But other than a brief discussion with the branch librarian about the events of the last couple years since a young man from Montreal was able to execute a series of online trades from his starting point of a single red paper clip to his goal of a house, I made no mention of the event during my public sessions.
I did, however, have to change my usual methodology of doing a search for the local community's name when demonstrating Flickr, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. as I knew the Red Paper Clip story would come up in all of my searches and I'm sure, whether they thought this was a good or bad thing, many locals are tired of being known for this one thing.
Luckily, a family of immigrants from China who are working at a local business (and were the impetus for a successful ESL group starting at the library) attended my session so I was able to use Shanghai as an example for many of the searches I did instead.
So in honour of that family, here's a video clip of their city...
The UK's Daily Telegraph comes in with a list of 100 books every child should read broken into three categories - early years, middle years and early teens.
So I'm on the road doing computer & Internet training and I thought I'd pass along a couple humourous moments from the past couple weeks...
- tonight, a woman wants to know an Internet radio station she can listen to while doing housework. I say that Accuradio is one of my favourites and after loading it up, I semi-randomly click on the station "Classic Soul" . What's the first song that starts in a roomful of elderly women and me? "Let's Get It On" by Marvin Gaye.
- I've ranted and raved about the end-of-term evaluations at FIMS before so it's a bit of payback now that the shoe's on the other foot and I'm being evaluated by people who come to the sessions. I got off to a bad start on my first night when I'm pretty sure it was the elderly couple who looked fairly confused no matter what I said who gave me all 1's (the lowest score out of 5) and all 2's on the anonymous feedback form (the rest of the feedback ranged in the 3-5's and one generous soul gave me all 5's) .
- whoever gave me all 2's on the four or so categories we ask for feedback about (instructor's knowledge, material covered, length of session, etc.) ended up giving me a 3 on the final line - "overall rating of session". Go figure.
- Shea made a good point that those low ratings could just be people misreading the grid and I saw how easily this can happen when I heard one elderly lady at another session murmuring to herself as she filled out her form: "Length of session - oh, it was about an hour I think" and promptly checked the "1" box which, as I mentioned, is actually the lowest rating we have. (I guess she was just happy she didn't get the 5 hour session!)
- an elderly woman (notice a trend here?) had a Facebook account that her grandkids had set-up for her but didn't know how to use it so I logged in to give her a guided tour of the site. Who's listed as one of her few friends? One of Shea's relatives! I guess not too surprising given the theory of six degrees of separation (in fact, I'm sure I read that Saskatchewan is so small that it's actually only two degrees of separation for anyone from this province.)
- I taught did not teach anyone how to use BitTorrent after they mentioned that they used Limewire at home. That would be wrong.
- I realise now that calling the one-on-one help session "Ask The Computer Guru" instead of "Ask The Computer Expert" was maybe a bad idea. A person at my first session spelling out "What's a G-U-R-U?" was my first clue.
But in the end, it's all good and I'm loving this assignment so far. Someone wrote me the other day and mentioned that some library should "invent a "visionary" tech and public service sorta job for you."
Hey, I'm not arguing and if anybody out there reading this is in a position to make that happen, I'm willing to talk!
It's a short list but it cuts to the core with a list of the essential things that are part of successful online usability.
1. Make Them Log-In By Account Number This is a huge one for libraries. How many libraries have databases and other electronic resources but require patrons to memorize a lengthy barcode or dig in their wallets/purses for their library card everytime they want to log-in? Then we wonder why Google gets all the attention and no one uses our expensive paid resources?
2. Enforce Complex Password Requirements This was something I hated at UWO and which also kept me from setting up a MySpace account until long after that site had jumped the shark (which was probably a good thing in retrospect.) But yeah, if a person wants to make their password their middle name or their pet's name, more power to them. If you have fears that a password being compromised will possibly compromise your entire system, you've got bigger problems on your back end than whether somebody wants to use "Snoopy" as their password.
3. Make Them Confirm Their E-mail Address To Register I think the reason sites do this is to confirm that somebody is a real person as opposed to a spambot. But as with the last point, offloading your security requirements to your users is bad policy that makes for a bad user experience.
4. Make Them Opt Out of Being Spammed On top of some sites "helpfully" checking the box for "send me offers from third-party vendors", I hate that you have to read the fine print with a microscope to know if the site requires you to check the box to get out of being spammed, uncheck the box to get out of being spammed, check the box to receive the offers or uncheck the box to receive the offers. I'm surprised they don't alternate the boxes from page to page (wait, don't tell them I said that! )
[Edit: I noticed that someone in the comments added "#5 - Don't make the user change their password in a greater frequency than they use the site." This is a personal pet peeve of mine. We have to change our Dynix password at work on a monthly basis which is a pain but okay, fine. I'm on there everyday. But I bet the easiest way to find all the personal information on anybody in our library system is to break into one of our branch libraries - which are all in small towns and few with an alarm system - and look under the mouse pad or in the top left drawer since the librarians are all changing their passwords so frequently when they're only open a couple days a week - that I'm fairly certain they write the passwords down to keep track of them and also so others with access to the system - assistants and occasionally board members - can also log-in. It's beyond obvious to point out that any password system that encourages people to write down their passwords defeats the purpose of having passwords!]
In homage to RefGrunt, here's a sample of some of the topics I addressed and questions I helped people with during my two "Ask The Computer Guru" drop-in sessions and two "Everything You Want To Know about the Internet" presentations today...
- how to restore the e-mail address book from a crashed computer to a new computer's email program when the patron has a CD of recovered files - how to login to SaskTel's webmail service - why you would want to do this instead of just downloading the messages - using Cyndi's List to find census information - show a 77 year old woman how to sign up for Facebook so her kids and grandkids will stop bugging her to join - www.ratemds.com - the difference between Hotmail and "regular" (ie. SaskTel) mail - reasons E-Bay is especially useful for people in rural areas - reasons why SaskTel e-mail might not be downloading for a person - is Facebook safe? - Google's latest "coolest" products including Google Book, Google Earth and Google StreetView - www.soople.com - how often does Canada411.com
update their directories? (I guessed annually with the release of the
new phone books but the woman asking the question claims that her one
son's new phone number never showed up while his old one has been
listed for three years even though he's moved multiple times since then) - how to get pictures off a digital camera to a computer then onto the web...
Please find below direct access to a one page web survey produced by the Advisory Committee on Intellectual Freedom. This second annual survey is intended to help the Committee develop documentation about challenged resources and policies in Canadian libraries in the 21st century. This initiative supports Canada's Book and Periodical Council's (BPC) Freedom to Read campaign http://www.freedomtoread.ca/ as we share our results with the BPC. Our survey also complements the American Library Association's ALA) Challenge Database project. Thanks are extended to the Edmonton Public Library and the ALA for providing valuable insights into the survey questions.
I've had a few different jobs in my life. One of my favourites was my college summer job where I visited various small towns around Saskatchewan as a traveling cable TV salesman. (Yes, I know a "vacuum cleaner salesman" joke just popped in your head. Don't bother - I've heard it.)
But this job was different from being a "typical" traveling salesman. I was a huge TV fan back then (not so much vacuum cleaner fan) so I was actually selling something I enjoyed and knew about. Mini-satellite dishes like Bell and Star Choice were just coming into existence so my sales job was a lot easier as the only TV entertainment options for people were cable, a giant satellite dish that filled up your yard or the three channels that were available via what my friends and I lovingly called "FarmerVision". (The Internet wasn't available outside of universities either at that time so no BitTorrent competition either. )
I was paid a decent hourly wage but also had an escalating commission structure on top of that which moved this job into the stratosphere of college summer jobs. This escalating structure meant I got a certain amount for every new cable subscription I sold, a certain amount for every package of channels (we had four) I sold to either new or existing subscribers and even a certain amount for selling extra outlets (for those who'd never heard of a splitter.) I also got a generous per diem that could be stretched quite a bit by sharing hotel rooms with two other students hired to do line work while I did sales, eating cheaply and staying with family or friends in communities where I knew people.
Once I hit various new sales thresholds - 50 subs, 100 subs, 150 subs - and so on, the amount I got for selling any one of those items I listed jumped as well. In my best summer, I sold over 300 new subscriptions, my company won a national marketing award and the escalation in commissions became so lucrative that I made more than half of what I made per year while working for literary non-profit organizations in those four months!
The whole point of this trip down memory lane is that I'm pretty excited to have been given a similar assignment for the next few months at my current job. Although there's no escalating commissions to be seen, I will be on the road pretty much every day visiting each of the 46 rural libraries that make up our region to do some one-on-one computer & Internet training with our branch librarians, holding a drop-in time when local residents can bring any technology questions to me for assistance and doing a one-hour presentation on "Everything You Wanted To Know About The Internet (But Were Afraid To Ask)". In fact, I'll be visiting many of the towns that I visited while working for the cable TV company all those years ago. I'll have some downtime between sessions in most communities so my blogging shouldn't fall off (it'll probably increase to be honest!)
Kathleen DeLong, a librarian at the University of Alberta, is conducting a survey on the engagement of new library professionals in leadership roles and activities as part of her LIS PhD.
If you're a recently hired librarian (within the last five years), why not take a few minutes to help her out by filling out this quick survey.
Here is some more information from Kathleen:
This is your invitation to participate in a web survey on leadership engagement of new library professionals. The survey is directed to new professionals who have worked for five years or less since graduating with a Masters degree in Librarianship (graduated in years 2000 to 2007). The survey data is being collected for purposes of a study carried out in fulfillment of requirements for the PhD Managerial Leadership in the Information Professions programs at the Simmons College Graduate School of Library and Information Science in Boston, MA. The short survey (shouldn't take more than 15 minutes) probes various factors associated with leadership engagement of new professionals in Canadian libraries. It is your choice whether or not you wish to participate in the survey, participation is entirely voluntary. You can terminate the survey at any time by closing your browser. There will be no penalty or consequence for doing so.
Responses are anonymous and data will be reported without any identifying characteristics.
This survey has been approved by the Simmons College Institutional Review Board. Although I am professionally affiliated with the University of Alberta, this survey is not related to my work with the University of Alberta Libraries.
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