Gocks!

Here at Chinook Arch, we receive a variety of publications from libraries all over the province.  Recently, we received the winter program guide from Strachcona County Library.  One teen program, in particular, caught my attention:  Gocks!  What are Gocks?  Gocks are goth sock puppets, of course!  What a great way to invite teens to get creative at your library.  The Gocks program invites teens to bring their own sock (clean, and any colour) and create Gocks, Pocks (punk sock puppets) or Emocks (emo sock puppets)!  The library would then provides the piercings and black eyeliner! In other words, the library would provide supplies like safety pins, markers, fabric, sewing needles and thread, glue, googley eyes, pom-poms, fun fur, sequence, etc.  A variety of supplies will ensure teens get creative with their Gocks, Pocks, and Emocks!  Check out these sock puppet resources to get started:
http://bit.ly/7KZ9l7
http://bit.ly/8zYH18
http://bit.ly/5dj2Iw
http://bit.ly/5FOKJA


Kerby

Promoting New Library Services

There's been a lot of talk lately about library promotion and marketing.  By promoting library services you are informing your users about what you do and what you can do. When you promote library services effectively, you can expect to see increased usage, increased value in the organization, education of users and changed perceptions.
While promotion is important for the library as a whole, it is especially important for new services.  Promoting new library services is the only way to ensure their long-term sustainability.
Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Put up posters in the library for upcoming programs
• Distribute brochures and program guides
• Bring program guides/brochures to senior’s centre, day cares, etc.
• Put posters up in the community where there are bulletin boards (grocery store or community centre)
• Make sure board members know what is going on in the library and can talk up new programs/services
• Write an article about the new library service for your town's newspaper/newsletter
• Use the school newsletter when appropriate
• Give out flyers or bookmarks at the circulation desk
• Advertise on your website or on your town's website
• Visit community organizations to talk up the new service
• Talk to your patrons!  Make sure all front-end staff are spreading a consistent message.

Try a few of these promotional tactics, just be sure to keep your message consistent.  If you need help creating posters, writing newspaper articles, etc. just give Consulting Services a call!

Top Ten Reasons Why Libraries Should Circulate Video Games

1. Attracts teens to the library. Once they're in the door, you can show them all the other great things the library has to offer them.
2. Helps establish the library as a total media and information destination and therefore truly relevant to teens (and other's) needs.
3. They have wide appeal. The average gamer is around 33 years old. The video game collection will appeal to everyone and the library's value added service becomes priceless to the entire family.
4. It's the trend. Do you want your library to be cutting edge or behind the times? Many will argue, "Video games in the library?" Imagine when people said "DVDs in the library?"
5. Just another digital media like DVDs, computer software, etc. Video games are the next step and your patrons will love it/1
6. Economically friendly for the community. The average cost of renting a video game is $3-6. Imagine your patrons' reactions when they discover they can check them out, at the library, for free.
7. New patrons, new supporters! Think of all the new patrons who will come to the Library and sign up for a Library Card. Imagine how many more people would list the library as a priority for public funding.
8. Consumer friendly. Having them in your library allows patrons to test out games before they purchase one.
9. They are an important media dn learning source. Studies show that many video games are educational and help users develop problem solving skills.
10. Family friendly! It's a great family social activity.

(Source: Hazelbaker, S. Gayle, "Top Ten Reasons Why Libraries Should Circulate Video Games", Rural Library Services Newsletter, Volume 20, Issue 2, March/April 2009)

Do Nothing But Read Day!

Sign up for the first "Do Nothing But Read Day!"  On December 20th, 2009 take the day off from Christmas preparations and do nothing but read.  Sign up here.

Library Journal's Best Books of 2009

Check out Library Journal's Best Books of 2009.

What Google Did Next

The Netspeed 2009 conference once again included a popular session on Google. Two librarians from Vancouver Public Library have presented this updated session for the last couple of years and it always proves to be one of the most well attended sessions.

What makes this session so interesting is that they show some of the new, innovative applications that Google-employed staff have created, that you may not have heard about yet. And even if you have heard of them, they show you how to use them in ways that you might not have thought of.

What I find so interesting about the content that is presented at these sessions is that they are largely the product of the Google staff's own imaginations and interests. Apparently Google sets aside a certain percentage of time each week to allow their staff to work on projects that are purely of interest to them. An interesting concept ... what if all organizations did that? Imagine what the results might be.

Here are a few of the new(er) Google applications that were highlighted in this year's session:

Google Labs (http://www.googlelabs.com/) - here you can find newly developed Google applications and programs.

Google 411 (www.google.ca/goog411) - an information service; provides free long distance calling to businesses all over North America using this service.

Google Flu Trends (www.google.org/flutrends) - uses search data to detemine flu activity around the world.

Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) - provides maps and satellite images, and includes features such as 3-D buildings and a fly-to feature.

Google Ocean (http://earth.google.com/ocean) - a subset of Google Earth that covers oceanic geography.

Google Books (http://books.google.com/books) - providing free digital content; 5 to 6 million books have been scanned so far into this service. Up to 33% of a book's content can be published by Google (at this time, anyway).

Google Squared (www.google.com/squared) - a search tool that builds a table of facts about whatever you are searching for. Try searching "Canadian prime ministers" or "British explorers" to see how it works.

Google Street View (http://maps.google.ca/streetview) - highly controversial; Google Street View is now in 14 countries, and provides views of streets as you would see them if you were driving down them.

Google Sightseeing (http://googlesightseeing.com/) - using Google Street View, these are prefabricated tours of various cities, regions, and topics (including some of the funniest images caught by Google Street View cameras)

Google In Quotes (http://labs.google.com/inquotes/) - find out what your favorite (or least favorite) celebrity has said about any topic.

Google Audio Indexing (http://labs.google.com/gaudi) - video and audio indexed by Google, which allows you to search for video or audio clips containing specific phrases.

Twilight Trend

The Twilight franchise has become incredibly popular with teens and adults alike.  Why not jump on the band wagon?  Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Put up vampire and werewolf displays around your library to promote your collection.
• Try hosting a Twlight movie screening.  Serve popcorn and encourage participants to dress up.  
• Hold a Twilight art contest and display the submissions around the library. 

Kerby

Food for Fines

Fines can be a barrier for some patrons.  Why not host a "Food for Fines" event at your library?  Patrons who bring in a donation for the local food bank would receive a waiver on their fines and your local food bank would receive much needed donations.  What a great way to support your local food bank as well as encourage some of your patrons to come into the library again!

Children's author Robert Munsch could read at your library!!

ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation just launched their annual Munsch at Home Contest that could mean Robert Munsch right in your library!


The contest, which runs until December 11th, gives Canadian families the opportunity to write a creative story together in hopes of winning a private home visit from Robert Munsch.  The winning family will also get to choose a local library, school or literacy group to receive a public reading by Mr. Munsch.  Promote the contest to families in your library and you could receive your very own story-telling from Robert Munsch!


The Munsch at Home contest runs in celebration of Family Literacy Day, an annual initiative developed by ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation and Honda Canada to celebrate parents and children reading and learning together and to encourage Canadians to spend at least 15 minutes enjoying a learning activity every day.  Thousands of Canadians across the country participate in this initiative with their families, and in their communities every year.  Last year, more than 119 000 Canadians read together to break the Guinness World Record for "Most Children Reading With An Adult, Multiple Locations."


For more information and promotional materials, please visit http://www.FamilyLiteracyDay.ca. 

Great video from Vancouver Public Library

Below is a very entertaining instructional video for VPL about the prevention of repetitive strain injuries in the library work place. The actors are VPL employees and even the sound track is original music by a staff member.  Can you spot your bad habits?  
Click the link to watch the video.

http://vimeo.com/6516147

Do you Tweet?

I'm sure you have all noticed our Twitter feed on the right hand side of this blog - what do you think?  Consulting Services has been tweeting to promote library services to your patrons.  We'll tweet about new services, databases, new books, library events, unique collections etc. - all you have to do is tell your patrons about it!

Even though Consulting Services is tweeting on your library's behalf, you can tweet too!  Using Twitter is a great way to let your patrons know what's new at your library.  Let me share a few Twitter tips that I picked up at Netspeed 2009.

If you're a seasoned twit, these tips won't be new to you, but if you've only recently become a twit, read on! :)

Retweet: Taking a Twitter message someone else posted and rebroadcasting that message to your followers.  For example, to retweet something that we tweeted, type: RT @ABlibrarians Can't think what to read next? Novelist can help!  Access Novelist with your library card: http://bit.ly/3tGrGB .
The "RT" lets readers know that this is a retweet and the "@ABlibrarians" gives us credit for it.

Hashtags:  Hashtags help to organize and "tag" information on Twitter - think of them as adding subject terms to a database.  Hashtags make it easier to follow a specific topic, event or geographical location, for example.
Create a hashtag by adding a hash symbol (#) to the front of an appropriate keyword in your Twitter update (for example #libraries).
Twitter updates that contain a valid hashtag are indexed on Hashtags.org, and have RSS feeds available.  This allows you to subscribe to a certain hashtag and receive updates whenever it is mentioned.  So, if you subscribed to  #libraries you could follow what people were saying about libraries on Twitter.  Neat huh?

Okay, there's more to learn about Twitter and how it can help to promote you library, but I think that's enough for today.  Visit www.twitter.com, sign up for an account (if you haven't already) and practice retweeting and using hashtags.

Netspeed 2009: Big Worlds & New Literacies

A number of Chinook Arch staff attended the Netspeed 2009 Conference last week in Calgary.  The aim of the Netspeed conference, hosted by The Alberta Library, is "Connecting libraries to cutting-edge technologies".  Among the keynote speakers was Margaret Mackey, Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies, at the University of Alberta. 

Margaret's talk was on "Big Worlds and & New Literacies".  The talk discussed the idea of the "Big World" - an information universe that doesn't stop at the borders of a single text.  Examples of Big Worlds include a series of books or films, a field of study, a text with a variety of spin offs, or a text that has been opened up by fan responses.  The idea is that the reader does not want the story to end at the end of the book.  They look for other ways to engage with the story, and there are MANY examples of how readers are participating in Big World reading.

Margaret identified 4 qualities of digiital world texts:

1. Porousness - reading and writing, speaking and listening are no longer separate activities.  Texting is a good example of this.  It has both characteristics of writing and speaking.  Facebook is another example. 
2. Hybridity - the resulting texts of the types of activities that are described above.  Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart is a good example.  A fictional story that includes real web addresses, phone numbers and more.  Readers can actually call Cathy's voicemail.
3. Slipperiness - stories that are created to mutate.  For examples, stories created by a group of people, such as multi-player online role-playing games.  Another example is the Penguin wiki novel - a project called A Million Penguins in which a web space has been created where anyone can contribute to the writing of a novel and anyone can edit anyone else's writing.
4. Unfinished - the story is never really over; the limits to what constitutes a story proper are not clear anymore.  A good example of this is fan fiction, where fans don't want to see the story end so they create endless ongoing stories for their favorite characters and settings.

Margaret ended her talk by asking what this means for libraries.  She did not attempt to give us the answers, but instead encourages librarians to think about what role we might play for Big World readers (an ever increasing population). 

We loved Margaret's talk so much that we immediately invited her to present at the Southern Alberta Library Conference.  It is people like Margaret who force us to think a little bit "outside the box" and encourage the unique and innovative services that libraries provide.  We look forward to Margaret's participation in our conference as we feel this topic fits well with our theme Libraries: Where the Wild Things Are.

(Posted by Terra)

Teen Read Week - Read Beyond Reality

This week is Teen Read Week! The theme, Read Beyond Reality, "encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it." For more details, please visit:http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/teenreading/trw/trw2009/home.cfm

It's not too late to set up a science fiction display to encourage teens o use your library. For ideas on books to include, check out the Sci-Fi Book List on the Teen Reading Club website. Many of the books included on this list were recommended by teens themselves!
http://www.teenrc.ca/booklists?tid=2598&title=&field_book_author_value=&field_series_value=&uid=

Women's History Month

Did you know that on October 18, 1929 the Persons Case was settled when the Privy Council in England declared that Canadian women were indeed 'persons' under the law and could be appointed to the Senate? 
In commemoration of this event and of Women's History Month why not put out a special display to celebrate women?  
Want more information on Women's History Month? Visit Status of Women Canada.

Celebrate Canadian Library Month @ your library!

Ok , so I know that it's already mid-October, but it's not too late to celebrate Canadian Library Month!  This year’s theme is: Your Library: Your World, so why not show your community how important libraries are.  Libraries are part of everyone’s world and this is your chance to encourage people to use their local library.

Here some ideas for celebrating from Consulting Services:

• Have an open house to highlight library resources
• Library card promotions
• Invite local artists, politicians, business people etc. to speak up about the value of the library
• Invite a local author to do a reading or book signing 
• Booktalk at a local school
• Send our a special edition of your newsletter
• Put an article about the library in your local newspaper 
• Put up a special display that highlights a part of the collection that is unique
• Organize library tours
• Hold a reading contest
• Host a family reading night 

The library is a very important part of our communities, so spread the word!!  For more information on Canadian Library Month you can visit http://www.cla.ca/clm09/ .

If your library is participating in Canadian Library Month, post a comment and tell us about it!

Welcome!

In an effort to provide the best service to you, our member libraries, we have launched this blog.  In it we (Terra, Lauren and Kerby) will write about a variety of topics related to librarianship, rural libraries and the library world at large.  Fun right!?
We will also keep you abreast to the latest developments here at Chinook Arch HQ as they relate to your libraries.
So check back often to find out what's new!
If you would like to comment, please do!  If you would like to become a "guest blogger" or have something you would like us to blog about, please let us know.
Enjoy!