Some of the OLA presentations on their website

I was very pleased that some of the presentations are online. It is a great opportunity for those of us who missed the conference.

Catherine

Virtual Reference Service for Ontario

Session 611 - Thursday Feb. 1/07
Real time virtual reference services for Ontario

OLA is always a joy to go to. There is lots to see and hear about - new and wonderful things that are happening in the library world. The session that I enjoyed the most was the last session of the day put on by AskOntario/Knowledge Ontario.

They asked a few questions - Do Ontarians want or need a province-wide virtual reference service? Are their needs being served by existing services? What about communities and groups that aren't well served? If such a service were developed, what form should it take? Who is going to staff such a service?

There was a panel of four different people with one being from British Columbia. They all gave insight into what has been created for their library system. I am just going to mention two of the panels at this time.

Ottawa Library has created IM a Librarian - chatting on the cheap. They are a small library system. They also did not have money to put into a virtual reference site. What they have set up is a virtual system that is like the library with set hours that they are on-line. At these times there is a Librarian there to answer all the questions that you might have.

AskAway: B.C.Province-Wide Virtual Reference. They are a bigger library system. They have created a province wide virtual reference system so there is a Librarian on-line all the time to answer whatever questions you might have anytime of the day or night.

With more and more people, especially the young generation, using MSN and other on-line chat lines, this is going to be an up and coming thing in the Library world.

OLA experience... all about change and forward thinking...

Hello everyone,

Year after year the OLA offers great and innovative sessions. This year I had the opportunity to attend the Thursday workshops and found them all inspiring and stimulating.

Placemaking: Turning Your Library into a First Rate Destination was one of my favourite workshops. Anne Murphy from Mississauga Public Library and Gil Penalosa from the City of Mississauga did a great job presenting many ideas (some relatively simple, others a lot more complex) to help position the library within the community and turn the library into an important destination for its citizens. This workshop encouraged all participants to examine their libraries not just in terms of their physical locations (there is not much we can do to move a library to a more desired place), but also in terms of the physical layout. We often get trapped in seeing the layout of our collections and furniture set up as it has been for years and often fail to recognize what can be done to improve/enhance the space and make it more user friendly.

Stephen Heppell's session was truly a treat! Talking to a full house of conference delegates, I know Stephen blew my mind with his ideas and concepts for creativity and innovation.

Overall, the message I took away from this year's OLA had all to do with change in the workplace and within the organization. Many of us find change difficult to handle, however in order to make our libraries, collections and services more attractive, we must stay competitive and innovative, and strive to offer leading-edge services to our customers.

As always, OLA is a great place to network including seeing old friends and making new ones. I had the pleasure of running into some people which I remembered from my days at the Library School and previous co-workers.

Although it's sill very early, I'm already looking forward to the OLA Conference in 2008!

8:00 am - Do you know where your cell phone is?

The first session I attended at OLA was one of the most fun, and I give it full marks for using an upbeat format to get us going first thing in the morning. This all conference event titled Do you know your on-line patrons? (Session 200 Feb. 1) used a game show format and brought together a public librarian, a school librarian and an academic librarian as contestants to guess the results of an OLA online survey of 5000 customers conducted in 2006. Contestants' guesses were recorded in real time and projected onto huge screens at the front of the room.

Some of the most revealing things I learned include:

• 20% of our public library customers say they spend 2 hours or more daily on the Internet for personal use (however, this was an online survey....)
• the 1st priority for service for pl users is free borrowing (let's keep our focus on those collections)
• A whopping 98% of pl respondants said that an e-mail reminder of overdue materials would be very or somewhat helpful (let's get that e-mail service going asap!!). (this reminds me that in another session the ALA President who is also Library Director at the Princeton Public Library admitted to using her customers' e-mail addresses to send them an e-mail newsletter without asking them to subscribe first. They were given the option to opt out.)

The session had a time where we could also take part in the contest by text messaging from our cell phones, and I admit I never was able to figure out how to send the message before that part was over, even though there were helpful assistants to try to guide us through this part. I was annoyed about it all day, and before day end finally figured out where I had gone wrong and how to actually send a text message.

So the organizers' goals were met for at least one participant. I have been brought to some small degree into the Web 2.0 age, and here I am on a blog...

Judi

Lots of great sessions at OLA this year and really did confirm for me that MPL has a ticket on the “clue train”. Whether the speaker was a librarian, city planner, a placemaking consultant or retail marketing strategist there were recurring themes:

Community - As humans we have a natural instinct to community building, socializing and interacting with others.

Web 2.0 is intensely social and interactive. Does our own online presence reflect this? How do we create a virtual sense of place? We need to deliver relevant services at the customer’s point of need in the customer’s preferred language (ie. communication tool) We need to take part in the conversation by participating in blogs, wikis and emerging technologies. We need to start the conversation through IM, podcasts, rss feeds, etc.

Does our physical space reflect this desire for community engagement? Or are we still encouraging library use in our physical plants that’s largely encouraging quiet and solitary activities. What makes a great place?

Design of building

• inviting entrances and a warm, welcoming atmosphere
• "pathways" that pull the customer in and takes them on a journey
• No dead zones (blank walls, empty perimeter spaces)

Engagement of customers

• Gathering points, places to sit
• wide variety of uses and activities

Connect the design and engagement physically, emotionally, rationally

Customer Relationship Management – The investment we provide in the moment dictates our future value. Will the customer return? Will we be their preferred source for the product? Will they become our advocates? Libraries no longer "own" the product but we know how to manage the product. We need to transform from a product centric world (information) to a customer centric world. Let's now take our products, package them and serve them up to the customer in a way that's releavant to that customer. Technology has trained the consumer to want and expect fast, customized services at the time and place most convenient to them. Retail industry uses datamining and collaborative filtering technologies to research their market segments. Libraries could be using same techniques to segment our market and identify appropriate services and products (and communications) for each group.

In terms of our Strat Plan and moving MPL forward how do we build community and create a culture of service?

• Relentlessly challenge the status quo – develop a vision that exceeds the current technologies or infrastructures ability to deliver
• Use technology to maximize efficiencies and customer convenience
• Communicate our promise – our value - to the customer. Consistently deliver that message (“same voice”, consistent look across all aspects of communication)
• Build process and measurement to assess how well we’re fulfilling our promise
• Enable and empower staff - provide staff with the knowledge and authority to deliver on our promise/ to answer the customers need.
  
  Diane

OLA Presentations now available

Session material is now online at
http://www.accessola.com/superconference2007/sessions.html

Developmental Assets and Youth: how libraries can give teens the tools they need to succeed!

A very informative and insightful session on how to make teens' lives better. It listed 40 developmental assets for youth that help them grow up healthy, caring and responsible. External assets include Support, Empowerment, Boundaries & Expectations, Constructive Use of Time; while internal assets include Commitment to Learning, Positive Values, Social Competencies and Positive Identity. The more assets young people have, the more likely they are to engage in positive behaviors. They are the foundation kids need in order to survive.

Principles of Youth Development - "It takes a whole village to raise a child" (African proverb). Youth development is about hope and making a difference. Involve them, work with them and teach them. It's the job of the whole community.

Youth need:-
1. a sense of competence : being able to do something well.
2. a sense of usefulness: having something to contribute.
3. a sense of power: having control over one's future.
4. a sense of belonging: being part of a community.

Youth make up 25% of our coustomers. Always relate what you do with youth. We can provide an environment for caring and self acceptance, show them learning can be fun, provide them with opportunities to contribute through volunteer work, provide an atmosphere of safety and support, empower them with opportunity such as TAG, and offer programs that will engage them.

The five building blocks include programming, outreach and partnership, volunteerism, creative expression and networking. Programming can be literacy based such as book clubs or a performance such as concerts or drama. Other creative programs can be teen toastmasters, craft programs, or Santa Claus parade. Outreach & Partnership include class visits, exhibits, fairs, community events, and Youth Week. Connect and build relationship with school boards, YMCA, youth serving groups etc. Volunteerism include TAG, homework programs, reading buddies. Creative expression include poetry, photography, writing, cartooning, poster contests, and teen art exhibitions. Networking involves sharing best practices and taking time to build relationships and trust.

Relationship is the key to asset building. We need to learn their names, support them, encourage them. When we form relationships, we help kids succeed. One important message I got is "libraries are not in the book business, but in people business". Libraries don't change lives. Librarians do!