Summary

Working through these exercises while also participating in the ILS demos and symposium has been very eye-opening for me. Our customers have higher expectations and more options than ever in accessing information. Incorporating the best of these resources with a new ILS will be a driving factor in meeting our customers rising expectations of what the Sno-Isle website/catalog should be.

Geomapping

This is really quite an amazing tool (Google Earth), though I did find it somewhat frustrating to use. Maybe it was just the speed of our network (or the limitations on my PC). Anyway it provides incredible access.

Gaming

It's been really interesting working in the library field for the last 20 years or so. Yeasr ago, I distinctly remember library admin people saying video gaming had no place in the library (similar I suppose to those who resisted video and music), and I still encounter this dismissive attitude from both librarians and customers alike (as in why are those kids using the computers to play games? - I thought libraries were for literature and "serious" work). Times and attitudes change, thank goodness. I see gaming as yet another way to engage people in their local library and demonstrate that we do have something of interest for all ages. The numbers we've seen for attendance at our gaming events have been impressive, and I undersand that some libraries are expanding the gaming events to seniors and cross-generational approaches. Can libraries adapt to new technologies and stay relevant in the 21st century? Yes Wii can!

Avatars

FUN! What more can I say.

Online apps

OK so I've typed something on this topic twice now, and it's failed twice. Blogger has been failing periodically throughout the afternoon as I've been working on this. Guess maybe that's why people might prefer having software on the machine they are using rather than relying solely on virtual apps.

Mamma

I tried Mamma, the meta-search engine. This stuff has come a long way since Netscape and Hotbot (those references seem so dated now don't they?)

Joe Janes suggested at PLA that for all practical purposes, Google is what the ready reference desk used to be. So the volume and nature of questions we get now are fewer and different, and our approach to using the tools needs to be different too. Meaning we need to sharpen our skills and master things like search engines so that the customer who has often failed in their own attempt to use the same tools, can get what they need.

Podcasts

This could be very useful for us - both as a staff training tool and to educate our customers. we should be developing more of this (including visual instruction as well as audio).