Ellyssa Kroski

Katrina Gulliver at the Chronicle of Education composes the 10 Commandments of Twitter for Academics. These are all excellent tips, not only for those in academia, but anyone who wants to fully leverage the massive microblogging application Here are her first five recommendations:

1. Put up an avatar. It doesn’t really matter what the picture is, but the “egg picture” (the default avatar for new accounts) makes you look like a spammer.
2. Don’t pick a Twitter name that is difficult to spell or remember.
3. Tweet regularly.
4. Don’t ignore people who tweet at you. Set Twitter to send you an e-mail notification when you get a mention or a private message. If you don’t do that, then check your account frequently.
5. Engage in conversation. Don’t just drop in to post your own update and disappear. Twitter is not a “broadcast-only” mechanism; it’s CB radio.

David Rosenthal has put together a list at DSHR’s Blog of 13 problem areas, or challenges to Harvesting and Preserving the Future Web. This excellent list is based on a half-day workshop given by himself and Kris Carpenter Negulescu of the Internet Archive. Here are the first five challenges:

1. Database driven features
2. Complex/variable URI formats
3. Dynamically generated URIs
4. Rich, streamed media
5. Incremental display mechanisms

This is the continuation of 10 Ways for Your Library to “Go Mobile”: Part I. Both of these posts are based on a talk I’m preparing for the LIBER 2012 Conference in Tartu, Estonia in June on Mobile Technologies and Libraries. Here are five more ways libraries can start participating in the mobile Web if they haven’t already:

1. Build an iPhone or Android App

• There are a lot of resources available as well as free applications which will walk you through the process of building your very own native application for iOS or Android devices. One of them is AppMaker which provides an easy to use graphical user interface which will let you set up multiple tabs/pages within your app.
• You can also learn how to code your own mobile website as well as iOS and Android apps with Jason Clark’s new book Building Mobile Library Apps

• You can easily create QR codes for your library website, electronic resources, even contact information using QR Code generators such as Kaywa or Delivr. And you’ll want to be sure to advise patrons to install a free QR Code reader on their mobile device such as BeeTagg, i-nigma or NeoReader.

• All libraries can claim their venues and take part in increasingly popular location-based social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. If you haven’t already, start engaging your patrons and offering them incentives for visiting the library.

• Libraries can offer their patrons cutting-edge text reference services through tools such as Libraryh3lp, and Mosio’s Text-a-Librarian. This is a great way to get patrons connecting with the library.

• AR applications such as the London Tube app adds layers of information over the real-world which can be viewed thru a user’s mobile phone. This type of technology could be easily adapted to point to and mark library branch locations, call number and stack locations and much more. Librarians feeling adventurous can investigate augmented reality applications such as Layar, Google Goggles, and AcrossAir and create their own applications.

Steven T. Shelton, member of Cozen O’Connor in New York, writes for the New York Law Journal about Threats to Brands From Social Media. This is an eye-opening article which discusses trademark risks facing companies and organizations on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It discusses potential remedies and courses of action as well as practical tips for prevention. Here are some of the recommendations discussed:

1. Obtain a trademark registration for each of your most important brands.
2. Proactively obtain account names using all of the trademark owner’s most important brands.
3. Monitor social networking sites to find unauthorized uses of brand names.

Photo by SEOULMAN66

I made the discovery today that we’ve reached a major milestone here at iLibrarian – this is the blog’s 2,010th post since its inception in 2007. Thinking back to my first post on August 1st, 2007, I hoped that this would be a place for conversation and community around Library 2.0 and emerging technology news and resources. And I’m happy to say that it has become just that – we’ve also had 1,110 comments made!! It’s been a great five years and I’m looking forward to many more to come. Thanks everyone for reading, commenting, contributing, and being a part of the iLibrarian community!

Amy-Mae Elliott at Mashable offers 10 Facebook Tips for Power Users. These are all excellent and useful suggestions, many of which I didn’t know myself and will be excited to try out! Here are the first five recommendations:

1. View Photos Full-Screen
2. Hide What You Read
3. Create a List Based on Your Interests
4. Populate Your Map With Pics
5. Reposition Photos on Your Timeline

Stephanie Sammons at the Social Media Examiner offers 5 Tips to Build and Grow Your LinkedIn Network. If you’re wondering how best to leverage LinkedIn’s 150 million–member worldwide network, you’ll want to check out this post. Here are her first 3 recommendations:

• #1: Update Your Status Frequently and Consistently
• #2: Build Connections Constantly
• #3: Be Strategic about When You are Active on LinkedIn

This is part of a series of posts which is based on a 3-hour hands-on workshop I offer on this topic. Be sure and check out the preceding post:

Technology Solutions Planning in Libraries: Overview

The Project Plan

The first step in any new project is to put together a plan with achievable goals. The breadth of your plan will depend on what type of new technology you’re looking to implement, so you should feel free to adjust this example plan as needed. However, this project plan should cover most new technology initiatives, and this series of posts will be going through each section of the plan individually.

1. Establish a Planning Committee
2. Gain Market Intelligence
1. Vet Solutions/Vendors
2. Research the Market
3. Read Case Studies
3. Requirements Gathering
1. Create Library Profile
2. Develop Use Cases
3. Business Requirements
4. Functional Requirements
5. Technical Requirements
4. Evaluate Solutions
1. Test Online Demos
2. Research Solution/Vendor Viability
3. Check References
4. Create “Short List”
5. Create RFP
1. Refine Requirements
2. Write & Distribute RFP to Top Vendors
6. Select Solution
1. Analyze RFP Responses
2. Conduct Interviews/Demos of Top 2 Solutions
3. Make Final Selection
7. Negotiate Contract
1. Make Contract Recommendations
8. Draft Budget
1. Include Hardware, Data Conversion, etc.

Download this project plan here: project_plan

Create a Timeline

Once you have outlined your plan, you can create a timeline with dates of individual goals and their deadlines. This will help you keep on track and motivated to move forward. Timelines such as this one can be created using software programs such as MS Project or OpenProj.

Download this project timeline here: timeline.mpp

The staff writers at Online Universities.com have predicted 10 Changes to Expect from the Library of the Future. Most of these changes have actually already been implemented by many libraries, and will continue to be adopted. Here are the first five changes.

1. More technology
2. Sensory story times
3. Better outreach to ESOL and ESL adults and children
4. Automation
5. Emphasizing community space