How about a podcast?

What do you think about us producing a podcast or You Tube program for the Library?

We could do it like a news magazine with section about storytimes, programs and services. I think it would be cool, and it wouldn't be that difficult to do...

TI Monthly Report - March 2009

The Tech Illuminati group was formed at the Library with the goal of serving as a liaison between the staff and the wider world of technology. The group made great progress during its first month by reviewing existing databases and trials for potential purchases, as well as investigating social networking opportunities for the Library.

The TI Committee has made recommendations for the reorganization of the Library's Internet databases. These recommendations were approved by the group's advisor, Darren Miguez, and have been sent to the Electronic Resources department for implementation. The group also recommended the purchase of the Biography Resource Center database. This purchase was approved and integrated into the web site for staff and public use - it will be a very useful too in our arsenal, especially for student assignments.

Continuing into the spring the group will evaluate databases the library owns for potential weeding, and make recommendations for further trials and potential purchases. We will also investigate a Facebook page for the Library, Internet message boards for user feedback, and re-implementing instant messaging as a user interface tool. (Tim)

EBSCO Animals

Another database in the EBSCO suite, Animals offers Boolean search, related items and an image search. The results seemed to be brief, concise articles on various animals. I think this website would be of primary use to children and teenagers who are looking for information about animals for projects or pictures for collages. Photographs of animals are either on color or black and white. The toughest part of recommending EBSCO Animals to the public is the relative difficulty in getting to the website, it is buried and required four clicks to get to the search page. I think that if this website was broken out and more prominently displayed on our website I think this database could be moderately helpful especially to children and teens. (Tim)

Message Board; Database Tutorials

A message board hosted by OBPL is just another idea to toss around. It may provide feedback about services and programming and encourage our users to talk about new things they'd like to see offered by the library. Users would probably have to register on the board but the degree of anonymity they'd have might make their comments more candid. We could have a link on our website. This may be a longer-term project to develop.

I also think that the 360 search is interesting but needs more prominence on the site. After taking a look at most of the databases we give users access to, I had the idea that perhaps we can have classes on database use. They could include info on where to go to find information as well as the more technical aspects of searching within the databases. This is pie in the sky but another approach would be to make up CD tutorials which we could give to users. Either or both could be broken down into subject areas or very specific things like biographical research or genealogical research. Needs a lot more fleshing out. (Nancy)

Facebook for Librarians workshop

The second portion of the program was most valuable; during this period we set up a Facebook page for our Library to experiment with (not accessible by the public) and worked on how to include photos, library events and other accessories. This was a valuable workshop, demonstrating the value of the social networking programs that are available on the Internet, and the ways in which we can use them to further out mission. I think the Library should make a public profile page, because if this is managed carefully by the staff and overseen by administration it will an excellent way to reach out to our users and raise the Library’s profile among the public.

Global Issues in Context

Darren asked me to look into something on GIC I had skipped. Apparently you can create a log in and tag articles, create folders to save articles in and, best of all, set up feeds.

The folders and tagging are easy to use once you realize they're there. You have your own dashboard to go to, like we have with the blogs. If people use these there'll be less "I found this article, printed it and lost it. Now I can't find it again!" And now they'll be able to build a collection of articles over time.

The news feeds are interesting, and something I think many people will enjoy once they know we have them. You can get a feed to a newspaper in general (and they of course have papers from around the world) or you can get a news feed on a certain topic or place. You can pretty much just put in a search term and create a feed off of it. So you could get a Child Labor news feed, or a news feed on Burma.

As long as we made sure the public knew about these options, I think it would be a big deal. It would help the high school students, but I think it would be best used by the adults - especially college students.

Mary

General Reference Center Gold

GRCG is a database that offers full text and abstracts of mainstream and some academic magazines and journals. Although it is similar to the EBSCO Masterfile, there are some significant differences. After a search is done, the database offers matching subject headings, subdivisions and related subjects. While this can be confusing to the novice user, it does allow focused narrowing of results for greater accuracy. After the results list is displayed, there are tabs available for easy toggling between formats like magazines, books, multimedia and the like. I think this is a worthwhile database with some intriguing options. If there is not too much overlap with EBSCO, it can make a fine complement to that standard database. (Tim)