ATD Conference Orlando

I'll be at the Association for Talent Development Conference Sunday-Tuesday of next week.  You can follow the action on Twitter #ATD2015 if you are interested, or follow me @LisaRKenyon.

Lisa

Computers in Libraries Conference 2015

Computers in Libraries 2015: Cool Tools to Use Today

by Rebecca Starr

Computers in Libraries 2015, held in Washington, D.C. at the end of April, was abuzz with the latest technology, fun new apps, and innovative strategies to bring both to your community. While the total list is quite exhausting, here are some of my favorite tools that can be used on-the-job or shared with your patrons.

Educational

Mary Ellen Bates introduced these websites in her presentation, “Super Searcher Tips and Tools”:

●     Microsoft Academic: When Mary Ellen is tackling a search about which she knows very little, she will type it into this search engine to find dominant keywords, authors, and authoritative websites.

●     Instya: This cool search tool scours multiple search engines and social media sites at once.

●     Google Trends: This site is great for those obscure “Most Popular Searches” questions. It also houses great data visualizations of searches from around the world.

Finally, for those of you who answer technology questions or teach classes, be sure to visit NYPL TechConnect’s website. They host all of their presentation handouts and tutorial videos here!

Creative

In her presentation “A Thousand Voices: The Power of Storytelling”, Diane Cordell offered these digital tools to help patrons of all ages tell stories of their own:

●     Zooburst: This application let you create digital 3D pop-up books! (If you closed this post now in favor of playing with this tool, I wouldn’t blame you.)

●     Shadow Puppet: Upload images, add text, and set them to narration to create your own video story. One classroom used this application to create a listening center.

●     Thematic: Create a narrative using your images and text...think Medium, but for photos. Here’s a cute example.

●     Storybird: Users of this social media-esque site can create stories using illustrator-developed work and share them within the Storybird community.

Just For Fun

Gary Price, the co-founder of INFODocket, shared some of his favorite apps, both old and new:

●     TinEye: This app allows you to upload an image and conduct a reverse image search. It may be handy with those “What is this?” questions where someone just has a photo.

●     AudioNow: Users can listen to radio stations from around the world on their phone for free. This site lists all of the phone number for different radio stations.

●     PhotoMath: Take a picture of a math problem and this app will solve it and show its work.

●     Office Lens: This scanner for smartphones “clears up” images that are otherwise hard to read (such as receipts and whiteboards).

To view additional presentations, head over to the Computers in Libraries website. I highly recommend this conference for all librarians and IT professionals.

Maryland Library Association Conference and Twitter

The Maryland Library Association and Delaware Library Association Joint Conference is May 6 - 8 (this week).  This year's them is Boldly Go . . .  where no libraries have gone before.

You can follow the action on Twitter #mladla15.

The following staff will be tweeting from the conference:

     Sarah Kuperman  @librnatconf.

     Jessica Brown @wearingsunlight

     MarylandAskUsNow @askusnow

Computers in Libraries Tweets

Sarah Kuperman will be tweeting from the Computers in Libraries Conference through Wednesday.  If you are interested, you can follow her on Twitter @librnatconf.  

The hashtag for the conference is #cildc 

SLRC Roving Reference Pilot and Cross Training

The first stage of the roving reference service Central is almost over, and the rovers will be sending their final recommendations to the Reference Model and Technology Committee for review.  As this first stage nears the end, the first floor cross-training is beginning.  The staff participating in the roving reference program will be visiting each of the first floor Central departments for a short introduction/orientation to the departments and their collections.  Each of the rovers will visit BST, SSH, Fiction/YA, HUM, the Information Desk, Sights and Sounds, and Periodicals.  Other interested staff can participate in the cross-training programs and although the current cross-training classes will run in the morning before the library opens we will add additional classes that meet later in the day to accommodate interested staff who don't work in the mornings.

Keep Calm

Understanding and Working with Patrons from Poverty

The "Framework for Understanding and Working with Patrons from Poverty" class on 3/16/15 was a huge success. If you did not attend the class, you missed a great workshop on understanding class differences and discussions about how to provide better services and relationships with our communities.  Bethanie Tucker led the class through the hidden rules and language that separates economic classes and helped the attendees to recognize their own biases.

Reactions from the attendees were overwhelmingly positive, and many were interested in immediately trying some of the strategies that were discussed in class.  One attendee left "tired but saturated" with helpful information and another was disappointed that there wasn't time to cover all the materials in the handout.  There was a request for the followup program and a suggestion that all supervisors should attend this training.  Most attendees learned to be wary of assumptions and expectations and saw this as the start of an ongoing project to connect customers with resources.

The book that was mentioned in class is owned by the library and is "A Framework for Understanding Poverty" by Ruby K. Payne (SSH Department  HV4045 .P39 1998Q).