I wonder why I sounded so croaky on the radio this morning? I really don’t know.

It may have been delayed panic from nearly missing the interview when Google Maps and my iPad conspired to send me to the wrong address for the ABC studio – about 10 minutes away. (When I checked my route the night before, I saw that there was no building there and thought that the Maylands river bank was an odd place for a studio to be anyhow… )

The discussion on the future of libraries went very well. Sophie MacDonald has a great post paraphrasing some of the discussion, where I sound more coherent than I was 🙂 Thank you.

I have a couple of very, very nice emails. In answer to one of them about ebooks, here are some posts that I have written about my experience and opinion of ebooks that you – or others – may find useful.

• 22 things I am going to do now that the library Kindle has arrived.
• Why we chose a Kindle…and about free content.
• Ebooks and ebook readers in Australia
• IPad as an ebook reader in Australia

This is the last post for the 30 posts in 30 days challenge .

As mentioned earlier, I am working on a project using WordPress 3 to replace our custom-made library website that has few features, little flexibility and is expensive to change.

With the look of the blog, there are a few challenges:

1. I am not a designer, not do I want to be. I like colours to match and graphics to be harmonious, but I’m not your woman to achieve that.
2. I know that I want “search catalogue”, “search my details”, “contact us” and “opening hours” on each page, plus a top navigation menu. This is forced because I have to embed third party searches in frames and the pages they will be on will be too wide to keep sidebars.
3. I want the sidebars to be changeable by library staff. Part of the strategy to get our users using our subscription databases is to highlight a different one in the sidebar every so often.
4. The branding and design of the website is already contracted to a firm that is great with visual design, but has no experience with WordPress Themes
5. Because we want control, we do not want to pay for a theme that charges again with each upgrade.
6. I want to launch the new WordPress site a month or so before the new library opens, but want the look of the WordPress to be very similar to that of the legacy site during the transition time. The new site for the new building will go live about a week before the doors open, so I wanted to be able to customise the site to suit the old and new design with very little farting around.

We looked at Polly Farrington’s list of library sites using WordPress and liked the simple and clean lines of the Southfield Public Library . From looking at the page source, I could see that the theme was Thesis. It sounded familiar. I remembered Stephen Collins from Acid Labs tweeting as he set up his site using Thesis.

I particularly liked how different the two sites looked, demonstrating three features I was after – flexibility, lots of scope for customisation and looking pretty. If  you look at the user site showcase on the Thesis home site, you can see that they are very different from each other . Unfortunately there is also a (modest) license fee to use the theme .

BUT…

I really didn’t want to go down the path of a licensed product and wondered if there was anything similar out there. A bit of hunting about led me to Suffusion from Aquoid Themes by Sayotan Sinha .

The first attraction was the widget bar under the header so that I could put my consistent links (catalogue, borrower details, opening hours, contact) underneath the header and change them at will. Then I looked at the small Suffusion theme showcase and liked what I saw.

When I installed it I found that many, many features that were usually controlled by the theme’s CSS files, thus out of reach for mere mortals like me,  were tweakable from a “Settings for Suffusion” panel in the dashboard.

I could choose from seven different sidebars to place widgets. I could upload my header image and specify its size and whether it was inside or outside the wrapper. I could change the background colour for the blog or replace it with an image. I could place a logo on the header. There were templates for just one sidebar, no sidebar (usable when I had to embed a search frame), magazine style and many others. I could decide which pages appeared on the top navigation menu, how they displayed and whether the navigation bar was above or below the header. Link colours. Customisable. Visited link colour, Customisable. Favicon. Customisable. Inserting Analytics. Customisable.

There are many more features. Like the ability to add custom content types and custom taxonomies through the theme panel, so no need to edit the functions.php file by hand. As with many projects of love and collaboration, some obvious customisations are missing – like the ability to change the colour of the tabs in the menus , while some small things are customised to the nth degree – like the way the date is displayed. If you do know your CSS , there is a window where you can add your own CSS, which will then transfer when the theme is upgraded.

I think the company doing the graphic arts and branding for the new library were a little surprised by the limitations of the theme, but very much understood our desire to control the site for ourselves. They knew that with CSS they could control everything and make it look wonderful but , understandably, did not have time to learn exactly how to make the same changes through Suffusion. I really like the design they have come up with – not as beautiful as they could have done on their own; much, much better looking that I could have done and – most importantly – flexible enough for us to change, control and customise the site to suit our needs.

Post number 29 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge .

I’m going to be on ABC Radio National’s Book Show this Wednesday 30 June talking about the future of public  libraries along with other guest, Ian McShane from Swinburne University.  I record at 8am, with the show being broadcast at 10:30am and repeated at 8pm that night.

Of course there is a future…let me show you it….

So…if you had just one thing that you think a group of educated people, passionate about books and reading, should know about our libraries and the future, what would it be ?

I skipped Saturday’s 30 posts in 30 days post because I was flat out…. and then in one of those “just have one more square of chocolate” moments on Sunday …. I skipped a post for that day too. It felt really, really good not to feel like I *had* to say something when I had nothing to say… aaaah. This challenge has been a great way to get back into a blogging rhythm, and I have loved reading everyone’s posts, but gee I’m going to enjoy being a bit quieter.

Post 28 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

Yesterday, John Blyberg, Darien Library Assistant Director for Innovation and User Experience, explained the function, future and innovations in public libraries to a group of ” thought leaders [sharing] ideas on common challenges and best practices on issues ranging from Public Health and Transparency in Government to Human Rights and Community Development” at the U.S. – Russia Civil Society to Civil Society (C2C) Summit in Washington, D.C.

Thanks for standing up for libraries, John, and creating such a beautiful slideset that focuses on what libraries can offer.

Few libraries are as richly resourced as Darien Library. The slideset highlights what is possible and the attitude and energy we can strive for as we focus on our community needs.

A couple of months ago, a group of librarians where I work came up with a Digital Strategy to guide our use of resources and help us make decisions in the future. We are a single-branch public library, employing around 4.5FTE librarians,  that aims to provide a service to match the cutting-edge design of our new library building.

We sourced quite a bit of the wording from other libraries’ digital strategies, but adapted it for our library. Our internal document has a huge list of action items and a timeline and allocation of responsibilities. Anything that went on the action list needed to be related to achieving one of the digital strategy’s aims.

What would you add? What would you take out?

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ONE PAGE EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

WHY A TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL STRATEGY?

Libraries assist people to develop the capability and skills to thrive in the digital environment and to participate in the digital economy.

Digital technology offers opportunities to change the way that users interact with our library. We will ensure that we use this technology to responsibly and sustainably meet user needs – and aim to exceed their expectations.

The Library Technology and Digital Strategy provides guidelines about where to target library resources like funding, staff skills, time and energy in the areas of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), digital resources and the library’s online presence.

VISION

This strategy supports the Library Vision Statement that : We strive to be a vibrant, active service that contributes to an educated, informed, recreated and connected society.

The Technology and Digital Strategy Vision Statement is that:

Our library users will be empowered, connected and delighted as we provide facilities, content and expertise to help them access the content and online conversations they need, regardless of format or location.

AIMS

AIM 1: Taking advantage of improvements to technology

We will aim to ensure that we understand technological changes and the social changes brought about by these. We will nimbly and appropriately incorporate these to enhance the library experience for our users.

AIM 2: Excellent online presence

The library online presence will enhance our users’ ability to easily connect to the content and online conversations they need. Our online presence will highlight our specialised collecting areas.

AIM 3: Creating a new digital experience for all users

We will support lifelong learning and help our users to develop the capability and skills to thrive in the digital environment.

AIM 4: Making staff skills accessible

Our excellent staff skills in connecting people with information shall be easily accessible, both inside and outside our building.

AIM 5: Providing access to local digital content

We will continue to digitize local content to create a focused library collection. We will connect users to digital content produced locally and about local affairs.

AIM 6: Investing in ICT infrastructure

We will invest in infrastructure that not only supports current services, but allows the library to adapt to future shifts in technology and use

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FULL VERSION

1. WHY A TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL STRATEGY?

Libraries assist people to develop the capability and skills to thrive in the digital environment and to participate in the digital economy.

Digital technology offers opportunities to change the way that users interact with our library. We will ensure that we use this technology to responsibly and sustainably meet user needs – and aim to exceed their expectations.

The Technology and Digital Strategy provides guidelines about where to target library resources of time, money, staffing and energy in the areas of:

·       Library Information and Communications Technology (ICT)

·       Computing infrastructure in our building

·       The library’s online presence

·       Library community requirements for computing and online resources from the library

·       Equity of access to computing and online resources for all members of our community

·       Maximizing usage of online resources provided by the library

·       Connecting people to local information online

·       Connecting local people to online information that they need

2. SUPPORTING THE LIBRARY VISION

The Technology and Digital Strategy supports the Library Vision Statement that:

We strive to be a vibrant, active service that contributes to an educated, informed, recreated and connected society.

Specific areas of the detailed Library Vision Statement supported are:

The new library and community centre will be a people place, which will be:

·        … Facilitate life-long-learning through the provision of spaces and resources to create a learning environment; …

·        Resourced with up to date technologies to promote a virtual environment to library customers, provide access to computing facilities and computer training programmes….

·        An attractive and accessible environment for people of all ages;…

·        A safe environment for staff with functional work stations to promote efficient work flows….

·        A community hub connecting people to their communities…

3. TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL STRATEGY VISION

Our library users will be empowered, connected and delighted as we provide facilities, content and expertise to help them access the content and online conversations they need, regardless of format or location.

4. AIMS OF THE TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITAL STRATEGY

AIM 1: Taking advantage of improvements to technology

We will aim to ensure that we understand technological changes and the social changes brought about by these. We will nimbly and appropriately incorporate these to enhance the library experience for our users.

Some aspects we will monitor are:

o        Access devices

o        Content locations

o        Content creation

o        Ways of connecting communities

o        Ideas about transliteracy

We will ensure that our enterprise application systems increase our staff efficiency, are sufficiently functional and are as easy to use as possible.

AIM 2: Creating an excellent online presence

The library online presence will enhance our users’ ability to easily connect to the content and online conversations they need. Our online presence will highlight our specialised collecting areas

AIM 3: Creating a new digital experience for all users

We will support lifelong learning and help our users to develop the capability and skills to thrive in the digital environment.

AIM 4: Making staff skills accessible

Our excellent staff skills in connecting people with information shall be easy accessible, both inside and outside our building.

Staff expertise will be easily found online and effectively meet our users’ needs.

We will ensure that our staff understand the digital environment of our users and the most useful sites for their needs by:

o        providing  appropriate training

o        providing appropriate equipment

o        encouraging wide and responsible use of online resources by staff.

Library staff expertise includes helping users to:

o      Learn the best places to find information

o      Ask better questions to find exactly what they need

o      Find more of the content they enjoy

o      Acquire skills in functional information literacy

o      Connect with each other and their communities

o      Let us know what services we should provide

AIM 5: Providing access to local digital content

We will continue to digitize local content to create a focused library collection. We will connect users to digital content produced locally and about local affairs.

We will seek to expose data we produce to the widest amount of access and appropriate reuse online, while respecting and upholding the moral and intellectual property rights of content producers whose works we digitise.

We will acknowledge that the local digital content in the library is a living collection that belongs to the community and will only thrive with hands-on input from the community. Therefore, we will ensure adequate resources to encourage, support and administer volunteers to do this.

We will work with our local community to help them gain skills to digitize their own local content

AIM 6: Investing in ICT infrastructure

We will invest in infrastructure that not only supports current services, but allows the library to adapt to future shifts in technology and use

This is one of those “where were you when…?” moments.

Where was I when Kevin Rudd stood down as Prime Minister so that the party could vote on who would be Prime Minister in the morning?

Making a website for work, dealing with some exciting news that I can’t share yet, thinking about the next library unconference in Western Australia….

… removing my 7 year old son’s contact lenses and telling my other son to close his computer because he was totally engaged in designing a computer game for his Year 7 computing class…discovering that playing Renee and Renato’s 1983 Hit Save Your Love makes children run straight to bed with no complaints …

The way I found out about the news, and tried to find more was:

• reading jokes about a #spill on Twitter and first thinking that there was another oil tanker that had gone over in the sea (stayed 10 mins)
• watching as the rumour solidified, people began citing sources and putting out links to reliable news sources (5 mins)
• checking abc.net.au to see what news was there (last updated 12 minutes before) (3 mins)
• switching on Radio National (ABC again) to hear if there was anything on about it (20 sec)
• checking the live radio stream from the ABC (not much) (10 sec)
• switching on ABC1 on the TV (no – Spics ‘n’ Specs on because I’m in Western Australia – 2 hours and 10 years behind the rest of the country)
• switching to Channel 7 and finally seeing Kev’s resignation speech

Post 25 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

…looks around and says “Is the bar tender here?”

*boom, tish*

Welcome to the bottom of the barrel for post 24 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

Our new library was named a few weeks ago. It will be “The Grove:
Leading, Learning, Living”. There was a lot of public debate in the months leading up to this, after the community rejected the original consultant’s suggestion that it be called “The Very Clever Library”. It is currently the “Cottesloe-Peppermint Grove-Mosman Park Library”, so it will be much easier to answer the phone.

The move is at the start of August. Doors close for a couple of weeks, then open to the public a light, open, welcoming space over twice the size of the current building.

The building houses the library, Child Health Clinic, large Community Meeting Rooms and the Peppermint Grove Shire Offices. Features include solar panels, a thermal maze, storm water reuse, waterless urinals, solar passive orientation, bio filtering and rainwater tanks. Inside will be a cafe, separate children’s storytime room, free wifi, public access computers, four large screens with over 40 cable TV channels and video displays, four spaces for presentations with dataprojectors and screens, a quiet study area, adaptive technology for people with disabilities, community history space, sustainability information, lots and lots of books, dvds, talking books, graphic novels and magazines plus community education classes and friendly, knowledgable welcoming staff.

The slideshow below shows photos from our site visit at the start of June, explaining what will go where. If it doesn’t show on your computer, you can see it here, New building May 2010. The Grove. Leading, learning, living .

Still taking a break from Think Posts in the 30 posts in 30 days challenge…

My old schoolfriend and very soon to be qualified librarian, Jenny, outed me in the comments on my four truths and one lie post.

She was there when the peacock blue ink incident happened.  When I wrote in peacock blue ink in the Mock Exams before the Big Exam, the teacher in question went to the extent of taking several marks off my English Mock Exam for “not being able to follow instructions” and “dashing off work in green ink”.  She taught me a life lesson – that people in authority can be wrong and to think carefully about what they are saying and measure it against what may be an alternative way of looking at things…

Jenny knows I really am shy enough to cross the road or duck into a shop if I am feeling thingie about talking to someone. Co-incidentally Lutie, who doubted that I would do such a thing,  was in a bookshop in Freo today and I walked up to her and said “hi”. 🙂 And in case she was wondering, I don’t think I would ever feel thingie enough about talking to her to not say hi 🙂 🙂

As GirlwithShoes observed, I was also bemused that no-one questioned me as a roller derby queen or being kicked out of a hotel bar.

That leaves the high jump record. I am 158cm and was a much smaller 12 year old.  My primary school friend Julie, who was a tall and athletic youngster, did hold the state high jump record with that height.

Congratulations to Hoi and Ruth who got it right. To the other people who played – thanks for believing that I could have been a High Jump Champion. Just shows that you never know what other people think you are capable of.

Post number 21 of the 30 posts in 30 days challenge.

Just to reassure Ruth  after her comment on yesterday’s post.

In 1991, I was removed by police from a public bar in Swansea, Tasmania, making the front page of the Mercury. I was having a quiet drink with some other women the night after the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission had ruled that the Returned Services League could not legally continue to exclude women from the bar. The RSL President was drunk and belligerent and removing us was how the police kept the peace.

The back story is that the local hairdresser was asked by a couple of female travellers where they could get a meal in the town. When she told them to go to the RSL, they told her that they had tried that, but they had been kicked out of the bar for being women. She told them that that really couldn’t be so and tried to be served there herself. Two or three actions in the Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission, and several years,  later she had a ruling that the club had to serve women.

I was invited because I was a member of the Women’s Action Group, a feminist collective that met to do womanly things like get kicked out of bars. I had been in Hobart for just two weeks at the time and gave my mum a fright when I sent a copy of the paper back home. Two months later on International Women’s Day, I was standing in a giant tea cup sculpture made of hay, on the back of a ute parked at Parliament House,  speaking through a megaphone on the topic “Don’t let them tell you it’s over …. “.

I didn’t *deliberately* put my hands behind my back in the photo to make it look like I was handcuffed.  😉

Blog Post 20 the 30 posts in 30 days challenge