Tag Archives: professional development

At Tweet Level: How To Instantly Engage Your Market

Posted on June 12, 2012 by | Leave a comment

“It’s a real-time world now, and if you’re not engaged, then  you’re on your way to marketplace irrelevance.” Real-Time Marketing & PR.

The above quote may sound a bit extreme, especially for libraries, but being first in the conversation (offline or online) is very important.

Witness this article about librarians being silenced at the CLA Conference, with a response from the CLA President a day later. It is worth noting that it took only a day for the CLA President to respond and they did so by commenting on both the initial post and on the CLA website. However by the time the response was published, the initial post had already received over a dozen comments (none of them favouring CLA) and tweeted numerous times within that 24 hour period. Because CLA wasn’t first, and their response didn’t elucidate what occurred, it will be difficult for them to repair any damage caused.

Being first in the conversation is important because you get to control the impression you want others to see. If you aren’t first it can take a lot of time, energy and resources to change the impression others already have of  you.

So how can libraries (and LIANZA) control the conversations they want to have with their members? The Engaged Web in New Zealand report provides some excellent guidelines about how to use the web to engage with customers. Rather than reiterate what is said in the report I’m going to suggest something different but equally practical and effective – live-tweeting.

Live-tweet (v.): to engage on Twitter for a continuous period of time—anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours—with a sequence of focused Tweets. The focus can be a big live event that everybody’s paying attention to (e.g. a TV show or an award show) or it can be an event you create yourself. (Source: Twitter.com)

I attended LIANZA Waikato/BOP weekend school in Whakatane with the purpose of live-tweeting the event. Why would I (or you) want to live-tweet? There are several reasons.

1. I’ve followed live-tweets from other people attending events in the past and have found them just as good, if not better, than being there in person.

  • Live-tweeters often share more highlights than lowlights.
  • Live-tweeters are open to questions and discussion from their followers.
  • Followers don’t have to sit through the boring bits. Followers get to live vicariously.
  • And followers also save on travel, accommodation and registration expenses.

2. I knew there would be other tweeters (@arwenamin, @paulcnielsen, @vye, @Anna_is_great) in the audience and as a result live-tweeting becomes a form of collaborative note-taking. However instead of writing notes on paper (or tablet) that only we can see, we each post them to Twitter and they become a collaborative set of notes for ourselves and people following. It’s distributed professional development (and promotion to potential new members) at its finest.

3. Live-tweeting requires a set of well-refined skills. You need to be able to listen, distill, summarise and tweet all before the next information nugget comes along. It is not for everyone but it can be learned.

4. Live-tweeting is an immediate broadcast of your event. Instead of only reaching the 60-plus people in the room we tweeted to at least 1500 followers around the world. They in turn shared their favourite tweets with their followers and so on. You get immediate feedback on specific content and can sense the level of engagement by how content is shared and discussed. In real-time. No follow-up required.

5. And last but by no means least, a cumulative effect of the previous four reasons is that following live-tweets provides a much richer professional development/event experience. Live-tweeting enables you to instantly engage with your market by providing them with pertinent, relevant and timely information. It enables you to start conversations with them and learn more about what pushes their buttons.

Imagine how valuable someone live-tweeting your event could be as a way to broadcast and promote the value of libraries with both new and current members.

Imagine how valuable someone live-tweeting an event could be if your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend, or if you only want to learn what happened at one session rather than the entire event.

Imagine if libraries pooled their training budget and collaboratively sent one person to an event with the express purpose of live-tweeting the sessions they were interested in.

If you’d like some pointers on how to engage real-time or if you’d like me to live-tweet your event, contact me and let’s see what we can work out.

A version of this article appeared in Library Life: Te Rau Ora, 6 June 2012.

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Provide And Pray

Posted on April 3, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Earlier this year I listened to a podcast from The Engaging Brand about a new book called “The Social Organisation:  How to Use Social Media to Tap the Collective Genius of Your Customers and Employees“. One memorable aspect of this podcast was the reference to a practice that the authors referred to as “provide and pray”.

“…provide the technology and pray that something good happens with it. And we found…[this approach] failed 90% of the time.” (Show 368 - The Social Organisation podcast, The Engaging Brand, 14 January 2012, 7:07)

I’ve experienced this in libraries too. When I was working at Manukau Libraries (a long time ago!) we provided access to EPIC databases and prayed that our staff and our communities would use them. A year later the statistics showed database usage was abysmal and that our prayers were not answered to the degree we had hoped. So the next year we worked on changing that by providing easy, fun, quick and repeated training to library staff on the delights of EPIC and how it can be used in everyday library interactions. And when we analysed the usage statistics the next year we saw that these efforts had paid off. We also noticed staff enthusiastically participating in training year after year.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve been providing ereader training to staff from a number of public libraries on behalf of APLM and I’ve noticed that many libraries have been providing ereaders to staff and praying that they’ll take them home and become familiar with them. Unfortunately training shows that this hasn’t happened to the extent, or with the degree of success, that many library managers may have hoped.

And just last week LIANZA expressed surprise that there had been a low uptake in their upcoming advocacy workshops especially as advocacy has been a hot topic of discussion across library sectors both in New Zealand and internationally. I too was disappointed but not really surprised because once again it’s the ‘provide and pray’ practice at work again.

We make assumptions that by providing access to technology or professional development that library staff will somehow become confident and capable, or jump at the chance to learn something that they know is important. Evidence shows that these assumptions are not often true. We need to stop making assumptions and start proactively promoting, guiding and providing training in a way that is meaningful enough to motivate library staff to participate.

A version of this article appeared in Library Life: Te Rau Ora, 27 March 2012.

Other articles that may interest you:

  “Thank you Sally for a really useful learning experience and I appreciated the very personal and individual ways we were treated” says Carol Brandenburg, Content Selection & Acquisitions (non-Serials) Coordinator, Lincoln University Library in commenting on The Cheat’s Guide to Project Management.

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BoK Makeover

Posted on February 15, 2012 by | 3 Comments

Last night I was putting the final touches to today’s Daily News when I realised that LIANZA had given the Bodies of Knowledge (BoKs) a makeover.

This came as a surprise as there was no announcement that this had been completed. In March 2011 LIANZA indicated that a review of the Bodies of Knowledge (pdf) would occur and after a search of the LIANZA website I am unable to find any further information on the process or progress. Regardless, it has happened and overall I think the BoKs are now much more clearer and easier to identify.

Here’s a summary of what I’ve noticed:

  •  The titles of the BoKs are much clearer, especially BoK10 which was called ‘Quantitative and Qualitative Evaluation’ and is now called ‘Assessing Service Effectiveness‘.
  • Previously the wording of each BoK and the examples suggested were open to numerous interpretations. For those completing their revalidation journal this has sometimes proved troublesome and frustrating because there were ‘too many options’. Now there is less overlap between BoKs. However I think it has swayed to the other extreme and has become too prescriptive. But revalidation is personal, so you may think otherwise.
  • Each BoK now includes how it can be applied in a Māori context. An improvement to be applauded. I liken this to libraries recognising that Māori language titles shouldn’t be lumped into the 499.4′s because of the language they are written in, but should instead be catalogued based on their actual subject matter.
  • The BoKs now seem to emphasise current national practice, sometimes to the detriment of international trends or future thinking. For example the changes that are occuring at Harvard University or the Obama budget announcement for libraries will impact on future directions in New Zealand libraries and they used to fit nicely into BoK1. They probably still fit into BoK1 given the scope includes “The legal, policy, economic and ethical issues that are relevant to the wider information sector” but none of the examples include international developments.
  • There also seems to be little emphasis on outreach marketing. For example if your library were to offer an event such as this, I’m not sure which BoK it would fit into now. Previously it’s most obvious fit would have been BoK3 (Assessment of information needs and design of responsive services) which includes: understand the nature of the customer base and information needs of different user groups. In the refined BoKs there are numerous examples of events directly relating to the collection but no indications where the best fit for an event not directly related to the collection. In my view the BoKs don’t acknowledge activities that focus on utilising the library as a space.
  • I also think the BoK examples show a shift towards an internal focus at the cost of customer and stakeholder relationships. For example the Book Discussion Scheme loans books and discussion notes to book groups in New Zealand. Some libraries may think it a great opportunity to work more closely with this group for the benefit of local communities. But as far as I can see the BoKs don’t emphasise this kind of relationship building in the examples. (It most likely fits in BoK9 which is the only one that mentions stakeholders or relationships of this nature).

All in all, the refinements may cause confusion for those in the midst of their revalidation journals but I think overall they are beneficial. The Daily News will reflect these changes tomorrow.

Other articles that may interest you:

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It Is Personal

Posted on February 14, 2012 by | 1 Comment

Revalidating your professional registration with LIANZA is not just a process. It is personal.

Despite LIANZA providing a truckload of tips for librarians due to renew their professional registration, it can still seem just a wee bit too confusing and seriously stressful.

  • Where do I start?
  • What do I have to do?
  • How many BoKs do I need?
  • Uh-oh what are professional domains?
  • I can’t remember what happened last week let alone any training I’ve attended in the last three years!
  • How much should I write?
  • I need what!?

Revalidation is about YOU.
YOUR professional development.
YOUR reflections.
YOUR journal.

And now it is easier for YOU to get things done and become a BoK Star.

* BECOME A BOK STAR *
Completing your LIANZA revalidation journal is now really simple.

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Podcasts Are Great For Learning About New Books

Posted on April 7, 2011 by | 2 Comments

I love podcasts! It’s an opportunity to get some “me” time, and find out what’s going on in the world from a variety of perspectives. I listen to them while walking, on the exercycle, or in the car.

I also find it the best way to keep up with new books and hear directly from the authors. I wanted to share 3 with you today.

You can listen to these podcasts online without requiring an ipod or mp3 player.

1. Charlotte Randall (from The Arts on Sunday, 6 March 2011) discusses her new book Hokitika Town. Halfie, a Maori boy runs away from home to Hokitika to try and make his fortune in the height of the gold rush in the 1860s. Charlotte talks about why she chose Hokitika as a setting and Halfie’s patois as he learns to speak English. The audio also includes a reading from the book. I was intrigued enough to place a reserve on it.

2. What’s new in business books (from The Cranky Middle Manager, 4 Feb 2011).
An interview with Todd Sattersten discussing business books of 2010. Todd discusses the most popular topics (global financial crisis, intrinsic motivation) and lists his top 10 business books for 2010. I’d read reviews of most of these, but it was good to hear them discussed as a collection.

3. Think Small! An interview with Phil Simon, author of The New Small (from People and Projects, 1 Feb 2011)
An interview with Phil Simon about his new book The new small:  how a new breed of small business is harvesting the power of emerging technologies. The book contains 11 case studies about a variety of small businesses and how they have used emerging technologies to achieve fantastic results, including how they moved from traditional infrastructure to emerging technologies and the lessons learned. Small businesses don’t have usually have a lot of time or money, so books and advice that addresses their needs, will usually address those of libraries. The book’s website has a host of information, including the first chapter.

Some other podcasts I listen to include:

Which podcasts do you listen to?

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