Thursday, January 15, 2015

I Should Have Known

This morning I had a GoToTraining even scheduled - it's been on the calendar for about a month. As part of my effort to encourage use of the Discover IT search tool, I'm going to show how different settings can lead to widely differing search results. There are 3 of these sessions coming up, one each month. Then we'll move on to a session showing how libraries can actually customize their profile to get the results they think will be best for their patrons. I've been trying this out, using different terms and profiles, to get really comfortable with all the options. I've used GoToMeeting quite a bit, scheduling some new director training sessions, so didn't think this would be too different. I even created a few polls to go along, and had 10 people registered. People started arriving - 6 showed up - but there was no audio! I checked to make sure my microphone was correct (it was) and the Help menu didn't give any ideas. We even ended and restarted, just as a last resort. After 20 minutes I decided to reschedule and work on it without the pressure of having people waiting. The group was very agreeable. Checking settings in the scheduling section I came across audio settings - I had no idea! Don't know how I missed them when creating the event, and changing things now didn't help the already-set meeting. But it looks like future events will be better. But I'll be testing it ahead of time anyway! I've added an extra event, and 3 of this morning's folks have already registered. So it will be OK, but I still think I should have somehow known to check everything one more time.

Friday, January 9, 2015

CES

CES - the Consumer Electronics Show - has always been a fascinating event, although I don't expect to ever attend. I started paying attention when even MSNBC started covering it on their financial programs. If 20,000 librarians in Las Vegas (ALA, 2014) can be fun how great would 160,000+ geeks (CES, 2014) be? I have to think it would just be wild! So many cool products are demonstrated, although I suspect not many ever become mainstream. Still, it's a good place to see the way research is headed and get an idea of what new developments might be coming along in the future. See what you think. What product would you be most likely to buy? Best of CES

Thursday, January 8, 2015

So many gadgets

I've mentioned the TPZ ("Technology Petting Zoo") sets we have, as a resource for showing librarians around the state various gadgets. Mine consists of an iPad, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy, Kindle Fire and Dell Venue. In addition I have my own Kindle Fire HD and Asus Transformer. Having so many gadgets is a challenge, requiring different accounts and passwords to keep track of. The iPad stands alone, of course. Since I don't have any other Apple devices that had to have a completely new and unique account. For the others, I was able to set things up with my Gmail account, and the Kindles work with my Amazon account so they seem a little bit easier to manage. So what do I use most? So far it seems to be the Kindle - it's a nice size, not too heavy to carry and accesses just about everything I need (especially anything I had from Amazon in the cloud). My personal Fire HD developed a display issue so I haven't been using that one nearly as much (still trying to figure out the problem and how to deal with it). I've taken the Galaxy on a road trip and used it for Skype in the hotel, that worked nicely too - I like the larger (10") display. When attending ALA I chose the iPad because it's smaller (I have the mini version) and found it very convenient - it seems to connect to wifi very easily. On a recent vacation I took the Dell tablet because it has a keyboard and I expected to be accessing email. Trying to type anything substantial without a keyboard is just torture! Sadly, both Gmail and Hotmail proved to be extra security conscious and put several obstacles in the way, so accessing email turned out to be impossible when overseas (happily, Facebook was much more agreeable and I was still able to let people know where we were). I try to use all the gadgets for a variety of tasks just so I can be familiar with each. I've got MtLib2Go on all, assorted web pages bookmarked, and a few library apps on them too. It's been a learning experience to figure out the different navigation styles (especially with the Dell Windows 8!) but at least I'll be able to help others when they have a question about a gadget.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Happy New Year!

Once again I feel the need to start a post with the "can't believe it's been so long" apology. Each year I begin with great intentions which seem to fall apart pretty quickly. Perhaps there is something to be said for consistency? Since the last post, I attended ALA - overwhelming even when not combined with the Las Vegas environment (which included 108-degree temps one day, when the monorail stopped running and I needed to walk back to the hotel - I was sure I'd just dry up on the sidewalk and disappear!). Interesting sessions and author speeches, some fun meet-ups with friends made for a good experience. Will I go again? I think the regional, smaller conferences have more to offer so I'll focus on those. In the fall I presented a session on Strategic Planning at the ASLD/PLD conference. I had just completed a planning exercise with Belgrade Community Library that went so well we wanted to share. It outlines a streamlined process for smaller libraries that can make it easier for them to achieve useful results without the overwhelming time and effort investment that is often a deterrent to even beginning the process. I'd like to submit this as a proposal to other conferences in the future (MPLA, ARSL, PNLA). The State Library has developed a pilot program for GoToMeeting, giving an account to every public library in the state. We're curious to see how it gets used and hope to be able to continue it in future years. I spent October setting up accounts, and we've been offering trainings for people to become familiar with the software. Jo flick and I will present a session at MLA in April to help promote it as well as get ideas on usage. Next month is the Offline conference in Billings. Always a fun time. My big project now is promoting the DiscoverIT search tool, showing public libraries how it can be customized to be more useful to their patrons. Three online training sessions are set for this winter, demonstrating its use and showing options, then I'll move on to the actual customization process in later training. We've been promoting this for quite some time but still don't see everyone using it to the fullest. I probably should schedule reminders on my calendar to encourage more posting - that might be helpful!