My Favorite Target Audience

This afternoon, a colleague and I presented a program entitled “Use Your Library @ Home” to members of the Mission Oaks Computer Club.  I love surprising people and watching their faces light up as we talk about services they had no clue we offer!  We were invited because a member happened upon our website and thought it pointed to useful services and materials.  (Guess that shows we need to do some more aggressive marketing.)

I have done similar presentations for the Orangevale-Folsom PC Users Group and the Sacramento PC Users Group I like talking to computer clubs in particular, because they’re already convinced of the value of being online, and know how to navigate web sites.  All that is needed is to show them the databases, e-books, catalog and account management services, and they’re on their way! I put the presentation in Dropbox and gave them a link to our Delicious bookmarks listing all the web sites we talked about today plus a few more.  That’s one of the things that delight me about computer clubs: they don’t mind going online!

Week 5: Serious Play in Second Life

Information Literacy Class in Open Air Auditorium

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of addressing a UCLA LIS class during a panel presentation about information literacy instruction in various kinds of libraries. Eight panelists from around the country described ways they help their users find and use the information they need. Representatives from public libraries, libraries in public and private elementary and high schools, community colleges, universities, hospitals, an art institute and a virtual library gave the 21 students a broad view of the different types of information consumers libraries serve, the challenges they present and the instructional approaches employed to meet them. Geography was no object, because the presentation took place at an open-air auditorium on Info Island in Second Life.

Post-Class Poster Session

Although I have attended events and taken classes in Second Life, this was my first speaking engagement. It took longer than I expected to condense what we do here at Sacramento Public into a 10-minute presentation, because I didn’t know until literally the last minute, whether I would be talking via SL Voice or entering my speech a sentence at a time into the chat box. (I used voice, in the end, for my presentation, and answered questions using chat.)

I had excellent support from Esther Grassian (Alexandria Knight in SL), the instructor, who answered all my questions promptly; from Rhonda Trueman (Abbey Zenith), who gave a tutorial for the presenters in constructing posters that can give informational notecards to those who touch them; and from Sandy Vella (Agnesa Capalini), who took me shopping for a professional outfit and helped me set up my Voice and learn to give teleports.  I also need to thank my supervisors for allowing me to be “off-desk” for 4 hours in order to attend the event, and my co-workers, who pulled extra desk time as a result.

My slides and speech are on Slideshare.

2009 and 23 Things

This year will probably become the Year of Presentations. Or the Year of Social Everything. I’m a member a team just gearing up to begin a “23 Things” style campaign in the system.  We’ve set up a Ning space and have dabbled at posting, updating profiles, and scheduling meetings.  However, the asynchronicity – and the holidays that so inconveniently intervened between F2F meetings – have us all a little frustrated. We haven’t got the timing nor the momentum to make it work very well yet.  Howeve, we’re meeting in person this week to put together the plan for the “SPL2point0″ campaign.

This year, I’m also getting more active with adult programming and outreach.  I’m going to actually use a lession I prepared for an InfoPeople class a couple years ago. In fact, the class is coming up in a couple of weeks, so I need to get on it and do some link-checking and customizing, get the handouts and evaluations printed, check the wi-fi in the computer lab (it wasn’t working a couple of weeks ago), and prepare a plan B in case it’s sstill not working.

I’ve been invited to speak about our e-resources to the school librarians in the Twin Rivers school distict next month, so I’m collaborating with one of our youth services librarians to adapt my “Use your library @ home” presentation for the teacher/student environment.  This is a great opportunity to promote some of the resources we have that are specifically designed for students, more especially so since some of the schools in the district are in lower-income areas of the county.

Schools in California have been hit very hard by the current economic doldrum, and have been forced to cancel their online subscriptions and have lost their book budgets as well.  Even though we say our public library does not support the educational curriculum, we really do – in several ways. I’m glad I’m in the public library house!

Library 2.0: I can do it myself!

Last night I gave my second presentation to the Orangevale-Folsom PC Users Group – and they blew me away again with their interest and enthusiasm! A while back, I presented “Use your library @ home,” featuring remote use of our subscription databases.  The group’s web site and e-mailed agenda built up my last presentation so much, I didn’t see how I could possibly follow that act.  Last night, the same crowd showed up for “Library 2.0: I can do it myself!” and it was gratifying to see their interest, answer their questions, and help make the library a useful place for them.

We talked about our new online library card application process, which gives new users a temporary number they can use immediately to log in to the databases, our new Book Bulletin subscription, Link+, the grandCENTRAL blog, the opt-in reading history feature of the OPAC, e-mail notifications, and a brief run-through of updates to the web site, OPAC, and database line-up – notably Morningstar and Culturegrams.  The audience asked good questions, and several stayed afterwards to talk some more.  I overheard one gentleman comment that he hoped the club would make it an annual event! Go Library! And many thanks to Dennis, Lois, and Luann for the invitation, and to Alison for her moral support.

Social Networking For Parents

For our Staff Training Day on October 10, a group of us were invited to produce a presentation that could be used by branch staff as a program for parents. The topic: Social Networking Safety – things parents should know. Six of us individually prepared a few slides on portions of the topic identified by the group, and the chair’s daughter unified them with the background and colors.

The presentation was successful by all measures. We were up against a couple of high-interest guest speakers, yet the room was filled with staff who were interested in the topic. The Library Director requested a copy to present to the library board, and this morning we will be repeating the presentation at the Youth Services meeting. Go Team!

I’d like to work on tightening it up some more, and creating a framework like that used by the Hibbing Public Library for its computer classes. That way, branch staff would have a complete package, including setup requirements, handouts, and an evaluation form.