I have never been to Louisville, but I sent them a book this morning because I really like this idea, and wanted to blog about it and would feel like a dope if I hadn’t actually sent them a book first. It sounds like this is the last week of the drive, so don’t delay.

Incidentally, LFPL is where Greg Schwartz works. So if you know Greg and that gives you more of a reason to want to support this little project, so much the better.

And here are a few blog posts about it from the men themselves: “hi-fi sci-fi library” video is here!+story and hi-fi sci-fi library: The Lyrics and Credits (Michael) and New Song & Video: Hi-fi Sci-fi Library (David).

These guys took something that they are serious about–the need for libraries to change and adapt–and made an endearingly silly video around it. When it comes to the specifics of what libraries should do to change and adapt, I’m not always on the same page as David and Michael, but I love the way they aren’t afraid to go out on a limb, and the way they invited us all to go out there with them in the making of the video.

It is fun to see all those familiar faces in the video, but it does bring up something I have been wondering lately. When we try and include images of librarians to make a project seem more human and inclusive, is it counter-productive if many of those images are of the usual suspects? Or do only the usual supects even notice that the images are of the usual suspects? We have been talking about this over on FriendFeed w/r/t Laura‘s suggestion that we prominently feature the LSW dogs photo on thelsw.org and I’m still not sure what I think.

One thing is for sure, though: I crack up every single time I see Cindi’s Miss 2 wipe out at the end of the hi-fi sci-fi video.

The Treehouse

Originally uploaded by sacolton.

Barbara Fister has an interesting post with a great title over at ACRLog: Creepy Treehouse. She writes about Blackboard setting up an application for Facebook with the idea that students might want to check their academic stuff from within the “social” world of Facebook. She wonders if there isn’t something a little icky about trying to fit academics into Facebook. Here’s what the “creepy treehouse” thing is all about:

A creepy treehouse is a place built by scheming adults to lure in kids. Kids tend to sense there’s something creepy about that treehouse and avoid it. Hence, a new definition: “Any institutionally-created, operated, or controlled environment in which participants are lured in either by mimicking pre-existing open or naturally formed environments, or by force, through a system of punishments or rewards.”

It’s an interesting take on that vaguely unsettled response we sometimes get from students when we try to be too cool, try too hard to seem fun and playful, when we make familiar toys unpalatably “educational.” Setting up an outpost in an attractive playspace with an ulterior motive is just . . . creepy.

I’m not really buying this “creepy treehouse” thing (though I do admire the phrase) as far as it applies to putting a Blackboard app in Facebook. Facebook is huge, and contains many different kinds of people using it for many different kinds of things. It seems reasonable to assume that a small percentage of students would find a Blackboard application worthwhile.

Also, remember how people use Facebook; they have complete control over their profile. They don’t have to walk past the Blackboard application or the librarian profile every day. If they are into that kind of thing, they add the application or become a fan of the library or add the librarian as a friend. If they don’t, they ignore it and no one feels molested.

Aside from the slightly dopey language on the main application page (“Let’s face it. You would live on Facebook if you could. Imagine a world where you could manage your entire life from Facebook – it’s not that far off!”) I don’t see anything too smarmy or creepy about this Blackboard thing. Creepy is as creepy does, and this particular case looks pretty straightforward to me.

I do think that librarians and others need to pay attention to the cultural norms of Facebook or other online sites, and I think it would be a huge mistake to assume that a presence in Facebook makes one cool, or will immediately result in lots of attention. But in general, I find Jessamyn West’s post Why should libraries be socially networking? more convincing than this notion of the creepy treehouse.

It is kind of all over the map, but that’s also kind of the point.

Coincidentally, I was in one of those Douglas County Libraries yesterday. The Parker library is my parents’ local library, and it is currently housed in the old bowling alley–the one that I stole bowling shoes from when I was sixteen. It doesn’t really have a bowling alley atmosphere anymore (they let you wear your own shoes), which is kind of too bad.

Facebook Flyer: Tutt Library is Open Late

Originally uploaded by Colorado College Tutt Library.

If I got nothing else accomplished today, I made this little Facebook flyer, inspired by an idea suggested by my colleague, Robin.

I used a Creative Commons licensed work–a photo entitled Evil monkey from the movie about the evil monkey that plays funk on his cymbals–and didn’t have space to credit the photographer: the monkey image is from Flickr user scragz. I hope this attribution makes up for the lack on the flyer.

Thanks also to Dave Pattern who found the image during a discussion in the LSW room. Whew! That was one collaborative little effort.

Chas says "IM in UR library reading UR b00ks"

Originally uploaded by Colorado College Tutt Library.

David at Ironic Sans thinks that the time is ripe (or perhaps overripe) to exploit the LOLcats meme in advertising. Thus lolcatvertisements.

I’m proud to say that Tutt Library is ahead of this particular curve. Before lolcats got huge, there was “i’m in ur base, killing ur d00ds” (AskMeFi discussion/explanation), and, thanks to Jessy, we based an advertisement for the library on that phrase, placing it (as David suggests) in the student paper.

I don’t know if any of our students had a chuckle over “IM in UR library reading UR b00ks,” but we sure did.

I admit this is a pretty “Web 1.0″ concept–buying banner ads on web pages–but it is an interesting idea that I wanted to share with other academic librarians.

Facebook sells advertising “flyers” on the site. They appear in the left-hand sidebar below the navigation links, alternating with the more corporate ad banners. Generally they only show in your network (i.e., your college or university). The examples of flyers that they give are for campus events or “everybody wish Joe a happy birthday” variety. But to me they look like an opportunity to promote the library. (This assumes, of course, that our students are not boycotting Facebook over the controversy surrounding their new “feeds”–though it sounds like Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, got the message.)

So I took our fall PR campaign–”Tutt Library keeps you afloat!”–and made the little flyer for the Facebook that you see here. The parameters are pretty constrained–the image is small, and you only get 25 characters in the title and 200 in the body.

But, at five bucks a day, the price is reasonable, and it seems like the natural place to reach out to students. We are running it every weekday this first week of classes. I expect we’ll do it again for special events or to promote other library services.

Of course, we aren’t the first library to do this–in June the University of Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences News noted Facebook’s popularity and said:

Recognizing the power of Facebook to reach students, large organizations as well as colleges and universities have begun posting ads. Units at the University of Illinois have posted “Facebook Flyers” on the U. of I. network to promote student programs and even a new library toolbar feature.

You can make the flyer link to a web page if you want. Originally, I was just going to link to the library home page, but then I realized if I created a special page, I could tailor my message. So I created this Tutt Library keeps you afloat page to try and highlight some of the services that students (particularly new students) would find useful.
How effective has it been? I don’t know yet. I put a counter on that page (don’t even talk to me about the state of web stats at MPOW. Grrrrrrrr.) and a handful (3 to 8) people are hitting it every day, all of them from Facebook (it isn’t linked anywhere else). That doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is the number who clicked, not the number who noticed.

You can choose to put your name on the flyer (as in “Posted by…”), which I did to try and give students the opportunity to say “Hey, I saw your lame/cool Facebook ad,” though no one has done so yet.

Right now, we have the only flyer running at our campus, so I hope we are getting a lot of exposure. Anyone else out there been doing this? With what results?

Sorry I can’t talk right now; I’m in the library!

Chas says… Tutt Library keeps you afloat in a flood of homework!

If my parents call, I’m at the Library!

I don’t know that I have written about it here, or if I have just commented on other people’s blogs, but I’m not very fond of the practice of posting signs from libraries in order to criticize them. I just think that if someone personally pointed out to me a sign in my library that they found objectionable, I’d be willing to listen and maybe explain, and maybe change the sign. But if someone came into my library, took photos of our signs, and posted them to Flickr with the intent of saying how bad they are, I’d want to punch him or her in the nose.

And yet, the discussion around signs has certainly got me thinking. We want to discourage cell phone use in our library because our students (the ones who aren’t talking on the phone, anyway) have told us how distracting and rude they find it when cell phones are ringing and people are talking on their phones in study areas. But there is no need to be snarky or abrupt about it in our signs.

So, as I posted before, we are taking a cue from Regis University Library and trying some one-on-one signage for cell phone users. We ripped them off wholesale, though we did change one of their slogans to “‘I’m sorry, I can’t talk right now; a librarian just handed me this card…’”

I was also fond of the phrase “promoting a research-friendly atmosphere.” After all, that’s the point, right? Nobody expects this library to be monastery quiet. So I made up a new wall sign, too, incorporating that wording and using a Creative Commons-licensed image from Flickr.

For other sign-like objects, some of my colleagues have designed the “Tutt Library keeps you afloat” image for magnets that we’ll be handing out with our contact info.

They have also come up with a nifty door hanger for new students with “Do not disturb / I’m connected to the Library!” on one side and “If my parents call, I’m at the Library!” on the other (along with our contact info, of course). Illustrations are photos of CC students from the 50s or 60s from the archives. I seem to remember the main reason to hang something on the dorm room doorknob was to send the signal to one’s roommate that he or she should get lost for a little while. So maybe “I’m connected to the Library!” will become CC slang for “I’m getting some action.”

Tags:
library,
coloradocollege,
signs,
cellphones

Anyway, I had five minutes to speak and used about two minutes. I said something like this:

Hi! I’m Steve, I’m a librarian, and I’m proud of it.

I’m sure that while you are on your trip, in a soup kitchen or around the campfire, some first-year student will turn to you and ask “how many journal subscriptions does the library have?”

Really, what I hope you will tell them about the library is that it is the librarians’ job to help students. That is what we do. And we have these jobs because we like working with students. So encourage them to ask for help early and often. Let them know that we are here to help them succeed.

Any questions?

No questions. What more is there to say?

Tags:
library,
coloradocollege

Them: “Aw, why not?”

Me: “Because we don’t want your parents to sue us when you break your neck, and because you are making too much noise for the people inside studying.”

Them: “Man, our parents can’t afford laywers!”

I did not add “go skate outside Stephen Abram’s library,” but perhaps I should have.

Also, I think I am officially a cranky old dad when I go around telling kids that they are going to break their necks.