MmITS - 9th Annual AGM, 24th April 2012 - Review

Many thanks to all who attended the 9th Annual AGM on 24th April 2012, and especially to Mr Stewart Bain, Library Assistant Extraordinaire and Twitter icon, for his entertaining and insightful talk focussing on social media.

Our committee member Claire Bell has summarised Stewart's talk in order to provide tips for those interested in the secrets to Stewart's success with Twitter and Facebook on behalf of Orkney Library and Archive Services. We hope this will help and inspire others to promote services and engage with users in new and innovative ways through social media as Stewart has done.

Tips for successful use of Twitter (T) & Facebook (F) by libraries

• Supportive Senior Management in the library open to new ideas.   
• Use of T & F helps staff be more aware of what is happening across the Service.
• Useful for informing users of whereabouts of mobile library.
• Orkney Libraries now on shortlist for Bookseller’s Library of the Year award.

Tools

• Started using Twitter in 2009.  5,200+ followers.  Mainly from outside of Orkney.  A lot of ex-pats. Strong appeal to American library users. 
• Then began using Facebook.  Mainly local followers. 
• Have a presence on Foursquare but this is not so active.
• Have begun to use Google Plus and think this may be the next big phenomenon.
• Visits to the library website and use of online subscriptions have increased since the library began to use social media halfway through 2009.
• 2008 14,166 unique visits to the library website
• 2009 18,354           "                  "               "
• 2010 26,767           "                  "               "

Tone

• Initially this had a formal and serious tone. 
• There has been a lot of positive feedback on the change to an informal tone.
• The current conversational tone encourages requests for book recommendations from all over the UK.
• Authors who ‘chat’ with Orkney libraries are likely to be put forward to fulfil recommendation requests.
• Facebook is good for events.
• Twitter’s short character allowance enables lots of more ‘random’ Tweets.

Content

• To ensure enough Tweets it is a good idea to have a team producing Tweets.
• Very little spam or comments to remove.
• Helps increase amount of feedback from library users.  For example, one user scanned an old Orkney newspaper found in the library and used it to make a birthday card.  She then posted a picture of the card on Facebook thanking the library.
• Posting on F & T increases the likelihood of being picked up in a Google search by someone looking for information.
• Created 7 different Twitter accounts for a Christie ‘body in the library’ event.  Mystery copied from book and unfolded throughout day.  Conclusion could only be found out by borrowing the book from the library.  Resulted in new members.

Tips

• Posts don’t have to be about events.  Sometimes insignificant events generate a large no. of likes or comments.  Popular posts and tweets are those showing what it is like working in a library. 
• Use your libraries Facebook page to make comments on others Facebook pages.  For example, much of Orkney's traffic has come from commenting on and being liked by BBC Orkney's page.  This is a good way of raising your profile.
• Put life back into old stock by highlighting finds on Facebook.  These can also lead to requests from the public for new titles.
• More people attend events through use of social media.  However, don’t just create one solitary post, but have multiple updates to create the impression that you are missing out on something if you don’t attend.  Even simple things such as ‘the muffins have arrived’ have led to people attending!
• Clever use of F & T will highlight that the library is a community building, providing space to meet and information on a range of topics, not simply books.
• The online driving theory test is a good resource to plug using F & T.

Online Book Groups

Orkney also run an online reading group in collaboration with Faber.  This began in 2010. 

• 45 regular members.
• 7 different islands.
• 12 different towns on mainland Orkney.
• Members get to keep the book, though the library also buys multiple lending copies, as book group titles prove popular with other borrowers.

MmITS - 9th Annual General Meeting, 24th April 2012

The CILIP Multimedia Information and Technology Group, Scotland invites members to attend the 9th Annual General Meeting and post-AGM seminar.

Venue: Mackenna Room, Level 7, University of Glasgow Library, Hillhead Street, Glasgow, G12 8QE

Date/Time: Tuesday 24th April, 2012 at 2pm. Post-AGM seminar at 2.30pm.

Location Map: Glasgow University, Gilmorehill Campus Map

Room Information: MacKenna Room, Level 7, Main Library

Post-AGM Seminar: We are very excited to announce that our speaker will be Mr Stewart Bain, Library Assistant with Orkney Library and Archive and recent recipient of 2 Goldentwit Awards for his work in using Twitter to engage with and inform the public about the services available. 

Stewart's presentation will take an overview of all of Orkney Library and Archive's social media activities since they started using them in 2009. This will include a look at the different online services they use, how they complement and generate content for each other, and the many benefits they have brought. Stewart will look at the increased interaction they have with users and the way the service has been opened up to people on the various islands in Orkney, and far beyond. He will also cover the unexpected opportunities that have arisen for the library since they began using social media, such as being invited to speak at London Book Fair (and the MmITS post-AGM seminar!).

Follow the Orkney Library Twitter feed and sign up to hear Stewart discuss his experiences in person.

Nominations for Committee

At the meeting the chairperson will be seeking nominations from those members interested in becoming involved in the work of the Committee. Also, there is currently a vacancy for MmITS Secretary. Please contact Acting MmITS Secretary, Paulette.Hill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk or phone 0131 668 8642 and a nomination form will be sent to you.

Please note that non-members are more than welcome to attend the AGM but are not eligible to vote.

Sign Up Now!

The Group needs to confirm numbers for catering arrangements. Please assist us by contacting Paulette Hill at the address below to indicate your attendance as soon as possible. Your response should include:

• Name
• Organisation/Postal Address
• Phone Number/Email Address
• Whether you are a member/non-member of MmITS

The closing date is Thursday 19th April and spaces are limited to 40 places, so please sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Please note that non-members are more than welcome to attend the AGM but are not eligible to vote.

Please return to:

Paulette Hill, MmITS Treasurer/Acting Secretary

c/o Historic Scotland, Longmore House

Salisbury Place

Edinburgh EH9 1SH

Email: Paulette.Hill@scotland.gsi.gov.uk

Tel: 0131 668 8642

We look forward to seeing you all there!

Ebooks Unbound - Conference Survey

Cathy Kearney of SLIC was kind enough to provide us with feedback from the survey of delegates who attended the 'Ebooks Unbound' conference. Here are some of the facts, figures and thoughts of the day.

SLIC/MMITS/SCURL/SALCTG e-books event 27^th  October 2011

Evaluation and Feedback Report

Introduction

This report seeks to apprise planning committee members of the results of the evaluation exercise for our annual event. The Conference was attended by 80 delegates and accompanied by a supplier exhibition.

The evaluation attracted 47 responses and the results are expressed in percentages of this figure.

	Good	Average	Poor
Venue (overall)	83	14	2
Venue location	90	10	0
Programme Content	80	20	4
Event Organisation	86	12	2
Catering	26	52	21

100% agreed their time had been well spent at the Conference.

93% agreed that the presentations and been relevant and useful to their needs.

95% agreed there was enough time for delegate participation.

Delegates learned about the event from the following sources:

SLAINTE website	5
Mailing list	62
Employer/colleague	26
Update/Gazette	2
Information Scotland	0
Other	0

The appendices to this report cover comments on:

a)      Most useful part of the programme

b)      Least useful part of the programme

c)       Additional comments

d)      Issues to cover in future seminars

Appendix A

Most useful part of the programme

PDA, e-book delivery in public libraries.

Sections on PDA- very relevant to my role at this time.

All speakers were excellent and very relevant.

The very high standard of presentations makes this a difficult choice as there were at least parts of everything that was useful. Extremely impressed with the presentation from South Ayrshire libraries, even though I work in HE.

Presentations particularly Ken Chad

All very useful - very interesting and inspiring to hear about South Ayrshire, and specific experience at Glasgow.

BL presentation and Ken Chad's presentation.

Charles Oppenheim, Ken Chad, South Ayrshire presentation.

The session on South Ayrshire's use of E-books.

Charles Oppenheim's talk and the chance to meet e-book suppliers.

BL presentation and Ken Chad's.

Paper from Wendy Walker, networking and time with suppliers.

The talk given by Nora Daly from the British Library.

Case studies.

Metadata, patron driven acquisition and ebooks by Ken Chad.

Wendy walker's ppt on PDA.

Jean Inness Overdrive segment.

I found all of it interesting and useful, with the most interesting items being Nora Daly, Ken Chad, and Charles Oppenheim.

Browse checkout, download.

South Ayrshire was fascinating! Also Uni of Glasgow information was very helpful and interesting.

Public Library section.

The public library side.

Glasgow talk on PDA/EDA.

The speakers were all excellent.

Ebook licence issues and "Browse, checkout and download".

Ken Chad and PDA.

Found all of the items useful in slightly different ways.

It was all useful.

Wendy Walker's presentation.

All the presentations where relevant and informative and it was a useful networking opportunity.

Talks, Glasgow University, public library, Ken Chad.

The sessions about patron driven acquisition and also the Ayrshire Council e-books project.

Presentations on PDA/DDA.

Presentation on libraries taking the initiatives by entering the e-book market as publishers

All the talks were relevant but it was particularly interesting to find out about ebooks in public libraries in South Ayrshire.

I enjoyed it all: very topical and good to hear of other peoples examples and experience. The public library story was very uplifting, as all I hear is of closures here in England.

Appendix B

Least useful part of the programme

The talk on public libraries and ebooks was least relevant to my job role but still very interesting.

All useful - would have been interesting to hear more of BL future plans in this area.

None.

Trade stands were geared towards academic users.

The British Library - it was interesting but not closely related to e-books.

Not winning the Kindle!

We're doomed, don't panic.

Licensing was a little confusing!

Academic, but still some relevance to other sectors.

Although Charles Oppenheim's talk was good, I thought this was rather basic (although had a few salutary reminders)

There was no real opportunity for participation. Perhaps next year there could be a more andragogical approach with speakers in the morning and the opportunity to form into groups to discuss particular sectors and/or issues?

Research at the BL (least useful directly, but still very interesting).

Probably Glasgow University E-books unbound, but only because I don't work in that sector. Still found it interesting.

Appendix C.

Additional comments

Excellent chair!

Excellent day. Good Chairman who kept the day running well.

Overall a useful and stimulating event, thank you.

The venue was excellent and easy to get to. Lunch could have done with a better variety of fillings (or maybe it was all that was left).

Very enjoyable day, thanks to all who organised it.

An excellent conference well worth the time and financial investment.

I am from a corporate library which has been totally virtual and global since 2003. It was interesting for me now to find that the gap between all types of library is closing, and we are all facing very similar obstacles.

More public library relevant speakers.

I found the days useful. I also like the networking, seeing what other authorities were doing.

Thank you!

Very good agenda, interesting papers and time for networking with colleagues. The Chair was excellent and very amusing

Catering was very good, but there were delays in supply, both of morning coffee and lunch - all very good when it came, but it caused a logjam

It was very difficult to book the event and we had to send an email in the end. There was no information on the website at all.

The venue was much smaller than last years. Coffee and tea was not readily available, after a long journey. That is not so good.

'Ebooks Unbound' Conference Reports

MmITS were proud to sponsor two candidates, Yasmeen Hollenstein and Myra Paterson, to attend the 'Ebooks Unbound' conference, held at the National Piping Centre in Glasgow on the 27th of October 2011. Read on to find out more about their experiences!

Impressions and Reflections of One Chartership Candidate

Yasmeen Hollenstein

It was a pleasure to receive the news of a sponsored place for the 11^th annual E-books Conference; it would be the first one of its kind which I attended and I’m glad to have got more involved with the subject and people who deal with it.

I joined the MMITS group after attending the Cilips annual conference earlier in the year and hearing Jean Innes from Ayrshire Libraries talk about ‘How one public library embraced e-books’ . That’s when the importance of keeping up with developments in new technology and its use in libraries really hit home.

I was delighted to see Jean on the “line-up” for this event as well as I was keen to hear how things had progressed in Ayrshire.  And with just three months between the events she had now taken her library to be the first to publish an e-book.

The conference opened with a glimpse into the future with a talk by Nora Daly, Digital Curator at the British Library.  She illustrated the British Library’s 2020 Vision, its 10-year vision, following 12 months of extensive research and consultation.  As part of the research she had been involved in setting up a futuristic space at the British Library with the newest equipment and special technologies, e.g. work stations with four screens, texture mapping software etc. and then asking customers what they liked or will be likely to use in the future.

Nora said that although the visitors were impressed with the technology many voiced that it was important to them to be able to use their own kit. Also, a large number of people surveyed wanted improved remote access and at the same time a significant number wanted to be able to get assistance/training in person.

Nora made a point that libraries will not satisfy a customer by providing content alone. They need to show how it can be accessed/used. She also stressed that a majority of people use blogs and twitter as a research tool and told of the excitement created by the free reference management tool Mendely which includes live social media.

This is probably why it is blocked on my work computer!

Many employers do not seem to recognise social media as a work tool. This is something I feel quite strongly about which I believe is restricting library work.

I was very interested in the outcomes of the research at the British Library and went to have a look at their 2020 vision when I got back to work. I can recommend a read of the background papers to it, particularly the record of discussions with experts which give predictions about future technologies and how they will be used as well as what might happen regarding copyright.

Another document, Trends in the Library Environment, sadly defined the UK public library sector as ‘all local authority-funded libraries throughout England, Wales and Northern Ireland and that made me wonder about the Scottish situation. For example, there is a mention of the aim for a national library card which seems to exclude Scotland. (That is something that could go on the agenda for the next MMITs conference.)

Either way, the main problems libraries face are the same all over the country and I got a lot out of Nora’s talk. I realised that no matter where you are it’s always about what your customers want.

This was also emphasised to me by the talk by Consultant Ken Chad entitled ‘Patron Driven Acquisition’. Although this related to e-books in the FE environment, I feel that I can and should apply the concept in my library which is a school and community library. For example I made the resolution to put a simple electronic purchase request slip on Glow (the online community for Scottish schools) and undertake a customer mapping exercise to gain understanding of my customers.

I’m also trying to find ways to link user behaviour to the selection process as Ken’s experiments showed that the items bought by users were used more than those selected by Librarians.  I also very much agree with him on the need to avoid building a collection just in case it is needed.

Jean Innes’ talk was fascinating to me as I could see the quick progress her service has made along with technology under her leadership. To me she seems to be abreast of her customers; for example when she was telling us about wanting to introduce an application for phones that would allow you to scan an ISBN in a shop and see if your library has it in stock. I was also taken with the idea of libraries going into publishing, producing e-books and putting unpublished authors on their website.

Thank you to MMITs for given me the opportunity to be at this event through awarding me a sponsored place. It has been a very valuable experience for me, many talks have been inspiring and ‘Comfort Breaks’ a great opportunity for networking and stealing ideas off fellow Librarians. Jason Miles-Campbell (Jisc Legal Service Manager) was a charming host, keeping the atmosphere light throughout. I’m looking forward to the next event.

E-Books Unbound Conference Review

Myra Paterson

I was recently delighted to win a sponsored place to the E-books Unbound Conference. I am a Chartership candidate through Pathways 2 and was really looking forward to learning about E-Books and the possibilities for libraries as well as the opportunity to network and meet new people. I work for Glasgow libraries and my customers enquire about e-books so I know the demand is there and I am sure they will be a part of the future of all library services despite all the difficulties surrounding licences etc., so this was a great opportunity to increase my knowledge in this area.

The day kicked off with a welcome and introduction by Jason Miles-Campbell, JISC Legal Service Manager. This really set the scene for the rest of the day and informed us that we would be hearing about copyright issues, financial issues and the limitations of e-books vs. the possibilities.

The first Speaker was Nora Daly, Digital Curator at the British Library who gave a very interesting presentation entitled ‘Growing Knowledge: exploring the evolution of research at the British Library’ We learned all about’ 2020 Vision’ The libraries project to develop a vision setting out what it means to be a great library in 2020. A physical space was set up at the library that customers, focus groups, researchers etc. could use and give feedback on. Samples of twenty five digitised resources were trialled for customers to evaluate as well as different types of equipment and research tools. E- Journals including videos as part of the journal of the future were also included. Feedback and evaluation was gathered and I was very interested to learn what most popular e.g. that free Wii-Fii and remote access to the library was vital and that customers didn’t want to just come in and use the digital resources with no staff input. The resources alone weren’t enough and can’t totally replace people.

Next we moved on to the SWETS Showcase presented by Cat Strong, Business development manager. Cat demonstrated the SWETS platform for easy access to e-books. She explained that they have been active in e-books since 2006 and that sales in e-books continue to grow daily. I was surprised to hear that Amazon has reported that their e-book sales have now overtaken their paperback sales and that the purchasing of e-books is quite well established with the general public. She then gave an overview of some of the problems which libraries face with e-books e.g. cost and explained how the platform can overcome some of these issues i.e. there are one million e-books on the one platform, no platform fee and librarians can compare prices for the same title. I also used part of the lunch break to view a demonstration at the SWETS stand and was impressed at how user friendly it was.

After a break for Coffee we gathered to hear ‘Metadata, Patron Driven acquisition and E-Books: results from the JISC Project’ by Ken Chad, Consultant. Ken began by discussing the clear distinction between Public libraries, academic libraries and Publishers. The public market is far outstripping the Scholarly/Academic Market and libraries will have to have e-books as part of their future. There are advantages. We all know that books have the ability to transform the education of people and e- books have the ability to provide notes and questions for Academic Students for example. Diminishing budgets force us to look at what we buy and raise concerns about buying the right thing for our customers. Collections can no longer be put together in case someone wants it, so patron driven acquisition has to play a part in future purchasing. E-books allow a model of purchasing in which the librarians set the parameters of purchase and the patron pulls the trigger. Are users better selectors than librarians? – some evidence shows that public driven acquired books have more subsequent use than library selected e-books. There are opportunities to offer e-books as free tasters / short term loan before actually making a purchase. We can delay buying an item until patrons actually want the material. Demand driven acquisition will force us to reconsider how we define the library collection. I was amazed to hear that Amazon are considering e-book loans but not surprised that for publishers, piracy is the big fear. The public like convenience and getting things immediately, e-books enable libraries to satisfy high demand as lots of users can have the same book at the same time, however there are licensing issues around this. The most significant challenge of public driven acquisition is budget; the proportion of money spent on high demand can have an effect in other areas. All of the above is based mainly on academic libraries but I can see a definite cross over into public libraries. This presentation was extremely interesting and informative.

After lunch we sat down for another interesting presentation entitled ‘We’re Doomed’ or ‘Don’t Panic’?: E-Books Licensing issues by Charles Oppenheim, Emeritus Professor of Information Science, Loughborough University. This talk tackled the minefield of licensing issues for libraries in regards to e-books. Charles kicked off by laying out for us who the main players in the issue of Licensing are. There is the Author who gets a percentage of sales, the Aggregator who acts as a middle man and is generally a commercial organisation, an Intermediary such as Amazon selling e-books via Kindle, the Librarian who is not always in the chain as the sale may not be to the user directly, and the user/reader. The contract (Licence) is usually negotiated between parties of different strengths – normally the supplier is in the stronger position. In most cases there is little room for negotiation on the terms although larger users can be in a position to get a better deal. He then went on to discuss what a license actually is. It is important that we understand it is not a sale. If we compare it to either buying or renting a house, the license is the equivalent to renting. Why is it not a sale? If you sign a license you don’t necessarily get the e-book in perpetuity, it is important for librarians to understand that you are not buying books you are buying a license and that is very different. Something else to look out for when negotiating the terms is what can and cannot be done with the e-books. Check the copyright, number of downloads, number of simultaneous users etc make sure the conditions are acceptable to you. Another important thing to negotiate is the authorised users under the licence. Librarians can find that under the terms that not all staff are permitted e.g. part time staff/volunteers etc., this needs to be checked thoroughly before signing a license agreement. A license also has its obligations attached e.g. to keep passwords confidential and to deal with any breaches of contract by authorised users. Key words to look out for in any licence agreement are ‘to the extent permitted by Law’. Librarians tend to see e-books only as books and can therefore be puzzled by licensing. I think the most important thing I learned from this talk is that organisations need to negotiate very carefully a contract that is suitable to their organisation and its needs.

Next we moved on to ‘Browse, checkout, download: How one public library service embraced e-books’ by Jean Inness, Libraries Manager, South Ayrshire Council. Jean gave a very informative talk about the journey of South Ayrshire Libraries from talking about making e-books part of their service to the launch and the beneficial impact it has had on their performance. I was interested to hear about the importance of borrowers living or working in South Ayrshire so that people from miles away can’t download the books and I was very impressed at their latest addition to this service which is the Library App. Customers with i-phones etc can scan books in a bookshop and instantly check the library catalogue to see if it is in stock and reserve it there and then. The new technology around e-books can take away the need for membership cards making it much easier for the customer.

The final presentation of the day was ‘E-books Unbound at Glasgow University- Power to the Users?’ by Wendy Walker, Deputy Head of Cataloguing, Glasgow University. Wendy started by setting the scene of where the University library is in the e-books market, the choices they have made and what they have learned so far. It was surprising to learn that they are already moving away from a print copy first policy and how big an influence the students have with the acquisition of e-books. The overall usage of e-books in the year 09-10 had a 72% increase. In the last year there has been a 111% increase, and over the last 3 years there has been a 10% drop in the print short loan collection. It is clear that e-books will play a big part in the future of academic libraries but they are not without problems. Digital Rights Management has been very difficult for example, but not surprisingly cost is the biggest problem. It is expensive at a time when every penny counts.

All in all I had a very enjoyable day at the conference and was made very welcome by Paulette and the team. I feel a lot more knowledgeable about the subject of e-books and it is always good to get out and meet new colleagues.

MmITS on Twitter and Wordpress!!

We are very proud to announce that you can now find all the most up to date information for MmITS and get involved in all the latest MmITS discussions by following us on Twitter and Wordpress!! 

Whatever your technological interests, whether it's the latest Google innovation, the pros and cons of print books vs ebooks, the impact of social networking, or how to raise the profile of your information service online, just sign up, let us know what you think and become part of the MmITS community.

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