Sample of Greenville Public Library Story Time Blog Poll

ILS 599 Plan to Improve Story Time at Greenville Public Library: Part 5

Part 5: Negative consequences, and how they will be dealt with

Staff training:

Issues such as time concerns (time needed to train staff, time to maintain) was addressed in the last section of my proposal. Initial time to set up accounts is low. Initially, only a few staff need training how to use the camera, upload, and post recordings; if staff members express interest to learn/help, we can create a rotating schedule of story tellers and recorders.

Library blog: spam and vandalism

The intent of the story time blog is to not only give information, but also receive feedback from the community. The story time blog will allow open commenting: allowing people who are not a member of a group to comment. We will have a blog commenting policy that will clearly state that we will not accept and will delete hate speech, insulting and off topic comments, etc. I also plan on having to read and grant approval to comments before than could be posted to help ensure appropriate language and content.

Copyright issues:

Reading stories from our collection at the Greenville Public Library story time is not a copyright infringement. A book has been purchased for the library’s collection, it is for a non-commercial program, and we read the book out loud, as intended; the library does not need to seek the copyright owner (author or publisher) for permission to read their book, it does not infringe upon any copyright laws because it does not change the format of the copyrighted material nor are we distributing this performance to a wider audience.

The main focus of my proposal is to record readings of children’s stories and make these recordings available to a possibly huge online audience. If we choose the same modern books to record, such as Mo Willem’s Don’t Let Pigeon Drive the Bus, we could face serious copyright infringement and possible violation of the copyright owner’s rights. In this case, we would not part of the book, we would be copying (in this case reading) the entirety of the book. We would also be changing the format of the work from a physical book into a recording of a book onto audio tape, video tape, or digital video. The last possible infringement would be the distribution and transmission of the book in an unauthorized manner (using a public forum like YouTube would make the last infringement even more serious, as it would have a much wider audience.)

My proposal would circumvent a wide array of potential copyright issues. I propose using works published in the U.S. prior to 1923 that are not copyrighted in the U.S. would circumvent potential copyright issues. My proposal does not include recently published books and only using books that are currently in the Public Domain or are part of the Creative Commons and makes copyright consideration simple and much less risky. I do hope to be able to eventually be able to use more modern works, which will occur once more copyrights expire, another way would be for authors to grant the license for others to freely use their book or work for non commercial purposes.

ILS 599 Plan to Improve Story Time at Greenville Public Library: Part 4

Part 4: Step by Step implementation:

Plan:

After I receive approval from the Board, I will fulfill our need for a recording device and will acquire a digital video recorder. I will then create a blog and a YouTube account. I have already created a Del.icio.us account and posted some websites for both staff and public use. I will start blogging right away, talking about past story times and tips I’ve learned on how to be a good story teller. I will create a permanent link to the Del.icio.us account, featuring links related to story time and the importance of early literacy, as well as links for the Greenville Public Library staff to use to find other works in the Public Domain (I created an account and tagged a few sites on my blog for ILS599, try it out). I will then work with library staff to tape a few initial well known fairy tales from Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book. Initially, recordings will not be done at Saturday story time, but reading an ‘extra’ story during official story time might help to create some traffic to the blog and story time recordings. My plan to promote the proposal is outlined in the next section. Set up is minimal, success of this proposal rests within out ability to continually maintain this service and the public’s involvement and interest.

Advertising:

No matter how great a program will be, if no one knows anything about it you might as well not continue the program. To alleviate this potential problem I plan on heavily using word of mouth. I will make sure all the library staff, especially those in the Children’s section, are aware about our new story time service and can answer any question posed to them intelligibly about the new story time on demand service. I will also need a small allocation of the library’s supply of paper and ink to create some signs to post around the Children’s Library at key locations, such as the entrance and near the computer station. I will target our main audience, those who already attend Saturday morning story times, and create hand outs to pass out. Online, I hope to have space to advertise the new blog and a link to YouTube to access the videos on both homepages of the library and the Children’s section. I will also try to read and comment on other public library blogs about story times hoping to create an online community and following.

Time:

My proposal is low on start up and maintenance costs, but I will need to have some allocated time to ensure the success. The actual set up of a blog, Del.icio.us, and YouTube account will not require more than an hour of work for the initial setup, and a few hours of staff time per week will be required to successfully maintain and keep them updated. Monitoring and keeping all accounts up to day can be done during unassigned or quiet times when I’m at the Reference Desk, or ever from the comfort of my own home.

The only parts that will require devoted staff time would be when recording the stories themselves; to read the stories and run the camera, I project that it would take about 2-3 staff members, one of which will be myself. If staff is needed elsewhere, or if the response from the community proves to be larger than anticipated, I can enlist the aid of our volunteer library pages to help on various tasks (recording, monitoring the blog, answering comments or questions, finding new sites). As for educating staff about Del.icio.us, some of the Children’s staff have their own personal Del.icio.us accounts, and will hopefully help spread word of how easy it is to create and use.

After we receive the digital recording camera and I have had a period of time to learn how to shoot, upload and post, I will offer a quick ten minute or less informal talk on how to use the camera. This camera is designed for simplicity and ease of use especially for the creation of videos to upload. We will be able to record multiple stories in a one hour session; we can periodically shoot a story or two at the Saturday morning story time, to have the benefit of a live audience and families wanting to see themselves. We would then have the option of releasing all the content on a specific day or uploading them to YouTube twice a week. I will lead the blog by writing posts, and if the other staff wishes to learn more about this technology, I will show them.

ILS 599 Plan to Improve Story Time at Greenville Public Library: Part 3

Part 3: Technology and Requirements:

I have reviewed the problem that many community members are not able to attend our largely successful story time, and after careful consideration I chose to use these 3 Web 2.0 technologies because they are: free, easy to use/participate in, and help us better serve our community. I will provide a more in depth description of these tools after I briefly explain ‘Web 2.0’ for those who are not familiar with the term or technology. Web 2.0 is not a ‘newer’ version of the internet, rather a change in how programs are developed and how we, as users, use the web. Web 2.0 reflects a trend towards online community and social networks, and a focus on the user themselves. Some examples are software made freely available to all, such as Google Maps, to be used in any way users can think up, such as combining Google Maps with the locations of restaurants in the area and directions how to get there.

Budget:

This year the town of Greenville received a grant from the Greenville Early Learning Opportunities Project (GELOP) from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Child Care Bureau; the town library is one of three recipients of this grant. The library’s portion of the grant was estimated at roughly: $2000; I am requesting a small part of the monies to fund the purchase of a digital video camera (that records to flash memory) for the recording of stories. I have found one model: the Pure Digital Flip digital camcorder (1/4” CMOS 1.5” LCD 30 minute 512MB) available for $80.99 from NewEgg, an online store; the cost would end up around $100 after shipping and if we decide to purchase an extended warranty. I chose this specific recorder for low cost and high rating of simplicity and ease of use to upload content to the internet. Some libraries have multiple recording devices such as this and even make them available for loan. I would suggest this camera be solely for in house use, with future recorders available to the public.

Blog:

I choose to use a blog as the main basis for delivering information and receiving feedback for many reasons. For those unfamiliar with a ‘blog’ (short for web log), it is a sort of ‘online journal’ which has become popular medium of expression. There is no cost to create a blog, and I would sign up for a story time themed blog at Blogger and I would create and control the content on the site. A blog would be beneficial for the library because it would provide a documentation of what was successful or not, and could be used as a guide for our staff or other libraries attempting do the same. The other goal is to increase community involvement in story times; community members could R.S.V.P (or decline) in advance to give the library a better idea of the amount of seating and craft supplies needed. I even plan on installing a weekly poll on my blog to allow community members to vote on preferred story time themes, as well as pick from a potential list of books to be read. I have searched and found many blogs from public libraries, such as ours, using this Web 2.0 technology to bring information and better serve their community.

Del.icio.us:

I choose to use Del.icio.us because it is a free web service that allows users to bookmark web sites of note or favorite links; it also allows for the storing, sharing, and discovery of more sites in an online social community of users, where someone can access their favorite links away from their home computer, or view others favorite sites and share information. The story time blog will contain an easy to use link to connect parents and others to high quality and recommended sites. Del.icio.us is a simple way for us to collect and gather relevant websites and articles for parents on the topic of story time and early childhood literacy, as well as providing links to more works in the Public Domain for them to read themselves. Currently, our library offers no similar service and if this proves successful then more Del.icio.us accounts could be created by library staff as a resource.

YouTube story time recordings:

I choose to use YouTube because it is a free video sharing website that will broadcast our story time videos, without the burden of spending a great deal of time and money to create our own video sharing system. Other video sharing websites were considered, but we choose YouTube, even though it has some notoriety for not controlling uploads of copyrighted material; our library will use non copyrighted material for our story time videos. Our usage of YouTube will allow members of the community to view story times from anywhere with an internet connection, at any time, day or night. Story time “on demand” service will provide another option to satisfy our target audience because it can be utilized on site at the library if someone shows up at the wrong time or day. Even traveling or vacations will not prevent children from missing a story time if they have a computer and internet access; an added benefit will be if a child is sick they can enjoy themselves from the comfort of their own home, without the risk of exposing the other children to their sickness. On an even larger scale, broadcasting on YouTube can potentially expose our program and library to the widest audience imaginable: the internet community. If this program is successful there is potential for the creation of an RSS feed to let users know when new recordings are available.

ILS 599 Plan to Improve Story Time at Greenville Public Library: Part 2

Part 2: Purpose/Justification of the project:

I propose to you, the Board of Directors, that we can better serve the members of our community by expanding our story time service online using Web 2.0 technology. Over the last two decades, Greenville has developed into suburbia for those who work in the capital city of Hartford, a commute of just 20 minutes. The town has experienced an extended period of expansion to accommodate the increasing number of families drawn to the area (especially families just starting to have children). The average family income is in the middle class or upper-middle class range; the local library spending per capita (as of 2007) $58.94/person.

We surveyed those who attend our Wednesday gathering and those who cannot and have found some repeating themes and requests. The results from the survey show a wide range of reasons why people have not been able attend story time. These reasons include but are not limited to the following: misinformation/confusion on date/time, the adult’s work schedule, illness (of child or parent), out of state/traveling, and a lot of miscellaneous reasons sited under ‘unexpected.’ We also included a question regarding the availability of a computer with internet capabilities in the home; out of our target audience of respondents, 69%, answered to the affirmative. We will continue providing our highly attended weekly story time onsite and expand our services in a few ways utilizing Web 2.0 technology:

My first proposal is the creation of a blog by myself, a librarian in the children’s library and head of story time services. One goal of my blog would be to promote our library’s story time: describing the events and turnout on Saturdays, providing a record what was successful and not, and providing a schedule for future story times and other events of the library. The other goal of the blog would be to increase community involvement in story times. Comments would be allowed for parents to recommend a certain title not listed, or share a great title to acquire for the library. All of these features are designed to allow the public to have a say and express what they want.

My second proposal is to supplement the story time blog, by creating a Del.icio.us account focused on story time and the importance of literacy in early childhood development. Del.icio.us is an online social bookmarking site, allowing your personal bookmarks to be viewed by others, as well as allowing you to view others saved sites. This will allow our community members as well as those who visit the library blog to be able to find other similar sites and resources.

My final (and most exciting) proposal is to make video recordings of a librarian reading stories. Initially I plan on using classic fairy tales and nursery rhymes and making them available online; members of the community will then be able to view story times from anywhere with an internet connection, at any time of day or night. I recognize potential for copyright infringement, this will be addressed in detail further into my proposal, but the literature read during our recorded story time will come from the Public Domain, instead of having to ask permission from copyright owners. The goal of this project will be to expand the range of the library’s story time services beyond our physical building to not only our community members, but to an audience comprised of all internet users in the surrounding communities and even beyond that.

ILS 599 Plan to Improve Story Time at Greenville Public Library: Part 1

Part 1: Brief review of the Greenville Library:

The building that is now the Greenville Public Library was built over seventy years ago as a large private residence and was generously donated to the town after the death of a prominent town member. As gracious as we are, the library staff has numerous issues with the lack of available space to conduct the numerous programs offered to the community; with only 20 spots in front of the building, located on bustling Main Street, parking space is limited for patrons. This forces our patrons to park further down the road and walk up to 1/8^th of a mile uphill, something that is especially difficult for mothers with small children.

The library has a history of observing the needs and developing trends of the community and have responded with a wide variety of programs, such as: our once a week story time for children, summer reading programs for all ages of readers, and supporting multiple book clubs. The growth in population has become more apparent over the last five years because of the steady increase in attendance of programs, specifically for events for the youngest: story time. Our library offers a story hour for children from birth-age 4. This event occurs every Saturday at 10:30am (except when holidays interfere); due to the consistently high demand, it is continued throughout the school year and the summer months.

Information and Demographics of Greenville:

Greenville, Connecticut, 06660

Population: (as of 2007) 58,740 people

Number of households: 26,195

Resident families: 17,067

There were 26,195 households out of which 28.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them. The breakdown of children under 18: age 0-4 – 30%, 5-9 – 28%, 10-14 – 20%, 15-18 – 22%. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 2.93.

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Meebo chat rooms

Today I finally got to log into the meebo chat room for our class at: http://www.meebo.com/room/ils599/. My personal experience of Meebo was alright, like other classmates I had issues trying to login without the password, and I wasn’t able to see any comments because the chat log appeared blank; I also missed a chance to talk with a classmate because I was logged in but talking with a reference librarian through IM. Later I had more success logging in and I was able to read all the past comments of classmates, I have to admit I was a bit confused with all the comments, and trying to figure out which comments were with which conversation. I was a bit confused because I created a Meebo account, with the nickname of mngorman, but had 2 guest ids, so I didn’t know if I was logged in as a guest AND a member, or if I was still just a guest. I left a few questions posted hoping someone might answer them in between now and tomorrow afternoon (which is the next time I’ll be able to check). I think that as I get to explore and use it more I would become more comfortable with the Meebo chat room.

In general, I do appreciate the possibilities of using Meebo chat rooms in libraries. I could see myself using a Meebo chat room in a professional setting (once I become more used to seeing such a large chat room log). It can be a good way for the spread of information on a small scale, allowing users to stop by when they can, but as I saw in some of my classmates postings a lot of small messages were sent to try to establish a meeting time where multiple users could chat together. The larger the group chatting the more confusing it could be to follow the different topics, but a small group of users with a focus, such as a specific topic or group project to work on could keep others updated on progress. Libraries can and do use Meebo for answering reference questions, but they could also host chat rooms for special interest groups; if there is a high population of knitters they could chat within this space, give tips, and even exchange patterns online-if they can’t physically meet. I have attempted to use the chat service in Vista without much success, probably because classmates have not anticipated a chat invitation or might have been logged into the system but not actually there. In my personal life, I use Digsby to manage 3 IM identities, I find it easy to use and manage, but most of my conversing is done on a 1 on 1 basis and not a chat room.

IM chat with Reference Librarian

The assignment for this week was to contact a library through IM. I have used other reference IM library services, such as the Manchester Community College’s 24/7 ask a librarian (http://aal20.tutor.com/nGEN/Apps/SocWeb/main.aspx?ID=c22adde4-d6c6-4853-a746-127716b051eb) which has always been great at answering all my queries (won an award in 2007 for great service).

I picked the Champaign Public Library, located in Champaign, Illinois based upon the random fact that my uncle had once lived there. I went to their website: http://www.champaign.org/find_answers/ask_a_librarian.html and clicked on the link to talk to a librarian. Though it’s not short, I put the whole conversation in the previous blog post. Overall I found IM use to answer reference questions to be a pleasant and easy experience. The librarian I talked to was friendly and receptive, which aided in building the exchange of trust normally given from in person reference requests. From her responses, it seems like IM in their library is only about 5% of their overall reference questions, and email is used a lot to answer reference questions. I think the number of IM users will continued to grow as more users become aware of this service and become more comfortable with it. I found it amusing when she said that a lot of kid users don’t know that it is a professional librarian behind the screen name and not another kid or teen, and they didn’t understand why they can’t just chat through the night.

I was pleased to learn that the IM librarian was actually IN the library and the service wasn’t outsourced. She said that she was sitting at a Reference Desk, though sometimes the librarian IMing (the library has 3 screen names) will be located in the backroom. I know some classmates have had issues connecting and some of the help was not actually located in the library. My conversation lasted about 15 minutes, with a few pauses of less than a minute. When I asked how she handled multi-tasking, she admitted that during our conversation she had answered the phone 3 times and helped 2 people at the desk! Overall, I am pleased to say my experience with using IM in a library was a positive experience and say the Champaign Public Library is developing a good service for their patrons.

IM conversation with a reference desk librarian in a public library

here is the actual conversation I had with the reference desk librarian from Champaign Public Library, in Champaign, Illinois:

Please wait for a Librarian to respond
You are now chatting with a Librarian from The Champaign Public Library
CPLLibrarian: Hello.
CPLLibrarian: Welcome to the Champaign Public Library.
CPLLibrarian: How may I help you?
you: Hello! I’m a student working on getting my MLS to become a librarian, is this a good time to ask a few questions about IM reference?
CPLLibrarian: Well, it’s as good of a time as any ;^)
CPLLibrarian: If we get busy, I’ll let you know.
you: ha ha, thanks, no worries I understand! I’m in a class about using web2.0 technologies in library, this week is using IM
CPLLibrarian: Ok.
CPLLibrarian: Do you have any specific questions?
you: I have a few questions,
CPLLibrarian: Shoot!
you: what percentage of your overall reference help is IM?
CPLLibrarian: I don’t know specifically.
CPLLibrarian: However
you: no official numbers needed, but what you feel
CPLLibrarian: I do know that the percentage is fairly low (at least right now).  I’m guessing 5% or less.
CPLLibrarian: We get more via e-mail.
you: not too bad, do you see any difference in the questions posed through IM vs having a person in front of you or even on the phone?
you: are they more rude? more open?
CPLLibrarian: Not really.  Occasionally, we get a kid wanting to know age/race/gender type questions.
CPLLibrarian: The ones we like best are ready reference type questions.
you: questions just asking you about your personal age or race?
CPLLibrarian: Sometimes, folks will send a full-out reference question, and we’ll have to get back to them.
you: I like those the best too,
CPLLibrarian: Sometimes kids (usually teenagers) don’t realize this is a business type atmosphere, and they think they’re talking to another kid.
you: do you personally like working as a reference librarian through IM, is it harder to communicate,
you: hahaha do they throw out: ttfn, lmao, lol and such lingo?
you: I know some of the literature I’ve read mentions language barriers from younger patrons
CPLLibrarian: Oh yeah.
CPLLibrarian: I don’t usually have any problems with that (I’m one of the techies).
you: haha yay for techies!
CPLLibrarian: It’s just trying to explain to kids why you can’t talk to them all night!
you: now are you actually at a desk at the library or do they have an outside service do it?
CPLLibrarian: No, I’m actually sitting at the reference desk even as we “speak.”
you: now what would you do if you had a person come up, phone just starts to ring and IM come through on the screen
CPLLibrarian: We do sometimes have people do virtual reference from the back (depending on how many patrons are running around at the time.)
you: some of my classmates had concerns
CPLLibrarian: I pick up the phone, and ask them to hold.  When I get to a place where I can answer, I pick it up.
you: so it’s not the end of the world, people are used to waiting and are pretty understanding, right?
CPLLibrarian: During this chat, I’ve answered the phone 3 times, and dealt with 2 people in person.
you: ooh you’re good!
CPLLibrarian: Yes, as long as folks know that you notice them, and acknowledge them, they’re pretty cool about waiting.
CPLLibrarian: I’ve also had LOTS of practice!  LOL!
CPLLibrarian: We’re a busy library!
you: I find that’s true too, I don’t work in a library, but I work at a Barnes & Noble as the Children’s dept. manager,
you: esp during Christmas time, I have a line of customers waiting for help, they follow me like I’m a momma duck
CPLLibrarian: Yeah, I’m sure you’re REALLY swamped the day after Thanksgiving!!!
you: haha YES, I’ve survived almost 3 years,
you: but I am looking forward to becoming a librarian SOON, though I know I’ll find a lot of the same behaviors
CPLLibrarian: Well, I wish you luck.  Being a librarian means your NEVER bored!  Esp. if you work in pub. serv.  I’ve got to run.  It’s been nice chatting.
you: no worries, thank you very much for taking time out!
you: have a great day!
CPLLibrarian: You’re most welcome!
CPLLibrarian: You too!
you:

Copyright and Fair Use: the Associated Press vs Bloggers

I’m sorry it has been a few days since my last post! Even though the weather outside is sunny and warm-I’ve been laid up with a nasty cold-doesn’t it feel worse to have a cold in the summer? Just unnatural. Part of this week’s class discussion has been on copyright and fair use, with specific concerns towards wikis, but I will write more on the developing story of the AP and copyright/quoting. When I returned to my computer I was amazed by the developing story about the Associated Press, bloggers, and copyright/fair use issues. The AP wanted to charge bloggers who quote more than 4 words from an AP story, starting with 5 words at $12.50, 51 words at $25, 101 at $50, etc. It was easy to find posts and sites talking about this issue, posts were usually short and had a long list of comments with *colorful* language. I understand the AP’s concern about being credited, I think they want bloggers to summarize in their own words instead of directly quoting, but we live in a ‘copy, paste’ kind of world. Most prefer to copy and paste, rather than summarize, would bloggers just ignore stories in general and cut out the AP, or just not link and give credit (I don’t agree with the latter, check out 2^nd link below for more). But I don’t know how the AP creating their own set of strict rules on copyright and fair use can and will be enforced over all bloggers. Is it within their rights to restrict bloggers rights? What about our guaranteed right to free speech, we can’t say anything against the AP? Can they require bloggers to pay for a license, AND can they revoke that license if they decide that person is writing negatively about the AP? Again, I’m still working on better understanding all the levels of copyright law.

1 of many articles about quoting from the AP:

http://techdirt.com/articles/20080617/0740561432.shtml

bloggers solution to dealing with AP:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/06/16/heres-our-new-policy-on-ap-stories-theyre-banned/