Wishful Promotion & Marketing!

Oh well here we go again - what I wish our library could get involverd with on Web 2.0.   I believe we should have a blog to cover all the functions that we offer.  The library staff (including myself) would be happy to keep this up-to-date.  We would need to work with our Marketing dept. as they seerm to be in charge of any form of advertising.  I say "seem" as we do so little and then only to our members, it really does nothing for the library and very little for the organisation. 
Anyhow enough complaining - on with how I would handle the new face of  the AIM Library.  The first thing would be to get an on-going  blog.  The first entry should be an explanation of who and what we are (as a specialist management library) and then I would love to see an interactive tour of the library showing our collection.  (As we have  no tour I have included a one from the web).
The blog will be linked to our webpage so the public can check the Institute's activities including training courses and our webpage back to the blog.  I also would like to see advertising of our forums, Meet the Author and presentations.  On our first blog it would be necessary to include a survey to make sure we are targeting the right section of the public.  As we have never set up a survey/questionnaire I have included a webpage to help set it up - click here.
I have the perfect scenario in my head but the hard part is getting it up and running. I am sure we can utilitse Web 2.0 applications to help the whole Institute by putting ourselves out in the public eye.  This might increase our membership especially to the middle managers who are the future of  the Australian Institute of Management.  By increasing the membership we would increase the use of the library ensuring the future all round.  Also it could be such fun setting it up and getting closer to our members and library users. 
Can our members use this application?  Yes, I am quite confident that all our members will, in time, enjoy the library blog and be able to contribute to it and help  keep it up-to-date  and interesting.
I have centered this fairytale around an on-going library blog but there are other applications that can be used such as a Wiki, Twitter, Facebook etc. It just takes time and future thinking but this has to come from the top of the organisation.
I have just found that we do have a Facebook page but it was rather dry and uninteresting and did not mention the library at all!  This should all be fun.

Access - Physical v Intellectual

I've had to think long and hard to write this blog, between what our library is and what I would like it to be.  As you may have picked up on earlier blogs, I work in a small, special members only, library.  Our members are on the older side (but not elderly - there is a difference!).  They seem to be stuck in old ways and do not embrace modern technology easily. It is hard to get change through the various levels of management and then to our clients.  Our library users enjoy the library and use it not only for borrowing books, CDs, & DVDs but a place where they can read papers plug in their computers and in general enjoy the ambience of a library.  Parking is easy and in some cases they are able to park underground for free.  Looking at our library, access is definitely very important.  They are not that bothered with electronic gadgets (as they put it).  Even with e-books and e-audios they are not welcomed and used as much as we thought they would be.

We try to make our library a comfortable and welcoming place and they seem to appreciate this.  They mostly cope with the catalogue but when we changed to a different OPAC they became rather disoriented and it has taken a while to get them used to it. We offer a post out of library books so if they have problems in getting into the library this is an option they prefer to take up. 

If we do take a step towards the new technologies I would suggest the QR (quick response) codes.  This is because, though they are not technically savvy, they have the latest up-to-date phones, ipads etc .and  amuse themselves with their different "apps". Everyone has seen those boxes with squiggles which seem to appear everywhere you look, newspapers, advertisements, shops and anywhere there is a boarding, hoarding etc., I even saw one on a board selling a house.  I suspect that it would not be too hard to gradually teach our users  the benefit of locking into the QR codes.  I would like the library to have one on our catalogue and home page.  This would educate them on the library times, borrowings, book reviews, and other information, but it must be introduced slowly so that they do not feel in anyway belittled.through lack of knowledge. Once they are used to scanning QRs I am sure we can use these in  the library in many ways.

There is much more I would like to see the library involved with and one is to have a regular libary blog.  This would contain a virtual tour of the library, review of new books, interesting snippits about the library staff, and up to date list of events and courses the Institute is holding. 

There has been talk about us having our own "app" (a new word for our language).  This has yet to happen and the talk has stopped. Unfortunately this is what happens - new ideas emerge and get carried along but seem to reach a point where they just die.  Innovation just becomes a word to be banded about! 

So you can see that it is an up hill battle to get any web 2.0 technology into our library.

The Learning of NewTechnology

Wow there is so much to take in - I never realised all these new ways to communicate existed and I now know what they call  Social Media.  Facebook and Twitter I have dabbled in but that is all. Though recently I wonder about Twitter with all the publicity about "Trolls".  I loved learning about QR codes, cloud computing, wikis, flickr and more. Unfortunately most of these technologies can't or won't be utilised by my library, but learning never goes to waste. I fully intend to use my new found knowledge as best as I can somewhere!  My Manager paid for me to do this course so maybe there are plans............

I looked at many different library applications on the net though most of them were  library blogs in one form or another.  The one that took my interest an kept me going through all parts of their blog is http://liverpoolcollegelibrary.blogspot.com
This library has a virtual tour, TAFEcard, opening hours, loan limits, length of loan, ask a librarian, to list a few.  They also have study guides and there are two videos on Learn English Conversaation and Learn English Listening Skills.  I would think they have a rather large community of  students whose first languaqge is not English.  You can log onto Youtube, Google, ABC news and other websites which could be of help to students through this library blog.  Apart from all the help on this website there is also a rather long article "Skills for the 21st Century Librarian".

If  all this has been set up by one Librarian or even an larger number of Librarians, I must congratulate them on an informative, well set out blog and would hold this up as a library blog to use as a master.

I would love to have a virtual library tour as I feel this would help our members realise what their library consisted of and how it could help them.