Ten ways for superpatrons to help build better libraries (draft)

I'm giving a 10-15 minute presentation at the North Suburban Library System near Chicago on Friday. Here's the current outline of the talk (more to the point here's some kind of outline I'm getting on paper so that I can make the final slides on the train). I'll update this with a presentation on Slideshare when it's done. UPDATE: preso as given:

Ten ways for superpatrons to build better libraries

People who love their libraries want them to be better. Here's what you can do.

1. Blog about your library

Write about your experiences at the library on your blog. Note who you talked to, what you noticed while you were there or while you were online, and how things worked. You have a set of eyes that the people who work at the library don't have, and by giving feedback in public you have some way to draw attention to what is working and why your library is valuable to you and to your community.

(slide: "PS We Love Your Blog")

2. Request the books you want to read

Libraries have book acquisition budgets, and people whose entire job it is to put books on the shelf that get circulated. There's no way that they will know every last title that should be on the shelves, especially (in my experience) the non-fiction titles that have no marketing budgets to speak of. Let the acquisitions staff work for you, and let them know what you want to see and what you will check out and recommend to your friends if you like it.

(slide: "If you would like to reduce the clutter in your home by donating the copy you purchased to the library, then please send to me.")

3. Borrow by inter-library loan the books that the library doesn't have

A well kept secret at many libraries is an interlibrary loan system that speeds books from all over the area or all over the country to you if your library doesn't have the book in stock. These systems have gotten better over time, moving from paper and telex based systems to in some case all-automated systems that are relatively economical for libraries to run. Assume, by default, that if there's a book that you want to read, your library can get it for you.

(slide: MEL logo)

4. Browse the library catalog with your kids

Kids gravitate to libraries for all sorts of reasons, and if you have a kid who likes to read books they have a curiousity that is way more interesting and able to make leaps and bounds from one idea to another than yours. Sit down with the online catalog with your kids and browse from topic to topic and subject to subject and see what else the library has that they might be interested in.

(slide: Edmund Fitzgerald, Titanic books)

5. Connect your library catalog to LibraryThing

LibraryThing is an amazing social catalog which lets you keep collections of books (either yours or your favorites from the library), write and read reviews, rate books and link to other people with similar interests. It is way, way, way better than any commercial online catalog that libraries buy. You can take advantage of all of the energy and effort in LibraryThing by adding a very small amount of configuration to it which lets you look up any book in that system in your home library's catalog and link directly through to its holdings for it.

(slide: screen shot with link to AADL, MeL)

6. Connect your library catalog to Amazon

Jon Udell in 2002 wrote a short but powerful bookmarklet that lets you link directly from an Amazon book information and buying page to your local library, showing book holdings and availability. Make it a routine habit to look and see if your local library and your local interlibrary loan system already have a book that you're about to buy - you can save money, get better service, and reduce clutter on your shelves all at once.

(slide: Amazon linky screen shot)

7. Remix the library catalog into your own applications

Library catalogs hold huge amounts of data about your library's books, but they tend to be creaky old dinosaurs of code. Use your programming skills to pull data off hard to use library screens and rewrite what you find into simple pages that highlight the information you are looking for. Take a page full of links to the new books on the system, pull out link and ISBN information with an RSS feed or Beautiful Soup, mix in the Amazon data for book covers, and create a "Wall of Books" view of your library's new book shelf.

(slide: wall of books screen)

8. Add a librarian to your instant message or Twitter buddy list

Libraries and librarians are in the business of answering reference questions. Local public libraries know a lot about the town they serve, and special libraries are centers of information about the topics they cover and hold. All these helpful people are just an instant message or Twitter away from answering the question you have. At the very least, they have Google on their side (and they are good at Google); even better, you get people who know not just the online resources but the books and people who can get you closer to your answer.

(slide: Adium buddy list screen shot)

9. Put a library reference desk in your cell phone speed dial

Away from a computer and still need to have a reference question answered? Libraries have reference desks available by telephone, and you can call these from wherever you are to help you track something down or look up something you need. Often libraries will let you reserve books online as well, so if you can get to a phone, you can get your book. Bonus points if you have a library with a web site that's actually navigable and useful by cell phone, so that you can use it as a wayfinding tool in the stacks (havent' seen one of those yet)

(slide: stock photo of cell phone? !?)

10. If you don't have time to browse the stacks, reserve online.

I never get a chance to walk through my library any more picking books off the stacks - two kids, a busy job, and never enough time to browse gets in the way. If I'm in the library I'm either reading magazines or playing with legos with the kids. Fortunately, my library has a great online reserve system, which lets me place holds on books and pick them out at the front counter in the few minutes I have between catching the bus.

(slide: bus depot)

Comments

[ejk]

Looks like some great ideas, Ed.

My only suggestion would be to stress that they let the library know somehow that they're doing the things that aren't explicit interactions (e.g. blogging, remixing), with tagging, chatting or emailing someone at the library. They may be able to incorporate your ideas into something that improves the system for everyone.

[Denise]

This is a good list. But then again, I would think so since I do 8 of the 10 just about everyday!

:-)

[Aaron the Librarian]

Ditto ejk.

I'm happy to point people toward user created tools; heck, I point interested, like-minded students to Library Thing and Superpatron (among others) as often as I can.

[Susannah]

I'd suggest that superpatrons tell their libraries about their own book discussion groups and what their groups are reading. The library will want to know what their patrons are interested in and may have some way of providing the group with books.

[Julie]

Hey! My library is doing a marketing campaing right now where we are encouraging library patrons to have the library's phone number programmed into their cell phone.

Our key message is: Information is never more thatn a phone call away.

I think that people still have the perception that they are "bothering" the librarians by asking questions. We're working to change that perception here in Carol Stream!

[Elizabeth]

I really like all your comments and am very interested in the connecting to Amazon one. Can you provide me with more information on how to do that? Thanks!

[Carol]

I would tell my audience if they want to be a superpatron they need to know their city council person or local elected government official and then let that person know how important the library is to them. Yes all the tech ideas are good, but you need money to stay open and local government needs to hear that the library is valuable to them. Constantly and consistently.
How about have the government official on instant message!