– Sarah Houghton-Jan and Aaron Schmidt
Name 3 places your library should be on the web besides your library’s website
From audience:
1. Second Life
2. MySpace
3. Flickr
“online in-reach”
summary: make your website two-way where people can have a voice on it
if they can’t contribute to it, there’s nothing there for them
online, everyone’s patrons are your patrons
– talk this over with your governing agency
– loosen up!
– mimic online what we do in the real world, where you help other libraries’ patrons
free is good
much of this is free, which helps
search engine findability
– search for variations of your library’s name
– ensure your site is accurately at the top
– minor or metasearch engines
– buy AdWords from Google ($)
– search engine optimization (SEO) ($)
look at your site statistics to see what other search engines folks are using to reach your site
library directory listings
– LibDex
– MapMuse
– Libraries411
others
make sure you’re found in these
blog search engines
– Feed Submitter submits your blog’s feed to 15 sites at once
– Robin Good’s list of where to submit your blog and feed
– RSS Specifications list of where to submit your feed
sweet wikipedia goodness
– list your library on the appropriate town or county entries
note if your library has won any awards, etc.
wikimapia
– add locations for your libraries and other community features of interest
community website presence
– americantowns.com
– eventful
etc.
blogs and forums
– local blogs
– technology boards
– continuing education boards
– forums and groups with local flair (google, yahoo)
find local blogs
– search the tags for your zip code on Flickr
– blogdigger.com
interact with local blogs
– no marketing speak
– don’t intrude, but be available
– find appropriate blogs
– don’t be heavy-handed
– entering into an online community can be hard work
– have authentic voice, information
showed an example of Sarah commenting on a local professor’s blog as a model
presence where it’s warranted
– ensure your library has a presence on local websites (schools, universities, etc.)
– are you linked anywhere?
in google, link:YourLibraryURLhere to find who’s linking to you
social review websites
what are your customers saying when you’re not around?
– yelp
– judy’s book
– citysearch
– insiderpages
– local2me
viral marketing because you can market your services
social networking sites
– create a profile for your library
– major options: myspace, facebook, flickr, ning
– find great examples on the libsuccess list
a lot of people are moving off myspace onto facebook
if you are still in the middle of a 2-year project to start a site on myspace, you need to move faster
there’s so much you can do to facebook to reach out to people
give them something new often to keep them back
you must have follow-through
don’t use your library’s building as your avatar
Contra Costa Library had 2 paraprofessional staff work on the myspace page
it’s important to realize as librarians that we don’t have to *do* all of this, that we can hand some of these things off to people who are experts at this or have an interest in it
tap the local talent and don’t limit to MLS holders
helps distribute the workload in a practical sense
Hennepin County Library’s BookSpace
interactive, aesthetically beautiful
showed a Facebook Flyer example from Tutt Library
showed Ask MetaFilter site and Slam the Boards (which is now repeating the 10th of every month)
duh, we’re experts, too
– allexperts.com
– ziki
– illumio
– qunu
– yedda
– FAQQLY
– Otavo
– yahoo answers
list your staff as experts in various free expert tools
wifi is king
if you offer wireless in your building, make sure you are listed in wifi directories
– wififreespot
– wifihotspotlist
– wifi411,
– wifinder
– jiwire
– wi-fi zone
name your network something fun that advertises your library, not just “default”
push the info out
via email and rss
– invest in newsletter software (maybe $)
– get email addresses from ILS
– send periodically (don’t spam)
– variety of features
push out info as a person, not an institution
blog geo-search engines
list your library’s blog on geographic blog search engines
– frappr
– feedmap
– blogwise
– gFeedMap
where are people looking for phone numbers?
are you in those places yet? list your contact info in online directories
– askcity
– yahoo! local
– google maps
clinton-macomb public library as example with a great review in google local
second life
– Info Island
problem is bandwidth and hardware issues
if you have a super active community in second life, put energy into that; if you have a super active community of bloggers, put energy into that
will probably get more bang for your buck putting your energy into blogging right now
URLs
OPAC URLs suck
use wccls.org instead of wccls.lib.or.us, but even better is booksandmovies.org
instant messaging
– a primary forum of communication
– free, easy
text messaging
– cellphones and SMS continue to grow
– Orange County Library System example; only public library doing this?
make A/V content findable
– youtube
– blip.tv
– blinkx
– singingfish
– yahoo podcasts
– podcast.net
– podcast alley
– digital podcast
– podscope
record and put up a few storytimes as a way to get your feet wet
transcribe audio content with podzinger
find mentions of your library
all over the web, not just the social review sites
– google/yahoo news
– ice rocket
– technorati
– feedster
– bloglines
– youtube
– flickr
sarah found lots of pictures of people skateboarding down the rails at the library :-p
chitter on twitter
– is it worth it?
– be clear about what you’re sending
– works best when sending out quick info
– guide to twitter in libraries by Ellyssa Kroski
are your patrons using these tools?
we think so
but even if they’re not, we can model this behavior and lead the way
question: how did they create the facebook flyer?
answer: tool on facebook site where you upload an image and text