Library Promotion and Marketing

I've started doing the online Marketing Course for Libraries thanks to ALIA and FOLIOz and decided I would try and add LIS articles I found on proquest (again thanks to ALIA) relevant to marketing - this way I could share the information as well as return to them quickly and keep track of what I've read for my bibliography and/or PD points.

Well, here goes...if all goes well, my search strategy and results should appear at the end of these posts as a 'gadget'!

Three Wikis reviewed - and my ideas!

I really liked the SJCPL 'subject guide' wiki. I can see that it has great use in libraries, particularly if we are to make our virtual library as user-friendly and efficient as our physical library. I really liked the way it showed the relevant call numbers for each topic, as well as listing specific titles, and showing their covers (although I think that could be a copyright issue!).

I also looked at the Wisconsin Heritage Online (WHO) Wiki - but was less impressed. I thought it was great that a wiki was developed to encourage institutions and people in the Wisconsin area to digitise their collections and add them to the Online portal. However, I immediately saw the possibility of linking famous people or places in the area within the wiki so that the public could get an idea of the benefits of having an online heritage portal and cannot understand why this hasn't been developed. I also was unable find the link to 'collections' as the Learning 2.0 blog instructed. I did click on the online heritage portal, and searched the collection, but this was more like a catalogue than a wiki, it just showed the digital item with basic metadata, rather than allowing the user to find in depth information through links between the items. E.g. a basic search resulted in an article on Women's Suffrage in Wisconsin in the 19th Century. I would have like to have seen links to other articles about the women or places or dates relevant to this subject, rather than just a copy of the article with the author, title and publication details.

I then compared the WHO wiki with the 'mint museums' wiki. I found the mintwiki to be more what I was expecting from the WHO wiki - links to articles on current, past and future exhibitions, with the ability to print out PDF's to take with you to the museum. I would have like to have seen a history of the mint museum on the wiki, or information about its location and opening hours there too, but at least they offered the link to the library webpage where I presume you could find out this information. I suppose it is important to remember that wikis can be updated and revised at any time, so these criticisms may not be relevant as soon as I've posted this!

I have found this exercise of searching other wikis very useful. When I first heard about this (learning 2.0) course, I was excited by the possibilities of developing a local studies wiki - where the public could find out about personalities, places, dates and events that are important to our local area. Having seen these other wikis, I feel I will be able to develop a better wiki for our area and ensure it has enough information and is easy to use!

Apart from a local studies wiki, I think libraries can benefit from an 'faq' wiki, a 'subject guide' wiki, and a 'reader's advisory' wiki ("who else writes like" etc).

Real benefits to RSS and newsreaders

I've been using RSS feeds since completing NSWnet training last year and I find them incredibly useful!

I have a Google reader account and (now) a bloglines account, but find the Google one more user friendly. What I found especially useful with my google reader, is that I've personalised my 'i-Google' page so that my RSS headlines are featured. This way I see what interesting posts have been made every time I go to use the Google search screen!

I've discovered some very interesting facts and useful information from RSS feeds that I know I wouldn't have discovered otherwise, as I don't have the time, nor frankly the inclination, to browse blogs all day to see what new things people have written (if any!).

Some of my favourite blogs and RSS feeds that I've subscribed to are:

• Designing Better Libraries at http://dbl.lishost.org/blog/
• Helene Blowers and her Library Bytes blog at http://www.librarybytes.com/
• ALIA's range of RSS feeds at http://www.alia.org.au/rss/
• and on or two of Library Journal's RSS feeds at http://www.libraryjournal.com/learnrss

I have also subscribed to some of my overseas or interstate friends' blogs so that I can keep in touch with what they're up to and see their latest photographs!

The main benefits to our workplace and ways libraries can utilise RSS technology that immediately come to mind are:

• the ability to keep up with professional development by being aware of trends, thoughts, debates and news
• the ability to inform members of our corporate library (i.e. Councillors and Council staff) of the latest releases, news, events, technology, debates etc in their field of expertise through RSS feeds we have subscribed to on their behalf
• the ability to inform all our members about upcoming events at our library service points, as well as other library related information by encouraging them to subscribe to RSS feeds of our Blog

Welcome to my learning 2.0 blog!

I've created this blog so that I can track my learning. Although it is initially set up to follow my learning 2.0 course through SLNSW, I envisage that it will be an online lifelong learning diary.

I have recently been inspired to adapt my workplace to an online environment, and this learning 2.0 course seems ideal. Although I have dabbled very lightly in blogs in the past, I've never really looked at them in depth, or used them to their fullest potential.

I'm excited to learn about web 2.0 and to see the opportunities it will bring. More than just being able to communicate with "kids these days" I really feel there is a future for web 2.0 technology (and beyond) in the library world.

I'd like to congratulate the team at SLNSW for making this course available to all library workers - I think it is a great way to inspire the NSW library world as a whole into a forward-thinking, future proof place to be!

I also think its a great opportunity to be reminded of some of the wonderful things about technology - we so often get bogged down in the reasons why it won't work, or can't work, or shouldn't work, or doesn't work - and that our institutions are places of lifelong learning - so surely we should be lifelong learners too! (I suspect we always have been but it was rarely labelled as such).