Meinders Community Library - Pipestone, MN (November 19, 2009)

I made a visit today to the Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, MN. This was my first time at the facility; it is a very impressive combined library setting for this size of community. Meinders is combined with the Middle/High School library. I met with Stephanie Hall, Director of Libraries, to learn more about the library and to ask about use of the facility by Minnesota West students. It was a good visit and nice to have made contact there!

Consortium of MnPALS Libraries User Group Meeting - October 28, 2009

The Fall User Group meeting was jam-packed with business meetings for each user group as well as a variety of breakout sessions. As one of the Convener's involved in the planning process for this day, I'm really interested to hear the feedback as this was a bit of a different schedule than usual.
Here's what I attended:
9:00-9:50 - Breakout - General Cataloging Q&A....tips learned:

• Vendor Neutral for Electronic Books
• check our Local Holdings on OCLC - need to keep it updated
• Heard about RDA on the way - MII will likely lead trainings when the time comes

10:00-10:50 - Breakout - MnPALS Plus Version 2.0

• Since we just moved to this interface, I wanted to hear what others were experiencing and see what was on the horizon for improvements. Continue to watch this on the Forum.

11:00-11:50 - Breakout - ILL Best Practices Survey

• Always good to hear from MII what things we can do to make their lives easier and more efficient for patrons. One thing they mentioned was to always be sure to include the Due Date on the paperwork that is inserted into the item.
• Ran out of time on this one, but they will be posting the Housekeeping items for Lending and Borrowing, so will want to review that when it is posted...they weren't sure if it would be on a wiki, the website, etc.

12:00-1:20 - Lunch/General Session

1:30 - 2:20 - Systems Subsystem Meeting

• Not much to report from this business meeting. One highlight from this group is how much the Reports Task Force did this year to get some new reports in place. Kudos to that group!
• Planning for a Spring Workday...

2:30 - 3:20 - Circulation Subsystem Meeting

• I am the convener for this group, so I led this meeting.
• We are going to use the forum to determine interest/participation in a Spring Workday before scheduling one.
• Have work to do yet on the Consortium Circulation Policy -- starting with a survey.

3:30 - 4:20 - ILL Subsystem Meeting

• Following Circ lead and posting on the Forum to gauge interest in having a Spring Workday.

Homeward bound :)

2009 Upper Midwest ExLibris Users' Group Meeting - October 26 & 27

This was my first time attending an ExLibris User Group meeting - the variety of sessions was fabulous and I learned something at almost every one.
Day 1 sessions attended...
Link Resolver: Panel Discussion -- this was a nice introduction to three link resolvers currently being used and/or developed in our region. I like the A-Z list feature and it's uses as a collection analysis tool. I'm excited to see what comes out of the PALSconnect beta.

Eeney Meeney Miney Moe? : Loader Options in ALEPH -- this presentation was led by the University of Minnesota and discussed the variety of options available for loading records into ALEPH. This is beyond our current needs at Minnesota West, but it is nice to be aware of options!

Course Reserves:v19/v20 Usage & End of Semester Clean-up: Although we currently are not using the Course Reserves module, I wanted to hear how other libraries liked the upgrade we saw from Version 17 to 19. Overall the comments were positive and libraries are happy the functionality is back in the GUI rather than on the Web. This was a good reminder to me that we still have course reserves data to clean up...

Day 2...
The day began with the Keynote Presentation: Next Generation Software by an ExLibris exec. This was the low-light of the user group for me as the presentation seemed more geared to ARL libraries and didn't recognize the variety of library sizes we have in our consortium. It was too much from the sales perspective for my preference.
Walk-Up Sessions -- there were a variety of 15-minute sessions to attend during this hour. The four I attended were:
* Hierarchical Budgets for MnSCU Libraries -- this was led by Minnesota State University, Mankato, and it was interesting to see all of the Budget Data they've put into ALEPH Acquisitions. Our primary uses to date have been for Book and AV budgets, but they use it for all Acquisitions -- annual subscriptions to databases, etc. When I asked why they did that when those big transactions are in ISRS anyway, he referenced the nice clean reports they can pull from ALEPH and easily transfer to Excel. This is food for thought when next year's budget rolls around...
* Expand Procedures and Fix Procedures -- An ODIN Systems office staff member led this session and walked through some time-saving procedures that could be put into place. I have a feeling these would be set up at the system level, but some could be local. I'm not sure we would find need for those at MnWest. I am thankful that I have seen a few fix routines with the e-books we are cataloging now so I had a clue what they were talking about! :)
* Why is My Video Showing Up as Print Book? -- This was a nice close look at tab_type_config and how the LDR, 006, and 007 fields impact the OPAC display. Need to check this out and see how ours our displaying...
*Ask the Experts -- stopped by to visit with Al R./PALS and found a solution to a problem we had encountered earlier that week! YEAH ~ and it was an easy fix which made it even better :)

URM Discussion and Reaction -- this was a panel of ExLibris users who are on a variety of focus groups for the new ExLibris URM product. Like the keynote, this was too "out there" without enough clarification about what it will be, look like, etc. (especially in a consortium environment) that it wasn't very useful to me.

Analytic Linkages -- Bobby Bothmann led this presentation. Very informative and again, more to think about!! I hadn't seen this before, so it will take a little investigative work to put it into place. One title that came to mind to implement this with is the Rural Minnesota Journal...

Automatic Creation of Holdings and Item Records -- Another area I hadn't looked too closely at yet, but it would make the cataloging process more efficient so I'm all for that!!! It was nice to have a multi-campus library as one of the presenters...learned there is a lot of set-up work in the tables to get this up and running (so maybe a summer project?!?!), but well worth it once it is done. Also learned that we could be adding 856 $u into the Holding record to get the URL to display there -- would be a nice shortcut for patrons.

MLA Conference - St. Cloud - Oct. 14, 2009

My highlight for the MLA Conference was the Pre-Conference session entitled “Cataloging Streaming Media.” The timing of this was perfect as we have just started to catalog our streaming videos this year at Minnesota West. While we started the collection a few years ago, I hadn’t taken steps to get the titles listed in our catalog, but this year we are putting more resources into that collection so the titles need to get into the catalog. Mary’s presentation was well done and highlighted areas we need to focus on when cataloging streaming video or audio resources. This entire presentation was practical and will be useful to my work! Thanks to SAMMIE for funding this professional development activity.

Thing 29 - Google Tools

I decided to explore the Google Web History. I can see this as a useful tool. For me I think I would use it more at home than at work. At work I am more apt to bookmark useful sites and/or add them to my del.icio.us account. I know I've had times when I've done a search for something and can't recall what the web address was...it would be great to have this history to refer back to. I'm not overly concerned with the privacy issue for a couple of reasons: 1) it does require that you log in and use your own login and password to access your search histories and 2) I wouldn't be looking for anything that could be deemed illegal or otherwise concerning from the perspective that I wouldn't want others to know what I was searching for or what I had found.

One drawback for me of this tool is the recommendation to download a Google Tool Bar. I chose not to do that so I only have the option to see the history of my web searches right now. In their prompt suggesting you download the Tool bar they say that it will help you bookmark pages more easily. My first thought was that is what I use del.icio.us for!

For the Productivity section I decided to stick with MyYahoo Calendar rather than set up another one in Google. I had mentioned in an earlier post that I've used MyYahoo Calendar for social engagements with friends. It worked well and we were able to share our calendars and coordinate that way. I do see value in these tools in the workplace as well. I think organizations may use an internal product like Microsoft Outlook which has sharing capabilities as well. Many times it may be what most people are comfortable using.

I loved the "advertisement" for the Goog-411. I'm not sure I would have much cause to use it, but I think the concept is great! I'd be interested in hearing from others if they've used it successfully...I think I just came up with something to Twitter!!!

Thing 28 - Customized Home Pages

I ended up working on MyYahoo page that I had created about a year and a half ago. At that time, I was getting into using the Yahoo Calendar to schedule weekends with other friends on Yahoo. It worked pretty well and I did a little customizing of my page then, but I've updated it more now to include one of the RSS feeds I have on my blog and also did some other of the customization options within the tool. I think it's pretty user-friendly and was easy to set up since I already had a Yahoo account established. It does seem to have more pre-programmed tools rather than advertising how to add your own. One of the widgets they offer (and I added) is a Calorie Counter - who couldn't use that?!?

I have looked at Page Flakes in the past as well. One of the graduate classes I took this Spring semester talked about Page Flakes so we saw some examples of that during our Webinar sessions. I decided to stick with the one I'd already created in Yahoo, though, rather than redeveloping another customized home page.

Thing 27 - Twitter

I've been hearing about Twitter more and more, but had never taken the time to go out and look at it. I didn't realize the posts were to be so short!! That is a tough task to keep things that concise.
My Twitter site is: https://twitter.com/psukalski

I'm not sure I'll continue to use this tool. Maybe if I find a handful of cutting edge librarians to follow I will be interested in reading others' tweets. At this time, I'm not seeing how my posting in here will be beneficial. As I watched the YouTube video about it, the emphasis there was on the Social Network side of Twitter and asking questions for people to respond to as they would in a conversation. I have kept up with my Facebook account since starting that in the first round and have found it useful and fun on a personal level; I've kept that more on the personal-only side by connecting with high school and college friends and not looking for professional connections there. Perhaps Twitter can fill the professional side for me and I can connect with more librarians throughout the state and country.

I looked at the Luria Library Twitter site and it is mostly hours and campus updates. I can see this as way for libraries to keep in touch with their patrons who are on Twitter. I suppose the success of the tool would depend on how many relevant posts there are to make and how many in your clientele are on Twitter.

Thing 26 - NING

I joined NING in the first round, but haven't been a participant of it. Today I updated my photo, added a photo of my daughters with their new kittens, and added the Badge to my blog. I actually thought I had added the badge during Round 1...

There are so many avenues of communication that at this time I'm not seeing a use for the Ning in my professional life. I do like to see what others are adding, many of which are more on the personal level (such as the kitty picture I added). The group I would be most likely to join would be the MnSCU Librarians group, however I find that for my professional work I am more apt to keep in touch with that group via listserves and Forums available through our library consortium.

Thing 25 - Bloggers' Toolkit

I ended up adding SnapShots, a Clock, Recent Comments, and gVisit to my site. I'm not sure I would have added more widgets/gadgets to my blog without the requirement of Thing 25 to add at least four. For the purpose of my blog which I'm using to document professional development activities, etc., I don't feel these tools are adding value to my blog. I'm happy to learn more about them, but probably wouldn't have actually added them to the site.

With the large number of options to look at on this Thing, it took quite a bit of time to explore. I didn't look at all of them, but probably close to half so I spent more time on this than I would have liked.

18th Annual Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference - May 19, 2009

I enjoyed attending my first ILL conference. Marshall Breedings' morning presentation (Next Generation Library Automation and Its Implications for Resource Sharing) was thought-provoking. As he described it, this is his 'niche.' His Library Technology Guides will be worthwhile to keep tabs on: http://librarytechnology.org/. He is very involved in the OLE project which we also have heard about at previous MnPALS meetings.

During the MINITEX Update, Bill DeJohn mentioned a resource for licensing and e-journals: http://librarycopyright.net/ . I haven't had a chance to look at it yet, but this topic is of interest to me so I anticipate I will explore it a bit more in the future.

The afternoon session was more hands-on and was led by Ray Wilson: Seven Quality Improvement Tools for your Workplace. The tools he reviewed were * Agenda * Affinity Diagram * Check Sheet * Operational Definition * Pareto Chart * Cause & Effect (Fishbone) * Cause Analysis * Force Field * Multivoting * Plus/Delta. I had heard of many of these before, but it's always good to have a refresher and to find ways to immediately implement some of them.

Finally Getting to it...

I registered for More Things on a Stick months ago, but am finally finding some time to get into them. I've updated my Avatar to a great summer scene! It felt like summer today. I am in St. Paul for the Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference tomorrow. Looking forward to hearing Marshall Breeding speak. I'm also looking forward to learning more "Things!"

Luoma Annual Gathering - Friday, March 24, 2009

The LUOMA Leadership Academy Annual Gathering was held via ITV across the state. I attended via ITV from Southwest Minnesota State University. The focus of the day was "Think Differently." The day revolved around three primary sessions: Leading Courageously in the Face of Economic Challenge, Demand in a Think-Different Economy, and Sustaining Leadership Developing Efforts.

They were all good, useful, thought-provoking sessions. The Think-Different Economy session provided some interesting statistics such as in 2015 there will be 10% fewer high school students and in 2020 there will be more 65-year-olds than 16-22 year-olds in Minnesota. Hmm, makes one wonder about marketing emphasis and techniques...

I'm glad I took the time to re-connect with LUOMA colleagues. It would have been great if we all could have been together in one location as originally scheduled, but it was still worthwhile over ITV. We have a great face-to-face opporunity in 2010 as the Chair Academy's International Leadership Conference for Post-Secondary Leaders will be held in Minneapolis!