Ask-WA had its television debut last Friday night on Komo News! All the video they took was from the UW, but they covered the service well, and in a very good light, and mentioned all the key points. Check it out!

If you’re not in the know, Ask-WA is a statewide cooperative of libraries – academics, publics, and specials – offering 24/7 virtual reference service to all the residents of Washington State. If you want to give it a try, go to the Ask-WA website at http://ask.wa.gov.

Check out the text of the story and more on the KomoNews.com website.

Day 4 of the conference started with another great keynote: a panel of two high school students and one college student talking about how they view technology, education, and their own research habits. Some of my favorite sessions happened on the last day. I loved some of the comments that the teen panel made, particularly when the guy from high school said that in the future technology will make our leaves easier [and better], but ONLY if we use it in the right way. I got to attend my first Pecha Kucha session, too, which was neat (20 slides per presenter, 6 minutes and 40 seconds to present).

• Keynote: Growing and Grown-Up Digital: Net-Gen Speaks
  Facilitated by Stephen Abram, SirsiDynix
• Mashups for Library Data
  Nicole Engard, Director of Open Source Solutions, ByWater Solutions
• Technology: The Engine Driving Pop Culture-Savvy Libraries or Source of Overload?
  Elizabeth Burns, Pop Goes the Library ; Sarah Houghton-Jan, LibrarianInBlack.net
• Pecha Kucha: Innovative Practices
  Amy Affelt, Nicole Hennig, Steve Harris, Matt Hamilton

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Full session notes available after the cut.

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Day three started off with a funny and interesting keynote with Paul Holdengraber (who had interviewed Vint Cerf the previous day), and continued in good form with some great sessions. Paul talked a lot about the Live from the NYPL series they do and as opposed to doing straight author readings. They record these sessions and they are available on the website, so you should check some of them out.

Sessions on Day 3 include:

• Keynote: Libraries of the Future: Places of Desire
  Paul Holdengraber, Director of Public Programs, New York Public Library
• Making Virtual Reference Multidimensional
  William Breitbach & Mike Demars, California State University @ Fullerton
  Linda Bedwell, Dalhousie University Libraries
• Web 2.0 for Tough Times
  Jaye Lapachet, Camille Reynolds, Kendra K. Levine
• Library Website Improvement Face-Off
  David Lee King, Frank Cervone, Amanda Etches-Johnson, Aaron Schmidt, Jeff Wisniewski

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Full session notes available after the cut.

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Vint Cerf started the day, and the beginning of the actual conference, with an amazing keynote. The interchange between Vint and Paul Holdengraber, his interview, was oftentimes hilarious as well as poignant. Vint talks some about the history of the internet, and taking off from there, where the internet may be heading. He touches on important topics like bit rot, privacy and user rights with e-materials, mobile technology, and the neutrality of the net. After the keynote, my day was pretty social networking heavy, but covers some interesting topics.

Sessions attended on Day 2 include:

• Opening Keynote: Digital Publishing, Preservation, and Practices
  Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangalist, Google
• iGoogling with the Library: Customized Omnipresent Homepages
  Jason Clark and Timothy Donahue, Montana State University Libraries
• Creating Connections and Social Reference in Libraries
  Margaret Smith, Physical Sciences Librarian, New York University
• Cloud Computing in Practice: Creating Digital Services and Collections
  Laura Harris, Kendra Levine, Amy Buckland, Jason Clark
• 2.0 Too: Web Services for Underfunded Libraries
  Sarah Houghton-Jan, LibrarianinBlack.net
• Evaluating, Recommending, and Justifying 2.0 Tools
  Marydee Ojala, editor for Online Magazine, Information Today, Inc.

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Full session notes after the cut.

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Technically a pre-conference, Sunday was well-spent attending the Searcher’s Academy. A number of speakers covered a number of topics, all relating to searching, and many of them very useful. Tons of useful resources are mentioned (and noted below), so read carefully!

Speakers and topics covered include:

• Chris Sherman, Executive Editor, SearchEngineLand.com
• Mary Ellen Bates, Owner, Bates Information Service
  “Digging into the Deep Web”
• Mary Ellen Bates
  “Searching the Collaborative Web”
• Marcy Phelps, Principal, Phelps Research
  “Cost-Effective Searching: Online Strategies for Tough Times”
• Mary Ellen Bates
  “Hidden Tools and Features of the Major Search Engines”
• Marcy Phelps
  “Business 2.0″
• Doris Small Helfer (writes for Searcher magazine)
  “Sensational Science Sites”
• Marcy Phelps
  “U.S. Government Sources”
• Gary Price, Publisher, ResourceShelf.com
  “Legal Resources”
• Gary Price
  “Ready Reference”

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Complete note for Searcher’s Academy available after the cut.

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I just returned from the Internet Librarian Conference (and sunny Monterey, CA) yesterday, and my brain is definitely still trying to absorb new ideas, concepts, and nifty web tools. All the same, it’s safe to say that it was the best conference I’ve attended so far in my young library career. Luckily for those who couldn’t attend this year, there are numerous options for viewing content online (and my own extensive notes will follow after the cut).

First off, a lot of the slides are available on the Information Today site. Use IL2009 to get in.

Elise Brown, who I got to meet and chat with at the Searcher’s Academy pre-conference, was the official vlogger covering IL2009, and she took some cool video that you can check out via YouTube.

Some of the best moments of the conference were also covered live via UStream (and now available to watch at your convenience). Check out the keynote speakers, for sure. Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, was amazing (as was his interviewer, Paul Holdengraber). On day two, Paul Holdengraber (Director of Public Programs at the NYPL) had the tables turned on him and was in turn interviewed. My notes from both sessions are included below. One of my other favorite events was the Battle Decks, in which librarians have to try and create a cohesive presentation within a tough time limit and with slides they’ve never seen before. Some of the slides were crazy, but all the Battle Deck contestants did a great job, and many were hilarious!

For a more text-based approach, check out the bloggers who planned to write about their experiences via the Infotoday Blog. I know the Librarian In Black did quite a bit of blogging, many of which are excellent synopses of the sessions she attended.

Finally, for some pictures of the event, check out photos on Flickr tagged IL2009 (there are lots of them).

Some highlights and favorite ideas / quotes from throughout the conference:

The long wow: customer satisfaction is good, but what you really want is customer loyalty.

Use events networks like Eventful, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Craigslist to create awareness of library events.

Let your users comment on any and every part of your site it is possible to comment on, even the director’s bio!

Put chat windows on your website where you know your patrons get frustrated.

Pandia Powersearch, an up-to-date directory of specialized search tools.

OneRiot: real-time social search engine, returns the websites people link to, not the individuals tweets, Diggs, etc.

“Even people who don’t use the web have figured out Facebook.” – Mary Ellen Bates

“Our culture is tending towards abstraction and brevity.” – Vint Cerf

Other IL posts: Index | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4

Complete session notes are available in their own posts, separated by day. Days and sessions are indexed after the cut.

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Volume 5, October 15, 2009 for the WSL Updates mailing list

Topics include:

1) FREE TRAINING FROM WSL

2) ALASKA-YUKON-PACIFIC EXPOSITION 1909 – 2009

3) TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT COURSE FROM PLA

4) DISASTER READINESS FROM WEBJUNCTION

5) GRANTS FOR YOUTH-LED LITERACY PROJECTS

6) SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISING IN A TOUGH ECONOMY

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In the latest issue of Library Technology Reports, Building the Digital Branch: Guidelines for Transforming Your Library’s Website, David Lee King explores the idea of the digital branch—a library website that is a vital, functional resource for patrons and enhances the library’s place within its community. The report outlines an efficient process for creating a digital branch, from the initial phases of gathering information and sketching out a design, to winning approval from management, hiring qualified IT staff, and maintaining and upgrading the site once it is built. Throughout the report, the author regularly uses his experience at his own library as an example of how the process can unfold and what pitfalls to avoid.

If you don’t have direct access to a copy of this useful publication, it just happens to be obtainable via ProQuest, which is available to most libraries in Washington. A table of contents with direct links to ProQuest are found below the divide (read the rest of the entry), but keep in mind that you will need to authenticate in order to obtain access.

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In July, ALA Council adopted a resolution strongly recommending

1. That all libraries purchasing, procuring, using, maintaining and contracting for electronic resources and services require vendors to guarantee that products and services comply with Section 508 regulations, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, or other applicable accessibility standards and guidelines; and

2. That all libraries purchasing, procuring, and contracting for electronic resources and services ensure, through their own testing protocols or by requiring vendor guarantees, that electronic products and services have been fully tested and found to be in compliance with applicable accessibility regulations, guidelines, and criteria; and

3. That funding authorities, including private institutions, the federal government and state and local governments, provide adequate funding to allow all libraries purchasing, procuring, and contracting for electronic resources and services the ability to comply with accepted standards and laws of accessibility for people with disabilities.

A copy of the resolution, replete with numerous “whereas” clauses, is available on the ALA Web site. The text provided above constitutes the “resolved” section of the resolution.

The September 2009 issue of Wired has an absolutely fascinating, and slightly scary article on the “good enough” revolution, which is predicted to increasingly impact technology and business alike. Here are some blurbs from the article:

Why lo-fi high tech will rule the world.

From digital music to video cameras to military aircraft, cheap and simple beats perfect almost every time. It’s called the MP3 effect, and it will change everything.

To some, it looks like the crapification of everything. But it’s really an improvement. And businesses need to get used to it, because the Good Enough revolution has only just begun.

In addition to providing examples such as cheap digital cameras, the MP3 music format, cloud computing, and the like, the author also cites elawyering (”online Web tools that walk people through common legal procedures”) and microclinics from Kaiser Permanente. Here’s another quote from the article:

If that 80 percent number rings a bell, it’s because of the famous Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule. And it happens to be a recurring theme in Good Enough products. You can think of it this way: 20 percent of the effort, features, or investment often delivers 80 percent of the value to consumers. That means you can drastically simplify a product or service in order to make it more accessible and still keep 80 percent of what users want making it Good Enough which is exactly what Kaiser did.

So what are the ramifications for libraries? I’m not enough of a prognosticator to make predictions, but the implications seem potentially significant. Libraries that are reconsidering service models may want to take the “good enough” mantra into consideration.

If you don’t have a print copy of Wired handy, you can read the article online at the Wired site, or even via ProQuest. Here’s a ProQuest direct link, but you’ll need to authenticate to get there from here.