InfoSciPhi

I'm in the process of migrating my blog from b2evolution to WordPress because am hating b2e. I'll have the new site ready to launch next week and will catch up on my writing then. I have lots to post including the final version of the Carnival of the Infosciences, my content from Computers in Libraries (yep, still behind cause I'm trying to catch up), and more. Thanks for your patronage. :-)

Chadwick

I have been ill all week and almost canceled my workshop because of it. My Doctor told me this morning that I have pneumonia. My wife and younger son have stomach flu. I'll post the rest of my notes and thoughts as soon as I stop feeling like death. I'll be posting my workshop notes and documents this week as well and will send them via email to the wonderful folks who attended. Thanks for your patience.

A good time was had by all...

Session B102 – Fast & Easy Site Tune-Ups
11:30 AM – 12:15 PM

Jeff Wisniewski, Web Services Librarian, University of Pittsburgh
Looking for ways to speed up, clean up, and optimize your site with minimal effort? These 35 1-minute upgrades show you how to fine-tune your sites code, design, and structure to make your site faster, more flexible, and more standards-compliant. Do one, do 10, or do them all to maximize your sites performance in minimal time.

Use scripts to update your copyright statement.

Add “last updated” code or script to your pages to increase user trust in your information.

Add photos to your contacts. Evidence that putting a face on your contact info increases user trust.

Use microformats to turn boring old contact info into exciting hCards. Add those tags to your contact info and pull semantic web info on your staff. Search for “hCard Creator”. Can do the same things in Dreamweaver.

Replace all instances of the phrase “click here”. It’s “scanhostile” – a term he coined.

Harness the power of a 3 question survey. Were you able to complete your task today? What was the purpose of your site visit today? If you weren’t able to complete your task, why not? Survey monkey lets you embed.

Use the “/” after the last character of your url links to make it easier on the server.

Use Icons effectively. Librarians are text centric.

Try to get your library’s info into a users cache to help pages load more quickly.

Server config files – set certain file types to stay fresh/not expire. Image file types, css, etc.

.htaccess in the root and add a "FilesMatch" header set expires code.

Combine small images into a image map. Yahoo research shows this speeds load time. Only helpful if you have contiguous images.

Lessons the number of requests between the server and browser.
Eliminate Inline scripts. CSS, javascript, etc – call them from the server as includes. Makes it faster. Exception = Homepages. This is where they cache all of the site images and scripts.

CSS bloat – eliminate the extraneous little used aspects of your style sheets. Thin is in. Quicker to download.

Navigation – Banner blindness. Don’t put important info in the upper left corner. Put it in the body.

Get a Google Webmaster account. SEO tools.

Global Find and Replace – “Document Title| Section name| Library Site name” format helps search engines index your content.

Session B101 – Web 2.0 Services for Smaller, Underfunded Libraries
10:30 AM – 11:15 AM

Sarah Houghton-Jan, Senior Librarian for Digital Futures, San Jose Public Library
This session is for libraries struggling to provide innovative web services with little resources to devote to staff, software, or hardware. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 sound great in concept but are seemingly impossible to implement in smaller, poorer, and/or under-technology-staffed libraries. But we too can offer excellent online services to our users! There are dozens of quick and free services that any library can add to its website. This session covers 20 easy steps that libraries can take to improve their websites with ease. If your library hasn’t yet implemented new technologies on its web-site but wants to, this is the session for you.

Libraries are changing and the growth of our online users is increasing. Sometimes at the rate of 20-30% a year. Sarah says to become advocates in your local system for your “e-branch”. She notes that costs for e-services are cheaper overall with a high return. If you can show that through your numbers it assists in selling your ideas to management.

Users sometimes assume that IM reference librarians are “robots”. “Skype a Librarian” service at Ohio University provides reference and research assistance through the VoIP tool Skype. Jan recommends using all of the free or Creative Commons images available for sites and marketing. Don’t pay when you can find it for free.

Tools and Mashups

Library ELF – library account tracking via email & RSS. This is very cool, but your feeds are public.
Library Lookup – bookmarklet to search by ISBN in your catalog when on sites like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
LibX Toolbar – Search by title, author, ISBN, etc. Students really can use this a lot..

Make Dynamic Lists

Use blogs and wiki’s, make an entry, and then tag it. She recommends making it available to all staff to provide reviews. You don’t have to be a librarian to write a good review.

Give your Library a Face

Use photo sharing sites to show what the library is about. A $25 annual Pro account w/ Flickr is affordable and a great investment. You can show what the library is really about and feature your events and more. Advertising capabilities as well. “Moo Cards” through Flickr are more likely to be used and kept. Make avatars for your Staff who work with teens. Check out Nashville Public’s website to see examples.

Audio – Podcasting

Whatever you do in audio in the library right now will work online in audio. Just digitize it if it isn’t already. Referring to library generated content here.

Everyzing
TextAloud
Odiogo

Video

Make tutorials on anything you can think of that your patrons will use. Post reviews for books. Then post it all on YouTube.

Exploit the blog as a format. Use the technology in creative ways to provide content to your users. The tool (blog) is irrelevant to the content. Examples of great ideas are:
Library Computer Class blog (Providence Public)
Gaming blog (SavePoint)
Western Springs History Blog

Go all out with your Facebook pages. Put search boxes there, and anything else you can think of to make it like another of the libraries pages. Free and low cost Web 2.0 services for libraries. EngagedPatrons.org This is super cool, sometimes free, always cheap.
Use Image generators to make fun marketing and promo images and content.

This presentation will be posted on her blog later today and later this week on the CIL site.