Six-in-One and Done

Alright, I'm going to knock out the final six commentaries I need to write up in order to complete Sacramento Public Library's 27 Things program. In this post, I'm going to touch on:

• the Library's downloadable media
• our newly redesigned website
• our new language learning database
• Twitter
• Thingfo
• my final reflections on the program.

Here goes!

Downloadable media at SPL
This is a very cool service and the Library has a ton to offer here. We've got audio books, e-books that can be read on your computer or your phone (I will be reading books on my phone if the USPS would ever deliver the data cable for my phone that I ordered on Amazon a week ago and, according to their online tracking has been sitting in West Sacramento for four days now...grrr), and even video. Fiction, non-fiction. Even music! And a lot of this stuff even works on iPods, now, too!

Providing this wealth of material online really demonstrates the degree to which SPL has committed itself to serving our customers in all of the ways that they want. For those folks who don't ever want to set foot inside a physical library, we still have an awful lot to offer them.

The new SPL website
First, take a look at our new website; what do you think? Personally, I think it is a tremendous improvement over our last site. While there is still a good amount of information provided on the home page, this new design does not have the same chaotic feel as the old and, a bonus, it is much more aesthetically pleasing, too. Kudos to everyone at SPL who had a hand in the redesign.

If I had to choose a couple of things that are my favorite features of the new design, I'd say first (this is really minor but really important at the same time), I like the way it is so clear and easy for customers to log into their account. We know that folks are requesting books like crazy these days so I want them to be able to find this information with ease. And, we've also added the capacity for our customers to pay any fines they've accrued online so making personal accounts easily accessible is doubly important. The last really nice functionality we've added to the "my accounts" feature is the ability to now use a user name for logging in rather than having to remember your library card number. I love this because you can make your user name whatever you want it to be and as easy to remember as you like.

I also really like the far right-hand column of the homepage where we are able to highlight in a very effective way some of the exciting current happenings at the library. A nice touch here is that the events that are featured in this column also show up in the same place on all of the pages on our site so the customer can't help but see what is going on at their library.

Mango Language Learning Database
Ni hao ma? SPL recently started subscribing to the Mango online language learning courses. I love these! The database is super easy to use and, with nine languages available all the time, there is never a worry about being able to find something on the shelf when folks need to learn a new language. And, especially cool, we also offer through Mango, English for Spanish, Polish, and Portugese speakers! If you work in a library, you know how popular the Sin Barreras series is! And these language lessons are really easy to use, as well. I'm very excited about how we've improved our services by offering Mango to our customers.

Twitter
I'm doing it. Follow me at www.twitter.com/civillibrarian. And not only am I a tweeter, but SPL is now on Twitter and garnering a lot of followers. If you want to see what the Library is up to on Twitter, check us out @saclib!

Thingfo
Hmmm. Making Thingfo our 26th thing is a good example of how rapidly things can change on the Internet. Here today, gone tomorrow. Thingfo is, apparently, re-tooling and has limited use of their social media aggregator widget to invitees only.

My Reflections on 27 Things
What can I say? I've loved it. I heard for a couple of years how much fun every library had that implemented this program and it went just as well at SPL as I'd hoped. I had the opportunity to learn an awful lot about the personalities of folks with whom I work on a regular basis and the organizational capacity both in terms of technological savvy and acceptance of change has grown by leaps and bounds.

Perhaps it is the building of a more developed technological skill set that will be the most important outcome of this program, though, as SPL plans to launch a similar program for our customers this winter. Planning for the public program reminds me of another thing I learned in this program: that 27 things (even though we have 27 branches and what could have been more clever than that?) is too many things. The public program, I hope will feature perhaps 10 things. It would be best, I think, if we chose things that are both useful for people and that can be demonstrated using resources we offer at the library (e.g. rss feeds, downloadable media, Twitter).