ALA 2007 Quick notes and ideas

Some of the notes I wrote in the back of my notebook as I sat through a wide variety of good sessions-- I will write up selected sessions in more detail, but these are ideas I hope to come back to.

Quick notes/ideas:

• Consider hiring/appointing an Assessment Librarian (example, Karen Neurohr, OK State)
• Project: the JSTOR complement. A good idea for a JACC-type proposal, e.g., can we subscribe to the active journals from JSTOR with a 3/5 year rolling subscription to complement our JSTOR access? Also a good idea for us to track ourselves somehow—which do we subscribe to, could we subscribe to others, again ideally with a 3-5 year window, so that we can ensure seamless access to entire journal with minimum cost? Could we “tag” in SFX using assignable categories to group these current subscriptions?
• For Verde project: could Ulrich’s serials analysis tool serve as a source of any data for us? For example, list prices are there, could track savings when cf our prices. Should be easy to populate this w/ data from SFX to create our comparison set (although I doubt we’ve done it yet.)
• For web site: daily/weekly/monthly FAQ, quick tip, and/or current or popular ref questions with answer, sources
• Could we integrate our google-based “search this site” into the metalib jump start search?
• Get an “aggressive bar code reader” for 40% more efficiency (not sure what this is, but they were pretty firm that we needed it)
• Keep (as an individual, as a team, as a library?) an ideas archive. Tools may be available, environment may have changed in a few months to make an on-hold idea feasible
• Company to check out: IDEO prototyping http://www.ideo.com/ideo.asp; see article on process at http://www.ideo.com/pdf/DMI_winter-2007.pdf
• Closely allied fields: journalism and librarianship. Consider working with Andi Stein to develop into article or talk
• Consider becoming a Lominger 360 coach, pull out cards/book and really use for myself, others
• For Amir: could we work with IT to come up with matrix of specific skills, competencies, interview questions etc. for tech jobs? Could help standardize approach across campus?
• Simmons “interview competencies”-- http://my.simmons.edu/som/pdf/interview-strategies.pdf
• Google trends: check out this very cool lab product at http://www.google.com/trends . Will it be available eventually to use on our own server to analyze our top queries?
• To really consider things, ask “why?” 5 times
• Change perspective frequently
• “Misery is optional”
• Social networking build it yourself site: http://www.ning.com/

Resources to check out:

• Business 2.0 blog: section focused on technology @ http://blogs.business2.com/
• Extensible catalog blog at http://www.extensiblecatalog.info/
• Change in academic libraries blog: http://www.zephyrinnovation.com/
• Meredith Farkas wiki at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/ specifically notes on Finding New and Creative Solutions through Library Think Tanks at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com/page/Finding+New+and+Creative+Solutions+through+Library+Think+Tanks

Books to read