LLN Services & Technology Articles

Holt's Perspectives:

January 18, 2008: Digital Preservation’s Impact On Libraries And Librarians
The term “Digital Preservation” has certainly become part of everyday library-talk. In this entertaining and (for LLN) scholarly article, Glen Holt discusses the many aspects of “DigPres,” and its implications for the library community.

Jamie LaRue Speaks:

November 30, 2007: Can the Latest ebook Kindle the Market?
November 7, 2007: Libary Youtube video - Douglas County Libraries
October 25, 2007: The wisdom of crowds

Summer 2007 LLN Peer Panel

We live in an era of abundant private equity capital, and in recent years some of these funds have found a new home in the library services market space, witness SirsiDynix, ExLibris/Endeavor and others. Coincident with this, the open source phenomenon seems to be gaining traction. We recently featured some views on this in Glen Holt’s report from ALA: http://www.libraryleadership.net/July07.asp. For the Summer, 2007 Peer Panel, we asked our intrepid crew to share their views on this and related topics, taking into consideration the following questions:

Is the private equity/library services movement a good thing? Or a bad thing?
Will the involvement of private equity firms influence your buying decisions? How? Why?
Does this movement create new opportunities for open source solutions, as is suggested in Glen’s article? Or has open source’s time finally come regardless of who owns the various vendors?
If you were the head of a private equity firm, what types of library vendors would you be interested in? Why?

Holt's Perspectives:

July 16, 2007: HEARING THE “M WORD” AT DC-ALA?
As he wandered the halls and lobbies of ALA in Washington, D.C., Glen Holt heard the "M-word" often. Are we on the verge of a revolution in library automation? Learn more about the "M", and see what you think after reading Glen's insightful report.

June 19, 2007: DCPL and SirsiDynix: Watching and Hoping at ALA
As many of us prepare to travel to Washington, Glen Holt provides us with some humorous, and not so humorous, thoughts to have on our way to ALA Annual.

April 11, 2007: How Newspaper Readers Read The News – In Print And Online
There is a lot to learn from a recent study of newspaper readers. It’s not only what they read, but how they read it, and what they see as attractive and interesting. In this very informative article, Glen Holt discusses the study and its implications for library leaders as they seek to provide print and online resources that appeal to their customers.

March 1, 2007: Learning from Others
Education and experience provide good building blocks for successful library leadership. But, as Glen Holt points out in this enjoyable article, there is nothing quite like using ones eyes and ears in finding ways to improve (and perhaps even transform) the library and its value to your community.

October 9, 2006: Electronic services and database security: Real issues for the library of the present
In this increasingly "flat world," I have gotten into the habit of asking customer reps (at the other end of the phone line) where they are based. The answers I receive are eye-opening and not as predictable as one might think. Apparently, Glen Holt shares this habit, and his recent experience got him thinking about libraries, service and security.

May 11, 2006: Envisioning a Smart Library?
Glen Holt returns from a brief furlough full of thoughts about so-called "smart" libraries. Enjoy and please feel free to comment!

June 2007 LLN Peer Panel

Well, most of us are about to pack our bags and go spend a few days (or longer) in a place that is hot and muggy. Which is to say that it’s time for another ALA Annual Conference!

So this month we asked our panelists to explain what motivates them to attend ALA and other similar conferences:

•    Why do you go/not go to ALA (PLA, ACRL and other similar large gatherings)?
•    What do you see as the value of ALA (et.al.) to current and future library leaders?
•    What conferences are of greatest value to you? Why?
•    How would you like to see the ALA conference change?
•    What other relevant comments would you care to make?

Report on OCLC Sessions at 2007 ALA Midwinter

February 2007 LLN Peer Panel

For this month’s Peer Panel topic, we refer back to the article penned by LLN’s Leslie Dillon concerning the OCLC Symposium at ALA Midwinter found here. What we posed to our panel:

We would like each of you to discuss your take on the new development in cyberspace known as Social Networking. Specifically, we would like you to pretend that your boss just asked you what you and your library are doing (or might do in the future) about Social Networking, and why? What do you tell him/her? What questions does S.N. raise for libraries?

Confessions of a Library User

We occasionally run into people who, when we tell them about the Library Leadership Network, volunteer to share their thoughts and experiences concerning libraries. From time to time, we will pass their comments on in the hope that our readers will find them helpful.

February 2007 LLN Peer Panel

This month's questions:
Please name one or two things that your library has done in the last year to either attract new users or increase usage by existing users.

What were your goals for these programs?
How did you measure your results?

February 2007 LLN Peer Panel

This month's questions:

As libraries plan for the future, what opportunities and threats are presented by Google?
Have libraries (including yours) changed anything because of the existence of Google?
In the future, what do you think will distinguish library services on the WEb (vs. Google et.al)?

What Every Leader Should Know about Information Management (Part 1)

Information Management is a term we are all familiar with, albeit one that is often not clearly defined and thus not terribly actionable by people in the information “business.” We are very pleased to offer a three-part series, excerpted from a forthcoming book by Bob Boiko, a noted scholar and practitioner in the IM field. This first article introduces the topic and begins to sort out the issues faced by those responsible for managing information. Subsequent installments will deal with the ramifications involved with successfully implementing IM strategies and actions. While intended for a general business audience, library leaders should find these articles of particular interest given their important roles in the world of information. (December 6, 2005)

What Every Leader Should Know about Information Management (Part 2)

What Every Leader Should Know about Information Management (Part 3)

"Customer" Spoken Here

Regardless of what industry we work in, we spend much of our adult lives speaking in terms best described as “linguistic myopia.” Put differently, we assume that the listener (who is often the customer) understands our baked-in acronyms and vocational jargon. In this article, Buff Hirko points out that they usually don’t and, worse yet, probably walk away without asking what the heck we are talking about. Buff also provides some useful remedies for this communication problem. (November 25, 2005)

Reference: Dead, Alive or on Vacation?

In “Reference: Alive, Dead or on Vacation?” Buff Hirko notes the rapid fall-off of in-library reference activity experienced in recent years by most libraries, and what a few are doing about it. It turns out, according to Ms. Hirko, that libraries who are “meeting” their users at the time and point of need are experiencing an increase, not a decrease, in traffic. The discussion also points to the possibility of using services like virtual reference as the entry point for all other library services. This is must reading for the marketing-minded library leader. (July 29, 2005)

Customer Service: It's Not Just for McDonald's AnyMore!

One of the goals of The LLN Commons is to provide information and ideas that the library leader can put into practice. In “Customer Service: It’s Not Just for McDonald's Anymore,” Mary Wilkins Jordan does just that, suggesting a number of practical and easy-to-implement ways to improve customer service in libraries of all types and sizes. At the heart of her many suggestions is the need for all library staff to look at the library from the viewpoint of the customer.