userslib.com

Google just released a new feature for Google Maps that lets you easily add a map to your blog or website.

Below I’ve embedded the awesome map that David Fulmer made of all of the University of Michigan Libraries (it also uses images of the different libraries via flickr). Every library website’s contact page should use this!

View Larger Map

Sorry for the delay – here are some of my notes from last Tuesday’s MLibrary2.0 Gaming session.

Eli Neiburger: Gaming in the Library?

Eli is from the Ann Arbor District Library and you can find his presentation here.

Eli did an excellent job of describing and putting gamers in context. I think it’s an interesting area that is often overlooked when we think about what activities our patrons (and future patrons) are interested in and how we might use those interests to promote the library.

“Email is how you talk to old people” – AADL gamer

According the Pew Internet & American Life Project, the second most popular activity of those polled (ages 12-17) was gaming at 81%. [I also just came across this Trendspotting blog entry: 1 out of 4 online users are online game players: facts you should know so I think its quite clear that this is an area we ought to pay more attention to.]

• Gamers are very accustomed to dealing with complex interfaces like those used in online role playing games like World of Warcraft. They expect ubiquity. They expect everything to do everything – from water fountains to websites and wifi.
• Content from peers has a higher value than anything else. “Authority” has spent their authoritative capital.
• There are games that some faculty are starting to take an interest in as tools for learning. For example, SimCity and Civilization can be used to teach history, economics, city planning, etc.
• In a study by OCLC: College Students’ Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, Libraries were rated more trustworthy and accurate than search engines but search engines were rated much higher than Libraries as being more convienient, easy to use, cost effective, reliable and fast. [oh my!]
• Establishing the Library as Third Place. Eric Frierson goes into some detail on this as well as the event in general.
• The Ann Arbor District Library has a blog on it’s front page to share info from the Director, about events, programs, and the collection. Eli said one of the great things about this is that it acts as a sort of focus group because they can get immediate feedback about what’s going on via patron comments.

Jane Blumenthol – Second Life

Jane is the Director of the University of Michigan Health Sciences Libraries where they are working on extensive plans to use Second Life in conjunction with the Medical School. They are planning a whole campus for medical school related events. There will be 3-D models that can be explored and simulations of patient consultations so med school students will have an additional way to practice their bedside mannor.

Her presentation isn’t available online yet, but see her del.icio.us account for many Second Life related links.

Lisa Hinchliffe

Lisa Head of the U of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Undergraduate Library and spoke about Library 2.0 initiatives. I found this to be an especially inspirational talk because she talked about the technology and being brave, passionate, decisive (just do it!), willing to change your mind, attaining a state of continuous evolution, funding the future, and saying “yes.”
UIUL developed a browser search bar for their catalog, website, and google. They were the first to develop a Facebook app for searching their opac, and they feed their twitter and various blogs into the library’s home page. They circulate games and hold tournaments.

Lisa also gave some great advice for when dealing with innovation: be careful not to put too much importance measuring success. It doesn’t operate like it might with circ & reference stats. Sometimes just trying something new is successful.

I (with help from some others) am planning on polling University of Michigan Library users about what library resources they use, what web 2.0 resources they use (and how often), and their perception of the library’s online resources. Does anyone have any suggestions for questions they think would be interesting to include?

One of my first projects in my current job was to create a website that would give me and the usability working group a place to share information about our projects. My hope was that it would draw attention to how important it is to do user testing on library interfaces. It also forces us to be better record keepers and provide context in our reports that might otherwise be overlooked (we know what something looks like our how it behaves, but others don’t and we might forget).

In researching this idea, I found some really nice examples of how other university libraries are sharing their usability research – so here they are (plus ours):

• University of Michigan University Libraries- Usability in the Library
  
• NCSU Libraries- Usability Research at NCSU Libraries
• University of Virginia Libraries- Web Usability Testing
• MIT Libraries – Web Advisory Group
• University of Washington Libraries – UW Libraries Usability

For my first post I thought I’d start with a list and descriptions of my favorite library websites. These are sites that I think do a really nice job of balancing usability, aesthetics, and a lot of content. Oh, and they’re also good self-promoters. Self-promotion might not seem like an obvious fit with these other things, but I’ve been thinking a lot lately that it’s going to become even more essential for libraries if they are going to compete with the likes of – well, Google, of course. I’ll post more examples from each of these categories in the future, but for now, these are my favorites.

Do you have a favorite? Let me know.

Ann Arbor District Library
This site is very cleanly designed, offers simple ways to navigate, doesn’t overload the user with tons of links, and unconventionally dedicates most of the screen real estate to events and news.

MIT Libraries
At first I was a little surprised by the springy color theme, but it has really grown on me. Plus I appreciate all that beautiful white space. I don’t normally like links in a line but they’ve kept their lists short so I think it works fine. This is also a nice example of grid design that doesn’t feel too boxed in.

CalPoly
I like the color scheme and overall it has a really welcoming feeling. Ya, I’m a sucker for photos.

Free Library of Philadelphia
I love how bold this site is. Its so simple and friendly – Find… Explore…Ask…

New York Public Library
NYPL has a stately look without feeling cold and unfriendly. Again, photos = good. And I especially appreciate the prominence that the digital collections get.

Yale University Library
Yale has succeeded in balancing content with style. So hard to do.