“Have you been borrowed yet?”

This piece from the London Times was found by Sue at NBAB about the Living Library. The first Living Library was held at a music festival in Denmark in 2000 and a library in the UK recently held its first Living Library. So what exactly is a Living Library? A library allows readers to borrow people for a 30-minute chat. Some choices offered at the Uk Library: Gay Man, Muslim, Male Nanny, Police Officer, Social Worker, Immigrant and Disabled Person.

In total Living Library People were borrowed 47 times, almost 24 book hours.

Anne Kilroy an organizer says,
" To anyone who wants to organize a Living Library around the world, please feel free to contact me so I can share our experiences, as well as guiding you on how to stage a successful event. Thanks a lot to everybody who wants to participate. anne.kilroy@living-library.org "

Technovirginity

Feedback from the Handheld Libraries workshop last week has been 100% positive. Everyone had good things to say, including one librarian writing as what she terms a technovirgin. Before the workshop she didn't see how being connected via a wireless device could help her in her daily life. She saw it as more of a burden. And now, like me, this person can't wait to get an iPhone. Commenters said they want additional forward thinking workshops. We at SCLS can't wait to begin planning something new. Again, comments and suggestions are always welcome.

Portable Libraries

Talk about your portable library service. Take a look at the Shifted Librarian's posting on "The Ask Cart, " and actual hot dog cart. This is an amazing example of taking the library to the user, complete with goodies. Maybe not Hand Held, but definitely portable.

For those of you unable to attend the Program Hand Held Libraries here is a link to speaker, Aaron Schmidt's Blog Walking Paper .

And for those who just want to replay iPhone the musical by David Pogue, here it is :)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vniMR6Ez9cE

One Phone Call From Jail?

What does the Egyptian Police, the micro blogging site Twitter, a mobile phone and the word “arrested” all have in common?

April 10, UC Berkley journalism student James Karl Buck was photographing a demonstration in Egypt when he was taken to jail. Egyptian Police didn’t take his mobile phone! Buck typed out the message “ARRESTED” on his cell phone and posted it to his Twitter account. That message was then instantly broadcast to those who follow Buck’s Twitter account. It was those friends who called, UC Berkley, the American Embassy and the Associated Press. Buck was released the next day.

Hope to see you tomorrow for Hand Held Libraries

Branding

PLA had a marketing track which included some great programs, one was presented by members of the Douglas County Library’s Marketing staff. Check out the blog that was set up by the marketing team at Douglas County. It’s the PLA presentation as well as tips on branding your library, how to get your programs in the local news and what makes an aesthetically pleasing flyer.

http://firstimpressionslast.blogspot.com/

They’ll answer your questions if you email them and SCLS will be presenting the program Speaking with One Voice: A guide to integrating customer service, marketing & public relations with Libby Post June 5, 2008.

Going Local

I found the information at CIL on going local most interesting. Charles Lyons from the University at Buffalo talked about opportunities for libraries to enter local information using Library 2.0 applications. This is an area where I believe libraries can shine.

According to the presentation, the internet makes it easy so sip globally, but so far not locally. Although Google Local is adding in more local search results, and people can find local news using a Google News advanced search, the local web is primarily
user-generated, participatory, amateur, civic, grassroots, citizen’s journalism. The local web gives knowledgeable people a voice. (I would say it also gives unknowledgeable people a voice as well, but that's a topic for a different posting).
With information about neighborhoods, streets, buildings, and communities, the local web is bringing a sense of place to the internet.

Are libraries helping to bring a sense of place to the Internet? Our key strengths are local history, and genealogy, as well as providers of community information. However, there are opportunites for libraries to become more local. We need to become expert users of local resources, raise awareness and assist the community in using them, broaden the scope of local data, become active participants in community-focused resources, and create our own local resources. We need to become experts at using Yahoo local, Google maps, and Ask city. Place and community blogging is another opportunity to go local. Check out the Darien Community Matters blog.

This sounds like a good subject for a workshop, don't you think? For more information, check out Charles Lyons Dewey&Main blog.

More Statistics on Portable Devices

Digital activities away from home or work

According to the Pew Internet Project’s December 2007 survey:

58% of adult Americans have used a cell phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to
do at least one of ten mobile non-voice data activities, such as texting, emailing,
taking a picture, looking for maps or directions, or recording video.

41% of adult Americans have logged onto the internet on the go, that is, away from
home or work either with a wireless laptop connection or a handheld device.

This comes to 62% of all Americans who have some experience with mobile access to digital data and tools. That is, they have either used a cell phone or PDA for a non-voice
data application or logged on to the internet away from home or work using a wireless
laptop connection or with a handheld device. Not only are young people attuned to this kind of access, African Americans and English-speaking Latinos are more likely than white Americans to use non-voice data applications on their cell phones. The Pew Internet Project’s December 2007
survey interviewed a sample of 2,054 adult Americans, which included 500 respondents
contacted on their cell phones.

For more information, see the Pew Report on Technology and Media Use.

Technolust

I want an Iphone. Yes, I'm a baby boomer, and I don't know html, and I can't usually understand the Windows popups on my computer telling me to do something, and only my kids own Ipods. But I want an Iphone. Right now, I carry around an MP3 player so I can listen to books on SuffolkWave. I carry around a PDA so I can keep track of my life which involves way too many appointments. And sometimes, I carry a digital camera, if I remember to stash it in my purse. So now, I have a very heavy purse. And still no access to the internet or my email.

Why an Iphone? It has high quality audio and video, a relatively large screen, a touch screen, a built in camera, access to music, and soon, access to SuffolkWave. And lots of memory. Also, you can interact with it using hand motions. Turn it sideways, and the page goes horizontal. Way cool. And here I am, planning a mobile conference, and all I have is my cell phone that sometimes let me use it to make a phone call. Hmmm. Could someone tell my husband that he could score a lot of points by buying me an Iphone?

Lee Rainie Keynote

Yes, Lee. We know you are charming and smart and love librarians. We appreciate that. Especially the results from the last Pew survey: LIBRARIANS ROCK.

But seriously, this is what fascinated me and leads right into the SCLS Handheld Libraries conference on April 22nd. 78% of Americans have cellphones. CELLPHONES HAVE TURNED AROUND THE INFORMATION DIVIDE. Cellphone owners are using their devices to connect wirelessly to the internet. Email is important to them, and THEY ARE USING THE INTERNET TO STORE INFORMATION using their cellphones.

So how can libraries have a no cell phone policy? People are talking on cell phones, and they are USING THEM TO ACCESS THE INTERNET, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY HAVE NO COMPUTER AT HOME!!!!

If you are not seeing this in your library, it may be due to the prevalence of the image above.

We need to wake up and smell the coffee, which by the way is Starbucks at the conference.

On the Road Again

This blog is officially 5 months old! Samantha and I set it up when we went to the Internet Librarian conference in Montery. Now it's on to the next CIL conference here in Washington, DC. We only got lost once. Thanks a lot Google. We made it with the help of two mobile devices in the car. Neither was a GPS!

There were so-o-o many people gaming tonight! Amazing seeing the variety of games and people. You can't tell a librarian from her appearance. The meekest looking of us sometimes has the biggest singing voice. Rock on!

My plan tomorrow is to begin by attending a session on Library 2.0 going local. Local as in local community information. I love it when I go to a library home page and there is abundant community information there. Sometimes that is the hardest to find. Check out the Darien Public Library's community blog: Darien Community Matters. Great stuff John.

PLA in Minnesota Brrrr

The weather was nice, cool and windy but no need for a parka and I only used the skyway once. Minneapolis is a nice green city with Hybrid buses and fairly accessible public transportation downtown.

Ok, now that I got that over with I wanted to share my favorite program and what I learned.

Really it's what I learned about myself..."Hi my name is Sam and I have Techno lust"... I want an iPhone....but i'll get back to that...

Technozoo was presented by Leonard Souza, President of Acidblue Ltd. The presentation was hands on and we were able to hold some of these new techno thingies in our hands. It was the first time that I had seen a Sony e-Book Reader up close and personal. It's amazing, the page refreshes to the screen and then the reader turns itself off and you stop using the battery power. The screen really looks like a page in a book.

Let me jump to the iPhone quickly because here is where I started foaming at the mouth! lol Apple is working on a deal with Starbucks that will let you order coffee from your iPhone...no waiting on the line...did I say want...no..."I need an iPhone"

Finally the other neat thing is Surface by Microsoft. Surface is an interactive table. Now why would you need an interactive table you ask? Well check out the Surface website. Surface should be introduced in Spring 2008...like now :)

Is your interest peeked? Well join us at System on the 22nd of April for Hand Held Libraries. This program will be highlighting some new handheld technologies and the implications for libraries.