Jenny Levine of TheShiftedLibrarian spoke, fresh off of hosting the Gaming Night the evening before.  Her slides are available online here.  Here are my random notes:

• The internet provides tools, but not human contact.  How do we translate that into the online world?
• We’re on our way with physical library spaces.
  • Check out the Delft Public Library’s contextual information boards… hi-tech “you are here” signs.
  • All content (games, music, books) in the same space.  Not segregated.
  • Personal spaces in a creative environment for social experiences.
• Gaming as a social forum that encourages social interaction.  Taps into our job: “connecting people”
• “It’s not the tech, it’s the touch”
• Many libraries think they’re doing high-tech/high-touch, but aren’t succeeding.
• Do we really need high-tech/high-touch, or do we only need high-touch, regardless of the tech?
• Recommends: Clay Shirky “Here Comes Everybody”
• High-touch - using human language on your website (We don’t have it, but we can get it for  you!)
• Text call numbers to your cell phone from the catalog!
• Meebo in the catalog!  (inside “the worst dead-end we have)
• Libraries in the user space (Facebook, etc)
• Add the librarian back in.
• The advantage we have over Google is people.  Show pictures.  Give it a human face.
•  IM status indicators on our websites add a human presence and an instant human point of contact.
• Today’s users are content creators. Capitalize on that.  Make the library a point to which they can submit content.
• ACRL using Meebo to chat about hot topics.
• “Social Networks” = Soylent Green (They’re made of people!)
• Social networks allow space for serendipity.  Virtual connections can become real connections.
• Stop filtering information on the way in… we have no idea what the end user will need.
• “Do we use tools that match our social capabilities?”
• LibraryThing for libraries extends content with *people*
• BiblioCommons - 200 Beta Testers.
  • Can use a user name (instead of barcode)
  • Coverflow imaging
  • Recent contributers to the “commons” - connect to people, not just content
  • Recently reviewed.  Browse someone’s library.  User in-boxes to enable communication between users.
  • Tagging prompts for adjectives. They want tone.
  • Opt to “trust” portions of a user’s preferences (just movies, just books, etc).
• Findbook.com - trusted research friends, sharing research/resources with others, finding “likeness”
• These hi-tech/hi-touch things are not just for users.
  • Library Society of the World
  • Twitter… virtual water cooler

Q1: how do you get staff excited? - Don’t frame it around the tool.  Frame it around the results.

Q2: How do you get the patrons to start using these tools? - Many tools are low-cost.  Take risks that are low-investment.  Don’t worry if there’s not high use.    Re-assess our evaluation of “success” for these tools.  We may be on the leading edge, so things have to build.  But providing services for the leading-edge group is important.  The solution is different because it’s about the people, not the tools.

Q3: How do you keep up?  - I don’t.  I skip thing.  I choose to follow those that I know will find the big stuff.  Do it when you can.  You’ll have times when you can experiment, and times when you can’t.  Use the social networking to find people to help so you don’t have to keep up with everything.  You don’t keep up with everything in the physical world, so don’t expect to in the virtual world.