San Francisco Public Library

I decided to check out San Francisco Public Library because I figured they'd be on top of their game as far as self-promotion.  I was assuming that since they are close to a major technological hub and since they  serve a very eclectic and large community, that following them would turn up some pretty interesting results.  I was right.  I ended up using all possible angles known to me: Facebook, Twitter, blogs, technorati, Flickr, Yelp, and I even signed up to receive text messages on my phone from SFPL.  I loved that feature because I was imagining myself living there, hanging out with an afternoon free ahead of me, then getting a text from SFPL about  a cool exhibit going on or an author presentation and then deciding to go spur-of-the-moment all because of a text.  Pretty cool. The SFPL website was incredibly user-friendly with a logical organization and  clean interface. In the center of the page were all the library's exciting events.  In the horizontal tabs on the top of the page is where one could explore further into the library services offered.

I love the fact that their e-library was so extensive and easy to access.  They also offer a mobile version of sfpl.org for those of us addicted to our mobile devices.  Nice! In addition, all their blogs were aggregated on one page where patrons could RSS whichever one he/she chose to follow.  There are around 20 incredibly diverse blogs written by SFPL librarians. I followed a few different ones and found them to be equally updated, yet totally unique in their content.  In other words, there was a blog to suit all tastes.

Check out their Facebook presence too! They really take the time to keep this updated with amazing photos of art exhibits and events.  Being a "friend" of SFPL, I received an update feed on my mobile app for Facebook so every time they changed their status, I would know about it.

With Twitter, I both followed SFPLNews and also put in San Francisco Public Library in the search box. As I mentioned before, I was able to send the tweets as texts to my phone which is an awesome feature, in my opinion.  It's better than just getting an update on a Twitter app because you're more compelled to check your phone texts as they beep.  On average, I got about one text per day. I was up on all their events around town.  A lot of the people posting tweets about SFPL had nice things to say, however more than a few felt compelled to mention the sketchy homeless element.  One cool thing I saw on the tweets was that a ton of people were tweeting their Foursquare location at the SFPL.

Things started getting interesting once I started digging around the places where the actual patrons have something to say.  I found out that the use of the library by the homeless is a big problem.  Yelp was particularly honest in stating the facts.  It appears the major complaints come from the fact that the library stinks of homeless people and that, although the building is full of books, they never seem to have the ones you want.

Then I went on Youtube.  There are lots of videos where one can check out various events that have taken place.  It is also a place where people leave comments.  This one was particularly enlightening:

See this video about the homeless problem at SFPL

What's annoying is that I'm unable to embed this video into my post.  Argh!! I tried everything under the sun, but my code just disappears after I paste it into the html side.  Strange.  Anyhow, this video is worth watching, showing both sides of the issue from different perspectives.

Flickr didn't turn up a whole lot.  While I did find lots of photos of the San Francisco Public Library posted by random people, SFPL did not have their own account/group.  It would be fairly easy for them to transfer their photos from Facebook, though, so I'm not sure why they haven't done so.  Maybe they don't think it's necessary. Apart from that,  I found  that SFPL is really integrating technology into their marketing.  They have a strong presence in most of the platforms I chose to look into.  I'm not sure what happened with Technorati.  It may be that I just don't know how to use it properly, but when I typed in either SFPL or San Francisco Public Library in its entirety, I got very few results and most of them had nothing to do with the library.  Not sure.  I thought since Technorati is a blog search engine, it would have pulled some of their own blogs, but no.

I thought this assignment was helpful in a couple of ways.  The obvious one is that I was able to experience first-hand how using participatory services in the library helps to reach users and keep them updated almost effortlessly (as long as they know where to go).  The other is that you can experience information overload if you don't choose carefully and/or put the brakes on the feeds you sign up for.  Also, you really can get the flavor of a place by checking out comments and other review sites like Yelp.  The other, less obvious way this assigment was helpful was that I learned a lot about Wordpress and how to better use it.  My posts aren't fancy, but I'm slowly figuring out how to make things look a bit better.  Sorta.

Mobile Devices and the Library

My research paper is going to be about the use of mobile devices in the library.  I became interested in this topic when I bought my first smart phone and now my Galaxy touch pad.  I really think the library has to embrace all the possible ways of communicating and being available through these devices since people are beginning to rely almost exclusively on this type of communication.  Within this topic I will explore augmented reality, all the various phone apps, reference service through instant messaging, and  how schools and other libraries can incorporate certain technological services to take advantage of this new medium.

Social Networking is...

...many different things to many people. I really think the level to which a person gets involved depends on his/her personality, which is what's ultimately great about social networking.  You can choose just how much you want to divulge, which groups suit you, and what it is you want to convey to the world about yourself.  Obviously I'm approaching from the perspective of an adult and from someone who understands the risks involved in divulging too much, but I also know it's not going away any time soon, so I may as well know all there is to know about it.   I'm pretty reserved when it comes to telling people about my life, so my Facebook stays fairly clean and streamlined.  I do not check it everyday and actually, it doesn't really enhance my life all that much, but I want an account because I might just want to keep up with up what my old acquaintances are doing.  I was all jazzed initially about it, but as soon as my curiousity was quenched about what happened to so and so from high school, I was pretty much over it. 

As for my professional life, I do see the benefit of social networking and as an experiment I signed up to a Web 2.0 Ning.  I had to get approval from the moderators so I just found out that I got in! They deemed me safe and non-spammy.  I really like the ning communities, though.  I definitely see the advantage of belonging.  I was saying in the last class that I was worried that my learning community would dry up after grad school and now I know that I have access to great ideas for technology and the school library through these communities.  I also belong to delicious, twitter, librarything, and a bunch of others that I don't use regularly, but probably will once I am in a position where it matters that I do stay connected. 

Libraries-school, academic, public really need to be accessible by these avenues even if not all their patrons take advantage of them.  The ones that do use social networking will appreciate the ease of accessibility.  The ones who do not won't be missing anything and may even perhaps learn about its usefulness through the library.  Not every social networking tool is going to make sense for all people and/or library, but I look at it as just another way to advertise and let people know what's going on.

Hyperlinked

The overarching theme in many of our readings has to do with having a malleable mind-being able to adapt and change and try new things in order to best serve our library patrons.  Becoming a hyperlinked library is not only about the technology involved in making this happen, but it's a philosophy that you either get or you don't.  If you don't, however, maybe you shouldn't be a librarian.  The hyperlinked philosophy is one that celebrates change, understands that change is part of nature, looks forward to the challenge of finding new solutions, is not afraid to try new technology, is built on trust,  and refuses to hide in the back room.  

And this philosophy doesn't just apply to the library, but to world at large in the 21st century.  As a student becoming a school librarian, I keep hearing the popular buzzwords-21st century learner, globally connected, collaboration, inquiry-based learning.  What scares, but also excites me is that the hyperlinked philosophy is surprisingly absent in many of the schools I have observed.  It scares me because I know the challenges are monumental. I will have to try to change the minds of the faculty,  administration, and the district.  I will have to prove that adding certain technologies are beneficial to the students.  I will have to teach everyone how to use and incorporate that technology.   The exciting part is knowing that people will eventually see the pay off and the students and teachers will be both better learners and better educators.