Category Archives: Library

Jan 19

Foursquare, Libraries, and Librarians

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About a dozen attendees at the 2010 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Boston used a location based social network from foursquare (launched in March 2009). In some ways, it felt like the first time Twitter reached the ALA scene a couple of years ago. Pushing the boundaries and testing new technologies is one of the things I enjoy. More importantly, I enjoy discovering new ways to engage with my customers.

Foursquare is a combination of Twitter, gaming, and Yelp (in fact, Yelp launched it’s own similar product while in Boston). Users “checkin” at venues using text messaging, web site, FoursquareX desktop application, iPhone, or Droid app. Continue reading →

Jan 11

Participation in American Library Association

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I just received my American Library Association (ALA) membership card in the mail. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been a member for 17 years.

ALA Membership Card

As the Midwinter Meeting approaches, it is a good time to reflect on membership and the Association. In all the years of membership, I have attended almost all the Annual Conference and Midwinter Meeting events and it has kept me engaged and involved in my profession. I have been able to contribute to our Association and profession and, in return, I have a solid network of librarians to call upon and an organization that supports and advocates for the work that we do.

It took about 7-10 years of participation before I found a groove in the business of the Association. That may seem like a long time, but it took that long to find my calling and direction with my own professional goals. I started as a high school (technology) librarian and therefore was involved with AASL, initially serving on several committees, and LITA. In 2001, I switched to community colleges to joined ACRL and the Community and Junior College Libraries Section (CJCLS). It was a good landing and in the last nine years have served on many organizational committees and taken on several leadership roles, primarily within ACRL but also in ALA level committees. Continue reading →

Dec 16

Where are we going with social software?

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On my drive from Ojai to Fresno last night I listened to the recent Library 2.0 Gang episode on Social Software in Libraries. A great conversation well worth the 45-minutes.

Further, this week I’ve been setting up a WordPressMU and BuddyPress installation at classes | kenleyneufeld to be used for online instruction and my new course on Social Networking and Social Software.

First the “ouch” from the library gang. The realization that not enough assessment of our social services has taken place in the library environment. There has been anecdotal success but nothing concrete has been reported. In the past several years I’ve simply thrown stuff up to see what stuck and seemed a functional service. It’s worked reasonably well but as a Library Director I see a greater need for assessment. Assessment is Goal #1 in the coming year.

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Nov 25

Being a Library Director: What’s it all about?

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My philosophy is the more you are outside the library, the better it is for the library.

Being a library director isn’t always what it may seem to others. For me it has been one of the most rewarding positions, but it moves way beyond work in the library. If you have any interest in this type of role, and I hope you are, I’ll share my experiences from my current position in a California community college.

The Environment

Santa Barbara City College is a community college located in the central coast region of California. We have the equivalent to just under 8k full time students (which comes to slightly over 20k students). Roughly 10% of our students enroll in online classes. The library has experienced a significant transformation in the last four years and has become one of the key places on campus where students congregate. We have increased library visits by 80% and roughly a quarter of the students are in the library on a daily basis. Online services have increased along with the physical changes in the library. In the library, we talk, we share, we learn, we grow. Continue reading →

Sep 21

Building a Social Library

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Today I had the privilege to speak with 40 high school and community college librarians about building a social library. The event took place at the Powell Library at UCLA at the invitation of Esther Grassian.

Though I created a Keynote Presentation (below) and demonstrated how one could use drop.io with groups, the majority of the presentation just came from the 75-minute conversation. All the relevant links are at the bottom of the post.

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Aug 09

Are you an edupunk librarian?

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It’s risky business…talking about limited money/funding when you still have some money/funding. Some might suggest, based on this exploration, that if you can do without the money then we’ll take away what you have already. This discussion is more of an exploration in planning. Planning is important for leaders to consider, especially with the potential for limited funding and possible obsolescence.

Over the past week, I’ve been reading the latest issue of Adbusters (#85); the entire issue is a “book” on economics. The economics of moving beyond our current established paradigm of economic thinking and theory. The premise is to kick over the neoclassical economics bucket because it is not sustainable in our global system.
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Apr 16

Reference Desk Toolkit

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I’ve been invited to a presentation on reference desk tools at Mt. San Antonio College on Friday, April 17. The moderated panel presentation is sponsored by CARLDIG-South and I will be sharing the stage with Michelle Jacobs of UCLA and Amy Wallace of CSU Channel Islands.

If I remember to video or audio my talk, it will be posted after Friday. In the meantime, here are the slides for my presentation:

Reference Desk Toolkit

Feb 11

Top 10 iPhone Apps for Librarians

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I started writing this post on my iPhone, using the WordPress app; all the pictures were taken and uploaded from my iPhone. Since I’ve been using the iPhone (had a 1st generation and now 3G), I have been thrilled with the development of applications and it is easy to just start downloading anything and everything (especially the free apps). The idea here is to help focus the user on a few key apps that can support us as librarians. Of course, all can be used by anyone and most people will find these useful. Further, if you’ve had an iPhone for a while then you probably already use many of these apss. There are certain ones that I use constantly, and all of them are on this list.  A handful of apps that I use periodically didn’t make the cut this time round (Brightkite, 12seconds, Mint, Shazam) mainly because they were not specialized enough for a “librarian” list. I tried to select applications that would have the widest interest and usage in a typical librarian community, though a few have a more technologist/early adopter bent.  In addition the top ten apps for the iPhone, I’ve added two for the geeks out there and two that are web-based but might as well be iPhone apps.

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