As expected, the iPads have checked out like hotcakes. If we had double the amount of iPads, they’d still all be checked out!

Students, faculty, and staff can check out an iPad on a first come, first serve basis. No reservations. We allow the iPads to leave the library. The loan period is 7 days.

Here’s the list of apps that I’m interested in installing. Do you have any suggestions?

Reference & Information

• Dictionary.com (free)
• EasyBib (free)
• Epicurious (free)
• Fandango Movies (free)
• Flixster (free)
• Google Earth (free)
• Google Maps – comes installed
  
• Google Search (free)
• IMDB (free)
• Kayak (free)
• Periodic Table (free)
• Shazam (free)
• Urbanspoon (free)
• The Weather Channel (free)
• WebMD (free)
• Wikipanion (free)

Productivity

• Evernote (free)
• GarageBand ($4.99)
• iMovie ($4.99)
• Keynote (presentations) - purchased & installed ($9.99)
  
• Mail - comes installed
• Numbers (spreadsheets) - purchased & installed ($9.99)
  
• Pages (word processing) – purchased & installed ($9.99)
  

Utilities

• Calendar – comes installed
• Calculator Pro ($0.99)
• Dragon Dictation (free)
• Dropbox (free)
• Mint.com (free)
• Notes – comes installed

Social Media

• Facebook (free)
• Flickr (free)
• Foursquare (free)
• Skype (free)
• Twitter (free)
• Yelp (free)

Photography & Video

• Camera - comes installed
• FaceTime – comes installed
• Instapad (free)
• Photo Booth - comes installed

Games

• Angry Birds HD ($4.99)
• Bejeweled Blitz (free)
• Chess Free (free)
• NY Times Crosswords (free)
• Pocket Piano (free)
• Solitaire (free)
• Sodoku Lite (free)

News

• ABC News (free)
• BBC News (free)
• Bloomberg (free)
• CBS News for iPad (free)
• CNN (free)
• ESPN ScoreCenter XL (free)
• Fox News (free)
• Huffington Post (free)
• MTV News (free)
• NPR (free)
• NY Times (free for “top news”)
• The Onion (free)
• USA Today (free)
• Washington Post (free)
• WBAY, WLUK, WGBA (iPad apps of local TV stations – each are free)

Entertainment/Streaming Video & Audio

• ABC Player (free)
• Hulu Plus (free, but user needs Hulu subscription)
• NBC (free)
• Netflix (free, but user needs Netflix subscription)
• Pandora (free)
• PBS (free)
• TED (free)
• YouTube - comes installed

Books & Materials

• Amazon Mobile (free)
• CourseSmart (free)
• Free Books (free)
• iBooks (free)
• Shakespeare (free)
• Stanza (free)

If you have experiences with iPads in the library, let me know! I’m looking for apps that would interest our students, faculty, and staff.

Also, if you’re thinking about getting iPads for your library, check out:

Setting Up a Library iPad Program – Sara Q. Thompson, College & Research Libraries News, April 2011

Tisch Library at Tufts University has some good information for their patrons about their loanable iPads.

Circulating iPads in an Academic Library – presentation by Jodi Bennett & Jessica Hutchings at the Wisconsin Association of Academic Librarians 2011 Conference.

@ Your Library – iPads! – information, handouts, and videos from L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library in Eau Claire, WI.

Kristi Edminster, an art student who is one of our library’s student workers, created this piece of book art, entitled “Booklovers’ Vows” for the library’s Miller Reading Room. The art piece honors the room’s donors and their love of books and reading. It reads:

Norman and Shirlyn Miller
spent 65 years
loving each other,
loving Green Bay

and loving nothing more
than sitting in a comfortable chair
in a quiet room and reading.

This room
reflects their love
and is gift from them
to the students of UWGB.

So, books just don’t belong in a library’s collection. They can be used as art, as sculpture–to create a very intense visual response as to what a library is all about. Here are a few of my other “favorites”–some sleek, some kitschy:

Reference desk of recycled books – not just art, but functional, too.

Library Christmas tree made of books – no needles!

Kansas City (Mo.) Public Library parking garage – ok, no real books–but book inspired. Dresses up a structure that is very utilitarian.

Isaac Salazar’s book art – amazing!

The Bittersweet Art of Cutting Up Books – And yes, some don’t like to see the cutting up of any books, but look at all of the creativity that comes from it.

Have something to share? Post it here!

Yesterday, my librarian colleagues here at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay visited St. Norbert College, the private institution in our area, to meet with their librarians. The library directors at UW-Green Bay and St. Norbert thought it would be a great way to collaborate, network, and exchange ideas. Plus, it beats the price of attending conferences!

So, if you’re looking for an easy and cheap alternative to networking: consider your colleagues at a library across town, or somewhere nearby! They need not be similar institutions. Ours is a public regional university with 6,000 students that was founded in the 1960s; theirs is a private Catholic college of 2,100 students founded in the late 1800s.

Meeting with the staff of another library is a great venue for sharing ideas, brainstorming, developing best practices, and getting a “view” that comes from outside your own library. We had a great discussion on library outreach, marketing, and social media activities. We’ll plan on getting together at least a couple of times of year.

One of the highlights during our visit was a tour the new St. Norbert library (opened in 2009). As a librarian, I don’t think I ever turned down a tour of a library! Here are some photos:

This spring, I blogged about cover letters, resumes, and interviews. Also, Jenica Rogers on her Attempting Elegance blog had a must-read post on The Torment of Terrible Cover Letters. I would also encourage anyone applying for librarian positions to look at Stephen X. Flynn’s Open Cover Letters website for ideas.

Throughout the process of reading cover letters and resumes, here is the most disconcerting thing I observed:

You write well. I can tell you are intelligent. You may even have an advanced degree beyond the MLS. But your cover letter does not address the points highlighted in the job ad. Therefore, you will not make the cut.

It’s a simple as that. For all the advice out there on tailoring your cover letter, there are plenty of applicants that do not. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Tailor your cover letter!

Cover letter & resume advice:

• If applying via email, do not write your cover letter in the body of the email. Use attachments. Or more to the point: you should follow the directions stated in the job ad.
• Am I the only one that doesn’t like cover letters in bullet point format? I need to asses your communication skills through your cover letter. To me, a bullet point cover letter is a cop-out. I want paragraphs!
• In regards to paragraphs: Your cover letter should not be just one short paragraph.
• Don’t rattle off your job duties in your cover letter. That’s what the resume is for. Instead, use the cover letter to provide examples and anecdotes that relate to the position that you are applying for:

Case in point: if you’re applying for a  children’s librarian position, your resume might list doing “story times” as one of your responsibilities. However, you could use the cover letter to highlight some sort of innovative program you did with story time. Or if you are an academic instruction librarian, your resume might list “assessment” as one of your activities. You could then use the resume to spotlight a special assessment technique you implemented with students.

• Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by writing: “I don’t have experience in…” Instead, turn it around and explain how you have transferable or related experience.
• Appearance: pick a standard font. I would stay away from Courier–it looks like a typewriter–and it’s 2011, folks!
• It’s OK if the cover letter goes onto a second page (which is sometimes a no-no in the business world). I prefer this over an 9-point font cover letter with half-inch margins! But if you go over 2 pages, I tend to wonder if you have problems “getting to the point.”
• Make sure your cover letter and resume looks “clean” in overall appearance – I’ve seen some that look like they have been scanned in and saved electronically. They can be difficult to read.
• I know you are wonderful, amazing, etc… But I always appreciate a cover letter that addresses my library and its needs/mission. Do your homework. Look over the library website and any parent website (university, school, local government, etc…).
• Use common sense: Do not write, “I have experience with personal computers.” You are a librarian; having experience with personal computers is UNDERSTOOD!
• Use “action” words on your resume (e.g., designed, implemented, initiated, managed). Google it! You’re a librarian.
• Remember: There’s a fine line between promoting your abilities and overstating your qualifications. Be careful! Overstating your qualifications will become apparent in a subsequent interview.

So what do we do with all of these cover letters and resumes? At my place of work–a state institution (and I’m sure it’s the same with most private institutions, too), we have a strict set of protocols to follow. We use an Application Review Form that lists all of the criteria that were included in the job posting. The search and screen committee then rates each cover letter/resume based on EACH of the criterion using a scale: below average – average – above average – can’t assess.

The applicants who rank the highest are the ones that make it to the next stage of the interview process. This is why it’s so vital to use your cover letter and resume to address the various points highlighted in a job ad. So what other cover letter and resume advice would you suggest? Let me know!

I’m loathe to make library users pay for ANYTHING. I always tell students in information literacy sessions: “If you’re doing a Google search and find an article you like, NEVER pay for it. The Library can get it for you for FREE!”

The Cambridge plan looks like something that would primarily be marketed to faculty and researchers. And I understand its “I need it now!” appeal. However, I hope that these professionals would remember that their academic library is there to help them. They may not be coming through the library gates, but they use the online resources that we subscribe to (e.g., JSTOR, EBSCO, etc…) and we’re the real, live people in that brick and mortar library that make it happen!

Libraries need to step up their marketing and outreach efforts to both faculty and students.

A few points to emphasize:

1. Libraries must continue to promote FREE access. That’s what we’re are all about. Most academic libraries can get these articles to their users for free. Many academic libraries will have direct full-text access via their databases.

2. For those libraries that do not have full-text access, there’s always Interlibrary Loan. At many academic libraries, it’s free to their users. Turnaround times have been decreasing over the past decade. At my institution, when I request an article, I generally receive a PDF copy of the article within 1-2 working days. And it’s mine to keep–FOREVER–unlike Cambridge’s 24-hour access plan.

3. Online Connections: Library websites need to be improved for functionality. It should only be one click to instant message chat, call, or email a librarian for assistance. This info should be available on every library webpage and every database search interface.

4. We need to step up outreach to faculty. Start making connections. See if you can attend a department meeting. Send out email blasts and online newsletters informing faculty of new resources and tools.

5. Besides reaching faculty, we need to market the library as a place that helps students succeed academically. That could be accomplished through librarian embedding in course management systems or designing class-specific library guides, tutorials, etc…

6. Open access: this is admittedly a loftier goal–but I think we need to start educating faculty about open access v. traditional publishing. Budgets are shrinking. Scholarly journal costs continue to rise. Journals are being canceled. What are the alternatives to traditional publishing? This is where librarians can definitely play a part.

Library marketing never stops. There’s always something new to promote, or a service to remind people of. It’s not a battle. It’s an opportunity. What other ideas and goals do you have for library marketing? I’d like to hear them!

Well, I thought I’d blog about one of those projects: I’ve worked on creating research guides at my library that focus on current events. So far, I’ve done guides on the Occupy Movement, the 10th Anniversary of 9/11, and the killing of Osama bin Laden. It’s a good way to:

• direct patrons to trustworthy information (e.g., the Wikipedia page for Occupy Wall Street is tagged for a “neutrality” check)
• promote the library’s digital resources
• spotlight books in the collection, and
• demonstrate that the library is at the forefront of the ever-changing information environment

We use the popular LibGuides program at my institution. It’s easy to create individual guides and you have some flexibility for organizing your content. Of course, you could always create a simple webpage, too.

In my current events guides, I generally try to provide the following information:

• Brief intro to the topic
• Latest headlines (RSS feed via Google News or Yahoo News)
• News & Media sources
• Embedded Video (e.g., PBS Video–particularly Frontline and News Hour clips, C-SPAN Video Library, and CBS News allows embedding of its individual news clips)
• Background Info (e.g., CQ Researcher database articles)
• Catalog search & a few selected book titles on the topic
• List of relevant databases to search for articles on the topic
• Suggested keywords/search terms
• Primary sources

Once you have the guide published, make sure and provide a direct link from your library homepage, and promote it on the library’s blog, Facebook, and Twitter accounts. If particularly pertinent, send out an email or contact individual faculty members/teachers.

There are lots of great examples of libraries that have put together current events guides. Here are a few select ones:

• Government Documents: Libya – University of South Alabama
• Wisconsin State Budget – University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Current Events – Bowling Green State University
• Middle East & North Africa – Framingham State University
• WikiLeaks – Rhode Island College
• Occupy Movement Research Guide – York University, Canada

Know of a good current events guide? Share it here!

It’s Not User-Friendly
I never complained much about the constant design changes. That’s the nature of technology and the Internet. In the beginning, the reason I loved Facebook over Myspace was its clean design. No glaring graphics, no ugly text. Now Facebook looks like a flashing Las Vegas neon sign.

Personal vs. Professional
Who are my “friends”? A lot of my co-workers are both friends and Facebook friends. Professional colleagues are Facebook friends. Family members are Facebook friends. Classmates from high school are Facebook friends–but many are not “real” friends–you know, these are the people who would never talk to you in high school, but for some reason want to be your Facebook friend! I just got tired of all of the different dividing lines. What to post and to whom? I know I could create different groups/lists. But really, it’s just a hassle. For the people I really do like: my co-workers, family members, and friends – I don’t need Facebook to stay in touch.

Privacy
This is the real stinker for me. Facebook had way too many privacy settings that seemed to change every month. And you always had to “opt out.” Sharing was automatic. No thank you. And now there are creepy things like this [update: Facebook has changed the timeline to avoid outing "unfrienders" - well at least that's one good thing!]. This is what it all comes down to: Facebook is NOT about me or my friends. It’s about my data and how advertisers can market to me.

Do I think Facebook is important to libraries. Absolutely! Again, there’s that marketing aspect. But I’ll be using a “dummy” account to manage my library’s Facebook page.

Ultimately, I decided that I don’t want to live my life on Facebook. I want to live it in real life. That’s my call. I decide when and to whom I communicate with. I control the information. Facebook does not.

If you haven’t read these articles, check them out:

Not Sharing is Caring: Facebook’s Terrible Plan to Get Us to Share Everything We Do on the Web - Slate

Is Facebook Trying to Kill Privacy - Mashable

I Deleted My Facebook Account - Maxistentialism

Updated:

Excellent post from ReadWriteWeb – The New Facebook: 3 Major Implications

What I came across in my files was a list of tips and advice for presenting or teaching instruction sessions. I’m glad I saved it! Dated 2002, it was from my favorite library school class I had at Indiana University – “Education of Information Users” (How to Teach) — with instructor/librarian Emily Okada.

The tips and advice were gleaned from observing instruction sessions and also included classmates’ own peer feedback from our mock teaching presentations we did in class. At first, I though the advice might be dated, but presenting/teaching has not changed for the most part. The tips are applicable to information literacy sessions, or any presentation/conference session. Hope I’m not breaking any rules by posting it–no names are included.

If you are just starting to present/teach, or need a brief refresher, this is a great starting point. Here is the handout:

Quick Tips for Presenting & Teaching (PDF)

I’ve never looked at anyone’s resume/cover letter and thought: “Wow, she graduated from X library school!” Library school is what you make of it. The MLS is just the basic requirement for the job. If all you do is take the required courses, but get no work experience, then you are setting yourself up for failure.

The following is some rather BLUNT advice for those in library school, or thinking of attending:

1. Library school: if you have the time/money to find a school that “fits” you, then by all means. However, it’s completely OK to just pick the in-state/cheapest option. A library school is a library school is a library school.
2. If you have not worked in a library before attending  library school, why are you making such as a large financial commitment for a career that you have no experience in? A “love” of books and “I like to read” won’t cut it.
3. Oh, I keep mentioning experience. Yes, it’s that IMPORTANT! Before you graduate with your MLS, get some experience as a student worker, a grad assistant, paraprofessional, internship, practicum, or volunteer work. Get as much experience as you can.
4. If you are unable to do the above, you are really limiting your options. You will need to decide whether this is even a viable career for you.
5. I don’t really care what library school course grades/GPA you have. Just get your degree and focus on getting some experience.
6. Get a mentor! Someone who is a working librarian. Not a library school professor who hasn’t worked in libraries for 20 years.
7. Geographic flexibility: I understand that not everyone can (or wants) to move across country for a job. Just be aware that you may be severely limiting your options. Again, you need to decide if the expense of library school is worth it, if you are not geographically mobile.
8. You need to market yourself. Librarians/librarians-to-be need to stop thinking of marketing as an “icky” term. You need a web presence (website, e-portfolio, Twitter account etc.) to promote your abilities.
9. Do not wait until graduation to start applying for jobs! Start a few months in advance. Many libraries (especially academic libraries) have a long hiring process. I have worked in libraries where we have hired people in their last month, and even last semester, of library school for professional librarian positions.
10. Don’t blame library school if you cannot find a professional job. You are an information professional. Did you not research the state of the job market?

Off my soapbox!