew/crewmethod08.pdf )
Someone who knows the collection and your patrons will have to make decisions on what fiction serials to keep.
Can look for tools or reports that will tell you what % of subject area you are losing by weeding so you know what to replace with updated material.
Some libraries must meet certain collection standards to keep county funding and this dictates how much they can weed without first buying a replacement.
Use circ assistants and pages to continuously weed books in rough shape.
Arizona State Library Collection Dev. And Weeding resources: http://www.lib.az.us/cdt/weeding.aspx
Awful Library Books: http://awfullibrarybooks.net/
Disposal of weeded items
- Friends' Sale
- Better World Books
- Crafternoon Projects
- Storage
- Donate (Jails or prison book groups, schools for collage projects)
- Dumpster

Free Legal Assistance Clinics at Your Library

Super-cool! Will be talking to Becky about doing this.
In a nutshell, Libraries are offering meeting room to volunteers (attorneys [family law, immigration law…], clerk of courts, etc.) who offer community free legal assistance clinics. They are protected by State Bar so can offer real legal advice. Currently happening at Winnebago Co. 1^st Tuesday every month at one library, next Tuesday of same month at next library in system…

Growing Library Services through Excellent Relationships with Your Clients

Create fact sheet after Annual Report to tell patrons about where the library is doing well, and areas we need to work on (bookmarks?). Ask for input.
Put a checkbox on the Library Card Application that would indicate interest in being on a library emailing list to hear about what events are coming up, etc.
Create index cards that ask: How have we served your needs today? Or What do you value most about the Library? And use this to promote library in ads, to the Board, and to city officials.
Place, "How are we doing?" cards inside of books when they are checked out and collect them when items are returned.
Ideas:
- Girls Book Club (American Girls books, tea party, bring dishes using recipes from books)
- Collaborate with area schools to offer library computer classes to public using school's computer labs.
- Visit http://www.wisconsinlibraries.org/

Think Free! The Best Digital Tools for Public Libraries

Jing (http://www.techsmith.com/jing/ )- Screen capture and casting tool (up to 5 minute long capture) Good for training staff and patrons (how do I search for DVD's? How do I place a hold on an item? How do I request an item owned by another library?...)
Prezi (http://prezi.com/)- Like Powerpoint but more dynamic.
Gliffy (http://www.gliffy.com/ ) flowcharts, diagrams, FLOORPLANS!
Topicmarks (http://topicmarks.com/ ) upload articles and papers and this tool will pull out summaries, facts, abstracts, indexes, and it can even look at multiple texts and find links between them...the perfect tool for any student.
Wylio (http://www.wylio.com/ ) lets you search, resize, and create code to embed creative commons (free-use) images for you blog or web page.
Chromatik (http://chromatik.labs.exalead.com/ ) Lets you search the web for images by color (or multiple colors).
WolframAlpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/ ) Wolframalpha is a knowledge (not search) engine that "brings broad, deep, expert-level knowledge to everyone..." Nice way to get area demographics, conversions, and lots more. Students (and reference staff) will really like this one.

LARS Catablog